Baby News!

We are delighted to announce to you that we are about to have a baby!!
We are 8 months pregnant!! :))

Deep in the South Pacific, in the beautiful islands of the Marshall Islands, there is a baby who will be born in a month. This baby is soon going to be our new son or daughter!!

Wow! The Lord has moved quickly!! It was just about a month ago that Richard and group of staff led by Renee Loux of the Orphan justice Center, and her mother, Flo, (a pominent missionary in the Marshall Islands), traveled on a ministry trip to Northwest Arkansas to serve the pastors of a large group of people from the Marshall Islands. These pastors have transplanted here in the states. this meeting was a first of its kind and it was quite an honor to be invited.

There leaders had been praying for several years for God to lead people to them; people who would help show them God's keys to bring answers to hardships in their community. During the meeting, after the Marshallese worship and prayer time, pastors shared their hearts. the OJC team was very aware that God was opening a door to have a deep impact in the future within this precious community. Richard and I felt as though this trip was something the Lord was calling us to be a part of, through bringing God's heart and the Good News of His gospel to the nations. We are so excited about partnering with His perfect heart to restore people who are so precious to Him.

Also during this trip, God pressed on several hearts within the OJC team, that He was wanting to do something with children, and restoration.
God used Isaiah 58:6-7 to confirm to us what was on His heart for these precious ones.

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke, 
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter--
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?"

Little did we know what part He would immediately be inviting us into!!

During the time of this ministry trip, at the beginning of 2013, our hearts were stirring with a favorite theme on God's heart... ADOPTION. The Lord was telling us that it was time again!
Through prayer, and in discussion with one another around the Tucker table, the Lord continued speaking. Our children said things like, "It's time to share my room with a baby!!" They even went back and forth about whose room the baby would be in.

YES.

It is time to walk along side our "Daddy Shepherd" once more...to be awed and stretched, overjoyed and pressed, to yet again see Him knit a new life into our family through the miracle of adoption. The ministry of adoption has been a highlight of our ministry as a couple and as a family.
This journey has pulled us into an utterly dependent and lovesick relationship with God. It has also helped us to fall in love with other cultures, and to know that because of this journey, Christ will receive more inheritance around His throne. We will also be sharing in Christ's suffering and its impact on the voiceless and vulnerable ones. WE want to be a part of His solution for the brokenhearted, to know that captives will be set free under our watch.

Its hard to put into words what it's like to be able to hold and kiss on children who otherwise would have been overlooked, in danger and in great need of rescue. What and honor it is to be a part of seeing children coming to salvation and seeing them literally dance in praise before God!

SO, HERE ARE THE DETAILS!
Just last week, we received a phone call from Renee' Loux with urgent information regarding a Marshallese baby in deperate need. This mother is related to one of Renee's Marshallese daughters, and is also the sister of another woman who is pregnant and adopting her son to Renee'. The baby we are going to be adopting is 1 month from being born. The mother is a young woman shoe will be arriving in the U.S. soon, to have her baby. We were asked if we would  adopt the baby and we excitedly said, "YES!"

The next five weeks will be spent ministering to the needs of this young mother as she prepares to give birth. We will be responsible for her daily care as well as the legal and medical needs of the baby. We greatly look forward to getting to know and show love to the birth mother of our new child. Family is a very strong value in the Marshallese heritage as well as making bonds with his or her family. Please pray with us as we trust Jesus to bring hope to this young woman, the hope that can only come from God.

We would love to invite you to pray with us and for us! We would appreciate your prayers for the baby's health, for safe travels, for a healthy birth, and for a smooth transition for the Tucker family as we bring in another son or daughter.

We are estimating that the total cost of this adoption will be around $ 25,000. This will include the home study, various travel fees (for example passport, plane tickets, legal costs for the mother and the child, care for the mother prior to and just after the delivery, and the delivery itself.)

We are confident that God will be faithful to complete all the good work He's begun and has called us to. We have lived this reality as missionaries, it's incredible!

Due to the urgent timing of this adoption story, we will need to raise the funds for this baby's adoption within weeks. There are several thousand dollars that will need to be raised within the next week.

We know that many of you, our fiends, have hearts for the vulnerable. We ask for your prayers for this little one. We ask also that you seek the Lord as to what part you might play in this story of rescue.

To give a donation online please use this link, http://tinyurl.com/clkx6jp

All checks may be written to Orphan Justice Center, with a note stating that your gift is to going towards our adoption. For example, 'Tucker Adoption", in the memo line of the check. Checks may be mailed to the following address:

Orphan Justice Center
P.O. Box 877
Grandview, MO 64030

Thank you for walking with us in the glory of adoption!
Love from,
Richard, Gillian, and all the Tuckers!

