Here comes the rain!

When it rains, it pours. And the outpouring of the Lord is something I can get used to. He's blessed me 4 times with sweet wonderful children through the miracle of adoption and today, this day, he has blessed me again.

Today, after months of waiting for the formal okay, a little girl from around the world was matched by China to be our daughter. And I could not be more humbled that God chose me to be her mom.




Within the next 12 weeks I should be boarding a plane to bring this sweet girl home to us, her forever family.

Thank you Lord for this day. For the Referral. For the updated photos. For the miracle of adoption.

A Thank You to My Loves

My sweet loves, all 5 of them, decorated the house for my birthday while I was at Bible Study. The next day they woke me up to lots of handmade gifts and cards, that night they cooked me a wonderful meal and cleaned it up while I read a book an relaxed. I couldn't ask for a sweeter family.







I am blessed.

Multitude of Thanks

See this lady...the one in the pic...what an amazing lady she is. Since we were fundraising for our adoption, we couldn't bring ourselves to pay for a hotel. She welcomed all 6 of us into her home. Not only that, she bought all the food. Not only that, she prepared all the food. Not only that, she contributed to the adoption expenses above and beyond her own means.



There is only one word for a woman like this.

That word is....





Wait for it.....





It's......







MOTHER.


Mother, I love you. Thank you for your generosity. And to John, who is the world's best step-dad, thank you! We love you both!

Unexpected Blessings

Sometimes the blessings we receive mean so much to us, that we must really stop and make note of them and give a Shout of Thanks!

This is one of those times.

Last night I poured my heart out to my husband about how I am running out of time to do all I have to do for the family, the house, the adoption, the fundraising. I need help and the only one that can help me is God himself. So Dale tells me to take a 10 day break from it all and at the end of 10 days we'll see where and how God has led.

One of the many things on the BIG TO DO LIST is make beanie hats for the babies at the orphanage. We are supposed to take gifts to the little ones left behind. We have taken bottles, medicine, clothes, bought washing machines, etc in the past. But now funds are so very, very tight. Okay, funds are not tight. Funds are, well, non-existant. So, we have all this yarn and decided we would learn to make beanie hats. But to make 25-50 beanie hats for extreme-novice crocheters is an overwhelming task. I have never crocheted anything worthy of ever giving away and Kya is just 7 years old. But we were going to give it a whirl. And so it sat on the BIG TO DO LIST.

After pouring out my heart to hubby last night, I wake to this blessing.....



Do you know what this is? It's beanie hats for babies. Not just any babies....for babies in Chinese orphanages. Someone is asking us to deliver them to our child's orphanage. She is 16 years old and has made 400 hats for Chinese orphans, and she needs us to deliver them for her.

BLESSINGS!

That's what these hats are!

BLESSINGS!

A JOY-filled Mother's Day

Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. - Psalm 127:3-5

As a mother, all mother's days are special. No matter what happens, I'm still a mom and that's a blessing that nobody can take away. I have 4 incredible children that have been a blessing to me in so many ways.




~ Kya is smart and tender.
~ Autumn is creative and crazy.
~ Lily is spunky.
~ Aaron, my only son, is full of laughter and kisses.

I love them each so differently, so dearly, so deeply that each Mother's Day I am beyond thankful for them.

....BUT.....

Some Mother's Day are just EXTRA special.

They bring us a little EXTRA something we didn't expect.

And sometimes they bring us great JOY.

This Mother's Day was one of those Extra Special JOY filled days

because

...we got a letter from China...

....a letter that said....

I am going to be a mom AGAIN

and her name is

JOY

This our Joy, our 5th child, the one I have waited for, the one I have prayed for.


~ Ms. Joy -- you are indeed a miracle and a blessing. And you make our Joy Complete! ~


Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
John 16:24b

Welcome to the world Baby Deer

On this beautiful, breezy 75 degree June day, our first baby deer came into our life. We watched her mommy's belly grow over the spring and have anxiously awaited babies arrival. Baby, we are so happy to see you! Welcome to the world! She is so sweet running through our back yard. It brings tremendous joy and tears to watch her.

She loves me.


She loves me not.


She loves me.


She loves me...NOT.

Thankful Thursday

Today is Thursday.

Today I CHOOSE to be thankful.

Just as rejoicing, we cannot think of Thankfulness and Rejoicing as emotions for when life is good. We must CHOOSE them. My girls and I have been working on a Character Study in stead of math and reading. One of the Character traits we are studying is Thankfulness.

The basic child definition is "Being grateful and saying so". That is so simple. We all need to practice that, not often, but all the time...allllll the time.

The verse that corresponds to this is I Thes 5:18 "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (KJV)"

Did you notice what my kids and I noticed?

"In EVERYTHING". Whoa! That is hard to digest. I had to teach my kids that they have to be thankful for spankings and time outs. OUCH! Why do they have to be thankful? Because correction is helping them be a better person, closer and closer to being Christ-like. That means we as adults also have to be thankful when life does not go the way we want it to.

So for today I am CHOOSING to be thankful. And when I dig deep down, what am I most thankful for today?

Two things:

ONE: the Word of God

I am hurting inside because my world is turned upside down. But I have the Word. I put aside all self help Bible Study books and just dig deep into my Bible asking the Lord to fill me with his Word. I need simplicity in this. Not hype. I just need his words to flow through my veins and into the depth of my soul. I don't need head knowledge. I need a heart transformation.


TWO: the LIVING WORD

What can I say on this but WOW! We, as Christians, have something nobody else in the entire world has. We are set apart in this area. Most everyone has access to a Bible. Most anyone can pick it up and start reading it. But can they make sense of it? We can. How and why? Because we accepted Christ as our Savior and His Spirit dwells in us. When we accepted Him as our Savior we did not get a small portion of His Spirit that would increase over time. We received the entire kit and caboodle. We have has much of his Spirit in us as the most faithful, mature Christian that we know. (As much as Billy Graham and all the great greats of the Christian world). We got it girls! We got it! And we are the lucky ones.

