Monday, March 28, 2011

Payment Made!












(via)

I just wanted to point out (for timelines sake) that we officially paid for our homestudy today!  The check was in the mail and I felt relieved to have this expense paid for! ($1500 for those of you who are wondering!)

Our next expense will be our formal application from our placing agency which we are currently waiting not so very patiently for!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Saturday Snapshot

It seems I need a blog hop to keep me posting around here right now!  I found this blog hop over at Smallbird Studio and thought I would participate this week.  To participate, just hop on over to Yellow Songbird and link up a snapshot!

Some of you follow my 365 blog and I shared this there too (hence the watermark from that site) , but I just love when I get a little signs from above.  I'd been having a rather emotional week.  Last Sunday, we missed church, but went to visit with my mom and grandmother later in the day.  It was such a beautiful day, we walked around outside and then I noticed this little heart in a tree Ben had cut down for my mom.

Little hearts remind me of Jakin and always make me smile.  I love finding God's love for us in the mundane, everyday parts of life.  I love how the beautiful nature that God created can't help but show his love for us!



Friday, March 25, 2011

Five Minute Friday- waking up




Five minute Friday topic:

waking up

I'm typing today's 5 minute Friday from my i.pod, so forgive the typos and brevity in advance :)

Today's topic is wakin up.

When we first lost Shyla, I was in a fog for a long time. Then, slowly, I began to wake up. I woke up to a life that I never imagined I would ever have. I woke up to all the things that can happen during pregnancy. But I also some up to the amazing support of women like me and for the resources these women provide. On the other hand, I also woke up to the terrible lack of resources for loss moms in hospitals and in real life.

Waking up to these reAlities made me want to do something about it.

That is all the time I have for this topic today!

To link up with 5 minute Fridays, check ou the button on the right sidebar.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Establishing Laughter

Our littlest of babies, Jakin Isaac was born November 24, 2009 at 18 weeks 6 days.  4 months ago today.
On the 24th of every month, I want to share things that make us laugh.  Photos, videos, jokes and anything else that has made us laugh lately. 

Why laugh on a sad day?

Jakin Isaac's name means "God will Establish Laughter".  And he we believe he will.  God WILL establish laughter in our lives.  He gave us that promise when He gave us this name for Jakin.

So today, enjoy these church bulletin funnies that I found here.  I've seen some of these before, but they always make me giggle.  I can't believe these were really printed in real church bulletins! 

******************

*Don't let worry kill you - let the church help.


*Thursday night - Potluck supper. Prayer and medication to follow.

*Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our church and community.

*For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

*The rosebud on the alter this morning is to announce the birth of David Alan Belzer, the sin of Rev. and Mrs. Julius Belzer.

*This afternoon there will be a meeting in the South and North ends of the church. Children will be baptized at both ends.

*Tuesday at 4:00 PM there will be an ice cream social. All ladies giving milk will please come early.

*Wednesday the ladies liturgy will meet. Mrs. Johnson will sing "Put me in my little bed" accompanied by the pastor.

*Thursday at 5:00 PM there will be a meeting of the Little Mothers Club. All ladies wishing to be "Little Mothers" will meet with the Pastor in his study.

*This being Easter Sunday, we will ask Mrs. Lewis to come forward and lay an egg on the altar.

*The service will close with "Little Drops of Water." One of the ladies will start quietly and the rest of the congregation will join in.

*Next Sunday a special collection will be taken to defray the cost of the new carpet. All those wishing to do something on the new carpet will come forward and do so.

*The ladies of the church have cast off clothing of every kind. They can be seen in the church basement Saturday.

*A bean supper well be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.

*At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.

*The Reverend Merriweather spoke briefly, much to the delight of the audience.

*The eighth graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the church basement on Friday at 7:00 p.m. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.

*During the absence of our pastor we enjoyed the rare privilege of hearing a good sermon when J.F. Scubbs supplied our pulpit.

*The Senior Choir invites any member of the congregation who enjoys sinning to join the choir.

*Weight Watchers will meet at 7:00 pm at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use the large double door at the side entrance.

*The Associate minister unveiled the church's new tithing campaign slogan last Sunday - "I upped my pledge - up yours!"

*Next Sunday, Mrs. Vinson will be the soloist for the morning service. The pastor will then speak on "It's a Terrible Experience."

*The choir will meet at the Larsen home for fun and sinning.

*A song fest was hell at the Methodist Church Wednesday.

