Happy 1/2 Birthday, Caraline

Today was Cara's 4 1/2 birthday. She enjoyed the day. She wore her little "Birthday Princess" pin yesterday in preparation and asked me to make cupcakes. Last night as I was getting everyone in bed Jake reminded me that I hadn't bought the stuff to make the cupcakes for Cara so he and I made a late night run to Kroger! He remembered that she wanted chocolate with white icing, which I thought was very sweet.

We haven't celebrated half-birthday's in the past and we don't give the kids gifts. I just try to make the day a little bit more special than an ordinary day. Cara is all about a celebration so she woke up bright and early and said, "Mommy...how old am I today?" I said, "4 1/2" and she ran to wake Jake up and tell him!

Jake received several "Book It" coupons for Pizza Hut that we hadn't used yet so we had planned to do that for dinner. Jeremy didn't make it home as early as I hoped and the kids started to get tired. They ended up wanting to get in p.j.'s. By then I was tired too and didn't really want to go out. Luckily, my Mom called and invited us to her house for a great home-cooked dinner. I was really thankful since I hadn't made anything thinking we would go to Pizza Hut. Jeremy got home and we all headed down there. I took the cupcakes and we sang a few times and everyone took turns blowing out candles. Lots of fun!

It is so funny to me how something so small can be so much fun to little children! I love it!!

We don't do the same thing for each child. Jake picked some special treats in Pennsylvania b/c we were traveling on his 1/2 b-day and I think we will have ice cream cones for Abby. She loves a good soft serve cone :).

Kindergarten Graduation

Jake officially graduated from Kindergarten last night and what a joy it was to watch our little guy sing songs and praise Jesus! He has learned so much over the last several months. He has grown academically, emotionally and spiritually! We can not be happier over the decision to put him at this school. He has been well-taught and well-loved. We are thankful for the investment his teacher made in his life.

Tonight he told me how much he loves me and then he said, "But I do love Jesus more than you and Daddy." Yeah!

All of the children were adorable and we enjoyed the program so much!! I got to be at all three rehearsals and I am so glad to be able to be a part of his "school life". Jeremy and I both enjoy volunteering at school. Jake seems to love it when we are there for field trips and parties. I am thankful that Jeremy was able to go on field trips! How great is it for Jake to know that he is important enough for Daddy to take off work to go??? Do you think he gets it? I don't know if he gets that it is hard for Jeremy to do that, but I know down the road, maybe even when he is all grown up, he will have those memories.

Okay, so on to the pictures.

Here he is on his last day of school. Jeremy got to take him and he went in and got some pictures for me. I wanted to compare first and last day pics.


The picture below is a video they showed where the children told what they wanted to be when they grow up. Jake said he wants to be a strong man :) !

CONGRATULATIONS BUDDY!!

End of the School Year Activities

This morning I had the opportunity to help with Kindergarten graduation practice. Actually, I get to go tomorrow and Thursday also. I can't believe another school year is coming to an end. Can he really be headed to first grade in the fall??


As I sat there and did my job (pressing the play button on the boombox at just the right time), I was reminded of how thankful I am for the people investing in my little boys life everyday. Knowing that he is in good hands when he is away from me is a blessing! I really do love that not only is Jake getting a great education, he is learning about Jesus at the same time. It was a great little program and I know I will enjoy it each time I get to hear it. By Thursday night I think it will be 4 times! My favorite is the last song, but I won't spoil it since the Grandparents all read my blog :)!

After school today we went to a picnic at one of the little girls house. Lots of fun was had by all! She had lots of kittens roaming around and a couple of big cats. Here is a picture of the kids peeking under the deck to try to watch a big cat eat a chipmunk it caught! Kind of sad, but very exciting to a bunch of 6- year olds!

Birthday Shirts

One of my favorite things about this little business of mine is that I can easily do things like this. These are birthday shirts for the precious children at Love and Hope Children's Home in El Salvador. I look forward to sending these every couple of months. Love and Hope does a great job of making each child feel special.
(If you are worried they can't read them b/c they speak Spanish...they take English classes so I try to use a font that is easy to read)

More on WHY

We get so many questions about our adoption so I will try to answer as many as I can...

