Our little funny farm

Our family has grown in the last week! Mama Kitty had four new babies. There eyes are just opening.

And Britton brought home 3 ducks and...
....five chickens. Our boys are SO excited! Me not so much but I would love to start raising our own chickens for eggs and butchering so I guess we gotta get started sometime.
Aren't they cute? Not sure what were going to do with ducks but for now there cute and fun to hold.
Brysen loves them but the ducks don't love him back for some reason ;)

Hope your all enjoying this beautiful but chilly day! Blessings~

Wordless Wednesday

Our "Were Adopting!" announcement letter

" Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after the orphans and the widows in their distress and to keep one's self unspotted from the world." James 1:27

"And whosoever welcomes a little child in My name, welcomes Me." Matthew 18:5

For several months now God has been growing us, teaching us, and leading us down a very unexpected path. Now WE ( Britton, Kristy, Carter and Brysen ) have an announcement to make:


WE ARE ADOPTING FROM ETHIOPIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


We have applied for a little girl aged 1/2 year to 5 years using Christian Word Adoption Agency, and we expect in approximately 18 months we will be traveling to Ethiopia to pick her up. We are very, very excited and we are looking forward to the day when we can hold her in our arms.

Adopting a child is a dream that we never really imagined we would be doing. But we have learned that this is often how God works. We make plans for our life based on what sounds logical to us. We keep God in mind, of course, but we also give alot of thought on what seems fulfilling to us. That is when God steps in and says, "No child. Your life is NOT for your own fulfillment, it is a sacrifice to Me. Follow Me, and I will show you how to have an abundant life. Trust Me. Obey Me, and you will never be sorry you did.

And so here we are. We believe with all our of our hearts that God is leading us to do this. We now we will be faced with many difficulties as a mulit-racial family.We know that we will encounter many stares and questions. But we know that God will go before us in this and He will provide for us in every stage. He will grow us in ways that we can't even imagine right now. We believe that and want that with all of our hearts.

The question came to us lately that if the hospital called and said that they had mistakenly sent us home with the wrong child, and they wondered if we wanted to trade our son with our real biological child. We both realized, that without a doubt, the answer would be, no. We realized that we do not love our boys because they have our genes. We love them because we spend day and night with them, investing in them, and constantly praying for them. We love them so much and that is what makes us their parents.

Suddenly it seemed that everywhere we turned we were learning more about adoption. Friends that we knew were adopting, newspaper articles about the need for adoption, blogs online filled with families that have and were adopting. So we searched The Word for every scripture we could find about adoption. We encountered many passages in the Old Testament describing the special love and protection God gives to the fatherless. He commanded His people to provide for them through prayer and giving. And He promises judgment if people ever mistreat them. He promises to be a Father to the fatherless and makes it clear He will set the lonely in families (Psalm 68:5-6) He also holds close those that are abandoned by father and mother. (Psalm 27:10) It has been our prayer to have a heart more like God's and to love what He loves and to desire what He desires. God has a special love for the orphan and He desires that they be set in families. And what better way can WE love who He loves then to adopt a precious child.

As soon as we said "yes" to God's calling for our family, we decided that so many things in our life made sense. We have often wondered why we have been given such abundance spiritually, physically and materially, when so many people in the world don't have food, shelter, or the medical care they need just to survive. We have felt restless, knowing that WE were certainly made for more that quietly living out our average American lives of abundance. How were WE going to make a difference? We want to live out the words of Jesus the best that we know how and obey him with all of our hearts.

So here we go! Please, please pray for our family. We have no idea what we are getting ourselves into! The process has only begun and we know we will haft to have alot of patience. We read somewhere that "Adoption is not for the faint of heart" and already we believe that. Most days we are excited and some days were wondering if were making a huge mistake. We don't want to make it seem like it was an easy clear cut decision. Even before we were married we talked about someday adopting but it only seemed like a dream. And after casual comments over the last five years and two precious boys later we think now is as good a time as ever. We are SO excited to hold our little girl in our arms and tell her we love her! Carter is even excited and we say many prayers for his sister that wherever she is to let her know that he loves her to!

