Did you think this was only about adoption? :} I

So much has happened and is happening and I have been itching to share it with you.  We moved!  All in one day we found a house and God supplied in miraculous ways, like He always does.  We made the second payment on the adoption and the money we needed was the money we had. This week I have been walking down memory lane remembering some of the amazing things that have happened in our lives and it was as if the Lord wanted me to be newly awed.  Could it be that we don't allow ourselves the opportunity to see His mysterious ways, because we are afraid to step out and live in faith.  That has been a question I have been asking myself the past few days, as the Lord presses us even further in trusting Him.  There have been times in our lives when only we knew of the need before us and all we could do was present our request to the Lord, and do you know what happened?  He always did something amazing, and out of those experiences He not only moved in our lack, but forged relationships and deep friendships because of a shared experience of His miraculous.  There is a special bond between us and those who have shared in the journey and as I revisited those moments this week, I realized what abundance we had felt in life, not in earthly things, but in the relationships and love we shared as the Lord moved among us.  I quickly realized this story isn't just an adoption story, it is and has been a story of faith.  The whole time Todd has been saying to me, "Jess just let God do this", and I quickly reply with, "I am! I am letting Him give me all of these ideas for fundraising.  I am going to sell puzzle pieces, the girls want to have a benefit concert, I could make cookbooks, have orphan awareness parties, sell this and that, and the list goes on."  I really have been quite busy thinking of all the things I could do to raise this sort of money.  And yet from the very beginning the Lord has been providing.  The day we committed to adopt, a dear and god given friend in our lives who lives in another country, contacted me.  I randomly checked an old e-mail account (that I rarely check) and their it was an e-mail from her.  I hadn't been in touch with her for a small bit and then out of no where she writes and says she felt the Lord wanted her to give.  Can you believe that, the same day!!   We served with an organization in Africa and during our preparations we were not allowed to solicit or raise money at all.  It was the policy.  At first we didn't understand it fully, however, we experienced God's provision in crazy ways.  Unexplainable things from our human perspective happened through our journey.  I so easily forget.  As the Lord took me on a stroll down memory lane, it was like this gentle reminder that I so desperately needed to hear began sounding in my heart.  Jess, have I not always provided?  Have I not been enough?  Have I not shown my ability to move and supply?  All I could say was YES, YES, and YES.  You see, the Lord has always always always taken the lead.  When I needed a friend, He brought me the gift of a friendship, when we needed finances He has supplied in unexpected ways, when we needed prayer we were given an army of prayer warriors on their knees (sometimes on 3 and 4 continents), the list goes on.  I realized that Todd was right and I needed to once again throw myself into the Lord's hands and simply trust.  You may ask, what is she talking about and where is this going..... I will tell you.
All of those ideas to raise money, they are good ideas some of them.  However, Todd and I feel like the Lord wants us to just be awed and so we aren't doing any of them.  We are going to just pray and trust Him to do what He has always done, overwhelm us with the miraculous.  I know that the fundraising has and does help so many families on this same journey of adoption as us, but the Lord is asking us to do it this way and we simply can not forge through in our own stubbornness, to do so would be at the cost of seeing and experiencing Him move among us and others. :}  I am still going to fill in the puzzle pieces, and we have sold close to 2,000 of them already.  I am just going to fill them in with the names of everyone the Lord speaks to be apart of this chapter of our story.  Is it scary?  At first it was, because I felt so powerless and unable to control the outcome.  Then I felt relief.  I am not in control of this outcome and I can only trust the one who already knows all my outcomes.  And that my friends is freeing!  Coupled with that I have been thinking all week about the day when we will dedicated this child or these children to the Lord in church and I am filled overflowing with excitement.  We serve a mysterious and unexplainable God, who moves and does things simply because He can.  He is indescribable and I am slowly learning that His ways are not my ways and so often His plan for me looks different than I expected.  C.S. Lewis wrote in one of his novels, "He is not a tame lion".  I guess that is my thought this week.  That might make absolutely no sense to some of you, Todd and I love to read C.S. Lewis' writings and so can I leave you with that one thought- "He is not a tame Lion."
Until my babies are in my arms,
Jess

It's Overwhelming, Really!