*The pastor will preach his farewell message, after which the choir will sing, "Break Forth Into Joy."

*Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on Oct. 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in school days.

*Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say, "hell" to someone who doesn't care much about you.

*Due to the Rector's illness, Wednesday's healing services will be discontinued until further notice.

*The concert held in the Fellowship Hall was a great success. Special thanks are due to the minister's daughter, who labored the whole evening at the piano, which as usual fell on her.

*Today, Christian Youth Fellowship House Sexuality Course, 1pm-8pm. Please park in the rear parking lot for this activity.

*Offertory: "Jesus Paid It All"

*The church is glad to have with us today as our guest minister the Rev. Green who has Mrs. Green with him. After the service we request that all remain in the sanctuary for the Hanging of the Greens.

*Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles, and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.

*The outreach committee has enlisted 25 visitors to make calls on people who are not afflicted with any church.

*Evening massage -- 6 p.m.

*The Pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday morning.

*The audience is asked to remain seated until the end of the recession.

*Low Self-Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 to 8:30 p.m. Please use the back door.

*Ushers will eat latecomers.

*The third verse of Blessed Assurance will be sung without musical accomplishment.

*Today's Sermon: HOW MUCH CAN A MAN DRINK? with hymns from a full choir.

*22 members were present at the church meeting held at the home of Mrs. Marsha Crutchfield last evening. Mrs. Crutchfield and Mrs. Rankin sang a duet, 'The Lord Knows Why.'

*The 1997 Spring Council Retreat will be hell May 10 and 11.

*Pastor is on vacation. Massages can be given to Church secretary.

*8 new choir robes are currently needed, due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some of the older ones.

*Please join us as we show our support for Amy and Alan in preparing for the girth of their first child.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Accepted and Waiting!

I got an email today from our placement agency.

Which do you want to hear first...the good news or the bad news? 

The good news is our pre-application has been accepted!!! YAY!!!

The bad news is there is new time lines.  The Korea Program manager with our placement agency said that families are now seeing wait times between 4 and 6 months before they can fill out their formal appplication.  Just to clarify, we will not be put on a waiting list or any of our paperwork sent to Korea for 4-6 more months.  Then they are seeing a 6-9 month wait until a referral may be made.  What was originally given to us as a 6 month wait to a referral and 3-4 month wait after that to travel has now turned into a 10-15 month wait for referral. 

So, what does all this mean? 

It just means we wait longer.  God's time.  Not ours.  The end.

What do we need right now?

*PRAYER!  Prayer for God's direction in every decision and His divine comfort as we wait.

*Money.  I'm going to be honest.  Adoption is expensive.  We are raising funds and we trust God to walk us through this.  If you know us personally, you know we hate debt and believe the borrower is slave to the lender and think maybe this extra wait time is given to us to raise more funds and save more money.  God's plan.  Not ours.

*Patience.  We are doing ok in this area now.  But Ethan asks us almost everyday when we are going to South Korea to get our baby.  He has experienced so much loss in his life I really just want to protect his heart while we wait.

What are we waiting on?

The next step is getting fingerprints.  We are currently waiting on our letter from CIS to make the trip to get our fingerprints done. 


‎"We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you."

~Psalm 33:20-22

Saturday, March 19, 2011

The Little Things

It's the little things that bring joy and hope lately.  I'm picking up where I left off last month in counting the things that bring me hope.  Things that make me happy.  Small Miracles.  Things that might be normal or routine if we don't take the time to notice them for what they are. 
I've also included some photos from my 365 blog.

11."Good Morning" kisses from a sleepy three year old.

12. The first flowers of spring.

13. Packages containing needed materials for a special project in memory of a very special little boy.


14. A day of sunshine after what feels like a month of rain.

15. Having lunch with old friends.

16. Getting an unexpected butterfly for Jakin.


17. Hubs coming home after a week away.

18. Finding some awesome educational books for Ethan for $1 each!


19.  Seeing Ethan enjoying $1 books!

20.  Seeing progress be made in the adoption!

I'm linking up this list of what brings me hope and joy with the Small Miracles blog hop and Happy Saturdays Blog Hop!



 

Friday, March 18, 2011

On Waiting

I ran across this Five Minute Friday blog hop and I thought I would give it a try today.  I feel like I have had so much to say lately, but didn't have the words to say it.  So here goes.  Five minutes.  And the topic for this week is waiting...




