Dear Family and Friends,
In December 2012 we started a journey to adopt a child who needs a forever home. It is a rollercoaster to be on this journey and honestly some days are hard and some days we are able to distract ourselves from the frustration of waiting. You see God has blessed us with 2 beautiful biological children and we truly thought our family was complete. Then we were at an Easter service at our church and there was this Ugandan kids choir that worshipped with our church and they were so joyful and thankful to be simply praising Jesus! My heart felt a strong tug and the seed of adoption was planted. I never thought adoption was for me and I honestly was kind of in the category of indifferent. I felt bad for orphans like any human being with a heart does, but I didn’t really think I had any role to play in adoption.
Let me stop right here and say that we do all have a role to play in the care for orphans, for some of us it means we should include them in our prayers (pray they find their forever home, pray they are well cared for, pray for their salvation, etc.), for some of us it means we give financially in some form to help care for orphans, for some it means using your talents to help in some way (maybe you have free time and can go visit orphans and read to them or serve a meal at a children’s home), or maybe you are like our family and you feel you are called to adopt.
Why are we adopting? Yes we feel called to it for sure, but more importantly than that we feel able. Christ first loved and adopted us and called us His own and therefore, we are able to love and adopt a child who needs a forever home, to call them our own. We have love to give and I guess we have figured the rest we would make it work some how with God’s help!
I also want to clarify something that really matters to us, our adoptive child will be just as much a member of our family as our biological children are, genes will not be greater than love and we will love all of our children equally. Also, we don’t care what race or background our adoptive child comes from so our family will most likely be mixed and we think its beautiful! We love the idea of being able to share our story with others and show other’s an example of Christ’s love through adopting.
I really thought this would not be such a hard process, and when I say process I am not even referring to the crazy amount of paperwork we have had to fill out. I am talking about the waiting. I thought because I am already a mom, that waiting would be easier for me. Turns out I was way wrong! It is hard to know you have a child somewhere that you already count as your own, that you pray for as a family and excitedly anticipate joining your family, but you don’t even know their name. We don’t know how old our child is, what gender he/she is, if they’ve even been born yet, if they are okay, if they are scared, if they are hungry, or worse…. It is like your family has a missing member and you have to just sit and wait. What gets us through the hard parts is our faith, that Christ is looking out for our child and that His ways and His timing are perfect and He knows best for us.
We recently became debt free in the early spring of this year and our intent is to remain debt free so we read a book called Adopt without Debt by Julie Gumm. She has some great ideas on different ways to fund your adoption without going in debt. One of the ways is to get a part time job. I stay home with our biological children Tanner and Kennadi and I home school them as well. In order for me to continue doing so, I have started working in direct sales with lia sophia jewelry. I get to work 1 or 2 evenings a week and help our family generate funds for our adoption that way. We have had 2 garage sales and we have had some amazing people donate goods for us to sell in those. We have had some sweet people (even people we didn’t know) donate money to our adoption fund. Talk about humbling, for someone to give you money so you can give a child a home forever, it was so amazing.
So now we are asking for help from you or someone you know maybe. We are going to make a blanket for our child (once we know who he or she is) and on the back of the blanket are going to be squares (hopefully a lot of them). We are basically asking for donations to have your name or personal message or both go on the back of the blanket on a piece of neutral fabric that we will provide. If you have ever wondered how you could help with orphans but didn’t want to commit to adopting or even sponsoring monthly, then this is a way you can help bring a precious child to their forever home.
We are sending out this letter to whoever we know and have an address for and along with the letter will be a fabric square, if you feel led to donate please put the money or check in the provided return envelop (already addressed and stamped) along with the square. Please write your name and a personal message if you’d like on the square and send them back to us.
Once we have all the squares collected and we know the gender of our child, we will put them together into a blanket. When our child comes home they will have a snuggly warm blanket made with love and it will always be a reminder of all the wonderful people who gave so that our child’s dream of having a forever home could come true!
Thank you in advance for supporting us and praying with us through the rest of our adoption journey. The road seems long at times and hard and at times we feel like we are getting no where, but in the end it will all be worth it because our child will know that they are loved by so many people, even people our child has never met.
Sincerely,
The Pierce family,
Nick, Amber, Tanner, Kennadi, and our dog Hank too J
P.s. we would love to share a picture with you once our child comes home so if you will give us your email address we would love to send you a picture.
You can contact us at:
Nick usmcpierce@gmail.com
Amber bigace3@hotmail.com
Nick 541-829-0635
Amber 541-829-0629
P.P.S. I have not been good about keeping up with my blog, but whenever there is something big to share I will for sure put it on my blog at www.piercefamily4blessings.blogspot.com
Please also pray for Breath of Life ministries and Loving alternatives Christian Adoption agency, there agencies are ministries to these birth parents who are truly heroes! Also pray for the birth parents, I can’t imagine the strength it must require to place your baby in someone else’s arms, but I do know that these birth parents love their baby and that is why they chose more for them than they could offer themselves. We don’t know our birth parents yet, but we pray for the daily, we pray for their salvation, we pray for peace in this difficult decision and for assurance that they are doing the right thing and that when they see our profile book they will be certain we are the family meant to raise their child. Please pray with us for all of these things and thank you so much!
Friday, November 15, 2013
Thursday, August 8, 2013
on time
414. sitting next to our son
415. pools
416. having 2 vehicles
417. towels--especially in a van with leather seats in texas with shorts on! ouch!
418. "hi mom" in the morning
419. freckles
420. facebook
421. Kenni discovered pockets and thinks they are so great, its so cute!
I have been meaning to blog for a couple weeks now, but never made time to do it so I brought the computer out to the living room and thought I'd do it now while the kids eat their breakfast.
