Thank you, God that our Baby Girl E is doing better.

I am so thankful for every day that God saves our Baby E's life. I am so thankful for every step she takes towards getting better! I just want to declare that every bit of healing is from His merciful hand! We got a report from her doctor in Ethiopia that her condition is much better than yesterday. When he visited her she was sitting up comfortably and being fed a little orally. They are concerned that she is getting another infection. Please pray with us that God would protect her or heal her from this new infection. He also said that he is hopeful that she can get better very soon. We praise you, God. Thank you.
I just wanted to tell you also thank you so much for praying with us and bearing this burden with us. Gal 6:2 says, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." You have loved us well in this. You have carried this burden with us and encouraged us to hope and trust in Christ more. I can not thank you enough for that!
We love you.
Jesus is the All-Satisfying Treasure!
Ashley 
Luke 9:24 "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it."

Praise God! Our little boy E is doing fine.

We got an update that our little boy E is doing fine. Our agency told us that they think the water was contaminated and that is how the children got the bacterial infection. They are saying all the children got sick, but it was only the little ones who needed to be hospitalized or died. They said many more died that we had originally thought and several are still in the hospital. Please continue to pray for all these children. We praise God that our little boy is doing well. Thank you God for saving His life! Please, Great God, save our baby girl too.
We have no update on our little Baby E. Thank you so much for praying.
Jesus is the All-Satisfying Treasure!
Ashley
Psalm 104:1 "Bless the Lord, O my soul!
O Lord my God, you are very great!"

Please pray! Our Baby Girl E is not doing well.

Friends,
We are desperate for God to work on behalf of Our Baby Girl E!. 
My heart is so very, very burdened. It seems like she is not doing as well as we had thought. Her condition is stable but still critical. She still has severe malnutrition and anemia. They are concerned that she has Sepsis. All that we knew, but we thought that her condition was improving, not getting worse. Please, please continue to pray for her to have healing and comfort. Please pray God would allow her body to get the nutrition it so desperately needs. Please pray that she would feel the Holy Spirit's comfort and the love of God. Please pray that she does not have Sepsis. 
Please pray for Jay and I to have wisdom on how best we can help her. 

I know I can not heal her. I can't even hug her. Please pray that it would be God's will for Him to heal her.

I will make Him my Refuge and taste of His goodness. I trust Him no matter what.

Jesus is the All-Satisfying Treasure!
Ashley Brown

Romans 34:8, "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!"

Praying for my sweet Baby E! Trusting deeply that God is good!

On Wednesday at 6:00 pm. We got a message from our agency saying that our Baby Girl E in Ethiopia, (the little girl we are adopting,) was in the hospital with the flu. We were devastated with the news and began to cry, pray and ask everyone to pray. We received an update on Thursday that it was normal for orphanages to take children to the hospital to quarantine them from the other children and get them basic medical help. At 3:00 pm on Friday we got news that our our little girl does not have a the flu but a very serious bacterial infection and she is in critical condition. Several of the other babies in the orphanage have already died. Our hearts ached for her. We desperately pleaded to God to help and asked even more people to pray for her. We know God alone is the Healer, Protector, and Comforter. He can do in an instant what we can not do in a life time. We need Him!
Praise God on Saturday we got word that she is now in stable condition. We are thankful for this news and we are praying for her body to get the nutrients it needs to heal and that she would not get a secondary infection. Please continue to pray for our sweet Baby Girl E and that God would be glorified in all this. Right now we think her brother, our our little Boy E is fine and has not gotten sick. We praise God for His protection and we are asking for it to continue.
I feel like He is teaching us so much through this:
1. It draws us to our daughter even more. We loved her already but this sickness has made us long for her and her brother even more. We can not get to them fast enough.
2. I feel like it has confirmed in our hearts that death is GAIN for those who are in Christ and yes for babies who have yet to know Him. We have talked to our kids about our Baby Girl E being sick and told them the Bible is clear that babies go to heaven if they die. 2 Samuel 12:22-23 So we are sitting out on our driveway having a picnic dinner on Friday and I am still crying. Braden says, "Daddy, all babies go to heaven! So Baby E will go to heaven if she dies and that is better." Amen, Braden. Yes, it is Gain! Kennedy says, "Baby E would get to learn about Jesus from Jesus! How cool would that be." I start laughing at the sweetness of it and Kennedy says, "Look mommy is laughing and crying at the same time."
3. It is teaching us to trust more in God and not in human resources. Being 8,344 miles from our daughter just confirms how helpless we are as humans. We need God to work and move on our behalf for the sake of His glory. Some trust in doctors and some trust in medicine, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. Don't get me wrong. We love TCH, doctors, medicine and IVs but they are not our Hope or our Refuge. He is.
4. It is making us pray more fervently. I praise God that He hears and cares. When we got the good news about Baby Girl E, Braden said, "God heard us and He is healing her." I love that!
5. Even from Jay's lesson today from Psalm 34, he is teaching us to taste and see that He is good. We have no promise that He will heal our little girl. We say with David and Joel, "Who knows whether the Lord may be gracious to me..." 2 Samuel 12:22, Joel 2:14  But we do have the promise of Romans 8:31-32, "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" He is for us! He will not spare giving us one good thing. 
We love you, Father. Thank you for being for us. Please heal, protect and comfort our Baby Girl E tonight. Please continue to protect our Little Boy E. Be Glorified in all!
Jesus is the All-Satisfying Treasure!
Ashley 

That I may declare the praises of Him who called me!

So the primary purpose of me starting this blog is to declare the praises of Him who called me out of darkness and into His wonderful light. (1 Peter 2:9) I want to be able to look back at this and recall the amazing grace God has had on me and praise Him more. I forget so quickly all the ways God has shown His relentless, compassionate, patient love to me. I want to declare it to myself, my family and anyone else who happens to stop by.
The secondary purpose is for people to pray for us as we adopt 2 precious new children. Thank you to all who are praying for us and our new children.

Jesus is the All-Satisfying Treasure!
Ashley Brown