A little of this and that

It's been a while soooo in a very poor effort to catch you up on what has been going on around here, I give you the post full of this and thats. Here you go:

1. We had a dossier marathon a few weeks ago. I'm glad to say that after getting a huge stack of papers certified at the county we, along with my sister and niece made a trek to our state capitol to get the same papers certified there too.

The result of said trip to Frankfort (which really deserves a post of its own) was:

A completed and shipped dossier. And a huge weight lifted off of this mama's shoulders!! Hopefully all documents will be translated by the end of May and on their way to DRC!!

2. You probably know by now that I am a consultant with Usborne Books and More. What you may not know is that we have sticker activity books. Well let's just say that those sticker activity books are my lil lady's favorite thing right now!! My favorite one so far is the shape sticker book. She didn't know her shapes before doing the sticker book and now she does! Yay!!!

3. And just because I think I might have a problem when it comes to adoption tshirts :)...

How sweet is that?! Seriously love it!!

4. Lylah is only slightly obsessed with the game "hide and seek". She doesn't really understand the point as she always tells where she is going to hide and mostly hides in the same few spots, but it is still super fun to play with her!! Also it is not in common to walk out of the room for a second only to find yourself forced into a game of hide and seek when you come back to said room!!

5. If you know Lylah, you also know that she is a very nice blend of girly mixed with not so much girly at all. Well, let's just say her girly side loooooves to get her nails painted!!

I'm just glad the not so girly side is okay with getting those same fingernails dirty while playing out in the yard!

6. Do you like my new cup?!

My dear friend is designing these neat-o tumblers as an awesome adoption fundraiser. I'm sure you know someone who needs one :)

7. Our lil lady has a real issue with the wind. The result is her own skater girl style on a windy, yet warm day.

8. Speaking of wanna be skater girl:

I love my new shoes!!! Thanks Midkiff gang!!! I sure do love you guys!!!

9. I can't wait to tell you in a whole post of its own about some big provisions we've seen lately!!!

10. I'm ready for bed. So I leave you with a sweet picture of our sweetie in her jammie jams.

Reach for the Stars Reading Program in Lydia's honor

As you may remember I became a consultant with Usborne Books and More in September. We offer a pledge based reading program called Reach For The Stars. I am organizing a summer reading program in Lydia's honor....to help raise funds to bring her home. Here is how it is going to work:

You let me know that you and your kiddo/s would like to participate. I will mail you a pledge form. You will take up pledges and read with your loved ones for 30 minutes a day for two weeks. You will earn 100% of your pledges back in FREE books. Those of you who live far away will have some shipping costs. I will make a commission and will use it toward our adoption. That I do believe is a WIN-WIN!!!! Here is a run down of information on the actual program:

Usborne's pledge-based reading incentive program returns 100% back to the participant in free books :)

What is the goal of the program?
The goal of Reach for the Stars is for children to read - or be read to - for 300 minutes over a two week period of time.

Who can participate?
This program is designed to benefit any organizational group, such as schools, individual classrooms, clubs, preschools, church groups, home school groups, charities, and public libraries.

How does the program work?
Parents and children ask friends, family, people they know (NO door-to-door) to sponsor their reading time by pledging a flat amount.

How do the kids benefit?
They develop the important habit of daily reading and receive Usborne books! The Reach For The Stars program helps children discover the joy of reading and gives them the opportunity to choose their very own high quality Usborne books to keep!

How can you benefit?
100% of the pledges collected are returned to you in books. PLUS you help Lydia get home sooner!! Yay!!

The event will run from June 4th-15th. So I will be mailing pledge sheets out in mid-May so hurry and sign up now!! You can email me at lara.mattingly81@gmail.com, find me on Facebook and let me know there, or give me a call. I'm soooooo excited about this!!! I hope you are too! Please help me spread the word and share this blog post with everyone you know who loves to read!!!

One

I wish this blog post would come complete with pictures of you all dressed up with ice cream cake all over your face sitting in your high chair with a hand made "I am 1!" banner hanging from it, but alas that wasn't God's plan for you Miss Lydia. His perfect plan for you was that you would spend your first birthday in an orphanage in your birth country-the DRC. I wonder what your first birthday was like? Did anyone make mention of it? I hope you got lots of extra hugs and snuggles from the Sisters there caring for you. We spent the day celebrating Christ's Resurrection, yes your first birthday was on Easter, another Holiday we can't wait to celebrate with you. I was especially guarded about your birthday, so while I thought about you EVERY minute there were no presents or decorations or a party here. I really wasn't even going to put anything on Facebook, but others beat me to it :). You are so loved already sweet girl!!! You better believe that when you get home with us, your first birthday with us will be a big ol celebration!!! Just wait until you taste your Poppy's ice cream cake!!!! Oh, and I apologize if Lylah tries to invade your present opening!! We will sing at the top of our lungs and maybe you'll smile or maybe you'll scream, but either way it will be wonderful!!! At the end of your first birthday we had some ice cream that Papa brought over. At the last minute we decided to put a candle on Lylah's bowl. She blew out your candle for you and we sang and prayed for you. We are so thankful for you and all you have taught us about faith and God and love even though we haven't even met you yet! We love you and can't wait to see you prayerfully before your next birthday.

