Our Home Study Visit

Last night, we FINALLY had the in-home visit with our precious social worker.

I think that my angst prior to the visit was typical. I cleaned like a crazed woman. I fretted over things that typically don't even enter my thoughts. I imagined all sorts of bizarre comments that the boys could have made. I imagined my explanations for their imaginary bizarre comments. I feel like a nut. (However, sometimes I don't.)

The boys did a great job. They were well behaved and didn't make any of the bizarre comments over which I fretted. They were their normal, silly, happy selves. Joseph was well-spoken and excited. Jeremiah and Gideon would make little jokes with each other and randomly break out with giggles. Caleb sat quietly until someone mentioned our recent trip to San Antonio and SeaWorld. At that point, he made sure that everyone knew that he had taken the opportunity to ride the Shamu Express three times.

Larry and I had individual interviews, as well. Those were interesting. I'm really relieved that we have that visit behind us. I had made it into a much more dramatic issue in my mind. After she left, I was exhausted. It had been a whirlwind day. Not really, as far as reality is concerned. I had spent the day doing laundry and cleaning. I had Caleb and a sweet daughter of a friend. It rained. I cleaned. We played. But, there was a lot going on in my mind.

Once I was done for the day. I was ready for some restorative sleep. Guess what I dreamed about? I dreamed that Mike Holmes of Holmes on Homes came to inspect our home. Good grief, can you say "Vain Imaginations?"

I think at this point I am ready for the dreaded waiting period. At least then I can worry about our new little guy and things that truly matter, not just paper work and processes.

By the way, through this process, I have been doing the Bible study James: Faith Under Pressure by Pam Gibbs of LifeWay. I picked it up to go through before deciding whether to offer it as a Mother/Daughter study for the youth group programs during the summer. I just wanted to make sure that it was something that both adults and teen girls would benefit from going through.

I highly recommend this study.

***Testimonial Alert: I can't express how God has used this study (for teens) to work on my heart and prepare it for some of the obstacles that have been thrown in the path of our adoption/life over the course of the last 2 months. I didn't plan on grabbing a Bible study that day that we were "popping in" to the local LifeWay store for some Sunday school items. I hadn't planned on the bumps in the road that Larry and I are currently experiencing. But, God knew what was coming. He knew what I needed. He is awesome that way. I love Him. Who is like Him?***

Another, By The Way: If you click on the link for the study, there is an option to download a free sample. And, it just happens to be the week which spoke to my heart during the onset of a majorly bumpy section of the proverbial road of life. Enjoy!



A Romantic Blowout

I love Elizabeth George. I have read several of her books: A Woman After God's Own Heart, A Mom After God's Own Heart, A Woman's High Calling, Beautiful In God's Eyes, Breaking the Worry Habit...Forever. That's just a few.

I don't remember in which of her studies she mentioned the need for a date night for parents. However, in it she suggests putting the kids down early and preparing a separate meal for Daddy and Mom. What a great idea, especially when the added cost of paying a babysitter cuts into the savings needed to bring home an adopted child. So, I added it to the list of changes needed to save even more money for the adoption.

Wednesday night there were no activities at the church, because of Bethlehem City. I found this to be the perfect opportunity to implement our Daddy/Mom Dinner plan. So, Larry made the boys waffles. (He bought us this waffle maker about a year ago and it's fabulous!) While he was feeding them and getting them settled in upstairs for the night, I made us a separate dinner. Baked salmon, sauteed spinach with onions and some rice (brown, red and wild rice blend). It was marvelous. I even used the china and crystal. As I heard Larry getting them settled in the gameroom for a movie, I thought, "I have time to get out some candles." And, I did.

We had our meal. We lowered the lights, lit the candles and had quiet conversation over our delicious, non-hotdog, non-mac-n-cheese meal. After a while, however, our solitude melted. The boys got bored with the movie and started meandering about the house. We knew it would happen. Jeremiah came down the stairs and asked, "Why are those candles on the table?" Larry's response was as follows: "We are having a romantic dinner." Then, the question of the ages...

