Fun in the Sun

Sucking on some ice. I think Abram looks a lot like his big sister, Delilah, in this picture below. Very fun!Going for a ride in the car through the sprinkler!

Little Visitors

We had some little visitors stay with us over the weekend.

Here are Klaire and Ava Landham helping me make breakfast. And little Lorelai playing in the water/car.

Their parents were here, too, but somehow I did not get any pictures of them. Thanks for coming to stay with us Jackson, Sheryl, Klaire, Ava and Lorelai!

For Tia Leti

We miss you Tia Leti!

These pictures are nothing special, just what the little monkey has been doing this morning.

Please tell Delilah, Christyan, Momma Amber and Mimo hello. We love you all so much!

Now is an Incredibly Amazing Time to Adopt from C Country in Africa!

Since Jason and I decided to move forward with this second adoption, there are many things we have learned that compel us to share why right now is an incredibly amazing time to adopt orphans from C Country. (We are not giving the name of the country to protect adoptions from this country. Countries have shut down adoptions because of blog posts that were misinterpreted. We are just playing it safe. Contact me and I would be happy to tell you the country.) Please keep in mind the information we are providing is what MLJ Adoptions is currently experiencing and with any international adoption process, the process can change and there are no guarantees.

- About a year ago, Sonja Brown from MLJ Adoptions, started researching a new Africa adoption program for MLJ. This past October Sonja and her colleagues went to C Country to talk to government officials about adopting from C. They also toured orphanages and interviewed their foreign staff.

- Of the 10 million people living in the capital city of C, there are 4.5 million orphans. Of the 4.5 million orphaned children in the capital, 90-95% are abandoned on the streets with no histories available. These numbers are staggerring.

- The officials told MLJ Adoptions, "You are the solution to our problem." The government wants the orphans to grow up with families and not in orphanages, so they are very willing to assist in finding these children homes. So many governments are NOT WILLING to allow their orphans to be adopted.

- Adopting from C takes about 9-11 months. An incredibly SHORT waiting time for any adoption, much less an international adoption.

- The US government changed the adoption tax credit this past spring to also include a tax refund. The government will now give you $13,170 PER CHILD as part of your tax return the year after you finalize an adoption. WHEN IN THE WORLD HAS IT EVER BEEN POSSIBLE TO GET THIS MUCH MONEY BACK TO HELP PAY FOR THE COST OF AN ADOPTION???

Never.

- If you take the federal tax credit into consideration, it is quite possibly cheaper to adopt TWO orphans from C instead of one. The cost to adopt one child from MLJ is $26,000-$30,000. The cost to adopt two kids is around $38,000-44,000. So, say you adopt two kids. When you file your taxes the year after your kids arrive, the government will give you $26,340 ($13,170 per child). Again, WHEN IN THE WORLD HAS IT EVER BEEN POSSIBLE TO GET THIS MUCH MONEY BACK TO HELP PAY FOR THE COST OF AN ADOPTION???

You would end up paying around $11,660-17,660 for two kids. Not even considering the grants that are available, that is E-X-T-R-E-M-E-L-Y. affordable for adoption. EX-TREME-LY! We are talking $5,830-8,830 per child! If you adopt one child, you would end up paying around $12,830-16,830, after the adoption tax credit, which is still VERY reasonable. Imagine if you were crazy enough to adopt three kids?! The cost would be $50,000-63,000. BUT, you would get back $39,510 from the US government, leaving you with the final out-of-pocket expense of $10,124-24,124.

- Did I mention adopting from C takes only 9-11 months? Not only is this a very short time for you to have to wait emotionally, but it is very significant financially. You cannot get the adoption tax credit/refund back from the government until you have finalized your adoption. In our case with our first adoption we had to wait 6 months after Abram came home with us to finalize. This is very typical. Sometimes you have to wait more than six months. Waiting this long to finalize could bring you close to the end of December 2011 when the incredible tax credit/refund is set to expire (there is a chance it could be extended, but there is no way to know at this point). (Your adoption has to be finalized by December 2011 to qualify for the tax credit/refund.) B U T . . . C Coutnry adoptions are finalized the day your child(ren) arrive in the US. HELLO!?!?!? That means if you start now, you are nearly guaranteed to get the adoption tax credit/refund back. And it means many families have the opportunity to start the process several months down the road and still get the $13,170 per child.

