"But I'm comfortable"

Ozzie and I are about to enter a new season of life. We are being licensed to become foster/adoptive parents. We are excited to see what God is going to do, but also at the same time unsure of what is ahead of us. How did we get here?
We have always had a deep down desire to adopt, but left it at just that. I had always thought that we would adopt internationally, but Ozzie was open to adopting through the foster care system. I thought that was too risky because the kids might be taken away or it would have to be an open adoption where the birth families are involved. As time went by, God began to change my heart and I gave up those excuses. Ozzie then was waiting for the right time to start the process. You know just like before having kids you want to have all your financial ducks in a row. God also changed his heart so that even though our "ducks" weren't completely lined up, we needed to be obedient and take the step of faith of starting the process.
We anticipated the process of being licensed would take about a year, but so far it has gone faster and easier than we expected.
As things began to come together, my anxiety began to kick in. I began to wonder all the "what ifs" that might happen, all the practical "what ifs" of bringing a new child into our home. As I began to pray more and get to the bottom of my fears and excuses, it all boiled down to the reason that I kept repeating to myself, "But I'm comfortable"
It was as if God was asking me to open my home, my life, my family to minister to a child who needs a home, love, a family and my response was But I'M comfortable. What a pitiful excuse for not being obedient to my Savior who gave up His throne in heaven to live a life of serving and giving on earth and then give His life for me.
I know that we all will have to make sacrifices on this path, but as Romans 12:1 says we are living sacrifices. The remainder of the chapter spells out for me what this means: let love be genuine, love one another, show hospitality, contribute to the needs of others. I can't be comfortable and sacrifice at the same time. But I also have all His promise that His divine power will give me everything I need to do His will (2 Pe. 1:3). So is there any place more "comfortable" than being in the center of His will - absolutely not!

Summer of projects

This has been the summer for projects. A break from homeschool means I have more time to get some "stuff" done around the house. We've been busy both indoors and out. Here are the projects we have taken off our to-do list.
1) Painting exterior of our house - most of it is done in the front at least. Once the heat hit full steam, I chose to work on indoor projects. We painted our front door a dark brown color and we have been pleased with how that turned out.

2.) Scraping popcorn ceiling in family room - We spent Memorial Day weekend on a project that has been at the top of our list for quite a while. We scraped the ugly "popcorn" texture off the ceiling in our high-ceiling family room. We then painted and learned an important lesson that caulking before painting is not necessary, nor should it be rushed. At least we were done by Memorial Day, so we could go swimming with the kids.

3.) Glazing kitchen walls- I have never really liked the color of the walls in the kitchen. They were a little too yellowy for the texture of the walls. I had this perfect glaze left over from the countertops/hutch, so I thought I would try it in the kitchen. I was very pleased with how it turned out and it cost me nothing and only took a couple hours.

4.) Laundry room - Our old laundry room was boring. I have to walk through it all the time to go between kitchen/school room (computer) not counting the hours of laundry. It was plain white with dinged molding, very yucky and sterile. I wanted a laundry room with personality, something that inspired me to be better about laundry (hopefully :-)). I serarched the internet and found some inspiration - with inspiration.
These are "sheets" with verses hanging on a clothesline. My painted version is no where as professional as my inspiration room, but at least it gets the same idea across. I also painted a message center on the main wall. It is a magnetic chalkboard which will hopefully help keep us organized. I took down the old paper measuring "sticks" and put up real wood ones. Lots of paint was involved in this little room, but I am pleased with the outcome.

5.) Garage shelves- Not a smart time to take on a garage project, but we took it on anyways and now have an organized garage. It's nice to have organization greeting us when we come home. This was also a fun wood-working project for Ozzie and I. Which encouraged us to take on the next, prettier one.

6.) Ketchup's loft bed - We wanted to have an extra bed in Kailee's room and she picked a loft bed from my new favorite website www.knock-offwood.com
It took a week and it is really sturdy. Not bad for only $115 on supplies (not including mattress). The hard part was having to rearrange the whole room after the ladder was too close to the ceiling fan. Here is the pretty new loft bed with a reading area below. When it was finished, Kailee made sure that Benjamin knew that when she was at her desk that she was having her "quiet time" and he should leave her alone.

So why all the rush to finish projects......you'll have to find out in the next post.

Summer camps

Kailee and Benjamin were allowed to pick one summer camp to participate in this summer. Benjamin chose Superhero Camp and Kailee chose Creative Arts Camp.


Superhero Camp came first and Benjamin had a lot of fun as they learned about staying fit and healthy. His favorite part was the "fun bus" which was a gymnastics class in a green polka-dot school bus. The last day they could dress up like a superhero and then they performed a couple songs they learned for all the parents. I had wanted him to wear his Ironman costume (which is red), but he opted for Wolverine instead. It's a good think because he would have been really hard to find in the middle of all those red t-shirts if he wasn't wearing the bright yellow Wolverine get-up.


Kailee had auditioned for a role in the musical they were doing for creative arts camp, "Music Man Jr." She was able to be an Iowa townsperson, performing in the song "Iowa Stubborn." This was our first experience with CAC and I am so impressed with all the talent these kids have and what they were able to do in just 2 weeks, which is amount of time they practiced and presented in.

Here is a picture of her on "Wacky Wednesday" when she could dress up wacky and crazy. She went into her closet the night before and came out 5 minutes later dressed like this. Reminded me of a hot pink 80's version of Madonna.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Yesterday, Ozzie had a birthday celebrated with a birthday rap and followed by cake and a baseball game. We have been blessed with a wonderful daddy for the kids, husband and best friend for me, and man of integrity to lead our family.