The Good, The Bad and the Ugly!

Good afternoon to all of our faithful family and friends!!!!  It is a beautiful day in sunny South Carolina and with that comes a smile on my face.  After months of rain, sunshine is always welcomed!  This relates well to my post today.

When God calls us to act, He doesn't promise that the road will be easy.  In fact, He tells us it will be difficult.  There will be trials and hard times.  There will be days that you want to give up.  But, He tells us that He will never leave us, nor forsake us.  He promises that His mercies are new every single morning.  Whatever your calling in life, God commands us to seek Him in all things.  This is easy peasy when the going is good.  But it is oh so difficult when things are hard.  

Over the last 6 months, there have been many days when life has been great.  There have been times, however, when I have been ready to give up!  Every single time I have felt this way, God has sent someone into our lives to encourage us and pick us up.  This is not an easy road.  Not only that, it is not going to be an easy road.  This road is hard and very lonely.  If you have ever adopted or are currently adopting, you understand.  My personality is a very positive one.  In fact, on our autobiography for the adoption, we had to answer questions regarding our personalities.  I am positive (to a fault) and Chris is negative (he calls it realist).  I try very hard to always look for the positive in life.  By doing that, sometimes I fear I may give the impression that life is always great.  

The selfish, spoiled little girl inside of me sometimes wants to sit down and not share my toys.  What do I mean by that?  There are times when I've dealt with all I can deal with, answered all the questions I can answer, cried more tears than I want to cry, stretched a dollar as far as I can possibly stretch it and poured my heart out as much as I can.  In those times, I just want to keep all the blessings that God has give to us to myself.  I want to take my toys and go home.  Oh, but God lovingly sits beside me and reassures me.  I've asked God, Why us?  Why would you choose us to be parents to possibly 2 more children.  There are days I can hardly parent the ones I have.  On those days, God says, Why not you?  I will give you all that you need for today.  And He does.  There are days that I have questioned the whole process.  But on those days, God points to the steps we have already taken.  He shows me that He has been the guide for every single step we have taken.  He has walked this with us and He is faithful and will walk the rest of the way with us.  There has not been even one day that I have doubted God.  The one I doubt is me.  I'm only human.  I can only do so much.  I can only love so much.  I can only give so much.  But God can do so much more.  God can love so much more.  God can give so much more.  And He is choosing to do that through us, a family of 5.  We are in this together.  We talk openly about this with our children.  We realize that there will be days that they might not want to walk this road either.  But God will be there to love them and guide them back to Him.  

It is very hard for me to share this post.  It's not my normal way.  But I felt that the only way for you all to see the reality of life was to hear my heart.  My human heart.  I choose today to live for God and do what He asks of me.  I will not question Him, I will simply obey.  This is a choice and I choose life.   

We love you all!
In His Grip,
Chris and Elizabeth

Houston...we have a fundraiser!

Throughout this entire process, God has provided for us every single step of the way.  For every single need, He has opened doors, windows and moved mountains.  He sold our house, helped us buy the new house, and guided us in buying both of our vehicles.  So, why do we need to do any fundraising, you ask?

When we actually decided to step out in faith and begin this process to adopt, it was January 2012.  I (Elizabeth) had been feeling the call since October 24, 2010.  From that point, I tried to avoid the subject with God during my prayer life.  I didn't even think of mentioning it to Chris.  But He continued to press on and nudge me.  After a year of nudging, I spoke to Chris about it.  In January 2012, we wrote our list of things God had to do in order for us to adopt.  We listed all of the HUGE mountains that God needed to move (because we could not in our own power move them).  Well, in a year and 6 months He single handedly moved those HUGE mountains from in front of us.  What an amazing God we serve!!!!  He is so cool!  During that time, we trusted that God would complete the tasks.  We also knew that WE had to do OUR parts in the process.  We struggled.  I never once doubted that God was going to complete the tasks, but I definitely doubted that I would be on the other side once they were completed.  You see, humanly, it was hard.  There were many days and weeks of really big ups and really big downs.  The world and Satan fought hard against us.  Thankfully, we have close family and friends who kept us focused on the end result.

Questions keep being asked and so I'd like to take a moment to answer them.

• The main question that is asked most frequently is, Are you really getting 2 more kids?  The answer is, if that is what God wants to give us, YES!  When we began the process, we said, NO!  WE said, we would only take 1.  But throughout the training and seminars, we have listened to God's voice and trusted in His message and we have heard Him loud and clear.  He wants us to be WILLING to take siblings between the ages of 1-5 years old.  That doesn't mean that is what DSS will give us, but we are willing to accept the calls for siblings in those ranges.  
• Another question commonly asked is, Why those specific ages?  Well, through lots of research on our own children, as well as adoption, we have decided that it would be best for our family to add to the end of the family line so as to not disrupt the birth order of our biological children.  We feel a peace about this decision and trust that God will place the exact children with us that need to be placed here.
• Have you specified boys, girls, or ethnicity?  No.  When God placed all 3 of our bio children in my belly, we didn't know, nor could we request that they be a specific gender.  So, we are not specifying which gender we would like to receive this time either.  As far as ethnicity goes, no.  We are not specifying that either.  We feel God will only give us what we can handle.  

So, why fundraising?  Why now?  Well, we have felt very strongly that God was calling us to enlist friends and family to help out in a small way (shirts are $20 each) that will be a HUGE blessing to us.  What are the reasons to need the fundraising?  I have been asked on numerous occasions, Why do you need to spend money, I thought DSS was free.  Well, the process is.  BUT, we had to get to the point where we could take the children in (new house, new vehicles, etc).  Then, we had to travel for all of the training, plus lunch at each one and gas to get there.  Finally, we have things that have to be done to meet the fire inspection and the DSS inspection.  At the end, when we receive our children and go to adopt them, we have to hire a lawyer and pay the lawyer.  DSS will reimburse us for the legal fees after the adoption is final.  But we have to pay those costs up front.  We have that part covered but need help with the "little" things right now.

So, we are asking that each family prayerfully consider how many t-shirts you would like to buy.  They are very nice shirts.  I designed them.  They are Gildan 50/50 Ultra Cotton.  I have inserted the proof for the shirts.  If you want to order a shirt or 5 shirts, please send the correct amount for the shirts to my Paypal account: fowlerfamfive@gmail.com and in the description, put the sizes and amounts needed. If you are local and would like to just get me the money for the shirt(s), that is great.  Please send me an email, text or facebook message stating the size(s) you would like and number of shirts. 

Our totals for this weeks fundraising are:  

20 shirts pre-ordered (we need payment for the shirts ordered by this Friday (9/6/13)).  We have payment for 3 so far.  

We have $70 in donations.  

We need 30 shirts pre-ordered and paid for in order to place the order for the shirts.  

Total amount needed to be able to complete the projects and have the house ready to receive possibly 2 children into our family......$1475.00!

So, we are $1345.00 away!  This is very attainable!  I will also be doing an online yard sale on Facebook soon.  Watch for that!  Clothing for women, boys and girls, and household items.  

Thank you for praying and supporting us on this journey.  We are so blessed and thankful for each and every one of you!  Be safe today on this Labor Day.  

In His Grip!

Chris and Elizabeth