WOW...it's been a while since I posted, hasn't it? The holidays have been kinda crazy here, as it has been in most places.

WE'RE STILL WAITING ABOUT THE BLUE HOUSE IN THE COUNTRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm NOT a patient person but I am learning through this house thing and our adoption of our little girl in Africa, that God has His hand on everything we do. It's not easy, though, and as a human, I WANT WHAT I WANT WHEN I WANT IT!! But then we don't value things as much as we do when we have YEARNED for them as we do. (As I yearn for a little girl to love and nurture...)

Christmas was pretty wonderful at our house...ALL our children and young grandchildren were at our house...so yeah, it was pretty full! I got a CRICKET!! (No, not one of those pesky summer insects that seem to invade our Indiana summers...) It's one of those really cool scrapbook thingies that cuts and prints words and other really neat stuff....
Ok...I admit it. It isn't even out of the box yet....BUT I REALLY LOVE IT!! I'm trying to organize my scrapbook stuff FIRST before I can reward myself with my new "toy" from my dear hubby!

We really tried to center our celebration MUCH MORE on Christ this year. We made a "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake and had the two older grandkids blow out the candles after we sang happy birthday. It was soooo cute!

We're planning to spend a VERY quiet New Years Eve at home...most of the kids are spending the night with other relatives so it will just be a few of us at home! Kinda nice, doncha think?

Yawn. It's getting very late and my contacts are getting fuzzy.
We literally had 13,900 emails in our inbox. Isn't that amazing???? I've spent hours tonight going through them and getting rid of email junk. Whew. I'm TIRED!! That's alot of hard work....just sittin' there, ya know??

Well, hopefully things will get back to normal around here soon and I can get on the computer a little more often. I miss reading my favorite blogs!
Blessings to you all! Happy New Year!!
Beth

Snow Day!!!

Wow!! What a snowy blustery day it is here in central Indiana! No one has classes today, Gideon and Jennie go to public school and Becca is homeschooled with organized classes with other kids on Mondays...so we are all home!
Becca and Jennie are making pancakes, Gideon is playing the Wii and I am about to work on online adoption classes. I have 10 credit hours to get done! I think Roger does, too, so we had better get started!
No news yet about our house that we are trying to purchase. A few weeks ago we were told that the bank that is foreclosing on it has to do some inspections and that we have been assigned a mediator but we thought it should have been inspected by now. Waiting has never been an easy thing for me! However, it is allowing me to get other things done.

We are working on Christmas decorating and shopping. (I picked up the cutest little cloth horse for little Grace...when we get her. I just didn't think it was right to buy Christmas presents for all the other kids and not include her! I'm a strange person, I think. She might not even be born yet....) It is my prayer that we will have her by next Christmas but that may not happen either...

Well, I need to get my adoption classes started. Let's hope I can sign in. Last time I tried this, I didn't have success...however, I realized that I didn't have the correct sign in code...that will help, I think!!!!!

Happy almost birthday, Jesus!!!!

Blessings,
Beth

Just a Christmas Adoption Thought...

The snow had just finished fluttering to the ground, leaving a light white layer on the sidewalk, dampening my sneakers just enough to make me wish I had worn my boots. “Precious”, our German shepherd mixed breed dog was eagerly pulling on her leash, impatient to explore the sights, smells and sounds of the snowy “new world” she had just discovered outside our door.

The surrounding neighborhoods were just waking up to the Christmas spirit with the newly strung lights shining at almost every front yard as we walked into the early evening darkness. Wreaths decked most front doors and twinkling and flashing decorations adorned the houses we passed. Christmas trees, both inside and outside, graced nearly every front window we viewed.
One window especially caught my eye as the dog and I slowed down in front of the house.

There, inside the home, was a little girl whose smile was broad enough to be seen from the sidewalk. Her blond bobbed hair bounced with excitement as she helped her mother decorate their Christmas tree. Her little white sweater was trimmed in the red and white stripe of candy canes. Her father stood just behind with a cup of something hot in his hands, smiling at the two as they enjoyed their task of decorating the tree.

