Where wisdom gathers, not scatters

This morning I got a early and went to Yoga class. Trying to get my 41 year old body back in shape and keep it going to be able to keep up with my 4 little ones that keep me going full throttle everyday. I'm loving my time to do that because for one it makes me feel better and for two I'm up when the house is quite which gives me set aside time with Jesus so that too helps me keep up with my little ones and remembering my first calling and that is to be their mommy!

So I'm reading the book. "The Best Yes" by Lysa Terkeurst.  It was given to me by a special friend who knows my heart! It has such great writings today I felt I needing to write them down today because I know it is from the Lord. 

When seeking Gods will in decisions we make for our kids..

1. Have you been reading and praying through Gods words lately?

2. Have you been applying God's word to your mothering lately?

3. Have you sought godly counsel and insights from wise people who know specifics about your situation?

If the answer is yes, then I need to remind myself that I was assigned to be my children's mom by God so I have the ability to discern what is best for them!

 

"But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:26

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. Phil. 1:9-10

Who, Me Lord?

Yes, you. I am calling you!

Many of us know the experience of being asked to take on a task that seems much too demanding for us. We're afraid of failure. We make excuses. But by doing so, we may miss the joy of being part of something wonderful!

This is the devotion I read when seeking Gods will for our family to adopt Gabriella. It is so true! While I wasn't sure I could do it and had significant fears I definately would have missed one of my greatest Joys in life! 

Now again the Lord is speaking this to me .When Jesus calls us to follow him, he's not looking for the smartest or the strongest or the most brave. He doesn't check our references or check our resumes. Scripture is full of stories of women and men who were used powerfully by God despite their lack of experience or expertise! 

Guatemala

I could not  even think of another name for my blogpost except for Guatemala because truly it has such big meaning to be right now I can't even make a smaller description.  My heart is leading me in so many directions now I Truely need some clarity but in a country with needs so great I'm pretty sure if I lived here everyday I would never stop feeling overwhelmed!  

Today began with going to a orphanage  and of course the first thing I noticed was the 5 little babies all in bumbo's under a shade tree. Of course my first instinct was to go hold them. Which I did, next thing I know myself and 2 others ended up holding them the rest of the time because truthfully their are too many children not enough nannies. No offense to the home and those that run it they are doing the best they can but it just isn't a family. Their isn't a mom to hold the baby when he is fussy with a tummy ache. They still have so many others. so sad reality is they spend a whole lot of their day in their crib or their bumbo. They have amazing nannies they can just only do so much. So I held a precious baby boy that I immediately had such a bond with and already he recognizes me and desires to be held. Not laid down. He wants to be snuggled like all babies do. He needs to feel that comfort. He needs to learn how to attach. He needs a family, but reality is  he has 3 siblings all in the orphanage. He is very likely to never return home and because he is part of a sibling group he will most likely never be adopted by a Guatemala family and international adoptions are closed. So needless to say my heart is broken again the same way I know Gods heart is. That sin has caused such darkness in this world. At the end of the day though I have to go to bed knowing today there was a momma who loved him. Who cuddled him, who prayed over him and sang Jesus loves me to him and then I just have to Trust!

Seeking Gods heart in Guatemala

Im really in awe that I am here in Guatemala again. I am really here seeking Gods will for our family. I'm still in shock!!

 I am serving here this week with Our Guatemala.  Our focus is delivering bunk beds to those in desperate need of a comfortable spot to lay there head down. We are also serving at El Amor de Patrica, an orphanage here.  My day today begin with loving on orphans at that home. Of course my heart was again broken for the children who endure such injustice. There is so much I could share about that but I'll give 1 example that rips my heart, Baby girl that started out with semi happy personality at 1 year old when she began eating solids starting becoming really sick. Personality changed so she was taking to the hospital where she was immediately put in a colonstamy bag. Visitors of the orphanage fell in love with her and in her behalf began petitioning for her a medical visa so she could come to the states and have the surgery she needs but was denied because they stated it was a risk she wouldn't return to Guatemala. Really,,, this baby is a orphan and because international adoptions Are closed and because she most likely will not be adopted in Guatemala because of her special need. She will most likely have to live with this medical issue that in the states would be so easy to correct. She was denied that right And will very possibly spend her whole life in a orphanage, sickly, with NO family! My heart hurts,

Open doors

"What can I do for you? What can I bring to you beautiful king? Cause I can't thank you enough!"  And His answer is nothing!!!!!

