I am a mommy of three

It doesn't take a special day for me to remember my angel baby but it is a special reminder to help support and encourage others who have gone through or are going through a loss. 

I am a mommy of three, with only one child in my home. I long for my angel baby, thank God for Nolan, and pray daily for my little African boy I have yet to meet. 

God is good! He hugs me when I need comforted and sends me friends when I need support. 

Thanking God for you ladies and praying for all you mommas who have gone through a loss. 

There is a piece of my heart in Heaven and I will never forget my baby. 

Power of Prayer

I want to take a moment to remind everyone about the true power of prayer and tell you a little bit about a day I had last week. :) and how I was reminded... It's a reminder, as much for me as it is for you.

So lets begin...The week had been great, my family was fasting from TV, iPad, gaming and internet, we were spending more time together as a family, and trying to put our focus back on God and what He had planned for our day, but to be honest it was trying. If you have met our son you will know that he is high energy. He was into everything and running around like a wild man. :) I so wanted to put him in front of the tv for a moment or give him his iPad just so I could have a moment if peace and quiet. This week I couldn't do that, so instead of turning on the tv I decided to pray and ask/beg God to give me patience and peace to deal with our wonderfully hyper child.  It went something like " Dear God, please don't let me lose it. Help me handle all this craziness. I need you now!" 
During this time of craziness and praying, I was also in the bathroom trying to get ready of our day. He had gymboree later and I needed to dry my hair and finish getting myself ready... this included putting in my contact lenses...This is going to sound funny- I'm 31 years old and just got contact lenses for the first time and every time I try and put them in it takes me 8-18 tries (per eye people!) it's very frustrating. :) So today, while stressed out and begging God for help, I added in a prayer for help with these contacts.  Wanna guess what He did? He helped me! It took me ONE try, in both eyes! In that moment I had to stop and really think about how God helps me, even with the stupid, silly, small things. Because I sure needed His help in that moment. 
What power there is in prayer. Even with the silly, simple things that we don't think we should bother God with- He does care and He wants to help. We just need ask.  

And that was my moment I wanted to share with you all....

So don't be afraid to stop and ask God for even the little things today. 

I pray you all have a wonder week, full of wonderful, small things God does for you to remind you He is there.  

Loving God's Plan

Oh how excited I am to be able to share this with you all and open my blog back up. 

We are adding to our family. 

We will have another little boy (hopefully) sometime next year, sent to us by God, all the way from Uganda.

Here is a little bit of our story. 

I would say it started back in 2012, January 1st for me. My husband and I had been trying to add to our family without any luck and we were both open to adoption, I just wasn't ready as soon as he was. I had "my" plan. We would have 2 biological children and then adopt 1 or 2 after that. Well God had other plans for us. 1.1.12 we were at church and this service was a little bit different. The pastor asked us all to take 10 minutes, during service, and simply sit in silence and listen to God. 

It was hard for me at first, I didn't know how to turn off my brain and sit and listen, but finally I was able to silence it and wait to hear what God wanted to tell me. 

During that time of silence and prayer, I felt and heard God telling me it was time, "Go" is what I heard. God was calling us to go and adopt. This was how He wanted to grow our family at this time. He had another plan for us. We were to adopt our second born child. My husband had felt this calling a few months back but I hadn't, until that day. And boy did I feel it then and did I feel God's love and hope for our family. I bawled, right there in church. 

However, I can't tell you fully why, but it took us a whole year to get started. Partly because there is so much research that goes into starting. We were overwhelmed by it all and didn't know where to begin. We also continued to try and get pregnant while we were researching. Figuring that God would allow it to happen if it was His will. That was still a hard thing to go through and later in 2012 I found out that I had infertility issues and we stopped trying and focused on Gods calling. 

