Why The Long Silence?

Today is a Thursday. We are still waiting for our dossier to be out of translation. It was scheduled to be finished on Sept. 8th, then moved to the 25, and now it’s October! It still has not arrived at the agency’s office, so we wait… When they receive the translated dossier, they will send it off to be authenticated (takes about a week). Once it is authenticated, THEN it will be sent to Haiti! We know the LORD is in control of ALL things, this is no different! We rejoice while we wait knowing that God “makes all things beautiful in his time.” – Ecc. 3:11.

You may have caught the title of this post. I’ll repeat it here, Why The Long Silence?

Since my last post on our adoption fundraiser, the Lord has opened my eyes to focus on two things that I have heavily influenced my momentary silence at MavisDavis.

The first is our family. Our adoption has been a huge area of growth in my life. I had no expectations going into this process, other than getting a little boy in my arms ASAP (as is still the goal). But on this journey, the Lord has been pressing on my heart to place emphasis on the 3 little people I have in my arms already.

Folding another child into our home will be a challenge and a blessing, but I do not want to build unrealistic expectations of what our life will be like when the Lord adds a new child to our family. I want the Lord to change my heart in this season, so that I will be able to respond to our new son in the next season! I am convinced that the Lord is using this process of adoption to make Spencer and I more like Jesus and better parents, not only for a new son, but also for the 3 children we have now.

I am realizing how important it is to invest in the ongoing bonding/attachment with Alani, Knox and Jed. This realization has been a huge encouragement in my mothering AND a step forward in sanctification! Our family prays for our new son all the time! Sometimes hearing how my children pray for him gets me super emotional. Waiting and being still is hard, but I am capable to enjoy “the waiting,” when I focus on the people I am able to hold in my arms right now!

So much of my activity the past few months has been dedicated to home school, soccer, adventures, camp outs, feeding large groups of single folks (OLD SCHOOLERS), Bible studies, bonfires, making meals and telling Jed to stop growing up! (He’s bigger than Knox, now!) Please pray for our family in this busy season if the Lord brings us to your mind.

The second reason for the silence has to do with another new adventure.

Lots of you friends have been encouraged by MavisDavis and I’m thankful that the Lord has used my experiences, topics and thoughts to encourage you as my sisters in Christ. I started this blog 5 years ago thinking that my girls would not know how to be a wife and a mom unless I documented all that I did. I know many of you have supported my writing for years, so let’s be honest… for you folks who know me well, my heart is fit for discipleship – not necessarily “mommy blogging.” There are so many great women who do that well! I learn from them, I need that from THEM. However, the Lord has been drawing me into His PLANS for my writing and I am ready to be obedient.

I’ve started a new blog! It’s calledDRAWNBYGRACE.com! I write about singleness, relationships, Biblical community, serving the Body of Christ and inspire younger women to pursue Jesus well! {I’m 36 so that’s a broad demographic.}

I announced the name of my new blog on Monday, and it has really taken off.  I plan to do an official launch in a few weeks with giveaways, free downloads, and other fun stuff! I’ll be sure to post an announcement here when I get the details worked out!

DRAWN BY GRACE offers a fresh perspective on the pursuit of Christ for the single gal. The posts are strategic, organized and focused on community, unity, and growing in Christ as he draws us to himself by his grace! It features all sorts of my artwork and free original artwork each month, (if you sign up for my monthly newsletter, link here).

As I dive into this new adventure, I am not abandoning MavisDavis! No, ma’am! Many of you enjoy updates of our family and lots of people come here for news about our adoption. I will still share the updates on our adoption both here, and our facebook page! So, relax, I’m not officially shutting down MavisDavis, but as I follow Jesus on this new adventure, pray that I am wise and obedient to whatever the Lord shows ME to do!

This is your invite to check out the new blog! If you want to receive my monthly newsletter or read a few sample posts from the new blog, DRAWNBYGRACE.com, please stop by! Leave some encouraging comments and share it with #allthesingleladies!

You all are the best and I’m so thankful to have your support!

Fist pump it!
Love,

Amy

The less than 24 hour period when Jed, age 3, wrote his name for the first time, rode a bike with out training wheels, and hit the practice target on his first time shooting his bow!!! – STOP THE WORLD’S TURNING!!! JED NEEDS TO QUIT GROWING UP!!

Adoption Supper Fundraiser

This is an exciting week for our adoption. We have submitted our dossier to our agency and it will begin the translation process this week! The next step is sending it to Haiti with $12,000 for their in country fee! The Lord continues to supply ALL we need for each step of this process. Our Adopt an Envelope has raised almost $3,000 in just a few weeks.  Tomorrow night in Andrews, Monte Alban will be donating 10% of all sales from 5 – 8pm to our adoption! Take out orders are included! We are excited to see how the Lord is leading in this process and how the body of Christ gathers around us to help bring a little boy into our family!