         Have you ever had a day or a week when it was so obvious the Lord was working and that His hand was moving and shaping your family, your life, or who you are?  I know He is always doing those things, but I am talking about a time when He is doing things that are crazy and because they are so crazy it could only be Him.  His presence and motion in your life is so evident that you are almost prepared to see Him walk around the corner in human form and hug you?  I have had that week.  It has been filled with moments of overwhelming gratitude, as I sit amazed and humbled that I get to be apart of the Lord's story.  That's what my life is;  a tiny insignificant letter in this script that He has been writing.  It is all about Him and it always has been.  God in His abundant mercy allows us to be somewhere in the pages.  My hope is that when my fleeting life comes to its ever approaching end, I will have spent the vapor of time I had making Jesus known.
         We found a house and it has ample space for our new addition/s.  Not only has the paper chase begun, we will  be able to complete everything right on schedule.  Lifeline was prepared to juggle the home study a bit until we found a bigger place.  Now we can just proceed as normal.  We have begun to receive random envelopes with donations to purchase puzzle pieces, it is going to be incredible to see it in the end.  I am so excited.  All those names!!
          We are also going to begin having "Parties with a Purpose".  These will be hosted parties in homes or at churches with a group of people the host invites to take part in a special time of sharing about orphans and our response to them.  The guest will have the opportunity to then purchase different items and all the proceeds will go towards our adoption and the 147 million orphans world wide.  I am over the top excited about these parties.  Who doesn't love a party where you get to spend time sharing God's heart and then take part in actively doing something about it, but not as an individual, as a unified body of Christ followers who love one another in a way that they want to share it with those who are considered the least of these in other parts of the world.  That is exciting!!  There will be a special gift to everyone who host a party.  Our goal is to host at least 30 parties.  If you are interested in gathering together a group of your closest friends, family, or others who you would love to share this time with, just let me know and we can set up your party.  Though the subject matter might seem heavy, we will have a wonderful time basking in the reality that the Almighty-Maker of Heaven and Earth-Creator of the Entire Universe-well,  He knows my name and your name, and He knows the hurt of a child in Uganda who is about to be wrapped up in the many arms of a forever family in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  That is amazing! 

Scribble Scrabbles

The "Paper Chase" begins.  We are now in the process of getting all our paperwork together.  We are using an agency called "Life Line Adoption" and they have agreed to go ahead and start our home study even though we haven't moved.  They will save the house inspection for the very end.  So, we have a few short months to find a 3 bedroom place.  Our goal is for our rent to stay reasonably close to what we pay now.  So, this will need prayer. :} However, the Lord never ceases to amaze me and I am confident it will be yet another amazing testimony of His incredible provision.  So, if you want specifics....  We are looking for a 3 bedroom house, with at least a little yard (I want a few chickens and maybe a goat) -might I add a very quiet goat.  We want the rent to be $700 or less.
An update on our puzzle, we have sold 550 pieces so far.  I am so excited to see the back when we get it all finished.  All those names.  The Lord has really been speaking to me lately through this whole idea of a puzzle and the individual pieces.  A piece by itself seems so insignificant, in fact if I were to find just one piece of a puzzle I would discard it into my trash can perhaps.  However, when all those individual, insignificant pieces form together, then their purpose is revealed.  Only when they are all connected and joined together can the intended image be seen.  Wow, what an example of the church!  Only when we as individual, insignificant parts join together can the image of Christ be seen.  World hunger, orphans, widows, child slavery, poverty, disease, complacent religion and the list goes on and on.... well it is overwhelming.  Completely overwhelming when I look at it as an individual.  My best contribution will seem like nothing in comparison to the hurt that I will not personally be able to touch.  When the community of believers, a living, breathing, body of Christ followers work together....the world will be changed.  The hopeless will be given a hope.  And in our story an orphan will be given a home. 
It is also so beautiful to see the Lord working in the hearts of our children.  They are daily thinking of ways that they can personally raise money to bring home their sibling.  Gabriella wants to have a concert and sell the tickets.  Ysa well she told me yesterday that she thinks she has a gift.  She is really good at making scribble scrabbles and she wants to scribble her art and sell it to people for our adoption.  That is just a few of their ideas.  I know it makes the Lord smile to hear them just want to do and give.  They have volunteered to sell their stuff, oh they have a plethora of ideas. :}  They already love this child. 

