Our Blessings (Revealed)

Okay....some of the MAJOR blessings revealed. 

We have lots, way to many to list! Here are a few biggies that have come recently. 

1. Sky (my sis) celebrating 3 years and about 2 1/2 of those years of no cancer...she is a survivor. Sky has brain cancer...doing super duper well. She is my hero. This is her pic with my mom at a celebration lunch. Praise to the Lord.

2. While at this luncheon with my sis, my bro and sis in law came over to see our fam. Micah and the kids were outside swimming in the blow up pool. Paul and Ang stopped by after church...chatting and hanging out. As they were leaving they handed something to Micah. He looked, it was KEYS TO OUR NEW VAN!!!!!  Paul and Ang said they had really felt God leading them to give us the van. They prayed about it and said "yes."  See, there are several things that amaze me about this. Paul and Ang are awesome, incredibly awesome. They aren't millionares, however, so this is a big sacrifice for them. Their gift blew us away. We feel like it is just such a blessing because A. We really needed a new vehicle (it was going to be hard to fit baby number 3 in my 94 buick lesabre that has 160,000 miles on it and a broken seat belt in the back. B.This is such an investment on the part of Paul and Ang and there family and we feel it is just them joining us in our calling to adopt. Praise the Lord (x2)

Here's us with our new van....let me just say it is BY FAR the best vehicle I have ever owned. Hands down.

3. So, number three....It has been truly amazing to see how people that we love, our family, our friends, and people who we don't even know have given us gifts to help fund our adoption. Some have given $7, some $50, Some $184, Some $1000, and some even more, and any variation in between. 

A few weeks ago Micah got a call from someone on our church staff. He asked if I was around and to get me on the speaker phone because he had some news for us. When I got to the phone he announced that he had a blessing for us. Someone was (anonymously) wanting to give a LARGE amount for the remainder of the money needed for our referral. Amazing. We had been wondering how God was going to come through so quickly, since the time is approaching more quickly than expected. I was speechless. Amazed. AweStruck. God is so good. Immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine. 

This gift is in addition to another anonymous gift given right when we needed it several months back. Another anonymous donation that we desperately needed to do our homestudy and pay our formal application fee. 

These gifts are in addition to other gifts people who are precious to us have given over the last several months. It has been an amazing journey to see. When we started this process, we knew that WE were called to adopt. No doubt. But, to see OTHER people take on OUR CALLING as their own is really indescribable. To all of our blessings, those of you who are sacrificing for us and for our baby a world away, thank you. We love you. (you know who you are.wink.wink)

Word to anyone considering adoption or any other calling from God. I was nervous, REAL nervous about how "we" were going to fund this adoption. We started the process having no idea how it was going to happen. Now, knowing what I know, just a few months later I want to scream it from the mountaintops- What God calls you to do, HE will provide. No question. Please, take the first step. Do your part, work hard, and then turn it over. 

God is so good. 

Great news on the adoption front. SEVERAL people have received their referrals in May. micah and I are really, REALLY getting close to knowing who our child is. It is so amazing to me. it has gone so much quicker than we expected. Honestly, it is possible that we could have a referral in a month or two and be going to Korea to bring our baby home in October-ish! Can you say "wow?"

We are incredibly thankful for the many, many blessings God has given us through others during this time. It has truly been amazing to see God work in the lives of our friends/family on behalf of US!!

We would like to offer these t-shirts to you as a way that you can help us in the process of bringing baby home. We are using it for funds for our final big payment and for travel costs to travel to bring out child home to their forever family. We would so much appreciate your help. 

They are amazing shirts...but, we also know that you are doing this out of love for us so, thank you. 

The Facts:

These t's are super cool and will be printed on the very trendy "American Apparel" t-shirts\You can view these t's on http:/store.americanapparel.net/2001w.html#1

The adult shirts are on a cranberry which is a nice brick red

The child sizes have a little bit of a different color, but are still red

These shirts run a little small (especially the kids' sizes, so you may want to check out the size chart

Thank you all so very very much. We are blessed.

BE(LOVE)D T SHIRT

SMLXL2XLKids 2Kids 4Kids 6Kids 8Kids 10Kids 12

God is so good

I can't wait to tell you all that God is doing in our lives with our call to adopt. God is amazingly good. WAY more than we could ask or imagine. There are a few things that have happened lately that are utterly and completely the hand of Our God in our lives. Amazingly blessed. We will share more in the next few days but for now we are praising God. 

No referral....don't worrry! As soon as we get that we will let you know. But, now that is ALL we are waiting for!  Come on, baby "K"....we are ready for you to be introduced to us!

Campbell/Landry are 4!!

Yes, Campbell/Landry are four!  That is not right. It seems like a few months ago that we were all praying for them to arrive safely. We were shocked when Sky was wheeled out of the OR with both babies in her arms and taking them back to the room with her. They were so incredibly cute now and are still. 

