Lots of activity around here!

Well,

  I haven't posted in a few days because we've been away on a family field trip to Charleston, SC.
We've studied the Civil War a bit this year and we promised to take the kids to Fort Sumter in Charleston so they could stand where the Civil War officially started. 

We took a really nice boat tour over to the island and the National Park Ranger at the Fort really knew his stuff so it was really enjoyable. 

While we were in Charleston, we hit the SC Aquarium...

I have LOTS more pictures to eventually post about this little homeschooling trip but I've finally been given the "official" go-ahead from Dan to post something pretty important...

Drum roll, please.........................

Dan has been given a job offer and has accepted the new position!  He went to work today and handed in his two week notice!  Dan has a new job, folks!

We are pretty excited around here!  We are so incredibly thankful to Our Lord for His abundant blessings on our family.  And I am very blessed to have a hard-working and incredibly talented husband :)

More pictures of our field trip as well as more job info. to come :)

Happy Monday!

Kimberly

Checking things off our list...

Dan unexpectedly took off a few days this week to try to get a bunch of stuff off our "To Do" list as well as go on a family History Field trip for our Civil War studies.  I'll post more about that later. 


Dan, aka Mr. Homesteader, went and got himself a great used trailer so now he can cart all the wood, farm supplies, landscaping stuff, aquaponics setup supplies and even our trash to the dump!  We all went and got some lumber for the long-awaiting "older boy tree fort" that has been long coming for the big boys in our family :)  There are plans in the works for building to start tomorrow!

We have some rasberry bushes that are sitting in my entryway begging to be planted :) 

I went to our local homestudy agency office to drop off our big payment for our homestudy, backround check stuff and some more paperwork...they are SO NICE there...it is such a blessing to have somebody in person that is kind and helpful.  It was nice to be able to get something else done towards our adoption.

I wrote this post last night and got side-tracked on posting it...Today is actually Ash Wednesday so we need to get to Church this morning.  Hopefully I'll get back here and post a little about our family plans for Lent.  We are definitely keeping it simple this year and focusing on a real conversion of heart.  Stay tuned!

Blessings,
Kimberly

Great Backyard Bird Count!

 Taking a break today from our adoption posting...we are doing some nature study at our house.

Things have been busy around here...but its nice to post about one of our favorite little nature things that we try to do each school year...The Great Backyard Bird Count!  The Cornell Lab of Ornithology puts this together a couple times a year.  The kids are able to print lists of birds for our area and then do a "bird watch" for 15 min.  We identify what birds and how many of each species and then turn our tally sheets in to Cornell.  We can actually do this several times at different locations for the next few days and send them  all our results.  It helps them to watch the health and habits of the birds in our area.  

 This is the site:

http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc
Or you can just look up "Great Backyard Bird Count 2012"

The kids love it...we end up learning a lot of species that we didn't know or noticing birds that come through that we hadn't identified yet.  Our new house definitely has different birds to count than our old house. 

This has been an awesome way for the kids to study nature as well as become more attentive to what is around them. 

We are sick here at our house today...so its going to be a lot of hot tea, a lot of naps, and a lot of bird counting & field guides :)

P.S.  >>>>  If you happen to read this today, please say a little prayer for Dan today...he has a very special prayer request that could use some added prayer- thanks!

Blessings,
Kimberly

Love is a decision

Well, we're really trying to keep the ball rolling with our future adoption...been communicating back and forth quite a bit today trying to get accurate information about our options.  Its not easy...you'll just have to trust me on that.

Pray for us...that we can get some decisions made and move forward to deciding who God is calling to join our family.  We were really sad about this past weekend, but God has been so good to us and especially lately...just making it really clear that we can handle this.  He will work it out.  Just pray for discernment for us that we make the right choices.

Blessings,
Kimberly

a hard time...

Well, we knew adoption was not for the faint of heart...
Its been a hard few days...Dan and I thought we were going to be "committing" to two little girls that would come home and be a part of our family.  This is not so...

There is so much more...the adoption world is a crazy place...so many variables, so many unknowns.  

I am learning that they don't call it a "ransom" for nothing...

I've had moments when I've thought about not doing this...not adopting.  Then our Lord shows me these things...

 These are not my words...but they have spoken to me over the past few days of difficulty.
May God continue to break my heart for the things that break His...



From www.obedienttogodscalladoption.blogspot.com/2012/01/i-came-across-this-today-while-running.html

 May God Bless You...with Tears and Anger, Discomfort and Foolishness

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.


May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain in to joy.


And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.
-Franciscan prayer

 "How often do we think a blessing should look like anger or discomfort or tears?  What a perfect reminder that we are never promised an easy road, or a carefree experience here on Earth.  What we are promised is to be saved by Christ if we ask and follow through with faith, to be transformed by Him so that we can be more like Him.  We are promised to be indwelt with the Holy Spirit to guide us.  While reading this, I thought about how we always view blessings as a comfortable experience, but to be blessed like this, blessed with a heart that breaks for the things God's heart breaks for, that is truly a blessing to beg Abba for.  If we love as He has commanded, and we reach out as He has asked, and we stand up and fight when it is needed, we are truly shining His light this world.  If we never experience this kind of blessing, we may forget the orphan and the widow, we may ignore the poor and the hurting, the lost and the broken.  So tonight, I cry out to Abba please, bless me in these ways!"  
From www.obedienttogodscalladoption.blogspot.com/2012/01/i-came-across-this-today-while-running.html

  
 And yet another quote that has spoken to me this week...
 
 "Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise,
risking more than others think is safe,
dreaming more than others think is practical,
 and expecting more than others think is possible." ~Stephen Covey
 

Too true...

Working on school planning....and having my "coffee fix"
You know its bad when you read this poster out loud to your husband and he bursts out laughing at you while pointing in your general direction... :)  I need another cup before I can come up with a witty comeback ;)

Please watch

This is a must see...it is worth every minute of the time it will take you to watch it.  Some people will think we are crazy for wanting to adopt a special needs child...they will think it will be unfair to our other children.  But we don't believe loving others and growing in self-sacrifice for the needs of others is a bad thing.  No one can tell me that our "normal" children will not benefit from having siblings with disabilities...it is obvious that obstacles make us better people...if we let them.  And serving others in love is beautiful...

You don't get much better than this...


(HT to www.savinghissparrows.blogspot.com for the video)

Well...here we go!

We finally did it...Dan brought our application and fee money into our local agency and got the ball officially rolling for our adoption....aahhh!!!  It doesn't sound like a big deal.  It's just starting the homestudy.  But it has taken us many long months of prayer and discussion... to try to figure out what direction God was calling us.  Now its just time to take the first step and see what He does from there!

Dan thought it was no big deal...that he'd get really excited when the homestudy is done...I, on the other hand, can relate to this T-Shirt.  We may not be "expecting" yet...but its like we're really trying now :)

Not just talkin' about it...doing it.

We're using an agency that several friends have used and who has a social worker that is known to be really great.  So...I'm getting excited!  Nervous... but excited!

Susan G. Komen De-Funds Planned Parenthood!

So glad to hear that the Susan G. Komen For the Cure has decided to de-fund Planned Parenthood.
We've never been able to support any breast cancer research or walk for the cure activities through them because of their monetary support of Planned Parenthood. 

Lets pray they stay strong and continue to hold to this decision...Planned Parenthood is pretty ticked... :)