He will provide a way...

Okay, so many of you know that Maggie and I will be going on a vision/mission trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia this March. We have some awesome T-shirts for sale that my awesome husband designed to help raise money for this trip.

To be honest we cannot afford to pay for this trip. But, God has laid this on my heart as something I NEED to do. Our family will be moving there in approx 18 months to start ministering there. This trip will provide will provide me with a time to see what God's vision is for our ministry there and give me a sneak peak as to how ministering and living there will be. It will provide Maggie the opportunity to experience Ethiopia before moving there (this will help with the transition for her and for her 3 younger siblings).

I know that God will provide for this trip and it's with your help that it will be made possible. With Christmas coming up you could buy a shirt or two for loved ones. The shirts will have a story behind them and the receiver will know that their gift not only gave them a shirt to wear, but helped a family with their ministry in Africa. If you mention this post with your order we will throw in 1 of each of our 2 stickers that we have per shirt order.

Please take a look at our store and if you feel a tug to help out then that is fantastic! If you don't then thank you so much for looking.

If at all possible can you post about our family and the mission trip store on your Facebook and your blog?

Most importantly please be praying for our family through this amazing but sometimes a bit scary journey.

Thanks so much!!

click here to go to our store
or click on the store button to the right side of this page

sold

Our house was on the market for less then 3 months and sold...this is amazing for several reasons...

• In our neighborhood it seems that either houses are just foreclosed or they are for sale FOREVER before either they finally sell or they just take it off the market.
• Our realtor told us that what we had to ask was probably too high and we should probably take it off the market and try for sale by owner- so we could ask less. (though what we were asking was $10,000 less than what we paid for it)
  
• we heard that it is pretty much unheard of nowadays that the seller not at least pay some of the closing costs. (and we are not)

So back on September 21st (adams birthday) we had a showing...we got home and a few minutes later got a call from our realtor saying that the people wanted to come back and see it again in 20 minutes...the night before this showing (our 3rd showing in all) I just felt like I should pray through are house. Pray that the people feel at home when they walk in and so on. The morning of the showing the kids were crazy (pretty typical but overly crazy this day) and the morning just seemed to not be going very smoothly and there were times where we couldv'e gotten bent out of shape but we didn't. I just felt like satan was trying to get in a ruin what was going to be happening over the next few weeks. Well they loved the house and we thought we would get an offer. The realtor just felt that what we were asking wasn't what she was seeing in our neighborhood and she said it just wouldn't work. We knew these people loved the house so I prayed. I prayed that if this house was for them that something would change. So almost 3 weeks later we had a showing. We had no clue that it was them coming back. Same thing happened before the showing. It was just crazy and we had to get the house together quickly and again could've totally gotten bent out of shape. We got a call later on that day and got an offer. An offer that would totally work! We accepted. This was back on October 9th. Everything is going well and we will be moving before the 30th of this month.

We know that God has His hand in all of this. When we felt like we should go ahead and put our house on the market we thought it was because it would take a long time to sell it. Never would I have guessed that it would sell so fast. It's all pretty crazy and has put me in a whirlwind! We have been in our house for 8 1/2 years and it's hard leaving.

I know that God is ahead and of and God is behind us all of the way in this journey to Ethiopia. We feel so blessed to be called by Him to do all of this. There are days that we are completely terrified, though. But terrified in a way where we still know that God is behind it and there is a peace. It's so hard to understand. It's just not easy.

Back several months ago I was just flipping through my bible and came across this verse...

"But you will not leave in haste or go in flight; the Lord will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard." Isaiah 52:12

I am taking things as they come and knowing that it is all in God's timing not mine.

We are moving into a 900 sq foot house...there are 6 people in this family...but we know that this is the house that we are supposed to be in. it may seem crazy, but it's what we are supposed to do. It seems super crazy to think about all of us living in this house. I just say it's going to make us a REALLY close family! and hopefully push us to get to Ethiopia even faster! We just pray that support raising goes well next year and we are able to get there sooner than we think.

We are to grateful to be sent on this adventurous journey. There are days, though, that it is super hard.

