He Knew

This was written by Christi while on our 1st trip to Kazakhstan- Nov 19,2010...we wrote our family and close friends while we were traveling and are going to post some of those entries on here for all of you to experience.

We were playing Yahtzee this afternoon and Brandon said "Wow, we're really here. Can you believe it?". We've been talking about that a lot. How we have been praying and planning and thinking about this moment in time for so long, and now that it's here, we don't want it to slip by without us taking it all in. Besides being in a foreign country, we are here to adopt 2 little precious girls. Girls that were only imagined before. We thought we knew what to expect. We thought lots of things.

But God knew.

He knew these girls would fit our family perfectly. He knew that I would sit and watch them color and just cry at the fact that they will be my daughters. He knew that we would talk to our 8 yr. old son on the phone and instead of telling us how much he missed us (which we know he does), that He would ask how the girls are doing.

He knew.

He knew this was our journey. Our path. He picked girls across the world to be a part of our family. Just like He picks us to be a part of His. How cool is that? It's truly amazing to see the picture He has painted for us. We are placed on the canvas at just the right time.

I love our Lord. Most of all I love that He knew and yet He waited until we could handle it before He shared with us His masterpiece that is now the Donaldson family.

~Christi~

Girls' 1st Easter activities - coloring cookies and eggs, oh my!

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The kids at the park

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God speaks

Haven't blogged in a while...not for lack of anything to say, just lack of discipline to actually sit down and do it :)

I wanted to share something that happened recently. We had some surprising news with our adoption. I can't go into details but basically we had to switch agencies. This is a pretty big deal. We had spent a year with our agency...praying with them, e-mailing, and we knew their system really well.

We found out about this big switch right before Brandon left on a mission trip to Ecuador. That's important because on one of the days he was gone, I went into a downward spiral. My thought life was so negative and full of fear..."This adoption just might fall through"..."You will probably lose all the money that's been given so far"...."you have wasted all this time"...and on and on. By the end of the day, listening to these thoughts all day, I was a wreck.

I had a friend send some scriptures about God closing doors and opening them. I know this is the case, but I wanted the door we were walking through to stay open. I didn't want to go through another door. Do you know what I mean?? I was basically pouting.

I never sleep well when Brandon's gone either.Something about him not being right beside me just doesn't feel very comforting.

So, after fretting, and crying, and praying for a while, I finally told God that I will follow Him wherever He leads.Even if the adoption fell through.Even if it's different than the path I thought we were on.

I was broken. I was throwing my hands in the air and saying "I'm tired of holding on to this so tightly and I'm ready to give up control". I fell asleep about 12:45am.

The next day, I woke up to find an e-mail from a high school friend that I haven't seen in 15 yrs! We had connected on facebook and she said that I might think she's crazy, but that God had woke her up at 1AM and put us on her mind. He showed her some scriptures to share with me. I will share them with you.

1 Chronicles 22:13 "Be strong and of good courage. Dread not and fear not; be not dismayed. "

Deuteronomy 1;29-30 (where Moses speaks to the children of Israel about their enemies dwelling in the promise land): "Then I said to you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. The Lord your God goes before you, He will fight for you just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes."

Hebrew 2:10 says Jesus is your pioneer. When something seems impossible or unpleasant, trust your pioneer to go before you and pave the way.

Those words spoke directly into my situation. It was as if God was standing right in front of me telling me not to worry. He is our pioneer. He is leading the way for us! He sent an unlikely messenger to me to let me know that He's in control. Don't miss the fact that I went to sleep at 12:45AM and she woke at 1AM. It humbles me to think that he cares about me.

He cares about YOU too.

What's He saying to you? Are you listening? Are you giving Him full control? Are you letting Him lead the way? I know I will. He's our pioneer! Do you need to take your hands off of a situation and let God take over?

If God Speaks, I'm listening :)

~Christi~

Kazakhstan adoption - The Next Step

An adoption update telling where we are in the process as of 2/19/09, and how you can pray during this time.

Family Follow-up

Donaldson Family update:)

• We met with our new adoption case worker and asked a ton of questions. We feel like we are on the right track now for the most part.

• Our boys are out of school tomorrow (which I'm sure all of yours are too!). Somehow I coerced them into having a shopping day with me. I'm pressing my luck here but they have some Christmas money that's burning a hole in their pockets so that helps.