We know for some of you this will be a very big adjustment. We hope God will open your eyes to see beyond her skin color to her heart. All we ask is that you support our family by praying for us and still loving us and also that you would find a special place in your heart for our little girl and treat her the same as our boys. Please pray for our family! We need courage and wisdom from God. We love you all very much.

" If thou sayest, behold, we knew it not; doth He that pondereth the heart consider it? And He that keepeth thy soul , doth He not know it? And shall not He render every man according to His works? So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul: when thou hast found it, then there shall be a reward, and the expectation shall not be cut off." Proverbs 24:12&14

*There are 5 million orphans in Ethiopia
*Ethiopia is less then twice the size of Texas
*Between 60-150 million children in the world live on the streets
*There are 147 Million orphans worldwide
*In Ethiopia only 24% of households have access to clean water
*In Ethiopia half of the children never attend school
*In Ethiopia 1 in 10 children die before there first birthday

147 MILLION ORPHANS - minus ONE!!!!!!

"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will refuse to do the one thing I can do." -Helen Keller

Resurrection Day

Happy Resurrection Day (yesterday) BUT isn't every day resurrection day? Our whole purpose here on earth revolves around Jesus being ALIVE! Otherwise there would be no hope.

Here are my boys before church. Aren't they handsome??
woops I forgot to edit the above pictures :(
Me with my two boys missing my little girl. Hoping Gracie is home with us next year. I even found a little blue dress upstairs that I had bought a while ago that would have matched the rest of our outfits.
We went to Brittons parents for lunch. We had a wonderful meal! Then we had a little egg hunt.
They had fun :)

Cousins,Tyler and Kaitlyn, had fun helping them find the eggs.


Hope you all had a wonderful Resurrection Sunday as well. It truly is my favorite time of the year filled with HOPE and promise of eternal life. All about Jesus- the one who conquered death for our sake. New life sprouting up all around us reminds us of New Life within us because of Jesus. Blessings to you.

Daddy Love

I took this picture last night :) Britton got home around 8, so he missed our supper. These boys LOVE their daddy so much! When he comes home there is screaming and hopping around and much excitement! They want to be close to him. Britton does so good at playing with the boys after he has had a long day at work. They are blessed to have such a good daddy! They love him so much!

Shipshewana Indiana

My dear Mother and I went on a little overnight trip to Shipshewana Indiana. We had so much fun talking, shopping, laughing and relaxing. My Mother-n-Law kept my boys all day on Friday and then Britton kept them on Saturday. I felt so privileged to get away!
After arriving around noon on Friday we went and got fitted for Sunday caps. Then after shopping until 5:30 or so we went to a Amish restaurant (I forget the name). We had in mind all day that we wanted to eat at a buffet and when we arrived at the restaurant there was no buffet. SO we both ordered the sample platter which had the following: shredded ham, shredded beef, fried chicken, salad, bread, green beans, mashed potatoes, and stuffing. !!!!!!!!!! . We have never laughed so hard AND dont worry all I ate was a little meat and mashed potatoes and the green beans and brought the rest home for our supper Sat. night.
Then to top it off we ordered dessert. Mom got apple dumplings and I got this MAMMOTH piece of chocolate cake. We were laughing so hard tears were running down my face and the people around us were laughing. I brought this home for our dessert on Sat. Our meal cost $20 a piece and we decided it was for our Mothers Day gift to each other. It was a wonderful meal! And it was fun to splurge.
This is where we stayed. Very nice place. I still like the Farmstead Inn better but they had no room.
Always fun to see all the horse and buggies.
There was a horse auction so Amish from Pennsylvania were there.
We ate at the "Bread Box" for lunch on Sat.
My Mother dear.
My yummy lunch. I enjoyed every bite eating slowly since I had no one else to feed.
Back home! I bought Carter this stamp set. He LOVES it! Sad to say the shirt he has on got ruined and I just threw it away :( Mommy fault. Now he takes his shirt off :)
We had such a special time. Hopefully making it a yearly outing. I came home refreshed.

Thinking about my Jesus this week. Without His death and resurrection there would be no Hope. Thank you Jesus for dying for me.

