Tomorrow is June 1st.  Besides the fact that half the year has already disappeared, I took a glance at June’s schedule of events and realized that I will likely wake up in a few days and it will already be July.  I mean, we have three jam-packed days of practicum this week, VBS next week, adoption yard sale next weekend, Nashville worship conference the week after that, and Owen and Jesse’s birthdays and parties within a week of that….then it’s July!  It’s all good because my Daddy comes home from Iraq in July, but it also means the ’11-’12 school year will be less than a month away.

Okay, now is when I slow down.  I’ve really been enjoying my boys lately.  I mean really!  We sleep in a little later than usual, make waffles for breakfast at 10am, and hang around in our jammies and fold giant mountains of laundry while watching Old Yeller .  We had already been out and about this morning and were just settling back in when one of the boys said, “Can we, maybe, go to the library sometime this week?”

My response, “How about right now!  Get your shoes on.”

We had fun at the downtown library, which is nice and spacious and never crowded, we ate lunch with Josh, and now we’re watching a movie with our sheets and pillows piled up in the living room and the blackout curtains pulled closed.  I just might take a little nap.

This summer will not fly by for a lack of rest and relaxation.  We will enjoy our slower schedule.  We’ll speak life to one another.  We’ll have spontaneous trips to Nana’s and eat dessert before our meals.  We’ll play in the sprinkler and spend some days at the lake.  It’s going to be a great summer and it’s only just begun.

~audrey

“But He said to me “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” 2 Corin. 12:9

Yesterday was my birthday and if I can just be honest, life has been straight up exhausting lately.  I’ve been overwhelmed and tired and it’s been written all over my face twenty-four hours a day.  Isn’t it incredible how God knows exactly what we need, exactly when we need it?

Monday was my last day keeping the twins.  We will miss those sweet girls, but God’s timing couldn’t have been better.  I woke up Tuesday morning and felt like a weight had been lifted from me.  I loved keeping the girls; they were wonderful and well behaved, but there’s just something about keeping someone else’s children in your home forty hours a week that takes a toll on you.  My housework wasn’t getting done, there were days when we didn’t get all of our school work done, meals weren’t always on the table at dinner time, and I was constantly exhausted.  I still wake up at the same time in the morning, but I feel like I’ve gotten an extra two or three hours of sleep.  It’s amazing!  I feel like my joy has been restored; I feel like ME again.  It is precious to spend my days with my boys, just the four of us.

My birthday was wonderful and relaxing.  I slept in until 8:00am, the boys and I got some school work done and then got ready to go downtown and eat lunch with Josh.  After lunch, the boys swam in the little pool in the backyard and I surprised them with a movie at the dollar theater in the early afternoon.  Last night was our last Wednesday night church for the summer.  The kids had a pizza party and an inflatable water slide and the adults ate dinner together and reflected on the past year.  I had the opportunity to give an update on Zoe and our adoption process, as well as mention our adoption yard sale coming up in about two and a half weeks.  I was given a few cards from friends and we headed home.  When I got home, there was a birthday gift on my front porch from my friend Tara (THANKS friend, you know I love it!), and Josh had set up the dining room table with my gifts from him.  He gave me a big, beautiful orchid in a fabulous pink container and this:

This necklace is a glass pendant with the shape of Africa made out of words like, “Zoe, Ethiopia, love, joy, peace, and Emaye (the Amharic word for ‘mother’)…in my favorite color.  I love it!!

Then I realized I hadn’t opened the cards given to me at church.  I squealed like a little kid when Starbucks gift cards fell out of two of them!  Oh, the simple things in life…like a good, over-priced cup of coffee that I didn’t have to make…or pay for.

I’m thankful for another year of life.  I am blessed beyond description with friends and family that love me and add to my life in immeasurable ways.

I will leave you with this:

~audrey

I’ve often heard, in adoption circles, the term paper pregnant.  I think it’s quite cute.  After all, in a physical pregnancy everyone around you sees your physical changes and there is no doubt that you are indeed expecting a baby.  However, with an adoption, there are no physical signs to tell the world that you, too, are expecting a baby.  I’ve seen cute, little shirts that say “Paper pregnant”, with a little stork under the text.

