Sunday, August 29, 2010

Lots to Blog about, Moving Forward as well

Hi friends! Just back from a wonderful concert at my church! Dino from Branson MO stopped by and shared his beautiful talents with us, and a double duty had my Mom with me for her 60th birthday. She LOVED it!! Lots of birthdays this weekend. My sweet sweet nephew turned 5 today and can I tell ya, that little one gets cuter every time I see him! What a privilege it is to be his Aunt TT :) See how cute he is!
I just love this little guy he stole my heart the first time I held him! And has had it wrapped around his little fingers ever since! Love love LOVE him to pieces!! (AJ I stole this pic from your fb page hope ya don't mind its just too cute!) Anyway so we celebrated with a Toy story themed party. His Mommy is an awesome party thrower let me tell ya. He loved it and all his cute little friends loved it too. Although I am not sure who was worn out most, all the kids or my sweet Sis in law Autum! Way to go girl you rocked it!! What a fun time we all had, and Jake will always remember it!!!!!!!!!!

So this is the first blog I am typing from our new home! We love it! We are very very humbled by it and are honored that God is allowing us to be here at this time, praying its permanent but knowing we will go wherever He leads. It is more than I could ever have imagined or dreamed. We are adjusting well. Things are put away except I have not done the dreaded hang up all the pictures things, and I find myself wanting to get new stuff to put in here (the house is bigger than we have ever had) but I am controlling myself. I have a bigger goal in mind at this time and that stuff can wait. (although that is harder to do sometimes when I find the cutest little *whatever* to fill whatever space I think it would fit perfect) but I am stickin to my guns!! :)

Kids are in the second full week of school and they are doing great. The first few weeks are not so bad time wise, but look out next week we will kick into full band mode! Tired and running full steam for 2 straight months! Lots going on. Both kids are doing the CTC program this year. Sis is continuing in her Culinary Arts program and Tommy will be doing Auto tech and repair. He loves it!! Then he too will attend college at a local school to get his degree in that specific field. He was truly meant to do this stuff, its amazing to watch him, its in his blood! Ernie is doing well back down at SBU. I am just praying for him to find a job so he can feel better about some things. If you pray would you pray for him as well? He really needs this job for multiple reasons. I am one proud Mom of all my kids!!

Now on to some interesting news. You know how sometimes you overlook things or you completely miss them? Well back in July I was in a conversation with a bloggy friend about meeting a certain requirement to start this adoption. I just have known for awhile there is no way we would meet it for awhile. Well she commented back on how exactly it could be done, but the thing is for some reason I missed that comment till yesterday!! Oh my goodness when I opened up the comments link on the blog dashboard (which BTW I always knew it was there but just never accessed it) there was the complete instructions on how exactly we could meet this requirement!! Might I also add that it was midnight when I read this comment and everyone except my daughter was asleep. So I ran into where she was, jumping up and down so excited I wanted to pop!! I had to hug someone and tell someone right then!! Now here is the funny thing. I do believe if God would have allowed me to see that comment back in July I would have been sad, too much was going on and I had my plate full at that moment. But now, now I can digest it and take care of a few things, and BAM we will meet the requirement! Now I have NO idea where any of the money will come to fund this adoption, not even the application fee but I have FAITH in my GREAT BIG GOD that He can take care of it!! After all He owns a cattle on a thousand hills, and caring for orphans is a command that He gives us!

 Our Pastor asked us last week, How big are your prayers? Your prayers are only as big as you allow God to be. Well I know how BIG my God is so I am stepping out with BIG prayers for lots of things so that we can begin this adoption!! Is this finally IT????? Oh my goodness Oh my GOODNES, Oh MY GOODNESS, OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!! After all this time waiting could this actually be it??!! Please pray with me friends that God will open the right doors if this is truly it and that He will give us clear signs on how to proceed! I am calling on the Power of the Resurrected God to show us each step and how to proceed! There is POWER in His name Jesus!! WOOHOO!! Here am I Lord, SEND ME!! OK I am a bit excited, just thinking of the possibilities!! Wonderful night worshipping our living God! And the words to these two sweet songs this morning from our worship pastor, Pastor Lee. Love ya Buddy!! Thanks for your faithfulness in serving and sharing the gospel through music!

Here are the words to those songs (just parts of them)

Savior He can move the mountains (our mountain is the financial aspect of this adoption)
My God is mighty to save He is mighty to save,
Forever author of salvation, He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave.

Shine your light and let the whole world see (CHINA)
Were singin for the glory of the Risen King
Savior He can move the mountain
My God is mighty to save! He is mighty to save!