First off I would like to comment on the post I read this morning on facebook. I was raised that the reason you are on time or preferably early is because whoever you are going to see for whatever the reason, that person's time is valuable. As I just read in the post, it is true people's time is valuable, including our children's time of course, but all people. I don't think I will ever stop believing that being on time is important because if I'm being honest it bothers me when people are late for me, it says to me that you didn't care enough to value my time, who cares that I have been there waiting because I was not only on time, but 10 minutes early. You can't show up late to the doctor or you miss your appointment, so people some how are able to adjust for that and make sure to start earlier, so why do people differ from a doctor appointment? Now let me just clarify here that I don't think you should speed or be crazy in order to be on time and I'm not saying that things don't come up that deserve grace.
Back to the post though, sorry for the tangent. In regards to myself, 10 times out of 10 we have been late for whatever the event because I planned poorly. I don't have smell the grass kids, I am a mom who poorly delegated tasks. I don't want to have to keep telling my kids to hurry up hurry up and in order to change that I need to allow more time. I need to tell them to put on their shoes, close their doors, etc. earlier. I have let go in some ways, we don't go early to park day anymore because frankly no one else really even goes on time, but I still feel like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get out the door for park day. Again, this is completely my fault! I don't want to tell my kiddos to hurry anymore and I need to plan better for that to happen. I plan well for doctor appointments and other appointments because we leave really really early and it all works out and no one is rushing around like a mad woman.
Now I don't have smell the roses kids, but I do have amazing helpers! This is where the rubber meets the road for me with this blog post-not so much with getting places. Where you anticipating me confessing my conviction, well here it is.... My kids want to help me, for some crazy reason they want to spend time with this high-stress, control freak, rushed, yelling mom! I know I don't get it sometimes, but I thank God that they do still want to be with me, flaws and ugliness (inside I am referring to) and all! It melts me sometimes how much they want to be with me, when honestly there are times I don't even want to be with myself. So back to the helpers bit, in the kitchen I am particularly crazy and controlling. It is literally painful for me to have help from slow kids that make unnecessary messes and spill the ingredients. I am aware this is not good, yes thanks for reminding me. So what do I do in light of this lovely conviction? well Tanner just asked for pancakes for dinner so that is what we are having and he is going to make it. I know that the world won't stop if he makes a mess and it will take longer and we won't starve and it will all be okay. I don't want to discourage my kids from helping and from making mistakes and messes and learning from them so I need to let go in this regard. My schedule of getting the million and one things done that I never even scratch the surface of at home. The truth is they are only going to want to be with me for so long and then they will want to do things without me. I'm a rockstar to them right now and I don't even play any instruments and I want to take full advantage of it!
So my goal is to let them help me even thought it will take twice as long, which means if there is something that HAS to get done, then I need to plan accordingly, get up earlier, start things sooner, etc. because this is the part of life I don't want to miss out on, my littles that are becoming bigs too quickly! My version of smelling the flowers is to stop doing stuff and watch my kids experience life, sit with them while they show me whatever it is that matters to them. So I will always believe it is important to be on time, but I don't want to yell at my kids to hurry anymore. I know I will fail, but I will just keep trying again.
Its sad that I feel like I have to explain and justify my desire to be on time, but most people I know are not people who are on time and its weird to me, but I will always try my best to value peoples time and be there when I say I will be there and I don't think its a bad thing. Where my fault lies is when I have to yell at my kids to hurry up because I have not done what I needed to do on time.
wow this got long, I have more to blog about but feel it should be reserved for another post so maybe I'll do another one today or another day we shall see....
I'm off to go enjoy the beautiful gifts God gave me in our children and to not hurry them or get frustrated for not doing things on my time schedule today since I have the gift of nothing scheduled today and no van to go anywhere to do anything :)
415. pools
416. having 2 vehicles
417. towels--especially in a van with leather seats in texas with shorts on! ouch!
418. "hi mom" in the morning
419. freckles
420. facebook
421. Kenni discovered pockets and thinks they are so great, its so cute!
I have been meaning to blog for a couple weeks now, but never made time to do it so I brought the computer out to the living room and thought I'd do it now while the kids eat their breakfast.
First off I would like to comment on the post I read this morning on facebook. I was raised that the reason you are on time or preferably early is because whoever you are going to see for whatever the reason, that person's time is valuable. As I just read in the post, it is true people's time is valuable, including our children's time of course, but all people. I don't think I will ever stop believing that being on time is important because if I'm being honest it bothers me when people are late for me, it says to me that you didn't care enough to value my time, who cares that I have been there waiting because I was not only on time, but 10 minutes early. You can't show up late to the doctor or you miss your appointment, so people some how are able to adjust for that and make sure to start earlier, so why do people differ from a doctor appointment? Now let me just clarify here that I don't think you should speed or be crazy in order to be on time and I'm not saying that things don't come up that deserve grace.
Back to the post though, sorry for the tangent. In regards to myself, 10 times out of 10 we have been late for whatever the event because I planned poorly. I don't have smell the grass kids, I am a mom who poorly delegated tasks. I don't want to have to keep telling my kids to hurry up hurry up and in order to change that I need to allow more time. I need to tell them to put on their shoes, close their doors, etc. earlier. I have let go in some ways, we don't go early to park day anymore because frankly no one else really even goes on time, but I still feel like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get out the door for park day. Again, this is completely my fault! I don't want to tell my kiddos to hurry anymore and I need to plan better for that to happen. I plan well for doctor appointments and other appointments because we leave really really early and it all works out and no one is rushing around like a mad woman.
