THE face!

Zoë  has been making this adorable face for the past week and I finally got it on camera! She is so cute! 

When she is making this face she blows in and out of her 

nose and it's just so funny!

Love this girl. 

Fun Friday- Sidewalk Chalk Paint

We have been having a blast checking things off of our Summer List . Today we decided to get messy in the back yard with some homemade Sidewalk Chalk Paint. This was super easy, cheap, and lot's of fun!

Instead of making it with food coloring my husband had the awesome idea to use Kool Aid packets and it turned out great! Evelyn loved that it smelled good and it made fun colors!

What You Need

2 Tablespoons Cornstarch

2 Tablespoons water

1/2 packet of Kool Aid or 5 drops food coloring

(I made one of these recipes for each bowl/color we had)

Fruits of the Spirit

"But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives:

 love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, and self-control. 

There is no law against these things! " 

Galatians 5:22-23

Photo by my hubby

When I got married they told us that marriage brings out sin that you never knew you struggled with. WOW was that an understatement. 

However, 

Being a mom I am seeing that having children is

a whole new ball game...

When I witness my own sin being mirrored in my 

sweet little daughter, it's very eye opening. 

The first time I realized how closely she was watching me was when I noticed she was pointing her finger at me when she would talk back at me. I didn't even realize I did this until a friend said "you know where shes gets that from don't you?" 

Yeah, that would be ME.

Little eyes are watching my every action and every attitude. 

When I am not walking in the spirit it is clear in my life but also in the actions of my little ones. When I feel stressed and frustrated. When I snap at my husband. When I feel overwhelmed. When I get angry. It doesn't only effect me. My sin overflows into the life of my children. 

It's easy for me to just stop here and feel discouraged. Feel like there nothing that I can do about it so I should just give up before I even try. Well it's true I can't do it. I can't muster up the strength to be "Super Mommy" BUT I do know where to find this kind of fruit. 

    “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you,

 you will bear much fruit;

apart from me you can do nothing." 

John 15:5

Well Said

I always knew I wanted to adopt BUT I thought that International adoption just wasn't for me. I had my well versed reasons about the needs we have here in the United States and what not but really I was just scared. God tore those walls down and I am glad He did.

So, what reasons do you have and is God bigger than those reasons?

Beyond Words

This morning we found out that an Anonymous Donor has stepped up and is paying for one of our trips to Uganda. All I can say is Praise God. We feel totally overwhelmed with Gods provision through others. 


The night before I was literally sitting on the couch "crunching" the numbers and talking with Josh about how much we had, how much we needed, and what we could do to fill that gap. That evening I had written an e-mail to my friend Shelly from SixtyFeet who is helping to coordinate the trip in Sept to ask advice on booking the tickets from Phoenix to Atlanta. She wrote me back a couple of ideas and asked if I had gotten word about someone paying for one of our trips.... umm no, she must be talking about someone else.... I went and looked back at the invoice we received for my portion of the plane tickets and it said $0...  WOW... 

³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, 

and all these things will be given to you as well. 

Matthew 6:33

Happy Birthday To The Love Of My Life

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband. 

I am truly blessed to have an amazing husband who loves God and who is passionate for truth. He loves our family with a selflessness that I am so thankful for. 

Josh, 

I pray that this year God grows you even closer in your relationship with Him. God has given you a passion and I pray He continues to direct you as you lead our family towards the path He has laid out for us. You are my best friend and I thank God for the heart He has put inside you. I love you. 

Toddler Tuesday- fishing for colors activity

To start getting into a groove before I have get to start Home Schooling, I have started doing "school" with Evelyn during Zoë's morning nap time. I have been taking a topic and expanding on it throughout the week. This week is colors and here's the activity that Evelyn has been having fun doing this week. 

Fishing for Colors 

I cut out fish shapes from various colors of construction paper.
I then 'laminated' them with clear packing tape and put a paper clip on the edge. 

I took a small dowel rod (got a pack from Walmart for .97) and tied some string on one end and secured with hot glue. Then I took 2 small round magnets and hot glued them together with the other end of the string in between. 

This activity is great because they can practice identifying colors and helps develop good eye hand coordination. I ask Evelyn to tell me what color she pulls out and read the letters that spell the colors name. 


Do you have any great pre-school aged resources that you get activities and ideas from? 

Adoption Update

I haven't posted about our adoption in a while....

Here's an update of what we have done so far...

