So I quickly jumped back to my editor to see what might be the problem.  After a few minutes of searching I found the culprit.  Do you see it?

Notice how there is a comma at the end of every line?... every line except #241?  Yeah, that one missing comma brought down the entire website.

It struck me how often I have one missing comma in my life.  You know what I mean? You know how there is that one area that is so hard to give over to God?  It’s easy to overlook, but it is possible for that one area to bring down an entire life, ministry, family, etc.

I’m going to be asking the Lord to reveal those missing commas in my life. Will you too?

Now we just need to wait for Andrea to finish writing up all the things that I guess go into a home study so that we can review it and get it ready to be finalized.  We have one final group training meeting that we are required to attend but we have to wait until the end of March since it is only offered every other month.  Once we finish that group meeting our home study will officially be complete! 

We have been praying about which agency the Lord would have us apply to since that is the next step in the process and one we want to get moving on as soon as possible.  Quite honestly this is been the most difficult part so far.  There are hundreds of agencies out there and it is hard to know which ones are good and which ones should be avoided.  Jesse and I realized that we wanted to go with a Christian adoption agency so that did help weed out several of them from the list.  It has been a challenge to try and explain our hearts to Andrea (our caseworker doing our home study) who we fell really does not understand our faith.  We have found an agency out of North Carolina that we are planning on sending a preliminary application to and let me tell you it has been refreshing already answering question for them.  They asked us to start with our testimony and how and when we asked Jesus to come into our lives!  Yeah!  Though we won’t know for a few weeks after we send the first application to them if we can work with them or not, we are still excited to be moving forward towards adopting.

I imagine we still have a long road ahead, paperwork wise as well as just waiting.  We are excited though, realizing that we are actually in this process!  To God be the glory!

We are over half way done with the home study process and starting to get more and more excited about the possibility of adopting!  We still have some training materials to complete but once that is done we really just need to decide on an adoption agency to continue.  We have researched a few but have yet to make our final decision.

If you are a coffee lover, or know someone who is, and would like to help support us in the adoption process you can buy some coffee here https://justlovecoffee.com/JesseAndApril  We will get roughly $5 for every bag that you order which will go right to our adoption fund!

The kids continue to have an energy all their own and we try our best to keep up with them and build lasting and meaningful memories.  Here are some pictures to highlight a few….

Jesse arranged for a time when some of the smaller staff kids could get on the hill when it wasn’t packed full of more experienced skiers. The kids LOVED it and skied for almost an hour and a half!

The excitement and energy at camp this past weekend was just thrilling!  Nearly 150 junior high campers came for MELTDOWN! and enjoyed all sorts of activities, food, and discussions.  It was a blast to work with the kids and create a video in the short time!

The Lord decided we needed some snow and the other day we got 18 inches overnight!  There was (and still is) SO much snow that Jesse thought it would be fun to build them a snow fort.  The kids (and Jesse) dove right in and enjoyed making it.

Thanks for taking the time to read our update.  We appreciate your support through prayer and those that are able to contribute financially.  We could not do it without all of you!

Jack has never been ice fishing before, so I asked if he would like to come with.  He was thrilled! 

After about two hours on the ice, we had caught nearly 30 good sized bluegills.  Several of them were even over 10 inches! 

Jack - learning from the master

Lauren was bummed that she couldn’t join the Guy Time, but she did help us clean the fish at the end of the night.

For what has been the past 10 years, Jesse and I have tossed around the idea of possibly adopting.  Well these last few years in particular the Lord has been pressing that thought more and more on our hearts.  We have felt the knock becoming louder and louder and thought it time we stop ignoring it and open the door. 

So as of a few weeks ago, the first set of papers (which will soon be many I am sure) arrived at our house for us to begin the home study process which is the first step towards adoption.  We have started talking with the kids about what adoption is, what it means, how the Lord has adopted us as his sons and daughters, and it has really been such a neat process so far.  And we have only just begun!