So in December 2012 we filled out an application for our adoption and in January 2013 we were beginning our paperwork process and trusting in God to provide a way. We did not have the funds for this adoption but new that when God calls you, He will make it possible. Let me just tell that every time  we came to a deadline and money was due, God worked miracles and the funds were there. I was reminded each time to Trust and have Faith. 

Now, Sept 30th, we have all our paperwork in country (Uganda) and we are waiting for them to match us with our son.  It is a hard wait. Our age range is 0-3 so more than likely our son is there right now, waiting for us. Waiting for paperwork to be processed and backgrounds to be checked. Once we are matched, we will make 2 trips. The first trip will be 2-3 weeks (which has just changed. When we started the process it was only 5-7 days) than the second trip will be 7-14 days (which also changed from 5-6 days) and we will get to bring our son home. 

I truly can't begin to imagine how hard it will be to meet him and have to leave him for 6-8 weeks until we can go back and bring him home. Right now though, I am praying God keeps him safe and watched over him until we can meet him and know who he is. 

Your prays are truly appreciated. 

Adoption is a hard and wonderful thing.

I believe God is calling all Christians to help the widows and orphans. Not all are called to adopt but all are called to help. You can help by adopting, giving, and praying. There is power in prayer and as an adopting family, we sure would love your prayers as we continue this process. 

This past Sunday my husband and I were in my hometown for the Swiss Festival and we were blessed to be able to attend a the Kickoff of Pure Gift of God (adoption made possible). What a great vision this organization has. Pure Gift of God wants to help those who are thinking about adoption. We know this first hand, it is HARD when you feel called to adopt. You don't always know where to start and once you do, its a long process and a LOT of paperwork. (As you can read in my older posts)

This organization wants to help bring people together to help answer questions and they want to financially help those that are called to adopt.  

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. James 1:27

Pure Gift Of God- Check them out and meet the founders. 

Curt & Erika Yoder

I feel blessed to be able to say that I know Erika and what a heart for God and children she has. 

Knowing God's plan is better

How to start a sentence is always the hardest part for me. So I will begin with, sometimes the things God has us go through feel awful lonely... but when I really stop and look around I'm not alone at all. God is always with me and getting me through whatever comes my way. This time in my life is both a sad time and a most joyous one. Weird that it can be both. Here is my story and why.

Recently I had some tests done that show and explain why we haven't been able to get pregnant the last 2 years. I have some fertility issues, I won't go into depth about that now, but this news is both a relieving and saddening discovery. I often wondered why, and now I know.

On the other side of things, I KNOW God has a plan. I KNOW God hears my cries and my heart. I KNOW God understands the love we have and want to share with children. That is why He pointed us to adoption, and this adoption is my joy. I am so excited and happy to say that we are about half way through. Within the week our home study should be written up and submitted and I can check one more thing off our adoption list. Our little boy is out there and I can't wait to bring him home. I want to meet him more than anything. Even getting pregnant. {let me explain} If we were to get pregnant now, our adoption process would have to be put on hold until our child is 6-9 months old. So where we are now, he is my baby and I am waiting patiently to go get him. So no, I do not want to get pregnant now, but its still hard each month.

Anyway, this is me opening up and sharing my heart. I'm not a great writer and I don't mind that. This place gives me a way to share my feelings and {for some reason} feel better afterwards. I still struggle when I meet pregnant women, I get a little jealous, but I'm also so very excited for them.  I treasured being pregnant with Nolan and I believe that one day, when the time is right, God will bless us again, and hopefully again (one way or another) :)

Busy busy busy

Things have been busy but I like it that way! Last weekend I threw my sister in law a baby shower. It took some time but was a lot of fun and (I think) it turned out great.

Last Friday we also all went to the doctor for our check ups and I got to have blood drawn and a TB test done. Monday, april 8th, morning I had my TB test read and we had our first social worker home visit we got to meet Jennifer and she is just as nice as she seems .
Tuesday- nothing- wow!
Wednesday- 9am finger printing, 10 am-
Fire inspection

Happy to be checking things off the list!