Yard Sale

To all you locals, you need to come see us Friday from 7-1 and Saturday from 7-2 (1/2 price everything from 1-2) at 2388 Bearwallow Road.  We will be right across from the church at the parsonage (our future home :)  We have so much stuff, like seriously, tons of stuff!  Cute stuff, too!  So PLEASE come out and tell your friends, we are just a little over $1,000 short of what we need to for our second trip and all funds raisesd at the yard sale will go to the adoption!

Hope to see you there!

Happy Belated Birthday...

Heath holding Dad's hand!

We are officially old and getting so close to 30!!  Jason turned 28 yesterday!  We haven't done anything special.  Yesterday the only time I left the kitchen from preparing 30 chicken breasts and 10 lbs. of beef for tacos at church (we had a fundraiser for youth camp and raised over $480!!!), was to work.  He worked all day as well.  So tomorrw we are having what we are calling family day!  We sat down this week with our calendars and scheduled a few of them over the next few months.  Is that sad when you have to get your calendars out and schedule time together?  Oh well, I'm excited!  Excited to watch a movie, work in the garden, play, play, and play some more, and if we can get the grill out from behind the yard sale stuff then eat some good food!  Who knows, I might even take a nap!!  Or just read my book! 
Then we are off for a really busy weekend that will sprinkled with lots of fun and we are looking forward to Memorial Day afternoon with some cool folks!  Hope you all have a great weekend.

I also want to say I have been so encouraged by some of you after my last post.  The next morning I woke up to the same devotional from two of you.  I thought, God must really want me to read this one!  I also had a student today who offered to pray with me!  Thank you guys so so much!

Praying...

So I admit it, the one who everyone things is tough, is really struggling!  Yes, this is getting so hard.  I have been so so busy lately, I can't imagine if I wasn't busy, then it would be even more stinky.  I am just ready to get over there.  There is something I have been battling with, I just want God to move mountains and show Himself so big by moving it along quicker than normal.  I want to just ask Him over and over to do this but I also know that I want more than anything to be in His will and His will may not be for it to happen like I want it.  In my past if I asked Him for something and it didn't happen then I would be heartbroken even though it was always way better than I imagined after the fact.  So I'm trying not to be "immature" and get my heart set on this happening fast b/c it's what I think we need.  But I also know that I'm supposed to ask.  I don't want to receive not because I ask not.  You know what I'm saying?  So I'm trying to find that balance.  Because I KNOW He can do it, it's just will He?  I know as each passing day it seems that we aren't going to have him home by his first birthday or even be over there with him.  This is my specific request...
"Lord, please let us be with him on his first birthday!"  I am clinking to some 2 Chron. and asking the Lord to show Himself strong on our behalf.  Feel free any time you think of us to pray this with me. 
Thank you for listening to me vent :)  Off to work!!

I-600A is here and I will be taking it to Fed Ex tomorrow with a smile on my face :)  WOOHOO!

I'm so ready to get back to this place.  These walls hold a part of me and these last few days have been the toughest.  I was prepared for an emotional roller coaster, here goes the ups and downs!

We were going to have another yard sale this weekend but there is a change in plans.  We had a mix up with getting it in the paper so it wasn't well advertised for and I think it was just a blessing in disguise.  We are always busy, running around like crazy but I feel like the last few months have been insane.  The videographer/photographer is coming Monday and we need to get this house is top notch shape.  We had our first showing today and so before they came we put the ol' spit shine on it :)  So the yard sale is rescheduled for a few weeks and at some point this weekend I just want to sit down with my kiddos and relax!  Not sure if that will happen but it's the ultimate goal!

When we returned home we had to be fingerprinted again.  This is to get our I-600A, which is needed for court.  The lady who processed our paper had told me she would have it in the mail at the end of last week.  When I didn't get it by Tues. I called and she told me she had to miss a few days of work last week so it was put in the mail on Monday.  I still don't have it.  I'm trying to not get all bothered and I am really praying it comes tomorrow.  As of right now it hasn't affected putting in for our court date but if we don't receive it soon, it will.  Please pray with us it will get here Friday!

Hollynn had a check up yesterday and she is 96% height, 71% weight!  Our pediatrician is just great and he watched the video of Heath and was so encouraging.  I may have posted this before, but the day before we left for Russia he called and prayed with me!

Yard Sale

Just a quick update...we had a yard sale at our house this past weekend and sold over $1100 worth!  How awesome is that!!!  Total Blessing!  We are having one this coming weekend at our church.  Many people donated their items to our yard sale and I cannot thank them enough!  We are praying for another fantastic weekend!

Also, our house now has a for sale sign in the yard.  The photographer/videographer will be here sometime this week.  Which means I am cleaning like a crazy lady these next few days!  We are really praying that it sells quickly, you can pray that with us if you'd like :)

My sassy girl is jumping off the couch like my 4 yr. old as I type this, they are messes!  She jumps, yells "Ow" then laughs and does it again! 

Also, I will have to do a post this week telling you about the last lady we had at our yard sale on Saturday, total blessing!  I met a birth mom who gave up her little girl 10 years ago.  She had such an amazing story and we talked the better part of an hour.  So stay tuned for that later this week!

Shout outs...

I want to give a HUGE shout out to who is now known as "E"!  Since Hollynn can't say the first part of her name, Casey is now just E!  She and Willie took great care of the kids while we were gone and I think they took good care of wearing her out every day! Ha!  Don't know what I would do without her!  I knew leaving them with her and Will we wouldn't have to come home and straighten them back out too much :)
Thanks Cas. for being my go to! 
And big shout out to my Mom who stayed the night Thurs. night before we left and stayed with the kids the next day until Casey was able to get here after work.  I'm very proud of the things my Mom has been accomplishing in her life here lately.  And big thanks to Grandmom for taking off of work one day to stay with the kids.  We are blessed to have family close by and so willing to help out!
We are having a huge yard sale this weekend, hoping for a huge turn out and lots of sales.  We are also hoping to hear some good news from a grant we put in for, should know something within the next few weeks.  We received a $500 grant from One Less Ministries, which we are so thankful for.  Don't forget to buy your t-shirt :) 
In my last post I had said we were going to be fingerprinted, I called yesterday and they should have that in the mail to us this week :)  I'm ready to get that mailed off and wrap up the paperwork!
Our house is going on the market next week, our realtor is coming Friday to do a walk through.  I am actually getting excited about getting the house sold and moving into the parsonage!!

Sweet Faces I Missed...

I've never missed anyone the way I missed these two for almost 10 days!  Saturday I was an emotional basket case, ready to burst into tears at any moment.  Jason said, "I don't know what I would do if you were over emotional."  To which I responded, "Well, great, because I was just about ready to cry!"  I didn't see it as good timing, although I am sure he did! Ha! 
We are getting back in the groove.  I actually slept good the past 2 nights although yesterday I planned to just hang out with the kids and rest but my dad called in the a.m. and I had a colicy horse.  Thankfully she is okay.  Today was grocery shopping, washing clothes, etc.  I am just hoping to be caught up and back on routine by the end of the week.  I LOVE ROUTINE! 
Jason's last day of school for the semester was today and we hope to get the house ready to go on the market by next week. 
We also go in the morning to get some more fingerprints and I am really praying they are in a good mood and can help speed this process along because we can't go to court without them.  Pray that they will expedite them for us so it will not hold up our court date.