A pocket full of pieces

So, the fundraising begins.....  Adoption is so expensive, if you are on your own .  We however, are far from that.  The Lord is amazing we have seen Him do crazy impossible things and so we are simply trusting Him to do it this time as well.  I know how powerful it is when people pull together and what can be accomplished. 
So....
we have a puzzle and if you want to donate toward our adoption you can purchase a piece of the puzzle by mailing  $2.00 to
Todd and Jessica Bridges 
640 Weatherby Dr.
Tuscaloosa, AL 35405
Make sure to write your name on a piece of paper.  We will then write your name on the back of a puzzle piece and one day we hope to put the puzzle in a two sided frame and show our adopted son all the people who contributed to him becoming part of our family.  What a beautiful illustration of how the body of Christ works.  An individual puzzle piece means nothing really, but when joined with all the others, it creates a beautiful picture and serves its purpose.  Each $2.00 donation goes towards the purchase of one puzzle piece and all the small pieces will then be joined together to complete the puzzle.  $2 seems like nothing when it stands alone, but when you combine it with all the others, it becomes the money needed to bring an orphan home and into a family.  Please share this blog with your friends or anyone who may be interested in taking part in our journey.

I have a maker....

We sang a song in church last night.  "I have a maker".  As I stood there singing the song, Anabella attached to my leg, flashes of me holding our little brown boy race through my mind.  I just want to squeeze him tight and smell his little cheeks.  I can't wait for the day when we will be able to say that before even time began that his life was in the Lord's hands.  This will be the hard part.  Waiting.  It's been all of five days since Todd and I realized we were going to lay down every reason why we were postponing the process.  Now everyday my thoughts are caught wondering if our little boy is already born, what he will eat today or if he will eat today.  Will someone hug him, and will he feel lonely and unloved.  I wonder if he expects a family in another part of the world to be longing for him.  Will he ever understand the moments I sat here just aching to hold him and make up for every moment he spent without a family and to hear him call me mommy.  This will be an emotional journey I can tell.  The waiting.... this next year will feel like a decade.  I wonder how the Lord handles the waiting.  Sometimes He waits, months, years, even decades for someone to finally call Him, Father.  No wonder heaven rejoices when someone comes to the Lord.  All that waiting...  What kind of patience are we dealing with here?  I definitely don't have it.  :}
We talked to the adoption agency on Monday and again on Tuesday. :}  I may become annoying at some point.  Poor Heather, she is in charge of the program for Uganda.  After I spoke with her, all sorts of doubts and fears began.  Adoption is expensive...I am reminded that I know someone who paid the ultimate price to adopt me into His family.  We have to find a bigger house/apartment within our budget.... Traveling for 4-6 weeks to Uganda......  Health issues that could arise after we get him home... so many things.  What a journey of faith this will be.  I don't know how it is all going to work out at this point all I know is that somewhere in Uganda is a little boy that needs a family.  He has a maker, the one who formed his heart, before even time began his life was in the Lord's hand.  The Lord knows his name, every thought,  and sees each tear that falls.  He has a Father, who calls him his own.  The Lord will never leave him.  We are patiently waiting (perhaps not so patiently at times), to see the miracles that take place as the Lord hears the cries of a little boy for a family and the heart of a family to be that little boys daddy, mommy, sisters, and brother. 
" One day sweet boy, you will read this blog and see that your mommy loved you and wanted you.  One day we will share with you the amazing testimony of how the Lord gave us you."

Our Journey begins

The floor was covered with packets from every international adoption agency we could find.  We looked through all the programs and I remember lying in bed with our first baby, who was then about four months old, thinking wow next year we will have another baby beside us all in this bed.  I had this longing to be a mother to a child who did not have someone to call mommy.  Well three babies later and now eight years have gone by and we have yet to actually move past the packets spread all over the floor.  Until now!  What have we been waiting for?  The word mommy was a word I took for granted as a child.  I so freely got to throw that word out and I knew that she would come to pick me up, love me, hold me, and applaud my achievement.  The realization that so many millions of children have no one to say mommy to, no one is going to gather them up in arms full of love and say you are my son you are my daughter, it has shaken me this week.  I have been challenged to the point of movement.  Todd and I can not save every orphan child, but we can give one, two, even several more something that every child longs for- A DADDY, A MOMMY, A FAMILY.  Our journey has begun.  We are beginning the process to bring home our son or daughter from Uganda.  We will be adding color to our family and that is so exciting.  Our first step is to find a bigger place so that we have another bedroom.  I have created this blog so that we can share with all of you the journey.  So many of you came with us to Equatorial Guinea, you loved us when we returned home, and now we want to share with you another voyage.  You never know what the impact of one will be.  Let's impact as many as possible!