Avoidance

Sometimes it seems that avoidance is better than facing problems head on.  Not that blogging is a problem, but time just slipped away so fast it seemed that whenever I would think about blogging about our life or how we are doing in the adoption process, I would think, no one really pays attention anyway or I'm just going to give up on this blogging thing and not worry about it.  I know, it was the wrong way of thinking, but hey, you have to start somewhere.  So, I am starting again.  I am going to do my bestest (I  know it's not a word, but I  like the way it sounds when you say it :D) to blog on a regular basis...again.  So much time has passed and so many things have gone on since I last blogged, that I will not do a catch post right now.  I will do catch up blogs over the next few weeks.  For right now, this will have to do.  Thanks for reading! =D

Way too long!

Wow! It's been way too long since I last blogged...and this adoption process....!! :p  I think part of the reason is because I've been pretty discouraged about the whole process.  Waiting...waiting...paperwork...

paperwork...deadlines...deadlines... having to get our home study updated ($400 later).

I thought we had some paperwork (marriage and birth certificates) expiring this month, but in  emailing with our Family Coordinator, I am encouraged once again! She informed me that they are good for up to 5 years.  In the paperwork process, you have to have new marriage and birth certificates, not the ones you got from the hospital.  I thought they were expiring this month because they were going to be a year old.  We have a little more time to get our paperwork off and we are almost there!

We were told in the beginning of this process that it's easy to get caught up in the process and feel discouraged with it all.  It's easy to forget the end result...a child!!  Hopefully, we'll get our paperwork sent off in January or February.

In family life, we are all doing well. Charis was baptized and Caleb had the privilege of baptizing her, that was such a sweet moment.

Adoption Fund raising

Today, we have been working on adoption fund raising.  We've applied to different grant agencies.  We heard back from one agency called Lifesong.  If funds are available they give applicants interest free loans.  Funds were unavailable for us to receive a loan, but they are helping us out with fund raising.  We are in the process of applying for more grants, but all grants are not guaranteed. We have put together a letter (with the help of Lifesong) that we will be sending out through the mail for help with our adoption.  We have attached it here on our blog.

Lifesong reference letter

Our support letter

We have attached a PayPal link set up through Lifesong where funds can be given to help with our adoption fund raising.

All you have to do is click on the yellow donate button below.  Then when you get to the Lifesong site, scroll down and click again on the yellow donate button.  It will take you to the PayPal donation page.

Under 'purpose' you will enter 'preference Kelley, Caleb/#1384 adoption' and then enter the amount you wish to donate.



Please help us get the word out by posting this for us on your blog posts or Facebook accounts.  Just click on the link below to re post it.  Thank you for your help!

My birthday

I have the most wonderful husband and daughter in the world! This is the best birthday I've had in a long time.  I think the reason why it was so good was because I had no elevated expectations for the day.  I would love to sit here and describe my whole day, but I also want to add pictures.  I will describe my day in short sentences instead.

-Slept in.
-Ate breakfast @ Cracker Barrel with friends.
-Went to the pool w/same friends.
-Soaked up the sun and played Spades (Caleb and I won this game) at the pool.
-Went to my second 5K.
-Ran it in 42 minutes - took 2 minutes longer than the first one.
-Ran it @ 6pm - the weather was hot and humid - harder to run in hot and humid weather (my sister Jody      would have loved running in this type of weather - strange!  I love you, Jody!).  It probably didn't help by spending most of the time in the sun before running either!=
-Ate an ENTIRE funnel cake by MYSELF.  Yes, I did feel pretty sick afterward, but loved every minute of it!
-Went to our friends house (the ones we spent time with earlier) after the 5K.
-Walked into a small surprise party with cake and ice cream.
-Didn't eat cake and ice cream since I had just eaten an ENTIRE funnel cake by MYSELF.
-Will be able to eat the leftover cake on Father's Day.  Will be spending time with our friends again.
-Played Spades (our friends won this game) again.
-Got home around 11pm.
-Posting this @ 3:48AM.  Couldn't sleep.  Too much funnel cake...??

Two white boys having a 'serious' discussion

SO GLAD THE END IS NEAR!

Yes, she did eat this all by herself!

Yes, I cried.  It's what I do.

Didn't realize my shirt still had wet spots on it from pouring water on myself while running.  It was hot!

Couldn't enjoy the cake since I had just eaten a funnel cake.  I did enjoy watching everyone else enjoy the cake and ice cream.

Charis' salvation

Charis accepted Christ as her Saviour on Tuesday, May 4!  Caleb had the privilege to lead her to the Lord.  I am so thankful that God allowed him to do it.  We have been praying for her salvation and also praying that one of us would be able to do it.  I am so glad that Caleb was the one that had the opportunity.


