Pulling or Transplanting Weeds

Ok so before you read on...yes, we are all wearing matching shirts today :) I can't help it.
No idea what this pic is about....hmmmm....what do you think he is thinking? Hey, come up with something fun.
These are our children looking through our church directory as we mail out letters & pics to gain support for our Naomi. Hey, they look like they are having fun anyway.....
I tell you that all of our children - well almost all (maybe not the youngest 2) helped fold, stuff, stuck labels, put on the stamps.....this is a family ordeal in our home. I love the fact that our children see the value of adoption- gaining a sibling, wanting her to hurry up and come home already, praying for her, and knowing that this doesn't just happen. There is lots of paperwork (although ours is all but done), lots of payments, lots of thinking & praying over all that you do. Asking God's provision for you. Asking others to help. It is a process that our children know pretty well, and ask about too. What a great way to show them Who God is.

So today as I was playing with the kids. Pushing Jonathan & Elizabeth on the swings.... I noticed my other children pulling weeds at the playset area.....they were "transplanting" them and pretending to "garden". It brought a thought to my mind.

You see Andrew has had some temper issues lately. He quickly gets - too angry. There are times when he lets loose before engaging his brain. He is a smart boy! Loves to learn, compassionate to others, and loves to laugh. But, lately especially, he has had some problems.....and as we are working on it with him. I have looked in a mirror to ask myself some serious questions.

Am I pulling weeds or just transplanting them? Meaning am I transplanting my quickness to judge, my quick tongue to my child.....or am I pulling out that weed? I want to be pulling, but I have to admit too often I am sowing more weeds than I am pulling. I have had to apologize on more than one occasion because of this. God Please CHANGE my heart. Help me to be Pulling The Weeds Out & not spreading or transplanting them to my children.

Matthew 13:24-29 Talks about weeds being sown among the wheat, and that weeds are planted in the night by the enemy. When my life is going by I want to be planting wheat- NOT WEEDS. I pray that God will help me be more and more wheat and less and less weeds.

Holding On To Our Blessings :)

So we have been getting out the baby stuff you know those things you whip out when you have had soo many already- and you start to get really excited!!! This is the sling that we bought when we were going to bring Hannah home (of course now she is in her Heavenly Home). I reminisced about the day we bought it.

So when Jonathan woke up from his nap today I brought it out. You see...maybe you have a child like him. When he wakes up he is a little bit clingy and grumpy too. So I put him in the sling and he loved it. I have to say I loved it too. Holding my baby close to me reminded me of my privilege as a mom.

I also thought about how we should hang onto moments like that as long as possible. We are soo quick to have our children do all kinds of activities outside the home. So quick to rush them into all kinds of places where you are not with them. So take each moment and hang onto it!

Tonight as I tucked in our Sarah...who I have to say is a challenge at the best of times. I just laid in her bed with her, thinking of all that we went through as a family to keep her & her siblings. How we fought prejudice, a judge who couldn't care less, and ignorance of a bad situation getting worse. So I just rubbed her back for several minutes and as I felt her body relaxed into my arms I remembered how we had to let go and let God. Relax in His Arms!

Thank you God for all of our miracles, and for any more you have planned for our family. We are soo privileged to have these Blessings. Help us to never take any day for granted...to not waste away any time we GET to spend with our babes - even when our hearts seem not to be in it.


So these are our stacks of letters and photos we are sending out to ask for help with our adoption. We have recieved a few donations...and are soooo THANKFUL!!!! We are trying to figure out how to put those in the button on the side if they were sent in by mail, or before we changed the button. We have recieved $150 and are soooo thrilled. People have blessed us with their time, their prayers, their efforst, and their money. And we pray God will truly Bless them through this process as well!

We of course are biting our nails waiting for our CPS background check still from Iowa......we literally have everything else done! Our homestudy has been approved (except that detail), and our dossier has been copied -all 3 times. So we wait by the phone hoping it will ring soon saying the CPS check has come back and we can come pick up our homestudy and send in our dossier. Sounds really simple doesn't it?

I have to say we are still overjoyed with the news about our Naomi Caroline - finding out that she is doing so well health wise is such a Blessing. So this brings us to the question- why? I mean why did God choose her for us? I don't know....she was on the list as a special needs child. By all accounts her health record appeared to be pretty poor in different ways. We jumped at the chance to be her parents, and now she is healed. Blows my mind every waking moment. All I can say is that God must have a plan! A BIG one! And I am soooo thrilled that we get to be a part of it! Yeah God!!!

