Following in Paul's Footsteps

We were astounded this morning to see that in one day over 400 people had visited our blog. Then we learned that our story has spread further thanks to our friends Ed and Cindy Potts.
We received an encouraging message from our advocate Charles Spry of Senator Isakson's office. He reported that the fingerprints have indeed been sent over the computer to the FBI for approval! Thank you friends in Texas for uploading these for us! As of Monday the FBI's approval had not reached the USCIS in Atlanta, but he feels it should come soon! Thank you for your continued prayers and faith!
My mom sent me this cartoon entitled "Knock Knock" which really touched me. Thanks to Angela for posting it for us. I hope you all enjoy it, too.
This morning I was reading in Philippians. I love and admire Paul! He truly followed Christ. There was nothing religious about him. He had experienced Jesus and had a major conversion and then endured everything for the sake of Christ. What I found fascinating today was Paul's ability to give thanks for where he was and hold the vision of God's deliverance at the same time. He was in chains under house arrest yet he could see God's hand at work. "I want you to know, brothers, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel." (Phil. 1:12) At the same time, he believed in God's deliverance. "For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ." He added, "I trust in the Lord that I myself shall also come (to you) shortly (2:24) and "your rejoicing in me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again. (1:26)"
To add to this, please read the lovely comment by Ed which gives further commentary on Philippians.
Nadeem and I have prayed fervently for all of you reading our blog. Before we ever started on this journey, we prayed that God would use our story to draw people to Him and to know Him better. We prayed that He would be glorified. At that time, we knew that our story was a miracle. We should never have been able to adopt Kalina. We thought that was the whole story. We would be gone for three weeks (I prayed for less time away), and we would return to share how God had blessed us with a daughter. God had a very different plan in mind. As we hear how our story is spreading, we believe that God is using it to further the gospel.
In Paul's letters, he always tells how he's praying for his people. I want to share our hearts and prayers for you. Nadeem and I pray that our story impacts you greatly. We pray that our story is not merely entertainment or inspiration but a means of drawing you closer to God. Wherever you are in your faith, may God draw you to Him and enable you to know Him better. I shared yesterday some of the ways in which Nadeem and I are knowing God.
God meets us all where we are. He knows that we're all weak and in need of Him. Nadeem and I know this now more than ever. When I was a teacher, teaching came easily to me. I knew God had given me that gift, but truthfully I didn't wake up each day thanking God for giving me the strength and ability to teach. Here we KNOW we're dependent on God. We do wake up every single day thanking God for giving us the strength and ability to go through our day. We struggle a lot. We fall down a lot. Yesterday our prayer was "Lord, let us not be hypocrites proclaiming faith on the blog and then falling into doubt a minute later."
When you read our story, we pray that you see God's fingerprints. It's still a story of fingerprints, after all!