doing it HIS way...: 2015

Monday, March 2, 2015

Where we are..... And where we are going...

I have been needing to write for months... MONTHS! But every time I thought about it, I would get this lump. I knew things needed to be updated, but so much has happened, it was kind of hard to know where to start... or end...

I prayed before I started typing, for God to give me the words. I only want Him to be glorified... In it all... that is our purpose anyway, right? I don't want to ramble, or give unnecessary accounts, but I also do not want to leave out ONE SINGLE DETAIL of how our miraculous, gracious, faithful and beautiful God has been working in our lives.

This adoption thing, y'all.... it is a TRIP!! In every sense of the word. A beautiful, scary, emotional, magical trip. One I am beyond thankful our family has had the privilege to journey. Thinking about how God has shown Himself time and time again to us, to our friends, to our family all traveling this same road, and how I wouldn't have seen ANY of it if He had not allowed us the privilege of this call... the call to adopt.

Now, here, in the thick of it, nearing the "end of the beginning" I feel so immersed in God's will that no power in Hell could ever pull me out of it. I am in now... there is no going back. My heart is completely sold to this call and my life, the life I knew before adoption, will never be again. And,

I. Am. Scared. To. Death.

But only when I am not trusting... ha

God is so beautiful in how He loves us so much that He desires to calm our fears. He desires to bring us comfort. It is amazing. He simply wants our trust. He wants us to run to Him and cling to Him with all we have, heart, mind, body and soul. Even in the thick of this, He allows fear to come to me, even when I am so far into the call, He allows me to be tested and tried. He allows me to tarry in my fear, to simply, remind me WHO is my comforter. Dare I ever begin to think I did any of this of my own accord.

I need constant reminding where my strength comes from.... Can I get a witness!! Ha

So where we are....

In Mobile! Ha

So in November, life as we knew it and thought we had planned... completely changed. (God is the master at changing OUR plans!!)

Sammy took an AMAZING job in Mobile, AL, and his awesome company paid us to move. In four weeks time, they listed our house, sold it, helped us find a new one, and moved us to it. I can't even put into words how God moved on our behalf in all of that. LITERALLY there are countless ways...

To name a few,
Sammy got a raise (more money for two more kids coming)
We were able to buy a bigger house without spending much more money (for two more kids coming)
We were able to buy an (older but) bigger car (for two more kids coming)
And THE BEST PART...
Sammy is home All. The. Time. (for two more kids WITH NEEDS coming)

The kids absolutely love it! McKain told Sammy he hopes he never gets a promotion so he doesn't have to change shifts!! (thanks son, I think!) haha

We really haven't known what to do with ourselves!! Adjusting to his new schedule has been interesting!! :))

The way God ordained all of this to prepare us for the boys coming home is more than Sammy and I can take. Whenever we question what we are doing, or when others question, we just recall all of that....

The boys were here for Christmas break. Y was here early Dec to early Jan and A was here late Dec to late Jan. This time with them was amazing. They were so comfortable with us. Trust has already started taking root with them. (even though one of them would NEVER admit it!! haha) It was like we were already a family... things just flowed! (I could write an entire blog about that visit!) It ended too quickly and we had to send them back.... to their orphanages. To be cold and alone and hungry. While we get to stay here in our warm comfortable home with warm showers, clean clothes and food WHENEVER we want it. Not a day goes by that I don't think about them and the little they have and the abundance we have. And how wasteful we are... :(

Because of the move we had to update our home study and reapply to the US Immigration department for approval. We received our re-approval mid February and then we submitted our dossier Feb 26. The dossier is the last packet of paperwork. It is now with the Ukrainian government and we are waiting an appointment to go request our boys. We will take two trips to Ukraine. The total time will be 6-8 weeks. Our first trip should be in about 6 weeks. Hopefully we will be home with the boys late May if all goes as it should... which it never does! But God is in control and again, I just have to trust Him! (this would also be an area I would ask for your prayers... traveling with our bio kids is an option, but we just don't know the best thing to do for everyone.... please pray God will make it plain and will prepare all of our kids for whatever He wills for us to do)

With this last leg of the adoption, we will need the additional $25,000. And we have about 4 weeks to raise it.

I know this looks like a ton.... but to God... it's chump change!!

Another way God has miraculous shown up is with an amazing fundraiser called "Both Hands".
visit our page at http://www.bothhands.org/tice-adoption

This is a beautiful project where we get to help a widow while raising funds for our adoption.

