More Farrah

Well what a crazy three days this has been. First of all I just wanted to say thanks to all of you praying for us these last couple of days!! We could not have not done it without you. I was praying this morning and asking God to just bring us peace through this entire process. Last weekend I went on a college girls retreat and spoke about Sleeping Beauty. I know it's random, you had to be there!! But in the opening act it says that the king and queen had prayed for a baby for a very long time and it finally came to pass. So this afternoon Reagan and Brincent brought Farrah a gift. It was a bunny and puppy dog. On the tag of the bunny it had Aurora on it. It was God's way of showing me that everything was going to be ok. And by the way Farrah's name means beautiful. So she is sleeping beauty!! Anyways I thought it was pretty cool!! Here are some more picks of Farrah.



Go Tech!!



Just Hanging Out


Farrah had a great day today!! James gave her her first bath. That was a first for him too!! He did a great job. We are truly blessed with this little girl!!

It's a Girl!!!!!

Oh my goodness our life just totally changed in the last 24 hours!! We got a call last night from a girl who had a baby and just couldn't keep her. So we went this morning and now we are adopting a precious little girl. Her name is Farrah Nichole. She's 5lbs 14oz. 21 inches long and a full head of black hair. We are scared, excited, scared and scared!!! We need lots of prayers still for this little girl. She is in NCIU. They tell us that if she continues to do well that she could come home this weekend or early next week!! We are praying for favor. Favor for her parents. The birth mom will with out a doubt sign away her rights but her birth mom won't tell anyone who the father is. So please pray for Farrah as she contuinues to grow big and strong and favor with the adoption process.

We forgot our camera!! So these are from my cell phone. Sorry there not great but you get the idea.

Only One...

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. Everything is good at the Fortner house hold!! We have done a lot of traveling this month. James had a pastor's conference in Dallas for two days and I was able to tag along. It was great!! The topic was "Spiritual Fathering/Mothering". I learned so much and really felt convicted at the same time. One of the speakers was talking about how some people get overwhelmed leading someone to Christ. The he asked the question...When was the last time you led someone to Christ? Talk about feeling crappy!! I just sat there trying to remember and I know I've talked to people about Christ but I don't know when the last time was when I actually led someone to Christ. The good news for me is that I was not the only one in the group thinking this. I'm in a room full of pastors and yes they ask the question from the pull-pit but not one could say that they actually led one person to Christ by themselves in a really long time. So then the speaker show us how so many times new Christians come and they get really frustrated so easily because they have not been taught anything about their new spiritual walk. So the challenge was to just have one to five people that you mentor to and speak into their lives for a full six months and see what happens. Did you know that if one person led another person to Christ and then that person led someone tho Christ and so on and so on...it would only take 21 years to have the ENTIRE earth followers of Christ!! That just blew me away. I'm 30 year old and just to imagine for a bit that nine years ago the entire world would know Christ just really got me to thinking...what am I doing to be apart of that? So while I'm feeling REALLY convicted I just felt a sense of release. Yes I need to do my part but all that it takes is one person!! So after the meeting James and I were talking and he felt convicted as well. We have a small group that meets at our house every other Sunday and it's made up of newly married couples. If you know us at all you know that we have a passion for married couples, newly married and not so newly married. So I was thinking if James and I could mentor the couples in our small group that would be a great start. As we were planning this we came to discover how hard it is to make our schedules free. The thing I had to overcome was me being selfish. I hate even saying that but it is the truth. How many times was Jesus selfish with his time, never. He sat on the side of a hill and asked people to follow Him and then turned around and spent time with is friends telling them stories and investing in their lives. And that is what I so badly want to do. We want to invest in people and want people to invest in us. So we are very excited to move into the place where God wants us to just love on His children.
The next thing for us this week is quiet busy again. James is gong to Austin and helping a church with their budget. James really loves doing this and has such a gift for it. His mind is just full of ideas and numbers!! I on the other had will be at a retreat with our college girls. The topic is "Sleeping Beauties". I just love girl stuff!! So I will post next week about tell you how the retreat went!!

16 years!!

This weekend we went out of town with some friends of ours and had a great time. While on the way there James asked me if I remembered what this weekend meant. Of course I do!!! This was the weekend that James proposed to me. That was twelve years ago. This was also the anniversary that James and I started dating. We have been together sixteen years!!!! Wow how time flies! It all started at Christmas in 1996. For Christmas James bought me skis and I was super excited because that is one of the many things that James and I really enjoy doing together. I had no clue what was going on but my brother knew the entire time!! Lance told my parents if James asked Jennifer to go skiing for the weekend let her. Of course my parents wanted to know why and Lance told them but he made them promise not to say anything. James proposed on the mountain top of Anglefire NM. We went skiing and I wanted to have our picture taken and he said let's do it later. So if you ski you know by the end of the day you look like crap from skiing all day. Well we were done skiing and leaving and James wanted to go get pictures taken. I was not feeling it because I did not look my best anymore. So he finally talked me into it and up we went. So we find a lady to take our pictures and James reaches in his pocket. I did not think anything about that and then all of a sudden James gets down on one knee and asks me to be his wife!! Wow what an amazing day!! I of course said yes after I ask him if he was serious...James LOVES that part. Yes, I asked him if he was serious and all he could say is "I'm on one knee and your asking me if I'm serious??" Sorry honey!! So after all that I learned that James had set this up the entire time. And then I figured out that James skied ALL DAY with my ring in his pocket!! Do I have an amazing husband or what??!! Here is a picture of when James asked me to be his wife.