THANK YOU!! and a adoption update

THANK YOU!! To all the dear people who gave donations for us to take with us when we go to Ethiopia! Thank you to Jenni for taking the time and effort to make this happen. It meant the world to Britton and I!
I think I counted 37 bottles! People keep asking how they can help and what they can give. I would say if you wanted to give, money would help us to get this all over there. We will take it with us but we haft to pay for the containers to get on the airplane. God has always provided through this process and I know He will help us get it all there. So thank you for all your donations! I know it will go to good use!

Gracie Update:

We got a email on Friday saying that all our paperwork has arrived in Addis from Soddo! YAY! Finally!!!!! So now CWA staff is checking all the papers to make sure we have everything and then the next email should be that our papers were submitted to court! Hopefully on Wednesday we will get that update and then we will be waiting to hear our court date! And then it will be getting tickets to go meet our third child! :)

This adoption journey has taught me so much! For the last several months I have been worrying in my head about where the 10 thousand dollars to travel is going to come from. And just like every other time in this process before we needed it God has given us the amount. AMAZING! Literal miracles. God is so good and we thank Him for supplying our every need.

Four BOYS!!!!!!! :)

Brysen looks thrilled with his lunch!! hehe Yesterday I had the privilege of keeping Bevs boys. My boys were so excited to have friends over and I got a little taste of what it would be like to have four boys! They did so good! I took them to storyhour and then my mom came for a couple hours to help just for fun :)
Lunch time!

So cute.....he ate Two hot dogs! :)
Then we went outside to play for a hour or so. It was a beautiful day!
WEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

Finally the leaves are coming back! I love spring!

So cute.....I wouldn't mind having all boys :)
Story time with Grandma Karen

They were all so tired and went down for naps right away! I was a fun day! Carter's already asking when they can come back :)

Well I should first say I have so many things to blog about that I had to write a list so I don't forget :) Since I am doing this as a scrapbook I don't want to forget all the little things we do! And while I'm typing I am texting my dear brother who I miss so much...he's studying and I'm blogging and he thinks I am SO dumb to be a blogger :)
Well last Sunday we went to Yellow springs for a bike ride with Brittons parents. It was a beautiful day! We had so much fun and one of the great things about spending a day with parents is...they buy everything! So a fun free day for us :)

The above picture is very typical. He always falls asleep 5 min before we arrive at our destination!
All loaded up. Don't you love our very old fashioned cart? We found it for 10 dollars at a garage sale and it does have a top but its easier to have it off. We love it even though it looks funny. We road 8 miles btw
Me and my children....of course missing one :( .....so weird that I'm gonna be a mama of three soon! Didn't I just get out of YF's?
Brysen LOVES to drink! He drank this whole water bottle.
My boys love Grandma Jane! I think there going to check out the waterfall down the way....
Then it was time for ice cream and rides! We rode in this little train thingy! I could barely get my legs in but you had to ride with your child. And it was kinda fun. The boys LOVED it!
Carter chose to ride in the "caboose". My MIL and I were glad we wore leggings for our bike ride. They came in handy on this ride :)
Such a neat idea for children!
Here we go!
Weeeeeeeeee! All done

Then it was time to see all the goats. They were so friendly and we spent and hour at least just feeding and petting them.



I love this picture. He was saying, "hi goat!"
Little baby goats were so cute! If only they stayed that little!
Brysen loved to feed this Mama goat. Her tongue would come out when she got the hay and Brysen would squeal and say, "ewwww!"
Then they sat on the tractors. Very typical smile from my boys nowadays. We haft to act very dramatic to get them to smile.

Who knew my husband was a cheerleader? LOL I don't think he knew what it was until we were looking at the pictures.
As I am typing, Brysen aka Dennis Pooter is peeking his head around the corner at me. He's supposed to be in bed asleep a long time ago BUT this is our second night without the paci and it is killing me! I can not stand taking it away! He is so sad about it :( Last night I rocked him to sleep and he started sucking on his fingers. It will be nice to be all done with it though.

Well goodnight Y'all! Tomorrow I'm keeping Bev's boys for the day so hopefully I can get some fun pictures of our adventures! Carter is so excited to spend the day with them! Love to you all