Never trust a 2 year old with your fresh berries

In July, my and my went to pick some raspberries. It was one of the H-O-T days here in the PNW. It was so fun. Hayden for sure ate more than he put in the bucket. Matt reminded me of these photos, and tonight when I went back to look, I got all teary. My boys. They are so fun, my heart wants to burst. Love them to bits. (Usually-berry day was definitely a love them to bits day).

My big boy
We picked berries (or I picked, they raced up and down the rows. H picked some, Jack would cry when we stopped "racing").
So, the TWO year old wanted to hold my full bucket of beautiful, delicious, raspberries. I let him.
My beautiful berries.
Then, I turned to pick some more (to fill the boys empty buckets). Then, I hear the soft plumpley rolling sound of this:
Berries hitting the soft dusty dirt. "JACK! WHY did you dump the berries??" The sweet darling two year old says to me, "Mommy...the berries were TOO hot in there." He was setting the poor berries free. All 6 lbs of them. You better believe I dusted them off and put the poor hot berries back in the bucket. :)
Berry Face.
This is kind of a crummy shot, but I can't resist those green eyes. They tell me "thanks, Mom. I looove you"when he looks at me like that. My favorite Hayden expression. (sigh. more tears)

Thanks my babies, for loving me. I am the luckiest mom in the world. (most days :)

I'm on the look out!

My friend and creative extraordinaire, Ms. Beckie Farrant is having a blog party! I love this one. Roadkill Rescue, my kind of party!


I only have the weekend really to find something good!

Do you remember THIS post? I found a free junk coffee table roadside and made an ottoman out of it. I still like it!
BEFORE:
AFTER:


I truly am my fathers daughter! He once made my brother sit in the back of our family suburban and roll up "perfectly good twine" for TWO MILES across the Glenn Jackson I-205 bridge. He used that twine for years out of black trash bag! Love You, Dad!

YIKES. Bad Blogger!

It has been nearly a month since I made a real post. This has been a crazy past month for us. For some reason, since Matt is a teacher and has summers off, we say "yes" to everything we are invited to. It looks like so much fun on paper, to have a summer full of campouts and beach trips. It IS fun. But...honestly, I'm getting weary. Of Laundry. Sand in my minivan. smelling like a campfire. We've been out of town nearly every weekend since mid july. 2 more weekends, and we're home for the routine of a new school year. I think we're all ready for it!

This is proving to be a season of evaluation, reprioritizing, and simplifying my life. I am realizing alot of things about myself. Some, not so pretty. I'm tired. I run myself ragged, and drag my kids along with me. I stay up too late. I am a people pleaser to the core. I NEVER want anyone to be dissappointed in me or think I am flaky or don't do enough. I say "yes" to everything, and regret it later. I don't know where along the timeline of my life I learned that I like the feeling of other people knowing the can count on me. That I would always be there, I could always be counted on to serve. I really enjoy those things too. But, somewhere I talked myself into believing that those were the reasons people like me. Because I don't miss anything, I am always involved, always responsible.

I am realizing that my family has been getting the leftovers after I serve everyone else. (Um, that is not much). Between leading the MOM's ministry at our church (which I love) AND homestudies, dossiers, dr.'s appts, applications, blah blah blah, my poor family is not getting much of me. What they do get is a tired, short tempered exhausted, no fun mom. In the past few weeks as I've decided to step away from MOM's ministry and just savor these months with my boys as we wait for Lucy, we have had so much fun. I took my boys to the beach, just me and them for 3 days, and truthfully, it was life changing for me. The Lord met me there on the sand. He reminded me of my longing to be present in my kids lives. To love them. To enjoy them. To teach them about who God is. Honestly, I had forgotten. These past weeks as I've given my kids most of my attention, they have changed. They are more loving. They are happier. They are peaceful (mostly). I am realizing it REALLY impacts them, what I do with my time. Truly, it's a picture of God's relationship with us. I mean, when we spend time with the Lord, letting him fill me up, I am different. I am peaceful, loving, patient. I am convinced God gave us our children to show us a sliver of how much he loves us.

I am so excited to spend these next 6 or so months totally focused on my 3 men. I think God has so much in store for us.

ps, behind my back at Target today, I hear my kids making gun/shooting noises. I have resigned myself to be ok with this, since their dad and grandpa are avid hunters. HOWEVER, I am NOT OKAY with them making guns out of tampons they find in my purse. Unwrapped. Launching the cottony part at each other out of the "shooter". They thought it was the coolest thing that I had guns in my purse, just for them. :)

New Blog in Town

I'm a contributor over at a new blog...www.prayingastheygrow.blogspot.com

It's all about committing our kids to the Lord through prayer. Praying over them together, giving them back to the One who made them ours in the first place. Check it out!

