The Winslow Family at Grace Abounding Farm: April 2006

Thursday, April 20, 2006

See for Yourself----Glenn's Dream Come True!!!

Click on play and let it load. It can take a bit. Then watch it and if you click on play again...it will come right up!! Enjoy!!!

Glenn's Dream Come True!!! A Tractor to Call His Own!!!

Last week we got a delivery of what's called quarry pack. It's a great driveway material. Those of you who have driven in our driveway know that it had it's "issues". Anyway...Glenn was so excited to find this garden tractor beside the road. It's a 1978 model...and it's a cream puff. It works wonderfully!! Glenn also found a garden cart on sale, and that came in handy to help spread the 24 tons of quarry pack. My sweetie pie also rigged up a wooden smoother with metal an the bottom to really level things out!! Thanks soooo much Glenn!! The driveway looks wonderful!!! As you can see...everyone else had fun "driving" the tractor, too!!

Congratulations Maddie and Grace on your award winning stories!!!!

If you want to read their stories, just click on the red x, and it will come right up on your computer. Maddie's story is: My Bigger Family, and Grace's story is: America, My New Home. Let us know what you think!! Maddie won honorable mention for 5th grade, and Grace won 2nd place for 4th grade!!! Great job girls!!!

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Brother Jon....By: Brittany

Brittany had so much fun doing a photo shoot of Jon the other day. She is trying her hand at photography and will enter one of these photos into the 4-H county activities day. Good job Britt!!! Which one do you vote for???

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

A Birthday Celebration for Dad/Grampa!!!

"But let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice."

We had such a great time celebrating my Dad's 68th birthday!! He ordered his favorite meal.....Corned beef, cabbage, carrots and potatoes and onions..(which I gladly made for him!!) ..and then we had homemade bread with it, too, and icecream for dessert!! A fun time was had by all!! Matt and Miriam were able to come with Maggie, too!!! They had a nice reunion with Dad and Mom since they had just returned from Florida!!We love to celebrate in our family, and this was a great celebration!!! Doesn't Grampa look great matching the decorations?? Grampa loves the birds so we gave him lots of stuff for his bird feeding hobby!!! WE LOVE YOU DAD/GRAMPA!!!!!XOXOXOXOXOXO

Does Anyone Know A Good Orthodontist????????

Monday, April 10, 2006

4-H SPACES Conference---06

"Even a child is known by his
doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right." Proverbs 20:11

We had a grand time at the 4-H spaces classes. Here are photos of the class we took on rescue dogs. Maddie even got to hide and have one of the dogs find her!! That was soooo neat!!

Here Glenn and Jon share body heat!!

Here Grace takes a class on horse sense!!

Maddie took a cool class called "gross grub" all

foods you can eat, but pretty gross sounding. Infected toes, and bloody hand pizza. Yum--Yum---Yum------

Friday, April 07, 2006

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!

PLEASE JOIN US IN WISHING MY DAD A HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAY!!! WE LOVE YOU DAD!!!!
YOU CAN SEND HIM A BIRTHDAY WISH @ ziptheclown@juno.com
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Signs of Spring

What a joy to do some yard work last weekend. It makes such a big difference!! Everyone pitched in to help, including little Jon....(although I think his motivation was the rides in the wheelbarrow, and on the tarp, too!! We would rake and sing..."Wake up little flowers...wake up!!"....Glenn bought me some pansies, and so I've planted them in my window boxes and planters. Along with my mom's trademark pussy willows in there, too. This morning we were greeted with some snow. It looks so pretty next to the flowers...quite a contrast....spring color and snow!!!

Joshua 4:6--When our children ask.."What do these "stones" mean?" we will tell them! "God is good!"

