Prayer Request

PLEASE....PLEASE....PRAY...

For:

Wisdom
Guidance
Financing
Patience...we need this, but if you pray for patience for us, you have no idea of what you will be doing! (I don't like the path we have to go down to get this!) But if you feel the need, pray, just give us a warning!

The adoption journey, is just that; Quite a Journey! Wow, when you put your life in the hands of the Lord, be ready for the unexpected! So many things have happened and I've shared many with you. We are experiencing His presence and work in our lives. Never have I felt closer to Him than I have in the past year.

We right now are just faced with some VERY challenging decisions. Pray for God's will, not ours. I find myself being selfish and trying to make my own ways work because I don't see God doing things when I'm ready for them. I'm seeing my own evil heart at work more during this time than ever. It's like seeing it under a magnifying glass. I'm understanding the true definition of the Lord's refining.

Over and over and over and over and over and over...

Will His job ever end I wonder? I feel terrible sometimes keeping Him so busy on little ol' me when there is an entire world out there.

Then He reminds me

"I AM"

oh.

How quickly I fall into doubt. Maybe one day I'll be an inch closer to the character He wants me to be.

Thank you for your prayers in advance. Even the prayers for Patience!

Update

Things took a bit longer than expected...still having troubles....hopefully we'll get all this technology figured out!

Wanted to give you an update on our adoption:
I don't want you to think that I forgot about you! We are still at a waiting point. We are waiting for an appointment to get our fingerprints done and then will be waiting AGAIN for clearance. During this time though, we are preparing another set of documents to be sent in.

Thanks for checking in!

Sorry~I'll be back!!

Please be patient with me...I'm having computer difficulties...should be back up and running by the end of next week!

Thank you,
~Ranch Hand~

Wishing we were south still...

Disney at Christmas

We visited some parks at Disney for all of the children's birthday's. This is what the castle looks like in Magic Kingdom at Christmas time.
They also redo All of their gardens for the season, they start in Aug. and work all night to do these things so that no one sees them.

That was me, walking through these parks, wondering why their gardens are perfect and I don't see a single gardener. EVERYTHING is decorated with Christmas decorations, and I don't see a soul decorating...It really is MAGIC here!!!

Sorry for the Delay

I just wanted to show you why it took me so long to post after vacation.

If you've never had your own eggs, you wouldn't understand. After being gone for a week, we had a bazillion of these to clean up!

Eggs don't just naturally look this beautiful. I will save you from seeing what they really look like. I'll just tell you that we scrub the daylights out of them before you come buy them at our ranch!

OH, not really, you can still make sunny side ups, we just scrub the outside until the color is no longer white, green, black, and covered in straw or hay. This is what true "farm fresh" eggs look like before they are glamorized!

I have to share this with you. I always use spell check. When I just used it, it told me that I spelled bazillion wrong. The truth of it is, I really didn't even know that that was a true word!

Venting...continued...

I'm sorry.

I stated that our countries top priorities are funding abortion and gay rights. I did not mean to leave out or berate the importance of controling:

CARBON DIOXIDE

I truly feel that the government soon will be ruling with attempts to instill great fear in us. Can we think of any other countries run this way and how successful it was or is for them?

Why would you not want your people to be anything but encouraged, lifted up, productive, and successful? I would be proud to be a leader of a country of people like this!

I heard an interesting quote from a scientist last night. He said, (as he was speaking on the "global warming") "if people are put in a state of fear, they are easily controlled."

*Note to remember*
Fear is not of the Lord.

Emotional Roller Coaster, AGAIN

Yesterday, I checked the mail, I was early. Evening came, the children were "snug as a bug in a rug" in bed and I realized that I never did end up getting the mail. Trail Boss was so sweet and willing to go get it.

He walks in the door and hands me the mail without looking at it. (I think he was disappointed we didn't have a movie from Netflix arrive!)

As I'm sorting through junk and the "good stuff", I inhale VERY loudly because something took my breath away!

I did tell you that we sent our I-600 in. This is our application to Department of Homeland Security to bring an orphan into the country from outside our country and of course, like all things we had to send a pretty large check to cover the fees that went with this. We are now waiting for an appointment for fingerprinting AGAIN! I thought that this is what this envelope was holding.

What I didn't tell you was that I have been psychotically watching our checking account, waiting for the day that the check cleared. It came a little over a week ago and I was totally thrilled! Now, waiting for the beloved envelope and now IT'S HERE!!!

I tore into the envelope, ready to cancel any and all things to make this appointment, only to discover at the top it reads:

REJECTION NOTICE

WHAT!!!????