The Story God is telling, part 2 (the auction story)

*I know not all of you who read my blog make claims to faith, or believe in God. I hope you'll read this anyhow. We believe God is a huge part of our story and journey to our daughter.

To see The Story God is Telling part one, click HERE.

Here's a little clip of part one..."We have known this would be God's story from the start. We wanted it to be. We knew that if we had it all figured out on our own, he would not get the glory. More than anything, we want HIS story to be known, not ours. Well...I think we can officially say, HE is one good storyteller! I can't wait to hear the ending..."


Part 2-The Auction (It's really long...) I told Matt, aside from the whole "marrying the love of your life" part, I think this auction nearly topped our wedding! It was so amazing, read on for the story...

May 30, 2009-My wonderful and dear friend, Nicole (more like a sister kind of friend) about a month or so prior, had invited Matt and I to join her and her hubby, Arlyn for dinner. I have had the wonderful privilege of being present when all 4 of Nicole's sweet babies have made their entrance into the world...seriously, one of the greatest honors of my life, to be in those moments with her. I had been practicing my photography skills, and Nicole was the perfect subject...her beautiful belly, her baby boy entering the world, and then having a newborn. She willingly subjected herself to me and my camera...and claimed she wanted to thank me by taking us out to a nice dinner at the golf club they belong to. Of course, a night out with no kids, great dinner, good friends, of course we said "YES!".

She even "bumped" into my sister in law, Stephanie, at Costco, told her about our dinner plans, and Steph insisted on watching the kids (I watch Abby, her daughter twice a week, they are always trying to make up for it!) Perfect, my childcare is even taken care of, I thought. Steph, conveniently passed on the same story, of bumping into Nicole, volunteering to take the boys, etc.

I had been really busy, wrapping up our paperwork for our Dossier, wrapping up the year of our MOM's ministry at church, planning a huge garage sale fundraiser for MOM's, my brain was on total overload. I even had a sweet lady from our church tell me, "My son plans to give me some money to spend at your auction!" I politely told her, "oh, we aren't having an auction...you must have us confused with the auction the highschool ministry at church just had..." She sweetly replied, saying, "Oh, yes, you're right! That is what I was thinking..." I was clueless. My mind did not EVEN think for a minute that something was up. I was waaay to consumed with getting through the month of May and GETTING ON THE WAITLIST!

So, May 30th rolls around, I got my Dossier off the week prior, and we got official word Wednesday, May 27th, that we were officially waiting! We were ready to take a deep breath and enjoy a night (Steak and Lobster Dinner, we had been promised!) with our friends. Originally, Arlyn and Nicole said they would pick us up on their way. The day of, Nicole called with a slight change in plans...they were dropping thier kiddos off in Hillsboro, at the grandparents, could they just meet us there? Of course, we agreed.
Nicole and Arlyn Maldonado (Nicole aka Auction Director)
I drove over to drop off my kids at my brother and sister in laws home, where they were going to play for the evening with Aunt Kassy, Steph's sister.

I went home to get ready. We were told it was a nice dinner, so we needed to dress nicely (Thanks for the heads up, Nicole!)...not Burgerville attire. Our reservations were for 7:45. She called about 7:30, telling me they had made it sooner than they thought, and were waiting in the bar for us. She said there was a big event happening at the club, so to call when we arrived, and they'd come out to meet us. The "event" might make it seem confusing on where we should go.

We arrived, called and they came out to meet us. Matt saw 2 cars in the parking lot that seemed familiar, and he mentioned "That's weird, I don't think they're members here." I, on the other hand, didn't think anything of it.

We walked into the building, greeted by an enormous red heart shaped balloon arch and red carpet...Matt joked, "Oh, you mean this red carpet isn't for US?" "Nope, sorry, Matt" Nicole said. Arlyn and Nicole led us back to the dining room, we passed all sorts of tables and such, I mentioned, "oh, it looks like an auction or something". She said, "Oh, yah, I guess it does!" The host greeted us, "Maldonado, party of 4?" Yep, that's us! Then, they stepped out of the way, to let us enter the closed doors first. As the doors opened, what felt like all the friends we have, greeted us with cheering and clapping. We stood there, looking dumbfounded, as to why in the world, is everyone we know and love, standing here cheering for us? We kept looking at eachother, wondering, "what is going on here? Not your birthday, not my birthday, are you getting an award for teaching or something?"




Our good friend, Brandon, was the MC. He (thank goodness) began to explain why everyone was there. It was a "Bring Home Lucy" party. As he said that, I really thought, "Right! The adoption! We are on the waiting list! Is this a party to celebrate that we're on the waitlist?" I saw these gigantic balloon letters, spelling out L-U-C-Y across the back of the room. Brandon continued to explain, all of these people had come to spend thier money at an auction, benefitting our adoption fund, to help cover our expenses. We were completely blown away, we had NO idea.

