Update

I want to say a heart-felt thank you to all that have responded so openly to Sandra with emails, cards, words of encouragement and most-appreciated prayer. It has been very obvious that people have been praying for us. It is such a wonderful spirit lifter knowing that no matter how low, hurt and discouraged we can get in life, knowing that we all have a LIVING God that not only hears our hearts cry, but desires to heal our hurts. We may not see that "Balm of Gilead" (that Pastor Stockard mentioned) immediately, but we know that His way and timing is perfect.

Well, I must say that this week has been one for the record books. When Sandra called and told me the news last Sunday all I could say to her was that I was sorry that this happened. I knew of nothing else to say to somehow comfort the heart of my wife that was just ripped out and stomped upon so mercilessly.

I then began to make calls. I was able to call only a few people that I could think of at that time. The hardest one to talk to was Kristin, my sister. I did not think I was as emotionally attached to this adoption process as I guess I am. It was so difficult to tell her that the baby we had been praying for, the one that we felt God was bringing to us special delivery was suddenly gone.

I made only a few other phone calls before I had to stop. I still had to drive home so that I could be with Sandra. On the way one of the phone calls I had left a message with returned my call. It was to James who was one of the few that I could think of to call - mainly because they had gone through a fairly similar ordeal (though I think theirs was more difficult). I knew deep down that they would understand the roller coaster that we had just been forced upon, and would be one of the few that we could go to as we dealt with this going forward.

This week has been good to finally get through. We both stayed busy. Sandra had three volleyball games (they won them all!!! YEAH!!!), practice and a two days helping her sister in Kissimmee. I went to work as usual. Several of my clients knew that we were in the process of adopting so they would routinely seek updates. I like to get fairly personal with my clients. This creates a bond with them that helps to keep them using us.

Then we got some more bad news from the attorneys office. We knew that we were going to be getting back any money that was left over so that we could try to press on when the next baby came along. It was a complete shock to me when they told us we would be getting back less than 1/3 of what we put into it. It was like pouring salt into a fresh wound and then hitting it over and over again. Those of you that know I cut my forehead about 2 weeks ago know that I got stitches. Well, in order for them to do that they had to numb the wound. That meant sticking a needle in the wound and injecting solution. That was nothing compared to the pain of finding out about the low amount of refund.

Well, we went to the football game that night. It was Sr. Appreciation Night and we wanted to be there to support her girls. After halftime Sandra went and spoke to James' wife, Erica. There was much crying, but I think it was good for Sandra to open up to someone that understood where she was at in the grieving process. There are just some things that a woman can't communicate to her husband and she needs that connection with someone that can relate. I am so thankful that James and Erica have made themselves available to us. Their help is not lost in the emotions.

Tomorrow is going to be the first Sunday back since we got "The Call". It is going to be difficult for Sandra tomorrow as I am sure there will be alot of crying, hugs, etc. This will definitely help in the healing process as people will rally around her, but it will be difficult.

As we move forward please pray for the following:

1. That we will be able to move on in the healing process and not be stuck in the Anger Stage.

2. We would be able to sort out the refund issue as we are having a difficult time accepting that they could have spent that much money is so little time. Pray that we will approach them in the right spirit as we want to keep our testimony with the attorney's office.

3. The birth mother. She is out of work and therefore does not have income to pay for bills that we would normally have helped her with in this process. She is also grieving. Even though she was not going to keep the baby, she still lost a part of her.

4. There may be some legal ramifications towards the hospital/doctor(s). This may be a long process.

5. Us as we try to figure out the next steps to take for adoption. We want to keep going, but funds and trust are severely lacking.

If you know of anyone that is thinking of putting their baby up for adoption and you would think it would be a good match, please let us know. We have another attorney that will be a lot cheaper if we could bring the birthmom to her.

Again, a huge thank you for all your prayers and support. Please keep us in your prayers as this is going to be a long healing process.

Michael

God's Grace

Isn't it amazing how God's grace abounds when you need it the most? I guess it shouldn't be amazing to me, but it is. I'm so thankful for His comfort. I'm also thankful for the prayers, love and support shown by friends and family throughout this time. Thank you for holding us up in your prayers. We truly can feel God's grace at work.

We received among several emails an email with the words to a song in it. While I do not normally listen to the group who performs this song, I have chosen to receive comfort from the words. Maybe you have a storm in your life that you have the opportunity to praise God through...

"Praise You In This Storm" (by Casting Crowns)
I was sure by now, God,
You would have reached down
And wiped our tears away
Stepped in and saved the day
But once again, I say
"Amen", and it's still raining
As the thunder rolls
I barely hear
Your whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"
And as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away

And I'll praise You in this storm
And I will lift my hands
For You are who You are
No matter where I am
And every tear I've cried
You hold in Your hand
You never left my side
And though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

I remember when
I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry to you
And you raised me up again
My strength is almost gone
How can I carry on
If I can't find You
But as the thunder rolls
I barely hear
You whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"
And as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away

I lift my eyes unto the hills
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord
The Maker of Heaven and Earth

Here are some verses that have also been a blessing to me in the past few days...
II Corinthians 4:16-18
"For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."

Psalm 27:13
"I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord."

In Need of Prayer

I sit here at the computer with aching heart and weeping eyes. We just received word that this weekend our baby was stillborn. The birthmom had an infection and was put on medication. They thought all was fine, but she was experiencing some difficulties on Saturday and ended up in the hospital. Her water broke and the cord was wrapped around the baby's neck and there was nothing they could do. We found out today our baby was going to be a little girl.

Though she was never a part of my body and I didn't even know if she was a boy or girl, she was still mine in my heart. I had imagined holding our baby, caring for our baby, watching Mike be an awesome dad, and having the awesome responsibility and privilege to rear her to be Christ-like.

Please pray for us. God is good all the time even when I hurt. He does have a plan and a purpose and while I know this to be true, that does not change the fact that my heart will still ache for the baby we never were even able to meet and my eyes will still weep.

Pressing On

The girls are pressing on. We were able to beat the undefeated team on Tuesday. I made a few more changes to the team and the six girls who were on the court for the first game worked together very well. We continue to work.

Thanks for your encouragement, everyone. It is true that you often learn more about yourself and your relationship with God when you are in the valley when you are on the mountain. I'm hoping that through sports, I can teach the girls more about where to turn both in the valley and on the mountain and how to relate to other things in life.

Roller Coaster

Yep, that is how I can best describe our volleyball team this year. We go from a really high moment to a really low moment. We are so far 5-3. The sad part is that we really should be 7-1 (the other team would have taken a championship effort to beat). The two matches that we have lost have both had highs in the middle, preceded and followed by super low lows. In the first match we lost, we beat the other team 25-9 in the second game of the match. In rally scoring, keeping the opponent to less than 10 points requires that you keep the "side outs" to a minimum. Realistically if you can beat a team 25-9, you should never lose a match to that team. Granted, we missed 25 serves that match, so in that aspect we deserved to lose.

Last night we played a team that we had previously beaten earlier this season. We lost the first two games of the match. The third game they suddenly decided they were going to play and beat the team 25-13 only to come back and let the other team beat them in the fourth game.

Honestly, this is the most frustrating season I have ever coached. We started out so solidly in the pre-season tournament in Kissimmee where we won the championship. Then our first game was on August 25th. By the end of next Thursday, we will have played 13 out of 18 conference games for the entire season with only 3 practices. Then, from September 26-October 28, we will have the other five games and 13 more practices. Regardless of the fact that the girls need to execute better, playing that much of the season with only three practices makes it very hard for me as a coach to have the opportunity to fix the issues they are having. We are going to have to somehow find an adjustment for next year's schedule. To be fair to our athletic director, there are some things he cannot control (we can't have games on Friday's because of football - something I'm going to try to renegotiate to be able to have home volleyball games on Friday when football is away, we can't have games during the PBC mission's conference or the school Band Festival, we can't have games during the end of the football homecoming week, and there are two no school days in October due to teacher conference or something like that).

However, more than my frustration due to the schedule and lack of practice, I just am really struggling with finding the "magic button" to push with this team to make them do what they know they need to do. I've tried every method I've ever used successfully in the past, completely without success for this team. I've prayed for the girls as individuals and their relationships with each other. I've prayed for wisdom in my decisions and how to handle them. I've tried subbing, giving extra "bench time" to help focus. I've tried running them to death for their 25 missed serves in one match. I've tried changing the order of the lineup. I've tried switching entire offenses from using two setters to using one setter. I've tried using more encouragement based timeouts and coaching. I've tried using more disappointment/pull-it-together-now-or-else based timeouts and coaching.