Miracles & Explosions :)

Ready..........
generic diet coke & mentos have this reaction...........
And daddy couldn't resist buying this cheap contraption that does this!!!
And ends up like this........
Here is what it all looks like up close :)
So fun exploding things:) Entertainment for less than $2- it's great!

So onto the MIRACLES!!!

Miracle # 1. Yesterday I received a phone call- from my grandma! Now that may not sound like a whole lot to most, but my grandma hasn't been doing as well lately. We went to see her while in Florida in August. She was -well frail, but was doing ok. But when she called yesterday- she was more like her old self (no pun intended- she is older, but she is still with it). I love my grandma and yesterday was a real gift a moment of talking like we used to. A time where she was sooo happy for our family. Happy about our adoption that is in progression. Happy to see pics of all of our kids playing, smiling, etc. Proud to show off all of her- 19 great grandchildren...soon to be more :) Through 3 adoptions (ours and our cousins) both to happen hopefully before the end of the year.

Oh yeah.....she told me of a dream she had of Jason & I in a 3 story home...needless to say we live in a one story home. She was worried about getting up and down the stairs in the home. Then she said- you wouldn't believe it there were lots of children....yep, my grandma knows our hearts for orphans! She loves it! Thanks grandma- you will never know how much your call meant to me!

Miracle # 2!!!!! Today we received a phone call and all the tests that were done on our sweet baby Naomi......came back and they really indicate that she is doing extremely well!!! Another words that the "possible" real urgency to bring her back from Ethiopia & treatments etc. - GONE! Now of course there will be all the retesting when we return home, but that news made me cry with excitement! I was dancing around our bedroom with pure joy & of course couldn't wait to phone Jason (he is on the road at the moment- be back later). WHO SAYS WE DON'T SERVE A GOD OF MIRACLES? OUR GOD IS AN AWE INSPIRING, MOUNTAIN MOVING, HEALING GOD WHO DESIRES THE BEST FOR EACH OF HIS CHILDREN!!!!!!

So THANK YOU for all of your prayers and keep them coming.....we truly value friends online & church & family! You know that often people ask how we do it, and we say loads of prayer & that includes the prayers that are said on our behalf from blogworld too! THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts. We are doing the happy dance....giving the Glory to God! Celebrate with us!

I just couldn't wait to share that with all of you!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's a preview....and any helpful tips????

So as some may know - you can't post a pic of your precious one until it is finalized..... understandable. So here is a preview of our sweet girl! Amazingly cute right? Oh yeah......let's just say the whole 2 pics we have of her have been stared at for unbelievable amounts of time!!!

So if you read my blog a little while back we posted about things we do to cut our costs- hey large family- one income- we have to be cheap :)
Under the post in Sept- of Adoption, surgery, how we afford this..... I would put a handy link here, but I am not computer savvy- sorry.

A few more tips:

1) We cut our own hair, except me- and I only cut my hair once every 2 years- and donate it to locks of Love. A great organization that makes wigs for children that have treatments that leave them without hair.

2) Scary, but true....when I was younger I was never allowed to wear make up. Literally when it came time for show choir events or plays - my friends had to help me. I really didn't like the feel of it on my face to be honest....so just never had the habit of wearing any make up- saves on that department! Hey, the only guy I have to impress loves me just the crazy way I am- THANKS SWEETIE!!!

3) BUY in BULK- oh yeah. We love our Sam's Club. I have heard you all mention on your blogs about Costco, but we don't have one in our area- or at least not in Lake Charles. So we buy at Sam's or anywhere else that we can get items by the 20lbs. or more :)

4) We do not leave our home (unless it is just to go 5 miles down the road) without a small cooler of drinks- water in containers, a few snacks, etc. That way we are not tempted to get a drink at a gas station, at the grocery store, or anywhere else. Saves tons of money!!! Plus we avoid eating out by eating snacks until we can make it home- most times. Great money saving tip :)

So we would love to hear what other tips you all have! Really, we want to save as much as possible. Not just for our adoption now, but for future. For life changes we are trying to make. You see our hearts are being opened by a devotional book- called "Hope Lives" A Journey of Restoration by Amber Van Schooneveld.

Here are some interesting things we have learned on our journey of doing this devotional together........
The Gross National Income per Capita 2003:
Switzerland $39,880
United States $37,610
Japan $34,510
United Kingdom $28,350
Mexico $6,230
Egypt $1,390
India $530
Bangladesh $400 (where our compassion child is :)
Kenya $390
Ethiopia $90 ( a place of course dear to my heart!)

