Trust in God but write your Congressman

We have been busy with Thanksgiving and fun family gatherings.  We are so thankful for this time to celebrate and thank God for the blessings he has heaped upon us. 

Several folks have asked how they can help us with the adoption.  We deeply appreciate your thoughtfulness!  Here are some ways to be part of our journey:

Congressional leaders are in the process of tense negotiations with the White House to avoid the “Fiscal Cliff.”  One of the items set to expire at the end of the year is the Adoption Tax Credit.  Several leaders on both sides of the aisle have proposed legislation that would not only extend it in 2013 but make it permanent!  The tax credit encourages couples to adopt either internationally, domestically, or through the Foster Care system by granting up to $13,000 in tax credits the year the adoption is finalized.  This would be a huge help for our finances, but more importantly, it would encourage other families to take the leap that we have and decide to open their home to a child that needs the love of a family and hope.  Join with us in contacting your US Senators and Representatives.  Let them know that this is an important issue and you support the continuation of the tax credit.  Find out how at www.house.gov and www.senate.gov.  For more info on the Adoption Tax Credit visit www.adoptiontaxcredit.org.

Give the gift of Scentsy!  Our friend Emily Turner is donating ALL of her commission from now until the end of the year towards our adoption.  If you don’t know about Scentsy you should.  It’s kinda like a candle that won’t burn your house down.  Find out more and place your orders (ready by Christmas!) at www.scentsy.com\emilyturner. 

PRAY!  We have seen the power of prayer at work already.  God has put so many wonderful people in our path and given us so many financial blessings since we decided to adopt.  We are saving everything we can and praising God for every bit of extra income and decrease in expense along the way!  Please join us in praying for our children who have probably already been born and are living in a less than optimal environment.  Pray for their birth parents who have made a difficult decision, but ultimately chose life.  We love them and know that only dire circumstances would cause a mother to give her child up to the unknown.  Pray for us as we continue to gather paperwork and take our online adoptive parenting classes.  Although it can be daunting, we’ve been encouraged by a Chinese Proverb discovered recently:  Be not afraid of going slow, be afraid only of standing still. 

Thanks for continuing to be part of our journey.  You all mean so much to us.

A Small Update

Well, I certainly haven't posted as much this month as I had originally intended!
I've had a few people ask me how far along we are in the adoption process recently, and I wish I knew sometimes.  I do feel that we are moving forward so much more slowly than I ever anticipated, but we are moving forward, which is GREAT!  We are still in the paper chasing stage for our homestudy.  Many of the documents we gather for the hs can also be used for our dossier, but the requirements are a little different for each. 
My assignment for this week was to get my letter of good standing (or bad standing!) from my employer and have a physical exam completed.  Neither assignment went smoothly, but my doctor and employer have both gone above and beyond what they had to do - and for that I am SO thankful!!! (Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you, Erik and Dianne!!!!)  Sam hopes to have both his employer letter and physical wrapped up by the end of this week.  Our next project will be to complete the essays that we have to write for our homestudy.  I have never been one for writing essays (I get caught up in my perfectionism), so pray for me in this area!
We also recieved more good news financially.  God has blessed me with another little project to make a few dollars this week as well as another huge blessing that I cannot disclose on the blog for privacy reasons (but you can ask me in person if you like!).  All I can say is PRAISE GOD!
Its been a good week here!
Now, I have to admit that I often get frustrated with myself for how little we seem to be getting done with the adoption paperwork, but I have to remind myself that we are both working full time, I have a part time job  and we are running our little farm and caring for our horses! 
This weekend we wrapped up a fence repair project that we've been working on for the past month or so.  Once that was complete, we were able to move the horses to the back pasture and close up the front pasture for the Fall/Winter season.  Sounds easy, but it was a lot of good, hard work!  Thankfully, I have a wonderful husband that I enjoy doing projects with!  We were both so pleased with the work we did and the horses are very happy to be in the back where there is still a lot of good grass.  We should be able to put off "haying " the horses for a while, which saves time and money!
I'll close with a few pictures from our weekend.
Thanks for reading and praying for our children and our family.  We are thankful for YOU!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow

When we decided to adopt we knew that financially it would be a struggle.  It has been the biggest leap of faith in both of our lives.  We trusted that God would provide and so far He has been faithful.  As of today we have between 1/3 and 1/4 of the funds needed!  We are thankful for the generous friends and family who have given to our children.  We are thankful for the jobs we have and that we are able to save a good bit each month.  We are thankful  for the many unexpected blessings.

Psalm 100
  Worship the LORD with gladness; 2 come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. 3 It is he who made us, and we are his [a] ; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving 4 and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
5
For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.