Fingerprints and the Jesus Tree

Yesterday, Jason and I went and got fingerprinted for the I-600A which is the advance application for processing an orphan petition which is pretty much the start of the VISA application for our son.  Hopefully getting the approval will not take longer than two weeks.  Once we receive that we can send our dossier off to Holt (our adoption agency) and then to Uganda!  So, once again it is the waiting game. But we are trusting in God's perfect timing in all of this!

At Christmas time we did the Jesse Tree together as a family.  It made our Christmas much more meaningful as we focused on the real reason for Christmas and didn't worry about gifts, food, decorations etc!  I wanted to do something for Easter that had the same focus...focus on Christ and not on the Easter bunny, decorations, baskets and candy. As I was reading the book, No Ordinary Home by Carol Brazo, I found my answer...The Jesus Tree.  So since March our family has been reading about the life of Christ each night and hanging an ornament on our Jesus Tree.  The ornaments are made of felt and represent something from  each story in the life of Christ.  The Jesse Tree is a journey from creation to the birth of Christ,  and the Jesus Tree takes you through his life, teachings and miracles.  If you want your own Jesus Tree you can go over to http://www.ordinarymiracleoflife.blogspot.com/ and she can email you the template!  I used her template for the ornaments and I used the Bible readings that accompany the template.  For our tree I used burlap fabric and brown paint and  just painted a tree on the burlap.  There are many other options too.  Ann Voskamp has a beautiful Passion tree over at her blog http://www.holyexperience.com/. 

Have a great weekend!
Love
Tracy