WALTER IS TWO!

It's Walter-man's 2nd birthday!! YAY! 

Now... we love our dog.  Who wouldn't?... just look at him! 

We've learned a lot from him in the last 2 years... 

Sleep is important... any way, shape, or form. 

Love is the best thing EVER!!!! Being excited about seeing the people you love is ALWAYS fun!!! So excited, in fact, that you may pee all over yourself EvErYdAy! 

Friendship is so good.  Wrestling and biting and playing and being together... doesn't get better than that.

Puppy eyes still do the trick

He's definitely our entertainment. He makes you smile even when you don't want to. He loves to take YOU on walks. When you see his crazy eyes... get out of the way! 

 He loves his family... I love it too! Glad Walter is a part of it! Can't wait for Walt to meet Eric! And yes... I did devote a whole blog post to my dog... get over it! 

the beauty...

Lately... I've just been enjoying the beauty of life. 

The beauty of new opportunities.

I am now selling Origami Owl jewelry to continue our fundraising efforts for adoption and our upcoming mission trip to Costa Rica. 

Check our the amazing jewelry at www.annamorgan.origamiowl.com .  

If you have any problems or questions email me at annamorgan121909@gmail.com. It's a great gift for Valentine's Day or for yourself! I love mine! 

The beauty of a job well done... and COMPLETION 

Jacob graduated and got his degree! So proud of him! 

The beauty of COMMUNITY

I got to serve alongside these amazing people at BEHOLD camp. It was probably my last year to be there because hopefully this time next year ERIC WILL BE HERE and I'll be spoiling him!!! But... my many years working Behold have continually showed me the importance and beauty of community founded IN HIM! It's so beautiful... 

The beauty of my Jesus... 

My Jesus is beautiful and He sends me reminders all the time of His perfect character and beautiful heart. I am learning so much about Him right now.  I want my heart and life to get to a point that my JOY, my ENERGY, and my perseverance comes when I'm just thinking about my Jesus. He is so good. He is faithful. He loves me greatly. 

The Morgans have a lot coming up that I am super pumped about:
Community-wide Disciple Now (YAY FOR UNITY!)
Youth ski trip
Costa Rica mission trip
Continuing Bible study
Plans for the summer

God is doing a lot in this simple gal's heart... and I adore it. 

Doing another Beth Moore study, "Jesus, The One and Only." We are studying... GUESS... JESUS!! One of the lessons was about how God picked Mary, a simple Galilean teenager, to be the mother of Jesus. She says "How I love the way God works! Just when we decide He's too complicated to comprehend, He draws stick pictures." 

LOVE THAT!!! Thankful He uses and teaches and loves and disciplines and reveals His heart to stick people like me... 

Freedom In Surrender!

First, happy birthday yesterday to one of my favorite people, Kelli! Thankful for my friend!!! Thankful for my pastor's wife!!! Thankful for our relationship... we are each other's comfort here in Troy! :) She's preggers BTW!!! YAY! 

Yep... FREEDOM IN SURRENDER! 

Usually when I think of surrender, I picture someone waving a little white handkerchief, symbolizing weakness and giving up... leading them to captivity under the enemy. Well... not with Jesus. You know, He likes to mix everything up... he likes oxymorons.. so, Surrender is Freedom. Let me explain...

Before Christmas... I literally felt CRAZY with anxiety... CRAZY... really! Anxious over the adoption... mad because we didn't have a picture of our cute fella... nervous that our paperwork was taking so long... upset because I couldn't control it... and just frazzled because that's how I am.  God FINALLY got my attention after a few melt downs... and said HEY! THIS IS MY ADOPTION JOURNEY... I JUST INVITED YOU TO BE A PART OF IT! I LOVE YOU. I FIGHT FOR THE ORPHANS. I WILL HAVE VICTORY OVER INJUSTICE. NOW... SHUT UP... AND LET ME FIGHT FOR YOU. YOU JUST NEED TO TELL MY STORY, WAIT ON ME, AND LISTEN WHILE YOU ARE WAITING. 

Slap in the face, eh? O yes! It is His story. Eric is His. He is working on my behalf! On Jacob's behalf! On Eric's behalf! Yes... He is! 

Now... me and God had some words... I still hate waiting... LOATHE waiting... and He knows it. I still want a picture of my boy... I wish it would hurry up... but I am believing God. I'm surrendering MY plans, MY dreams, MY timeline, MY... MY... MY.  I am trading my worry for His joy, and BOY, is it so much better! 

Beth... Beth Moore that is... gave me a holy slap to the face again this morning. Guess what it was about... WAITING!!! Isaiah 40:31 says that those who wait UPON THE LORD will renew their strength!!! Well, Beth made the point that, for the most part, when we are waiting on/for something and we are constantly discouraged and defeated it's because we are waiting UPON that thing/event and not on the Lord. OUCH!!! That was totally me - waiting UPONG the adoption, the picture, the paperwork, the approval, the hurry up... I WAS NOT WAITING UPON THE LORD!!! If I was waiting upon THE LORD, I would have had strength, joy, perseverance, and peace!!! I definitely did not have that!!! O... we must WAIT UPON HIM ALONE!!!! 

