Contentment amidst the chaos

Roaring fire. Coffee. Napping toddler right upstairs. Sweet sleeping baby right next to me. Husband at home. Pretty perfect moment.

All moments are not like this. That's what makes this so special. Last night as we were on our way to church I just took a deep breath and thought "Whew..that was a crazy 20 minutes." My next thought was, "No way I would want to go back to constant calm where we had all the time in the world to worry about just ourselves."

I love this crazy life!!!

As many people know we became an instant family of 4 the day after Christmas. We have been in the process of adopting internationally for 20 months now. It's a roller coaster of peace, frustration, impatience, trusting God's timing, and all under the theme of "waiting". We have been so anxious for our family to grow at so many points in this journey. We've dreamed of hopping on a plane to meet our children and imagined brining them into our house and letting the beautiful chaos ensue as we look at each other and say "They're finally home." Those are still our thoughts and dreams. We are still pursuing international adoption. However, amidst the waiting and the trusting, God sent us a sweet little blessing wrapped in a blue blanket with our adoption agency's name on it.

We didn't jump on a plane to bring Wyatt home. We drove a few hours and went to Target just before meeting him. The journey to Wyatt was 9 days. From one e-mail where we learned about him to the day we brought him home. We had about 36 hours of notice when we found out he was coming home! We got the "Yes" e-mail just after Santa Claus jumped back up our chimney.

God does amazing things.

I was all ready to make some awesome New Year's resolutions and run a really fast half marathon in April and read like 100 books, learn a language…who knows. Today my goals were to empty the dishwasher, wash some bottles, do laundry and drink a lot of coffee. And I couldn't feel better about what I am doing. We watch a lot of movies in this house right now, we eat a lot cereal, but my  husband bakes things like cheddar bacon scones sometimes and he's a serious diaper changer.

I'm now typing and holding a baby. My better half is making cookies. The other night our power went out while Ryan was on a formula run and I was giving two little boys a bath. We clean our house and then it explodes at least 6 times a day. We've moved to being a "pot of coffee a day" family--Keurig just couldn't keep up.

We don't have a glamorous life. We don't go to fancy restaurants. We don't have cable. We barely have the Internet. But, we have an exciting life and we know God has many adventures awaiting us.

Hysmith Update

Aaaaaannnnnddddd…..We're back!

Life has been crazy, busy, wonderful lately and at this moment I drinking my afternoon coffee and it is quiet. Like all the way quiet. Only the click of this keyboard and the sound of light rain on the metal roof. It smells like fresh baked sourdough rolls in the kitchen and my husband has the whole week off for Thanksgiving. Right now I'm operating at about 110%. I am truly thankful for this moment on this Monday.

This moment however is just a tiny snippet of the way things in our life though. Since we moved here in April we have accomplished a lot.

Such as..

• Building a house and barn, moving in, unpacking, hanging approximately 7 things on the walls, and making this place HOME
• Starting a new job (Ryan) and almost making it through the first semester already!! Being a teacher is fun because you get to divide each year up into semesters and look forward to long breaks
• Becoming potty trained (Brody-hopefully that was obvious). I'd like to thank the Elmo Potty Book for potty training my child. After a few days of reading it 30 times a day, Brody requested big boy undies and has basically been potty trained ever since. 
• Breaking a finger. (Ryan) Intramural football, watch out for guys wearing shorts with pockets. 
• Read a million books (Abby). I love being able to text Ryan and say-can you go get me X book from the library today..and my library gals always have great suggestions for me too, and let me be the first to read new books. :) 
• Trained (almost) for our next half marathon-St. Jude Memphis in less than 2 weeks!
• Sped up their running considerably (Abby). Running with Ryan and Papa (Ryan's dad, Brody's Papa, my fabulous father-in-law) can make a girl much faster, as nice as it is for them to run circles around me, I prefer not to be such a wimp
• Run 3 5k races and gotten some medals and personal records! (All of us)
• Planted a garden. We planted the garden and built a fence early this summer and we were able to harvest a few things but we have a great plan for next year…which may work better since we actually live here this time. 
• Become obsessed with things like beekeeping (Ryan)
• Become obsessed with keeping mice out of our home (Abby)
• Hosted 20 people in our home
• Hung out with some really sweet college kids
• Made a lot of great new friends
• Have lived with very limited internet capabilities since August
• Have no cable, no Netflix, no Hulu, just an antenna that miraculously gets us the Titans games and a free movie library at Freed Hardeman. Henderson also still has a movie rental store that we frequent.
• Built some fires in our wood burning fireplace
• Cooked some great food and some edible food
• Watched deer running in our field
• Gone on runs around our property
• And just generally, we have enjoyed life! 

We love our home and feel so blessed to have been able to build it while we are young and can grow our family in this house. Speaking of growing a family..here is an update on our adoption…

Moving to Henderson did not really delay our adoption process in any way because when we decided to move we still had not received a referral of children. If we had gotten our referrals while we were still in our rental house we probably would have just had to do a home study update for that home and a home study update for the house we were building once we moved in and just hope that it all worked out time wise. When we moved into the house we built they came and looked at our house so they could update our home study and we changed our address on our immigration approval. 

So here we are, all ready to be a mommy and daddy again to some sweet little babies. Our house was built, our paperwork was ready and we are just waiting for a call….Well we got a call but not the one we were hoping to get. First, let me say that we believe that our adoption agency is the absolute right agency for us to be with. We trust them, they are open with us, they are easy to work with, they handle things in a Christ like way, and they are advocates for orphans and do everything they can to bring families together. The children are their first priority. 

We learned a few weeks ago from our agency worker, who's been so great to us, that right now our agency (this is not an Ethiopia countrywide issue) cannot process adoptions from Ethiopia.  They took over an agency that is in Ethiopia and have done some really good things to get that agency working more efficiently and helping more and more children. Every few years all agencies have to renew their licenses with Ethiopia and when they went to do that and change the name of the agency they got stalled. Their license is NOT being renewed right now, so basically they cannot operate in the country with no license. There is no way of knowing when they might renew the license, if they ever do, and the words that Ryan wrote down when he was on the phone were "expect significant delays in Ethiopia" and "not optimistic about them renewing our license". So clearly, not the news we were hoping for or,to be honest, not what we were praying for at all, right?

