'It really is that simple...'

OK...So WOW! What an amazingly average day that has ended with some GREAT news. Avery and "K" both prayed and asked Jesus to come into their hearts tonight. I am overwhelmed with Joy and Praise to a God who loves my children. Avery has such a great understanding of God and who He is. There is no doubt that her decision was genuine and came after much thought and prayer. We have been talking to her for some time now about her decision and fear has stopped her from asking Jesus into her heart. God allowed Todd and I to be with her tonight and give her the support she needed to officially ask God to be her Savior. She felt SO GREAT! Even at her young age, she had been carrying the weight of sin around with her.

Now, let me back up a little and tell you how God spoke to me through all of this.
I have felt a little overwhelmed and somewhat inadequate the last few days. We had a guest speaker at church yesterday who spoke about laying our burdens down to God. His point was "Why don't we? Why don't we give God our burdens EVERY day? Why do we only go to Him when things are REALLY bad? How would our lives be different if we just gave EVERYTHING to Him..EVERY day?" SO...I've thought a lot about it and I decided today to write my "burdens" down, and turn them over to God. I sat at the park while the girls played today and wrote them all out on a borrowed sheet of paper. My doubts, my fears, my failures, my inconsistencies, my limitations.... I was pretty hard on myself.
I would love to tell you that God spoke to me in the midst of the park, but He didn't.

He spoke to me tonight at the supper table.
"K" says out of the blue (somewhere in between "do I have to eat all of it?" and "can i have desert now?") that "I have decided to ask Jesus into my heart and today is gonna be the day I do it."

That simple. I want Jesus and I want Him now.
We were not talking about salvation. We hadn't even made it to devotion time yet. I was (in my own strength) doing nothing to lead her to Christ. Christ CAME to HER! So easy and almost hard for us to accept. We want salvation to be hard. We want it to be something that we have talked about, explored, explained... We want to try to figure out if it is "real". Then God whispered to me, "MELINDA, IT REALLY IS THAT SIMPLE... I'VE GOT THIS ALL UNDER CONTROL. ALL THOSE THINGS YOU WORRY ABOUT..WHY? YOU KNOW I AM ENOUGH."
I'm not sure how much "K" understands, but she knows who God is, she knows who Jesus is. She knows WHY He came to earth, and she knows that He rose again to save HER. That is, quite simply, enough.
As for me... I just have to do my best. I thank God for the reminder that IT REALLY IS that simple. HE is enough.

The Doxcology

Weird name for a post, i know... but for the last couple of weeks-this is the song I have stuck in my head.....
Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Praise Him all creatures here below.
Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts.
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

God has been so evident in our lives lately. We have a new placement and while my heart breaks for them, God has "leveled out the mountains" in so many ways. We started this placement a little differently, I guess. I have prayed-----about EVERYTHING---and God worked out so many "little" miracles for our family. The girls (yes, Todd is surrounded by MORE girls) are adjusting well. There is such a sense of peace even among the chaos!!! I get to brush hair for the first time ever!!! Yea! It is so much fun! I would love to share more about the girls, but I cant. I will tell you they are beautiful, sad at times, happy at others. They are smart, demanding, helpful, inquistive. They crave attention and try to get it any way they can (both good and bad). They are SO SWEET and will be the first to compliment you... They miss their family, but are making the best of what life has given them. They are learning about God and we are trying our best to model for them LOVE, RESPECT, ENCOURAGEMENT, TRUTH, FORGIVENESS, PATIENCE, ENDURANCE, and FAITH. That is why we praise God (from whom all blessings flow). He is allowing us the amazing opportunity to minister in His name.

It's the perfect picture!

OK, so i didn't mean for this picture to post sideways, but I decided it was kind of a good description of the last year. This is a painting Avery did for me on Mother's day of our "family". It is framed in my kitchen and will stay there.
Looking back, it's been a really BUSY year for us. We had a placement in the Spring/Summer and you can think of EVERY emotion and know that we experienced it at some point. We have a lot of fun memories from the time they spent with us. We also learned a lot about each other and what our family is capable of. Like any other area of ministy, the kids were not the hardest part... navigating the system, birthparents, schedules, etc... was what we were probably the most surprised/ overwhelmed by. (Oh yeah, and I still haven't learned to accept the INSANE way the world works) The youngest one gave us all sorts of "one liners" that still creep up in conversation. She was a funny little girl. It's pretty quiet around here these days, and we are on stand-by again. I would love to tell you that I am getting good at waiting, but I'm not.
Our girls are still growing.... Ellie is- no doubt- gonna pass me in height this year. Emma is taking gymnastics and is wonderful at it. (The floor BOUNCES in the gym, and anyone who knows Emma realizes how great that is for her!!) Avery is still just lovin' life (and coughing). She's just happy to be wherever, doing whatever...