Would you please continue to pray with us through all of these changes? and begin praying for us as we will begin support raising in the next few months?

Here are some pictures of the kiddos on Halloween (didn't want another post with no pictures) :)

our packing up (so far)

The story so far...

Adam and I began thinking about missions in Africa after reading an article in Relevant Magazine about femocide in the Congo. It moved us and really got our minds racing about “someday” becoming missionaries and moving somewhere in Africa. (This was January 2009) As we were discussing all of it we thought that when the kids grew up that we could do it. Never imaging any time in the near future.

As a few months passed we went to a Chris Tomlin concert and saw a video about orphans in Africa. Previously discussing how someday we would like to adopt we started talking that night about how we should adopt later, like years down the road. We left it at that after that night and didn’t discuss it again until a few weeks later while sitting down for coffee one night after our girls went to bed. We both individually had been feeling God's pull toward adopting right now and from Africa. I had been doing some research online about adoptions and really felt God showing us that this was something we need to do now not later. So we did. We started our adoption from Ethiopia with AGCI in April 2009. We did our homestudy and dossier and got on the waiting list with AGCI June 2009.

On Octobter 7^th, 2009 we received our referral for our son who was 3 weeks old at the time. God showed us through these months of waiting that his was right for us, but during that referral phone call he proved to us that this what His will for us. Our son was given the name Adam by his birthmother. This was unknowing who we were or that we were even going to adopt him. He shared the name with his daddy. Super awesome!!! We decided to keep his first name Adam and give him the middle name Ezekial and call him “Zek”. A few weeks after our referral Zek became extremely ill. He was only 6 weeks old and very frail. He was hospitalized in Addis Ababa at the Black Lion Hospital. Just google that name and see the pictures that come up. I did. We were feeling so terrible that our son (whom we had never met) was so sick and so far away. Our hearts ached, our minds raced. Then I go looking up the hospital name and the pictures that popped up made me sick to my stomache. My son is at a hospital like that? We prayed and prayed and prayed. They said that he was going to need surgery and get a tracheotomy (because in an X-ray they saw something blocking his airway). Ugh!!! So, we pray some more… he is transferred to a private hospital, but that process wasn't easy. It took an entire day for the hospital to find an oxygen tank to transfer with him to this new hospital. (Why oxygen? He was having extreme troubles breathing.) So, he arrives at the new hospital, but the doctors do not have the equipment to perform the surgery. Later that day another doctor sees him and doesn’t see any reason for him to have the surgery. Really? What is going on? Well, we just continue to pray, pray, pray and after a few weeks in the hospital he returns to health and is able to go back to Hannahs Hope (AGCIs transition home)! He had been healed!

As if the stress of having a child halfway around the world so sick that we were told a tracheotomy was necessary... we found out that we were pregnant! Then we thought that we were miscarrying and that the pregnancy was not a "viable" pregnancy. After a few weeks we were given an ultrasound to check things out and to make sure things were ok. What was found you ask? They saw a tiny little heartbeat! This 3-4 week period was a roller coaster of a time for our family! My emotions were everywhere!!! We passed court November 12^th and traveled to Ethiopia December 12^th and met him on December 13^th. What an incredible day! It was an experience like no other. We met our son who we had been praying and waiting for. Our visit to Addis was ok. I was so sick and missing my girls so much I just wanted to get home. I told Adam, while standing on the side of the street just outside our hotel “I would never want to become a missionary and move here!” I had made up my mind about that!

The next several months were the hardest time in my life... I was so sick from the pregnancy when we brought Zek home. Not to mention that Zek being the fussiest baby I had every met. It was hard to say the least. Bonding took a lot longer than expected. Not just from Zek but from me as well. 6 ½ months after bringing Zek home we brought Emery into the world. Still not bonded as much as I would have liked to have been now I had a new baby. It all rocked my world and it was super hard.

During the 7 or 8 months after bringing Zek home I felt almost fist to fist with God. I wondered where he was when I feel was so low. I did feel Him tell me the whole time "I have big plans for you" "please trust me"...