The Gypsy Mama says:

This is the place where once a week we take the chance to just write, and not worry if it’s just right or not.


For five minutes flat.


Here’s how the game works: you simply stop, drop and write. Set your words free. Don’t edit them, don’t fret over them, don’t try to make them perfect.

This weeks topic...

On Waiting

This could not have been a better topic if I had chosen in myself!  Waiting seems to be a large part of our life right now.  April is just around the corner and I am waiting for Jakin's due date to roll around.  I'm trying to make plans to celebrate his life and the wait of the day is almost too much some times.  I can't believe I am looking at another due date with no baby.  Celebrating a short life instead of a happy birth.  Grief can be exhausting.

Another area of waiting has been in the adoption.  The theme of the past two weeks have been "hurry up and wait" and "just waiting on that email or phone call before I can...".  But we got great news!  The finances have worked out and I shared some other news on the adoption blog.  Funny thing.  I have written twice lately about waiting!  And still being this early in the process I am sure I will right more about the wait before we get to bring our little one home.

Waiting.  I guess the biggest thing is that I emphasis that waiting, all waiting, in pain and joy, is in Hope.  We wait in Hope with the Lord that he will supply ALL our needs according to HIS riches and glory.  Not ours. So again.  I will echo...

We wait in hope!

Progress is being made!

We are feeling some progress being made!  The past two weeks have felt like baby steps but now I feel like a lot of things are now out of our hands and where they need to be for now.  So...here are the two major things accomplished this week:

* We FINALLY got everything worked out with the bank and re-submitted our financial statement to our placing agency and to our homestudy agency to revise our homestudy.

* Our I600A was sent to our homestudy agency and ready to be mailed with our revised homestudy!!!  YAY!!!

I'm SO excited to have these two things done!

What is next:

We now wait on recieving notification to have our biometrics (fingerprints) done.

I'm not feeling impatient yet, I just didn't anticipate certain things taking the amount of time that they did.  I'm not complaining though.  God knows our child.  He knows the child's needs and when we will be a forever family.

Our Hope is in Him.

We wait in Hope.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Remembering St. Patrick

InfiniteIngenuity
(via)

"Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me."
~St. Patrick


  

Sunday, March 6, 2011

We wait in Hope

"We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you."

~Psalm 33:20-22


We are in need of some prayers today.  Please be praying somethings work out.  I know I'm being really general...

We need a certain amount of money to be in our accounts before we can be placed on the waiting list.  We are working on a few options and should *hopefully* know something in the next couple of days.  This is not something every country requires, but the Korea program wants to see we have all the funds, plus some, in our account before they approve our application. 

We wait in Hope for the Lord. 

We put our Hope in Him!

Friday, March 4, 2011

Her name is Hope...

If you hadn't guessed, Hope is the name we have chosen for our daughter.  A long time ago this name was chosen.  There are many, many, many reasons for this name, but for now I thought I would leave you with this verse we have been focusing on a church for the past several weeks...

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13

Hope, Joy and Peace to you!

Bring Hope Home

I'm at it again :-)

Yup, I started another blog.  I began to feel a little guilty about talking so much on this blog about the adoption and fundraisers.  You all area wonderful commentors and readers and I don't want to bombard you with fundraisers when that is not the reason you came here.  If you found me through a loss blog, the last thing I want to do is to seem like I am taking advantage of your being here.  I will be posting more about the progress of the adoption on another blog and the fundraisers and such.  We are so excited and so blessed to be welcoming another child into our family and please feel free to follow our journey over there as well. 

I will still post some here about the adoption journey or at least direct you over there when major progress is made. 

So...if you so choose, head on over to Bring Hope Home and leave me some love letting me know you've been there.  The blog is still a work in progress, but I don't plan on spending much time on blog design...SO SO SO much more to do!!!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

2nds for Shyla - Creative Joy - 18 months

2nd's are for Shyla!  Since our girl's name means "Creative Joy", every 2nd of the month I want to share Creative things that I like and bring me joy. 

Today I wanted to share some of the things I have been making to sell in my etsy shop.  I have never been a very girly girl, but when I learned we would be having a girl, I became emersed in all things pink and frilly.

So far, I have just done some flower headbands, clips and pins.  Any of these flowers can be attached to a crocheted headband, a satin headband, a stretchy headband or a pin backing to be worn as a broach.  What do you think?










Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Happy Korean Independence Day!!!

Let Freedom Ring!

Happy Korean Independence Day!