Don't Watch This!

My friend Amie Putnam sent this to me today and it has so challenged me.  I am at a place in my life where realistically, I probably shouldn't add more children to my family.  I have four already.  We have to share bedrooms.  I don't know how they will get a car or how their college education will be paid for.  I do know they will be loved and raised in the Lord.

A lot of people tell me that Tyson and I are good people.  My answer to that is thank you, but on the inside I think, "if you only know".  The Bible tells us the only good that is in us comes from the Lord.  So I know I am not good.  But lately I wonder if I am "safe".  Not really risking anything for the Lord.  Not really sacrificing for the Lord.  I feel so mediocre.  My heart tells me, there is so much more to do.  So many more children that don't need a car or a fully paid college tuition, they just need to call me their mommy. 

Please pray for me as I try to hear the Lord and as I struggle daily to know what I need to do.  Pray for Tyson as he leads our family.  In case you can't tell, he is married to one scary woman!!!

Not ready to adopt, but ready to help????

Dear Family & Friends,


I am so excited because this week, March 9-16, The Levi Circle is reaching out to the Putnam family to help them complete the next phase of their adoption plan!
CoCoMcCain.com is sponsoring the On-Line Shop-for-a-Cause and 100% of profits go to The Levi Circle.

PLUS- The Levi Circle is going to match any funds raised during the Shop-for-a-Cause!
CoCoMcCain.com has beautiful gifts, free shipping & gift wrapping, and a desire to reach out for a good cause! You can SHOP on-line at www.CoCoMcCain.com . Make sure to use COUPON CODE: LEVI at checkout March 9 to March 16.

Thanks so much for your support! I’ll let you know how it turns out!

The Levi Circle?

The Levi Circle



The Mission of The Levi Circle is to provide financial, practical, and spiritual support to families seeking to adopt or foster a child.

 

In November 2009 a small group of families from my church met together to gain more info on adoption and foster care.  Since that meeting, we have continued to meet and have started our support group.  We are called The Levi Circle.  One of our members, Laura Wills, came up with our name.  Levi is the Hebrew word for joined.  A circle symbolizes forever or unending.  So we are The Levi Circle and our purpose to help see children forever joined with their "forever" families.  We became incorporated with the federal government and we are now recognized as a non-profit organization.  We have our own tax ID number and gifts to the group are tax deductible!!!  Pretty amazing.

Psalm 68:6

God sets the lonely in families.

As The Levi Circle, our desire is to work along side the Lord in His passion to "set the lonely into families"



Are you adopted?

1 John 3:1   See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!

I watched this video today.  I loved it!  If you are a child of the King, you too are adopted!

The Griffin's/Griswald's Did Disney

One 17 year old, one 6 year old, TWO 2 year olds!!!!!  What were we thinking??? 

Well, we attempted the impossible and I have to say, we had a wonderful time.  It truly was an amazing trip.  I think the spanking spoon only showed itself a couple of times and for a whole week, with four kids, that is a world record.  I am almost sure of it.  Everyone was so excited to be at Disney, except for the few times that Henry, "Just wanted to go home and ride his tractor"!

Before I had ever taken my kids to Disney I had always heard people talk about how great Disney was.  I have to be honest, Tyson and I went for few days for our honeymoon.  We were convinced that there was no place on earth where you could find more screaming parents and crying kids.  We did not think it was a magical place.  But like I said, that was before we had our children.  (Though I still believe Disney holds the record for most screaming parents/crying kids per square inch!)

I am one of those crazy moms that tears up at all the magical moments.  Here are a couple of pics from our trip.



A very proud Ty with his daddy, just coming off of Space Mountain!



Indiana Jones(Ty) and the two people he rescued!



And my very favorite .....Ren trying to kiss Mulan.  She was not too fond of all the other princesses.  But she loved Mulan.  Precious!

The Story of B

Believe it or not, that is a picture of the Queen B, Shataria, when she was just eight years old.  We just celebrated her seventeenth birthday!  A lot of people think we have adopted Shataria.  We have not, but her story is none the less, amazing. 

It all began on a warm September day in 2001.  Tyson and I had just gotten married and moved to Chicago.  He was a Moody Bible College grad student and I was a second grade teacher at an inner city school on the west side of Chicago.  It was the first day of school.  In walked a screaming and kicking little girl.  If you are a teacher and you are reading this, you know that every year there is usually that ONE KID.  Every year since I have begun teaching I have always had that one kid that improved my prayer life.  My prayer would always be "Help me Lord to see them like You see them.  Help me to love them like you love them".  Well, as you might have guessed, Shataria was that kid!  She had fits.  One day she went a little crazy and called me "A stupid white chick"!!  Hilarious, (now anyway). 

Every day I went home telling Tyson about this kid.  We came up with a plan that was nothing short of bribery.  If she behaved, she got something.  We took that wild woman to McDonald's, to the movies, to church!  Through all of this, we formed a great relationship with her mom.  She ended up staying with us during the summers in Georgia.  Tyson and I had always prayed for her and her family.  We never knew where the Lord would take our relationship.

In August of 2007, Shataria's mom called us and said that she needed to get Shataria out of the environment she was in or she was going to end up ruining her life.  So we were overjoyed to say yes.  Shataria has lived with us for four years now!  She spends Christmas and the summer with her mom and her siblings.  They love her very much.  She is an amazing young woman who hopes to be a dental hygenist one day.  WE love love her and consider her one of our own.

To our Queen B, We hope you had a wonderful birthday. 

Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.



The "Adoption Church"?

