At Cross Roads in Life

Did you ever have a change of plans that you weren't counting on? Did you ever have to stop something you love and switch gears, not knowing what to expect? That's where I am now.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him and He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

I was already homeschooling so taking my family on the road was no big deal. It was a dream I had for years. We launched as a full time RVing family on Jan. 28, 2014. It was not without it's problems; however, we loved it. I loved it so much that I gutted our RV and customized it to fit us comfortably full time. Even on the rough days my one son, Arthur, would wake up excited about wherever we were, in new places, with new things to see. He'd say to me daily, "Isn't this great? This is so much fun!" It was hard not to be excited around him.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

In our travels, we've been from Massachusettes down to the Florida Keys and over to Texas. We've visited and volunteered at many great churches while traveling, met a lot of great people, and learned how God is working in other people's lives everywhere. We've been to almost half of the states, not just on this one trip, but over the past few years part-timing, as well.

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(red: passed thru, yellow: stayed a night/did some activities, blue: spent quite some time in, green: spent lots of time in)

We stopped full-timing on July 15, 2014, just 2 weeks shy of 6 months on the road. Leaving was not planned nor intentional. When we were in Texas, we intended to visit my children's siblings then continue moving toward California. Upon visiting one, we were told TX was ready to place him with us immediately; so, we needed to get home and complete the paperwork and homestudy. Many people think I adopt while "on the road". Not so. You do need a sticks n bricks house, at least for the homestudy and placement process, which takes 8-12 months, or more, depending on how long it takes you to identify a child and have them placed in your home. I tried to sell my s&b house before we hit the road but no one even came to look at it (after I had spent a whole year renovating and upgrading). God had other plans.

In you, Lord my God, I put my trust. Psalm 25:1

You see, when I adopted my son, Daniel, I knew he had a brother. They weren't living together any longer. Separated in foster care. I saw both of their pictures and knew they both belonged to me. It has taken many years but we are finally awaiting ICPC approval for this next adoption of this sibling. I won't lie, I'm a bit nervous about this placement, as we attempted it once before but, if it's God's will, it will take place and I will try to be obedient in the storms and keep my eyes set on Jesus.

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

If you're a prayer warrior, you could pray that I will submit to Jesus as my Lord daily and have the strength, courage, patience, and perseverance necessary to endure the storms so God can work miracles in this boy's life, as He has done in the rest of our lives. It is a blessing that God can use anyone, even me, to work His miracles. He can use you, too.

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst. 1 Timothy 1:15

We have been using our RV to raise awareness of the need for forever families for orphans waiting in foster care, especially teens ready to age out.. It is something I am passionate about; however, I realize that adopting children from hard places is, well, hard. Sometimes, getting through a day, or an hour, or a moment, is one of the hardest things I've ever done ... but oh so worth it to see God work in someone's life and heal hearts.

The dove below is what we painted on the sides of our RV. The triangle and heart are the symbol for adoption. The triangle represents the adoption triad: birth parents, adoptive parents, and child. The heart, obviously, represents love. The cross represents Jesus, who we try to keep as the center of our lives, and the dove symbolizes God for us and He is carrying the adoption triad. A bible verse will be in the ribbon. I wanted the verse to be related to adopting orphans and, in turn, how we are all orphans and adopted into God's family through Christ but I think it will be 1 Peter 4:8, which says "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." I think that one just covers it all.

