GLA is in the running for a grant that could make a huge difference in their ministry.
Would you take a few moments of your spare time, to help them out? It's free, and only takes a few minutes.
To vote, go here: http://givingoflife.com/browse/gods_littlest_angels_haitian_baby_ministry/
You get one vote, just by visiting the website.
Then, if you log on to the website from another computer you can get another vote.
If you click on the link at the top right of the page that says "Register for more votes", and enter your email address, you can get three more votes.
If you enter all of your email addresses, you can get three more votes for each of your email addresses.
When I did it a couple weeks ago, I think I got 15-20 votes, using multiple computers and multiple email addresses.
When you've gotten all the votes you can think of, spread the message to all your friends and family, and ask them to pass it on as well.
Thanks for your votes. This is helping GLA, which in turn is helping our future child(ren)!
You can watch the vote counts, and GLA's climb to the top here: http://givingoflife.com/browse/highest/
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
GLA Links
Now that our dossier is in Haiti (actually before, but now I have time to post about it), here are some websites we’re keeping an eye on, in case you want to follow along with what's going on a the orphanage as well.
GLA's main website is http://www.glahaiti.org/. Lots of information can be found here regarding their ministry - although the most up-to-date information is usually on their blogs.
Their blogs can be linked from http://www.glahaiti.org/, or found directly by typing in http://godslittlestangelsinhaiti.org/. This is a great source for more recent information about what’s going on at the orphanage. Tom Vanderwell’s blog is the main page of this website. He is the Manager of Partner Relations for GLA, has two children he and his wife adopted from GLA, and is based in Michigan.
Dixie’s blog is the link named “And Live Goes On”. Dixie and her husband John started GLA.
Three volunteers’ blogs are also linked here: Holli, Susan, and Molly. Holli’s is the “Tattle Tales from GLA” link at the top of the page, and Molly’s is the “Kidzkorner” link at the top of the page. Susan’s is linked on the right sidebar, a little ways down under the “Blogroll” section – although Tom usually re-posts Susan's posts on the main page.
Adoption news from the orphanage can be found infrequently on both websites, at:
http://www.glahaiti.org/adoption_news
or
http://godslittlestangelsinhaiti.org/so-you-want-to-adopt/, and sometimes Dixie posts adoption-related information on her blog. Once we’re in process, we’ll get specific updates on the progress of our adoption paperwork from our agency, and we be updating here as we know things.
I apparently hadn't checked the Adoption News page on GLA's main website in at least a week, when a friend emailed me today to ask if we were expecting our referral, because of Dixie's post there. Wow, that was exciting to read, since our dossier has been there almost a month! Could it be that the 2-6 months for a referral that our agency told us to expect may be reduced to one month??? Oh, I'm getting ahead of myself. I am still very hopeful that this will be a much faster adoption than Elijah & Josephine's, but even so, God is going to teach me patience again through this process. Praying his grace...
GLA's main website is http://www.glahaiti.org/. Lots of information can be found here regarding their ministry - although the most up-to-date information is usually on their blogs.
Their blogs can be linked from http://www.glahaiti.org/, or found directly by typing in http://godslittlestangelsinhaiti.org/. This is a great source for more recent information about what’s going on at the orphanage. Tom Vanderwell’s blog is the main page of this website. He is the Manager of Partner Relations for GLA, has two children he and his wife adopted from GLA, and is based in Michigan.
Dixie’s blog is the link named “And Live Goes On”. Dixie and her husband John started GLA.
Three volunteers’ blogs are also linked here: Holli, Susan, and Molly. Holli’s is the “Tattle Tales from GLA” link at the top of the page, and Molly’s is the “Kidzkorner” link at the top of the page. Susan’s is linked on the right sidebar, a little ways down under the “Blogroll” section – although Tom usually re-posts Susan's posts on the main page.
Adoption news from the orphanage can be found infrequently on both websites, at:
http://www.glahaiti.org/adoption_news
or
http://godslittlestangelsinhaiti.org/so-you-want-to-adopt/, and sometimes Dixie posts adoption-related information on her blog. Once we’re in process, we’ll get specific updates on the progress of our adoption paperwork from our agency, and we be updating here as we know things.
I apparently hadn't checked the Adoption News page on GLA's main website in at least a week, when a friend emailed me today to ask if we were expecting our referral, because of Dixie's post there. Wow, that was exciting to read, since our dossier has been there almost a month! Could it be that the 2-6 months for a referral that our agency told us to expect may be reduced to one month??? Oh, I'm getting ahead of myself. I am still very hopeful that this will be a much faster adoption than Elijah & Josephine's, but even so, God is going to teach me patience again through this process. Praying his grace...