"After your romantic dinner, are you going to have a romantic blowout?"

Imagine me and Larry as we both pursed our lips to try to keep from exploding with laughter. What little boy wouldn't associate candles with blowing them out? That's their purpose, right?!

Oh, we couldn't contain ourselves too long. We eventually erupted with giggles. Larry headed back up the stairs with Jeremiah and tucked all four guys into bed. I did the dishes and contemplated the romantic blowout.

The term "blowout" could mean any number of things.

It could mean that our romantic intentions were blown to bits by something unexpected...I'm thinking tire blowout here. You know, as in "we were trying but the boys interrupted". It could be anything really, the boys, the dogs, the bills, the laundry. Anything can interrupt and cause the romantic blowout.

It could mean that our dinner was going to turn into a romantic extravaganza. Or, as we once heard it pronounced by a pizza delivery guy in New Orleans, "Extrava-GAHN-ZAH." He was just talking about pizza though. There was no mention of romance. Thank God.

The next day, Jeremiah asked, "How did your romantic dinner go, last night?" What a neat kid. We told him it was nice and continued on with the morning activities. The long and short of it is that life has some blowouts...good and bad, romantic or not. I am grateful, though, for the sweet time that we had at our breakfast table, with the boys upstairs. So many of our little tasks and brief moments are becoming sweeter in this adoption journey. If we hadn't been "saving money" we would have had a regular dinner at a busy, loud restaurant...with no mention (or hope) of A Romantic Blowout.

What shall we eat? - Luke 11:11-13

Today, I sat at the table with Caleb and we had lunch. It was a plain ol' PB&J, chips and apples kind of lunch. We had fun.

After lunch, I cleaned the table and Caleb watched Clifford on television. This is a regular occurrence. After cleaning up our dishes, I put ribs in the CrockPot. This is super easy and delicious. I found this recipe on the back of a spicy mustard bottle. Again, so easy...just make sure to use a Reynolds Slow Cooker Liner. By the way, there is a $1 coupon on that website. Trust me, if you haven't used these yet, they will change your life.

Anyway, here's the recipe:

• 1 - 18oz bottle of barbecue sauce - It doesn't matter which, just pick your favorite.
• 1/2 cup of spicy brown mustard
• 1 rack of pork baby back ribs - I divide ours into sections of 2-3 ribs each

Mix BBQ sauce and mustard. Dip rib sections into sauce mixture. Place in slow-cooker. Cover with remaining sauce. Cook on High 4 hours. (I put mine in at 11:45 on High and will switch it to Low at 3:45. They will stay there until Larry is home around 5. They are done after 4 hours on high, but they are mega-tender this way.)

Okay, doesn't that sound easy? It was. While I was doing all of that, I thought, "What will our new guy eat? What will he be used to eating? What if he won't eat anything that we eat?" And, of course, my crazy mind went haywire with worry. So, what did I do? I thought about something that I saw on the Orphan Sunday website. Check it out at http://orphansunday.org/.

While I was looking for some resources for our Orphan Sunday booth, I ran across something that I am excited about.

The Orphan's Table

The Orphan's Table is an excellent way to share with your friends and family the burden that is on your heart for orphans. The program provides a DVD to show to your guests and an easy-to-cook meal similar to the ones provided to orphans around the world. If you would like to participate in The Orphan's Table, check out the website and request a package be sent to your address. The packet feeds approximately 4 people, so make sure that you order enough. They suggest a donation of $5 to cover the cost of processing and shipping the packet. I ordered our packet on Friday. Can't wait!

Thinking about what my boys here are eating in comparison to what my boy is eating in Ethiopia has captivated my thoughts today. Luke 11:11-13 never made my heart ache like this. Aching with the idea that my child could be somewhere eating something less than what I would love to feed him. And, how often have I, myself, settled for a pitiful bowl of spiritual mash or earthly garbage, when God wants to give me so much more?

