We are sitting in Dulles about to take off for Africa. I am so amazed to be at this pont and so incredibly blessed to have Parker and Emery with us for the journey! I wanted to put on here a few specific ways you can pray for our family.

Bradley is manning the fort: please pray for him as his family is gone and for our parents who get to love on him.

Court: Pray all documents are in order and we pass our first time.

Health: Pray we all stay healthy, Parker will eat, and Emery does not catch pnuemonia!

Our new boy: Pray that he knows we are his family and quickly adjusts to these strange new people that just want to love on him. If not, pray he is easily bribed with candy!

We are excited and ready….remember the Stewarts this week!

I have so much to share about our adoption…and I will, but I wanted to share about some ideas I have had running in my mind as we set our sights on the busiest time of the year. Our goal is to keep things simple (right) and be as organized and strategic as possible to insure that we feel the least amount of stress…at least that is the plan!

One source of anxiety each year is our Christmas cards…I don’t know why but I feel like I agonize over this annual card that most people look at, read and toss. But, I also know this is the way we use to chronicle another year and really capture the past year! Last year, I used Shutterfly and  LOVED them. They have soo many options and the ability to customize many cards to your desire. The process was simple and easy and they arrived very quickly. Here is the inside of our card from 2010:

They have some great Christmas cards to choose from that I love or some Holiday Cards that are more fun and funky!

I think there are some great calendars and gift items on Shutterfly as well!

We will be using Shutterfly again this year and I am so excited to be able to share 3 promo codes for 25 FREE cards from Shutterfly!! What a blessing to be able to mark your Christmas cards off your list AND for FREE!!

Here is how you can enter to win 1 of 3 Promo codes”

1. Leave a comment telling me how you keep the holidays simple.
2. Tweet about the giveaway with a link to this post and leave a comment saying you did so.
3. Post the link to the giveaway on your Facebook page and leave a comment that you did so.

I will choose the 3 winners on Friday, October 28!!

Are you a blogger? Want a chance at 25 free cards this holiday season? Register here: http://goo.gl/DDw7Q

Blessings!!

The biggest obstacle to most families when adopting is money. They see $25,000 to $30,000 and feel immediate apprehension, anxiety or just shut the door before it even starts!  When looking into and praying though how we were going to pay for our adoption, we came across two organizations that we knew we wanted to be apart of, Lifesong For Orphans and Both Hands Foundation.

Lifesong helps family thought no interest loans and grants. They also will allow families to open an account for donations, which allows others to give to the family and receive a tax deduction.  They also help churches develop an orphan care  ministry. They are also partnered with the Both Hands Foundation to handle the funds that are raised.

Both Hands was began by an amazing man, J.T. Olson.  The concept of BHF is to provide for the widow and the orphan and fulfill the commandment found in James 1:27. We knew immediately that we wanted to be apart of the ministry this foundation provides. We were charged with finding a widow in our community who was in need of some home repair. We then built a team of folks who would commit to work on her home for a day and send out letters to raise support for their work on her home. All funds raised would go towards bringing our son home.  After months of struggling to find an orphan, our phone rang and we were asked to be the 100th project.  A few weeks later, BHF reached the 1 million dollars raise milestone!! Through the amazing community effort of our friends, family, and our community we were able to bless the life of Ms. Lillian Ellis, an 84 year old widow who’s home was in major need or repair. Here is a view of our day!

Stewart Both Hands Project from Jason Stewart on Vimeo.

I can not express how overwhelmed we have been with the support our family has received. If we didn’t raise one dollar from this project it would have still been an amazing day and experience. I have no doubt that we were the hands and feet of Jesus that day. The video does not show the damage and smell that 25 cats had left behind.

You can read about our project in the Daily News Journal and at Both Hands Foundation.

