OH I am failing so badly at keeping up the blog. After so many years of being fairly consistent - facebook is just so much easier and faster. I will, once again, attempt to post some pictures in the coming days.
Summer was busy and went by too quickly, as always. Chase's graduation. Our adoption garage sale (which was amazing - but a LOT of work!), and we've continued selling some things here and there since then. We started and completed our home study paperwork. The boys went to Powell for almost 2 weeks. State homeschool conference. Hospital stay for my dad. VBS. Lots of play dates, frisbee games and swimming. Said good-bye to Linus. Finished up the school year (some subjects go into summer - sometimes intentionally, sometimes not!). We sold the suburban and bought a used van. A scrapbook retreat. Several days at the lake - sometimes boating, sometimes just hanging at the swim beach with friends. And then of course planning for the new school year. Whew! I'm tired just typing all of that again!
I have had the idea of this adoption on my heart for a long while. Trevor has always been open to it, but wasn't sure of the timing and how we would afford another adoption. So, we agreed that having a yard sale would be a way to perhaps earn some of the start up fees. In fact, Trevor specifically prayed that if this was God's will for us right now that He would confirm it through this yard sale - that we would raise enough to get started. In order to start our home study we needed $1,700. We've hosted (or helped) with yard sales in the past and maybe earned a few hundred bucks at the most. For this sale people donated stuff to sell, donated baked goods, and LOTS of people came to shop on Friday. Saturday was a bit slower. And the ARC truck came by to pick up what didn't sell and they still filled up that big old truck with our left-overs! We hung onto the stuff that was worth at least trying to sell on Craig's List. When I came inside after visiting with a friend at the end of the sale - Trevor was standing in front of stacks of cash the counter in our kitchen. His expression was striking. He asked me how much I thought we made. I said I didn't know. He proceeded to count each stack of $100 out loud one-by-one until he reached the total - $1,700! Don't ya just love our Lord?!! Trevor was in awe and I was crying tears of joy!
We have both needed that confirmation - in different ways! We are excited and filled with joy at the thought of adding a precious new member of our family. And being a part of the miracle of adoption again and prayerfully hoping to become an option for a birth mom that feels like she is out of options and considering abortion like so many thousands before her. That said, we both realize the weight of this undertaking - it's not just a ministry we'll be a part of for a while. This person will be a part of our family forever. This is not easy - the paperwork, the home study, the waiting, the ups and downs and of course the fees. And if we're honest we both admit that, yes - we are both 40, we have less energy. We have 4 busy kids going in 4 very different directions. We are sending our oldest off to a college (of sorts). We have a very busy junior in high school that we will be actively involved with. A 6 year old who longs for lots of learning, activities and socializing. And a 2 year old who challenges us to our core with her stubborn, ornery nature - but is the joy of our family! So, the confirmation has been an amazing thing for both Trevor and I. We long to be obedient to Him every time He speaks. (I'm sure we'll be working on this until He returns!) But, once again we follow Him down the path to growing our family. To welcoming in a child to love, to teach him or her about Jesus, to enjoy, laugh with, play with and watch turn into adults like our others are beginning to do. Sure...if we wouldn't have answered the call to adopt - we would be 2 years from having an empty nest. And while I could quite easily find myself enjoying that a LOT! I know God wants us to be serving Him until our last breath. Doens't mean we can't serve him when our kids are grown. But, right now I know myself and it would be quite easy to slip into long coffee visits, pedicures, scrapbooking, shopping and the like instead of focusing on how I can minister to others. (Though I suppose I might end up with a bundle of grandkids like my mom and that can be quite the ministry!) I can't imagine trading this for anything. In fact when I think of not having either of our girls and this next little one - it takes my breath away - it hurts to think we might have missed this if we got more caught up in what our society thinks is normal, better, easier. This assures me that I will indeed be serving Him for another 18+ years! Following Jesus is the ride of a lifetime!
We have found a wonderful agency 20 minutes away who will do our home study, interstate compact and post-placement paperwork. They are small, Christian and very personal. They are eagerly praying with us for God to provide for our fees. At this point we are moving in the direction of signing on with a placing agency in Florida. And will be open to an African American or biracial baby boy or girl. Between donations, the yard sale and selling the leftovers, curriculum and necklaces our total payment to our home study agency has been paid - $2,700! We have also paid for our fingerprinting and background checks for 3 (since Chase is over 18! so that total was about $200) and we have over $600 so far towards our placing agency application fees. We still need about $1,200 more for that. We are in awe of how God provides for those who are willing to follow Him down this path. Adoption is God's heart - He speaks of setting the lonely in families. He has adopted us into His family. What an amazing privilege to be a part of this.
Oops - the "update" has been a little heavy on that one subject!
