Father’s Day and Thanks!

Today we’ve had the delight and privilege to celebrate the father’s in our lives.   Both Husband and I have been blessed with fathers who love the Lord, have taught us and shown us His love, ultimately pointing us to Him.  I am so grateful that the Lord has given me Husband who does this for our children as well.  He loves them, cares for them, disciplines them, provides for them, holds them when their scared, prays for them, teaches them the Gospel and delights in his chillins.  What a gift they have in their daddy.  We celebrated with a tasty meal followed by a water gun fight.  Fun seem to be had by all and the kiddos are good and worn out this evening.  🙂

Here’s my handsome hubby with our kiddos.  Next year, daddy of 3!

 

Also, wanted to take a minute and update on the Lord’s continued provision for this adoption.  To date He has provided $787 of the $2000 we are praying for before we travel!  To Him be the glory!  What an amazing joy to witness so many joining in our adoption story!  Thank you each for your continued prayers and support!  It’s coming soon now!

June 15 Thank You from Liz Hodgson on Vimeo.

Praise and update!

The Lord is good!  What an amazing privilege to watch Him provide for this adoption.  We asked on May 20th if you would begin praying that the Lord would provide $2000 before we travel on July 9th.  We are delighted to report that to date we have $600 towards this goal.  Only $1400 left to go in a little over four weeks!  Thank you for sharing our story with others and joining with us in this adoption journey!

June 6 Thank You! from Liz Hodgson on Vimeo.

Just One For One

In the last year I have followed an amazing blog known as “Give One Save One“.  Every week they feature a family who is adopting, both domestically or internationally, and ask that you donate $1 to save 1 life.  This is an amazing ministry and they have blessed so many families in this manner!

We are a little too late to apply to be be a featured family but we’d like to take this week (June 2nd- June 8th) to ask you to share our story with your friends, family, neighbors, your church, those friendly people you meet at the grocery store (just kidding! but you get the idea)…  Then would you consider donating just one dollar to help bring home one child, the child that the Lord has for us?  The Lord delights to use His people!  If each person donates just $1 and shares, and they donate and share…each and every one adds up to many and much.  To donate, use the button on the right sidebar.  You don’t have to have a PayPal account, and it goes directly to our adoption expenses!

We have realized that many of you may not know all of our family and yet you are praying for and supporting us as we seek to adopt this precious little one.  We’ve created a very simple video to introduce you to our family and briefly share our adoption story with others.  Please feel free to share!

As always, thank you for your love, prayers, and support!  Blessings!

Hodgson Adoption Story from Liz Hodgson on Vimeo.

 

Free flights for Adoption!

 

The creativity of the Lord’s provision for this adoption continues to amaze me.    As we have become more and more in the adoption community I have seen folks who have incurred some large last minute flight expenses.  Due to our birthmother having a scheduled C-section our travel to the birth will be a bit more planned than some others may experience.  At this point in time we won’t be paying for our airfare!  We are truly thankful!

Part of the way I contribute to our family’s finances while at home is by following various deal blogs and forums.   Through these forums I have been my introduced into the world of travel hacking and points and miles blogs.  Oh my!  What a vast and unknown territory I had missed previously!  And now I can say I’m barely skimming the surface but it has been enough to provide what we need for this moment!  It is through the tips on these blogs that we’ve been able to earn over 100,000 points towards travel with Southwest.  Southwest also has the unique benefit of the companion pass that we are very close to earning which will save us even more on our flights.   You may be wondering what’s the big deal?  We have been able to book our flights to GA using these points (plus the required $2.50 security fee).  Additionally, since we are not sure when our paperwork will be approved and we will be able to return with baby we have been able to book multiple return flights for free using points.  Flights with Southwest are fully refundable, so by booking now we can “lock in” the low point rate instead paying the rate showing for last minute flights.  Then we simply cancel flights we don’t need and we’ll get those points back.

