Would you believe our time with the girls is up this Friday?
It has definately been an experience...and yes, a great experience and yes, we will do it again!
We are saddened by them leaving and one has even said she didn't really want to go... Of course, we all know that will change as soon as she is with her momma and in her new house.
Thanks to everyone for the prayers and questions about our safe family situation. Please keep the girls and their momma in your prayers..it's going to be a rough road for them at first!
Girls,
I can't imagine being thrown into a situation with a white family that didn't have a clue about how to even take care of your beautiful black skin and hair! We have all learned a great deal from this experience, and our family was blessed by having you for the month.
We have been praying that thru this experience God will give you something to help you as you go in life...whether that be the love you see in our family unit as how you want your family unit to be, the love and respect that David and I have for each other as husband and wife, an understanding of our rules and standards for living a truthful life with caution on the tv shows you watch and games you play, a love for God and His written word, and the true meaning behind the verse you learned (Phillipians 4:19 but my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus).
Most importantly we pray that as you go thru life that you will one day let Christ in your life as your personal Saviour and that you will follow Him in everything you do.
In our prayers,
David, Kim, and Riley
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
GOD IS SO GOOD!!!!! Part 3: the new additions!
After the girls daycare was covered ( did we tell you that God is Good!), our next issue was cleaning out our junk room to fit enough beds for 3 girls. For those of you that know anything about that junk room, it was lovingly named "the tornado room" by my friend Candi.
We had a queen bed frame in the garage, so we were thinking add a mattress to the queen bed and find a twin bed. But you know God had a "bigger" plan. It's just amazing how God came thru..yet again.
A. A friend at work offered her old mattress for the queen bed since they had just had to get a new one for their bed. (thanks Becky!)
B. Another friend at work offered to let us use her daughters old twin bed. (thanks Karen!)
So off to a start. Plans were to pick the beds up over the weekend and have them set up and ready...we wouldnt know if the girls were coming until Monday and if they were, they would be there tuesday so no time except the present.
Only problem...David realized Saturday afternoon that the queen bed we already had was TOO BIG for that room...and no way would a twin go in there too! As he was sitting in the hallway with a string for him and Riley to use to measure, he realized that Rileys baby Bed that was in the room would actually turn into a toddler bed. One down..2 to go.
Sunday morning in our life group (Sunday school) class, we announced a prayer request for the girls and made an announcement that we were going to look for twin beds that day to set them up. One of the ladies from our class called after church and told us that she had gone yard selling sat morning and had found a set of beds with mattresses for such a good deal she couldn't pass them up even though her 2 boys weren't old enough for them yet. Not only did she offer to let us use the beds for as long as the girls were here, she and husband came to the house and helped David set them up in the room! She had no idea that purchase was a divine intervention and would help in GOD'S plan to get the girls. (thanks francis and terri!)
On Monday afternoon at 4:45, I found out we were to get the girls after 8:30 Tuesday morning!!!
And so the real journey begins....
We had a queen bed frame in the garage, so we were thinking add a mattress to the queen bed and find a twin bed. But you know God had a "bigger" plan. It's just amazing how God came thru..yet again.
A. A friend at work offered her old mattress for the queen bed since they had just had to get a new one for their bed. (thanks Becky!)
B. Another friend at work offered to let us use her daughters old twin bed. (thanks Karen!)
So off to a start. Plans were to pick the beds up over the weekend and have them set up and ready...we wouldnt know if the girls were coming until Monday and if they were, they would be there tuesday so no time except the present.
Only problem...David realized Saturday afternoon that the queen bed we already had was TOO BIG for that room...and no way would a twin go in there too! As he was sitting in the hallway with a string for him and Riley to use to measure, he realized that Rileys baby Bed that was in the room would actually turn into a toddler bed. One down..2 to go.
Sunday morning in our life group (Sunday school) class, we announced a prayer request for the girls and made an announcement that we were going to look for twin beds that day to set them up. One of the ladies from our class called after church and told us that she had gone yard selling sat morning and had found a set of beds with mattresses for such a good deal she couldn't pass them up even though her 2 boys weren't old enough for them yet. Not only did she offer to let us use the beds for as long as the girls were here, she and husband came to the house and helped David set them up in the room! She had no idea that purchase was a divine intervention and would help in GOD'S plan to get the girls. (thanks francis and terri!)