We have started a few applications for grants and matching grants now that our home study is approved! I will keep you updated on those. Thanks so much for all your support and encouragement over the past few months! I’ll be sure to post an update next week!

P.S. If you live local, come out and have supper at Monte Alban tomorrow night! I’ll be there from 5 -8pm!

Art for Adoption: Face Painting #2

This past Saturday I had the privilege of setting up my little face painting booth at the Heritage Festival in downtown Andrews, NC where we live.   As soon as I was set up to paint,  kids began lining up and before I knew it, I had been painting faces for 3 hours with no break! These kids were so excited to have their faces painted. When I was finished with each one, I would hand them a mirror so they could check out their transformation… it was my favorite part!  Some of the little ones actually squealed with excitement when they saw their faces painted! Shy little girl’s lit up in smiles when they saw themselves as a butterfly or kitten.  One little boy got his face painted like Spider Man, then after lunch, he came back to have his face re-painted like Spider Man again!

The people at the festival really enjoyed it, and so did I. I painted faces from 10am to 4:30pm and raised over $185! I am very thankful for such a fun and rewarding way to raise money to bring  our new son home from Haiti.

So far, I have been able to raise $241 painting faces and I am scheduled to paint faces this Friday night (4th of July) for ArtWalk in Murphy! So, if you are in the area and would like to get your kid’s face painted, stop by. I will be set up outside the Murphy Art Guild.

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Check out our fundraising project and help us raise money to adopt from HAITI

DIY: Branch and Initial Wall Hanger

This DIY is from a photo I saw on a pinterest “rabbit trail” the other day! It was an instant challenge!

I had all the supplies required and a few minutes of free time to work on a project! Since I took down the girls bunkbeds last month, I’ve been looking for ways to personalize their bed that was unique and not over the top! A wall hanger displaying the first initial of the girls names was a great idea! This little photo was just the inspiration I needed!

This is what I did:

Dead, dry branches = check

Spray branches with gold paint = check


Attach dry branch to the wall and hang decorated initial = check! check!

(Daughter finds a roll of left over birthday streamers and insist you use them in “hers” = check!!)

Easy as pie!
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Check out our fundraising project and help us raise money to adopt from HAITI

Multi-tasking For The Soul

These days, laundry lingers… In the summer months, different outside activities require different types of clothing (more or less) for ultimate play time. I hate laundry! But, having the right clothes on while you are working out, mowing, playing in the sprinkler or playing at the lake is unavoidable. However, a pile of clean clothes can stare at me for days at time and I’ll ignore it. I can’t make the time to just sit and fold clothes. I know that if I could just fold them right out of the dryer and put them away it’d be less on the stress and not such a chore…

But, as many times as I have tried to implement the “fold it right out of the dryer” plan, I fail and the pile grows and the laundry lingers, haunting me weekly.

This week, however, the Lord reminded me of a great tool, useful for tackling the piles of laundry that will inevitably pop up in my living room this summer… PODCASTS!

This week I listened to a fantastic podcast by my friend Edie at lifeingraceblog.com and was actually encouraged as I sorted and folded the massive pile of clean clothes.
Can I just say, “multi-tasking for my soul!”

I need to surround myself with things that encourage me while I work on daily tasks, so that my brain can be focused on Jesus as I work. Finishing a project/chore I dislike is great. But, on this chore I am grumbling thru the work and rarely refreshed and prepped to jump back into mothering when I’m finished. This discovery has helped me stay focused and refreshed when the job is done! Here is a link to the podcast I listened to this week.

What podcasts would you recommend for laundry folding time?
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DIY: T Shirt Rug

We have a large amount of old t shirts in my closet.  Every summer we try to sort thru the old SWO shirts that we love and make room for the newest round of SWO T’s.  I was happy when I found this tutorial on a DIY T Shirt rug because I could do a craft with Alani with supplies I already had on hand!
Old Tshirts – check

Hula Hoop – check

Sissors that will cut said T Shirts – went thru 3 pair, but yes found a pair that would work – check
5 year old who likes being an artist – check, check

I cut the shirt into useable strips and then followed the directions here on this tutorial…

Changes and/or suggestions from trying this at home:  

1. I cut enough strips to make 2 rugs actually. You do not need more than 3 or 4 shirts for a small rug.
2. I used a smaller hula hoop (because my kids are small and we have not entered into the big size hula hoops quite yet), so the final rug is just big enough to put by their bed for them to step on when they get out of bed in the morning.
3. I pulled the “spokes” too tight when I finished knotting the ends and it made the first rug “bow” or “pucker” in the middle. On the second, I did not pull anything tight and it laid flat better.

 

Other than cutting the T shirts up, this took about an hour to weave… I started it and helped with keeping the pattern, but for the most part she did it herself. My 6 year old loved this idea and worked hard on her little rug. I am so proud of her!