Now I don't have smell the roses kids, but I do have amazing helpers! This is where the rubber meets the road for me with this blog post-not so much with getting places. Where you anticipating me confessing my conviction, well here it is.... My kids want to help me, for some crazy reason they want to spend time with this high-stress, control freak, rushed, yelling mom! I know I don't get it sometimes, but I thank God that they do still want to be with me, flaws and ugliness (inside I am referring to) and all! It melts me sometimes how much they want to be with me, when honestly there are times I don't even want to be with myself. So back to the helpers bit, in the kitchen I am particularly crazy and controlling. It is literally painful for me to have help from slow kids that make unnecessary messes and spill the ingredients. I am aware this is not good, yes thanks for reminding me. So what do I do in light of this lovely conviction? well Tanner just asked for pancakes for dinner so that is what we are having and he is going to make it. I know that the world won't stop if he makes a mess and it will take longer and we won't starve and it will all be okay. I don't want to discourage my kids from helping and from making mistakes and messes and learning from them so I need to let go in this regard. My schedule of getting the million and one things done that I never even scratch the surface of at home. The truth is they are only going to want to be with me for so long and then they will want to do things without me. I'm a rockstar to them right now and I don't even play any instruments and I want to take full advantage of it!
So my goal is to let them help me even thought it will take twice as long, which means if there is something that HAS to get done, then I need to plan accordingly, get up earlier, start things sooner, etc. because this is the part of life I don't want to miss out on, my littles that are becoming bigs too quickly! My version of smelling the flowers is to stop doing stuff and watch my kids experience life, sit with them while they show me whatever it is that matters to them. So I will always believe it is important to be on time, but I don't want to yell at my kids to hurry anymore. I know I will fail, but I will just keep trying again.
Its sad that I feel like I have to explain and justify my desire to be on time, but most people I know are not people who are on time and its weird to me, but I will always try my best to value peoples time and be there when I say I will be there and I don't think its a bad thing. Where my fault lies is when I have to yell at my kids to hurry up because I have not done what I needed to do on time.
wow this got long, I have more to blog about but feel it should be reserved for another post so maybe I'll do another one today or another day we shall see....
I'm off to go enjoy the beautiful gifts God gave me in our children and to not hurry them or get frustrated for not doing things on my time schedule today since I have the gift of nothing scheduled today and no van to go anywhere to do anything :)
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
whats the hap e hap
409. reflecting
410. an amazing husband who really helps me out and stands by no matter what crazy hair-brained idea I come up with
411. a free swimming pool we can walk to after dinner--we have spent a lot of time in the pool each night
412. being able to walk to a sweet park as a family!
413. seeing our son swim across the entire deep end of the pool, it was pretty awesome to see him do it!
Wow its been since march 27th since I wrote anything and it was on waiting, I wish I could say something new, but there really isn't much to tell....
We know that a woman was given our profile and she didn't pick us because she wanted her child to go to a home that had no children already in it.
Our home study was submitted (we confirmed it yesterday) and have paid for that as well as sent yet another questionnaire in (yes we made copies thankfully of the last one) with a $15 fee.
I have had a couple people ask how we are doing as far as saving for the adoption goes and so I added it all up tonight and between our saving each month and the profit from my lia Sophia jewelry business we have a total of $3,544.28 saved!
We know God will provide the funds and we just need to be good stewards of what He gives us! We are going to do another garage sale at the end of August and pray that goes well!
I honestly feel that the reason we don't have our 3rd child home with us yet is because we don't have the funds and the payment is due in full at the time the child is placed, so clearly we need to get busy saving!
Now that the home study is confirmed to be submitted we can start applying for grants so please pray that we get approved for enough to adopt and that we can bring our child to their forever home quickly!
So that is about where we are at this time and don't worry I will update when there is more to tell, meanwhile keep praying for us in this process and for the health and safety of our child.....
thanks and God bless!
410. an amazing husband who really helps me out and stands by no matter what crazy hair-brained idea I come up with
411. a free swimming pool we can walk to after dinner--we have spent a lot of time in the pool each night
412. being able to walk to a sweet park as a family!
413. seeing our son swim across the entire deep end of the pool, it was pretty awesome to see him do it!
Wow its been since march 27th since I wrote anything and it was on waiting, I wish I could say something new, but there really isn't much to tell....
We know that a woman was given our profile and she didn't pick us because she wanted her child to go to a home that had no children already in it.
Our home study was submitted (we confirmed it yesterday) and have paid for that as well as sent yet another questionnaire in (yes we made copies thankfully of the last one) with a $15 fee.
I have had a couple people ask how we are doing as far as saving for the adoption goes and so I added it all up tonight and between our saving each month and the profit from my lia Sophia jewelry business we have a total of $3,544.28 saved!
We know God will provide the funds and we just need to be good stewards of what He gives us! We are going to do another garage sale at the end of August and pray that goes well!
I honestly feel that the reason we don't have our 3rd child home with us yet is because we don't have the funds and the payment is due in full at the time the child is placed, so clearly we need to get busy saving!
Now that the home study is confirmed to be submitted we can start applying for grants so please pray that we get approved for enough to adopt and that we can bring our child to their forever home quickly!
So that is about where we are at this time and don't worry I will update when there is more to tell, meanwhile keep praying for us in this process and for the health and safety of our child.....
thanks and God bless!
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
still waiting
406. when frustration had really set in, encouragement birthed and restored my ability to keep waiting
407. quiet mornings with God, coffee, my dear friend's blog and emails with encouraging words, thank you G!
408. good peopel, they are still out there!
So lets get to it, I never expected to be so frustrated with waiting on a child to adopt. I thought to myself, I have 2 biological children, I am not yearning for a child to love, I have been blessed with 2 to love. Waiting won't be that bad....think again! It is hard to know you are a mom to a child that you don't yet know and that you don't know how they are doing! I trust God is taking care of them while we are unable to, but it doesn't mean its not hard to wait to show that child your love! I do want things to move faster. I want our homestudy to actaully be submitted, it still has not happened and we have been told several times "it will be done this friday" I'm thinking I don't know if I can honestly trust that phrase anymore in any sense. I have an automatic response of okay I will believe it when i see it in terms of those words now. Anyway you get the point, we are frustrated!
This Saturday I was at a vendor show with my good friend Lora and we had our jewelry table all set up and I had my painting up for people to put their thumb prints on and we were chatting with the photographer lady vendor next to us. A lady who loves lia sophia jewelry came up and said her jewelry lady no longer did it and she would love to have a party with us! Woo success we were excited. She learned of how my family is adoping and she was very excited to help us. I was happy we had a party and met a lovely person who seemed to have a lovely heart!
