You know, like The Boy Who Cried Wolf?

That’s what I feel like! …Except for the fact that I am not actually lying about our girls, it just feels like I’m talking about something that doesn’t exist because this is turning into such a long, communication-starved journey.

The good thing is, my sweet supervisor at our agency put in several calls to some “more important people with a little more pull” toward the end of last week. SOOooo, hopefully, hopefully, HOPEFULLY we’re hear something of some sort SOMETIME this week. :)

Last week was a whirlwind of pool mornings and late VBS evenings. I started to not feel so well on Thursday of last week and by Friday night I was miserable with a sore throat and a fever half way through the night. Josh had the terrible sore throat as well and my mom called me Saturday morning to inform me that she had tested positive for strep. So, being sick and tired, I sent Josh to the clinic Saturday morning, hoping if he tested positive for strep, they’d give ME a prescription for antibiotics as well since we share germs quite often….you know, being husband and wife and all. :) I was right. He tested positive and the doc gave us both prescriptions for FREE antibiotics; thank you, Lord, for that program!

My amazing in-laws kept the boys all weekend for us so we could lay around, take our medicine, watch movies, and eat an entire box of popsicles…..undisturbed. I’m serious, I’ve never had strep that bad before. On Saturday, I felt worse than when I had the flu…..it was more like the worst case of the flu on top of the worst sore throat I’d ever had in my life. Anyways, enough whining, I’m all better now.

Last night, after the VBS Family Night Cookout at church, we all piled in our bed and the boys suddenly were all enthralled with Little Women, you know, my favorite movie in the whole world?!? I can’t believe it! Three little boys begging me to remember at what “chapter” we stopped the movie for bedtime prayers, so we could pick back up tomorrow at the same spot.

Yes boys, I’ll remember. We turned it off right when Jo refused Teddy’s proposal and they’re both in the woods by the old fence….I’ll remember.

Joshua even said, Momma, do we have the next one? Meaning, do we have the sequel, I guess? When I told him “No, there is no sequel.” His response was perfect,
What?! How will we know what else happens later in their lives??

Believe me, Joshua, I feel the same way!! I’m hoping their love for the movie will make them want me to read them the book, which surely has many more details about their lives, as books always do.

We just finished lunch and the boys are piled into my bed again, so I’d better go start the movie.

Happy Monday!

~audrey

Cucumber and squash learning to grow “up” together. :)

The first green pepper.

With the promise of more to come!

Look at this chubby cucumber! Can you see another one growing in the background?

Learning to climb up the trellis as to keep the ground insects away.

The first squash of my entire life. Last year’s squash crop was a complete failure!

The flowers on the squash plants are gorgeous.

The first signs of okra!

Green Bean Forest is looking full and promising. Do you see all of those baby beans in there? I’ve already picked over a dozen. I’m clipping the ends, washing, and freezing them, until I have enough to serve the family.

This has definitely been the best year yet for the Wilkerson’s Garden. :) I’m really enjoying it.

Happy Wednesday!
…day three of VBS. It’s been a great week so far!

~audrey

This was the title of the message Sunday morning at my church:

God’s Waiting Room

I want to give you some of my notes from the sermon because I feel like it applies to all of us at some point in our lives. Aren’t we almost always looking for that next promise to come to fruition? I hope you get as much out of it as I did:

…Has God ever promised you something that hasn’t come to pass yet? What has the time of “waiting” done to you?

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (Galatians 4:4-5, ESV)

The phrase “the fullness of time” was defined for us: Fullness means the filling up of something that is empty until it is full. Time is a limited period or interval, as between two successive events.

Christ’s birth was a surprise to everyone. God had been preparing and prophesying of His coming since the old testament, but no one knew exactly when it would be.  Everyone had been LOOKING for the Messiah, but when He finally came, it was a surprise!

In God’s waiting room, there are vital things that need to be learned and cannot be learned any other way then by waiting.  In Jesus’ case, what needed to be learned was the enormity of sin and the hopelessness of eternity without a savior.

There was a sin (Adam and Eve) and there was a promise made by God, to bring a savior, and then there was a long, LONG wait.  The waiting period is essential to learning things we don’t know that we don’t know!   :)

So what is it you are waiting for?  Has God promised you a baby? A new home? A husband? A job? Salvation for a friend or family member for which you’ve been praying, for what seems like decades?

What are you suppose to be doing in God’s waiting room?

1. Learn all that you can.  The lessons are a whole lot more that just patience.  If you’ve learned nothing in the waiting, except to be patient and wait, then you’ve likely prolonged the waiting.

2. Obey everything you already know to do. Don’t be surprised by an agonizingly long wait if you aren’t doing what you’ve already been told and taught to do.  Hasn’t anyone every told you, when God tests you, if you fail, you don’t move on to the next thing.  You keep taking that same test over and over and over until you finally get it!  Are you still disobeying God in the area for which you’ve been praying?  Are you still making those same financial choices and expecting God to somehow work a miracle now?  Obedience is greater than sacrifice.

3. Remind God (and yourself) of His promises, but resist the urge to hypothesize about the path to achieving them.  This step is to build your faith.  Remind yourself, in your prayer time, of the promises God has made to you.  If God wanted you to know anything beyond the very next step, He would have told you!  His mercies are new every morning!

4. Grow up.  Immaturity is why an heir is not given their inheritance.  The Father waits until his child is mature enough to handle the full responsibility of his inheritance before he allows them to receive it.  We judge time based on our watch or calendar, when often times God judges time based on our maturity.

5. Enjoy the journey.  God’s waiting room is not intended to be punishment.  The mercies of God are new every day.  The journey can be just as enjoyable as the destination!  If you live expecting to only get fulfillment from the mountain tops, then you’ll miss great joy and blessing in the valleys.

6. Don’t tap out or quit.  When Jacob wrestled with God, he never gave up or “tapped out”.  God is not trying to break you.  Rather, He wants to mold you, train you, and teach you.  It was all about a blessing.  Jacob ultimately received God’s blessing because he refused to quit.  And the Lord changed his name from Jacob to Israel, which means Prince of God.

Joshua 21:45 says, “Not one of the good promises which the Lord made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass.”

What are you doing in the waiting room?

~audrey

No. I am not pregnant. Haha…that would NOT be funny.

However, a friend reminded me the other day that adoption, especially the route we’re taking, is an awful lot like pregnancy. A somewhat slow process in which you find out fun and exciting tidbits of information a little bit at a time. For some reason that made me feel so much better about our waiting process. I’ve been so frustrated that DFCS still hasn’t called my supervisor back yet, but I’m hoping it’s just because they’re passing our home study along to all the right people and waiting until they have some great news or are ready to move the girls.

Just knowing their sweet names is enough to keep me going for at least another few weeks I suppose.

In the mean time, I’ve learned how to make hair bows and I’ve been having a blast! I’m going to order a few different types of clips and plan to start selling them to raise money that we’ll need to offset the added expense of adopting two children. Here are a few pictures of what I’ve made so far:

~audrey