Our hearts were so broken over this delay for so many people. Our agency, the families waiting, us, and of course the children. I am glad that Ryan decided to have the conversation with our agency because at the point of learning all this secondhand from Ryan I was a basket case for all of the reasons just mentioned. Some selfish reasons and many unselfish reasons. The second part of the conversation was slightly more hopeful though…

We had a few choices at this point. 1.) Just sit tight and pray for Ethiopia to renew the license or for our agency to possibly reapply in the spring and just start from there 2.) Leave our dossier (paperwork file) in Ethiopia and also look into starting the process of adopting from another country that our agency works with.

We chose option 2. We have dreamed about our children from Ethiopia and prayed for them daily. But we don't feel it is the best use or our time, money, and faith to just sit and wait when God might be providing other avenues. We aren't giving up on Ethiopia, but at the root of this journey was the fact that we wanted to adopt. And right now the path we chose to go down is blocked, so we are taking another path at the same time and we will see which one leads to this house being a little louder and a lot more filled with love. 

The country we decided to go with is a little bitty country called Lesotho. It is pronounces "le-soo-too" or "le-so-too". To find it on a map, look at South Africa and then look at one of the little countries that is right in the MIDDLE of South Africa. That is where we have paperwork heading. I'm going to be honest, I'd never heard of it before that day. Like, we had to look up how to pronounce it. It's a new program for our agency and has not been a big program in the U.S. at all previously. We are praying to help that change. Our agency is the only agency that works with Lesotho right now. So there was a pretty small chance that we would come to know about this country and then have the opportunity to adopt from there unless God had something to do with it. There are a ton of adoption agencies out there that we could have chosen and you would drive yourself insane to sit and wonder what would have happened if we had picked a different one. So we trust that when we prayed about our agency choice that those prayers were answered and that God will bless this scenario. 

Basically we are waiting for our paperwork to go to Lesotho and then be on the waiting list. If we do get referrals from Lesotho (probably in 6 months to a year) then we will only have to travel one time but it will be for about 3 weeks. We do not know which path (Ethiopia or Lesotho) God will continue to lead us but we are just waiting to see which one progresses. 

Whichever country our children are born in we will love it because of them. We will learn as much as we can about it and it will become part of our family. When we started this journey we felt led towards international adoption so we are going to continue down that path, as we still feel like that is our calling this time. We have no idea what the future holds but if you ask either of us, I think you would learn that we plan on our family growing for quite awhile. Though you may get a different definition for "big" family from each of us. :)

We are SO ready to meet our little ones and right now we have NO CLUE when that will be, where we will be traveling to, how old they will be, or ANYTHING!! We just know that God knows and that has to be enough. When we stepped onto the rocky ship that is adoption we knew that the waters were gong to be rough. All you have to do is read a blog or talk to someone and learn that it is NOT smooth sailing. But we are trusting God and we are weathering the storm.

Please pray for our adoption. In whatever way you feel you should, because sometimes I am not quite sure not he specifics of it myself. But most of all, pray for our children, their health, their sweet little hearts, their birth families, our agency, government workers, all families around the world who are waiting on little ones and all children who need a family, no matter where they live. 

The move

Well we survived the big move! We said goodbye to our sweet house in Nashville and hugged our friends with a "see you soon" attitude. The loading of the truck was complete by 10:45, thanks to some really helpful and strong friends. Ryan drove the biggest Uhaul you can get an Brody and I drove in our van. We pulled into our new home with plenty of daylight left. Moving day wasn't very painful. Especially since we didn't even unload the truck that day! We stayed with Ryan's parents for 2 days while we got things settled. We had the truck unloaded by 1045 am the next day and quickly tried to make it into a home.

We have great neighbors, it's a great location, and I'm pretty sure this rental house is larger than our Nashville house so there is plenty of room!

Here are some things we've been up to since we got here...
-we went to makin music at FHU on Saturday night. Brody LOVED it!! He's been saying, "go makin Music again?"
Sorry buddy, it's gone till next year- "makin music gone?" He'll fit in at freed just fine! Being at Makin Music also made Ryan and I so excited to be a part of freed hardeman- it is such a special place!!

-we planted potatoes, asparagus, blueberry bushes, corn, watermelon and cantaloupe out at 'the farm!" Brody loved dropping potatoes in the holes and he tried to eat the corn , "my eat this?" We stayed out there until about 9, with Brody planting in the dark in the amazing weather one night! Loving country life!!

- my parents came to visit and we went to a park and to Chickasaw state park- so much fun at both throwing rocks into he lake and feeding ducks Cheerios

- Brody has been slightly crazy!! He skipped a lot of naps and stayed up late a bunch but he slept till almost 9 yesterday morning (church here is at 9:30 rather than 815 like we are used to!) and he took a 4 hour nap and we had to wake him up for evening worship- our Sunday night was much better than Sunday morning :) which may or may not have involved Brody and I going to the car for 30 minutes!! Ha- thanks for those who checked on us and made me feel better by letting me know that they'd been there too! Last night and today he's been awesome and happy and back to his old self!!

- we went back to Nashville and closed on our house very painlessly. We packed up the shed and all the random items we had left inside in the dark while Brody slept in the pack n play in his empty room... This was the most depressing part of moving!!! We also slept on a non-blown up air mattress in an empty room.

- then we went to Chattanooga to have a fun baby shower for the hortons and sweet baby Neely Jane!! It was so great to see old friends!!

- now we are in Henderson and we officially live here!! No strings attached anywhere else. This weekend we've had two great times spent with friends here in town and Brody is settling in!! He asked to go back to bible class about 100 times yesterday.

Thanks to those who have let us know we will be missed in Nashville and to those who have welcome us with open arms here in Henderson! God has blessed us with so many precious people.

Oh and we don't have the Internet or anything so I typed all this from my phone, so don't read too closely!

Chapter Next

In this family we love analogies. You can usually hear them being used every few minutes around here. We think its a pretty good way of expressing one's self. Jesus did it, so it must be a pretty good way of communicating, right?

Many people like to say that life is like a book or a story and each part of your life is just another page or another chapter. I don't know when exactly chapter ONE ends and two begins, etc. So I am not really sure what chapter I've been living recently. But I do know that these 3 little Hysmiths are about to begin a new chapter...

We are moving to Henderson, TN. Home of Bell's hamburgers. some good West TN barbecue, Kid President, my sweet in-laws and the reason for our move-Freed Hardeman University. I am so proud to share that Ryan is taking a job as the instructor of finance at FHU.

