Time Change

I know it has been a while. We have been some busy people!!! What have we been doing you ask? Well...where to begin...
First, My friend Ashley and I bought a company. That's right, I'm a small business owner! Whaaaa??? While the first two months have been a tad bit stressful, I am doing better and into the swing of things. I. LOVE. IT!
Second, Andy went to China for work....and ate a bunch of strange things! While he was gone  I trekked up to the U.P. to spend that time with my parentals. I wasn't about to try doing the whole parenting thing on my own. RESPECT to single parents! Seriously!
Third, we were in the finishing stages of the paper work and that takes precedence over this blog.
And lastly....I'm a mom for the love of Pete. There just isn't enough free time in the day!
So yeah, that's why I haven't blogged in a while. On to the meat~

We have basically finished up our paper work at this point. We have a few things to mail here or there, but for the most part the busy work is done. Our next major hurdle is the fundraising! I am terrible at it, I hate it and I'm not quite sure what to do about it. So there. That's how I feel. If ya have any ideas feel free to share! For those of you who have helped out and have done an at home party or garage sale or have given us things to sell or have just flat out given us money. THANK YOU! You have been a huge blessing!! OH YEAH!!! We raised a pretty good chunk from the 31 bags party! Thanks guys!!! Sooooo thankful for all who purchased!! Thank you Thank you!.....

Now to the bummer part. We got an email today from our agency and this is how it read....


blah blah blah....The wait times are increasing from 18-24 months to 24-30 months for a male or female infant or toddler.  We do not have as many families requesting children four years and older and thus the wait for those families will likely be shorter than the current wait times.

Paperwork, specifically the clearance, is still the main contributor for the slowdown in the Ethiopia program.  If we have a child in the transition home who is completely paper-ready, but does not have a clearance, we need to wait on that final document before referring the child to a family.  Unfortunately, the clearance process is still one that is intensive and can be drawn out over many, many months; the final clearance could take one month or a 1+ years to obtain.  Unfortunately, this is a process that we are not permitted to manipulate and is contingent on the governmental bodies in Ethiopia. 

We know this is difficult news, especially in light of the holidays.  We are excited to post our November Referral Update on our blog later this week as there were over 10 referrals this month. We want to walk through this journey with your family and will do as much as possible on our side to have these children placed in homes as quickly as possible. Blah Blah Blah....

So that sucks! There is no other way of putting it. It just plain sucks! When we started this process it was 9-12 months and then last November it changed to 18-24 and now we are looking at nearly 3 years to go. It pretty much makes me want to throw up, give up, and scream! Andy handles these things way better than me. I melt down and throw a little fit and he just tells me it's gonna be ok. I tell him I want to quit and he says "I don't!" ....boy did God ever know what he was doing when he put us together! He holds me together until I can get it together. I kept thinking our little munchkin was probably already born, but in reality.....our new reality....she probably hasn't even been thought of by her birth parents. She sure as heck has been thought of (and prayed for) by her forever parents though!

I guess I should look at the bright side right? It gives me 3 more years to raise $29,000! Makes it sound more doable right? (Now would be a good time to agree with me!) :) 

Thanks for praying guys. We sure need it! 

Bananas

As you know, last week we had the Jewelry Party fundraiser that my friend Donna had for us. It was SUPER FUN! After all of the information and demonstrations were done we just sat around and talked and laughed our rears off for hours. Literally hours. It was wonderful! We made $150 from the sales and we were also given a $100 donation at the party, so I would say it was quite successful! $250, 3 hours or so and a whole lot of laughs! What a great night! Thanks to all of you who supported us through this!