Gifts in Sticky Packages..

Its just like Jesus to give US gifts in HIS season...

...little voices belt out, cracking cause they are singing with greatest volume," OH COME LET US ADORE HIM" in the back seat as we pull into the grocery parking lot... feet dance and skip across asphalt and shivering arms pull me until we are ALL skipping into the warmth of the store...and we finish our our race with another-- racing pennies into the donation bucket down ramps and around slides...2 pennies buy such delight!!

..earlier,we watched with wonder and enjoyment, clumsy little fingers wrapping up homemade gifts for teachers, wrestling with Loooong strands of tape and then unsticking the tangle, leaving powdery fingerprints--their identity adhered in tapey lines all over crumpled packages placed so preciously into backpacks...

NOW they are saying, "Mom, i LOVE to spend this time with you!!".... and "we will HELP you" in our grocery journey to Aldi where two little boys in their vigor throw a weeks worth of produce onto the conveyer belt faster than an "I Love Lucy" episode...one's bobbed blonde hair swinging over his eyes as he grabs and throws and helps with such exuberance that instead of correction i have to just fold my arms,step back to behold him now lifting that Biiiiggggg bag of potatoes over his head and just laugh with joy...

...then for the bagging--oh what an adventure each moment is if we see them as gifts!!..."watch OUT for the SOFT things,guys...HOW about putting the butter on the BOTTOM and then the vine tomatoes?" ...oh,well....it all flies by in cuteness and earnestness and their brand of wholehearted service...love...who can resist this God of love?... who paints my life with children's adoration to Jesus in the candle lights of advent...or who makes little boys run past me this morning in matching red jackets... eager to bring their gifts to school...

...did you run to be the gift in the manger, Jesus?...what gifts did you make for Mary and Joseph in the Carpenter's shop?...how did you gather up pieces of your Creation that you had previously fashioned to now construct into creations of your heart for the ones you loved...yet this time with the hindrance of little boy dexterity ...how did it feel to be a little Jewish boy?...how did you, the Darling of Heaven make YOUR FATHER and the angels smile and laugh?...

...I SEE your JOY and LIGHT..your Father's pleased smile... in the radiance of these ones who love you...who are WRAPPED in YOUR love and YOUR identity...your fingerprints are all over us...we are wrapped in you...

Love, GG


Praying to remember this:

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

but made himself nothing,

taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to death—

even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

and gave him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father. (From Philippians 2)

Stables,Garages...its all the same to Him :)

Tonight we were in the garage.  We had just brought down our Christmas boxes from the attic and now we were sorting through them. Different children floated in and out of the task when it seemed to become "work" instead of "fun". :)...our "tween", Anderson came in half-way through and started pulling out stockings and stocking holders.  He took over displaying all of our stockings with great pride and he was a cheery buddy to work with.  After a bit, Anderson saw this tiny little stocking and stopped short..

"..AWwww a BABY stocking." He said stroking it..

."Yes, its cute isn't it",

 I was registering that he REALLY loved the stocking as I continued to hunt around in various boxes, organizing my strategy for what and how it was to come into the house...at the end of a longish day Mama was pretty tired in the midst of a task that so requires mandetory cheer!

Standing behind me, still very focused on this stocking, He seemed to be growing quite attached to this bit of Christmas decoration that did not even have enough material to be worthy of the name "stocking". Yet,He went on, "Mom, I really wish she could have it"

 I continued ruffling around in a box of decorative bows fishing out our collection of cookie cutters that must have fallen in there at the end of last season.  His task had halted. And, he gazed at this little stocking.

 "Yes, it would have been so right for her...she would have loved it."

His words came cloudy to my mind.  Her?  Was he talking about his teacher at school?  Was he missing our foster daughter?   I finally was confused enough to ask," Anderson who is 'she?' are you missing..." , and I mentioned our foster girl, M.

 His eyes grew big and tender and as he picked up the little stocking , he pulled me around to face him. "I mean HER. The one God made in you...You KNOW Mom.  The one of us who is in heaven with our other little brother, Joshua.  I wish she was here to put on this little stocking."  He got really quiet as he looked down at it. " Wouldn't it have fit her JUST right?" He smiled sadly. "But I am glad she's spending Christmas with Jesus...."  He hugged me TIGHT...he stroked the little stocking..."I do miss her though..." he whispered.

