Works of God - Providing Through Friends

I have to praise God for MORE provision. Last night at church one friend gave us a booster seat that attaches to the table that will be great as Jonathan gets a little older and is ready to eat at the table. Then another friend gave us the next step car seat for Jonathan. It is in GREAT condition. We are super excited about both of these things for the little guy that God provided for us through friends. Thank you to our super cool friends. :)

Works of God - Providing $400 through 41 Monitors

Okay - this has been an amazing week for us. God provided for us through a Walgreens sale and 41 little pieces of paper.

You see, Walgreens was selling blood glucose monitors for $10.00. They were also giving $10.00 in Walgreens Register Rewards (basically Walgreens money) for each one. I managed to get my hands on 41 coupons that would make the monitors completely free. So, I would go into Walgreens, get a monitor, take it to the register and hand them the coupon. They would ring it through bringing the balance to $0. I would pay nothing. They would hand me the monitor, a receipt and a $10.00 Register Reward that I can spend on anything in the store (except cigarettes and alcohol, but I think I'm okay with that). :)

Here is the picture from my first day. I was excited because baby formula was on sale for $9.99. I always had to add filler to get to $10.00 in order to use the Register Reward they just gave me free. So, I added a .39 package of pudding and payed .38 cents using my Walgreens gift card to get a package of pudding and formula that will last Jonathan about a week.


This was from part way through the week. I used a few of the $10 Register Rewards to hook us up with some toilet paper as well as more formula and more pudding.

This was at the end today with the total of monitors gotten all week long - 41 (though two of them are missing because I already sold them on Amazon for a profit of approximately $9.00 each.

So the grand total came to 41 monitors procured during the course of the week. One of the Register Rewards didn't print, so I "only" got 40 of the $10.00 Register Rewards. For those of you doing math, that is $400.00 in Walgreens money. I'm down to about $250.00 now after stocking up on toilet paper and formula (of which I was able to pick up 11 cans and I think that will be enough to get me through to the end of Jonathan needing formula - WHOHOO).

In the next two weeks before they expire, I plan to stock up on non-perishables and other things that we may be needing in the near future.

I must thank my super awesome husband for being so great and going with me on two outings to round up as many as we could. He would be my driver on the route and if I needed him to come check out a few monitors, I would call him and he and Jonathan would come in and help with the checkout. I love having a husband who is super supportive.

Tonight I praise God for providing for us through "unconventional" means. We are working hard to be wise stewards and give Him all the glory for showing Himself as Jehovah Jireh - our God provides.

Venturing Out Again

Well, I thought I would attempt venturing out again into the un-password protected world of blogging. I have left comment moderation in effect, so I can still control content, but hopefully this will go more smoothly this time around.

Thanks for your patience with all the changes. :)

Jonathan's Finalization Hearing

I realized this morning that I had posted on Facebook about the finalization but not here. I am so glad we were warned that it would be short. The other family who was also finalizing that day had different expectations and I think they were a little in shock over how quickly everything was done. We got in there, were sworn in and within less than 10 minutes both finalizations were completed, including pictures with the judge. Yes, it is a little anti-climatic, but that really doesn't take away from the sweetness of the day and the reality that Jonathan is ours.

Julie came with us, which was AWESOME! She took video and pictures for us and that was great, but more than that, it was nice to share it with a friend. We went out to eat afterwards to celebrate and had a great time of fellowship. Since she has been there through all of my meltdowns in the past year, it was fitting that she could be there through this exciting moment.

It doesn't really feel that much different. In my heart I have been Jonathan's mommy since before we brought him home from the hospital. For the first seven months we were his parents in every way but the official document. Now that we have that signed, we just continue going on being his parents. The best part is the relief in knowing that nothing can change the fact that as long as God allows all of us to be here and a part of this world, we will do so together.

Thank you for all of your encouragement throughout this process. We are thankful for the friends who have been there for us all along.

I Never Knew

A year ago on this day I sat in the congregation crying and wishing that I had just stayed home. Growing up I had always planned on having biological children. I guess I just took it for granted that I would be able to have them. I certainly never pictured myself sitting in a church service crying over a day meant to honor women who all had what I didn't. Before the years of trying, hoping, believing I could be pregnant only to find out I wasn't, crying on Mike's shoulders month after month while working to keep myself from being bitter,

I never knew that the ache to have a child could be this strong.

