Nov. 29, 2009 - Happy Anniversary

Yesterday was our 17th wedding anniversary!  We had a wonderful time of Christmas shopping and going out to dinner. That's what you do when you get married on Thanksgiving weekend. :)  Here we are at our wedding reception back in November, 1992 in Oregon:

One of the stores we went to yesterday was Costco, "just to see what toys they have".  It was almost closing time, so we didn't have much time, but we found this cute thing:

It is an advent calendar.  Each of the houses have numbered little doors that open.  Even the top of the chimney and the little trees have doors.  I am supposed to fill them with surprises.  Some of the kids' ideas are candy, money, or Lego people.  I better hurry!

Here is the front door open, number 13.  We usually just buy the $1 one with the awful chocolate.  This will be much more fun.  It is just made of styrofoam poster board stuff, but if we are careful, it will last for years. It was only $15!  We placed it on our piano.  I'll probably change it a bit.  The red glass doesn't go.  :)

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Nov. 29, 2009 - Time of Giving

(everything in this blog post can be copied and pasted into your own blog.  I give full permission!  We all appreciate the word being spread about our adoption fund raising efforts. )

It is the time of year, when many people consider giving.  Salvation Army bells are heard at every store.   Canned food drives can be found everywhere.  It is also the time of year, when families like ours, are anxiously awaiting the day when they will have their first Christmas with their new adopted child.

A lot of you have followed our journey this far, as we go through the process of adopting an infant from here in the United States.  You are all familiar with the various fund raising efforts we have been making.  Our puzzle fund raiser, selling coffee through Just Love Coffee Roasters, and selling T-shirts through Mission Threads.  But did you know that there are TONS of other families from all over the world making the same efforts as us?  I have met a few of these families, and encourage you all during this time of year, to consider these families when you go to support a charity.  Just like us, they are doing all that they can to raise funds so they can give a child a home.

That Stever family is a beautiful family with a heart for orphans with down syndrome.  There are so many special needs children around the world that need homes.  The stever family is also raising funds for their adoption.  I encourage you to visit their blog, and if you feel led, leave them a donation.  Their donate button can be found toward the bottom of their site.

Dawn is an adoptive mommy of two little girls from China, and is raising funds to bring home two more children from Ethiopia.  She is selling handmade blankets and custom wooden growth charts in order to raise funds for their upcoming adoption.  Her items would make wonderful Christmas gifts!  Stop by her blog, and take a look!

The Langton Family is another family anxiously waiting to bring their child home.  They have already been matched with a little boy name Alex.  You can follow their journey of bringing Alex  home on their blog.  Like us, I am sure they are dreaming of the day when they will have their little Alex home with them.   Their donation button can be found in their sidebar.  Every donation, no matter how big or small, will get the Langton family one step closer to bringing their little boy home where he belongs.

I was very blessed to also visit the Sisemore’s family blog.  Just as the Stever family has a heart for orphans with down syndrome, the Sisemore’s have a heart for orphans with cerebral palsy.  They have one adopted child from China, and they are doing a bunch of other fund raisers so they can bring their little boy Jeremiah home from China as well.  Jeremiah has cerebral palsy.   You can take part in any of their fund raisers, and get them one more step closer to bringing Jeremiah home.  Here are all the links you need to know about.    Jeremiah’s Promise, tax deductible sponsorship, magazine fund raiser, and they are also selling coffee like us!

God has laid it upon the hearts of the Hodges family to pursue adoption.  They too are going through the adoption journey.  They were blessed with two biological children and are now praying that God will bless them with an adoptive child.  You can follow the Hodges family as they do what they can to bring a child into their home.  You can find their donation button in their sidebar.

Another family waiting to be united with their adoptive child, is the Calvaresi family.  They are waiting, and raising funds so they can bring their little girl Ana-Sophia home.  Ana-Sophia was diagnosed with developmental delays and autism.  By sending a donation to the Calvaseri family, you are helping make it possible for them to bring Ana-Sophia  home where she belongs.  You can read their whole story, and leave a donation by visiting their site.

