Our Dishwasher Broke...and more :)

So we are getting so close to being able to go and meet this precious expecting mom. We are waiting for a call any day saying she is in labor and then we will jump on a plane and head to Florida. We are super excited that we get to "meet" her for the first time this friday morning via skype. She has a doctor apointment just before that so hoping for some good updates on baby as well. It is such a strange feeling to be getting everything ready for a baby that is not even yours yet...
On to last night... The dishwasher started making a very loud noise when I started to run it. I am used to loud noises in our house...lol so I let it run. My wonderful, responsible husband though was not so inclined. He said to shut it off he was concerned about the engine blowing, a fire etc... I was concerned about having to wash all the dishes by hand... So he emailed a friend who fixes appliances. Then this morning I hadn't heard anything so I checked with a friend whose husband does repairs as well, he would call me back but she mentioned cleaning out the filter. We had done that a couple times, but it had been awhile, but it was a really loud noise. I also talked to a repair company who said it would be $69 to come out to look at it. Then parts and labor on top of that. In wanting to save money right now for the adoption we don't have a lot of extra, so I decided at nap time along with my trusty assistant John, to clean the filters.

Low and behold we found..along with some yucky yucky stuff a large drywall nail stuck in the filter. How in the world? Long story short we skillfully removed it and the dishwasher is now working fine. Yeah!- even in little insignificant things God is looking out for us.
We still would love for your help during this time. There are 3 basic ways:
1 Prayer- For this expecting mom and her baby. For the labor and delivery. For our travel and our kids with family back home. For our finances.
2, If you are local Buy a handmade neckwarmer Details here http://frogmama.blogspot.com/2013/10/look-fundraiser-homemade-neckwarmerheat.html
3. Donate :) We have partnered with Lifesong for Orphans. If you donate through them your donation is tax deductable! Details here http://frogmama.blogspot.com/2013/10/we-need-your-help.html or if you don't care about that you can donate using the link on the top right to just donate directly to us through paypal.

LOOK!!! Fundraiser- Homemade Neckwarmer/Heat packs for sale- GREAT for Christmas gifts!!!

We selling rice neck warmers/heat/cold packs. They were made lightly scented with 2 different natural oil scents Lavender and Lemon Eucalyptus. We also have smaller boo boo bags for kids or smaller areas. These rice bags are great for the freezer for a cold pack when you have a sore spot or for a forehead when you have a fever. They are also microwavable for heatpacks. We are asking for a suggested donation amount of $7 each or 2 for $10, or the kids small size are 3 for $10. They are handmade by our friends and family. If you are local you can pick them up or contact me about possibly delivery in Redding if you buy multiple packs. There are a variety of prints available you can choose from if you pick up locally. These make great Christmas gifts and Christmas will be here before you know it. If you are local and would like to just pay us directly instead of through paypal please just call me to set up a time to come by. (530)921-8855 or email me at lorene@frogmama.com Here are some examples of some of the available fabrics:)

We need your help!

October 9, 2013
Dear Family and Friends,

As you may know we have been led by God to adopt a child into our family. We are adopting a baby girl sometime around the beginning of November. Troy and I will be traveling to Florida to meet the Birthmother and baby shortly after she is born. As a family, we’ve been praying for this sweet young mother and baby for the last few weeks. We are excited for the possibility that she will place her baby with our family.

What has prompted us to adopt?
Primarily, we’ve felt so clearly directed by God to adopt, that we want to obey Him. We also desire to give a child a permanent Christian family that she probably wouldn’t otherwise have. God desires for orphans of all nations to be loved, cared for, and adopted into Christian families—ultimately so they can become saved and adopted into His eternal family through Jesus Christ.
There are over 147 million orphans worldwide and 120,000 children currently in the U.S. foster care system. It is estimated that less than 10 percent of these children are adopted into evangelical Christian families.
The biggest challenge is not opening our hearts and home to another child, but it is finding the finances to make this happen. The estimated total cost for the adoption is $27,000. That’s certainly money we don’t have, but we know God is faithful and is leading us to trust Him. By God’s grace we’ve been able to pay the initial $10,000.
Honestly it’s a little difficult (because of our pride) to make our needs known to the body of Christ, but we realize it is biblical to do so. Your friendship and support are greatly appreciated. We would like to ask you to pray and consider helping us in one or two ways with our adoption.
1. Please pray for this sweet young expecting mom and baby’s health in these last few weeks of pregnancy and pray for a smooth and uncomplicated delivery. Please pray that her heart and soul will move closer to God as we show Gods love to her through our words and actions.
2. Will you please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help cover the remaining $17,000 adoption expenses? Our goal date is December 9, but funds will be accepted until our adoption is complete.

