On the Journey With My Chosen One!

I am sure you might wonder why I call her chosen rather than adopted.... well, adopted is just her physical condition, CHOSEN is what we both are to be a family together! God is so rich in His Blessings, and He has chosen each of us from before the time we were knit in our mother's womb to be a FOREVER family! How BIG is that? How BIG is our God!?! Thank you for following our journey and for praying for us as we wait and continue to grow in the love of God! -- Blessings!



Liliana's Verses

Matthew 17:20 - " ... For truly I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain: "Move from here to there", and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you."




Zephaniah 3:17 - The Lord your God is with you. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.




Proverbs 3:5-6 ~ Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.




Jeremiah 29:11 ~ For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.


Sunday, April 8, 2012

Blessed..... Beyond Measure!

What a wonderful weekend! I got to celebrate One Year with my Precious Peruvian and then celebrate My Risen Lord! He is risen indeed! Celebrating One Year simply reminds me that He came to redeem us! He came that we might have life! He came to work miracles in the lives of sinners like me, to bring about such an incredible blessing! Happy Easter!

We had such a busy but great weekend! For our Blessing Day we went to the Zoo to see the Llamas (well, our zoo only has one) and the elephants and giraffes.... her favorite animals! The Llama was hilarious, he had his back to all the people coming by to see him in the petting zoo... but he did turn around to check us out! She LOVES giraffes and we got to see them up close, she was soooo excited! Later after celebrating a birthday dinner for dear friends, we came home to make Llama cookies. She had so much fun, and even more fun eating her Llama cookies.







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Saturday, we participated in her first ever Easter Egg Hunt! We had a great time "finding the Easter Eggs! She also got to see the "Princesses", these are young ladies who serve as ambassadors for our city at city-wide events. She thought they were great! Then we came home for a nap, then a walk with our dog Mia and her "Lady Bug" and stroller. She is soooo funny walking her doll just like Mama walks her in the stroller! Then we dyed Easter eggs, she thought it was great to see them come out a different color!








Then today, we celebrated our Risen Savior at church and then we had dinner with our good hunt Easter eggs again to find what kind of yummy treats they might find! What a blessed day! I am constantly reminded of how much our Savior loves and cares for us everyday! What joy!







Striving to Make His Glory Known!


Thursday, April 5, 2012

One year!

"Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass." Joshua 21:45

One year ago...


And Today....


Well, I have started this blog a couple of times, wrote a good bit last night, and quite honestly just didn't know where to begin! So, I am going to begin with this:

"... 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you." Matthew 28:7

Now I am sure you were thinking "Hey, this is a One Year Blessing Day post, right? Well, yes it is! You see it is because Jesus is alive and in my heart that this adoption was even made possible! It was God who planted this desire in my heart, and God who brought it to pass! But, if it weren't for Christ's death on the cross this could never be! Last year I was in Peru for Easter, and Easter was the end of our Family Placement week.... this year, Easter is just days after our Blessing day... I can't help but be reminded that it was becuase of Christ's death on the cross that saved me from my sins and his resurrection that gives me a future and a hope!

One year ago today, I met my Precious Peruvian for the first time, I am still speechless over the miracle that God perfomred that day! It is still just as fresh in my mind today as it was one year ago! I was recently looking at the magnificent gift that her orphanage gave me, and entire collection of pictures of her from the time she enered the orphanage at 3 days old, and I could hardly believe my eyes! You see, my Precious Peruvian isn't the same as she was one year ago, even her face looks different! It is so incredible to see how she has grown physically, intelectually and emotionally. She has grown 6 inches and gained about 6 pounds. She went from wearing a size 24 months to wearing a 4T in exactly one year! (Yep, I've been buying a lot of clothes! HaHa!) She now talks all the time. She still doesn't have everything down and sometimes only Mama can understand her, but she is talking all the time! A lot of times I can tell she is talking like me! It is too funny! She can identify all of her colors and has a favorite... purple! She can count to 10 with no help and spontaneously does it on her own! One time, I heard her counting to 25.... she hasn't done it again, but she did it for sure that one time! :-) She knows and recognizes all of her vowels and the sounds that they make. She can also do this with about 3-4 other letters. She is finally answering questions, especially "yes/no" questions with quickness and accuracy! She can answer "What is it questions... if she knows what the item is. She sings all the time! This makes my heart smile because I see it as a sign of a happy, well-adjusted child! She loves to play her guitar and her piano that we have here at home. Every once in a while, I will realize that her singing is a song..... that she has made up! :-) She is happy, loves school, loves playing with (more like aggrivating) the dog! She loves being at home.... but that is a good thing, it means she feels safe here! She has come a long way, and says "Hello & Good-by" to who Mama says "Hello & Goodbye to" and interacts well with our close friends and family members! She is just growing soooo fast! I can hardly believe it as each day goes by! I am so blessed and humbled to be called Mama!
There is just sooo much to say, but not enough time or space..... and yes, I know I should blog more! :-) But, this is what I want her to look back and read about our One year Blessing Day.... This is my letter of dedication to her, as I dedicated her to the Lord on October 16, 2011.

