Each One Has Meaning

For those of you who are not on fb, here is a great song from a Veggie Tale movie that will be out in October ("It's A Meaningful Life"). Can't wait to watch it with our girlies! Love this song!!

Each child, each person is a creation of our Lord.

Not one made without a purpose or a plan.

It is amazing what the Lord can do through even one child!

After working with children for the last 11 years, I can say that I have never came across one who didn't have the desire to be loved or to feel wanted. They are all seeking it, whether they realize it or not, and they all deserve to know that there is a God that loves them and made with a purpose in mind!

The Lord told Jeremiah Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; Jeremiah 1:5

David wrote in Psalm 139: 14-16 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Just wanted to share the song with you all! ENJOY!!!

Have a great weekend!! ~Andrea

Intentional Living

The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

1 Peter 4:7-11

These are the instructions that Peter gives to live following the example given by Christ.

Lord I pray that each day I may turn myself over to you. To live each moment with great intention, in order that it may bring GLORY to your name!

And the Winner Is.....

Thank you to those of you who entered.....

Stephanie in NC

E-mail me and I will give the info to get your shirt! jabigg_98@hotmail.com

Delaney picked the winner after dumping the bowl, shaking the bowl, then finally understanding we wanted her to take 1!!

The pics are a little fuzzy...it was 7:40am, we needed to get to school, and the SD card slot needs to be cleaned! Lots going on, hoping to post more later!

Congrats & thanks again!!

Last Chance for Give Away!!

Last chance to enter yourself into the give away!!!

Become a follower of our blog and of the family selling these great shirts at http://dockerybambino.blogspot.com/ Then comment and let us know you did! Each will get you 1 entry!!! The give away will end tomorrow at 7:30 am, so be quick!!

I hope in a few weeks to be able to display our next fundraiser!!

Also please do not forget about little Miss Dolly. This sweet baby girl's mother traveled 8hrs in order to get her to a ministry team to find prayer and healing. As a mother I can not imagine the feeling to not be able to provide for my child the help they need. PLEASE help this mama and her baby out. Anything you can offer will help. Go to http://speakingthrume.com/make-a-donation/

Thanks to all of you and I hope you had a great weekend!! ~Andrea

Urgent! Please check this out!!

Back in November of last year I had the pleasure of meeting a great gal who I had asked to come speak at our fall ladies retreat. Ginger spoke that weekend about a trip she had taken with Compassion International and how God had called each of us to help the least of these. Of course I was immediately interested in what she had to say and getting to know her more.

A few months later I ran into the TN gal at a ministry development workshop in Illinois. (i.e.. her ministry partner, Leigh is a friend of mine and my former running partner...another child later, new job, and a move changed our running schedules...but blessed to know them both!) To make a long story short Ginger had informed me about the Christian Alliance Orphan Summit this year and we got to meet and attend together (I didn't even go to hear about adoption, but for work!) I know I'm ramblin"!! Anyway Ginger went to Liberia this summer to speak and to minister and returned home with a new mission from God to help a small child that she had met there.

Here is what their ministry site says:

Speaking Thru Me Ministries will give donations made in August and September to support Darlene “Dolly” Grace.Ginger met Darlene while in Liberia in June 2010. Darlene’s mother, Cecelia, traveled 8 hours to meet the speaker team and request prayer for her daughter’s healing. Darlene was born with an omphalocele (organs on the outside of her body).
With God leading the way, surgery for Darlene has been scheduled at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Nashville, TN. Darlene’s first appointment in the states will be October 11th with a tentative surgery date of October 21st.
Speaking Thru Me Ministries will need financial support for the cost of paperwork, travel, housing, etc… for this family to make the very long trip from Liberia to Tennessee.
Please consider donating to help Darlene today!

Their website is http://speakingthrume.com/make-a-donation/

Or you can also find them on Facebook

So please help them to reach their goal and to help Dolly have her surgery.

Our 1st Give Away!!!!

Today on http://www.babeofmyheart.com/ I won a t-shirt!! I am so excited!! However, I had just ordered the same shirt last night.

So guess what?? I would love to give the one I won away, to one of you all!!!

Here is how it will work. Become a follower of our blog and become a follower of the sweet family selling the shirts. http://dockerybambino.blogspot.com/ Then leave me a comment to let me know! Each 1 is worth an entry! Or if you are already a follower of either just let me know so you can get a point!!

Sharing this adoption process with others has meant so much to us. We have found great fellowship and help from others each step of the way. This family, as many others, are selling the t-shirts to help raise the money to bring their child into their home! YEAH!!! They are also adopting from Ethiopia! Double YEAH!!! So I am thrilled to be giving away their t-shirt and helping to bring awareness to their adoption as well! PLUS these t-shirts are great I love the slogan!!