Now, onto where our hearts are at....
Paper work, paper work and more paper work. Phone calls and emails for clarification on previous paper work....aaaggghhhh....I am learning more patience than I have ever had to before. I just want this to move....fast! And then today I was at Walmart with the boys. We were going to buy bananas and I wanted green ones. There was a nice man filling the banana stand with bright yellow ones, but I wanted green. (I know, this sounds like the beginning of a Curious George episode, but hang in there...) So, I asked the nice man if he had any green ones and he said he would run back to the back and check. I thanked him and planned to just wait patiently. As the man walked out of the way the sight behind him caught my breath. I saw a sweet girl, about 3 years old, twirling in her pretty green dress. She looked so sweet, so happy, so innocent. I started to cry. Why you ask? Because this little girls skin was the color of dark chocolate and her moms was a chalky white. That is going to be me soon....I want it so bad. Our daughter may not yet even be born, but my heart longs for her. And this little girl today was so happy, so normal, so loved. I could tell. It warmed my heart to know that children are not only getting a fighting chance at having a family, but children are learning what it means to be loved, learning God's love. As I was processing all of this...crying of course...the nice man returned holding my green bananas. I thanked him and took them from him and tried not to let him see me cry....I am pretty sure he thought I was nuts. No sir, I was not crying because you found my green bananas.
Andy was saying how amazing it has been for him to be able to pray for her, long before she is even born. She is likely not born yet to this day. It isn't that we are praying for her as she is in a hard state of life, we are getting to pray for her before her life has even begun! For love, protection, hope, health, joy...you name it. We are blessed to be able to cover her in prayer before her existence. Awesome!
Someday, someone will see me walking through Walmart with my dark skinned daughter and hope will fill their heart....I can't wait!

Jewelry Party Fundraiser

Over the past years I have been helping out with the Wakarusa Children's Resale. It is a huge ministry that provides the opportunity for people to buy and sell their used children's items at an amazingly cheap price. It helps both the sellers and buyers. I love it! Well, during this time, I have gotten to know a sweet lady named Donna Love. (I just called her a lady...she's like my age...does that make me a lady?! Yikes, I might be getting old. ) :)
Anyhow, all of that to say, she offered to have a Premiere designs Jewelry party for us as a fundraiser! How sweet! So, on Aug 20th You all are invited to a party/fundraiser at my house. Aug 20th at 6:30! If you can't make it but would like to purchase some Jewelry please comment and I will talk to Donna about getting information to you so you can decide what you would like to order! Really cool jewelry for a really great reason! Hope you all can come!!

One other thing...A huge blessing...We needed to have some CPA work done for our agency and we had a local guy Regan Lehman do it for us. I emailed information back and forth for a day or two and voila! He had it done in less than 48 hours and he didn't charge us a thing! Free!! What a great guy! (and a nice lady named Angela helped us out there too!)  If any of you locals are looking for an accountant I highly suggest you check him out. I didn't tell him I was going to do this, but the man deserves a plug here. We are so thankful!!

little frustrations

I have begun to dread seeing emails in my inbox from our adoption agency. It is always another thing that we have to fix, change the date on, re-notarize, rewrite or just something completely new they need from us. I feel like this home study process...which could have taken a month....has been drug out in an unbelievable way. Every time I open an email I hear myself audibly say, "seriously?!" Which is usually followed up by tears of frustration. We were told by our home study agency that we were finished. They billed us and we were done. We were just waiting on the confirmation from our adoption agency that it had been approved. I have learned to stop expecting to meet time frames. It is so hard to get an email saying we have to re- notarize because the date the doctor wrote and the date the notary wrote were different. It is hard to sit in a doctors office for an hour for a doctor to sign a paper, only to have to leave and wait ten more days to make it happen. It's hard to do all these seemingly pointless and mindless things when there are orphans WAITING ON PARENTS! Sometimes I just want to throw in the towel and push the truths of these orphans to the back of my mind and pretend they aren't there. It would be so much easier. My emotions wouldn't go up and down every ten minutes. I wouldn't spend hours, months even, doing paperwork and running all over the state just for someone to spend ten seconds to sign their name to a paper.

