Getting Close

We are #1 on the waiting list. We should get our referral soon.
We are getting excited and can't wait to see what God has for us!

More info. to come as we find out who our baby is!

LifeSong- James Foundation

We received a grant from Lifesong for Orphans. It is funded by the James foundation- which is through Family Chr. Stores. We received this email with a great video on the James Foundation.
Please check it out.... We are excited to be a part of this.......

James Fund - Greater Things Are Yet To Come

I Did it

I figured out how to put a picture on our blog. This is a VERY big deal for me!!!!!
I am so excited. Well I cant change the date- but this is from our Garage Sale we had in April.
At least now we have a picture to show!!!!

So Cute

Well I have not written in a while. Just in the waiting process. We have moved up on the referral list, we are number 12 on the list. So that is exciting. Just waiting for Gods amazing timing .
Just a cute thing that Gavin said in the car:
"Mom, you know what? I know where babies come from?"
I said," Where do they come from?"
"They come from heaven and come from Jesus."
He was looking up to the heavens and smiling.
What a precious time for us in the car.

Great Video

I went on Bethany's forum and found a posting on a video made by Bethany Chr. Services.

This video is brand new and it shows the orphanages and the Country-

It is a neat video- please check it out:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGcO3DpABdA


This gets me excited to see our precious little one that God has in store for us

Devotions

In my devotions this week- it has been all about adoption. So neat how God continues to speak and confirms what he wants for my life.
Verse:
So they will put my name on the Isrealites, and I will bless them. Numbers 6:27

God's people carry God's name. Numbers 6 is spoken over us, our compassionate, merciful God marks us as his very own, dearly loved, fully redeemed people.

The LORD, the King and Creator of heaven and earth, has adopted us into his very family. As in any earthly adoption, he has given us his name and made us his heirs- co heirs with Christ. All the riches of heaven have been credited to our account.
1 Peter 1:3-5

How true this is- what a awesome God we serve.

Please pray for our child and the process as we wait. Please pray for Gods timing and to protect our new child, and for Gavin and Whitney as we prepare for a new addition to our family.

Garage Sale Success

This week was our adoption garage sale. We set up the sale in our church -Family Life Center/Gym on Friday. We had many friends and family help us set up all day. We finished pricing and folding around 6pm.
Saturday, April 25 9-3pm was our sale. It was a great success. Thanks to so many people. A HUGE thanks to Deb- who helped me with every area of this sale. (She is a garage sale pro)Thank you to everyone who donated items for the sale, also to everyone who helped set up, folded clothes, watched Gavin and Whitney, shopped, invited people, and helped with clean up.

Profit we made : $2,133.89

WOW!!! We are so blessed. Our God is a Awesome God

So Cute

Gavin and Whitney are watching me get ready for our adoption garage sale. We have been cleaning our house, and friends and family have been donating stuff too.
Whitney saw something she wanted in the many boxes I have been packing for the sale- and I said," We can't play with this today, we are going to sell it. We have other things to play with." She got a little mad, (she's very strong willed) and Gavin said, " Whit we have to sell it -come on lets find something else." Gavin was such a good brother in this situation, I am praying for my children that they understand how adoption works. I pray they welcome our new child with open arms and love our new precious one!

Garage Sale

We are having a benifit garage sale at our church in the FLC to help fund our adoption. This week is a busy one- getting ready for this. I have been praying for this to be whatever God desires- so here I am waiting on the Lord. Please pray for a successful garage sale- and allow the funds to bring home our child!!
The sale is April 25 9-3 pm.

Computer savy

For those of you who know me well, I am not very good on the computer. So I am going to tell you something that most of you may know- if not GREAT!
To see how our adoption story began and read the beginning of our Journey- please scroll to the very end of all the pages to get our beginning.
I am not very wise at getting around on a blog- so thought maybe some of you may like my tip. Many of you will probably laugh.
I am always in for a good laugh !!!

Teething Ring

Gavin and Whitney know we are adopting, but it is still a little confusing to them.
We were playing and Gavin found a teething ring in the bottom of a toy basket. He looked at me with big eyes and said, "Mom, I am going to put this in the fridge so when our new baby comes they can have this !!!" I said," Gavin that is a great idea!

This was such a precious moment- time to a 4 1/2 year old is so different than we see it.
He is excited for another sibling.
Of course I cant take it out of the fridge, so we will see how long it needs to stay in.

Revealings

Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear,
too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice.
But for those who love, time is not.


It seems that everything I have been reading lately is about adoption. Wierd? I think NOT.
God continues to show me that this IS his plan for us. We are happy to follow him and let him lead us. The waiting is hard- but His timing is perfect. ( Sometimes I want it my way, but I need to continue to remember that his way is always better than mine :)


The human mind may devise many plans, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will be
established.
Proverbs 19:21

A Devotional to Share

I received a free devotion for women in the mail. ( If you know me well you know that I am all about free- so of course I thought I would start to include reading it when I have my devotions.)
The Title is BE Blessed. It has been a blessing. I would like to share one that really struck me:

The LORD bless you and keep you.
Numbers 6:24

We know for sure that when our heavenly Father "confers well-being and prosperity," his blessing includes unconditional acceptance, love and Favor. Paul writes:

In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Ephesians 1:4-6

In other words, God chose to adopt us to make us his very own children. We are sisters and co-heirs of Jesus Christ. He did this just because he wanted to! We are completely accepted and acceptable because of what Jesus did for us on Calvery's cross. what an honor he has given us!


