Our Week as a Featured Family

Hello everyone!  Dan and I are so excited, and feel truly blessed, to be a featured family on the Give1Save1 blog! Starting today, we will have a video about us, and our adoption journey, on their website as the weekly "Featured Family!"   

I love the idea behind this ministry!  The idea began with a girl named Beth. She was in the adoption process herself and knew how expensive it was and created a blog that could help families who were in the adoption process. She wanted to feature a family per week and allow others to donate to that family's adoption fund. Encouraging others to give $1, the adoptive family could quickly raise money to help bring their child home.  (So give $1 and Save1 orphan, or in our case, a baby that needs a home so that they never experience being an orphan!)

So every week they feature a family in the adoption process, both adopting internationally, and recently, domestically!  The featured family makes a video introducing themselves, and sets up a family fund that is used to help pay for adoption expenses.  Family, friends, and strangers are encouraged to donate $1 to the family fund, and spread the word to everyone they know!  Pretty cool, right?

We would appreciate any donation, and would greatly value continued prayer on our behalf, as well as for our child's birth mother!  That the Lord's hand would continue to be in this adoption process, and that He would get the glory!

Check  us out here, and share the link with anyone who may be interested in helping us out!

Updates

I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd give a little update on what is going on in our lives.  We have been crazy busy working on house projects!  We finished grouting the bathroom floor, and installed and grouted the kitchen floor, and it looks awesome!  Wow, is tiling a LOT of work.  So many steps, and all of them back pain inducing!  But I think it was worth the effort and pain.  We have several things that we have to tackle yet, and I can't wait to show pictures of all of the changes we're making!

In adoption news, we had 3 "situations" arise this week!  After MONTHS of silence, we actually heard something (although none of them were actually from our agency)!  We received an email from a girl expecting a boy, she said she liked our online profile and wanted our agency's contact info.  (Haven't heard anything back on that yet though).  We also received an email from an adoption agency in Missouri looking for a Christian family for a 3 day old baby girl.  We would have said 'yes' in a heartbeat, but unfortunately this agency has much higher fees than we are expecting to pay through our agency.  That was frustrating.  Also, we heard, through a friend, about the possibility of a baby girl, currently in foster care that may become adoptable soon.  We would greatly value your prayers!  All of this has definitely renewed my hope that our baby is coming.  :)  Please pray that the Lord would make His will known and give us guidance and direction as situations arise!

Sermon Audio Clip

I received this audio clip this morning from a friend, and I was really blessed by this sermon and want to share it with you.  It is from a man who is a missionary in Ukraine.  He and his wife recently lost a baby mid-term due to a genetic disorder.  The title of the sermon is called "Patient Faith."  Praise the Lord for His word and for encouragement through life's trials.

http://www.ofreport.com/2012/07/patient-faith/

Home Study Update

So yesterday Dan and I had our home study update.  It was super casual; our social worker basically just asked us questions about what we've been up to the last year.  So we are glad to have that behind us now, and we're still hopeful the right baby will come soon!  In the mean time, we've been doing a lot of house projects!  I am so proud of my husband, he tiled our bathroom floor all by himself, never having done it before and with nobody to help!  (Well, I 'helped' by bringing him things he needed...)  It is really looking nice down there!  I'll post a few 'before' and 'almost after' pictures.  We've also ripped out carpet in the upstairs bedroom, and we're installing laminate flooring in there.  We are also tiling the kitchen floor!  So, needless to say, it has been a great distraction from the wait!

Here are a few pictures of the bathroom before we got at it!  It was a really small room with a door leading to a small, unfinished cement room.  Weird.  We tore down the wall to make it one big room.

I was able to refinish the vanity to save $$ and we replaced the vanity top.  I LOVE how it turned out!
Here are the recent progress pictures.

We still have to grout the tile, trim the window and door, and finish the tub surround, but it looks a lot better so far, no?!  I definitely don't miss the horrible teal walls. Some people's color choices I will never understand.  Well, that's it for now!  Hopefully soon I'll have more before and after pictures.

Prayer

This Sunday at church, the topic of prayer was preached about.  I was definitely convicted that I do not pray as often as God wants us to!  I thought I would post a few of the verses that were an encouragement to me.

Luke 18:1-8
And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:
And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.
And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;
Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. 
And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.
And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?
I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.  Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing. 

1 John 5:14-15 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

John 14:13-14 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. 

James 1:6-7 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.  For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.  For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

There are a lot more verses on prayer, and I confess that I don't always understand all of them.  But, I do know that God wants us to pray, and not to faint!  To pray in faith, believing you will receive them.  God knows what we are going to pray before we even open our mouths, so why does he want us to pray?  Well, prayer is an act of faith!  I have been convicted by the 1st parable in Matthew.  To always pray, and to faint not, because God will avenge speedily his word says!  To cry out to him day and night! 

So as we continue to cry out to our God for this adoption, we ask that, if you would, join us!  Prayer is a powerful tool we have to come before the creator of this universe, and he HEARS us!!!  Our specific prayer request is that this adoption happens speedily.  For many reasons, having this miracle come to us soon is our hearts desire.  Thank you for those who have been praying for us on our journey, and those who will join with us in making this request known unto God. 

Summer Fun!

We still don't have any adoption updates, but I wanted to post something fun since my last post was a downer!  :)  Dan and I have been loving our summer and are making the most of what might be our last summer as just the two of us!  I finally got a new camera, so I have been taking a lot more pictures now...

We had a great camping trip with our friends in early June. We went to Savannah Portage State Park.  We had a canoe-in campsite, so it was super quiet, peaceful, and beautiful being right on the lake! 

The men fishing. We enjoyed a few meals from their efforts!

Trying to put a worm on a hook

Yummy lunch!

Waiting for lunch

 I came across this huge spider (he was eating a moth!) while washing my hands in the shelter.  Dan and I both hate spiders, so the guys came up with a plan....  Enter the Air-Soft gun!

Early morning canoe ride with my love

 We came across this turtle on our way home.  He was huge and was hissing at Dan when he picked him up!

Dan and I both enjoy fishing, so we've been going a lot more lately.  Here are a couple fish Dan caught on our latest trip.

I have had a few days that I babysat for some friends.  Here is Dan  playing our piano with my little buddy, Emma.

We recently had a get-together at my parents.

Wesley is getting so big!

 Mom broke out the 'miracle' bubbles and the boys had so much fun trying to pop them.

Grandpa's tractor rides!

 I can't believe June is almost over!  Summer is going by fast, but we have lots of fun to look forward to!  Birthdays, weddings, showers, camping trips, vacation, fishing trips.....  I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Updating Our Home Study

I got a packet of papers in the mail yesterday from our agency because we're coming up on 1 year of being home study approved.  (Home studies are only good for 1 year) Updating our homestudy....  Something we were hoping we wouldn't need to do; financially and emotionally.  We are hoping that this will be the only time we need to renew it...

The waiting has been difficult, I'm not gonna lie...  It has been a big test of faith and patience.  Some days are more difficult than others.  It is a weird feeling loving someone you've never met before; a feeling like your child is missing, and you don't know how to find them. It is an emotion I have never experienced before, and sometimes it just downright takes my breath away.  The constant "Any news?!?!", although appreciated for the thought and concern, begins to make the lack of news feel even more painful. The realization that we've been at this for almost 1 year, and now we have to fill out more forms and pay more fees. 

We would appreciate your continued prayers.  It isn't always easy to stay optimistic when all we hear are crickets chirping from our agency.  We are both getting antsy for this baby to arrive!    We know God has His perfect plan, and I just pray for strength to get through the rest of our seemingly endless wait.