Vacation!!

Yep, its that time of year again. We are going on a family vacation to Galena, IL. We rent a house and the whole Horton clan comes. Last year was the first year we did it and it was great fun. I am sure this year will be even better.

Keep praying for baby Arthur!!! And evjoy your labor day weekend!! We will be back on monday!

A few videos

A few months ago i started to hear about this song Healer. We sang it in church on wed. night and people were really talking about it. Someone sent me a link to a video on YouTube and I watched it. I cried. It is an AMAZING testimant to the power of Christ. Please click the following like and watch the whole video. I promise you will be moved. (Sorry it has subtitles in another language, I couldnt find the original.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McqWVOEt5qU

Setting in

Well its setting in. This little boy that has been on our hearts and minds over the last few weeks might not make it. We have never met him or even seen a picture of him, but we feel connected to him. This process has grown Josh and I in ways we never knew possible. We have learned to have faith in the Lord. We did not, and still don't, know what is in store for us, but we are being lead by Christ and following Him every step of the way. We have talked about very real issues about parenting and raising a child, with or without special needs. Althought it might not always seem like it, we have learned to be patient. This process is anything but speedy and we still have a long way to go but we are ready to go the distance. If the end of this path winds right back to where we were 2 weeks ago we will be better because of it, all beacause of a little baby boy whom we never met.

Even thought there are alot of things we don't know, we do know that our God can do amazing things. A few days ago I heard a song on the radio by Brandon Heath. I want to post the lyrics so that you all can read it. I want this song to be the passion of my life. Here it is...

Brandon Heath "Give me Your eyes"

Looked down from a broken sky

Traced out by the city lights

My world from a mile high

Best seat in the house tonight

Touched down on the cold black top

Hold on for the sudden stop

Breath in the familiar shock

Of confusion and chaos

All those people going somewhere, Why have I never cared?

Chorus:

Give me your eyes for just one second

Give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me your love for humanity

Give me your arms for the broken hearted

Ones that are far beyond my reach.

Give me your heart for the ones forgotten

Give me your eyes so I can see

Yeah Yeah

Step out on a busy street

See a girl and our eyes meet

Does her best to smile at me

To hide what's underneath

There's a man just to her right

Black suit and a bright red tie

Too ashamed to tell his wife

He's out of work

He's buying time

All those people going somewhere

Why have I never cared?

Chorus

I've Been there a million times

A couple of million eyes

Just moving past me by

I swear I never thought that I was wrong

Well I want a second glance

So give me a second chance

To see the way you see the people all along

Please pray for baby Aurther (thats the name that was given to him in the hospital, but he is known to us by Malichi which means His Mesanger)

We got a call...

Finally we heard from the babies case worker. He was never released from the hospital. The docters didn't think he was stable enough to so to a transitional home. He is a very sick little boy and will need major heart surgery sooner rather than later. He has what they call a serious cardiac leison (spelling?), I am not sure what that is, but will be doing research and will post what I find. Right now we are not even worring about the possible adopting, we just want him to be healthy. Our number one concern is getting him stable and are confident that His doctors will be able to do that. Pray for him right now, he has no mom and dad, but he had a father in heaven that loves him more than anything and is hold him is His arms. We probablly wont hear anymore till next week...So we wait...and pray...again.

Erin and Josh

Call us back already!!!!!!

Can you believe that we still haven't heard anything? We have called at least 2 times...A DAY! She has yet to return our call. Josh called a few mins. ago and asked the secritary if Lesliee (His case mananger) was on vacation or something and she told us that she was in her office and on the phone. She connected us to her, but she didnt answer. So we left another message. This is soo annoying. I hate it when people don't return phone calls.Grrrrrrr.....

Sunday..Already?

Well our weekend flew by. It was nice having absolutly noting to do. My good friend Jamie ended coming out on sat. We worked on some shower stuff with my mom and had pizza with my dad and Josh later that night. Its always fun seeing Jamie, she is a great friend and I am so thankful for her.

Today we did nothing. We got up and went to church. That was great as usual. We came home and did some cleaning up stairs, which was long over due. Josh made Chicken and Dumplings for dinner and now we are relaxing and watching the closing ceromonies of the olympics.

Hope you all had a great weekend!! Its back to work tomorrow.

*Sigh*

I am sorry to tell you that we NEVER got in touch with the baby's case worker this week. I told Josh that if we didnt hear from her by 3pm on friday, that we would call. Well, we were out an about with friends and completely lost track of time. We called around 4 and left a message. She never returned our call. Such is the life of a case worker. They are always super busy and often overloaded with work. So now we all must wait till monday.

Still

We didnt hear from his case worker today, that meas tomorrow we will get some information!! Untill then I leave you with this...

"If the Lord calls you to something, He is going to bless you through it. He called us to take a leap of faith and give a home to this tiny orphan boy. And every single day, we reap the rewards of what God will do when you step out in faith."

This is how we feel and we havent even met the little man yet. Are you willing to step out on faith with us? Are you willing to let you heart, life and mind be transformed by this little guy? God has amazing plans for him, and will use him in amazing ways. We are confident that he will accomplish many things, it doesnt matter how big or how small they are. We are continually praying that God will protect him and give him the strenght to overcome EVERY obstacle and the He will use this little boy to do big things!

We should have more info tomorrow.

