What a month, what a year!

So the last time I posted it was mostly about thanksgiving and our adoption. So this time is a synopsis of the last few weeks since and my thoughts about things in the news.

The first thing I remember from writing last is the shooting in Connecticut. The only reason I knew about it is because I went into work extra that day because they were so busy and I saw it on the tv. It made me so sad and want to homeschool Belle or consider it again. But unfortunately I cannot protect her from everything. I can only do so much and that is why Paul and I dedicated her to God as a baby because we cannot protect her from everything bad no matter how hard we try. So we trust that God will take care of her and keep her safe. We also try to teach her they way to follow God. It broke my heart for all those parents who lost their children. And we cannot blame anyone except evil and the shooter. It is not the guns that made the decision to kill it was the man and the evil inside of him. I try not to post too much politics online but that one I think is important. We need to bring God back into our lives, our schools, and our nation. This is why there is so much evil and hatred. Though I am also realistic and know that even with God in our lives evil exists and will make appearance. So why make more strict gun laws when if people will kill they will kill and find a way todo so. Yes it may decrease numbers but it won't stop those who are truly determined and evil. It will stop those who want to protect themselves from doing so. Anyways enough said on that matter. I have prayed and thought of the parents, families, and other children throughout the month and that is what we should and all we can do.

So after that I have been working a lot! And getting ready for Christmas. Christmas was good but didn't feel like Christmas. Partially because I had to work and partially because Belle got super sick! She spiked temps on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to 104.7-105.6. And those were on antibiotics that we started the day before Christmas Eve! Her antibiotic got changed and she is now getting better! Praise God! Then Paul and I started not feeling well this week too. I think from being worn down taking care of Belle and trying to still do Christmas the way we wanted to. But we are all on the mend now for the new year!

The other thing we had a hard time with was finding out our grant we applied for for the adoption we will not hear about for at least a month! I was so upset to hear this because I was going to send out letters with our Christmas cards but I got over it and sent them out on Christmas Eve. Also we found out that we have to get uscis approval and that can take 6 weeks before we get an appointment! All I am hoping and praying for is to have our dossier submitted in February. No matter what we have to do even get a loan or whatever. But I also found out good news. Ethiopia is changing how they do the court dates for adoptive families so it goes a bit quicker and the US Ethiopian embassy may try to arrange visas for the kids sooner so it's possible we may only have to travel to Ethiopia once!!! This is my prayer!! And my hope!!! The other great news is that with our most recent fundraiser and the generous people that participated in our silent auction and some extra money we have gotten we have $1116 to put into our adoption account! This was truly my goal for our fundraiser and God provided it just in other ways!!! Plus we have some extra. God is so good and will provide exactly what we need!

So now the year is ending. These are the things that happened and I have been reflecting on some. We started out this ear at a concert by switchfoot and me considering and planning on starting college to get my bsn in the fall. Then Paul went to the adoption seminar and we decided to adopt. God called us to start sooner than later in March. We placed our application in the end of April. Paul and I went on a week long cruise with my mom and sister. We had a blast! We got approval for the Ethiopia program while on the cruise. We started our home study stuff in July. Paul got laid off within a week or two of starting the home study. He found a new and better job within two weeks so August first he had a new job. Mom and I went to women of faith and I saw Mandisa in concert!! Paul and I celebrated six years of marriage. Belle went trick or treating for the first time. Glory and I threw mom and surprise 50th birthday party. We both of our families over for thanksgiving. We had a big fundraiser and had great success due I generous family and friends. Belle actually "got" the whole Christmas and Santa thing this year. And she got sick the worst she ever has over Christmas. There may be a few things I forgot but these were the highlights. And I'm praying for a year of being and getting healthier and that our adoption does not get held up anymore and we get a referral by this time next year. I'm also praying for a more relaxed year without so much craziness and running around. Belle will start school this year and we will be waiting for Adeline. We will hopefully have one vacation and spend time with family and get stuff down around our house!

I hope everyone has a safe night tonight and happy new year!

