I used to do these a lot, but quit for a while. I like reading other people’s bits and pieces, so maybe a few of these will entertain YOU for a bit!
- We had a snake in our garage Wednesday night. Our dog was going crazy at something under the van, and sure enough a snake was coiled up hissing and pouncing at him. But, it got away and I was totally freaked by where it could be lurking. Then yesterday, we happened to be pulling in the driveway when it was slithering across the road. I slammed on the brakes, Jason got the shovel, and it was soon no more. I attribute that timing to the Lord saving me from months of not letting the children play in the garage or outside.
- I want to read the Kite Runner – heard it’s a good one about a refugee family. Any opinions – book vs. movie? I’m such a cheapo that I’ll have to borrow either one.
- We have our second homestudy meeting on Monday morning at 9 am. We will turn in paperwork and then have individual interviews that last about 45 minutes each. Kind of makes me nervous – you can ask a lot in 45 one on one minutes! After that, we’ll have a final visit at our house and then should be wrapped up – with the homestudy at least!
- Jason and I spent about two hours at the county jail today waiting to get fingerprints. It was interesting. They were super busy in booking – hence the wait.
- I keep debating camping this weekend, but just haven’t mustered up the time and energy to pack it all up yet. We are going to have to have a park day on Saturday I think. My parents were great about always taking us on day trips to the state parks – some of my best childhood memories!
- So many at our church are just ON IT and stepping it up when it comes to meeting people’s actual needs through local missions – it’s exciting to watch and get to participate in! I love seeing Christ’s hands and feet at work through his church. Nothing is more beautiful.
- Fashion faux pas of the week – a girl wearing a sweater vest with no shirt underneath – like a wooly tank top. Odd. And today we saw a guy wearing UGGS – you know, like the girl boots. Do they make guy UGGS? I’m no fashionista by any means, but that seemed not quite right!
- I’m probably going to have to start getting up at 4:45ish again if I want to start working out. It’s just too hard to do during the day! And I’m getting way out of shape. I am NOT getting on any running plan plan – it makes me hate running. But, I do want to run a Thanksgiving 5K and possibly try the HALF marathon this next spring. (I did the full this last year and it was MI-SER-A-BLE!) But, I’m going to run when I want and I am NOT paying early for the race either! That way I can back out at anytime!
- Happy Friday!!!
I just found this site today. It’s called Rainbow Kids, and it has a listing of kids that need homes. There are literally pages and pages of kids from America to Asia to Africa to Europe on here from various agencies and of various ages that need homes. You just do a quick sign up process that’s free, they email you a link, and then you’re on.
There are so many older children waiting for homes. Many countries - Africa I know of especially – that have healthy children that also have no special needs or behavior problems whose only barrier to being adopted is that they they are older than a baby. Jason and I cannot adopt older children because we have three younger children and the advice is to keep your birth order as much as possible. Some don’t agree with this, but we’re going to go with those rules as close as possible because most of the experts advise it.
And don’t discount special needs kids! So many of them have a heart problem that can be fixed, missing limbs or fingers and toes, disorders that can be easily treated with medication, or other “smaller” disabilities. And anyone who has seen the face of a Downs child or other of the more severe special needs cases knows that these kids are always a joy to be around!
Part of me when looking through those pictures is already looking forward to when our kids are all older and we can adopt an older child as well. I saw a profile this morning of 9 and 11 year old (I think those ages are right – somewhere around there) girls who receive awards in schools because they are so bright, are healthy, and are just waiting for parents. They had big huge smiles with glowing, excited, giggly looking faces. They just don’t have parents. Any child over the age of 3 is considered to be an “older child”.
That goes for the States too. You can check this site to look at photolistings for US children. There are so many listings of older black children (older again being about age three and up) who are simply waiting for parents who live in our country.
If your kids have moved out or are in middle/high school, consider adopting a child anywhere from three years old on up! What are you doing with those extra bedrooms anyway??? These kids desperately need homes and unfortunately know more about what it going on with not having parents than the younger ones can understand.
