We're looking for a MATCH!

We finished our parenting class yesterday! I am so excited, but now the nervous worry has begun to set in. We learned alot about how adopted children really experience a great sense of "loss" when they are adopted. You and I would think "Well, these kids should just be happy they are being adopted!" But, some are not. In their minds, the mother who beat them or neglected them is still their mother. Because our system is "flawed" no one every sits down with these kids and really explains to them why they are being taken out of the home. It is very sad, and something we will have to work through.

My other worry is that there are going to be unrealistic expectations set for our children by our families and others in the community who don't really understand the full extent of what these children may have faced in their short little lives. Today, my mother in law said she really hopes that our children climb up in her lap and want to sit with her like her other grandson does. It sadden me just a bit to think that she already has an expectation that these children will be just like the "birth" grandchild she already has. I had to gently explain to her that maybe they will want to do that, but to not be suprised when they are not immediately jumping in her lap ready for hugs and love. Some are so scared to be around people or uncomfortable with touch right off the bat. I am just worried that people will have their feelings hurt or feel rejected by our children for reasons that are unfortuante. My prayer is that God will give us opportunities to teach our families and friends to be sensitive to our children, but not to step around them. I also pray that God will give us children who are willing to see the genuine love that is waiting for them.

So, be in prayer for us and our families as we begin to see profiles of children and are hopefully matched to just the group God has waiting for us.

Adoption Bug

ok, so RObert and I have a website on adoptionbug.com. They sell adoption tshirts and will do a fundraiser for you. I am so excited about this, but I have to buy a shirt soon! I haven't even bought us one! : ) I am going to add the widget on here if you are interested! Thanks!

Debt Free in 2010

So, Robert and I have talked and prayed alot about getting out of debt. When we first married, we did Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace. I was not a huge fan of cutting up my brand new credit card, but I did. We have used some of the basic ideas from Dave Ramsey but have not really followed it exactly.

When we started the adoption process, I knew that I did not want to work when we got our children. I just couldn't imagine having to leave them everyday. I also knew this would require sacrifice in some area, I just wasn't ready to admit it. This summer I got my bus license to help out with some expenses. My thought was that I would "double up" on my car note and pay it off in 12 months instead of 2 years. This sounded like a great idea, but something "always came up" when that extra money came in each month. It is alot harder to put it into practice.

Two weeks ago, I decided I would try to sell my car to help out and not have a car note. I listed in the Tradewinds and boy, God works quick. We sold it in 3 days for the full pay off. I was shocked and a little heart broken. Robert and I have been sharing one vehicle for about a week, until today!

Back to Dave Ramsey. Robert used to say that we would pay cash for our next car and I would just chuckle! That is so impossible. Or so I thought! We paid cash for a vehicle today! Is it new? No. Is it pretty, Heck no! Is it gonna last forever, NOPE! But, it cranks, it runs, it doesn't smoke, and it will get my husband from work to home and back!

I was thinking today after we picked up "Big Bertha" (that's the car's name) that God is so good. He works in such crazy, wonderful, God ways! A girl at church told me tonight, "Sister, you may not have died to self just yet. But I think you are getting sick to self!" What a blessing! I want so bad to die to me and my wants, because I so mess it up! I was thinking of this praise chorus as I typed this. Be blessed!

"God is so good. God is so good. God is so good, He's so good to me."

Who's the Enemy?

Today, our preacher made a comment that really hit home to me. Our battle is not with people. Our battle is with the devil. I find it so easy to be mad at the person who hurts my husband or my family. But not very often do I truly sit and realize that the battle is not with that person. The battle is with the one who is using that person and his name is Satan.

I think a lot of our own personal issues with each other would be cleared up so quickly if we just took a step back before jumping to conclusions, and realized that people aren't the problem. It is the devil. Saying his name makes me cringe, but I so often let him trick me into thinking people are evil. How blinded we have become in not seeing his tricks.

Maybe, just maybe, we have allowed ourselves to be blinded so much by the "little" sins in our lives that we have forgotten that an itty bitty foothold gives the devil a whole playing field in our lives. That one compromise, one choice that didn't include Jesus, one slip of the tongue, one second glance at what we shouldn't be glancing at, or one stumble gives the devil an open door into those tiny places in our hearts.

So, the next time we find ourselves irritated at our neighbor, angry at a family member, frustrated with our children or spouse, or just plain ole mad, remember, the fight isn't with the other person. It is with the devil himself!