 That song brings me to my knees this morning. All that he has done for us we can do nothing in return He loves us no matter what we do.  Wow I wanna love like that's and most important I want to do all I can to please Him that's loves so graciously and freely. 

 Tomorrow the door that we have waited on for so many years continues to open for our family. I will be heading out to the place the Lord has placed on my heart 7 years ago. I will be going with a group of Guatemala Tia's "aunts" to hopefully just show another glimpse of his goodness to those who might not otherwise know. This will be a vision trip for the Gunter Family. We are not sure what that all means exactly yet. It just means God said Go!" So I am going. I would love your prayers again for safety, for my momma heart because leaving my babies home is heartbreaking, also pray that He will continue to reveal his vision for us and send those to come alongside us to make this possible.  

Antigua journey part 2

 For probably over a year now I have felt that I needed to begin to blog again. So many big things have happened in our lives and I'm not an organized person so atleast having it on a blog I can go back and reflect on my thoughts and everyday happenings within the Gunter Family. Most of all I have felt the need to blog because not doing it I have felt disobedient to God because I feel I have been hiding His story, 

 So I can't really go back because there are too many stories and with a family our size tomorrow is a new day with its own exciting stories. So I will start from today!

  I want to draw near to him! I want to begin new again, I want today or actually tonight to start a new fire in me! I want to live radical, and most of all I want my kids and my husband to see Christ in me as well as everyone else around me! 

 God is at work within our family and I will reveal as He allows me to.

 So for this post. I wanna I guess, introduce myself again. I'm Mica now mom to 7 children. 2 bilogical, 5 adopted. 1 from Guatemala, 1 from Mexico, 1 adopted through DHS, 2 adopted through relative placement. They range from 20 to 1 years old so it definitely keeps me from being bored!

A moment definatly worth blogging about

I'm gonna back up to this summer and share about my son Christian and his mission trip to South Africa. Christian went for 1 month this summer with Global Expeditions to South Africa. The agency was amazing and made me always confindent that my son's safety was number one priority which was awesome! They truely have a heart to lead up teens to share the love of Jesus to the World and are doing a amazing job doing it. Christian served at squatter camps just being the hands and feet of Jesus doing daily chores of life for them. Truely living small moments in there world. Can we even imagine being in there shoes for a day? Nope, not inless youve been there. Being born in raised in the US we are so spoiled to the daily conveniences of life.  He also got to share the love of Jesus and the gift of salvation to the dying in a hospice home for aids victims. This was definatly life changing for Christian but he has accepted the calling to be a missionary for the Lord and loves every minute of it.
Well in the past few weeks the Lord has been stirring so heavy again in the hearts of our family and we had decided to start getting up as a family at 6;15 am everymorning before school and to begin specifically seeking the Lord's will for us and desire for us and believe me HE showed us a huge glimpse last night in our youth service last night at church.

 I have been the director of our youth program on Wed. nights now for about 2 years and my desire has always been to help direct these kids to a personal relationship with Christ. There own relationship with the Lord. We have had alot of fun and it has been growing but lately my heart has been heavy that is was growing in numbers but not in the Love of Jesus. I have also had concerns that my own children were maybe growing stagnit with the exception of Christian and he was growing so fast that I knew we needed to step it up. So with 5 kids of my own and all having different needs and a youth group with all sorts of different family lives and values I knew we needed to start this school year with the main thing first. Getting to know Jesus! So were starting things alittle different and Christian had it on his heart so heavy that he wanted to share the story of salvation with the youth first because without that we could teach all day and they wouldn't ever get it. I wanna lead this youth with Gods help to wanna be disciples of him. I want them to be able to share Jesus with the unbelievers as well as believers when there at school. I want the kids to know that even if they feel like they have no one that is always there, no one whom they can trust completely, no one that loves them back 100%. I want them to know without a doubt they have that with Jesus. That he promises to never leave or forsake them. I want them to know He is a GOD that gave his own son to die on the cross for our sins. He gave up his for them!!
So anyway the LORD did use Christian in a over the top amazing way last night. As Christian led our youth last night. Sharing Jesus with them and how he it is to give all there worries and fears over to him. And that he loves them more than even thing and is just waiting for them to reach out to him. He is a God of miracles even today and last night the Lord showed up perfectly and did perform miracles in the lives of our teens! I am so overwelmed with joy to announce that 6 teens gave there live to the Lord and 2 rededicated there lives to him! Christian had the priviledge to lead his very own peers to the Lord. What a awesome thing to experience.
And because I am Christians mom and this is my blog I have to say that I am so completely and utterly humbled to be this childs mom. What a honor it is and I can only imagine the pride in his heavenly Fathers heart. And just think we can all be that for the Lord. He has given us all special ablilities and talents that we are to use for the one who died for us! What a awesome feeling it is. You know so many worry that you have to give up so much to live for the Lord. Well truth is you do have to give up some things but I can truely tell you the things you gain are so much better. 

