Yard Work, Paper Work, and Cleaning

Well, we have been pretty busy around here lately and I really wanted to do a post about all the happenings..........

with pictures..........

but it seems blogger thinks otherwise.

So, you will have to just take my word for it. If I figure what is the deal I'll get some pictures on here later.....hopefully!

First off, I have been getting the gardening itch out of my system with some much needed mulch for my flower beds. The beds are beautiful after several days of spreading! Plus, my vegetable garden that the kids and I planted a few weeks ago is GREAT! We will have squash to pick any day now!

Next, we have been working hard on ordering all of our certificates for the paperwork for the adoption. I sent off for my report of a birth abroad (since I have a privilege of being born outside of the US, I got to pay Uncle Sam $50 plus FedX there and back!), and we signed papers that we will be mailing to our homestudy agency tomorrow. Our first home visit is scheduled for Saturday so I wanted everything organized. I read an idea on a message board to have all the paperwork in a large 3-ring binder and put all the papers in page protectors separated by tabs. That way the papers wouldn't get bent corners and a minor spill will not result in mom's heart attack. The tabs are separating different parts of the adoption; i.e. dossier(this is the official packet of papers that will actually go to Ethiopia), homestudy, our copies, and receipts. So I headed out to Office Max and got to organizing papers into the binder on Saturday. I have a nice picture of it....oh wait...pictures aren't working...maybe later ;) Naturally, big sis asked if I was going to make a cover for it (she's a daughter after her scrapbooking mother's own heart), so I may have to make a pretty cover to slip into the front of the binder.

Lastly, we are trying to finish up our Hague International training. Even though Ethiopia is not part of the Hague treaty, our agency required parents to take this course. Kelly was able to sit at work on Friday and finish up the last 3 or 4 hours, so I have a little catching up to do. But, I am happy to say that I am more than half way finished...we will be glad to have that part checked off. It's been very informative, but a lot is specific to other countries.

Born in Germany

That's me! Always thought it was cool to have a different birthplace than other people.

Until this week!

In order to have a current, certified report of my birth (abroad), I had to send a notarized, written request to the US State Department.......with a payment of $50......and they "recommend" sending it FedX......and paying for the FedX back.......since regular mail is so slow in DC......

So, it's off. And might I add I feel like an adult....I know, I have been one for awhile, but there's something about sending and receiving FedX that makes me feel grown-up. You know, motherhood doesn't require all that "business" stuff like a career would. ;)

So, hopefully in a couple weeks I will have a little piece of paper stating that I was, in fact....born. (You would think they would take my mother's word for it!)

It takes a village

No, I'm not quoting Hillary Clinton, I am sure that someone in my family, a grandparent or my mother said this long before the Clinton administration was around.

This topic has been on my mind for a couple of days, but I have always believed it, in some of shape or form. For several different reasons.

The first reason being this....we all have responsibility for the children around us. Before you get huffy, hear me out! ;) I believe that we are responsible for our sphere of influence, and if that includes any children...that means we are responsible for them. Now we each have different levels, parents and teachers of children...lots of responsibility, those who have limited time around children, have less....but we STILL have responsibility for them.

If you want to argue that point, tell me this...have you ever sat in a church during a baby baptism or baby dedication? Doesn't the congregation commit to assist the parents in raising this child up for the Lord? Uh, hello! You are verbally accepting responsibility!

The second point is that I think we have a high responsibility as parents to train up our children in the way that they should go....but do we not have all kinds of resources around us? Nope, I'm not talking about the stacks and stacks of parenting books that you have been sent my your MIL, I am talking about the people around you...yes...the village!

Please don't forget the first and best resource for parents..the Bible. There is not much more convicting or helpful when teaching and correcting my children when I pull out their little NIV reader and show them right where is says that lying is wrong....right where is says to be compassionate.

cut's like a two-edged sword...

The Word is able to speak to your children also! :)

But let's talk about the village....I want my children to respect the village, I want my children to obey the village, I want my children to seek advice from the village. But how will they do that if I don't give the village authority over my children, how will that happen with the village doesn't accept the responsibility of my children?