And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Hebrews 13:16

Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Philippians 2:4

Back to School

Today was our first almost full day of school!! Yesterday the girls went for about 2 hrs. and today they were dismissed an hour early. They LOVE school! Both girls are excited about the teachers they got and the friends in their classes. Every year we pray that God will give them just the right teacher for them. It is always hard because you hear so much about this teacher or that one, but I know different kids react differently. So I just take it to the big man and ask Him to oversee it all!! We believe that we are responsible for teaching our children the most important lessons of all, but are truly thankful for the ones that add to their knowledge as well.

Genna is in 1st and feels like such a big girl. Our schools are divided kindergarten and 1st in one school, 2nd and 3rd in another, 4th and 5th in yet another. So this year she is one of the "big kids"! Grace is in 5th grade and excited because this will be the first year for school sports!

I have a heavy burden every year for the teachers, staff, and kids at our schools. I feel like we as parents and community members should be in constant prayer for our schools. Teachers and school staff are put in a huge position of influence over our children each year. I know that can be a great gift and also a large load. So I am challenging myself to try and remember each day to pray for not only their safe keeping but also for the decisions each one makes and the influence it might be on another.

Hope you have a great end of the week!!!

Road Trip

On Monday, we took a road trip to the state capital. We went to have one of the documents for our dossier state certified. We were given the option to mail it or to drive the 3 1/2 hrs (one way) to get it certified in person. We chose to deliver it in person and boy are we glad we did. The state was supposed to just certify it and to not give it an Apostille certification because Ethiopia is not a part of the Hague treaty. But they did! But we caught it!!! SO they fixed the certification and gave us what we needed. If we had mailed it and they had made the mistake and mailed it back wrong we would had to do it all over again! Plus we would have missed out on a great road trip!

I am pretty sure Josh and I might be in the running for road trip king and queen! We love to pile in the vehicle and drive until we find something neat! ....Yes, I said neat! When we were dating and first married we did it all the time and covered much of the Midwest on a college student's budget. Now the girls are getting to enjoy the fun as well!

While we were in Springfield we went to the State Capital building and saw the Governor's office, the House of Representatives and Senate chambers. Grace loved it and wanted to know more, Genna kept saying it was real fancy, and Delaney gave us the scare of our lives hanging over the balcony and climbing on everything!

As you see in the pics Grace sported her new 147 million orphans shirt all over the Capital!

We also have completed our online training. Now on to finish the LARGE workbook!! Only 140ish pages to go!

OH and great news from the rummage sale this weekend......$920 raised so far!!! We have a few big items still for sale, praying they go this week. We are thankful to God for his provision!!

Anniversary

Last Sunday was our 12th anniversary and as I posted I wasn't really up for a celebration. So last night we went out to celebrate! Grace was gone to a sleepover and the other two went to the grandparents. So we went to dinner and a movie! We had a great night! It is amazing to me that after being with someone for over 15 years we never run out of good conversation and the good times never stop coming. We were so young when we started dating. We met two weeks before his high school graduation. I was the high school gal and he was my college beau!



Here we are going to my Senior prom. We were so young! I wanted to post wedding pics but they looked dark.

We have always had fun and the adventures of life have never left us with a dull moment. We have experienced great ups and downs throughout the time when we have been together.

Josh is beyond what I could imagine in a husband. He is a very kind, caring, romantic, and sentimental man. He has always known how to wooh me! He is also sarcastic, goofy, and down right entertaining most of the time. He keeps the girls and I laughing. Most importantly though he is a great leader in our household. He has shown great love to each of us. He knows when to give and when to stand firm. Our daughters and myself never question who will be there to protect and guide us. The Lord has blessed us with a man who seeks His wisdom and His way.

So to my amazing hubby..... I say thank you and I can't imagine traveling through this life with anyone else but you. New adventures are ahead and I am excited to journey them along side of you!

WoW!! What a week!

This week has been filled to the rim! We started the week with sickness in the house. I went to bed Sunday (our 12th Anniversary.. more on that later!) congested and feeling groggy only to wake up Monday to more of the same. My work day was cut off short. We did however get to begin our online classes for AGCI. We plowed away two each night at the beginning of the week. We currently only have 1 left to go! Yippee!!

