Joyful Thoughts of Next Christmas

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas. We had a great one !  Our Christmas this year was filled with thoughts of our son in Taiwan and how next year he would be here.   Every other word was about him and how he and Josh would play and stay up all night playing  just made us all smile thinking of how different and great things would be with another child in the home.
God has blessed us so already with our little man and he is not even here yet.  Just with the thoughts of him being here and Kiersten and Josh talking about how great its going to be. They are making tons of plans they are going to do with him. Just lots of JOY  being shared by everyone already.  Everytime I say JOY or write it that reminds me of how we are to live putting Jesus 1st ,Orhers 2nd  and yourself 3rd and when u do that it brings more JOY in your life than you can ever imagine.  I can't wait to write another blog until then take care of widows, orphans and fatherless and remember JOY    

Show HIs Love

It's the best time of the year,  That's what a Christmas song say's.  Well it is a Great time of the year.  The time we celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.  I have never experienced a Christmas like this years.  I have been so busy with crocheting scarves, trying to fill all the orders that my precious friends have ordered.  You will never know what it means to us, God has been in it from the start and we know He will see this great plan of this adoption out to the end. Thanks for showing His Love!!!!!
 I just love how God has such great plans for us and see's the big picture of our life.  He knew all about this before he ever planted this in our hearts.  All I can say is I Love God so much and He is so AWESOME, can't wait to see all of His plans for our family.  Jeremiah 29:11 has been my families verse for many years and it still is today.
 The scarf fund raiser is just a small one that I am doing as I have time to make the scarves.  I think I have mentioned before that we will be having another one with our Dear friends, Steve and Charmaine Tybor who are also adopting from Taiwan.  This will be Feb 15, 2014, it is going to be a dinner and silent auction.  So please make plans to come out and share this time with us.
We appreciate your support and for sure your Prayer support as we ravel through this journey.  I know I repeat myself a lot in all this but if you know me, You know how excitable I am and how crazy I can get sometime. Ha  So just keep coming back and reading our blog as I will try to have new things every week.  Hope to get pictures of our little one before long!!!!
I hope you all have a Super Blessed Christ filled Christmas and always remember no matter how busy you may get during the Christmas season, don't forget to show Christ Love to all People. See them through Christ eyes even when they maybe the hardest person to love.  SHOW HIS LOVE!!!!!!!

Love In Every Stitch

What a Busy Busy week!!!!!   Christmas is a busy time of the year always but with all the Christmas activities and Adoption preparation, it is crazy. 

We have discuss several fund raising projects.  If you don't know this adoption process is not cheap.  I had no idea how expensive it is to adopt, but like Mike and I have said  When it's God's will He will provide.  So we are not worrying about where the funds are going to come from, just know God is going to provide. 

My first fundraising project I have started is crocheting scarves.  I have always crocheted ever since I was a little girl.  I would make things for people and give it away as presents.  So one of my best friends and fund raising coordinator told me to start crocheting and sell it.  Every stich I make  is done with Love and anticipation of seeing our little boy.  I am overwhelmed by the love and support of people that have bought scarves from me to bring our precious little boy home to us.  I have made about 15 scarves and have many more orders to fill.  Thank each and everyone of you that have bought a scarf.  It means so much to all of us.  Oh I forgot to mention big sister Kiersten is knitting some for us to sell.  We will be more than happy to make a scarf for any of you.  Just let us know and we will get right on it.   This is a big family project for all. 

Our Big Fundraiser is going to be  Feb. 15, 2014 on a Saturday night at First Baptist Church in Tupelo.   The fundraiser is going to be a dinner a little entertainnent, a silent auction and families sharing about adoption.. So put that date on your calendar.  We are going in with some dear friends of ours Steve and Charmaine Tybor  to do this fundraiser together.  The Tybors are  adopting two little girls from Taiwan.  We are so excited to be traveling this awesome journey with their family. 

I welcome any ideas that you could share with us on fundraising.  Josh's idea of fundraising is giving up half of his Christmas so he can get a little brother.  The boy is so fired up about getting a little brother. 

Well I better go for now.  I have lots of scarves to make.  I was up until 1:15 this morning crocheting and woke up at 5:30 and started again.  Like I said Love in every stitch. 

The Adventure is Causing Sleepless Nights

Well I have been up since 3:30 am.  I'm not sure why I am waking up at this time every morning.  I know I have a lot to pray about so maybe that's why.  This Adoption Adventure is really an Adventure and I am loving every minute of it.

