Why Freedom?

Different you say… yes, it is different and I don’t think I have ever heard anyone name their child Freedom before, well maybe in a movie once but not in real life.

How did we come up with this you say???

It wasn’t without some resistance! You see, Jayda’s birthday is July 4^th also known as INDEPENDENCE DAY the day we celebrate our FREEDOM in the United States of America.

As Bill and I talked about names to go with Jayda we went through many including names we had picked out if we ever had children previously. I was stuck on FREEDOM and Bill didn’t like it AT ALL…!

So it came down to drawing straws… we could NOT agree on one name!!! SOOOO… I began praying and Bill went to a far far away land... Brazil for a mission trip. Low and behold… while he was in Brazil God spoke to him MANY times about Liberty and the subject of FREEDOM came up over and over and OVER.

It came to pass about two days after he had been gone I received an e-mail informing me that Jayda’s middle name WILL be FREEDOM…will explain later…

OH boy was I excited!!!! I knew it… I just KNEW IT!

Not to mention our FREEDOM as a country, our spiritual freedom we receive when God adopts us into His family! Jayda is going to need this middle name and I believe it was God’s design for her be born on Independence Day… she will one day be FREE and gain her Independence in every way!

Almost every night I sing this lullaby to her in hopes she will someday understand how much God loves her:

"Lullaby and goodnight sweet baby Jayda

Mommy loves you, Daddy too, and God SOOOO loves you

So lullaby and goodnight sweet baby Jayda.

Night Night"

John_8:36
If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Why Faith?

Faith…
How did we choose this as a middle name for our oldest daughter Jordin?
It was a long, long time ago in a far away land called Peru where God planted a seed... a mustard seed in my heart and asked me to walk by FAITH to find our children to adopt
& make them part of our forever family!

 The moment I said YES God, I will follow... my head began spinning & as all or most women do, I thought of names....& I made a proclamation at that moment in time that our child's name would contain FAITH in it to memorialize the first & many steps of faith it has taken us to find our daughters.
I often tell Jordin the story of why her middle name is FAITH & that we found her by following & obeying God's direction & instructions, believing what we could not see until we found you two!
If we would have disobeyed ...we may have never found her & her sissy.

Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

What a ~TRIP~

ADOPTION DAY Welcome

Jordin Faith Johnston & Jayda Freedom Johnston 1-26-2012

I have been pondering how to wrap up this blog series with the finalization and finally this week after nursing some very sick little girls I said to myself one evening after all were finally resting, "WHAT A TRIP!" That's when I knew that should be the title for this blog!

On this day January 26, 2012 we REALLY became forever parents of these two beautiful girls! The deal has been sealed...IT IS FINISHED!!!!!
There are so many spiritual applications wrapped up in Adoption! It's so incredible to see God's hand in every detail! When Jesus died on the cross he said "It is finished" He overcame death and sin when he rose from the dead on the third day.
When we receive Jesus as Lord and Saviour God seals our souls and our name is written in the Lambs book of Life.
Jordin and Jayda now have new names and their is a record written with a seal on it!
How beautiful is that! I pray they do also get new names one more time as we hope they will marry some day and then lastly hopefully before they marry, receive Jesus too and have their names written in the Lambs book of Life eternally!

I have been thinking back and recall all the promises God made good on over the past 3 months. I love tracing His leading and footsteps in our lives!

One thing that has lingered in my heart and head since June of 2010 when we finally heard God's calling to Adoption and said YES we will, is the truth that this is not just another "mission TRIP", this is for LIFE, a TRIP every day...24/7 365 day a year!
Since the girls moved in in October as the days passed and life took on a whole new look and meaning I kept feeling like I was preparing for a mission trip EVERY day... so that's what this is like for becoming parents after 20 years of marriage with no children and coming and going when we want, now life is a mission TRIP every day! Always thinking ahead and making a plan only to have it altered by what ever may happen in a day, that's a TRIP!
I feel like Bill and I have had and entire lifetime of ups and downs, greatness and sorrows, and now we get to enjoy a second lifetime of all new things with our girls! What a TRIP!

Thank you for REJOICING with us over Jordin Faith and Jayda Freedom as they are now FOREVER part of our Johnston family.

And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.                                                            Luke 15:6

Just a few things we are reminded of as we rejoice in our beautiful girls’ adoption.