As I think about this, I am so sad at the state of our children these days. A specific example comes to mind. Last summer my girls and were at our neighborhood pool and we had a table close to the stairs leading into the shallow end. Now, the rule (and I am a stickler for rules!) is that children may NOT be touching the water at all during the adult breaks. This is for a couple reasons...1. the lifeguards are manning the snack stand and are not watching for the children's safety, 2. the kids need a break so that they are not over tired and are less likely to end up in a dangerous situation in the water, 3. everyone knows, if I child has their feet in the water, how easily it goes to kicking, to splashing, to ...oops, I "accidentally" fell in. So, break rolls around and my kids are sitting at the table, having a little snack; and two little girls are sitting by the pool right next to our table. One is about 3 and the other at least 8. The little one inches her way onto the steps(completely in the water) and the oldest has her feet dangling in the water as she sits on the side.

(Can I just mention, the 3 year old playing on the steps, unsupervised did not know how to swim.)

Do you know that I had to tell that little 3 year old over 4 times to get our of the water before she complied; all the while looking at me like I was growing horns out of my head?! And the older one had to be told 3 (different)times to take her feet out of the water...but the worst part was, she not only did not speak one word to me, she did not look at me like I was an alien like her sister, but she did give me the dirtiest look I have ever had from a child, like she would love to spit in my face all the while not obeying me!

This is what I am talking about....we do not teach our children that they are to obey adults. We might teach them to obey certain adults....obey your mother, obey your auntie, obey your teacher. But what about that lady you don't know at the pool...the one trying to uphold the rules at the pool, as an example for her children...and for your safety?

Are we seriously allowing our children to only heed warnings from familiar voices? What you get is a toddler that only stops running into the street when his mother calls him...but doesn't stop when the neighbor tried to stop him. How about a teenager who doesn't listen to a well-meaning adult who gives a warning about driving too fast in the rain?

This is what I don't want to happen with my children. I want them raised by the village. Don't worry, I will take on the bulk of it...but I can't watch them every second. I want to teach them that adults are to be respected, honored, obeyed.

Yard Sale and recent happenings

So, last week we had a super busy week. Thursday night started the marathon as I headed to Panera Bread for our bake sale donations. On the drive I got to chat with our homestudy social worker for the very first time! Her name is Helen and she seems like a very nice lady. After that, it's a little blurry, but I will do my best!

Friday morning we were up an at'm but not too early. We headed to Walmart and had ourselves set up and ready to go. The kids were so excited to hand out flyers, but when it actually came down too it, they were too shy. When they got up the nerve to actually hand someone a flyer, their excitement would get the better of them, they would giggle and put their heads together to talk about it and they would miss 3 more people.

Too cute!

So anyways, if yard sale fundraisers are lots of hard, physical work; walking away feeling like the people who bought your stuff or donated stuff got the better deal after they badgered you into a lower price.....bake sales are the opposite. We sat and smiled at people, we were blessed and encouraged by so many, including the little old lady who came bounding over with a $20 in her hand so excited to tell us that she had two of her own, grown, adopted children. The sweet old men who would pull out a couple bucks and give it to us, not really wanting to chat ;) The friends who stopped by to buy a goodie or 2 and encourage us. We had one lady that was given a flyer (by mom) and was walking away but came back after she read a bit. She bought $10 worth of goodies and paid with a $20. :) She was an angel! The relatively sweat-free morning we had was blissful fundraising.

Our Walmart Bake Sale gave us $184....not bad for 4 hours hangin with the fam in front of Walmart!

Then we headed home to pack up all the yard sale stuff and do the Panera Bread run again. Saturday morning started much earlier. I ended up with a headache at 2 or 3 am, got rid of it, but was up at 4:30 am for the day. I finally gave up sleep and decided to surf some blogs before the yard sale mayhem started.

We had a WONDERFUL spot to have the sale this time and WONDERFUL weather!! :) My friend Dana's church let us use their parking lot, we actually ended up using a great covered picnic area right next to the parking lot, we stayed out of the sun and Dana and her hubby helped keep an eye on the kiddos and eventually took them to play at their house.

