FRIDAY IS THE LAST DAY!

Hi guys! I just wanted to let everyone know that the last day to place a Thirty One order for our fundraiser is Friday! If you haven't placed an order yet, and want to, now is the chance!!

www.thirtyone.com/michelledancy

Thanks so much!!!! We are still $17,000 short! ACK! I am trusting Jesus to provide though!!

BUDDHA

If know me at all, you know I love Asian decor. I always have, long before we discovered that the Lord was leading us to adopt a child from Asia. I remember being in middle school and being convinced that I was going to marry Thang Nguygen. LOL. I didn't. Instead, I married the whitest boy on the planet. But that's neither here nor there now I suppose. Anywho.....

When we bought our house, I had my heart set on a "Chinese kitchen". I painted it red, and filled it with Asian decor. I loved it then, and I love it now. One day during that time, I stumbled across this little beauty...

Now, I am not going to lie. I love it. Brad hates it. I understand that it is Buddha, but I am not worshipping it. I just like the way it looks. When I was a little girl, I remember my grandmother (not Willa, my other grandmother) had Buddhas everywhere. She was Catholic. She didn't worship Buddha either, she just liked them. So I saw no harm in my little treasure from Target.  Brad on the other hand disagreed. He hated it. He couldn't understand why I would want it, but being the kind of man Brad is, he just tolerated me it.

So today we were talking about how lately, I have felt like Jesus was far away. I was telling Brad that I have felt like He isn't hearing my prayers, no matter how desperately I have cried out to Him. Then  Brad said, "Maybe because you have an idol in our kitchen." Huh? I didn't understand what he was saying. An idol? We ended up having this long talk about my Buddha.

I never really considered what he was saying. He (and he is very wise about the bible and things of that nature) was telling me that it doesn't matter that I, personally, don't worship Buddha. I am still allowing an idol, with all of its evil attachments, into our home. Huh. That has really given me something to ponder today.

I believe in the "spiritual" world. Forces unseen to humans. Could having something "UnChristian" in our home allow a foot hold, so to speak, for an evil presence? I guess I never really thought of it that way... I am curious to hear other peoples opinions on this, so please share.

For what it's worth, my Buddha is now gone. After I got off the phone with Brad, I immediately came into the kitchen and threw it away. Brad came home for lunch and said, "Gosh! Our house already feels more peaceful!" LOL! Whatever. I told him "Good, I work hard on the feng shui." I thought he might slap me! HAHAHA!

SO PROUD

Lately, I have noticed Brad talking to himself, kind of under his breath, a lot. I thought maybe he was just getting senile in his old age. LOL. He's also been spending quite a bit of time with his guitar. Turns out, my talented little hubby has been writing songs! How cool is that? He has teamed up with a guy at church and they have been cranking them out! He has shared a few with me and they are really good. I mean really good. Well, he sang one in church the other day. It was so neat to see his name on the copyright info when he put the words on the giant screens.  Anyway, I thought I would share the song with you guys.  I'm so proud. Here it is,  "Song of Forgiveness". Music and lyrics by Brad C.!

By the way, how stinkin cute is he? 

DEAR MOUNTAIN DEW

I am so sorry to be writing you a "Dear John" letter. I just can't be with you anymore. Don't get me wrong, it has nothing to do with you, it's me. I love you and you will always hold a special place in my heart. I tried to gradually spend less time with you, but that isn't working for me anymore. I must break up with you completely.

It will hurt for a while. But once I rid my body of all the negative things you leave behind, I will feel better. Try not to be so sad. I will see you around. Brad still wants to be with you. You will still have your special place in my fridge. Just no longer in my hand...

Try to move on without me.

*Disclaimer* - To Pepsi, Co - I am sorry if you have to file for bankruptcy now. That is not my intention. I hope you can still sell enough of your glorious sodas without my support.

CHILDREN OF GOD

This is the official video for Third Day's song, "Children of God". It is awesome. The message is powerful. We are all children of God. Think about that for a minute - think about how much you love your children or how much your parents love you. God's love for us is more than that love. More than we can wrap our mind around. Isn't that amazing? He adopted us, through Jesus Christ, to be His sons and daughters. His very own. It's hard to think of ourselves as "His very own" sometimes, isn't it? Watch the video until the very end. Please. I promise you, you don't want to miss the message.

