Stay tuned...

Put it on your calendars.  On December the 8th we have our appointment to find out if our little one, is a boy or a girl.  So, since we have quite a few relatives that want to know, and we can't call everyone at the same time, we will post what we find out later on that evening.  Also, if you were wondering what you can do to help us, you can send us a whole bunch of cash.  Just kidding!!!  Seriously, what you can do to help is to pray for us, and send Lauren some encouraging words every now and then.  I know it's not best, but I don't mind having a big belly, but it gets to her sometimes.  Anyways, just remember to check your email, or the blog, on the evening of December the 8th.

Love you all,
Lance

Welcome to the family...

Hey, it’s Lance.

I wanted to take a minute and tell everyone about the newest addition to the Morgan family.  Her name is Lillian.

Also, I want to let you in on a secret.  I can get pretty emotional, so all of these words that have been typed have definitely stirred up tears, smiles, laughter, and love. 

About 3 months ago, Lauren and I had this conviction of blessing. (Yes I came up with that saying, and have trademarked it.)  What I mean by that is we have been blessed, so now we are to be a blessing.  Both of us grew up going to church, and we both have parents that have taught us about tithing, and how all that we “own” we really don’t.  (If that last statement didn’t make sense please email me, and I would love to talk with you, and explain it).  So, back to the conviction of blessing.  We are officially debt free, meaning there is no debt that is associated to either one of our names, residence, or social security numbers (or dog’s name).  Because God has pushed and prodded us to that point, we are able to do more with the resources that He has provided us.

Now, time for that last paragraph to make sense.

There are tithes, and then there are offerings.

Yes, they are two DIFFERENT things.

Lauren and I had our conviction of blessing, and it hit us pretty hard, because there are a lot of different things that we are both passionate about.  Shockingly they aren’t the same exact things.

That just confirms the whole “opposites attract” theory.

I had some organizations, and ministries in mind that I were gung ho, and all about what they were doing.  “To Write Love on Her Arms”, “XXX Church”, “Charity Water”, and a few others.  But Lauren only had one that she said verbally.

World Vision

Little did we know, but a few days later we would be asked to help volunteer at World Vision concert. (Actually two, but we could only make it to one of them.)  Thanks Mom.  The band was “Casting Crowns”, and the night was amazing.  It was so cool to be a part of an organization that doesn’t agree that love of Jesus should only be for those that are your neighbors, or your co-workers, or your distant relatives.  The love Jesus is, is for ALL.

“For God so loved the WORLD…”

World Vision is helping to show remote countries that the love of Jesus exists for them too.  They go to communities in countries all of over the world and ask the Elders of the town how they can help provide support for the community, but more importantly they tell them that they want to help their children prosper and be shown love by people who want to love them.

So, I don’t know when they showed up to Lillian’s community, but they did, and they took a picture, and wrote down her name and birth date.

Back to the concert…

Lauren and I, like I said, were there to volunteer, and help World Vision that night.  And we were, but little did we know, but God was watching a “Devine Intervention” unfold.

What I would give to have that view on life sometimes.

It was after the intermission, and after we had helped quite a few people register to sponsor kids that were all ages, sizes, colors, ethnicities, etc… that we were sitting, and listening to Mark Hall, lead singer for “Casting Crowns”, that Lauren leaned over and reminded me of what we had talked about 3 months ago.

Have you ever noticed those scenes in a movie, when one of the characters was reminded of a conversation by someone asking them a question.  And then the director of the movie does one of those fast rewinds, the one that goes through everything the character had done up until the moment the conversation happened.

I had one of those, and boy was it an exhilarating ride.

It was quickly followed by me realizing that this was God’s mighty hand at work.  I was able to realize in a split second that He orchestrated all of this, and that everything was already put in place for us to act accordingly to what He wanted us to do.

So, we did.

We decided that we were going to go to the stack of children that were born in May, and then take the first one we saw that was born on the 15^th.  (If you can’t figure out the date of May 15^th, then please read some of our previous posts).  About three children in, there was Lillian, the one God had chosen for us.  So we asked a volunteer to help us fill out all the paperwork, even though we should have already known how to do that because we were helping other people fill out their forms.  But, we had just been instructed on how to fill out the paperwork properly, and I don’t know about Lauren, but I was wondering the whole time our leader was talking, “How does he get his beard to look so full, and fluffy?”

Anyways…

We filled out the paperwork, and helped tear down the booth, the whole time I couldn’t get out of my head, that we have a responsibility.  God has put us in charge of showing this little girl the love that He has for her.

I told Lauren, one day, one day I want to meet her.  Not that I don’t believe she exists, but because I want her to feel the love that we have for her, I want to hug her, and be able to communicate with her verbally. 

As our little one grows inside of Lauren, my anxiousness builds by the second.  I can’t wait to hold our little one in my arms and tell her/him that not only do I love him/her, but the creator of the universe loves her/him with NO strings attached.  Also, I can’t wait until he/she is old enough, to tell her/him that they have a big sister that lives in Kenya, and her name is Lillian.