8/6/2014 WE ARE HOME!!
6/23/2014--Our adoption was made official in Bulgaria Court! Welcome Jeremiah Albert Erol Winslow and JoyAnna Yanka Deneva Winslow to our family!!! Yay!!
2/25/14--Received our written referral today, and our travel dates! We'll be meeting JoyAnna on the 17th or March! Praise God!
2/11/14--Received verbal referral for JoyAnna! Now awaiting the Minister's signature for the written referral! Please pray for that to be soon! Last time it was 3 weeks in-between!
1/16/14--Offically added our daughter JoyAnna to our adoption! A Blessing From the Lord!
1/15/14--Received our 1-800 approval!!!
1/6/13--Received word from Bulgaria that our precious Zoey was with Jesus in heaven. Now she is more joyous than ever!
12/6/13-12/18/13--Took our first trip to Bulgaria and met and loved on our Zoey and Jerry! Wow!
11/21/13--Received our travel dates for our first trip to Bulgaria to meet our kiddos! Praise the Lord!
10/31/13--Received this email today: Your dossier was officially approved and the verbal referral issued yesterday at the IAC meeting!!! Now, you are waiting on the signature required on the referral so that you can receive travel dates. As long as these signed within the next few weeks, you will for sure travel before the end of the year. Toni's goal is to have you there in December, possibly sooner if the signature comes quickly.
8/23/13--Glenn and I had our physicals today and met our soon to be new family Dr.! Yeah!! We also sent the bulk of our dossier priority mail to our agency, too! Praise the Lord!
8/22/2013--TODAY WE RECEIVED USCIS APPROVAL!! HOORAY! WE'LL BE MAILING OUT OUR COMPLETE DOSSIER TOMORROW!! PRAISE THE LORD!
8/2013--Rejoice with us! We have been approved for a $1,200.00 adoption grant from the Rescued fund! Thank you Jesus!
July 11th, 2013--we go to our longly awaited finger print appointment. Glenn, Me, and Madelyn. Now it's off for USCIS approval! Please pray!
June 24, 2013--We received our longly awaited finger printing appointment from homeland security! Glenn, Madelyn and I will go to the NH office in Bedford on July 11th! Just a couple of weeks away! Hooray! Thank you Lord! One step closer to our babies!
June 4th, 2013--Picked up our notarized homestudy! Praise the Lord! Went to our state house and got one copy of it apostilled which will be sent to our placing agency, and then to Bulgaria for approval by the ministry of Justice there! Please pray! Sent another copy along with a treasurer's check and our i-800A paperwork to immigration in Texas! Please pray for a speedy immigration approval and fingerprint appointments for Glenn, Me, and Madelyn! Then, we can get approval to schedule our first trip!! Praising the Lord! Rejoicing!
May 31st, 2013. HOORAY! PRAISE THE LORD!! Our homestudy is FINALLY done and ready to be signed! It should be signed today, June 3rd! Then we can send in our USCIS immigration paperwork for approval and proceed toward our first trip! Rejoice with us! Thank you for your prayers!
March 18, 2013. Finally received updated homestudy and emailed it to our placing agency! We are praying this is the final revision needed!
February 23rd, 2013--Our placing agency sent the changes that need to be made to our homestudy back to the homestudy agency! Hopefully it will all be completed by next week!
February 22, 2013--We learn that our homestudy is complete! It was sent to our placing agency for review on February 15th! Thank you Lord!
February 12, 2013--We receive word our homestudy is almost complete. We fax our FBI checks to homestudy agency!
February 10, 2013--Dear friends begin a Go Fund Me page for us!
February 6th, 2013--We receive our apostilled FBI reports back from Washington, DC
February 4th, 2013--Received our renewed passports in the mail.
January 25th, 2013--We send our FBI checks to Washington DC to be apostilled.
January 24, 2013--Received our criminal background checks from the FBI in Virginia.
January 14, 2013--We sent out our passport renewals.
January 13, 2013--Glenn and I have our passport photos taken for our renewal. A real date!
January 5th, 2013--We have our first visit from the social worker who is doing our homestudy!
December 21st, 2012--We go to our local police department and get fingerprinted. We mail them to the FBI in Virginia
December 20th, 2012--We meet our newest friends in the Lord...The Pressler Family!
December 14th, 2012---We fax copies of all documents to our placing agency!
December 13th, 2012---We are featured on a local radio program and talk about our adoption!
December 7th, 2012--We bring completed contract to homestudy agency with money, and we go to our state house and have adoption documents apostilled. Our Reece's Rainbow account is approved!
December 5th, 2012--Our placing agency tells us about Edward, and a private donor who will give a large donation if a family includes him in their adoption. We say..."YES!!"
December 4, 2012--We say "YES!" to Zoey and commit to her. We send the $3,500.00 commitment fee!
November 29th, 2012--We find out about the need for a family for Zoey. We pray! We receive a call from a dear friend who says..."Did you see the post about Zoey?? I think she is supposed to be a Winslow!"
November 28th, 2012--We found out that Theodore was matched with the other family! We cried and prayed.
November 21, 2012--God provided us with a homestudy agency only 1/2 hour from our home that was willing to take all of our previous homestudies and compile them to help complete our new homestudy!
November 23rd, 2012--Began other fundraising efforts--to include the Winslow Warmer from the Dutch Candle Company! Thank you Jon!
November 15th 2013--Completed interview process with About A Child agency!
November 13th, 2012--$3,500.00 goal reached!!
October 20th, 2012--We received our first chip in donation!
October 20th, 2012--We set up a chip in fund to raise money for the commitment fee for one child of $3,500.00
October 15th, 2012--We contacted About A Child Agency and put in an official inquiry about Theodore!
October 13, 2012---After Adeye had put out a plea for several children...we prayed..and then we stepped out in faith and said "Yes" to Theodore!