Easter Day

We had a rather crazy week leading up to Easter. Nathan was with a team doing mission work in Europe so Lylah and I headed to Indiana with my sister and niece. Despite our routine being off in many ways, we still managed to have a devotion every night using the Resurrection Eggs. If you have not seen these you must check them out!!! Lylah loved them!!! They remind me a lot of the What God Wants for Christmas that we used at Christmastime. The night we opened the first egg which has a plastic donkey in it, she insisted on taking a bath with it!!!

We did a couple of crafts in Indiana too. We did a sticker page and made palm branches out of green construction paper and cut outs of the girls' handprints. I did not manage to take a picture of either :(. Bella was especially sweet saying "praise God" and waving her palm branch!!!

When we got home from Indiana we had a lazy Saturday waiting for Daddy to get home so we did a couple more crafts. We made a cross that came in a craft kit I found at Mighty $ as well as a little "lamb of God" craft I found on Pinterest. Again, I did not take pictures. Sunday was a sweet day. Lylah was soooo excited to have her daddy wake her up!!! I can't describe her sweet face when she saw him!!! Priceless for sure! I had made a special breakfast for Lylah the night before....

We all participated in the Easter challenge to wear clothes that helped support an adoption rather than the typical Easter attire.

Lylah was starting to feel bad so we took her to service with us. She actually did really well and only got a bit wiggly at the end!! She asked a lot of questions like, "why did they turn the lights off", "where is Merrick" (her daddy was playing in the band). By the time we got home though she was feeling even worse. I had planned to do another craft (we'll just save it for next year), but we only did resurrection rolls which she did really love. When they came out of the oven I showed her that Jesus was not there and she had to run and tell Daddy!! It was really sweet :)

So thankful for that empty tomb!!!

An Update... bit overdue

Adoption is hard. Adoption is a huge sacrifice. The truth of those two statements, because we've experienced them for well over a year, make me humbly sit in awe of the gospel. With Easter around the corner, we are reminded of just a hint of the hardness and sacrifice that Jesus went through all because He loved us so much and wanted us (no matter how risky we are) to be adopted into His family.

What a Savior!! We have been, as many of you know, at a standstill in our adoption process. Well things are not at a standstill anymore. A few weeks ago we were made aware of the fact that there was a different agency that had waiting children in the DRC. We called-asked a million questions-and found out that they had a little girl in our age range waiting for a family. We prayed-fasted-cried-sought council-asked more questions-and decided to switch agencies and move forward in hopes of getting a referral for that little girl. This was a huge step of faith for us. It meant that we would loose money that had been paid to our former agency and we were not guaranteed to get that referral. Our goal however has always been to get our daughter home and the timeline with our other agency was not promising-we had faith that the little girl ,with this new agency, waiting for a family was Lydia. About a week later we gathered around our computer as a family and had our first look at Lydia. Yes, you read that right folks, we have accepted a referral.

Now, we are thrilled, but we are also guarded. We now are working on getting our dossier back in line (this agency's requirements are a bit different) so that it can head over to Africa and in so doing begin the process of adopting Lydia into our family. This new agency's timeline is different because they work with multiple orphanages. There is now a chance that our second daughter will be home with us in time to celebrate Jesus' birth!! Sooooo, my guarded self debated even sharing this, but we need you all now more than ever. We need your prayers. Lydia needs your prayers. Pray that we would be able to gather our paper work in a timely manner so that it can move along to DRC. Pray against frustration and discouragement. Pray that we will cling to Jesus. Pray that the process from there moves smoothly and that we will wait well. Pray that Lydia would be protected and provided for while she is far away from us. Begin praying for the transition for all of us. Most of all pray that the gospel will be made known through this process. Hopefully more updates will come soon! I will not be posting a picture here, but I will share a picture of her very proud sister!!

Lylah has told us that she is going to "protect Lydia from falling down the stairs" and that she wants to "hold her in my lap". She is also going to "teach her to swing". I do think she will be the greatest sister ever!!!

Just a few things.

Here are just a few things I've meant to blog about lately :)

We went to an awesome children's museum in Evansville!! We all loved it! According to Lylah her favorite part was throwing balls in the water and wearing rain boots!

Lylah got a doll house for Christmas. We play doll house EVERY day. The doll's have a very diverse extended family.

I especially like that a rock made it into the picture. If you know Lylah well you can appreciate this (one day last week she pushed her daughter (a rock) on the swing for 30 minutes!) it was actually Lylah's idea for them to all stand together and take a picture! So funny! Today her mommy doll told the little girl doll "I'm too wimpy to carry you up the stairs sweetie.". Can you guess where she may have heard this?!

We also attended our first Burmese wedding. Lylah sat super well. The girls loves weddings!!! Afterwards she also proceeded to eat a whole plate of Burmese food. Seriously?!

Lylah has learned how to write a couple of letters as well!!

I have been giving away lots of free books!! Wants some?! www.myubam.com/P3244

Lylah also got a block table and blocks for Christmas. This is the other toy we play with all the time!!!

Have I mentioned my daughter's unique fashion?!

We have been getting to play with our best buddy lots!!

And sometimes when I'm not looking....this happens!

Of course there is never a dull moment with our silly girl!!!

Oobleck!!

When I was teaching, making "oobleck" was always one of my favorite things to do with my class during Dr. Seuss week!! Well this year I thought I would try it with Lylah....huge success!!!! She studied it, and just really loved it!! She was really quiet during the whole experience, but when one batch was pretty well played to crumbs, we had to make another batch!! Then later Lylah was playing with a rock pretending it was her daughter. Her daughter's name? Why, Oobleck of course!! Love my quirky girl and her crazy imagination!!!