 But the truth is: My little girl is already in my heart even though I don't yet know her. My heart is way too wrapped up in this to stop now. God has called us to this and has every intention of following through with it. God broke our hearts for these Ethiopian children and even though it is emotionally wearing (even this early on in the game) there is a plan and a purpose for this. We must keep trusting and pushing through the frustrations. Please pray with us that things would go more smoothly. That we would get better at doing this paper work junk and understanding all of the requirements expected of us. And that God would bring our little girl home....sooner than later!

Happy Fathers Day

Now that we know we will have a daughter.......

I couldn't resist. This card was screaming at me from the shelf at the store. When I picked it up I welled up with tears. I think the teenagers standing next to me in the isle thought I was nuts but who cares! The inside was so simple, so true and so fitting......

When Andy opened it he got all teary eyed and said, "I didn't expect this..." and smiled. She has a very special place in our hearts already and I know God is preparing her for us as well. Can't wait till her daddy is actually holding her on Fathers Day!

Thank yous and updates

It has been WAY too long! I am so sorry! We have been so busy. I haven't had time to blog but there is so much to update on so this is gonna be a long one!
First of all the garage sale:
I want to say a HUGE thank you to Amanda Wilson! Amanda and I have been friends for about 12 years now. We don't often get to see each other, but we are the kind of friends you know you can count on and even if you haven't seen each other for a year it's like you haven't skipped a beat! Love her! Amanda called me out of the blue one day and said she wanted to do a garage sale fundraiser for us. She did everything! I hauled one load to her house and that's about it! Not only did she plan it, organize it and run it....She did all of that while MOVING! She literally moved her whole house, 2 dogs a husband and 3 kids the weekend before the sale! What a blessing she is! THANK YOU AMANDA!
I also want to thank David Arment of David Arment Photography. He donated 100 pictures for us to sell! They are super cool outdoor pictures with scripture on them. We still have some left if anyone is interested! We are selling them for donations. You pick the price! Contact me if you are interested!
Another thank you to Heathyr Harkless of House of Harkless Photography. I had never met Heathyr. I am a cloth diapering consultant and Heathyr is a customer I was going to do a consult for. I had never met her but we had been communicating via facebook. When she found out we were adopting she instantly offered a photo shoot for us to raffle off. (We raffled it off at the garage sale and my friend Alice won it!) She has a heart for adoption and plans to begin her own adoption process next year. What a blessing! How often does someone you don't know just offer you something like that?! Thank you Heathyr!!
Thank you again to Joanna Beasley. She is a recording artist who gave us a ton of her albums to sell. We had them out at the garage sale as well and we still have some left if any of you are interested! We again are selling those for whatever donation you would like to make! She is really awesome! I highly suggest you check her out!...p.s. she is in the midst of making 2 more albums at the moment! CAN'T WAIT!
And lastly, thank you to every one of you who donated! I don't even know all of the people who donated items but to all of you THANK YOU! Thank you to everyone who shopped and donated money. Amanda was telling me about people who hardly had enough money of their own giving extra just because they believed in the cause. Thank you God!
The garage sale brought in over $560.00 and we still have a whole slew of California Raisins collectibles to sell on ebay! Believe it or not what we have could bring in an additional $500.00 once we get it up for sale! You wouldn't believe the people buying this stuff!! Kinda crazy but kinda cool all at the same time! :) So all in all, once we get those sold we will have made somewhere in the ball park of $1000.00! Praise God!

On to the next topic! We have the money to pay for the home study taken care of and now we are in need of $2,490 for the next phase of the adoption. We have again been trusting God for each cent knowing that he will pull through! We have gotten checks in the mail here and there from friends we haven't seen in a really long time and have been totally blessed by each one! A week or two ago we were blessed above and beyond! Some good friends of ours gave us a check that blew us away! I continue to be amazed by peoples generosity! People giving us tax returns or their tithe money for the week. Whatever the situation is we are so grateful for each and every one of you who have given to us. You have no idea how much each dollar means to us....We are humbled and thankful!