What God has brought together, no one can separate

 Ephesians_1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

Just like when God adopts us, it is FOREVER
Romans_8:15  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

Now it is time for us to live out God’s promise that brought us to our girls through His Word.

We have been clinging to these next two scriptures since June of 2010, God is FAITHful!

Psalm 113:9 He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD.

And
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

 May each of us end with the plan God has for us,

~Bill, Carolyn, Jordin & Jayda Johnston~               Est 1/26/2012

From HOPE to REALITY

Pondering this...
 On 7-7-11 we signed our licenses as foster parents and requested our names be entered into consideration for the very girls who are sleeping in their beds in OUR house right now... : )
 From hope to reality.
I should have KNOWN at the time we signed those papers that there was no doubt they would be ours... God finished his work of creation on the 7th day, and he gave us '2' 7's for 2 girls!!! Oh me of little faith, how could I have ever doubted! Oh and He rested... we could have been resting all this time in the confidence that God was leading us... we never gave up!
However did considered backing out in the beginning when there was another person who had already petitioned for their adoption and they had even put up thousands of dollars.
We only considered dropping out so they could have a permanent home sooner but we just couldn't let go...something in us was urging to keep on fighting!
I just kept calling and calling and calling-  I think that was my pushing part of this delivery! Pushing paper work, pushing e-mails and phone calls...it was ALL worth it!
SO excited for Thursday, can't sleep for re-living the past year and a half of pursuing God's plan for our lives and here we are.
Wow...just sayin!
Good night now!

The Invisible

Airport junkies! Amy, Robin (Val below) faces that have walked this journey with us for a very long time



WOW, what a journey this continues to be!!! The closer we get to finalizing day the louder I can see God's hand print in this story!

This story is ALL about big J...and her new middle name which I can tell u...
Since that day in June of 2010 on top of that unfinished...unseen... orphanage in Peru; when God shouted to me Psalm 113:9 and asked ME to walk by FAITH! From that moment nothing could change my mind, it was certain, our daughters name would contain FAITH it.

Let me tell you what has happened the last few weeks around here...
Back two weeks before Christmas big J and I were on the subject of fire and she said that it would be so terrible if our house was on fire... I simply stated that "Yes, it would be so terrible"
That night during bed time prayers she says lets pray for Mr Kyle and Mrs Amanda (neighbors)
So I said OK, she goes on to pray.
"Dear Father,
Thank you for mommy and daddy, and Mr Kyle and Mrs Amanda... thank you our house and their house is not on fire, in Jesus name, amen" (something like that and super fast, cuz that's how big J prays, so cute!)
SO... the next day we did all sorts of Christmas shopping and wrapping, then got dressed up for daddy's Christmas party and off we went!
After the party we stopped by  Kelly's house and played with Charlee and her new kitty for a while.
We had left home that day about 530 in the evening and returned home about 10 or 1030 to realize that mommy had left a candle burning near the curtain's ALL DAY LONG and ALL EVENING! The flames were at least 2 inches tall...
Immediately I began to cry, KNOWING it was GOD who put that prayer in the heart of my 4 yr old...just the day before!
Only a miracle kept our house and probably both neighbors houses from burning down that day and right before Christmas... I explained to big J how that God protected us and so we thanked God again that night for saving our homes from fire, mommy thanked and praised the Lord for putting that prayer in J's heart! WOW GOD! We saw the invisible God that day!

Now, this past Friday grandma and grandpa Johnston came to babysit so mommy and daddy could go on date night, oh they had such fun! J says she loves it when we go out and she gets dropped off or gets a sitter over here... not sure how to take that...lol... she is a fun girl and she likes to have lots of fun!
Moving on... J has a prayer box and we put in it several slips of paper with names of family, friends and mission fields and missionaries on them that she gets to draw one out every night to add to her bed time prayers.
She can't read yet so keep that in mind as I tell you the rest of the story...
J takes the box over to daddy, pulls out a prayer and it's for grandma and grandpa Johnston!!! NO KIDDING... I said daddy... did you do that? Daddy said no, no I didn't that's what she pulled out... Mommy said WOW...
There's that invisible God showing up again!

OK... I think God REALLY REALLY wants us to KNOW~KNOW~KNOW, some more that He is all over this story...