Our prayer to the Lord and other Winslow Prayer Requests!

*Please pray for God's will in our family in 2013 *Join us in praying for our newest additions coming this year to our family. Handpicked by God! Zoey and Little Eddie. They are from Bulgaria. What an amazing journey God has us on! *As you know, my Mom is in heaven now after a 12 year battle with cancer. We miss her so much! Please pray for my Dad, David, and his adjustment to being without his life partner of 50 years. Please pray, too, for all of us as we adjust to life without my beautiful Mom. It truly will never be the same! Pray that we will grow closer to the Lord during this time! *Please pray for continued carpentry work for Glenn. *Please pray for our daily homeschooling. *Please pray for our married daughter Brittany and her husband Christian and their 2 old daughter Marlena! We are praising the Lord they live in NH, now and we get to see them more often. Pray for them as they just welcomed their newest addition, Annalie Beatrice yesterday...October 5th! Everyone is doing great! *Please pray that we would all grow closer to the Lord and strive to walk closely with Him each and every day.

Our Favorite Read A-louds!

We LOVE to start our day each day with a read a-loud. It's become a tradition in our homeschool. I read each morning after breakfast. We have read some of the best books this way. It started 10 years ago at the beginning of our homeschooling journey. We started with Anne of Green Gables, the complete edition. That took many years to read. Since then, we've read many other wonderful books. Here are some of our favorites from this last year:

Christie's Organ

The Exact Truth by: Isabella Alden

First Impressions of God by: Ann Wells

The Cheerfulness Character Book

Godliness is Great Gain

Wisdom and the Millers

Storytime with the Millers

Two Roses

Walking with The Living God

Even Donkeys Speak

The Long Winter

The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew

Little Daisy and the Swearing Class

Godliness is Great Gain

The Bible in the Wall

Tampering With Temptation

The Bulletproof George Washington
Wandering May

We also like to try and read one chapter of Proverbs each day making us read the entire book of Proverbs each month. What a wonderful gift of wisdom God has given us in the book in the Bible!

Current read aloud: The Weed with the Ill Name
(from the Grace and Truth book series)
We are now reading the Then and Now missionary stories. We loved reading Hudson Taylor and are now reading George Muller. Such amazing stories of strength and provision from God!