family update: the mowens

today we’re checking in with one of the previous Give 1 families. remember the mowens? they adopted little jacob in may. when they were in ethiopia to finalize the adoption, brad (the dad) spent a lot of time playing soccer with the older boys at the care center. they got to know a boy named isaiah who was 10 years old. they talked to the in-country staff about him and found out he had a baby brother named kaleb. but the mowens were told the boys were not adoptable at the time. they were saddened by this news, but they were determined to adopt again.

when they returned home with jacob, they started the process of having their home study updated. it look longer than they expected, but they trusted God’s timing. when it was finally updated, they immediately looked at their agency’s waiting children list. i’ll let tara mowen tell you the rest: “I about fell over to see THE BOYS that we knew and loved on the computer. We were told that they might not ever be adoptable and HERE THEY WERE. I sent Brad a text message about checking the waiting children list, and I quickly got a phone call back from Brad. He was sobbing saying ‘They are our sons. They are really on the waiting children list.’ God's perfect timing- they were paper ready THE SAME WEEK we were approved!!!!”

since accepting the referral of isaiah and kaleb, the mowens have been faced with the challenges of affording not one, but two adoptions… within months of completing the process for jacob. they needed to raise a lot of money, and they knew they would need to do something drastic. so they sold their house! seriously. they cut their housing expenses in half and used the equity for the adoptions. and get this, their house sold the day after they accepted the referrals.
they are eagerly awaiting their court date, which is Dec 21. but until then, they are hoping that God will continue to provide, just as he has through this entire miraculous story. they need to raise more than $20,000 for travel and other fees. if you want to give the mowens the best Christmas present ever, send your gift to:
Lifesong for Orphans
Mowen Adoption #2363
PO Box 40 / 202 N. Ford St
Gridley, IL 61744

(even better, your gift is tax-deductible, so you can squeeze in another deduction before the end of the calendar year.)

we are in awe of the mowens and their incredible faith and fortitude. but as tara mowen said, “…if there is anything we have learned in this process it is that God is bigger than anything we think might get in the way!”

Seems Familiar.

I love this illustration and it's one of my favorite verses ever, though I'm pretty well positive CS Lewis doesn't get to take the credit for it. He said a lot of wise things, but this one sounds familiar... :)

Anyhoo, I thought I'd let you know how the week is going with our Family of the The Week, the Daigles. They have raised, at this point, around $500 (*update. make that well over $700!) towards their adoption and are so happy about it, guys. But I thought maybe we could go a little further and pray for them during their adoption as well. So I asked Mama Daigle what areas she could use prayer in and here's what she said:

Pray for our kids! This would include praying for our new little guy, wherever he is, for safety, provision, health, all of the things you are praying for your little ones. Also be praying for our four dudes 'back at the ranch.' This will be a big change for them as well. Pray for them to be ready when the big changes start coming.

Pray for patience. We just got off the conference call with AWAA-Ethiopia. It was the kind of information I love...processes, details, flow-chartable kind of stuff. I love the details and I am typically obsessed with the How's and Why's. I'm the kind that needs patience.

Pray for funding. I'm cleaning an office building twice a week and keeping a friend's child. All of those pennies are adding up. Pray that God keeps providing ways to add pennies in the bucket!

I would love it if we could just stop what we're doing and go to God in prayer right now on behalf of the Daigles and all their boys, the birth mother of their soon to be son, and the authorities that help make this adoption possible. And if you haven't given to their adoption yet, there's still time for a few more days. Click right here to donate to help bring Micah home.

Fair Trade Christmas

My friend, Jenn came up with this awesome pinboard that deserves it's own post. You see, a lot of our kids are coming from a far off land where children aren't cherished, they're cheap labor. And their work is dangerous. And it needs to stop. How can you change it? Vote with your dollar. Here are a few choices when you're looking for Christmas gifts.



And I know it's more expensive sometimes. Hear me out, I know. But it's worth it. I'm starting to make some changes in my own life. If you're interested in learning more about fair trade and child labor click here for an interesting article that smacks you upside the head and sort of helps puts things into perspective.

What's in Your Bag of Tricks?

Hey guys, me again. For today's little installment of Peaceful Parenting I'd like to open a discussion. I want to know what's in your bag of tricks. The truth is my bag is sparse. It's often large, often forgotten, and usually feebly packed. SO when attempting a peaceful venture out in scary public, what do you bring to smooth the journey?

New week, New Family...

And this week we are welcoming the Daigle Family to our happy little blog.



Aw, look, there they are. ALL BOYS, ladies. Count em. One, two, three, four, and FIVE on the way! I'm giving her extra $ just for sheer courage and enthusiasm. Would you like to hear a little more about the Daigle's adoption? Come watch their video over here or visit their blog here. We busted a THOUSAND dollars last week with the Martinez Family. Want to see if we can do it again? Hit that donate button!!! ***insert rowdy imaginary applause and battle cries***

Peaceful Parenting: The Calm Down Jar

You guys, I have so much to tell you today. Pardon me if I'm a little all over the place. Let's start with Peaceful Parenting this lovely chilly Thursday. This week I attempted a pin that I saw on Pinterest. It seemed ridiculously wise. It's a Calm Down Jar. It's designed to be used to help your kid chill when they're all spazzy. You put in a tube of glitter glue, a cup of hot water, and a little extra glitter. The glue will make it fall slowly and your kid should watch it until the glitter settles back on the bottom.



The thing is that my kids hate it. They totally know it's just a prettier time out. Will whines the whole time. I try and tell him that it's pretty and just relax and watch it, but he protests so much that it is far from peaceful. So this week it's a Peaceful Parenting FAIL for me. Got any other ideas for spaz time?

Moving on to more updates. I told you this week that we decided to go for a 4 or  5 year old girl. Well, I know you totally don't care about every detail of our adoption, but I'm going to keep you up to speed because some people are following along to learn about the process. So here's the scoop. We've made one last final change. It's going to be a 2 or 3 year old girl for us after all. Studies show that the best case scenario for adopted families are to go with a child at least a year younger than your youngest. And for us that's 2 or 3, so that's our final decision. That also means that our wait time is going to be quite long. So you're stuck with me for a while.

Ok, now a goofy update. Remember last weeks' little sewing project? Check it out. I finished one! I love her. My friend Destiny makes fun of me every day for my freakish new doll obsession, but can you blame me?! She's so cute. And tiny. I know you can't tell how tiny she is, but she's only six inches tall. I decorated a mailer box from paper source (with watercolor, collage paper, and glitter) and made it her little "house". My daughter loves her to death, but this little sweetie is Africa bound. I'm putting her in a blessing bag, so some little girl will get a fun surprise. There will definitely be lots more of these happening before Christmas.



And one more update. The Martinez family now has over $1000 including the Dollar Mob donations!!! I have been waiting for us to bust 1K for a few months now and YOU did it. That's a big chunk, you guys! Thank you to everyone who ever told anyone about this blog or this family or one of our other families. Thank you for everyone who's ever donated and everyone who's ever added something to the shop. Just thank you! You guys are my favorite people.

Trust me. You don't want a picture today.

Pardon my lack of posting today. I'm here and I'm cool. But Abby puked in my car today. That's the kind of day today is. :P

And you don't need a photo to go along with that, do you?! Haha. I promise I'll be back tomorrow morning for Peaceful Parenting.