We were flooded with warm hugs, questions, and trying to wrap our brains around the fact that we are so loved by our family, church family, friends, and friends of friends, who would come, open up thier pocket books, pay for tickets to attend, and shell out tons more money to help us bring home Lucy.


Me and my brother, Zak

As you read in Part One, you would know that we have believed all along, that God has called us to adopt this little girl, whom we have never laid eyes on. We believe that since he called us, we would step out in faith, that he would provide each and every dollar needed to bring her home. We knew and wanted this journey to only be explainable, by the Lord showing up, being faithful to bring us where he'd asked us to go. We also knew, we did not have the cash in the bank to make it happen. He had already faithfully given us exactly what we'd needed up to that point. Every time a payment was due, he provided. Through friends and family. Through a garage sale. Through tax returns...he provided.

There was an amazing silent auction, with wonderful donations, from people who we did and did not know. Beautiful, generous gifts, all to help us bring home our girl!

As the bidding continued, we tried to take it all in. The place was beautifully decorated by my amazingly creative friend, Delores...Red, black, and silver...with a theme based off "I Love Lucy"...so it was Hollywoodish...film reels, red hearts, candles, ribbon, it was beautiful!
The food, was not to be outdone by the decor, it was also beautiful! I honestly, don't remember eating any of it. It was kind of like our wedding, where we were too busy being overwhelmed by love and support to eat anything. It was beautiful though!

Oh, I DO remember eating THIS one. Delish!

The silent auction closed, and we moved into a time of the "live auction" aka, the REALLY good stuff, the stuff that makes the big bucks. Things like, weekends in mountain cabins and beach houses, things like premier portrait sessions, things like spa days and golfing packages (including clubs).Things like one year of monthly date nights at the wonderful Ice Cream Renaissance. AMAZINGLY good things. Brandon did an amazing job as auctioneer, luring loads of money out of our loved ones checkbooks. There was a beautiful slideshow, of our family, and Ethiopia. Friends who could not attend, spoke to us via videos, sendint us thier love and well wishes. Tears were just spilling down our faces for a good 12 minutes. My talented friend, Heidi, put a beautiful thing together. (hopefully, I can figure out how to post it on here, soon) We were completely overwhelmed by the generosity of our friends.
Brandon, aka, Brando the MC, Ice Cream Maker extraordinairre

Turns out, my sweet friends (pictured below) have met together every thursday evening, for months. Planning. Praying. Scheming. Lying to my face. Blessing our socks off. They collected donations, they made programs, they planned food, they sold tickets, they decorated, they did so much. They, literally, changed our lives and the life of our daughter to be, Lucy. It was beautiful.backrow:Amber, Nicole, Ashley, Shannon, Mom (Denise), Delores (frontrow) Jamie, Stephanie (sis in law), Traci, and Heidi- The Auction Committee

At the end of the night, when all was said and done, when all the dollars were counted, there was over $11,000. We were dumbfounded. Speechless. Overwhelmed. Our hearts were full beyond belief. It was and is completely amazing to us, that God chose us for this adoption journey. To bring home a little girl from Ethiopia. And he, has the means to meet every single need along the way. We fully believe, there is no obstacle, not money, not courts, no judges, no paperwork, too big for Him to handle. We are comfortable in our wait right now, without worry...we know he has a perfect plan for our family. He has the timing under control. When the time is right, his plans will come to be. He will connect us with the daughter he means to be a Kesler. Our God, is a faithful God. He will not call us to do something he cannot make the way for. In one night, he used his people, to open thier hearts to us. All of them together, giving what they could afford to give, pretty much paid for the rest of our adoption expenses. At that point, we expected that we needed about $12,000 to finish this thing. We left that night with over $11,000 in our hands. Since then, we've recieved about another $800 from a returned deposit from the golf club, and others who couldn't be there that night but wanted to contribute. Bringin us within a hundred dollars of our $12,000 goal.

We were able to pay our agency in full, leaving only our travel expenses to be paid for, and we have money in the bank for that. It was pretty awesome to ask if we could prepay the rest of our fees to Gladney. I got the impression that it doesn't happen very often :) I also got to contact Shaohannah's Hope to cancel our request for a grant, because God had provided for all our our financial needs...They also said the NEVER see that email!
We are completely in awe of what the Lord has done for us and Lucy, through our friends who first, love the Lord, and second, love us. Now we just wait for his timing to unfold so we can see that sweet face of Lucy. The Lord is telling his story of greatness and redemption, once again. It is a really, really, good story. All the Glory is for him!