The Aus family is waiting to bring their son Chase home from China.  They were blessed with two girls from China earlier, and now they are anxiously awaiting the day when they can add Chase to their family.  You can follow their story, and even chip in a little toward Chase’s adoption by visiting their family blog.

The puzzle piece fund raiser, has been the most fun and rewarding fund raiser so far.  We are not the only one’s doing it either!  The Burgess family is also doing a puzzle piece fundraiser.  Their puzzle is coming together really fast! They are doing an international adoption from China.  You can donate through their chip in button, or you can make a tax deductible donation through Kingdom Kids Adoption Ministry.  Just mention it’s a donation for Kevin and Karen Burgess’ adoption.

Adam, is an 11 year old boy in China, waiting for his family to pick him up.  Beth and Mark are raising funds to be able to adopt this young man.  It is very touching reading about their adoption journey, and the things they are doing to be able to scrape up the funds necessary to bring Adam home to them.   You can help them to be able to afford their adoption by sending them a donation.  By clicking their chip in button in their sidebar.

The Wibes family has two fund raisers going on so far.  The are selling coffee through Just Love Coffee Roasters, and using onecause.com.  Onecause.com (which I gotta look into for us!)  is really neat!  .  You register and choose the national adoption foundation as the cause and then benefit crediting to babsie95@yahoo. com.   Then you continue on with your online shopping like normal!  Brilliant!

The Boettler’s are another family digging up financing.  All of us families who are going down the adoption path, is familiar with bumps in the road.  The Boettler’s have overcame obstacles, and are now waiting to be matched with a child from China!  You can help the Boettler’s overcome the financial obstacle, by donating toward their adoption fund. Their chip in button can be found in their sidebar.

Taking in special needs children is a big undertaking.  I was so inspired today by reading about the Boyd family.  They have adopted 7 children from various places in Eastern Europe, and are now in a crunch trying to raise funds to bring home 3 more children waiting for them in Bulgaria.  Their story is amazing!

These are just a small handful of families who have hearts for adoption.  All of them are willing to go through this huge process, and spend all of their finances, in order to give a child a home.  These children have the hope of having a forever family.  There is no better way to support the orphans (James 1:27) than to help unite them with the families that are so desperate to reach them.  Please consider helping some of these families!

Even if you are not able to donate to any of these families’ adoption funds, I do encourage you to at least stop by and read their stories.  And if you are up to it, copy this blog post, and post it on your own blog!  The more the word is spread the better.  I pray that these families will be blessed.

The Telfer Family Puzzle Update

It’s been a while since I have posted any pictures of our puzzle, or given an update.  I am sorry about that!  Unfortunately, the only camera I have is on my phone.  I wish I could be taking photographs with a really nice Nikon D90, but for now, all I have is my blackberry.  So please excuse the blurryness!

I have had a couple of new sponsors over the last couple of months.  One from my cousin in California, and the other today from a random blogger.  Thank you so much!  We have rounded the corners, and have the top and most of one side of the frame together.

Here is what it looks like so far!   When ever we get a sponsorship come in, the kids get really excited.  I always shout out  ” We get to build on the puzzle today!”  Then I tell the kids who sent the donation, and we write the name on the back of the puzzle piece.  Here is Anna and Gable putting in today’s sponsored piece.  And like I said, the picture is REALLY blurry. But oh well.  I even caught the stroller and the baby swing in the shot! We have been storing baby items in the bedroom, anxiously waiting till we can have a new baby sleeping in there.

Thank you today, to  Alison Lowry! We have 66 puzzle pieces sponsored. 996 to go!  When we reach 1000 we will have half of our adoption paid for.

To read more about our adoption journey, and learn of other ways you could help us with our adoption fund raising efforts, come visit us at www.mygodgivenmissionfield.com

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Nov. 28, 2009 - Weekly Wrapup

From the Heart:

Thanksgiving came and went.  It was a good change of pace, but frankly all the free-time is leaving me a bit stir-crazy.  I am a task-oriented person.  I like to be with people, but if there isn't meaningful conversation happening or games or something, I kinda want to find some somewhere.  I've found myself alone with the kids for a lot of the past 3 days (as usual), except when we were actually celebrating Thankgiving, and not having a schedule of, you got it, tasks, we've all been a bit off of our norm.