Josie's 1st day of kindergarten

I cannot believe the day has come my baby has started school and I know that now is definatly when time starts to fly. She did great though and loves school and her teacher. She says stuff cute though like the teacher's mean though because she writes peoples names on the board:) but she really loves her and the coolest part to her is that the teacher has a baby and Josie loves babies!! I did pretty good taken her for her first day but the day I had to drop her off leaving her to walk to her class all by herself. That was the hard day for me! Everyone told me that she could do it and for me not to worry. even the sweet lady helping the car riders out. She says to me.. dont worry just watch her shell just follow the crowd and go right where whe needs to, well not my Josie she would much prefer to watch her sparkly new shoes!!! so off she went the WRONG way!! That's when I lost it! I so wanted to save her, couldn't stand watching her not know what to do but having to keep going and let her figure it out! But she is a pro now thank goodness. She says MOM , mom I go the right direction now:)  

Fun times!

Happy Easter! He is Risen!

Happy Birthday Josie

March 17- Happy Birthday My Sweet girl!  I just cannot believe it, cannot wrap my mind around the fact that Josie is already 5 years old. OHHHH I wanna stop it! Not only did she have a big birthday yesterday she also had kindergarten registration all in one day! Thank goodness yesterday was a amazing weather day so the kids and I got to  meeet my mom, grandma, and aunt for lunch then picked up my other grandma and spent the afternoon at the park by the lake. It allowed all my crazy anxiety of ALL my kids growing up to  fade away. SO relaxing!

I also had parent-teacher conference for Corie and Pedro. Both are doing great! Teachers are so impressed with Pedro's ability to face his complete life change head on and always being a happy camper at school. The deal is he just loves making and hanging out with his new friends. He loves staying busy and is a very social boy.

Corie as usual is doing great and teachers think the world of her which makes me very happy!

Christian, well his life is just changing, changing, talk about wanting to slow things down. Seems like I just put him in kindergarten now he is driving, scheduling classes for college credits, working and praying about going on a mission trip to Uganda.

I am so proud of all my kids! They are all the loves of my life and simply put "The Loves of my life"

Foster/adopt informational meeting

Anyone that is interested in foster/adoptby Mica Gunter on Thursday, February 17, 2011 at 9:53pm




Monday, February 21



6:30pm The C.A.L.L. Information SessionWhenMon, February 21, 6:30pm – 7:30pm



WhereNew Life Church (map)







DescriptionThis informational meeting for Volunteers and Prospective Foster, Adoptive and Respite Care Parents is a time to come and hear more about ways you can help children in foster care in Faulkner County. You can get your questions answered and begin the paperwork process, if you choose. Please enter through New Life Church's side office doors.







New Life Church



633 S Country Club Rd.



Conway, AR 72034

Pedro's welcome home party

Pedro was given a welcome home party by our church as a sweet token of love and support. We are so thankful to everyone who has come along with us on this journey. God is Good ! He does ALWAYS ALWAYS finish what he started. Thank you Lord for reminding me again that you will always do what you said you will do. Thank you for reminding what faith is and to never give up. Thank you Lord you always do what is best. Thank you Lord for all the provisions you have made for our family. Thank you Lord for your promises that you will always find favor in us and that we and our offsprings are BLESSED!

