Prepare Your Quiver

 Psalm 127:4, "Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth." 

This has been one of our verses in parenting. Arrows in the hand of a warrior are released, sent out, not hung on to. Our children are ours for today, but the Lord has given them to us to release. We have a job to do before releasing them! This is where this shirt idea was birthed, Prepare Your Quiver. Don't just carry your arrows around, but prepare your household for the battle, for life. 

We will do an initial pre-order starting today. If you would like to order a shirt, click on our PayPal link on the right and hit DONATE or EMAIL me at marthaandal@gmail.com to place an order. Shirts are $22, please add $4 if your shirt needs to be shipped. Please specify your size when you pay, XS to XXL. 
Order by Monday June 3rd to guarantee Father's Day delivery! 

All proceeds from this shirt will go straight to our adoption costs! Special thanks to our designer, Stoney Noell at Epic Life Creative! 

Apron Fundraiser

Hello all! We have a fun new way for you to get something cute AND support our adoption! We've partnered with Scarlet Threads to sell their hand made aprons. Here's what they say about themselves.

Scarlet Threads empowers rural women through employment.

{Empowering}  In a rural area home to many farmers, taxi drivers, and laborers, there are few job opportunities for women, many of whom only have an elementary-school education.  By drawing on the practical skills they learned in their youth, we provide them with an unprecedented opportunity to earn a steady source of income for their families.  

{Employing}  By helping sell their wares in other countries where they can earn higher profits than they would locally, we provide an opportunity for each of our partner seamstresses to be self-employed in her own profitable business. 

Right now we have a few aprons available. Let me know if you're interested in any of them! To view the album, click HERE. Feel free to share the link, we can order more aprons when these are all gone. Each apron has the price listed on the photo. Shipping is a flat $7 unless it can be hand delivered by myself or a family member in Tulsa. 

Thank you for your continued prayers and support! We treasure them all! 

Their loss is our gain...

Last night as we were tucking the kids in for bed Iris prayed first. This is how it went; 

Iris: Jesus, bwess Mad-win, Kirsten, Hey, Befany, Rynie, Gigi, Captain-Huggyface in Gigi's Belly. 

I pray for Luke?

Me: Yes

Iris: Jesus, bwess Luke, she stops

What Luke Momma's name?

Me: I don't know, baby. (tears start flowing)

Iris: Okay, Jesus bwess Luke's mommy. Make her happy.

Jeremiah leaned to me and said, "Momma, Luke has two mommies right? You're his mommy and he has a mommy in Ethiopia."

These sweet prayers were a strong reminder for Al and myself that we need to be praying for this family who's loss will be our gain. It's intense to think on and without trust in the Lord, it's an impossible weight to bear. So thankful that I don't have to bear that weight. We don't yet know "who" Luke is. We pray for our son by name, we have an idea of what age he will be, but beyond what country he's in, it's all still a mystery. 

As Al and I laid in bed last night praying for our kids, we prayed for our son's birth family as well. For the loss he will experience. For the relationships he'll make while in America World's Group home. That his story will be well documented so he'll know more of who he is and where he came from. We prayed that his parents, family and any siblings he has in Ethiopia would know Christ so that one day, we can all be reunited in heaven. We know that God has called us to be a part of this little guys destiny and when we stop and think of all the details He is working out on our behalf we can't help, but praise Him. What a privilege to be a part of this story! 

Thank you for your prayers! Our home study is complete and we are moving forward with all the dossier paperwork! 

AMAZON is supporting our adoption with your purchases!

Amazon has this great affiliate program where we can make money for our adoption off of others purchases! It is so simple. Every purchase is confidential so go ahead, use the link on the right and buy your things. Bookmark our page so that each time you want to go to Amazon it will link to our affiliate page. Share this with your friends and family. The money will go straight towards our adoption costs and every penny counts! Thank you for your prayers and support, we truly appreciate it.

The link will stay on the right side of the page so check back if you loose it! This works for Amazon Prime, Business and every other Amazon account!

Coffee Break?

Hello friends and family!

Anyone who knows us knows we love coffee! Iris & Jeremiah both learned very early that when ordering coffee Mommy says, "with cream" and Daddy says, "cream and sugar, please". Well, we've combined our love for coffee with a great way to support our adoption!

We've partnered with the folks over at Just Love Coffee in Murfreesboro to bring you your favorite morning brew. With every bag you purchase, Just Love Coffee will donate a portion, (we feel like it's a generous portion!), to our adoption. So, if you like quality coffee and you'd buy it anyway, why not buy from them? In turn you'll be donating to us! This is a really neat company that supports fair-trade farmers all over the world, they help bring clean water to these villages and provide jobs for families who might otherwise be without. To order anytime, just use our link. You don't have to be local to order, this is a great mail order company. Thank you for supporting us. Every dollar counts and right now we are counting every dollar!

God Bless,
Martha

Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year!

Our holidays looked a little differently than in years past. We didn't travel to Oklahoma, or see our family as usual. It was hard, it was different, but it wasn't miserable. Christmas Eve we went to our Christmas Eve service then had dinner with the Roe's and several other families. We celebrated Christmas morning at home with just the four of us. Jeremiah expected to find snow on the ground, after his initial disappointment he was still excited that it was finally Christmas! Our dear friends, the Print's came over for breakfast and to play with all the new toys. After nap we headed over to the Liss' to celebrate Christmas dinner with the Oliver's, Lestarjett's and so many more. While we missed our family and there were some tears from me, we really did have a great Christmas. Here are a few highlights from our day.

Christmas morning excitement! 

Taking the babies with us to Christmas dinner

Iris and Lisa having some Play-doh fun! 

We are moving right along in the adoption process! We have begun our home study and the paper chase continues with applications, documents, more documents and notaries. God has been so faithful to provide through so many ways! Many of you have given us gifts, we've sold necklaces (a great success, so we'll be doing that again soon!), and we've had extra monies come in and go straight to the adoption accounts. The costs are great, but God is a great provider! Always feel free to email us any questions you have, we would love to answer your questions! We look forward to the Christmases when we have our whole family together!

Thanksgiving Update!

I just realized I didn't update about the Turkey Trot! Our Thanksgiving weekend was such a fun one, but by the time it was over we had a lot of catching up to do. It was filled with friends and lots of fun. We got up early for the race, to say Jeremiah was excited would be an understatement. After the 5k, (I ran & they cheered me across the finish line), Jeremiah and his best buddy, Blake (14) got set to run the race. When they said, "go" he ran his little heart out, but soon became distracted with buildings, police cars, even a leaf or two. I thought surely something was wrong when they were so far behind so I ran to meet them, but Blake explained that J was taking it all in. His post-race comments included, "Where were the cheerleaders" and "I thought it was a little too long". Here are a few shots from the day. Thank you to all who supported us by cheering us on, by sponsoring us and by encouraging our little guy.