In honor of Orphan Sunday and Adoption Awareness November.........

Wow! It has been such a long time since I have written anything on here.
But boy do I have a LOT to say! (whats new, huh!)

1) Our yard sale went amazing! People came! They bought stuff!
Our kids and some of their sweet friends sold baked goods and passed out cards telling people about what the sale was for. It was precious.

We made about $1500 in 2 days which was almost enough  to pay for the home study all by itself! That combined with the generous birthday party donations and the money we have been saving we have raised a little over $4,ooo!
       
     *side note:  our adoption is expected to cost about $40,000, but the great thing about adoption fees is that you generally pay them in small (er) chunks.  We are excited to get the home study finalized so we can apply for some grants and do some more fundraising! (We have some very fun ideas coming)

2) We have now had 2 of 4 home study visits required for Uganda.  They are actually pretty fun and very informative.  So all my fears of 'being evaluated are (mostly) dissolved!

3) We now know for sure (if we didn't know before!)
       WE HAVE SO MANY AMAZING PEOPLE in our lives....

     

Last night,  I was finishing up some VERY LATE thank you notes to people who have:                                                     

                       contributed funds 

                       or yard sale donations 

                       or baked goods                               

                       or time, 

                       in the form of set up/running of/take down of the yard sale 

                       or even babysitting our kids while we did our home study visit,

                       or providing THE REALLY NICE HOTEL ROOMS                                                                                   Or food and fun and friendship 

        when we traveled out of town for the 2nd home study visit,

 (the first was IN our home)

Anyway, I know you all don't want me to mention your names here, BUT I will say this:

                          

                It struck me again. 

                    You are proof,

                There is more than one way to be a follower of James 1:27

  

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

My heart is filled afresh with gratitude for God's Provision for this adoption.  

      It is just so easy to forget from who comes ALL GOOD gifts.  

          The Body of Christ obeying His word is A VERY GOOD GIFT.

                     

   We can't all adopt

(though our prayer is always for more parents to be given this amazing, God given desire) 

   But we can ALL help somehow. 

Helping adoptive families adopt, or supporting ones who already have, IS HUGE!

                                        

The truth is we can not do this alone! 

 We need, love, desire, embrace, stand forever grateful for all the many forms of support!

 So in honor of Orphan Sunday (which was over a week ago now, but I am almost never punctual!) 

We want you to know:

We consider you all to be defenders of the fatherless!

We are so thankful for everyone who has blessed and showered the provision of God on us.  

This is the verse we put on the Thank You notes, it pretty much sums up our hearts:

     "I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.... because of your partnership in the gospel, from the first day until now!" Philippians 1:3-5

(PS if you read this and a thank you note hasn't been given to you yet, and one was meant for you, give me another week or so and then just send me a message that says something like, "Hey Christa, I want to see that really fun photo of your family on the slide I have heard so much about...."  I will take the hint and get it right to you, I tried to remember everyone, but some of the donations were handed to me in passing and well, I forget things sometimes.....)

Calling all Bakers.... and owners of stuff you don't want/need!

Hello Friends: 

                

              Our Yard sale is coming up: OCTOBER 11th-12th

                   Many of you have asked how you can help with our Yard sale.

      

 There are 2 main ways. First you can donate any and all items you would like,

        and we will pick them up if needed and sell them gladly!

          The second way: Bake something for our Kids bake sale.

Bring it to our house on Thursday, October 10th,

and we will include your delicious baked items in the sale.

If you have something to donate or are planning to bake an item please email us at squeezzyface@gmail.com

Or give us a call or face book message....

Yard Sale Time

We are ready to do our next fundraiser!  On Oct 11th and 12th we will have a yard sale.
            If you have anything you would like to donate to the sale, we would LOVE to sell it!
 We can come pick it up, or you can drop it off at our house......
              Just leave a comment here on the blog, or email us at squeezzyface@gmail.com and give us your contact info and we will connect with you!
             We would love anything you think is sell-able at all! We are super excited for this special event.... As we get closer we will give you more details and ways to be involved......
            Hint: our kids want to have a bake sale and lemon- aid stand as part of the event.
They really want to help bring home their newest siblings!
             We will be calling all bakers to contribute baked goods!