Anyone see the point in listing this- Oh yeah.....we have really been convicted and with all of our penny pinching ways.....we feel that we are still SOOOOO spoiled, and what if we can open our hearts to what Christ really wants us to do? To be able to help others adopt, to be able to give so freely - and NOT be held back. To give until we really FEEL IT.

"Our mobile society encourages competition and economic aggression rather than contentment. Someone who isn't climbing the social ladder is regarded as a fool and a failure. We're taught to climb to the top of the heap. What we're not taught is that the heap is a garbage heap." Peter Kreeft, Back to Virtue

I am not anywhere near perfect Lord. Help me to live my life soley for You. To really know what it means to be BLESSED. To really rely on You more. To care about others more than myself. To really want to GIVE OURSELVES to HELPING. Engaging all that we are and have to that others may simply live. Lord Help Us to See What You Have Really Given US!!!!

Why are we doing this?

Ok so couldn't do a post without a pic....so here is Jonathan- being completely cute!
Here he is playing around.......
And although he doesn't know it yet....this is his last night in a crib. Tomorrow we buy a mattress for him to sleep on the bunk bed with his brothers. The crib will be taken apart and put in the girls' room for Naomi. Really he doesn't need to be in a crib. Only for mommy's sake he was there because you know have to keep them young for as long as I can. Hey, I am having a hard time because in a few months my oldest turns- 10! Too old.

So Why are we doing another adoption? Easy answer....because we feel called to take in another child. We loved our experience with All God's Children International. We love when the staff offer to pray with us. We love the fact that they stop and answer questions for us all the time- even when they are really busy. We love our social workers we have had, and of course we love Almaz (the director of Hannah's Hope orphanage/transitional home in Ethiopia run by AGCI).

We love the country of Ethiopia! It broke our hearts, and opened our eyes in ways we can not explain. It helped us to see GOD in a way that also is indescribable. Ethiopia is in our heart and on our minds. And this is not the last of us Ethiopia will ever see- we feel called to help in various ways in the future with as much as we are Blessed with.

Because we do not want our children to ever think this house is full. I mean that our job is never over....no matter how many children we are Blessed with. God gives, in order to Bless. We want our children to see that- feel it- know it- live it. It does us no good to have love in our hearts, and go to church if we do not live our faith. This is one way we do that. Knowing that although our lives are not easy.....that is not ours to decide- only God can give us strength to do what we do. Believe me when there are times I doubt that, but I do know deep in my heart it is true!

Because we feel called to live what we preach. You know it is easy to preach about orphans, poor, needy, widows, but to live it with all your heart- is HARD. So we are trying- we are not perfect nor should we be put on a pedestal- JUST a family that has been inspired by God to do HIS WILL. Hey, we are a walking billboard for love across borders of color, of status quo, of family size, of testimonies that reach many people, of homeschooling, of what a family should be, and so much more! We love getting the opportunity all the time to share parts of our stories with so many- the clerks at the store, at our church, on the streets, at our camp, and anywhere else we are privileged to go.

Why would we want a special needs child- my thoughts are every child has special needs. Just because a lot of people think we are crazy for wanting to bring on the doctors' visits, bills that go with that, and loads of heartache and time......yep it won't be easy. I will probably be asking for loads of prayer, I will probably have many many many moments of what were we thinking? In the end.....we will have a child that has been given a chance to thrive, a chance to live, a chance to grow to however old to learn about God, to see HIM in others, and to have a relationship with the ultimate HEALER!

Yep, we are certified crazy- I agree! Crazy in Love with God and the Family He has given us!!!! Crazy in love with our new little one- Naomi, crazy in love with all of our angels- Abigail, Andrew, Joshua, Matthew, Sarah, Elizabeth, & Jonathan! Crazy in Love with the fact that God is pushing us in sometimes uncomfortable places. To borrow a phrase from a fellow blogger- THIS LIFE IS NOT MY OWN! That is what we want to share and spread to others- to catch the vision of God Alive in our World in a personal up close in your face way!

That is why we do this...........

We're Going Back, Won't You Come Along With Us?

So ummm... gulp here goes......

There has been for a little while now this button to the left....you know the big obvious one. Here is why it is here. We feel convicted- THERE are OVER 143 MILLION ORPHANS in the world. In Ethiopia alone there are close to 5 million. These are HUGE numbers!!!! To BIG to ignore! See if you look at the picture above....as hard as this may seem to some of you- there is someone missing.....look really hard......she is there in our hearts. In our minds constantly saying- I don't have a mom or dad to look after me- Will you be my mom and dad?