I realized that my “slow” walk had turned into “stop” and I looked around in embarrassment, hoping that no one saw me staring into this neighbor’s house. Precious was again tugging on her leash and I quickly, but reluctantly, looked away.

I walked on, suddenly feeling very lonely for something-someone-I had been yearning for for several years. This little girl I witnessed inside her house reminded me of the little girl waiting for us in far away Africa. Our adoption papers were almost completely filled out, our home study nearly done and somewhere our child waits.

As I continued the snowy stroll, my thoughts were completely encompassed by the little girl I did not even know. I had never seen a picture, I didn’t know her birthday, I didn’t even know her name but she was known to me alone as “Grace.”

My eyes filled with tears missing the little girl I didn’t even know. I worried about her. “Did anyone…except us…love her?” “Was she safe?” “Was she hungry?” “Who was caring for her?” “What was she doing RIGHT THIS VERY MOMENT?” “Did she wish she had a Mommy?”

I thought about the plans I had for her. I already had bins and bins of clothes and toys for her in all different sizes and recently I had moved on to buying shoes.
“Shoes were harder to judge the sizes”…but then I thought, “Most likely she doesn’t even have shoes…” and the sadness returned.

I tried to shrug it off and reached down to pet the very patient and old dog and hoped that she would live long enough to see our little girl, knowing that the adoption process was an extremely long one. I thought once again about Christmas…NEXT Christmas, or the one after, and about the little girl who would be grinning from ear to ear in OUR front room window as she helped her Mommy decorate her first American Christmas tree.

I thought about the gift she will be to our whole large family and how God showed his Grace on us to even allow this child in our lives.

Then I thought about another child who was a gift to the world, the Savior, Christ the Lord. What an incredible Gift He was! Not only are all good and perfect gifts from Him…such as our little girl…but so is the gift of Eternal Life for all who believe!

I walked home, my heart lighter and more tender to the Season in which I was living, grateful to my Savior for all his unfathomable gifts.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a quick note to say Happy Thanksgiving to you all! It is about 5pm on Thanksgiving night and we are waiting for the rest of our kids to arrive to celebrate Thanksgiving with them. I think that around here, most families celebrate earlier in the day but since we have soooo many kids and they all have other families as well, we have decided to have our Thanksgiving in the evening.
Danny, my police officer son, has to work tonight so he and his sweet wife and precious little baby boy, Liam, all came early and had breakfast with us. Danny left around 12:30 and Erin and Liam are staying all day and eating supper with us and the rest of the family. I think this is the first time that Danny wasn't able to be with us on a major holiday but that is the way it is with his job. We are so blessed that his Sergeant has had a change of heart/mind and is allowing him to be off most of the day on Christmas! I am also off most of that day, I'll be working at 11p.m. on Christmas night until 7 am the next morning but that is sooooo much better than working 12 or 15 hours on Christmas and New Years Day like I did last year!! So it sounds like we can all get together for Christmas!

I'm thinking of our little girl we plan to adopt from Lesotho, Africa. I wonder if she is born, if she is being well looked after, if she feels any love at all today. I wish she could know right now how much I love her. I bought a Christmas tree ornament that is an angel and on the skirt of the angel, it says, "Bless and Protect Grace"....Grace being the name I am calling her. She will AT LEAST have the middle name Grace! Isn't that precious??I'm going to keep it out all year long until we bring my girl home!
I want her to know that she has been wanted and prayed for for such a very long time!
We have told the agency that if there are TWO little ones available, by all means, we want them BOTH!! That can only happen if they are siblings...and from what I understand, not very likely. However, God is in control and we want to be open to what He wants for us!! I just can't wait.

Sunday a lady told me that although she knows that I'm not "pregnant", I have that pregnant "glow"...that is pretty wonderful that other people can tell how excited and grateful I am that God is leading us in this way!

We haven't yet heard if the house we are trying to buy on a short sale has been ok'd by the bank. It might be a while before we know. The holiday time probably isn't the best time to try to get things done in a bank. I know that when I worked in banking, things got really really slow...lots of people also took time off and weren't often in the office! God may be trying to teach me patience!!