We are SUPER sad to leave our really great friends in Nashville. I am really going to miss story time at the downtown library. Whole Foods is a little to far from Henderson and that bums me out just a little because I really LOVE Whole Foods. My family will be a bit further away and an extra 2 hours on the drive is never something you desire.Our church family is beyond loving and supportive to us here in Nashville and it pains us to leave them. Our sweet little house that we literally made into a home with our bare hands is going to be very hard to say good-bye to. But God has blessed us incredibly as we have prayed about and thought about this decision. He opened many doors for us and we would be crazy not to walk through them!! Especially since this is our heart's desire.

A few weeks ago we started getting our house ready to put on the market. We weren't 100% sure about the move but about 90% sure at that point. Someone we went to school with happened to be looking for a house in our area, in our price range. He bought our house. BEFORE we ever had to list it, or show it, or keep it really clean for a long time. This is such an amazing blessing!


How does this affect our adoption?
We really struggled with the idea of moving while we are still in the process of adopting. You see-we filled out approximately one bazillion papers that have THIS address on it. Ryan's employment is on half a zillion papers and our HOME STUDY was done in THIS home. So there are a lot of things that would have to be changed if we moved. Well, during this time of thinking we were still waiting on our I-600A approval-which is just a piece of paper from the Dept of Homeland Security saying that it is okay for us to bring children from another country into the U.S. We were going crazy checking our mailbox every single day waiting for this paper. Before it came we discussed that we were in the "waiting" process right now anyway and that if we were going to move that NOW would be the better time. Once we have a referral (two sweet faces to look at and waiting on a court date) there is NO WAY we would move and slow things down. Since we didn't have the I-600A yet, our paperwork hadn't been sent to Ethiopia. Long story short-after talking to our agency we feel like right now is the best time in this process to make a change. It may slow us down a few months, it may not really make a difference. Also-when we talked to our agency they let us know that they were sort of on "pause" because Ethiopia was sort of dragging their feet renewing some agencies licenses because they were wanting to make a few changes first. While this made us really sad that things may be slowing down and that children were going to have to wait longer to go to their forever families it gave us a little push to "hurry up and move". We still prayed constantly that things would be fixed so that children could join their families. We didn't care about being next in line as much as we just wanted as many children to have parents as possible. ..The day before Ryan's interview we had an e-mail that said the license was renewed and everything was moving along like normal!-Praise God! As soon as we committed to seeing where this opportunity would take us we got our I-600A approval. If it had come sooner we may be in a much more difficult place to move. So..yes our adoption may be slightly delayed while we settle down and get moved but since only God knows the timing of this story, we have comfort in knowing that it's HIS timeline-who knows what it would have been if we stayed here. We feel that God had this planned the whole time and that our family will be complete in His time.

Anyway-we've got a lot of this going on, needless to say. We're doing a lot of this..

Because we close on our house on April 19th. Yikes! Yep-we have about 3 or 4 more weeks left in Nashville.

So here we come small town life. We look forward to walking the paths that Ryan and I walked while we dated and where we fell in love. Ryan looks forward to coaching his children in tee ball where he learned to swing a bat. We are planning on slowing down a little and enjoying the people we love. Freed Hardeman University is a place like no other and we really can't wait to soak it all up again. Though we are leaving a church of God's people that meets here in Nashville we will be joining our brothers and sisters in another really special family.

Soon we will turn the page and be on Chapter  Next...Thank you God for giving us a story at all.

the life of Brody

So Brody is getting pretty close to 2. I used to blab about him all the time on this blog and realized that he isn't getting his name in print quite as much. Well, he's awesome so here you go.

(he's feeding Tigger)

I thought it was time for an update on Bro Bro, Broman, the Brodster, Brody Boo, Munchkinland, Stinker, Buddy, Lovie, the first born. Yeah, we call him all sorts of weird things. The only one I've regretted is when he had a really bad cold and I called him "booger nose". He brought me his saline nose spray DAYS later and said, "booger nose?" Oops.

So that's the main update -Brody talks.All.The.Time. He repeats pretty much anything he hears and usually strings some pretty rocking sentences together. :) Sometimes he even says, "Hey Dad?" or "Hey Mom?" as if he is 13. Those conversations usually go like this...

Hey Dad?
Yeah buddy, what is it?
Hey Dad?
Yes sir, what you got?
Hey Dad?
How can I help you Brody?
Hey Dad?
Yes?
Hey Dad?
Tell me what you need Bro.
Hey Dad?
Uh huh?
Hey Dad?
At your service man, what is it?
Hey Dad?
.......

In the past few days Brody has developed a SUPER high pitched voice.

Play Doh is awesome.

Naps are optional according to my kid. But he often practices his counting while in the bed NOT napping.

Brody is pretty polite most of the time.

Sometimes he cries for 30 minutes for no reason?

My favorite thing he says is, "hold you?" Which means "hold me."

We pretty much checked out at the end of February and beginning of March due to sickness. We did that last year. Double ear infections, cough, goopy eyes, the whole deal. Best thing about it was extra snuggles!

I gave Brody a home haircut, it's not awful.

Brody usually prays like this-"Jesus, Amen." If we remind him to say what he's thankful for he usually names a few people that he loves. It pretty much melts my heart!

He always wants to sing "wise man", "wheels on bus-go beep beep", "whole world" (he's got the whole world in His hands), and he can sing a lot of twinkle twinkle and Jesus loves me. Sometimes he requests Jesus loves children of the world.

Pretzels and hummus are still one of his favorites.

We have loved the days where we get to play outside. He is really good at climbing on the playground this year so we LOVE it!

We eat breakfast at his little play table almost every morning.

Sometimes you just need to wear a dragon robe and house shoes. The house shoes are pretty much a 24/7 in the house thing. Like, he slept in them last night, wore them all day and went to bed wearing them.

Some days we feel like awesome parents and then the Lord humbles us and we have a day where we feel like we have NO idea what we are doing. I LOVE every.single.day as Brody's mommy. I am so blessed that God shared Brody with me. I am learning so much from him and through him.

I mean seriously, how'd I get to be this kid's mom?

13.1-check

Do you have a bucket list? I don't have an official one-but I have a mental list of some things that I'd really like to do before I, well..."kick the bucket." I should write one out because I love writing out my to-do lists just so I can cross things off. It feels so good. And here is one thing that feels really good to  be able to cross off....

• run a half marathon

Yep-we did it. Ryan and I registered in December to run a half marathon in Chattanooga on February 23rd. We trained, we got outfitted, we made smoothies, we ran in the snow, the rain, the cold, the dark, and on the days we didn't feel like running. And now I am staring at my medal and race bib. And let me tell you something..I'm really proud of my wrinkled race bib and "participation medal". 