Later Lora was away from our booth and I was chatting again with the photographer lady (me talking to people, crazy right :) when this woman who booked a party with us came up to me and told me: "I wish I could do more to help, but I really do want to help with your adoption so here take this" as she handed me a wad of cash. I struggled not to cry and I stammered out words of thanks and I don't know what to say and you are just so sweet! I hugged her and sat down astounded. I later counted she had given me $70 and I really felt Jesus in that moment. Not only was the photographer lady watching and I don't know that she was a believer, and she seemed to be touched, but I was shown that even though we are waiting and frustrated, God is with us and for us. Even though the caseworkers are not moving right now and getting things done for us, God is always working and He is moving and making things happen. He provided funds for our adoption by the act of a simple servants loving heart! I am honestly so thankful and blessed to have met this woman and for the Lord using her as a tool to touch my heart and restore it a bit in my frustration!
As if that wasn't enough this lady emailed us to set up a date for the party and in her email she said that she really felt like God was calling her to help Amber and her family with their adotion so she wanted to do whatever she could to help out! wow!
As if that wasn't enough, Sunday we went to church and we ran into someone we have not really hung out with, but we always say hello and exchange pleasantries and Nick has rode bikes once with her husband. They are sweet people we enjoy talking to basically. She told me she needed to talk to me. Oky great I thought she was trying to set up a time for us to get together and let our kids play as we have mentioned doing that before, awesome! She told me that she wanted to help us with our adoption, but she doesn't wear jewelry because it doesn' stay on her with 3 little boys at home. I had sent out invites for our adoption fundraiser on April 6th so she was referring to that. She said that if it would help us more to buy jewelry she could do that or if it would help more she could just give us money for our adoption. They do what we have done the last couple years in that you take a percentage of your tax return and use it to bless others, to show others Christ, to go towards the kingdom in some manner. She said her and her husband had discussed what they would do with their percentage and that our names had come up and as much as they would love to adopt themselves, it was not something they could do right now. She said that they want to do their part to care for the orphan as we are all called to do in some way and so she wanted to give us a check for our adoption. I was floored! How lovely are their hearts that they would desire to honor God with what they were given and to care for the orphan and that they would bless our family in their willingness to serve the Lord!
I spent most of worship with my eyes and mouth closed and tears just streaming down my cheeks pouring onto my shirt. I was so incredibly touched by God in this moment because not only did He show us that He was working in our waiting one time, but He did it again the very next day--as if He knew I would be quick to get frustrated again and He really wantd to pour on His blessing! So though we don't have any news yet of our child, we are still waiting.....we are encouraged by others hearts for the orphan and by Christ's love for us to reveal what He is doing right now to us, and He doesn't have to do that, He could have kept silent and had money come at the exact moment it was needed, but because He loves us, He wanted to bless us and encourage us right when we needed it most! We serve an amazing Lord and I am so greatful right now for His heart to care for the orphan and for His love for His children and for the people He used to show me Him!
If you are currently in the place I was, take hear and know that even if man does not appear to be working for you, Jesus is always working for you and He is moving!
407. quiet mornings with God, coffee, my dear friend's blog and emails with encouraging words, thank you G!
408. good peopel, they are still out there!
So lets get to it, I never expected to be so frustrated with waiting on a child to adopt. I thought to myself, I have 2 biological children, I am not yearning for a child to love, I have been blessed with 2 to love. Waiting won't be that bad....think again! It is hard to know you are a mom to a child that you don't yet know and that you don't know how they are doing! I trust God is taking care of them while we are unable to, but it doesn't mean its not hard to wait to show that child your love! I do want things to move faster. I want our homestudy to actaully be submitted, it still has not happened and we have been told several times "it will be done this friday" I'm thinking I don't know if I can honestly trust that phrase anymore in any sense. I have an automatic response of okay I will believe it when i see it in terms of those words now. Anyway you get the point, we are frustrated!
This Saturday I was at a vendor show with my good friend Lora and we had our jewelry table all set up and I had my painting up for people to put their thumb prints on and we were chatting with the photographer lady vendor next to us. A lady who loves lia sophia jewelry came up and said her jewelry lady no longer did it and she would love to have a party with us! Woo success we were excited. She learned of how my family is adoping and she was very excited to help us. I was happy we had a party and met a lovely person who seemed to have a lovely heart!
Later Lora was away from our booth and I was chatting again with the photographer lady (me talking to people, crazy right :) when this woman who booked a party with us came up to me and told me: "I wish I could do more to help, but I really do want to help with your adoption so here take this" as she handed me a wad of cash. I struggled not to cry and I stammered out words of thanks and I don't know what to say and you are just so sweet! I hugged her and sat down astounded. I later counted she had given me $70 and I really felt Jesus in that moment. Not only was the photographer lady watching and I don't know that she was a believer, and she seemed to be touched, but I was shown that even though we are waiting and frustrated, God is with us and for us. Even though the caseworkers are not moving right now and getting things done for us, God is always working and He is moving and making things happen. He provided funds for our adoption by the act of a simple servants loving heart! I am honestly so thankful and blessed to have met this woman and for the Lord using her as a tool to touch my heart and restore it a bit in my frustration!
As if that wasn't enough this lady emailed us to set up a date for the party and in her email she said that she really felt like God was calling her to help Amber and her family with their adotion so she wanted to do whatever she could to help out! wow!
