Something New

I changed things up a little around here.  The lack of symmetry is killing me though.  It might look completely different next time you stop by. 
One thing that will probably be sticking around though is my new thingy on the side over there.  It is something that we have been talking about around here for 2 years and 8 months. 

adoption.

This word isn't new around our family.  Liberty has been talking about her sister for years now.  Bless her heart.  What is new is something else that we've never been before.

ready.

Just to sit and type those words brings tears to my eyes.  I have longed to be classified as "ready."  

When we get settled we will be ready. 
When Darrell gets a better job we will be ready.  
When we find a house we will be ready. 
When we finish the house we will be ready.  
When we close on the house we will be ready.

All the while we wait patiently, never losing hope or fervor that somewhere out there I have a beautiful daughter waiting for my hugs and kisses.  Waiting for a sister who has prayed for her and longed for her.  Waiting for a daddy that will adore her.  

Darrell and I decided to stop with one child when we had a precious daughter.  After 3 boys (who are actually men now!) he was satisfied with a daughter.  =)  He even went through a "procedure" so that we would be done for good.  And we were done.  Until January of 2010 when the Lord opened our hearts to adoption.  This was something we had never thought we could do.  Not only that, we never thought we even wanted to.  

Plans.  God laughs at them.   

Fast forward almost 3 years and here we are.  So humbled that God would allow us to even go on this journey.  

Our plan is to adopt a girl who is between 4 and 7.  Or roughly in that age range.  We are adopting internationally.  We've narrowed down the countries, but we are really trying to seek the Lord's will.  We have a small time frame to pick a country and when we do, I will be on here asap letting you know.  

International adoption (all adoptions really) have a way of driving you to the point of insanity.  And possibly over the point of insanity.  There are so many twists and turns.  The rules change without notice.  We expect our adoption to take at least a year, but probably longer.  This is actually a short time frame since we plan on adopting from the waiting child list and are requesting an "older" child. 

So this little Chip In is just so significant in our lives.  It is also a little awkward.  Its not the first time we've needed help.  But to have to ask has a way of bringing you to your knees. Adoption is expensive.  When the Lord took us in, it wasn't cheap.  It cost Him his Son.  Lucky for us we only have to come up with about $30,000.  When this goal is met I will be adjusting it to reflect our new goal for our next expenses.  And please know there will be NO shortage of praises from this family when He provides every dollar we need.
If the Lord leads you to donate to our family, we won't take it lightly.  And we thank you for loving us and believing in God's plan for our lives.  We would also be humbled beyond belief if you would share our website with anyone with a heart and passion for the orphan.  

Eventually I will be putting a few other websites on the sidebar of families who are in the same need as we are.  The Bible speaks so plainly about caring for the orphans.  Not every can adopt.  But everyone can do something little.  There are so many families who have taken a step of faith and started this process with only a few dollars in their savings account.  And they have seen miracles from the Lord using people to help a child find their family. 

Praise the Lord.  His name will be praised in this house for what He has done and what He will do in our lives. 

We are ready.

Love,
Darrell, Cindy and Liberty

 

Second Grade

Tuesday was our first day of school.  It was very low key and uneventful.  We had a mini photo shoot outside.

We started out in front of my freshly painted front door.  The sun was too bright so we moved to the rock wall in the front.

 

 And of course the teacher...

Keeping It Real

New Old House

Hi! We have internet!  The world can go on!  I guess we live in an internet dead zone.  We had to get satellite internet!  The most expensive kind.  And we have a daily allowance!  How terrible is that? 

Well, at least I have an internet connection and I can feel normal again.  

These were all the pictures from my camera.  I guess I haven't taken pictures in awhile. 

 We have drywall!  That was a beautiful sight!  I was so tired of looking at empty bare studs.  The drywall was hung perfectly.  The finishing?  Well, I saw a lot of things because I've painted this entire place.  But I won't focus on the imperfections.  I'll be thankful for drywall!

Here is Darrell working on the electrical panel.  Before this we only had one outlet.  There were cords everywhere.  This was before we had new windows and doors installed.

 Painting 12 foot ceilings is hard even with a sprayer.  I couldn't imagine doing this whole place with a roller.  It is funny how you remember certain things from pictures.  This day was so incredibly hot.  (We still don't have AC just in case you wanted to stop in!) We were in a hurry to get the ceilings done because the floor guy was coming Monday.  We lost power the Friday before.  This day was Sunday.  The power had come back on here at the house and that was a praise!  But anyway, it was hot, Darrell was stressed, and we had to sit and watch him.  The sprayer was acting up too.  Not a fun day.

 Obviously Liberty was trying to have some fun.

 Who knew those beautiful pine floors were under that ugly carpet glue all this time?

 Take a good look because you won't see them scratch free when you come to visit!

 This is the kitchen.  I love my kitchen.  I need to clean clutter and fingerprints and take a good one with my appliances.

 Sorry, I don't know how to shift this picture.  This is our new front door.  Darrell said painting it wasn't a priority.  So it is still boring white.  But here really soon it will be candy apple red.  I can't wait!

 This is the master bathroom.  Tiny, but functional.  We have gone from one bathroom to 2.5 now.  We don't know what to do with ourselves!

 Windows you can actually see through!! They still look like this.  We haven't put up the trim yet.  Although the walls aren't white anymore.

Care to guess my wall color? 

A quick note...

We are moved in! 
Between losing power for a week, packing, painting, moving, painting, unpacking, and painting I haven't had much time to post.  We don't have internet at the house yet. But I made a quick trip to my parent's this weekend to pick something up so I am using up their internet until it is time to leave.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to post of the house.  I am trying to decide if I want to post them in order so you can see the progress or if I should just post the final pictures.  If I post them in order, then by the time I'm caught up maybe the house will be 100% done.  Right now it is just a big pile of mess and we have more work to do. 
Thank you for your prayers to get us through this long process.  We still have work to do but if feels good to live there. 

Hard At Work

School might be out, but we have been hard at work.  Well, I guess checking progress everyday isn't considered hard work but it sure feels like it.  Yes, I said progress!  I'll let the pictures do the talking...

There is more to come but I will save them for another post.  In the meantime here is a picture from Easter. 

In a few days I will update with more recent pictures from the house.  Its so close.  We are hoping to move in the middle of July!! 

Mountains

Does it get any better than this?  This is from our back porch.  I never thought in a million years that I would have a view like this on a daily basis for over a year now.  I love it.  But I will gladly trade the view if that means I will be living in my own home and out of the "fishbowl" of the valley we live in now. 

I call it a fishbowl because we could have any number of eyeballs on us at any time.

Our apartment is directly across from the church.  We have another three church families that live in and around the church.  This doesn't include a staff member that lives on the side of that mountain and is very fond of his binoculars.  

The best things in life aren't free.  And this view certainly does come with a price!

It is called privacy and one day soon we will have that privacy.