Seriously I'm at the end of my rope. I've never so much felt like quitting anything in my entire life. I'm NOT going to, but I totally feel like it. So today, we try again. We face a team that is undefeated so far. I'm making another change to see if somehow that is the magic. Maybe I need to have a revival service with them and tell them that I want whoever has the sin in the camp to deal with it so we can start winning again. :)

Thanks for listening to me vent. If you think of it, please pray for me that I'll have wisdom and please pray that no matter whether we win or we lose (though I really would rather win) that our attitudes (both inward and outward) will bring honor and glory to God and will represent Providence well.

An Interesting Morning

I remember feeling Mike get up out of bed. He does this each morning. I roll myself over on to his side of the bed (because I like it better) and go back to sleep. Usually he spends a few minutes waking up and then puts the dogs out. So it was no surprise when a few minutes later a couple of the dogs started barking. I thought Mike might be outside playing with the big dogs and the small dogs were barking because they were excited and wanted to be outside with them. They barked for at least a few minutes and I was getting ready to get up and deal with them when I heard Mike say something to them. I figured he was outside and was yelling in to tell them to be quiet.

A few minutes later, Mike opened the door and told me he needed me to get up and help him. He left the door open and headed towards the bathroom. I got up and as soon as I walked out of the bedroom, Mike told me that he needed me to stop and to be calm, okay? Okay. Still waking out of sleep, I trudged toward the bathroom, but was instantly alert when I saw the pile of blood on the floor. I asked what happened and he told me that he would tell me in a moment. He then turned towards me and I saw a large gash above his forehead and blood all over his face. YUCK! So I got out some towels and helped him get things cleaned up. Then he sat down so I could look at it. The bleeding seemed to be stopping, but it was still a big cut.

He had been feeling lightheaded and had already gotten down on the floor once and put his feet up to try to make that lightheaded feeling go away. He thought he was feeling better and got up. He doesn't remember passing out, but must have and hit his head on the bathroom counter (we are assuming). This must have been what the dogs heard and why they were barking, but I didn't realize that. He woke up on his own on the floor in his blood. Again - YUCK!

So, since the cut was on his head, I didn't feel great about just butterfly bandaging it. We decided to go to the 24 hour clinic to see if he needed stitches. I went to get changed and at this time noticed that it was like 2:10 in the morning! This whole time I had thought it was later, so this was a shock to me.

Of course, we got to the clinic to see that they were not indeed open 24 hours. So, we went to the hospital emergency room. Believe it or not, we were only there for a little over 2 hours. They did an EKG to see if his heart rhythm affected his passing out. Cleared that! WHOHOO. They did a CT scan to make sure that he hadn't hurt himself more when he fell. Cleared that! WHOHOO. They gave him a Tetanus shot because he hadn't had one in more than five years. And finally - they gave him 6 stitches in his forehead.

Unfortunately he still had to go to work today. One of his co-owners was on vacation today, so they needed him to be in the office. I wasn't thrilled with that, but I called him and he is doing okay - just needed pain killer for the headache.

We plan to spend the weekend mostly inside the house and I'll get to take care of him. Whohoo! Praise the Lord it wasn't worse. I'm almost thankful that I didn't find him lying on the floor in a pool of blood. I think I totally would have freaked out. At least this way he was able to warn me and ask me to be calm.

He's Home!

YAY! Mike arrived home this evening and it is so nice to have him back. He spent the weekend up in Georgia with his sister, Kristin, and her family. He left on Friday morning to go up there and spend some time with them as well as help them with training a new to their family dog. Apparently it went really well.

Mostly I'm just happy to have him back home. This was the first time in our marriage when he has left and I've been the one staying behind. There have been 4 other times when I left and he stayed behind. It was just harder to be the one still here. I missed him as I went through our daily schedule without him. I guess the good news is that I was crazy busy and spent a lot of time in Kissimmee helping my sister.

So anyway...happy to have him home. Hoping we don't have to be separate again anytime in the near future.

Hurricane Party with Julie, Samantha & Cats

Saying hi to Cody.
Here she was wearing my "Elmo Shoes". :)
Smiling after petting Sasha.
I love hurricanes. You may think I'm crazy, but I was so excited in Guam when Typhoon Pongsonga came and hit with such awesome force. I just love big storms. The best part of big storms is fellowship. In Guam, everyone would kind of gather together in groups and ride it out together. By the time it was over, you were much closer to the people you were with when it was going on.

So, when we thought Fay was going to hit, I was naturally excited. Then, when my friend Julie decided to "evacuate" from the base and come over along with her 19-month old daughter and their two cats, I was REALLY excited. What fun! The main reason for her coming was that her husband, Peter, was out of town and she is near the end of her pregnancy. Often these storms change the barometric pressure and that can have an affect in the form of starting labor, so no one really wanted her to be home alone even if it was a small storm.

She brought the cats who hung out in their bedroom the whole time. I don't think all of the dogs really realized there were cats inside the house. Samantha was so cute with the dogs. We didn't want to overwhelm her in the beginning, so Mike kept the three biggest ones outside when we first got home and we introduced Samantha to the quietest one first. Then we continued bringing them in the house one at a time. She could even count them! Okay, I have no children of my own, so I'm not sure about developmental rate, but is it normal for a 19-month old to be able to count to 10? She easily could count the four dogs. She would run from side to side of their kennels and say "kisses" and stick her finger out to them. They would happily lick any part of her that they could get to. Very cute.

After Mike got home from work on Tuesday, he got out Sasha (who is probably one of the most tame) and let Samantha meet her up close. Samantha petted her and smiled and in general had a good time. It was good to see the dogs behave so well with a little one in the house.

I can't wait for the next hurricane!

We Are The Champions...Again. :)

Yes, I'm ultra-competitive. Yes, I love the fact that my girls have managed to now pull out two championships. Last fall they won the FCC State Championship. Out of 18 or 19 schools, they were able to end on top. This weekend they ended on top out of 6 to win the pre-season tournament hosted by Heritage Christian in Kissimmee.

They didn't take the easy way to get there. We lost our second game today, which of course happened to be against my sister's school. That sent us to the loser's bracket. We waited for a few games. Then the madness began... We had to win four matches in a row to win the tournament. If we lost even one, we were completely done.

To be honest, I didn't think we had it in us today. We were missing some team players and just hadn't really played to potential. The first match we were able to win in just two games. The next match was against a team we beat easily yesterday, but they had greatly improved. We ended up having to take it to three games to win. That brought us back to my sister's team again. My girls stepped up...it took three games, but they pulled it out, much to the surprise of most people in the gym.

On to the championship! Wow. We played against Eastland. They have improved quite a bit and had already beaten us when we played them on Friday. They had not lost a match the entire tournament. We again chose to take it to three games instead of two, but we started the last game well and slowly began to pull away. Yes! Finally one that didn't require too much raising of my blood pressure.

I'm not a fan of putting a bigger target on our backs, but tonight I celebrate that they pulled out the victory. Hopefully we will be able to push forward throughout the season and win another state championship.

Life & Times, Weekend Edition

The Editor-in-Chief is out of the office and so it has fallen upon me to take charge of the office and see that the news gets out (of course, she has no idea that I am doing this so once again I get to have some fun).

Sandra is in Kissimmee this weekend and will be back home tonight around 9:30. She was invited to a volleyball tournament with her girls. They did OK for their first night. They won 3 and lost 2. The two teams they lost to were not a surprise, but I am sure by the end of the season they will be able to beat them. It will take some time for the girls to get back into the "serious play" mindset. It took nearly all season for them to get to that point, and when they did they started beating "the unbeatable". Then preceded to go to the championship and win.

These girls have a lot of pressure on them. Everyone is going after them. They will need to stay focused and do what their coach tells them to do. I think that was the main problem last year in both volleyball and basketball.

Anyway, that leaves me at home with the dogs until she gets back. I loves these dogs. They have their moments, but I believe that they are going to do so well with the baby. They will take the baby right into the pack and protect him/her.

Speaking of the baby, I think I really want to find out if it will be a boy or a girl. I struggle with calling the baby an "it". I think it hits my belief that it is not an "it" but a fully alive being that mankind in general has come to numb itself into believing a lie so as to sooth their conscience as they murder millions of them to try to keep their lives the same. They want the grown up life without the responsibility that goes with it.

