Happy Birthday, Benjamin!

Today is Benjamin's 4th birthday. Four years ago today I defied the doctors' predictions by the grace of God, and gave birth to our first miracle baby...a healthy baby boy. Benjamin has been such a joy to have in our lives, and we thank God every day for giving him to us. He's a ray of sunshine wherever he goes; his kind heart and gentle spirit are so sweet to behold.

Happy Birthday, Big Guy! We love you!

Mommy's Little Helper

I found a new pastime to keep Benjamin busy when I want to get a few things done around the house...washing dishes! Benjamin is a very caring little boy, and he loves to help me do things. He also loves to play in the bubbles that the dish soap makes. So, this was a perfect combination activity! He ultimately ended up soaked and without a shirt, but he had fun, and it gave him something to do for 20 minutes--can't beat that!

A Week Later...

Last Wednesday I posted about needing a miracle. Well, we still need one, but I'm feeling much more at peace about what's happening with our agency. Today I spoke with our agency contacts again, and I am sending out the application fee in tomorrow's mail. At the very least, we will be saving a couple of hundred dollars by being able to pay their application fee instead of the new agency's application fee. Then, it seems as though we have until our home study is completed and turned in to pay the much larger agency fee. It will be the new agency's fee, which is a bit higher, but at least we have some time to get the funds together. I'm still praying for a miracle, and asking God to bring in all the funds that we need, when we need them. Thanks for all of your encouragement and prayers. They really mean a lot!

Do You Believe in Miracles?

I just got off the phone with our adoption agency. Well, still not officially our adoption agency since we are lacking the fees to pay their fee and begin the process, but the agency we are planning on using. To make a long story short, they are in transition to become an affiliate of a larger agency, and if we don't have the $5500 to pay their agency fee in the next four weeks, we must begin the process all over again with the new agency and the fees will be more expensive...not a ton more, but every little bit adds on to the final cost of this adoption. Additionally, we are hearing that Taiwan may soon become a Hague country which means we will have the same paperwork issues we were having with China which caused us to choose Taiwan in the first place. If that happens before we are in a program, we will probably not be able to continue the adoption. I'm a bit discouraged, and again I'm wondering if we REALLY should be doing this when we have no money whatsoever at this point towards our agency fee (or the additional $15,000 we'll need after that!) and are struggling along with everyone else to make ends meet financially in this economy anyway. I'd appreciate your thoughts and prayers...what keeps me going is that I DO believe in miracles, and if God wanted to, He could plop all of the money we need in our laps today. Will He choose to do that? Probably not, but you never know! Please pray for wisdom and patience...thanks!

Busy Week

Where has this week gone? It always amazes me how fast the weeks fly by. It really makes me covet the time I spend with my children, and I'm so thankful that I can be home with them. I just pray that I'm using my time wisely, as it goes by so quickly!

There are several things on my mind tonight. I have committed to directing our church's Daily Vacation Bible School in July, and my mind is swirling with details related to that and our first committee meeting next Tuesday. I'm excited to possibly be using curriculum from Answers In Genesis...great stuff if you need a VBS curriculum. Check it out!

Please pray my two little nephews home from Haiti...my sister Stephanie is really praying that they will be home before June 24. You can read her post about that date here and I encourage you to also check out the rest of her blog if you haven't already. Haiti is such a random country when it comes to their adoption procedures; it is very different from what we are facing with Taiwan, and much more frustrating as a result.

Speaking of my sister Stephanie, today is her birthday. Happy Birthday, little sis! We love you lots and are so proud of you and all that you do for your family and the Lord. Keep up the great work! Hopefully Pedro treated you really well today!

Finally, we have had a bit of movement on our adoption proceedings this week. You can check out our updates at our adoption blog. Thanks for your continued prayers and thoughts!

Have a great weekend!

Woo Hoo!

If you heard a little shriek of happiness from Jonestown tonight, it's because I was doing a little happy dance to celebrate another year's completed tax forms! Woo hoo! I love to get those darn things out of the way as quickly as possible. Now I can sleep peacefully tonight! Good Night!

A New 'Do

Last Friday was the fifth Friday of the month; therefore, it was "Mom's 'Free' Morning Out" at Jonestown Bible Church. The first and third Fridays of the month we have a "Mom's Morning Out" Bible study at JBC (the church at which my older boys' school is located) with childcare. When there is a fifth Friday, the childcare workers watch our kids from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. so that we can go and do whatever we would like, sans children...it's wonderful! The hard part is figuring out how to use that nice, big chunk of time...it has to be something worthwhile, you know? Well, it had been a LONG while since I had taken the time to get a haircut, and I had been planning on doing some sort of coloring to it, so I decided that a trip to my hairdresser would be the perfect way to spend my morning. Long story short, I decided to get all over color to my hair, in a darker shade rather than a blonde which is what my highlights normally are. I think the color complements my skin tone well, and most of my girlfriends and others I have come into contact with really like it. My dear hubby, on the other hand, would have preferred blonde. Oh well...he'll get used to it!

Adoption Updates

I hope you are checking out my other two blogs occasionally, as I have updated them fairly recently. Here you can find our adoption blog, and here you can find Sophia's quilt blog. Things are moving along on our fundraisers, and fabric is coming in for the quilt...it's all so exciting! I can't wait to bring Sophia home!