Just Us

One of Nathan's last pictures in his homeland This is a post from my husband that he first put on Facebook, and I feel that it's such an integral and amazing part of our life journey that I should share it here, and so beautifully written. We began a journey towards adoption a couple years ago that hit a few roadblocks. Though still patiently waiting, God has been doing some incredible things to help us prepare for whatever He has in store for us. We have built great relationships with people that have the same heart as us. My wife has began to plant the seeds of an organization/business devoted to helping with adoptive families and with orphan/adoption related issues. We have also been blessed with a host of learning opportunities, and several open doors that have helped advance our understanding of both orphan/adoption care. With all of this personal involvement in the orphan/adoption process, I have had some very personal experiences, both good and bad, because o...

...Almost. The season to begin/continue pursuing our adoption is here. If you missed my last post (forever ago in May) you can catch up here . Within the next month, Nathan and I will begin reapplication with our agency looking towards a Korean adoption. Over the past year and a half since we first were denied on our application, God has blessed us in so many ways, and I believe, made us closer as a couple and as a family. Our financial status, according to the government's standards for international adoption, should be in better standing this time around (one of those blessings from God), which was the major reason we were initially denied. We feel that we have a good amount of money saved back to get the process started (with much help from many of you), and now is the time! If you are wondering what you can possibly do to help or be involved in our journey, here are some ideas. 1. PRAY - We of course will need prayer all throughout this journey, but especially here at the b...

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven..."  Ecclesiastes 3:1 In February of this year, we had made it, we had reached our goal (at least my goal), we had raised/saved $10,000 dollars for our adoption! I was elated. I couldn't believe we had actually made it to this goal, but we had, and now it was time to start our adoption pursuit once again. In April of 2015 we applied to our adoption agency, and in May of that same year we were denied. A big reason being our income, which were we not surprised about this being an issue, but nevertheless devastated. We decided to wait a while and try again. We still felt like we were supposed to pursue South Korea at least one more time. My personal goal was to get to $10,000 and apply again. It seemed impossible to me at the time, but we did it in just under a year (thanks to all the support of those that participated in our adoption raffle and other fundraisers). So, the time had come, and I had...

It's been a while since I've posted, and a lot has happened since then. My wonderful husband graduated with his Master's degree from Liberty Theological Seminary (so proud of you honey!) and he and I made a trip out to Virginia for the graduation ceremony. It was like a second honeymoon! We took our kiddos to Branson for a whole week and got to see my brother and sister-in-laws family. My parents, sister, and other brother were there also. I don't think I could ever get tired of family time. I don't think we've ever taken a week-long vacation with the kids. It was amazing! My little man turned 5, and he is PROUD of it! He starts kindergarten on Monday  (my kids go to a year-round school). Nathan and I "celebrated" our 9th anniversary. He happened to be out of town that day, but I think the honeymoon trip to Virginia makes up for that. I the midst of all of these activities were t-ball games... lots of them! :) And we jus...

We just finished our annual Missions Conference at our church, and I still feel like I am in conference mode. I love this conference and other similar times throughout the year. Doesn't it make you exhausted you ask? Yes, absolutely; completely and utterly exhausted (thus you may encounter thoughts that aren't quite complete or incorrect spellings, sorry for that). But, it is all worth it. It is so wonderful to see old friends, meet new friends, learn new things, and be in the presence of God together. There also happened to be a wedding smashed in the middle of this conference, so I got to see even more friends this year (shout out to my awesome friend Ashley from Ohio). I especially loved seeing these friends. Okay, so they're my brothers and sister, and I happen to live near 2 of them, but my oldest brother lives far away, and I always love being with them all. Plus, we hadn't taken a photo of just us together for years. Okay, now back to the conference. On th...