All the things I haven't said

When we are waiting on something good it seems to take forever!

But when we have something to do (or that we should be doing) the time flies by!

Blogging will be an easy way to keep everyone up to date. (If you actually do it).

I'll be good at blogging. (Nope - sorry).

Here's the possibly lengthy catch-you-up post. (not totally in chronological order).

Since my last post was about a patriotic quilt (seriously thought I'd updated LOTS since then), I'll start with:

The quilt sold via eBay. But not for as much as we had hoped. We are very grateful to Aunt Carolyn for her donation of the beautiful quilt and to the eBay-er who was delighted to use it in redecorating.

We have since been posting lots of little things on eBay (member erbr_2337) to help raise funds and in the process have gotten to know our sweet postal worker better. They are the most helpful people for shipping anything as cheaply inexpensively as possible. And they are just super sweet.

Photos and college by Jacob

We did have one more yard sale that had shoppers waiting on us when we arrived at the crack of dawn. The unsold treasures lived in the basement until I couldn't stand it anymore and "organized." Some things went on Facebook Marketplace, some on eBay, some to the thrift store. (And, for the sake of total honesty, a few treasures we are using).

Currently, there's a box in the dining room and two in the basement of posted and waiting to be posted items. I got my house back and an extra job. 

A sweet friend, Elena, did a Tupperware fundraiser. It was delicious. 

Tomorrow we are having a Krispy Kreme sale before (and possible after) church. 

100 dozen doughnuts = 1200 doughnuts 

Pray for hungry folks with $7 and a sweet tooth to drive by.

We did this last year to help raise funds for hosting fees and more than doubled our investment. So all those eBay sales have been invested in doughnuts. 

Of course we still take donations any time in person, snail mail (message us for the address), via PayPal, or for tax deductible gifts through the Abba Fund.

Fundraising is FUN. But exhausting. And I'm running out of creative ideas. Matter of fact, I'm not feeling very creative at all. In any area. 

But we have been encouraged this month. We can finally see the light at the end of this homestudy tunnel. We had been waiting (for over 6 months) for one piece of paper, a certain background check, to be sent to our homestudy agency. They had requested it several times. Finally, after several phone calls it arrived. So now we make sure all our boxes are checked and get our original documents together and wait again. 

Fall Birthday People

Next steps (hopefully), apostillizing the documents (they get stamped as "fo'real" legal papers), USA approval, and extreme grant writing. (Plus holidays).

In more personal news:

Over half the family had birthdays - Jorja, Autumn, Gene, Erin, Jacob, and Elijah. 

And the biggest news (drum roll) after a blur of preparations and bridal showers, 

Ava and Stephen tied the knot! 

It was beautiful. They are beautiful. 

The only thing we wish was different (okay, they only big thing) was that the two new children could have already been here. 

Here is a video of just a few of the pictures from the wedding events:

So that's the short version of the last some-odd months. 

Today it has been one year, one month and ten days since we first opened out hearts and homes to two wonderful, beautiful, smart, sweet, funny, energetic young teens. Orphans who want a family.

Pray things hurry along from here and provision is made for all expenses with the least amount of stress. 

Pray for Gene and I. God is refining us, our household, our finances, and our marriage. 

And pray for our two "heart children" who are also waiting - they are ready to come home! Pray God would protect them and redeem this time and place people in their lives to shine His love to them. 

Love ya!

"Is anything to hard for the Lord?" 

Genesis 18:14a

 

They're Coming to America, Quilt Auction

What better way to celebrate the Forth of July than working to bring home some new Americans!

For 10 days we are running a patriotic quilt auction!
One of Erin's very talented aunts made and donated a special quilt, "Let Freedom Ring,"to help bring home her newest great niece and nephew!
Bidding begins on eBay today (Tuesday, 2July) at 7am and continues through Friday, July 12 at 7am. 
Follow this link to place your bid!

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

2 Corinthians 3:17

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F312681643404

I'm out of control

How many times have I said to myself just in the past few days, “It’s all in God’s perfect timing. He has all the details in order. You are NOT in control”?

A LOT!

We are still waiting on the septic to be fixed so we can pass that portion of the homestudy.

I am not in control of that man who dig’s holes and lays pipes’ schedule.

I must get some fingerprinting redone.

I am not in control of how any of that works.

The Young Love Birds

Ava’s medical report was totally messed up at the doctor’s office.  

I am not in control of those people and their lack of understanding.

We are in full-blow wedding planning crazy! And the budget is…. There isn’t one. 
It’s a week by week adventure.

That is beyond my control. We only have so much.  We can only plan and pay for what we are able to week by week.

What am I in control of?

My attitude. I can enjoy the ever-changing journey. I can decide this is an exciting adventure and love every minute (it’s only a season).