The morning started off a little stressful, I had a lady that was a paradox for yard sales. She spent a lot of money, so for that I am grateful, the method in which she spent it almost sent me over the edge. First let me tell you that this lady had a sort of yard sale kit...the lady brought batteries and screw drivers and such so she see if things actually worked. Okay....that's fine. Then, she had so much stuff, she asked if she could have a box...hmmm.... that's fine, but I'm not sure you can take it (remote location, I have to get this stuff back to my house somehow!) Then, as things are really starting to pick up...she wants to negotiate her huge pile....one or two items at a time! And she wants to pay as she goes! To top it off, she unashamedly has told me, she is buying this stuff to turn around and sell it at the flea market! That would have been fine if not for the table....let's just say she bought it for way less than I had planned on selling it for. I was glad that she had to be at work by 9, let's just say, I was neglecting the other customers as she bought her box full of stuff $0.75 at a time! ;)

This sale, we didn't have a lot of big tickets items, most of those have been sold at the others, but we still did great. We had a bake sale along side of the yard sale and it's a wonderful conversation starter about the adoption. Since people zero in on the yard sale and seem to pass over the adoption fundraiser sign, the bake sale was a way to let them know what the whole sale was for.

Here is a picture of my sweet and hard working hubby. (Note: my poor hubby might start having an aversion to this 2 simple words "yard sale".) He has worked so hard packing and hauling this stuff all over this town!

My Grandma in Ohio sent us adoption shirts from a girl at her church that is adopting! I was so excited to get to wear something with Africa on it!

So, for our 4th (sort of 3rd) yard sale, we made a wonderful $490!!! That was after we took out lunch and on the advice from friends, we did not advertise this time in the paper. We didn't even need to, we had great traffic all morning long!

Unfortunately, after we were packed up and got back to the house, the day was not over...you remember I said marathon, don't you? We had committed to helping out with the parent's night out at our church, so off we went to the other side of town. The day ended at around 9:45pm when we finally got home and put the kiddos in bed. Geez, I'm tired just recounting it for you!

Since then, the girls and I have been getting some school and yard work done. Kelly is working nights, so at night I try to get adoption paperwork filled it, though I am not as diligent as I could be! I don't even have tv to blame it on!

one last note.....It has nothing to do with any of this, but I thought I'd share a sweet picture of my babies! They started swim season this week and it's so obvious that they are not really my babies any longer. Big sis is way over in the "big kid" lane and little sis jumped right in the first day and didn't even look back, just swam! What a huge change from last year!!!

Blog Raffle

So, I have been trying to think of ways to generate some more readers and to also raise funds at the same time. After thinking about what I already have and asking for ideas from some fellow bloggers, I came up with this!

I am going to be raffling off your choice of an Usborne activity book for children called "Chocolates and candies to make" or a Usborne library bound book called "The Big Bug Search".

Chocolates and candies to make

The activity book is full of really easy and totally delicious things to make which you can enjoy eating or give as presents. There are some gift-wrapping ideas too. Just follow the simple, step-by-step picture instructions and have fun.

The Big Bug Search

From huge hairy spiders to spindly stick insects, there are around 100 bugs just waiting to be found on every double page. Full of fascinating facts, each beautifully illustrated picture puzzle shows a different part of the world, packed with the tiny creatures that live there. Answers are in the back.

There are several ways that you can enter that I am going to list below, but make sure you read the required parts first!

So, how do you get an entry into my raffle?

1. You must be a follower of this blog.

2. You must buy at a "raffle ticket" with any donation on our chipin button to the right. No donation is too small (even $1 is appreciated!).

3. You must live in the US. Sorry, no shipping overseas :(

Here are how you can get extra entries:

1. You can Twitter or Facebook about my blog with a link to http://our-journey-to-africa.blogspot.com/

2. You can grab my button to the right and place it on your blog. (2 entries)

3. You can write a blog about my adoption with a link to this post. (2 entries)

*Make sure you comment below letting me know what all you have done for entries, ( I will see donations, you don't have to mention those, just the extra entry stuff!).

This raffle will go until May 29th June 6th and then on the 30th 7th, I will randomly choose a winner.

Our T-shirt Store is now Open!!!!

We are so excited to have some cool shirts that you guys can buy and we will get a portion of the sales towards our adoption!!! Here is the link, but the button will also be on the side bar along with our coffee fundraiser. Make sure to check the shirts out, there are some great family shirts.