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Awana/Small Group Bible Study
(Photos from end of year 2010/2011.)
All three kids are again involved in Awana at a local church. They go on Sunday evenings, which is nice to keep weeknights open for various other activities going on, and if we procrastinate on learning their lessons/verses, we usually have Sunday afternoons open to catch up. Also, it’s early enough that they’re home and in bed at their normal bedtimes... and Jock and I have a little time to ourselves each Sunday evening to lounge around home, work on projects, or have a mini-date. ;)Elijah and Josephine are doing their second year of Cubbies. Most of the leaders are the same, and several of their friends from last year still attend. Kaylen has moved up to T&T this year. She was nervous about it because it’s more difficult, but really, it’s only as difficult as you make it. She’s started somewhat slowly, due to us missing a few sessions, but she’s picking up her pace to catch up to her friends who are in the same book.
Jock and I have continued with our small-group Bible study. It’s on Thursday nights, in our leaders’ home. The kids come and play with their friends while we study. The study goes along with the sermon series that our pastor is doing in church. We just started going through “The Story.” Doing one chapter per week, it basically covers the entire Bible in about a year. Key parts of the Bible are highlighted, while lesser parts are paraphrased or left out. We’re only a few weeks in, but so far it’s going well.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Dance
Kaylen and Josephine are both taking dance lessons at a studio. I thought I had a photo of the girls in their leotards, but I can't find it now. I'll have to try to get another one and post it later.
Kaylen has wanted to do this for quite some time, but I wasn’t ready to let her participate in more than one extra-curricular activity quite yet. This year I thought she could handle it, so I signed her up. The first few weeks, she was very nervous. Most of the girls in her class have been taking dance lessons since they were preschoolers, they all seem to know each other, and most of them are also taking a hip-hop class that is just prior to their ballet-tap-jazz class. So Kaylen had a hard time making friends, and was nervous about having to attempt the techniques in front of the whole class when she didn’t quite know how to do them. She’s made at least one friends,who is also new and not in the hip-hop class, and she is figuring out how to do some of the dance techniques, so she’s starting to enjoy it more.
I asked Josephine whether she wanted to dance or play soccer this fall. She chose dance, and loves it. Although, when Elijah got to go to soccer and she didn’t, she was a little disappointed. (For the record, Elijah has not at all expressed disappointment at not being able to go to dance with the girls.) Josephine doesn’t always want to show us what she learned in dance, but she is always asking if she’s, “going to dance today?” She always goes in and comes out of dance with a smile on her face, so I know she’s enjoying it.
I can’t wait until parent-watch week! :)
Kaylen has wanted to do this for quite some time, but I wasn’t ready to let her participate in more than one extra-curricular activity quite yet. This year I thought she could handle it, so I signed her up. The first few weeks, she was very nervous. Most of the girls in her class have been taking dance lessons since they were preschoolers, they all seem to know each other, and most of them are also taking a hip-hop class that is just prior to their ballet-tap-jazz class. So Kaylen had a hard time making friends, and was nervous about having to attempt the techniques in front of the whole class when she didn’t quite know how to do them. She’s made at least one friends,who is also new and not in the hip-hop class, and she is figuring out how to do some of the dance techniques, so she’s starting to enjoy it more.
I asked Josephine whether she wanted to dance or play soccer this fall. She chose dance, and loves it. Although, when Elijah got to go to soccer and she didn’t, she was a little disappointed. (For the record, Elijah has not at all expressed disappointment at not being able to go to dance with the girls.) Josephine doesn’t always want to show us what she learned in dance, but she is always asking if she’s, “going to dance today?” She always goes in and comes out of dance with a smile on her face, so I know she’s enjoying it.
I can’t wait until parent-watch week! :)
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Soccer
Kaylen is again playing on a U9 rec team. A couple members from her team moved on to academy, but most of her team remained the same. She’s enjoying having fun with it. Her team practices two nights a week, and some weeks they have an additional “professional-led” clinic that is optional, where they practice with all the U9-U12 rec teams. She has a game every Saturday morning for 8 weeks. This year is the first year that they travel for games, so they’re not just against a team within their club. This makes things interesting when you have two playing soccer the same day!