I would just really challenge you not to limit God in any area of this. Don’t discount adoption as an option. Don’t discount any countries – including America or a country with kids of a different race. Don’t discount any ages. Don’t discount any physical characteristics. And don’t discount siblings. I challenge you even if you have NO desire or inkling to adopt to just say, “Ok God, I’m willing if you want me to. I don’t have any desire or leading to do so, but if you want to change my heart, make it clear.” God may not lead you towards that and give you peace about not adopting. OR, he just might be waiting on your heart to soften just a tad in order to finally get you to listen to what He’s been trying to tell you for years. Just ask, listen, and keep your heart open!
I saw the lyrics to this song today and thought it was a good one to share – regardless of whether you’re waiting for an adoption, waiting to get off of bedrest (JEN!), waiting for answers to a prayer – whatever it is you’re waiting for – it’s a good song to pray through!
WHILE I’M WAITING
by John Waller
I’m waiting
I’m waiting on You, Lord
And I am hopeful
I’m waiting on You, Lord
Though it is painful
But patiently, I will wait
I will move ahead, bold and confident
Takeing every step in obedience
While I’m waiting
I will serve You
While I’m waiting
I will worship
While I’m waiting
I will not faint
I’ll be running the race
Even while I wait
I’m waiting
I’m waiting on You, Lord
And I am peaceful
I’m waiting on You, Lord
Though it’s not easy
But faithfully, I will wait
Yes, I will wait
I will serve You while I’m waiting
I will worship while I’m waiting
I will serve You while I’m waiting
I will worship while I’m waiting
I will serve you while I’m waiting
I will worship while I’m waiting on You, Lord
Just wanted to attach a few garage sale pics so you can get an idea of how much we had to sell! WOW! This was a huge huge blessing – thanks to ALL of you who donated. And again, we made $1800 to cover our home study – our first step. Our donation level is up to $2999 (funny huh?!?) so we are just $2000 away from meeting our $5000 matching challenge from our friends – due by Christmas! Super exciting!
I also included a picture of our stack of our INITIAL paperwork. I have it all in color coded folders each including it’s own to do list. But there will be more paperwork to come.
A big step for us today – we actually mailed off our USCIS paperwork and checks. Basically it goes to the Department of Homeland Security to get approval from the US to adopt an international child. That’s all. A piece of paper, a few birth certificates, and apparently review of that can take up to 10 weeks and costs $670… government! 
Then we pay $160 for an appointment to get fingerprinted by the big guys. But, that doesn’t include the fingerprinting we also have to do through the FBI. Totally separate – same fingerprints, but one agency won’t take them from the other agency. Odd.
I’m so NOT complaining, just letting you know some of what we are doing. I think it’s really interesting all the things they ask for. I’m thankful that they care enough to be particular about who they allow to adopt. We are going to also send off this week the first section of our Gladney paperwork and another set of money ($1875). This first section includes another more in depth application with financials, work and insurance info for Jason, some waivers, etc. We got our doc appointments completed for Jason and I, but I have to also call and get clearance from our pediatrician that the kids are healthy.
So, that’s where we are. Totally excited to be jumping in! The homestudy wasn’t as much of a true act of obedience because we still weren’t really financially/paperwork commited to adopting NOW or Gladney or Ethiopia. But, now that we are sending this first batch in, it means we’re really really doing it!
Everett has been asking a lot of questions about why we are adopting. He was a little irritated that we had to drive to the post office today to mail off our USCIS stuff – he is my MAJOR homebody and wanted to be home playing. I began explaining that we were going to have another baby anyway because Mommy and Daddy wanted at least one more child. He interrupted and muttered from the backseat, “I didn’t want another baby!” I reminded him how excited he had been before. He said, “Well, yeah, but I just wish you would go get her right now.” Yeah babe! Little Everett is apparently over all the work of an adoption.
Katie Beth was very excited to go mail it off though. She asked if we finally had enough money to get her, and I explained that we didn’t yet, but that God had given us enough to do this part so that’s what we were going to do. I think I’m going to draw them a chart or something so they can see how much farther we have to go.