1. Why El Salvador?

After literally countless hours of research over the last few years, we have chosen to adopt from El Salvador for a few reasons. Besides the fact that God has pulled our hearts toward that country, some of the other realistic reasons are:

- Travel was doable considering we have three other children. We are hoping to have some miles saved up from my American Express business card to pay for our airfare. Depending on how old Jake is, we may take him with us.

- There are many orphans in El Salvador who need homes due to extreme poverty.

- We fell in love with the children at Love and Hope Children's home and are learning so much about the country and people from them.

- The fees are substantially lower in El Salvador. Instead of $30,000 to 40,000 they are around $20,000. This was not quite as overwhelming to us.

- Our child may actually come to us from foster care which would e nice opposed to coming from an orphanage. The people are very loving there and would take good care of him while we wait to bring him home, which is a comfort to me.

2. We were asked why we don't just give the money to an orphanage as opposed to adopting.

For starters, we don't have $20,000 sitting around. We are working our tails off trying to save and raise the money to bring this little guy home. But, if we did have it, we would not do that because we believe that children should grow up in a home with a family NOT an orphanage.

3. We have been asked how we could love someone who is not "ours biologically"-

That has never crossed our minds. I hope it doesn't. God loves us unconditionally and He loves each of our children. We will too.

4. How old will the child be...

Our request is to adopt a child that will be the youngest in our family. Abby will be about 3 1/2 when he comes home so he will hopefully be 0-18 months.

5. How are you going to pay for this?

Honestly, I (Jeni) ask God this question all the time. I don't know. I don't know how we paid for all of Abby's and my medical bills the last year and a half. I don't know how we paid for new flooring to help Abby's asthma. Some things just weren't in the budget, but they were paid for. God has provided for us faithfully over and over.

Our goal is to come up with as much of the money as possible without taking out a loan. I am working very hard with Carabella's. It is a young business so there are a lot of expenses, but it is growing and we are excited about that.

We are going to apply for as many grants as possible and we are going to save as much as possible. We are open to any fundraising suggestions too. Basically, we will do whatever we need to do to bring our little guy home.

That's it for now. If you want to read a great book on adoption, our current favorite is "Fields of the Fatherless." It is short and easy and it is awesome!!

Cuties from El Salvador

Knowing that we most likely have 2 long years to be in this "process" we thought it would be neat for our family to sponsor a child from El Salvador. There is a great home that I have posted about before on my blog and also on my business site called Love & Hope Children's home. God is doing neat things there. Abandoned children, some whose parents are dead, are being raised in a home with parents and siblings. They are being nurtured, educated and loved, and most importantly, they are learning that Jesus loves them and has a plan for their lives!

The home has a sponsorship program. For $25 a month they are able to meet their basic needs. They also encourage sponsors to visit their children at some point. Jeremy and I thought it would be so cool to get to sponsor a child that we would someday get to meet when we pick our little one up. I hopped on the website and picked out an adorable little boy. Jeremy of course, picked a cute little gir. This is typical for us so we decided to sponsor both. Their pictures are on our fridge and as a family we pray for them and are eager to send them things (letters and such). We wish that they could join our family, but they are not considered adoptable so we will just look forward to meeting them.

Why We Want to Adopt

I can't say it any better than this video below. There are too many children who are growing up without a Mom and Dad, without a family to love on them and take care of them. We want very badly to bring a child into our home to be a part of our family. We don't know where, we don't know how, but we know that God is bigger than us and He has a heart for children.

Hidden Treasure

We had disappointing news from our agency this week. It is not looking like El Salvador will work out. We will likely have to start over with a new agency unless something big happens. Pray for us that God will help us to be patient. Another difficult thing for me this week was reviewing the file of a precious child in Taiwan. I didn't think that it would be a fit for our family, but reviewed anyway. That was my first file to go through and some of the things I read made me deeply sad. I called Jeremy and said, "Do you realize how much we don't have to deal with." We have three very healthy children. We love them and take care of them. They wake everyday knowing they are loved and they go to bed at night without fear for the next day. God has blessed us more than we even understand.

I know this will be a life changing journey. I don't know that I was quite prepared to venture into what the world can be like for an orphan.