We are very excited, and already the donations are starting to come in,
         Just today we picked up some beautiful furniture and such.....
             So beautiful in fact, as we picked it up, our sweet friend who donated it said, 'oh if you like it that much you can keep it....'
So I had to say outloud: "I love these kids WAY more than any beautiful rustic wood furniture,
                AND JESUS IS MORE VALUABLE THAN ANYTHING ELSE!
(Oh covetous- self how crafty you can be!)  I am so grateful I have a Godly and practical husband who quickly reminded me WHY we were picking the stuff up....
  I cant wait to sell all these generous donations and bring our kids that much closer to being home with us!

The 30 reasons party, my #30 b-day, AKA our first adoption fundraiser!

getting ready for the party

more party prep

sweet friends

mustache buds

Jed and some special friends

See the beautiful rainbow? It was there reminding me that God is ALWAYS faithful.

This post is LONG overdue, of course life has been busy for us, but this was such a special night that I am sad it has taken me such a long time to tell you all about it!

Let me just say that we were blessed beyond our wildest expectations! 

We had over 50 friends show up to bless me on my 30th with their love and encouragement of our family and what God is calling us to.

It was beautiful outside and everyone brought dishes to share, cards with such kind messages and (Thankyou) a hundred times over, money gifts, to go towards our adoption costs! 

 We all enjoyed a night of fellowship, fun, food, picnic, play and finally later in the evening:

RAIN, 

LOTS OF RAIN 

and even more fun, kids playing in rain, 

and kind friends who didn't even leave once it BEGAN TO POUR!  

So as our friends showered us with blessings, God showered us with rain! 

The evening will forever be a truly special memory for us as we felt so loved and supported, and very close too (as we all crowded in the covered part of the park;)  all who were able to come, and on through the weekend by many who didn't come but gave us gifts and cards.

We are humbled and grateful.  

Thank you. From the bottom of our hearts. 

We are so honored and blessed .

Our family loves this worship cd for kids by   SovereignGraceMusic.org

Anyway, there is a song on it, called Generous Heart, and I feel like the words express so

 clearly what all of you demonstrated to us that I wanted to share it here

.... all I can find is this youtube video, so enjoy the teens doing hand motions with your kids;) 

Anyway, the final exciting part of the story of the birthday fundraiser, we now have enough money in the adoption account to pay for the home study portion of our adoption, between saving up ourselves and all your generous giving we have a little over $1800! Praise the Lord, for HIS faithful provision.

Here's the banner we made and friends wrote encouraging words, verses and prayers on. Its hanging in our living room now, to daily remind us of who is ABLE! (Our God)

30 reasons Party

Well, it is official.... Christa is turning 30.
       We decided to celebrate with a special party.
             Here's a copy of the Invite
This Birthday Party is going to be a BIT different.  As you know, our family is adopting from Uganda. We ALSO love Christa (aka mommy)
 So, we will celebrate her BIG thirty with '30 Reasons'.
Reasons: WE ALL LOVE CHRISTA
Reasons: We are so excited about adopting from Uganda
Reasons: We love all of you
So here is how we are going to do this: 
On August 30th at 6pm

• Bring a dish to share... A-F main dish, G-L Side dish, M-Q appetizers, R-Z desserts (we cant make Christa cook, its her birthday;) 

• Bring a blanket for your family to sit on.... (there are limited tables at this park.)
• Bring a card for Christa telling her 1 or more reason(s) you love her! (we just want to encourage her and build her up in Christ!)

• Bring a donation (we were thinking $30;) towards our first step in our adoption process, (The Home Study) We are so excited to join together with you in this way as God brings the children he has for us into our family!

• Please remember, we really want you to come and join in on the fun, if you cant contribute towards the adoption COME ANYWAY! Just bring a hand made card telling Christa a reason you love her! No gifts please! 

So, in case you missed the evite we sent..... here's the info. Comment if you want location information or if you have other questions.

To all who may be saying.... "Are you CRAZY?"