This is straight from the devotional.
It seems that God has shown me so many different scripture passages about adoption since we have started our process of adoption.

God has adopted us- and I know he is calling us to an adopt orphan child.

Bethany Friends Night at Panera Bread

Many moms who have or are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia met at Panera Bread.
It was such a great time. Talking about travel, seeing pictures of new referrals and babies that have come home, struggles, finances etc. It was so wonderful to meet so many women dealing with the same thing. It was refreshing and Fun.
I am grateful that Andrea planned it. Thanks
I am looking forward to another Bethany Ethiopia Night!!!

Another Blessing

We have had such a wonderful support from our family, church family and friends. With our Lifesong for orphans grant, the time limit expired. We had a few people ask if they could still give. We found out that they can still give(the time limit is for the matching grant part). So we told those who wanted to give- and we recieved an amazing amount of money. God is so Good!!!
We recieved another $5,350. WOW!!!
We stepped out in faith- and asked God to provide for us- and oh how he has. What a amazing journey this has been for Aaron and I, and we are still waiting for our precious little one. I can't even imagine all the HE will reveal to us.

Waiting for our Referral

We have been waiting for our referral for 5 months. We are waiting and excited to meet our new child in Gods time.
Please continue to pray for our new baby-and keep him/her safe while in the orphanage.
Also please keep Gavin and Whitney in your prayers as they will soon have a new sibling!

A HUGE MIRACLE-

During the month of Febuary- we were granted a matching grant of $4000, through Lifesong For Oprhans. Which is funded by the James Foundation(Family Christian Bookstores). We are excited about this Grant. Aaron and I have been humbled with this grant as well. We knew that we would have to send support letters out, and it is soo hard for us to ask for money.
We know that God has a plan and he knows where our funds will come from for this Adoption- so we trust and have faith in him.
Our fundraising for this grant had a ending date , which was March 9.
As we got our email telling us how much we raised- we stand in Awe of God.
The grant we were hoping to raise $4000- we ended up raising over double this amount!!
Everytime I think about it I get tears in my eyes. God continues to show us that he is in control and he will guide us and fund this adoption.
So with this grant we were hoping to raise $8000, we ended up with over $13,000. (including the $4000 match!!!)
We ar so gratful, humbled, and in Awe of the miracles that he showers on us.
If you feel that money is stopping you from doing something God is calling you to, he will supply your needs- just as he has for us.

* Our God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Now he just needs to sell a few cows to make this happen*

Another Interesting Month

The last week of Febuary Aaron got kidney stones again. (he had them last year) He spent a week going without eating, and throwing up and in a lot of PAIN. He did not pass the stone- and started having difficulty urinating- and then turned into not being able to urinate at all. Saw a Urologist and Aaron had surgery March 6, out patient surgery and they got the kidney stone.
What a answer to pray. Hopefully we can figure out what is causing this in his body. It is so nice to have Aaron back to himself again. Its so hard to have your husband down for such a long time. Especially when your kids are confused about whats going on. During this week- Whitney tripped at Gavins preschool and fell on her chin and got 3 stitches. She was a trooper- she did great! But WOW what a week we had-
Praise God we made it through- we know that God is with us every step of our lives.

Gods Will

Well, we made it through January. It was a crazy month for us. I did have a miscarriage, and we are doing good. Once we got the reports back from the doctors and radiologist- it showed that there no yoke sac- which means a baby was never formed. Aaron and I feel this is the best it could be considering the situation. It is so much easier to handle - knowing no baby was ever formed. We know this is Gods will for us- and that was our prayer all long-whatever Gods plan let it be done. So we know what his plan was.
I still had to pass everything- and had bleeding for quite a while- but i am getting back to normal now. God is Good- he allowed it to happen the week that the deadline for Guatemala was. So I can still go - with our senior high group. I really was sad I couldnt go, but God must have wanted me on the trip. I am excited about this.
We went into January expecting a baby from Ethiopia and we are still expecting a baby from Ethiopia. We are so excited to adopt, and know that this is Gods will for us. Please pray for us as we continue our adoption process, and get back to our everyday schedules.

Diffiuculty at home

Well I am pregnant and very tired and Gavin is sick. Brought him to the doctors office, and they did a chest x-ray and he has croop and beginning stages of pneomia. So we put him on antibiotics, and a lot of cough, cold medicine. He is a sick little boy who lost his voice. Once we got home from the doctors office, I started having some spotting. This has never happened to me before. I was scared. So I called and they told me to watch it and scheduled a appointment for me for a couple of days later. Well the spotting continued and has now been getting worse. They did some blood work on me, and they are checking my blood levels.
They scheduled me for a ultrasound and more blood work. I had the ultrasound, and it is not looking good. They said I am only 4 weeks along, which is not correct. The ultrasound tech saw a sac but cant see a baby and found a sist on my right ovary. Scary. I am very scared. I cried on my way home for the appt. Today they are suppose to call with the Doctors/radiologist report. So I have been praying for Gods will to be done. Whatever the plan is let it be done. However, I am afraid of whats to come.

A big surprise for 2009

Well on New years day I found out I am pregnant. What a suprise this- but we are happy. It does put a wrench in our adoption plans. I cant go to Guatemala like I was planning on either. What is Gods plan for me? My family?
I have mixed emotions. So confused. Kind of feel like I might let down a child. (our child waiting to be adopted in Ethiopia)
So many questions, just putting my faith in God and know its his will for my life. He is in control and I know he has a plan. So I life my hands and give it to God. I rejoice in knowing he is all Knowing.