Beth Moore Class - Songs

Psalm 40:3

He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.

Tonight was our first "real" Beth Moore Stepping Up class. I started and then had to leave for two weeks so the class graciously agreed to wait on my return to continue. We are studying the Psalms of Ascent that the Jews sang as they returned to Jerusalem (which we learned this week means City of Peace). We are attempting to grow closer to God by taking the steps up that the Jews took when they arrived at the temple. The steps are a metaphor for our desire to become closer to God through this study -- thus Stepping Up.

Tonight Beth Moore said something profound to me in her video portion of the class. She said that she thinks that songs and singing are the way our soul communicates and praises God. Hmmmm.... She listed many Bible references (too numerous to cover here, and, after all, there is a class for that *smile*) but I didn't realize the amazing "coincidence" (no, I don't believe in them) that on the day we had such a good day with the funding for the adoption, I made a list of verses praising God (scroll down to see it). In THREE of the verses I chose, there is the word sing or song in relation to praising God.

It's only week one and I'm really enjoying this class already. One of the things I really thought I would not enjoy is re-writing the Psalm in my own words and with my own experiences. Turns out, that after "Say It" "Work it" and "Pray it" (her formula for studying the Psalms), I am really excited about putting my thoughts into words. How awesome is that?

If you ever have the chance to take the class at your church, try to fit it into your schedule. It's going to be a quick class (only 7 weeks) and it is already an amazing study.

On another note, Kevin has had a really rough time trying to get home today. He was due in at 3:40 and is still not home (currently 9:45). The bad part is that I took him to the airport and will need to go pick him up. He was flying home from St. Louis via Chicago (yes, I know, it's like going from Kentucky to Tennessee via California) and Chicago was snowed in. Finally, after much trouble, he changed to a flight from St. Louis to Kansas City to Nashville. Upon arrival in Kansas City, the kiosk wouldn't print his ticket because he had flown a different flight so he had to go to ticketing. There was a long line and he missed his regularly scheduled flight. He is now due in at 10:45. I've put Joshua to sleep on the couch until 10:00 when I will go out and heat up the car (gosh, it got COLD here quickly today), wake him up enough to get him to the car where he can lay back down and go to sleep. I normally never take him to the airport, but his truck is getting tires put on while he is away, so it was a necessity. Hopefully, this flight will bring him home.

I am so thankful that last night's storms have moved on -- they were, all in all, pretty mild for us compared to the folks in Fairview and in Macon and Trousdale counties here where tornadoes wiped out entire streets of homes and caught a gas line on fire. It was a scary night that saw Josh and I take cover in the closet at one point. The dog apparently thought we had lost our minds. Imagine what he must have been thinking as he rounded the corner and saw our feet poking out of the closet! In addition, I have the LAPTOP of all things in there with us watching Channel 4's livecast so I can tell when it might be safe to come out. He poked his head in, pushed his nose on my leg several times, tried to get IN the closet (ok, he's 104 pounds and this is a coat closet for goodness sakes). The closet is FULL with just Josh and I. Finally, he gave up, literally gave a sigh and just laid down beside our poking out feet. Later in the evening, when the storms had calmed a bit, we slept on the couch and when another smaller round came through, he came over and nudged me a couple of times again before I talked him into laying down on the floor beside the couch. I'm not sure if he was scared or if he thought we needed to get back in the closet. Animals!

There is no real exciting adoption news to report today. I did talk with our SW at "first agency" today. She indicates that one of the "higher-ups" is concerned about the relationship between Adoption Options and Frank Foundation and whether they will effectively be working with two additional agencies. I tried (as I suspect did the director of AO) to explain about the partnership between those two agencies and she was fine with it. However, she has to still meet with the agency director who will have to talk with Mr. Higher Up who will give final approval. I'm going to go ahead and let God handle that too. I don't have time to deal with that this week. :-) She is also going to send off our I-600A forms when the homestudy update is done. I asked about current wait times for USCIS in Memphis (where these are processed) and she indicated that after fingerprinting, it could be two months, but that another family had reported that the USCIS officer they spoke with indicated they were only two weeks behind, so she thinks it could be sooner. I do need to check with AO to see if we will need to have our I171H before we travel for the first trip or not.

As my friend Iris said, "You moved along at such a snail's pace before and now it seems like you are on a train." I'm hoping the train just keeps on moving!