What does the word “refugee” conjure up in your mind? Do you really know what a refugee is or what that means? I didn’t! I was shocked to find out a whole area of our world that I was so CLUELESS about! I sent this email to a friend this morning, and I thought I would post it here. These are the basics, look for more to come!
World Relief is an AMAZING organization. They work with refugees. FYI, an immigrant is someone chooses to come to live in America – often for good reasons, but they don’t have to leave their country. BUT, a refugee leaves their home country because their life is in danger due to war, discrimination based on race, religion, etc, or other life-threatening reasons. Often they flee first to a refugee camp where many of them will actually spend the rest of their lives as there are so many refugees and not nearly enough places for them to go. The refugee camps have horrible and dangerous living conditions. Getting out of the camp fast could mean a timeline of a couple of years if you are lucky. Many are born and die in the camps. Those that are allowed to resettle apply to the United Nations who has countries all over the world to resettle the refugees. Refugees do not choose the city nor the country they resettle in – they are assigned.
World Relief is one of two agencies in the Nashville area (and they have offices in other areas of the world/country as well) who has been named by the UN as being able to resettle refugees. (The other is Catholic Charities.) The great thing about WR is that their specific mission is to equip the CHURCH to serve the most vulnerable. Their whole mission is to connect churches and refugees. The refugee flies from the camp they’ve been living in, gets off the plane in Nashville, and World Relief is there to meet them. They have an apartment rented out for them, have food and other household items stocked for them, offer job training, help with learning English, learning American systems of banking/grocery stores/school systems, etc. World Relief is not a handout agency though – the refugees are expected to be self-sufficient within 6-8 months – World Relief is not allowed by law to assist them after that time period. This is where getting them connected to a local church is huge.
The thing that gets me is that many of them fleeing the dangerous areas are families. People with kids ages of ours. Can you fathom? Many times the parents have had great jobs in their home country - doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc. But, when they get here they do not have our certifications or training or even language – they have to start all over. And, they need it mostly down in 6-8 months! I’m definitely praying about what God would have me do in this – I have some ideas, and I’m the World Relief advocate for our church. Check out the Operation Crazy Love blog, the national World Relief site, or the Nashville World Relief site for more info. I can let you know what opportunities are available as well – as I said look for more here soon!
Jason and I recently had a date morning with Katie Beth. Her one request was to go to iHop. She’s been asking to go forever, and as frugal as we’re trying to be lately, sometimes you have to have some extras. We sat down to look at the menu, and I saw this menu entree which made my heart sink and my stomach sick. This is a brunch item at iHop that comes with steak, two or three eggs, two bacon slices, two sausages (this person opted for skipping the bacon and doubling the sausage), two pancakes, and potatoes. It was somewhere around 12ish dollars I think. (This picture was just one I found online, not anything we ordered.) I sat there just thinking and thinking and got a little teary-eyed. It kind of brought together everything God has been speaking to my heart lately.
Why did it make me sick and my heart drop? My first thougth was Biggest Loser. We had just watched it the night before and they had gone out to eat and were analyzing the nutritional value of restaurant food. I thought Jillian would have a hissy fit if she could see that. It is suprising to me that someone actually orders and eats all of that food in one setting?? Good grief!
But then my immediate follow up thought was, What an African family wouldn’t do for that amount and variety of food! They’d stretch it out over a week if they could - many of them will NEVER eat like that – even spread out over a week or a month!
Now don’t think if I’m out and see a spread like that before you that I’ll be judging you! I’m all for good food and induldge myself too often – let’s not even mention the batch of no bake cookies that have disappeared so quickly at my house. And nobody else at my house really likes them… hmm…
But, God is really working on me with generosity. Our pastor is doing a great series on this right now called Generous Living – my favorite sermon so far has been How to Be Rich. Sit and watch it if you have a few minutes. It really puts into perspective how much we really have.