It causes me to think sometimes on how our world goes through "Ages": Enlightenment, Reason, Renaissance, etc. I wonder what the next one will be labeled? Will they see their lost condition before it is too late? Will we have another great period of revival where millions are tired of fighting God and yield to Him? Wow! I am not sure I can imagine millions of people turning in true faith and trust to Christ in a relatively short period of time.

Maybe that is why the Lord has delayed His return. He knows that there will be one more great revival. Who will He use to bring that revival about? Some great evangelist? Or could it be one of our own from our youth department that has a passion for God and a desire to reach the world for Christ?

Well, there I went on a side road. I tend to do that quite often.

Anyway, I love the dogs and look forward to training the dogs so that their lives will not be completely ruined. I look forward to the day when we can take all four dogs on a walk with the baby. We get so many looks when they see us walking with two of the dogs. Then when they see us with all four you literally see jaws drop. I think it will be very amusing to see the faces when they see Cody hooked up to a cart pulling the baby (and yes, I will have Cody leashed still so that he does not run off with the baby).

OK, done rambling. Hope your weekend goes well.

Michael

Works of God Tuesday

Okay, so I know it is supposed to be "Works of God Monday" however, sometimes I manage to get a little behind. So even though today is Tuesday, I thought I would take a moment to share God's working. We have officially entered into contract with our adoption attorney and the birthmom who chose us. Mike went by the office and dealt with that yesterday.

We are now in the waiting and trusting phase. We wait and pray that the birthmom won't change her mind. We trust that Jehovah Jireh will provide the finances required between now and finalization. I couldn't help but think of Dr. Ollila yesterday. Those of you who went to Northland will remember the phrase "We trust in Jehovah Jireh, not jehovah visa." (basically making the point that many will put things on a credit card that they cannot afford rather than trusting God to meet their needs). Well, we found out that our adoption attorney accepts credit card, so we put the huge first payment on credit card so we can get the miles for it. Don't worry though - we have already transferred the funds so that is paid off right away. We are trusting God to provide and we know that He will. I look forward to seeing the ways He works, even if it is just in helping us to be more budget-conscious and frugal.

And...we have a due date! January 20th. I admit to hoping that she goes a little early. By January 20th, we'll be off Christmas break and back to regular basketball practices and games. If she goes a little early, that will leave me more time to get used to the joys of motherhood and not sleeping without having to deal with practices yet.

Thanks for your prayers. We are excited that God has allowed us to take this next step in our adventure. We'll keep you up-to-date as we know more!

Crazy Busy with Volleyball Camp

Sorry I haven't been very vocal on the blog this week. We have volleyball camp going on and it has been crazy busy. The Herrons (my former coach from NBBC) arrived on Sunday morning. We got home from the airport after 1 a.m. We had church all day Sunday. Monday was the start of volleyball camp. We arrived there around 8:15 a.m. and didn't leave for home until after 9 p.m. I can promise you we were a little tired when we arrived home last night.

Today we were there by 8:45 a.m. and got home around 8:45 p.m. Again a long day and again tired. Mike was supposed to be working really late tonight, so when I found that out, I downed a Mountain Dew thinking I would stay up and wait for him to come home. Then the power went out at work with no hope of quick restoration, so he got home around 10:45 p.m. Consequently, I'm now running on the power of Dew and not quite ready for sleep. So you get a quick update.

Tomorrow is Coach and Mrs. H's last day of running the camp and we go from 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Thursday I will run the camp by myself from 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. and try to reinforce the things we worked on early in the week. Friday I will run camp from 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Then from 4:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. we will have a pizza party and fun time for the girls in the gym. Then to top it all off, from 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m., we have invited the parents to come and we are going to have a parent night where the parents can play against the kids and we'll have an informational meeting at the end so they can know what I expect of them and what they can expect of me.

I anticipate that around 10:30 p.m. on Friday, having wrapped everything up, driven home and taken a quick shower, I will fall into bed and be thankful it is over. I love volleyball camp. I love working with the kids. However, I'm getting old.

I promise to catch up on your blogs and what is going on in your life as soon as possible...just not tonight. It is 11:18 p.m. and I have yet to take a shower, get ready for bed and will my body to forget that can of Mountain Dew.

5-1=4

I cried. I freely admit it. Tonight as we left Tilly with the family that will hopefully be her forever family, I cried. She was one of my "babies". Yes, I realize she is just a dog. Yes, I know that having one fewer dog in the house will help with less dirt intake. Yes, I know that having one fewer dog will be a big blessing if and when God allows us to have a baby. While my mind knows all of these things, my heart still hurt to give her away.

I will miss her loving manner. She was the "cuddler" of the group. I know that might not seem normal for a pit bull, but unfortunately some bad owners have caused the breed to have a bad rap. If you could meet her, you would see that she is so sweet and just wants to be loved.

We are glad that she has a family now. She'll have kids that are so excited to have a dog. I know she will be well cared for and they even told me I can come visit her. I will most likely need to do that just to know that she is okay. We've invested a lot of time and love into her and are very protective of her. I know that her new family will do the same.

And then there were four...

A New Home For Tilly?

Mike got a phone call today from a lady who is interested in Tilly. We are supposed to be meeting with her tonight to let her see Tilly and decide if she would like to take her. We are hoping that this will be a good "forever home" for her.

Wow

The following perspective is written by Mike:

I can tell you that one moment can change so much so fast.

We got the call from the attorneys office that they wanted to show our profile. I will admit that I was slightly excited when they called, but I had to temper it with the factual knowledge that it was only the profile viewing and that they could choose someone else. The attorneys office told us they would call once they knew an answer.

Well, we waited. Then we waited some more. And then, even though I am probably the most patient person you will ever meet, I got tired of waiting and called them for an update. The attorney's assistant was not available, but she called me back. Well, the birth mother chose us.
Needless to say I was excited. But she called back as I was heading to see a client so I really had to control everything. So I texted Sandra as I was waiting for my clients to come out of their office.

So, now we need to sign a contract, provide a deposit and then wait some more.

Thanks for all your prayers. We know that there is at least 6 months of basically waiting, but we all know time flies. We will begin now to make preparations for the arrival. Also, we will need to start getting our dogs ready for this. I know their world is going to change, but we are excited. Rottweilers are well known for their protective nature and once they realize that the baby is part of the pack then they will keep the baby safe.

Obviously we do not know if the baby is a boy or girl, but we should be able to find out in about a month or so. Personally, I am hoping for a boy, but I will be perfectly fine with a girl.

Anyway, I am rambling so I shall stop.

The following perspective is written by Sandra:

Cautiously optimistic. That is how I would describe my current feelings.

I also was wanting to get some answers on whether or not they were able to show our profile and how it went. When Mike told me this morning that he had called the attorney's office and was waiting on a return call, I was relieved that he had made the call and tried to find out some answers.

About twenty minutes later as I was pulling in to a mall to meet my friend Julie for lunch, I got a text message. Shock best describes my state of mind a few minutes later. He texted and told me that she chose us and we need to get some paperwork in to the attorney's office with a deposit. I could feel myself tearing up a little that it seems we are actually taking a step forward in this adventure towards parenthood. Then I thought "did he really just TEXT MESSAGE this information to me"? Amazing. :)

I'm looking forward to meeting with the attorney to get some more information and see how this plays out. I'm trying not to be crazy excited, but instead just stick with the cautiously optimistic. I guess that is my way of trying to safeguard my heart a little in case it doesn't work out.

We appreciate your prayers and will definitely update you as we know more. Please don't stop praying for us. There are many months between now and January and lots of time for her to change her mind.

Praise - Gym Solution

Whohoo! Thanks for your prayers everyone. I just wanted to let you know that we have a resolution to my gym crisis for next Monday. Mr Hewitt was graciously willing to work with us and allow us to have the afternoon session in the gym. We will then help get everything set up for the book sale after that session. Then we will help tear down after the book sale and be able to have a little time left of that session in the gym. So yay! We are definitely excited about that option and we will make it work. Thanks again for your prayers.

No News is Good News?

Thanks for your prayers on the adoption option (as Mike so eloquently rhymed). We haven't heard anything yet from the adoption attorney. They did tell us they would call us once they had an answer, so we are assuming that they just don't have an answer yet. We are waiting patiently, but thought we would update you to know that we know nothing. :)

Adoption Option

I love trying to come up with words that will rhyme. Sometimes it works - sometimes it does not.

