Featured Family- Give1Save1

*UPDATE* We were gifted $279.07 this week! What an incredible gift!! Thank you to everyone who donated!!

We are being featured on the Give1Save1 website this week!!

Beth is an adoptive mama who has a heart for helping others. She wants to help other adopting families raise money for their adoption journeys. She is blessing so many people. We really appreciate everything she is doing for our family and all the other featured families too! She features a different family each week. Check out her site and please consider signing up to donate $1 per week-this week is goes to us and everyother week it goes to another adoptive family. Every $1 really does help and its really appreciated.

http://www.give1save1.com/

Here's our story:
We are on the journey of following God's plans for our life by building our family through adoption. We are so excited to see how God continues to work in and through our lives!! We were married in 2006 and excited we became parents in 2011.

Adoption has been something that we both always dreamed about, but we were scared to take the first step to get started. The financial aspect of adoption is scary. It is expensive. But one day while eating lunch with some friends in Nov. 2009, our friends said her sister and brother-in-law have adopted 3 times. Brad and I at the same time said "How have they afforded it?" Our friend simply said "God has provided." That was the little push we needed to step out in faith and start the adoption process. We have been truly blessed along this journey, because we started the adoption process with just enough money for the homestudy and we were blessed with just what we needed when we needed it!! We are so thankful for all the people that have allowed God to use them to bless us!! Every penny of our first adoption was paid without a loan- Praise God!

On January 27, 2011 we received our referral for a 2 month old boy!! We were in love from the moment we saw his picture!! We were able to spend two months in Ethiopia between our court date and being cleared by the Embassy. We brought Jacob Jafar home on May 20, 2011. Adoption #2 has been in the process since April 2011. During our two months in Ethiopia we met so many older children that literally begged to be a part of our family, or really any family. We loved every minute with Jacob but we couldn’t stop spending time and loving on the older children. They tugged at our hearts every day. Before we even left Ethiopia we had already contacted our Family Coordinator at America World to see about starting the process again soon. We were told that we would need to wait until we are home with Jacob for six months to apply to AWAA again. But the week we were leaving Ethiopia to come home, the rules at AWAA changed-now we are able to fill out a concurrent family building plan which eliminated the six month wait. We felt the nudge from God to start the adoption process to adopt an older sibling group. Everything about this adoption is the opposite from last time. Our journey to Jacob was perfectly orchestrated by our Heavenly Father and we are so thankful that we have the opportunity to raise Jacob as our son. But this time we are leaving our request wide open. We are open to an older sibling group of 2 or 3 kids, healthy or special needs- including HIV+. So basically everything that scared us in our first adoption is in our request this time. God has a funny way of changing your hearts for awesome things to happen in life!
We are expecting this adoption to be over $50,000 and we have no idea how long the process will take. Sometimes families are matched with older children very quickly, but sometimes it still takes several months. We are so excited to be on this journey again. God taught us many things and changed our lives during our last journey, and we know this journey will be amazing and life changing too! Thank you to each one of you that is helping us become one step closer to bringing our children home!!!!

Ten Months Old

Jacob is 10 months old today! I can’t believe in 2 months we will celebrate his 1st birthday! I have already ordered a really cute cake for him and started planning the party, haha! Can you tell he is our only child right now?? We are really busy in the Fall, so I didn’t want to run out of time to plan something cute! This past month has been really exciting! Jacob has begun to crawl!!! He is all over the place. I was worried I would spend my time keeping him out of everything (and I do that sometimes) but he really enjoys getting to chase a ball or move from toy to toy, so I am loving that he can crawl to whatever he wants. He also has a total of 7 teeth now. He continues to love table food and eats well. He loves tomatoes from Gramma’s garden and really almost everything we give him. He continues to say “da da da da” for almost everything and also says “ball” when he sees a ball. He came to my tennis match the other day and he couldn’t say “ball” fast enough-there were too many of them! He makes different grunting noises for a cow, puppy, and lion. Very cute!! He continues to love going to the babysitters and playing with the other kids. I miss him while I am working and coaching, but I’m so thankful that he enjoys the sitters too.




visiting Mommy at a tennis match
a quick trip to the hospital
family day at the zoo

He can pull himself up in his crib now

he got a hold of the Bible and was chewing of the bookmark string

African Paper Bead Necklaces

These beautiful necklaces just arrived from Ethiopia!! A friend went to pick up her kids and was kind enough to go shopping for us! These paper bead necklaces are BEAUTIFUL!!!! Women in Africa make them from recycled magazines. The necklaces are available in solid colors (red, blue, purple, green) or some multi-colored. I LOVE mine- I have 8! I have collected them from different peoples fundraising, gotten them as gifts, and I got a few while I was in Ethiopia too. And they are all different. We are selling them for $15 each, plus $1.50- if needed.

Thank you for supporting our adoption!!!

Look Who is On the Move!