Anyways, all that to say that we are officially paper pregnant!  After much prayer, going back and forth and back again, we settled on a different agency than originally planned.  Without going into too much detail, we changed agencies based on their pregnancy policies.  We have no intention whatsoever of becoming pregnant while in the process of adopting, but we wanted assurance that if God had other plans, we would not be forced to put our adoption on hold or lose any money we’d put in thus far.  Our new agency fits our preferences perfectly.  Not only that, our new agency has a more reasonable fee schedule and is a smaller agency than the first, which means our wait for baby Zoe will likely be significantly smaller than originally expected (an average of three to six months for a referral!).

Please continue to share our story with others and pass along the links to our puzzle fundraiser and Bows for Life!  You can share these links on your facebook or blog as well.  We changed the date of our first adoption yard sale to Saturday, June 11th at our home.  Please be praying for abundant provision!

Thank you as always for your continued support and encouragement.  I enjoy keeping you all up-to-date on the progress.

Bless you!

~audrey

Last night I had the privilege of attending a mom’s night out of sorts.  My dear friend Sharon hosted a gathering at her house with the purpose being to learn how to do their daughters’ hair.  Ali, who is great with child (sweet Caroline is due very soon!) came to teach.  Ali has three sisters and is expecting her third daughter so she was armed with great tips.  I thought it was such a great idea!  Of course I do not have any daughters (yet!) but I do have hair accessories in the form of Bows for Life! She graciously invited me to bring my bows and share our adoption story with the hopes that we could raise more money for Zoe.

There were about eight of us altogether and I ended up bringing home almost $120 for our adoption!  They were incredibly sweet, generous women and I look forward to seeing some of them again soon at our Parent Practicum in a few weeks.  It just thrills me to have to come home and make more bows because so many of the ones I’d already made have sold.

God is so good and His grace and provision continue to bless us beyond measure.  Somehow, going through this adoption, knowing we’re depending 100% on His provision, brings an extra measure of joy as I do my weekly jobs that contribute to our family financially.  Whether it be watching other children, keeping the nursery at church, or cleaning an office; blessing upon blessing.

May I never lose sight of the One who owns it all.

Thank you Sharon and Ali.  You’re both precious to me!

~audrey

It’s the end of the academic school year and this is a time when I like to re-evaluate.  What worked this year, what needs to be changed, what did we do well and in what areas did we fall short?

I have a lot of irons in the fire at the moment and I don’t feel like I’m doing any of them with excellence.  I have decided to meditate on Philippians 4:8 for the rest of this month while I pray and seek the Lord on how to do all of my tasks with excellence.

“Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

Here is how the dictionary defines the words in this verse:

true: exact or accurate

honorable: in accordance with or characterized by principles of honor; honesty, fairness, integrity in ones beliefs

just: guided by truth, reason, justice, and fairness

pure: free from anything of a different, inferior, or contaminating kind

lovely: delightful; exquisitely beautiful

commendable: present, mention, or praise as worthy of confidence, notice

excellent: possessing outstanding quality or superior merit

How different would your life be if you weighed each action and decision you make upon the standards of Philippians 4:8?  Mine would look very different indeed.  As I strive for excellence so my heavenly Father can gain glory from my day to day life, even the things I find mundane, I pray that this verse, which is hidden in my heart, will set the bar for which everything is weighed upon.

music.

movies.

conversation.

child training.

teaching.

discipline.

my every thought.

~audrey

Have I ever done a post on our homeschool curriculum/program of choice?  I’m not sure that I have so here it is.

Classical Conversations was founded by Leigh Bortins.  Here is the mission statement in the catalog:

Our mission is to know God and to make Him known.  In every subject, God has hidden His truth and beauty.  It is our pleasure as students and teachers to discover Him as we learn.  Our studies should also prepare us to reason clearly, speak eloquently, and write convincingly so that we have the ability to make God known to others.

Classical Conversations combines a biblical worldview with classical tools.  The classical model divides learning into three stages:

1) the grammar stage:  memorizing facts

2) the dialectic stage:  discovering how the facts relate

3) the rhetoric stage:  applying the facts.

