Whitney Jayden Elizabeth Michelle Turner!

We spent the day in Lake Geneva for Jayden' dedication. It was very nice outside so we decided to take some family pics.
I really like this picture. It is not posed, just us paying attention to Penner. It says a lot about our lives now.

My best friend and sister Miriam. I wish that she lived closer so that we could spend more time together, but I am happy for her because she really loves living in Lake Geneva.

My cousin Andrea, Miriam and me. I love this picture. It makes me want to spend more time with them.

My mom and dad with Penner.

The whole family. This was the best picture of all of us. Out of all of the pictures we took Penn was not looking at the camera in any of them. And unfortunately for Sean most people looked good in this one. To bad his eyes were shut.

This is my cousin Jasmin and her new daughter Whitney Jayden. She is not really that new, Jasmin has been taking care of her as her foster parent since she was 3 months old! But it is now going to be official. Jasmin and her husband Jon have loved Jayden as their own daughter since the day she came into their home, but now they get to adopt her and rename her Whitney Jayden.

Sean and I love Jayden so much and I am so happy and thankful to God that she is going to be a part of our family. It has been hard for us not to know whether or not she would be adopted for sure, but God answered all our prayers when Jayden's birth mother and father terminated their parental rights, and Jasmin and Jon started the adoption process.

I know that it is not the ideal situation. Ideally every child would have wonderful birth parents who are equipped to take care of them and help them know Christ. But that is just not the way things are. But what a beautiful picture adoption is. A picture of God's love and adoption of us. This is a victory for God's family and I am overjoyed to have seen the way God moved and worked throughout this entire situation.

On Sunday Whitney Jayden was dedicated at Calvary church. Baby dedication is not baby baptism. Instead it is making a commitment as a church and as friends and family to come along side Jon and Jasmin in a commitment to help Jayden know and love God more. How beautiful.

I am just so overwhelmed by God's love for us. As I see Jon and Jasmin's love and adoption of Jayden as a picture of God's love for us. I see how many tears and prayers went into Jayden's life. I see how she has been saved from a life of deafness and destruction and adopted into a life and family of hearing and light and life. This is what God has done for me. He has save me from a life of destruction and darkness and adopted me as His child. And this is what God desires for everyone, He wants all to come to Him as His children. 2 Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." Thank you Jon and Jasmin for allowing God to use you. Thank you for being willing to share His love, it is a huge blessing.
Galatians 4: 4-7

"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God."