I immediately started sweating, not knowing whether to scream, cry, call the number that's listed and let them have it. Then, I started to get mad, why has this not come with our reimbursement?
I wondered, is this God putting a stop to us AGAIN???
How can we come up with the money to apply again? ~CAN we apply again?

Alright, let me explain myself. I tend to over-react without completely reading all things thoroughly, Trail Boss can testify.

Trail Boss, standing at my side at this point, took the paper out of my hand, which I then realized as I can hardly breathe, my heart was no longer beating, and through my sweat...there is an attached paper.

As Trail Boss reads this, he starts laughing.

THIS IS NOT a laughing matter to me!

What was he laughing at?

This attached letter reads:

"Due to a system problem, your attached notice was printed in error...your application has been received and forwarded for further processing."

God, if this is you, I am not finding this funny AT ALL.

But, God, thank you for not allowing me to find this myself while Trail Boss was at work, knowing that I don't read through things before I react!

I know, I've still got a long way to go. And I know, I really need reminding when I need to work on things, but was this absolutely necessary?

I mean, I think it took some years off of my life!

Vacation

Better late than never, I guess, huh?

Over Thanksgiving our family made a trip to Florida making a couple of pit stops, one in Georgia and one in Kentucky.


We were able to visit family, relax and also have some wild and crazy fun!

Learning what ocean water tastes like on your fingers.


After spending Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa, Grandma took us out to pick oranges that we brought home to make fresh orange juice with! This was such a wonderful time to visit, because so much of their fruit was ripe! We were able to see cotton being harvested and collect some cotton that had blown to the road.

The children never realized that "school" never really stopped this entire vacation!

I will post soon about our visit to Disney...

Venting...

I try not to get too political here, but....

I have a burden:

Doesn't the "United" States have larger concerns than legalizing gay marriage and passing a health care bill that makes abortion government funded?

Why is it that this seems the main focus of most? Is there nothing else to do with their time and our money?

Alright, thank you for letting me vent! I have been frustrated ever since I heard of a ten year old not saying the pledge in his classroom because, "there isn't liberty and justice for all." This poor little boy has been convinced that because gay marriage is not legal we do not have liberty in our country.

Pray for the children of our country, they are our next leaders! Can you imagine if children were taught to have the courage to stand for Jesus like this little boy did his father's belief, what this country could be!!!

How far will our country have to fall before our faith is truly tested and we take a stand for what we believe? We need to stand NOW.

Our Special Guest

I have to be completely honest. I have had fears. Going into the adoption, I had no fears, I was ready to take it all on head first. After jumping through the hoops we were required to jump through to this point, my head has been filled with fear. Not from listening to horror stories, or worse case scenarios, but by some of the "educators".

I have struggled explaining how we punish our children during our homestudy. Our children are good. (I'm not bragging.) They make mistakes, yes, so do I. We mainly punished our children ALOT within the first 5 years of their life, now we don't have to do it so much. (Note that I used the word SO.) I love my children and they are far from perfect. When people ask how we punish our children, they want cookie cutter answers. Like, when Cowpoke disobeys, we:

look mad.
raise our voice.
tell him he needs to go to his room for a time out.
let him out in the number of minutes that he is in years old.
give him candy or whatever else he asks.

uuummm...not us. We discipline depending on what punishments work, on which child, AND try to make the punishment fit the crime.

This is not what people want to hear, nor do they understand this concept, but turn and comment on our well behaved children.

We (as adoptive parents) are then expected to adopt children and push them out like a factory making them all from the same mold. If we don't, we are failing. We're told, buy a bigger house NOW, bigger vehicle NOW, DO NOT live in the country, move to a diverse city NOW, the list goes on. I cannot believe all of the "advice" we are given and it comes pounding down on us so hard, I actually started to believe that I needed to change many things before we will be successful with our adoption. In the beginning of our journey, I thought that [Christ's] love would be able to raise and heal our children, adopted and bio. Isn't Christ's love enough for us? I now have been told by professionals that I'm wrong in this thinking. I should have prepared myself for this.

Then the Lord sent us Moses:

Moses is a messenger of the Lord to the 4 Double G Ranch from Zimbabwe, Africa! Moses graced us with his presence at dinner one evening here at the ranch. Oh, that poor man had no idea what he was getting himself into! :)

We all had so many questions for him! I of course, asked him many as well, including, "Thinking back to when you first arrived in the States and the overwhelming feelings, what can we do for our new children when they arrive home to help them to better adjust and quickly?"

His answer........drum roll........

"Love them."

I could have cried. Of course, what was I thinking, this is what the Lord told us in the first place! Oh, may I not continue to follow in the Israelites forgetfulness!

Upon preparing for Moses's visit, I was so nervous! Unlike you can ever imagine.