Here is the Orphan Sunday 2011 video. Just because!


Tell me what you think! I have watched this video a dozen times.

A says "aa, aa, Africa" - Psalm 68:31b-32 (NASB)

Our boys have been excitement personified when it has come to adopting.

This week Jeremiah entered a new era of life. He was assigned homework. We had requested Gideon's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. W, but ended up with the most precious kindergarten teacher on the earth, Mrs. S.

(I feel compelled at this point to say that "the most precious kindergarten teacher" award would most definitely go to Grammy, if she were still teaching. Love you, Mom!)

Mrs. S sent home a book in which Jeremiah must complete two pages per week. Each week, she will send it home, with the two letters of the alphabet he should work on. For each letter, there is a page on which he will practice writing the letter and then attach four pictures of items that start with said letter. This week the letters were M and A.

We got busy flipping through magazines and the expired coupon inserts that I was about to take out to the recycle bin.

M was pretty easy...Man, Mom, Mice and Milk.

A was more of a stretch, just because of the availability of A pictures. We had to go to the computer for some printed images. At that point, with a world wide web of available images, I prompted Jeremiah. "A says..."

Africa.

His first response. Be still my heart!

What has caused our family to have a heart for Africa? Well, my dad has been working for International Commission for the last several years as the VP of African evangelism. So we have been praying for projects that the group has conducted in dozens of countries.

I even went on one of the trips to Rwanda. There is no way for me to convey the change that it brought about in my heart. I have always lived an extremely sheltered life. God used that trip to say, "Your American struggle is a lavish extravagant life. You don't need 1% of what you have. Get over yourself and do something. You are not the good news, I AM."

My sister just got back from a trip with Dad in August of this year. She went to Tanzania and shared about it here.

We have been praying for Africa for almost 6 years. God has been working on our hearts to adopt for about 8 years, around the time that we had our first miscarriage.

With those prayers combined, I don't know why we didn't arrive at this conclusion earlier. I'm sure we irritate the fire out of God sometimes.

For our family, A is for Adopt Africa.

Ethiopia will quickly stretch out her hands to God.

Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth,
Sing praises to the Lord,

Selah.

Psalm 68:31b-32 (NASB)

Jeremiah 23:29 - Garage Sale and Wildfire

This morning, I awoke in my parents' home. I had spent the night there so that I could be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for their community wide garage sale. Mom and Dad were so sweet to let us use one half of their driveway to sell some stuff and start chipping away at the costly journey to adopt our little Ethiopian darling.

Everything went smoothly. People were nice. The driveway gradually emerged from under it's odd assortment of accessories. The blue bank bag began to look less flat. The boys sold Kool-Aid. They were diligent in their sales pitch. As a car would drive down the street approaching the house, Gideon, in a fashion reminiscent of Sally on Cars, would call out, "Customers! Customers!" They sold $18 worth of half-dollar cups of the reddest Kool-Aid I have ever seen.

We were able to raise over $300 for our upcoming expenses! Praise the Lord! Mom and Dad also did well on their side of the driveway. We even bartered some items between ourselves while Dad and Larry weren't looking!

After the fun wore off and the sun bore down, we gathered our few remaining items and came home. Larry unloaded the trailer and off we went to get six haircuts. (Side Note: I got my every-once-in-a-while Ramona Quimby haircut. I love it!)

On the way home from our afternoon excursion, we saw the large DC 10 plane that is currently in our area assisting with the control of the Magnolia wildfires. (Please pray for the families affected by this fire.) We thought that it was probably landing at the local airport for refueling. It never occurred to us that it might be dropping fire retardant on our neighborhood. But, it pretty much was.

The fire was quickly contained. There doesn't seem to be any reason to sit up tonight and watch, although I probably will.