The waiting game

Yep, we are playing the waiting game...and I don't like it. Today the baby was released from the hospital and becomes an official ward of the state which means we should be getting more medical information soon! We talked to the adoption supervisor last night and she said she would be calling tomorrow or friday. She also took our information so she could run a backround check on us. Once that is finished we can meet the baby!! YEAH

Untill tomorrow we have to play the game. Good thing we have all of you waiting with us!!

A son?

Yep, we might be parents sooner than we thought. As I said in my last post, God has placed a little boy in our path. He was Born July 6th and is a 4lbs 6 oz. Hes a preemie, thats for sure. Unfortunatly His mom is not capable of parenting him (or his 9 other sibblings, they are all in foster care or adopted) so they are looking for a family to adopt him. He is african american and he has down syndrome.

Josh and I have decided to continue on this path. We are seeing where God leads us through this opportunity. I dont have to much info for you all. We are still waiting to get the rest of his medical information, which should come either tomorrow or thursday. The case worker put our information in for background checks so that we can visit him soon. I will update again when we know more.

Josh and I both know that this will be alot of work, but we are excited to see what this little boy has in store for our lives. We are excited about the people we will get to meet and to see the lives that are going to be cahnged because of love this little boy will give. We believe that God calls special people to do special things. I am hopful that this is the start ouf our family and that we will soon have someone calling us mom and dad. Please, please, please pray for us as we have to make a HUGE decision. A decision that will not only change our lives but the lives of people around us! We cant wait to share more info with you when we get it!!

A new turn

We have said all along that we don't know where this path to become foster parents is going to lead us, and we have just experienced our first turn.

Some friends of ours from church told us about an e-mail they received about an infant with down syndrome. He has no mom and dad and is up for adoption. We didnt really think much of because it sounded like they were going to pursue adopting this child. Well this week a regroup they approched us and gave us the number of the lady to call. Josh and I went home and talked...alot and prayed....alot about this little boy. (he is an African American, born in july and onle 4lbs) We decided to pursue this and see where it takes us. I just got off the phone with this childs case worker and it seems like this is a real possibility for us. We are praying for Gods guidance and wisdom as we seek more information on this baby. Please pray for us over the weekend as we have a lot of talking and thinking to do. Gods ways are amazing and josh and I are prepared to turst and follow Him whatever path He brings us down. We are scared out of our minds but excited at all the possibilities.

PS. thanks for all the support from those of you at regroup last night. As we see where this turn leads us we ask that you continue to support us, as things suddenly just got more difficult.

Whats next?

So I am sure you are all wondering....Whats next? We finished our last PRIDE class and are super excited to be dome with that. To be honest, we are not sure whats next. We do know that we are going to be having 3 visits from our case worker. We are just not sure when. So to be honest, we don't know whats next. Its annoying, but we are trying to be patient as we wait for the next step. I've said all along we have no idea where this journey will lead us, and that is proving true at this momment. We made some great relationships in our PRIDE class and we learned a lot of information that will be essential to our succcess as foster parents. We are waiting to be able to use all of this knowledge.

So today I went to Target with a friend. We were looking at childrens clothes and we met a women and her young foster child. He was soo cute. I could tell that he had a rough life, he had a lot of scaring and scabs that were healing. I asked her how long she had the placement and she said about a week. She then proceeded to share a little of his story with me (This is a BIG no no, we are leagally not allowed to discuss this with perople). I thought I would share it all with you. I am sure you have no idea who I am talking about, so i feel safe. Anyways, she said he came from his aunts house were they didnt feed him. He only got the left overs, when there were some. My heart broke. THe only thing he drank was pop from a straw. Needless to say the child was VERY under nourished. He was 2 but only wearing size 12 months, and even that was to big. It was a very real feeling I had that this will be us in a few short months. Am I prepared emotionally? I dont know, I thought I was, but seeing this little boy just melted my heart! I am praying that God will continue to work in Josh and I and prepare us for this. I am still confident that this is what God wants us to do, but I am scared. Is that normal? I think it is, and I know that it wont be easy but I am trying to remember that God is in control and He will lead us every step of the way.

As I am sitting here writting this Josh is watching tv and the dogs are relaxing on the floor. I am reminded that this will soon end and our lives will be crazy. I get excited just thinking about it. Its a beautiful night for a walk. I can't wait to show a child the beauty in nature and that there really are good people in the world. I can't wait to give away one thing that costs nothing...LOVE.
So be praying that God grants us wil unconditional love, genuine love and love that we can freely give.

Only 1 class left!

I couldn't tell you what our thursday night class was about this week. I was not feeling well and really should have just stayed home. So this post wont be about class...But I did want to let you know that all we have left is tuesday night! This excites me more than you know! We may be almost done with our class, but we still have a TON to do at home. Oh and we went and registered for another class. This one is Education Advocacy. Its only 2 nights and I am looking forward to it.

Well it is official, we are spoiled. My mom has already brought over new clothes for the child and she just told us she bough the crib set we registered for. We are so thankful we have such a supportive family! We really wouldn't be able to do this without them. It makes me laugh to think that I was so worried about getting everything we needed. I know we will!!! Praise God for all the belssings!! Well its early and I am off to be...I have to work this weekend! Yuck!
Have a GREAT weekend and stay cool!