Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths.  Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day. - Psalm 25:4-5  

Our desire is that the Lord will show us HIS way and lead us down the right path in HIS truth.  We are thankful for all that the Lord has done in our lives.  We don’t deserve all that we have and all that the Lord has blessed us with.  It is a privilege to serve Him.  

Ministry

The ministry continues to go well.  It is amazing how much many of the people have grown and matured in the past year.  At this time last year, the church had been open for less then a year and many of the core group of people that we had were new believers or not yet believers.  Since that time many of the people have matured spiritually by leaps and bounds.  We give all the glory to Jesus for this.  

Adoption

Many of you have been praying for our adoption and I will take the rest of the letter to explain what God has done.  9 years ago, God gave us such a wonderful gift.  Our son Aaron was born and he has brought great joy to our lives.  We love him so much.  Our desire had always been to have more kids.  Deanna was able to get pregnant again however she miscarried 12 weeks later.  Since that time, Deanna has not been able to get pregnant.  After many doctors visits, discussions, and prayers, we decided that we would try to adopt a baby.  In January of 2010, we began the process of filling out the necessary paperwork and fulfilling the requirements for adopting a baby.  We were approved shortly after and the waiting journey began.  

Last June, we arrived back in the USA for a short furlough.  We also had to renew our home study for our adoption.  Our prayer was that the Lord would allow us to adopt while we were back on furlough.  As the end of our furlough began to near, we realized that it was not going to happen.  As we stood in the airport waiting to check in to our flight back to Spain, we got a call from our agent letting us know that we had been matched!!!  We were stunned.  It didn’t seem real.  The thing that we had been waiting for, for so long was finally becoming a reality.  Of course, we were thrilled!  

On January 6th, 2012, Kaira (pronounced Care-Uh) was born.  Her name means, “beloved” or “friend” but also means “right or opportune moment.”  After many years of trying to have a baby, miscarrying, and waiting for the adoption and mentally planning of when would be the best time for us to adopt, God has given us this precious gift in the absolute “right and opportune moment.”  

As I write this letter, Kaira is now 5 days old and she couldn’t be any more precious.  We love her to death and at times it still seems unreal...hard to believe she is really ours.  :)  We couldn’t be more happy and we praise the Lord for this opportunity and for allowing us to care for, love, and raise this bundle of joy!  Thank you so much for all the prayers and kind words throughout this adoption process.  

It is a privilege to serve the Lord.  We feel honored that each day He allows us to glorify His name.

Adoption

I wanted to give an update on our adoption since so many people have asked us how it is going.  We are still in the process of adopting and waiting to get the call or email informing us that we will have a new addition to the family.  We have had some possibilities which have been exciting.  We have had about 4 opportunities so far where we were able to present our profile and allow the mother to consider our family.  So far, none of these opportunities have worked out but the Lord continues to give us other opportunities which is exciting.  Right now there are two possibilities that we are praying about.  Things are moving along and we ask that you would continue to pray that the Lord would give us the right child at the right time.

Ministry

We have enjoyed being able to share what the Lord has done in our ministry in Spain.  We appreciate the investment that each church has made.  We have thoroughly enjoyed seeing old friends and people that we met years ago.  Many of the churches have been really excited about what the Lord is doing in Spain.  We have been in some great churches and appreciate their heart for missions.  I have found that furlough is a great time as it allows you to step away from the ministry and revaluate what is going on and how you can better things for the future.

The ministry continues to move along.  The team in Spain is carrying on and doing a wonderful job.  As most of you know, we were able to complete our evangelistic projects.  The church had been open a little over a year and we have been able to make the Gospel available to our entire city 2 times.  We are excited about that and we have seen much fruit.  At the heart of our ministry is life on life discipleship, training, and church planting.  We have some great people in our church and it is a joy to see men coming to Christ and expressing the desire to grow and serve the Lord.  Our desire is to seed Spain with the Gospel and see more churches planted for His glory.  

The church has been growing during our absence.  When we left for furlough, the church had grown to an average of around 25 people.  Over the past couple of months, the church has grown to average around 35-40 people!  The last two Sundays, there were 48 and 49 people, respectively, in attendance!  Praise the Lord for His goodness!  One of the young men that I have had the privilege of working with and building a relationship with since before he came to Christ has expressed interest in the possibility of being a Pastor or Missionary one day if the Lord so leads.  We are so thrilled to see people who knew not God, coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and expressing the desire to know Him and His Word more and serve Him in the ministry.  That’s what it’s all about!  

Family

Furlough is always a wonderful time because you get to enjoy a lot of family time.  Aaron has thoroughly enjoyed traveling to many different places and meeting new people.  However, one of the things that has been a real blessing is Aaron’s willingness to participate in the ministry.  Since we have been back, Aaron has been able to sing with Deanna and minister to the churches through song.  Check out the video of Aaron singing by clicking here.  We praise the Lord for allowing our family to serve Him!

Thank you for your prayers, support, and love!

Many people have been asking about our adoption progress so I decided that I would give an update.  

We are still waiting.  It has been 1 year and 4 months since we started the process.  When we started, the agency told us that it normally takes 12 to 18 months.  When we returned to the USA 4 weeks ago, we had to renew our home study.  The home study is good for 1 year and has to be renewed each year.  

Many of you have no idea how an adoption works (just as I had no idea before we started this) so let me explain the process and maybe it will help you understand a little more of what is going on.  

When you start the process of adopting, you have to fill out lots of paperwork explaining exactly what you want.  You can be as general or as specific as you want.  You really have to make some tough decisions as far as to exactly what you want.  We decided that we would like to adopt a child, boy or girl, age ranging from infant to one year old.  We have also submitted a family book explaining things about our family, home, etc. with pictures and information.  This information is taken and given to perspective mothers who are pregnant and don't want to keep the baby.  These mothers look through several families who desire to adopt and then they choose which family they would like to give their baby to.  So basically, we are waiting to be matched with a birth mother.  In our case, we will most likely be able to be matched with a mother who is pregnant and once the baby is born, we will be able to take the baby home from the hospital.  However, it is also possible that the baby will have already been born.  

So as of now, we are still in the "waiting game."  Some days it seems like it will never happen.  However, so many people who have adopted before have told us that they felt the same way and then one day, all of the sudden, they got "THE CALL" and the next thing they knew, they were home with their newly adopted baby.  

So for now, we wait.  We ask for your prayers in this matter.  We are really praying that the adoption would go through before we leave the USA in November.  However, we know that the Lord's timing is perfect.