Here are some facts/stats on the race:

• It started at 8:00 A.M. Eastern time, which is 7:00 to our bodies-we got up at 6:15ish (which felt more like 5:15ish) and I woke up a million times the night before. 
• It was pretty warm for February and although we had brought many different options for race outfits my main issue was that I had been doing all my training with an ear warmer headband and hadn't trained with any other headbands.It was way too warm for the fleece headband. I had a small hair crisis. (It all worked out fine thanks to the lucky yellow hair band from a sweet friend and some bobby pins)
• I ate oatmeal with peanut butter and chocolate chips for breakfast. 
• Ryan-aka best husband ever-graciously offered to run at my snail pace rather than on his own just to make it more fun and encourage me. And so we could cross the finish line holding hands. Not joking-ladies, if you haven't found yourself a man yet-look for one who wants to cross the finish line holding hands. (literally and metaphorically) 
• I thought a 10:00 minute pace would be a pretty good choice for me to try and stick with. We started out at a 9:15 pace (I feel like its virtually impossible not to get excited and try to get away from the mob and run too fast at the beginning of a race) Mile 12 took me 11:28-yes I was still "running", but barely. :)
• I only told Ryan to shut up once. Sorry babe. That was somewhere around mile 12 and he told me to try and catch up with this lady who passed me. This is when I was in "one foot in front of the other mode."
• We ran through the park where Ryan and I walked and rode bikes when we were engaged.
• We passed the restaurant where we had our engagement dinner with our families. 
• I poured a lot of water and Gatorade down my shirt. 
• The first 8 1/2 miles were MUCH flatter than the last part of the race. 
• We used sport jelly beans as our mid-race fuel-they're tasty.  
• Neither myself or Ryan ever ran with music during our training or the race. 
• I was SO SO SO glad to see that finish line and my parents and Brody clapping and yelling for us. 
• I had a LOT of trouble walking for the rest of the day. 
• I was emotional crossing the finish line but even more so afterwards, I just kept tearing up when I saw people crossing the finish line-especially when this little boy ran out to cross it with his daddy-I cried just typing that. 
• Our official time was 2:15:19. No speed records there, but I'm super happy. 
• My goals were to get to the starting line healthy and finish the race without stopping-check, check. 
• Even though there were portions of the race that I was feeling really bad-I can't wait to sign up for another one!! 
• As I was running I couldn't help but thank God for the strong body He gave me! I am so blessed to enjoy the health that I do-that's what kept me going. 
• I ran this race because I was encouraged by friends who had done it-especially the ones who said "I wasn't a runner" because before November I had never run more than about 3 1/2 miles. EVER. And a few months later I ran 13.1!! So even if you think you can't do it-YOU CAN!!! 
• I wonder what else I can accomplish that once seemed impossible? 

Pajama Project 2012=SUCCESS!!

Grand total-108

WOW!

I am completely overwhelmed by that number. So many of you gave me pajamas! Thank you, thank you, thank you so very much!

It is really special to be in the family of God.

I was given SO many pajamas at church, just because of a blog post and a little announcement in our ladies class.

Packages arrived on my doorstep because sweet girls that I went to college with wanted to help and ordered the cutest PJs and had them sent to my house.

Family sent them back with us at Thanksgiving.

Friends gave me bags of pajamas and told me that more was coming..and more came.

Some people bought them and shipped them to us from Hawaii. Yes..really, Hawaii.

Husbands just turned a blind eye when certain wives would throw pajamas into their cart every time we went to Target.

Elves volunteered their wrapping services until late into the night.

Wrapping paper was just handed to me, without even a request.

Thanks.

Tomorrow we will get to deliver these jammies to the Rescue Mission and hopefully everyone will have a pair that works for them somewhere among the pile. I was given a list of names and sizes, so we decided to wrap those. Then we realized that if there are any additional children that we didn't have on the list, they would probably enjoy a wrapped gift too, so we wrapped the extras and just put the size on the tag. I am praying it all works out and that the pajamas make them feel special and safe.

When you come home after a long day, or your little one finally goes to bed for the night, or when you feel sick..what's the first thing you want to do? If you're like me, the answer is put on your pajamas. Pajamas can save the day.

These pajamas aren't going to change the world or anything. In fact I can guarantee that it has given me more joy than it will any single child. It means so much to me to be ABLE to do something and for everyone to help me just shows how much can happen when people work together. 

Ryan is now reading one of my favorite books: Go+Do by Jay Milbrandt. I love when we read the same books because when we talk about them it reminds me of the great parts of the book. (By the way, my husband is incredible and when I ask him to read a book, he will)

One of my favorite parts of the book is when the author asks, "How many people does it take to start a movement?" I think the optimistic/textbook/Sunday School answer is one, one person can start something, right? 

Well, he goes on to tell a story about a video of an outdoor concert. One lone person steps out into a field and starts dancing. They are just out their looking crazy, dancing all alone. And they would have stayed that way, alone, until the second person joins them. That second person goes out into the field and dances with them...and then...many many follow. 

If you know someone who wants to DO something or start something, volunteer to be their number 2. You never know what might happen. 

My heart has been broken and my mind has been spinning over the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. I have zero answers for how to even begin to address the tragedy and what to do moving forward. All I know is that there is only ONE who can overcome heartache. 

John 16:33-"These things I have spoken to you, That in me you have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

One day Jesus will overcome ALL of the evil and sadness of this world and it will just be gone. What if we  all try to bring Jesus closer to this world by BEING Jesus in ANY way we can? 

If you see someone "dancing in a field all alone"- join them. Thank you for joining me. 

And..I'm back...

No surprise that this blog had posts titled December 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and then radio silence. Good thing I'm  not getting paid to blog every day.

Don't worry-I did NOT abandon my acts of kindness-we have just been crazy busy since, well, always..but its self inflicted and we are blessed beyond measure so I won't complain.

I realized that I am in many ways really bad with structure and deadlines, etc. SO..I had to loosen my expectations on getting each thing done DAILY and will just try to accomplish all of them this month. Sorry to let you down..I'm a work in progress. Kindness IS and HAS been spread!

A few weekends ago Ryan and I dropped Brody off with my parents in Chattanooga and went to Asheville to just enjoy a little getaway and visit the Biltmore. This was a super wonderful treat from my parents for Christmas and for Ryan finishing his MBA!!! It was my first time to spend the night away from Brody and let me tell you....it was really great. I LOVE my child so so so so much but I love spending time with my best friend (Ryan). We really enjoyed just being able to focus on each other and enjoy some down time-I highly recommend a little getaway for any parents who feel a little hesitant to leave their babies. :)

The Biltmore at night. We got to go on Friday night when they had all of the fireplaces and Christmas lights lit. It was really amazing! 