Jacob started crawling all over the place this week. For the past month he has been scooting backwards a little bit, then for the last week he would go forward one or two times then sit down, but on Wednesday he took off from room to room. He shrieks and laughs with every move he makes, too cute! I recorded him as he was headed for the dog food :)

Look at This Hair

This morning I brushed out his hair. Look how long its getting!! I'm thankful for products that keep it under control most of the time.

Re-Adoption Day

August 15, 2011 was Jacob's Re-Adoption Day in Illinois! It was such a quick and simple process. We met with our friends mom who works with a lawyer about a month before and filled out a few papers and then showed up to court on the 15th. Brad went up on the stand and answered a few questions. "Yes we love Jacob and really want him in our family. Yes we know he is forever part of our family and we will treat him the same as any other kids we might have in the future. Yes we will take care of him and have bonded with him." That was about it. I'm glad it was a courtroom that Jacob didn;t have to be quiet in because he "talked" the whole time. :)

Our adoption was final in Ethiopia, but it makes things simpler when they are readopted in your state and he will also have an Illinois birth certificate. And now his legal name is Jacob Jafar Mowen.

Survived Week 1

After almost 5 months home with Jacob, I returned to work this past week. I am so thankful for the 5 months we had together as a family before crazy life has started back up. Jacob started going to the babysitters for 2 hours a day the week before. This eased Jacob and mommy into the daycare thing :) He did great everyday and seems very comfortable with the sitter. This week he did great and started adjusting to her schedule easily. He doesn't want to eat the baby food that she tried the first few days, but now he is eating whatever the big kids eat. He is even napping on her schedule pretty well. On Thursday morning he reached for her from me-this almost made me cry. But then I decided I am thankful he likes her and is comfortable with her too. On Friday morning I handed Jacob to her and he reached back for me (this also made me thankful) :)
I am also coaching girls tennis at the high school, so I will be extra busy for the next 8 weeks. This season sure is different when I have a baby waiting for me at home (or at practice with me!) Tomorrow night we have an away tennis match so I won't get home until after Jacob is already in bed. This will be the first night I am not there to help put him to bed. Thankfully I have a wonderful husband who is extremely helpful and he is ready to step in when I am at work.
Overall everyone is adjusting to our new normal pretty well. I'm very thankful for that!!

Are You Crazy?

That is a question we have been asked ALOT the past month. As we have begun the adoption process again, most people think we are crazy. They really think we are crazy when they ask what our request will be and we answer, “We have gotten approved for 2-4 kids ages 0-15 with special needs”. With our last adoption we requested a healthy infant. We felt that was the right choice as we started our family and Jacob is perfect for our family. He brings joy to our lives daily!! But this time we are just saying YES to God as he is stretching us out of our comfort zone and we have COMPLETE peace about it. We are leaving our request wide open and trusting God and His perfect plan for our family.

We have also gotten the “How in the world are you going to afford another adoption? Are you crazy?” The simple answer is “we don’t know”. God provided for every penny we needed for Jacob’s adoption expenses. It was amazing that we didn’t need to take out a loan-AMAZING!!!! God used many people coming together to pray, donate, and to help fundraise to get every expense paid for. We are so thankful for all these amazing people that helped in every way to bring Jacob home! We are trusting God that He will help us raise the needed funds for this adoption too. We are also prepared to take out a loan at some point too.
Most people think it’s crazy to potentially go from 0-5 kids in less than 2 years. We think it’s exciting. People told us that we can’t afford a big family on two teacher’s salaries. We know there will be sacrifices to make, but we are willing to do it. This may mean that I can’t buy as much Stampin’ Up! stuff or the new Thirty-one bags (GASP! :) ) But we will be investing into our family instead-much more important. We live in a very materialistic world and we get sucked in ALL.THE.TIME. I am so guilty of that. There are people starving with the famine and drought in Africa right now, and we have enough food in our house to last all 3 of us at least a few months. Makes me sick, but it’s true. We will make sure that they are involved in activities and sports. But I'm sure there will be some sacrifices at times. We also believe that the important things in life are teaching our kids about God and His love for us and others. By having a large family we will be teaching our kids about compassion, sharing, loving, helping, caring, teaching them about priorities and most importantly to love Jesus and love LIKE Jesus.

As we were talking about how it might affect our children if they aren’t involved in everything, I came across another adoptive mama’s blog with this verse, James 2:5 “Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him?” It’s just another reminder to invest in our children’s lives, not the material things. We are trying to live our lives like Christ and say YES to Him! This is not to say that we are going to be so poor our kids go without, I’m sure our kids will be plenty spoiled! But we know there will be sacrifices from time to time.

We have received many comments about how adopting older children is too hard and they will have too many problems. We know that there will be additional hurdles with adopting older children, but it’s not the kids fault. It's true they have experienced more trauma in their little lives that I ever will. We have been reading books and talking to other families and we know that God is the Ultimate Healer and we will help our children through anything they need. We know the road is difficult, but with God on our side we are willing.
We have also heard that its crazy to be open to children with special needs. Someone actually told us “that will ruin your life”. What???? Special needs children are just that-special! Beautifully and wonderfully created by our Heavenly Father. Special needs children need loving families too! We are again trusting God with this part of the journey. He knows better than we do! So thankful for that!!