On Monday afternoon at 4:45, I found out we were to get the girls after 8:30 Tuesday morning!!!
And so the real journey begins....
Monday, July 4, 2011
GOD IS SO GOOD!!! Part 2..clearing the way
The real long story...
David, the family pastor at our church in Powell, sent out an email concerning a family of 3 kids, age 4,8,9 that needed a safe family home for approx a month. The email was sent to families that were approved for adoption....
GOD IS GOOD #1: Even though we are approved for adoption, the email was not sent to us-it was forwarded!
I sent several messages with questions concerning the situation and how we would handle daycare. After all, we had plenty of room for the kids, and they would be fed, clothed, bathed, etc, while we were home, but we both work during the day.
The responses we got were pretty much straight forward "we have to pay" unless someone from the church that had been thru training would want to watch the kids during the day. We even called SFFC and left a message to see if they had anyone that was approved to watch the girls...but didnt get a response. (phone system was down -we didnt know ) With that, I quit asking questions and just kinda let it rest. But I couldn't get those girls out of my head...so we started praying just that they would be taken care of...
The following Tuesday we got a call from SFFC asking if we were still interested. I explained our daycare concern...the way Rileys daycare works for the older girls is that you pay an activity fee for the summer activities, then you pay your weekly fee each week. That would have equaled approx $1200 not counting the activity fee.
GOD IS GOOD #2. Janet from SFFC called...Someone had donated $400 toward the girls activity fee!! She said to pray about the weekly fee and she would get in touch w us on thurs (2 days away).
GOD IS GOOD #3. Janet called and asked where we lived, that she was working on something - didn't mention what. Well, she found out the girls vouchers from DCS would transfer to the local boys/girls club!!! That meant 2 things...one, older girls daycare covered! Two, the $400 donated for the activity fee would cover all but $100ish of the 4 yr olds daycare for the month!!!
Oh but there is even more! Watch for the next "long story update".
David, the family pastor at our church in Powell, sent out an email concerning a family of 3 kids, age 4,8,9 that needed a safe family home for approx a month. The email was sent to families that were approved for adoption....
GOD IS GOOD #1: Even though we are approved for adoption, the email was not sent to us-it was forwarded!
I sent several messages with questions concerning the situation and how we would handle daycare. After all, we had plenty of room for the kids, and they would be fed, clothed, bathed, etc, while we were home, but we both work during the day.
The responses we got were pretty much straight forward "we have to pay" unless someone from the church that had been thru training would want to watch the kids during the day. We even called SFFC and left a message to see if they had anyone that was approved to watch the girls...but didnt get a response. (phone system was down -we didnt know ) With that, I quit asking questions and just kinda let it rest. But I couldn't get those girls out of my head...so we started praying just that they would be taken care of...
The following Tuesday we got a call from SFFC asking if we were still interested. I explained our daycare concern...the way Rileys daycare works for the older girls is that you pay an activity fee for the summer activities, then you pay your weekly fee each week. That would have equaled approx $1200 not counting the activity fee.
GOD IS GOOD #2. Janet from SFFC called...Someone had donated $400 toward the girls activity fee!! She said to pray about the weekly fee and she would get in touch w us on thurs (2 days away).
GOD IS GOOD #3. Janet called and asked where we lived, that she was working on something - didn't mention what. Well, she found out the girls vouchers from DCS would transfer to the local boys/girls club!!! That meant 2 things...one, older girls daycare covered! Two, the $400 donated for the activity fee would cover all but $100ish of the 4 yr olds daycare for the month!!!
Oh but there is even more! Watch for the next "long story update".
Saturday, July 2, 2011
GOD IS SO GOOD!!!!! Part 1: SFFC
God is so good
God is so good
God is so good
He's so good to me!!!
In the past 2 weeks, this simple song has taken on a whole new meaning. If you aren't familiar with the new program "Safe family for children" be sure to google to see what it is... Why is God so good? The long story...part 1.