 That's Ryan standing in front of that HUGE tree. He's holding a coffee. Our main plan was to have a really good coffee in our hands at all times.

 We went back on Saturday for the full walk through and we did the audio tour and a special behind the scenes tour where we got to go into a few extra bedrooms and hear some neat stories about the people who visited the Vanderbilts. This made us really want to rewatch Downton Abbey. 

 On the way to Asheville we of course stopped at a Starbucks and were able to check off one of our tasks. I remember one time we went to Starbucks and the girl at the window said that the person in front of us had paid for our drinks and that everyone in line was paying for the person behind them. I was really intrigued by the whole thing and wondered how long it went on. Who knows? Maybe the person behind us kept it going?

I don't have pictures but our other 2 weekend acts of kindess were to let someone in front of you in line-which I think we did a few times-easy! And-give a generous or unexpected tip. We were really excited to give the man at the omelet station a nice tip during breakfast. He was really sweet and his omelets were awesome. 

 If you don't know, The Contributor  is a newspaper written and sold by people who are homeless or formerly homeless. You can usually see them standing all around different areas of Nashville. They cost $1.00. If you have never read one, you should, it's a good paper! I drove around for a few minutes until I found a seller and she was REALLY appreciative. 

 

The Vanderbilt Children's Hospital website has a TON of  things listed that are super easy to round up and donate that could really make a huge difference in a family's hospital experience. Toys and art supplies to occupy the children and make their stay more enjoyable and practical things like underwear for kids and parents. We had to take little newborn Brody to the hospital and if it wasn't for great friends who came to our house and got some things for us, I would have needed some of those "practical things!" :) 

So I gathered a few things off the list and plan to make an appointment to drop it off. Easy One!

https://www.childrenshospital.vanderbilt.org/interior.php?mid=1166

Leave some candy canes on people's cars. I put this one on the car beside me RIGHT when I got out, and before I could get Brody out the owner was getting in her car. Like..we almost touched. I hope she ate it and liked it, or at least felt like she was special.

Another easy one was leaving some diapers and wipes in a restroom with a note! When would someone really appreciate a random act of kindness?? When they get in the bathroom and realize they have no diapers! I know I would.

So, technically I was supposed to make treats for my neighbors..which I still plan on doing..but I made some cookies and then shared them with friends..so I counted that. :)

Send 3 cards-I sent 1 to a relative, 1 to our recycling man, and I have one more a church member ready to mail.

I am missing several days in there. Some I am still working on and others I have forgotten because I didn't document them properly. I will really enjoy doing these things when Brody can help too.

The biggest project of all has been the pajama collection!!!! Which deserves a post of its own..so stay tuned!

In adoption news...we had our biometrics appointment for USCIS this morning. We just had to get fingerprinted and when we get approval...we will be one step closer to our littles!!! We ARE on the waiting list and we are just praying praying praying that we will know more in 2013! Thank you for the prayers! Keep them coming!

December Fourth

It's a yucky day. Yesterday was beautiful but today is a little dreary. However it was a PERFECT morning to spread a little cheer at the library.

This one was strategically placed because we usually either go to story time on Tuesday or Wednesday. I stuck it in a Tuesday JUST in case we didn't make it to story time today, we could at least make the treats for tomorrow. However..the rain encouraged us to go to story time this morning so that we could get out of the house. If you have a toddler-or maybe just any aged child-you know the blessing of getting out of the house for something fun. Especially something FREE and fun! 

I honestly LOVE the library and all of the wonderful people who work there. It is such a special treat for us each week and I wanted to let them know how much we appreciate them! 

I love a parking garage on a rainy day! 

 Puppets, juggling, stories, songs, rainbows..what could be more fun? 

And a craft! Brody's first time painting! He painted 2 mittens, one to take home and one to leave at the library to go on their Christmas tree.

Art school? That's what I'm thinking, look at those brush strokes. 

He loves books!! Unfortunately we had to make an abrupt exit from the play area when someone "forgot" how to share. There was a bucket of puppets and some sort of tug-o-war with a stranger involved, and then a short wrestling match. I won, don't worry. 

I dropped off the bucket of treats with the sweet man at the children's desk before story time. He was SO sweet and grateful and said he would make sure to spread the word. He seems a little surprised but in a good way. I actually heard a maintenance man asking him what it was and the librarian told him, "It says all library staff.." So I hope whoever wanted a cookie got one. :) 

As we were leaving another lady who works in the library was asking Brody if he went to story time, who all was there today, etc (the puppet mishap was forgotten) and she told us she hoped we came back often. I let her know we came almost every week and loved it! She said that she used to bring her children every week when they were little too. I'm glad we had the chance to tell her that we love the library, she seemed happy to hear it. 

Today's kindness act was really rewarding, and probably one of those things I would have thought about doing and never followed through with. So I am glad I wrote it down! And yes-my child is wearing shorts. 

December Third and PJ project update!

How 'bout this amazing weather? I usually don't like unseasonably warm days during the Christmas season but now that I have a little boy I will thank God for ANY opportunity to get out and play. Brody and I had a fabulous time at the park with one of my girlfriends and her little man! I had to keep shaking Brody's foot on the way home to keep him awake so that we wouldn't waste our nap on the last 3 minutes of the trip home. He promptly took a nap and I worked on our Act of Kindness for today!

I was excited about this one! Our mail man is always so sweet and Brody loves to wave at him and get the mail from him. One of Brody's first words beyond mama, dada, and bye bye was "mail man". So of course..we love the mail man!

This cookie dough is ridiculously yummy and its safe to eat because there are no eggs in this recipe. 

I watched the mail man out the window and I think he looked surprised and maybe a little confused. And yes I realize that most of you wouldn't eat something from someone's house that you didn't know..but people used to do things like that all the time...maybe he's old school. 

PAJAMA PROJECT UPDATE!!!!

I have been overwhelmed by the support that I have had with my PJ project and am so excited to take them to the Rescue Mission later this month. I got a list of the children and their sizes today so I can share some areas of need with you if you would like to help!There were almost 50 children on the list and there is a chance there could be more! Remember...just leave a comment/facebook/e-mail me @ abbymhysmith@gmail.com

I really need adult sizes of pajamas for the teenage boys and girls!! XS girls, Small, medium, large, X Large and XXL!! All sizes for boys and girls!! 