As if that wasn't enough, Sunday we went to church and we ran into someone we have not really hung out with, but we always say hello and exchange pleasantries and Nick has rode bikes once with her husband. They are sweet people we enjoy talking to basically. She told me she needed to talk to me. Oky great I thought she was trying to set up a time for us to get together and let our kids play as we have mentioned doing that before, awesome! She told me that she wanted to help us with our adoption, but she doesn't wear jewelry because it doesn' stay on her with 3 little boys at home. I had sent out invites for our adoption fundraiser on April 6th so she was referring to that. She said that if it would help us more to buy jewelry she could do that or if it would help more she could just give us money for our adoption. They do what we have done the last couple years in that you take a percentage of your tax return and use it to bless others, to show others Christ, to go towards the kingdom in some manner. She said her and her husband had discussed what they would do with their percentage and that our names had come up and as much as they would love to adopt themselves, it was not something they could do right now. She said that they want to do their part to care for the orphan as we are all called to do in some way and so she wanted to give us a check for our adoption. I was floored! How lovely are their hearts that they would desire to honor God with what they were given and to care for the orphan and that they would bless our family in their willingness to serve the Lord!
I spent most of worship with my eyes and mouth closed and tears just streaming down my cheeks pouring onto my shirt. I was so incredibly touched by God in this moment because not only did He show us that He was working in our waiting one time, but He did it again the very next day--as if He knew I would be quick to get frustrated again and He really wantd to pour on His blessing! So though we don't have any news yet of our child, we are still waiting.....we are encouraged by others hearts for the orphan and by Christ's love for us to reveal what He is doing right now to us, and He doesn't have to do that, He could have kept silent and had money come at the exact moment it was needed, but because He loves us, He wanted to bless us and encourage us right when we needed it most! We serve an amazing Lord and I am so greatful right now for His heart to care for the orphan and for His love for His children and for the people He used to show me Him!
If you are currently in the place I was, take hear and know that even if man does not appear to be working for you, Jesus is always working for you and He is moving!
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
weird
I'm used to being called weird, crazy, silly, etc. well I'm about to drop a bomb on the weird category to some, others may think its awesome (as I do).
First let me back up by saying that our adoptive child is just as much our child as our biological children are. Just as we are just as much God's children as Jesus is God's son! In light of that I want what is best for all of our children!
So what others may think of as weird I think of as doing what is best for our children. Some people think its weird to homeschool, we think it is what is best for our children so there you go.
Ready, I know you are anxious to know what weird thing I am talking about. Well now I feel like I've built it up too much and the more I think about it, it is not weird to me, it is precious and important in giving the best to our children.
If we do adopt a baby, as my husband desires to do, I won't feel right about giving them formula, if I am able to give them breast milk. If we adopt a 3 month old baby lets say, maybe they already have had formula, so what, I have an awesome pump and I would be happy to try and power pump and take fenugreek to increase my milk and do what I can to give our child the best!
How much would it freak people out if say we adopt a hispanic or black baby and I nursed him/her? Here is the thing, I don't care what the world thinks! Jesus knows my heart and my desire is to simply give the best to all of our children. The best may be formula, but if I am able I would rather it be breast milk, even if it is only for one meal (if that is all I am able to pump).
I don't know what will happen, if we will end up adopting a baby or not, but it is one of the first few things I thought of when Nick mentioned a baby that I would want to somehow give the baby breastmilk so we will see what happens and will keep you posted as we have information. Our homestudy has not been written up yet and we are now going to submit our application with the agency that did our homestudy as well (they deal with babies primarily).....til we know more
this is the hubs with kenni, feeding her my breastmilk, we could see a dejavue....can you tell this man loves babies!
so does big boy (as kenni lovingly calls Tanner). We asked what he prefered and he said a boy at first, when a baby became an option he said he would rather adopt a baby. I said but you can't really play with a baby. Tanner responded with a laugh in his tone "you can play with babies mom, just different playing" -so wise our boy is. I asked kenni the same question though and she said "no baby, big kid" so the house is divided for sure!
First let me back up by saying that our adoptive child is just as much our child as our biological children are. Just as we are just as much God's children as Jesus is God's son! In light of that I want what is best for all of our children!
So what others may think of as weird I think of as doing what is best for our children. Some people think its weird to homeschool, we think it is what is best for our children so there you go.
Ready, I know you are anxious to know what weird thing I am talking about. Well now I feel like I've built it up too much and the more I think about it, it is not weird to me, it is precious and important in giving the best to our children.
If we do adopt a baby, as my husband desires to do, I won't feel right about giving them formula, if I am able to give them breast milk. If we adopt a 3 month old baby lets say, maybe they already have had formula, so what, I have an awesome pump and I would be happy to try and power pump and take fenugreek to increase my milk and do what I can to give our child the best!
How much would it freak people out if say we adopt a hispanic or black baby and I nursed him/her? Here is the thing, I don't care what the world thinks! Jesus knows my heart and my desire is to simply give the best to all of our children. The best may be formula, but if I am able I would rather it be breast milk, even if it is only for one meal (if that is all I am able to pump).
I don't know what will happen, if we will end up adopting a baby or not, but it is one of the first few things I thought of when Nick mentioned a baby that I would want to somehow give the baby breastmilk so we will see what happens and will keep you posted as we have information. Our homestudy has not been written up yet and we are now going to submit our application with the agency that did our homestudy as well (they deal with babies primarily).....til we know more
waiting.......and some news
404. waiting, adoptive families have said there are great things that happen in the waiting. For me the waiting is so different from a mom who is unable to have biological children. Bottom line, waiting is not easy, but it is a gift.
How can it be a gift? well what do we do in the time spent waiting? We pray! We pray each night for our family (not yet complete) and we pray for our adoptive child(ren) that they would be safe and start healing and that God's hedge of protection would surround them, that they would feel peace and comfort from Him while we are unable to do so. We pray for Kenni and Tan man's hearts to be prepared to be a big brother and sister to this child(ren). That they would be good examples of Christ's love and that they would be ready to share in our family.
My husband prays for our child(ren) and it makes me smile, he never forgets to pray over them even though we don't even know who they are yet.
405. My man who prays diligently and thoughtfully for our family!
Waiting gives us an opportunity to show others our faithfulness in God to provide for our child while we can't. It shows people that we are not worried because that is not of God. It encourages others to be able to wait too.