Next up on the list today is Home studies. Since we last blogged we have had our final 2 home studies. Our social worker has come to the house, looked around, talked to the boys, talked to us and read through the conglomeration of papers we have had to fill out and notarize. (I have never had to notarize so much crap in my life!!) She asked us a million and one questions, watched us with our boys and talked through just about every aspect of our lives from birth up until now. Pretty sure there is no stone left unturned! she was really kind easy going but we are so thankful to be done! It has been a long time coming! We had to delay things for weeks and months due to Nahum being sick or Nahum having surgery or her schedule being busy. Whatever the reasons were, it just plain took too long! But hallelujah it is done! We meet up with her on Thursday evening to verify and basically sign off on the papers that will be sent in to our adoption agency. FINALLY! Now on the the craziness that is the dossier.....I am certain there will be some crazy blogging during that 6 months! The dossier is a 4-6 month process of paper work and at the end of that we submit it to Ethiopia for approval and then we wait!

What will we be waiting for you ask?  Well....Andy and I have said from the get go that you can't pick a gender when you have a biological child so we would leave this one up to God as well. However, God has really impressed on our hearts that he has a specific child for us and the way we answer the questions (ie: would you take a cleft lip, cleft pallet, deaf, boy, girl, siblings etc etc.....) is the way a child (or children) would be chosen for us. So we prayed. We answered questions. We prayed. We changed answers. We talked and prayed some more and changed some more. All of that to say...dun dun dun....we will be getting a GIRL! I almost lost it in the store tonight when we walked past the girls clothes. :) I know in my heart that God has a little girl in mind for our family! I know it! Now why did I say "or children" a few sentences back? Well, we said that we would take a sibling group if there was a little girl who had a brother or sister. I don't want to break up siblings!!! So, if God wants that or has that in mind for us it is a possibility for Ethiopia to refer siblings to us.....oh my.......Are we crazy? :)

Lastly I want to thank my friend Darcy of Darcy Holsopple Photography. She took the amazing picture you see above. When she posted it on fb she had some really sweet things to say and it got me all weepy. Thank you Darce for being willing to do this for our family! Get your trigger finger ready to take pictures of a beautiful little girl in 18 months to 2 years from now. And....get those braiding fingers ready cause I. CAN. NOT. FRENCH BRAID!

Thank you all for checking in and supporting us! Also, check out the thermometer to the side....it keeps going up thanks to God and all of you!!

Garage sale update

Due to interest in donating all types of items, we will be taking donations for all items not just children's items for the Garage sale! If you are interested in donating items to the sale please contact me or Amanda at spirited_88@hotmail.com! The sale is May 10-12 at my house if you want the address, contact me!

Childrens Items Garage Sale

My sweet friend Amanda came up with a great fundraising idea. She is even planning it all out so I don't have to do it! How awesome is she?! Here's the scoop. If you have any children's items you are willing to donate (anything from clothes and toys to furniture and anything in between) she will come pick them up from you, price them and we will sell them at a garage sale at my house the second weekend in May! Here is how you can help. If you want to donate just email Amanda at spirited_88@hotmail.com and tell her you are wanting to donate. Another way is to come shopping!! :) Who doesn't love a good garage sale? Ok, ok, I know not all of you are garage sale junkies like I am but hey, come out and see us anyway! Keep an eye out, we will be posting more updates on the sale as it gets closer!