Remembering

So today is my dad's birthday. He would have been 54. I miss him so much sometimes. I usually try to focus on the daily life and Belle and getting Adeline home rather than missing my dad. But today in taking a few moments to think, feel sad, and remember who he was. Dad was a great man and loved his family so much. He loved Belle more than She will sadly know first hand. He loved to laugh and joke. Some of his jokes were so silly and we got so tired of! But I now find myself telling them to Belle and trying to get her to say them too. I feel like he left too soon but I know that it was Gods plan for that to happen. At first when it happened I was somewhat angry with God wondering why he would give me such a great "replacement" dad and then take him away when I needed him and my mom. But I have learned that it wasn't about me. It was all about Gods plan for my dad, me, and our family. I can now relate more to those who have lost loved ones. God has helped me cope and grow through the loss of my dad and he may have even prepared me for something that will happen and I just don't know what it is yet. But I do know that everything does happen for a reason and God has his hand in everything. I can only try to tell Belle who he was, what he was like, and how much he loved her. And then tell Addie about him too. I think he would embrace our adoption and love her so much too! And mom gave me an idea today to get more money for our adoption that feels like it will be my dads support and donation to our fund and bringing Addie home. So happy birthday to my dad in heaven. I miss you and love you!

My sweet little girl!

So this morning we had a bunch of errands to run. So on our way to our first errand Belle was talking about God some and about how Jesus loves her. So I told her that Jesus died on the cross for her because he loves her. So we went another few minutes and Belle said she wants to go to heaven. I asked her if she knew how I do that and I think she said no. Anyway so I told her that to go to heaven she has to pray as tell God that she is sorry for sinning and that she believes that he sent Jesus to die for her and then that she will live for God. So I asked her if she wanted to pray that and she said yes. So I lead her in a prayer asking God to forgive her that she believes that Jesus died for her and that she will try to listen and live for him. It brought tears to my eyes! I don't know how much he actually understood but there is no doubt in my mind that she loves God and knows that he loves her! And she knows she is going to heaven and I will just pray for her that she follows him and had a personal relationship with him! But she knows that she will go to heaven and I believe that too! I love her so much and it was so amazing and sweet that she wanted to do that! I'm still not sure that she wasn't just parroting me but I don't think she was except the prayer. Then I added to it that she needs to ask forgiveness when she does wrong and God wants her to listen to mommy and daddy! ;-) today is definitely a proud momma day!!

Crazy weekend pictures!

Enjoy the pictures from our weekend! I'm pretty sure you can figure them out as to what is when and such!

Christmas lights at Flat Iron Farm!

Coffee featured from our online fundraiser and from Ethiopia!

My quilt, which has a heart in one middle block and Africa in the other middle block

Silent Auction!

Belle with Santa and she didn't cry!

The computer played our video

Ethiopia cookies!

Super Delicious Peppermint Mocha cupcakes!

More silent Auction items
And Below is the dessert at our fundraiser!

Crazy weekend!!!

So last Thursday I finished the adoption quilt then Friday I spent all day baking cookies for our fundraiser. I made chocolate chip and Ethiopia shaped sugar cookies with the flag colors for icing. I made 50 of the Ethiopia cookies! And can I just say I will NOT bake another sugar cookie for months right now! Then Saturday I had to finish the cookies and make the cupcakes. But we also wanted to do breakfast with Santa at my work. So we spent the morning doing that and Paul and I both felt exhausted so we took turns taking a nap since Belle had her nap in the car! Then I made the cupcakes and finished the cookies. Which the cupcakes were AMAZING!!! Peppermint Mocha, a recipe I got from another adoptive mom on Facebook! Then after dinner we drove down to a local farm to look at Christmas lights because they do a ton of lights and one house the lights blink to music on a radio station. Belle fell asleep on the way but I woke her up and she loved it!

Now for the really busy day was Sunday. We went to church and promptly had to have lunch super fast and get over to the hall to set up for our fundraiser! We got set up totally a little after one when it started. Thankfully my mom and mother-in-law helped and they were a great help!! We had just friends and family come, which was fine. I did advertise it, but without other people we still did great! We made $600!!! So thank you to all of the family and friends for supporting us, helping bake, set up, and donating to us! And I am so thankful too for the donations for the silent auction! So with this money, the money we already have saved and some extra that we need to add to it and the adoption grant we should get we should only have another $1000 to put into our Dossier. And we had a blast at our fundraiser talking to friends and family. The kids ran around like the crazies they are and it is just a joy!

