Today's her birthday a day we celebrate the birth of my best friend, my confidant, my one and only true love, and my gift from God to make it through this world.  There are so many words that I could use to express the endless number of ways and things Joy has and does daily just to keep our family and household functioning.  She does this day in and day out, some days are amazing to the see what she accomplishes in such a short time and others are just the opposite but she always stays focus on the bigger goal ahead and without complaint moves through the day regardless of the smoothness or bumps.  For this alone she deserves about a year long vacation on a quite tropical island resting.  But the reality is she see past the temporary pleasures of life that we often seek in our lives and desires to do more for others and His kingdom.  For this reason I am most blessed and thankful to have her in my life for without the patience and loving ways of Joy waiting almost six plus years for a stubborn and strong willed husband to understand and open his heart to the wonderful gift and picture of Christ that adoption IS.  When Joy first came to me about adoption and her heart breaking for these children without families I was so not interested and actually pretty set against the whole idea.  I mean really we already had four wonderful children and had already been blessed more than most.  But then she really made things interesting when she said she really felt we were being called to adopt from China...CHINA! I was like absolutely not!  I had many reason in my mind not to adopt in the first place but then China was the last place I would want to adopt from for what now seems like crazy misguided reasons.  Needless to say and saving a very long story her patience and gentle persistence to follow her heart helped me to clearly see and agree that we were called to adopt and from China as well.  This small thing as it really is small in the scope of the bigger picture of our lives and the rest of the world has been one of the most rewarding and uplifting experience I almost missed, but thankfully on June 13th 1974 a wonderful person was born into this world and then raised by both a mother and father who taught her to love the Lord and follow his path whatever the cost.  To Joy's parents whom played a large part in the women Joy has and is today I say thank you.
So to summarize my thoughts of this exceptional women I will just simply say what I don't enough "THANK YOU JOY I LOVE YOU!"

One last item that has been on my mind to write about is an amazing song by Audio Adrenaline "Kings & Queens" This song since the first time I listened to the words speaks so clearly the heart and direction the Lord has given us all as Christians if we want to see it.  Here are the Lyrics and a link to the song on YouTube...Joy also recently made a video of our three beautiful children and the adoption photos set to this music and it is so moving when put to our real life experiences that I almost cry each and every time I watch the video and think of all the other children left in these orphanages around the world and such a need for the Church to stand up and follow His Word and make these types of images and needs a thing of the past.  We need to stop following just some of the teachings in the bible and ignoring others that take us away or out of our comfort zones. I as Christians have been blessed to be adopted by Christ and now to be part of the adoption of these three unbelievably amazing children that after just four short months of being home with us have already blossomed and show such potential when given a chance to be and have a family.  



  "Kings & Queens"

Little hands, shoeless feet, lonely eyes looking back at me
Will we leave behind the innocent too brief
On their own, on the run when their lives have only begun
These could be our daughters and our sons
And just like a drum I can hear their hearts beating
I know my God won’t let them be defeated
Every child has a dream to belong and be loved
[Chorus:]
Boys become kings, girls will be queens
Wrapped in Your majesty
When we love, when we love the least of these
Then they will be brave and free
Shout your name in victory
When we love when we love the least of these
When we love the least of these
Break our hearts once again
Help us to remember when
We were only children hoping for a friend
Won’t you look around these are the lives that the world has forgotten
Waiting for doors of our hearts and our homes to open
[Chorus]
If not us who will be like Jesus
To the least of these
If not us tell me who will be like Jesus
Like Jesus to the least of these
Boys become kings, girls will be queens
Wrapped in your majesty
When we love, when we love the least of these
Then they will be brave and free shout your name in victory
We will love we will love the least of these
We will love the least of these
We will love the least of these
We will love the least of these
We will love the least of these
We will love the least of these 

These lyrics are spot on to Christ Word and our duties as Christians to follow as it is written in James 1:27 (Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.) What else can I say about something that has already been said through Christ himself in his Word except that I can tell you from my own personal experience nothing and I mean nothing I have ever done in my short Christian life so far has been such a blessing to me personally and in my walk with Christ to humble me, direct me, and ground me back to a place so that I can see his will and direction instead of mine.