Making a Donation
We are using Lifesong for Orphans, which is a 501c3 tax exempt organization to receive donations on our behalf. Lifesong retains full discretion over your donation, but intends to honor your suggested use, which is for our adoption fund. Lifesong has been blessed with a partner that underwrites all U.S. administrative and fund-raising costs; TMG Foundation and others, which means 100% of your donation goes to the adoption.
When donating by check, make checks payable to “Lifesong for Orphans. In the memo, note “family account number: #3765” and “family name: FOSTER” to assure it goes to the correct account. Please mail to Lifesong for Orphans, PO Box 40, Gridley, IL 61744.
Another option is to give online CLICK HERE by selecting Give to an Adoptive Family and then complete the online form using 3765 as the Family Account Number and Foster as Family Name. *Please note that your donation is decreased by 2.9% + $.30 USD when using PayPal.*
We thank you so much for investing in the Kingdom through prayer and finances—it will be an investment with an eternal return! We’ll give you an update with a picture of Baby Faith and details as we receive them. Please pray this entire process will glorify God and fulfill His purposes.
*Individual donations of $250 or more and yearly donations totaling $250 or more will receive a tax-deductible receipt. Receipts for donations under $250 will gladly be sent upon request.* In order to have your contribution be tax deductible, do not use the paypal link on this page- go to the Lifesong site as directed above. If you do not care about that aspect feel free to use this link.
Sincerely,

The Fosters

We are matched!!!

So there go my plans for keeping this blog updated often... oh well... Since my last post so much has happened. One by one we presented to 16 different expecting moms and each time after praying and waiting heard a "No". This was a HUGE emotional roller coaster ride as sometimes the baby was already born or due very soon, so if chosen it would have meant getting everything ready for baby super fast. Also with praying for each of these moms and their babies you start, on some level, to form a heart connection, even if it is only one sided. So when you then hear they select someone else it was hard.
Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. We had another "situation" as they are called. a young 17 year old expecting mom in FL having a baby girl due in October. We presented and waited and prayed and then in a few days heard "No" not us, another family was chosen. We we continued on. Then a few days later we received an email saying that the couple that had been chosen had backed out for some personal reasons. Were we still interested in presenting? We Thought and Prayed about it and decided to go ahead. Then we waited...and waited... and waited... usually you hear back in a few days. This time it was over a week... Then Thursday night we got the news "Yes"! We had been chosen! We are all so excited!!

Now begins a new step of the journey. The baby still isn't "for sure" joining our family. After the expecting mom has her baby, she will then have 24-48 hours to decide if she wants to parent. If at that point she still decides to place her baby for adoption, then we will be the family. At this point our plan is for Troy and I to be at the hospital shortly after the baby is born. If she decides to parent then we would fly back home. If she decides to place her baby with us then Troy would fly back home after a couple days to be with the other kids while I wait out the time for all the paperwork to clear, usually about 2 weeks. We did find out yesterday that we have some great friends all living right in the area in Florida that we will be going to. Such an exciting time. We still really appreciate your prayers as the journey isn't over yet. We still have a lot of fundraising to do- details coming soon. Also with any childbirth there can be complications and unknown factors.

Please join us in praying for this mom and her baby for an easy and uncomplicated delivery and for health for her and her baby.

Anna made this blanket for the baby all on her own during their quiet time yesterday. The kids are really excited:)