Chase starts Ellerslie Training on October 11th. He will be there for 10 weeks and eagerly seeking Him to see what direction to head in next. We have been attending the church at Ellerslie for several months now and loving it. The focus and heart of the church is so in line with what we believe God has for our family. Children are welcomed into the service and loved on by many. Eric boldly preaches from the Word of God and challenges us every single Sunday. One of the three big ministries are the training program where college age kids (and adults) spend time setting themselves apart from life to immerse themselves in prayer, the bible, good teaching and ministry. The people our boys' age are in love with Jesus and have made choices to serve Him, and be different in this world (the outward signs are obvious in how they spend their time, how they dress, how they approach relationships and more). Another big ministry is His Little Feet that is just getting going. They will be bringing a group of orphans from Haiti - to love on, teach life skills, teach them about God's love and teach them music. They will tour the country singing and making people aware of the need of orphans around the world. The third is Leslie's Set Apart Girl ministry. Our girls are a long time from being involved with that directly - but they feel the blessing of seeing and being around these girls and young women who are challenging themselves to live a "set apart" lifestyle. (And I am so excited to attend these conferences and workshops with my girls when they are older!) We are thrilled to be a part of this church and what God is already doing in our family there. Back to Chase...he tried HARD to get a job and ended up with some odd jobs here and there and in various ways God provided for him to have tuition and room and board for the fall training session. I couldn't have picked a better place for him to experience his first bit of independence. He's excited and so are we! Can't wait to see what God does in His life!
Hunter continues working part-time for a computer repair shop. He is learning and earning money - what a blessing for a teenager these days! He is taking an online writing course through our homeschool enrichment academy. Just reading the intro by the teacher made me so grateful for the other godly influences the Lord has brought into our kids' lives. He is going to study for his A+ Certification and that combined with his job will be his science credit this year. He auditioned and was accepted into a drama group for homeschooled high school kids in Ft. Collins. They meet weekly for class and have homework in the fall. They prepare a monologue to perform in November. And then all take part (either by acting or helping) with a big play in the spring and will meet two mornings a week starting in January. He will be doing his other classes here at home. He's going to be busy - but with such great stuff!
We started Loe in kindergarten in our home school 2 years ago in August. She was 4 and would turn 5 that November. We knew we could slow down or stop if necessary. But, she was doing some reading, she was going through dollar store workbooks at quite the rate and so eager to learn. She seemed ready. She has done great. Though the one area I haven't focused on as much has been writing part of language arts. Sonlight has a unique approach and I have just been focusing more on reading, history, math and the rest. (OK...so I dropped the ball!) Anyway - Sonlight suggests we go with the core (set) of books based on the student's writing level. With their language arts program - that would probably put Loe back in 1st grade. But, we had already found the 2nd grade books (used) and they were out of the box and had been eagerly looked at by both Loe and I! So, after some debate and prayer we decided to go ahead and move forward, but go back to last year's language arts and focus on that for a while, then move into an intermediate set that we have. If she does fine with that - she'll be good to move onto all 3rd grade subjects (in Sonlight) next fall. The blessing of home schooling is that we can adjust and tweak until we find just what fits. We can slow down or speed up. We can change curriculum if necessary. If we slow her down and decide to review for a year - she'd be back up to the average age for her grade level - so we will just take it a year at a time and see.
Ren is a hoot! Her speech is coming along, she is learning all kinds of things - though in a different way and a different pace then Loe did. (Love how all of our kids are so unique!) She makes us laugh a LOT! She challenges me and keeps me in prayer a LOT as well! :) What fun it will be to see how God uses this little girl and what kind of young woman she grows into. I look forward to her continuing to learn as we read books and play games together this year. She is one busy kiddo - so I have plenty of opportunity to teach her!
Trevor is playing fall softball. He's still got a job (with health care reform - that may not always be the case) so we're thankful for that right now. He still enjoys cooking and experimenting with new recipes - last night he tried his hand at some home made green chili - yum! Since Hunter is in the driver's permit stage he is teaching driving...again! And he's going to work at being involved with Hunter's school work a bit more this year. Such a great dad!
My bible study group starts up again next week. We are finishing the last half of Beth Moore's Daniel study. And eager to start another one when that one is over. I have reconnected with some old friends and made some great new friends in our local homeschool group. So, I'm enjoying the park days, mom's night out meetings and field trips. LOVE having little people to do all of these things again!
And now that our home study paperwork is complete - we are preparing for our first home study visit next week. We know that it's most definitely not all about having a perfectly clean and organized house. The social worker wants to know if our home is safe for a little one, but more then that she wants to know if our family will be a good fit for adoption. However, it is a good motivator for us to get some things done around here that we've put off. We are excited to meet our new social worker. Since this is a domestic adoption through a different agency we won't have our same social worker from the girls' adoptions. We loved her and totally enjoyed each of our visits with her.
Well, here I sit rambling about our busy life (and this post has taken me all morning as I help with school questions and deal with Miss Ren). I need to turn off this computer and get moving. Today Loe starts her worship dance and ballet classes again - which takes up every Friday afternoon. I like the drive over, the visit with friends, Loe loves to dance - so I welcome the classes starting up. The director did tell me that Ren could start even though she won't turn 3 until October. But, we had been telling Ren she had to wait until next spring when she was 3. So, we're going to stick with that.
I have always thought of our blog as a journal for our family. It started with Loe's adoption and has just kept going (barely at times!). So, I doubt many folks outside of our little family will read this - or get to the bottom of this long, rambling post. But, if you do - we'd love prayer for our year - for school schedules to be smooth, for time management and discipline. For God to do a work in our lives. And for this next precious baby to join our family in God's perfect timing. We also would ask for prayer for his or her birth mom - that she would feel God's arms around her during a tough time in her life. That she and many, many others would choose life and many families would step forward to adopt these precious little ones - both here in the US and all around the world. They estimate that there are around 150 million orphans in the world today...if you don't feel God calling your family to adopt - pray about being a part of adoption in some other way. It is a miracle and there is such a need.
God bless!