Anyway, We just received a call from one of the attorneys that we submitted our profile to some time ago. They showed our profile to a birth mother 2 weeks ago, but she chose someone else. She has another birth mother she wanted to show our profile to and was asking if it would be okay because of the situation.

The birth mother is single with a 7 year old daughter. She is 3 months pregnant, expecting in January. The birth father is out of the picture. The "situation" is that she is bi-polar. She is not on her original medication because it would harm the baby. She is, however, on another type of medication that is not harmful.

We wanted to get this news out to everyone so that you could better pray. We do appreciate the prayers thus far and I know that this will help you to pray more specifically.

We will keep you updated as we find out more. It was nice to get the call, but we are trying to not be too excited as this is just the profile viewing.

Full-filling Week for Sandra

Well, I do not think that Sandra is going to be able to blog this week as she has basketball camp the entire week. So, to help her out I shall see what I can do to help her with this. =)

The first day of basketball camp went well. Since she is such the great organizer she had the day planned out completely and so it went fairly quickly. The girls still don't seem to get it that when they complain about having to do some drill or exercise that they do not like that there is a consequence (usually adding more to what the specific drill is or running or something NOT fun).

She is very excited about this year's basketball team. Even with losing a couple players that she thought she would have she sees great potential in the girls that are still there. A couple of them are stepping up and excelling in their skills.

Prayer requests:
1. Please pray that the older girls will step up and not only be serious about the practices and good examples to the others, but more importantly that they will display a desire to serve Christ on and off the court.
2. Please seriously continue to pray for a gym that they can borrow for the volleyball camp. It is getting rather frustrating as there does not seem to be anything opening up. It would not be good to have to use the parking lot to practice when we have a perfectly good gym at the school. If a girl fell she could seriously hurt herself. Plus, being the middle of the summer it is going to be hot (and if it rains...). If a gym somewhere else does open up that just means an added expense that may need to be passed on to the campers. They do not need to have to pay extra with the economy being what it is. I know there is a good alternative to this situation and we are praying very hard that the Lord will intervene.
3. Pray for the school this year. The economy is effecting alot of people and it is showing in the number of students having to pull out. Two of Sandra's players let her know on Sunday that they would not be returning due to finances.
4. Pray for the nation. I know it is rather broad in topic, but we all know that this nation is so far from pleasing the Lord. But we must pray. James 5:16 - "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." I am reminded of what pastor mentioned on Sunday - if we ask anything according to His will it will come to pass.
5. Please pray for Sandra starting this week until the end of basketball in February. It is a large amount of time for her with the camps, then the seasons of volleyball and basketball. There are going to be alot of early mornings, long days and late nights ahead for her. The Lord will provide her the strength necessary as "His mercies are new every morning - GREAT is His faithfulness".

I pray that your days will be blessed of the Lord and that we will seek to please Him in all we say and do.

GO CVS!!!

5 YEARS!!!!!

Today we mark five years of bliss. You know all the cliches:

"where has all the time gone?"
"seems just like yesterday!"

I would agree, but at the same time I know where the time has gone. Looking back it is fairly easy to retrace our steps:

1. Get married in Michigan
2. "Move" to PA
3. Continue moving to FL two weeks later
4. Live with sister and her family for many months until we found jobs
5. Got jobs and moved to Kissimmee for first place
6. Moved 3 months later due to a hurricane damaging our condo
7. For the next several months we moved from staying at Sandras sisters house for a couple days to a couple hotels to a vacation home to an apartment.
8. Moved to Plant City

So for the first two years of marriage we moved nearly as much as a military family in their entire career.

I think we would love to move again. It has been such a long time since we packed up everything so we need to stay fresh. =) But seriously, if we could move I think we might go for it as long as the place had some acreage for the dogs to run.

I know I should be excited, looking forward to what the next five years holds, but as much that goes on in our lives I got enough to look forward to what happens tomorrow - 1 day at a time.

We have met many many people along the way that have made their marks in our lives. We cherish those moments and look forward to the many to come. So thank you to all of you that have some impact into our lives.

Mostly though, I love the memories that Sandra and I have made together. Although our marriage is not perfect we have the perfect marriage that God HIMSELF ordained. Believe me, if you knew the story behind our relationship you would agree that God had to bring us together.

Sandra, thank you for the memories and I do look forward to what life holds for us next.

I love you.

Prayer Request/Gym Search

Well, I'm on a mission and have a prayer request for all of you. I'm trying to find a gymnasium with a volleyball court in the Brandon/Valrico area for August 4th. I've been working on a few options, but so far have had no success. One that I had high hopes for shot us down because their insurance liability will not allow them to have anyone else use the gym outside of their ministry.

August 4th is the first day of volleyball camp for the girls. It also happens to be the day of the book sale, so we can only have the gym until noon. This becomes a problem because we are bringing in a coach from out-of-state for Monday through Wednesday and need to take advantage of the Monday afternoon and Monday evening session times. We couldn't schedule the camp for a different week and still get the same coach (Coach Herron from Northland Baptist Bible College, who helped us last year and we won the championship...why mess with what works?). So that leaves me with trying to find a new location for that day.

If you happen to have any ideas on a possible gym we could rent or, ideally, borrow for the day, please let me know. We need it from 12:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. In the mean time, please pray with me that we can get this settled. It is one of those details that will hang over my head until it is settled.

Score! What I Won!

Well, here it is. This is the loot I was given for winning the contest at my gym. So you better understand the theme, the name of the contest was "Bikini Body Countdown Contest". Good news though...I won't be donning a bikini. :) Anyway, since that was the theme, everything in the winning prize package is themed around the beach or pool. My favorite of the package is the gift certificate for 4 personal training sessions with Ashley. That will allow me to personalize my workout as well as get some ideas for more ways to torture my volleyball and basketball players.

I also especially like the towel, bag and water bottle. The rest of the great pool toys we'll plan on taking on vacation next year.

Most of all, the competitive side of me loves winning. Like my almost 3 year old nephew Christopher would say "I'm a winner!" (all while putting his arms in the air - very cute)

New CVS $3 Off $15 Purchase Coupon

Whohoo! Thanks to Money Saving Mom for the tip about the new CVS coupon out. We have a little over a week to use this one. I've heard there are supposed to be some good weekly deals next week, so hopefully we can maximize on them by using this coupon. Go to the link for her website to print it out.

Home and Victory

Whohoo! Finally home. The trip was stinky. I went in planning on trying to get a bump because I didn't mind arriving home a little late if it meant getting a voucher to help pay for the next one of these trips I have to take. However, I didn't plan on getting home at 2:00 a.m. and not getting anything good out of it. Either way though, I'm happy to be home with Mike.

Also good news...I heard from the ladies at my gym and I won the contest! YAY! I am so excited. I'm also looking forward to getting back in the gym for some good exercise. Today I have to catch up on some shipping for items I sold on Ebay while out of town. But tomorrow morning I will be there.

Thanks again for your support through this time.

YYYEESSSSSS!!!!

It was touch and go for a bit there, but she is home to me. I am sure she will elaborate with skillful use of our language so I will allow her to wax eloquent - just glad she is home.

Will She Ever Get Home to Me?!?!

I tell you what, I am beginning to wonder if she will ever come back to me. She called a while ago and said the flights were delayed. The flights are being delayed, then changed again and again.

Hopefully, things will get fixed as quickly as possible. I do not want her to miss her flight home. Of course, if she gets delayed in Atlanta for an good length of time she can go stay with my sister until the flight gets fixed.

So that is the latest.


Regards,

Sandras Honey

Back in Michigan

Hey Everyone - thanks for your prayers. We are back in Michigan now. The viewing was Monday night. The funeral was Tuesday morning. We spent the rest of Tuesday with family and then drove back home this morning. I fly out tomorrow evening from Flint and will get home late.

This was a difficult time for me. I have not been to a viewing since my Great Grandma passed away almost 18 years ago. I wasn't prepared for how hard it would be to see my Grandpa in a casket. We walked in the funeral home room and I couldn't make it halfway to the front without breaking out in tears. It took me until the very end when the family was leaving to go up to the casket. I just didn't want to see him there. In the end, my sister, Danelle, was a big help and a rock of support for me and we went together.

My Grandpa isn't suffering any more. He is in heaven and I wouldn't wish him back for anything. I will remember him with fond memories any time we play dominoes or Parcheesi. One of my aunts put a double six domino in his hands in the casket and that made everyone smile through our tears as we knew Grandpa would have loved that.