I ask myself so many times, Why did we wait so long to listen to God and be obedient to His word about Adopting.  I keep reading Defend the poor and Fatherless, do justice to the afflicted and needy. Psalm 82:3 over and over and ask myself this question.  Then I remember its all in God's  timing.  He has to get everyone involved ready for the Adventure.  I really do wish we had started long ago on this Adventure.  I might could have had a house full by now.  I told someone the other day if I had money I would love to Adopt from every country. 

As we go through this Adventure I just want to become more and more like Jesus.  God has blessed me with such a Great Christian heritage, I just want to pass it down to Kiersten, Josh and now our new son from Taiwan. 

There is No greater Joy than being in God's will for your life.  Why do we make it so hard for our self trying to do it our way and not what God wants for us.  So thankful God wakes us up to do his will and loves us anyway when we are hard headed. Ha  That's because He is such a loving God.  He is our example of how we should love others,  He adopted us even when we weren't worry of anything.  That's one reason why I have such a heart for adoption.  If God could love a wicked sinner like me why shouldn't I take in an innocent child that needs me, just as I needed God. 

Wow didn't mean to get to preaching.  As far as where we are in the Adventure:  We just did our 4th home study. Still making copies and filling paper work out.  Going to FBI office getting finger printed and all the other things you have to do.  I never knew there was so much involved in this.  Someone told me, Don't you have the adoption agency waiting on you to get paper work done, You be the one waiting.  Seems to me there will be a lot of waiting going on.  Just like having a baby waiting for 9 months for him to arrive.  No morning sickness with this baby just lots of paper cuts.  That was on a band aid holder Leah gave me from New Beginnings.  I love it!!!

I will post more later about the Great Adventure of Adoption, just maybe not at 3:30 in the morning.  So if you see mistakes forgive me cause I was typing half asleep. ha ha

"I'm Gonna Get 'em"

Well not much happening at this time, but we are still so excited. Last week we found out that our home study, which normally takes up to three months is being sped up and should only take one! I know that our process will eventually slow down and feel like it is taking for ever, but right now I am just over joyed that is going fast at the moment. Somebody told me this week that I had ADD of the mouth because I couldn't sit still and be quiet at work. I was constantly humming, making weird sounds, and couldn't be quiet. Our little boy occupies my mind all the time. Just wondering what he will be like, and how in the world we are going to understand each other.

My daughter, Kiersten, has jokingly said that he will have the hardest time understanding me because I can barely speak English half the time. When Mike and I first got married he said he need an Atonya dictionary just so he could understand what I was talking about. Anyone that has talked to me for 5 minutes would probably say the same, because when I get excited I make up my own words or put words together.

I have to tell you all what Josh said and did this week. He is going to be an amazing big brother, which has always been a dream of his. We were eating lunch on Sunday at Mt. Fuji, Josh's favorite, and talking about his new little brother and what we might call him. Josh said very seriously, "I think we should call him Josh Jr." All of us immediately bust out laughing. Later on in the week we were in his room and he had a plastic stick hitting the palm of his hand and said, "If anyone messes with my little brother at school I'm gonna get 'em." Again this made us all laugh and smile. Of course Josh would never hurt a flea, but it is so sweet to see him excited and already being so protective.

I think I will stop here for the night. Please pray for us as we have our first meeting for our home study in the morning. Don't worry the house is clean, fire extinguishes bought, and carbon monoxide detectors installed. I will let you all know how it goes!

I will leave you with this scripture..."Defend the poor and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and needy." Psalm 82:3

The Question We Didn't Have to Think About

Our adoption story begins with a Sunday night church service. Mike and I were sitting with our friends Chaz and Amy,  that we are very close to,  when our Sunday School teacher approached us. He didn't waste any time getting to the point when he asked, "How would you feel about adopting an 8 year old boy from Taiwan?"

Amy said we both immediately started shaking our heads yes before we even looked at each other. Many people don't know, but Mike and I have thought about adoption for a few years. We just never went any further with it because we thought we were too old. Our teacher said we could talk to our pastor about it more and get more details later, leaving us in wonder of what could be happening to our family. We felt like God was speaking directly to us.

After church we all went out to eat and Bro. Chad approached us, telling us about this little boy. He was ecstatic that we were interested and told us that if we were serious and started the process it would probably move very quickly. The very next day we called New Beginnings and started the process. After filling out what would only be the first of thousands of pages of paper work, they called and set up a time to meet with us on Tuesday.

To be continued...