The Miracle of Adoption

This is a video about a family's journey to get their two adopted children from Ethiopia. Hope you enjoy as much as Vince and I did. Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

December 25, 2007

The following was a post someone wrote following a Journal World article. Thought it was cute.

PS: To All My Democrat Friends:
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race,&n! bsp; creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.


To My Republican Friends:
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

So, how was your Christmas? Ours was great, the best part being the Christmas Eve Service. It is amazing to be surrounded by over 500 people praising God for sending His Son and then to think God is looking down at His creation (all over the world) praising Him for providing Jesus. He is worthy of our praise! So Haley got her remote control puppy from Santa that she had been praying for for the past month! We got a Wii!!!! Woo-Hoo! We are having lots of fun with that. It has been a beautiful Christmas, but we yearn to get Titus home and are praying diligently that God will take care of him, wherever and whoever he is, until he is home. Here are some pics and I hope you had a great Christmas and that you KNOW why the Baby Jesus had to come into the world and die upon a cross and that this fills your heart with great love and thankfulness and humility. The pics are of Luke and Maeflower. Aren't they precious!

Graduation

December 18, 2007

Vince graduated with his MBA from Baker on Sat. We are so glad to have that done and it was a great celebration. Afterwards, our parents took us all to KOKORO's for some Japanese food! It was wonderful. Don't have pics of that (as usual) but I just got some Christmas pics from our time at Crown Center. Last Friday, we had a baking day with our friends Jenny and Isaiah and made fudge, sugar cookies, and peanut butter balls. The parents did most of the work, but Lila and Haley helped me mix and add the ingredients and they all got to ice the cookies. We celebrated Christmas with the Avila's since they will be leaving for the Valley this Friday. Alex got a Lego Star Wars ship, Haley got a Barbie trike and Lila got a fire truck full of Mega-Blocks. They got other stuff too, but those were their favorites. Alex has been emailing Chris Tharp, a friend of ours who is serving America in Kosovo. She loves it and "asked" him if she could be pen pals with him. He sent her a pic of a cool Army snow truck and she thought it was awesome. We need to remember those protecting us and pray for them and their families this Christmas. What an amazing sacrifice to give and serve the US. They do so much for the people in the country they are serving too. I know Tharp has taken it upon himself to ask for donations for the local school in Kosovo, which he said was 'bare and literally had nothing'. The covenant group and I don't know who else contributed school supplies. Just another thing the military folks do for people!

Groceries Galore!

December 13, 2007

In November, a guy from Vince's work gave him a sack with a list of foods needed for the Leo Center. His church got donations last month and wanted to see if this could happen at Grace. In December, Vince got 200 bags from local grocery stores and stapled lists on them. The church did an AWESOME job, as they should have. This was a picture from last week. It filled Chad's truck up (two deep) and our SUV. Vince had to make another drop off today, filling up our truck again! Now the Leo Center is stacked full! They were amazed and we were too. It's great to see how much of an impact everyone can have if we all contribute. On another note, I found the website (I wrote it up top... http://www.jumbogerber.myadventures.org/ .) I think that's right, use the one on the side. You've got to see the pics of these kids celebrating Christmas in Swaziland. Beautiful children, amazing stories, and the one of the girl "Silent Tears" is incredible. Again, it's amazing what people can accomplish. They didn't cure AIDS or end poverty, but what they did in those childrens' lives is priceless and will be forever memories to these children. Check it out!

So we've been reading RED LETTERS and it gets my mind going about the AIDS crisis and where has the church been?! I got on http://www.one.org/ and checked out all the ministries that they support and I see some great things happening. It's also a good idea to read about the Presidential candidates and their views on these subjects which you can find out on ONE also. I thought about the amount of money it would take to get everyone in Africa the ARV's they needed, and if this amount was divided monthly by the amount of churches in America....what would that amount be? Could you imagine how much that would resemble Jesus. When you think about it, Jesus is with the poor, sick, dying, lonely, and sinner. How much does my life look like Jesus'? Just things I am thinking about. On a lighter note....every....EVERY prayer time, Haley prays that God will make sure she gets the remote control puppy at Target for Christmas. I am glad she goes straight to God and not to Santa, but come on...every time! Now Lila has started to pray for God to bring her the Pet Shop Monkey thing she wants. I don't know what she is talking about so she might be in trouble this year!