God had another use for my RV for now, though. Since I believe we will be 'grounded' for the next 7-8 months, I offered my RV to a woman I know. She was left alone at 4-months-pregnant with twins and her 3 other children, had to take off from work at the end of her pregnancy, then had to take off again when her babies were hospitalized. She fell behind in her rent and lost her rental home. She tried staying with family but that didn't work out. She was on the verge of homelessness. That was unacceptable to me. She is a Christian woman who thanks God daily for her blessings. Even in her storms, she finds the blessings. She works so hard. She inspires me. Even when she was without a job she proceeded to hold yard sales daily, all day long, to make ends meet. She is a go-getter and her children are awesome, always happy. So, I offered my RV. It was all I could do to help. Her church set up a 30 amp RV hook-up for her, and now she lives comfortably ... for now. She does own a piece of land that needs a double-wide mobile home on it. I found a free mobile home an hour from her land in NC - a real fixer-upper but we are both skilled in all areas of construction. We are now hoping to find someone who can move it for her or scrape up the $5,000 to have a moving company do it for her. I know God will take care of her needs. If you feel led to help her by praying God provides permanent shelter for her, or donating a double-wide in livable condition, or moving the free fixer-upper, or helping to fund any of these options, please feel free to click my donate button.

If any woman who is a believer has widows in her care, she should continue to help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need. 1 Timothy 5:16

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27

So now we are back in the s&b. I'm a little fidgety and cranky being in one spot this long but I'm trying to adjust, trying to accept my current situation and my new direction in life, whatever that may be. I don't like limbo but I'm praying for patience until God shows me what this new chapter in my life will look like. While I wait, we've plugged back into our home church programs: bible studies, youth activities, volunteer work, etc. We're still learning and growing and trying to find God's will for us, even in stationary mode.

Those who know Your name trust in You, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek You. Psalm 9:10

My "Little" Mercy

Mercy turned 15 years old yesterday. I adopted her just over 2 years ago. She came to me with many delays and "issues". She couldn't read or write anything when I met her. However, after homeschooling her for almost a year, she learned to read and write. We all read the bible together each night and she was finally able to start taking her turn reading. She first read, "How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?" Psalm 13:1 I gave her a "thumbs up" then she put her bible down, ran over to me and gave me a big hug. She is so proud of her accomplishments.

Another day, we were reading the bible and the word 'grace' was mentioned several times. When we were finished, she said, "Mom, Grace is a name, like Mercy." I said, "Yes, it is." She skipped away saying, "Mercy and Grace, two gifts from God. I like my name!" This is HUGE. You see, before I adopted her, she had had several failed adoptive placements. One of those families had started calling her "Eva" because they wanted to change her name. When the adoption failed, she, and her brother, demanded they still be referred to by their new names, even though it was never legalized. It made life quite confusing in transferring all of their legal documents here. At any rate, she hadn't liked her name, or herself. Huge.

This year, we couldn't celebrate her birthday the way she likes to because we were in North Carolina helping friends then drove the 8 hours back home. However, we stopped at Burger King for dinner and she got one of the crowns and wanted her birthday picture taken with it. Look at that smile!

While we were in NC, we went to church on Sunday morning, as we often will do while we're traveling. I like to go to church to hear whatever lesson God has for me that week. Today, although I enjoyed the sermon and meeting new people, it was Mercy who taught a lesson. First, the pastor asked if anyone would like to share a testimony. I was prompted to share our family testimony but I didn't do it. Yet again, I didn't obey, even though I've experienced many blessings through obedience, but I'm thick-headed so God just went ahead and used Mercy. The children were called up to the front for the Children's Church discussion. The pastor asked if they had ever had any "good news." Mercy said, "I was adopted." Now, some people had already met us in Sunday school and knew I adopted several children but most people hadn't. The children's lesson ended and the pastor returned to the alter to preach his sermon but stopped and started talking about how he felt the Holy Spirit moving and how Mercy's comment opened his eyes and reminded him that we were all orphans and are adopted into the family of God through Jesus Christ. The pastor was weeping! My friend said to me, "Alison, you're family made my pastor cry!" Lol. I commented to Mercy about how God had used her that day. She was beaming. What a blessing it is to be used by God to bless others. The pastor later posted this on the church website:

"My heart is over flowing. This morning worship was awesome as always at Providence UMC, but one moment this morning stood out. During the Lambs Lesson I asked the kids if they had ever had good news. One said, "my dog once had puppies", another "My grandfather got out of the hospital." So far so good, but then one little boy (ok, it was a girl) who was visiting from New Jersey with family says, "I was adopted." I was a mess the rest of the service. that little boy (girl) reminded me that I was adopted also, into the family of God! It was an emotional service all because a little boy (girl) shared his good news...Praise be to God for the little children!"

