It's been a long time....

Well, hello there! It's been a bit since I last wrote. We truly enjoyed our Christmas and New Year's spending time with family and friends. It was a different Christmas and New Year's in that we realized  that this was quite possibly our last one as a family of four, that one of ours, although not yet known exactly who(or whom....I never know which one to put...so for the grammar nazis, haha, I'll put it as an option), is making a big hole that won't be filled until she's here. All of a sudden, many things we do as a family seems that one of ours absence also shows that we all wiggled around and made room for her in our tight little family. This little person already has a permanent spot with brothers that put aside candy and toys they think she will love and parents that well up with tears as we realize just how big God made our hearts.

We are waiting to approve our home study and already have the next step of paperwork ready to go! We are currently working on another packet of forms. We also went and had passports done....this may make me the biggest goober on the planet...but I was so excited to go and get a passport...it means another step towards getting our pigtails! FYI- do not....I repeat DO NOT go to get your passport during holidays or time off that school is closed(it's the most popular time to get passports)....with 30 minutes per group of people getting a passport and us being 6 deep in line with an endless line behind us, I can honestly say that I had to tell my boys we were practicing for waiting in line when we go to get sister. My boys were excited when we got to the group room, but more so about the prospect of making faces in their passport pics....I promise they didn't...not to say that they didn't discuss the possibility.

We I have been busy designing(Brent nodded and smiled knowing I was gonna do what I was gonna do) a t-shirt for fundraising. Here it is!...please note that all colors will be the deep purple, but for some reason when filed a couple of images show up lighter.

So, the verse we chose is Psalm 68:5-6 Father to the fatherless, defender of widows-this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families

I love how so many times in the Bible God promises us adoption into His own through Jesus as well as the clear direction of us to care for the widows and orphans of the world. Also...did you catch the cutie patootie name on the front? Yep, she will be Ruth but we'll call her Ruthie. I don't know that her name could be anything else after Brent saw her in a dream wearing a jersey with the name Ruthie on the back and then me being placed at the Table of Ruth a couple of weeks later during my Emmaus Walk. This week when I was trying to decide whether it was okay to go ahead and officially kick off Team Ruthie, I was presented with many occurrences of others named Ruth or Ruthie...no joke, every time I turned around it was on my Facebook, in my email, or literally running into people with that name.

Many of you may be like I was and in the dark as to how children in international adoption come into their names. Most of the time, pre-adoption, they are given an English name that is generic and somewhat used only as a point of reference for those searching files to adopt. Their real names are in their native language but assigned with a name of the orphanage or area of residence or semblance of place they were found. If you'll remember, in the book of Ruth, Ruth was widowed, who chose to stay by her mother in law's side, was taken into the fold by Boaz, and would eventually produce the lineage of King David. God can make beautiful out of ashes....

So...down to bidness :) It is fundraising go-time! We have cut, nipped, tucked, and any other form or fashion of slashing our budget-no cable, eat out only once a week, put multiple electronics, etc on surge protectors with on/off buttons...and turned them off when not in use, turned down the thermostat, grew a winter garden to supplement food budget, etc....but alas, that is only part of what we need to do to raise the funds for our little pigtailed princess. We will be doing multiple fundraising activities, but here are two we are doing now:

Team Ruthie t-shirts(YS, YM, YL, YXL, Adult S, M, L, XL, XXL):

Okay, if you want to order a Team Ruthie shirt and pay through PayPal, please just follow this link:

After placing your order, please email me at krisdkul@gmail.com or message me on here to let me know # of shirts and sizes you would like, as well as any shipping information.

If you want to order a Team Ruthie shirt and pay by mailing a check, please contact me at: krisdkul@gmail.com. I'll email you with an address as well as notice that I have received your check upon its arrival.

T-shirts are $20 each, shipping is $3 if needed. We will be placing orders for our first printing February 28 and delivering(if you're local) and shipping(for those who live outside of Madison County, AL).

Sweets!
I don't know if you remember or not, it's been eons ago, but I used to sell baked goods at the Madison Farmer's Market when it was still in the old cotton warehouse....I know right! I got lucky and my grandmother's awesome baking genes got me! I say that because growing up I didn't pay attention like I should have to what she was doing in the kitchen....I paid a lot of attention to bowls and spatulas I could finish off or strawberries that were "too little" for her pies and little bits of cookie dough that she "couldn't" fit into another cookie. So, I really believe in osmosis, because somehow when I went to try and bake as an adult wife....ta-dah...it was all there....how she made all those yummy things she did, all of it! (Secret revealing time-my grandmother was not only known(quite well) for her baking/cooking, but also for ninja-level ability to teach people things when they weren't paying attention)

So...I'm back to baking...cobblers(pear, strawberry, peach, blackberry are the best), cakes(carrot, tres leches, chocolate with chocolate ganache rule), muffins(stuffed with cherry cheesecake)...you name it! I also make candy and fudge to order. If you need some sweet goodies, let me know, your sweet tooth will get us closer to our her! You can message me here on the blog or email me at krisdkul@gmail.com for more information.

We appreciate your role that you are playing in our process! It would be a lonely road without our village surrounding us. Until next post!

kk