Jehovah Jireh....

A couple of months ago, we had a little budget crisis of our own.

  So, we sat down and hashed out a very tight budget in order to pay off some debt.  We read some Dave Ramsey stuff and we were both excited at the possibility of paying off this debt, we were on the same page, committed, ready to do what it takes to be good stewards of what God has given us.  Well, October came and we tracked all of our spending, trying to stay under budget or at least not go over, and well, we did very well in some areas, but very bad in others.  It was only month one and I was starting to get discouraged.  We had that flat tire I told you about and all of Dylan's extra soccer games that were hours away made us go way over on gas and 'entertainment.'  {Grrr...what were we supposed to do, not go to his games?  Umm, no, we decided that 20 years from now it will not be important to him that we stayed home and saved $200, but he will remember that we were there for him and celebrating in his excitement.} But anyhow, I digress...

We had the flat tire, and we were in desperate need of 4 new tires, the flat sped up that process.  We were hoping to wait a couple months until we had our emergency fund built up...but no.  So, I started out this month thinking we were going to be in the hole already, but I decided to pray that God would somehow provide for the tires. We picked up our vehicle from the shop after they had closed on Thursday, I had no idea how we were going to pay for it, but kept telling the Lord about it.  Today, Ryan and I walked out to the mail box.  He started going through the mail and said "Lutheran Social Services?  Looks like a check."  I said, "It's probably a bill."  mind you, we've never worked with LSS.
{they are an adoption agency}  Then I thought "maybe it's one of those things like, if you adopt through them they will pay your registration fee or something like that..."  I was about to tell him to rip it up, no need for more adopting just yet... lol!  But then he said it was a $1,000.00 check written out to us and it dawned on me, our agency had just merged with them and this was the refund for completing all of our post placement reports!!!!

"TIRE MONEY!!"  I said!  I told Ryan that I had been praying for money to cover the tires and here it is!!!  So excited to see God provide.  Later we went to church for a prayer service and Ryan happened to talk to the guy from the shop and asked him if he had our bill ready...to which he replied, "what bill?  It's been covered, so don't worry about it."...OH. MY. WORD.  I  was seriously jumping up and down, it was so exciting to share this with the kids, I love when they get to see how amazing our God is.  Jehovah Jireh!!  The Lord will provide. We are studying about Abraham and his descendants right now in school and tonight we sang "Give us Clean Hands" I got the goosebumps and all choked up when I thought about the fact that my God is the same God of Jacob and Isaac and Abraham and how he provided for them way back when and he is still in the business of providing for us today!  Amazing.

Here are some of the lyrics of that song, it is a good reminder to seek HIM as we head into election day....
"Give us Clean Hands"
We bow our hearts
We bend our knees
Oh Spirit come make us humble
We turn our eyes
From evil things
Oh Lord we cast down our idols

So give us clean hands
and give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Oh give us clean hands
and give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Oh God let this be
a generation that seeks
Who seeks Your face, Oh God of Jacob
Oh God let us be
a generation that seeks
Who seeks Your face, Oh God of Jacob

Lucy + shopvac =

a trip to the emergency room!

Photo credit goes to Anaya

While I was vacuuming out our vehicle the night before we left for vacation, Luisa decided to check out the shop vac and apparently stuck her hand in the other hose opening.  I heard her screaming so I shut it off and found her standing there with blood running down her hand!  Poor baby!  I took her in to the E.R. because it looked so bad, but she checked out fine and they sent us off with bandaids and antibiotic ointment!

Ryan had just left to do some rustic camping with the boys before we were to meet up in Traverse City the next morning so I had to take Anaya with, but they both did great.  Aside from the difficulty of keeping it clean while camping and hearing her sweet little voice say "hurts bad mom!"  It healed up quickly and her first trip to the E.R. went very well!

It may sound strange since I keep this blog public and most people we know are aware of Luisa's HIV, but I hate to have to tell people that she has HIV.  I guess I just don't know how they will treat her and that makes me uneasy.  I couldn't have been more pleased by the way the Dr. and especially the nurse treated her that day!  In fact the nurse told me about her family member who is adopted and has Hep. B and was so sweet and encouraging.  I have heard stories from other adoptive parents where that is not the case, as appalling as that is, the truth is, sometimes the stigma still remains.  So thankful that was not our experience.  Lucy is such a happy healthy kid, other than having to give her medication 2 times a day, her HIV/AIDs diagnosis is the "big deal" that truly isn't!

He's home!

Ryan was gone on a mission trip to Romania for the past 2 weeks.

 The kids made the welcome home sign and wrote him notes.

 He took a great group of teens from church and did ministry in Romania with a missionary from our church who is there.  They had an amazing trip and maybe, just maybe I can get him to share some stories from his trip...that is after he has slept off his jet lag!

The kids and I held down the fort and I am happy to report that all the animals are still alive! That was my biggest fear!  Not that they didn't give me a few more gray hairs, but they are doing well and we are so happy to have the real farmer back!

 apparently we didn't feed this guy on time, so he helped himself!

 One morning I woke up to see the boys walking this guy BACK into the pasture!  Good thing he is super tame and will come when called!  Apparently the electric fence was turned off and he just decided to go for a stroll OUTSIDE of the pasture!  He ate a few of my flowers but then decided he wanted back in the pasture, the boys found him standing there nose to the fence mooing to get back in!

Then there are these 2 who both lost hair in spots...nice!  Only on my watch does stuff like this happen.

But, we did a few fun things too to help pass the time.

 I made strawberry freezer jam while the boys made a potato cannon with the help of their friend Ryan!!  They rode their bikes into town for the parts.  I had no idea that it was possible to launch a potato or apple that far!  Amazing!

 They played in the kiddie pool but mostly had fun with the buckets of water, which makes me wonder...why bother with the pool?

 We went to the beach and tried to have a picnic lunch there, but it was so windy we ended up eating sand and being sand blasted!

 I doubt this was fun, but I enjoyed watching them wash my car!  I did help them wax it though. 

 They may kill me, but I caught this shot of my brother in laws playing on the swing while they were up here.

 The VZ cousins spent a few nights at grampa and grama's cabin and they had a great time together!

And we went down to Chicago for the day to the Lincoln park Zoo,{great FREE zoo if you're ever in the vicinity, check it out!} we were able to meet up with my best friend since the sixth grade!  It was great to catch up with Kadie again and see her beautiful children!  In the picture above, Anaya and Kadie's son Jake are both 5!  They are both off the charts, just in opposite directions, too fun!

We went down to visit my family and were invited over to a few friends homes as well, lots of fun things that helped pass the time.  I sure wish I could have gone with him, but I truly felt my part in this ministry was to be here for the kids.  While I don't like it when Ryan is gone, I am so grateful that he had this opportunity to share the gospel with the beautiful people over in Romania. Many people came to know the Lord as a result and that is what our lives are all about!  Praising Jesus tonight for such an amazing blessing! 

Adoption tax credit update...

In case anyone was wondering...We finally received our money, I just wanted to share that good news.  Apparently all the paperwork I sent in was all they needed, if you are interested, you can read about that here.  If you have no idea what the adoption tax credit is, check out this facebook page.  It was a huge blessing to us this time around {minus the extra paperwork headache, but still totally worth it!}and I would love to see more people being able to adopt because of it.