Good Ole Temper Tantrum

Yep, this is my attitude right now. A good old fashioned  kicking, screaming, whining temper tantrum. Some of you may not understand this feeling but I can guarantee that those of you who have been through any type of adoption process can relate to just getting so frustrated to the point that you want to act like a 3 year old & make sure everyone around you knows how much this process can just bite sometimes. Yep, I'm there! This is also my way to journal through this process so I want to document even the hard times to be able to see how far we have come in this journey & where God led us. Today, He's hearing a not so good side of me. I won't go into full details but it's kinda hard to follow but let's just say there was a situation that was brought to our attention(& she was due very soon) & because of some wrong information, we were led down a little bit of a roller coaster since last week. I guess it doesn't matter since it's not an option anymore but we are now back at what feels like square one with no end in sight. So yes, I feel like pouting & having a bad attitude. So, I'm just going to take a bit to wallow in my own pity until God shapes me right back to where I should be- Waiting on Him & His timing. But for now, the challenge is on kids! Mom is going to give you a run for your money in the tantrum department! We'll see who wins!

Time to Reveal

After some working out some of the kinks in our next project, I think we are ready to proceed! The idea behind this project is like a walk/jog-a-thon. We will be sending out letters to our friends & family to sponsor us by donating to our adoption fund & in return we will be working on a widows house. So instead of walking or jogging for a certain distance, we will be helping her with various things that need to be done. Some of the things we have talked about are trimming trees, painting the garage floor, & painting/making a toy room downstair. I have not asked her permission to reveal who she is so I will be leaving that information out as of now. This has been a hard concept to explain to people so I hope that everyone understands how we hope this will work. We knew from the beginning that this adoption journey isn't just about us & want we want to accomplish. This project gives us the chance to raise money & help someone who needs our help.

The focus behind this comes from James 1:27-"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

We ask you to continue praying for us that this project will be successful & that God will show His favor on us. We hope & pray that God will receive all the glory!

Sorry!

I'm so sorry to leave everyone hanging this long. I was sure we were going to have all the details worked out a few days ago & things just haven't actually fallen into place like we had hoped. We have the larger picture in our head all figured out but the tiny important things still have to be answered. We are hoping with a few phone calls tomorrow, we will know alot more! This project we are working is a great opportunity for us to raise money & help out someone in need all at the same time. We are excited to get things rolling & find some people willing to help us out.

Also, we were presented with a situation by a different agency we aren't registered with that we had to say no to. There were just too many unknowns & too much risk involved. I always thought that I would jump at about any situation but this just wasn't it.

A Teaser Post

No, we haven't heard anything new from either of our agencies but we do have so pretty awesome news that we hope to share with you soon. We are trying to get some of the details worked out before we let everyone in on what is in the works. We are humbled by this opportunity & are seeing God's hand in it all. We could never have imagined when we started this process that He would work so much on our hearts & give us the chances that we have been given to do things in His name. Stay tuned!!

Happy Birthday Emma!

Yes, I know this post is a day late but I was too busy yesterday with Emma's birthday party. Better late than never! So, Happy Birthday, baby girl! I can't believe it's been 10 years since you came into our lives. We thought that we knew everything about parenting & because Alexa was so easy, you would too. Well, I should have known when you were not even a minute old & decided to pee on me that everything I thought I knew was about to be tossed out the window! You always had to be where the action was & as long as you were, you were content. Walk out of your sight and you would let us know that you were not happy! You loved to entertain anyone & started singing & talking at an early age. You haven't quit since. You do so well at anything that you set your heart to. But you were also blessed with a double dose of stubborness from both of us. I have to say that your grandma probably laughs because you are just a little piece of payback for what I put her through as a teenager. You have so many talents that it blows our minds. Your love of music & ability to sing, play violin & piano amazes us. We can't wait to see what sports you end up doing but we know you will keep us busy year round with as many things as you love doing. We know that you will go far in life & we pray that God surrounds you & continues to bless in the years to come! We can't wait to see what God has in store for you!

Here's some pictures of her birthday party with her friends! We had a blast doing a "spa day" with all her friends & then swimming!

