Crisp, Cool, Beautiful Fall!

   Welcome to my blog.  I love Fall!  It is my favorite season.  The leaves turning that crimson red, vibrant orange, warm yellow and still some bright green.   I like them so much that we've decorated our home in those colors. I can enjoy a rainy day but the cool, sunny days with bright blue skies....Lovely! Pumpkins of all sizes on porches, big, full chrysanthemums, fall wreaths hanging on doors.  I love the sound of crunching crisp leaves under my feet and I'm opening myself up to enjoying a little football - the announcer's voices, the cheers of faithful fans.  The aroma of pumpkin, cranberries and cinnamon, ooooooooo.  And, of course, the flavors that go along with those scents.  I can now pull on jeans and long sleeved shirts.  I love to sit on my back porch swing with a blanket and a good book or The Good Book.  All of it brightens my spirit!  I'm so thankful for this season.

   Our adoption has been on my mind so much lately.  Fundraising  brings out different emotions - feeling awkward to ask for help in raising money but feeling so grateful for all the support and encouragement we've been given. So amazed to see how God is providing.  I know adoption is about more than the family adopting and the children being adopted.  God brings so many people into the process to give, pray, teach, encourage, help and talk to.  He's brought kindred spirits into my life through adoption blogs.  We're adopting children who are 4-7yrs 11mo. old.  In the adoption world they are considered as "older."  I read blogs about families who are raising adopted children who have issues somewhat unique to this age range.  Our experiences in foster parenting have also contributed to the learning process.  I believe that God draws this team together to help prepare us and change us but also to do great things in the hearts of our support team.  He doesn't do anything without having a good purpose, whether we are in the giving or in the receiving.  Each gives us the priviledge of being a part of His plans, His movement, His body, His kingdom!

   Our Ethiopian children are also on my mind, all the time.  We are praying that God will bind our hearts together even now.  We don't have referrals yet so we haven't seen their faces and we don't know the details of their lives.  We ask God to heal their hearts, provide for all their physical needs, and to love them through their caregivers and little friends.  Asking Him to let them know they have a family.  God knows who they are and when they will join us.  He knows their future and He has great plans for them.  All of this gives me hope and such peace.  He may give us children that challenge our parenting skills like never before but hasn't He always given all we need for each challenge He allows us to face.  Hasn't He grown all of us in and through the struggles?  He is faithful, period.  That won't change.  That won't change!

   I'm excited about these children becoming a part of our family.  I'm reminded by young children that come into our home through foster care what joy their perspectives on life can bring.  How they simplify things and make a big deal out of the small, seemingly unimportant stuff of life.  In spite of hard times they laugh so full and so often.  It all makes me back up and take it all in.  They seem to take life at a slower pace and notice details and joys I tend to overlook like bugs, sticks, mud, long time swinging and hopping and touching everything.  You know I'm a kid person, always have been.  God's given me this gift to help me see and experience Him more.  It's about them and it's about what He wants to give me and teach me.  I know our Ethiopian kids are delightful too and I can't wait to meet them!!!  His timing is perfect, His timing is perfect, His timing is perfect... My timing is not.  I'd take them today but we still have so much to learn :)

Thanks for visiting and I hope you'll come back.  God bless, Tobi