A little reminder

Been thinking about this verse a lot lately...

“Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you."  (Jeremiah 32:17)


So...this adoption and raising the funds might be too hard for us, but its not too hard for Him.

Dan and I have been working really hard on trying to find ways to raise the money needed to bring Joseph home.  It can be all-consuming at times.  It is a heavy burden.  Many people think adoption is only for the wealthy that already have it all together and can afford the cost of a $25,000 adoption.

But we know this is not the case.  We know that God doesn't call people when their most financially established or when its not going to really cost them something.  He calls people out of their comfort zones and asks them to trust.

So we are trusting.  And I've been thinking about this verse, too...

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;" (Proverbs 3:5)



And we pray.  We pray each and every single day in thanksgiving for those that have helped.  We pray also that God will stir the hearts of those around us and call them to do something for one of the least of these...because that is what Joseph is.  He is the orphan, the needy, the oppressed that Christ has commanded us to help in their distress. 

So, our human selves worry but deep down we know that God cares more about Joseph than even we do and He wouldn't call us this far and leave us hanging ;)  Trust.  And knowing that nothing is too hard for our God.  Its good to take a minute and be reminded :)

Blessings,
Kimberly

A Great Big Thank You!

I was just looking through the kids listed on Reece's Rainbow and looking to see what category our family sponsorship page with them was listed on...under the "Sponsor a family" menu, they move you from "New Commitments" to "Working on your homestudy" to "Compiling your dossier" etc.  Since we'd finished our dossier, I was curious to see if we'd be listed under the next step, which is actually titled "Almost there"...yup, its actually called "Almost there"....it sounds so silly, but its pretty amazing to see us in a category of "almost there." 

Anyway, I'm getting off track here!  I went to our sponsorship page which has read $75 now for months and was so excited to see that we now have $110 in there!  Woohoo!!   Wanna see it?  Here it is... I know its only an additional $35 dollars, but every little bit counts!  It means the world to us to have the financial support.  It can be pretty discouraging to see your sponsorship page sit stagnant and not be increasing while you're getting closer and closer to a travel date.  But this was a nice little blessing and we'll keep praying that these blessings keep coming!

 I don't know who actually donated to our account but I hope they know how incredibly thankful we are that they noticed Joseph and our family and took the time to share like that with us.  Thank you!!!  Please, if you'd like to have some puzzle pieces on our puzzle fundraiser with your name on it, please leave a comment or email me at so we can remember how you helped bring our boy home!  And we also try to pray daily for those that have donated, so we'd love to do that for you as well.
Thank you again for donating and for the encouragement it gives our family :)

Blessings,
Kimberly

Chicken Show Post and fitting a full life in one little blog

Its hard to balance lots of family life with the kids at home and our adoption efforts all on one blog!  I know I should probably have a separate blog for just adoption stuff, but I just don't think I could keep it up.  Every time I get on here, I want to write something about our adoption...and I feel like people check in here to find out how our adoption is going....or they check in to read about our adventures with homesteading, chickens or homeschooling...and its awfully hard to make it all fit in a nice box.

 I guess that's life, right?  Its big and involved and not easily fit into a nice little box!  So hopefully people won't mind too much that I switch back and forth between my beautiful kids, our schooling,  homesteading and our adoption.   And since my oldest son wanted to know if I was going to be posting any of them on the blog anytime soon (he knows Gramma and Auntie Sofia both check this blog and see the pictures of them) I figured I better post some long overdue pictures of the boys' 4-H Chicken Show!

Let me just say that I could not possibly be prouder of my boys than I was after this chicken show.  They have worked so hard...since their chickens were 1 day old, to spend time with them and make them the great chickens that they are now.  They're our pets and its not unusual to look out one of our windows and see a boy carrying his feathered friend around the yard with him while he plays.  They love those chickens.

Gabriel actually won best of his breed and age group!  He got a little check and everything.  We were so happy for him.  Elijah was not quite old enough to really enter that part of the competition, which was sad for him, but he did great and they both came home with ribbons for all their hard work!  The boys are even splitting Gabe's check since they both worked so hard and they both earned it for their teamwork in taking care of their birds.

  I love living in the country :)


Waiting to be called to show his chicken...

 Elijah demonstrating his chicken to the judge...

 Gabriel waiting to show his chicken...

Gabriel showing his chicken...

Gabriel with his blue ribbon chicken!  The judge asked him a lot of questions and he really did a great job!

