Maestro Myrick

Jeff is student teaching at Brentwood Middle School. His time in the classroom has only confirmed his decision to pursue Choral Conducting and his teaching licensure. Praise God! The deployment delayed his graduating and licensure two years. This year has been challenging for him and for us and we are thankful that the end is in sight (December). We are praying for Jeff to get a mid-year teacher placement. If you think of it, please pray with us.

Tonight was the first performance for the BMS choir. Jeff played hand bells for the first performance and conducted the second and did a great job! Not having children (yet), being in the school is very foreign to us, but very exciting. I look forward to investing in Jeff's students and to the new adventures that will come our way.

Enjoy the pictures of Jeff's performance.

Debra

Unashamed

Each week we receive an email from Bethany, worship leader at Hope Fellowship Church, to prepare us for Sunday's service. I love the one we received today because it touches on the teaching from this past weekends women's retreat, the Holiness of God. GOOD STUFF!! Here it is...from Bethany...

How often do we show up Sunday mornings sleepy-eyed, rushed, bitter, or angry with our spouse, angry with our children, angry with our church, apathetic, distracted, or just plain bored? On any given Sunday, I’m typically experiencing at least one or all of the above. If I truly believed and lived my life in pursuit of God’s holiness, would I approach Sunday mornings the same? Or would I greet the morning with great expectancy, anxiously awaiting what I might find in the splendor of God’s holiness among fellow worshippers.

Below is our Call to Worship for Sunday. Meditate on the words found in 1 Chronicles. Understand and know the privilege that is ours to gather together each week to worship, pray, and fellowship together. May we rejoice together in the majesty, greatness, power, glory, and splendor that belong to God! He strengthens us, unites us, and protects us, and loves us. Let’s gather together, unashamed, complete in our brokenness as a people and give Him the thanks and praise due His name.

Call to Worship
1 Chronicles 29:10-13
Leader: Praise be to you, O LORD, God of our father Israel , from everlasting to everlasting.
People: Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Leader: Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.
People: Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things.
Leader: In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.
People: Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.

“Unashamed”
I have not much to offer You

Not near what You deserve

But still I come because Your cross

Has placed in me my worth

O Christ my King of sympathy

Whose wounds secure my peace

Your grace extends to call me friend

Your mercy sets me free

I know I'm weak

I know I'm unworthy

To call upon Your name

But because of grace

Because of Your mercy

I stand here unashamed

Darfur

We received this email from Larry Warren, President of African Leadership. Please pray for President Bush and the other leaders of our country that they might stand for truth and justice for the people of Darfur, Sudan. We are proud to support the work of African Leadership. Click here for more information.

Dear Partners in the Gospel,

Continue to Pray as George W. Bush will be addressing the UN tomorrow (September 19 2006) - this is not a time for resolutions but a call to action needs to take place. Call your representatives or call George W. Bush 202-456-1111 or email at http://us.f308.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=comments@whitehouse.gov.

Today, Larry did a live interview with Primetime America which will air tonight @ 5PM CST WFCM 91.7 FM or 710 AM or you can listen live online at http://www.primetimeamerica.org/ or http://www.mbn.org/GenMoody/default.asp?sectionID=98BFD7EE42684276B2EED78560CE47AE .

Please continue to pray over this situation in Darfur.

http://www.darfurdiaries.org/

Blessings,

Larry Warren

Praying for our brothers and sisters in Darfur,
Debra

Group 278

When our paperwork went to China September 1st, it was not alone. Fourteen other families became paper pregnant with us. The great thing is that we are from all walks of life, at very different places in life and we get to share this incredible journey to our daughters and hopefully, travel to China together next year. We are from TN, LA, TX, CA, WI, NE, IN, NJ, VA and NC. How wonderful!

So what does our paperwork (called a dossier) include:
1. Application Letter to China requesting a baby girl between the ages of 0-8 months.*
2. Original copies of our birth certificates.**
3. Original copy of our marriage certificate.**
4. Physical Exam forms for both of us. *
5. Financial statement showing we meet the income requirement to adopt from China.*
6. Jeff's unemployment letter stating why he is not working and his plans after graduation.*
7. Debra's employment letter.*
8. Homestudy report.*
9. Police background checks for each of us.
10. Copy of USCIS (immigration) Form I171H - official letter stating we are approved to adopt a foreign child. * VERY IMPORTANT document. We will take the original with us to China to prove we have been cleared by the US to bring our child home.
11. 2 passport photos each.
12. Copies of our passport photo and signature page.
13. Copies of Photo pages. You can create up to 8 pages of photo pages to represent your family's life. Required photos are a picture of the outside of our home, a picture of the inside of our home, 2 formal/posed family pictures (just me and jeff) that show facial features. We included a page of photos from our wedding, extended family vacations and Jeff's homecoming. While it took a day to complete 7 pages of photos (hence, why I don't do scrapbooks), they are fun to look at now.

Items marked with * were authenticated as follows:
1. Our signatures were notarized
2. Notary signature was certified by the county clerk office
3. County clerk signature was authenticated by the Secretary of State
4. The Secretary of State signature was authenticated by the Department of State in D.C.
5. The Dept of State was authenticated by the China Embassy in D.C.

Items marked with ** came directly from the State and did not have to notarized, but authenticated by the Secretary of State, Department of State and China Embassy.

We started the process at the beginning of April, switched home study agencies in May, moved twice, got fingerprinted for USCIS in July, authenticated documents in D.C. in August and mailed everything to AWAA at the end of August. It was a crazy, stressful, revealing time and we are relieved that this part of the journey is behind us and we are now in the waiting stage.

Debra

It's Official

This is what it looks like to be "paper" pregnant. After four months of paperchasing, this is the fruit of our effort. Our adoption paperwork was approved by our adoption agency, America World Adoption and sent to China on Friday, September 1st. We could not be more excited to send everything off and now be in the waiting stage of this process. Currently, the wait time for a referral picture of our daughter is 13 months from our log in date, which we do not know yet.

We look forward to sharing this part of our journey with you. ~ Debra