We're still looking at houses, though now we're looking a little more closely at how to get more out of our current condo. When you start to look around and ask "how little do we need to do X?" you get very different answers than you get to the usual question of "how much do we need to do X?". There's a big perspective change involved, and it's one that we are working on (well, certainly myself, the Mrs. is better at this than I am). We want to keep doing adoptions into the foreseeable future, so aiming for maximum-family on minimum-money-and-space is a good perspective to acquire sooner rather than later.
I started full-time work this past week. It's a good job, but I really miss seeing Ivan in the middle of the day. Judging by his reaction when I get home, he misses me too. We'll see if God brings us opportunities to change the papa's-gone-all-day-every-weekday dynamic. I don't like it, and I think it's healthier if papa can be around at least some hours during at least some weekdays. We'll see. We are thankful for God's provision of this employment.
But seriously, anybody want our loveseat? It's in good shape, and I'll hear any reasonable offers...
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Monday, May 6, 2013
Penny and Benjamin update
Benjamin's family is fully funded!!!!! They are still collecting funds for equipment that they need for when he gets home, but all of their travel is covered! Praise God!
Penny's fundraiser is going well, I think they need somewhere on the order of $1000 to be fully funded. They are so close! This is very exciting.
Penny's fundraiser is going well, I think they need somewhere on the order of $1000 to be fully funded. They are so close! This is very exciting.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Penny, Benjamin, and a lot of Matthew 6
Do you remember Penny?
We originally wanted to adopt her, but were beat to the punch :-)
Over at the blog A Perfect Lily, there is a little fundraiser to help Penny's family bring her home.
They've got this great thing going complete with an iPad giveaway. We are so happy to see Penny's family so close to being fully funded! You should stop by, read their story, and maybe give a little bit through the Reece's Rainbow family sponsorship page.
There is another family who also needs help. They were in the process of adopting their son Jonathan and found out 5 weeks before they were going to bring him home that he had died. Their hearts were broken at the death of their son, but they made the decision to adopt another child from his orphanage. Things have been moving pretty fast for them, but because of the way their travel dates fell with their schedule and the holidays in the country that they are adopting their son Benjamin from, they ended up needing more travel money than they raised funds for. They need around $3000 to be fully funded for the extra travel that they will have to make.
Would you please consider going to their Reece's Rainbow family sponsorship page and giving just a little bit, maybe $5? Their travel is coming up very soon and every dollar will help to make this smoother for them. I don't have any iPads to give away so you are just going to have to do this without hope of an earthly reward ;-)
Even if you can't give, please pray for these families! They know that God is more powerful than money problems and I can guarantee you that they appreciate your fervent prayers for them and their children even more than money.
“Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 3 But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Matthew 6:1-4, 19-21, 25-34
We originally wanted to adopt her, but were beat to the punch :-)
Over at the blog A Perfect Lily, there is a little fundraiser to help Penny's family bring her home.
They've got this great thing going complete with an iPad giveaway. We are so happy to see Penny's family so close to being fully funded! You should stop by, read their story, and maybe give a little bit through the Reece's Rainbow family sponsorship page.
There is another family who also needs help. They were in the process of adopting their son Jonathan and found out 5 weeks before they were going to bring him home that he had died. Their hearts were broken at the death of their son, but they made the decision to adopt another child from his orphanage. Things have been moving pretty fast for them, but because of the way their travel dates fell with their schedule and the holidays in the country that they are adopting their son Benjamin from, they ended up needing more travel money than they raised funds for. They need around $3000 to be fully funded for the extra travel that they will have to make.
Would you please consider going to their Reece's Rainbow family sponsorship page and giving just a little bit, maybe $5? Their travel is coming up very soon and every dollar will help to make this smoother for them. I don't have any iPads to give away so you are just going to have to do this without hope of an earthly reward ;-)
Even if you can't give, please pray for these families! They know that God is more powerful than money problems and I can guarantee you that they appreciate your fervent prayers for them and their children even more than money.
“Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 3 But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Matthew 6:1-4, 19-21, 25-34
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Still Here
I realize that I have become one of those infuriating bloggers who doesn't update their blog. Sorry.
Things are actually going really well. We just had a very pleasant and non-stressful home visit with our SW and we have scheduled our last home study interview. We have several pieces of our dossier in progress, and we are looking forward to delving more into that.
Garnet is starting to feel like an absent family member and less like a project. We miss her! We talk about her at meals. We pray for her. We feel like things are going so SLOW on our end.
Other than that, there's not much going on around here. We are holding off on buying anything for her (clothes, crib) because we don't know what is the right size. Those will be projects for after the first visit.
We keep doing our daily things and looking forward to progress in the process. Waiting is in God's hands, too!
Things are actually going really well. We just had a very pleasant and non-stressful home visit with our SW and we have scheduled our last home study interview. We have several pieces of our dossier in progress, and we are looking forward to delving more into that.
Garnet is starting to feel like an absent family member and less like a project. We miss her! We talk about her at meals. We pray for her. We feel like things are going so SLOW on our end.
Other than that, there's not much going on around here. We are holding off on buying anything for her (clothes, crib) because we don't know what is the right size. Those will be projects for after the first visit.
We keep doing our daily things and looking forward to progress in the process. Waiting is in God's hands, too!
Friday, April 19, 2013
Little details
I was looking at Reece's Rainbow, and I saw on Garnet's little blurb that there were multiple photos available. We had only ever seen one, so I immediately emailed our SW about the others. It turns out there was one other, obviously carelessly taken at the same time as the one that we had already seen. It is more zoomed out, so it was easy to see how tiny she is! It also shows that what I had hoped was a nice crib looks more like a mat on the floor :-(
I pore over the details in her file and look at the two pictures. Her file says she has a "baba" and responds well to touch; I pray that this is preparing her to have a family. Her file says she can't interact with other children given her condition. I get the feeling that she has never been given a chance.
She can hold a toy for a short amount of time... This gives me hope; maybe she isn't totally sensorily deprived? She is learning to eat from a spoon... This is also very good, though there is no discussion of what eating issues she has. I am sure we will be seeing an eating OT when she gets home. I am praying that she will be good at eating (or learning to eat) and that we won't have to do a g-tube or an ng tube, but I have no way of guessing what will actually happen until I get to see her in person.
She appears to have the thickest head of hair! It is amazing, given her extremely low level of nutrition. I am looking forward to letting those dark curls get a little longer!
All of our info is almost a year old, so there is a lot we don't know. I pray that she has progressed, that her baba gives her lots of good contact and input, and that her nutrition is improved. Please join me in asking our great God to protect and preserve our little girl!
I pore over the details in her file and look at the two pictures. Her file says she has a "baba" and responds well to touch; I pray that this is preparing her to have a family. Her file says she can't interact with other children given her condition. I get the feeling that she has never been given a chance.
She can hold a toy for a short amount of time... This gives me hope; maybe she isn't totally sensorily deprived? She is learning to eat from a spoon... This is also very good, though there is no discussion of what eating issues she has. I am sure we will be seeing an eating OT when she gets home. I am praying that she will be good at eating (or learning to eat) and that we won't have to do a g-tube or an ng tube, but I have no way of guessing what will actually happen until I get to see her in person.
She appears to have the thickest head of hair! It is amazing, given her extremely low level of nutrition. I am looking forward to letting those dark curls get a little longer!
All of our info is almost a year old, so there is a lot we don't know. I pray that she has progressed, that her baba gives her lots of good contact and input, and that her nutrition is improved. Please join me in asking our great God to protect and preserve our little girl!
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
A post from Penny's mom
http://zingermama.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-battle-is-now.html
The above address will take you to a great blog post about an urgent situation at Garnet and Penny's orphanage.
Go look, and pray!
The above address will take you to a great blog post about an urgent situation at Garnet and Penny's orphanage.
Go look, and pray!
Monday, April 15, 2013
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)