Nine months ago we received the call from our adoption attorney that we had been matched with a birthmom due in January. Could it be true? Was someone actually willing to make that ultimate sacrifice of love and give us the opportunity, privilege and responsibility to rear her baby? We were on cloud nine. I was trying to be cautiously optimistic, but I admit that I was getting more and more excited by the day. Then on September 21st, I received the call from our adoption attorney. Our birthmom had had complications. Our baby was stillborn. She told that it was a girl. Later when I spoke to the birthmom she told me that she named the girl Angel. We wept. We ached. Friends consoled, people prayed, but the loss was still overwhelming. She was never a part of my body, but my heart already loved her.

I never knew that losing a baby would hurt this much.

On September 29th, our attorney called and asked if we would be willing to have our profile shown again. They had another birthmom and she was due in just about a month. We decided to have them show our profile. I thanked God at the time knowing that even if she didn't choose us, the HOPE that there could be another baby was very encouraging when before that call I really just wanted to lie in bed for 2 weeks and cry it out. She picked us. We had hope that we would have a baby of our own in just about a month. I was pessimistic. I was prepared that something would go wrong. I was nervous when we met her because I was sure she wouldn't like me. I was sure she would change her mind. She didn't. On October 17th, we got the phone call that she went to the hospital (10 days earlier than the scheduled C-section).

I never knew that the anticipation could be so intense and the waiting so nerve-wracking.

The birthmom's mother called Mike. She said "you have a beautiful baby boy." I cried. A lot. We told our family and friends. We named him Jonathan David. 48 hours began. They let us see him when he was just two hours old. He was tiny. We couldn't hold him since he was under the warmer. I rubbed him lightly with my finger. I cried. Again. We prayed that she wouldn't change her mind. We spent Saturday taking care of him in the nursery of the hospital and Sunday praying that he would truly be ours.I never knew that he would instantly change our lives forever.We took him home. We survived the middle-of-the-night feedings, the gag me 50 wipes needed gross diapers and the adjustments of being new parents. He ate, he slept, he filled his diapers. We took pictures upon pictures.

I never knew that I would love Mike even more once I saw him in the role of Daddy.

He grew. Little by little our baby was becoming a little boy. He started looking around intentionally. Then one day, he smiled. And again, and again and again he smiled. Now he giggles. He sees his Daddy and sometimes explodes in giggles.

I never knew the smile of my little one would light up my whole world and make even a bad day good.

As I sat in church this Mother's Day, I relished in the fact that I am now a Mommy. But as I sat there I began thinking of others. Having walked the road before, I prayed for any in that service who might be feeling as I did last year. I thought of a few friends who would have a rough day today and prayed for them. I thanked God for the gift of Jonathan David. I prayed that nothing will get in the way of the finalization that is scheduled for 16 days from today. I praise God for what He has done in and through us this past year. I praise Him for providing for us so we could pay adoption fees and I know that He will continue to provide for us until the day it is paid off. I thank God for friends who have been there and have been an amazing source of encouragement over the past few years.

I never knew that being a Mommy would be one of the best things in the world to happen to me.

Sad Day

You know how it is when you have a comfort piece of clothing - something you just love to hang out in on ANY day of the month because it feels good? I have two pair of black mesh shorts that have been comfort pieces of clothing for the last 10 years, literally. They travelled to Guam and back with me. They went on many hikes and many swimming adventures. They have lounged around the house for endless days and even been exercise apparel. I have slept countless nights in them. In the last few months I have noticed them having a few age issues. Their elastic seems to be dying. Today I came to the conclusion that it is time to lay them to rest forever. They just don't stay on like they should due to their elastic issues. So, it was with a sad heart that I sent them on to a better place - most likely a landfill. Happy Earth Day.

Jonathan's Finalization Hearing

I just saw the paralegal who is working on our case. We had to return to them a bunch of paperwork that we needed to have corrected so they could fix it and then we can go get it notarized. Among the errors we corrected were my age, the spelling of our last name, the city he was born in, the hospital he was born in, the date he was born and the date we brought him home. Seriously, they were having some issues when they typed up that one! As I was giving her the forms to fix, she emphasized that when we receive the corrected ones we need to get them back right away because she already scheduled the finalization and technically she isn't supposed to do that until the papers were signed.

Imagine long quiet pause. Then I clarified, "So you already scheduled the finalization?" She told me yes. I asked if we could know the date. So then she had to go back to her computer and shift through everything to find it for me. Now wouldn't you imagine that when you have news this big you would tell right away? I would say I was amazed that they hadn't called us as soon as it was scheduled, but...I'm not amazed. Let's just say that after the finalization, we will be celebrating not only having Jonathan, but also being done with that adoption attorney forever. So anyway...