• Went to Bunco over the weekend, saw a movie with the "girls", and then got to see most of them today at a birthday party. I feel blessed to have such amazing women in my life!

• Brandon is starting a new bible study with a group of men mostly from our church. It's an intense 9 month journey about growing more intimate with Christ. This is an answer to prayer for him to get to be a part of:)

• We are starting our fundraising for the adoption. It's humbling and a bit scary....but these are times when God proves Himself evident to us.

• Our church is doing a new series called "The Vow". This week, the challenge was to pray once a day, for 7 days, with your spouse. We had some precious time in prayer tonight. I know this is a key towards intimacy with God

• I've cut our grocery budget in half for this month. So far, so good. If you like saving money and finding bargains, check out my bargain blog HERE.

• We are de-cluttering our house. We have moved almost everything out of our office in anticipation of that becoming a nursery in the next year. I have lots of clutter and "junk" that I need to donate as well.

So....that's a LOT going on with us. How about you? Are you on twitter? We'd love to "follow" you if you are! Leave your Twitter name in the comments please.(We are @brandonaldson and @mrscdonaldson)

Why Kazakhstan?

Some information about how we came to the decision to adopt from Kazakhstan. God is good!

We are Adopting from Kazakhstan!

Psalm 68:5-6 "Father of orphans, champion of widows, is God in his holy house. God makes homes for the homeless..."

We are so excited to let you know about all that is going on in our family. Many of you know that we have been praying, planning, and walking through the adoption process for about 2 years. God has really given us a heart for international adoption, and we are now in the registration phase. We are adopting a baby girl from Kazakhstan through an organization called Christian World Adoption. You can read up about this and even find links about Kazakhstan here http://www.cwa.org/kazakhstan-adoption.htm. The process is anywhere from 6-11 months, and at the end of this process we will have a little girl around 8 months old. Here are a few things we wanted you to know.

Heart:
We are so thankful to have people like you in our lives. Our lives are going to drastically change, as well as the life of our little girl. Having the stability of family and friends around us will help us in this transition. Through the process there will be days of joy and days of weariness. We want you all to be involved in the process and to join us in this adventure. Here are some simple but powerful ways for you to be a part.

• Pray for our little girl. Pray that she has great care while in the orphanage and that her delivery goes smoothly (just think she will be most likely be born in the next few months!). Pray for her emotional well being so that we may bond with her more easily. Pray for her physical development. Many of the orphans are not stimulated enough so they lag in their development.
• Pray for her biological parents. Pray for their emotional state. Pray that they will be open to the Lord through this process. Pray that they can heal emotionally from giving up their child. We are going to be eternally grateful for their sacrifice.
• Pray for our family as we prepare for this amazing transition. Pray for Merrick and Ethan as they being to think about and talk about being big brothers.
• Pray for the entire process to go as smoothly as possible. Pray that the Lord will guide the process and be very evident throughout - the paperwork, international pieces, waiting periods, finances, etc.

Practical:
Financially this will be an incredible miracle that God will perform. The total cost of the adoption will be around $35,000. I know it can seem a bit crazy in 6-11 months, but these we truly believe that this is perfect opportunity for God to show off. We are planning to apply for help from some great Christian foundations, and we are planning to invite all of you to be a part as well. Here is how you can be a part:

• Give financially. This will be tax deductible. You can go donate securely here, and 100% of these funds go towards our adoption! Use this information:

On the "Specify Donation" - choose the General Fund
Under the "Optional" section:
Choose person - CWA Family
Last name - Donaldson
First name - Brandon and Christi
City - Edmond
State - Oklahoma

• You can also donate money directly to us, but note that these funds will not be tax deductible.
  

We are planning on having several fundraisers. We are going to use this blog and our facebook/twitter/myspace accounts. If you can help us spread the word by blogging about it, retweeting about it on twitter, or sending it to your Facebook friends, it would help tremendously! We know this will only happen with the help of our friends! If you have some fundraising ideas or can offer any assistance in this area, leave a comment about it here or send us an e-mail at christi.donaldson@gmail.com.

We cannot do this without you or your support. We are so excited and anxiously awaiting the arrival of our new daughter. We will keep you in the loop. Please e-mail us with any questions, ideas, or concerns at. We will be updating our blog frequently with news and our ongoing thoughts. Thank you for being on this journey with us!