On another note, please pray for us today, we have our big Bake Sale at Walmart and another Big Yard Sale/Bake Sale tomorrow at a local church. They were kind enough to offer their parking lot.

Lots to do......

We will have t-shirts soon for our adoption, but in the mean time check out these great t-shirts that will support another family! Here is there blog.

*Don't forget to turn off the music at the bottom of the page!

Wonderful Adoption Story

This is a wonderful video! Check it out!

(don't forget to turn off my music at the bottom of the page 1st!)

A new mom blog and some giveaways!

Hop on over and check out this new mom blog and see what they are giving away!

A sad note on a normally happy day

So, this post has nothing to do with our adoption, but the thought came to me this morning during church that I really wanted to write this. It's a very sad post on a happy day for me. Mother's Day...I am so blessed to have my sweet girls and to have a loving and caring mother myself.

As I listen to Big Sis play Super Mario Brothers and Little Sis wondering out loud when lunch will be, my thoughts are with a young family that just lost their mother 2 days ago from cancer, cancer that they just found she had 2 weeks ago. This mom leaves behind and husband and two young daughters, both under 3.

My heart breaks for them. And my heart breaks for their small church.

You see, I didn't know this family, but they attend our old church in WA. And this small church has endured it's share of sorrow over the past couple of years.............

A dad was killed in action in Iraq, he left behind a sweet family, a wife, and 2 girls, the same age as mine...........

The pastor's wife had a long battle with cancer until God healed her perfectly in glory. She left behind a husband and 2 girls, both about a year older than my girls. Their mother was a delight for me to know and a huge encouragement to me that last year we lived in WA.

My heart breaks that we live in such a broken world with sin, that war and disease would take away life of such sweet souls.

My heart breaks that on Mother's Day, these wonderful people that we called our church family are hurting today and burying another mother. I pray that they can have comfort in this song that we sang today in church. I can't wait for the days of no weeping, no hurt or pain.......

*You need to turn off my music at the bottom of this page first :) *

Completely in Awe of God

First, a quick update on adoption news. We have been assigned our Family Coordinator yesterday and she sent us our first email. She was so sweet on the phone and told me not to be overwhelmed by all the attachments and she suggested that we print them out to read and then sign and return the required papers to her. :) Ha! I thought I wouldn't be shocked, I've heard about the paper chase....well, folks, she sent SEVENTEEN attachments! And to top that, one of the attachments we had to print and read before signing another paper and returning.......it was 28 pages! Well, I don't quite feel overwhelmed, but I was a little shocked at the shear number of attachments.

This week, we are also starting on our Hague training and our reading, plus Kelly is starting nights Sunday, so that will take some getting used to. We haven't had to deal with night shift in almost 3 years.

Now, for some serious praising God!

I am just so excited that I have to share what God has done for us! It is amazing and exciting. A couple weeks ago, I wrote a post here that was a gut wrenching truth that I shared about tithing.

Malachi 3:10 says

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it".

OH YES! God was so faithful to us! Let me just tell you first off that the same week that we wrote our first full tithe check, we got an unexpected deposit in the bank. Weird, we said...that was great, look what God did, maybe the IRS forgot to give us some of our taxes. So, we sawGod was blessing us....we just had no idea how much. Not till a month later, after we had continued to be faithful in our tithing did we see this deposit again, but a slightly different amount. So, we started wondering, "where is this money coming from?"

After a couple internet searches, we found out that it is Kelly's VA benefits. But here is the kicker.....first, we were not expecting these checks to start for a couple of years. Second, (and this is so BIG!)........ the amount of his VA benefits is $3 more than our tithe for the month!!!!!!!

WHAT?!

God said, "you bet, you are going to test me, you are going to be faithful, you are going to step out and tithe when there really isn't that much left after bills, but instead you are going to step out in faith and tithe first....I am going to bless you...I am going to replace that money, plus $3!"

God is good!

But, guess what? It doesn't stop there.......

"and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it"

God is so faithful! As he was teaching me a lesson during our big yard sale, He was working behind the scenes to bless us beyond our imagination. See, a month or so ago, Kelly applied to a job....we didn't think anything of it, if it's better, if it pans out, we would consider thinking about it.