Notice the essentials of the night: caffeine (to keep this groggy momma awake), toilet paper (the "tissues" my hubby brought me), and ice cream (the only snack, we know of)

Wednesday night we spent over 4 hours working on rummage sale items to get them ready for this Saturday. We are having our second rummage sale fundraiser. I am so excited!!! Not only does it help us to raise money to bring our baby home, it also gives us the opportunity to talk to others about our adoption and why it is so important to us. We have had numerous people drop stuff off or call for us to pick up donations. We have once again been blessed to receive such generosity. I am not sure if everyone understands completely why we feel called to adopt but I think they realize we are passionate about it! HA!

Last night we had our final home study meeting! We completed all the hours of training required by Illinois!!! (Our state doesn't just accept the training we have to do through AGCI... so we have been trained and trained again!) We also passed our walk through!!! Each of our visits/trainings have been done in our home, this time though at the end of our session our caseworker walked through our house to check for state safety requirements and to check the layout. It went well! Our caseworker has been great! She has been so informative and has helped us to understand the whole process. Illinois requires adopting parents to have their home licensed to be a foster to adopt home. So we will soon been issued our license. We will not be put on the foster list at this time, since we are in the process of adopting. The license will be good for 4 yrs. (wink, wink)!

We now are placing our focus on the GIANT workbook that needs to be completed and sent back to our agency. It is 177 pages of reading and questions to answer. When it is finished, we will be done with the training portion of this whole process....wow that will be surreal!!! It has all been worth it. Even though I have done counseling and have worked with adolescents for many years I have still learned a lot. It has been an eye opening experience for both of us and I know this is only the begining of what we will learn!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!! ~Andrea

Dossier News

Today we had our Dossier phone call. A lot of information was covered during the call. Typically there are a few families on the call, but today we were the only ones. Because of that we were able to ask a lot of questions as we went through each section. Our new case worker is super sweet and she will be with us through the entire dossier process. During this stage or step we have many things to complete. We have several hours of online training, a large training workbook, numerous forms, and documents to complete or obtain. All of the documents and forms must be notarized and one has to be state certified through the state capital. All of this plus our home study documents have to be completed by our other agency, sent to the state to be certified, and to Oregon to be certified. Wooh!! It wears me out just saying it all! When all that is received we are then placed on the waitlist! Which will result in a referral and then our B-A-B-Y!!! ...after 2 trips to Ethiopia, a day in court and a visit to the Embassy

I am anxiously anticipating each step, but also enjoying each moment of the process and so very thankful for the presence of the Lord, at each moment. He is so good and faithful! I have been through many situations in my life when I felt the presence of God strongly and have known without a doubt that He was with me. During the process so far I have been blown away by His presence. He has made himself known each step of the way and His word has guided our every step and has revealed to us our hearts. His blessings have been many and lessons even more. I know I have stated this to many over and over in the last month but.... oh how true!!!!

Today we received a check from a local ladies Sunday School class, again from a church we do not attend. WOW!! I don't know what to say..... thank you! We are being humbled by the generosity and kindness of others.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105

FYI: The picture at the top is at the USA Olympic Center along the path of Olympic Nations. The two picks below are of the 2 youngest girls. This is what they look like on almost a daily basis this summer!!!

What a weekend!!! AGCI picnic and VBS kickoff

We had a WONDERFUL weekend!! We started off by going to the AGCI family picnic on Saturday. We were able to meet several of the families we have learned about through blogging and e-mail in person. It was amazing! Are kids also met several other kids whose families have or are in the process of adopting. This was a huge blessing. I had prayed prior to going that each member of our family would find someone there to talk and connect with and it happened!

Delaney played with 2 beautiful little Ethiopians girls in the bubbles.

Gennabug, the social butterfly, met several other kids and was in the thick of it all.

Grace connected with a sweet girl whose family brought home two little boys age 2 and 4, just 5 months ago.

Josh met several fathers and also spent time talking with the executive director of the agency. I was just speechless... no really! After you all who know me, stop laughing, I was. It was hard for me to even approach people ( I know, not me at all!) I was just in awe of God's work. How his hand had orchestrated so many beautiful families. I sat and just thought what a picture of God's love! I even had another mother, whose daughter has been home for almost a year, give me 3 little African t-shirts. She said her daughter had worn them and she wanted another child to have the opportunity to as well. I was so touched. What special shirts those will be for Alexandria!

Oh and yes it was a bad hair day after about 15min in the humidity!! What's a girl to do!! = )

On Sunday our church had VBS kickoff! It was a great time as well! So many members of our church family showed up at New Haven park to hand out school supplies and serve hot dogs and ice cream. We had a good turn out and the ice cream was yummy! Can't wait for the rest of the week.