Also-size small child for boys and girls

size medium for child-girls

9 month for boy and girl

2T for girls

Multiples in all of the sizes would be great :) THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR THE SUPPORT!!!! I know the children will love their new comfy jammies!!!! 

December Second

Today's Random Act of Kindness was a pretty small, simple one.

Very small gesture and it didn't cost me much- just some quarters! The only problem was that when we went to Target today we forgot about it so after we put Brody to bed I decided to go on a little drive and find a vending machine of some kind. All of the places I drove past did not have drink machines outside or anything so I went to Publix and saw an ice machine. :) It had a change slot so I went for it! I felt like I was playing a prank or something because I was rushing around and almost giggled when I thought someone was looking at me.

I was hoping no one would see me and think I was crazy. I have no idea who will benefit from this small little act but I hope it makes someone smile. It won't change a life or anything but MAYBE it will encourage someone to "pass it on." And if kindness could spread as rapidly as germs during flu season..well, then the world would be a better place!! 

If you have any great ideas for ways to show kindness in a small or big way...please share! I am thinking this month will just kick start a great year of being kinder for our family. :) Can't wait till tomorrow!

December First

This morning I was very excited to let Ryan pull out our very first "act of kindness" from the #1 pocket!

We LOVE to do a fun Saturday morning breakfast treat so this one went right to the heart of the Hysmiths.
So we set out to see if we saw anyone who looked like they might enjoy a treat nearby so that we would have a direction to go once we had the goods in hand....it didn't take long!

Ryan ran into the The Sub House-right near our own house. Yes, we could have gone to Krispy Kreme or Dunkin Donuts but these donuts are really yummy too AND we love supporting local businesses. 

We got some donut holes because I just think there is something pretty fun about them. I happen to like them more than the actual donut or is it really "doughnut". Yes it is..pardon the commercialized spelling. 

We didn't have to go far to find our friend and give him a breakfast treat. He was SUPER sweet and when I told him I hoped he had a good day he said that it would be much better now and was just really appreciative 

So...we brightened someone's day and the bonus is it made us feel really good. Not in the way of "Oh wow we are such great people to do this nice thing..." Because Wow-doughnuts and coffee? We could do so much more.! But it made us thankful to God that we were even in a position to do something for someone else.

 We are so so so so so blessed and sometimes- until you drive up to a person, have a little chat with them and realize that people who are in much more difficult circumstances are really kind and encouraging, do you realize what a gift you have to be able to bless someone else. 

We also happened to have $1 and got this contributor from John. I asked him his name and it is also written here.His message on his paper is reminded us that it is a BRAND NEW DAY-This day has never been used. I love that! 

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning, great is your faithfulness." Lamentations 3:22-23

 I wrote him a note to tell him Merry Christmas and that we would be praying for him. Another blessing we realized this morning-we are able to bring the people who need Him before the throne of God. Wow. What an honor! If we hadn't met John this morning, we wouldn't have known to bring his name before God. And it means so much to me when I know someone prays for me by name. 

But the really special thing is this...when we sat down at the table to eat our own breakfast (yes, we got donuts too) Brody said "pray?" and we were able to pray for our friend John with Brody. The doughnuts may not change much...but if we do our jobs to teach Brody to love God and show His love to others..then this little guy might just change the world.  

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."  Proverbs 22:6

Christmas Kindness

In about half an hour it is going to be December. I am really excited about this month for a few reasons. Lots of fun activities coming up, time with friends a family, a little trip for the hubby and myself, good food, etc. etc. What I am most excited about right now is this:

I know, you're probably overwhelmed at the quality of this photo..take a minute to gather yourself and then I will tell you what that is.

It is my Random Act Of Kindness Advent Calendar!

Made by yours truly with a little gluing help from a friend. (Thanks Elizabeth!)

The gist is-each day we will pull out a slip of paper with a "random act of kindness" written on it. Not so random if I am telling the blogosphere? Let me explain my intentions here. First of all, I got the idea from another blog-which then encouraged me to do the same, so I think it's a good thing to share. I have read about where people do 30 Acts of Kindness on their 30th birthday, and things such as that.
I got some of the ideas from other people and made some of them up myself. I am really excited about every single one of them.

I am not a type A person. I am a procrastinator and I have a lot of really good intentions. I miss meetings and get dates wrong for fun get togethers and accidentally skip them. This doesn't really always work for me. I don't always do the things that I really want to and need to do. So lately..I have been scheduling my life out and it kind of helps. Meal planning and exercising are the first two areas that sort of ignited me to be more organized. I can't wait to tell you about our New Year's resolution guidelines and goals. :) ....Anyway..the point is, we all think of little things that would be kind to do and that would make someone feel better but if you're like me, you don't always do it! So...I wrote some things down..stuck them in a little pocket and plan to pull one out each day and do it. It isn't forced or fake because I want to do it. This will just help me to remember and motivate me to actually do it. And..I bet it will be so great that this will just bleed over into many more days of acts of kindness.

We also want to make Christmas about so much more than presents. We want to share with Brody that it means so much more to give to others. So it is really special to us to be able to have the opportunity to do something for someone else, no matter how small, and let Brody be a part of that.

I only have 24 days on my calendar because that is all that fit. I do want to always try and plan one big service project for Christmas each year. This year that is going to be the Pajama Project!! If you missed out on that post you can find that here: http://3hysmiths.blogspot.com/2012/11/project-pajamas-needs-you.html or just go to my post labeled Project Pajama..I still need more PJs. But I have been given about 30 pairs of jammies and I think that is awesome, thanks everyone!

These acts may be really small-but kindness goes a long way. So "FOLLOW" me and join me if you want! And if you want the quick update-follow me on Twitter @AbbyHysmith...if you're into that kind of thing.

"But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, KINDNESS, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control, against such things there is now law." Galatians 5:22-23

Project Pajamas Needs YOU!

Whether your Christmas tree is up and you've been rocking out to Bing Crosby for months, or you are a die hard "no tinsel till after the Turkey" kind of person..you are probably fully aware that the Christmas season is upon us.

Anyone you ask probably has a different Christmas tradition that they love. Some of them may be big extravagant traditions like boot prints on the fireplace and climbing on the roof to jingle some bells in the middle of the night. Or it may be popping in Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas and making some Swiss Miss. I don't know-perhaps this year you are going to implement a new Pinterest craft every single day. Oh that Pinterest...I remember making snowmen out of plastic spoons with our neighbors when I was little and I thought that was awesome. (And no-I am not a hater, my Christmas board is one of my most crowded boards.)