Then, last week, they called him and told him they wanted to hire him, they would be sending him an offer. They verbally told him a rough estimate of the raise (it would be good). So we waited and wondered what to do about this. You see, it's not just about a pay raise, the job is only for 18 months. So, Kelly would be looking for employment after the 18 months....to consider that, it would have to be really good.

So, we waited for the official offer and what do you know? It was better than what the guy had verbally told Kelly. What to do now? Do we really take a temporary job for more money? Kelly decided to take the offer to his current employer and see if they would offer him a raise to stay. (I had complete faith that they would want to keep him, he is a hard worker and valued employee!) So, he put it on the table and they countered. It was a good raise but not the same amount as the new company...but enough to stay in a permanent job.

What to do now, neither of us were clear....

I prayed hard, prayed for wisdom, prayed for clarity, and finally told God He was going to have to be direct, for Him to please make the decision so clear.

A dear friend that is very close with God was praying for me and called to tell me she heard from God "I supplied this job (money for the adoption), why wouldn't I supply a job afterwards?"

So, my sweet husband said the raise was enough to make him stay with his current company, but he would give the new company a chance to raise the offer. Little did I know that during the afternoon when I felt a strong urge to pray (guys, this never happens to me...or maybe I just don't listen) was the exact same time Kelly was talking to the new company. BTW, I did go and pray, hard for my dear husband. :)

What do you know, he countered and the new company, who had already given us a good offer, above what we had accepted, raised their offer!! And it's a GOOD offer!!

God has blessed us so abundantly, so unexpectedly, so completely. God has promised to take care of us and we want to shout it from the roof tops!

This job will allow us some of the adoption money, money that I just had no idea where it was going to come from. We still have a ways to go, and I regularly remind myself to just look at the next thing that will be due, not the whole picture. The total sum of this adoption is too much for me to grasp. Too much for me to see where it will all come from. That's why this is God's department, He is supplying the funds, I am just His instrument.

Lastly, from now on, I want to ponder about and write to my sweet boy a little with each post. My sweet Caleb, I wonder if he has been born, or if his precious birth mother is still pregnant with him? I hope and pray that God sends people to snuggle and kiss him until I can. I hope that he knows what it is to be loved, to be rocked. I pray that whoever cares for him has enough to feed him and I pray God puts a wall of protection around him. I wonder what he will look like when we see his sweet face for the first time on the computer. I don't remember the same thing with my girls when I was pregnant...wondering, maybe it's been too long. I know the first time I saw them, their faces were bruised with smooched noses or pointed heads. LOL! Sweet little newborns, not quite what a fist time mom expects, but she loves them all the same. I can't wait to see his face, until then, I will pray for a faceless dark, soft skinned little boy with dark eyes that I am sure will be my weakness.

Blog Raffle

So, I have been trying to think of ways to generate some more readers and to also raise funds at the same time. After thinking about what I already have and asking for ideas from some fellow bloggers, I came up with this!

I am going to be raffling off your choice of an Usborne activity book for children called "Chocolates and candies to make" or a Usborne library bound book called "The Big Bug Search".

Chocolates and candies to make

The activity book is full of really easy and totally delicious things to make which you can enjoy eating or give as presents. There are some gift-wrapping ideas too. Just follow the simple, step-by-step picture instructions and have fun.

The Big Bug Search

From huge hairy spiders to spindly stick insects, there are around 100 bugs just waiting to be found on every double page. Full of fascinating facts, each beautifully illustrated picture puzzle shows a different part of the world, packed with the tiny creatures that live there. Answers are in the back.

There are several ways that you can enter that I am going to list below, but make sure you read the required parts first!

So, how do you get an entry into my raffle?

1. You must have a blog to participate.

2. You must be a follower of this blog.

3. You must buy at a "raffle ticket" with any donation on our chipin button to the right. No donation is too small (even $1 is appreciated!).

4. You must live in the US. Sorry, no shipping overseas :(

Here are how you can get extra entries:

1. You can Twitter or Facebook about my blog with a link to http://our-journey-to-africa.blogspot.com/

2. You can grab my button to the right and place it on your blog. (2 entries)

3. You can write a blog about my adoption with a link to this post. (2 entries)

*Make sure you comment below letting me know what all you have done for entries, ( I will see donations, you don't have to mention those, just the extra entry stuff!).