Praise the Lord for the comfort of heaven for those who have trusted Christ as their Savior. As hard as this was, I cannot imagine the grief of those who mourn with no hope.

Thanks again for your prayers. I'm looking forward to be back home with my honey.

I Miss My Honey

Less than 24 hours ago, I dropped him off to fly home. Isn't it funny how in such a short period of time, you can miss someone so much? It isn't that I can't function here without him - I did that for 26 years before we were married. It is more that I don't want to function here without him. He is my other half. I'm not complete when he isn't here.

Today we start the road trip with my parents, two of my sisters and my 18 month old niece. I would much rather be making this trip with him along, but he did have to get home to relieve his dad and take care of our doggies. He is also going to help run my volleyball/basketball practice on Tuesday. It is nice to know that things are taken care of there.

But I still miss him. You can say, "ewww...gross" if you want, but it's true. We are coming up on our 5th anniversary in a few weeks and I'm so thankful to have the privilege of walking the path God has for us with my wonderful husband.

Home With The Lord

This morning around 3:45 a.m., my Grandpa Staples went home to be with the Lord. At the age of 92, he lived a full life. The viewing is supposed to be on Monday evening and the funeral should be on Tuesday (but could end up on Wednesday) in Rockford, Illinois. Mike is still flying home tonight. I've changed my flight until next Thursday to give me time to make it back home with the family even if the funeral is changed to Wednesday.

In the last few days my sisters and I have talked about our memories of Grandpa from when we were little. He was a teaser. Our greatest joy when visiting was to purposefully walk past "Grandpa's Chair" where he was sitting and have him reach out and snag us with his cane. Then we would scream and laugh (as if we didn't know that is what would happen). He also had a really cool masculine bathroom at his house. We all would purposefully use that bathroom just because it was his and hope that as we were coming out he would catch us using his bathroom and tease us.

One of the biggest areas of competition in our family comes in the area of board games. The family favorite is Parcheesi and Grandpa was always the king of Parcheesi. Once I hit college age, Danelle and I came up with a new strategy for Parcheesi and we began winning most of the games (until others started picking up that really the new strategy was the best). So now, I oh so humbly believe that Danelle and I become the reigning queens of Parcheesi.

I will miss Grandpa. I truly have been blessed that at the age of 31, I still had all 4 of my grandparents alive. Unfortunately, I believe that this is the beginning of a long road of these events coming. I wish that our future children would have had the opportunity to meet their great-grandpa. But you know what, despite all of that, I'm thankful that Grandpa is home. He doesn't have to deal with the pain and discomfort any more.

Thank you for your prayers. I would appreciate them in the next several days especially for my Dad, Uncle David, Aunt Mary, Uncle Phil and Aunt Judi. Please pray specifically for my Aunt Judi. Her husband passed away a few months ago after a hard fight with cancer. Her mother-in-law passed away suddenly several weeks ago and now her Dad has passed away. I know this has been a rough few months for her.

Update

Thanks to everyone who has been praying. Here is the current update on my grandpas:

Grandpa Johnson has had a good two days here. No more falls, no more big issues. He even went with the whole group miniature golfing yesterday. Mike and I and my sister, Barb, had him in our group. Here is a 92 year old man, half-blind literally, yet somehow able to do decently at miniature golf. We got a folding chair for him and set up a system. Mike would help him get set up and then he would hit the ball. Then while Mike helped him safely get to the ball and finish the hole, Barb and I would rotate who moved his chair for him so it was ready for him at the end of the hole and who would get ready to go next. I thought it actually went very well and I absolutely loved watching Mike with him. Mike was so patient with him and so kind. Yet another moment for me to be thankful for the wonderful husband God has given me.

Grandpa Staples isn't doing as well though. Yesterday they tried to give him a blood transfusion. He has had leukemia and needs to have these transfusions to keep his blood cell counts where they need to be. Unfortunately his heart stopped again during the procedure, so they had to stop the transfusion part way through. The facts that his heart can't handle any procedures, they know he is bleeding internally and they can't do anything about his blood cell counts means that it is likely a matter of days left rather than weeks or months.

We do believe both of my grandpas are Christians, so that is definitely something to be thankful for. They have lived long lives and as hard as it will be on us when God chooses to take them home, we know that they will be in a better place with no more pain.

We are still waiting to see what will happen in the next few days. We'll keep you updated from there. Thanks so much for your prayers and your support.

Vacation and Prayer Requests

Hey Everyone - Greetings from FREEZING COLD Michigan.

It actually has been mostly nice and I already am starting to get rid of that "white girl" glow. However, when you are in the shade or once it gets to be late afternoon, the freezing cold sets in.
We are having a good time in Michigan, but have had a few glitches along the way. My Grandpa on my mom's side (who is 92) was supposed to arrive here on Saturday, but instead ended up spending the weekend in the hospital. The hospital staff wanted to keep him longer due to some concerns about his heart, but he demanded he be released so he could come on vacation. So this morning my parents drove three hours to their house to pick them up and bring them back, but he hasn't felt well since he got here. Within about three minutes of getting out of the car, he tripped on a rug and fell, causing a large cut on his elbow and general overall pain. He has been in bed since about 6:00 this evening complaining constantly of being cold. My dad and uncle are convinced this means that something is wrong with his heart and are highly concerned about him.

Then tonight we got a call from my aunt and found out that my Grandpa on my dad's side (who is 90) was about to go into surgery because apparently he has had a bunch of blood in his urine recently. They decided to try surgery to fix the problem. We got a call a little later from my aunt saying that they had to stop the surgery because his heart stopped. They were able to get it restarted, but they are watching him closely. Also, while they were in there, they found that his bladder lining is almost non-existent, so that is not a good thing either and I'm not sure there is much they can do about it at this point.

All in all, this leaves a large cloud looming over vacation. I've already heard one member of the family talking about what we all do if we lose Grandpa Staples in the next day or two, and another saying that we could lose both of them this week. While I'm not sure that isn't a little overly pessimistic, there are some serious concerns and we will wait to see how it all plays out. Thankfully we know that God is in control and whatever happens was already planned long in advance of this week.

I'll try to post some pictures later in the week so you can see how it is going. And yes, we miss our dogs. Mike wrote a blog about that a little earlier I think. We hope all is well with you.

Results - Score!

Well, I completed my ninth class for the week at the gym this morning. Whew! I'm tired. Now I get to take a shower and spend the day completing the tasks required to get everything ready for vacation.

I weighed in this morning. Since May 12, I have lost 9 pounds, 9 inches (spread out over 5 different areas that were measured) and approximately 5% of my body fat.

So the way I figure it is this: yes, I totally want to win, but with such great competition (the two ladies who were ahead of me at the beginning of this week have been working very hard too), I consider losing 9 pounds, 9 inches and 5% body fat as a victory.

I'll find out on Monday where I ended up. I'm kind of preparing myself for third and I'll be thankful no matter what. I love my gym. The trainers are awesome. Once we get back from vacation I'll be back in there. Not for 9 classes a week, but for a more reasonable long-term schedule.

Working Hard at Working Out

For those of you who know me even a little, you will know that I am an ultra-competitive person by nature. In high school and college, I exercised this crazy competitiveness through the avenue of organized sports. Since college, I've tried to find my outlet of that energy through coaching, but I'm always looking for opportunities to be competitive in other areas (just ask anyone who has ever played a board game with me).

Each summer, my sisters and I gather with our families for a week at Houghton Lake up in Michigan. Each summer, the competition is on (though it is mostly unspoken) to NOT be the heaviest/chunkiest sister at the lake. Some of you who live in a perpetual state of tiny being might not understand this. So, the beginning of June always tends to sneak up on me and then suddenly I'm in a frenzy over the fact that I have less than 4 weeks until the event. By the way, I think that although we've been married almost 5 years now, this never ceases to drive my husband crazy. His attitude is that whatever I do should be for myself and not out of some crazy "I-don't-want-to-be-the-heaviest-sister" competition. He does have a valid point and yet somehow it always happens like this.

So, this year I lucked out. My gym started a contest on May 12 that would run until this Friday (which happens to be the day before we leave). PERFECT! The competitive side of me jumped at this idea and the opportunity. I went in and weighed and was measured at the start of the contest. The contest was set up to give points for attending the group classes as well as points for pounds lost, inches lost, attendance at an 1.5 hour aerobathon and more. I had never been to one of the group classes, so I decided to give it a try. The first 3-4 weeks I was going to about 3 classes a week, but not really going crazy about the whole thing. I enjoyed the spinning and liked having someone push me. It was much more exciting than trying not to be bored spending a long time on a cardio machine.

