Having a good week!

Hi, we are just laying back and doing a little bit of cleaning and relaxing on our week off. I can't believe we haven't done this before. We got the kid's bazillion presents wrapped that they bought for each other at store night and my upstairs is vacuumed pretty good, you know all those places you don't think about when you do a quick clean. Well, they are clean, frames, tops of doorways. Wow, was that the dirtiest place in the house or what? Now I am going over all the papers that pile up next to me at the computer. Happily, half are hitting the garbage. Now, I am hitting the computer and filling out forms, maybe it will get to be a bazillion. I am working on the financial aid part of adoption. If anything were to materialize in the form of a baby in the next 3-4 weeks we need a big chunk of money. So, just pray as I fill this out and get it all straight. One huge blessing is my computer is working right and I could actually maneuver around on the internet which I haven't been able to do. So, on the day when I need to it starts to work. How cool! Here's wishing all who read this a wonderful, relaxing next few days. The countdown is on as to when we go to Grandma's Christmas Eve.

Possible Match

We may have a match for our family!!! It's a bit soon to tell. We've been doing some fasting and praying and look up Ezra 8:21-23. It is the passage I found while deciding what to do about this possible match. If that passage doesn't send goosebumps up your arm! I didn't look hard and I found it. We didn't send out a massive email asking for prayer or post until we decided what to do. As the verse talks about not going to the King to request an escort because Ezra had already told the King God will guide those who seek Him, we waited for the Lord to speak to us in His way. If he asked for an escort it would have been like saying God couldn't do it. It is hard not to get blown away by the possibility here but we are working on waiting:) Plus not telling too many details to too many people until more is known. This process is full of ups and downs and no baby is yours until they are in your home. There are no guarantees. Please just be in prayer for God's continued guidance for us on this. He's really worked me over on some major issues and I feel free from something that was my own making and I praise the Lord for seeing me through it.

Praises to the Lord as Laura from http://steppingoutoftheboat.blogspot.com has left to see and hold her new baby boy. They are another family who has been with us from the beginning of this journey. They added a boy to their four girls. A wonderful working of the Lord.

We have taken the week off school to relax and clean and wrap presents and all that jazz. The children really made me proud tonight. It was store night at AWANA, our bible memory club, and they earn dollars each week to spend at this. Well, they didn't buy anything for themselves with the exception of a lip gloss and one bought something so she could have the same thing as the sister she bought for. Otherwise they spent 30 of their 33 or so dollars on others for Christmas. It was wonderful. It was overwhelming for one child as he realized this on the way home and cried. I told Him he was an example of Christ and His love for us, giving for all of us and going without. He seemed to perk up after this. "That we should be called the sons of God"
Blessings to you during this Christmas season.

Christmas Letters!

I absolutely love Christmas letters and pictures. Sometimes I get only a picture and no news but I'll forgive you. Writing a letter is a highlight of my year. This year I took a step back and decided not to include every little thing we did. I let the kids and Kevin have most of the letter. I wrote a bit and now I'm thinking "I forgot this" and "I forgot that" but overall it is still newsy enough. When I get the mail I open the Christmas cards while driving down the driveway making my 14 year old nervous and asking if she can hold them for me until we get home.

Today was Program practice and I guess you'd say I'm in charge of the Church Christmas program which is tomorrow night. Some minor adjustments and maybe a major one since the main character wasn't there today. I'm letting go of that too and saying it will turn out how it will with 33 kids involved and it will be really good. I'm a bit excited for it actually. I do hope I sleep tonight and don't think of too may things that will have to be done for tomorrow. But, my chicken is still cooking and will need quite a bit. How to get it all done in a day is really beyond me sometimes. Blessings. I'll leave you with the title of the Christmas Play:

His Yoke is Easy

Hello!

My computer is giving me trouble again!!! We are not planning on getting high speed until the beginning of next school year when we'll probably need it for school. We are still praying about the children we chose to find out more information on. I sent a new sibling group to her today. From my last post and comment from Kathy I guess adopting this way can take a very long time. She ended up going internationally because it didn't work for them to adopt through the foster care system. I would say we have a hugely flawed system that needs a wave of prayer from coast to coast. These children want "forever" families and they get stuck in a system that can't meet their needs. I am sad thinking about them. God Bless and have a good rest of the week. Our week is going the normal busy, busy, and more busy. We are seriously thinking of cutting out most activities next year and seeing what life is like being at home most of the time!!! It would be a tiny taste of heaven. :)

Computers!!!!

I can just never get on here to post!!! It is always saying the page is unavailable. Very frustrating. Yet, here I am, finally. I don't have much to say really. I have been going through the children on the website www.adoptuskids.org and thinking about the ones I click on and imagining and dreaming of them. I had such a vivid dream of these twin 5 year old and the next day they were gone from the site. I really didn't see us looking at foster kids to adopt from the beginning. I really just thought international was the way to go. I am sending a list of possible matches to Amy tonight and she is going to find out some more information on each group. You go on the site and type in the min. and max. number of children and the min. and max. for the age and what kind of special needs you are willing to take on and push a button and up pops a list of children matching the criteria. It doesn't say a lot about them other than things they like to do. Once in awhile you read they need to be the youngest or only children or the parents need to have a special understanding of their special needs but otherwise it is like I'm describing my own children. We have gotten out the heavy artillery and have been praying several times a day for God to help lead us to what child or children would work in our home and with our children. I also expanded my list up to 10 years of age. I was keeping it younger before but what beautiful children there are. Please remember all these children in your prayers. They all need someone to care for them and train them in the Lord. God's Blessing upon the motherless and fatherless this Christmas season.

Decisiveness

Decisive adj. 1 Having the power to decide; conclusive 2.Characterized by decision and firmness ; resolute. 3. Beyond doubt; unmistakable:

I am coming to the conclusion I am not a decisive person. I can go back and forth in my mind a hundred times a day about something. I realize that how I feel, what kind of day I have had with the kids, if I slept well or at all has a lot to do with this undecisiveness I am having about this adoption. It was so clear for me when we were going internationally. The plan was laid out for us so it seemed. Now, I am not so sure. I look at the site adoptuskids.org and look to see is there a possible match for us there? How will I know? If I check on one and the answer it no, do I just keep on checking each child? Is that God's plan? Again, the financial aspect was brought up now that the home study is ready for signatures. Will we be able to have $15,000 in hand at any moment because that is how fast it could happen. Not at this time do we have that so I was encouraged to check out the website again because those kids are in foster care and the cost if very minimal if any cost at all. How do you know? These questions and doubts keep coming to me over and over. If God had this planned for us would we have the money by now? Is this our own desire and not His? I am praying for clarity and for God to show us the way clearly to the child he would have for us. I can't imagine stopping at this point. I can't imagine what the kids would think and learn if we did that. I also believe a baby would be heavenly. Please pray for clarity and decisiveness. God will show us. I am thinking I need to be still and listen to Him.