In other news my hubs is a funny man. I love him so much for his heart! We were at the mall at the end of January and we took the kids to the little play area as we usually do when we visit the mall (not often). We were sitting right beside the changing table in the play area watching Tanner our command man show other children a new game and take charge while his sister took command of herself. She was climbing the wall and saying "see, me" as in (I got up here bymyself).
There was a woman changing her baby probably a 4 month old and when she was done she sat the baby up on the table and the baby bobbled her head while she reached for her toes. I caught my hubby out of the corner of my eye while cheering Kenni on as he was staring at this baby girl. This was our conversation:
Me: "wow you are staring at that baby, what are you thinking?"
Hubs: "What's wrong with having a baby?"
Me: "Are you crazy, who are you talking to?"
Hubs: "Well I do a lot of it anyway, I get up with them and help out a lot!"
Me: "yes you do, but what about when you are at work for the majority of the day?"
Later, I caught him staring again as the daddy to this baby girl was holding her up in the air and bringing her down to blow raspberries on her tummy.... Then my hubby decided that's it we should adopt a baby! He gave me all kinds of reasons and basicaly it boils down to this: my man loves babies! I told him that I would be open to it just like he is being open to adopting siblings.
Holy cow, I really thought we were done with babies, I was done with all that babies entail, we gave away a lot of baby stuff (not that God wouldn't provide whatever we needed to care for a baby). I am just like okay well whatever God wills for us is what I want so I guess we will see what that entails!
handy helper boy working on momm's cabinet
How can it be a gift? well what do we do in the time spent waiting? We pray! We pray each night for our family (not yet complete) and we pray for our adoptive child(ren) that they would be safe and start healing and that God's hedge of protection would surround them, that they would feel peace and comfort from Him while we are unable to do so. We pray for Kenni and Tan man's hearts to be prepared to be a big brother and sister to this child(ren). That they would be good examples of Christ's love and that they would be ready to share in our family.
My husband prays for our child(ren) and it makes me smile, he never forgets to pray over them even though we don't even know who they are yet.
405. My man who prays diligently and thoughtfully for our family!
Waiting gives us an opportunity to show others our faithfulness in God to provide for our child while we can't. It shows people that we are not worried because that is not of God. It encourages others to be able to wait too.
In other news my hubs is a funny man. I love him so much for his heart! We were at the mall at the end of January and we took the kids to the little play area as we usually do when we visit the mall (not often). We were sitting right beside the changing table in the play area watching Tanner our command man show other children a new game and take charge while his sister took command of herself. She was climbing the wall and saying "see, me" as in (I got up here bymyself).
There was a woman changing her baby probably a 4 month old and when she was done she sat the baby up on the table and the baby bobbled her head while she reached for her toes. I caught my hubby out of the corner of my eye while cheering Kenni on as he was staring at this baby girl. This was our conversation:
Me: "wow you are staring at that baby, what are you thinking?"
Hubs: "What's wrong with having a baby?"
Me: "Are you crazy, who are you talking to?"
Hubs: "Well I do a lot of it anyway, I get up with them and help out a lot!"
Me: "yes you do, but what about when you are at work for the majority of the day?"
Later, I caught him staring again as the daddy to this baby girl was holding her up in the air and bringing her down to blow raspberries on her tummy.... Then my hubby decided that's it we should adopt a baby! He gave me all kinds of reasons and basicaly it boils down to this: my man loves babies! I told him that I would be open to it just like he is being open to adopting siblings.
Holy cow, I really thought we were done with babies, I was done with all that babies entail, we gave away a lot of baby stuff (not that God wouldn't provide whatever we needed to care for a baby). I am just like okay well whatever God wills for us is what I want so I guess we will see what that entails!
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Homestudy or questions questions and more questions
399. Jeannine Floores our case study worker doing our homestudy! She is aweosme, funny and upbeat and real, very real! I highly recommend her to anyone who needs a homestudy! Her heart is in it to win it and I very much enjoyed our time with her last night during our first interview!
400. Praying friends-thanks to those of you who pray for us and thank you to Jenn and Marylee for texting yesterday to remind me that you were praying for us!
401. space heaters, we always use them anyway instead of turning on the heat, but our heat is not currently working in our house so i would definitely call space heaters gifts at this point!
402. my hubby brought my newspapers in this morning for me so I didn't have to go out in the rain, he is too sweet!
403. Tanner's brain, the way he thinks is truly a special gift to us!
Last night we had our first interview and it went very well! She is a hoot and we enjoyed talking with her (even if we spent most of the time answering questions, some easy, some harder. She made them all easier by helping us and sharing her own personal story of adoption. She was late so we only had a short while with our kids up and her there, but we had warned Tanner that she might talk to him and so she went ahead and did his interview last night while we played with Kenni in her room.
She is going to send me some of the funny comments he made (we obviously can't have a copy of the homestudy, but she will send the key funny quotes). I can't wait to hear them and I will of course post them on here as well as make them part of the adoption scrapbook. From what I remember that she told us I will say he is one smart cookie and we are so blessed God gave him to us! He will be an amazing leader and man someday!
We had to discuss the worst part, which is, what are you willing to adopt and what are you not willing to adopt? It was hard to say no to certain things, but we have to do what is best for our whole family including our biological kids and I pray that kids with those backgrounds are adopted by someone who is called to do so!
She asked us if we read and pray together as a couple and it was very sad for us to say no, not since we were newly weds. I read on my own as does my husband, but we have been missing out on reading together, or praying as a couple. We pray with our kids each night we put them to bed, but not with just each other. So last night we decided that trying to read through the entire Bible in one year is just not realistic for us, but in two years we are confidant we can do it, so we started over and read Genesis 1 and 2 last night. It was nice and I'm looking forward to spending this time with him each day!
