Update and funnies!

Hi all!
I am sitting here, waiting for my dress pants to finish drying in the dryer, still in a bathrobe, thank you very much!  Sigh.  It is so humid that things are really having a hard time drying.  But, that means that I have a few minutes where my choices are either to clean something, or give an update!  It is only 7:15AM and I am opting for updating!!!  It seems like lately we have been so busy with so many good things, that I just haven't had a chance  until I am too tired to put a coherent thought together!

Tonight is opening night for Phantom of the Opera at St. Norbert's College - it is going to be amazing and I am so looking forward to it - especially because my favorite guy has a part in it!  Steve is playing one of the new owners of the theater, Andre, and has a challenging part.  That means that we really haven't seen him much for the last two months, and while I encouraged (read in here, really really bugged) him to do it, it has been a long stretch in our busiest season.  We are all missing each other and ready for regular life.  But in the meantime, there is a great ten shows to come!!!!  I am so proud of him, and know that he has worked so hard and will be fabulous!!!  Tonight we have nine tickets for opening night, so the kids and I get to go!!!!  I am so excited!  And in about two weeks, we will have him home in the evenings again!!!

Alex and Zeri leave this weekend for a mission trip to Joplin, MO (where the devastating tornadoes were).  I am so proud of them, grateful that they got sponsors so they can go and help.  They are both really hard workers and I know will be a great benefit to the team and the community there.  We have really emphasized service in our family and outreach, but this is an opportunity on a whole different level, and I am sure it will impact them significantly.  I suspect that my young men will return to us somewhat matured and molded by this experience. 

Then Faith and Solomon have Bible camp next week too!  They have worked and saved their money and are ready to go.  How it all fell on the same week, I am still surprised by!  They are very excited and looking forward to it. 

So, it will be me and four kids next week!  The shock on our faces when we realized that was hilarious!  It will be a great chance for us all to have some special time together, and we are looking forward to it, though I am sure it will be odd to say the least!

On the adoption front:  the homestudy is completed and in hand.  We have to send in our immigration paperwork - and a check of course - sigh.  At this point it is an impossibility I believe for us to get a court date before court closure - August 15th.  That means that hopefully we will get one in early October.  That places us bringing our girls home around Christmas or so.  It is always unpredictable and anything can happen, but that is sort of the timeline now.  I am going to be swamped this weekend with grant applications and our annual reports on the five kids already here!  Paperwork, paperwork!  I am doing everything possible to get all the needed funds, though I heartily admit that having our tax return would take care of everything!  However, like most adoptive parents, we are still waiting on that, with absolutely no idea when or if we will actually get it. 

So, we are doing the only things we know how to do to provide - I was blessed to be able pick up some extra hours at work, and some temp hours so I am doing that.  We made a plan as a family on how to handle this so we can get it all done.  It isn't ideal, I would much rather be home, but it is working, and the kids are great.  We are selling whatever we can, including my precious spinning wheel, in order to fund this.  My plan is to pay off everything we can, stockpile whatever we can, just do whatever can be done!  If anyone in Green Bay or Denmark or Kewaunee would like to host a rummage sale, we would love to do one - just living as rurally as we do, it doesn't make any sense to do it here.  But we have lots and could even consider taking donations, I just need a place to do it.  God is good, has met us along the road, though it hasn't often been easy, it has continued to move.  He has a plan and a purpose and all is to be done in His timing. 

We still have puzzle pieces available - I will do an update on that shortly! 

Take care and God bless!!!  Enjoy the rest of the summer!  It is hot and humid here, but we will take it compared to what we know will come in the winter!  Well, the dryer is done, and I am off to work!  Love to all!

"For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans for hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Small steps, using what we have!

This has been a crazy couple weeks for this family - two boys in drivers ed, soccer season starting, my reduction in work hours (because anything else would be impossible at this time), remodeling, trying to get a garden in and all the events in our daily lives.

Our dossier is assembled and ready to go out on Monday!  Hooray!  And the last of the documents are going to the homestudy agency, we have one more meeting with the social worker, and then the walk through to look at the remodeling!  Yay!  We are hopeful to have it all done by the end of the week.  It has been such a marathon to all of this, it is hard to believe that shortly all we will be doing is waiting (and applying for grants, fundraising, earning income, and on and on to get those final expenses paid for).  We got a video of our girls last week, and then a description from someone who was there in May - A is the "queen of the orphanage and adored by everyone" and K is very insecure and must be held constantly.  No surprise to either of those given the photos we have seen.  Honestly, at this point, I am ready for a little one to hang on me.  My big kids need me, but in a different way, and A will be adored by all the big kids so will certainly be the belle of the ball.  As we put in babyproofing, and visualize their room when it will be done, well, it all gets to finally feel real.