Over the next few months after Emery was born we got into the swing of things, if you want to say that! Adam and I really started talking more about missions in Ethiopia early September 2010. We began praying about it and God was pulling us towards it. In October 2010 opportunity presented itself for Adam to go on a missions trip to Ethiopia in February 2011. We felt that this would be a good time for him to go and really see if God was indeed leading us there for full-time missions.

Between the time he decided to go and his departure I started collecting cloth diapers for him to take. I wanted him to be able to take enough to diaper twenty or so babies. I began contacting people and got floored by God. Donations started pouring in. Not only was Adam able to take 200 lbs of cloth diapers with him on his trip but I have sent another 800 lbs with other people traveling to Ethiopia! God is absolutely amazing! When He puts something on your heart you better do it and He is going to bless it. We called the project Bottom Blessings. It’s an ongoing project and will continue.

Adam's trip was amazing. We prayed before and during it that God would show him if this is what He wants us to do with our family and when we should do it. He got back and we knew it was the right time. We started really looking into sending agencies for missionaries and prayed about it. I was looking one night and came across CMF. I really loved what they were doing in Ethiopia as I searched their website. I knew that this was going to be at the top of our list of places we wanted to contact. As I searched further I realized that they were in Indianapolis! We contacted them and met with them and really felt pulled there. We officially applied in May 2011. We went through our assessment center in August 2011 and became officially affiliated with CMF (and their Urban Poor ministry in Addis Ababa). We began taking the Perspectives course (http://www.perspectives.org) the day after our assessment center and let me say that this class has rocked our world. It has opened our minds so much more to missions and God's call for it. It has been amazing! We will be doing Launch at the beginning of 2012, which is our support raising training. We will then begin raising support. We will begin talking and speaking with churches, family and friends to raise the financial support we will need to serve in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

There are so many God things that have happened between these times and so many times where we know that Satan is trying to take away His glory. He has caused frustration and confusion a lot. But we have to stand firm and know that this is His will. This is what our lives are supposed to look like.

We are excited to be on this adventure and cannot wait to see all that God has in store for our family!

We Need Your Help!!!

two years...

Two years really flies by...at least this past two years has.


This week two years ago (Oct 7th) we saw the face of a sweet 3 week old baby boy named Adam (the same name as daddy) for the first time. Today 2 years ago I was feeling so anxious to receive the call about our son. Now that baby boy is 2 and such a joy. He has been an awesome blessing to this family in so many ways.

A lot has changed in two years. We went from having two little girls to having two little girls and 2 little boys in a mere 6 months. God has really shown us how much He is in control and that He always knows what is best for us. We feel so blessed that Emery and Zek are so close in age (a little less than 10 months apart). If you would've told me two years ago that I would become pregnant during the last of our adoption of Zek I would've thought you were crazy :) and If you would've told me how much I would enjoy having two baby boys so close in age I would've thought you were even crazier. Because I always thought when people had kids really close in age that they were crazy. My boys are awesome. They are best buds already and love to make each other laugh. I tell Adam how much they were meant for each other. All of our kids are amazing and I love how much joy each and every one of them bring to our family.

Zek has changed us in so many ways. He has opened our minds to so much more. If someone would've told me two years ago that in two years we would be working our way to moving our family to Ethiopia and becoming missionaries I really would've thought you were even crazier. My mind has been opened and the need has been revealed. Our hearts are in Ethiopia.

We are taking this Perspectives course for missions and it is so amazing and has been opening our minds to so much. There is so much in the bible about missions and how if we are Christians that we are called to take His word to the ends of the Earth. Does that mean the ends of the United States???? No the ends of the ENTIRE Earth. In an article we read in class the author said "missions exists because worship doesn't" In other words, the reason God gives us our mission is to bring about obedient, love-filled and life-giving worship among peoples in places where there is none. We are to take His words to those places where people need to hear it. That is why missions exists and why it's God call for people to move to places where people need to hear it. We are all called to do it. Either by supporting missionaries financially and with prayer, moving and becoming the missionary, helping to mobilize missionaries, etc. There's so much to learn in the course and we highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in learning more about missions. I thank God for giving us the passion for Ethiopia and opening our hearts to taking our family there.