We meet again next Tuesday, she had to reschedule due to her college son leaving on Thursday to go back to school and we totally understand so now I have to get a list of both of our addresses from the last 10 years together for her as well as us discuss a few things we were't sure of last night...
sorry I tried to post a picture, but it wouldn't let me browse my pics so I am unable to....
400. Praying friends-thanks to those of you who pray for us and thank you to Jenn and Marylee for texting yesterday to remind me that you were praying for us!
401. space heaters, we always use them anyway instead of turning on the heat, but our heat is not currently working in our house so i would definitely call space heaters gifts at this point!
402. my hubby brought my newspapers in this morning for me so I didn't have to go out in the rain, he is too sweet!
403. Tanner's brain, the way he thinks is truly a special gift to us!
Last night we had our first interview and it went very well! She is a hoot and we enjoyed talking with her (even if we spent most of the time answering questions, some easy, some harder. She made them all easier by helping us and sharing her own personal story of adoption. She was late so we only had a short while with our kids up and her there, but we had warned Tanner that she might talk to him and so she went ahead and did his interview last night while we played with Kenni in her room.
She is going to send me some of the funny comments he made (we obviously can't have a copy of the homestudy, but she will send the key funny quotes). I can't wait to hear them and I will of course post them on here as well as make them part of the adoption scrapbook. From what I remember that she told us I will say he is one smart cookie and we are so blessed God gave him to us! He will be an amazing leader and man someday!
We had to discuss the worst part, which is, what are you willing to adopt and what are you not willing to adopt? It was hard to say no to certain things, but we have to do what is best for our whole family including our biological kids and I pray that kids with those backgrounds are adopted by someone who is called to do so!
She asked us if we read and pray together as a couple and it was very sad for us to say no, not since we were newly weds. I read on my own as does my husband, but we have been missing out on reading together, or praying as a couple. We pray with our kids each night we put them to bed, but not with just each other. So last night we decided that trying to read through the entire Bible in one year is just not realistic for us, but in two years we are confidant we can do it, so we started over and read Genesis 1 and 2 last night. It was nice and I'm looking forward to spending this time with him each day!
We meet again next Tuesday, she had to reschedule due to her college son leaving on Thursday to go back to school and we totally understand so now I have to get a list of both of our addresses from the last 10 years together for her as well as us discuss a few things we were't sure of last night...
sorry I tried to post a picture, but it wouldn't let me browse my pics so I am unable to....
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
two posts in one day you say
our little little enjoys her jewelry :)
As this is the first day of 2013 I wanted to add another little note. I am very thankful for 2012 and all that God did for and with our family last year! I'm very much looking forward to this year and what God has in store for us!
Stick with me if you can: I brought home my catalog as I always do to show my hubby before deciding on what to buy with my spending money. I showed the hubs the items I liked and asked his opinion, he ended up taking the catalog and looking all through it and picking out pieces for me that he liked. Then he read the back of the catalog which said you can start your own business for only $149 (you can also start selling from your own hosting show and apply free product amount towards your start up cost amount). He said you would be good at this you talk to everyone and are comfortable with strangers and you could just wear the jewelry while you coupon and when people compiment it offer your business card and to host a show for them to earn free jewelry. I thought he was a little crazy, I always say not interested whenever I go to these parties as far as becoming a consultant goes. I don't like sales I hve done it before and I was not good at it (seas lawn and garden and fitness equipment). I said well I will ask Lora about what all it entails and we will pray about it.
Got some info, started praying...one night I was laying in bed with the hubs and he said you really should do Lia Sophia, I really think you should. I was still not sure and asked if he had really prayed about it, he said he had. That was the 1st real glimmer of me thinking I might do it. I was not getting any info from God as to go ahead or not, but my husband was so who knows....then i read the book "adopt wihtout debt" great book lots of great info on fundraising. I read a section on getting a part time job temporarily to help with the costs of adoption and suddenly I realized this was what God was planning for our family to help provide for the cost, I would go back to work. There are a lot of things I won't sacrifice for the sake of money-even if it is to pay off debt, or help fund an adoption. I am a stay at home mom, I homeschool our kids and I really feel this is what God intends for us so I will not budge on that! With selling Lia Sophia I don't have to give any of my mom duties up! I still get to be home with our kids and teach them. Also I don't want to work every evening or even 4 or 5 nights a week and have our family miss out on vaulable family time. With Lia Sophia I don't have to answer to someone else's idea of my schedule, I get to create my schedule with my husband in a way that works for our family. I don't have to be a salesperson, I get to wear beautiful, affordable jewelry and offer others to get it free when they approach me (the product thus selling itself) by hosting a fun party with their friends. The product is guranteed for life which is important to me, it will last and is quality jewelry!
The part that most excites me about selling this jewelry is that I get to share my story with as many women as God allows at their parties. Why did I decide to start selling jewelry? I'm glad you asked I wanted to help fund our adoption while not sacrificing precious time with my family. Then when people ask my why we are adopting of have adopted I get to share the most precious part of my life and that is my Lord and savior Jesus. Because God adopted us and first loved us, we are able to love and adopt our 3rd child. Short sweet and too the point. All glory to God and what a fun way to share Him with others! I feel like God has been preparing us in so many ways for this year and I am very excited to see what He does and how He uses our family to do His will....