So the only other thing we forgot about was the payment for our USCIS stuff, that is over $800 due when we submit it which needs to be soon. So I am just trying to pray and trust that God will provide a way to pay for that and hopefully soon! But it is all in his timing, so I trust him and hopefully Paul will be on board too.

Today was work and it was fine until 1630-1700! Then the floodgates opened and people just kept coming in! So I am tired, but good! So I think Paul just wants to chill out so we will work on adoption stuff later. Tomorrow, I will be cleaning, doing laundry, taking Belle to the doctor because she has been coughing and congested for almost two weeks, and running some other errands. So a busy day for me!

And super pathetic Belle moment this morning....I woke up to her asleep on our bedroom floor on her tummy! Poor girl! I don't know how long she had been there but Paul told me tonight he heard her get up but she didn't cry or anything and we had both been up with her once already so he left her be, well she went to sleep on the floor! I think she just wants to be close to us. Hoping she doesn't do that again!

My next post will be pictures from the weekend, so enjoy looking!

Christmas

So I was thinking on our way to go look at awesome Christmas lights tonight and seeing people collecting food and toys for people in need.....it's great to do that and all but why only this time of year.

God chose to give His ONLY son to us without asking anything truly of us and then His Son gave us His life so we can have eternal life. That is the ultimate gift and we know that. But what I'm thinking I that Jesus tells us to be like Him and He gave everything! Not expecting anything in return. All he asks is that we accept him as our savior and have a personal relationship with him.

So all that said means Jesus calls us to be like him giving everything, our all. I'm reminded of the story of the rich young man asking Jesus what he needed to do to have eternal life and Jesus responds by saying give everything you have away and come follow me. The young man walked away. So what I see is that our society today likes to give when it's convenient or "the season for giving". Well according to Christ shouldn't all the time be "the season for giving". What if he put that stipulation on our salvation. You can only get saved at this time if not sorry about your luck maybe next year. No he calls us to love and give ALL the time! Not just when society tells us it's a special time of year and people are in need. People are in need all year long! Hello! It's not going to end just because they have a nice Christmas dinner or their kids get a few gifts!

So my thinking and challenge is....give unconditionally. It doesn't have to be your money and only money but time too. We all need money so I get that but give some time to a kid who needs someone to look up to, help someone when they are down, hurt, volunteer to help people, the elderly, the poor. Don't just do it at christmas time! Lets live it out and show the world that we can and should give all year long not just because its Christmas! Lets get Christ back into Christmas and the whole year! I'm going to try to do better myself because God has laid it on my heart to give more than just at Christmas. I need to show the love of Christ more and more all through the year!

Adoption stuff and more!

So the last few days have been busy, just like I knew they would be! I worked last Saturday which from what I can no remember was busy but not crazy. Then I also worked Monday which I started out on call, but got called in. The day turned out to be busy with a revolving door to labor and delivery. Then yesterday I went to the library with Belle for story time, then to one of the court houses to get a letter certified, then to pick up the boating gift certificate and last to the grocery store! I also did laundry! It was a long busy day. But to my surprise and excitement we had a package left on our doorstep! It was our home study!! Yay!!! I'm so excited to have that done! Now we just need to send our USCIS stuff and mail a copy of our home study to Lifesong for our grant application through church!!! Then I worked today, which was even busier than Monday though I was mother/baby today. I just had a lot going on with m group! I am proud though, I started my first IV on a baby and got it on the first try!! I know it's probably not as exciting for other people but it was for me! So now the rest of my week is filled with picking up auction items, finishing the auction quilt, and baking for the fundraiser. I hope we get enough people to come and make a good amount of money. I have put a lot of time and effort to this and I just hope a lot of people come! Plus we will have super yummy coffee and cupcakes!! And we had a friend make a video for us about our adoption story and it turned out awesome!! If you would like to view the video it is on the right hand side of my page and it's the first You Tube video. Check it out! We are so blessed to have so many people that care and want to help us!! Thank you all so much!!