The Year In Review...plus six months!

In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.

Proverbs 16:9

Hello Family and Friends!

After a rather long hiatus...almost 18 months, I thought it might be appropriate to briefly bring you all up to speed on the Every Day Matters that have been our life for the past year and half.

So to avoid my downfall of what can sometimes be labeled "rambling", I am going to try to create a Top Ten (or so) List and add some photos.

Starting with events following my last post in Jan 2010:

1. March 14th, 2010 - We celebrated Joel's 3rd birthday (his first with us)!
2. May 2010- Jessie resigned from her position as Counselor at North Middle School and Faith and Joel completed their first year of pre-school!
3. July 9th, 2010 -Celebrated Faith's 4th birthday.
4. July 13th, 2010 - Arrival of Luke Isaiah Fewins. He is an incredible joy to our lives. He is the best baby and Faith and Joel are the best big sister and big brother!
5. October - November 2010 - In accordance with our now long-time desire to be involved in Missions and the leading of the Holy Spirit, we attended a two-week missionary candidate course in Littleton Colorado with Overseas Missions Fellowship. We were appointed to serve as full-time missionaries to Taiwan!
6. November -December 2010 - God was working BIG TIME in our hearts. After following what we believed to be the direction of the Holy Spirit and getting our "official" approval (as mentioned in #5)...God made it clear that He was indeed leading us this direction, just "not yet". In other words, our plans to move ahead with partnership development are now on hold for a time. We are still "future-planning" in this direction and Lord-willing will begin Jan of 2012.
7. CHRISTMAS 2010! ---I started to type "not earth-shattering news" - but isn't it? The meaning that is, perhaps not the celebration. Nonetheless, the celebration seemed to merit mentioning with three little ones in the house, it was quite a memory!
8. Dec 23, 2010 - Phil and Jessie celebrated 10 yrs of marriage!
9. Jan 2011 - Thought we would spend the beginning of 2011 raising support and preparing to leave for Taiwan,...And following intense prayer and seeking the Lord's will, we did put our house up for sale (only not for the plan we thought). It sold to the first person that looked at it --even in this market. Thank you God, for reassuring us this was the right step!
10. Last week of Feb. 2011 - We Moved to Pittsburg, Ks.! Quite different from Taiwan, yet clearly where God would have us at this time.
11. March 2011 - Celebrated Joel's 4th bday.
12. March -Present -- Spending our time with and opening our hearts and home to the MANY international students on the campus of Pittsburg State University. We have met lots of international students, started Mandarin tutoring (thanks to a special student who offered us some help), and had many opportunities to share Jesus with the Chinese and Taiwanese students right here in Pittsburg, Ks!

So for the time being, God has not given us the green light to go to Taiwan; but rather He has brought us to the nations right here @ PSU! We are so blessed by God's love for us and that He cares about the Every Day Matters of our lives!

Friends, as I type this post, I am reminded that we are never happier or more full of joy than when we are fulfilling God's purposes.

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. - John Piper

So Enjoy Him!

For His Glory,

Jessie

P.S. Enjoy the pics. I apologize they are in quite a random order as I could not figure out how to move them or label them. And I guess, I might have went a little over the top...but how's a mom to choose with 3 such cute kids and 18 months of pics?!? :-)

Childlike Faith

As I was going back over old posts I was overwhelmed by the "cuteness" of this video I posted a couple years ago...

I thought you might like to see it again and be reminded of how our heavenly Father longs for us to come to Him with "childlike faith".

I'm Back! Well, almost...

NOTICE: I am attempting to get this thing up and running again.

However, since it is now almost 1am and the only thing I have
successfully managed to do is change the background....I think I
will be hitting Sarah up to give me a blogging 101 lesson!

Don't hold your breath....but I do hope to start using this thing
a little more regularly...

Party of Five!

Well...rumor has it that our family is growing again...so we thought we better clear up the rumors and give people some fuel for their gossip! :-)

Yes, it is true!

We are soon to be a family of five!

Jessie is around 16 weeks pregnant. We were hoping to find out if it is a boy or girl on Feb. 2nd but we've had a change in health insurance coverage, so that appointment has to be re-scheduled. We will let you all know as soon as we find out!

We feel very blessed and amazed that God has once again entrusted us with such a huge honor and responsibility of parenting a precious little life. We pray that we can have the wisdom and patience to truly reflect Christ's love to each of our 3 precious children as they grow!

Fewins Family Pics

What a blessing to finally be a family of four! Our lives are forever changed.
What a blessing to have a best friend and photographer all-in-one to help capture the memories!

Check out our family pics that Sarah took last night. I think she did a fabulous job. If you live in the area and might want to try her out for your family pics check out her photography blog by going to their family website... http://www.lifeasabaker.blogspot.com/ and clicking on the photography blog (makes sense right?).

Link to our family pic album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=sweetesttimesphotography&target=ALBUM&id=5351293915544566609&authkey=Gv1sRgCNymzpT2nYCucw&feat=email

A Most Precious Treasure,...Please Pray!

This post is for a special couple in Colorado; "friends" I've never met, a sister/brother in the Lord, and fellow adoptive parents. But I beg the rest of you to read, be moved and pray for this family.
I have the incredible opportunity of being a part of blessing this mommy and daddy with pics/video of their precious son who is miles away from them in body, but closer than their next breath in their hearts. (I was blessed beyond measure to get to hold him and love on him, on behalf of his mommy and daddy, while we were in Taiwan.)
Having experienced both the addition of a biological child and an adopted child to our family, I can tell you that both scenarios are full of excitement, fear, joy, and anticipation. But I must say, there is something distinctly different about adoption. With pregnancy, the biological child is with you from the moment of conception (even before you know they exist), with adoption you deal with knowing your child has been born and is spending day after day away from your loving arms. God's grace is always sufficient, but the longing to hold that child and experience their first moments can overwhelm even the most trusting heart.
So I ask you to STOP, and PRAY for this family. They have experienced delay after delay in bringing their precious son home. They need a miracle. Please pray that the "formalities" will be expedited and that their son will be home, in their arms, SOON!

Here's the links to the 4 very short clips of precious Micah:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AapT1lIc4vk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1xP9Ka5y8M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9pOrpL7bfw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b-4J7Xe1qM

Sweetest Sibling Snapshots

Ok...I have now spent more time than I care to admit trying to figure out how to provide you all with some long awaited pics in a slideshow...obviously, that's not happening today. (Someone should feel sorry for me and teach me how!).

In the meantime, here's at least a few pics of my precious children playing together!