LETTER FROM BRENT!!!!! :)

We have got at least three letters from Brent. He sends them to my mom and then addresses them to us all that way it saves his time. I love the days mom calls and says we got another letter! We read and reread them!! We really miss him but the letters really help! Here is his recent one that we got...
Dad, Mom, Britton, Kristy, Carter, Brysen
My haircut looks funny and my ears stick out far. It feels good though not to have to worry about messing with your hair. There are a couple people here that I know and don't mind. I met a couple people in Detroit. The waiting was not fun because me and Cameron were very nervous. They gave us meal checks for $25 dollars so I ate at McDonald's and Chick fil A as my last meal.The plane ride was good. When we got to Savannah Georgia we walked off the plane and we were all just standing there when all of the sudden there was like four drill instructors that came out of hiding and started screaming in the middle of the airport. We got on a bus then and when we pulled up to the gate more drill instructors came on the bus and told us to put our heads down. We drove around the island for like a half hour and it was very freaky! We were very nervous. When we got off the bus it was something I cannot explain. Those next two days sucked because we didn't sleep at all. The haircut made our scalps bleed because it was so quick. Receiving was not fun at all! We met our Drill Instructors Sat.. Today is Sunday and we are on Training day 5. Monday is training day 6. We have alot of classroom time. Usually we wake up, eat and we march there then we march back. We get our rifles and packs and march to the exercise field. We work out and do Martial Arts or whatever then march back and stack all of our gear. Then we march to chow hall. Then march back to our squad bay and do whatever for a little bit then we march to classroom and usually have two classes then we workout. Then we march back and do whatever. Then we go to chow time again and then we march back and do whatever until bedtime.
Things I want to eat: Pizza, cookies, Jello, Pie, Culver's, Coffee Cake, Teriyaki chicken, rolls, cheeseburger soup, juice, pretzels, Coldstone Creamery.
I am always hungry! We cannot have any medicine. The boots are very comfortable.
THINGS TO MAKE WHEN I GET BACK
Pie- apple, peach raspberry, pumpkin, cherry
Bread- home made white, and cinnamon rolls
Cake- German chocolate, pecan, red velvet, jello
Meat- steak, teriyaki chicken, turkey, salmon, ham
Pizza- Indians, BBQ chicken
Cookies-the white powdered, chocolate chip, the one with the candy bar in the middle
Desserts- the cupcakes you make in the morning that Grandma used to make, the cherry things, jello with marshmallows
nutter butter and Oreo cookies, pringles, coffee cake, captain crunch
Side dishes- scalloped potatoes, deviled eggs, gourmet potatoes, green beans with bacon, cheese and meat chip dip, Christmas candy with coconut in the middle, pringles.
Today we did pugil sticks and I beat my opponent twice in a row. We only went twice and the drill instructors were laughing.
I'm finally learning how to eat to get full. I choke alot on my food. I get 3 pieces of bread my ham and hash brown and make a sandwhich with all that, then eat it. Then I eat my eggs, cinnamon rolls, banana and apple and red powerade. We put yogurt in our cereal and then I pour two packets of syrup out on my tray and dip my waffles in it and stuff it down. Breakfast is the best meal! But I am hungry again after 2-3 hours. I am loosing weight. Please send me a schedule.
Brent Fisher

Oh how this letter makes me miss him! Looking forward to giving him a big hug on graduation day! If anyone would like to send him a letter of encouragement I would be happy to give you his address! Please remember to pray for his salvation and that he will have the strength to endure what lies ahead!

Twas the night before Christmas...

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the land there are parentless children with no toys in hand

No stockings to be hung by the chimney with care, no hopes for a family soon to be there

Their beds are not snug-but cold and quite bare. There are no goodnight kisses-no one to care

While we settle in our homes laughing in delight, all settle down for a Merry Christmas eve night

When in someones heart there arises a clatter, there are children in need-who's lives really do matter!

Away to the computer, please go! in a flash to see the sweet face with whom you could be matched

While a child you see, their beautiful face all aglow, could this be my child? could I already know?