Whatever your Christmas plans/traditions/seasonal goals may be....I have something that NEEDS YOUR HELP!! 

One thing that many people like about Christmas is getting new pajamas to wear on Christmas Eve. Not that big of a thing-but a sweet memory. 

Did you know that there are over 50 kids at the Nashville Rescue Mission? Did you know they range from infancy to 17? Well if you didn't..now you do. 

Ryan and I volunteered with Ordinary Hero at the Franklin Pumpkinfest for their Halloween Outreach with the rescue mission kids. The lady who started Ordinary Hero had the idea one year to do something fun for the kids for Halloween and a tradition started. This outreach opportunity encouraged me to think of something we could do to make Christmas a little more special for them. Thus began...PROJECT PAJAMA! 

I e-mailed someone at the NRM and asked her if this idea was possible/a good idea. She said YES-Great idea...she knows there will probably be around 50+ children staying there at the time. (This changes often) But she thought that the same group that was there around Thanksgiving would still be there around Christmas.  I told her I would try to collect various sizes and some extras so that everyone could have a pair that fits. She is planning to be able to give me more details on number/ages/sizes next week.

But here is my plan for now......Collect as many NEW pairs of pajamas as I possibly can!!! This is where you come in!!!!!!! 

• Please purchase any sizes or styles of pajamas that you want ranging from baby to 17 year old-boy and girl!! They do not have to be Christmas themed, but can be. 
• Spread the word to friends to do the same thing! 
• Bring them to me at any service at Crieve Hall Church of Christ OR
• Contact me via email abbymhysmith@gmail.com- and I will come and get them from you or you can bring them by my house OR
• If you live out of town-you can mail them to me OR
• If you order online you can ship them to my house-just email me @ abbymhysmith@gmail.com 
• Be waiting for an update on the inventory that is coming in and what they need at the Rescue Mission
• Pray for the homeless families all over our country and about ways we can help them! 

They plan to give the children the new PJs on Christmas Eve! What a special thing (though it is small) for kids who don't have much! My prayer is that this small gesture will help the families to know that Jesus loves them so much-because we will be serving these families only in the name of Jesus because we are blessed! 

Let's make Christmas a little cozier for these kiddos!!! And..stay tuned for something I am hoping to do for the women at the Nashville Rescue Mission. We cannot do this without you-please consider being a part of this special project!! 

I want to set a goal but I am not sure what a good number to shoot for is...how many can we collect? If you want to commit please comment and if you want-follow my blog!!!!! 

Thanks!!! 

Orphan Sunday

Today is Orphan Sunday. November is also National Adoption Awareness Month. So I have a few thoughts...

This morning around 4:30 my precious little Brody woke up. His PJ's were wet and his nose is super stuffed up and he has all this congestion in his chest and you can't really explain to a 1 year old how to cough and clear his throat. Needless to say-he was sad. Ryan and I both got up and Ry changed Brody's jammies and we got him some milk and I just rocked him while Ryan changed the sheets. I love my son so much that it makes me melt when he cuddles me and hurts my heart when he feels bad in any way. My mommy heart is often an achy melty mess. Brody is such a special little boy and we are extremely blessed to be his parents.

While I was enjoying the moment of snuggling with Brody and hoping he would feel better soon I couldn't help but think that there are MILLIONS of children all around the world and right around the corner who DON'T have someone to rock them when they are sick. They don't have a clean dry pair of pajamas if they wet theirs. This fact absolutely breaks my heart. All children deserve a mommy and a daddy. Babies deserve full bellies and play time and children need to be able to go to school.

Our hearts ache to know more about our two little ones who will at some point be orphaned. We pray that God can give them peace in their hearts to know that it isn't forever. We also feel so sad knowing that there are so many children out there who will not lose their orphan status. The best thing is to have a mommy and daddy who love you and will care for you always.

I don't know about God's calling for you. But as Christians we are all called to help those less fortunate- particularly orphans.

The good news is-there are a lot of things being done to help orphans. All around the world people are doing  all kinds of bold things and all kinds of small things.

Maybe you are already doing something. Maybe you are already doing A LOT. Thank you for your example and your heart. Sometimes we know we should do something we just don't know what. So here are some ideas...

I ask you to PLEASE pray and ask God what YOU can do to serve an orphan. Here are some ways that you can DIRECTLY help an orphan.

http://www.showhope.org/Donate/BecomeASponsor.aspx Show Hope is an awesome organization that you can support in different ways. 91% of your donation will go to orphan care or to aid families with adoption. Your monthly donation would go to giving life changing care to an orphan who stays in one of Show Hope's care centers.

http://www.worldvision.org/m/sponsor-a-child/?open&campaign=1193519&cmp=KNC-1193519&gclid=CPmU1-rqtrMCFQHonAodqEgA_Q Sponsoring a child through World Vision is a little different. These children may not be orphans but your sponsorship could very well keep them from becoming one. If there school is paid for and they have basic needs met-it really takes the burden off of their parents who so desperately want to provide for them and do not have a way to do so. Many times when parents are unable to feed their child or send them to school they relinquish parental rights or worse-sell them as a slave.

Visit my  link to http://www.147millionorphans.com/?AffId=94 on the side of my blog. There are some great Christmas gifts there and 1. It will help raise awareness to the orphan crisis and you can learn a lot more about the organization and the work they are doing. 2. It will help our adoption efforts 3. Even if you don't want to purchase through our link-just check it out-your purchase will help children in need all around the world!

Our hearts are really aching for children that we know NOTHING about. We are passionate about children in need of families and care and we want to be more involved in whatever little part we can. We want to encourage others to care for orphans and take a new step and leap of faith each day to learn more and do more. God has blessed us so much and I can't imagine not being a child of His. What if someone hadn't cared about me  when I was an "orphan" Boy do we have a LONG way to go to be the people that God wants us to be-and I'm sure we will never actually get there.

Our hearts and minds are open to more than just adoption-if anyone has encouragement or needs something-we are ready to get our hands dirty-literally and figuratively.

PRAY-PRAY-PRAY!!! Speak up for those who don't have a voice!

Books and 27

I absolutely love to read. Its my favorite hobby ever. I think a book can change your life because it can give you access to someone else's life and in a small way, experience that life in addition to your own.

My husband knows me well. This month, on the 21st, I turned 27. Ryan declared it  birthday month for me and on about October 2nd-he started giving me my birthday presents. I got 8 books for my birthday and we also built a book shelf earlier this month. I have a really sweet husband. You might be offended if you got 8 books for your birthday-I am super excited about it. I've read 4 of them.

