Happy Birthday to You

You constantly forget how old you are despite me reminding you when I tell you to act your age.  Even I have forgot and we have had to count on our fingers.  Well, today you are 44!!  Let's try to get through a whole year without having to stop and think.  

Thanks for being a great husband and daddy.  Thanks for working to provide for us and allowing me to stay home.  

We love you.  

Happy Birthday!

Random Pictures!!

This is what happens when you let your 7 year old loose with your camera!

This was a science experiment.  It should have grown roots.  Instead we just got mold. 

We have been building a fire on Saturday nights for the past 2 months.  Its a fun thing to do that doesn't cost anything. We've had a blast spending time together and enjoying the fall weather.

I think I've got a ton of these pictures of Darrell driving.  This was at Cade's Cove when we went to my parent's house last weekend.

Family Dynamics....My daughter and my sister.  Two cuties.

And the most handsomest nephew alive!  Isn't he a doll? Both my nephew and my sister are 3.  I can't wrap my head around it!

I just had so snap this the other night in our backyard.  The camera definitely did not capture the real beauty.

I know satan hates adoption.  

And I knew that there would be opposition.  

And while it hasn't been that bad, Praise the Lord, it has been hard fighting that opposition.  In my heart I know that if we just walked away our lives would get easier.  

Particularly financially. 

I know that Darrell wouldn't have to work every Sunday to make ends meet. 

I know that things would stop popping up around here that need more of our already strained wallets. 

I know there would be less stress. 

Less emotional kinks. 

And if we keep going?

I know that there will be financial stress.

And Darrell will have to work a lot.

And satan will try and throw us curveballs to spend our money elsewhere.

And I know that stress, anxiety and emotional breakdowns will be prevalent.

This adoption will probably run us between $30,000 and $40,000.  

You cannot face that and not be under a little stress.  

Eventually I will sit down and write out how God has provided because I want everyone to see that He is faithful.  He is a father to the fatherless.  He sets the lonely in families.  

And that is how I know that God is in this.  We are not running in the opposite direction.  We are forging ahead until either God closes the door or I am holding my daughter.  And if God closes the door?  We will still find ways to help the fatherless.  We are called to it.  

In the meantime please pray for us.  The battle before us is strong and hard.  And we feel so weak. 

Home School

(If your trying to figure out what in the world is going on with the window in the background, we haven't finished the trim yet.  Still.  I also have a temporary curtain hanging for privacy.)

We do school at the kitchen counter.  We have a counter height overhang on our island with 4 barstools.  Its a perfect spot for now because we don't have another surface that fits us both side by side.

I love homeschooling.  I love being home.  The schooling part is hard.  School is the last thing I want to do during the day.  But being the good mom I am, we buckle down and get it done.  It usually takes anywhere from 2-3.5 hours for 5 basic subjects.  I need to add some handwriting and an elective soon.  But for now this is plenty.

The curriculum I am using is very self directed.  This can be a good thing.  And for the most part it is a good thing.  Liberty knows the pages she is to finish and she goes to town working on them.  The bad thing about this is I usually just do my own thing unless she has a question.  When I go back and check her work for the day I am noticing a lot of mistakes.  Usually because she isn't reading all of the directions.  We have had to find a balance where I don't have to sit and babysit her the whole time and she isn't on her own 100%.

We always sit and pray over our prayer requests and recite the Lord's prayer together.  I will then go over the directions for Bible.  I intend to go over directions from each subject as she gets to them, but I get distracted and she is very independent so it doesn't always work that way.





I love being able to get laundry and other cleaning done during the day.  You would think that being home my house would be spotless.  I thought it would be too.  It isn't.  I do try and clean the junk that accumulates everyday, but its so hard to clean the toilets when I just did it last week!!

Right now our days are pretty quiet for the most part.  The constant chattering from just one child is more than I can handle sometimes.  Its hard to say what adding another child (or children???) will do to my sanity, but we will cross that bridge later. 

I am so thankful that the Lord has provided an opportunity for me to homeschool and stay home.  I am thankful to Darrell for working so hard to provide for us. 

Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name.

  
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits:

Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.

The View Around Here

Our temperatures have been sitting in the 70's during the day for the last couple weeks.  The nights get pretty chilly, but the days are beautiful.  This weekend we should fall to the high 30's at night.  We have lived here since the last week of July and we have not had any air conditioner.  Not even one of those window units that are so popular around here.  I believe the whole month of August was a bit unbearable, but then it got a little better.  We didn't truly know the state of our heating and air system until a few weeks ago.  We thought it worked but maybe just needed a tune up.  We were wrong.  Its shot.  We need a whole new unit.  Not what you want to hear.  But Praise the Lord we have oil heat too!  The AC can wait until next year when we have a few more options financially. 

I took a few photos of the trees in our yard.  Nothing major yet, but we are on our way to a beautiful fall. Also, I need to clean the fingerprints off my camera.

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