still waiting for our baby...

I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in His word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.

Psalm 130: 6

His timing is perfect.

We are still here... waiting for word about our baby girl. The waiting is getting old now... there is angst that comes with this sort of waiting. I think about baby girl so often. But...

"I will hope continually and will praise You yet more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge." Psalm 71: 14-15

and...

"I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! Wait for the LORD; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!" Psalm 27:13-14


The verses above have been balm for my soul when I get weary in the waiting.

Praising Jesus that His timing is perfect. Praising Him that He is always working things out for my good AND His glory- at the same time! Those two things do not work against each other. Its always my good and His glory, because of that I can hope! Thats where I have to ground my thoughts, otherwise I'd go crazy thinking that God was a cosmic kill-joy, instead of the loving gracious Father that He is.

I praise God for this waiting period! I praise Him for the love that He has been stirring up in my heart for Ruby. I praise Him for the longing He has put in my heart to embrace my daughter and just... be. I praise Him that He loves her more than I do, and is taking care of her as I type this. Glory be to God!

The above photo is a glimpse of some of the things we have been putting together for Rubys room. Its so fun getting her room ready. Sometimes I sit in the rocking chair in her room, having precious moments with Jesus... I just dream about Ruby and pray for her. I so look forward all the precious moments that I will have rocking her in the chair once she is finally home!


My dear friend and Neighbor had her baby roughly a month ago and below is a photo that I took of her and her daughter. Makes me cry everytime I see it.

 I was so honored to be able to take belly photographs of her every month during her pregnancy and also come visit her baby in the NICU once she was born. For a few months before my friend got pregnant, we began praying that God would make that happen. Obviously God answered our prayers, and now their daughter is here! She is answered prayer right before our eyes! Glory be to God! Our God is faithful and full of goodness. His timing is perfect. Always.

Yard sale for adoption numero dos!

Hello folks! 

We had another yard sale to help us raise money to bring Ruby home! It was another success- praise God!  During the two days of our sale, God provided $4300.00! Between both yard sales that we've had the total money we made was around $10,000.00! We are so amazed at how generous people are, and so thankful for God's goodness and provision. 

We feel so blessed and humbled by all of our friends/family that came out and helped/supported us. Thanks so much!

In other news, we have been working on Ruby's nursery. Above is just a glimpse of a few details. We ordered her crib the other day and it will be delivered in July. I can't wait! I'll post more pics once it has all come together! 

Hope you all are enjoying your summer! Hopefully I'll be checking in soon with good news about Ruby! :-)

love,

jess

last minute wedding

Here was some pics that my friend Pips and I took at a wedding this weekend. These were a few of my favorites...

We made the paper!

My husband and I made the paper this Mothers Day regarding our adoption. Go check it out! :-)

Click here to see the article

pop-tarts aka kryptonite

Just thought that I would POP by here to share with you this extremely easy recipe for homemade Pop-tarts! I don't know anyone who doesn't love Pop-tarts- they are classic! In fact one my friends said that Pop-tarts are her kryptonite! haha!

 People are always impressed when you make something from scratch that is generally bought at the store in a box... they are even more impressed when the homemade goodies taste better than the store-bought-boxed-goodies. Pop-tarts are no exception to this rule! They are easy to make, the look cute, and are delicious... so please give them a try!

POP-TARTS

crust: 

2 cups flour

1 tsp salt (scant tsp)

1 cup shortening/lard/butter whichever you prefer

1/2 cup cold water

filling:

homemade jam: strawberry, blueberry or whatever you fancy

*I think that nutella would be marvelous as a filling

icing:

powdered sugar

water

method:

Stir salt into flour.

Cut shortening into flour till its pea size.

Gradually pour the water around the edges and across the top. 

Add enough water till its just a little sticky.

Place dough on a lightly floured surface and gently work it into a ball. Do not knead it! If you overwork pie crust dough it will not turn out! 

Place the dough ball back into the bowl and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes. 

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Once the dough is chilled, place on a lightly floured surface and roll out into a rectangle or square shape. Next, using a pizza cutter or butter knife cut the dough into rectangles or squares. Make them double the size you want the actual Pop-tart to be. 

*I made mine to be mini pop-tarts. Some were 3x5 and some were 2x4.

After you've cut out the Pop-tart shapes put a tablespoon or so of jam on one side of the pop-tart. Fold the pop-tart in half. Next take a fork and crimp all the edges so that the jam won't ooze out while its baking. After you've crimped the edges take a toothpick and poke a bunch of holes in the top of the pop-tart. Place on an un-greased baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. Remember that the baking time will depend on how big or small you made your pop-tarts. For the size mine were, 12 minutes was great!

While the pop-tarts are cooling, you can make the icing. This is so easy. Put about 1/4 cup of powdered sugar in a bowl and stir it with a whisk or fork to get the lumps out. Next add small amounts of water to the powdered sugar until you get it to the consistency you like. If its too think, add more water. If its too runny, then add more powdered sugar. Easy as that!

Once the pop-tarts are cool, drizzle the icing over each one. While the icing is still wet sprinkle some rainbow jimmies on them.

****helpful hint**** I had two different jams- homemade strawberry and store bought blueberry. I found that the strawberry jam tasted better but some of it ended up oozing out of the pop-tarts. I think this could have been helped if I had've added a little bit of cornstarch to the jam prior filling the pop-tart with it. The blueberry jam did not taste as good, but it was thicker than the strawberry so it did not ooze out. Anyway, do some experimenting and ENJOY! You can really mess these up! :-)

True.

“If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it.” 
― Stephen Colbert