Pedro's adjustment to his family

 Pedro and our whole family are finally "complete?" and adjusting well. Pedro has surprised me so much in the way that he just jumps in. He went to school just 3 days after entering the US by his choice. Guess he figured there would always be a first day and that just staying home with mom might be pretty boring. He also LOVES to play futbol so to get started in school might have meant making friends to play futbol with. Yes he does have to go at it alone in some classes. He does have 2 spanish speaking teachers, he is in off-season football so that you don't have to know alot of english just what do what he loves to do. Work-out and play! Then several of his other classes are with his sister so it works out pretty good.
 He had his first futbol practice the first weekend he was home to and loved it. He is going to play on a pretty competitive traveling team that the Lord worked out for him during the process and will have a 3 on 3 tournament this weekend. So as you can see we hit the ground running but with adopting a teenager things are much different and you just have to work around there comfort zone and take it one day at a time. There will always be things he does alittle different than my other 2 teenagers because of the big culture difference but overall I think he fits like a glove in our family. So thankful God chose us to be his family and the Lord continues to grows us and there is definatly a new lesson for my kids in this situation. A lesson on compassion within our own family when sometimes we take each other for granted and not treat each other the way we should.
 Pedro also got to experience his first snow! Not sure if he liked the hit in the face he received but sure liked given it. We have snow on the ground today and expect it pretty much all week. So we will continue with new experiences, hopefully go sledding this week and will press on getting to know each other more and more. And as his mom I will say for those that fear adopting a older child, I had so much anxiety even though I knew I loved him and he was a sweet boy and the Lord definatly called us to adopt him, the fear of how to relate and to communicate with him was so scary but let me tell you even as a 14 year old boy there is still a sweetness with momma and her son and communicating, it just takes care of itself.Pedro and his cousin Bryce.

Welcome Home Pedro!

Pedro's Homecoming

We are home safe and sound and Pedro seems to be adjusting very well. I ended up not able to use the computer much while we were on our trip so wasn't able to update here. It was a day to day process though while there until Friday afternoon at 3:00pm we finally had the visa in hand and new 100% we were getting to come home. What a relief! but it truely wasn't until we were off that last plane that i felt at rest. We did have great people to deal with while we were there and other than the Mexican way of timeframe we had a good experience. Pedro is doing well. Really does well when he has the kids to hang with. He was very nervous though once we had the visa in his hand because then it became a reality and he was very nervous of the unknown and everything new. We had a great welcome home though and had our family around all day yesterday, I believe he was surprised but seemed very happy! Since then we have been to church and to the school so he could play on a futbol field with turf rather than dirt and i believe that may have possibly made everything Alright!!! Anyway we are very happy to have this chapter over and begin this new one!

Day 2

Beautiful morning here!!!! Just alitte cold though, I'm sitting in a room beachfront and wearing my coat somethings wrong with that!  Seriously no complaining I have my son here with me and don't have to leave without him,  I had the best cup of coffee this morning that would make Christian and Corie so sad to miss becuase it reminded us of La Casa Grande in Guatemala!! our family favorite. This trip is starting to feel real. Today we are going to say our goodbyes to Mazatlan. The business will begin en la manana.

Pedro's Homecoming

Today we began our trip for Pedro's Homecoming! We arrived safe and sound. Picked Pedro up and his smile has been amazing all day. We had our first one on one Mom and Son conversation today where we truely were able to speak without communication problems. I believe that was just a God gift cause he doesn't speak much English and I don't speak much spanish and most of the time I am jealous because his talks are always with Carrol since he can speak spanish. So anyway Pedro is very happy and he says God time is perfect but for him its alittle bitter sweet cause my sweet boy has a girlfriend! he is very torn to leave her. I know there will be many more but to him she is the world right now and it brings me back to when Carrol and I became boyfriend and girlfriend and many people told me it was just puppy love and I would have many more well that was somewhere around 22 years ago and I am still in love, so I try to take it seriously and realize to him this is very hard. He is such a sweet boy though and just keeps saying how much he thinks of Christian and Corie and Josie and can't wait to be home with them.
Thank you Lord for your opportunities! thanks for opening our eyes to the specialness of adoption! Thank you Lord for my family!

Woohoo!!! we are going to MEXICO! we will be traveling on Monday to pick Pedro up! I CANNOT believe this is finally coming to an end. Wont rest though till we hit the US soil with him though. Praise the Lord.

SO much going on!