1. We sent in our fingerprint cards and CPS Clearance form to the state at the end of April. 
2. We completed our home study meetings at the end of April.
3. We applied for our passports in the beginning of May. 

Here's where we are at as of today....

1. We are still waiting on our clearances from the state, apparently, the court sends them in batches and ours was part of a large batch, sent out on May 6, so it’s taking longer to come in. 
2. Our social worker is almost finished writing our Home Study and will be ready to send in when the above clearances comes through.
3. We got our passports!!!

We are waiting and it feels like things are going S L O W ... but that's OK because God is in control of this crazy ride and His timing is best... We are praying that our clearances come in soon and that there are no problems that may hold them up... like the chick at the finger print place saying my fingerprints are "worn down" and I may have to do it again! Well I don't know how that is possible but praying they will go through fine anyways.

We do have an exciting announcement (that some may already know)....

 *God willing* both Josh and I are going to Uganda in September!  (WOW,That's like 3 months away!)

We are going on SixtyFeet's first ever Mission Trip! We are so excited to go and serve! We desire for God to use us in the name of the gospel and to be poured into by others we will meet who love Jesus. During this trip we want to love and minister to the children that SixtyFeet serves in the multiple remand homes (best described as prisons) throughout the country. We want to learn more about and experience the beautiful country that our future children are from and hope to build relationships that God may use to bring us to them in the future.   

God has provided through friends, family, strangers, and even my husband wrecking his car a couple months ago.... what could have been seen as a total set back in our finances proved to be a blessing. We received a settlement and instead of purchasing a replacement car at this time we are making due with having one car and using those funds to help pay for a portion of our trip. 

   

So... We are still working on trusting on the Lord and His provision. He has provided for us each step so far and we know He will continue. I have plans to open an Etsy store soon with items for sale to help us with our adoption expenses. I am hoping for any crafty friends and family to come along side and help make items to sell... wink, wink...

Also, I hope to type up our adoption costs so far and post it here in hopes it may help others who feel God's tugging to adopt get an idea of what to expect.

Summer Fun Friday

It's definitely summer here in the Valley of death The Sun. 

I have lived in Arizona all my life and I still can not get use to it being 110. Please don't give me "it's a dry heat", it's just too hot!


Don't get me wrong though... I am excited for the summer and here's how I am making it awesome! I stole borrowed this idea from a fellow blogger that I have followed for the past few years. (here's her post)  It helps give the summer months a fun focus. I had a lot of fun making it and Evelyn helped too. This will definitely be even more fun when both the girls get older and they can help more. 

Click picture to view larger

Some of the activities on the list I am sure we will do multiple times throughout the summer. I put this on a large piece of paper right on my pantry door. It's easy to see and a great encouragement to do something new and fun everyday! Go ahead make a list for your family too!  

Children of God

We are saints


We are the children


We've been redeemed


We've been forgiven


We are the sons and the daughters of our God!

Some say that they could never adopt because they don't believe they can love an adopted child the same as their biological children.... Isn't that exactly what God did for us? He adopted us as His own when we hated Him. Thank you Father for adopting me in despite of me, may I in grace go and love with Your love. 

Wordless Wednesday

Toddler Tuesday- fun breakfasts

So I decided I would start making up themes to some of the days of the week to help with blog post inspiration. Feel free to laugh at the silly titles. Since I am the mother of a toddler I thought I could share ideas and thoughts I have on this season I am in (and will hopefully be in for a while).

So first here's an easy idea I had to help make Evelyn's breakfast fun and special. She loved it. 

Since I know I like to hear what others make for meals to give me ideas....Here's a quick list of ideas (and recipes) for easy (and healthy) breakfasts that this toddler has approved. 

• Scrambled Eggs and whole wheat toast (with ketchup of coarse)
• Blueberry whole wheat pancakes and 100% maple syrup (freeze well)
• Yogurt, whole wheat toast and fresh fruit
• Fruit and yogurt smoothie (add a handful of fresh spinach, doesn't change the taste!)
• Omelet with spinach, tomato, and cheese (she picks out the tomatoes sometimes)
• Whole wheat french toast with 100% maple syrup
• Whole wheat crepes stuffed with berries and vanilla yogurt
• Plain oatmeal with frozen blueberries, sweetened with honey or syrup 

We usually have some kind of fresh fruit every morning and a glass of Orange Juice too.

Any ideas your toddlers love to eat, please share!