As if things aren't CrAzY enough....

Look at what we decided to add to the family!!



The boys named him Gilbert and they think he is the best thing ever!!! :)

gingerbread house

I love traditions. There is just something warm and cozy feeling about them. They just make me feel happy. One of our favorites around Christmas time is to decorate a gingerbread house. The boys love it and look forward to it every year!





I think they ended up eating as much candy and icing as they decorated with!! That's just part of the fun, right!?!? :)

December numbers!!

Thought I better post these before the month slips away!!!

Me and the boys were enjoying some painting time this morning so I thought it would be great for Con to show our new numbers in a creative and festive way!!

For a girl...



For siblings...



That is 6 spots on the girls list and 7 spots on the siblings list!!

Praying for BABY Tucker!!

Please join me in praying for little Tucker. He is at Hannah's Hope right now and he is very sick. His mama Lauren and her husband are traveling to meet him in a month and you can only imagine how their heart must ache to love on him and get him the best care possible.

Please pray that he would gain weight and start to grow strong and he would fight off anything trying to attack his little body. And please pray for peace for his sweet parents as they are away from him. Also, pray for the ones caring for him in Ethiopia.

So thankful that God is holding little Tucker in His arms!! He is soooo good!!

Brother Talk!!

This is a sweet conversation Dillon overheard the boys having this morning before church.

Tuck: I wish it was Christmas at our house this morning.
Con: Why?
Tuck: So we could get lots of presents.
Con: That's not what Christmas is all about. Do you not know what Christmas is even about?
Tuck: No.
Con: Christmas is about Jesus being born so he could save us from our sins. Tuck, when you are a little older, you can talk to mommy and daddy about asking Jesus into your heart. Then when you do, POOF, you are a christian.

Conner has a natural leader quality inside of him. I am always reminding him of this and telling him he needs to be someone worth following. Someone who will point others to Christ.

This conversation with his little brother just made me so proud. Con accepted Jesus into his heart this year at the young age of six. He takes it very seriously and wants others to know that he is a christian.

I pray that he will continue to grow in his faith and that he will never lose his boldness to share Jesus with others.

Here are a few pics from the kids program tonite during the holiday banquet at church...

Happy Birthday Tucker!!

I can't believe my little Tucker man is 4 years old today!! Let me tell ya, this boy is as sweet as they come. He is sooo laid back and is an absolute JOY to be around.

He came into this world 3 weeks early weighing in at 6 lbs 14 oz. and he has grown into such a handsome little boy...














Tucker D, I love you more than you will ever know. You make my heart so full and I simply adore you!!!!! Happy Birthday my big 4 year old!!!!!

3 months waiting + The Hartsock family!!

Dearest Little One,
It is very busy around here right now...we are getting ready for Christmas. We got the tree all decorated and hung our stockings. The boys stockings are camo and we picked out a little red one just for you. You are in our thoughts daily and we can't help but wonder if maybe, just maybe, you might be here with us next Christmas. We are confident that we will at least know your face and that is so exciting to us. We love you so much baby girl!!!
Mommy

We have been waiting 3 whole months today. I remember the excitement of the day we sent off our dossier and even better, the day we got our first set of numbers. I can't believe 3 months has already flown by.

Most days just go by like any other but every once in a while I have a kinda down day. I feel kinda low and my heart aches heavily for our little one. I talked to our case worker "B" about it and she said that it is completely normal to feel that way and is to be expected. She said it is just part of the process of preparing my heart to one day meet our little girl.

This whole adoption journey has been so amazing and to see God work around us is so awesome to watch. I have loved how he has placed people in our lives to walk this out with and it is such a blessing to have friends close by who understand exactly what we are going thru.

I love the school that my son attends for many reasons. One reason, is that there is many adoptive families. When Conner started Kindergarten this year, we were excited that one of the little boys of a family we know would be in his class. You gotta understand that he attends school 40 minutes away so we don't know that many people there.

Here they are together on the first day of school...


What I didn't know is that the Lord was going to bond our families together thru adoption. They are now in the paperwork process adopting from ETHIOPIA thru no other than ALL GOD'S CHILDREN!!!! Is that not the coolest thing ever!!

So, I would love for you to head over to their blog, introduce yourself, and welcome them to the adoption world. I know that "meeting" all of you has been such a blessing to me and I know it will be for them as well.