I’m going to be really honest here. I’ve never been a big giver. We do give regularly to our church for an amount that is sacrificial for our family. But, I wish we were giving more. We do plan to give more as God gives us more, but it’s not going to be skyrocketing anytime soon with saving for an adoption and paying off debt. But, it has been mine and Jason’s goal for our entire marriage to use whatever we have for God’s glory and for ministry purposes.
However in the past when we have gotten things that ask us to donate money – anything that goes above and beyond what we already do (like people going on mission trips, someone adopting, a need that has come up, etc.,) I haven’t even really considered it. We don’t have anything to give. We just don’t. I pray for them, I encourage them, and I support them in other ways if possible. But, I’m usually not giving monetarily. I’ve also been selfish with my time. Three kids and working a couple or three contract jobs plus the areas I serve is not easy to manage. But, could I give a little more of my time? I could.
One thing that’s been huge for me in this adoption process is learning to accept things from others. It’s hard for me. I talked about it here, and I’m still in awe that God is teaching me a lesson through this about receiving. But, God is also teaching me about giving.
Through the sermon series, small group lessons, discussions with friends, and lots of talks with God, my heart is changing. Jason and I are already trying to save every penny we can with the adoption so we are rethinking all that we do and things we can do without that we thought were needs – the “extras” we don’t really need. Which makes me think that I could have been giving at least something all along. But even still, those small sacrifices don’t add up to much, or do they?
I’ve always thought that sending someone a $25 or $50 or $100 check when they were trying to raise tons of money was almost like a slap in the face, a drop in the bucket, mainly useless. But, anything we’ve been given – from $25 to $250 is all the same to us encouragement wise! Obviously the larger amounts get us to our goal quicker, but the fact that someone is willing to remember what we’re doing, believe in it, want to support us, and take the time to sit down, write a check or pull out their check card, and put something behind the support is huge! Equally huge have been people willing to give of their time to come help – like with the garage sale and cleanup. Whether it was one hour or 20 hours, it meant so much to us! I’ve learned that support and prayer is huge, but being willing to back it up with SOMETHING – time or money - is such a blessing to the giver and the receiver!
Because of seeing it on this side, I’m going to try to give more try to be less mindful of what I think I can do and more mindful of what God would have me do. When someone needs even just an hour of my time to help with a project, I’m going to really work on thinking outside of my immediate little world and giving the hour. When someone has a financial need, God prompts our hearts, and He gives us the desire to give, I’m going to work on loosening the vice grip on my wallet with the budget numbers flashing before my eyes and instead praying through what God would have us do – which shouldn’t be the cheapest way out either. Can’t say how much I’ll be doing this while we’re still in the adoption raising money process. But even in a tight budget, there’s always wiggle room.
The fact of the matter is that giving is infectious! Think about it this way. A man is walking down the road and is carrying a huge load on his back. He calls out and asks several people for help; people encourage him and tell him he’s doing a great job, but nobody actually lightens his load. He makes it there, but he used a lot more time and energy than he thought he would. He’s TIRED and discouraged. On his trip back home, he sees someone else with a heavy load calling for help. He wants to help, but you know, he had to carry his own load, he’s tired, and you know what? The next time he has to carry a big load, nobody will probably be there to help him so he better just conserve his energy. Do you see how it’s a cyclical problem? If everyone would give a little, our world could be the place that God desired it to be! 1 John 3:16 – 19 says, “We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God.”
My prayer is that God continues to make Jason and I more aware of the wiggle areas in our finances and time. That He will give us wisdom to recognize when He wants us to give and the ways to make that happen. And I’m still in awe that while I think we’re just going through the adoption process that God is teaching us so many other things that I know will carry beyond this one time period. God’s good like that!
The circus with Mimi (look for Katie Beth on the elephant), Honeysuckle Hill with the Schells, pumpkin carving (I never realized our kids initials spell out KEN – what will we name #4?), movie nights, learning to eat (Nolan), school award day, playing in the water fountains in spite of long sleeves and jeans, and just FUN! Our family really enjoyed fall break!
This is from my blog friend, Renee. She posted this video on her adoption blog for their new daughter, Kellsey. I had no idea conditions like this still existed!