Drumroll please... Jonathan's finalization hearing in which everything is official and unchangeable will be held on May 26th at 11:15 a.m. in Tampa, Florida. Until that date, we will continue to pray that God prevents any circumstance that would hinder or delay the finalization. We have been blessed to have this precious little man and cannot wait for the day when he is officially ours and no human being can take him away from us.

Our Total Money Makeover

Okay, so this is an advertisement. Or maybe it is a testimonial. Not sure, but it is information for you. :)

A few members of our family have recently started reading and following the Dave Ramsey book, Total Money Makeover. They found some success and suggested we go borrow the book from the library.

I like to think that I have a fairly good financial brain due to great teaching and leading by my mother as well as a great class in college by Mrs. Janke. Thankfully, Mike and I grew up in the same type of environment, so we have been likeminded on financial issues (which I know is a huge blessing). However, this book was kind of an eye-opener to me. We've lived on a budget before. We do work to keep our expenses down. Still the book and principles therein have really been a source of inspiration to us.

His entire theme (in fact it is watermarked on the bottom of every page of the book) is "Live like no one else so that one day you can live like no one else." He does also point out that it gives you the freedom to give, which should be a goal. His point is that you should count pennies, save in every area and work to accomplish a series of baby steps. You start with building a $1000 emergency fund. The goal is never to borrow on credit again, so the emergency fund is there so that when Murphy's Law comes along, you don't have to use a credit card to deal with it.

Once done with that baby step, you work to pay off all debt other than your mortgage and home equity line if it is more than half of your annual salary.

I get fuzzy on the next because we aren't done with the first two yet, but they include setting aside for retirement, college fund, paying off the mortgage and etc. There is also so much more, but you have to read the book to get the full effect and to avoid my misquoting anything.

Anyway, how this has helped us:

1. We have a goal. We have a plan. We are working on it together, so it becomes a bonding thing. We rejoice together over the slightest victory.
2. We are officially on a tight budget and watching where every penny goes right now. Little things that add up normally are not adding up because we are working to avoid them. It is exciting to see the potential to scrimp and make progress towards our baby step. One of our decisions was to ditch the cable television and save that money each month. That will save us time and money, so we are happy about that.
3. One of his statements was to sell things you have now that you don't really need, in an effort to get your debt paid off and not have that burden. He said you should be so aggressive about it that your kids start to wonder if they are going next. In that light, we've been putting stuff on Craigslist and Ebay and Amazon as well as planning a garage sale soon. We are using that money first to pay for our vacation and if there is any left over, to apply it to our debt. It is actually fun and exciting to get rid of stuff and see how it adds up quickly towards your goal.
4. We are using his envelope system successfully. I can testify that it is true that if you are scrimping and saving and then pay for your groceries in cash, you pay much more attention to what you are getting and the value thereof than you do when you put it on a credit or debit card. We set our grocery budget for the month. After receiving Mike's check, we took that amount out in cash and once that money is gone, we will have fun eating out of the pantry until his next check when we can re-fund the envelope.

I'm sure there will be many more posts regarding this in the future, but I hope it is an inspiration to you that if you need some guidance about money, or even if you think you don't, it is a good book to read.

Moving On

So, now that the drama (hopefully) is over related to my blog and those who can view it, it is time to move on with life. Thanks for your patience. I really do hate going the password protected route, but I just couldn't handle any more of her comments.

Reasons for the Change

Thanks for your patience as we had to change our blog URL. Two main things inspired this switch:

1. Jonathan's Adoption. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but I didn't like the fact that at one point you could put all three of our first names into a search engine and up would pop our blog, which just happened to have our last name. One more quick search and you could have our address. Once I realized that, I kept envisioning walking outside the house to find Jonathan's birth dad there to take him away. So...I was wanting a URL that didn't include our last name and that's why I'm asking that you not put our last name on your blog connected to this link. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

2. A bitter anti-adoption blogger ran across our blog back just before Jonathan was born and has sent us several messages as well as written several rude posts about us on her blog, stating that we stole another woman's baby, that whenever Jonathan cries it is because he is crying for his real mom and etc. Frankly, she has gotten my blood pressure up one too many times and the last one chose to link us on her post so that all of her other adoption hating friends could find our blog and share their own great comments. She also made the statement "hey, adopted kids are replaceable, right?" in relation to the pictures of Jonathan in his Bumbo. That one really sent me over the edge. And for the record, he is only in that on the counter when we are there next to him. He also does not yet have the strength to jump out of it, but if he did, again, we are there. She doesn't know us. She hasn't seen how we care for him and yet she has chosen to judge us. So, we decided to make the change to avoid more of all of that mess.

