Got Our Golden Ticket - We're Goin to Hollywood baby!!!!!!

OK, so if you are reading this you are probably thinking, that this girls is C R A Z Y! She ain't no American Idol singer...

Well... that's right... she's not, BUT... she has a story for you!

If you know me at all, or have been following this blog for any time over the last 14 months you know that Bill and I have been going through DFS for our Foster & Adoption licensing, which we finally obtained on July 7th of this year.

On the same day(7-11-11) that we received notice that we were licensed we also received an e-mail looking for an Adoptive home for two Caucasian females. Their ages are 1 & 4, who's names both begin with the letter J! This fits right into the Johnston side of our family! There are many members in Bill's siblings and their children who have stuck with naming their children beginning with 'J'  in their children's, names and not to mention just about all of our family members birthday's land around the same time as these precious babies.

I could get into a lot of details but I will try and not bore you with too many...

Let me tell you this has been a long 7 weeks! We submitted our home study on the 8th of July for consideration for their adoption and were told that we would get an e-mail notifying us IF we were selected.

We were so stoked about this because there are so many things about the case that we just knew God was in it for some reason. At the start we were certain these were OUR girls...

Every since our calling has been confirmed God has placed many Girly things in our path that has led us to continue believing that it will be girls he is bringing us or at least one girl first... so many things,

girl girl girl... everything pink and cute! I even attempted to purchase a gender neutral bedding set, it looked like red and yellow when I was picking it out on the Internet, but when it was delivered... the red's are more like pink than red's... so if we do get a boy in this some how... I hope he is too little to know his bedding has pink dots on it! LOL...

I was begining to lose my faith in the 'girl' pattern about the beginning of June when our profile was changed from just girl placement to either boy or girl, so I started thinking that maybe our first adoption or placement will be a boy then the girl might come later...

So anyway... it was time to go and teach the youth high school girls at church camp... and well.. here's a story in a story...

We make it to our camp destination on this HOT summer afternoon! I'm the cabin leader so I get first dibs on the bunk...

Here I go getting settled in and putting my suitcase under the bed, but wait... it won't fit... what the heck... there's not way this shouldn't fit, there is plenty of room.

I looked at my AWESOME girls... and was like, um There is something under this bed. At that moment I was having flash backs of all the scary movies I ever watched as a kid, I just knew there was a dead body under there!!!! Creepy... so I think I talked one of the girls into getting under there for me and well... we didn't find any dead bodies thank goodness!

We pulled out a beautiful children's blanket fit for a little princess GIRL!!!!!

Now... really, I have been to at least 6 or 8 youth camps and NEVER have I EVER found something under my bed, other than some nasty bugs...

I was just like WOW... God, are you trying to encourage me not to let go of the girl thing just yet... hmmm so again along this path I make a choice, a choice to believe that God is preparing us for girls. First it was this odd pair of booties I found in my back pack when getting ready to come home from Peru last year, then the other set of bootees shown in the second photo that say 'SO LOVED' and now... the precious blanket in the third photo found under my bed. This doesent include the flock of little girls Bill and I see everywhere we go, so if you could just imagine our amazement when we got the profile for the GIRLS... on the very same day we got our license... just sayin! (If your reading this Shawna... that was for you)

I just can not deny the power of God in this and what he has given me in the scriptures, I must keep believing...

Well... all of that being said, I'm sure you are still wondering what this has to do with American idol and Hollywood...  SO here ya go..

First you have to know that I do love me some American Idol, I love music and I really love it when people like Scotty from this years season win! He is too cute, and such a great performer! I'm pretty sure he love Jesus too, and that makes it even more exciting for me!

SO...The way this adoption thing works is the adoption worker on the case collects home studies over a period of weeks (that would be the "try outs") and reads through all of them, then out of those they select 5 canidates.

 I have decided to reffer to this phase of the process, those who get the 'GOLDEN TICKET' those canidates go to the staffing. This is what I like to reffer to as 'HOLLYWOOD"....

I know that just sounds crazy, but when I explain this to people that's the best way I know how to describe it... feels like being on American Idol..  and it's fun too!

So today we got our

GOLDEN TICKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and were going to HOLLYWOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We will be blessed if we are the winners of these two precious girls!

We continue praying for God's will and direction in the next phase. It is most important that these children go to the place that is best for them and if that means our home, then that will be so incredible! We continue to walk by faith...

Really having fun with this...I had to make us our own Golden Ticket hee hee hee!

Obedience Brings Peace

Been feeling increasingly gloomy, grouchy, anxious, impatient and irritably lately... BUT... I found the escape from my gloom!

Over the last 24 hours I hit my limit, my top was ready to blow off and finally I broke. I had to stop everything and sit down and have a talk with God. I poured my entire heart out to the Lord, things only I can say to Him. I felt better after my melt down and was really looking forward to a new day today.
I actually got up and got ready for work on time today. The morning started out pretty good, and as I was driving to work those negative feelings started to come back on me. I was on the edge of tears by the time I got to work and it was one of those moments where you just know if the wrong thing is said to you the tears are gonna break through and there won't be anything you can do to stop the flood!

So I got to my desk and began my morning duties and then... the phone rang... on the other end was my dear friend, my prayer warrior as we have traveled down this adoption road.
She says, "How are you?" I just say, "I'm don OK" she told me that she had been thinking of me and praying for me over the last few days... I shared with her some of how I have been feeling and by the end of our conversation I was in tears and finally... at my breaking point, I couldn't take anymore, something had to give. I have been trying to balance, family, work, ministry keeping my house and this adoption situation.

I hung up the phone and was pondering my life and how I was feeling overwhelmed, I decided that I have to stop listening to everyone and everything else, I need to follow through on my commitment to the Lord in obeying my calling to keep my house (stay home).
SO, I did it, I gave my final notice today 8-18-11, my last day will be 09-01-11!

WOW... I did it, gave all my fears, doubts and what ifs over to the Lord and moved forward with my commitment to be a stay home mom, take care of this home plan meals, help my husband with his ministerial administrative items and finish writing my book and maybe sell some hot sauce.
It is finished... I did it... and after doing it... I noticed that a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. The waters were calm...the storm had subsided. Obedience had delivered me!



I felt so good, happy again. I KNOW this is right. It's been hard few months with this commitment and transition but I am so confident in this decision now, even more than before. I feel FREE! SO FREE! Thank you Jesus for setting my soul free December 8, 1992 and for using my obedience to set my heart free today! It just feels SO good to do the right thing, I can't get over just how good I feel tonight, at peace and confident in this decision...
I am looking forward to what's next! Trusting God is behind everything working it all out and confident that God is able to overcome what ever reason the system may view my new vocation as not good enough through the adoption process.
GOD YOU ARE GOOD ALL THE TIME!

Philippians_1:6   "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:"