2006 - Our Family Miracles
I guess I'm in alot of company when I think of 'miracles', I think of turning water to wine, feeding 5,000 with a couple of fish and some bread, bringing sight and hearing to the blind and deaf or even raising the dead to life. The more we look back on 2006, the more we see how God did some wonderful miracles in our lives.
First off was our understanding of the miracles of adoption. Jada is part of our family, she's our daughter. Even though common thought would think she was added in an unconventional way, we learned that adoption was God's "Plan A." We see Jada as the perfect fit for our family. We think about all the miracles that brought her to our family. Her parents choosing to carefully place her in the orphanage system in China. We know they had other options, but God had a plan. All the little things that came together in God's perfect timing was awesome to be a part of. We're still learning about things we didn't know about.
We've seen Jada play a small part in bringing the lost to Christ. Healing Place Church asked us to share our story for Adoption Awareness month in November and for the HPC Christmas television special. The weekend Pastor Dino shared our story (11/26) there were dozens of individuals who publically accepted Jesus Christ as Savior! Not because of me, Brandi or Jada, but because of seeing how much God loves us and how much God wants us to be adopted into His family and to recieve His plan of salvation through Jesus Christ.
We also experienced a miraculous turnaround in our finances. I want to make sure it is understood that this is not bragging or boasting. We could not have made this turnaround without some great biblical information about personal finance. The numbers still don't add up. But, we've learned that God is way smarter than us and His plan for good stewardship works. We started the process with over $30,000 in debt with credit cards, 2 car loans and a student loan. We also was looking at an adoption that would cost over $23,000. We started in June of 2005 by learning the proper way to create and excecute a budget. We also learned where our bad spending habits were and how to SACRIFICE. We learned how to create short term and long term goals. Most importantly, we learned how to communicate these plans and work together as husband and wife to accomplish them. After a little application of all that we learned we became DEBT FREE except the mortgage on April 18, 2006. Even better is we had the cash in savings to cover the adoption. Even though God did drop some miraculous gifts in our laps, for the most part the only thing He did was give us opportunities. He just opened some doors for us, but we had to decide to walk through them.
We can't think of one area in our lives that this adoption hasn't been impacted. Being new parents, we've had some other issues exposed and magnified. But, its really OK. We know if God brought us out of 6 years of struggles, He'll get us out of anything. He is faithful.
The Lamberts believe in miracles. We had a blessed 2006 and we believe 2007 will be even better. We're looking forward to it. We just encourage everyone to think about your 2006. We're sure if you look hard enough, you'll find some miracles too.
Happy New Years & God Bless
Jada, Brandi & Gered
First off was our understanding of the miracles of adoption. Jada is part of our family, she's our daughter. Even though common thought would think she was added in an unconventional way, we learned that adoption was God's "Plan A." We see Jada as the perfect fit for our family. We think about all the miracles that brought her to our family. Her parents choosing to carefully place her in the orphanage system in China. We know they had other options, but God had a plan. All the little things that came together in God's perfect timing was awesome to be a part of. We're still learning about things we didn't know about.
We've seen Jada play a small part in bringing the lost to Christ. Healing Place Church asked us to share our story for Adoption Awareness month in November and for the HPC Christmas television special. The weekend Pastor Dino shared our story (11/26) there were dozens of individuals who publically accepted Jesus Christ as Savior! Not because of me, Brandi or Jada, but because of seeing how much God loves us and how much God wants us to be adopted into His family and to recieve His plan of salvation through Jesus Christ.
We also experienced a miraculous turnaround in our finances. I want to make sure it is understood that this is not bragging or boasting. We could not have made this turnaround without some great biblical information about personal finance. The numbers still don't add up. But, we've learned that God is way smarter than us and His plan for good stewardship works. We started the process with over $30,000 in debt with credit cards, 2 car loans and a student loan. We also was looking at an adoption that would cost over $23,000. We started in June of 2005 by learning the proper way to create and excecute a budget. We also learned where our bad spending habits were and how to SACRIFICE. We learned how to create short term and long term goals. Most importantly, we learned how to communicate these plans and work together as husband and wife to accomplish them. After a little application of all that we learned we became DEBT FREE except the mortgage on April 18, 2006. Even better is we had the cash in savings to cover the adoption. Even though God did drop some miraculous gifts in our laps, for the most part the only thing He did was give us opportunities. He just opened some doors for us, but we had to decide to walk through them.
We can't think of one area in our lives that this adoption hasn't been impacted. Being new parents, we've had some other issues exposed and magnified. But, its really OK. We know if God brought us out of 6 years of struggles, He'll get us out of anything. He is faithful.
The Lamberts believe in miracles. We had a blessed 2006 and we believe 2007 will be even better. We're looking forward to it. We just encourage everyone to think about your 2006. We're sure if you look hard enough, you'll find some miracles too.
Happy New Years & God Bless
Jada, Brandi & Gered
posted by Gered Lambert @ 5:21 PM
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