What made this special, too, was the fact that Mercy and her brother had had several adoptive placements before mine that had failed. I read in her paperwork before she joined us that she wasn't looking forward to being adopted again because, "It didn't work out too well last time." Even so, she gave it another shot. "Adoption changes people, it just does." That's what my son, Richard, says. I have a passion for adoption, especially of teens. My children have all overcome so much and have accomplished many things. I'm so proud of them all.

Happy Birthday, Mercy!

Back to "Who We Are"

FtF Summer Scavenger Hunt

We have participated in this for the last two summers. If you have followed my posts on Facebook, you know that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this game. The first year, my kids really weren't into it. They did not enjoy the embarrassing and/or difficult tasks I 'made' them do. So, when I announced this year (2014) that we were playing again, they groaned and said, "Mom, we don't HAVE to play." But I love it, so we played. One interesting thing we did in last year's (2013) hunt was visit Walt Whitman's grave. So, we also visited the historical house he lived in, which was in the same town as the cemetery he is buried in.

For one task, we had to perform a random act of kindness. We chose to sit around in a Burger King until we found someone we'd like to buy lunch for. We chose this couple. He was all about it, accepted, and ordered a nice big lunch for himself. She clearly didn't want to take advantage and ordered just a small lunch for herself and scolded him for being a pig. LOL.

You can see the kids weren't real thrilled in this next task. It wasn't hard or embarrassing. I guess it wasn't exciting enough.

I was very happy to see they enjoyed it this year. We had to locate a dinosaur statue.

We tapped into our creative juices by building a fairy house out of natural materials. We also had to find a model of an architectural marvel so I bought 4 3D puzzles of the White House, Big Ben, the Empire State Building and a castle. they enjoyed building those and learning about them.

We had to find a pay phone in a phone booth and a gas street light. We drove for hours searching for these after researching possible locations online. Both were in Philadelphia but I wasn't sure the street light was working or if it was still gas so we went to a party rental store and used one of theirs..

Since the party rental store was about 2 hours away near Hershey, PA, we went to the Lancaster Airport to learn about hot air balloons and ballooning and take our picture in a balloon basket. We learned a lot about balloons, weather, air currents, and some physics.

While searching for a phone booth, we passed by a bar and grill with lots of old wagons. We had to take a picture in a covered wagon. It was covered alright but we got permission to sit in it and take a picture. They even had a petting zoo out back. Score!

We had to dress up like an explorer and state what they did so we went to the Daniel Boone homestead in PA and learned about him and dressed up in time period clothing in the dress up corner. I bet you didn't know they wore Hello Kitty back then. LOL.

We had to visit a battlefield and this one is in NJ along the Delaware River. It fit in nicely with our homeschool studies of the Civil War and Revolutionary War. Next month we will be visiting Fort Mifflin, which is on the opposite side of the Delaware River, and learn more about how these two forts contributed to local battles in the Revolutionary war.

We also had to visit a National Park, so we went to Valley Forge to continue learning about American history. I learned so much!

Grill something unusual. We grilled pickles. The kids loved them. Me, not so much. =/

We also had to create a human totem pole. We chose to order the kids in the order they were adopted and, for sibling groups, they were seated oldest to youngest starting from the bottom. These are my youngest 8 kids, at the moment. We are expecting ...

We had to find an RV with a Lazy Days dealer tag on it. We drove through 2 different campgrounds and the older boys stalked walked between rows of RVs looking for the tag. When we found one, we asked the owner if we could take our picture under her RV tag being lazy. We met a nice woman and learned all the places she and her husband have been so far.

Embarrassing family photo. No other words necessary ...

The contest ended with a family photo wearing matching outfits. My sweet, funny clan. We had a great time this year. Thank you, Kimberly and Fulltime Families for the fun times and the RV community you've created.

PS. We came in third place in the hunt.