I will leave you with these verses. Think on them for a minute. Even if you have read them before, stop and really dwell on them. What is God saying to you? Does He have a fresh message for you today? I bet He does.

Ephesians 1: 3-8
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.t 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

AGENCY INFO

There has been some talk lately about different agencies and how they match families from the shared list. It can be pretty competitive in nature. Some agencies stay up the night the shared list comes out so they can be aggressive in matching their families. Other agencies wait until the next business morning to try to match their families.

I can tell you that I would have loved to know which agencies matched at night before I signed with one. Fortunately, America World does indeed stay up the night the list comes out, so it worked out great for me. Other families are not so lucky. They had to find out the hard way. As nerve wracking as the list is, I can't imagine how bonkers I would be if AWAA did not match as soon as the list comes out. Anyway, my friend Kristen did a poll on which agencies do stay up and I thought I would share it here. I think it is very helpful information!

Agency Name	Available at night?
A Helping Hand	Yes
Adoption Associates Inc.	Yes
Americans Adopting Orphans	Yes
Bay Area Adoption Services (BAAS)	Yes
Bethany	No
Children's Home Society and Family Services	Yes
Chrysalis	Yes
Dillon	Yes
EACI Inc.	Yes
European Adoption Consultants (EAC)	Yes
FTIA (Families Through International Adoption)	Yes
Gladney	Yes
Great Wall China Adoption (GWCA)	Yes
Holt	Yes
Lifeline Adoption	Yes
Living Hope Adoption Agency	Yes
Nightlight Christian Adoption	Yes
Small World Adoptions	Yes
Spence Chapin	Yes
WACAP	Yes
WASATCH	Yes
Wide Horizons fir Children (WHFC)	Yes

Hopefully, this list will be helpful! Let me know if you want to add your agency to the list, if it isn't already represented.

HEART ATTACK

Today around 2:30 or so, my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and it was a VA number. I immediately knew it was my agency. So I answered it, my heart began to race! It was my family coordinator. She politely said hello, and asked if it was a good time to talk. HELLO? YES! My heart rate was climbing. Well, she was calling to talk to me about a mission opportunity. SIGH. I think there should be a rule that if you are waiting for a referral, your agency should not be allowed to call your house.

AWAA is getting a group of people together to go to Guizhou, China in July. It is a missions trip, and the people going will be doing some work and loving on the kids there. I sent an email earlier this week requesting information.  It is definitely something I would love to participate in, but this year probably wouldn't work. I was just curious about the details/cost more than anything. 

I am trying not to read between the lines here, but I can't help but find hope in her call. She was calling to tell me I am welcome to participate, but she recommends waiting. She said if we received a referral, traveling to China for a mission trip in the summer would be too close to traveling to pick up Willa. I completely agree, and like I said, I was mostly just curious. The "thing" that got me though was she has always been very conservative when I have asked her about when we could get a referral. She has always made me feel like it could be a long time. In fact, she made my social worker have a chat with us about the "potentially long wait". So the fact that she discouraged me from signing up for a mission trip traveling in July just made me think maybe, just maybe, she feels like it would conflict with our adoption travel.

Now like I said, I could totally be over thinking this... but! That was the whole purpose for her call. So maybe it wont be long! I have to find hope where I can get it! LOL!

I have to be honest - I live a pretty boring life. When the call came today, I could literally feel a surge of adrenalin. After I hung up the phone, I felt like I had just stepped off of Space Mountain. Shaky, heart racing, a little nauseous. HAHA! It took quite a while for me to relax after that. It is insane what one phone call can do, especially when it wasn't the phone call you hoped it would be. If I felt like that after hanging up today, how am I going to feel when the real call comes? 

FUNDRAISER!

I am so excited to share this fundraiser with you guys! Why? Because I love the product! It's a product I feel good about, and feel good about encouraging you to buy! Thirty One!!

A couple of weeks ago,  I got a comment from Michelle, a fellow adoptive mommy, offering to help me do a fundraiser. She is so so so generous, and offered me her commission to put toward our adoption costs. Isn't that awesome? Who can turn down an offer like that? So here we are! If you would like to place an order, all you need to do is go to her website Thirty One, click place an order, and it will take you to a link to place an order. It will say "Michele's Adoption Fundraiser". 

I am really excited! If you are willing, please place an order! Mother's Day is coming up! They have great spring prints and they are having a great sale right now! Check it out!