Garage Sale & Bake Sale Donations

We are still in need of garage sale & bake sale donations for our Sept 9-11 sale. We are accepting donations & storing them in garage to start marking. Well, at least the garage sale donation part. The bake sale donations may come later. Ha! I know that I will procrastinate as long as possible but with this cooler weather, I might actually not mind being out in the garage marking items. Thank you to those who have already dropped off items! So this is a reminder to the rest of you to start cleaning out your closets & garages of items that you no longer need or use! We hope that this will not only be an opportunity to raise money but to also get the word out about the need in the adoption world.

God Never Ceases to Amaze Me

God has continued to amaze me in our adoption journey. Even in the times that I'm feeling frustrated & down about how this process goes, I know that this is what we are called to do. No one said this would be easy & we now see that for ourselves. But we move forward to seek His will & to learn what He is trying to teach us. Every now & then, it's nice to get that solid confirmation that we are actually following His call. With the attacks of some financial issues a while back, I had to work hard to not let that cause me to really doubt what we are doing. In fact, it caused us to lean on God more. We knew that by ourselves alone, we could not come up with the money to complete this adoption. Even though we are still not fully at our goal, we are several steps closer with the help of 3 grant organizations. We have now blessed by these 3 grants to get us closer to bringing our child home. We so appreciate all the hard work that they put into raising money to help adoptive families bring their children home. We all hate that adoption has to cost so much but it does so we just have to find a way to do it. These organizations raise awareness for the need for adoptive families & help overcome the financial barriers that arise because of the high costs. The 3 that we have been blessed by are the Micah Fund, Katelyn's Fund, & Elijah's Truth. We thank them from the bottom of our hearts & feel so humbled to be blessed by the financial support. Brian & I have a larger vision in the future of being able to help adoptive families & these organizations through various personal fundraisers & we hope that we can we "pay it forward"!

Yankton Camping

Finally have my computer back. I've had more trouble with our power supply & so we ordered a new one. I hope that fixes the problem. As promised, here are some pictures from our Yankton camping trip. I always think I take enough pictures but now that I'm home, I wished I had taken more. Oh well, there's always next year! I swear Alexa & I were both there but we didn't make it into any pictures.

It's Back

And what would that be? Frustration & anxiety. 2 Huge monsters in the adoption wait. I was doing so well & all of the sudden, it hit me again. It's been almost 3 months & our profile still hasn't been shown to 1 single birth family. I know we are first on the list for a stork drop but I almost would be sad if a birthmom didn't take the time to look at our book & see our family or read our words to her. I keep wondering what the circumstances are surrounding our future birthmom & our son. We are so ready to just know who he is & see his beautiful face & hold him in our arms. Our agency has said they are working with several birthmoms right now that would be interested in our profile but their due dates are too far out. There's also no guarantee that they will chose to make an adoption plan in the meantime. So now we just wrestle with patience & try to lean on the words God has given us in the Bible to fix this restlessness. Please pray that we would be granted the peace of mind to continue this wait, giving glory to God for His blessings in this time.

We're Home

We made it home today after a week long camping trip to Yankton with people from our church. We had a blast & so did the kids but we are tired, have about 7 loads of laundry, are a little sunburnt & ready for our own beds. When I returned home in the middle of the week to work & pick Alexa up from camp, Brian received the "Father of the Year" award in my eyes. On Wednesday night, about 6 kids from our group all started throwing up around the same time, including Jackson. Not only was he there with 3 kids by himself, he caringly took care of a sick Jackson all through the night & cleaned up a few "misses" of the bucket. Needless to say, I think there are a couple of loads of laundry just from those incidents. At least no one else has come down with it so we can be thankful for that.

My computer is acting up so I'm using Brian's work computer but as soon as mine is up & running again, I hope to post pictures of our wonderful week. I can't wait to go again next year & have another little one along to join in the wonderful memories of this trip!

Getting Packed Up

We are getting ready to head out for the week to camp at Yankton with our church. We went for the first time last year & had so much fun. Of course with all we have going on with work & Alexa's volleyball camps, we will be making a couple trips there & back throughout the week. I think it will bring us a good balance & we won't be burnt out by the end of the week. Brian & I will each be taking 1 trip back for various reasons but will be spending most of the week there but our kids will be there the whole time. We are so glad for the time away. Of course we will be on high alert & have our phones with us at all times but I think this week will be 1 week that we will be okay if we don't get a phone call. We would love to be able to spend this week as a family. If Murphy's law come in to place, you know it would happen this week. Oh well, all in God's perfect timing!