With each day drawing closer to vacation, I began starting to step up the exercise and being more careful about my eating. Last Saturday I had a cold. It was the same day as the aerobathon and I was determined to make it through anyway because you got a bunch of points for going and more points for finishing the torture session. Then on Saturday they announced that since this week was the last week, all points would be doubled. WHOHOO! I checked the class schedule and figured out that between Monday and Friday I could make it to 9 classes if I worked really hard at it. I thought it was a good plan.

On Monday, Ashley (one of the trainers), told me that I was currently in third place and had the potential to win it if I could make it to several of the classes this week. Exhilaration and the thrill of the competition raced through me as I told her that I was trying for 9 classes and I suddenly had a determination that if there was a chance I could win it, I was going to make it to every single one of those classes.

Then, I proceeded to go to two classes on Monday (boxing and whole body), one class on Tuesday (Yoga - yuck!) and three classes today (whole body, spin express and step express). Tomorrow I have two evening classes and then one morning class on Friday and then I'm done and gone on vacation.

I'm doing everything I can to finish strong. I'll find out Friday how I ended in the competition. I will find out Saturday how I did in the sister competition. No matter what the results of those events, I know that my body feels better right now. More than that, my mind does so much better and I feel so much better about myself when I'm exercising, so I'm thankful for the competition.

So, are any of you crazy competitive like I am?

Works of God Monday - Stretching and Inward Groanings

I'm thankful that God doesn't give up on us, but chooses to continually break us and mold us into what He wants us to be. For some reason, God has chosen at this time in my life to stretch me and I can only believe it is part of the overall big picture. I feel the stretching. As a sinner, I dread the pain and cannot wait for it to be over. Yet when I sit back and examine it, I'm thankful for the stretching because it means that God is still at work. Much more tragic would be the case if He wasn't working on me.

Yesterday morning as I was sitting in church, I heard the beginning chords of the special music and the inward groanings began. I knew the song by heart and knew that the chances were good to excellent that I would be crying by the end of the song. I'm pretty much sick of crying and wasn't thrilled that it was about to happen again.

Here are a few of the lyrics to the song that Amber, Jill and Erica sang:

"Lord, as I seek Your guidance for the day, I find my thoughts unyielding, confusion crowds my way. But then, when I bow to You, the challenges You guide me through, Your promises are ever new, I claim them for today. Your will cannot lead me where Your grace cannot keep me, Your hand will protect me, I rest in Your care. Your eyes will watch over me, Your love will forgive me, and when I am faltering, I still will find you there."

As I sat there, tears streaming down my face, the words "your love will forgive me, and when I am faltering, I still will find you there" continually hit me. What a blessing to know that even though I fail continually and I feel like my footsteps in life are faltering right now, He still loves me, forgives me and will guide me through this time.

Thank you to those who've been praying for me. Thank you for your words of encouragement. As you continue to pray for me, you might also think of my poor husband. I've been so emotional these past few weeks. I feel like I've cried more days than I haven't cried and he has been so patient with me.

My Awesome Husband - Happy Birthday To You!

Little did I know that LONG before I was born God had already created my husband. Did I mention that it was LONG before I was born? :)

Mike is the perfect husband for me. He takes great care of me and sacrifices daily for us. He is not the type of guy that needs a 12 course meal every time we sit down to eat, which is good because I'm the type of girl who is great at Campbells soup, macaroni and cheese, hamburger helper, hot dogs, etc. I do occasionally made homemade pizza, enchiladas and other better options. I'm working on learning new things and finding better, healthier options, but Mike is totally content with whatever I feed him. When we were dating this was one of my biggest fears - that I would never be able to feed him like a "good wife" could. He told me that even if we had to live on Taco Bell, it would be fine. :)

Today is his birthday. We both have colds. I spent much of the afternoon trying to sleep off my cold. He has spent most of the day vegging on the couch trying to get over his cold. We didn't go out for supper. We didn't have eggs so I couldn't make brownies or a cake and he didn't want me to go out to get them. I didn't have any gifts for him to open tonight (though he did remind me that we got all the Sears clothes for him last week and that was his birthday present). In my mind, the birthday was a disaster.

But that isn't my husband. He is fine with not making a big deal about it. He had homemade pizza for supper and he was happy with it. He didn't need brownies or a cake (but he did let me make him some butterscotch pudding to make me feel better about the lack of cake). He is content. So, I guess I must force myself to be content with it as well.

In reality, Mike is perfect for me. Things that I stress out about are no big deal to him and he calms me down over them. He balances me in an amazing, only possible with God, way. No matter what the future holds for us, I'm thankful that God has allowed me to make the journey with Mike.

So, happy birthday, Michael. I love you.

My Awesome Wife

Well, I have hi-jacked the blog again. I love do this from time to time.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know that Sandra is so amazing. Currently, I am sick. Normally, she would try to wait on me hand and foot. But, like always, she knew exactly what to do. She recognized that what I needed most was sleep. So, she let me sleep and took care of my doggies.

Some may think that this is minor, but many would also recognize that what our bodies need most is sleep. God has designed our bodies to heal itself and when we sleep we are allowing our bodies to do just that.

So, Sandra, you are truly awesome. I love you.

Works of God Monday...ahem...Tuesday?

Well, I started this post yesterday but found that I really needed to concentrate and wasn't successful. So I figured I could finish it today.

A little background before I go into how God specifically showed Himself mighty to me this week...

While I do well most of the time with the whole adoption process/waiting/not having our own biological kids/etc, the last month or so has been hard for me. We had Mother's Day at church. While a day meant to celebrate motherhood is fine in and of itself, it just seemed like the whole world was celebrating the women who were able to have kids and if you don't have kids, you are a second-class citizen. It is on days like that when I have to remind myself that God is good all the time - even when I hurt because what I have wanted now has not been what God planned for us now. I know all the Christian canned sayings about how everything will work out, how God is in control, how He will bring the perfect child for us in the perfect timing. Unfortunately, in my carnal state, knowing those things doesn't take away the pain, frustration, longing, alone feeling and just general desire to get out of this stage of life.

This past week was especially difficult. We are coming up on vacation up north with my family in Michigan. All of my sisters and their families will be there. Since we started the adoption process, I have been praying that God would give us a baby before this vacation because I didn't want to have another year where Mike and I are the only one without kids. I wanted to be able to take our baby up for this week to spend with my sisters, parents, grandparents, etc. so they could meet him/her as well. With each day that draws closer to vacation, I ache as I know the likelihood of that happening decreases. I'm not discounting that God could still make it work... my nature is just to plan for the worst possible situation so that no matter what happens, the hurt will somehow be less.

So, this is where I was last week. I was frustrated with myself for my growing lack of belief and generally hurting over the whole situation. Believe it or not, I was having to fight the bitterness that I wouldn't be able to be a huge, pregnant woman with all the waddling, stretch marks, labor pains, birth story and everything else that comes with the process. Everyone else might dread it or think that it is just something you have to go through, but I ache for it. I ache for the entire process. I was fighting the hurt and bitterness, knowing that would not make me who I'm supposed to be. Then...

I saw God at work through a friend. I received a small package in the mail that included a card, a CD and a poem she wrote.

The CD was from our Sunday night service last week. Mike had to work and I wasn't feeling good, so we both missed the service. Pastor Monroe was preaching about Sarah's faith. We listened to the CD on the way to and from church on Sunday and the sermon was very good. I told Mike that I was glad I wasn't at church myself because I would probably have sat in the pew crying the whole time. I don't like to cry very often and certainly not in public, but when it comes to this topic, I don't always have the control I would like.

The card she sent was a huge encouragement and let me know that she understands and that she and her husband are praying for us.

The poem was incredible and talked about letting go of what we most want and then when our hands are empty they are available to hold God's hand. I can't really do it justice without posting it and since it isn't my work, I'm not going to post it. However, suffice it to say that she obviously understands where I am right now and opened up enough to show me something personal like that to be an encouragement to me. Since originally posting this, she has given me permission to share the poem with you, so if you would like, you can read it here.

So this week I'm choosing to see God in the act of a friend. I'm choosing to trust God that He does indeed know what is best for me. I'm seriously working on being content with where He has me (I say "seriously working" because this is an issue I have to continue to give back over to God).