Nahum's surgery update

I know this is an adoption blog, but it is also a way for people to keep up with us in general. I thought it would be a good way to give everyone an update on Nahum after his surgery.
If you didn't know, we have been trying to get Nahums tonsils and adenoids out for quite some time but we couldn't ever keep him healthy long enough to get it done....for instance, he had strep 4 times in 5 weeks and then 2 ear infections....So the Dr had us in quarantine for 2 weeks before and on antibiotics for 3 weeks before in order to keep him healthy. PTL he stayed healthy!
On the day before his surgery he was really nervous and kept asking questions and telling us he wasn't going to do it. The morning of surgery we had to be there really early so we just woke him up and left. He did really well up until we got into his pre-op room. He panicked thinking it was the operating room. Once he figured it out he did fine.
The Dr came in to check on him before they took him back and said his ears needed drained but there was no need for tubes. For some reason this translated to Nahum as "you don't need surgery" So he marched out of the room and followed the nurse back to O.R. like a big boy. All. By. Himself!
Surgery went well and quickly. When we got back to see him in the recovery room he was so groggy and sad. :( He kept asking to go home. Poor kid. He was refusing liquids so they made us stay until he drank 4 ounces of sprite....this took 2 hours....
Once we got home it was a rough day/night. He would panic every time we asked him to drink or take his medication. I think part of it was him still coming off of his anesthesia. He did however want to try EVERY food item we had purchased special for him. I NEVER buy 90% of the stuff we let him have so he thought he was pretty cool. He would take one bite of something and then move on to the next. It hurt him too bad to eat, but he wanted so badly to try everything....so. he did. Here is his food log for the past 24 hours
~
3 oz watered down cf coke
2 licks of a popstickle (as he calls them)
2 Tbs ice cream
3 Tbs jello
2 Tbs pudding
2 Tbs instant mashed potatoes
2 oz chicken noodle soup
meds
2 more Tbs chicken noodle soup
2 Tbs pudding
1 Tbs watered down cf coke
meds
1/4 c overcooked mac n cheese
1 tbs apple juice
a few more licks of a Popsicle
3 oz apple juice
2 oz cf coke
1/4 c mac n cheese
1/4 cup cool whip (gag me)
5 mini marshmallows
meds
1/4 c overcooked pasta with Alfredo sauce
3 oz coke
meds~ all through the night
1/8 cup cream of wheat made with choc pediasure and Greek yogurt
3 oz cf coke
1/8 c spaghetti o's (makes me want to vomit!)
1/8 cool whip
1/4 ice cream
1 oz cf coke
1 oz apple juice

What a nasty diet!! Obviously he isn't eating a ton, but at least he is eating often lol! Keep the prayers coming. The dr said first week is critical for us to help him heal. If he doesn't drink  A LOT he will end up back in the hospital. We don't want that!

the car ride there with his GINORMOUS dinosaur

After he got his mini scrubs on in the pre-op room they got  booties and a hat for his dino...forgot a pic of the hat :)

right when he first woke up in recovery

Watching tv in recovery because he refused to lay down.

He kept asking to go home. Poor kid.

snuggling daddy ...and that huge dinosaur lol!

a few licks of his popSTICKle

runny mashed potatoes anyone?

chicken noodle soup....what's next?

No, I am not kidding...how sick is this? :) Ah well, at least he is eating.

late night movie time

so excited about his balloons from his school friends. I love his school!

 Dunno who likes em more, Olie or Nahum

The balloons came with this dog. He hasn't put it down yet!

This is his little set up in the living room. He is so tired!

He loves those stinking balloons! ;)

Fundraiser Instructions

Ok, this new coupaide fundraiser is a great one, but there are a number of steps to go through in order to finalize it all. I figured it might be helpful if I gave you super detailed, step by step instructions. I know not everyone is computer savvy and this can get confusing.
Here are your directions

~Go to http://coupaide.com/deal/toth-adoption-fundraiser/ or go to our blog http://ahomefordurye.blogspot.com/ and click on the coupaide fundraiser box on the right and our site should come up.

~click on the red button that says BUY NOW

~Now you have to register. Fill in the blanks by making up a user name and password. (They will email you a confirmation)

~ Now, use the user name and password you created to log in.

~Once logged in you purchase however many deals you want.

~ Once you purchase you gift card it says to print it.