I was so humiliated that I am who I am. Here, we have closets full of clothing, a kitchen inside, Moses would be welcomed into a carpeted living room, in which no one sleeps because we all have bedrooms. We have how many Bibles wandering our book shelves? We will have leftovers...we'll have several meals a day. I have fruit sitting on the counter, we have a modest house according to America's standards, but I was embarrassed that it's so big.

We have so much and yet we still want more.

Moses has gone home to Zimbabwe to his mother's home (she is a widow). He lives with her because his government tore his house down (long story, this story maybe found in the book that's been writtin about him, although I'm not sure. It's on my reading list! Salvation in Indiana.) There are also around 16 other people living in this same house with him. He compares the size of his home to our two car garages in the U.S. Here he is a pastor, missionary, and planning to get married soon!

Click here if you'd like to help support him or learn more about Moses Thomas's mission.

I-600

One week ago today, I sent out our I-600 to immigration. We are now awaiting our appointment for fingerprinting.

One more step under our belts!

Another Evening at the Ranch

If you have never read this book, it's a wonderful read for the children. My children would get down and disappointed every time I told them that was it for the day or we needed to take a break.

They were all intrigued by William Tell.

We decided to practice this at home. Daddy sat on the floor with safety goggles on and set an army man on top of his head. The children lined up with their ammo (rubberbands.)

Buckaroo nailed it the first shot. He walked away, not with a smirk or a smile and no pride, but like it was not a big deal. He has such amazing aim! (This was the main reason we did this, we wanted to see if he could actually do it.) Not many of this child's shots are waisted and we've noticed this for a couple of years.

Next in line, Cowpoke, he hit the guy. He'd been practicing all day before, but it does take him a little more effort and a few more shots.

Then Crazy Ropin' Girl. She was able to hit it with the first shot as well! She was thinking it was luck, I'm sure, although this girl is wicked with her gun! She has excellent aim with that, she just hasn't mastered the art of shooting rubberbands.

I promise they are all practicing daily with those. I have been amazed at what fun and hours of entertainment $1.50 can bring! A bag of rubberbands and the entire family will be warring with each other for days and hours!

*FYI~we've learned that not all members of the family have good aim with these, it's important to wear safety glasses or just sunglasses!

*another note~Trail Boss is alright, no major wounds were inflicted, just took a few shoots in the forhead, but with a receeding hairline, how could we miss?

uuuummmmmm, sorry honey, you know how I love what age is doing to your appearance!

Really.

Seriously, age is very sexy on him......sorry family! It's good to know the attraction is still there!

ha!

We're Back!

Home from vacation and still trying to catch up...will update soon, sorry for the delay.

We are one step closer with our adoption though! Praise the Lord!

Welcome

If your new to our blog, WELCOME!!!

Let me introduce the family: I am Ranch Hand. I am usually help with just about everything on the ranch, fencing, construction, throwing hay, delivering kids (goats), butchering chickens, rounding up an escapee calf at 3:00 a.m., roping a ram who secretly snuck in with the ewes at 10:00 p.m., lifting things women were NEVER meant to lift, the list goes on. Even God predestined for me to be "the suitable helper"!

Trail Boss is my one and only. (He forgets that I'm his wife, not his buddy and my muscles are not what his are!) We have a daughter (see below) and twin boys (6 in two weeks) Buckaroo and Cowpoke. Buckaroo is a little on the wild side and Cowpoke is very deliberate and precise in all that he does.

The 4 Double G started in Vicksburg, MI as a ministry to reach people with special needs of all ages. It means "For God's Glory." With God's leading, (or nudging, shoving, forcing a couple of stubborn people) to relocate, we moved to Bringhurst, IN. Don't ask what's here. There isn't anything here. The people are sparse, pigs are many, and there's corn for miles.

Oh, sorry, got off track......The 4 Double G.....has evolved into a ministry that is reaching to Ethiopia, Africa awaiting the gift of two orphans the Lord has knit for this family and his purpose.

4 Double G Ranch: Our name has changed some since our move to Indiana. We now live in a ranch with many animals. (There were animals before, I just didn't struggle to take in the lost or dropped off animals!) So we always have an abundance!

With our ranch's name, we hope that all we do in our lives will be for God's glory. In fact, we even have a 12 year old girl, aka Crazy Ropin' Girl, who visits with all of the animals, teaching them the love of Jesus and helping them accept Jesus into their hearts! (I like to call this preparation for the future.)

I'd like to explain how to navigate this site....and reminders for those who forgot...(my family!)