Elijah is playing soccer this fall as well. He’s playing on the city parks & rec league. It’s indoor for preschoolers. They meet on 6 Saturdays for one hour each – 15 minutes to practice, then a 45-minute game. He’s only made the first game so far, as we were on vacation for his second and third games. He has three left, and I hope to make it to at least one of them. From Jock’s review of the first game, he seems to have a little better handle on what he’s supposed to do than he did last year.
I hope to get a few pictures of the soccer activities posted in the next few weeks.
Elijah is playing soccer this fall as well. He’s playing on the city parks & rec league. It’s indoor for preschoolers. They meet on 6 Saturdays for one hour each – 15 minutes to practice, then a 45-minute game. He’s only made the first game so far, as we were on vacation for his second and third games. He has three left, and I hope to make it to at least one of them. From Jock’s review of the first game, he seems to have a little better handle on what he’s supposed to do than he did last year.
I hope to get a few pictures of the soccer activities posted in the next few weeks.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Back to School
Mid-August, our 3rd grader started back to school! Kaylen really enjoys school. She does well with the structure of school. She excels in reading, and does well in math as well. She enjoys reading about all sorts of things, including science, geography, biographies, and fiction. Her teacher is working together with us to keep her challenged this year. She doesn’t like to be challenged, but if we keep on top of her, she does well, and then is happy to have learned something new after she’s completed a challenging task.
All three kids also started going to a differenet daycare the same day Kaylen started school. They are enjoying their new surroundings, but also many familiar faces, as several staff and children from their old daycare are there. Kaylen attends before/after school, and all day on no-school days.
Elijah & Josephine started out in the same preschool classroom, but are now in different preschool classrooms, because enrollment increased enough to necessitate a second preschool classroom. I haven’t gotten a good feel for the new curriculum yet. I was expecting them to start units on the letters of the alphabet, but I think it’s set up a little bit differently.
Elijah's class is working on numbers this week, and ordering them (I don't think he knows his numbers yet though). One other week they talked about themselves and their names (how they got their names, what they mean, etc.) Last week they did some activities about fruit - pumpkins, blueberries, etc. Josephine's class spent a week on colors, and another week on seasons of the year. They learned about ladybugs (that's the name of their classroom) one week also. This week they're learning about frogs.
Hmmmm... Might have to start supplementing with letter curriculum at home once the soccer schedule slows down.
Elijah is also continuing with speech therapy. His AEA therapist comes to his daycare for a half-hour one day per week. He enjoys when she comes, as he gets some special one-on-one attention. We’re also working with him at home on some of the same things she’s working with him on. We’re starting to see some improvements, but they’re slow in coming.
With the start of the school year, several of our extra-curricular activites have resumed. More on those later...
UPDATE: Apparently the October calendar got lost on my kitchen counter when we returned from vacation... Elijah's classroom started the letter-a-week this week! They have been doing the letter A today. Wednesdays they're supposed to bring an item that starts wtih the letter A. I didn't find out until today, but luckily I had his airtran wings pin from the airplane in the van, so I brought that in for him, so he could show the letter "a" that was on it, and tell how he got that on the airplane. :) No word on Josephine's classroom starting the letters of the alphabet yet. Still hoping...
All three kids also started going to a differenet daycare the same day Kaylen started school. They are enjoying their new surroundings, but also many familiar faces, as several staff and children from their old daycare are there. Kaylen attends before/after school, and all day on no-school days.Elijah & Josephine started out in the same preschool classroom, but are now in different preschool classrooms, because enrollment increased enough to necessitate a second preschool classroom. I haven’t gotten a good feel for the new curriculum yet. I was expecting them to start units on the letters of the alphabet, but I think it’s set up a little bit differently.
Elijah's class is working on numbers this week, and ordering them (I don't think he knows his numbers yet though). One other week they talked about themselves and their names (how they got their names, what they mean, etc.) Last week they did some activities about fruit - pumpkins, blueberries, etc. Josephine's class spent a week on colors, and another week on seasons of the year. They learned about ladybugs (that's the name of their classroom) one week also. This week they're learning about frogs.
Hmmmm... Might have to start supplementing with letter curriculum at home once the soccer schedule slows down.
Elijah is also continuing with speech therapy. His AEA therapist comes to his daycare for a half-hour one day per week. He enjoys when she comes, as he gets some special one-on-one attention. We’re also working with him at home on some of the same things she’s working with him on. We’re starting to see some improvements, but they’re slow in coming.
With the start of the school year, several of our extra-curricular activites have resumed. More on those later...