While being thankful for this friend and for God not giving up on me, I'm also working to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit when He prompts me to do something for someone else. You never know when what you may view as a simple act can become a work of God in someone else's life.

Cereal, Anyone?

Okay, here is my week at you-know-where.

Some highlights:

12 Boxes of Cereal
12 Eclipse/Orbit Gum Packages
4 Coke 12-packs (which we needed for when Mike's Dad comes - it's on his list)
11 Dove Trial Deoderants
12 Cans of Nivea for Men Extreme Comfort Shave Gel
2 Dove Shampoo/Conditioner
12 Packages of Peppermints/Gum Balls/Candy Necklaces
4 Garnier Skin Care Face Scrub

Bandaids, Milk, Reese's (for Mike), Listerine, Oral-B Toothbrushes, Brut Deoderant, Cotton Swabs, Wart Remover and etc...

Bottom Line:
$334.16 Original Retail Value of Product
-$4.39 Out of Pocket (Okay, I know this one must have you confused...I ended up returning two items that didn't generate extra care bucks, and they gave me back $12.82 cash, so by the end of the week, I actually had more cash then I started with)
$31.89 Fewer Extra Care Bucks @ End of the Week Than At Beginning
So...cost was $27.50 for all of this stuff.

Now, normally I like to end the week with more extra care bucks than I started, however, this week allowed me to get some things we were going to need, without spending "real" money. Since most of those extra care bucks were earned by using coupons, I don't really feel like this week was a loss.

Things we needed (not just purchased because they ended up free or money makers):

$8.00 Coke we needed to get for Mike's Dad
$3.99 Milk
$5.99 Wart Remover

Plus, I figure I ended up paying less than 75 cents a box on Cheerios - something I eat every morning anyway. Finally, the 12 packages of Orbit/Eclipse Gum in 60 pieces each is huge. Mike and I both like to keep one of these always in our cars and they normally cost $3.50 each. I figured I got each one for less than $1.00.

So anyway, I'm happy with this week and stocking up on some of these things.

Thanks, All You

Last month I found out about a great little magazine called "All You" that you can purchase at Walmart for $1.77. Inside this magazine are tons of little coupons as well as some good articles. Last month this magazine helped me make a bunch of money because CVS had Adidas deoderant for $4.99 that was giving back $4.99 in extra care bucks. I think I bought 9 of these magazines and between my card and friends that I hooked up with coupons, those 9 free deoderant coupons turned out to be a build up of almost $45 in extra care bucks at CVS. There were also several other coupons in the magazine that helped with other deals I did as well. As I was going through the magazines, one of them had an "All You" survey in it that said I would be sent a $10.00 check for completing the survey. I did it and received the $10.00 check this week. Now I love their magazine even more. :)

Walgreens $5.00 off $20.00 Friday

On Friday there was a deal going on at Walgreens where you could use a $5.00 off your purchase of $20.00 or more coupon. So I did two transactions.

First Transaction: Two Dr. Scholls Gel Insoles and two Nivea for Men Shaving Products. Before Coupons and sales tax: $30.00. After coupons $18.75. Paid with my Walgreens gift card so $0 out of pocket. Then the printer spit out $15.00 towards my next purchase. So basically the end result was that I paid $3.75 for those items.

Second Transaction: 2 Dove Shampoos, 2 Dove Conditioners, 1 Walgreens 60 count calcium creamies, 1 multi-betic vitamins. Before coupons and sales tax: $31.98. After coupons $19.75. Paid with the $15.00 above and then $4.75 on my Walgreens gift card, so $0 out of pocket. The printer spit out $5.00 towards my next purchase (from the Dove). Also, the multi-betic vitamins and calcium creamies are free after rebate this month, so I'll be getting $17.58 back on my Walgreens gift card at the end of the month from this transaction. So basically the end result was that I made $2.83 to take these items.

Overall, 92 cent loss on my Walgreens card to take home all of this stuff this past week. Not bad since the shampoo and conditioner will never get old and will get used, I expect to sell some of the other stuff either on Ebay, Amazon or a garage sale for more than that, and all of it came for $0 out of pocket actual cash.

Finally, a deal that I did with Cascade and other cleaning stuff several weeks back became even better this week. You see, when I purchased the items, I was supposed to get $20.00 off coupons, but only one $10.00 spit out. When I talked to the Walgreens people about it, they gave me paperwork to send in to get the other $10.00 by mail (apparently there was something wrong with the printer). I sent in my receipt and the paperwork and they sent me $20.00 towards my next Walgreens purchase instead of $10.00!! So, Walgreens was good to me this week.

Publix $22.05 Turns Into Home Depot $25.00

Thanks again to Money Saving Mom for the tip about the Publix deal going on right now. If you buy $20.00 worth of select products (including those shown above), and then mail in the receipt and form, you receive a $25.00 gift card to Home Depot. YAY! Mike eats peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch on a regular basis and Mike's dad is coming for a week when we go on vacation and one of the things on his list of foods for the week was pudding. So, I was able to get 4 peanut butter jars and 5 pudding packages for $22.05. I mailed in the receipt and look forward to receiving our $25.00 home depot gift card. Mike is wanting to get a rake and I like to buy our kitchen garbage bags at Lowe's or Home Depot. We'll definitely use the card and the food. WHOHOO.

Happy Father's Day, Mike's Birthday, etc.

Sorry for the weird colors on the picture. Our camera battery needed recharging, so Mike took the picture with his cell phone. I think you can still get the point. :)

Thanks to MoneySavingMom.com for the tip off about the great deal at Sears going on now through Sunday night. The deal is that if you buy $100 worth of Dockers products, you mail in your receipts and get a $75 Shell gas card in return (limit of one per person, two per household).
We went to scope it out because Mike can always use new dress clothes and we called Mike's dad to find out what he needed so we can hook him up for Father's Day. The best part was that when we arrived there, we discovered many Dockers items were more than 50% off. Since Mike wears dress clothes every day for work, this was a needed boost to his dressy wardrobe.

We ended up doing three rounds of the deal - two rounds for Mike and one for his dad. We will submit two for our household and one for Mike's dad. We'll give him the clothes we got on his deal and he'll mail us the gas gift card when it comes. That works for all of us.

The first round we bought 5 dress shirts and 2 pairs of dress pants for Mike's dad and paid $112.28. The product at full retail was $254.98. Once we get the $75 in Shell gas card, the total cost to us for this was $37.28. Anytime I can get my father-in-law $255 worth of dress clothes for $37 is a happy time. He's a teacher and will definitely be able to use this gift.

The second round we bought 5 dress shirts and one pair of dress pants for Mike and paid $109.63. The product at full retail was $245.00. Once we get the $75 in Shell gas card, the total cost to us for this was $34.63. The one pair of dress pants alone would have been $55.00, so I'm happy.

The third round we bought 2 dress shirts, 2 dress pants and one new wallet for Mike (which I think he is the most excited about of everything, other than the fact that he could get all that stuff for his dad) and paid $117.66. The product at full retail was $226.00. Once we get the $75 in Shell gas card, the total cost to us for this was $42.66. This transaction included higher quality dress pants that were both originally $65.00 each.

All in all, a GREAT night. While we did have to pay more out of pocket than I'm used to with all my other great shopping deals, we know that we'll use the gas cards up quickly when they come and that will offset the gas part of the budget at that time. We covered Father's Day and Mike's birthday and mainly just saved us money down the road because Mike won't need new shirts or pants for a LONG time.

WHOHOO! Thanks, Sears!

Mike Joins the Blogging World

Mike decided to join the blogging world. He started a rottweiler blog to showcase our babies and to put up information on any rescue animals we come across who might need a new home. It is still very much in the beginning stages, but I've added a link under my links so that you can check it out anytime.

Down to 5 - DOUBLE WHOHOO!!!

Yes, last night we delivered Missy & Fritsy to their new owners! WHOHOO!!!! I'm super happy. It was such a relief to come home, take down the crate they were in and reclaim the space. I'm also enjoying not hearing their tiny annoying barks. I do wish them the best of luck in their new home - I'm just thrilled it isn't MY home.

Spoiled and Loving It

Oh yeah, I admit to being spoiled. My husband takes great care of me in every way. I can't imagine my life without him and I'm so thankful for who he is. He works hard at work every day and then comes home and has no problem with helping out at home. In fact, just last night I think he folded nearly every piece of clothing we own (okay, not quite, but there was quite a HUGE pile of folding built up since I had gotten a little behind on laundry).