When I look around this world and I know my own hurts, my heart aches more for those who don't know Christ. Friends, how do they manage their pain? How do they get through tough times? Who dries their tears and comforts their souls? Who holds them when they are lonely? My Christ does all that for me. So today I am thankful for the Living Word, the spirit of Christ that dwells in me and for today, and everyday, I wish this for the entire world.

Autumn's Favorite Things

Here is our 3rd post about our favorite things. This is Autumn's photo list. She chose each of these items herself and took all the photos (with some assistance to keep her hands steady.)

Like Kya, she also chose to take photos of her family first. I was thankful for that but again, it was early morning and I didn't want to post the pictures. :-)

These are her favorite toys: her favorite bath toy, her piggy bank, the play kitchen in their room, and finally her bear & her bean bag chair. (We sent her that bear for Christmas when she was still in China, before we had travel approval. We made it at Build a Bear and recorded our voices inside of it.)


One of her most favorite toys is her hand-me-down school bus from Ethan Garcia.


This picture is the combo of several items (1)her guitar - She spends hours playing us songs on her guitar. We get bed time shows several times a week. They have to set up their "stage" and all. (2) Her "blankie" that she STILL sleeps with and watches movies cuddling (3) her Leapster and (4)her bed.


Autumn also loves playing Blues Clues Kindergarten on the computer. And she loves the website Starfall. She uses the computer a few times a week and it's one of her favorite activities.



Then, there is her very best friend in all the world....Frosty.

More Things I Like

I forgot to post my flowers! I love my flowers and I worked hard at this picture. I took a picture of all but 2 of the flowers in my yard and made this college. I always loved having flowers in the yard but I could never get them to grow. Thankfully, this house had them, all my favorites, already planted and thriving.

The Things We Like

A friend of mine, Krista, did a post titled 'Contentment'. I thought it sounded like fun and wanted to join in. Also, since I homeschool my girls, I thought this sounded like a great homeschool project for them as well. This is my post and then I will post Kya and Autumn's.

Here are the pictures of my favorite things around my house. The 'litte things' in life that I am thankful for, that I don't think about that often. Now, some of them do seem materialistic and this bothered me. I debated about really posting them or not. All things material will fade away and what do we have left? Only our relationship with Christ really. So why would I want to find happiness in material things? After pondering this I realized, I don't. But, I am thankful for them. Christ gives us all things to enjoy and so I am going to enjoy them and be thankful.

Here they are:


My bread machine. I have not used it that much lately but I do love it and very thankful I have it.


My swimming pool, no matter how small, because I thought I'd never have one and this is my 2nd pool. We have tons of family time here and the memories are very special. Plus all 4 of my children have taken swim lessons in this particular pool.


The woods that line our back yard. I watch red birds, squirrels, owls, etc as I have my coffee and read my Bible every morning. These woods have been part of many serene moments for me.


The ceiling fans in my home. Seems a weird thing to be thankful for, but I always wanted these and when we bought this home, they were already here.


And, if being thankful for a ceiling fan was not strange enough...I am equally thankful for the remote controls for each ceiling fan. At only 5.3 myself with 10ft ceilings, how else would I change the speed? But, I'll be honest, the 8ft ceilings in my old home still required a chair to change the speed, so the remotes are a dream for me.


Tripp Harrison. Mine and my husbands favorite artist. We have 4 of his lithographs and this one is our favorite. This is on the wall in the entrance to our bedroom.


The pineapple bedpost on our new bed. I know, another strange thing to be thankful for. But I love this bed! It gives our room the tropical feel we both enjoy being surrounded by.



And, finally, my kitchen. I love it for several reasons. I love the blue walls. I love the white cabinets. I love the combination of the white and blue together. I also enjoy the bay window that over looks the other 2 things I enjoy, our pool and the woods.

Free Dinner - A Pass it on Moment

We were at a little pizza place with all 4 of our children. We were sitting at an outside table. It was hot but there was a breeze. All the kids were being good and were particularly cute this night. We were having great conversations and several laughs. It was one of those nights you want to capture in a jar, open it up one day and relive it if possible. We had plans to walk down the sidewalk to the fudge shop that also has ice cream and enjoy our first officialy night of "summer" (i.e. no school, therapy, clubs, etc). The waitress approaches and says "your bill has been paid". What?! Did we really hear her correctly?! Our jaws dropped. Dale couldn't say anything and I asked if she was serious. She explained there was a couple inside that thought our family was beautiful and that it was great that we took our kids out, they wanted to do this as a an act of kindess. Dale conveyed our immense appreciation. We were so greatful and floored! It was one of those moments we'll never forget and be sure to pass on one day.

2007 in Review

Double Blessings! In 2007, I got a new baby sister and a new little brother! Yes, my parents adopted! And, yes, they were already Grandparents. God Bless them. So we welcomed Hope in January and Joel in July! Welcome Home my Baby Sister and Baby Brother! You've already changed our world and I love you so much!

In February we started our adoption of our 2 new babies and Praise the Lord, it was completed by Novemver and soon we'll travel to bring them home.


Our girls, Kya & Autumn, both turned 4 and are so much fun. It's been a wonderful blessing in life to watch them grow up. I love being home with them and still so thankful for this oppurtunity.

We went on a wonderful vacation in June to the beach! Then in October and November both we traveled to Guatemala to meet and spend time with our babies. December was spent at home preparing for the holidays and for the babies. It was a crazy month and we are thankful for the new year and new beginnings!