War Room & Answered Prayers

We found a church! Literally the next Sunday (Oct 4) after I posted the previous blog about searching for a church - we found the one. My friend Ashlie whom I know through Visiting Orphans and who took some totally awesome pictures of Mihretu and I last month - invited us to her church. I had planned to go someplace else that weekend but decided to go to their church instead. One of her sons is from Ethiopia and when we got there there was another family I had met at a foster care event a few months back whose son is the same age as Mihretu and also Ethiopian. They go there too. Mihretu bonded instantly with their son. He really bonds on a whole other level with other kiddos from Ethiopia. He loved it so much, the following Saturday he started crying when he found out there was no church because it wasn't Sunday. I loved the worship and the message and just the small feel of it. It meets in a YMCA and is relatively new (Jan 2015) and there's about 30-40 people right now which is really nice. It's a Calvary Chapel church which I hadn't ever been to but have heard good things about. Loving it so much. The worship that first weekend - they played so many songs that my Nashville church used to play and the style was so similar. I just started crying. It just felt like our place. So I can move "finding a church" from the "praying for" to the "answered prayer" wall in my War Room. If you haven't seen that movie, it's great. And the main character is basically mentored by an older lady who shows her what a war room is and she creates one at home in her closet. I did that a few weeks ago and there's just something special about going into a closet and praying in there. I love it so much. Thankful to have a space I can do that. If you don't have a war room, I highly recommend creating one.

I'm so thankful we found our church home. Looking forward to connecting more with the other folks there. I'm in an adoption small group for 3 more weeks (another answer to prayer) and when that finishes, I'm planning to check out the small group in my area for our new church.

Here are some of those amazing pics my friend Ashlie Fulmer took of me and my little man. I love these so much.