ALL children are a blessing from the Lord!!!

Snooze or Lose

Snooze or Lose

Using Time In Instead of Time Out

Homework in the summer? Whoever heard of such a thing?

Homework in the summer? Whoever heard of such a thing? Well this summer that is exactly what Nick & I are doing. We just started our third week of "homework" to be able to train & mentor other families in parenting children that come from hard places. The neat thing about this training is we're finding it is beneficial for all children & parents: biological, foster or adopted. This training comes from Empowered to Connect by Dr. Karyn Purvis and the staff at TCU institute of child development. You might have heard of her book, "The Connected Child." Along with information from Dr. Karyn Purvis' work we're also reading many other great books on fostering, adopting and parenting. As we go through our "homework" we're finding we would've loved to have had this information available to us years ago. We're very passionate about helping other families and look forward to what God has in store with using this material and our open hearts to reach more families for Him and encourage them as they parent. After this week we will have 5 more weeks of "homework" then we will travel to New Jersey for three days of training with the other families that are also doing "homework" this summer. Looking forward to meeting more people that have the same passion we do. Please keep us in your prayers as this requires quite a bit of time to complete. Please pray especially for my hubby as he works long days, then comes home to try to juggle time with us and do his "homework." We want to be faithful in what God has called us to do. Thank you!

God's grace is enough!

So thankful for summertime! For me that means home during the day instead of working at the school and more time with my loves. With currently four kiddos in the house ranging from 11-17 years old I am realizing more and more how quickly time does pass. This summer has been different with the older ones working more and I'm finding it hard to plan activities where we can all be at them together. During this new journey of life, God continues to amaze me on how sufficient His grace is. He has given me a perspective on this new journey to enjoy each moment even more with whoever is able to be there with me. Sometimes it's all four kids and sometimes it's just my youngest tagging along with momma for the day. When I use to think about these days coming I would feel sad or overwhelmed because of everyone not being together. God, however has open my heart to realize that His grace is enough. His grace is enough when all my loves are home and His grace is enough when one day all my loves are somewhere else. So thankful I do not walk this journey alone. Would love to hear from other families that have gone through this journey or are currently walking this journey and how God's grace is enough in your lives.

Men's Prayer Breakfast Tomorrow

Nick will be speaking tomorrow morning, May 14th at the Olivesburg United Methodist Church in Ashland, Ohio for their men's prayer breakfast. The breakfast starts at 7:30am. He will be sharing from his heart and God's Word about our foster and adoption ministry. I encourage you men to come out and support Nick and enjoy a delicious breakfast while fellowshipping with other men. 

Two kiddos I never met

I keep thinking about two kiddos that I've never met. That might sound weird but let me explain why. This past weekend I received a call about two children that needed a foster home. With the ages of the children I was unable to take them as a placement because of my job working at the school. At that time we had two weeks of school left and that is quite a lot of time to try to find a sitter for such short notice. Ever since then I keep thinking about them and wondering what home they went to, and how they are doing.  I know we can't say "yes" to every placement phone call we get, and that it's ok to say "no." However, it doesn't make it any easier knowing once again there are children without a home and loving parents to take care of them. Breaks my heart!!! It's also with mixed emotions I write that I look forward to who God has for our family to help next through foster care and/or adoption. I don't look forward to more children being abused, neglected, etc... However, since I know those things unfortunately happen, I look forward to possibly being the home that gets to take those precious children in and tell them how incredibly special they are and how much they are loved not only by us but by their Creator. Will you join us in praying for these precious children? Please pray that not only our hearts but others would be open to opening their homes and hearts up to being the hands and feet of Jesus to these dear souls. How can we expect this world to get better or these children to hear about Jesus if we don't tell them?