The Bible refers to these stages in Proverbs 24:3-4 as knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.

Of course my children are in early elementary school, so they are in the grammar stage, also called Foundations.  Each week they are presented with new material to memorize in the following subjects:

math

Bible

history

science

geography

Latin

grammar (English)

timeline (each week the children learn eight new points on the timeline, starting with creation all the way through modern America.  Bible history and world history are mixed in chronologically; it’s incredible!)

An example of a history sentence:  “In 1517 Martin Luther began the Protestant Reformation by printing the Ninety-five theses which made Pope Leo X excommunicate him; later John Calvin joined the reformation.”

In the early years, it’s completely up to you as to how much you want to add to your memory work.  For example, you could go to the library and check out books on Martin Luther, John Calvin, and/or the Protestant Reformation.  OR, you can choose to do nothing else with that information.  It’s okay!  The great thing is, most of the memory work is available on an audio CD and put to music.  These songs get stuck in our head for weeks at a time!  It’s great.  It is absolutely amazing how easy it is for children to memorize while they’re young.  Then, when they’re older, all of that information that they drilled and drilled in the early years, is still there readily available for expanding upon.

You have to add your own Math, Reading, Language Arts, and Spelling.  Leigh Bortins recommends Saxon Math.  This is our first year using Saxon and we’ve enjoyed it.  We use Language Lessons for English and Sequential Spelling for…spelling.  We’ve used different things for each child’s reading.  My first son learned to read using Teach Your Child to Read in 100-Easy Lessons.  My second son learned to read using Abeka phonics.  They both read equally well.  100-Easy Lessons was definitely faster; we’ll probably use that with our third son next year.

We are blessed to have a CC co-op in our area.  We meet on Tuesdays for 12 weeks in the fall and 12 weeks in the spring.  For three hours, the children are introduced to their new memory work for the week, they conduct two science experiments and an art project.  Our CC community has been such a blessing to us this year.  I will be teaching in the fall and I greatly look forward to it.

In the fall my boys will be in pre-k, second, and third grade…although my second grader may claim to be in third grade because we’ve managed to catch him up with his older brother so they use all of the same materials, even in math…it’s very convenient for Mommy!

We love Classical Conversations and the classical biblical model that it follows.  I don’t see us ever changing….unless the Lord says otherwise.

~audrey

You would think after having kids for eight+ years, I would be prepared enough to have dinner on the table Wednesday nights before we have to leave for church….but no.

I sat in the nursery last night, starving, knowing I would be feeding my family dinner around 9pm.  Oops.  I’d love to tell you it was just a busy day and we lost track of time, but that would not be the whole truth.  This happens almost every week…..or if we’re lucky and leave the house in time, we can drive thru somewhere and order off of the dollar menu and drink water when we get to church.

So I’ve decided to simplify this part of our life for right now.  From now on, we will have the same thing every Wednesday night.  I haven’t completely decided on the options yet.  I’d like to have two or three things that we rotate on Wednesday nights.  Like frozen pizza, corn dogs, or tacos.  If I can have the meat already cooked before Wednesdays, tacos would be the healthiest option.  I’m also making a lunch schedule to post in the kitchen.  We will have a different sandwich/lunch item assigned to each day of the week and it will not change.  Here’s what I have so far:

