Almost there

Thought I would update everyone on the status of the adoption. All of our home study visits have been completed. All of our physicals (except Craig’s) have been done and those forms submitted. All of our online classes are done. Our CAN clearances are both back. Right now we are waiting on our fingerprints to be cleared and the home study written up. By August we should be eligible to receive a call saying we have been matched with a child from somewhere in the great state of Alabama. In the meantime we continue to raise the funds we need which is a minimum of $15,000. We had our first yard sale for the adoption, which was unfortunately a weekend where both Friday and Saturday we had large amounts of rain. Thankfully some friends of ours had a place indoors we could have the yard sale so it wasn’t a total wash. We raised $900! Our next event is a Barbeque Fundraising Dinner at our church. We pray this is a productive event as we have about $13,500 left to go. However, our God is a BIG GOD and I know He is in control.

Let me start at the beginning, January 1999 is when we started our lives together as husband and wife. Even though we were both in our late twenties we had no desire to start a family anytime soon. We were happy living our self-centered lives contributing nothing for God’s greater kingdom. Just totally wrapped up in our own desires. Flash forward to 2003, to a hot day in the summer and the arrival of our precious baby girl. Our lives were totally transformed, for the better. We both realized that there was no way we could raise this sweet gift without God. We also realized that I needed to come home from my high stress job as a legal assistant. It took a while for that to happen and A LOT of emotional and stressful events took place during that process. In the meantime, we welcomed a bouncing baby boy in 2006. What a joy these two were together. My daughter just couldn’t get enough of her baby brother. She mothered him and loved on him. What’s more we couldn’t get enough of our sweet children. Then in late 2007 the unthinkable happened and my mother passed away, quite unexpectedly. My life was turned upside down. You see I am an only child and it had always been just the three of us (mom, dad, and me.) I was not prepared for the heart-wrenching grief that this brought on. Thankfully I have an amazing husband who let me grieve in the only way I knew how. After moms death I really just didn’t think I could have another child without my mom here (you will only relate to this if you are extremely close to your mom.) So we waited. Finally my heart was ready again but during that waiting my husband had closed his heart to the idea of more children, period. No discussion. So I prayed. I fasted. I prayed. (You get the idea.) Then God moved the mountain and opened my husband’s heart. I still don’t know why God opened my husband’s heart but then closed my womb but He did. I rest in the fact that God is sovereign. As I watched friend after friend have baby after baby my heart simply grieved. I couldn’t understand it. Why? Then one Sunday morning in 2012 we went to church. I walked in the sanctuary and I didn’t see my dad. He was always faithful to come every Sunday and then we would have Sunday dinner together at our house afterwards. I tried calling, cell phone, home phone, nothing. I called my husband in a panic (he was at work.) Thankfully my husband was able to leave and go to my dad’s house which is quite a distance from where our church was. When my husband arrived at his house he found that my sweet daddy had gone to be with Jesus. I was immobilized. I can honestly tell you if you saw me after that day and in the weeks that followed the only power I had was because of Jesus. I was now an orphan. Why did God let me experience this? Years of pain, grief and loss? God was preparing me to welcome a child, an orphan, into my home. That’s why. So with “joy that only comes in the morning” we announce WE ARE ADOPTING!

Contentment

“Now godliness with contentment is great gain.” I Timothy 6:6

Be content with where the Lord has you right now. It pains my heart to see women who are so blessed continually seeking more instead of being content with where God has them right now. I'm not sure they are even aware of it, I know I wasn't until the Lord opened my eyes. My prayer is that we all will "rest in Him" and find the peace that comes with contentment in our Lord.

Visual Lation Give-a-way at Home Educating Family

5 sets of Latin 1 (Lessons 1-30) in either DVD or download to 5 random entrants. Latin 1 includes a full year of Visual Latin with 4 intro lessons and 30 individual lessons. Each lesson consists of three videos: Grammar, Sentences, and Reading, as well as over 100 PDF worksheets.

To enter the contest, fill out the form at the link http://www.wellplannedday.com/contest01.php.

Contest dates runs from December 3, 2011 through December 10, 2011.

Remember, as always, one entry per person unless you share this contest. Let us know where you shared, and we'll give you a second entry! Be specific so we can verify it for your entry.


In addition, everyone who likes us on Facebook will receive a $10 gift coupon to use on ANY Visual Latin product!

Vision Forum - Christian book resource

When you are considering shopping this Christmas season please consider doing so at Godly resources. One of those places where you can be assured that the items are examined for appropriate content is Vision Forum. Vision Forum has Christian books that will enrich your walk with the Lord. So take a look at www.visionforum.com

First Day

I love the first day of school. I get so excited to start new material and look forward to all the things we are going to experience as a family in the coming year. I start planning for the next year around December/January when typically we moms hit a home-school slump. It gets me revved up to finish out the year knowing all the cool stuff we are going to learn the next year (it works for me anyway.)

So we started the “official” first day of school yesterday. (We do a relaxed schedule during the summer of just reading and math.) Since we continue school through the summer when we start the longer schedule it is really an easy transition because they have been doing school all summer, just not as much.

I was so excited about this year for several reasons; one reason is I just LOVE our curriculum. You know, there is a fit for every family so my fit may not be yours but our family LOVES Heart of Dakota. It is so easy to teach multiple children with this curriculum. Really language arts and the math are the only things you teach individually most everything else can be learned together. We really enjoy it. Another reason is this year we are studying the origin of some of the greatest hymns. I knew my daughter would just love this part (she is my song bird) and I was delighted to see that my son took to it as well. To see him hold up his three little fingers for the trinity while we sang Holy, Holy, Holy touched my heart. So here are pictures from the “first day” of our school. I hope your home is blessed by your home school as much as our family is.

Little Hands in the Garden

I love to see the garden through my daughter’s eyes. It makes all the hard work of planting, weeding, and harvesting worth it when she runs around saying “here’s another one mommy” pointing out little watermelons growing.