Larry and I were discussing on Thursday morning that the visual imagery of fire used in the Bible will not be the same to us any longer.

"It only takes a spark to get a fire going..." Come on, you know that you want to bust out in 80s era praise music, don't you?

If we were to really have a revival that burned in us like fire, wouldn't people around be forced to take notice? Wouldn't people for miles around be aware of what was going on in our area?

Our God is an all consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24). Do we really believe that? Do we really understand that His influence on our live takes over every single inch of our being? Can we truly grasp that there will not be any place that remains untouched?

I love God's question in Jeremiah 23:29, "Is not my word like fire?"

Yes, LORD, let it be so. Let it be so in our lives and in our hearts. Ruin us for any other purpose but to follow You. Ensure in our hearts that the only provision for Your calling on our lives is Your strength and Your Spirit. Help us to fully rely on You alone as we continue to follow.

Grow in grace - 2 Peter 3:18

Today, we have been enjoying the holiday together.

Our first activity was to mark everyone's height on the door of the office.  Neither Larry nor I grew. However, we did not shrink! Good news, indeed. I don't know that I will announce when that begins happening.

Our little guys are getting bigger as each moment passes. The winner of the growth spurt race was Caleb at 4.5  inches over the course of the last year. This was, of course, expected since he is the youngest. However, Joseph's change was almost 4% of his height at this point last year. As of today, Joseph is exactly 12 inches shorter than his mother. In fact, the day is coming and has now come when my eldest's foot shall be the same size as mine!

Today's focus on growth caused me to think of how our family will grow and change through this process of adoption. I have pondered the prospect of change and growth all day. Honestly, it's been on our minds the last several months.

We've passed some big milestones in the last few months.

We started a new school year with Joseph, Gideon and Jeremiah all attending the same school.

We ditched the diaper scene and moved on to the Land o' Big Boy Britches.

We said goodbye to a faithful old friend at the car dealership and Larry got to leave in a vehicle with a working radio and air conditioning system.

We decided to move forward and send in our application for adoption.

Growing our family in this way is so different than how we have previously experienced family growth. (That will be a future post, I am sure.) Growing our family through adoption is definitely growing our faith as well. We have already asked ourselves a ton of questions. A few of those questions, we have asked repeatedly!

Please continue to pray for us as we begin to tackle the heaps of paperwork that are required. Pray for God to show Himself strong in providing the resources to fund this process. Larry is working after his ministry job for a friend and I have returned to selling Avon as a means to generate some additional funds. So, you can Be Cute For A Cause by purchasing your skincare/makeup products from me.



Pray, Pray, Pray!!! We will update you all soon!



Psalm 127:3-5

Having four children draws a lot of attention these days. There is never an errand run, a meal eaten in public or a library book checked out without some comment on the number of children tagging along for the adventure.

• Four boys?! I bet you're tired.
• Four boys?! You must do a lot of laundry.
• Four boys?! You almost have a whole team.
• Four boys?! You know how that happens, don't you?

and very rarely...

• Four boys?! Aren't you blessed?!

Yes, indeed I am.

Larry and I didn't plan on a specific number of children. As we contemplated marriage, we discussed children and agreed that we wanted some. That was the extent of it...we wanted some.

And some we now have, to be sure. Our little guys are the most precious on earth, based on my totally biased opinion. (Of course, Larry agrees with me.)

However, Larry and I have decided to obey God in something He has been moving us to do for a long time.

We are adopting a child.

We have been accepted into the Ethiopia Program with AmericaWorld Adoption.

This blog will be an avenue for us to share the experience of our adoption with our friends and family. Throughout this process, we know there will be great joy and great trials. So, we ask you to pray for us, for the baby we will bring home and for every detail to fall into place.

Over the next few weeks, I will share how we came to this decision and give updates on the adoption process. You can also expect stories of the first four guys!

Thank you for your prayer! We need every one that can be muttered on our behalf.