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.