Wow! God is awesome!

Wow! That's all we can say is wow! We had our garage sale today, and we made $1,600 in donations and sales for our adoption! God is good--all the time, all the time--God is good! This is such an affirmation to us! This is such a step of faith, but by this, God is telling us that He is behind us too, and that this is what He is calling us to do. We had a gorgeous day, a great neighborhood (thanks Walburgs :) and just an over-all good turn out today. We want to say a special thank you to all the people who donated, either monetarily or with items to sell :) We love you all! Your support means the world to us! We still ask for your prayers as we embrak on this journey!

An up-date on the adoption so far. Megan has had her physical, blood work and drug test (which she passed--suprise suprise j/k :). Daniel has his scheduled for this coming week. We both got finger-printed. Our referal letters have been sent out, and some returned. Once Laurie (our case-worker) gets those, she will call us for our "house-visit." This is making me a bit nervous. I know my house is clean, but is it good enough to pass an inspection??? We shall see. I think we will be ok though. Then, we will create a profile for birth-moms to look at, to decide if they want us to parent their child. This is where the waiting begins. It could go very fast, or it could take a year or so. Pray for patcience for us too, as we wait and also pray for the birthmom, that she may feel confident with her choice. Well, that's enough for now.

Thanks Thanks Thanks!
The Hellenthals

Sunday sermon

Well, I forgot to blog about this, but at church on Sunday, we heard an AWESOME sermon! George talked about the trial of Jesus, particularly the flogging of our Savior. He talked about how, in those days, there were usually two Roman soilders standing on either side of the victim taking turns flogging them. As the prophet Isaiah says, "Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed." (Isaiah 53) This means that the two "soilders" who were flogging Jesus was really ME and God! To listen to more of the sermon, go to our church website...http://www.hhcrc.org. I hope that you take the time to listen to it, and that it impacts you as much as it did Hefty and I! We love our church family, and our so blessed to be a part of HHCRC.

What's been going on....

Well, I figured that it was about time to blog again :) We recently re-painted our kitchen! It had an awful border, and so we thought it time to up-date it a bit. It's now a redish color and I really like it! We have been really busy getting stuff ready for our garage sale for our adoption! It's been such a blessing to see people donate things to us for us to sell for our adoption :) We really appreciate all the support and prayers for us about the adoption. This is something that we feel so passionate about! We are starting an Orphan Ministry at our church. It's sad to think that there are 6,000 orphans in MI alone! Well, let's see we offically turned in our application this Wednesday. It was kindda crazy to think that we are on our way to becoming parents. We are both so excited about it! We are both going to get finger-printed tomorrow. I have to get my blood-work done yet and Hefty has to have his physical yet, which is at the end of the month. We have a break from Youth Group this and next week since it's Spring Break. We are both busy working and doing stuff with church. We are getting a new website at church that I will be keeping up-dated. It's a little scary for me because I have never done anything w/ websites. I think once I get the hang of it, I'll be fine. I think that's about it for now.
Have a blessed week!