Hello December!!

I cannot believe that December is already here!! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving surrounded by the ones you love.

We enjoyed several days out at the cabin with Dil's side of the family. We played lots of games, watched movies, ate way too much food, and just enjoyed being together.


I love traditions and one thing I look forward to is writing what I am thankful for on our tablecloth. We have been using the same one since 2007 and it is so neat to look back and see what everyone has written from year to year.


We spent some time at my granny's house too and I learned a new game that I am pretty much addicted to now. Farkle. It is a dice game and you have to choose whether you are gonna take a risk or not. My motto during this game is "go big or go broke"...because of this I have only won one game and that was against my mom-in-law and sis-in-law when I was teaching them to play!! I absolutely love games...even my home study says so. :)

With Thanksgiving behind us we are starting to gear up for Christmas. I actually for the first time ever put my tree up before Turkey Day. Everyones early Christmas cheer finally got to me and I gave in. I was glad to have it done after the busy week.

The boys were excited to get our their nativity scene last nite. My husband did the narrating and with me adding in a few songs here and there it was quite the show(only if you enjoy weird voices and off key singing)...




I was busy with Deacers for a minute and when I looked back this is what I saw...


Very funny that Dil acted this scene out but man did it make me stop and think what Mary really had to go thru. Not only did she ride that donkey all that way 9 months pregnant but the details of her delivery were not that ideal to say the least. But, can you only imaging how she felt when she held her son, the Savior of the world, for the first time and looked into his eyes. I wonder what she said, what thoughts were going thru her mind, how she felt in that very moment. Gives me chills thinking about it!!

We hung up our advent calendar tonite. I was excited that I found one that has a magnet on the back that you can put on the fridge...


Speaking of the fridge I have to show you what ours looks like...


Could there BE anymore magnets or pictures on there?!?! Don't think so!!!!

A little piece of my heart!

Dear Anonymous,

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and I appreciate all comments whether they be positive or negative.

Our adoption process is a reflection of our personal relationship with Christ. God has a heart for ALL orphans but how He uses each one of us is very personal and individualized. Some families may be called to adopt from Russia, some from Ethiopia, others the United States, or wherever God has laid on their heart. For us it is Ethiopia. And yes, God has blessed us with three boys and He has also given us the desire for a baby girl. Who knows what the future holds, but for right now, we are confident that He is leading us to a daughter. A daughter that He has had picked to be in our family from the beginning of time. This is a part of our own adoption story and someone elses story may look totally different. We serve a big God who could accomplish this ALL on His own but I am so glad that He chooses to use people to accomplish His purposes. I am honored and humbled that He is willing to use me and my family with all our faults and imperfections to bring about something so beautiful that brings Glory to His Name!!!

Referral Ready!!!!

Look what we got in the mail....

Our FDL is here...our next step is a referral...wahoooooo!!

I was excited to read that another girl referral went out!! One step closer to our baby girl!! The boys were so excited to get to change the countdown wall!! Speaking of that...you can now get your own...how great is that!! Head on over to Hilary's blog and order yours today. All proceeds go to helping bring home their little boy Isa from Ethiopia!!

Also, if you want one of our shirts, I am going to be placing the order the Monday after Thanksgiving so they will hopefully be in by Christmas. So don't forget to place your order on my sidebar!!

Love my roomies!!

I got the SWEETEST thing in the mail this week!! You might remember seeing Hilary's waitlist countdown that she made. Well, I commented that she was going to have to tell us how to make one and she decided to MAKE me one instead. I was so excited that I even shed a few tears as I was opening it!!


I absolutely adore this girl and we have developed a great relationship! We share our prayer requests and our praises with one another and I couldn't think of anyone I would rather walk through this journey with. Love ya Hil!!!

As I hung each one of these up I wondered how long it would take until we get to number one. After talking with our case worker yesterday, I am hopeful that it may be sooner than we thought. She told me they are now quoting a 12 month wait time to new families. That means we MIGHT possibly see our little ones face in a little over 9 months. She said it is safe for me to think that but still prepare my heart for it to take longer. This brought a whole new excitement to me!!

Our "unofficial" number right now is...


