April 30, 2012

April Update

April went by so quickly that I hardly noticed it was almost gone until last night. Michael was talking about schedules and events going on in two or three weeks, May this and that....hold up-May? wow, I'm kinda glad :) I tried not to constantly check my email today since it was the last day in April and that means new adoption numbers day! We finally did get our new April 2012 number this evening...#84!! We also received positive info regarding the movement of the program, the wait times decreasing once children are matched to their families until they get to come home, and the U.S. Embassy reiterating that they are in favor of Americans adopting Ethiopians :) (that's always good to hear, right?!) In my last blog post prior to Easter I mentioned how I was taking the month of April to pray for the Horn of Africa. Let me say, I'm so glad I did. God reminded me of His plan for me, even His purpose for me to have DAILY DEPENDANCE on Him alone. I fasted at times to pray for different specific things and that was the sweetest communion with Him and the times I was most 'in tune' with God. He's been doing some painful pruning in me this month, so if you think of it, please lift me up to the Father in prayer. I'm kinda tired right now, but I'm also very grateful for His working in me-and the love He shows even through the hard times to make me like Jesus. For a little update on our 'fundraiser with phones'....I have dropped the ball and have not put much effort into this one guys! If you have some old (working or not) phones, ipods, mp3's, or small gadget and you 1. live out of our area-message me and i'll get you my address for you to pop them in the mail to us. or 2. live at the resevoir/brandon area and go to our church out there, just drop them off in Michael's mailbox at the church. or 3. live in clinton-message me and I will come pick them up from you!! Thanks so much!

April 9, 2012

Happy Easter 2012




We got to celebrate with Nana and Papa (my mom and dad) this year! it was a packed weekend with Michael's birthday on friday where we went out to eat with the extended family, our neice, Charley's, third birthday party on saturday and easter sunday at Pinelake Clinton!

Happy Easter 2012 from the Manuels!

April 1, 2012

Going Green

This is definitely going to be a 'miscellany sunday' type post so I'm going to give you Topic headliners to help you (and I) feel orderly!

First things first-we are #86 on the girls list for the month of march!! I'm excited about some movement this spring, and hoping it keeps up. But even if it doesn't, I'm praying my faith will ;)

Next, the reason for the name of this post is because we are kicking off this beautiful spring time with a Green fundraiser! Over spring break, I started researching a fundraiser where we could recycle old/used phones and small electronics and be compensated for them-I love fundraisers that "fit" me, and I love to recycle-so it's a win/win situation. You give me (or send me) your old phones, ipods, mp3 players, tiny gadgets that are cluttering up our drawers and help out the environment by recycling them, while raising money for our adoption costs! We have some adoption friends that have made several hundred dollars doing this! Just message me and I'll send you our address if you'd like to send us some.

And while I was at home researching this fundraiser, my hubby was in New Orleans helping a church plant there build garden boxes for a school and do other neat community service projects-including a very tasty neighborhood crawfish boil that I did drive down for!! SO, when he got home, he said he would build us one too :) We just planted this weekend and I'm excited to see how our experiment garden will do!


I also wanted to let y'all know that I'm going to spend the month of April praying for the Horn of Africa. Our church has two mission teams in the"horn", and they are having a prayer initiative for this month. Each day is designated for a specific request for them, the church, the people they are serving etc. I may blog about certain days or things I'm learning as I pray so stay tuned...

Finally, to cap off this past week I'd like to share a pic of some of my favorite ladies :) Three of my cousins, Christa, Jennifer, Katie, and I all got to go to Chicago last weekend to celebrate all of our 30th birthdays because our husbands surprised us and are completely sneaky and aweosme! We all turned (or in my case are about to turn) 30 this year and I just LOVED getting to spend some time with my fellow 'winter croppers', as my grandfather used to refer to us! Here we are at Wrigley Field in the rain...notice that we're almost all wearing green ;) I'm a dork, but they know that-Happy Birthday girls!