(watch a great video about the project here)
Both Hands Video

One of the great things about this project is you implore your family and friends to help you run the project... Well, as I said earlier, we just moved AWAY from all of our friends and family.... So in my feeble little doubting mind I said, "really God, now HOW are we going to do this project??... We don't HAVE any family or friends in Mobile!!"

But like He always does, He had a plan. And that plan was a beautiful church named Christ Fellowship Baptist!

This body of believers who do not even know us have rallied behind us like we have been lifetime members. Their response to this project is something that can only be described as God ordained!! Thanks to them, and their love for Christ, and desire to obey Him, we will be able to successfully carry out this project AND raise most if not all the funds we need for the rest of our adoptions!!

There is so much more I could say about this church and their people (but my sister says my blogs are too long) so I will leave you with this little nugget... the youth pastor and his wife... yeah, they know Suzette with Grace to Ukraine, because they did some volunteer activities with her group of orphans she brought over a couple of years ago. And the youth pastors wife, she actually traveled to Ukraine and held summer Bible camps for orphans!! Now chew on that..... I. Still. Am.

Oh that we ever doubt God.....

So, If you receive a sponsorship letter from, ahem, someone, in the next week or so... This is what it is about!

Our last ditch effort

To raise the rest of the money

To go to Ukraine and...

BRING OUR BOYS HOME!!!!

Friday, January 30, 2015

THE WINNER OF THE TWO NIGHT GET-A-WAY

And the winner is....

Add caption

Joey Paganelli!!

Congratulations Joey and thank you again to everyone who entered, shared and/or prayed!!! None of this would be possible without you!!!

To God Be the Glory!!

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Win a 2 Night Getaway at the Beautiful Orange Beach

***** THE GETAWAY GIVEAWAY HAS BEEN EXTENDED UNTIL FRIDAY, JAN 30 AT NOON *********

Well, it's that time again.... Fundraiser time that is! We will submit our dossier (our huge packet of information we send to the Ukrainian government asking if we can please adopt two children) in one week! With this we send $4700. We are about $2,000 short. Overall, we still need close to $22,000. We hope to travel by March so that's a big number to raise in just two short months. However, we have no doubts, God will do it.

I am going to just highjack a post from my sweet friend Prudence about this fundraiser, because, well, I couldn't have said it better myself...

"I’m going to be super transparent here… I really don’t like being a fundraising family. I dislike filling up your Facebook feed and asking for help over and over about as much as you hate it. However, I can’t stop. The thing is… there are two kids across the ocean from me now that I would do anything to bring here. While it would be super lovely if we could do that alone, it’s just not the way it is for us right now.

I listened to a YouTube video this week of Beth Guckenberger giving her testimony in a church. Some of her words rang deep in my soul.

God loves to put people who are uneducated, ill equipped, and weak in broken places so that he can do something through them. So that in the end, the glory and credit ALL goes to him.

I couldn’t agree more. I don’t know the first thing about parenting two teens. We weren’t equipped with the thousands of dollars this process has cost. Right now, there is no way unless he continues to move. I do know this… in the end, all the glory and credit goes to Him. Obviously. There is no way we could have done any of this on our own. He has used each and every one of you to write the story of our family.

From the bottom of my heart, I thank each and every one of you who have prayed for us, said words of encouragement, asked about our children, and supported us financially in this process. You have been amazing, and I’m completely humbled. One of my friends once told me… “To whom much is given, much is required.” I have been given more than I could ever imagine, so I know that I will be required of much in this life."

Read more about their story here... http://blissfulfrenzy.com

So, here are the details...

Condo is 3BD/3BA on the bay in Orange Beach (a half mile from AL/FL line). It has deeded beach access across the street. It has an indoor and outdoor pool. You will also have access to a fishing pier and a small workout facility with dry sauna and steam room.

Additional Notes: Availability begins in May. Cleaning fee is typically $150. However, if you prefer to clean up after yourself, the owner has agreed to that.

Value: $600

HOW TO WIN:

All donations made to our adoption fund through midnight on January 28th will be entered to win this 2 night stay at the beach! Every $10 donation will be 1 entry!! $20 will be 2 entries, $30 will be 3 entries, and so on. There is NO LIMIT to how many entries you can get!

To make a donation to our adoption fund, just click the YouCaring link below:

http://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/help-bring-y-and-a-home-forever-/271787

Here are the photo's of this amazing place...