Both Hands Service Project

On Saturday, August 25th, a team of our friends and family descended on Ms. Shirley's house.  We were there to serve a precious widow by fixing things in her house.  Over the course of just under 12 hours, we cleaned gutters, power washed the house, painted windows, fixed stuck windows, repaired doors, replaced doors, painted doors, painted all of the baseboards and trim in the house, cleaned windows, bathrooms, and living spaces, shampoo cleaned carpets, painted kitchen cabinets, weeded, painted a wooden fence, mailbox, and post, and just generally looked for ways to serve.  We were so blessed by the family and friends who took time out of their busy lives to serve and to support our adoption.  We were blessed by the donations of everything from photocopying of letters (thank you Staples and Office Max) to the donations of food (way too many people and places to thank here!) to the paint and supplies that businesses and individuals alike contributed.


One of the neat things about a Both Hands project, and the reason I was drawn to it from the beginning of our adoption, is that not only do you spend the day serving a widow and blessing her, but you also raise money for the adoption.  Our core team sent out letters to all of their friends and family asking them to sponsor them while they worked on the Shirley's house.  All of those donations went to Lifesong for Orphans as funding for a grant for our adoption.

To date, we are a little over 50% of what we wanted to raise from this fundraiser and about 20% of the total cost of our adoption.  We are trusting God to provide for the rest of the finances as He is the one who called us to adopt Liliana.  It is wonderful to be able to trust God in this walk and not stress about how we are going to pay all the costs.  He has provided so far and He will continue to provide.  I know countless stories of people who felt burdened to adopt but didn't have the finances to do it.  They stepped out in faith and God provided for every penny they needed.  What an encouragement :)

To all those who have already donated, I want to say 'THANK YOU!'.  You have no idea how much you have blessed us - whether you donated $10 or $1,000 - each donation has been an encouragement and a blessing to us.  I know many have given in spite of financial hardship they themselves are facing.  I can't put into words how much God has used your gift to bless us and encourage us in this journey.

If you haven't had a chance to yet, take a look at the video below that highlights our day and consider making a donation to the project.  We can't wait to bring our little girl home to her forever family!




Click here to sponsor this project: http://bothhands.org/bj-and-rachel-meurer 

Fine tuning handy man skills...

Have you ever seen the saying that silence is golden, unless you have toddlers then silence is trouble?  It is so true.  The other day, I noticed a suspicious quiet from Janaya and Simeon which is never good.  However, I found Janaya doing what she should be doing (yay!!) but Simeon was still MIA.  That's when I heard water running upstairs.  "Umm, how did Simeon turn on the sink?" was my first thought.  Nope.  This water running wasn't the sink it was the TOILET!!

Simeon is apparently a very smart little boy (you already knew that though, didn't you?) who can imitate things he sees after only one time.  Like the time when we used the plunger on the toilet.

So, I went up stairs and found Simeon, binky in his mouth and the brand new (thank God) toilet bowl brush in his hand.  He was 'plunging' the toilet and flushing it each time.  Elianna fortunately was willing to run and get me the camera so I could capture the moment.  Which I did.  That 'moment capture' was immediately followed with clarifying for my little handy man that toilets are not for playing and a new rule in the house - keep the bathroom door closed :)

FYI: His binky did not actually touch the toilet and fortunately, this was the upstairs, never used toilet that B.J. had just cleaned the day before...

Hymn Sing

My parent's started a hymn sing a couple of years ago.  It turns out they weren't the only ones missing the richness and tradition of hymns.  We get together on the second Sunday of the month, sing hymns for an hour and then eat some yummy, homemade soup and bread with dessert to follow.  It is one of our favorite Sunday activities.

We also sing hymns with our kids each night after prayers and before bed.  Yes, we sometimes sing praise songs and kid songs too.  We want our kids to be exposed to all kinds of Christian music - not just one genre.  All three of our kids look forward to hymn sings and to be honest, so do I :)  As we do every summer, we took a break and today we get to start back up again.  Simeon decided to get some extra practice in this week.  Enjoy :)