~ Print it (There is no button to print, so just print by hitting Control and P at the same time)

~ Go to the website it tells you to go to under the "redeem at:" portion (It should say Dine.Restaurant.com)

~click the tab that says redeem your gift

~enter in your zip code in the zip code box

~ Enter how many miles you are willing to drive for a restaurant in that box (I did 30 and a TON came up)

~ Then you should show that you have $50 (or however many you bought) to spend and you can start scrolling through a list of gift cards you want to buy. For instance you can buy a $25 one for      La Esperanza and a $25 to the Emporium or split it however you want to between the restaurants listed. There will be pages of them and each restaurant offers 3-5 different price ranges to purchase.

~Select how many, of which ever ones you want and add it to the cart. Continue shopping if you haven't spent your full amount.

~Once done "shopping" you select "check out"

~Now, enter in your email and make a password (can be same as the one you used at coupaide.com but doesn't have to be.)

~Fill in the blanks on your email...blah blah blah...Make sure you check the box that says you read their policies....blah blah blah...

~Print each gift certificate. You have to do each one you order/buy individually
If you are wanting to purchase more than one, but not all at one time, please email Matt at service@coupaide.com   and tell him how many you want to purchase and he will send it to you via email. They are trying to correct the problem of not being able to order more than once, however if it is not corrected and you would like to purchase another gift card use this route!

Fundraiser with Coupaide

Yay! We are super excited about this next fundraiser! NO MATTER WHERE YOU LIVE IN THE USA you can be involved in this AND SAVE MONEY all at the same time! For this fundraiser, all you have to do is visit our site, purchase a gift card with a $50.00 for ONLY $20.00 and search for restaurants in your area! I promise there will be at least one....I mean heck, there is even one that participates in the sticks of the upper peninsula where my parents live and the itty town of New Paris has one! No, I am not kidding! I am super excited about this one because not only do we receive $10.00 for every card you purchase, but you save 60% at some really great restaurants! What a cheap way to have a great date night! Check it out guys! Visit http://coupaide.com/deal/toth-adoption-fundraiser/ !

Reminder of Truth I needed to hear

I know I have been absent on here for a while. Our family has gone through some hard things lately and I have honestly just been to worn out and busy to post. However, today I post because a friend I have only met online reminded me to keep going. My friend Angie posted this on her blog today. Her family is adopting from Haiti.

Our past weeks have been hard on many levels. I will touch on a few. First, we lost my grandpa nearly two weeks ago. It was a hard time and there are still hard days when I let myself think about it. It has been 2 weeks  of emotions for me that send me into childhood memories of him. Secondly we have been fighting waaay too much illness in my house. Nahum was suppose to have surgery to have his tonsils and adenoid removed and also to have his ears drained 3 weeks ago. However he got sick with strep AGAIN and we had to post pone.  It may not seem like much , but in Nahum's case it is. One reason is we haven't been able to keep him healthy enough to have his surgery. He had strep 4 times in a 5 week period, he is allergic to all but 3 antibiotics and nothing seems to keep him healthy anymore. He needs to have this surgery to stay healthy! I was discouraged from having to wait and worried for his health. Now, we are having to keep him on an antibiotic for the 3 weeks prior to surgery to prevent bacterial infection and keep him away from everyone for 2 weeks before to prevent viral infection. Also, after his surgery he can't be active for 2 weeks and a possible 3rd depending on his healing process. This means I AM STUCK IN MY HOUSE FOR 5 WEEKS! AAHHHHH!!! The things we do....;)
The third thing wearing on me is our housing situation. We have been in the process of attempting to buy the house we live in for months on end. Financing keeps changing and requirements keep changing and at the last minute things fall through. I have gotten so discouraged! When will this end?! To make matters worse, we have to have the purchase of the house finalized or we have to decide to rent indefinitely to get our financial statements accurate and usable for our home study. Which means.....We cannot finish our home study until our housing situation gets finalized. This sets us back as far as time goes for the adoption. SO DISCOURAGING!
Needless to say I have been asking God a whole lot of questions. Like ~If you want us to adopt why aren't you making things move faster? There are orphans waiting! ~If you want us to adopt why don't you pay for these dumb new requirements or closing costs or whatever to get us finalized in this house? I mean we are living within our means, staying out of debt and being responsible with our money! What more do you want?! ~ Why can't my kids stay healthy long enough for me to catch a breath?! ~ Why can't you  make this all easier?
His answer? Angie's blog post. The verses she gives, the statements she makes, the visions she sees......All things I have known, studied, believed and lived yet somehow have forgotten in these past months. Instead of praying my way through this battle I have lost hope, gotten discouraged and wanted to quit. I haven never been one for waiting. This waiting for absolutely everything in my life is wearing me down. But it's time I pull up my boot straps and get back in the game. It's time to start praying and fighting for the things he has put on my heart and in my life. It's time to stand beside my sisters and brothers and pray. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Eph 6:12 It's time to suit up for my little Ethiopian child. ¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Eph 6: 12-18 It's time to hold on to hope. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 2Corinthians 4:16-18 
Stand besides in prayer friends. Pray for healthy kids, for Nahum's surgery to happen, for a house to call our home and discernment on what that means. Pray for our adoption process to speed up, for finances to come in for it and mostly pray for our child. He or she needs your prayer more than anything! Read Angies blog post......