I've decided I'll just skip talking about the farm this year...It rained...A LOT...

We hope all of you have a WONDERFUL Christmas. We feel so blessed to have so many friends to send Christmas cards each year.
We love all of you,

Todd, Melinda, and the girls

It's Christmas time again!!

Well, Christmas 2008 has come and we are (still) a family of five. A year ago, we had hopes that our family would have grown by now in number, but it didn't. That certainly doesn't mean we haven't "grown" though. Our girls become more beautiful each year. Ellie will be a teenager in just a few days and she is so much like her mom that I am scared to death!!! Our little 'monkey in the middle' wakes up every morning with a smile on her face ready to take on the world. (She is just like her Daddy!) And our 'baby' is now a Kindergartner who loves going to big girl school.

Todd had a great year on the farm and with the shift from less cotton to more corn, he has been able to do things with us this fall that were not possible in the past. I'm all about 'going green'! He definitely knows how to grow corn!!

We've had two new babies in our family this year. My big brother had his first daughter, Shelton and my sister had her baby this week. Baby Aiden is 5 days old and will have surgery on Monday to correct a serious heart defect. My God is good and I have no doubts that He will heal Aiden's body on Monday.

We have spent the last year pursuing foster care and are actually licensed foster care parents with the Alabama Baptist Children's Home. Things moved pretty slowly for a while (the foster care program is relatively new at the Decatur campus). We have had several calls for potential placements, but none of them were meant to be. Basically, we are on 'standby' for children who need a temporary home. We have come to realize that we have to make ourselves available for God to use us as HE SEES FIT. He has blessed us with three beautiful children and we could never thank Him enough or even find words to tell you how important they are to us.

I have a peace today that I didn't have a year ago. I have more patience, more tolerance, more understanding, and more love. I have peace that God IS taking care of orphans in their distress and He IS choosing people to be a part of that. I don't feel like I am running after God anymore begging for Him to let me in on the plan. I feel like we are open (and ready) and when GOD is ready for our family to serve, He will let us know.

We hope your family has a Holiday season full of blessings! Thank you for your friendship!!!

Love,

The Isbells

AAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Have I ever mentioned that I am impatient??????? We thought we had a placement a week or so ago, but it didn't work out. To be honest with you, I am bored. I want a kid (or kids)... If we don't get a placement soon, our girls are going to get WAY too many Christmas gifts because I have too much free time on my hands (which means I'm doing a lot of shopping!)

Show Hope!!

Ellie and I got to volunteer at a Stephen Curtis Chapman & Michael W. Smith concert last night in Birmingham. I LOVE talking to people about adoption. And I LOVED spending the evening with my precious daughter who came home even more fired up to do what she could to raise awareness for the orphans of this world. http://www.showhope.com/ is the Shohannah's Hope website and they have lots of great info for anyone out there who wants to know more. November is National Adoption Awareness month, and they also have some ideas on how you can get involved. (You know, you don't have to adopt to be involved...)

I ordered my Christmas cards tonight!! What??? Am I insane???

Here's my reason...

See, down here in the South, it doesn't always rain as much as we need it to (remember, I'm married to a farmer). So anyway, in desperate times, when you need a rain really bad, you'll start doing crazy things to get one- like washing your car, throwing your umbrellas away, etc... Murphy's law usually kicks in and stirs up a mud hole for your nice clean vehicle or a good soaking rain right as you step outside to go to a wedding. So, I ordered my Christmas cards (with pictures of my "family" on them) hoping that we will have a placement before they make it off the UPS truck. It's worth a shot, right??? HaHa

God is SO good to me... He gives me laughter, even in times when I want to be frustrated. My new favorite song is "While I'm Waiting" from the movie Fireproof. (The artist is John Waller.) I'll try to get a link posted so you can hear it, but just go on and buy the song-You will LOVE it!! It has become a daily prayer for me...