Awhile back I was visiting a friend in Michigan and they had a laptop with wireless internet in the living room. We watched a movie while I emailed on that laptop. She pulled her laptop out and we were both online and watching a movie together at the same time. I loved it! I'm the type that can't just sit around and watch tv. I totally have to multi-task. So, I came home and began talking to Mike about how much I would love that. With wireless internet, I could sit in the living room with a laptop and get stuff done while he watches history channel, "How It Was Made" or some other such program that he enjoys but I don't so much. Plus, during the day, when I'm home working on Ebay or whatever, I can be in the living room hanging out with the dogs. Since we already have a laptop, all we had to do was get a wireless card and router and get it set up.

We had some difficulties getting everything configured, but my wonderful husband was able to get his technologically advanced co-worker to come over and help us. So, at this moment, I'm sitting on the couch with my feet up in the living room and working on the internet. WHOHOO!

Spoiled and loving it.

Down to 7 - WHOHOO

Who would have thought that I would be excited to be DOWN to seven dogs in the house? This little guy is a three month old pit bull puppy that we've had since Saturday evening. He is going to be a HUGE dog if he is only three months right now. Anyway, how he came into our temporary possession: we followed a policeman home on Saturday night and watched as he pulled behind and blocked off our new neighbor's vehicle. We've met her once. She was arrested that night for attempted vehicular homicide - she apparently tried to run over a lady on our street who owed her $40.00. This little guy was running loose at the time and she asked the policeman if Mike could keep him until she got out. We did have an extra kennel and ended up with him and several plastic bags of refridgerator stuff she was getting ready to move into the house. Tonight at around 10:20 p.m. the doorbell rang. It was two guys apparently related to her who had come to collect the dog and food. YAY!!!! He was a sweet little guy, but I was a little stressed about the growing number of animals in the house. For awhile I was thinking maybe it was a God thing that she asked us to watch the dog. I had planned to invite her to church when she came to retrieve him. I guess I'll just have to make a point to do that whenever/if ever she is released from jail and back across the street from us.

Pray though...we are meeting with a lady tomorrow after work who might take the Maltese. We didn't really want to split them up, but if it means a good home for each of them, we are willing to. We've had several calls on the Dachsund too, so hopefully he'll find his new home soon. I'll let you know when that happens. I'll be celebrating. My dogs don't bark. These little things do. :(

CVS Ideas for You

Okay, I thought I would give some of you a breakdown of a few of the CVS opportunities this week that I have already capitalized on. I'll be more specific for those of you who want to also give a try. Here goes:

Transaction 1:

2 Dawn Dish Detergent $2.00 Total
1 9 Large Rolls Charmin Ultra Soft $4.99 Total

2 Listerine Smart Rinse 250m, $6.98 Total

1 Brut Deoderant 2.5oz, $2.69 Total

Coupons:

-$0.25 Dawn Detergent Coupon

-$0.25 Charmin Coupon

- 2 $1.00 off Listerine Coupons

-1 $3.00 off a purchase over $15 CVS coupon (which thanks to Caroline I do have a PDF of it, so I can email it to you if you would like.
Used $10.98 in ECB's earned previously

Paid $0.37 Out of Pocket

Received:

$1.00 Dawn ECB

$6.98 Listerine ECB

$3.00 Brut ECB

Overall: Earned back exactly as many ECB's as spent (term is called rolled over - especially since one was going to expire today) paid $0.37 for all this stuff. Oh yeah, and I have $4.99 now towards the buy $20 of charmin and get $10 back. I will finish that deal later in the week and my ECB's will print out when the last item is paid taking me over $20.00 in charmin.

Okay, so this is seriously my favorite transaction of the week so far. Here is the breakdown:

1 Listerine Smart Rinse 250m, $3.49

2 CVS Plastic Bandaids, 40, $3.98 Total

1 Lifesaver Bin, $0.50 (filler)

2 Brut Deoderant, 2.5oz, $5.38

2 CVS Cotton Swabs 500, $6.38 Total

Coupons:

-$1.00 Listerine - can print online

-$3.00 off $15.00 CVS purchase

-$3.00 off $10.00 purchase CVS Brand (bandaids and Cotton swabs - these print out on the little coupon printer in the store. Just scan your card).

Used $12.36 in previously earned ECB's

Paid $0.37 Out of Pocket

Received:

$4.00 CVS Cotton Swabs ECB

$6.00 Brut ECB

$3.49 Listerine ECB

$3.98 CVS Bandaid ECB

Overall: Earned back $17.47 in ECB's to spend at next purchase (thereby gaining $5.11 in ECB's more than I had before this purchase). Because I paid $0.37 out of pocket, when you subtract that from the $5.11, you come up with an overall profit of $4.74 just for taking this stuff off their hands. The most exciting part is that this stuff is for my sister, Danelle, so I have more cool stuff to take to them free when we go to Michigan on vacation (only 26 days from now, but who is counting).

So, that is how I did. Maybe you can try one of these deals. The last one should be easy for anyone. You need a CVS card, the pdf to print off the $3.00 off $15.00 purchase coupon (let me know if you need it), the $3.00 off $10.00 coupon you get in store when you scan your card at the little coupon printer and a listerine coupon which you can find here: http://www.listerinekids.com/smart-rinse-coupon.jsp

Have fun!

Target Training

Yes, tonight I was able to do a little training at Target. Mike and I stopped after church. I had two coupons for $2.00 off ANY Schick disposable razors that expired tonight. We also happened to be needing bread. The Schick disposable razors in the trial size come two to a pack and cost $0.97. I grabbed two and headed for the bread. The bread only cost $1.19, so I suggested that we should probably grab two because if the cashier did accept the entire coupon, that way our total would be in the positive (negative totals tend to stress out cashiers and would probably have caused them to drop the coupon value to the cost of the item).

So we proceed to checkout, whereupon he scans the items and then I hand him the coupons. He scans the first one and it comes up with this message (item is not located) which basically says the coupon doesn't apply to anything I bought (which by the way, I have had all but 2 coupons have this message of my Target purchases this past week). I basically pointed out that the coupon does say $2.00 off ANY Schick disposable and they are disposable. He looks at the screen with a confused expression and starts looking around like he should call a manager and even puts his hand down on the radio. I choose that opportune moment to point out that the screen says K1 - accept anyway and that all he needs to do is verify that the item is indeed what the coupon is for and then push K1. He says, "Oh, okay, thanks!" and pushes K1. It goes through. He says "Cool!". He then scans the next one and pushes K1 almost with a flourish (you can just imagine him being so proud that he knows how). Then he announces my new total is 50 cents.

50 cents for 2 loaves of bread and 2 packages of disposable razors. I'll take it.

Maybe Target should cut me a check for helping to train their cashiers?

Giving Target A Try

After seeing free deals at Target on the Money Saving Mom website for a while, I decided to give in and give it a try. To tell you the truth, I have this impression of Target that everything is more expensive, so this was a step outside of my comfort zone.

Transaction 1. Bought two of the Perfect 10 Hair Coloring Kits and 7 of the samples. $30.72. Handed them 9 coupons. New Total $9.15 out of pocket. Received 2 $5.00 gift cards for next purchase. Net result -$0.85

Transaction 2. Two of the Perfect 10 Hair Coloring Kits and two Shout samples. $25.72. Handed them 4 coupons & 2 $5.00 gift cards. 94 cents out of pocket. Received 2 more $5.00 gift cards.

Transaction 3. Two of the Perfect 10 Hair Coloring Kits and two Tylenol samples. $25.72. Handed them 4 coupons and 2 $5.00 gift cards. 86 cents out of pocket. Received 2 more $5.00 gift cards.

End result: paid $10.95 out of pocket, got all of this stuff, ended up with $10.00 in gift cards for the next time around. Since I plan to use one of the hair coloring kits this weekend and since it normally costs $12.89, I consider this a big success.

Oh yeah...one more thing. Out of the 17 coupons I gave them, only 3 of them claimed to be correct. The first cashier challenged one, but when I pointed out that it qualified for what the coupon stated, she allowed every one after that to go through as it was (including some for $2.00 off a product that cost only 97 cents). The second cashier double checked each one, but found them all to be okay and let two $1.00 off coupons go through for a product that cost 97 cents. The third cashier told me that he had to adjust the coupons down to the 97 cents (thereby eliminating any overage), but that was okay. I just found it funny that each cashier handled things differently. Doesn't Target have any type of consistent policy on this? Interesting.