Cornbread

Carriage Hill Farms is a place where our family makes a lot of memories.
This day was no exception. As we wondered through the kitchen at the end of the day, they handed us a chunk of cornbread that was made in their cast iron skillet during a demonstration. When a big family has skipped snack, they will do unorthodox things like this. It created a lot of laughter and fun, and MOMENT-> captured.

Adoption Day

 

It was such a beautiful day.

 

Much anticipated. So many smiles. A few tears.

Goofy kids trying to hide their fears. Joking and laughter.

"What does FAMILY mean?"

Affirmation from the judge.

"So many people walk through my doors to try to get out of their responsibility, rarely do I see folks like you who come and ask me for more."

We are not rare people, Your Honor, we are just changed people. People who were bought with a price. The sacrifice of the Father, giving His precious Only to pay MY price, it inspires me... humbles me. Thank you, Jesus! You paid the debt I owed! You saved my needy soul. You redeemed me! You CHOSE me! You call me fearfully and wonderfully made. You rejoice over me with singing.

 

I remember so WELL the day I was adopted, and how amazing it felt to be in the family of GOD. HIS daughter!

And so clearly I remember the celebration in my heart when I could finely say, "You're my daughter." "You're my son!"

 

Contrary to popular belief, the feelings don't come right away. You don't fall in love at first sight. Unconditional love does'nt come naturally. But oh, when you advocate for a child, sacrifice for a child, get vulnerable for a child and give yourself before you have even MET them...

You CHOSE to love them. You chose to fight for their freedom from abuse and hunger. You chose to be the one to show them hope of a future. You chose to be the one to LIVE THE GOSPEL TO THEM EVERY DAY. No matter what.

 

 

Hannah requested bacon on the adoption celebration cake. I was happy to oblige.

 

After the finalization at the courthouse, we celebrated at the kids sweet CASA's house. Just a few close family and friends. It was perfectly sweet.

Renewed zeal

This little boy is my comidian. This was our conversation yesterday while in the garden.

Mom: Dom, who makes snow peas? Dom: GOD! (pause) Dom: Mommy, who makes strawberries? Mom: GOD! Dom: Nope, Goliath!


Ladies, I am SORRY I have been missing in the blog world. I have so many blogposts written in my head, and SO MANY pictures to share... but the time is scarce to get them here. But, I have a renewed zeal... so keep checking back!

Right now, I'm off to pick strawberries with 7 children, and then we will go to the splash park to cool off.

Have a GOD day!

HE hears, and He ANSWERS!

 Good Morning! Here is a little adoption update, for those of you who I can't talk to regularly.
God is answering your prayers! I have heard from so many of you who are setting your alarms, and remembering to pray for us regularly. God HEARS!!! On the first trip we made to Indiana without Rod to take the kids back we witnessed a modern day miracle: we were almost there when I pulled off at a exit to let my friend Colista drive. Dominic was so tired of his carseat and we were all tense from his screaming. As I pulled into a gas station to switch seats, I thought of gas for the first time that day, and when I looked down at the gas gauge I gasped! It was below empty! We praised God that we didn't run out of gas on the interstate, and that Dominic was crying. Sometimes blessings wear costumes!

 These garden pictures are from last week. We all spent several hours outside in the beautiful sunshine... and it was thrilling to discover that our children all love working in the dirt as much as Rod and I do! We pulled weeds, inspected our strawberry and rhubarb plants that are popping up, dug big holes, filled buckets with dirt and built dirt castles, collected worms, and even mowed the grass.

 This is Anayla's hair right after it was washed. It can be a little intimidating at this point.

 Lots of changes here! We said goodbye to our mini van and said hello to a 15 passanger van. Wow, it's a bit of a challange in parking lots, but it's as big as a house inside. My big brother is being so kind to loan it to us until we know for sure what we want buy, and can afford it.

 Blessings are everywhere, and so undeserved. Our friends through us a adoption celebration, and through that, they bought us a new commercial size washer and dryer (think: BIG) for the large loads of laundry that this family is going to produce. I will have to post a picture, they are seriously amazing. I often think of Brenda when she was doing her laundry in the Haiti stream, and I PRAISE GOD for my two "maids".

 Our little bathroom is being remodeled! Here are the before pictures. Oh, this is such a relief!!! There was no vent fan, so we were always having mildew problems. We are reusing the same sink, toilet, tub, and shower curtian =) so the change may not be visibly drastic, but the bathroom cleaner (me!) will notice a HUGE difference.

 SOOOOOOOOOO glad to see Spring immerge, and the sunshine come to stay- we are loving all the time we can spend outdoors. We have made our first trip to Carriage Hill Farm last weekend... saw a new baby lamb! And... a family photo! It's tough, tough, tough getting this many children all in one picture... ha ha. Photographer mom will be working on that. =)

The littlest of the pack, he is such a joy to my heart! To all of us, really! In the tough, stressful moments- we can count on our little comedian to bring laughter back in our house. Yes, that's a cabbage leaf he is using as his hat!