Mondays:  hot dogs and pear slices

Tuesdays:  pb&j with applesauce

Wednesdays:  macaroni and cheese and oranges

Thursdays:  grilled cheese and bananas

Fridays:  peanut butter toast, pretzels, and peaches

I’ve come to realize that I could be getting a lot more accomplished if I’d get back to better planning and consistent delegating.  My boys (thank you, Lord!) are old enough to do so many things around the house.  Make their beds, strip the beds, sort and put away clean laundry, put dirty laundry in their proper bins in the laundry room, care for the chickens, water the garden, sweep, wipe counters and tables, wash dishes, load and unload the dishwasher, vacuum, dust, and of course bathe themselves and dress themselves.  Yeah, I’m sure after that list, you’re looking up the child labor laws for the state of Georgia.  But the fact is, children aren’t required to do much anymore.  Adults write them off as “just being kids” and don’t expect or require them to lift a finger outside of school, and even there the responsibility never seems to placed on the child themselves.  As a homeschooling family, it takes the whole village (family) to keep this house running.  I have a unique opportunity to give my children hands-on training for being a servant to our neighbors and the elderly, how to minister through preparing meals for others or taking care of other children while their parents work.  I can teach them the value of days’ work and a godly work ethic.  These are things we’re striving to instill in our boys as they learn and grow into godly young men who desire nothing more than to hear the Father and obey.

I heard the boys talking yesterday about high school and college.  Joshua (8) said, I’ll graduate from high school in ten years, then I’ll go to college, and then I’ll get married.  Jesse (6) was quick to respond, Not me.  I’m going to wait for God to show me who my wife is suppose to be; instead of trying to find her myself.

Who are these boys and what did they do with my children?!

Any who, that was a rabbit trail.

Keep it simple. That is my motto for the month of May as we try to catch up on finish our school work and slip into a summer routine that works for all of us.

Jumping jellyfish!  It’s already Thursday!!  Woo-hoo!!!

~audrey

I must say, you can learn to do just about ANYTHING on YouTube! Here’s my newest-learned skill: t-shirt appliques!

I have three fabrics for women’s and girls’ Africa shirts, two fabric choices for boys’/men’s Africa shirts, and only one choice so far for the kids’ “Adoption Rocks” shirt. Once I get inexpensive t-shirts ordered, I’ll sell them for $15 each. For now, anyone who would like to provide their own shirt (Target makes great quality plain short-sleeved tees) I can add the applique for $5 (Africa) and $8 for “Adoption Rocks” (cutting out those letters just might kill me!).

~audrey

As Josh and I were finishing the first stage of our paperwork for the adoption agency, we got to the section where you can get pretty specific in regards to ‘what kind of child’ you’re willing to adopt. Special needs, age limits….and how many.

After working with a foster agency that specializes in keeping sibling groups together, we were able to see first hand, the impact it has on the children. We’ve heard countless stories of families arriving at the orphanage to pick up their baby and they notice a four or five year old (or even older) crying in the background. Then they learn that their precious baby is the last of that child’s siblings to get adopted; no one has ever chosen him/her and now they will be alone.   What if no one cared that you had been born?  What if no one saw your first smile or encouraged your first steps?  What if you never felt a mother’s love or a father’s embrace?  What if you longed for a family that never came and hoped for a home that lived only in your dreams?  All over the world orphans are waiting…hoping…praying that there will be one special family that finds delight and great joy in welcoming them into their family.

It was an easy decision for us to make. When we go to Ethiopia, we will bring home not one, but two babies. Our agency has a strict birth order policy, so the oldest child we bring home will be no less than ten months younger than Owen (our youngest). Our new babies will be between 2 months and 3 years old. When I told Joshua (our eight year old) about our decision he said, “I know!”

I asked him how he could already know since Josh and I just made the decision.  He went on to tell me about a conversation he and Jesse had a while back.  It went something like this:

Jesse: “Do you think Zoe has a brother or sister already?”

Joshua:  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

Jesse:  “What will happen if she does?”

Joshua:  “I think we should adopt them too!”

Jesse:  “Yeah, definitely!”

Apparently they assumed we’d feel the same way.  How precious is that?  I have so enjoyed seeing my children’s hearts through this process.  I love watching them with the children we keep during the week.  They love to hold the 15 month old we keep two days a week.  Sometimes they just stare at him in their arms and say, I bet Zoe will be just like him, but a girl…and brown.

melt.my.heart.

Foster parenting had its ups and downs, but I would never change the impact it had on my children’s hearts for the plight of orphans.  Not many children my kids’ ages have a chance to witness poverty and neglect and truly grasp what it means to be an orphan.  I didn’t realize the impact it had on their hearts until we started the adoption process.  It blesses me daily.  They have such passion, and cry out to God so sincerely.  There’s no doubt in their minds that God will provide every penny we need to get to their siblings on the other side of the ocean.  They pray for their safety and their health and their hearts.