Brandon, Christi, Merrick, and Ethan (soon to be a family of 5:))

Friday follow-up #7

It's been a crazy week with a lot going on but I will share just a few of the fun things with you:)

• We rented 'The Astronaut Farmer' tonight since Randy's lets you rent 1 free catalog (non-new release) each Thursday. We really liked it. Just the idea behind following your dreams and supporting those around you who are following their dreams was inspiring! I think we were just in the mood for a movie like this.

• We are highly anticipating the Olympics. We are one of those families that is glued to the TV each night cheering on our fellow Americans. Sometimes I even cry when they win the gold! It's just amazing to think about what these athletes put into it. The time, effort, money, energy...something to be applauded whether someone medals or not.

• I've said it before and I'll say it again. It means so much to have family and friends support around us. Just to know that people are there for whatever reason. You are not alone! Lean on someone around you and you will not regret it. Relationships are the key :)

• I'm thinking about taking a "sabbatical" of sorts. Just to take some time and really pray about our adoption(s), get ready for them, figure out what my next step is as far as job or no job, etc. I'm joining a new women's bible study that I am really looking forward to as well. It's turning out to be an entirely new season for me and I like it.

So- what's going on with you? Are you looking forward to the Olympics? Done any fun stuff with your friends or family lately? What's your favorite day of the week?

Gotta brag on our friends for a bit (pt 5)

I wanted to highlight another friend of ours. Meet Josh Shipp.

Josh and his wife moved to Oklahoma to work at Lifechurch.tv right about the time we were leaving for California (which is their home state). Then a few years later, we swapped back and returned to our "home" states. It was kind of funny how we only saw each other in transition. Unfortunately, we did not get to work with Josh and Sarah firsthand but were able to admire their work from afar.

Josh has been a successful motivational speaker for a long time and travels around the globe to speak to teens. He has recently released a DVD and CD . He also has a popular site called "Hey Josh" where people ask him questions and he responds. (Some are serious and some are just hilarious- most are hilarious actually:)

Josh will be appearing on Total Request Live (TRL) on MTV today at 3pm (eastern time). Please tune in and see him and Selma Blair answer questions about teen dating and other topics of interest.

Visit Josh's myspace or facebook to leave him a comment. Or, visit his websites www.JoshShipp.com or www.HeyJosh.tv

Again, I can not stress enough what a great communicator he is.....maybe you should even book him for an event!!

The Wedge

You thought I said Wedgie, didn't you? NO- I said Wedge! It's a pizza place we tried out today. We had several friends recommend it and so we went today.

First off, let me tell you that we went out to celebrate today for lunch. Today we turned in our paperwork for the adoption. As of this point, all we needed to do is complete so it's now in the hands of the State and we get to start the "matching" process. It's going to be an exciting season around here.

So, we went to "The Wedge". It was a unique atmosphere (which we loved). They gave the boys dough and let them make their own pizzas! Ethan made a dinosaur pizza and Merrick made a vampire one (although we are not sure where he heard about "vampires!").

Brandon and I tried one of their pizzas called the "Italian Stallion". They also had options to build your own pizza. The pizzas are literally right out of the oven because you can watch them make them right in front of your eyes. They don't deliver because they want you to get your pizza fresh and hot! We loved it and hope to go back soon! We recommend you stop by if you get the chance. It's located in OKC on Western Ave (just south of I-44).

Our waitress even let us sample their gelato (which was awesome!) We had the pistachio, chocolate and mocha. Save room for dessert when you go.

The service was great too! I'm telling you we just had a GREAT experience there:)

Falling behind and catching up

Hey friends....sorry we have not been posting much lately. Let me catch you up on what's been happening around here. We will be away from the computer for the next few days as well on a mission trip but will be back refreshed and ready on Monday!

• Today in about 2 hours, I am driving to the airport to pick up 3 of my online life group ladies and they are staying with me tonight and tomorrow.
  

• Tomorrow, I am dropping off the boys with my parents and B and I (and my life group ladies) are going on a micro-mission with our church. We are working on a boys home for kids with incarcerated parents. We will be doing some cleaning up, minor repairs, and just getting the place ready for summer. (I'm sure we will post all about that next week!) There are several other Internet Campus attenders coming to the mission as well.
  