Several months ago a random person in the community asked one of my friends, "What is going on at Tunnel Hill First Baptist?  I heard everyone is adopting kids.  Are you adopting too?"  Through that conversation my church was some how labeled the "adoption church"!  Everyone is not adopting at Tunnel Hill First Baptist, (YET! HA!HA!).  But in our church from November 2009 to November 2010, five children were united with their Forever Families.  What in the world is going on?  Is it the latest fad?  Is it that we think adoption is a good idea?   I would say no.  I think what has happened at our church has been that we have caught a glimpse of God's heart for the orphan.  And we have also decided to say, with trembling hearts, "Ok Lord".  The story I want to share with you today is from one such family.  They are the Will's family and I am thankful to be able to post their testimony.

 We were not expecting to adopt. We hadn’t ever talked about it, I don’t think, at least not seriously. We have two wonderful children – in the order that I prayed for – we thought our little family was complete. Obviously He had other plans for us. Some people think we got the idea because of our church being so pro-adoption. That is not our case. I think God has a sense of humor and wanted to see if two 40 year olds could manage a newborn (I’m doing pretty well, but Bobby’s a year older than me and it shows). It’s awesome how God works things out.

Bobby and I were first asked on Easter Sunday, April 4th, of this year whether we would be interested in adopting a newborn. My immediate reaction was YES! Bobby’s was NO! And even though I don’t always easily lean the way Bobby does, I just let it go. He’ll tell you his story in just a few minutes, but I will say, I knew something was up because just a day or two after being approached about adoption he called me at work to ask if I’d heard anything else about the baby – the wheels were turning, and by Friday, April 9th, it was confirmed that we could indeed adopt this baby.

I believe God gives us signs. My first sign was that it was Easter Sunday when we were asked about adoption. My second sign was a picture on our church bulletin on April 11 (my 40th birthday) of a baby in an incubator holding its parent’s finger, and the verse was Matthew 15:28, “Your faith is great.” There was no special reason that I know of for that picture and verse to be on our bulletin that particular Sunday except for it to speak to us. My faith is not the strongest, in fact, it’s usually pretty weak, so I took two bulletins home and hung them in places so I would have to see them each day. I knew this baby was being placed into our family by God. Those two signs were my assurance that this definitely was a miracle from God – and maybe even a salve for the sadness still in my heart from losing two of the most precious people in my life - my Granny and my Granddaddy barely more than 6 months prior. Anna-Kate’s actual due date was Sep. 4th, one day prior to my Granny’s passing a year earlier. I don’t think Bobby saw these signs the same as I did, but God began working on his heart.

Once Bobby came around, (God got a hold of him while he was out in the pasture working. Bobby told God that he couldn’t do this adoption thing, and God replied that he (Bobby) couldn’t, but that HE (God) could!). I worried that he may find it difficult loving a child that isn’t his own, but that isn’t the case at all. You’d never know that I didn’t give birth to her. We love her exactly the same as our other kids as does the rest of our family.


I have a friend that would love to be a mother, but her husband will not consider adopting because he says he can’t love a child that isn’t his. To that I ask, “How can you not love a child who needs a family, or any child for that matter?” The Lord instructs us to care for the orphan. I never imagined that we’d actually be blessed by Him to adopt.

It’s easy to let Satan fill your head worrying about things like you’re not a good enough parent to adopt, or that the birth parents will change their minds, or that the judge will rule against you because you didn’t do everything correctly, or how can we pay for another child and another college fund! And it’s so easy to get discouraged when things get hairy. I know Satan is a liar, but I am human and I worry.

Every night before she arrived, I’d beg God to help me stay strong and faithful. When I’d get down, Bobby would say, “What about those bulletins you put up?” At night, I would cry in bed, & Whitney would hug me, remind me to pray, and tell me it was all going to work out. Every day at work I would read two verses I had taped to my computer - Rom. 12:12, “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” And Ps. 37:7, “Rest in Jehovah and wait patiently for Him. Do not fret…”

I can’t say that it’s better meeting the birth parents than not meeting them, but once we were chosen to adopt this baby we got to know each other at doctor visits. For months I was afraid for the birth mom’s health and the baby’s. And when she wanted to do everything but take care of herself and cooperate by going to the doctor, I’d pray and beg her to do the right thing for the baby.

On August 13, three weeks and 1 day before her due date, we were blessed to be in the delivery room when Anna-Kate was born. I cried just like I did when my other two were born, and Bobby teared up too. I got to cut the cord, hold her first, and room-in with her just like it was us having her. She is named Anna after my Granny, Barbara Anna, Bobby loves Kate as well as I do, and Evelyn was my Great-grandmother Williams’ first name.

Our family and friends have supported up wholeheartedly throughout our adoption, and we are so blessed to have such a wonderful church family, and a support group like the Levi Circle. Thanks to everyone who has prayed for us throughout these months!

Our journey with domestic adoption has been a heart-wrenching, emotional, happy one-day, sad the next, drama-filled, faith-testing battle that has ended in victory only by the grace of God. Because we didn’t say a whole lot about it, most everyone thought that once we made it past the 10 days the birth parents have to change their minds that things were final – but that’s far from the case. We didn’t go to court until Nov. 9th, a long way from the 3rd week of August when the birth parent’s rights were surrendered. It’s a very emotional and nerve-wracking journey.

My boss tells me all the time, “No good deed goes unpunished.” We had a hurdle to cross that most couples would not have had because we did what we thought was right, and went above and beyond to help the birth parents when they were in a dire situation, not knowing that it could cause us to lose our baby because of Georgia’s adoption laws. But again, God worked everything out. We didn’t have the crazy paperwork and other struggles that go along with trying to adopt internationally or through the DFACS system, but our journey was just as difficult; however, the reward is so worth all the struggle, worry, and tears. It reminds me of how God went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that we get to spend eternity with Him in heaven.

In my opinion, God could not have chosen a more precious baby than Anna-Kate to complete our family. We are truly blessed and give God all the praise.

Welcome Home Miss Anna-Kate!