The Excuses

A sweet bloggy friend gave me permission to share this post with you....it's very powerful...I encourage you to pray for God to speak to you before you even read it! This mama has put my heart into words...she has so beautifully expressed the things that have weighed so heavy on my heart for so long!

I've had my share of excuses in the past....

Too busy

Not enough money

Not enough time

Too young

Too old

Can't afford it

Already have 4 children

Not sure if it's God's will

Not sure

Can't afford it

What will others say?

What will others think?

People will think we are crazy

What if they are right?

Can't afford it.

What if it's hard on our other kids?

It's not the right time

Not sure if I would be good at it.

House is too small.

Can't afford it.

Not sure if I want to start all over again.

What would we drive?

What if it's to much work?

What if it's too hard?

Can't afford it.

Yet for every excuse God has the answer-

Him.

It's all about Him- period.

He must increase,

but I must decrease.

John 3:30

We limit God with our excuses.

We limit God with our fears.

We limit God by putting Him inside a box-

A box we have designed on our own.

But by doing this we are actually robbing ourselves-

robbing ourselves of the blessings.

Robbing ourselves of true joy

Robbing ourselves of truly living.

Because you see when we take 'us' out of the picture

Our worries,

Our fears,

Our excuses,

And we put God in the center of our lives

The possibilities are endless.

He has the way...

He IS the way...

And all you have to do is

stop making excuses and take that first step.

Stop listening to the world.

Stop being afraid of the what ifs-

And listen to the one who knows.

The one who has the answers.

The one who really matters.

The truth is

we don't have to be perfect

because He is.

We don't have to have all of the answers

because He already does.

We don't have to know how

because He will show us.

Each day you wait

is a day that they wait too...

The cost of your excuse is a lot higher than the cost of an adoption

because look at what it's costing them.

Stop making excuses.

They are waiting

And so is He...

To show you the way.

So thankful

We just wanted to thank each and everyone of you for your amazing support financially and through your prayers. We have been blanketed with such overwhelming peace and trust in our Lord. We love you guys!!! Hoping to be able to show pictures soon!!

The WINNERS are....

Since my video camera didn't get up and running in time,

we took pictures of the drawing for the Ipod Touch........

All the entries laid out and being mixed and mixed and mixed!

No peeking

And the winner is......

My precious friend, LINDA HAYASE!!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The winner for the IPOD SHUFFLE IS.......

A very sweet friend, STEFFANY BOSTER

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CONGRATULATIONS!

We raised $1425 of the $3000 we needed to raise! Can you believe it...we are so blessed and humbled by your giving hearts and the love you have shown us. Thank you so much!!!

Less than 1 hour...

Less than 1 hour to go to buy your $10 tickets for a chance to win an IPOD TOUCH and an IPOD SHUFFLE....winners will be announced shortly.

24 hours LEFT....

Little over 24 hours to go for our IPOD TOUCH Blitz...you still have time to buy your $10 tickets..hurry..hurry...don't miss out :) Can you help us raise the last $1785 we need??? Spread the word and let's see how fast the Lord will provide this money :) Every $10 helps! Click away on the chip-in button...hehehehe!

We are almost half way....

Can you believe that Chip-In??? $1295 plus the kids $58....CRAZY!!!!!! I am honestly without words (I know...hard to believe!). We are getting so close to our initial phase goal of $3,000.

There is still time to buy your $10 tickets to win an Ipod Touch and still time to spread the news to have a chance at winning an Ipod Shuffle. All the details are below...

God is moving...He is moving to bring our baby home!

O Ye of little faith

I just kept hearing this over and over in my head yesterday. O ye of little faith, why are you so timid, what are you worrying about???

Having to fundraise for our entire adoption expenses is something new to us & at times it is very awkward & difficult to accept the precious gifts given to us. I know God has called us to adopt our sweet Solomon but my little-faith-self can't let go of the fact that we have a lot of money to raise & it scares me that we won't be able to do it. Then that voice....O YE OF LITTLE FAITH!!!!

Then to make things worse ;) God decides to bless us with $475 from our blitz & that's just from the first day. And I sit here ashamed that I wasn't trusting Him. Father, you love this precious boy more then we ever could...you will provide a way for Him to come home. Thank you for loving me and blessing me even when I am not completely trusting in You!!!

Soooo, you guys are amazing....We have raised $825 ($475 from the Ipod blitz)....I am amazed at your love for our family. We have $2525 to go to our initial goal...Wooohooo!!! Stand back and watch the Lord move :)

BLITZ time baby!!!

Wanna win an IPOD TOUCH or IPOD SHUFFLE?? It’s BLITZ time!!! You can win by simply donating $10 or spreading the word on your blog or facebook!! OUR GOAL IS TO RAISE THE INITIAL $3000!!

For the next 7 days we are challenging you to HELP us bring Solomon home by raising awareness & spreading the word about our BLITZ event. Oh, did I mention we are GIVING away an IPOD TOUCH & an IPOD SHUFFLE?!?!

To win the IPOD TOUCH: For EVERY $10 you donate to Solomon’s adoption, you will receive one entry in the Giveway. You will be emailed a giveaway number for each $10 you donate through the Chip-in on our blog. If you want to mail a donation, please email us & we’ll give you our address.

To win the IPOD SHUFFLE:
1. Post a blog entry on your blog about our giveaway & you'll receive one entry
OR
2. Change your wall status on facebook with a link to our event
OR
3. If you do both, then you will receive TWO entries in the shuffle giveaway. IMPORTANT: You must post a comment on Solomon's Facebook group with a link to your facebook or blog entry.

***We will hold the drawing on Wednesday, February 3^rd at 10:00pm (pst). It will be done the old fashion way…we will put all the entries name/number in a jar and pull from the jar. We will video the drawing and post it on our blog.***

Oh yeah…we will give away one 8gb IPOD Touch for EVERY $2000 we receive in donations so SPREAD THE WORD and skies the limit J

A BLITZ is coming...

are you ready to watch the Lord move??? More info. in a little bit :)

One PROUD Mama and

one AWESOME big brother! I sit here with a very full heart. I put a glass jar on top of our hutch in the dining room...our Solomon jar. I walked into the room to see a wad of money in it...I went searching for my oldest and asked him if he put his money in our Solomon jar? (he's the only with money around here LOL) He said, "Yes, I want to help bring Solomon home, mom." Let me just tell you he had been saving that $52 for a while now with the hopes of buying a laptop. My heart is blessed beyond words...he LOVES his brothers and sisters so much!

He's really good at putting them to sleep, too :)

Big sister heard what he did & said, "You put ALLLL your money in there...AWESOME...I want to do that, too!" She ran as fast as she could down the hall to get her money and put it in the jar.

Oh, how I love these kids of mine!