Dinner Conversation

December 9, 2007

Tonight we treated ourselves to some Vermont Street BBQ. (Kids eat free on Sunday). While we were eating, Alex "found" a hair in her macaroni bites, which was probably hers, but it grossed her out. Haley, said nonchalontly, "One time a found a hair in my found and I just kept eating it anyways." Nasty! She didn't think anything of it.

Over the weekend we went to St. Joseph and celebrated Grandma K's life. It was a beautiful funeral and know she would have been pleased. She was a great grandma and will be greatly missed. Here are some older Christmas pictures since I don't have any new ones yet.

Grandma K

December 5, 2007



Last night, Grandma Ketchum passed away. She lived a great life well into her 80's and will be greatly missed. Prayers for her kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids will be appreciated. Her funeral is this Sat. in St. Joseph. It has been a long time since I have posted, because I want to put pictures with the experiences, but we don't have a good digital camera so I am using other people's pictures. Lots more to come when the pics come in. This past weekend Vince and I went to Lodge of the Four Seasons for a little getaway. Papa and Nana K had purchased 2 nights there for us with babysitting for last years Christmas and we finally got to use it. It was PRICELESS!!! I could actually hear myself talk at a low decibel!!! I read to Vince all the way down there and back. 2 Books: Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover and Red Letters: Living a Faith That Bleeds. Dave's is very good and this is are first month of going to cash on everything. We'll see how it goes. It is amazing how much you hate to hand over cash for something, but it is so easy to swipe the card. Red Letters is AMAZING!! It talks about Jesus' words in the Bible, Jesus' passions which were for the poor, sick, sinner, orphan, widow... He speaks in depth about the AIDS crisis in Africa and the church's lack of empathy and help towards AIDS and its orphans. Again, check out his website at http://www.tomdavis.typepad.com/. You can find ways to help and bless others. Also, Saint's Coffee makes great Christmas gifts!!! I bought 6 lbs. worth, which will feed 6 orphans for a month!!! Check out their site http://www.saintscoffee.com/. This week I had the opportunity to pray for a 3 year old girl, Mary Claire, who is fighting a medullablastoma.

I am strong. I am happy. I am exuberant. I am courageous. If I know what to expect I am not afraid. Fear doesn't come from God. God is near me, I can feel Him. I do not feel afraid. I know I am sick. I know that makes God sad. My dad too. They each gather me into their arms and I know I will be comforted. I feel joyful.You should feel joyful, too. We are celebrating advent. A long time ago when the world was in darkness, the God who loves us sent His son, a light, to be a baby and grow among us. To grow up, share stories and give His life for us. It is hard for a Daddy to know His child will die. We all die. But thanks to God we live everlasting life with Him who knew the number of hairs on our heads before we were born. We will live with Him outside space and time. Like an eternity but different. He numbered our years to 120. He said that was long enough for man to decide whether or not to choose Him.All the visible reminders are around us at the holidays, the reminders to choose Him, the reminders of His vast love. Take a minute to be a child and climb into His arms and hug Him right back. He loves you so much.

I have corresponded with her mother and I would ask you to pray for her and for Caden White also. Also, pray for Brandon's dad, Drew, who is recovering from a heart surgery.
I hope you all are doing well and will post pics as they come in!

The Avila's

Field Trip Day

November 27, 2007

Today we finished our month of learning about electricity at the home school co-op by going to Westar Energy. A most handsome engineer gave 12 children plus parents, a thorough presentation about how electricity is made at a coal plant and then we were able to go and see the turbine and generator. We also were able to go to the 12th floor, where we saw miles and miles of Lawrence, a huge coal stock pile and the Kansas River. The kids had a great time and it was awesome to see hands-on what we have learned this past month. Haley read a book to me called "Sam". In Aldi's, Haley and Lila were laying on top of eachother on top of where you bag your groceries. They were acting very inappropriately for young ladies and needless to say, I was spent! I boxed those groceries in record time and the girls straightened up when we got to the car (a safe place for mommy, not so much for the kiddos). "NO DESSERT AT CICI'S!!!" When daddy got home, it was a lot better and we played doctor with the kiddos and read Bible stories. Now, Vince and Alex are watching----STAR WARS---big surprise there! But the other girls are snug in their beds, what a precious thing that is. Hope all is well and here is a pic of the kids at the plant. Don't we look good in our PPE?

