Update on DSS paperwork

I posted last Thursday that we were waiting on our clearances to return from DSS and right after I posted that blog I received an email from our home study agency letting me know that the clearances has just been returned. Yea! So, now our home study agency will send the entire home study packet to our international agency for their approval and then back to DSS for their approval and then to immigration for their approval. Are we noticing a trend here?! Paperwork and approval, paperwork and approval; reminds me of the military. Oh and hurry up and wait, that is the Navy's most preferred game. So, we are well equipped for this process thanks to our training from the Navy. Hopefully we will have everything off to immigration in a month, hopefully.
On the fundraising home front we have a garage sale on Saturday and then the Oyster Roast on following Saturday the 26th. Can I tell you that I know nothing of Oyster Roasts! Nothing, absolutely nothing. We Californians are not experts in the roasted oyster or pig pickins. I had to write up a flyer and type the word pickin, we all realize that pickin is not a word, right? It is picking, but Will told me I must use proper southern terminology if I am to advertise amongst them! So, to my dismay I had to type pickin and ignore the spell check that was screaming at me! So, pray for us as our horizons are broadened and we experience new things in pursuit of this adoption.
John 15:2
"Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit."
the amplified translation says it this way -
"... and He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit.."
It is easy to blaze through this scripture but if you slow down and take a close look at these words you quickly realize that this process of bearing more fruit will most likely be uncomfortable at the least and very likely more like painful. If you have ever undergone a cleanse whether that be from sugar, cigarettes, television, a toxic relationship or whatever needs to be removed from your life then you know that it is difficult, trying and often it is simply painful. The word prune means "to cut out unnecessary parts," lets just be straight here for a minute, cutting is not a warm fuzzy kind of a word. It implies a swift, decisive, intentional and painful act to remove that which is unnecessary. It can not be an easy process, God did not say it would be, He used specific language to ensure that we knew it would be difficult. But, then He makes us a promise if we will endure this "pruning, cleansing, and purging," He will bring about more fruit in our lives. And, what is fruit? Fruit is life; God's life being poured out into us because we have been cleansed and therefore we have room in our lives to allow this new fruit. If we allow God to cut that which is sinful or just unnecessary then we will give room to that which is life giving and eternal rather then temporal. So, if God is pruning, which we should all pray that He is in our lives, then relax in the discomfort and pain because you have a promise that He will bring more fruit which is far greater then anything we could ever hope for. So now we all say in one accord PRUNE AWAY! or at least we pray for the strength to say prune away. Happy pruning everyone.