- We asked Sonja what she thought if more families were interested in adopting from C. She said would take as many as apply. She told us her personal mission in life is to place as many orphans in homes as possible. She said if she gets too overloaded she will just hire someone else to help her. (In case it is not already clear, we feel like we struck gold by finding MLJ and Sonja!)
I guess what all of this boils down to is this:

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" (James 1:27).

There is an orphan crisis in C Country. The C Country government is very cooperative. The US government is giving back large chunks of money to help families pay for adoptions. With MLJ and the federal adoption tax credit it is likely cheaper to adopt two instead of one. MLJ and Sonja are incredibly wonderful to work with and are willing to take many, many more families.

There, my friends, is the window of incredible opportunity for us to make an eternal investment.
Will it be all wonderful and glorious when these beautiful kids come into our homes? Nope. Not at all. The transition will be hard. Horribly hard. Perhaps excruciatingly hard. These kids have rarely, if ever, had anyone to love them and care for their every need. It could be hard for them to get used to your love and care. You won't be able to spend time with other people for awhile because you will need to help the kids bond with you. You might not leave your house for awhile. They will speak French. You will speak English. It will take money to raise them. Just the normal day-in and day-out parenting will be tough. Bringing more kids into your family will mean sacrificing things you like to do.

But, in five years from now, or ten years from now, or in eternity, will you regret displaying God's love to the least of these on earth and sparing an orphan's life?

That is what it comes down to for Jason and me. It is not going to be easy or comfortable. We may not see our friends for awhile. We have a smaller house. We don't even have a vehicle right now that fits four young kids and an adult. But the God who created the universe, as well as these orphaned children in His image, made it clear to us that we need to take this step of obedience and faith. And through Jesus, we have the capacity to love, sacrifice and care for three more kids. We are depending on Him.

(I am working on a list of questions and answers about the adoption process that I hope to post soon. Until then, please feel free to contact me if you are interested, have questions, or want more info. Jason and I would love to talk with you!)

Six Kids and Jen in a Bathroom

Once upon a time there were six kids and an adult named Jen in a downstairs bathroom for 20 minutes because a tornado siren was going off!!

The kids were troopers. Brady was holding down the toilet. Mya and Sydney were having fun on the counter.Abram and Callen were toddling around.

And Greysen had his paci, so life was good for him.

That was the story of this past Friday. I was watching all six kids at my sister's house. The two littlest boys were upstairs sleeping and the rest of us were downstairs playing when sky got very dark and the siren in Huxley went off. I freaked out for a moment, called Jason, hung up with Jason, raced upstairs with Brady so he and I could each get a sleeping boy and herded everyone into the bathroom downstairs!

I found out by phone about 10 minutes later that they had the siren on for the strong winds. This makes no sense in my mind. If I hear a siren when the sky looked like it did, I think the tornado is about to hit us! Oh well, I was definitely glad to be more safe than sorry. We stayed in the bathroom another ten minutes until Jason gave us the clear.

It makes for a funny story now!

After lunch and while the little boys were sleeping again, I let the older kids make a tent with furniture and blankets (again, another fun thing I remember doing as a kid).

Cute girls being silly.

Sydney brought her dress-up clothes into the tent and put them on. My mom made this (and matching one of course) for Kate and I for our towns centennial celebration many moons ago.

Just have to show off more of Kate's work. She painted these sticks on her basement wall. There is usually something sitting in front of it (but it was being used for the tent!).

Slumber Party

We had another slumber party on Saturday night (since it was Mark & Kate's 11th anniversary!).

We took all five kids to the pool. I didn't get many good pics since Jason and I were trying to keep track of five kids at the pool!

This is Abram's idea of fun at the pool . . . walking around. I think he had more fun playing in the rocks than in the water. Brady had lots of fun.

Two tired boys in the back of the car.

Two tired boys eating dinner when we got home.

After the little boys went to bed, we played Chinese Checkers. Kate and I grew up playing this game. In fact, the board we have is the same one from when Kate and I were young. Jason and the kids had never played. Hopefully this is the start of a new tradition!

How We Ended Up Deciding to Adopt Three Kids from Africa

Below is the timeline of what happened. It is a story only God could write so I feel like I need to write out the details so we can remember what God did. (And if there is one thing you should know about me by now it is that I only know how to deal with details!)