Can you believe that Summer is coming to a close? Me either! I have realized more than ever that I have only an allotted amount of summers with the kids where I am at the helm of our activities. Before the Summer started we had a family night and made a list of things we wanted to do, goals we were making and established a general routine. We have done fairly decent at it!

Some of our activities this Summer have included:

• VBS at LifePoint
• Week of Camp for kids
• LuLu Camp
• First Tee for the girls
• Weekend in Knoxville
• Fourth of July fireworks
• Lot o Swimming
• Sleepovers

And many other moments of fun and insanity.  In light of my 3 children going to school, I decided that it was time for Jason to join in the fun. We went and ate dinner and then all set our for Target with our lists.  We divided and conquered and $100 later….We were done! We have a few more items on our list, but are well on our way to being supply ready!

I have such mixed feelings about our boy starting Kindergarten. At the end of the day, we do what we feel led to do. We seek, we think, we pray and we go with our gut. That is the Stew Family way of determining where God is leading.

Fancy, huh?

How do you feel about Summer coming to a close?

Today has been a very heartbreaking day for many families who are adopting from Ethiopia. For reasons unknown, the government has started shutting down orphanages with no notice. These precious children are then taken to undisclosed locations. We have been told they are being cared for by UNICEF.

Over 40 orphanages and 250 children have been effected.

Today, one of amazing orphanages that our agency works with was shut down. Many families now have no idea where their children are or if they will be able to proceed with their cases.  They may, but this is another delay in a journey that is already long and difficult. There is no other way to say it, but that this is devastating news for many families who have gone from expecting court dates anyday, to the unknown that has happened.

For now, Judson’s orphanage has not been closed, but the hard truth is that it could happen.

Sometimes, there are just no words except….JESUS.  I am clinging and proclaiming Scripture because I have no other response that can bring hope and peace. Hope that is built on NOTHING else but Him. Peace that is not dependent on my circumstances or the world I live in.

There is a sweet, precious boy who I long to parent. We are dedicated to this journey and to the path to bring him home. Until there is NOTHING else in our power, we will do all we can to bring him home.

I ask you to pray for all the children in Ethiopia who, more than anyone, are effected by these closures. I ask that you pray for those who are in Ethiopia advocating for these children on our behalf. I ask that you would pray for the families who are in such dark limbo that they would be able to bring their children home. I ask you to pray for the officials who are making these decisions.

If you know my man, you know he LOVES basketball. He loves to watch it, cheer it on, coach it and more than all of those…play it. After losing 50 pounds last fall, he put together a men’s basketball team from our church. They played in a church league and were eventually the CHAMPIONS…of course they were!  He played several times a week for a couple of hours. Needless to say, he felt great….except for a little nagging knee pain.

15 years ago, he blew out his ACL playing basketball and being that his doctor was old school, he didn’t start Physical Therapy for 6 weeks. We knew he had scar tissue and that it would need to be cleaned out eventually.  You may also remember that he ruptured his achilles. Finally about a month ago, he went to the Orthopaedic surgeon to have it checked out. They did an x-ray and low and behold they found a SCREW floating in his knee….a SCREW. It is never good when the doctor tells you that they have never seen this before. He had an MRI and the old graft was nowhere to be found and he has some cartilage damage.  Wow, not what we were expecting. The doctor was super impressed that he had been walking around with a screw lose in his knee without severe pain. My man has some major pain tolerance. He also let us know that he thinks it has been out for a while. Technically, we have no idea how long he has been without an ACL.

Needless to say, Jason had knee surgery last Wednesday. He has done so well and I am so proud of him. He just takes it all in stride and deals with it. I love that about him. He is not a complainer and makes serving him as easy as possible. We are hopeful for a smooth recovery.

The downside is that his basketball playing days for hours on end have passed. It is just too hard on his knee, which just makes me so sad for him. On the positive side,  we are looking forward to swimming, bike riding and elliptical training.