This raffle will go until June 6th and then on the 7th, I will randomly choose a winner.

Buy Coffee to Bring Home Caleb!

Yes, you all may have noticed our link on the side bar, but I wanted to bring your attention to is again because Linny is having a Crazy Love #3 that you can read all about here!

Also, you may have noticed for the first time some new info.......

anyone notice?

Yep, our sweet little boy's name will be Caleb! This has always been our "boy" name and had sweet little sis not been a cute blond little girl, well, her name would have been Caleb. We are not sure about his middle name, because we may keep one of his Ethiopian names as his middle name...not sure yet!

So, if you buy some of this yummy coffee, we will get a portion towards our adoption AND it's a fair wage coffee so the famers are making money to take care of their families. Just click the link about and see what they have to offer. Thanks for supporting our adoption!

The "church lady"

So off the bat, my intent with this post is to not to offend, but to get your mind rolling and possibly convict you. ;)

Today we decided to pull all the yard sale stuff out to organize it (seeing as how it was thrown together in the rain last week), throw out any moldy/ruined stuff, and simply air it all out since we had so much rain during our sale last week.

Since we were going to pull it all out anyway, we might as well put up a couple signs and see if we could sell anything at the same time. Last night I went ahead and made up some brownies so the girls could participate too. (They really feel like they are helping raise money for the adoption this way)

First let me just say that people simply don't pay attention to details around them (the huge adoption fundraiser/yard sale sign that almost everyone parked right in front of!) I'm talking a 3x5 HUGE sign, professionally made and loaned to us from friends at church. So up comes a nice looking lady, in what could be her Sunday clothes, after she parks right in front of the sign. She wonders around making small talk, asks if we are moving....uh, no, if you had read the sign you would know this is a fund raiser. I actually said...nicely..."we are raising money for our adoption of a little boy in Africa." She says, as she stands over the box of shoes, "oh...my church is taking shoes to South Africa..."

Um, WHAT?! Does she want to me to offer her the shoes to her?

I tell her that's nice and ask what church she goes to (since my church is also going to South Africa) Then, almost with her nose in the air, she walks off toward her car and just mentions she saw our sign after her "church" meeting and tells me to have a good day. She didn't buy a thing, (which is fine) and she didn't buy a brownie from my DD (which is also fine, she said she had just had breakfast); but I had the strangest feeling of being snubbed.

Now, mind you, I am comparing this lady to my mail lady who, when asked by little sis if she would like to buy a brownie for 50 cents, she said she would actually like to buy a brownie for $5.00 (hmmm, I think she read the sign.)

I am not trying to bad mouth church lady (can we just call her that for the sake of my point?), maybe she didn't need anything or like anything she saw at my little yard sale, maybe she doesn't like brownies. Maybe she gives tons of time and energy to her church mission trip to South Africa. But, for me, she represents so many of us (Christians) that are just simply lukewarm.

*This idea of lukewarm Christians is not new to me, but since a sermon in March at out church that you can watch here, it has stuck with me and followed me around a bit. (I read a blog just the other day that reminded me of it again!)*

I am by no means a perfect Christian, I have hot and cold days....just ask the lady I was not very nice to on the phone the other day :/ . But one of my new goals is to never catch myself being a "lukewarm Christian". I have bad days and stick my foot in my mouth, I sin like everyone else and need to ask for forgiveness.

What I want for myself, is to be passionate about Christ and how Christ called me to live the rest of the time. I don't want to be the church lady who is checking off the boxes in my Christian to do list and lose sight of things or people that God places in my path to either help or encourage.

I say this only because I HAVE BEEN THAT church lady. Oh yes, I am not proud of it, but now that I see it in others, it makes me sad. It makes me wonder, how many American Christians will be in the lukewarm category when Jesus returns?

What about you? Do you help when God places someone in your path, do you give an encouraging word? (Maybe I should have given that lady all the shoes for South Africa.) Are you passionate about Christ, and passionate about being a Christian, or are you worried people think you are "overboard" about Christ? Are you passionate about serving Him with your money?

Like I said, no intent to offend, the lady just rubbed me the wrong way and got my mind rolling.

Now, I want you to think.....

How can we not be lukewarm Christians?