Thursday, August 13, 2009

Three Hours of Prayer

****UPDATED AGAIN****Just for your information, we've decided not to have Garrett there with us. The situation is likely going to be more tense than we had originally hoped and we feel that we need to keep him away from the meeting. Please continue to lift him up in prayer. We can see the effect that the past 5.5 months of stress have had on him. Troy and I could use a lot of prayer as well. We are feeling incredibly taxed emotionally.

***UPDATED*** You guys are awesome. In less than 18 hours all of the slots were filled. If you would still like to be added to the "official" list, just let me know and I will add you to whatever slot you'd prefer. If you'd like to pray earlier or later, let me know what time and I will extend the hours. Of course, you can just pray without being added to list if you'd like. Again--I am so thankful for you!

Saturday.

We meet BF on Saturday.

I'm more than just a little apprehensive about the whole situation. Here is where you can help. The plan is that we will meet him at a local church from 12:00 pm-2:00 pm mountain time*. We are attempting to work out the details. We actually had them all worked out two weeks ago but then his flight wasn't scheduled to arrive until after we had planned to start the meeting so, on Monday, we were, in a sense, back to the drawing board. We're hoping and praying that he is at the meeting point by noon because the facilitator can only stay until 2:00. Garrett will be there for at least part of the time. I have a friend who will be on sight and available to take Garrett at any point.

I would love it if I could have someone dedicated to actively pray for us during every minute of that meeting. I'd also love to start the prayer a little early and extend a little later than the scheduled meeting time. The Lord has blessed me with so many wonderful readers and I thought that, maybe, you would want to sign up to pray for ten minutes on Saturday. (Of course if you want to pray longer, that would be perfectly wonderful.)

Things to pray for: Safety and security of all involved. We are particularly worried about how this will effect Garrett. Pray that BF might do a 180 degree turn in his view of us as Matthew's parents. Pray that, by the grace of God, BF might see Christ in us. Pray that the logistics of his arrival work out. Pray that Matthew will behave in such a way that BF sees that he is happy, healthy and well adjusted but also realizes the challenges involved in having a baby. Pray that we would be honoring of BF as Matthew's natural father. Of course, please pray for anything else that you can think of.

If you are interested in being a part of this prayer time, please leave a comment and tell me what time(s) you would like me to put you down for. I will fill in the time slots by updating this blog entry. If you want to pray but someone has already signed up for the time you wanted, please sign up to pray then anyway. Truly this is a "the more the merrier" kind of situation.

If you do not know how to comment, click on the bottom of this entry where it says "comments". Then, select anonymous. Please put time slot you will be praying and then your name so that I know who you are. If you want to pray anonymously that is fine but I'd really love to know who you are. If, after this lesson, you still can't figure out how to comment, please email me with your time and I will add it onto my blog.

Troy and I will be praying extensively between now and Saturday. However, it may be a little difficult for us to "pray without ceasing" while we are navigating the waters of meeting BF. Please join us in three hours of ceaseless prayer for Matthew. And thank you.

Three Hours of Prayer
11:00 MST-- Sarah

11:30 MST-- Marcus & Piper
11:40 MST-- Sabrina, Heather
11:50 MST-- Ginny
12:00 MST-- Jayni
12:10 MST-- Maritza, Lynnae
12:20 MST-- Jo
12:30 MST-- Kelli & David
12:40 MST-- Jamie, Jana
12:50 MST-- Jon & Mary Lou
1:00 MST-- Heidi, J'Lene
1:10 MST-- Raine
1:20 MST-- Verna
1:30 MST-- Krista
1:40 MST-- Heather & Nick
1:50 MST-- Ashby
2:00 MST-- Trish
2:10 MST-- Jon & Heather
2:20 MST-- Laura

*For those who don't know, Mountain time is one hour ahead of Pacific time (i.e. when it is 1:00 here in Utah it is noon PST) It is one hour behind Central time and two hours behind Eastern time. Hope that helps. :-)

30 comments:

  1. 11:30-We (Marcus and I) have been praying for your family since this whole thing started. Reading your blog has been an encouragement and blessing. love, Piper

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  2. Lori and Troy, this is Jayni. I will be praying for you all at 12:00pm Mountain Time on Saturday. Love to you all.

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  3. Hi Lori- I'll take 12:30 MT. David and I will be praying for you all the time from now until after your meeting with the BF, but we'll be praying extra hard & with extra specificity at 12:30. We love you and really hope that good things come from this meeting!
    -Kelli

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  4. I'll sign up for 11:40 MST specifically. Love, Sabrina

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  5. i'll take the 1:00 slot. but can you remind me, how many hours ahead is mountain standard time? i'm a retard when it comes to things like that.

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  6. 11:50 MST officially, but without ceasing in general.

    mom

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  7. 1:10 is covered in prayer, and all of you are in my prayers daily

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  8. I would like to sign up for the 12:10 spot.

    Maritza Kizzar

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  9. 12:20 MT although I've had it on my calendar for prayer for a while now. We will be praying.

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  10. I'll be helping at an event at church during that time, but I just wanted to let you know that I have been praying ever since I saw that you had this meeting coming up and will continue to do so. Can't wait to see how these prayers are answered!

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  11. 2:20 - My name is Laura (I've been lurking for a while) and I will keep you all in my prayers up until this meeting and will pray on Saturday that as BF leaves your meeting he will know that his son is safe and well loved in your arms.

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  12. Lori and Troy -
    I would love to pray for you on Saturday - put me down for 12:40 and if you can't get it all filled - let me know and I can pray for another time slot too. I'll be thinking and praying that whole time anyway. God bless you

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  13. GGP & GGM will take the 12:50 time slot, if this is still open.

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  14. Uncle Jon and Aunt Heather will take 2:10 MST. Good luck with the meeting, and may God bless you with strength and peace.

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  15. I'll be praying specifically at 1:30MST.

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  16. Lori, my dear friend. I will be thinking of you all day, but I will pray for you at 2:00 MST.

    Lots of Love,
    TRISH

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  18. I'll take the 1:40 slot :) I will have nick pray as well :) Hope everything goes well and I know God has a great plan for this meeting! :)

    ~Heather Head

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  19. I will be praying for you guys. :)

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  20. I will most definitely be praying for your family between now and tomorrow evening! It is an honor to keep up with what is going on with you and to hold you up in prayer. I follow your blog and look forward to your posts. (I have a link from my site: queridafamiliablog.blogspot.com)

    Love,
    Renee

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  21. I will pray at 11:00.
    Sarah Abrahams

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  22. I didn't sign up for a specific time, but I'll be praying for you Saturday.

    This was a great idea!

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  23. We prayed during 'our time' and still praying throughout the day. I took the time today to update Matthew's button, I had noticed it was getting chopped off on different people's pages, yours included. This should be more user friendly. :)

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  24. I am praying, even right now and very unofficially, but thought you may want to know anyway :) Hang in there. Lots and lots and lots of people are praying - God is good!

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  25. I'll be praying too...with the newest events unfolding especially....

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  26. Lori, it's J'lene! I'll pray along with Heidi at 1:00 if that's ok. Dave and I have been praying for you, but will definitely be saying an extra one for you and your family tomorrow.

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  27. We have been praying for you guys... and we will especially pray during these three hours!
    We miss you and are excited to maybe get to see you soon!
    Lots of love,
    Michelle and Kevin

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  28. i will be praying for you guys specifically at 11.10

    you can do this!

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