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Today we are also trying to get the word out about our ADOPT AN ENVELOPE fund raiser for our adoption from Haiti! Share the link and help us get the word out!

DIY: Ice Chalk Paints

This summer we are in “GO” mode! Sharing in ministry at a summer youth camp (Snowbird) with 3 small children is a CRAZY lifestyle! I’m thankful for the calling the LORD has placed on our family to be a part of Snowbird, for sure… but the days can get pretty long when we spend so much time together. So, I’ve come up with a plan to keep our time at home enjoyable and entertaining.

I started a pinterest board full of summer activities and crafts I plan to try out this summer.  The first one I tried out is an Ice Chalk Paint recipe found here. I was impressed with how easy it was to mix up the paint, pour it in ice trays and freeze it!

Changes and/or suggestions:  
Wet the driveway or concrete before trying the ice paint. The wet surface helps them melt and mix together easier.
Using baking soda (which the recipe calls for) can make the paint fizz when you spray vinegar on the ice paint, but I wasn’t feeling the vinegar this day so we skipped it. Next time I’ll be sure to take a squeeze bottle and let them squirt the paint and watch it fizz, they would love that… but this was my trial run!

So, this does work and it was a success.  I made two trays (because that is all I had in the kitchen).  It was a short activity, but I turned the water hose on for clean up and that stretched this activity in to a solid 45 min of summer fun!

 

 

Davis Nation Adoption Video

Hello everyone! As you know we are adopting from Haiti. This weekend we made a video about our adoption and how you can partner with us in giving a little boy a forever family. Check out our video about our adoption from Haiti and share the link with everyone you know!

 

Go here to read more info on Adopt An Envelope!

Low Budget Summer Porch Decor

A friend of mine just sent me an amazing book by Myquillin Smith, aka TheNester! (Go here to order and get your own copy.) It is called The Nesting Place – It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful! I have been so encouraged and spurred on in my quest to make our home… OUR home sweet home.
I mean, she’s right. It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful! I have thought about this a bunch over the past week as I’ve been spring cleaning and re-decorating outside.

I’m not trying to put out the vibe that I’d rather have my own hand-made pallet furniture on my front porch than a bright new set from West Elm. But, it does make me happy when I can create something useful, pretty and cozy to make our home feel relaxed and inviting for only a few dollars!

– Pallet Benches: I purchased 6 pallets from a tractor supply place for $2 each last spring. After trying out my own design (which was a big fail), I followed this tutorial and made two benches for the corner of our porch.

– Quilted Seating: For the quilted seating I actually cut up an old quilt and sewed together these cases and stuffed them. To make sure the quilt pattern was enough for the project, I used a brown sheet as the underneath side of one and an airplane blanket for the underneath of the other. Luckily, I had enough to make two pillow cases as well!
– Side tables: Recently I moved my poppy red side table from the porch to another part of the house. I am in love with stumps as side tables (which The Nester uses in her book as well). Walking to camp everyday we pass a huge pile of tree stumps. So, I piled some in my truck and gave them a new home!
These sell between $159 and $199 on West Elm’s website, so… score!

– Christmas lights: I tied Christmas lights to the ceiling of our little corner to make it nice to visit once the little’s are in bed. It really is a cozy spot and I only spent about $15 total!

One last little tip I wanted to share had to do with my entry way to our home. Last summer a group came to pressure wash and re-stain our porch. One gal asked if I wanted to keep the 5 gallon buckets they used to do something artsy with them one day. As it turned out, she was brilliant. I chalk painted them white and used them as flower pots for these hostas! Grouped with some fire wood, poppy’s and a hand-made wreath… I’m happy I went with the blue door… maybe I’ll do the backdoor this summer!

There IS beauty in the imperfection. – Myquillin Smith

Myquillin’s perspective and insight on decorating our homes, is refreshing and enjoyable. I’m thankful for this reminder as my family opens our home for guests and visitors over the next 10 weeks.

We Have Been Approved!!!

That’s right! We have been approved to adopt from Haiti! Things are moving forward quickly and I am just so excited to share with you how the LORD has been working in our family.

These past few months have been crazy! While I have been super quiet online, I have been filling out online applications, researching nearly every country offering international adoptions and reading tons of adoption blogs and personal stories, not to mention the normal Stay-at-home-mom stuff. It has been a race to find an adoption agency who will be able to use our approved home study for an international adoption. With the Lord’s leading, we have chosen an agency and have been approved to adopt from HAITI!

I am so thankful to those of you who are eager to hear about our adoption! Your questions have been so encouraging to me even though there has not been much to say until recently. I have organized pages of information about our adoption and how you can help on this blog. I’ll be tracking our adoption progress here at mavisdavis.wordpress.com! So, if you go to “Our Adoption Journey” on the menu bar above, you will see a drop down box full of information on how you can get involved in our little boy’s story!