The other song is this:

What a moment you have brought me too,
All the freedom I have found in you,
Your the healer you make all things new
Yeah Yeah Yeah, yeah Yeah Yeah

I'm not going back, I'm moving ahead
I'm here to declare to you
My past is over, in you
All things are made new
Surrender my life to Christ
I'm moving, moving Forward!!

So my friend, Our God will move the mountains to bring our sweet baby girl home from China for us, He promised me all those years ago. And I myself am moving Forward with Him leading the way, surrendering all the fear and frustration and misunderstanding and anxiety over to Him. He is MY Savior and Redeemer and If God is for us, Then who can be against us?!!! Lord please bring our Ladybug home to her forever family! I'm trusting you with everything and I say that with a big grin on my face and tears in my eyes!!

Lots of love, and lots and lots of Ladybugs!
Tammy :)

P.S. For those of you who have heard my story about God sending me ladybugs, when we moved into this home, there were HUNDREDS of Ladybugs (albeit dead) in the window sills of the basement and some by the front door!!!!!!, and then God sent one to my HUBBY! in the grocery store the other day, of all places! He saw it from a distance and went over and rescued it to take it outside!! God is SO good!! We do NOT deserve His blessing but we are praising Him for them anyhow!!


Monday, August 2, 2010

Where does the time go?

It is the beginning of the school year again. I enrolled our daughter today for the last time in High School. She was not with me because, you guessed it, she was at band camp for the 4th week in a row. It was sort of surreal doing this enrollment. I went through the normal routine. "Do you have your proof of residency?" they ask me. "Yes with our new address on it" I say with a smile. Then its just the regular forms, were they signed by us and our daughter, Yes I made sure.

Each station I went to that I had to drop off a form I felt I was saying good-bye slowly to my little girl. I got to one station and a sweet teacher and dear friend was there, which gave me such comfort. This sweet lady is in my Sunday school class and is a very special person in our church so to see her warm comforting face, helped me relax a bit. She has taught my older two children since she arrived at our school, through one class or another, she has had one of our kids. I am so thankful to God that He puts good Christian people in our schools to guide our children. This lady loves our kids! She loves on them, and yet she makes them behave themselves if they ever need to be put back in line. Ya know what? I LOVE her for it too! What a blessing she is to our family! We talked for a bit and I asked her how SHE was doing, from one Mom to another, she is about to go through a change of her own next week with her family. Empty nest is setting in again at their home. Oh how I have prayed for her sweet Mamma's heart!

Anyway on to the next station I went. My heart however wanted to say, "Hey wait, slow down a bit, this is the last time I can do this for our girl." Don't you know our girl? She was the little girl who bopped right into Kindergarten with the sweetest smile on her face, ready to take on the world. "Do you know how she hurts and what makes her happy? Do you know how many memories she has made in the walls of this school?" Please do not rush me through this.

The next station beckoned me, so onward I went. I went to the next station and another sweet friend waited there for me. I was so excited to get to her because I love her so very much. She is such a sweet friend, and she too LOVES my kids! She asked about Vickie and where she was. I told her of my concern for her today. This new health issue had her not feeling well today, and I was worried for her. She understood my heart and told me she would pray for her, especially being out in the heat. See what a great friend! I might have forgot to mention, my kids go to public school. I just love how God orchestrates people to love on them, good Christian people, who know us and care about us and LOVE them, just as much as we do!

Again I was reminded of my sweet little girl who just had her long beautiful pigtails cut off for this sweet bob haircut, afraid to march into first grade, worried that no one would recognize  nor remember her. Of course that was not the case, we walked in the door hand in hand, Daddy on one side, me on the other. Wouldn't ya know it, the first person to say anything was her Principal and just commented how cute her hair was. That sweet smile appeared on my little girls face once more. Everyone remembers Vickie, she is so sweet and  She is a smiler!! Oh how I love that smile!

One more station left, asked if I wanted to buy lunch tickets, a normal answer to this would be yes, but I hesitated. I looked at the two sweet ladies sitting their and began to tell them my dilemma. See our daughter was just diagnosed with something that now every thought of food that is brought up has to be thought out. Can she have that, will that hurt her? So after speaking to them, I felt better, told them No I would not need a ticket at this time, we would wait and see. My sweet little girl who bounced out of my arms when she was 5 into a world of education and new friends, will now be walking through the doors of that school to finish off her last year of high school. I am so thankful that she has been surrounded by so many who have molded her and made her into the sweet, godly, young lady she is today. I know she has the tools to succeed in college and she will be a wonderful Pastry Chef. I love our daughter SO very much and it is an honor to be her Mom. I just keep asking myself, Where did all the time go?