I'm Waiting
I'm Waiting on you Lord.
And I am Hopeful
I'm Waiting on you Lord.
Though it is Painful-
But patiently I will wait.

I will move ahead bold and confident-
I'll be taking every step in OBEDIENCE.

While I'm waiting-
I will serve you
I will worship
I will not fade
I'll be running the race, even while I wait!

It must be time...

Todd and I joke that anytime we are involved with a wedding, we have another kid, so it must be our time!! The girls were in a cousin's wedding this past weekend in NC and they were beautiful (of course)!!
This is the groom's sister (and our favorite 17 year old cousin), Carly... My girls LOVE her, and she is so sweet to them.
Who needs a bride???
Mr. and Mrs. Jim Ed... Isn't love great!!!???!!!??

OK, so what is the latest on our 'kid'??? We are still waiting... There have been some staff changes at the children's home that we feel like are going to be for the best. As far as we know, we are now offically ready for a foster care placement (although I won't believe it till the doorbell rings). I'm taking the wedding as a sign of good luck for us...

World Changers '08

Ellie and I had the opportunity this past week to go to on a World Changers Missions project. (All the way in Florence--HaHa) And while I NEVER want to roof another house as long as I live- can I get an "Amen" from the Nailheads-- it was a great trip!! Ellie and most of her youth group spent the week doing street evangelism and shared their faith and the salvation of Christ with the people of West Florence. Eleven people were saved because these kids went out and let God speak through them!! How awesome is that??

This is my "crew". The guy in the center is Phillip, our crew chief for the week. He is a 73 year old retired missionary from the IMB who served in the Phillipines for 28 years. And let me tell you, he worked circles around everyone else on the crew!!! We had youth from Washington state, Kentucky, and Alabama.
This is the FIRST roof we completed. We ended up doing TWO more before the week was over!!!

The latest update on our foster care is not so encouraging. We received a letter from the children's home letting us know that our social worker is resigning to return to seminary school. I'm hoping this explains why we have not heard much from them in the last few weeks. We are trying so hard to be patient... It is just so frustrating to know there are so many kids who need homes and we are SO ready to provide that...
God's timing is always perfect.

Summer Time!

Guess where we've been??? We started our summer off with a BANG and went to see Mickey Mouse! We had a GREAT time (of course). The girls have officially finished the school year and we will start in the Fall with a SEVENTH grader!!!! a third grader and our 'baby' goes to Kindergarten. (When did this happen?????)

Here's a recap of what we have done so far with our summer. (And yes, it did just start 3 weeks ago)
-Went to Disneyworld
-Had our first limo ride!
-Got out our waterslide (We've been waiting)
-Completed TWO Vacation Bible Schools (In the same week)
-Swam at the YMCA
-Emma started Summer Camp
-Ellie had a week of Youth VBS (including a trip to the water park, bowling, and a concert)
-Chipper got a haircut (He looks so cute!!!)
-I completed my Hepatitis A shot (why not?)
-The girls participated in the Walk for Life
-We hosted Ellie's youth group for an overnighter
-Completed a preproject work day for our upcoming World Changers Mission Trip
-Finished up some final details for the ABCH (Foster care stuff)
-Attended Todd's 20 year class reunion
-Signed up for the summer reading program
-And the other boring stuff like work...103.8 fevers/ Dr visits... Todd's running irrigation... etc...

No wonder I'm tired!! Hopefully we can slow down (a little) now! I LOVE life even when it's this crazy--

What we are doing now...

One of the verses I have found that I love the most is Psalm 127:1
"Unless the Lord builds a home, the work of the builder is useless." Isn't that an AWESOME thought! You have probably figured out from the picture that we are (almost) a foster care family through the Alabama Baptist Children's Home. I'm officially back to being "giddy" about the thought of a child or children coming into our home---maybe even soon????? It feels SO GOOD to be where you are supposed to be. I struggled (even when things were going great with our Ukraine adoption) if we were doing what we had been called by God to do. God closed doors and opened others, in His perfect timing-and although I would have loved to have the cash back- Ha Ha- other than that it seems like all is working out perfectly according to His will!! Doesn't He mention something about that in the Bible???
I still check in on all my Ukraine friends every now and again and I still pray for you. I still pray for the children of Ukraine. I still pray that doors will be opened, laws will be changed, and children will find HOMES!!! God works ALL over this world and we are so blessed that He has chosen us to be a part of His plans!!!!