A New Day

OK, I am over yesterday and my horrible self sadness. It's a new day. If they want this house de-cluttered, then today I work on that Gathering all yard sale items, and get ready for painting. I will have my yard sale next weekend, and will have my paint fest within a week or so after that. This house will sell. God will provide that and remove the barriers! I know he will. I may even clean the carpets with a machine? Anyhow, until later. Love ya, Sarah

rough day

I am having the roughest day yet!! I hate this. I hate waiting. I know that we officially haven't started the adoption process yet, but in my heart, mind, and soul we have. We have a son waiting on us. I hate it, because we haven't sold our home yet, I don't know how this will affect our adoption paperwork, if we have a home study completed and then move. I don't have the full amount of money yet, I am nervous, worried, stressed, etc. You get the point I'm sure. Why is this all coming out now you ask? Well, our home was showed a few days ago, and then again last night, to the same person who saw it earlier in the week. This person bought the house right across the street that has only been for sale for about a week. I know I don't have a right to complain, I have been blessed so greatly already, and I shouldn't or should I say don't have the right to rush God in his ultimate plan. I know that this home will sell when the Lord wants it to sell. I trust that God will make this home sell before August when we plan on getting our home study. I have to trust that, because by the second week of July we will have a thousand dollars for this adoption. God has provided about 950 dollars already, and we have only been in this for a couple of weeks. I am blessed, and I need to hold onto the promise that God has given. I am not patient, and I should be, I don't have the right not to be. I am so sorry to unload on all of you. I will post again real soon, so that people don't have to continue to read my sob story. Its rude, and I am sorry:( Love always, Sarah

Just a quickie

Just a quick note to ask for prayer. Someone saw the house last night, and wants to come back on Thursday. I am so excited. Also, I was talking to a friend, and she has a friend who is on the police department who took has a degree in French and may be willing to do our translations way cheaper than any quote yet! I am waiting to hear back on that. Please pray that the person who is going to look at our home again, can come in, feel comfortable, and at home, like it should be their home. I will update as I know more! Love, Sarah

Application

Well, I mailed out our application today. I am so excited. I know that this is just one step closer to getting my boy home. I cannot wait for the day to post his cute little picture and announce to the world "HE'S OURS!!!!!" It is just a matter of time now. I will hopefully have my first 1000 dollars, by the first part of July, we will then have a pool party in the middle of July, a Tupperware party in Aug, Pictures in Sept, and a Spaghetti dinner in Sept or Oct. I am waiting for our challenges to roll in. I have only sent out about 1/2 and will get the rest out in a week or so. I hope to have the next 1000 dollars paid by the end of Aug and the last 1000 paid by the end of Oct as well as our dossier packet, along with the first half of the Haitian filing fee's. Then boys and girls we wait! Ohhhh this will be perhaps the longest wait of my life, but I know in the end, God will have done amazing work and had amazing timing!

well on our way!

God is being so good to us, why? not because we deserve it! We sent out letters to family and friends asking for them to take part in our a challenge. That challenge was to donate $50 toward our bringing home our baby boy. I called a friend who automatically said, "If you can wait until the first week of July, I pledge..." and said the amount. I almost started crying. You see, I know that this child is my boy. I know his name, and money is always a leading factor with everything we do. I had just talked to Gail, one of the ladies involved with the Orphanage, and she said that the minimum she could take to the board is 1000 of the 3000 dollars required by the Orphanage. We at that point only had about 200 of the 1000. So when our friend pledged this much, I knew only a little bit more. God was already working!!!!! Then my daughters wanted to help out with raising money. They wanted to sell something. I wasn't sure what or for how much, so we decided on candy bars. They have sold $50 worth. God is using the hearts of people that my children are knocking on doors of to help! How Awesome! God is great, and is truly blessing us! I am so humbled by the hearts of so many. Thank you to all who are helping and praying home our Isaiah Daniel James Olson.

HELP

I need your help.......

I am recycling aluminum cans, if anyone would be willing to save their cans for us, I would greatly appreciate it. Just contact me as soon as you have some you want to get rid of.

I also am trying to find a room that I could use to host a babysitting fundraiser with Kristina to fund our adoptions. This would be a Friday night, or Saturday during the day. If anyone knows of a place we could use, PLEASE let me know. I have called around, our church says no, and most other places are costly.

Pray Pray Pray that Satan wont get a hold of this family. We are doing the Lords will, and I don't want us to fall under attack. Pray for the upcoming fundraisers, that the Lord would provide all we need financially for this adoption. Our son will come home!

Also, if anyone is interested in doing a yard sale with me and splitting the cost of advertising, I would also appreciate that. I have a bundle of clothes, but nothing much more than that.

IT"S OFFICIAL

~No, we didn't sell our house yet, but we will! What is official is the fact that we are for sure 100% going to adopt from Haiti! We will start to try and save money, and work toward taking care of the home study, fingerprinting, and all the paper work. Do we have a child picked out???? Not officially, but in my heart we do. We will try and raise some money, save some money, beg and borrow some money:) so that by this fall we can make a commitment to this beautiful baby boy. Currently we are trying to ask anyone we know to save their aluminum cans for us. I know this won't bring in a whole lot of money, but some is far better than none! I know the money will come from somewhere. God has a plan and being that we spent all we had for the 2 girls, we will have to completely rely on God's blessings. In addition to saving cans, I have a few other ideas in the works to try and earn money. I will keep everyone posted as we get closer. Right now, we have about $25 of the $15,000 we need. I know this doesn't seem like a very big dent, but I have great peace about this. I know that my God will provide, because we are following his will for our lives! Until I post again, please pray with me that my efforts at coming up with a ton of money will take off like wild flowers!

FAITH

I really Love these quotes!

