Home Study Update

We received our home study to look over and approve! Final home study check for $942.74 sent out today. Praise God! Total spend to date for adoption costs is $3000 and God has provided every penny.

Wristband Update--- Pre-Order Special

Yay!! We got the shipping notice on our wristbands! It looks like they should be here this Thursday. You can read all about them here. And from now, til we get them we are offering a pre-order special. The normal price is going to be $5 each, but if you order now we'll do 2/$8.

The Picture of a Worm

Last night at church we reviewed a number of Messianic prophecies from the Old Testament. Most of what we discussed was review except for one thing I thought I would share that once again blows my mind. The final thing we reviewed was Psalm 22. I remember reading it for the first time and getting it years ago it was in my morning quiet time, and I remember freaking out and being accosting Dane with this new found information. Dane of course was already completely familiar with it, so he was quite as excited as me. It's actually a funny memory for me because when we first started walking with the Lord I felt very superior to Dane as I had went to church as a kid. I would actually *blush* tell him that I knew more than him. I know... and  this was one of the first times that I started to get, you may have thought you did, but he has such a hunger for God's Word that he's quickly ate it all up. But I digress.... back to Psalm 22.

Psalm 22 is one of those things I look at and marvel. I mean it was written almost 1000 years before Christ. Psalms was among one of the Biblical books found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. If you are unfamiliar with the Dead Sea Scrolls... check them out. Here is a little blip before we go on:

The prevalent view among scholars, almost universally held until the 1990s, is the "Qumran-Essene" hypothesis originally posited by Roland Guérin de Vaux^[31] and Józef Tadeusz Milik,^[32] though independently both Eliezer Sukenik and Butrus Sowmy of St Mark's Monastery connected scrolls with the Essenes well before any excavations at Qumran.^[33] The Qumran-Essene theory holds that the scrolls were written by the Essenes, or perhaps by another Jewish sectarian group, residing at Khirbet Qumran. They composed the scrolls and ultimately hid them in the nearby caves during theJewish Revolt sometime between 66 and 68 CE. The site of Qumran was destroyed and the scrolls were never recovered by those that placed them there. A number of arguments are used to support this theory.

• There are striking similarities between the description of an initiation ceremony of new members in the Community Rule and descriptions of the Essene initiation ceremony mentioned in the works of Flavius Josephus—a Jewish-Roman historian of the Second Temple Period.
• Josephus mentions the Essenes as sharing property among the members of the community, as does the Community Rule.
• During the excavation of Khirbet Qumran, two inkwells and plastered elements thought to be tables were found, offering evidence that some form of writing was done there. More inkwells were discovered in nearby loci. De Vaux called this area the "scriptorium" based upon this discovery.
• Several Jewish ritual baths (Hebrew: miqvah = מקוה) were discovered at Qumran, which offers evidence of an observant Jewish presence at the site.
• Pliny the Elder (a geographer writing after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE) describes a group of Essenes living in a desert community on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea near the ruined town of'Ein Gedi.

The Qumran-Essene theory has been the dominant theory since its initial proposal by Roland de Vaux and J.T. Milik. Recently, however, several other scholars have proposed alternative origins of the scrolls. (from Wikipedia)

The importance of the DSS is that they prove that the Bible was written thousands of years ago. The place the writing of the Old Testaments as being before 66-68 CE(AD). The big deal here? Jesus (who we have historical proof of being a public figure circa 30-33AD) quoted the Old Testament, including Psalms. So to make that all make sense: The book of Psalms was written prior to Jesus Christ's death. Got it? OK... so moving on. 

Psalm 22:

 ¹My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

 ²O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.

 ³But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

 ⁴Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.

 ⁵They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.

 ⁶But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

 ⁷All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,

 ⁸He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

 ⁹But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.

 ¹⁰I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.

 ¹¹Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.

 ¹²Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.

 ¹³They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.

 ¹⁴I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

 ¹⁵My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

 ¹⁶For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

 ¹⁷I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.

 ¹⁸They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.

If you take the opportunity to read that and know the account of Jesus Christ's crucifiction you'll be blown away by the description of EXACTLY what Christ suffered:

• My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? -- Jesus cried out this very words on the cross (Matt. 27:46)
• All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. (The soldier mocking Jesus (Matt. 27:29, the people passing by telling him to save himself in Matt. 27:39)
• all my bones are out of joint- the very "art" of crucifiction caused the arm bones of the victim to become disjointed. They've actually found the the arm length of each arm would grow by 8". 
• my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. Jesus did not die from bloodshed, he died from an imploded heart. His heart literally burst. 
• My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. Once again an effect of crucifiction. Because of the strain on the body, and of course the added blood loss from having been scourged, the body would quickly lose hydration. 
• They pierced my hands and my feet. Not much to add to that one. 
• They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. Matt. 27:35 clearly states the Roman soldiers did this very thing. 