Last night J was going around the house singing a line to this song that daddy wrote and  the band "therest" produced, so we put the tunes on and listened to the amazing album, "The Beautiful Gate"  during our bed time snack.
Time for bed, J gets her prayer box and goes to daddy, she pulls out a slip of paper and from the kitchen I hear daddy reading who it is for, "Matt, Ashley and Kaden"
I said, "what did you say" Daddy replied... "Matt, Ashley and Kaden"
For those of you who don't know about the band/group "therest" Matt is the lead singer if this band and Ashley is his wife, Kaden is their son.
Once the band starts traveling, because they will, (Heb 11:1), Bill is/will be their pastor.
WOW... there's that Invisible God again...

Over breakfast this morning I explained to J why her new middle name is going to be FAITH. I started out by bringing to light the events of the last two days with the prayer box, then told her that this is how we know God is here even though we can not SEE HIM we can see what He is doing and that this same faith is what led mommy and daddy to find her and sissy. We followed God's directions until we found you!
She replies, "That's so cool"

Lastly ...today we visited a church and it blessed my heart so much to share the time of praise and worship with her and to look down and see her with both of her arms stretched way up in the air singing, then a little later looked at her as she was imitating holding a microphone, eyes closed just singing away!
To top off this incredible week, Tonight I took J with me, Robin and Val to greet Aunt Amy coming home from her mission trip to Jamaica! Val Robin and I have done this so many many times over the past many years as Amy and each of us have gone all over the world. It was SUCH a blessing to sing praises to the Lord all the way to the airport with MY DAUGHTER and two daughters of my heart.
My heart is bursting tonight as God is very VISIBLE as we continue down this journey of FAITH...
Mommy love you J!
Hebrews 11:1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Funny lil Baby

So, here's a funny story for today!

 Last night baby J was crying so went to check on her to find that she had attempted to take off her jammies. She must have got cold because she wasn't even awake while she was crying. I found her laying on her back un-covered and sipper all the way down!

They are the zip up footy kind, lately she has been practicing the snap and zipper, maybe I should have stopped her but I thought she was doing a good job learning!

So I zipped her back up and snuggled her up, in the dark. Daddy came in to get her back to sleep, by the time I got her put back together she was awake and not happy. Daddy has the gift... baby whisperer!

I really thought this was so funny until this morning... she woke up and we were having our morning snuggle time and during this I noticed my baby didn't smell like my sweet baby especially since having her bath before bed last night... a little later baby J is pulling at her diaper, so mommy investigates... something isn't right here... lets go change that dipe dipe I say to baby J, and off we go to the changing table...

LO AND BEHOLD...she had unfastened one side of her diaper in the attempt to undress herself and I must had not noticed that when I re-dressed her in the dark... so baby and bedding were covered in pee pee, all night long...

Oh what a morning... so we had another bath and washed all the bedding!

I had to laugh...

Now baby will be sleeping in a onezie under her jammies from now on! Smart little stinker will have that figured out next!

Next time I will be checking the diaper! lol Oh and I blame Mema and Papa for the diaper training... she was doing that on a baby doll at their house just the other day!!! ha ha ha

Spinning~Spinning~Spinning

Wow... my head is spinning... don't know what to do first, plan a party or write a story... so many thoughts and memories flooding my mind of these past 14 weeks and of what future looks like.

Bill and I are In our 20th year of marriage...

Went from Peru for the first time in 2009 to the call of adoption in Peru (2010) to parents of two super awesome girls in 2011/2012!
 I never had this planned for my future but... God did... and this is His best for us!
When I remember that these girls are God's best... and God's plan for our life it really makes the hard times much easier to handle and it makes me smile so big on the inside when I look at them... I just love to watch them do what they do... and listen to how they talk and play with their dolls and toys, it gives me insight to how I am doing as a mommy... so funny, Big J likes to try and be Mommy to lil J, and she talks to her like I do... "No no honey" very cute! She tries to give her kisses on her head like I do and lil J just runs from her...
Lil J tries to dress her babies and cook on the stove like mommy. They are just very cute and fun to observe... Is this the way God looks at us??! I think so... I believe it!

God has given us these gifts because they need us, something about us is what God has ordered for their lives and for ours.
I always said I wanted God's best for my life... it's not always what we expect and sometimes we struggle with seeing His hand in it, but oh man... God...  I KNOW... WE KNOW... YOUR HAND IS ALL OVER THIS!
Come on January 26th!!! Lets seal this deal with your promise!
Eph_1:13In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,