Let the Nations Rejoice!!

We wanted to share something really special that touched us when Karis was born. We have been praying that Karis' life would be in many ways a "revelation of grace" to the nations. The meaning of her name has been such a powerful reason why we have called her that and the day she was born already gave us hope for such.

Our friend Hilary teaches many international students from all over the world. And she was waiting for our phone call on the day Karis was born and told her students of such. When she got the phone call, they all rejoiced! They even started discussing in the class about the meaning of her name. Hilary spent the next day in class talking about grace to them for over an hour! It has been so exciting to us to hear such news! And the night she was born her nurse was from India and helped me in so many ways...she loved karis and continued to talk about her and treat her as if it were her own child. I will never forget the day she was born and when the nations already began rejoicing. Hilary got a video of her class...i will post it when i receive it.

until then, here is a cute video of wesleygrant the day we brought karis home....

A Knight and A Servant

Stew and I have been anticipating the moment when Wesley Grant and Sally met their sister, Karis. I have been praying over their roles with one another and how they will be together...both now as children and in the future as they grow. So we wanted to be intentional about that first meeting. We got each child a gift to symbolize their role with their sister. For wesley grant we got him some knights, symbolizing that he is Karis' protector....and sally got a tea set symbolizing that she is to love and serve Karis.

We chose these roles, based on what we have already seen in our children. In one sense, we were just calling out what our children already are. Wesleygrant is indeed our strong child that protects and speaks out his will. Sally loves to pray and help me around the house. Granted, these skills in time will grow in the "right" way as they are reigned under Jesus and not their own will. But again, we are just hoping to put small encouragements and gently directing our children towards what they were made to do- Glorify God. We pray that both wesleygrant and sally will use their gifts to point Karis to Jesus and in time that Karis will be gracious and help point her older siblings to the very grace of God.

We wrote welseygrant and sally letters with verses exhorting them in the roles we called them to when we presented them with gifts....one day I pray that when they read those letters, they will find themselves only encouraged in what they are already doing.