Our reply- YES! Why- because we still have room for one more at our table. We have an abundance of love and hope and enough for another child to live and thrive. We have an abundance of GOD's LOVE to share- to show a child WHO GOD IS.

Saying that, we have saved, scraped by with what we can, and put together all that we can so we can bring our angel home! This is not easy for us....you know we tend to think we can do it all by ourselves, but the truth is - we are a BODY OF CHRIST, and should be thrilled to ask for help along the way. So here is the number we are working on - $15,000......that is after our savings.

Although that seems big, it really isn't when you think of in country care, social workers fees, airline tickets, agency fees, etc. The other issue we are facing is that our little girl has some medical needs.....and we are rushing everything we can to bring her home sooner for this reason. So our adoption will be done and over much much much sooner than we planned. Don't you love it- when "we" planned. So God's plan was a bit different.

So please consider helping us along our journey to bring home another orphan. To make sure that soon she will get to see her mommy & daddy who have been drooling over her pics- to know that she will have a forever home. To know that GOD is watching over this precious child.

Thank you for your gifts of prayers and money that you feel called to give. We appreciate and cherish them all!!!!

In God's Unfailing Love,
Jason, Dawn, Abigail, Andrew, Matthew, Sarah,
Elizabeth, Jonathan, & soon our Naomi- coming home from Ethiopia :)

Bits & pieces & more paperwork for our adoption....

Guess.....who these outfits are for??? Ok so Naomi needs some cutie outfits. Especially since we gave all of our year old stuff away.....so you know pink and purple- our girls thought was great!
Sooo......some updates....we have officially gotten our referral packet & our dossier packet.

We got a call from the FBI- wanting Jason's birthdate (so glad we didn't have to redo them- I was sooo scared that was what they wanted!)....they said they should be sending it off in the next couple of days:)

We got our apt for USCIS- October 2nd! YEAH!!! 9am in New Orleans......boooo, but it's all good!

We have sent off the CPS (child protection services) check for the state of IA. The one new things we didn't know about ahead of time. But it is off, and hopefully they won't be slow about it!

We have our call with our international pediatrician- Friday! We pretty much know there are a lot of unknowns with her health -more than just was listed.

Monday we drive off to Baton Rouge to get the one paper state certified.

We are almost- ALMOST done with the eyes wide open workbook- my eyes feel like they are coming out of my head!!!

We have our dossier call tomorrow, and probably our referral call too- he he he!

So as soon as we get that CPS check done- we are rocking and rolling!!!!! That is the last part of our homestudy and dossier that we need to be done (well the workbook needs a few more pages to be read......& journaled about).....

So yeah God we are getting there- IT'S ALL ABOUT YOU OUR SWEET NAOMI!!!!!!!!!!

YOU HAVE A FAMILY WHO LOVES YOU SOOOOO MUCH AND WE ARE ON OUR WAY!!!!!!

So you ask why is Jonathan in the sink??? Well, let's see in Louisiana we have these nasty creatures called - fire ants!!!!! Not at all like Iowa ants- you can play with them, watch them, etc. But not these nasty things. So some attacked my sweet baby boy- His feet are swollen, and we are soaking them in some cold water. Hey, his crying almost threw me over the edge, but after a couple of minutes I distracted him with that squeezy thing he has in his hand, and playing with the ice that is floating......Yeah for 2 year olds that are easily distracted.

So today those bites look sooo yucky! They get a tiny nasty pus spot on the ends, and they itch, and look horrible! So we are keeping our eyes peeled for any infections....and praying for our sweet boy. NOT FUN!!!! Poor baby.

Well, we are excited that on the adoption front we are soooo close we can taste it! Continued HEALING for our precious Naomi & just sooooooo thrilled to be parents again!

Our Precious New Girl!!!!! 10 months old!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So.......drumroll please...........our next child is a girl- that's right 10 months old, and very beautiful- of course!!!!

OK so for those who are saying wait a minute you aren't even officially on the waitlist yet for AGCI (although we are almost finished). Yep, well our hearts found a child on the waiting list. We have been praying A LOT!!!!!! Seeking HIS WISDOM!!!!!! Praying some more.....talking, praying some more......talking, praying.....- did I mention that we prayed a lot!!!

So she is 10 months old adorable....appoximately 26" long/tall, about 15.5 lbs. Her birthday written down (which is always a guess when they are from Ethiopia) is November 10th....of course it is all of our family's birthdays/adoption days, anniversary are all within 6 months of the year. With our little one- this makes 3 birthdays in November!!!!

