Woah!!! Today was awesome. For starters, we had a "surprise" birthday party for Nick. He turns the big 3-0 tomorrow. I tried to plan a surprise party, but we all know how well Nick does with surprises. He figured it out by Wednesday. We celebrated the evening with about 30 of our closest family and friends. Thank you to everyone who came!!! I think Nick's favorite gift was the Anderson Cooper framed picture from the Rohrs. Long story...

My highlight came tonight from a surprise gift from Nick. He said he was going to give this to me for Christmas, but couldn't wait. The whole story is...shortly after Nick and I were married, I went to a Casting Crowns, Chris Tomlin and Steven Curtis Chapman concert. It was PHENOMENAL. Nick and I had casually talked about adoption before, but when I heard SCC talk that night about adoption and God's love for the orphan, I felt a major tugging on my heart. Needless to say, I love SCC. Majorly. I'm a huge fan of his music and see him as a spiritual mentor and really a hero of the faith. Well...we made friends with a family that is adopting three children through our international agency. The father of these children just happens to be the music director/keyboard player for SCC. Nick asked his wife, Wendi (without my knowledge) for SCC's autograph for me. Well, her husband asked Steven (yeah, we are on a first name basis now :-)) and he GAVE me his new CD (Beauty Will Rise) and signed it with the following message:

To Ann, God Bless you on your miracle journey of adoption. Steven Curtis Chapman

We hugged and cried at how GREAT our God is, that he loves us so much and is providing us with SO much blessing and encouragement throughout our journey as we submit to his will.

God's blessings to YOU tonight as you read this.

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise - the fruit of lips that confess his name. Hebrews 13:15

Our hearts are full of thanks today. It has been a weepy day at the Tunheim household. As most of you know, we have been starting to plan some fundraising activities to help with our traveling expenses since we now have to make two trips to Ethiopia (Nick will share more on this in the next couple of days). We have shared some of our thoughts/ideas with a few family members and friends. Well, today we received a generous gift from close family friends. We were completely humbled and in awe at the compassion and generosity of others. When we started the adoption process, we were not sure how we were going to fund it to the end. It is not like us to commit ourselves to something when we aren't sure how we will complete it. However, we knew with 100% certainty that this is what God wanted us to do, and that He would provide for us.

We have also requested prayers that our referral comes quickly. We pray for speedy paperwork for our baby and that we can have her in our arms soon. We covet prayers for her protection by the Holy Spirit, for her health (emotional and physical) and that she would feel the love of Jesus. We heard today from one of Nicks cousins that her entire Sunday school class prayed for us today. Another moment where we felt completely humbled, loved and cared for.

We do feel a certain sense of being undeserving of all of this care and generosity. We thank you so much that you care and are following us on this journey.

This past weekend we had the pleasure of traveling to Wisconsin to attend the wedding of Nick's dad. It was a beautiful day for an outdoor wedding. We enjoyed the company of Nick's family and enjoyed sharing in the joyful festivities with everyone. Kaleb loved playing with his cousins. We estimate that he ran about 2 miles on Saturday. He may have picked up some dance moves at the reception...He asked me this morning, "Hey Mom, can you shake your booty like this?". Sometimes there are no words to respond with to the things that child says!

We are feeling so loved and so trusting of God's plan for our family. This scripture was shared with me today. How true! How great is our God! How great is His Word that it speaks to us today!

But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, be patient! For it will surely take place. It will not be late by a single day. Habakkuk 2:3

Be watching our blog in the next few weeks! We are going to unveil 2 fundraisers to help us pay for our traveling expenses. We appreciate everything you are doing for us, whether it is praying, calling or simply caring for us during this time!

Kaleb and I attended our first adoption play group. It was a great chance for me to talk to the moms about adoption issues. It was also a joy to see Kaleb make friends so quickly. While at the play group, I had the pleasure of meeting some new friends that were in town for the weekend. John and Terina Dutton from Heavenly Hope Ministries came to Fargo to share their mission with our church (Calvary UMC). Our church is working in partnership with the Dutton's to help establish another orphanage/mission base in Ethiopia. The Duttons have three sons (one adopted from Ethiopia) and are in the process of adopting another 14 year old boy through our international agency (CCI). They are moving to Ethiopia in October for the next 4-5 months to do the work of the Lord. We are excited/interested to see what God might have in store for us regarding mission work.

We received a package in the mail yesterday from Amazon. I wasn't expecting anything and was pleasantly surprised to open up the package and see a book called, "Let's Talk About It: Adoption" written by Mr. Rogers and gifted to us by my dad. It is a beautiful book for children explaining adoption/adoptive families. This excerpt from the story made me cry:

"You could belong in your family by being born into it, or you could belong in your family by being adopted into it. You're an important part of your family. And the story of how you came into your family will always be important, too. In fact, it's a special kind of love story. Your family needed and wanted a child to love and care for, and you needed a family to love and care for you."

Thank you, dad, for searching, caring, and understanding just how much we love adoption and love our new, growing family. I love you.

We are close. Before long, we will have a referral of a precious baby girl. The past 7 1/2 months seem to have taken an eternity and have flown by all at the same time. In these past months, we have absolutely, unashamedly, without reservation fallen in love with adoption. I will talk about it to anyone who will listen. I'm beginning to think that people regret asking me how things are going, because I keep going on, and on, and on...I love the fact that God has a baby out there for us. I love the fact that he knew this before I was even born. I love the fact that God says that pure and true religion is to look after orphans and widows in their distress (James 1:27). I love Psalm 139 and was amazed again by it when it was read in my Dad's church on Sunday...

"Oh Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, Lord. You hem me in - behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. (AMEN!) Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit?" vs. 1-7

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." vs. 13-16.

Most you reading this know me pretty well. You would probably use the words cautious, worry-wart, etc. to describe me. I am not one bit anxious about this adoption. I know this is God's plan. When I think about shots, and lice, and parasites, and bad water, and 23+ hour flights, and change, and finances, my heart does beat a little bit faster. But, I am trusting, trusting that God will take care of baby girl Tunheim and that He will take care of me. He did send Jesus to earth to live a life that I cannot live and die a death I cannot die, right? So, He will see us through this, too.

I heard a song at youth group tonight by Switchfoot. I'm a huge music person, and these words really spoke to me tonight. I know that taking this leap of faith is who God wants me to be, and it is forever changing me...is there something that you need to do that he is gently nudging you about? Are you afraid? Think you can't do it? This is YOUR life...are you who you wanna be?

Switchfoot - This Is Your Life