Snow Crystal roped some of the staff and students into playing Life. 

Little Critter and Bubbies got Tom to play Ring Around the Roses.

Little Critter and Mountain Princess built towers to throw blocks at to knock down.

Time for dinner!

I had a couple of minor revelations today.  One is that I need to think more in terms of my husband's and my calling as a couple and as a family, and not focus entirely on what my gifts/callings/passions are. 

We had a "Christmas Before Thanksgiving" party last Saturday.  It is an early Christmas for the outreach team.  It was fun, but crowded!

Little Critter got his hair cut off.  It changes his looks so much!

In the School Room:

We only did school 3 days this week, and right now it seems really long ago!

On the Mission Field:

The students looked at their spiritual gifts this week, and are looking toward their outreach at the end of this coming week.  This week they will be preparing for outreach all week.

In the Literary Scene:

I am reading Brock and Bodie Thoene's second book in the Galway Series Of Men and of Angels.

Feeding on His Faithfulness,

Carol

If you would like to join me in this theme, just write up your own weekly summary, using mine or your own categories.  Then sign the Mr. Linky below.  I'd love to read your weekly summaries too!    I hope to post mine on each Friday or Saturday.  At the latest it will be on Sunday.  If you get yours done before I do, just leave your link in my cbox or comments from the week before.  Be sure and check last week's Mr. Linky for any new ones who posted before I did!  It is a great way to meet new people.

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Nov. 25, 2009 - Happy Thanksgiving!

I got the idea from my friend Daisy , though I should have thought of it myself.   Thanks, Daisy :)

I'm thankful for....

~ Jesus & being forgiven

~ my husband

~ my family

~ children still at home

~ homeschooling

~ cool weather

~ the holidays

~ friends

~ hot tea

~ our home

~ plenty of food

~ dark chocolate

~ popcorn

~ our church

~ email

~ my camera

~ my bed

~ good health

~ our books

~ our computer

~ laughing children

~ camping

~ the beach

~ the mountains

~ the giant trees

~ Thanksgiving at my house

~ and that I don't have to kill then pluck the feathers off the turkey like the woman in the picture is about to go do.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

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Nov. 24, 2009 - Simple Woman's Daybook

For Today, Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Outside My Window... 

Cold and sunny with a snow-covered ground. 

 I'm thinking...

We really need to increase our monthly support.

From the learning rooms... 

The older girls are getting so much better at doing their work on their own.  I have to be more diligent to check their work and do thier follow-up questions or narration.

I am thankful for... 

Our suburban is bought and our insurance is paid up for six months.  Also that we have siblings that pitch in and gift us with money when things are tight...    

From the kitchen...

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Nov. 23, 2009 - "TABETTO"

We attended the Missouri Right to Life banquet last week.  This was the first banquet I had attended in several years.  It was good to see the crowd.  It was good to know we're not alone in this issue.  Jack Cashill spoke.  He spoke about the media and many others that TABETTO.  For those of you that do not know what that is... (and unless you were there, you won't)  It stands for Turning a Blind Eye to the Obvious.  

He was talking specifically about abortion, about how 300,000+ people can show up in D.C. for the Life March in January, 2 days after the inauguration and not one liberal media outlet reported it.  Want proof... go to Jack's website and order "Thine Eyes."  Proof is in the video. 

But...

I have been chewing on this for the last week and have come up with many areas where people TABETTO...here are just a few...

It is obvious that a Christian has no business attending movies like Harry Potter and New Moon. 

It is obvious that child protective services does NOT protect children...

It is obvious that a Believer, adult or child, has no place in a government school...  

It is obvious that abortion is murder

It is obvious that the government cannot run private industry... Chevy found that out the hard way.

It is obvious that the government cannot run healthcare either...but I don't want to find that out the hard way!

It is obvious that homosexuality is a sin...just as drunkeness, fornication, anger, lying etc are sins...

It is obvious that the media worships Obama and disdains those that stand up for truth...