We will be naming her Naomi Caroline Wright!!!!! We couldn't be happier and more over the moon with finding our child that God has brought to us!

Of course we did say she was on the waiting child list. Not sure about giving too much away but she does need HEALING!!!! Now the best part is that WE KNOW A FATHER WHO HEALS!!!!!! So we are depending on lots of HEALING, praying, and doctors will be involved in this, but we feel at ease that this child belongs to God- not us. We know that God picked this child to be in our arms & our HEARTS, and we know that God loves her more than anything!

So we rest in that and know that our wonderful Blog friends will be with us on this journey to laugh and cry with us and to pray alongside us as well- THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!!!!!!!

Now....updates.....Jason is still really out of it...in some pain......but healing from his surgery (for kidney stones).

We had our Orientation Call this past Tuesday!!! We of course sent everything in (after Jason's surgery) on Wednesday....

We have our Dossier Call this upcoming Wednesday, and somewhere in there too we will have our official Referral Call to go over our referral.

WOW!!!!! Seem crazy to anyone else? It is!!!!!

Other than doing the wonderful book- Eyes Wide Open, the only other things we have to do are CPS checks from Iowa (which is new from last time), and get that one sheet state notary checked. Not sure what the technical term is, but for those of you in the process you may know. I think it is state certified.

We feel very lucky that our State Farm agent is a notary and is thrilled that we are adopting- again, and does our notarizing for free- Thank You Brenda!!!! What a great Neighbor!!!!

Well, I think my brain is about to explode- from JOY & LOVE for our Naomi, and of course EXCITEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Celebrating God's Wonderful Gift of Adoption!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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 :)

Jason is having Kidney Stone Surgery & silly pics

Ok so I try not to post without pics whenever possible. So here is a guessing game.....which child is this????
Hmmm....yeah....this tells you how serious our home is all the time? NOT
I mean you have to stick out your tongue too!!!
So some fun and games at the Wright Family table- of course you do realize who started this right? No guessses....let's just say He's the biggest kid. Yep, that would be Jason. Gotta love him!

This is just a quick prayer request from blog friends and visitors. Please keep Jason in your thoughts and prayers as he has kidney stone surgery tomorrow. This is done by a scope, and we have to be in Lake Charles by 7:30am (45 min drive). So we will be up bright and earlier than even normal! We value all of your prayers- THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!

Weekend hang out, and If Only?

Ok my pics are out of order....hmmm.....you would think I would have the hang of this by now, but hey. Oh well... here is Abigail- being Mr. Wolf....evidently scaring daddy!
What's the time Mr. Wolf........Or Ms. Wolf in this case.......
3 O'Clock- ok- 1, 2, 3...........
Hanging out under the high ropes area at camp.....Love that there are sooo many trees everywhere- well except when it is hurricane time.....then- not so much!
Eating our hotdogs & smores!
Oh yeah....this is licorice our dog- don't know if you remember our first pics of her- when she was 3 1/2 lbs, but now she is 15-20!!!!! Growing bigger all the time. She is still only 5 months....
Love the way Jonathan is looking at daddy eat his smore......cute!
Joshua- it is that cute smile that captured my heart the first time we met!
????How do you delete pics if you accidentally put them in twice....I tried, and thought I knew, but evidently not? Sorry.
Love the smell of camp fire!!!! Notice the swimsuit attire- we went swimming right afterwards.

Oh yeah, this handsome man- well after all my pic was on the last post...and as I was trying to post his- blogger wouldn't let me?

So our devotionals yesterday was called- If Only..........
Based on the idea that if only...........we were better at basketball, could play the piano like?, could sing like?, had enough money for our next adoption, could afford to buy a better home, could afford to get our kids more stuff, could have a car that was more dependable, could get further ahead on the laundry, could be more organized, could have the gift of discernment, could be more like them, could have that kind of life, ...........................................................................

Romans 8:28 "And we know that in ALL THINGS God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose."

Put away those dangerous words and listen - very carefully to what God is telling you to do. Don't play the game- if only........ It is a time waster, a defeater, a disease that can take over your life! Give all that you have to HIM and let HIM work ALL THINGS- it's His job not yours.

Just give what you have, and let Him give you all you need. Peace, Love, Joy, Blessings, the strength to go on one more day, the desire to do all you can, the grace to let it go, the desire to follow His Will...........

Have a Blessed Labor Day Weekend!!!!!!!!!!

