And were off tomorrow

We leave tomorrow am for China. I will post our schedule and our Both hands work day video tomorrow.

Who loves the widow, orphan, Jesus, Maggie, our family

Just a few pictures from our work day Both Hands widow project. A big thanks to all our friends and family who came out to love on Mrs. Nanny and repair her home. It was really amazing to watch the children work. The kids were amazing workers and dusted, raked, and cleaned with a joyful heart. Most of the kids are old enough to remember this work day and they will also remember SEEing their parents work. The best way to preach a message without saying a word. We have a wonderful videographer who is putting together a "work day movie". I will post once it is ready.

Fundraising & our Widow project

Mrs. Nanny's Home

We are excited to be a part of a "Both Hands" project on Saturday November 20th. Both Hands ministry is a ministry that serves adopted families needing to fundraise and widows in need. We will be working on Ms. Nanny's home. She is an 87 year old widow who is unable to meet the needs of her home. We have had a group of wonderful people offer to come alongside us and be on our work day team. It is a wonderful blessing you get to experience when you put yourself out there and say you need help. It is hard to say you need help. It is hard to ask friends/family to help you on a project and mail support letters on your behalf. I have witnessed and benefited from some amazing genorosity of our friends and family - all of which I couldn't of experienced unless we did this project. Below is a link to our fundraising page at lifesong. All donations are tax deductable and go straight into our adoption fund. If you feel led we would appreciate any donations towards our project.

http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/bhProj.html

You have to scroll down to our name/date. Our fundraising letter is included on the link.

So hopefully at the end of the day on November 20th we will have taken care of some of Ms. Nanny's needs. And Maggie will have a new story for me to tell her of how a group of people came around to love on her, value her, and help in bringing her home.

Mrs. Nanny

Gifts

Recently I have been explaining to my kids the need for them to step up and help around the home. They all wanted another sister. I have talked to them about adding another sibling means I need more help. Each child brings with them different gifts that is going to be used and help in the process of Maggie coming home.

Corinne

She brings the gift of love. She loves so well and just wants to be and feel loved. She is kind to everyone and is a good friend. She will share all her favorite things with everyone. G keeps scolding her because she gives most of her silly bands away instead of trading. But that is just how she is. If she thinks it will make someone happy to have one of her bands then she wants them to have it.

She has talked and talked for years about a baby sister. I pray and hope her sister is kind and will let Corinne love on her. Corinne has the gift of being a very good big sister and she has a servants heart.

Graham

He has the gift of teaching. Graham is such an excellent teacher. Recently he has done Corinne's homeschool math lessons. He was so encouraging to her and patient in showing her how numbers and tally sticks work. I let him sit in with me on Corinne's preschool parent teacher conference. The teacher was going over her developemental evaluation. She was showing us the shapes that need reinforcing - octagon, hexagon, ect. I turned to G to make sure he was listening and saw what he could work on with her. He was soaking it up and took seriously his responsibility to teach her these shapes. He gets really excited at being able to teach another and see them learn. .He has big plans in what he wants to teach Maggie and wants it to be his "job". This year he started cub scouts and to say he is excited is an understatement. Below is a photo at the 100 year camping jamboree

Davis

He is a protector and defender. He has the gift of devotion and is very loyal. His family is very important to him and likes it best when we are all under 1 roof. He is excited about his new sister and is fully committed to be a big brother in the full sense. This is how he is with Corinne. She is his and his to protect, love, and care for. There is a funny story of him getting cross with another little boy who was in Corinne's preschool class last year. Evidently the other little boy had informed Davis that he takes care of Corinne. Well this got all over Davis and he quickly explained to the little boy who he was and that Corinne is his and he is the one who looks after her. Davis is fierce defender of all people who he claims as "his". Including Mama!

Extra photos from the boy scout jamboree.

I included the below photo because to me it parallels the journey of adoption. This is me and my sister in law. We both ran in the Womens half marathon. The journey of adoption doesn't stop after you get home. Really the hardest part is once you are home. Just like training for a marathon you have to work at it over a long time. Some days you just don't want to get out of bed and run. Just like some days you just don't want to have to parent and do the hard stuff of transitioning your new child. With running and training there is pain, exhaustion, elation, accomplishiment. All these things exist with a newly adopted child. As we get closer to travel and I think about getting on a plane to China, I keep thinking "I've got to get my running shoes on and get ready to race". Not a quick 5k or even a 10k but a nice steady 13 miles. As a side note my kids asked Brook "when is mom going to run a whole marathon" Evidently they are not to impressed with these piddly half marathons.