Church and Home Study

Well, we had quite the busy weekend. Busy but great! On Sunday we led worship and spoke at church. We talked about adoption. Our story and God's heart in it. We showed this video and I think everyone should watch it. Andy is a thinker, so this video reached him. I am more emotional, so the slide shows with songs and the video blogs reach me more. This however is such a powerful teaching. Anyhow, we were so blessed by people after church and so encouraged! Just what we needed before a drive down to Indy.
Why Indy? We had our first home study. Our agency requires us to come to them for the first one. We won't argue....it actually made it significantly cheaper!! My family lives in the Westfield area so we were able to take advantage of the time and visit my grandpa, aunt, uncle and cousins. Nahum was especially happy to have time to play with his cousins. He LOVES them!!
My aunt watched the boys for us while we went to our appointment. We were so nervous! We had no idea what to expect. I mean people typically hope to never have a run in with a social worker let alone chose to meet with one!! Ours however was amazing! She was so nice and encouraging. We sat and cried together talking about past adoption stories and the cool ways God has pulled through for people at the last second. It was really so much better and so much more encouraging than I had expected. We were blessed!
Now we have a pile of paper work to do and physicals etc etc etc.....Then, we have two more in home, home studies and then an additional one later. All in all it was a great weekend and we were given a boost to keep on trucking....

Remembering to pray

When you have a biological baby, you have daily reminders to pray for that child. Your tummy grows, you feel sick, you get tired....and the list goes on. There isn't a second that goes by that you forget about that child. You remember to pray with each kick or hiccup. But when you adopt you don't have those minute by minute reminders. Sometimes it's easy to forget to pray for the child in the midst of crazy days. I don't like that! Andy and I wanted to have those minute by minute reminders to pray for our little one so we decided we would look into getting rings that would serve as that reminder. Every time we see the ring we would pray. We looked online and found some we liked, but the cost.....it was hard to justify. Until....This weekend we were on a date night and we went to Meijer. They had all of their diamond, stainless, silver and gold jewelry 75% off! Andy and I both found rings we liked and together they totaled $20.00! That, is doable! I was so excited and felt really blessed that we were able to find decent rings for such a great price! They are bling finger quality at a green finger price! (Get it? Cause cheap rings turn your finger green?) :)
When Nahum saw our rings he asked us why we got them. We explained it to him and he wanted one too! I thought it was so sweet. So, we are making him wear this cheesy, cheap, dentist treasure chest, ring for a week. If he can keep it on without loosing it we told him we would buy him a nice one. I found one online that is stainless steel with a cross cut out and it's even a boys ring! ( Way more masculine than this one lol! He thinks it looks like his papa's class ring, so he thinks it's cool anyway.)
Now that we have a daily reminder, a minute by minute reminder to pray I feel even more attached to this child who most likely isn't even born yet! How amazing that we can cover this kid and his/her biological mother in prayer before he/she is even born and orphaned!