The biggest statement in Psalm 22 that was new to me last night was this one though. In verse 6 it says "but I am a worm." I've always taken that to the disregard to Jesus Christ. The failure to recognize exactly Who He was (and is.) But rather the word worm is actually the greek word "towla". The Towla/Tola Worm is actually a specific worm also known as the Crimson Worm. You can find tons of information on this worm, but here it is in a nutshell. The female tola when it reproduces, climbs to a branch of a tree, and permanently attaches itself there and bears its eggs on it. When the eggs hatch and become larvae, they eat the body of the mother worm. The worm dies in the process, and a crimson spot is left in the branch of the tree. Notice any correlation to Christ? The best part: after 3 days the crimson spot dries out and turns to a snow white color that falls off and flakes away. This just gave me goosebumps. Like our pastor said it's as if God created this unique worm just to point so that he could point to it as proof of Christ. Amazing. The beautiful picture of the crimson red stain (that they would actually use as dye) turning white as snow, is like our sin, red as scarlet but turned white and flaked away because of the blood of Christ. 

If you're reading this, and in your heart you don't know what to make of Jesus, I pray that you look into prophecy. Look at the Bible, the history, the facts. We don't have to go on blind faith, we can research and see the proof that everything within the Bible is absolutely true-- absolute truth. If you are unsure, I'd love to share with you. Brothers and sisters, be encouraged today, know the incredible sacrifice that our King made for each of us, and the peace and redemption we have in Him. I am challenged by remembering His sacrifice. I hate that I can so easily get caught up in my own life and somehow find myself with my eyes off of Him. 

Thank you God for becoming a Man and dying for me. Thank you for the gift of Your Son. Your Holy, sinless Son. Thank you for loving me enough to do all of this when I was still in my sin and rebellion. Lord may Your name be glorified. Fill the hearts of those I love. I pray that their eyes may be opened and that they may see You and the beauty of your salvation. 

Baby Duds

A number of you have asked about if we have a registry. I am going to stick a link somewhere on the sidebar, but for now you can view it at Amazon or you can view our cloth diaper registry at Kelly's Closet (you'll need to enter the password "adopt" to see it.) 

Also, my dream diaper bag would have to be a Petunia Pickle Bottom (how fun is that to say?!) Boxy Backpack. The cost is what truly puts it into dream status. So like any frugal desperate conscientious mom I google "win Petunia Picklebottom backpack." And it brought me to Mama B's Blog. I've entered every possible way (including blogging about it now!) Wish me luck, and for goodness sake's if you know some incredible place to get these babies at more reasonable price, please share (and yes I've checked EBay.) 

Unto One Wristbands

Our wristband will say "Unto One" on the front and the backside says "Matthew 25:40" 

In Matthew 25:40 Jesus said:

Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done [it] unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done [it] unto me.

We love that Jesus made it simple. Even if we do it UNTO ONE we have done it to Him. There are so many hurting people in the world, for us we have chosen adoption as well as sponsoring a child through Compassion International.

To help with our adoption costs and to as a reminder of our commission to go love and serve one another we have had wristbands made up. These are like the Live Strong wristbands, however ours are white, and say Unto One on the front and Matthew 25:40 on back. We are asking $5 for one, or 2 for $8. We will gladly ship these also!

Our hope is that these will be a conversation piece for you to share our journey, as well as the things that are close to your heart that the Lord has called you to do to serve the "least of these."

Wristbands will be available May 9th, however we are accepting pre-orders now. For payment information email us at daneandjessharvey@gmail.com or leave a comment.

Our Home Study, Part 2

Praise God! Just wanted to update everyone on where we are. The beginning of the week we mailed in our formal application and a check for $1095 to AAI. I was able to email with our caseworker yesterday and get some "homework" to get started on. The past couple of weeks I've also been working on creating our profile that gets submitted to birth parents -talk about difficult. There's such a temptation to think that the words and pictures you craft have to be perfect. I've come to the truth though that regardless of what is in that four page portfolio God knows who are child is. It truly takes the pressure off... mostly.

Probably the most exciting hurdle was removed about 45 minutes ago though. We had our final home study meeting this morning at our home. We knew the first meeting had gone well, but still I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous.  We were told once again we were all set, and here's the best part.... we should have our report by the end of the month! We went into this adoption being most nervous about the home study process, but we have been so blessed to work with an incredible sister in Christ from St. Andre's in Biddeford. If you need a home study done Nancy is one of a kind and such an encouragement and blessing to work with.