What a whirlwind we are having this Spring/Summer! I have neglected the ol blog and I am so sad. I write for my job as a social worker and writing at the end of the day is often put aside. So much is swirling in my head in regards to our adoption and family. I am loving a more laid back summer schedule, but also implementing routine and structure into our day. I am realizing that even though I do not LOVE structure and routine, I function so much better when I live within it.

Earlier this summer, we had a family night and set out our goals for the summer. We talked through the things we wanted to do and what we were expected to do! We have started using My Job Chart to track the kids chores and it has been a HUGE hit! The kids are responsible for completing and tracking their chores and in return, they receive points that they can cash in for savings, givings and spending. The site is connected to Amazon and they can create a wish list or cash in their points for extra tv time, computer time or certain outings. They did really well at the end of the school year and have continued to use if fairly faithfully! I highly recommend it!

Our adoption hit a snag in mid May. For reasons outside of anyone’s control, we have not been able to have our court date scheduled. This has been a huge frustration and delay. We have been told that a resolution should happen mid July. The Ethiopian courts close in August and September for the rainy season, so there is a great chance that we may not travel til the Fall and at that point we have no idea when he will be home. As you can imagine, that is not our desire and walking in the unknown has some hard moments. He turned two last week and I couldn’t bring myself to write a sweet little post about him, because I don’t know Him, I don’t even know if I would recognize him if I passed him in the streets of Africa. And that is a hard thing for a mommy to write.  The emotion just creeps up on me and surprises me at times.  I was doing a cool down to P90x and had a moment….I was shopping with Jason and broke down in the store….I will be worshipping at our church and it all feels very distant and hard. We did have a balloon launch on his birthday with a prayer with our family….and cupcakes of course.  So we live each day and pray for Judson and walk in faith that God is Sovreign in ALL things.

We have also had VBS, Creative Me camp, lots of swimming, Adventure Science Center, movies, ice cream, playing outside and time together….and we are only one month in for the Summer!

I am so behind on chronicling the days of our lives, so even though, our boy graduated 3 weeks ago, I could not resist sharing this momentous occasion. Jason and I are still determining if he will start Kindergarten or if we will give him one more year in preschool.  We go back and forth, but for now, we will celebrate how big our boy is and how he is growing up!

Bradley had two short sentences in the play they performed, which had been pre-recorded. He sang so good and did all his motions!

Afterwards they received their diplomas…

Nana and Poppy with the graduate

Jason and I with our boy.

Bradley and Emery

The real Bradley and Emery!

Bradley we are so proud of you…now stop growing.

On our journey to bringing Judson home, we have made many sacrifices as a family to save money for the $25,000 it will cost to adopt this precious boy.  We feel strongly that money should never be a reason to NOT adopt, but also want to be respectful and intentional about how we save/raise money to fund our adoption.  I am super excited about what we have come up with to help raise some additional funds! I love subway art and because of that, we have several pieces in our home. I am so blessed to have a man who knows his way around a Mac and can create some great graphic design pieces. Last December, we made two pieces for our own home: our family mission statement and James 1:27 to hang in my office. We had such a positive response to our James 1:27 poster that we decided this would be a great way to highlight God’s view of caring for orphans and also bring Judson home!!

We are selling these 20×30 posters for $25, which will go towards our adoption fund! We are able to ship these or I will hand deliver them to my local folk. We are offering it on Etsy, so please share our link with your friends and family. It can be found here.

And, because I am not above a little pulling of the heartstrings….

a little reminder of the life we are seeking to ransom….

Thank you for your support!

Trust me, you will want to make this for your cookout….you will be oohh’s and ahh’d.

Soapapilla Cheesecake

• 3 packagesCream Cheese (8 Ounce Packages)
• 1-½ cupSugar
• 1-½ teaspoonVanilla Extract
• 2 cansCrescent Roll Dough, 8 Ounce Cans
• ½ cupsMelted Butter
• ½ cupsSugar
• 1 teaspoonCinnamon