We are taking the course until the end of November so we still have so much to take in. It's so overwhelming learning so much and hard to really say all that we have learned. Once the class is over we have a few months to prepare for our Launch with CMF (support raising training) in January and then we are off to start support raising. We will be meeting with friends and family, churches, small groups, etc. We will be busy, but we are so excited to start sharing about our ministry and all of the things that we have learned with everyone we meet with. We hope to be moving in the summer of 2013 to Addis. Right now it seems so far off, but I know that it will be here before we know it.

Maggie and I will be taking our trip to Addis in March. We aren't going with an organization. We are going on our own. It will be a vision/mission trip for us. I plan on spending time with the team (Urban Poor Team) that we will be working with and also spending some time with some other organizations and some people that we know. I know that God is going to show us a lot while we are there. I feel like it is really important for us to go on this trip. When it didn't work out for us to go in October this year I thought for a moment that maybe we just wouldn't go at all until we move. But, I know that it's so important for Maggie to spend some time there and to help me to get a vision for what Adam and I will be doing while living there. It will be important as we share with our supporters. We are fundraising for this trip and have set up an online store with things for sale. We have awesome t-shirts that my amazing husband designed for sale. We have to raise every penny for this trip and will not be able to purchase tickets for the trip until $3000 has been raised. the total cost for the trip will be around $4000. I can't wait to see God work out the details for this trip and for how much He is going to show me on the trip. You can visit our store here. Or you can click on the image on the upper right of the blog page. We are receiving our order of t-shirts this week. 100% of the purchase price of everything goes towards our trip. The holiday season is quickly approaching and the t-shirts and things would be great gifts!!! Make sure you take a look at the store. :)

Please continue to pray for our family as we prepare ourselves and God prepares us to serve in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Flexiblity is the key

Flexibility is the Key...

This is one thing I learned over this past weekend at our Assessment Center with CMF.

Over this past month I have been praying and thinking so much about the upcoming trip to Ethiopia. I was scared and excited about the trip. I felt like a great opportunity for me to go and felt like God wanted me to go. Well...sometimes Gods plans are just a little different than what we imagined...

The awesome news is we are officially affiliated with CMF!!!! So that means we are OFFICIALLY working our way to move to Ethiopia!!!! After the intense weekend of the Assessment Center we were given a personal development plan. Included in this are a few books to read, a plan for Adam to get his cholesterol down a bit (we have to be healthy missionaries!), and some educational things and training that we will complete before moving. One thing we have to do before we start raising support is take this course called Perspectives. If you click on the name it will take you to their website and you can read more about it. It will teach us more about missions and Gods call to missions. It is a 15 week course...That puts us way into November...Our trip is scheduled for October...This class is required of us...That means that I will not be able to go to Ethiopia in October. BUMMER! To be the best missionary I can be I have to get as much out of this class that I can. I have to focus on this...Missing 2 weeks to go to Ethiopia I feel is not in my best interest.

I am so excited for this class and this journey! I am excited to be living Gods plan. and I have learned so well over this past 2 years that my plan usually isnt exactly His plan! We are taking the ride and following His course. I am planning on a mid to late spring trip to Ethiopia. So yes I am still going and taking Maggie, just not as soon as I had imagined. So we are still fundraising, selling shirts, collecting donations and diapers, etc. We just have a longer time to do it in now! (click on our button on the sidebar to go to our store)

We are super excited about this course that we are taking. We finished the Assessment Center and they gave us the personal development plan and the class was on it...and well the class started the day after we were done with this intense weekend. (last night) So once again, flexibility is the key. We shuffled and found a super babysitter last night. Over the weekend the kids had 9 different people watching them and we didnt want to have to use any of them. My aunt stepped up and watched them for us and they all had a blast. If you know us, then you know finding a babysitter can be a challenging job. But God worked it all out :) A lady at CMF is also going to be babysitting for us during these 15 weeks. and they paid for the class for us. CMF is super awesome and the people are super awesome and will do about anything for you. We LOVE them and highly recommend them to anyone interested in the missions field.


Please pray for us as we are moving our way to all of the fun stuff in His plan for us. We are excited about this class and excited about support raising (and a little scared too!).