We learned about the Safe Family program thru our church and immediately felt a calling...it's different than foster care in that the kids are NOT taken from their family; it's a volunteer placement into a "safe family home" while the parents get "it" together. "It" could be a couple of days until expected housing or job comes thru and safe family hosts the children until it actually comes thru ..."it" could be to host children because mom or dad realize there is an addiction problem and they want to fix it for the children... "it" could be....
I will not share our "safe family" situation but ask that you pray for "our girls" and their momma!
Ever had something that you felt God calling you to do but you had so many concerns that you didn't know if it would work out? What if all of those concerns were completely cleared - in the order you thought them up? Well hold on til our next update... Long Story part 2
God is so good
God is so good
He's so good to me!!!
In the past 2 weeks, this simple song has taken on a whole new meaning. If you aren't familiar with the new program "Safe family for children" be sure to google to see what it is... Why is God so good? The long story...part 1.
We learned about the Safe Family program thru our church and immediately felt a calling...it's different than foster care in that the kids are NOT taken from their family; it's a volunteer placement into a "safe family home" while the parents get "it" together. "It" could be a couple of days until expected housing or job comes thru and safe family hosts the children until it actually comes thru ..."it" could be to host children because mom or dad realize there is an addiction problem and they want to fix it for the children... "it" could be....
I will not share our "safe family" situation but ask that you pray for "our girls" and their momma!
Ever had something that you felt God calling you to do but you had so many concerns that you didn't know if it would work out? What if all of those concerns were completely cleared - in the order you thought them up? Well hold on til our next update... Long Story part 2
Oops!
So you are probably wondering why it's taken so long to send an update...then you probably thought its because we have 4 girls in the house taking all our time; but it's much simpler than that. The first post was completed at 11:30pm at night and leave it up to me to forget what password I used to set the blog up! Finally gave up today and set a new one, and yes, I wrote it down!
I took Peanut to see Taylor Swift last night....just in case you plan on going to a concert in the future, it may not make sense to take your child to see her favorite singer at a concert that starts at 7 with 2 opening acts AND it be the favorite singer that the child listens to each night to go to bed...yep, you guessed it...she fell asleep!!!!! We could have left at 9:30 but she had a friend with her who was very awake so we stayed! Too funny! Btw: excellent concert and worth the price of the tickets...way way entertaining and not just by the "fearless" Taylor herself! Haha.
Thanks MS Karen for help with the tickets...and happy birthday Alexandra, Josie and Jada, and Alyssa!!! Who would have thought my first concert would be at age 40 with my daughter, my niece and my 2 great nieces... And yes, they really are great!!!!
I took Peanut to see Taylor Swift last night....just in case you plan on going to a concert in the future, it may not make sense to take your child to see her favorite singer at a concert that starts at 7 with 2 opening acts AND it be the favorite singer that the child listens to each night to go to bed...yep, you guessed it...she fell asleep!!!!! We could have left at 9:30 but she had a friend with her who was very awake so we stayed! Too funny! Btw: excellent concert and worth the price of the tickets...way way entertaining and not just by the "fearless" Taylor herself! Haha.
Thanks MS Karen for help with the tickets...and happy birthday Alexandra, Josie and Jada, and Alyssa!!! Who would have thought my first concert would be at age 40 with my daughter, my niece and my 2 great nieces... And yes, they really are great!!!!
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
The adventure has begun!!!!
Our adventure has begun! Thanks to all for the thoughts and prayers and for so many asking about our "safe family" adventure. Some of DAVID'S coworkers asked that we consider blogging about our adventure. We've never done this before but thought it might be a good idea.
For most reading this, you know that the Peanut Files refer to our Peanut, Our daughter Riley, who is the most important thing in our life (apart from Christ). Even though we are starting the first official peanut file with our new adventure, most have received "peanut file" update emails.
The short version
we have 3 beautiful girls staying with us right now...
The long version
Watch for the next blog!
For most reading this, you know that the Peanut Files refer to our Peanut, Our daughter Riley, who is the most important thing in our life (apart from Christ). Even though we are starting the first official peanut file with our new adventure, most have received "peanut file" update emails.
The short version
we have 3 beautiful girls staying with us right now...
The long version
Watch for the next blog!
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