When in the dreams of the orphan-what always appears is a family to love them, to care and hold dear

As you stare at that child, your heart beats real quick for you know in your heart that sweet face will stick

More dreams sweet children have, to call parents by name, "Come Mama! Come Daddy!" come family to claim

To the ends of the earth your heart seems to call, "Now child, I'm coming! I wish for you ALL!"

So on to a plane to your child, over the rooftops you flew to hold this dear soul...a wish did come true!

And then in a twinkling I saw through the door, this child of my heart that was waiting no more

As I got my camera and was turning around into my arms did {{she}} come with a bound

There was no round face, no plump little belly, just sad little eyes and legs shaking like jelly

In a swirl of a pen and a stamp and a seal my world became brighter like I could suddenly feel!

We spoke not a word, they were not needed at all and I knew in a moment where I got this call

God laid His hands on my heart and He could do it for you-this question He'll pose

It wont be a shout, no, not even a whistle, it wont be real clear but faint like a whisper

Can YOU make room in your heart if you try with all your might? and make a difference for one? help them see the light?

I can see you exclaim as you hold your child tight, Thank you Lord for this gift! You got it EXACTLY right!!

I read this on a blog a couple years ago and it really touched my heart. The Lord has called me to be an advocate for the orphan and I just want to say that We are called to care for the fatherless! Not every one has to bring one home but there are many ways to care! The need is so great! And sometimes it is overwhelming as where to start. And I think the best place to find your answers is on your knees BUT if you have any questions about adoption I would be glad to talk to you about it! Not that I know what I am doing or anything but I have sources :) Until they all are home~Kristy Kay

Life right now...

Well its been forever since I have blogged! I actually enjoy reading other peoples blogs than blogging about our life :) I'm just not very good at putting my thoughts into words.
We have been in a "paper chase" frenzy around here! We mailed our Dossier into Christian World Adoption a couple weeks ago and of course we made some mistakes. So after begging some friends to notarize some referral papers and resigning some papers with our FULL names not just first and last, we overnighted today. HOPEFULLY we will be able to send the Dossier to Ethiopia in the next couple weeks. And this is the time when most families would be put on a waiting list and wait for 8-12 months for a referral. But since we are adopting a "waiting" child we only have to wait for a court date! We are excited that its getting closer! The waiting is SO so hard!
We got some good news yesterday! We applied a couple months ago for some grants from different places. Well yesterday Britton was at work (of course) and I took the boys to story hour in West Milton. Our case manager Sue usually calls me with questions or information. So since my phone was on silent she called Britton and told him that we got a grant!!!!! Later Britton was telling me how he was praying to God all morning asking him for help to be able to pay the "big chunk" that we still owed and then Sue called and it was a total God moment for him to know that God was listening to his prayers. We feel beyond blessed with this grant and it paid off half of our remaining balance so now our whole adoption is paid for and we now are praying to the Lord to somehow supply the money for our two trips to Africa.
I heard a comment today and I just want to clarify. The statement was that they felt sorry for us that Gracie is so old and they just wished we could have gotten a baby. This statement is not ok with me! I just want everyone to know that God did not call us to adopt a baby. Yes we applied for 0-5 years but the Lord {CHOSE} Gracie for our family. You see when the Lord opens your eyes to the great need for adoption He does not just put babies in your mind. There are so many "waiting children" and when you get an email full of children that are waiting simply because of there age your heart just aches to adopt them all! You should know that we are THRILLED that Gracie is 5-7 years old!! The Lord knew that I could not handle another baby right now and He KNEW that Carter gets along better with older children and He knows that we love her so much and He knows that {someday} we want to adopt a baby. But for now He knows that she is p.e.r.f.e.c.t. for our family! We trust HIM in this and we trust that He knows what He's doing and He is behind this!
I wonder if people realize that the statements they make can really hurt people. Just imagine if I told Gracie that we wished she were a baby.Can you imagine the look on her sweet face when she would realize that nobody wanted her because of her age? As far as I know her health is perfect. Suppose we choose to adopt a special needs child someday, will people say, " Oh to bad they couldn't have gotten a healthy child." It just is so not fair to make mindless comments like this. God has called us to LOVE a 5-7 (and yes she is probably seven) year old little girl from Ethiopia a place that is so foreign to me. But He has called us to simply love her.