So that's where we're at. It feels like we're moving along quickly and the Lord just keeps opening doors. Next up is getting everything together for AAI, and our profile finished. We are praying that by this time next month everything will be submitted and the true wait will begin.

For now we have a couple of prayer requests for you to consider:

• Pray for the Lord's guidance in this entire process.
• Pray for our baby's mother, for her pregnancy, her health, her emotions, and most importantly her walk with the Lord.
• We will be having a fundraising yard sale on May 14th. Please pray for donated items to sell, for good weather, and that the whole day would be blessed.
• Finances.... the Lord has provided and we know He will continue to. 
• Timing... we our told in Hebrews 4:16: "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." So in boldness (and honestly, with timidity) we are praying that God would do the impossible and that we would adopt before the end of June. As it stands right now to receive the Adoption Tax Credit we need to have our adoption finalized by the end of 2011. It takes six months for an adoption to be finalized, so with that in mind to guarantee that we would be eligible for the credit we need to adopt by the end of June. If this isn't the Lord's will, we pray that the ATC would be renewed for 2012. 
• Pray for focus for me. It's going to be a busy few months with the adoption and the graduation of our daughter (YAY KAHLI!). Pray that I would keep my focus on the Lord and serving Him, and waiting on Him. That I wouldn't become overwhelmed or stressed out trying to do things in my own strength.

Home Study Weekend (Pt. 1)

This past weekend we had the first part of our home study in Portland. We decided to make a weekend of it, rather than driving 8 hours in one day. It was such a great weekend, full of memories, laughs, and hopes. We had a weather scare, but God was good and the storm came a bit earlier than expected and the roads were mostly clear when we headed out at 5:30 Saturday morning.

The home study interview went wonderful. Our case worker is an incredible woman who I can totally see having a friendship with. It was nice that our whole family went down as she was able to meet our children and see us as a family. We were assured that we did great, and she actually said that she saw no reason why our family wouldn't be wonderful for another child. After home study we went visited the mall, David's Bridal (on the hunt for Kahl's prom dress.. no go), and Cabela's (can you guess who that was for?). That evening we dined at Old Country Buffet. Can I tell you if you are near one, or headed down near one you NEED to sign up for their e-values newsletter. We scored two BOGOfree coupons. The prices are reasonable for all you get normally, but incredible when you're paying for only two people! My goal was to get some pictures of our family for our profile, however I stink at staging photos. Probably because anytime my family knows I'm taking pictures the weird faces begin. I did get a couple of good ones, however whether they will make it into the profile I'm not sure, but I love the fun they capture.

After OCB we did something the kids have always wanted to do... CHUCK E. CHEESE! I'd thought about it but figured in all honesty they might be too old. No way... they absolutely wanted to go. Let me tell you, we had a ball! Once again, I kinda dropped the ball on the photo ops... but here are a few for you to check out. 

Skee Ball! 

Like father like son! 

After Chuck E's and a day of shopping that I really wasn't a huge fan of my only request was a visit to Babies R' Us. How fun to soak up all the cuteness! We finished up our weekend by attending Calvary Chapel Southern Maine. The pastor and his wife moved the same time we moved to Downeast Maine and it was neat to see the work the Lord is doing through them. The worship service was longer than what we were used to but we loved the extra time to spend in the presence of the Lord. One of the songs that we sang blessed me heart so much. I heard it about a month ago and liked it, but really hadn't listened to the words too much. This time though they spoke to my heart so much. I'll leave you with them, but before that just a quick update on our adoption journey. We have begun working on our profile, but the next step is finishing our home study w/ a visit to our home in about two weeks. After we receive the completed report we can move on with getting our profile to AAI. Then the waiting begins/continues. We are planning a yard sale for mid-May and looking for donations. Also, we are praying about beginning fund raising by selling shirts through Simply Love. Lastly, we have begun putting things together to apply for adoption grants, however we have to wait for our completed HS to send them out. So, lots of things we would covet your prayers on.

So, as I promised here are the lyrics to Chris Tomlin's I Will Follow. I hope they bless you as much as they do me.

Where you go, I'll go
Where you stay, I'll stay
When you move, I'll move
I will follow...

All your ways are good
All your ways are sure
I will trust in you alone
Higher than my sight
High above my life
I will trust in you alone

Where you go, I'll go
Where you stay, I'll stay
When you move, I'll move
I will follow you
Who you love, I'll love
How you serve I'll serve
If this life I lose, I will follow you
I will follow you

Light unto the world
Light unto my life
I will live for you alone
You're the one I seek
Knowing I will find
All I need in you alone, in you alone

In you there's life everlasting
In you there's freedom for my soul
In you there joy, unending joy
and I will follow