If anyone would like to host a show please let me know. Another awesome benefit of buying from Lia Sophia is that you get to buy 2 items at full price then get up to 4 items at 50% off and the best part of that is that the 2 full priced items are your cheapest items. Where else can you get that deal? I have never seen anywhere offer a deal this awesome! email me at bigace3@hotmail.com
Thank you in advance for your support and prayers as we walk through this process and trust God with 2013!
finally a litlte concrete
392. setting a date for our home study to start (Jan. 8th and 10th)
393. skyping with family on Christmas morning
394. cold weather in Texas finally
395. emails from Gretchen
396. celebrating holidays with friends when you can't be with family
397. Nick finally having time off and getting to have him pretty much all to ourselves!!!
Those are the current gifts I am thinking on, but here is the adoption update for those who don't know:
We had a lot of back and forth and misunderstanding over the price as well as who would do our homestudy and finally after the uncertainty of it being $700 or $1000 we have been given our answer that the homestudy will cost $700. We are blessed that I am a saver when it comes to our monthy allowance and birthday money because I have that amount currently (God has provided and we are so very thankful--see this is why it pays to save--literally) I will pay for the study and then when we get our tax return I will get my spending money back and will be buying a .38 special revolver called the "body guard" which I am also very excited about :)
So we have our homestudy scheduled and the money is already in place to pay for it I feel like it is the 2nd big thing to check off the list in this whole thing. (1st one being the paperwork being turned in). Yes I am a list maker!
Emotions: as soon as the date was set for the study I freaked out. It was my first real freak out in adopting. I admittedly started to get think "can we really do this? Am I really capable of teaching and training another child-especially one that is likely going to have other issues aside from the normal kid issues of energy and craziness?" Then i remember that God called us to it, it won't be easy, but with Him it will be possible! I am going to fail our 3rd child just as much as I will fail our 1st 2 children and I am covered by God's grace in this and He will walk with me through it. Jesus has provided exactly the grace, people, money, patience, calm, words, etc. that I need to walk in faith through this adoption process and once we are finally able to bring our child home, He will be with us through that too. I am excited and thankful for the amzing God I serve and amazing husband He gave me to walk through this with! My friend G said "may you be a blessing to someone in 2013" I liked the way she put it and I liked that I can say we are going to be a tool God will use to bless someone in 2013, our 3rd child that will get a forever home and parents that love them. We are not perfect parents, some days I don't even feel like a good parent, but God is the perfect Father and He knows exactly what He is doing and so we will be the exact parents this child needs and this child will be the exact child we need as parents!
Tanner really wants a boy, Nick really wants a girl, I honestly don't care so long as we pray and discern the child that God intends for us (or children). It's weird to have no burning desire for more children, but to have a burning desire to bring home our 3rd child because they are ours and belong with us! I hate to think of not being able to protect them or provide for them while we are apart, but then that is where faith comes in and I have to trust that as we pray for our child's safety and wellbeing and health and healing that God is indeed providing all that our child needs. I'm praying for a super natural and tangible presence in our child's life that is felt and evident to our child and the people caring currently for our child. That God's hedge of protection would be surrounding our child and that their precious little hearts would begin to heal and prepare them for becomming part of our family. There is much faith in adopting, trusting God to care for your child while you can't, trusting God to provide the funds, trusting God to reveal the child He intends for you to you clearly, trusting the sleeping situation and car seat situation, the babysitting situation when required, not having family nearby as support so trusting God to provide the friends to help out like family would, and then just waiting for His time which is perfect.
These are the siblings to our 3rd child, can't wait to be able to put up our next child's picture!
can't wait til our child knows that we are thier forever parents!
393. skyping with family on Christmas morning
394. cold weather in Texas finally
395. emails from Gretchen
396. celebrating holidays with friends when you can't be with family
397. Nick finally having time off and getting to have him pretty much all to ourselves!!!
Those are the current gifts I am thinking on, but here is the adoption update for those who don't know:
We had a lot of back and forth and misunderstanding over the price as well as who would do our homestudy and finally after the uncertainty of it being $700 or $1000 we have been given our answer that the homestudy will cost $700. We are blessed that I am a saver when it comes to our monthy allowance and birthday money because I have that amount currently (God has provided and we are so very thankful--see this is why it pays to save--literally) I will pay for the study and then when we get our tax return I will get my spending money back and will be buying a .38 special revolver called the "body guard" which I am also very excited about :)
So we have our homestudy scheduled and the money is already in place to pay for it I feel like it is the 2nd big thing to check off the list in this whole thing. (1st one being the paperwork being turned in). Yes I am a list maker!
Emotions: as soon as the date was set for the study I freaked out. It was my first real freak out in adopting. I admittedly started to get think "can we really do this? Am I really capable of teaching and training another child-especially one that is likely going to have other issues aside from the normal kid issues of energy and craziness?" Then i remember that God called us to it, it won't be easy, but with Him it will be possible! I am going to fail our 3rd child just as much as I will fail our 1st 2 children and I am covered by God's grace in this and He will walk with me through it. Jesus has provided exactly the grace, people, money, patience, calm, words, etc. that I need to walk in faith through this adoption process and once we are finally able to bring our child home, He will be with us through that too. I am excited and thankful for the amzing God I serve and amazing husband He gave me to walk through this with! My friend G said "may you be a blessing to someone in 2013" I liked the way she put it and I liked that I can say we are going to be a tool God will use to bless someone in 2013, our 3rd child that will get a forever home and parents that love them. We are not perfect parents, some days I don't even feel like a good parent, but God is the perfect Father and He knows exactly what He is doing and so we will be the exact parents this child needs and this child will be the exact child we need as parents!
Tanner really wants a boy, Nick really wants a girl, I honestly don't care so long as we pray and discern the child that God intends for us (or children). It's weird to have no burning desire for more children, but to have a burning desire to bring home our 3rd child because they are ours and belong with us! I hate to think of not being able to protect them or provide for them while we are apart, but then that is where faith comes in and I have to trust that as we pray for our child's safety and wellbeing and health and healing that God is indeed providing all that our child needs. I'm praying for a super natural and tangible presence in our child's life that is felt and evident to our child and the people caring currently for our child. That God's hedge of protection would be surrounding our child and that their precious little hearts would begin to heal and prepare them for becomming part of our family. There is much faith in adopting, trusting God to care for your child while you can't, trusting God to provide the funds, trusting God to reveal the child He intends for you to you clearly, trusting the sleeping situation and car seat situation, the babysitting situation when required, not having family nearby as support so trusting God to provide the friends to help out like family would, and then just waiting for His time which is perfect.
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