As of today we are still waiting on the call from the US embassy in Mexico city to tell us our case is ready to pick up. So here is the details apparently I dont' know if this is only for Mexico or other country but the case still isnt complete without a final approval from the Mexican Ministry of Foriegn Affairs SRE. Our case is complete at the US Embassy, so we have our I-800 approval from USCIS on Dec. 2,2010. We were issued our Article 5 on January 3,2010 and now we wait on the Article 23 from the SRE. UGHHHH!! another Mexican office, which totally throws me for a loop because the last step to bringing my child home lies in the hands of people that work on NO time schedules!! but I was told from the very awesome officers at the Embassy I should know anyday. SO believe when I say I am so sick of waiting ONE MORE DAY!
Once the SRE does say our case has been processed though we travel. We go to that office to pick up the Article 23. Get a Dr. appt for the TB test and as soon as that is read we will get our visa interview and Get home as quick as possible with our son onto US soil!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So God has ofcourse been up to more!!! And shook me to the core and definatly put me up to a test. I have been privatly so worried about how we would even afford to pick Pedro up. We found out that Carrol and I both have to go for the visa interview which of course added lots of money to the bill by me having to fly as well. And we can't fly round trip becuase we have to travel to pick up Pedro then travel to Mexico City then the 3 of us will have to get a last minute one way flight home. Not to mention hotel stay in the city which is not cheap for 5 days! SO needless to say that is very overwelming! but I just kept telling myself that God will provide, He has chosen this timing so HE knows and I just have to give it to him and not worry!! Yeah right that is not easy for me.... SO I decided that now was the time we had to get very serious at hearing the LORD and trusting him. So I began to fast. Very desperate true fasting trusting and believing he would show us how he was going to take care of this problem. HE did... He blessed me with a significant raise at my work that was very overwelming!  Praise Praise! So then as my family was resting at the end of the day enjoying watching Forrest Gump, laughing and carring on... I got a phone call from DHS! yep even though we were on break to bring Pedro home feeling like that was the best decision for now, He tested me. The call was for a child with Down Syndrome that no one was excepting affraid of his illness and feeling that was more than they cold handle. SO all I could do was tell the lady I would call her back... I hung up the phone and Balled my eyes out because I knew without a doubt the Lord was speaking!! My whole family began to cry. He was promising he would always take care of us and needed to know that I would take care of his child. Take care of the least of these MICA.  Well ofcourse we took this precious 3 year old boy with down syndrome. Scared to death of what to expect and of course GOD showed himself when this child was placed with us. My whole family with the exception of my precious daughter Corie who has always had a heart for special needs children, was so nervous that we couldn't do this. Well I will say in a instant the Lord has changed our hearts, I watched Christian go from a look of fear to a look to true love and compassion. It is simply overwelming what the Lord has done in our lives through one simple yes. It is amazing how he taught me what a true fasting is! It is amazing the things he has planned for our lives that we would truely never expect. Though Pedro isn't home yet and my hearts hurts for him to be home with us I know that to the Lord one day is like a thousand to him. He has a perfect plan and I know there has been many lives changed through this process and I believe and know Pedro will be home and all of this process will seem like nothing other than a growth in our faith! 

Update

I am just not as good at blogging as I used to be and I am not sure why other than I guess I have to sit and think about things all day I am tired of them by the time I can write so anyway, Where we are now is our case has been forwared to Mexico City and that will be where Carrol will be traveling with Pedro to the US Embassy. Our case is there and they requested that I send Pedro's new Birthcertificate with his new name and copy of his passport as well as passport photos and the visa application. The reason this step is taking so long is because after going crazy I found that my case sat at the USCIS for 8 days after approval. Then at the National Visa Center (which FYI folks that have been approved of there I-800 there is a phone # and E-mail to contact at the NVC so that you can track your case) There it sat for 5 days without moving. Now we are at Mexico City going on 1 week waiting for approval to travel! UGGHH   So sadly no Pedro will not make it home for Christmas but hopefully they will atleast grant us a travel date tommorrow before everyone goes on Christmas break so that atleast I can rest becuase everyday that they make us wait makes the dreadful fear of something going wrong again come back into my mind. So say a little prayer for us. We have spoken to Pedro on the phone and he is still very excited about coming home and ofcourse we can't wait!

And as for the rest of the Family, everyone is great. Tonight we celebrated Jesus's Birthday and it sure tells me that all the time I spend worring and fretting on when and if Pedro is coming home I should be spending that time with the Lord and trusting him! And instead of fretting over Pedro not being home for Christmas I need to remember there is something even more special than that and that was our Jesus was born to be Savior of the World!