My Precious Peruvian,
“….For truly I say unto you, if you have faith as small as a grain of mustard seed you can say to this mountain: “Move from here to there.” And it will be done. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20
Many years ago a tiny seed was planted in my heart. Soon, it began to grow and grow until one day God said “You can do this!” That day was here in this church as another Mom who chose her child, like I chose you, was dedicating her little girl. God had planted the seed, but it took faith to make the seed grow it, and as I began my journey to you, I took the biggest leap of faith I have ever taken, knowing all along that God was holding my hand! For you see, God had a beautiful plan, from even before time began, He had chosen the two of us to be together. You are CHOSEN my beautiful one!
In my journey to you there were a lot of challenges and struggles, but God gave me Matthew 17:20 to hold onto for the entire journey! I held onto this promise form God like nothing else I have ever trusted him for! Then, when I read your file, something in my heart stirred and I asked God for even more faith! As I was praying over you, I found a baby name book and decided to see your name’s Christian meaning. Pilar means “Strong in Faith” and the verse accompanying your name was Matthew 17:20! I knew that very day that God had heard my heart’s cry and that He was about to make Himself known, because this was the very verse that HE had given me at the very beginning of my journey to you!
After much prayer and petition I requested you! There were so many mountains standing between us, I didn’t know if it would even be possible for us to be together, yet I held on to this verse! Then on Christmas Eve 2010 God chose to reveal His plan for you and me! God showed me that He was still in the miracle business and that You are my very own miracle! Mountains moved that day, in such an amazing way!
As I finally got to travel in April of this year to get you, I could hardly believe what God had already done! Little did I know that what was still ahead! On the day I met you, you were so timid and unsure of yourself, yet as we played you would look at me, and you knew, you just knew that we were chosen for one another! I will never forget my first hug and kiss that day! You see, God had heard my prayer for attachment from the very beginning of my journey. You are my precious waiting Angel and God has given me the greatest gift!
My sweet one, life will be hard for us at times. We will struggle and you may one day have lots of questions without answers. But, God is with you. He has you in the palm of his hand! May you always value honesty, giving to others and above all may you desire a heart like his! Because music is such a joy of both of us, I have chosen this song for you, and may it always resonate in your heart all the days of your life! May you always hold onto your mustard seed because God has a beautiful plan for your life! God is faithful!"

One year is an amazing milestone.... I must admit that it came here so quickly that I barely saw it coming! And, God is soooo good! I have lots of times compared my journey to that of the Israelites.... here is just another piece of that journey! You see, one year ago today, I crossed over the Jordan and took hold of my piece of the Promised Land. But, just like the Israelites, there were giants in my Promised Land...... and boy were there giants!! Some of them we mean and ugly, some of them like to weigh you down with guilt and dispair. Some of the giants were parts of my Precious one's past.... and some of the giants were inside of me! I learned very quick that Mommyhood has its really ugly moments and moments that I mess up and don't think that anything good can come from it. But, just as with the Israelites, God has taken care of me! He has provided my Manna every day! He has fought my battles, and He has protected us! You see God knew that I.... just like the Israelites would be walking into difficult times and situations, but as I am often reminded HE IS IN CONTROL!

What now?!? Well, we will continue on our journey through the Promised Land!I pray that we will walk with the Lord all the days of our lives and that God will continue to knit our hearts together and will continue the bonding process between us. God is faithful, so incredibly faithful! I can't wait to see what He has in store next!

Below are some pics of the last few months... and, tomorow we celebrate our Blessing Day (Forever Family Day) together and I'll try to post some pics of her first Easter and our day tomorrow.Again, thank you for journeying with us and praying for us! Please continue to pray that God will give me the wisdom and grace I need on a daily basis to best love and care for my most Precious Gift! Please continue to pray for her as she continues to grow and catch up! She has come sooo far, but we still have a ways to go.... but God has this under control too!

Striving to Make His Glory Known for He has done GREAT things!

The dress that I had hoped she would wear today... but she grew too fast! This was taken in August of last year.


Birthday picture of my beautiful girl!

We still LOVE our "Papa Lay", but we do eat the baked kind now!

Look at me climbing at the park!

Some more park fun.... she loves the slides!

Then there was my trip to Disney to see Mickey & Minnie Mouse... while she really loves them, they were a little scary to her in person.... but she did enjoy seeing them!