UPDATE: Apparently the October calendar got lost on my kitchen counter when we returned from vacation... Elijah's classroom started the letter-a-week this week! They have been doing the letter A today. Wednesdays they're supposed to bring an item that starts wtih the letter A. I didn't find out until today, but luckily I had his airtran wings pin from the airplane in the van, so I brought that in for him, so he could show the letter "a" that was on it, and tell how he got that on the airplane. :) No word on Josephine's classroom starting the letters of the alphabet yet. Still hoping...
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Dossier in Haiti
Yes, that’s right, as of Monday, September 26th, 2011, our completed dossier (along with 4 complete copies of the original) is in Haiti! A great big THANK YOU goes out to our wonderful friends who delivered it to GLA while leading a group from their church on a mission trip there - you know who you are. ;)
We’re praying over our dossier, for God’s will to reign over the process of matching us to our child(ren).
Yes, I did type child(ren). On our initial application, we specified in our preferences that we wanted to adopt only one child. We talked over this and prayed over this, and felt that we would be better equipped to adopt one child instead of two like last time.
Well... Then things changed in the process. We had to fill out more paperwork and work with an agency. The paperwork wording changed slightly, from “preference” to “acceptance”. This got us to thinking and discussing and praying some more.
We came to the conclusion that if God wants us to adopt two children instead of one, who are we to turn Him down. So, we answered yes to the question of would we accept a sibling group. We answered 2 to the question of how many in the sibling group.
So now we wait and pray over the referral process. We ask that you join us in praying over the referral process.
Our agency has told us that it could take 2-5 months, depending on how the children available for adoption at GLA match up with our dossier. In my hopeful mind, I don’t believe it will be that long, as I know that GLA has been praying for families to answer God’s call to adopt the children in their care.
Please also join us in praying for us as we wait. We know all too well how long the adoption process can take. We are trying to be patient with it this time, knowing that timelines can fluctuate, processes can change, etc. However, we are also praying that the faster timelines we’ve been hearing from other families ahead of us remain, and we can get our child(ren) home much more quickly than it took to get Elijah & Josephine home.
We’re praying over our dossier, for God’s will to reign over the process of matching us to our child(ren).
Yes, I did type child(ren). On our initial application, we specified in our preferences that we wanted to adopt only one child. We talked over this and prayed over this, and felt that we would be better equipped to adopt one child instead of two like last time.
Well... Then things changed in the process. We had to fill out more paperwork and work with an agency. The paperwork wording changed slightly, from “preference” to “acceptance”. This got us to thinking and discussing and praying some more.
We came to the conclusion that if God wants us to adopt two children instead of one, who are we to turn Him down. So, we answered yes to the question of would we accept a sibling group. We answered 2 to the question of how many in the sibling group.
So now we wait and pray over the referral process. We ask that you join us in praying over the referral process.
Our agency has told us that it could take 2-5 months, depending on how the children available for adoption at GLA match up with our dossier. In my hopeful mind, I don’t believe it will be that long, as I know that GLA has been praying for families to answer God’s call to adopt the children in their care.
Please also join us in praying for us as we wait. We know all too well how long the adoption process can take. We are trying to be patient with it this time, knowing that timelines can fluctuate, processes can change, etc. However, we are also praying that the faster timelines we’ve been hearing from other families ahead of us remain, and we can get our child(ren) home much more quickly than it took to get Elijah & Josephine home.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Where does the time go?!
Seriously!
My blog makes it look like I completely skipped the last half of August, and ALL of September!
How is it October 3rd already?!? There are only 84 days until Christmas!!!
Well, we’ve been doing the following in those 6 weeks that we missed:
* Final dossier prep
* Extended family celebrations
* Holiday weekend
* Soccer practice/games
* School/homework
* Daycare/Speech Therapy
* Work
* Dance lessons
* Small group Bible study
* Awana
* Swing set assembly
* Vacation to Disney World
We’ve been busy. It’s kind of a blur. But things seem to be settling back into a routine. More in-depth posts on some of the above activities coming up...
My blog makes it look like I completely skipped the last half of August, and ALL of September!
How is it October 3rd already?!? There are only 84 days until Christmas!!!
Well, we’ve been doing the following in those 6 weeks that we missed:
* Final dossier prep
* Extended family celebrations
* Holiday weekend
* Soccer practice/games
* School/homework
* Daycare/Speech Therapy
* Work
* Dance lessons
* Small group Bible study
* Awana
* Swing set assembly
* Vacation to Disney World
We’ve been busy. It’s kind of a blur. But things seem to be settling back into a routine. More in-depth posts on some of the above activities coming up...
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