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

What George Mueller Can Teach Us About Prayer.

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

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. 

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

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!

Longing To Adopt

Now that our little girl is close to 2 yrs, we're looking at expanding our family.  We'd love to conceive another child. In fact, we've been going through fertility treatment until recently when we stopped for the summer because I wanted to enjoy the time together as a family with the daughter we DO have.

We have been open to every legal and moral route to bring another child into our family.  I can't say it hasn't been hard. I miss our sweet boy who is in heaven. I wonder if his personality would be similar to his little sister or if he would be more reserved like his dad.  Looking at my sweet girl, I just LOVE being her mom! She makes us laugh with her antics and is SO expressive. Very independent too.  She deepens that ache to want more.  I just love being a mom.  Her mom...someone's mom.

I'd LOVE to have another child through my own body, yet I'm not blind to the risks again.  My age is 1 year older (39) The question of whether I'll get pregnant even WITH fertility treatment then the risks of anomalies that come with age and of course the mere fact that once I hit second trimester I'll need progesterone and a stitch thanks to what we now know as Incompetent Cervical issues.

I took the summer off to gather myself together. Fertility treatment really takes its tole on the body AND the mind.  It can also mean your marriage gets put on the backburner.  It's not really the most romantic way to get pregnant.  I brought the idea to my husband just to regroup, make GOD the center and also put the blessings I ALREADY have as of great importance.  I wanted us all to have fun together. I wanted to rekindle my marriage and also remind myself that GOD is in control. To be content with where I am and rely solely on HIS plan. Whether to conceive or to adopt.

Either way we've always know that adoption was a route we'd like to take.  Even with a new pregnancy, we still plan to adopt.  I don't plant to have anymore children this route after this next child. My body just can't handle the hormones or the added measures it takes to keep a baby to term.  This is it!

I'm not disappointed because while I know I'm not DONE wanting children, I know we're hoping God directs our footsteps in adopting a child. That also means with finances.

The past few days I've gone back to old adoption sites and my heart just sank into despair!  Lord, will this even BE an option?!  I noticed that since we last looked, the fee's for adoption have gone up and even through the roof.  To a point where it's almost unthinkable to achieve!  However will we expand our family then?  What keeps going through my mind is what if I don't get a second chance with conceiving?  Adoption was always at the forefront of our plans.  Jackson our first, was a surprise after being told we'd never be able to conceive a child...8 years later he came by surprise after a mini vacay.  We then achieved our little girl through fertility treatment after Jackson passed away since we knew we COULD in fact have children.

My husband and I have always wanted a big family which included those children who were born IN our heart not just under it.  Now I'm finding my dreams possibly shattered.  I mean however will we come up with 25k or more out of pocket to adopt a child?  Who would do such a thing to children AND families who want a child to love and nurture?  My heart is just aching and maybe it's because this subject is at the forefront of where we're hoping to go really soon.

Taking time off from fertility treatment is a good thing.  Both adoption AND fertility treatment will be in the back of my mind but I'm praying for God to boldly answer our prayers for finances, good health and to expand our family with more children no matter the route.  

I'm guessing in the months to come, I'll need to take down the map at the top.  It doesn't seem fit where we are in our lives to pick and choose the Country.  I'm going to ask God to help us and I will follow Him.

Just when we started...

We have now put a hault on our adoption process.  February, we found we were pregnant at the literal LAST hour.

I am now at 23wks and just a few days from viability wk.  This hasn't gone without a hitch of course.  Found that I in fact have Incompetent Cervix and ended up in the hospital for a cerclage at 19wks with a cervical length of 2.0 and slightly funneled.  Prior to that I started 17P injections (progesterone injections) to keep pre term labor at bay.

I'm now past the milestone we lost our son at. 22wks is behind us and now we're in a whole new place.  I'm praying we make it to term and come fall hope to introduce our beautiful daughter Amelia.  We DO still plan to adopt, so stay tuned.  We're enjoying the gift God has blessed us with and will take some time to enjoy her before we apply again for adoption.

Love to you all!