This is going to be an awesome journey and we are excited to work our way through it and share it as we go along.

Thanks so much for reading!

Heading to Ethiopia - lots of fundraisers!!!

So back a few weeks ago we were called up by CMF (Christian Missionary Fellowship) and asked if we would like to go on a vision trip with them to Ethiopia this October for 13 days. At first I was like "oh wow yes I would be interested and I could take Maggie along with me" then the doubt starting setting in...

• wow I will be gone for almost 2 weeks! there is no way I can be away that long...
• there is no way I could wean Emery that soon (I always nurse my babies until they are two)-I would be terrible if I did that!
• leaving Adam that long with the kids would be really interesting, what would the house look like?, how would he handle trying to work, etc..
• I am just not ready to do this...
• I can't raise almost $4000 for Maggie and I to go on this trip...there is no way!
• What if Maggie or I get sick when we are there?
• What if it's just too much for me to handle without Adam?
  
• the list could go on and on...

But I am reminded...I can do all things through Christ who give me strength...Really, me, I can! I still have moments throughout everyday where I am thinking there is no way I can do this. But I pray or just think about it and really I can do this. This will be great! There have been a few things that seem to say "hey you are supposed to go on the trip" -like maggie being on fall break during that time. We homeschool but use a public virtual school so we have to stay with their schedule and I was worried about trying to squeeze in two weeks worth of school work before we leave...but today I found out we will be good to go! There have been other little things that pop up or I think of from time to time that give me a peace about going.

When we first heard of the trip CMF really wanted both Adam and I to go. Well, with the little kiddos and with him not having much vacation time left this year there was no way he could go. I really wanted to go back before moving there and I really wanted Maggie to experience it before we moved there. We felt like this was a great opportunity for us to go. We will be hearing and experiencing first hand what the missionaries living in Addis working with the Urban Poor team are doing. It will be great getting to experience Addis in a whole new way. Visiting as an adoptive parent just isn't the same as going on a mission trip there. My experience traveling there before was even more different because I was 10 weeks pregnant with Emery! I am excited to love on the people and stand in the place where our hearts are. We will spend the majority of our days there with the Urban Poor team, but also will be making a trip to Shashamane to visit our sponsored son, Misganow, who we sponsor through project 61. We are going to spend some time in an orphanage or two, spend some time in Korah (Kore), meet some missionary friends who work with other organizations (like No Ordinary Love Ministries), and I know that other things will pop up and I am anxious to see what God has in store for this!

I am collecting cloth diapers to take with me (if you know of a particular orphanage in need of them let me know). If there's any out there who would like to donate diapers let me know. I want to take as much as possible. I have been so blessed with my cloth diaper project and have already sent over 1000 lbs of cloth diapers to Ethiopia. I think that is pretty amazing!!! What started as a "little" project has become so HUGE! and it will continue as we move to Addis. We are going to be the contact in Ethiopia and a few other mommy's are taking on collecting donations here in the states!!! I am so super excited for this and it is totally a God thing...More on that at a later time...

Besides cloth diaper we are taking donations for things to take to this orphanage ...

• childrens clothing for ages 4-14
• childrens shoes for ages 4-14
• formula

I can't believe how soon we will be in Ethiopia visiting! We have about 9 weeks to raise these funds to go. We are counting on our t-shirts, bumper stickers, Ethiopian goods, flower clips, and donations to fully fund this trip. I know that God can make this happen! so this is where YOU come in...you can visit our store here... http://ourtriptoethiopia.storenvy.com/ and check out our awesome things we are selling (all proceeds go to fund our trip)! There is also a button over on the right of this page that you can click on. There is also a paypal donate button or you can donate through our store if you feel led.

On a slightly different note we will be attending our 3 day Assessment Center this weekend and a 1 day support raising orientation with our sending agency CMF (Christian Missionary Fellowship). We are super excited to "officially" get things up and running to becoming full time missionaries in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia! Please pray for us this weekend as we want clear minds so we can focus fully on the time there. We can't wait to figure out all of the details as far as support raising and our projected time that we will move. We will keep everyone posted as we know more.