Starting Friday evening, we will go pick up the kids for the beginning of 9 days together! It's spring break next week, so we are gonna have fun together! Since we have never been together more than 3 days in a row, this is exciting!
What we know of the ever-changing legal plan is that court date is April 2nd... then the judge has 30 days to make her ruling. We could know 2 days after court- or 20 days. THEN, the children will move here one week after the judge makes her decision

Thank you for the prayers, all of you who have commited to keep praying. God HEARS!

We have a reason to LOVE.

We have a reason to celebrate!

So, we did! Last Saturday we had a Valentines party in the middle of the afternoon. We talked about the reason that we love while we ate candy and treats... while enjoying decorations that we all made together!

Love. Seems like such a familiar concept to me. I was taught God and His Love all of  my life. But it is just one of many concepts that seem foreign to these children. Family, gentleness, loyalty, grace... these are more concepts that they never saw. How do you recover from growing up without this? Doesn't it change your ability to love, trust, forgive?

We had a Team Meeting in IN at the beginning of the week, and made some changes to the transition plan. The children will still come our house every weekend, and they will still spend spring break here, but the moving date has been pushed back a month. We are waiting until the judge rules to terminate parents rights. This could take up to 30 days after the court date. We long to have them HOME, but don't want our feelings to run the show. There is a lot of wisdom in doing things "in order". 

The weekend visits have been good so far... a lot of laughing and crying happens all weekend, and relationships are building. We see ourselves using so many tools that we learned in our foster classes, in the adoption seminar, and in the Paul Tripp parenting dvd's... God certainly equipped us right when we needed it. And He continually gives us strength. We have all been healthy, and this the first long stretch since winter started. His is FAITHFUL- over and over again He has shown how GREAT His Name really is! We praise Him!!!

4+5=9 = God's Overflowing Grace

God's grace; that's the point of it all.

I'm here to tell you about the way our family has changed over the last few months.

On one of the very first days in October, Rod & I found out about 5 little children who needed a dad and mom. We stayed up for a couple days and nights praying about it, asking God what to do. It became very obvious that God was calling us to adoption, and we needed to obey. For a while we would walk in the flesh, and call it crazy, and say "how in the world will we do this?". But then, we would walk in the Spirit... and see it from an eternal perspective, and we called it obedience, and we knew that if He calls, He WILL equip. He is FAITHFUL.

He has already shown His faithfulness over and over again. We have seen victory after spiritual battles. We see joy coming through pain. We see hope replacing despair. It seems like every area in our little family is being tested. We found out we were pregnant at the same time we learned our baby had died. As much as it hurt- we praised Him, because we felt confirmation of our adoption. Parenting our 2 little boys has become harder than it's ever been, and yet we have found more joy than ever before in parenting. We see His grace covering us. Truly, when we are weak... HE IS STRONG.

So, if this is your first time hearing this story, I know you have a lot of questions. Let me try to answer them. Our 5 little children live in Indiana right now with their foster family. They are all siblings, and are coming up for adoption. What that means is the state is taking their case to court to try to get permanent custody. That court date is in 2 weeks. We also have an adoption interview next week, where the case team will decide if we are right family for these children. We ask you to please pray for both of these dates. The decisions made will be monumental in the children's lives and our lives as well. And our 2 little boys? Their lives will be changed in a big way! Don't assume it will all be bad though, they will be getting 5 new siblings to play with, grow with, and love. Rod and I took 36 hours of foster training (that's where we've been, if you noticed we've been gone a lot) that helped prepare us for the transition of bringing two families together. Also, the children have already started to form relationships- (Yes, we have spent several days with them!) and Dominic has the 3 big girls smothering/mothering him every second that he will let them. They want to feed him, rock him, play with him, and he is fascinated by all of the attention. Reed quite enjoys having 2 boys so close to his age that like sports, and outdoorsy man-stuff like he does. Rod doesn't even contain HIS excitement about all of the new elements that these 5 children will bring... he can often be heard saying, "Let's get these kids HOME!" Me, I've dreamed of adoption since I was a little girl, so this is no new thing... and yet, now that I'm walking the journey, why does it seem like everything is new? There's a lot that you don't know about until you walk in the shoes, but I guess that's the way everything in life is. It always looks different from the outside. 

Adoption is GOOD, it began when God had compassion on us, and called us His children. Is it without pain? No. Can you even imagine the pain in watching your only son, your perfect son die... to save the very ones who were killing Him? But He chose the believer to come live with Him forever. And so we copy... in the best way we know, this side of eternity, by opening our heart and our home to 5 little souls.

We welcome your prayers and questions.

I'm including a fuzzy picture to give you an idea of what we look like together, 

but to still "keep it legal" until they are ours.

Sitting in my tears 'cause I'm reminded of what HE did for me. 

Studying His Word, seeing Abba's love... the questions flow out.

What if Christ calls us to sacrifice?

What if He wants us to be different?

Am I content to stay in the middle?

Has the gospel truely changed my life?

Am I open to suffering?

What about being radically different?

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13