Fundraising time with Joanna Beasley!

It's time for fundraiser number two! This time it's not a raffle, it's CD's for sale! Our good friend Joanna is a recording artist who has really blessed us with her music and as a friend. She has done everything from being a finalist on American Idol, leading worship at churches, touring on her own to the Beyond Idols tour and pretty much everything in between. We were so blessed by her offer to donate CD's. We are going to be selling both her "My World" and "Patiently Waiting" albums. They are both amazing, but I will say her song "You Call Me Beautiful"  is my fav! :) Ok, Maybe "Just Want You To" is tied for first!  Either way, I think this is a great way for you to be blessed as well. We are getting close to having enough money to complete our home studies and we are hoping the sale of these CD's will be the ticket to raising enough money to finish those. Once we finish the home study portion, we will be able to apply for grants and adoption loans! YAY!


So, here is the deal if you would like to purchase/donate......

A beautiful collage of the past few years of growing, changing and 

learning more about the Love of  Christ through her recent marriage.

Released in August of 2005 at the age of 19, just 3 years after advancing

 to the final 80 contestants in Fox's hit show "American Idol.

Pricing

1 CD of your choice~ $7.00
Both CD's~ $12.00

Shipping

If you live close enough for me to drop them to you or for you to stop in and pick them up, donation is as seen above. If you live farther away but would still like to purchase one or both, we will add a small shipping fee. for one it would be $2.00 and for both it would be $4.00 shipping.

Just email me at erinrtoth@gmail.com and let me know if you want one or both and if we need to ship it to you. To pay, all you need to do is click the donate button on the right side of the blog and follow the simple instructions, or we can arrange for you to pay with cash or check if you live near by.

Check out some previews of Joanna's songs from both albums at http://joannabeasley.com/store.php. You will be glad you did!

Thankful

I know, I know....It has been far too long since I have blogged. I apologize. Life has been busier than normal. (Not sure how that's possible, but I guess it is!) I titled this thankful because that is how my heart feels. Overflowing. There have been many updates financially since my last post. First off, just a heads up that we haven't been able to get our fundraising thermometer to work, so there is more money in our adoption account than we are showing at this point. We haven't even been able to put in the $880.00 donated through the Darcy Holsopple Photography raffle. So yeah, even though you can't see it, it is there and for that money we are THANKFUL! Secondly, random people here and there have mailed us checks or dropped us some cash. For that we are THANKFUL! Third, My Parents had a stocking for our new family member and in it was some unexpected money towards the adoption. So sweet, so cute and for it we are THANKFUL! Fourth, We had our final family Christmas last weekend in Ohio. We usually donate to something such as the Heifer project rather than exchanging gifts. This year, unknown to us, they planned behind our backs. :) We had no idea what they had been up to, but rather than donate to an organization they donated it to us. Totally surprised us and blessed us! For this we are THANKFUL! And lastly I got some great news from our  home study social worker. Our original home study cost (we have to do 4 and an orientation in Indy) was an estimated $6,700.00! Holy ridiculousness! However, through the way this agency handles their home studies, our cost has been dropped to and estimated $3,500! HOLY COW! That is a pretty big drop! Praise God! For this we are THANKFUL! To say the least each and every one of these things has blown us away and blessed our hearts! Just another reminder of God's faithfulness and provision! Thank you! All of you! To every person who has said a prayer, donated or encouraged us. For you all, we are THANKFUL!