Your faithfulness makes you trustworthy to God.
Edwin Louis Cole


Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
Martin Luther King, Jr.


Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
Saint Augustine

CRAZY UPDATE

Ok, I was supposed to go pick up Brittany, but before doing so, I called a friend who was working the camp. I had her go talk to Brittany before I came to make sure this is truly what she wanted. It is always easy for her to get really emotional when she talks to us, so I wanted an outsiders opinion. My friend called back and said that she was ok and would be staying the night, but wanted us to come in the morning. I agreed. I am really glad she is staying. Tonight Brittany is doing a dance routine that she has learned. They will also be having movie night, and a talk about creation. I don't want her to miss out on all she is learning. Don't get me wrong, I was looking forward to seeing her tonight, but I can now rest assure that she is OK! Now onto the house situation. I got a call from the realtor shortly after getting back home and blogging the previous post. She asked if we had given her a key and continued to say that it wasn't in the lock box. We did give her a key. Anyhow, the realtor didn't get to show it. About 15 min later, our realtor called back and said that the person still wanted to see our house and was 15 min away. Wanted us to leave the door unlocked. I don't know if this is true with anyone else, but the girls had already been in the car for just over and hour and when we got home, the house goes from clean to clutter in about 10 min flat! Needless to say I started to sweat, throwing pillow's and blankets back on beds, putting away riding toys, and taking out stinky trash because we all know what happens in diapers! Put the kids and dogs back in the car and off we went! WOW, I am so tired now.
draft

Early Exit

Well, today Tim and I both got a phone call from Brittany. She wants to come home. At first, I was like no, she needs to stay, but then I realized that this has probably been very hard for her as she has never been away this long. It will only be less than a day early that she leaves, and at this rate, she will be able to spend time with us before having to leave for her dads house for the weekend. I miss her just as bad, so this isn't such a bad deal after all! As silly as this sounds though, I told her that she had to stay until after dinner tonight, it was expensive for her to go, and at least she will only be missing 2 meals instead of three! Silly I know, but its the penny pincher in me. Haven't heard anything from the realtor, so no update there. Will post again soon!

PRAYER REQUEST

Please Pray!!!!!! Tim and I got a phone call from our realtor stating that another realtor wanted to show our home. This will be the fifth time since we started this on our own, and the first time since we listed with a realtor 3 weeks ago. Please pray that we can get everything clean and tip top shape!!! Tim has to work tomorrow so we have started cleaning tonight, but then it will be just me and the 3 youngest kids and the dogs!!! Pray I have patience and time to get everything finished. Most importantly, pray that this is the family the I have been praying to buy our home. I will keep you all informed, as I find out info, I will post it. Thanks so much!!!!!!!

FAST weekend!

Well, I don't really know what to say. It has been an eventful weekend. My oldest daughter if off to camp. We dropped her off Sunday. It is hard to say good bye, and even harder when your child is looking at you with tears in her eyes, trying her best to say "I'll see ya later" and not cry in front of others. My heart aches for her. She has never been away from us for a whole week. 3 nights is her max at ever being away. Once we got back in town, we went to watch a close friends 2 sons get baptized. I was so proud of them! I love these boys as if they were my own. They are 19 and 14 years old. They are a couple of the boys I have mentioned that are in the Christian Rap group. No my Sunday doesn't stop there. My husband and I have had a broken relationship with some friends who we dearly love. After several hours of trying to get a hold of them as our first attempt to repair what has been broken, we succeeded. We weren't sure what we were going to say or if they were open, but guess what? They listened! How awesome is our GOD!!!!!! I would love things to get back to the way they were before, but I am not so sure they can or will. This is something I will be praying for and would love any of you out there to be praying for it as well. I guess for now, no adoption news, we are still in limbo. It is so hard to not start the process! I am not good at waiting! I love children and want a house full!!!

Fears

I just read another blog, and it made me stop to think. I realized that through reading this blog entry, that fear holds me back from what I sometimes feel the Lord would have me do. I will proceed to state some of my fears as a way to start the change. This isn't easy for me, I don't like for people to see my fears, or hurts. I hide behind a wall so that no one knows how I truly feel. Here it goes:

I would love to go on a missions trip, but am afraid to fly.

I am afraid of loosing my children in largely populated areas, therefor sometimes avoiding certain places.

I love people, but don't open up much because like many relationships that have failed, I am afraid of being hurt.

I am afraid that my husband will go astray again.

I am afraid of terminal illnesses.

I don't often offer to host small groups at my house for fear it would be to small and people would be uncomfortable in a small place.

Well that is a start. I have many fears. I hate it. I just go on living life away from what I fear. I know this isn't healthy. I pray that someday I can learn to accept the my God is in control and has my best interest in mind. Here we go again, but out of fear I must say this. Please don't think I am crazy or anything. I sometimes am afraid to share because I have been told in the past that I share to much!

do i have this figured out?

We are still waiting to sell our home! I have been thinking as to why it is taking so long, ok, (I know that it has only been just over 2 weeks, but I never claimed to be a patient person.) I think in my mind at least I have it all figured out:). Just kidding. I know that we have been praying for the house to sell, but the truth is, I have found a house that I really want. I am going to choose to believe that the Lord is preparing the hearts of the seller of the home I want to accept our low ball offer;), and this is why we have to wait. I know that the Lord is working on something very great for us, I just don't do well with having to wait. I dream of the day we can start the process to start another adoption, and the day we can have small group meetings in our house, host middle school activities, and young life. I know that through the Lord, all things are possible, even the idea of us getting the house we want. I believe that he will provide exactly what we need, and that what is on our hearts is what is from Him! Soon, very soon I hope to post SOLD and then SOLD again to announce our moving to a bigger home that will better accommodate what our hearts desire is! Keep the prayers moving up!