The stud walls are up, we have used all the materials we have on hand, and the contractor is coming to finish it up this week.  I am ready to go pick out paint and fabric for their curtains!  The crib will move from our room up to there, as we have two pack and plays that will go in our room while they need to be close by!  We have one high chair, and will be looking for another in the next few months.  Then we will start to look at carseats.  K is under 20 pounds, but at her age, I am concerned that being reclining is not going to work, so I am going to get some input and see what will work. A is over the weight limit so we can use a forward facing toddler seat.  Even thinking about all of this makes if feel so very real.  Finally.  We have no idea what we might get for a court date, so keep your prayers going.  If you felt so led, we have our chip in button there.  We are still making our diabetes log books (click here...), and doing our puzzle fundraiser (click here...), and are adding in more items as we get the ideas.  We have some jewelry making ideas - there is a great bead and jewelry making shop nearby that would be fun to learn from!

On the other parts of our lives: we have entered horse show season and soccer season.  Driving was a constant part of my life this week - I felt like I should just sleep in my van.  The drivers ed boys have this week off, and then only the next week of classroom, so life should get a bit easier when that is done - five days a week on top of everything else has me maxed out.  But, they both passed their temps tests!!!!!  Congrats Alex and Zeri!

So, I am off to sorting and eliminating some items we don't need any longer.  Our house isn't huge, but it is ours and we all fit!  And summer is here, so we have added nine acres to the area we live in!  Yay!

I am enjoying every minute of our spring even though it has gone from one extreme to another!  Gotta love it!

"For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans for hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Can I finally share?????

Yep, I can!

After all the ups and downs of the last year, all the preparations of adoptions that did not happen, well, it is now signed on the dotted line!!!

We are going back to Ethiopia!  Hopefully sometime in the next six months.

We are adding two little girls to our family, to be loved on by all of us who are so excited!  The girls are sisters, the older one has Down Syndrome and is said to be two.  After looking at her photos and her walking, we think she is older than that.  The little one is six to twelve months, probably closer to twelve months.  We are so excited! 

God has moved in amazing ways, has made it totally clear and everyone is on board!  This time Steve and I will travel together - there is NO WAY I can manage two toddlers, immigration, luggage, customs and changing planes and all that by myself!  Ethiopia has changed their rules, and we will need to take two trips, one short one to meet the girls before court and one for visas and to bring them home!

Our application is in, that is all signed, the homestudy is being updated to an international one rather than a domestic one, and we are doing all our education work and all that.  I have more papers to fill out, documents to collect and all sorts of stuff to do.  Time to make some energy tea!

I am working on decluttering - having toddlers again will be something we need to be ready for, and we need to simplify life a little.  We are selling some of our ponies (the kids are too big for them anyway, but we also need less to care for), downsizing our goat herd some, and totally getting things organized!  The consignment store, and donation stores are our best friends! 

I am being totally smart and taking it one step at a time.  We know that we are working towards the next payment for the next step, one piece at a time.  I have seen God do amazing miracles and am sure that He will continue the good work that He has begun.  If you want to chip in, feel free - there should be a button on the sidebar to connect to our paypal for adoption fees.  If you look through posts, we are also making ceramic initial bears, handmade by the kids for their little sisters' adoption fund!  Feel free to leave an order, or send our link on to anyone who might be interested.  We are doing all sorts of ideas for fundraising! 

We are excited and totally in awe of this new direction!  I wish I could post photos of the girls, but we cannot until they are totally ours, and likely won't until they arrive home with us, just to avoid any difficulties!  I so wish I could share, they are so cute!!!!!  I guarantee that when we get home from Ethiopia with them we will post tons of photos!!!!

I had to laugh, because shortly after this all started, I realized that I have alternated between praying for a "baby" and praying for a "child with Down Syndrome" to add to our family.  In my heart, I meant ONE child, the same child.  God got the last laugh and gave me BOTH, but in two packages!!!!  He has SUCH a sense of humor!

Honestly, I have to let you know that the adoption journey and all the unknown cycles between the extreme highs and joy and the total fears and worries.  I have never met these kids, honestly don't even really know how old they actually are, or what we might face with them.  But, we didn't know what might come with any of our birth kids either.  I find that some days are up and some days are down.  Some days I wonder if I am absolutely nuts or if it is the best thing ever!  I know from past experience it will be better than I could ever imagine, will stretch me in ways I could never even imagine, and will be beyond belief.  I know that God will use this for more than I could ever imagine.  But in reality, the next year will be a wild ride.  So, bear with me if I am a little freaked out some days.  I will try to be transparent and honest, with the hopes that someone can glean something from our lives.  (And it may simply be "what not to do")  I just want God to use this for whatever He has in mind. 

Well, the kids have been helping me with sorting things out, getting stuff out to the van to be delivered, advertising what we are trying to sell, and generally being supportive.  So, I am going to make them pancakes!!!!!

Blessings to anyone who happens to stumble across this!!!

Christy

"For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans for hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11