I want to address this now...

I want to get this out of the way. I want to tell this to my son, so that he can look back and know my heart.

I recently came across a blog that led me to a news article that brought out the passionate and the mean people from everywhere. Some of the comments that were particularly hurtful were:

"People who adopt babies of a different race do it to get attention. "

"A child is not a fashion accessory!"

"White people adopt black kids to make themselves feel good... A black child needs black parents to raise it."

I can't imagine what I would actually say if these kinds of things were spoken to my face, since just reading them in the comfort of my home, not even having met my sweet boy, makes me want to smack someone. ( I will be praying that God keeps my tongue glued to the roof of my mouth and my hands full, if and when I am faced with malicious words like this.)

But after the anger subsides, I have a slight twinge of fear....fear that my son may wonder if some of the hurtful comments posted to a news article, some words spoken by a stranger, (or God forbid a friend or family member)....could be true, or have a half truth.

So, I thought I would put it down here. For anyone who might be secretly wondering, but mostly for future reference for a little man....so that he will know his mamma loved him. So he will know that he is not a fashion statement. He is a product of our love (Kelly and mine) and our love for our Savior (who actually adopted us too!) My regular prayer is for God to break my heart for what breaks His heart. He just happened to to put a burning desire in me for another child right before he started opening my eyes to the story of the worldwide orphans. He said clearly to both Kelly and I, "Sure, you can have more children. Why don't you adopt? Why don't you get on an airplane to get your son instead of physically giving birth? Why don't you have a child, born of your heart?

Sure, pregnancy is something that I love, I am THAT women who says she loves being pregnant, she loves to give birth (well, maybe not love, but I'd do it again), please don't hate me...I simply have easy pregnancies. But this paper pregnancy is an adventure for all of our family...not just mommy's body ;) My kids are learning about sacrifice, saving money, another country, learning about poverty, and they will learn about unconditional love, that knows no blood relation, but family born of our hearts.

Also, I want him to know that adopting him is not a good deed so that everyone can pat us on the back. No, I see adopting as a blessing to him and us.

Matt. 25: 40

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' "

Mind you, I am still not looking for brownie points, not from anyone. But I do believe that we are called to care for those less fortunate than us. For us, an easy way to do this is to adopt. We want to have another child....somewhere there is a little boy that wants a family. It's a match made in Heaven!

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......