It is obvious that truth cannot be relative! 

It is obvious that by seperating ourselves into "African-Americans" "Native-Americans" etc. we are only causing more racism

It is obvious that God created... how else can one REALLY explain how and why everything in this universe works the way it does...Yea, I know "big bang" that's why when a coke can explodes, it piles itself up into one neat place waiting to be cleaned up instead of saturating everything within it's radius with sticky goop...random chaos cannot create order!

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Nov. 20, 2009 - Weekly Wrapup

From the Heart:

I'm loving being with my kids.  Every moment that I get with them fills my heart.  It is so wonderful to hold my son in my arms and hear him say, "I wuv you, Mommy. You're adorable!"  I also love watching and experiencing the moments that my five year old studies her first words and reads them.  Each day she makes so much progress.  My 10 and 12 year olds amaze me with how they are growing into young ladies more each day and becoming individuals.  Life as a Mom is good.

The little ones like to snuggle in the rocking chair after their bath near the wood stove. 

I just finished looking over my blog from a year ago.  I am so glad that I am not in that place any longer!  A year ago my Snow Crystal was having concentration problems, abdominal pain, seizures, weakness, and looked like a little holocaust survivor.  She was depressed and talking about suicide.  I praise God for all my friends who so faithfully prayed, and for the cure of becoming gluten-free again, and avoiding artificial additives.  She is my healthy, happy, seizure-free young lady again.  No more of any of those things, and her school work has improved dramatically this year.  I am so grateful to the Lord!

In the School Room:

Mountain Princess, 12, and Snow Crystal, 10:  Abraham Lincoln was shot again this week (we learned it a few weeks ago, but readressed the reasons this week).  The aftermath of the civil war was anything but nice.  Andrew Johnson may have had Abraham's roots, but he lacked some of Abe's other successful political prowess.  Matter can be in the form of a solid, a liquid, a gas, and plasma.  Old Yeller is my 10 year old's first school book to be taken on without my help, and she's doing a good job.  She even stated that this is her favorite reader ever.   Caddie Woodlawn continues to be a spunky little thing.  Tall tales are fun because they exaggerate a story and hyperboles are perfect to put in them.  Mountain Princess finished up decimals, fractions and percentages, and moved on to tesselations. (Did I learn about these in school?  They are fun.)   Snow Crystal is working on fractions now.

Bubbies, 5, learned about the clothing and culture of the French in the period just before Napoleon's time and about the French revolution.  Birds have feathers, lay eggs, are warm-blooded, and most eat other animals.  We examined an old robin's nest and found an unhatched egg.  Robin nests are made of mud, twigs and grass.  Numbers higher than ten are made with groups of ten and units.  She finished the week by writing her numbers between twenty and thirty.

Little Critter, 3,  is beginning to take himself to the potty and we are having much fewer peeing accidents.  On the other hand, yesterday he pooped in the bathtub again.  Good thing sister wasn't with him this time!

On the Mission Field:

One of my favorite speakers, Graeme from Australia, was here speaking on cultural differences.  We had another India - style dinner too.   The students have only two more weeks before they head out on outreach.  They will spend their first month in New Mexico with the Navajo work there, then the final eight weeks in India.  We saw the Lord bring in a bunch of money toward their outreach expenses.  That is always fun to see.

In the Literary Scene:

I am reading Brock and Bodie Thoene's second book in the Galway Series Of Men and of Angels.

Feeding on His Faithfulness,

Carol

If you would like to join me in this theme, just write up your own weekly summary, using mine or your own categories.  Then sign the Mr. Linky below.  I'd love to read your weekly summaries too!    I hope to post mine on each Friday or Saturday.  At the latest it will be on Sunday.  If you get yours done before I do, just leave your link in my cbox or comments from the week before.  Be sure and check last week's Mr. Linky for any new ones who posted before I did!  It is a great way to meet new people.

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Nov. 19, 2009 - 10 years old!

We had another birthday today!  B is 10 years old!  Here are a few pictures of my cutie pie.