On a happier note we are working on her bedroom! It is so cute with light pink walls and white shabby chic ;) bedroom furniture. Thank you to some special people for your donation of money! We have been waiting so long to buy the queen mattress for her bed. Praying for the Lord to show us a good deal or help us with the extra cost. Another way he has shown his Hand through friends! We thank you so much!
PLEASE join us in prayer as we get closer to going over to Ethiopia. Prayer for: money for our tickets, peace about flying that many hours {shiver!!} in the air, prayer for our little girl as she gets ready to completely change her life, prayer for Me leaving my boys ( only with God can I do this) , prayer for l.e.a.v.i.n.g. her there telling her goodbye and promising we will be back( pretty sure I cant do this either without the Lord), prayer that the rest of the paperwork process will go smoothly and we will soon be able to go see her.
I repeat this all the time to myself, ...with God ALL things are possible...I believe it!

All about......

Gracie!! :) Ok so it has been a while since I have posted something and I tell you friends I don't do very good at this so I probably wont post often but when I do it will probably be HUGE like this one :) Well first I want to say that we are waiting on our Ohio abuse clearance before our homestudy can be completed. Then we will send our completed homestudy to the USCIS form I-700A for clearance and then once we get approved we will finish our Dossier ( a bunch of notarized papers ) and send it with the completed homestudy to Ethiopia and then we will get our first court date. To type this out seems like an understatement of what we have been working on! So if it sounds simple it is NOT and I am very "paper pregnant" !!!!! We have both completed around 30 hours of training and tears has ran down my face as the printer printed off millions of papers at a time! It will be so worth it we know but we have this dark cloud hanging over our heads to get this all done and in Ethiopia as fast as we can. When we accepted Gracie we signed a paper stating that we would have all the papers done in four months and if we can not get it done there is a possibility of someone else getting her or us paying $450 a month for foster care ( which we of course will do!) So we are getting closer and we have heard many times that waiting is one of the hardest parts! We have completed our end of the deal now we just have to wait for some person to send us our letter who may not really care for our situation. But we are trusting in the Lord with ALL of our hearts and we KNOW that He is already in tomorrow.
So all I know about Gracie is really her medical records and the sweet pictures that I stare at all the time. She was brought into the Soddo orphanage on December 13 of 2009. Her mother brought her. Can you imagine? Tears come to my eyes as I think about what that would be like...was she scared? what did her mother say to her? I am not coming back have a good life??? In the first pictures we got of her she is not smiling and looks very scared and very thin. Her father died of a malaria case in 2008 and she has 3 older siblings who can take care of themselves. If you research Ethiopia you will find that some are so poor and eat roots or anything they can find. Her mother could not take care of her anymore so in desperation to give her child a better life she put her up for adoption. Gracie is from the Wolaita Zone and she speaks Wolaitigna and some Amharic ( and some English :) so cute to hear her try to count ) She is perfectly healthy as far as we know and she is 43 inches high :) She is SO cute and for some of you who have not seen the pictures, trust me she is sweet!
I dream about the day when I can wrap her in my arms and kiss her sweet face and tell her I love her!!!!! Love in Jesus!!!