More Home Study Pics and a funny kid story....

Ok sorry....blogger doesn't want to upload the rest of the pics right now....try again later.....
Our beautiful children so far....Elizabeth 3 1/2, Sarah 5, Andrew 8, Abigail 9 1/2, Joshua 7 1/2, Matthew 7, & Jonathan 2....and our next baby??? Somewhere???
Great, except Elizabeth has her mouth partially open....I won't even tell you how many tries it took us to get these....(ok about 20!!!!!or maybe more!!!)
Great shot- except I don't know what Matthew is doing with one eye open and one eye shut???

OK so cute kid story from today....know that I do not condone the use of this language, but when it is said in complete innocence by a 3 year old- it's cute!

We have been working on beat patterns in homeschool. You know clap, rest, rest, clap, clap , clap....you get the picture.....anyway Jason overheard our Elizabeth later in the day repeating what she knew. She was actually doing it right pointing to the notes and rests she was saying rest, crap, rest, crap, crap, rest, crap........

He he he....oh kids say the cutest things even when normally that kind of language would not be tolerated :)

Moving on with our homestudy/dossier...........

So here is the bed our baby (Joel- more than likely) will sleep in. Of course right now Jonathan is sleeping here.....so we will have to either change him or drag out our other crib. Oh yeah, we actually at once had 3 cribs.....oh yeah- crazy memories.
So we have to take some random pics of our home for the homestudy......so here are some of my random pics....some are not the greatest, but it's all good. This is our dining/living room.
This is looking back the other way- oh..ahh....so exciting! Hey, we have a fireplace in the middle of our home. This is where our Andrew hit his head about 5 minutes after moving here. Fond memories. We actually always laughed about having a fireplace in LA. After living in IA all my life and never having a fireplace (which would have been useful when your winter is 8 months long!!), and moving where it may get cold enough for all of a few weeks......crazy!
This is our kids table- another words our table where kids do puzzles, play dough, coloring, homework, and we do assorted homeschooling here too.
This is our packed to the brim toy room. It used to be an office, but we made it into our toy room because it wasn't really that big, and we don't want to put temptation in front of our kids at bed time so we put all toys here....out of reach at bed time. Oh yeah....our changing table....a very vital part of our home and has been for YEARS!!!!! See the ice cream tub- you might be asking what is that for- well that is where we make our own baby wipes. Way less expensive and easy to do!!!! You take "bounty" paper towels (yes it has to be bounty because they are stronger than others. You cut the roll in half....put in an old ice cream tub- cut and x on top- then pour the mix over top....let sit for 20 minutes ish and pull out the cardboard middle...after that you pull the bounty through the top and they come out just like regular wipes do and tear off easy too. The mix is 2 cups water, 1 tablespoon of rubbing alcohol, 2 tablespoons of baby oil, 2 squirts of baby soap, and mix....really easy!!!! We like it!
This is our official home school room. We have loads of books in those dressers. We also use the couch sometimes, sometimes we use our dining room table, hey we even go outside too. I like a portable classroom it keeps everything fresh and fun!!!!!!! We also use this room as our home office for the camp in the afternoons when our kids are doing independent quiet study times...which works nice too. We also right behind me have a keyboard in the room and daddy plays for our morning worships. Which we all enjoy!!!
This is a front view of our home! Ahhh...notice our suburban and our 15 passenger! Oh yeah that is what you have to have when you have 7- soon to be 8 children :) I love it! Our nearest neighbor is Sarah- our assistant who lives in the camp's 3 bedroom home/office that is about 400 feet from where the edge of this picture is.
Side view....the semi circle window is our bedroom....part of the addition the camp did about 4 years ago. Love it!!!
Our back porch view......really exciting. Actually I am in a small clearing in the "woods" right behind our home. I love looking out our bedroom window and seeing lots of trees!!!!! I am an outdoor kind of person!!!!!

So we have completed our online classes for the adoption.....we have already had our references in the making, done our letter of employment/salary thing, our finance overview, our update on our kids & us, the social worker has come, we are sending out our USCIS thing tomorrow, we have all been to the doctor, and we are having our Orientation Call next Tuesday!!!!

Whew......makes me tired thinking about it. It will all be worth it when we get that call several months from now......saying there is a little one waiting for us to pick them up and love them and I am getting dreamy just thinking about it!!!!

So now- finances :)......always a challenge, but we are really working to get at least the start up money, and more. We have seen so many times- when we are faithful, God provides.

Can't WAIT to see what God has in store!