Lara, another one of my sweet friends, is having an amazing Giving Thanks Giveaway to help bring home their baby from Ethiopia. There have been several families donate some great stuff(two of our shirts are included) and I am heading over there right after this to buy my piece of pie which will enter me to win all the goodies!! I encourage you to do the same!! And hurry...it ends Monday!!


I am thrilled to no end to have the opportunity to finally meet these girls in February at the Created to Care retreat for adoptive mommies. I know we are gonna have the greatest time rooming together and am soooo looking forward to it!!

Our shirts!!

I have been going back and forth about whether I wanted to sell our t-shirts on our blog. But since so many of you have asked about them....here they are!!!

When we started talking about designing shirts we threw around the reasons of why we wanted to do it and what we wanted to be accomplish thru them.

This is what we came up with:

1. By wearing the shirt, you are advocating for orphans. Maybe, just maybe, someone might see one of our peeps wearing it and it might speak to their heart. They might question what it is all about, and there ya go, an opportunity to talk about the orphan crisis and the mighty God that loves them.

2. It helps us get one more step closer to our daughter.

So, you have our passion for the orphan and the love for our daughter...that is our heart behind these shirts!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me and Dil designed them together and we each picked out the color scheme we wanted. I of course had to pick me some PINK to represent our little GIRL!!!

Here are some of my girlfriends rockin' their shirts at our church Fall Fest...

My cutie husband sportin' his while judging the chili cook off...


And you must stop by Team Kollar and see my friend Christine and little Halina with Missy and LuLu. They were showing some love by supporting us and another adopting family. These two met while bringing home their sweet girls from Hannah's Hope the Summer of 2009 and still travel many miles to see each other. I love these ladies heart for adoption and our Lord. Christine has been such an encouragement to me thru this whole process and I am hoping that the next time Missy is in town we can have a play date with all THREE of our girls!!

This is how this is gonna go down. I am going to do a pre-sale for 2 weeks starting today and running thru Thanksgiving Day. That is two weeks!! At that point I will order the shirts and ship them out as soon as they come in...hopefully the middle of December.

The shirts are a unisex cut and fit true to size. We are selling them for $20 and all proceeds go directly to our adoption fund!! Check out my sidebar and order yours today!!

I pray that the Lord would bless you all as you are seeking after Him and following His call to DEFEND THE ORPHAN!!!!

November Numbers + 2 Months Down

We got our official numbers for this month!!

For a girl...


For siblings(twin girls)...



That makes 9 spots on the girls list and 10 spots for the siblings list!!

And, we have been waiting for 2 months now!! This was such a great month reading about all the referrals that have gone out and watching God work in so many ways for not only our family but so many others. It is just a reminder of how much he loves the orphan and wants them home with families to love them and teach them about HIS love.

I am planning on writing a love letter to our sweet little one for every month of our wait. I hope she will look back at them one day and know how much we wanted her and loved her before we even knew her.

Baby girl,

Oh, how you are already loved by so many!! Your Aunt Mea worked so hard at the sale this past weekend and sold so much of her stuff...it was all for YOU!! Your brothers gave us money out of their piggy banks to help bring you home. Just yesterday, your Uncle Jeff said "I can't wait until our girl gets here". Then we got a text from your Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Ang...they had made a mii of you on their Wii and had to send us a pic of how cute you are!!
So many people ask about you all the time and wonder when you are going to be home with us. The answer is "not soon enough". But, we can rest assure, that in God's perfect timing we will see your face and begin preparing to bring you home.

I love you,
Mommy

Totally Blessed!!

I haven't blogged in a whole week!! This is a first for me!! We have been so busy all week running from place to place trying to get this together...

We were so blessed by our friends and family who donated so many nice things for us to sell.

We also sold hot chocolate, some yummy baked items, and our adoption t-shirts...



It was alot of work but it was sooo worth it because....


We could not have pulled this thing off without our friends and family. It took alot of people to make it happen and even though it was pretty much exhausting we had alot of fun working together for such a great cause...










My favorite notary even stopped by to support us...I can not wait until the day I can take our baby girl down to the bank and let all those ladies see her...


There were so many people praying that the sale would be a success and let me tell ya, God answered our prayers and blew us all away!! He did far more than I ever imagined.

My goal was $1000 and we ended up with $3071+$450 of t-shirt sales!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU LORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!