How in the world did we earn so many points?  Well, I would like to share what I’ve been learning in the past months that has dramatically help us save on our travel costs.  I share with some hesitation because it requires folks to be aware of and exercise a lot of self discipline in terms of their personal finances.   My father lovingly warns that I’m giving away all my information…you may agree, if so this is probably not the best method for you.

Some of you may already be using credit cards to earn cash back rewards for your purchases.  We realized after a year or two of marriage if we could be disciplined to completely pay off our credit card each month that we would be better off using a cash back credit card for our expenses rather than our debit card linked to our checking account.  We choose one that has bonus categories that seem to align with our spending habits and I am thankful to say we have stuck with that initial commitment.

Southwest is currently running a promotion to earn 50,000 bonus points when you sign up for their Rapid Rewards Visa.  You can earn additional bonus points by signing up for the business version as well.  These cards do carry an annual fee due the first month so you should factor that in when you consider if this method.  Frankly to go into details would be a post in and of itself, which I am delighted to do and give more resources if there are folks who want to know.

Generally, I wanted to let folks know that there are ways, with some time and a little extra brain power, to obtain free and cheap airfare by researching points and miles blogs.  After this adoption is completed I hope to further explore ways we can do the same for the international flights we’ll need to book to Ethiopia.  Also, I have dreams of using points to give travel “grants”, so to speak to help other families travel for their adoptions!  I’m so thankful for the unique way the Lord provided!

 

Out of the Mouths of Babes

During a recent grocery trip to Aldi my 5 year old daughter overheard the cashier ask “would you like any cash back today?”  I politely declined, only to have her interrupt to say “Mommy, we DO want cash back!  We’re adopting!”  A precious response, even if a bit misguided on the ways of money and cash flow.  She’s watching and taking in the big picture of bringing home baby sister or brother.

We’ve said it multiple times as we’ve walked this road, we’ve been so blessed!  We’ve seen the Lord provide and meet needs throughout the process.  We’ve been humbled by the generosity and genuine excitement of others as they share in this little one’s adoption story.  We are now 8 short weeks away from meeting our little one.  The c-section is scheduled for July 10th and our flights are booked for July 9th!  The excitement and anticipation is growing.

Thanks be to the Lord our flights will be free due to miles and points with Southwest (more on this in a future post!) and we’ve been graciously offered hospitality for as long as we need while in GA.   Both tremendous financial blessings.  The flights are even direct and this time we will travel together!  I’m so thankful to have hubby along for this trip!  We will be staying with the same dear family I stayed with when I met the birthmother in April.  Their home is quite convenient to the hospital and we will be near grocery stores and such to pick up any odds and ends.  Moreover, we will have the encouragement of fellow believers as we enter into a unique and potentially highly emotional phase in this journey.

As the travel date approaches we have two specific requests:

1. We are prayerfully asking the Lord to provide the remaining $2000 prior to our flight out on July 9th.  Will you join us in this prayer?  We know He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and we’ve seen Him provide already in mighty ways!
2. Will you specifically pray as often as you remember and are led for baby’s protection in the womb?  Pray that as this little one continues grow in the womb that his/her Maker would watch over them, protect them from harm, and grow the baby.

A motherhood relfection

This weekend has been one filled with memories for me.  You see my birthday and Mother’s Day have shared the weekend, next year they’ll share the day.  Being a mother now myself I realize that there were many times my dear mother sacrificed her day, yet again, to celebrate my birthday.  Growing up birthdays meant celebration of the child.  Celebration of the life.  Celebration of family, really.  My mom was not able to have children biologically and when they adopted me it was her dream of motherhood come true.  I have the spaghetti recipe (it’s a favorite!) she was making for my dad the day she found out I was born.  I have my dad’s story of coming to the hospital to bring me home and then my mom’s concern as they waited for the official word that I was indeed theirs.