Brand new.  How 'bout that hair!:

8 months:

3 years old, camping in Yosemite:

Age 3 years:

6 years old:

7 years old:

Ten years old!  Getting a Build a Bear puppy whom he named Dusty: 

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Nov. 15, 2009 - Baptized!

Our youngest got baptized today!  She is 7 years old, and she decided to follow Jesus in August.  Almost right away she asked about being baptized all on her own.  So when our church announced the first baptism day since then, we signed her up.  She went to a class to make sure she understood that it wasn't being baptized that saves you, only Jesus can do that.  But it is an outward symbol of becoming a Christian, and obedience to God.  So here are a couple of pictures.

Going down....

 Coming up, a new beginning!

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Nov. 14, 2009 - Weekly Wrapup

From the Heart:

My baby boy turned 3 this week.  I guess I am officially past babyhood in the is family.  It is bittersweet, but I don't mind too much.  On his birthday he came up to me in the morning and announced, "I turned big!"  It was adorable.  He is a huge boy, and I've already had to pull out his size 4T clothing.  I'm reluctant to give up his size 3 clothes since they are so cute, but as I see the sleeve-length and leg-length getting shorter and shorter, I am coming to the conclusion that I must let go and move on!

The Lord continues to stir change in me, and yet I do not want to get ahead of Him.  We've put out a fleece of direction, but it still hasn't given any answer for us.  I think it is good to go about making change slowly to give us and our children time to accept it, especially since we like where we are at so much.

This is Little Critter on his 3rd birthday.  Love the brownies on his face? 

On the Homefront:

We are back to winter now.  Everything is white and snowy again since Friday.

Tim (my dh) finished a project he's been working on for the past couple of months.  It is a cigar box guitar.  He loves to express his creativity by making musical instruments.  It sounds pretty good too!  In the past he has also made several kinds of drums and digeridoos.

This is dh with his cigar box guitar.  He's handsome, isn't he?

In the School Room:

I was inspired by Lalaith's school wrapup on her daybook post at Avonlea Academy, so I'm going to try it instead of listing every gory detail:

Mountain Princess, 12, and Snow Crystal, 10:  America is growing in leaps and bounds, with the beginning of department stores.  Batteries in sequence make brighter light than ones that are parallel.  Atoms make up all matter, but did you know that quirks and gluons make up protons and electrons?  Will of Shades of Gray finally decided that good men were on both the Yankee and the Rebel side, and men who chose not to fight were honorable too.  Caddie Woodlawn was a spunky little thing.  To build a fire in the fireplace successfully, one needs a good source of air, kindling, and most importantly, a piece of egg carton.  Poems are funner if you have a pattern to follow when writing one.

Bubbies, 5, learned that coffee and chocolate didn't become popular until the age of exploration.  Until the late colonial years, food was pretty bland and mundane.  Mammals have fur, give milk, and breathe air.  Reading is challenging and rewarding, and gets easier if the same simple book is reviewed each day.  Mathematics includes not only addition, but also taking away.  A triangle has three sides and three corners.  An eight can be made without lifting your pencil.  Copywork is still drudgery.

Little Critter, 3,  found that hitting his sister with a fork will put two pricks just below her eye like a snakebite.  (I'm so glad it didn't get her eye!).  Going to the bathroom is against his idea of a good time.  Wet pants, on the other hand, makes mother unhappy.  The letters each have a sound.  "I" says itchy, itchy chickenpox.

On the Mission Field:

The school had Chris Austin here.  He has been teaching team building and has been helping the students find their strengths and weaknesses. 

In the Literary Scene:

I am still reading Brock and Bodie Thoene's second book in the Galway Series Of Men and of Angels.

Feeding on His Faithfulness,

Carol

If you would like to join me in this theme, just write up your own weekly summary, using mine or your own categories.  Then sign the Mr. Linky below.  I'd love to read your weekly summaries too!    I hope to post mine on each Friday or Saturday.  At the latest it will be on Sunday.  If you get yours done before I do, just leave your link in my cbox or comments from the week before.  Be sure and check last week's Mr. Linky for any new ones who posted before I did!  It is a great way to meet new people.

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