        Last Saturday I had breakfast with my oldest and dearest girl-friend.  She requested a breakfast date after receiving the news that our family was growing......
                  You see we made this decision over time, it was a process for our family to get to this point.  But she hadn't been included in that decision making process.
       So, she asked for the back story.  We sat in a cute old diner. We ate eggs and toast. (I drank coffee, she's healthy like that)
 We talked about what God has been doing in our family.  She asked her questions.  She listened to my rambling way of explaining things and we had a great time.
She left excited, but still warming up to the idea of our adoption , I think.
                            That is ok.
                  Its not her vision.  It 's ours.
      What I loved and treasured about that breakfast date with my sweet friend was, she asked.
She spoke her concerns and was honest with me.  She gave me a chance to tell her about what God is doing in our lives and she wasn't negative in any way. In fact she was encouraging. In spite of her own hesitations.

       You see, though we have been privately praying, as well as seeking counsel from a few men and women we feel God placed in our lives for this season to provide us with Godly counsel in this matter.....
      Some of those closest to us haven't been a part of the initial decision making process.  So for lack of a better description they may feel 'in the dark'....... or even left out....
     
   Additionally, we HAVE 5 Kiddos so, many people who know us may, in the most loving way possible, secretly (or openly be asking) "Are you CRAZY?"
  In answer to that question I say, Yes, we are crazy, i think.  At least by the standards I have always measured 'not crazy' by......
      However, though this may seem sudden and on a whim to you, we have actually thought this one out quite a bit.....
       But don't let that make you think we are just roaring with confidence here.... we are scared stiff.                                                                          (That was the blog title we toyed with the most, actually.)
       Even though we are sure of the calling, we aren't sure at all of the way, the means, or final picture of what this all looks like.
Wisdom, money, time, patience, love..... the list goes on as to all the things we know we have a mediocre supply of.

But: 'MY GOD WILL SUPPLY EVERY NEED OF YOURS ACCORDING TO HIS RICHES AND GLORY IN CHRIST JESUS.' PHILIPPIANS 4:19

So, we are abundantly confident in his splendid supply.

We don't know much, but we know he told us to, 'Get out of the boat.'  So we are.
 We are trying not to look at the waves. But it is a moment by moment battle.  The waves LOOK SO BIG.

God is GREATER STILL!

So, friend, feel free to use my dearest friend as your example.
Have questions? Ask away. Have doubts? Be honest.

One thing is for sure, we know we can't do this alone. We need the body of Christ to come around us and support us with prayer, love, giving, counsel, and encouragement.

We NEED people to become passionate about our vision.
After all, we didn't make it up ourselves.

"Father of the fatherless and protector of the widows is God in His holy habitation.
God sets the lonely into families, he leads the prisoners out singing!" Psalm 68:5-6

To sum up, we covet your prayers, we hope for your support, we welcome your questions, we are ok with your doubts and we are so thankful for ALL our friends!

naming our blog

We all wrestled with what to name our blog for a few weeks.  Had we named it earlier it may have been up and running weeks ago.  Jed thought of the most names, and the majority of these are his ideas.
Though we didn't choose these ideas I want you to see them.
I think they convey our hearts:
 agape in action
meant to be
impossible without God
done through Christ
love for all orphans
set free
need to be
10,000 reasons
giving hope
frowns turned to smiles
clothed in love
not to us
and mommy's idea: scared stiff

 The name we chose was inspired in part by this song: (we love rap;)

It was inspired by the truth that Jesus has already saved the day.

When we are tempted to fret about Gods timing in our adoption.
Or His provision for this undertaking.
Or about the plight of the orphans and vulnerable in our world.....
  When our minds are racing with the facts about child trafficking,
       and starving children
              or people dying every day without hearing the gospel.....
                        though we don't understand it. We trust.
                             His ways are above our ways and he said, 'It is finished.'
Everything we do or attempt to do for Him in this life adds nothing to the table.
He doesn't NEED us.
Rather it is a privilege.

A chance for us to participate in HIS already finished work.  

To Bring Glory to His Name.
Can you imagine, Our Great God delights in allowing us to bring Him glory?
And all the while it brings us great joy!
Amazing.