sunny and lovely

oh its sooo pretty out today! axle graduated preschool today. i have been searching for grants and filling out forms like a mad woman. i have to keep reminding myself not to focus on it and just remember to be prayerfully doing all things. sometimes i get so caught up trying to do what i think God would have me do, that i forget about even asking Him first. He showed me something today that i thought was really cool. "God sent Jesus into the world: "that we might receive the adoption as sons." (Gal. 4:4-5) "as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God." (John 1:12) Adoption is a living example of of God's love !" this was on the site http://www.hfgf.org/index.html . a super informative site about starting an adoption ministry at your church. i wonder how our little Ghana kids are going to react to ferdie? i better get back to filling out forms and sewing up stuff to sell!

barf dogs

well aside from the hot dogs looking and tasting nasty, the orphan/adoption ministry fundraiser was a success! it was really nice to talk to people and let our church know that there are a few couples in or about to begin the adoption process. Aaron and i both feel pretty strongly about the church being our family and we want as many people as possible praying for our future kiddos before and after they come home. we want our church family to be involved in the process. it was nice to answer questions and meet with such enthusiasm. i love our church!! we got off to a shaky start. if you know me or my mom than you probably guessed that we were late (of course!). it was pouring down rain and so we were going to be outside in the rain under a 10' x 10' canopy. i don't do well in the cold and neither does my mom. we thought wed have to bag it because of the rain but bonnie (the encourager) told us to go ahead and we'd just trust God to meet us there. He sure did! my mom had a lead foot. i think i said "you're speeding" or "SLOOOW DOWN!" like a hundred times. we got there and decided not to cook the dogs early Jeff had a cook station waiting for us at pasco rentals to pick up so we could just boil them on demand. they turned out sick! but at least we didn't waste any. we sold all the muffins too. luckily when we got there, they let us setup under the overhang so we wouldn't get rained on. I've got to say God totally blessed our efforts. when we got there we all prayed that God would have his hand over it and the rain stopped, clouds dried up and the sun was out and shining by second service. yeah God! we raised a good amount for the ministry but more importantly i hope we raised awareness and God will remind people to be praying! all this with no announcement and basically last minute prep. Marty announced at church last night that we'll be selling them again on Sunday and then went on about how the dogs tasted and looked so gross. thank you for spreading the word Marty! we are for sure getting Nathan's instead of the yucky dogs we got last week and i think we are going to grill them this time instead of boiling. we got our home study contract but haven't raised enough money to mail it in yet so, we're praying! i need more patience.

here goes nothin

so here's my first post. if you are going to read this you will just have to look past my bad punctuation and grammar. i'm a very lazy typer. i do it one handed so you won't be seeing any caps. sorry! my name is Melissa. i've been married for seven years this august to the most wonderful husband ever! his name is Aaron. we've got a little girl named Harley she'll be two in September and our boy Axle turned 4 in January. We've got a dog named Ferdinand (after the bull from a Munro Leaf book). so, the reason we are posting this blog is so that everyone can read updates on our adoption progress. we also wanted to keep record and bear witness to all the crazy, amazing things God is doing in and around our family. up to this point it's just too much to list in a single post. i am sooooooooooo anxious and excited (and maybe a little impatient) to get my kid(s) home , whoever they are!! we are going through the adoption agency Adoption Advocates International for many reasons. i'll be honest the amazing Anita sealed the deal. God's timing is perfect. long story. we are adopting from Ghana. if you don't know anything about Ghana, it's a small country in West Africa about the size of Oregon. UNICEF estimates that there are over 1 million orphans in Ghana. AAI's orphanage is in Accra and is called the Eban House. i have been learning so much lately, thanks to AAI's Yahoo group (i love you people!). one woman is in Ghana right now and posting blogs about her trip. every time i read about these sweet little ones i'm holding back tears. i want them all! this Sunday we are going to be selling muffins and hot dogs at church on behalf of it's brand new adoption ministry for lightening the financial burden on parents who are adopting. separately i will be selling my tees, dresses, pants, dolls, hair clips, and diaper bags on etsy. im still working on my etsy shop, so if you go there you wont see anything for sale yet. my wholesale site is up! harleyandaxle.com. i don't have adult shirts on there yet but i'm trying! well that's all for now. i have to go work on the adoption ministry flyers.
Please don't forget the little ones in your prayers. also pray for Steven Curtis Chapman and his family especially his son. his youngest adopted daughter Maria was killed in a car accident in the families driveway on Wednesday. Steven's son was driving. It makes me absolutely sick to think about the pain they are going through and the guilt his son must be feeling.