I can be patient. I can treat people with kindness (even when they make me wait more).

I can be a good steward of all we are given. I can keep moving forward (with adoption fundraising, and paper collecting, and wedding planning).

I can do my best at what I can and not sweat the rest.

I can KISS it all (Keep It Simple Stupid).

I can choose each day (multiple times) to trust God’s perfect plan. (this one is the most important).

I can take care of me. Then I can take care of others (and all the rest). I can stop in the middle of all the crazy and give myself a pedicure or read a book or write a blog post (your welcome) or take a nap (or all these as needed).

I can try to control me and my words and actions.

I’m out of control. But not really.

“The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.” 

2 Peter 3:9

Have patience, have patience

Don't be in such a hurry

When you get impatient, you only start to worry

Remember, remember that God is patient, too

And think of all the times when others have to wait for you

~ from the PATIENCE Song (Herbert the Snail)

Sad News/Good News

We came across this article (linked here) stating that, as PERSONHOOD Alliance said, “GoFundMe has just independently launched its own megafund to support the National Network of Abortion Funds, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the ACLU Foundation. Donor money will be split among the 5 organizations to pay for legal challenges to abortion laws, lobbying for abortion-on-demand in Congress, and the actual killing of pre-born children.”

This us such sad news. We are extremely pro-life (I lead a local pro-life group). So, we have chosen to delete our GoFundMe account completely and remove all links.  

Thankfully we have already been approved to have an AbbaFund page and PayPal for online giving.

All our current adoption fundraisers are linked on the side (in web view, I don’t know where to find them in mobile view, but if you scroll down on your mobile device you can change views).

We’ve also launched a NEW t-shirt campaign with pretty summer colors and TANK TOPS to help keep folks cool on the long hot summer days! You can find these trendy little pretties https://www.bonfire.com/becoming-twelve/

at

You can also find the old t-shirt campaign (with a few different colors) at https://www.bonfire.com/ukrainian-adoption/

It may not be to late to book a trip using our Airbnb link. We aren't sure if that link still works to save you $$$ and earn us funds we can use towards our stay in Kiev.

I Ran Away

Gene and Chris install a s
hiny new transmission

Birthday Girl

I was really glad that the fellas got my van fixed because I NEEDED to go to Alabama.

There’re these precious girls there and one was having a birthday party.

There’re my big cousins who I love.

And a GREAT aunt and uncle.

But mostly there’s this beautiful, new, tiny, perfectly perfect baby girl, and bless her heart, they named her after me!

Erin LeighAnne

The Erins who ran errands

So, I loaded up the four youngest and spent the gas money to get these people in my arms.

I needed to.

We ran away for just a few days from the details and to-do list of adoption and weddings and celebrated life!

And I loved it.

Then we came home and took a very long nap.

Adding On...

So much can happen so quickly. Thankfully, it’s all good. We could use some good news.

The text photo that
this was a thing!
Maybe my current
favorite picture of
my favorite oldest
daughter.

Stephen & Ava

First, the biggest news!!! We are adding a son-in-love to our tribe! 

That oldest tall child got a wedding proposal Sunday and she giggled happily and kept the ring, so the young suitor took that for a “yes!” 

So, now we are planning a wedding. They have yet to set a date. She’d love a Fall wedding but with the uncertainty of when we might travel to Ukraine (hopefully in the fall), we asked them to speed things up or wait longer. They see benefits to both. 

But why wait?

In other news, the Knee Baby (that’s what we call the next to youngest), with help for the almost oldest, cooked chicken enchiladas for a Fiesta supper earlier this week as part of his math assignment. He even decorated the porch and had the Daddy put on some fiesta music. It was fun!

During the course of dinner conversation the younger set were discussing brothers and sisters and very naturally said they “have 9 brothers and sisters” (for those slow on the math – that’s 2 more than currently reside here full time – that a wonderful precious big deal). They may be half a world away but they are close in our hearts. And have already been counted as part of this crazy clan.

Adding on as fast as we can.

This Weeks Adoption Progress

There’s only a few more (maybe 4?) more things to check off our list to get done for this homestudy!

This week we finished the 10 hour Hague Adoption Training (don’t tell anyone that it was mostly boring, somewhat outdated, and didn’t take a whole 10 hours – BUT some of it was good and thought provoking and helpful – I suppose that’s balance), we’ve gathered more documents, we’ve ordered more trigger locks, that last old child is finally getting her medical report filled out today!

A quite few minutes writing notes earlier this week
which still need to be mailed

All that’s left is one more reference letter, the septic letter (septic being repaired next week), the TB test, and one more certificate.

Next week we’ll be continuing writing thank you notes, finishing school lessons, getting a new transmission for the van, visiting a new baby cousin (Lord willing!!!), putting together more fundraisers, and planning a wedding.

But that’s ALL!