 Elijah with his chicken...he specifically requested that his chicken be able to wear the ribbon in the picture since, as he put it, "she's the one that worked so hard for it"  :)  Love that boy!

The proud boys with their show birds...

 
Congratulations to my little chicken farmers!  I guess we're on to goats now???  :)
Elijah seems to think he's up for milking twice a day... :)

Chip-in and fundraising

Hi all,

  Just wanted to explain our chip-in button on the left side of the blog...it DID read $215 (Yeah!) but for some reason, it went to zero and we couldn't seem to figure out how to fix it on the blog.  The money is still in our paypal account with chip-in, it just wasn't showing up on the blog.  We decided to just start a new chip- in button on the blog.  It works fine now and we didn't lose the money so we're all set.  We'd be thrilled if people would continue to support us by donating to our chip-in button :)  Not tax deductible, but we will be able to use that money when we need to make the BIG payment to our international adoption agency.

Also, a little update on our puzzle fundraiser!  We've had some people donate specifically for puzzle pieces and others that have just given us a little donation just because!  We've been "purchasing" puzzle pieces for everyone that donates ever since we started the puzzle fundraiser...even if they haven't specified that they were donating for a puzzle piece.  We recently received a wonderful donation check for $100 so we put 10 puzzle pieces aside for that thoughtful family!  What a blessing! 

So far we have had 76 puzzle pieces donated!  We are so thankful to those that have donated!  But that still leaves a lot of pieces still available for donations.  437 to be exact.  Would you please prayerfully consider donating one or more puzzle pieces to bringing Joseph home?  Each puzzle piece is just $10.  You can go to the top right hand side of the blog and click the puzzle pieces button to learn  more about the puzzle fundraiser.  Please feel free to spread the word and ask others to donate to our chip-in, our Reece's Rainbow button or even in person to purchase puzzle pieces to bring our little boy home.  And come back and let me know that you donated so we can get your name on our puzzle! 

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this...I know life is busy and we're all so swamped with the "stuff of life" but this little boy needs the funds to be raised so he can come home.  He needs to come home before he reaches that scary "transfer" age...please consider helping to bring him home so that he will never have to know what the inside of an institution looks like.

Thank you!
And please know we pray for our benefactors each and every day!

Kimberly

Mini Update

Hi all,

  I only have a few minutes since we have a full day of cleaning and errands to get done today. 

Family Life update:
  Things have been busy...we had our second co-op meeting yesterday for homeschooling.  This is a new co-op for the kids and I this year and they all seem to love it.  I'm teaching a group of first graders and all my kids have their own little class they go to...its been good for them this year. 

  The boys had their official 4-H chicken show last night!  They have worked so hard to learn about and raise their own chickens and I couldn't be prouder of them.  I will post a post about that with pictures as soon as I get a chance.

Adoption update: 
  Our dossier (the huge pack of official paperwork that needs to be done and sent to the country you are adopting from) is now finished!  It has joyfully been sent to our international adoption agency and they have sent it over to Joseph's country.  It will then be translated into their language and we are officially waiting for Joseph's government to process everything and be given permission to travel.  Its just a guess at this point, but our agency's best guess at traveling would be 3 months from now.  That could be wrong, but that's the guess.  That puts us at early to mid Decemeber.  Please pray for us as we trust in the Lord's timing on this...I want so much to be able to go see Joseph's country, his orphanage, what his day-to-day life looks like but its probably going to be a last minute decision whether I am too pregnant to travel, whether its too risky, whether we should postpone travel a little while and take an infant with us....we'll just have to see how it all plays out.  But no matter what...he is a part of our family and when its all said and done he'll finally be home :)  Can't really argue with that, right?  :)

The need to fundraise, though, is something that is a definite!  We have a few months and a lot of money to raise.  We are working on something for our church to try to raise awareness and support for our adoption but we could use all the help we can get!  Please spread the word about our adoption and help us raise the funds to bring Joseph home!  Maybe your family wants to collect loose change and spare money in a jar and donate it?  Interested in having a yard sale and donating the proceeds?  Do you design or make something that could be sold for the cause of bringing Joseph home?  Every little bit counts!

Many blessings to everyone this weekend...and thank you for following along with our family as we bring our little boy home!

:) Kimberly

Boat trip with Dad...

A week or two ago Dan decided to take the kids out to the state park for a hike.  They were all happy to discover that they had boat rentals at the park so they rented one for a few hours and explored the lake. 

The kids were still excitedly chatting about it days later!  They had so much fun...

So thankful that my kids have a good Dad who takes them out to do fun things together :)