Adoption T-shirt fundraiser!!!

Hey Everyone, 

We are selling t-shirts for the adoption!!! We decided to have a little fun, and show our love for adoption with one of the most well known adopted men of all time. SUPERMAN!!! If you think about it...a lot of famous super heroes were adopted...Batman... Spider-man...I am sure there are some others, but you get the idea.

Who knows... God may send a little super hero our way! ;)  

Everyone needs a new t-shirt, and this new t-shirt will be for a great cause!  

The cost is $15 per shirt.

The cut off date for orders will be December 1st, 2012.

Please let us know your name, shipping address, and desired size. 

Just send orders to the e-mail contact, or leave information on the comment board.

Payments can be made through our pay pal account or you can just mail us a check. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Thanks again!

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Home Study #4 Finished!!!

We are proud to announce that we completed our last home study interview last Friday morning. The overall experience of the home studies was great. The last home study was pretty much the same experience as the previous interviews. The questions were mainly based on how we would raise our children, and the type of family we grew up in. We also had to write an autobiography of our lives. Naturally, Joshlyn wrote hers about a week in advance, and I waited until Thursday night. Procrastination at its best! Ha!

So whats next?
In the meantime we are at a bit of a stand still...In order to complete the home study we are now waiting for our background checks to clear. While we are waiting for that to be completed Joshlyn and I will be continuing to research grant and adoption agency information.

We will be sure to keep everyone updated on any new news that arises. Thanks again for you support!

Homestudy Interview #3

Things are moving along pretty well. This Monday we had our third homestudy interview. For this interview David and I were split up. April (our social worker) interviewed David first and then interviewed me. The questions this time were geared towards how David and I were raised. We were asked about all of our immediate family members, their ages, about their personality traits, how close we are to them, characteristics we have in common with our parents, ways in which we are different. We talked about how we were disciplined, who disciplined us, what type of kids and teenagers we were, our best and worst memories from growing up.  It was interesting trying to explain huge chunks of my life in a couple of sentences. Jumping from - "tell me what you were like as a child" immediately to "who are you now, who is Joshlyn today" can kind of quickly put your life in perspective.

I'm so thankful that God allows for these moments in my life. Moments that make you step back and evaluate how far you have come and where you want to go. What God has made glaringly obvious thus far in my life is that even the best laid plans aren't always HIS plans. I know if everything in my life was stripped away today that I would still glorify His name and I would thank Him for His saving grace. I am not in control of my life and hallelujah for that; what a mess I would make of it. God has continually stripped down walls that I built up that I thought I could control and many that I thought made me better than those around me. This process is terrifying at times, but then you have to step back and put things in perspective. God gently reminds me of all those times I earnestly prayed that He would help me become a more patient person, a more humble person, that I earnestly wanted Him to have complete control in my life. I feel like He says "here it is". Are you going to turn to Me? Are you going to see this as an opportunity to grow? Or will you see this as an opportunity to hide and become bitter? If life has brought you to an unexpected place, and you're struggling to reconcile with the fact that life doesn't always go as we plan - I pray you will turn to Him too. I pray that you will not become bitter. I pray that you choose to grow. I pray that you search to find peace within your circumstances, whatever they may be. I can say from experience it isn't easy but it's worth it. There is great joy to be found on the other side of your suffering and pain.

This process has brought David and I to place in our marriage and our spiritual lives that we may have never experienced. I think we are both grateful for that. Granted we still have a ways to go! One step at a time . . .

Next step,
Fourth (AND FINAL!) Interview scheduled for
Friday, October 19th at 10:00 am

Then . . .
We will wait for our background checks to come back and April to finish the homestudy.

As always we are so appreciative of your love, encouragement and support!

Homestudy Interview #2 (out of 4)

I'm so sorry I'm just now getting this posted. The time has really flown by this week.

Our week started off with our second homestudy interview (of 4 total). April, our social worker, came over to the house at 10:00 am Monday morning. We were much more relaxed going into this interview, seeing as though we had already met April and knew more of what to expect. This interview the main topic of discussion was our relationship. We talked about how David and I first met, what our dating life was like, how long we dated before we were married, what our marriage has been like, how we resolve conflict, our current and previous jobs, etc. For the most part I think it was pretty easy for her. As most people are, she was surprised that we were high school sweethearts that actually "made it". I guess in the grand scheme of things it is rare to meet the man of your dreams (or boy as it was) in the eigth grade. I consider it truly a blessing that I was able to know and be a part of my husband's life at such a young age. Sorry, I'm getting a bit side-tracked . . .  anyways, April stayed about an hour and a half. Again things went wonderfully! We are so pleased (and relieved). We ended the interview by planning the dates/times for the final two interviews.

Interview #3 (David and I will be interviewed separately for this one!)
Monday, October 8 at 10:00am

Interview #4 (We will talk about parenting)
Friday, October 19 at 10:00am

Thank you all for your words of encouragement, thoughts, prayers and support - it means so much to us!I hope everyone has a fantastic rest of the week. David and I will be working on finishing up the paperwork side of the homestudy process and looking forward to our next interview. We will keep you posted!

I thought this verse was so neat, I came across it this morning . . .
"But as for me, God's presence is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge, so I can tell about all You do."  - Psalm 73:28