Las Tres Amigas (Instead of Los Tres Amigos)

Today's blog is a bit unique in that it is not specifically about daily life and ministry here in Mexico. However, I truly feel led to share this part of my personal life with you and trust that the Lord will use it in your own lives!

I want to share with you about Julie, Julie and Julie.

Julie (Lambers) Faulkner and I spent our junior high years at Bedford Junior High School in Temperance, Michigan and became the best of friends...the kind of best friends that last forever! At the end of eighth grade, Julie told me that she would be going to a private high school! Devastation for a 13 year old! Very quickly, the Michael W. Smith song “Friends” became our personal theme: “Friends are friends forever if the Lord is the Lord of them.” That has proven true!

Julie and I with her daughter Justine when I was in Toledo, OH this past May!
Her WHOLE family came to visit me at my home church!

While our lives separated a bit while we went to college, got married and had our first children, the Lord, in His grace and mercy, has seen fit to draw us closer together once again. Julie is now a Godly wife and mother of three beautiful daughters in central Ohio. Two of her precious daughters are biological and she and her husband, even though they could have had another child (it would have been risky for her health as her second pregnancy was very difficult), believe in the Lord's mandate to care for the orphan and decided to adopt. The Lord brought them another gorgeous daughter into their family! She and her family just finished spending this summer at an orphan ministry in Monterrey, Mexico! Who would have dreamed when we were two awkward pre-teen junior high buddies that some day we would both be ministering in Mexico to abandoned children with children who are adopted! Not me! But God did!

Julie and her family on the way to their summer of service in Mexico.

You can check out her family's blog at: http://back2backer.wordpress.com/

Julie (Beam) Kurrle and I became friends during college at Anderson University. While we knew each other and shared an apartment with two others gals our senior year, our friendship was not the deepest or closest, we simply had other "best" friends. Not long after college, Julie married Norberto Kurrle and they soon moved to Paraguay as full-time, and if I know them, lifelong missionaries. Reading her blog now makes me laugh because so many of their experiences could have shown up on our blog! She and her husband have a beautiful little boy, Timothy, who already has my approval to marry our little Ruth someday:-)

Julie and her beautiful family

Then, over a year ago, the Lord stirred their hearts to begin the adoption process in Paraguay. Once again, their conviction to adopt was born directly in the Word of God and his mandates for us to care for the orphans! Just a few weeks ago, I was thrilled to open my email and find a picture of Norberto, Julie and Timothy with their little girl that they had just met for the first time! Please pray fervently with me as the adoption is still in process. Just yesterday, their lawyer met with the judge who could have moved the process forward a giant step, but decided to contemplate the situation over the weekend and let Norberto and Julie know on Monday if she will allow the adoption to move forward. She has a reputation for being a tough judge. Please pray that the Lord would soften her heart towards this adoption.

You can keep up with the Kurrle's by following their blog at: http://kurrles.blogspot.com/

It is incredible to me to see how the three of us share so much more besides our first names! We have one common love above all other loves – Jesus Christ! We share a heart for Latin America! Our hearts beat with a passion for adoption!

Last week I wrote both Julie and Julie asking their permission to share a bit about them. You can see so transparently who they are by the responses they gave to my request:

Julie, I am honored and will pray that all the glory goes to God. That is fine! I love watching him continue to weave our stories together, as you and your faith are a huge encouragement to me. Tomorrow we are leaving for the states. These past 2 months went by SO fast! Much Love, Julie

Hi Julie,
Great to hear from the busy mama!!! I would be honored to have you link us on your blog. Julie, I have been mutually encouraged and inspired by your zeal for the Lord and passion for the orphan. God has formed a bond that the miles cannot separate.

Would you have people pray for our adoption process? Our attorney went before the judge yesterday on our behalf and we will have to wait until Monday for her response. She is a difficult judge and soon we will need to have our interview with her to share why we want to adopt. We just want to be salt and light!
We are praying for little Daniel as well.
Love and blessings,
Julie

At the time that I became friends with both of these precious women, our friendships were born out of finding ourselves in similar circumstances and sharing a common love for Jesus Christ and a desire to do His will. I never imagined where we would all be today and that I would still have the incredible privilege of having these women in my life!

I am sure that my parents prayed all the way through my childhood, teenage years and into young adulthood (and maybe even now:-) that God would provide Godly friends for me…and was that prayer ever answered! (There are so many other friends that could be added to this list, but these two women stood out because of our unexpected commonalities!) I know now that those girls were not just Godly friends for that season of life, but that the beating of their hearts became part of my heartbeat and we continue to beat for Christ, spread across thousands of miles, but beating all the same…hearts for Christ, hearts for the lost and hearts for the abandoned and orphaned. I truly marvel at God’s sovereignty! What richness and true treasure has He provided for me through the longevity, depth, realness and incredible similarities, and rich differences, in these friendships!

At the time, my friendship with these two seemed the most natural and logical thing for that point in life – girls who had similar personalities as mine, shared my commitment to Christ and some of the same classes in our schedules! Now I know it was so much more than that! It was all a part of God’s intricate threadwork in His tapestry of my life! I can't wait to see how the masterpiece turns out! Thank you, Jesus, for Julie and Julie! Bless their living and their loving and thank you that we will have all of eternity together!

Extra note: If you would like to know more about how the Lord's heart beats for orphans and how your heart can begin to beat in sync with His, please visit: http://www.icareaboutorphans.org/
I truly believe that the Lord can, and wants, to touch many of your hearts to foster parent and even adopt! Remember: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." There is Somebody and somebody waiting for you!