There is a long road ahead of us, and from what we hear that most often times involves waiting.  We ask that you would pray with us!  We are trusting God for a lot of unknowns in this process but are so excited to see what He is going to do!  We’ll try and keep you updated as we go. 

Over the past two weekends we presented our annual dinner theater on six nights, to over 100 people per presentation!  One of the staff members, Matt Hoffland, has written and directed these productions for the past number of years.  This year’s was set in a retirement home and told the story of Louie, a cynical man, who was formerly a Vaudeville stage performer.  The three men in the retirement center were asked to reunite and do a performance for their fellow residents.

Along with a lot of humor, songs, and dancing, Louie was impacted with the fact that his life was nearing its end.  Fritz, one of the residents was able to connect with Louie and share the Gospel with him.  It was a really touching performance!

At the end of the show, Matt was able to come on to the stage and use elements and quotes from the show to clearly present the Gospel to the guests.  For some reason it was very meaningful for me, I was the sound and lights technician, to be part of such a poignant presentation of what God and Christ have done for us.  In my job I click the mouse and type an awful lot, so it was special to feel a part of the message of Christ being shared!

Here is a video clip of one of the dance routines in the show!  Enjoy!

It was a lot of fun to work with the staff on this project!  Plus, since I wan’t behind the camera lens, there actually were some pictures of me working!  (Thanks Laura Viol!)

Moving insulation

Working with my buddy Sam on the “Scuttle Hole”

Watch those fingers!

Some pictures of the process….

Measure twice and cut once right guys! 

The weather was for the most part just beautiful.  A great weekend to work on the roof!

It is coming!

In the morning we thought it would be fun to take the family on a voyagers breakfast.  It is something we do for the campers at family camp each year.  So, we loaded the entire family into ONE massive canoe (this one canoe can hold up to 18 people) and paddled to a campsite at camp and cooked flam burritos!  It sure was fun!

I have not yet taken a finished picture but plan to do so soon.  Thanks to everyone for the help and the awesome food that you all brought as well.  We truly felt blessed in SO many ways!

Anyway, we enjoyed corresponding through email and then when the time came we surprised each other with our gifts.  It was a fun surprise and turned out each of us made the other a purse.  She did a great job on mine and picked the perfect colors that I would naturally gravitate towards.  She blogged about the bag she made for me here if you’d like to see what I received.

For her I followed a tutorial that I found over here at “The Boy Trifecta” (another craft blog I found).  The tutorial was pretty straight forward and the bag came together quite easily (just time consuming).  I think if I were to make this bag again I would shorten the strap a bit.  I made it long to be able to be worn across the chest or also over one shoulder if tied in a knot.  I like mine to go just over the shoulder so I would probably make my straps shorter if it were for me.  But hopefully Lisa liked it the way I did it! 

Anyway, here are some pictures of the finished bag that I made…

For the exterior I used a slate grey velvet material that I had in my stash. 

For the lining I used one of Jesse’s dress shirts he had in his closet (don’t worry I asked!) and just used the existing pocket on the front of the shirt for the pocket in the bag.  I also found out that one of my partners favorite Bible verses was Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile”.  So, I fired up my Silhouette (a die cutting machine) and cut myself some letters out of heat transfer, grabbed some grosgrain ribbon and ironed them on, and then sewed that to the top of the pocket. 

All in all I had a great time sewing something special for someone I’ve never met.  I am so thankful that the Lord allows me to use sewing in my life as a means to glorify Him! 

We continue to pray that our kids would accept Jesus as their savior soon and we are so grateful that our church is doing their part as well to try and reinforce that hope.  As I was standing in the back of the room waiting for them to dismiss the kids the other day I heard our pastor talking to the group of kids (maybe 50 or so) about how simple it was to be a Christian, yet how important that decision is for eternity.  He also was sharing to those who were already believers the importance to share that faith with your friends.  I was encouraged, and I only heard the last 5 minutes when I came to pick her up! 

A friend took some pictures for me today of Lauren’s pre-school group.  Here are a few to share….

Lauren with one of her friends, Leah

Working on a craft

Game time

The pre-school group