Thursday, September 10, 2009

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 :)

17 comments:

  1. Good joy guys! Keep up the blessed work! So proud to know you.

    Kim

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  2. I loved reading your frugal tips.

    Praying for your husband also!

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  3. Wow ... I could write the same list. I think the only things that differ are ...

    ... that we don't make our own baby wipes, because we no longer have babies in the home.

    ... we have 1 car payment (out of 6 cars)

    ... we eat pancakes, waffles, and french toast for breakfast (in addition to oatmeal) because, not only are they less expensive than cereal, but they also fill the kids up a whole lot better.

    ... we have a family cell phone plan because we have "big kids" all over the place, that we like to keep in touch with.

    Otherwise ... we are a LOT alike when it comes to saving money.

    Can't wait to meet you in a couple of weeks.

    Laurel :)

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  4. Thanks for sharing your tips. We try our best to save save save! I only wish we could be able to afford 8 adoptions someday :)

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  5. My best friend just posted a make-your-own-laundry-soap recipe. Here's the link to the post: http://puremommyextract.blogspot.com/2009/09/moms-laundry-soap.html She shares a few more details in the comments too.

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  6. What a great post. Tithing is a big thing. When you are faithful to God, He is faithful to you!

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  7. I too love the list. Like Laurel, I could right a simiar list but the debt was done and now we are working on that! So liberating when one more is gone!!!

    I have some fancy bowls at my place too! We used old play doh and let is harden. We also made clay beads for jewelry...passed those to the g-mas!

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  8. Thanks for the scripture!!!!!! AWESOME!!!

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  9. Your children are gorgeous...love the pictures of everyone! What a beautiful family you have.

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  10. I am working on some of this stuff! Not there quite yet! But working on it. My kids, not the high schoolers, but the others in school are taking there lunch this year. It does save me money, as my grocery bill doesn't seem to fluctuate much. If I pay for their lunches at school it is $90 or more a month!

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  11. that's awesome..I love CHEAP....Way to go Momma :) kristi

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  12. You rock! I could learn a bunch from you! Just need to get it translated to my family! ;o) Glad to hear hubby is doing so well! Blessings

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  13. So proud of you! That is so awsome... You do an excellent job!!! Angie

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  14. This is GREAT! I need YOU to rub off on ME! I don't even want to know how much we could save if we did this...I need to try it for a month! My husband is going to want me to read more of your posts:)

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  15. praise the Lord for your life. isn't it great to be on this faith filled adventure with the Lord??? I have a question for you.... do you have health insurance? and how affordable is that for you and your whole family? God bless, Tereza

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  16. Just came across your blog and I am loving it...you and your family are awesome! Love your frugal tips! I have just started making my own laundry soap...here is the link. http://littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/search?q=Laundry
    I too use vinegar to clean however I am not happy with it on my windows/mirrors. What do you use for yours?

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