Well, have a lovely Holiday weekend!
Love,
Beth

House News...Roger's Health....

Soooo......a bit of an update.
Roger's doctor was afraid he had phlebitis (or however that's spelled.) but he doesn't. He most likely has cellulitis in his leg and it is pretty swollen and painful. But he's on medication and doing better. Hopefully, he has just had a bug that has been going around and that's why he has a cough. (he's had a tummy issue, too, but the family has been sort of suffering from colds and tummy stuff.)

And now for the house stuff.....we DID put in an offer on this fairly modest little ranch house on 2/3 of an acre. We knew that house was being foreclosed on and that they said it was a possible short sale. So, we offered what we could...with settlement money coming from my divorce from lots of years ago...and had planned to have the little house paid off.

However, for some reason, the seller counter offered it. We are kind of confused as to why he would counter offer us. We know how much he owes and that it is a short sale and the first week of December it will be foreclosed on. So a counter offer is doing him no good...that we know of.
We thought about it over night and did some praying and soul searching. I cried. Mostly because before we can fully jump into the adoption of a little girl from Africa, we have to have an address that we will use the whole time our process takes. That means, if we send our information to the government and to Immigration, we can't change our address unless we want confusion and long delays. We also can't really stay in this house for very much longer. IF the adoption takes 12 to 18 months, we would have to wait to put our house on the market until AFTER she comes home to us. We don't want to do that for two reasons, First, we really need to sell this big 6 bedroom house for financial reasons. Secondly, I don't want to confuse our new little girl by making her move twice once she leaves Africa. I want her to be secure with us and with her new home.

I say all of that to tell you that amid some reservations, my tight wad hubby (and I say that with all respect and love I can possibly have...) agreed to accept the counter offer. We most likely will have a tiny little loan on the home that we can probably pay off in a year or less.
NOW WE ARE WAITING TO SEE IF THE SELLER'S BANK WILL ACCEPT THE SHORT SALE!!

I am hoping that the seller, his attorney, and his realtor have been told what the bank will accept. That's the only thing that makes sense...why he would counter our offer. His realtor told our realtor that the bank would not accept the offer we made so that's why I really wanted to go ahead and do accept the counter offer in hopes that we will have offered enough to satisfy the bank and that we can get our new home! (It really is pretty modest...just an average vinyl sided ranch house...but it would be "easy living" for us financially!)

It might take a while to find out...possibly we can save up some more money?? We could probably pay the house off but then our money for the adoption is gone. Our little girl is more important, don't you agree???? OF COURSE YOU DO!!!! ;)

Of course, then we need to sell this big house...the market isn't the best but then, MY HEAVENLY FATHER HOLDS ALL THINGS IN HIS HANDS AND IF HE WANTS IT TO SELL, THEN IT WILL! Isn't that the best thing to think about? HE loves us more than we could possibly love each other and HE holds the future in HIS hands!

The plan is to get our new house ready to move into and in January/February we can move in and allow one or two of our big kids to stay in our big house until it sells. In the meantime, we are working with our adoption homestudy agency, filling out stacks of paperwork, providing numerous documents and such, waiting for paperwork to come in the mail from our background searches, and filling out just as much for the actual adoption agency. WHEW...it's a bit overwhelming...almost like labor!! Hopefully, when all is done with the house, I will have gathered all the information together, applied for and received passports and all I will have to do is turn things in to the "African"adoption agency...by then the homestudy will be completed!

Gotta go....4:15 A.M. comes pretty early and it's about 10:30 at night. Hopefully one of these days I can say goodbye to these long work hours!
Blessings,
Beth

Prayer Requests...And exciting HOUSE news!!

It's been another busy week around here! My dear hunny hubby is sick though, and I'm beginning to worry. I know, worry is sin...but I am concerned about him. He went to the doctor today and they're sending him for tests. They think he may have a problem with his leg and he has had a cough for a while...So...please pray that my best friend/husband will be ok!!