The Avila's

Thanksgiving Ham

November 26, 2007

It's been a long time since I've posted, but we have been enjoying some quality time with daddy since he's been off for a week. This year, Vince thought we needed to cook a ham that had been in our fridge for about a year. We did take out the ham a couple days before and Vince searched out the perfect glaze recipe and the time it would take to cook a raw ham. Every recipe said around three hours (~7lb. ) or 30 minutes per lb. Since this was a 21 lb. ham, Vince thought 3.5 hours should git-r-done in time to take it over to his parents house for lunch. Bless his heart!!!! When we stuck the thermometer in, the dial didn't even move. So we wrapped up the ham and took it to the Avila's and cooked it some more. At 5:30, the ham was done!!!! Thank goodness Maggie insisted on having a turkey or we would have had to open up a can of spam. But, I must say it was an awesome ham...muy savarossa! We will have pics about our day at Crown Center for the Mayor's Christmas Tree Lighting later, but here are some pics Kerrie took of the girls when she came over to babysit. They played beauty parlor, dogs, and restaurant! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Coming Together

November 17, 2007

Today was our 2nd Fields of Promise 5K at Grace EPC. This year I was going to train and I started one Sunday afternoon, but when we found out Vince had to work this weekend, I knew I couldn't do it with 3 girls. So the girls and I went to help out with refreshments. Haley and Lila were busy playing spy around the halls. What is so great about this 5K is that all the proceeds help fund/completely fund a home for 24 orphans, staff, furniture, clothing, food, etc. We raised $4000 last year and hopefully we did the same or better this year. They have 10 kids currently living in the home and 4 more are expected this week...and they are all ready for a forever family!!! Check out their website!

Last night Vince and I went to the Westar Christmas Party, which was held at the New Theater Restaurant. We saw Church Basement Ladies and it was really cute. While we were gone, our babysitter Alison, was holding down the fort with the enemy (Lila) attacking. She through a fit, but Alison held her ground and then when it was time for bed Lila didn't want to go, so Lila said "If you call my mom and dad, I will go to bed!" So smart little Alison, walked out of the room and then came back to Lila and said "Lila, I called your mom and she said 'GO TO BED'". Lila fell for it and when straight to sleep. Man she is a pistol and dad had to handle that situation this morning before he left for work. KU is starting to play for 11-0, better go!

The Avila's

Lunch Time Prayers

November 14th, 2007

I had just made lunch for all of the girls and we sat down to begin our prayers. I thought today would be a good day to tell God 2 things we are thankful for. Lila wanted to start first...."Father God, umm I just umm...." Pretty soon, Haley leans in and whispers "tell God 2 things you are thankful for" and right then Lila shoots out "Thanks you for don't let Haley tell me what to pray for amen." I just had to share...one of the many priceless prayers I have heard from my girls. We had BLAST later on and created wrapping paper for our Samaritan's Purse boxes. We ate popcorn and made ornaments and played "What time is it Mr. Fox?" Gosh, I feel old. Vince and I were talking about what we needed to do to Titus' room. I thought cowboy, and Vince said "No Way!" I thought since I have been able to pick out all of my colors and decor for every room, I could let Vince do his son's room. He wants African themed. Complete with clouds on the ceiling and a big mural. Well, I don't know who he thinks is going to paint this, so I suggested painting it and blowing up pictures from our trip to Africa and framing them and then having artifacts/wooden animals/baskets, etc. We'll see what he decides. I am scared to see what type of mural we would come up with! I need to get back to filling out paperwork...yikes!

Tired Tuesday

November 13, 2007

Today is when TLC, the local Christian Homeschool Co-op meets. We got through all our subjects by noon so we could be there on time. Haley learned about smelling and tasting, Lila played with the other kids and produced a sheet with cotton balls glued to them (not sure what it was), and I taught Alex's class about conductors and insulators with another mom. We did a fun experiment and went over power plant design and how electicity is made so that the children will be prepared for our field trip to Westar Energy in a couple of weeks. I hear there is a good-looking engineer there that will be giving us the tour! We also went to the dollar store to let the girls pick out stuff for our Good Samaritan's Purse/Box drive at church. That is always a good time, until they have to give up the dollies they bought for another child. After a few tears and fits were displayed by our youngest girls, we went home, did a short bible time and put the girls to bed. Vince is watching Wolves with Alex and I am on my way to bed...at 7:13. I am exhausted. Good Night!

