Adoption, surgery, how we afford this?

What is it?????
a glob of dough????
A blue piece of bubble gum????
Hmmm- no idea???
Well, of course these are our highly technical, really elaborate- coil pots......part of a history lesson about how people in Bible times lived. They rolled out clay into long strips..
kind of like this....
It took patience,
and a bit of fun....
Then what do you get.....a really small version....of a coil pot. Hey, the kids had fun doing it and we learned about history at the same time- LOVE it! Coil pots were made to of course be used for daily life- making/cooking food.

Reminds me of what God is doing right now. He is stretching us.......daily! He is getting ready to make His masterpiece from our lives. Something useful- in fact something necessary to daily living. Something He can use over and over....... for His purposes.

That is the reason we are adopting again. That is what He has called us to do- be STRETCHED- to make our lives a useful tool for HIM. So that a child can know the way to our heavenly Father. So they can know, feel, and experience a mom and a dad who love them beyond all Earthly comprehension. So they live - what a family is and how we are to be as the Body Of Christ. Just my thought for the day on God moving in our lives and the life of a very important child to us!!! :)

For those wondering & praying for my husband- THANK YOU!! He is doing fine. Little sleepy, a little painful, but doing well! Next week he has to have the stent taken out. Praying this will help with the kidney stone pain he feels so often throughout the year!

Want to share how our family can afford to live & even save (for the next adoption of course!):

1) We don't have satellite or cable....it's a true story.
2) We try to spend a very very limited amount on birthdays & adoption days. Simple gifts.
3) We only go to town- 1-2 times a week....so our shopping is very minimal, and we try to keep to a list. (Try)
4) We have a budget! Yep, hard to follow sometimes, but we do our utmost to stick to it!
5) We eat sandwiches or leftovers- EVERY lunchtime. YEP EVERY lunch time!!!! Since we homeschool our whole family is usually here for lunch as well as the other meals.
6) We eat out only 1-2 times a month and since we live in the country- we can't get take-in food.
7) We try to not get pre made stuff as much as humanly possible. Of course we have some, but we try to not to when possible.
8) We have a very simple breakfast- cereal & oatmeal.
9) We TITHE- and give. Yep, if you tithe- you WILL be spiritually blessed!!! So true!!!! Never used to think this was true, but that is a whole other post.
10) We have No cell phone plans. We have pay as you go cell phones for when we are on the road only.
11) We have a cheap phone plan for our home phone- PNG it is a generic if you like company, but their company service is the BEST!!!!! We get 4 cents a minute!!! Love it!!!!! That is to England as well!!!
12) We recycle our clothes- as in whatever the tallest person gets new- recycles through our youngest children. Of course we also have to sometimes (rarely) buy new things too. Especially shoes!!!! We are definitely not to proud to take used clothes from others who offer from our church as well- in fact we love it!!!!!!! Hey, we love thrift shops too!
13) We buy generic foods whenever possible. I have a fettish for heinz ketchup it is true, and there may be literally a couple of other items, but other than that- generic!
14) We clean with Vinegar- naturally sanitizes, removes odor, and very cheap!!! We do have other cleaning products, but on a regular weekly basis- it's vinegar. We also don't worry about our kids using a product that is safe for them to handle :) For those with allergies this really does not hurt your throat to use either :)
15) We make homemade baby wipes- yep love those Duggar recipies :) We are working on finding the ingredients for the laundry soap too.
16) We do not have any debt- well except now that we are starting our new adoption we do have some, but try to keep it to the bare minimum. We live at the camp, and our van was purchased without debt.
17) We also love our AAA discounts that help with everything from vacations, to prescriptions, to restaurants, to even shipping (handy when you have to overnight things to your agency for adoption too :)

Those are some of the ways we can afford our lifestyle. This is by no means a list of things to be prideful about. If anything.......we pray our list gets bigger so that more children can have a home. We pray that God continues to help us live cheaply so that others can live! We pray that God will continue to convict us so that we can help as many other's in need as possible.

Thanks for reading my long ramblings......of a mom of soon to be 8 :)