My Plans vs. Gods Plans

My plans for this morning were: Drop kids off at Vacation Bible School, come home and clean and organize the playroom. Then baby carrier consult at 10, then clean and finish organizing the playroom before picking the kids up at 12:30. So drop the kids off I get home and a few minutes later I get al call from the woman coming for the baby carrier consult calling to reschedule for tomorrow as her baby was really fussy today. So I was a little bit happy, as I could get more done today. Then a few minutes later got a text from our tenants, in our house that we are selling…that should have closed last month… anyway long story… but they are great people, but the plumbing was backed up and since it was still our house we needed to fix it☹ So now my plans for a clean organized playroom were getting messed up…argh. So called the rotorooter and he could come put in about 30 minutes so loaded Sam up and headed to the other house. Grumpy at my messed up morning and having this unexpected expense…. It was going to take about an hour for him to get done so I figured instead of just sitting there, the lawn needed to be mowed so I decided to put Sam on my back and mow it. I had noticed that in the house next door there was a U-Haul truck and I knew the house was for sale, but then saw the owner and he came over to chat. When we lived there he lived next door with his family. They were always really sweet. After we moved out we kind of lost touch and I haven’t talked with him or seen him in about 4 years. They were jus there today, as he didn’t live there, they were loading up the last of the things there as the house was going on the market today. Long story short, as we were chatting, sharing about how our families were now, he shared that they just found out his 18 year old daughter is pregnant and considering placing her baby for adoption. AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!! She is not due until January and no idea if she would even consider our family. She was a really sweet girl when we knew her and sounds like she just as made some different choices since then. I gave him our phone# and said I would be glad to talk with her more. Not sure if anything will come of it or not, but WOW. Wouldn’t it be just like God to take what I thought was something all messed up and use it for a chance meeting for His Glory? Amazed. Feeling much more at peace with our adoption journey. What God has he will provide for us in His time.

Adoption update and Kids with Special Needs

We so appreciate your prayers. Since the last post we have presented a few times and heard no each time. We are waiting right now to hear from another mom considering our family. So hard each time to not get your hopes up. I feel as if each time when I start praying for this mom and baby there is a heart connection made on some level wether you mean to or not. So each time there is a no it is hard even if you are trying not to get attached. Really in our journey it hasn't been that long all things considered. We appreciate your continued prayers for all this process.

On a brighter note I wanted to share about what I have been witnessing in regards to kids with special needs being adopted. There is a great adoption group I am a part of full of families homestudy ready with a heart for special needs kids. We are possibly open to mild or correctable needs. Fairly often there are posts with babies and kids with a wide range of special needs. From genetic conditions, to total care, from moderate to severe challenges. Every one I have seen posted has been almost immediately followed by a flurry of posts from families asking to be considered for placement of that child. It is such an amazing beautiful thing to witness. It has filled my heart with joy to see the love and caring each of these families is willing to show. I think in our culture there is this prevalent thought that children born with special needs will be unloved, unwanted. Just being a part of this smaller group of families has shown me just the opposite. All children are a blessing, all are loved and wanted. If you are reading this as a homestudy ready family and are interested in special needs adoption please contact me for details on this group.

Update:)

** Adoption Update* Prayers appreciated... So for us, This is the way Domestic Adoption works. We have applied with multiple agencies as we have a couple "dings" against us in that we have a smaller adoption budget,(Believe it of not in The US adoptions can go as high as $75k, with most averaging around $40-$45k. We have a smaller budget so there are many "situations" (the term for moms who have an adoption plan in place and need to choose a family to place them with) that we can't even consider. And some moms wont consider placing their child in a home with existing kids which would be us as well. So applying with multiple agencies that had no up front costs was what we decided on as it would provide us the most opertunities to be shown to moms. So now we are in the process of waiting and having our profile shown.

It works like this- we get an email saying there is this mom due x, these are the health concerns if any, she did/didn't use drugs/alcohol, this is the estimated cost. Then we pray and decide if we want to have our profile and pictures shown to this mom. Then if yes, she is shown our profile along with a handful of other families who also have said yes to being shown. At this point if she chooses us then we are "matched" and we are committed to her and her child. At this point we also have to start paying some pretty big fees. Some of the scary part is that Mom can still change her mind, which she should have the right to, but if that happend at any point until papers are signed after the birth then we loose all the money we have paid for her expenses, housing, food etc...So we really appreciate your prayers for wisdom in this process as so much is in Gods hands...

Last week we found out about a mom due in October. She was having an ultrasound later in the week for more information. We requested information multiple times, but heard nothing back so we have assumed she had changed her mind and decided to parent. Today we heard she is going to be looking at our profile if we are interested by thursday. We also found out today about a mom due in september who we may also be interested in presenting to, but she is looking at profiles this week probably also. We can't present to 2 moms at the same time as that wouldn't be fair to them. so really would appreciate your prayers for wisdom and discernment.

We also need to be planing some big fundraisers- if anyone has an idea please let me know:)