Oh-most of the books were used which means they were super cheaper than they would be new which means-he splurged on hard back for me. Also-in our family we have started "birthday week punch cards". Right now its a metaphorical punch card but in the future they will be real. Each day for 7 days leading up to your birthday you get 1 punch! I used most of mine on Christie Cookie, Chick Fil A, and entertainment choices-a Sunday hike, a Friday date while the Palmers played with Brody-thanks :)

Here are the books I got for my birthday-so far, all of them are slam dunks.

This book was so good and eye opening. Once you get through the heart stopping grief that launches this story you can't put it down. If you're looking for a light happy story-this isn't it. But if you're into the kind of books that change your heart and help you learn more about the world and people who have experienced tragic loss, along with a lot of triumph-READ IT TODAY.



GO + DO was the perfect encore to Jantsen's Gift for me. This book is written by a man and  I don't read many books authored by males so I liked the difference. There are so many capacities of serving and reaching out to others and this one is written by a lawyer-most lawyers don't get credit for saving the world, so if you know someone who is interested in law and wants to help people-give them this.
 

Unbroken pretty much left me sleep deprived and amazed. I stayed up past midnight several nights in a row because I just couldn't put it down. What a story! This is pretty high on my favorite books ever list. I don't know what else to say about it-just read it.




Anything-this book really spoke to me. It put into words a lot of what I've tried to put into words and instead just made up a bunch of really bad analogies for how I feel. I think Ryan appreciates when I finally read something and can say-this is it-this is what I've been trying to say. Because then we can all sleep.


I sort of think that all of these books were written with the purpose to be life changing for Christ. Now the Bible is obviously THE book for such a thing, but sometimes when we read the stories of people we can meet or look at pictures of-it just helps us see the bible in a whole new way. I'm still letting them all "simmer" but I'm pretty pumped about their affect on me.

Still to be read...






Very excited about all of them! If you have read any of these let me know-I love discussing books! I may even let you borrow one, as long as you return it. :) I like to "encourage" my hubby to read books that I love so that we can come a little closer to having the same brain. (Wouldn't that make some things easier?)

So I am 27. I don't have a lot of wisdom to impart except that I am SUPER blessed. I have an amazing husband, a precious son, and hopefully sometime before I'm 37-2 more precious souls will join our family. We have a home that is cool in the summer and warm in the winter. I actually have to decide what to wear each day which means I have more than one thing to wear. Grocery shopping is something that I can do any time I want. I know how to read and can own any book I want. I can proclaim Jesus on the internet or in a store or anywhere I go (and I still don't do it everywhere I go-even though no one will throw me in jail or behead me.) I stay at home with my kid every day and we have to "find things to do" so we don't go crazy. Eating too much is the problem and running and walking are forms of exercise that I need to do more and not forms of getting around. My house is a wreck right now because the boss-ME- doesn't seem to care. Teaching my toddler to share is my hardest work assignment right now and the worst thing that happens to my son each day is having to come inside from playing.

Right now-at 27 I have some perspective. Maybe its because we are in the process of adopting from Africa. Maybe its because of these books I have been reading. I don't know-maybe God has given it to me because I need it so badly. Yikes I am blessed and I don't want be ungrateful or belittle my blessings. I want to share them and  be grateful for them! I want to want less and give more. I am so not a finished project and I have such a long way to go. I hope I'm doing a little better than I was at 17 and I pray that I have the opportunity to be better at 37. My talents are limited but my heart is open. If you like to shut out all of the bad things that are going on in the world-DON'T, because you just might be the person that God wants to use to do something about it. It might just be me. I'm not sure? But I hope my ears are open too-so I can hear what's next.

God Provides

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6

When your calling to do something overcomes your fear...that is when you can finally trust God. Some people may find the choices that others make irresponsible or hasty. Sometimes we make irresponsible and very impulsive decisions. Sometimes they don't turn out well. Adoption, isn't one of them.

Some people do not feel like they can adopt simply because it costs a lot of money. Its hard to figure out how to pay for things but there are a lot of families who just jump in and trust that the money will come. We are one of those families.

For those of you who have been wondering how much adoption costs, I'll just tell you. Our agency estimates that in 2012 the Fees and Expenses would come out to about $32,000.

The fees cover things like processing of paper work, the time it takes our social worker to come to our home and interview us and then type out a report to be sent with our dossier, fingerprinting and background checks, translation of our papers, registration of our documents, post adoption reports, travel, and different documents that cost money.

We are hoping to adopt 2 children. The fees will  not be twice as much but we are looking at a total of something like $40,000 or more. We are not trying to raise $40,000. We are doing everything we can to pay for every part of this adoption ourselves. But it is a little overwhelming at times, but then we remember that God is a part of this journey.

Last weekend some friends of ours hosted a support dinner for us. They wanted to (1) Make people aware that we were adopting and (2) help us any way they could with our funds. These friends of ours are precious treasures from the Lord.

I did absolutely NOTHING for this dinner other than show up. They sent the invitations and cleaned up afterwards and EVERYTHING in between.

The dinner was absolutely special and wonderful. The tables were beautiful, the food was delicious, the guests were so kind, the music (which I am listening to right now) was so sweet, the slide show was heartwarming, and the video they showed even worked! There were pictures of us and a really cool cut out of Africa with a bible verse on it. They came and got my 147 Million Orphans stuff and lots of it sold.

There was also a table with a bowl and some envelopes. The girls made an announcement at the dinner that they had raised over $1500 for us!! That is so HUGE! Now, back to that bowl...when we got home and opened up the envelopes we counted $2,760.   Several people gave us donations over the next few days.

Because these girls decided to help us, we are more than $4,500 closer to the goal!!! That's a really big deal!! Plus now that many more people know our story, we have that many more people praying for us! At the dinner they also left note cards on the table for people to write us notes and the kind words that people left us mean so much to us.

God has provided for us in so many ways and we are so grateful! The people in our lives are great instruments of his handiwork! Thank you so much, we are blessed and really don't have the right words to express how thankful we are to the people who worked on the dinner for us, those that came, those that donated, and for the ones praying for us...we love you!

I know there were other wonderful people who helped, thank you so much!!! IF ANYONE HAS FRIENDS WHO ARE ADOPTING AND YOU WANT TO HELP THEM.....Please contact me abbymhysmith@gmail.com, because this was a really great event!

Please pray for us as we await the next step in our process to be completed..it is hard to wait but boy are we growing!!! :)