On another note, we put in an offer on another house this weekend! It is, unfortunately for the seller, going to be foreclosed on in a few weeks. We have offered a decent price but one we realize the bank might not be willing to accept. We might now know for sure for a few weeks but I do believe it is in God's hands. If this is not His will, there will be another house!

It is cute...in a 50's style ranch house sort of way...kind of in the country but not with a LOT of land...just 2/3 acre. But HEY!! It's enough for me to have that LONG LUSTED AFTER clothesline AND HIGHLY DESIRED CHICKEN COOP!!
It's a 3 or 4 bedroom blue vinyl sided ranch with a detached garage and trees. It backs up to a beautiful woods...not "ours" but we can pretend! The taxes alone are about 1/3 the amount our current home has! (And the best thing of all...LORD WILLING...it will be paid off!! WOOHOO!!) We will use the current family room/office as our bedroom...if we get the house, that is. The previous owner turned the 1 car attached garage into that room AND added a bathroom in it as well so THERE YOU GO!!! Our "Master Suite"!! (Minus a closet which can always be added at some time, right??)
I LOVE LOVE LOVE THE IDEA OF LIVING MODERATELY! Now let's just see if my semi-hoarding tendencies can cope with getting rid of a LOT of stuff! We will be decreasing the size of our home by at least 1/2 AND we are planning to add to our family by adoption! Doesn't make much sense, does it? But we both feel that this is what God is asking us to do to be better able to serve HIM...and that's what it's all about, right?? 13 year old Becca has always LOVED stuffed animals and she has decided to donate them to a charity. She has a tremendous amount of "Build a Bears". She worked for a food pantry last Thursday and realized that there is such a need for little children to have Christmas presents! That will lighten our load in her room considerably...enough to accomodate a new little sister...or two....
Eventually we will probably add a family room so that we can have all of our kids, in laws, and our grandkids home at one time! We are up to 19 of us (with baby Gabe expected in January to Abi and Sam AND including "Permanent Fixture" Ben...Marci's boyfriend...) NOT including our little girl who is in Africa! Yeah...we will need a "gathering place" for all of us!
The house needs a "little" work but it seems like an incredible blessing to me! There's nothing that can't be lived with and the only thing that really needs to be done is just "preferences." (Like I would PREFER that the dead mouse currently taking up residence in the kitchen drawer be removed.... Yeah.) It is what we need...and not more than that! I love the yard and can just imagine my chickens pecking the ground and my little girl going out there with a basket to help me gather eggs! There's room for a garden, too!

So, if you think about it, keep my Roger in your prayers, our house offer in your prayers, and our little girl who may or may not be born yet in Africa in your prayers! (I love her already and we are REALLY getting excited about it!! )
Blessings to you all!
Beth

Whew! Long day at work today! Since I fell a few weeks ago, I had been working at a "light" work site...NOT!! That site was really difficult as well and today I went back to my original site with the 4 special needs adults. We made a decision, though...(Roger and I)...that I will not work as many hours as I had been. I usually work 30 hours in two days and it is just exhausting. I am now going to be working "fill in" where I work where and when I want to! Much much easier hours and possibly in not as hard sites as I do now. Probably just 12 hours a week, which with babysitting the grand babies and homeschooling and the regular homemaking duties will be quite enough! ;)

I mailed off a lot of our adoption papers today. I sent our fingerprints to the FBI and also sent things to the State Police, etc. Things are moving along!

I went shopping with one of my clients today and we went...just for fun...to Babies R Us. Oh my goodness, I have gotten so spoiled shopping at Goodwill, Consignment shops and garage sales that I had totally forgotten how much things "in the real world" cost! Our soon to be little girl doesn't need ANYTHING but I just thought it would be fun to look. Goodness! I kept thinking, "I can make that...." or "I saw something like that at Goodwill..." Over $200 for crib bedding???!!!
I'm cheap. (the preferred word is frugal...)

Well, it's been a LONG day and I have to get up at 4:15AM to put in another 15 hour day so I think I had better call it a day!

Little Grace in Africa...I am thinking and dreaming about you.....XOXO!!
Blessings,
Beth