The Post: Appears on your screen when you visit will be my latest post. Periodically, I will have pics of my goofy family, but you can skip those.
Comments: Can be left by clicking on the word comment below the post you wish to comment on. Was named Yee-Ha but we hit a language barrier here. Sorry!
Searching for a subject: These are my favorite stalls that are always clean! The Barn Stalls are where I keep the posts organized under different subject topics. This is located in the right hand column. For ex: if you're looking to read about our adoption, go to the list called "Which Stall" click on Adoption in the right hand column and all the adoption posts will come up.

You may also vote on the post you read! At the bottom of the post, there will be a box for different thoughts you may have, if you click on one of these, that is your vote!

We also have a list of sites that we visit and links to blogs of friends, feel free to visit them as well!

Sunday Morning Again

Getting ready for church.

Getting shot by rubberbands.

Will this become a weekly thing?

Linguine with Clam Sauce

What an excellent dinner with home made buttermilk rolls.

My Cowboys aked for me to repeat it and didn't kick me out!

Thank you PW!

Perspectives

How can you teach two young boys that the plague of frogs in Egypt was not a "cool" thing?

Buckaroo just thinks this would be the most awesome event in the world! This is what he is picturing:

"The Canoe Trip"

(Wanting to clarify: this story is year old, but thought I'd still share.)
My dear sweet Trail Boss got me a canoe last year for my birthday, a gift I have asked for for many years!

He waited until we moved to IN before getting me one. I'm not sure why. Michigan is absolutely beautiful with rivers and lakes everywhere you turn!

I'm not complaining, I now have it and am in love with it!

We decided to take our first little trip in it down Wildcat Creek which is not but a couple of miles from our house. (The creeks here in IN are somewhat like the rivers in MI. What we called creeks in MI are drainage ditches here!) We have been on many canoe trips, so this was not a first for us staging vehicles or planning our own trip.

We go to a beautiful spot (Adam's Mill) to put in after staging our vehicles perfectly. "This should be a wonderful relaxing trip," we were thinking! Trail Boss showed me that he was leaving his cell phone right in the car so if anything happened, he wouldn't loose it. Great idea, so I put mine right with his. He then proceeded to show me where he was setting the keys for the other vehicle in this car so we wouldn't loose them and if he forgot where he put them, there would be me to remember. "Excellent plan," I thought.

We put the canoe in ready for relaxation and exploration....we had all three of the children in the same canoe with us. It fits us perfect!

WOW. UMMMMM.....

Let me share with you my notes from the trip:

Indiana creeks rise and fall drastically with the amount of rainfall that we get.

We did not know this. ~We're always learning something new here!

The weather had not been really dry, so there was quite a bit of depth to the creek, although, NOTHING like MI rivers.

Indiana creeks are nothing but rocks, with BIG rocks thrown by God here and there, barely wide enough to get a canoe through. Again, we did not know this.

Also, the flow is slow UNTIL you find a ton of rocks. Then we were white water rafting with three terrified children.

Trail Boss and I learned to work as one that day and could spot invisible rocks under the water in plenty of time to veer around them. We also learned how to not to over-react and scare the children!

I did not realize with the slow flowing creek that we would be missing a meal, so the snacks that I took were minimal. I also didn't think that we would need sunscreen for this quick little trip.

What was I thinking?

We saw some of the most beautiful scenery. And yes, some would even put lower MI to shame. We also had to go under 7 bridges. For some reason I only have pictures of 6 of them....






With the creek running at a MUCH slower pace than expected, this trip took all day! Finally reaching our destination, just before portaging, I realized that the keys to this vehicle were where Trail Boss so proudly showed me he was being responsible and placed them in the OTHER vehicle. And I watched him and thought that he was REALLY thinking!

Ohhhhh, if you only knew.

The place I picked to portage is in the middle of NO MAN'S land. I'm not kidding.

The nearest house was at least a mile away and we had just moved here, so it's not like we could call someone to come to get us once we got to this house. We would need to depend on these people to get us to our other vehicle that was 20 min. away.

We started praying and Crazy Ropin' Girl and I started walking. Then from nowhere a car passed us. This was not a place cars just drive....

I ran back to Trail Boss and asked him to talk to the man that was driving. This man was checking out the creek and launch then was headed home.

He lived by THE MILL.
Did you get that? THE MILL.
Our car is at THE MILL!

God answers prayers! This was answered faster than any prayer I've ever prayed!

He was an angel that took Trail Boss to the mill to get the other car.

Final Analysis:

Next canoe trip will be after huge rains.
No children.
Lots of food (just in case.)
Lots of sunscreen.
Keys...NEVER leave your keys behind.
Don't go if your marriage is on the rocks, this will make you or break you.

Sunday Morning

It's Sunday morning.

I'm getting ready for church.

Just got shot in the chest from nerf gun cross fire.

What is my life coming to?