Our life is not about us–how can You use us Lord–to love Your children…where ever, when ever, how ever…our life–it’s all Yours.

~audrey

After an exciting report from another friend adopting from Ethiopia, we’ve finally set a date for our first Adoption Yard Sale!!  The sale will be June 4, 2011 from 7:30am-2:00pm.  We’re hoping to use the parking lot of Augusta Christian Schools located on Baston Road in Martinez, but I’ll post definite info when I hear back from my mother-in-law.

We had a wonderful Mother’s day weekend.  Josh’s family came over Saturday night and I made breakfast for dinner.  It was delicious (if I do say so myself) and my mom came to town Sunday.  We had lunch at Macaroni grill and Joshua (my 8yr old) took me out for coffee with his own money later that evening.  It was very sweet.

On Saturday night I was making a list of things I’d like to get done around the house. The list was basically a pipe dream, but then it dawned on me: My mother LOVES to clean my house. So I text her and asked if she’d be willing to stay Monday and help me with my house. She jumped on it with delight.

I wish so badly I had taken some before pictures. First thing this morning, my mom and the boys started on their room while I worked in the school room/soon-to-be Zoe’s room. My Bows for Life supplies have totally taken over my house.  A few weeks ago there were literally bows and ribbon and glue and hardware in every room of the house.  Since then, I’ve confined it to the school room where I’ve set up a work table, but it was still pretty messy and hard to work around.  I went through the boys’ desks, cleaned out the organizational drawers and dresser drawers to make room for my ribbon, yarn, and supplies, and threw away lots of trash, broken crayons,  and pens that don’t write.

I literally felt a weight lifted from me as I walked through the house and smelled furniture polish, and noticed that there were no more random socks or toys or petrified pieces of food on the outskirts of each room.  I cleared every single pile of stuff in every room.  Bills that needed to be paid, papers to file, little things that needed a home….all done.  The only thing that didn’t get finished today was my bedroom, but I think I’ll get to that tomorrow during nap time.  Mom, I can’t thank you enough!  You are such a blessing to me.

For mother’s day, Josh and the boys gave me a fuchsia plant.

This plant is incredible. My husband is typically not a good gift giver.  However, the designer in him makes for a great appreciation of beauty and attention to detail.  So when he saw this plant with it’s unusual flower-within-a-flower bloom, he had found my gift!  I love it.  I enjoy gifts that keep on giving and I hope to keep it alive for a long time.

And lastly, I’ve been wanting to brighten up our bedroom a little bit. The walls are painted slate blue with brown and cream accents throughout the room. We had a cream quilt with brown shams and bed skirt but the quilt has seen better days after five years on our bed and many, many times through the washing machine. I found this one at Marshall’s and couldn’t believe my eyes when I was actually able to find two king size shams that matched (for those of you who enjoy Marshall’s, Ross, and TJMaxx, you know that’s a rare thing!). It was super cheap and I had a feeling the blue amidst the bright green would match my walls just fine. The icing on the cake was when Josh walked in from work and said, “Finally, some color in here. I like it!”

It’s May 9th and we’re preparing to send our paperwork to the agency in the next week or so. I don’t have any doubt, with the success of Bows for Life, our MEGA yard sale coming up, and summer bonuses right around the corner, we’ll meet our $8,000 goal within 90 days.  God is so good and each and every day I fall more in love with my little girl half way around the world.

We’re coming Zoe!  We love you and pray for you each and every day.  Every baby and little girl makes us think of you and long for the day when you’ll be in our arms.  Your big brothers can hardly wait to squeeze you and give you kisses and teach you how to climb trees and dig really big holes.  Daddy’s eyes tear up when he sees a father with his daughter, knowing what a precious relationship he will have with you.  We pray for your health and protection.  We pray God is surrounding you with people who will love you in our absence and show you the JOY of the Lord.  Your name means life, promised by God.  We rejoice in your life and cannot wait for the day when we will finally be together.  I love you to the moon and back.

~Mommy