The day after I wrote my post about my lack of patience we found out we were unofficially matched! Which of course then put us in the scramble to come up with the $5000 we were short. We has a second yard sale and had a dinner and silent auction. When all was said and done we were only $250 short of having our agency fees. It put us in a position to be able to cover the fees. So, now we move on to our next obstacle, the home study. We have to pay $1000 up front for our home study. We have watched the amazing way God has worked to bring us to this point  and trust that he will bring us clear through this adoption. All we can do is trust Him and His timing through all of this because it is not us making it happen it is God.

Waiting is the worst part. I am definitely going to have to learn patience in this process. This is suppose to be our shortest wait time and we should know if we were matched with Sylvia this week or next and it seems like time is dragging by. I really want to know whether I can officially call her my daughter. My heart already does but will the law? I know it is early and if I am already struggling with the wait I am in for it. I appreciate the prayers from everyone that gets us through the waits in the process.
While our gofundme account may not show it we have had some amazing support in our fundraisers and are only about $3000 from our agency fees! Which means $6000 including our home study fees. We feel so blessed by all the people that have stepped forward to help us and support us in so many ways. We still have a long ways to go financially but our first goal is almost met. THANK YOU!

Wow, a year has past without a post. I am probably the world's worst blogger. Life just has a way of consuming us and things that we may try don't always get completed.

Well, off of the excuses now and on to our amazing news. Chris and I have started the adoption process! After years of praying and considering adoption we are finally doing it! God placed the file of a little girl from Eastern Europe in our hands and we knew that we wanted her in our family.

Until we can give out her real name after court ( a long way down the road) we are calling her Sylvia. Sylvia has some special needs and it is very important that she get to a place with more advanced technology then where she is to receive treatment for these needs.

We did so much research before putting in our application to be matched with her and thought we had the process and time frame of adopting a special needs child figured out. When we put in our application we learned that we will be moving even faster then initially thought. God works in mysterious ways and we trust that He will provide for all of our needs through this process.

The total adoption will cost approximately $30,000 with a third of the costs being due within the month. We are at about $4,000 of our $10,000 goal for the month. The sweet and condensed version on our process is: submit application,be unofficially matched, home study, complete dossier, travel, be officially matched, court, complete documents for Sylvia to come home, bring Sylvia home, readopt in the US. As you know nothing is free and each of those steps has a price tag attached to it.

We had saved about $3000 before we began this process and are now planning fundraisers. We had a yard sale last weekend, will have another this weekend, have a spaghetti dinner and silent auction planned in two weeks, and with the first Sunday Night Praise we will be having a dinner also. We have also applied for grants and when our home study is complete will apply for more. Doing some searching on the internet I found some interest free loans that we will also apply for. We are doing the work the God asks us to and know He is faithful.

I will add our gofundme widget to this page for anyone that feels that God is calling them to help bring Sylvia home. I will also try to do a better job of keeping up with the blog and where we are in the process. If at any time you would like an update and haven't seen one in a while please call me out on it!

Well, fall harvest is upon us. We have had a nice little break with the rain we have been getting lately. It has been nice to have Chris home a few days to try and get a few projects done on the house and to just get to spend time as a family!

The kids entered projects in the fair and did a great job. Cayleigh took first with her crayon leaf. I have mini cake pans so, she picked one out and went through her crayons and peeled all the paper off of the broken ones to put in the pan. I put it in the oven for her to melt the crayons. It turned out really pretty. Her brother was snatching all the blues and greens so, hers ended up being fall colors. Josiah took chocolate chip cookies and ended up third. He learned so much like units of measurement and here he thought he was just having fun and making a yummy snack.

Homeschooling is also in full swing. It has been a lot of fun, but also full of challenges. We are all learning what works best for us (me as the teacher and Josiah's learning styles).

Chris just got home with the skid-steer and I better get out there to help him put our driveway back in order where the rain has washed it out.

God Bless,

Farm Life Gets BUSY!

Well as you may notice it has been quite some time since my last post. Life has been very busy. We just finished wheat harvest, but I suppose I should go back and start where I last left off.

Jeremiah was born April 30. He took his sweet time getting here. He was a week and a half late and took three days getting here. We went to the zoo while waiting for him to make his appearance. He was fine and I was doing OK so we just waited.
 
I had a successful and wonderful vba2c. My doctor thought I was crazy, but I had some wonderful midwives that were very encouraging and supported me in all my decisions, and a husband that was amazing through the whole thing. I drove 3.5 hours to every appointment so that I could vba2c. My first baby was 7 lbs 13.9 oz., my second was 6 lbs 4 oz so, we were expecting around a 7 lb baby. That was what the midwives thought as well. Well, when Jeremiah got here he was 9 lbs 1 oz. 20.5 inches. I am so thankful God allowed me to vba2c and gave me an exceptional birthing experience (not to mention a healthy baby and momma).

 Life with a newborn, a toddler, and a preschooler is hectic and I wouldn't trade my days with the kids.

Then mid May Ebony had her kids and Josiah named them Fluffy and Comfy. We have had a fun time bottle feeding them and playing with them. It is so wonderful to have fresh milk again. We also added another puppy, Striker. By this point you can tell it is spring at the Stum household with all the babies (ducks, geese, puppy, kids, and our new little one)!

A fried of mine got married in North Dakota so that meant it was time to travel. All three kids did wonderful for being in a car 11 hours one way. We took our time coming home through the Black Hills. We saw and did a lot of fun/neat things. We rode the steam engine, saw "George Washington and his crew" (according to Josiah who is 4), and went to Flinstone village among many other things.

The last day of our trip was Josiah's 4th birthday so we found him what he wanted for breakfast and then had his birthday party that weekend,

We get resettled in and get into a routine and then it's time for wheat harvest. We had some late freezes that did a lot of damage and then had a hail storm. We didn't have much left to harvest. We thought it should only take about three days. Well a three day harvest turned into a two week harvest with breakdowns and just waiting on wheat to be dry enough. Wheat harvest is now finished and it is time to start getting ready for fall to make sure everything is in excellent repair for a much longer/larger harvest, God willing.

That about gets you caught up on the happenings here!
God Bless,

Jennifer