• Then Sunday, we return for Lifestock which is an annual event at Lifechurch.tv. It is held at a local amusement park. We all wear Lifestock shirts and it's so fun to feel like Lifechurch.tv has invaded the place! In the evening, there is a concert and HUGE baptism. I remember just sitting and crying a couple of years ago while watching the baptisms. I am still in awe that we get to be a part of such a move of God!

• Monday, my online friends fly home and we get back to schedule :(
  

• Also- yesterday we had our 2nd home study meeting. Things are progressing more quickly than we had originally thought. There is a possibility that we will get to go to the July "DHS adoption party" where the kids awaiting adoption and the prospective adoptive parents get to meet and hang out in a casual setting. We are anxiously awaiting this adoption. Got a *little* nervous yesterday when I realized we have NO baby stuff and we might be getting a little one. I know God will provide for us! Be looking for us to have a shower this fall...hee hee. We are thinking this will occur before the end of the year! Our family could be growing in just a few short months! Please join us in prayer about this exciting and life-changing transition :) We will keep you posted for sure as you are on this journey with us!

THANK YOU so much for reading! It means so much that people out there care about us and that we have unique relationships with all of you:)

Friday follow-up #2

Whew- still lots going on here at the Donaldson house.....

• Had a date night last night and saw "Iron Man". ( It was Brandon's choice). We actually both really liked it! Robert Downey Jr. did an excellent job.
• We finish up our adoption classes tomorrow. Now we have to get ready for the home study. (which could happen as late as July). This week they are supposed to bring in a teen panel from the OK DHS program. We're looking forward to it.
• This weekend we have graduations, Mother's Day, and birthdays. Lot's of holidays :)
• Booked our flights and house in Seattle. Can't wait for this trip!!
• Looking forward to the Survivor Finale- Go Amanda!!
• Survived some scary tornado warnings last night. I don't remember having this many in a Spring season before. Hmmm....

What have you been up to? Weekend plans? How are you?

Friday follow-up

Hello Friends! Can you believe we are in the month of May? Our boys have their official last day of school on the 27th (couldn't they have just had us stop on Friday instead of one day after Memorial day??). We can't wait for SUMMER!

We just got the boys signed up for swim lessons. They have been looking forward to this for several months. Ethan actually was "waitlisted" so is it wrong to pray that some kid drops out? He's #2 on the list and needs the lessons more than Merrick who is taking the intermediate class!

Week 4 of adoption training. We are almost finished! We have enjoyed the classes immensely but do miss Saturdays with the family :) It's going to be quite a process (but not as extensive as International).

Someone gave us a TV yesterday! We were so giddy last night watching LOST! It's a much better quality TV than our previous one. It's amazing how much a difference 5 inches of screen makes :) We were thanking God for providing for us on even the stuff we want and not just the stuff we need. It is hard accepting things that people give to you though, isn't it?

We are starting to get college graduation announcements in the mail.....wish our "youth kids" didn't ever have to grow up!

God's been shaking us up a bit lately- yes we have big hearts and want to do so much for the glory of God, but are finding that even though we want to do things (but don't do them), it's not the same. The intention is great, but the action would be even better.Just realizing that we can't do it all and aren't supposed to.. Do you struggle with this at all? Wanting to do too much and then ending up not doing anything really? Most posts coming up on that! Still kind of processing through it...

Lots going on but we like it like that! So- what's been going on with you and your family lately? Any weekend plans? Any thoughts on the stuff I mentioned above?

THANKS FOR READING!!

Random

Hey friends! We will be continuing the "faces of the Internet campus" tomorrow. It's been a lot of fun getting to display some of the personalities of the IC :)

We went to adoption training yesterday. It took a toll on us this week. Lots of heavy issues were discussed on what these kids might have gone through and the losses they experience. Very heartbreaking. I'm sure there will be some blog posts about that at a later time.

Lot's of family stuff going on right now too (like my sister's wedding, a mission trip, etc). Basically stuff to look forward to.

I think B and I decided on Seattle for our getaway. We've never been there and are about to start mapping out places to go. We might even drive on up into Canada. We are super pumped about this trip!!

What's been going on in your lives? We enjoy "connecting" with all of you through our blog. This has been a great outlet for us to explore. Thanks for reading and commenting!!!

Adoption Update

Just got off the phone with our Oklahoma DHS worker. We are having our home assessment done next week and will begin the training sessions immediately. I'm so excited!!