Here is their conversation:

I started off our conversation with telling Charis about my day at the A29 conference.  I explained to her that I learned how to be a better daddy.  Then I went into detail about how I sinned against her by being too controlling.  I told her that God is sovereign and in control of everything including her.  So I don't have to be a controlling daddy.  I just needed to trust Jesus more.  She forgave me for sinning against her, and we cried a little.  Then I asked her if she was a sinner.  She said she was so then we talked more specifically about her sins.  Then we talked about how Jesus is her rescuer and died on the cross to forgive her from her sins.  I also told her that Jesus was a better daddy then me and anything that I do that looks like I'm a good daddy, its because its Jesus doing it through me.  And when I do something that is sin, like being controlling, that is really me.  She said that she wanted Jesus to forgive her from her sin and become a Jesus follower.  So we talked more about what it means to be a Jesus follower.  We talked about what it would look like for her at age 6 to be a fully devoted follower of Christ.  She was so excited and asked if she could be a Jesus follower.  So I explained that she would need to ask Jesus for forgiveness of her sin and accept his free gift.  Then Jesus could be her rescuer.  So she asked me if I could pray for her.  I told her that this was a prayer that she would have to do by herself.  So she prayed "Jesus please forgive me for my sin and rescue me, I want to be a Jesus follower.  Amen".  I have not experienced so much joy in my entire life!  We cried for a while together and talked about what it means to be a fully devoted follower of Christ.  We then went upstairs and told Tracy what had happened.  Then later we discussed what baptism and communion were and that she would be able to participate in them both.  She was very excited.  So all day she was so excited to tell her friends one by one that Jesus saved her!  



Besides the birth of Charis, that was probably the best day ever!  They were both pretty emotional when they came upstairs to tell me what had happened.  To see the joy and peace on her face was something that I will never forget.  I am so thankful that God gave Caleb the opportunity to lead her to Christ and for us to witness the transformation.



We were out driving around doing errands that same day and a song came on the radio that talked about being forgiven.  Charis said, 'That's what I am!'  I asked her what she was talking about to get a feel of if she knew what the song was talking about.  She said, 'I'm forgiven!'.


II Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come[!!].

$7,700

Upon submission of our dossier (the paperwork that will go to Ethiopia) we will have $7,700 in fees to pay.  All the fees are broken down into 5 different payments:

The 2nd program fee of $2000
Translation fee of $800
Post Placement Deposit of $1000
Courier fee of $800
First Half of the International Program Fee $3750

Chump change!  HA!

We are in the process of filling out two different grant applications.  Please pray that we will be able to receive some sort of grant money through these different organizations.

My first 5K experience

Today, I ran in my first 5K.  It was a great experience and I am so glad that I was able to do it.  It was a great day for running because it wasn't too cold.  It was overcast and drizzling which wasn't a big deal.  We all thought there was going to be a downpour from what we saw online and heard from other people.

I was up at 5:55am cause my ride was coming around 6:15am.  I don't eat or shower before I run.  I have noticed that if I eat before I run I get cramps--yes, I got cramps today, but I'll talk about that a little later.  The race started at 7:50am.  We got up early to make sure we got a good parking spot.  There was a total of 8 women in the group that I ran with.  There were 567 people in the 5K.  I was so excited but nervous about this 5K.  I had never done anything like this and didn't know what to expect.  There were a few women in the group who had done a 5K in the past so I gleaned as much knowledge from them as I could.  But, as we all know, until you actually do something yourself, you really can't experience something through someone else.

As soon as I started running, the cramps started. =(  I was so bummed, but I kept running anyway.  I ran through the 1st mile with the cramps and then walked a little through the 2nd mile.  Toward the last half of the second I ran again, trying a breathing technique that was working a little.  My cramps subsided a little.  I had to walk again a little bit into the third mile.  I knew that I wanted to finish running the 5K no matter how bad the cramps got and that's exactly what I did.  What was really cool, was there were people along the route that were cheering everyone on and that definitely helped to motivate me.

I think I siked (sp?) myself out way too much for this because that was the one thing I worried about was those stupid cramps.  And guess what? I got them.  I probably worried too much about that and not wanting to walk at all, but just run the entire thing.  I have run 3 miles in the past and knew I could do it.  But it was the day of the big race and of course, I let my mind take over instead of relaxing.  I have noticed that I have good and bad days when I run.  I ran on Thursday and felt great!  Too bad it couldn't have translated to today.

I know this was my very first 5K and I have been extremely hard on myself today.  I'm just discouraged because I wanted to do better than I did.  At least I finished and didn't give up despite the cramps.

My results for the 5K are 40:03 so that's 12:55 a mile.  I finished 482 out of the 567 runners.  Seeing the results made me even more disappointed.  I was the last in our group of 8 women to cross the finish line.  I am going to continue running and do another 5K.  I've got to prove to myself that I can do a 5K and run the entire thing and hopefully in less time.  I have only been running for 2 months so I hope within the next couple of months my body will continue to get stronger and I will have more endurance for maybe one more mile??

I know I shouldn't be so discouraged since this was my first 5K and I only started running 2 months ago.  I won't let this discouragement stop me though.  I now have a goal to work toward now, run in less time.  If I had let the cramps I started getting about a month ago stop me, I definitely wouldn't have accomplished what I did today.  I didn't give up, I just kept going.  I will keep doing that now.  I will keep running.