Friday, July 31, 2015

What George Mueller Can Teach Us About Prayer. A Great Example For The Adoption Process



A great example for us at this time in our lives. Praying as well for our needs as we look to adopt.
"During a time in England when most orphans lived in miserable workhouses or on the streets, like Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist, Mueller took them in, fed them, clothed them, and educated them. Through his orphanage in Bristol, Mueller cared for as many as two thousand orphans at a time—more than ten thousand in his lifetime. Yet he never made the needs of his ministries known to anyone except to God in prayer. Only through his annual reports did people learn after the fact what the needs had been during the previous year and how God had provided.

Mueller had over fifty thousand specific recorded answers to prayers in his journals, thirty thousand of which he said were answered the same day or the same hour that he prayed them. Think of it: that’s five hundred definite answers to prayer each year—more than one per day—every single day for sixty years! God funneled over half a billion dollars (in today’s dollars) through his hands in answer to prayer."

source: Crossway.com

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Budgeting Is Crucial For Attaining Our Goals Here's Why...

Looking at adoption costs can be quite intimidating. According to Abbafund,  only 33% of families even consider adoption. Of that 33%,  79% of families who consider adoption are concerned with the astronomical financial obligation it takes in bringing a child home through adoption. For some, the less expensive route is adoption through the foster care system, for other families the alternative route is through private or agency adoption. Whatever the choice, there are moments that many couples and families get discouraged through the "paper chase" process. Much of this unfortunately, has to do with the financial cost and deters folks completely from adopting. 

In conjunction with fundraising, there are other opportunities to put away money for your adoption expenses. A few which we are doing have been to grow our groceries in the garden, buy less junk food and switch grocery stores for stores that sell the fruits, veggies and other products we use at considerable lower costs.   We also use coupons and I'm just starting once again to "stack coupons at stores where we can get products virtually free at times.

While over the past few years with Sister Bear we have been less strict with our pocketbooks, we are now moving BACK to using a tighter budget and cutting back on certain expenses we don't need. Cable for one, which we have given up altogether and use Hulu Plus along with a new one called Feeln which is a family oriented movie and streaming site for just 1.99 a month.

A budget is a HUGE asset in attaining goals of every kind. Even getting out of debt!  Dave Ramsey's site has been such a great tool for us in the past that we've re-committed to creating a tighter budget that will help us attain our goal while in conjunction with other opportunities, will bring our next child home.  In our own unique journey, we wanted to share what WE are doing to offset costs at home while also finding other fundraising opportunities.  If YOU would like to know more about budgeting for a goal like adoption, or are just looking to get out of debt, Dave Ramsey has been our go-to guy through his Financial Peace University books and classes. We HIGHLY recommend them and they will change the way you think about debt. 

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Please Help Us Raise The Cost Of Our Adoption!

The shirts are printed on ultra-soft Next Level apparel. Next Level is sweatshop free, child labor free, WRAP certified (Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production), and is dedicated to ethical standards of conduct in all aspects of production. Check out Next Level's Social Responsibility HERE.

Since the women's shirts are a fitted cut, we recommend ordering up a size (or two). The Vender also recommends washing your shirts inside out with like-colors and drying on low heat.

It is our desire to raise the cost of our adoption without taking a second mortgage, a high interest loan and without going into excess debt. Please help us bring our child/ren home as we put our faith and trust in Gods plan to cover the sum we need to expand our family. We hold onto hope because we have loved our child/ren since before they were born and have prayed each day for over 15 years for the little lives we may impact by the humble gift God has put before us.  For each T-shirt Sold, we will receive half for the cost of our adoption. Thank you for taking part in this fundraiser "And one more makes 4".

To purchase our "HOPE" shirts, please follow our link at  And One More Makes Four

With Thanksgiving...

"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;" Hebrews 10:23

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

We're Back And Excited!



Wow! I visited this blog after 2 years. It's amazing how timing and perspective change over time isn't it?  Over winter we took foster-to-adopt classes which consisted of weeks of 8 hour long intense training where we hoped to foster and then adopt a child 3 years or younger.  After a few snags, we decided to open just to children who were already freed.  The problem with that is that this option has brought us to almost no opportunity. That's right! Usually most younger children go to fostering parents. The problem with that is that we were told about the risk of a few families who made false allegations of abuse on their children to which EVERY child would be taken out of the home.  If that ever were to happen to us, the child it took us 10 years to have would be taken away. When it comes to ANY child in our home, I'm a mama bear! They WILL be protected by us!  The second factor in decided only freed children was that in the case of false allegations, my husbands nursing license could be taken away. That's our sole means of income! There's no way I'd risk everything with no guarantees.

Over the years perspective has changed. As you can see from the former posts, the loss of our son was very real, very sad for us but also an opportunity to understand the loss any child or birth mother will experience. I grieved my son's loss. I wept in the wee hours of the night and there's not one day I don't think about him. I imagine that is what OUR birthmother will feel.  Along with that perspective, we also have friends who've been through so much personally as birth families so we recognize the importance for a child to have that connection with their birth families in one way or another. Not only have studies proved that this is beneficial for the child but also the birth families.  Our hope that the 2 years of new perspective have equipped us to understand all the lives that will be changed and hopefully one day will thrive together for the betterment of whomever God chooses to become a part of our family one day in His time!

I'm emotional and excited all in one.  As I've said before, we've been waiting over 15 years to adopt. The financial shock has taken a while to move through but even that perspective has changed some.  Much of the cost for us will go to the agency to help us with fingerprinting, home studies, the birth mother if she needs anything extra, lawyers fees and post placement.  There are reasons behind much of the costs. While there are some agencies that may not be honest, most ARE.  We're adopting domestically. When a family decides to adopt outside the country there are even more costs. For instance costs of the care of your child, passports, Dossiers, the extra paperwork. It gets pretty pricey!  I used to think how could they do that to so many children needing homes! I now see that it's not so cut and dry. There are actually costs and much of the time agencies break even in order to help bring families together.

SO, with all that said, We're ADOPTING!!! YAY! Little Bear wants a brother AND a sister. Hahaha  I highly doubt she understands the repercussions of what she has said. Hahaha I DO believe she's going to be a great big sister. She just loves children. I can see her being a mother goose. Oh how I can't wait to share her with the little boy or girl we'll be chosen to be family of. Who knows, maybe we'll have more extended family with his or her birth families. We have SO MUCH love to give. Adding more family would be such a blessing. We're just ready!

We've chosen an agency, are on a waiting list and now have stepped out in faith to trust that God will provide all the money it will take to adopt without going into debt. We are refusing to remortgage our home or take out loans. We want to leave a legacy for our children. So now we get creative. I already have some options ready. I'm giddy with excitement and look forward to sharing with you the journey of adding to our family.

Love and hugs!