Enjoying the Fall

They asked if they could rake the leaves. Who would deny such a request? We made a huge pile and they had the best time running and diving. I couldn't get a picture of Caleb when he was jumping in because he got up too fast to do it again.

I have love all of beautiful colors God has revealed this fall. It makes me sad to see all the trees starting to be bare, but I am anticipating the first buds of Spring. It has been the most beautiful fall I can remember and we are enjoying every minute of it.

Happy Fall, ya'll!

DIY-One of My Many Projects

Before

After

Chris laughs at me because I always have projects that I want to do. He says that my mind never rests and that's true for the most part. Most of my projects usually involve redoing something inexpensively. Last Saturday, he went out to get his hair cut and came home to me painting the armoire. I put Anna and Caleb in the floor to paint pumpkins and I painted the armoire.

My goal was to give this room a pop of color. We have a lot of browns in this room that were boring me. I didn't want to spend much or paint the entire room, so I opted this.

I love it! It makes me feel happy:) Head on over here to see more do it yourself projects.

What do you think?

Hooray!

Our Dossier is on its way!! Today, it will be mailed to corporate offices and within two weeks it will be sent to Ethiopia to be translated. Hopefully, the process will go smoothly. I am praying that we don't have to redo any documents. I have never had so many documents to copy, organize, find, and sort. Writing out the $8500 check is the largest amount of money we have ever spent on anything in our lives. We don't buy expensive items. Most of our home decor has been given to us, found on the side of the road, or purchased for a good bargain. The most we have ever spent on a car is $2300. I can think of a better way to spend it than on our babies life!

When we were telling Anna and Caleb about sending off our dossier, they started talking about our baby. "What if it's a girl? What if it's a boy? They will look different from us, won't they? If it's a girl, I'm going to show her how to play with my babies. If it's a boy, I will show him how to throw a football." On and on they make plans for our third baby. Then Caleb said, "When we get our baby from Ethiopia, I bet he will cry in Spanish." That gave us a good laugh! It's so sweet to see how they have responded to the adoption process and how they anticipate the homecoming of our baby. I love it that they are seeing the needs of others instead of only being self-centered. We try to teach them about poverty and give them a global view.

We are all excited and look forward to the referral day! But for now, waiting it will be. I've heard this is the hardest part of the whole process. For now, my goal is to enjoy our family and seize each day as it comes.

Thank you to all of you who have supported us and given financially. We could not have done this without the provisions of God's people. It's awesome to see so many of our family and friends playing a huge role in changing our child's destiny. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Heaven

Our conversation on the way home from church:

Anna-"Member when I was two, when we saw God?"

Caleb and I both said, "who? were we there with you?"

A- "Member when I was two I saw Jesus? and and there was that music?"

Me- "Really? What did he look like?"

A-"I was sleeping in Heaven. I didn't know that Jesus was in Heaven."

Me- I was kind of scared by that statement because I don't want her to be in Heaven until we go:)

Me, with goose bumps, "What else did you see in Heaven?"

A- "I looked up and saw Jesus and He saw me."

C- "Were you sleeping when this happened?"

A- "yeah and then I woked up."

So, I'm seriously thinking that Anna has seen Jesus, the Messiah. We have never told her about Heaven. I got a little nervous and spooked when she was talking about sleeping in Heaven. One of my greatest fears is losing one of our children.

She makes up songs about Heaven and talks about Jesus returning to come back and get us. Pretty amazing that God is communing with my little girl. The Bible does say that He will reveal dreams and visions to His people. In the Bible Anna is a prophetess and a woman of prayer. Anna Marie continues to fulfill her name. She talks about Jesus and loves to read her Bible.

I'm thankful that her heart is soft to God and pray that it will always be that way. As I tucked her in tonight, kissing her sweet face, I told her to tell me about her dreams in the morning. I want to be a part of what God is revealing to His child, especially when it involves Heaven! I am hoping to have some dreams and visions about God. He is powerful and real. I want a glimpse of Him.

I can't stop smiling!

One of the blogs I read is about a family who adopted sweet Lucy Lane from Ethiopia. It is very inspiring and Lucy Lane is a sweetie pie! The other day, she posted about two precious curly headed boys that she saw while she was in Ethiopia to adopt her Lucy Lane. They are older and had seen many babies and children be adopted.

My heart hurts when I think about how that would feel to be left day after day in the orphanage feeling unloved and unwanted. I can imagine they wondered, "When will our day be? Where is our family? Why doesn't anybody want us?"

God led her to write a post about them entitled "Are These Your Children?" In it, she introduced the boys and pleaded for their forever family to come adopt these boys. Guess what?

God led a family in Texas to step up to give them a forever family. How amazing is that? Praise God! I have been smiling the whole time I've written this post. My heart is happy. Pray for the details, paperwork, and court dates to go smoothly. To read more about the story go here.

I saw this video here. Love these beautiful children. Wish we could take care of all of them!

Ethiopian Orphans from Simon Scionka on Vimeo.

We are called to serve the orphans

Tonight, I read this post. Very convicting. Here are some of the parts that spoke to me.

"We share that there are 147 million orphans in the world who are suffering and yet we have the power to change it. The 147 million orphans know that we are aware of their suffering and yet we stand by and do nothing to save them. We know they are there...we hear their stories...see their faces...know how we can help and yet as a society we choose to just stand by and not respond.

Sadly these children die because many of us choose to stand silent and do nothing simply in order to preserve our own personal wealth, status or whatever we hold to be higher than human life.


Yet still, I hear from people, "I have my own children, it is not my problem." I have news...it is our problem...it our responsibility to ACT. These are the children of the world and we are the adults of the world that have been placed here to protect them. God has called each of us to serve the orphan. They only suffer if we choose to ignore the call God has commanded of each and every one of us. Once we all take responsibility, that is when the world will be changed. We each have that power to take a simple step...and change a life forever...." -Ordinary Hero

Go read the entire post. It is our responsibility to care for the poor, orphans, and widows....that is the message of Jesus Christ. As tempting as it is to ignore poverty, we can't turn our eyes from the suffering world. We need to be Christ to those who are in need. Each of us must ACT!