A rough one...

November 9th, 2007

Wow, it was a rough day today...I think our hormones were raging times 4 in the Avila house and thank goodness Vince could only hear it via the phone! I don't know if it is the time change or what but time-outs, spankings, and lots of prayer time seemed to be the theme for today. Lila choked Haley, Haley punched and kicked Lila and Alex did a great job yelling at them! I know I was there trying to do crowd control, but I don't know if anyone heard me! SO it is 7:36 and everyone is in bed, except Alex, who is currently watching Star Wars, the one with the Ewoks. Vince, lucky dog, is at the KU game with his dad. Tomorrow is another day and yes, it was crazy, but there is a light at the end of this tunnel. We went out to El Mezcal with Vince's parents and it was great food, great conversation and the Margarita's were nice too. The girls had fun making their food creations with our leftovers, which gave mom a well-deserved break. It is hard to see the girls complain about their food (at lunchtime) when who know what or if our son is eating right now. To see the waste, to see how much my kids (and I) take for granted makes me sick. We have no idea what it is to be hungry or to only have one outfit. It has been good to talk with the girls about Titus and to pray for him. We can't even imagine what the 5 million orphans are going through--these in Ethiopia alone. It is sobering, how many hundreds of pictures I have seen of ALL the KIDS and NO ADULTS. Children raising children. And I look at how blessed our girls are and how blessed I am to have the opportunity to give my kids a future and a hope, clothes and food and education. Sometimes this can get me down and seems like this is unfixable...but God calls us to do what we can and will give us the grace to do what He has called us to...WE are not the answer and salvation to these orphans, but God is a "father to the fatherless, a defender of widows...God in his holy dwelling". God is there, but I believe He calls us to come alongside Him in some capacity. I can't speak highly enough of http://www.tomdavis.typepad.com/. Watch his short videos...the girl in the wheelchair, pizza and bananas, etc. Sorry, I get off on a tangent, but it is of value to open our minds up and start exposing ourselves to things, hard things, outside our own little convenient world. Hopefully God will give me a little more grace and a little more patience to love on my girls tomorrow. They are such a huge blessing to me.

Coffee Anyone?

Hey Friends,
Just came across a site: http://www.saintscoffee.com/. For every bag of coffee (fair trade, fresh, organic) purchased, you will provide food for one orphan for an entire MONTH!!!! The farmers get paid a fair price and children eat and us parents can stay awake and be more hospitable to our kiddos in the morning for only $10!! I think we might give some out as Christmas gifts...just a thought, making a difference one cup at a time! An amazing site that I just love is http://www.tomdavis.typepad.com/. Listen to this guy's videos--he sure makes you think about what is truly important and its not out there pushing adoption on anyone, because that really isn't the most effective way to make broad change...buying coffee, mission trips, prayer, sponsorship, and even running (which I am NOT up for) makes a huge impact! On a slightly different note, contrary to popular belief George Washington's dentures were not made out of wood! They were made out of hippo and elephant bone, gold coils, donkey, horse and human teeth. Probably why you don't ever see him smile-poor guy! How do I know this incredible info? Alex is writing a weekly report about our US Presidents. Haley also knows how to read: read, feed, mat, seed, if, and numerous other words. It's an amazing thing to be able to share in her success!
Adios!

November is Adoption Month

November 8, 2007

So this time last year, Vince (after being CERTAIN that we were not going to adopt) started coming to realize that maybe we should consider adoption. I was trying really hard not to push anything on Vince, but Hey! November is National Adoption Month and with our church putting on a 5K to raise funds for the orphans in Ethiopia, I thought it only right to get Vince to go with me to hear more about it. A couple from our church shared their adoption journey and their struggle with infertility and needless to say we were touched and Vince's heart had melted. The next week, it just so happened that http://www.familylife.com/ and http://www.family.org/ had devoted that week to adoption topics and stories. Me being such a passive :) woman made the radio downloads available every evening for Vince to listen to after our girls went to bed. I think it was by December when Vince "knew" we needed to adopt and there was our son out there somewhere. To me, this was amazing because just nine months before he told me "You need to get adoption out of your head, because it is not going to happen." Of course I was crushed, but had never seen Vince feel so strongly about something...so I prayed. I prayed that God would either take the strong desire off of my heart, or that God would change his heart. This was truly an answer to prayer. All this to say: November is Adoption Month and the above websites are broadcasting beautiful adoption stories. A great one is "A Meeting with the Master". It is about the church who adopted 31 Liberian boys. The Fields of Promise 5K is coming up on Nov. 17th. I most likely won't be running with three girls while Vince is at work, but we can still contribute. GEPC raised $4000 which provide rent, 2 full time caregivers, food and furnishings for about 30 orphans. It is amazing what God can do with our money! It does go far and makes an eternal impact for so many! If you aren't running or are far away and still want to give go to http://www.fieldsofpromise.org/ and see what you can come up with! My girls are all asleep and I am going to go enjoy the quietness for a while. The pics of the girls are oldies but goodies