Not long now

It won’t be long now until baby is here!  We found out this week that birthmom is scheduled for a July 10th c-section.  After two biological children and not knowing when they might make their grand entrance it’s a little odd knowing the exact day of our 3rd child’s birth so far in advance.  While it will make the birthmother’s recovery more difficult she seems excited to have it on the calendar.  We are communicating via telephone after each of her appointments and since meeting in April there seems to be a greater openness and eagerness to get to know us.

As baby’s arrival approaches we have several prayer requests.

• For baby’s protection and health in utero.  There are some potential health concerns that we won’t know fully until baby’s birth and we would covet prayers for baby’s protection even now as he/she grows in utero.  Our Father knows this child and cares for him/her already.
• For continued financial provision.  As we approach the birth there are some large upcoming expenses.  We have received an overwhelming amount of support already and we are so thankful.
• For details of travel, lodging, etc to work out smoothly.
• For continued growth of relationship with birthmother.   That she would know our love and respect for the choice she’s making and ultimately that it would be a reflection of our Heavenly Father to her.

On a random practical level, if you have creative video making skills and would be willing and interested in helping us to create a short (3 minute) long video about our adoption journey, we’d be ever so grateful.  The Lord has given us a variety of talents and gifts but compelling creativity with video creation is not one of them.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support!  Can’t believe little one will be here in just about two months!

 

As Long as You are Glorified

I have written before how much of this adoption journey has been one of me learning to trust the Lord.   This past week I traveled to GA to meet our expectant mom.  I dropped the kids off with the in-laws on Monday so I could get going to the airport early Tuesday.  A happy consequence of dropping them off the day before was date night with Husband!  As we sat and ate our tasty Thai food we talked about some of our frustrations, concerns, and upcoming trip.  We came home to take a walk and checked the mail to find another generous donation from some of church family.  Once again, the Lord’s perfect timing.  With each step that we take and each time we ask, how Lord?!  He continues to gently urge us to trust and abide in Him.

Music is one of the ways the Lord often teaches me.  Tuesday morning as I was running out of the house, a bit later than scheduled, I grabbed Sovereign Grace’s “Come Weary Saints” album to listen to as I drove the two hours to the airport.  I’ve never listened to this album and don’t quite know how we came to have the CD.  I put it in and within 10 minutes had one song on repeat.  The lyrics are as follows:

VERSE 1
Shall I take from Your hand Your blessings
Yet not welcome any pain?
Shall I thank You for days of sunshine
Yet grumble in days of rain?
Shall I love You in times of plenty
Then leave You in days of drought?
Shall I trust when I reap a harvest
But when winter winds blow, then doubt?

CHORUS
Oh let Your will be done in me
In Your love I will abide
Oh I long for nothing else as long
As You are glorified

BRIDGE
So quiet my restless heart
Quiet my restless heart
Quiet my restless heart in You

The Body At Work

Seeing the Body of Christ at work has been and continues to be one of the most encouraging parts of this adoption journey.  What a tremendous blessing!  We have had brothers and sisters in Christ walk with us, pray for us, and help us each step of the way.

Next week I will travel to meet our expectant mom.  I am so thankful for this opportunity to meet and love on her before baby comes.  In planning the trip we wanted to be wise stewards of what the Lord had given us.  Knowing that I would need to stay overnight during the trip I knew I would need to find a hotel for at least one night.  I began praying for the Lord to provide for that night.  I was initially thinking someone might donate hotel points or perhaps it was driving a Caddy?!  God had even better plans!

Adopted for Life

I am sure that many of you are already aware of Adopted for Life by Russell Moore.  It was published a few years ago and Husband promptly put it on his Christmas list, read it, loved it, and recommended it.  I tend to hesitate on reading the books Husband does as they are often very thick in theology.  That’s not a bad thing but it is often so over my head!

I have a friend who has been talking with me about adoption and I suddenly started thinking of this book.  Husband found it for me and I have been absolutely loving it!  I’m still in the beginning chapters, as it takes this momma awhile to get through a book, but I can confidently say it’s worth the read!