January 2010 After the Haiti earthquake Jason was motivated to research to see if we could adopt Haitian orphans. We did not fit their requirements. He began researching where the most orphans in the world are. Of course they are in Africa. Eithiopia has the most, followed by Nigeria and then C Country. For each country he Googled adoption agencies and then the country. Many agencies came up for Ethiopia. None for Nigeria. The only thing that came up for C Country was a blog post which mentioned the only agency in the US doing adoptions from C Country, MLJ Adoptions, based in Indianapolis, IN.

{Let me be clear that we were not looking for adoption opportunities at this point. But, since we began our first adoption journey we have both desired to adopt - at some point - a sibling group from overseas who were orphaned. But we both figured it would be several years down the road because international adoptions take so long and are so expensive.}

Jason immediately checked out the agency, MLJ Adoptions, and loved what he saw. They were doing adoptions from C in 6-8 months. That appealed to us. I wrote the C program director (Sonja) that Saturday afternoon with a few questions and heard back from her within 3-4 hours (on a Saturday night!). By Sunday morning we were friends with her on Facebook and able to see pictures of some of the kids in C Country from the orphanages they are working with. The promptness of her responses, in addition to what we learned about the agency from their website gave us the hunch that this was an awesome agency. So, we began considering this possibility. (Which means that I started to get excited right away!)

February After we crunched the numbers, we realized that it was just going to be too expensive. The government would give us a $13,170 tax credit (per child) over five years, but since we just adopted Abram, our tax money was being used for that adoption tax credit. There is no way we would ever pay enough in taxes to get back the $13,170 per child in the five-year window.

March We updated our homestudy and started the process of waiting for an infant from Iowa through Avalon Center (the agency who did our first home study.)

April Jason found out that with the passing of the new Health Care Reform Bill, the government changed the adoption tax credit. The $13,170 was now FULLY REFUNDABLE (PER CHILD) the year after you finalize your adoption. This means the amount you get back is no longer dependent on how much money you paid in taxes. And there is no more 5-year window. The government will literally give you a check for $13,170 after you file your taxes the year after you finalize your adoption. If you adopt two kids, you will get $26,340 back. THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE!! And UNPRECENDENTED in the history of our country!! However, this new adoption tax refund is set to expire at the end of 2011 (it could be renewed, but there is no way of knowing if it will or not).

May I called our tax accountant (Chris Hicks) to make sure this new adoption tax refund is truly for real. It seriously seemed too good to be true. He confirmed that it is, indeed, for real.

Due to some other circumstances, Jason decided that we should not do the C Country adoption but stick with adopting an infant from Iowa. I was disappointed, but trusted God and my husband that they knew what was best for our family. It was not easy because the next several weeks I couldn't get the picture of two African kids riding in the back seat of my car with Abram out of my head. But I kept hanging onto this verse from Isaiah 30:15, "This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: 'In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength'."

June 9th I organized an Adoption Info Meeting at Cornerstone to let people know about the new adoption tax credit (because it is so amazing!) and to give a list of recommended agencies, MLJ being one of ten or so on the list. Jason helped me lead the meeting. We both talked a lot about the very unique window of opportunity there is for adopting from C right now (more on that later). We went home from the meeting and talked until after midnight. During that discussion God made it crystal clear to Jason that we should obey Him now and adopt two kids from C Country. I could hardly believe what I was hearing my husband say!

During and since our discussion that Wednesday, Jason mentioned a few times, "I wonder if we could adopt three." I didn't think it was possible, so I didn't think too much about it. After a conference call with Sonja from MLJ, we found out it is possible to adopt three kids. After praying about it, we decided on three. The day after I totally freaked out and thought there was no way I could do it. But after a couple more days, God made it clear to me that yes, we could do it. It won't be easy, but by God's grace, we can do it.

I mailed in our application, contract and initial payment on Tuesday. Yesterday (Friday) I got the next 3-4 steps from Sonja. They are almost completed!

Because of the enormous number of orphans in C Country (more on that in the next post), we get to choose what ages and genders of kids we want. (They will not be siblings. Because of the staggering number of abandoned kids there is no way to know if they are siblings or not.) Here is what we are choosing. Drumroll please . . .