 This little stocking has now become exceedingly precious to me as I remember the tiny one it belongs to now...Back in August a little baby girl who was being knit together in my womb...was called home to Heaven...to live with the Christmas Lamb.  She is our second child to now reside there ~ to have access to Jesus' LAP!!  To hear angels sing...to KNOW love in a way that we only would have begun to taste here.  The holidays blow my heart and mind to know that I literally have little ones rejoicing in the Presence that we are worshiping and celebrating ~ and then to realize OUR access of Jesus is just as real and as Present Here.  That WE ARE sitting in His lap too.  That His angels move at the sound of our worship and intercessions...That our family here and there share the same joys and wonders for "IN His Presence IS Fullness of Joy" ~ forevermore... {Psalm 16:11}

And, my heart fills with wonder over sweet Anderson tonight.  A boy who also sits with simple trust and love in the lap of his Jesus.  The one who worships with abandon and loves with affection.  "Christ IN" him "the hope of glory"... The compassion of Christ in a child...the discernment in a believing child's Spirit of the season in which they live astounds my heart...messages like this one.. through these little ones...

Much like the packaging of a most wonderful message wrapped up in swaddling clothes!...

I was completely unaware that I was in need of a kiss from my Heavenly Father tonight.  That after seeing the quiet but painful grief of this past semester He would take THIS little moment, IN MY GARAGE to love on me.  Through my tweenager! ;)  Yet He's like that!  Yes, this is the God who likes using stables and water-logged fishing boats and wilderness hikes to show His glory!!

 I love that God-who-sees is always taking heed to and care over the tending of my heart's pulse even when I am unaware, as I was tonight, that I would need ministering in THIS moment....Glory and care in a garage! :)  Let us worship Him for He is GOOD to us.

Love and Blessings,

Gillian

P.S. Much of this was originally sent in a message to my precious friend, Michelle, who is another gift from God in my heart's journey.  All the time but particularly as I have walked through this specific sorrow.  My heart would not be as healed today if God had not graced me with this friend who has loved me so well. He keeps sending such sweet gifts!!

Number Nineteen! :) ~ a dance to remember~

Yesterday we celebrated Anniversary Number 19 with my Honey Yesterday On The 19th of June :)!!

  AND on Father's Day!!

  It was quite a day!! :)

  After 11 months of expectant waiting, Richard is wrapping up his job in Nashville this next week and heading out to Kansas City to join us here  in our call to be intercessory missionaries~ WAHOO!!!!!!~

We will have much to share soon about our continued journey for God is downloading even more in our lives and hearts  as the time arrives for Richard to join us here.



So love my pastoring, compassionate, missionary-hearted man.~

Our hearts are full as we look back on this past year ~ it has been so full of the Father's heart.

We had an amazing treat yesterday ~ straight from the heart of Abba God. After spending the day as a family, at church,at lunch, at a local park...swimming...we next had an impromptu visit from two amazing young missionaries to Israel and Finland...the conversation and love around the table was full of power as they opened up a Hebrew bible and gathered up my children like a flock around them ....instructing them in Hebraic style questions...

Next, the young men put in a Dvd that was about one of the friend's, Michael's recent wedding in Israel...

So very rich and glorious to see the glowing lights of Jerusalem just beyond the white wedding canopy...

Then the young men led us all in Israeli  circle dancing as we worshiped Yeshua, Messiah, Jesus ...

Brown hands...tiny feet...massive peach hands...boy feet...girl feet...man arms raised...women waist bowing...Dancing with my earthly husband of 19 years...in a circle full of our quiver of children...some from the nations...joyfully singing with these brothers...It stepped past the immediate now and brought heaven to earth...images of the coming kingdom and the joy to come circled in my heart as we went around the living room last night...

Wonder's overflow... thanksgiving for this man, my earthly Adam, the one I have to reach my neck to smile up to :)...

this one

that God has chosen for me to journey with...

the one who whispers courage in my ear and reflects who God has purposed me to be...

Father to so many...

some our birthed children, some brought from the nations,some still being brought to our door...

and the many to come...

  the gift of marriage...God's wondrous gift  for man and woman in every step as we traverse  home to Him...

full heart for the inheritance of Godly children...

kissed up, raised up as a gift for Jesus...

AWARENESS

...of Holy wind and fire...

a real heart that beats...

pursuing us...

... the tension between joy that transports our heart to the Father
 as well as the ache and burst in our heart for Jesus' remaking of everything to new...

at the arrival of  His coming!!!!!!...

to His waiting...made-ready bride...

And on that day...in that time... His REAL hands and LITERAL feet dancing the wedding dancing with me...His bride...with US, His children!...and we will look and grin and smile over the sea of multi-colored children's heads...dancing ribbons of every color...swirling gifts from the nations to Him...as we laugh with Joy and spin in the lights of Jerusalem...

(the song we danced to last night...)




O Lord bless me and keep me cause Your face to shine on me
Lord be gracious lift the light of Your countenance give me peace

I live only to see your face so shine on me

let the light of Your face shine down on my heart and let me feel it


Blessings and Love,

Gillian