Thanks for your understanding and patience with our switch.

Oh yeah, one more thing. If you have a blog and don't see your blog listed on the right hand side under our friends, will you make sure to leave a comment so that I can link to your blog again? When we changed the URL it got rid of all my links to friends. Thanks!

Jehovah Jireh - God Does Provide

Lately I've been perhaps more attuned to God's provision in the small areas. Here are two exciting examples I've had recently...

1. Mike and I are trying to save to be able to go on vacation this summer up in Michigan with my family. The cost includes airfare as well as cabin rental. With things being tight everywhere in the economy, as well as having some recent hurdles pop up in front of us, we can't plan on money from regular income to do this. We considered not going this year, but really feel it is an important family time and we don't want to miss it. So, we've been praying that God will allow us to have extra income to cover that. We listed a bunch of stuff on Craiglist that we don't actually need. I've put a bunch of CVS & Walgreens freebies (things that I've gotten free or made money to take off their hands using coupons and etc) up on Amazon. We are planning that any extra hours that I end up working for my sister to put towards it as well since that is not normally planned into our budget. Well, in just the last three days, I've sold over 10 items on Amazon and some of them have been things that have been sitting there for months. WHOHOO! Praise the Lord for the extra provision towards this goal. It gives me hope that we can make it...He will provide.

2. Okay, you are probably going to find this ridiculous, but here goes. I LOVE using Skintimate shaving cream when shaving my legs because it feels better than soap, smells better than soap and works better than soap. I don't know why this little thing brings me so much pleasure, but it does. I HATE buying it when I know I could use soap that will last much longer for much cheaper. So, I haven't had any in several years. Well, you can imagine my delight when Money Saving Mom's website said that you could get it free after register rewards this week. WHOHOO WHOHOO!!! It wasn't advertised in my paper, so I was kind of nervous going through the first time. I paid for the purchase using my Walgreens gift card, so no money out of pocket. At the end, out popped $3.00 towards my next Walgreens purchase, making it free! WHOHOO. Two more times this week, I've been able to snag a bottle, so now I have one in my shower and two in reserve. Seriously, I cannot tell you how excited this makes me. So this week, I am also seeing Jehovah Jireh in a Walgreens deal that totally makes my week and gives me a joyful spirit. :)

You Have to Love It When

This past week, for the full retail price of these items at Walgreens (which I normally would NEVER pay)...


Instead, I was able to bring home this:

OH YEAH!!!! Thanks to Money Saving Mom for sharing about the deal in advance. Thanks to my husband, my friend Tina and my sister Barb for printing the internet coupons for me. Thanks to my friend, Julie, for hooking me up with the Walgreens Buy 1 Get 1 Free Coupons for Enfamil.

The great part is that my Walmart will always trade diapers for diapers without a receipt. They don't care where you bought the diapers in the first place...they will trade straight up value. So, the box of 100 #3 diapers came from trading in two packages of 35 too small for Jonathan diapers in for 100 diapers that he'll be in soon. I love their policy because as he outgrows each size, I just take all that I have left of that size in unopened packages and trade them in for the next size up. Love it! I also have enough wipes to last me forever, which is super great because I'm not the stingy on wipes type of person. I'm the open the diaper, throw your head back and gag, quick use as many wipes as necessary to get rid of all the gunk, type diaper changer. I've used up to 7 wipes on one diaper before. So...the fact that I scored six Mega packages this week really makes me happy. :)

"Reading My Book" While Mommy Cooks

Cool Outfit

Mommy loved this Spiderman/Marvel Heroes outfit that was passed along to us from some friends. She kept saying that she loved the "Underoos" style of the bottoms. So, she couldn't resist taking and posting this picture of me in my super cool outfit.

Lowry Park Zoo

Last week we went on an outing to Lowry Park Zoo with Julie and her kiddies and Nicole and her kiddies. Here are a few pictures from the day.

So Happy I Can't Stand It!!!

More Pictures of The Little Guy

Church Picnic

Well, apparently I only kept the camera out long enough to take three pictures, but here are three pictures of the Little family at the church picnic. They are super cool.

First Few Times of Cereal

Really, it isn't that my mommy has horrible aim that is the problem, but more that I like to flail around and in between bites I try to stick both my hands in my mouth. So, the end result is cereal everywhere. I've been getting better at it though and seem to like this new food source.

First Time Trying Out My Bumbo

One of my mommy's super great friends hooked me up with this Bumbo thing and tray table. I've been enjoying it lately and thought I would show you some pictures of my first time in it.