5 year old boy
3 year old girl
0-2 year old either gender

Initially, we wanted all very young kids. But, I was concerned about ending up with three 18 month olds or something like that. So, we threw out the idea of older kids. We thought about getting a 6-7 year old boy (close to Brady's age) but I didn't want to have to think about school so soon. So we landed on a five year old boy.

We are in for the ride of our lives!

But, we are not in this ride by ourselves. There is one other couple from our church who have also just started the process to adopt two kids. A second couple is very close to starting the process (and would also adopt two) and several families are thinking about it.

God is moving!

An Adoption Twist x 3

I'm not feeling very creative, but I don't want to wait any longer, so I'm going to cut to the chase:

We are no longer adopting an infant from Iowa.

WE ARE ADOPTING THREE KIDS FROM C---- IN AFRICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THREE. That was not a typo.

Yes, we are we out of our minds.

But God has made it very clear this is his will for us so we are going for it. And trusting Him for all that lies ahead.

And we are incredibly excited!!

(Of course there will be more details to come.)

Main Level Renovation

When you walk into our house, here is how it looked BEFORE:And here is how it looks NOW:Before, with all white walls:

Now, with 'high-speed steel' (name of paint color) walls:

I absolutely LOVE the dark grey color. It just makes it all look so different and better.

Another BEFORE:

And AFTER:

I got the outdoor lanterns at Kmart. A different kitchen table (probably black) is on the wish list.I got this shelf at Ikea about a year ago for $20. It was grey and I painted it black. I don't have much cabinet space (and we have a renter who uses some of that cabinet space for her food) so this shelf helps a ton with storage.

This is what our living room looked like some time back. I move furniture a lot so this is not exactly how it was right before the remodelling, but it gives you the idea.Here it is now:Since we needed our office room for another kids room, I made my office in this little cubby space (and Jason's is now downstairs). I love it! We weren't planning on painting the living room/my office space, but the other color we painted it turned out to be too close to the dark grey. So, I found this silver color called 'pewter luster' at Lowes. It is a great contrast to the dark grey and it lightens up the room.

For a long time I have wanted Kate to draw something on one of my walls. She drew the branches on this wall and I painted them (with the same dark grey color as the kitchen).

Here is a picture of our living area before (several months ago, actually):

And now (not the same view of the room, but it gives a better feel for the room):We got this great furniture on Craigslist for an awesome price several months ago. Found the rug at TJ Maxx. I am quite happy to finally have matching furniture!

This may be my favorite thing in my house right now . . . the hanging lantern (thanks, Allie for giving me the lantern for my birthday!). And thanks Hobby Lobby for the cheap hook. I love that from any point in my kitchen I can turn around and see outside. And there is so much more light in the house now that it is open.

It really does feel like we have a new house!

Basement Renovation

We are finally finished (shy of two cabinet doors) with our house remodeling/redecorating projects. This is the view of the area to the right as you come down the stairs BEFORE:And now AFTER:Not bad for using the same old hand-me-down couch and not buying anything new for the space (except black spray paint to paint picture frames).

Here is the living room downstairs as you look to the left from the stairs BEFORE:

And AFTER (sorry for the horrendous glare).Here is the bench about a month ago. This bench was a super garage sale find for $12 about 10 years ago. It had been built into a kitchen as a breakfast-nook-bench. The best part about it is that the lids lifts up! Because it was built-in, though, it didn't have a back or solid bottom. But, my brother put those in for me so I could make it a toy box. After sanding and black enamel paint, here it is now. It looks good and it is very functional - you can't beat that! My sister drew the branches on the rectangles above the bench and I painted the branches. (The rectangles are repurposed placemat/trays I got as a gift from a Thai friend years ago.) The branches are a hint of what is painted on one of my walls upstairs (to be posted soon). The pillow cases I got in Thailand when I lived there over ten years ago.This was part of the downstairs BEFORE:(Inside were storage cabinets.)

And here it is now! There is a glare (because I'm not a photographer), but you still get the picture (and can see one of the two places where a cabinet door is needed). The paint color is chalky blue. It is a little more blue than I like, but I'm going to enjoy this color for awhile . . . I can always paint it a different color a year or two down the road. :)

Some of my favorite pictures of my neices and nephews . . . each at one year old.

From the new space, this is what you can now see. It definitely feels bigger, and that was the goal. Mission accomplished!