The Avila's

Adoption News

November 5, 2007

I realize this might be news to a lot of you, but we are EXPECTING!!!! And this time, it is a boy! We started our homestudy in September and got it completed in a record 10 days!! We had to get it done by the 14th so that we could apply for a grant through Douglas County. We just found out today that we are the recipients and will get $1000 towards our adoption costs. I will be starting our I-600 soon with that money. This will allow our son to become a US citizen automatically when he becomes ours.
Vince and I have been praying about adopting ever since Alex was a baby. I think God was just preparing our hearts for this endeavor and now three kids later, we thought we had room for one more. We waited another 9 months or so, before we actually started the process and since then, God has amazed us with His provision! The girls are very excited for "Titus" to come home, but the still want a dog. Titus is the name we have given our child, but God knows his real name and if he is older, we probably won't change it and might give it to him as a middle name. Enough rambling, we are just really excited to go get him and bring him home. We are adopting from Ethiopia and are seeking a boy around 2.5 yrs or younger. Check out www.fieldsofpromise.org for some amazing posts and information about Ethiopia and life there. It changed our lives and will touch your hearts! We could definitely use prayer for our adoption process and the decisions we will be faced with. That we would not place limits on ourselves or what God is calling us to, but that we would be open to all that God has for us and to be content, whatever the circumstances.

Halloween in Chicago

November 3, 2007

So Vince told me a couple weeks ago he was going to Chicago for work and I thought "not without us!" So we got the hotel set up, borrowed a DVD system and arrived a short 10 hours later to beautiful Lake Michigan. Mapquest said it should only take us 8 hours 45 min. but we must have small bladders or something, because on the way back it took us 11 hours. Thank goodness for movies! We visited the Shedd Aquarium and got to see the dolphins perform. That was pretty cool! We also swam ALOT, met some high school friends and went to American Girl (Haley was an amazing mother to all those babies, and Lila went crazy doing laps around the tables with the doll stroller). For mommy, we went to H and M and of course, I had to buy my new niece (Mae Adaire) some beautiful outfits for Christmas! We had a great time (except for the inner-city driving). You could tell we were from out-of-town, when your yelling out your window at the traffic director "State Street?!" It is insane and it makes me thankful I only have to deal with Lawrence traffic. We also went to the Hershey Store for Halloween cupcakes and hot cocoa. Haley was a princess, Lila was a fairy (without the itchy wings), and Alex was Obi-Wan-Kanobi. The picture of Haley and Alex is a little silly, but if you know Haley, she loves to make silly faces and noises.

Our First Post...Oct. 24, 2007

I've been thinking about starting a blog for some time now, but with homeschool, 3 beautiful girls, and everything else we do, I have been putting it off! This will be about our life, activities, thoughts, and hopefully lots of pictures. We just took our annual trip to Shaake's Pumpkin Patch and had a good time--even though we all crunched on the dirt in our mouths brought on by the relentless wind. I got the kiddos all bathed and beautiful for pictures at the patch and they were filthy by the time we got back. The above pics are from this year and from 2 years ago. I take the same picture every year. Today we had Nature Center classes and learned about snakes. Haley and Alex even got to touch them! We have BLAST (Wed. kids church) tonight. Vince and I teach Haley's kindergarten class. It is so much fun to dress up and teach them about God. Last week, I was Mary and Vince was the Angel Gabriel---complete with a silver wig and a halo. So far they have memorized Deut. 6:4 and Luke 4:18--the kids KNOW it!