"We care for orphans not because we are rescuers...we care for orphans because we are rescued." - David Platt

God doesn't pick out His children based on who is going to have an easy road in their faith. He picks all of us, because He loves all of us. We are ALL His children. So we aren't scared away from whatever issues our kids might have, but we are in daily prayer- praying that we will be equipped to help them heal.

We are so thankful God chose adoption to build our family. We are blessed by it every day! We are the lucky that we are living this journey every day! God is so faithful and we are trying to be faithful and obedient too.

Adoptive Families for Famine Relief

I'm sure many of you have heard about the famine that is happening in the horn of Africa right now. It's so devastating to see pictures and to hear about it. But too many times we stop there. It's sad, but we don't do anything. Several adoptive parents have gotten together and created a blog-thanks Brandy- that gives information of ways you can help AND as a thank you from many of us, you could get a gift with your donation. The gifts are on a first come, first serve basis. This is just for tomorrow, August 11th.
All of have children from Ethiopia or will have children from Ethiopia. It breaks my heart to know that some of J's birth family could possibly be suffering right now. This is Jacob's home country and for that reason it will be a part of our family-FOREVER!

Let's be the hands and feet of Jesus. Here's the website:

http://adoptivefamiliesforfaminerelief.weebly.com/

9 Months Old!

I can’t believe Jacob is 9 months old already! He is growing so much! He only eats table food now-he spits if I try to sneak some baby food in. He has begun to drink out of a straw, he prefers that to a sippy cup. He has started to pull himself up a little and is thinking about crawling, but he doesn’t quite have that. He will start at the babysitters next week, so I’m thinking once he sees some of the other kids up moving around he might be a little more motivated to get moving. I am not quite sure if I am ready to be on constant look-out for where he is and what he is getting into. But I won't have a choice soon! He continues to stick everything into his mouth as fast as he can. He gets really excited when our cat comes into the room. He has a different voice he uses to babble to the cat- It’s really cute! Just 2 days ago, he started to say "dadadadadadadada"
The biggest change J has made this past month is that he is sleeping through the night!!!!! This is mama is so happy and well rested!! I am so thankful that Jacob is comfortable and knows that we are meeting his needs. He usually goes to bed around 8:30pm and wakes up around 7:30am. So thankful!
We have our 3 month post-placement visit this week-I can't believe it's only been 3 months that we have been home with Jacob. It feels like he has always been here with us. We are hunbled by the blessings he brings to us!

A Trip to IKEA with the Murray Family

In the last post I talked about our visit with Katie and Scott Murray and family. On Friday afternoon we spent about 3 hours at IKEA. We all had so much fun!! Here are some pictures of our afternoon:
Jacob and Sam in the stroller-we got asked MANY times if they were twins
Amelia and her doll trying out a bookshelf
Brad and Mac being silly

Scotty sitting on a toliet

Mac trying out the toliet too

Mac wanted a ride in the stroller too

Friends...from Ethiopia to Illinois

We are so thankful for the relationships we have made on this journey. While in Ethiopia we met the Murray’s. They adopted a little boy about 2 months older than Jacob. We are so glad they only live about 3 hours away and we are able to continue our friendship! We spent the last couple of days with them. We love the Murray Family and had a blast with them. I only took 87 pictures in the 2 days we spent together. Here’s some pictures from our visit:

Here are the boys in April in Ethiopia at the Transition Home

Here are the boys in July 2011

All the Murray Kids with Jacob, these kids are so sweet and well behaved, even Spicy Mac is a joy to be around!
Katie and Tara with their ET boys!

The crazy mamas taking lots of pictures

Amelia is so sweet, such a tender caring heart. She is a great big sister and will be a great mom someday. She told me that she wants to adopt a baby from Ethiopia and she wants it to be her first baby like us-so sweet!

The boys playing with the new water toy

The dads with their ET boys

Buddies for life

They love eachother!

We spent a couple of hours at IKEA in the afternoon, but we took so many pictures I will make the next post about our fun there!

Then the Murray and Mowen families headed to the airport to meet the Snyder’s at the airport as they were coming home from Ethiopia with their 5 year-old daughter. But on the way to the airport we got a message that they delayed the flight due to bad weather in NY. So we went to eat dinner then started to the airport again, only to get another message that the flight had been canceled and they had to stay the night in NY. We were so bummed. We were all ready with our poster, Ethiopian and American flags and some very excited kids. Thankfully the Snyders flew in the next night, but we were unable to welcome them home at the airport. Lucky for us-they live close, so we will see them soon!

We met the Snyders a couple weeks before we went to Ethiopia and we have seen them a couple times since we have been home from Ethiopia. They only live 45 mins away from us. We are so thankful for their friendship too! Their 5 year-old daughter became very special to us. When we spent 2 months in Ethiopia we spent 5 weeks visiting the Transition Home every day then 3 more weeks of visiting several times a week. Aliya would run up to us every day and greet us with a hug and killer smile!! We can’t wait to see her grow up!