We have reached the halfway point of our December challenge! In case you didn’t hear, we have some friends that are matching all donations we receive between now and the end of 2009 up to $5000! Not yard sale or money Jason and I put in, just donations. TODAY we received the donation that put us just over the $2500 mark – we’re at $2564 for donations and $1800 for the yard sale. We’re scrimping and planning here too, and hopefully soon we can put in our first half of our agency fees. We could do that now, but once we put in that, everything will get chugging along faster (aka money due quick!) so we’re just trying to make sure we’ll have a bit of a jump on all that will follow that initial payment.
We have started our home study process! We had our first meeting at their office, and then once we complete our paperwork we will schedule our second meeting their for Jason and I to have separate interviews – about 45 minutes each. We’re about through with most of that paperwork. We’re waiting on our doctor’s office updates right now. We went in the other day for a multitude of tests. TB test, urine test, and six vials of blood later, and now we’re awaiting the results. We’re being tested for HIV, TB, Hepatitis B & C, syphilis, illegal drugs, and a few other things I can’t remember off the top of my head.
I joked on Twitter that it’d kind of stink for our 3 current kids if something happened and they said we weren’t fit for parenting – ha! I’m kind of like if we’ve made it this far, let’s sure hope that through our homestudy, applications, medical tests, reference letters, background checks, etc. that we are validated as being capable parents!
From my perception, I don’t think the paperwork in itself seems all that overwhelming. Not that we’ve completed it all, but it really doesn’t seem that huge. Our agency did a great job of kind of breaking the paperwork into chunks so that we can just do a bit at a time. And as much as there is that’s required, some of which seems odd, it makes me that much more confident in their being particular about things and making sure things are done correctly and ethically.
Today I picked up the boys from preschool and then Katie Beth from her school. Within 5 minutes of everyone being in the car, Nolan puked a ton while I was driving. We got home, I just left the van door open to air it out and to wait for Jason to use the shop vac on the car. I bathed him, he seemed tired, and so I laid him down. He didn’t feel warm so I just hoped it was random. Within about fifteen minutes he was screaming. I went in and he had puked in bed - sheets, bedding, carpet, etc. I started cleaning him up only to hear screaming downstairs and Everett yelling MOM MOM MOM! (That’s never good.) Katie Beth had gotten her first wasp sting. Ironically enough it occurred at the very moment I was covered in puke! Thankfully Nolan was okay for a few minutes to pull out the stinger and fix an ice pack. Then more puking. He settled down and was crying for a drink. I sat with him on my lap in the couch and gave him some juice. Within about 10 seconds, massive across the full length of the couch puking. Puke on the couch, quilt, lovey, remote, Katie Beth, and me – it was okay, I hadn’t had time to change from the first puking incident. Jason had gotten home and was cleaning sheets and the van. I just sat with him, covered in puke (thankfully it was mainly just straight juice – hadn’t had time to sour on the stomach, but still… gross…) for about 45 minutes or so until Jason could swap with me so I could shower. During that 45 minutes there were about 20 more puking incidents, one of which was another projectile.
All I could think was that pretty soon we’d have another one running around too. But I was good – I really just sat with a peace. Things like this that occurred with Katie Beth or Everett I might (okay, probably would) have flipped out a little. But, I just sat there in puke and kept him after Jason was ready to take him because he had drifted off to sleep for a few minutes, and I didn’t want to wake him. I realized I’ve just settled in some as a mom. Not that it’s easy. Not that I love to be covered in puke. But, it just doesn’t flip me out as much anymore. Jason and I even kind of laughed about it a couple of times. Not the sick kid or the other limping kid specifically, but just the situation in general. He was puke covered by the end of the night too. It was a nice feeling to know I could handle it even better than before. So, I am not overwhelmed by four kids – not yet at least! I kind of like the busy and the house being full – almost full…
Well, sorry to have rambled. We were offline last week for various reasons, so I have a lot of blog posts in my head… and pictures to get posted too! Hopefully soon! Nolan’s crying – I’m praying he will sleep tonight and this sickness stuff will pass quickly!