By the way: Campbell and Landry are two different people. My kids just still get them a little mixed up :)

Love you, girls!

Picture Purge

With Korey enjoying a hot summer day....

With Daddy at High School Musical Live Theatre.....Rinn and Creed loved it....okay, we did too!!
Creed....in a league all of his own. This is what he wanted to do for fun when we were going to hang out with our small group. Put on a show, of course!! (complete with costumes)
Hehehehe...Nesli is totally going to kill me for this one. How in the world did I talk her into teaching with me in the one and a half year old class for VBS?...she rocks!
Fun times with our new buddy Cole. Cole is going to be a big brother like Creed to a baby from Korea some day.

Friends for my whole lifetime

Playtime with Emmers and Carys is always so much fun!

What exactly are we "harvesting?"

We just had a ton of fun on a farm. When my sis in law asked me to go help her aunt with harvest I was really tempted to ask what exactly we would be harvesting. Upon thinking about it, I decided that would be a silly question and would make me appear as if I know nothing about farming (which would be true). So, when I got there and saw the wheat (I figured out that it was wheat only after the little 4 year old farmer explained it to me) I was excited. 

We had a blast. The kids really loved it a ton. What could be better than playing outside all day, getting dirty, and riding on a combine (that's kinda like a tractor, I found out)?

Explaination of the pics: Creed and Will were flying (I will not explain the secret but will say that there is NO photo editing on these photos!), Creed took the pic of the girls, and a pic of the cousins plus little Dakota...the little farmer that was sure to explain the difference between a pickup and a truck and a combine and a tractor, finally Micah's narration for the pic of Creed and Rinn is this Creed says "Marge, it looks like a storm is rising up in the east, we better head to the cellar."

My very own chicken little

Creed was the star of the show in his drama class production of Chicken Little. What a cutie. I loved how they got to participate in many different aspects of the production. They did t-shirt designs, stage design, sets, ticket designs, costumes, and of course acting. 

One thing that we did notice that wasn't a surprise....Creed has no problem with projection. It actually came in handy this time around!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy.

Creed's words: "The lotion monster is so fun. Daddy is so much fun he likes to take us on bike rides and he likes to take us on scooter rides and sometimes he just wants to play and even sometimes he wants to go outside and play soccer. Normally, he likes to go help mom clean up the kitchen and the bathroom and the whole house. And we like to go play with daddy and wrestle with him. Dad's the best dad in the whole world because he likes to play piano with me and teach me how to play. Hey...and dad, be careful not to try to knock over any cars when you are wrestling."

Rinn words: "I love you daddy because I like gum. Because I like gold fish. Because you flay (trans. play) with me, see some animals, take me to the park, make a funny face, play piano.

Mommy's words: I think you are an amazing daddy, babe. I am so thankful for you. I love you so much and I am praising God today for bringing us together 12 years ago. I fall in love with you more and more every day. 

side note: Creed's notation about daddy cleaning the house and kitchen and bathroom is not entirely a false tale. he's done it once or twice :)

Good news, again.

Man, it seems like we have lots of good news lately. Keep it Comin', Lord. 

We just received notice from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services that we have advance processing for our orphan petition. This may not seem like a huge deal, but it kind of is. It is basically the final step in the US government saying "Okay, we think it is okay for you to adopt an orphan internationally." Once we find our child (hopefully sooner versus later) we will notify our government again and say "Okay, we found our child." Since we have pre-approval on this now, it makes that go a bit smoother since they already have our file started. 

On another adoption note. I think I am nesting. We are organizing our house and trying to get rid of clutter. We live in an 1100 sq foot home. We just removed 9 buckets of childrens clothes. Ummm, something about that does not seem right! And, of course, we are saving them since we know not what sex our new child is at this time. Good grief. 

Also, big news: Creed has slept ALL night in his own bed for 2 days. Okay, not a huge amount of time, but we are counting it as one small victory. We have resorted to bribery, but it is working. He gets to get a toy for his new fish if he sleeps in his bed 7 nights in a row. We love him sneaking in our bed in the night and cuddlying but are kind of thinking that it will be a little bit harder when we have a 9 month old in there as well. So, we are trying to break the habit now versus him thinking it is baby's fault in the future. 

Any more suggestions for bribes?

Baby "K"

Just thinking a ton about baby lately. Maybe it is the fact that SEVERAL people on our adoption agency's forum have received their referrals....thus, we are getting super close. By super close I mean it could be 3-5 monthsish and we could get our referral (ie: info on our child).

Still amazes me that we have about a three or four month old in the world and haven't met them yet. 

God has a plan for us. No doubt. Can't wait to see if fulfilled. 

Missing Baby "K" this morning.