Sleepless Blessings

This post is especially for all the moms I know! I hope it brings a smile to your face and a new way of thinking about all the hours of sleep you lose when you become a mom.

Becoming a mom is one of the most wonderful experiences in life but it also comes with it's share of frustrations. I have never had a lot of patience so I think the Lord blessed me with a child so I could work on that! One of the hardest things when you first become a mom is the lack of sleep you get. While your pregnant people tell you things like "You'll never sleep again!" and "You better rest now!" but I don't think you really understand just how tired you will be until it happens. We've all had those days when it gets to be 8:00 p.m. and you can't remembered if you showered today, or if you ate lunch. Sometimes I even had to remind myself to go to the restroom at least once throughout the day! The other thing that suffered in my life was my spiritual walk because I never found time to read my bible or pray. I only have one child so I can't image what it's like with two or three. So bless all you moms with multiple children, I will probably be asking you someday how on earth you do it! But there is something the Lord showed me about those busy days and sleepless nights.

The first few weeks when we brought Gracie Lynn home from the hospital I quickly realized I never knew the meaning of exhuasted until now. Being awake every two hours or less sometimes was completely draining, but then you add to that a baby that's not only hungry but is screaming and you have no clue what to do. I tried to be as patient as possible but running on so little sleep can turn normally nice, kind mommies into grumpy, mean mommies fast. So when all else fails you walk around the house rocking her back to sleep. I remember the first few times I did this in the middle of the night the whole time I was thinking "come on, come one, go to sleep already, I am so tired, please Gracie go to sleep." Then the next few nights I got smarter and instead of asking Gracie if she would go back to sleep, I started asking, "Lord, please let her go back to sleep, you know I need my sleep!" But then one night it was like God said, "Since you're up, why don't you spend time with me." So that night I began praying to God and bringing everything in my heart to Him. It was amazing how over the next few days I began finding time to read my bible and journal. So then I began looking forward to being awakened in the middle of the night by my daughter. I even find myself missing those nights as she started sleeping through the night. But every now and then she still wakes up for what reason I don't know but I like to think it's because my Father wants to spend a little time with me, and I welcome the invitation. So I hope you welcome those sleepless moments in your life as a mom, and just think of them as personal invitaions from the Father wanting to spend some time with you!


P.S. While you're praying you can pray for us today, as we talk with our case manager for our adoption for the first time today. We will be discussing all the paperwork and asking all our questions and finding out what our next step is. Thank you for your prayers!

Remember, do not ever think that prayer is not enough. Prayer is more powerful than our human minds can understand because it is in prayer that the presence and power of God himself is unleashed! So pray without ceasing! Be blessed today!

Here are some pictures to show you what's been going on at the Wilson Household.

We were so excited to be mailing off our application for our adoption!

On Saturday we went to Harvest Praise at Christian Way Farms and although it was cold it was a fun fall day!

Gracie thought she was pretty big stuff.

And she loved the pumkins!

The Beginning of Our Journey

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." ~ John 14:18



Over the past several months God has been stirring my heart for adoption. I had always thought some day in my life I would adopt a child but it was never more than a thought. Then one day I was reading a friend's blog and she had posted her sister's "Gochta Day" of her little girl she adopted from Ethiopia. As I read the post and looked at all the pictures I found myself sobbing by the end. Later that day I shared the blog post with my husband, Heath, and he said that he would love to adopt someday too. So that night I remember praying that wherever our child may be that God would tuck them in that night. We thought that was the end.



Then over the next few weeks I found out the same friend that wrote the blog was starting a non-profit organization called Ordinary Hero. She herself had adopted a waiting child a year ago and while she was back in Ethopia she met several of the other waiting children at the orphange and came home to advocate for them. She had told me that she would soon be posting pictures and descriptions of several of the waiting children. As I waited over the next few days for her post I was praying about what God was stirring in my heart. Heath and I talked alot about adoption and we both loved the idea of adopting an older child! Then one day Heath woke up and told me he had a dream the night before that we had adopted two children! I said I don't know about two but what else happened in your dream. He said they were sibling brothers. We laughed about it and didn't really think anything of it until the next day. When we got home from church I was checking my friend's blog before lunch and I will never forget the feeling and the way my heart jumped when my eyes fell on the sweetest picture I had ever seen.

I started crying as I montioned for Heath to come look at the screen and a big smile came to his face as he read the words about these two precious brothers. So we prayed about it again over the next few days and decided to inquire about these two brothers. We are sad to say that we did not fit the age requirements to adopt these two children but I found out just today that they are being adopted!!! Praise the Lord! So after being told we couldn't adopt these boys we thought God was telling us that we were not supposed to adopt at this time. However, in my quiet times with the Lord He continued saying:

"In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves." ~ Ephesians 1:5-6

"Enlarge the place of your tent,stretch your tent curtains wide,do not hold back;lengthen your cords,strengthen your stakes. ~Isaiah 54:2

Not to mention it seemed liked everyone I talked to over the past few months had adopted or was adopting and it always seemed to come up in my conversations. So I continued telling Heath that I thought we were still supposed to adopt, but he said God hadn't told him that yet. So I just kept praying and looking at different adoption agencies so that when God told him we were supposed to adopt we'd be ready. So one day as we were playing with our daughter Gracie, He looked at me and said I'm ready for another baby and I think God wants us to adopt! I was so excited! Over the next few days we filled out the paperwork and talked about the details but we never mailed it......until last Monday! We finally felt like God had told us enough times and it was time for us to take that leap of faith. So I'm excited to say we sent the application and we were accepted into the Ethiopia Program with All God's Children International on Thursday!!! So now we are started all the paperwork for the adoption process, hoping to bring home our son sometime soon!

Please join us in prayer over the whole process as we trust God to work out all the details of this journery. I hope you will follow our blog to keep up with what's going on and to pray for us! Hope you all have a blessed day!

Let Me Introduce Our Family

I have been a Wilson for the past two and a half years and it has been one adventure after another. As I look back over the past few years and how God orchestrated even the smallest details in my life to bring me to where I am today I am amazed. So let me try my best to share my life and family with you.

My husband, Heath, and I met on a mission trip in Reynosa, Mexico almost five years ago. No it was not love at first sight but a few days later when I saw his heart for the first time, I knew if he wasn't the man God had for me then it was someone exactly like him. He was the first man besides my dad that prayed for me and to this day I can still hear those words he said that day. However, it didn't seem possible for us to be together because I lived in Iowa and he lived in Kentucky. Little did I know that God had some big plans for our lives. (I know it's hard to wait on the Lord sometimes, but I understand why. If God would have told me everything He was about to do in my life at that moment I probably would have said, "No way! Find someone else.") Six months later my bags were packed and I moved south. I finished college at Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN. Heath and I were married May 26, 2007 and have been living in Gracey, KY ever since.

Almost a year after we were married God surprised us again when we found out we were expecting our first child. Gracie Lynn Wilson was born December 2, 2008. She has brought so much joy to our family with her precious smile, contagious laugh, and beautiful blue eyes that pierce your heart. Here are some pictures of our baby girl.

I can't forget the other two members of our family. Our great danes, Bama & Sadie. Bama is 4 1/2 years old and Sadie is almost 2. Bama was in our family even before Heath and I were married. He is such a lovable dog until you put out food and then you better watch your hands. Sadie was my Christmas present two years ago and she is full of energy. They are the best of friends and do not like to go anywhere without the other. The truly live out their nicknames "Gentle Giants."