Our Adoption Story

Its late but the only way I will ever get this written out is when the house is quiet. So this is our adoption story that gets overlooked by most people. Once upon a time in a far away land....OK I'll stop! hehe But really long ago (it seems like forever but its only been like 6 or 7 years ago) when Britton and I started dating we would often talk about our future family and all of our dreams. I can't remember who brought it up first but someone mentioned adoption and right away we both thought it would be so fun. Really just like a dream we didn't dwell on that we would adopt cause we knew we wanted to have our own to. Then of course we got married and a couple years later Carter was born and then a couple years after that Brysen was born. I know this sounds crazy busy and fast!! We both still feel so young and we are but when we surprisingly found out we were pregnant with sweet Carter we knew that the Lords hand was in it and we knew we weren't going to stop because we want all of our children close. Adoption kept making its way into our conversation and very casually we would tell a family member or close friend that we wanted to adopt someday and they all would say, "What will you do when he/she gets older?" or "How on earth will you come up with money for that". We would always just smile because we knew that the Lord will always work everything out and we haft to have the mustard seed faith! So then a couple summers after Carter was born and I wasn't pregnant yet with Brysen I got the chance to share with a close friend that we wanted to adopt Lord willing someday. She said REALLY?? we are in the homestudy process right now!! How special!! I was just thrilled and we have became good friends through this process! So then one night after Brysen was born he was like four months we were driving home one evening and Britton looked at me and said, " lets adopt now". He doesn't want me to have anymore of my own and so I had to get over that and it took me a while! But the Lord opened my eyes in a big way! All of the sudden it seemed like everywhere we looked was adoption stories, blogs, newspaper articles, friends adopting and on and on. We saw the great need that the orphans have and the Lord completely opened my eyes! So we decided if we sold our house we would start looking into it. And wouldn't you know we did!! Almost right away! We applied for a packet through America World Adoption but they wanted us to wait to apply until we had our tax paper and we knew we wouldn't have it for several months so we asked Bev what there agency was and we applied through Christian World Adoption Agency and passed right away! We were given a list of countries to choose from and they all had regulations and prices for a child. Some of the countries were China, Kzachastan, Russia, Guatemala, and of course Ethiopia. The ONLY one we could do was Ethiopia and of course it wasn't a problem cause we love us some AFRICA and all the children are so cute!!! When we started this all we were hoping for like 2011 sometime not now or soon we thought we would just go slow :) We laugh now because you know the saying if you want to make God laugh tell Him your plans :) And sure enough I bet He was laughing when our case manager emailed us and told us she had pictures and medicals for a five year old girl from Ethiopia!! Did I mention that we applied for a 6 mo- 5yr girl? Truly a dream!!! God has so blessed us and now I am all typed out and will talk more about Gracie Kaylin Berekete Filbrun and her background later :)

Ok so now I figured out how to put pictures on here :) This is fun and I can't wait to learn more!! Someone PLEASE help me!!! Since we are leaving soon for California I was showing Carter videos on youtube of airplanes taking off and landing and I was telling him how we are going to go high way above the clouds! He looked at me and in all seriousness said, "Lets stop by and see Jesus on our way!" He is really so cute right now!! Brysen literally learned "uh-oh" today and he learned where his ears are and now will pull at both of them when I ask him :) CUTENESS!! I love my boys and I am so blessed to be thier mother!

Hi!!! Welcome to my blog!! I have no idea how to work this all, I am not very good with computers so I will learn as I go. So many people have asked me if I have a blog and FINALLY I do :) First off I really just want to give God all the glory! Without Him I would be nothing and it brings me much joy to be following Him.
Well for those of you who don't know me I am a twenty-three year old mommie from Ohio. My husband and I will be married five years the end of this month. Even though sometimes life gets kind of hairy I would NEVER trade it. Not in a million years!!! I love being able to be home and get the priveledge to take care of my boys!!! I am always thinking of new things I can introduce to them and we have alot of fun just being silly together!! Carter is my oldest and he just turned three. He is, although hyper at times, very good natured!! He listens to what I ask him to do and he is always wanting to please me. Brysen is my second and he just turned one. He is quite opposite than Carter both in looks and personality. My husband commented the other day that if it weren't for his beautiful brown eyes he would be in lots of trouble!!! My husband is a good natured fellow that goes with the flow and he is a wonderful husband, father, and worker for our family. We all love him so much!!! Love in Jesus and more later!!!!