She also said something that encouraged me to infinity and BEYOND! She said, The longer we have to wait, the more the Lord is working for us in the heavenlies!!!! Yes, please work on our behalf!!! isn't that a cool thought though??? I love it! We wait... while He works... because He loves us that much! 

Now... onto my prayer words.  :)
So, since I got married, God has given me different WORDS to pray each year. 

2010 - FREEDOM
2011 - VICTORY
2012 - FAITH/BELIEVE

For 2013, I believe my word is AWARE!!! To be aware of His leading, His plans, and His love.  To know when to talk and when to shut up. To be AWARE of what He is doing... instead of forcing what I want to do.  Yep... awareness is what I need. I like this song for my 2013 prayer word anthem! 

It's Twenty Thirteen.. already amazing!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

I've been having too much fun to blog. But, as promised, here's some awesome pictures (with our new camera) of some of my favorite people.  I got to spend 3 whole days with these beautiful gals:

I love them. I don't know what I'd do without them... really. A girl surely needs friends she can just let loose with... talk about the hard stuff with, laugh with, shop with, sit around in p.j.s with, eat with, clean with,... and most of all... be herself with. These are my girls. I love them tremendously.

My Em... my college roomie... bunkbed mate... best friend ever.  She gets me and loves me... all my craziness included.  She even went to Africa with me... that's true love. Don't we look identical?  People have FOR REAL asked us if we were twins... one dude even thought we were the same person.  I know... I'm confused as you about that one. 

My Lindsey Jo. I love her. I knew as soon as I met her she was suppose to be my sister... and that's what she's become. She's wonderful.  She's living life in the fast lane and loving every bit of it. I love her heart and her family and when I grow up I'm gonna be like her! So thankful for her friendship.

They are beautiful - I hope you have friends like them.

I surely missed Beck and Ames during the visit! 

THEN... we got to go to one of my favorite things ever... PASSION 2013!!! Oh... how Jesus is lifted high there! And... not only did I get to go... I got to interpret!!! AHHH!!!! My dream come true.  I have had the privilege to interpret at this conference for the past three years... all because EMILY told me they had interpreters at Passion and that I should be one of them. So... I started emailing... and they responded!!!! And I have had the amazing privilege to interpret for so many of the people I look up to and learn from!!! AMAZING! Here's some pics from the trip! 

The High School seniors heading to the GA DOME!!! So much expectation packed into that van!!! I love them with all my heart. God is going to do IMMEASURABLY more with them!  I know God worked some big works in their lives!!!! So thankful! 

My hubs... so thankful I get to live life with this fella. He is amazing... He really is. He is my leader and my best friend. 

No big deal... just hanging out with 60,000 of my closest friends... worshipping Jesus!!! O... so good! 

The most amazing interpreting team you could ask for!!! So blessed to work with them! God put this team together.. for sure!!! It was SO awesome to see the Deaf students worship Jesus WITH us... to see how they GOT it... to see them laugh with the rest of the dome... to sing... to lean into what Jesus had for them at Passion 2013! So good! 

The amazing mentees from Troy University!!! So blessed to be their "leader"... as they call me. I know I don't talk about my job much on here... it's not because I don't enjoy it (most of the time). I love my job because I get to invest in faces like these!! To love on them in the everyday stresses of life. Sometime I don't do a good job of it... but this is my mission field.  I love my job because I love the students in our program. I love to see them enjoy interpreting, invest in the lives of the Deaf, for them to see their potential, and for them to know that I BELIEVE IN THEM! 

Interpreting for the Passion Band.

My spastic face while interpreting for Beth Moore.  She's my best friend... she may not know it... but BY GOLLY... she has taught me SO much and I just love her passion for the Word and for Jesus. SO SO SO stinking honored to put her message into ASL. 

I had the BEST time interpreting for Lecrae with this girl, SUNSHINE! Such a fun story too - So... I got up to interpret for Lecrae and was jamming out! Well... we had a couple of Deaf students who did not know sign language and relied on lip reading.  Well... I love interpreting for Lecrae but I do not know every word he is spittin'.  BUT.. this girl did!!! Sunshine, who just HAPPENED to join the signing section THAT session - probably a God thang!  So... the interpreter coordinator pulled her up there and we jammed TOGETHER!! And... for the first time, perhaps, those students got to experience the amazingly Biblical lyrics of Lecrae... a rapper!!! So fun!!! 

p.s. while I was up there... I had NO CLUE what Sunshine was doing... but I invited her up on the platform with me so we could party together!!! I didn't find out the cool God-story until after!! I had no idea what we were doing there together... I just thought it was fun! 

Jammin' to Lecrae! 

Thankful for the days in 2013 already. 

So excited for what this year holds... I hope Eric will become a Morgan within the year!!!!! PRAYING AND WAITING AND LEARNING!