Christmas Fun and Fellowship!!!

What a lovely day we had at our dear friend's home the Bennett family in Raymond. We created the 1st annual Bennett/Lowman/Winslow gingerbread house making party!

As Ben Bennett said...."This is "sugarlicious!!", and yes...it was a sweet, sweet, very sweet time of fellowship!! Did I say....sweet??? Many hands, much candy, lots of laughing, and a wonderful time was had by all! Take a peek!! Pictured here is our humble holiday abode, lovingly made by all 6 of my kiddos, and a little help from Mom!!

The Lowman's Finished Creation!

The Bennet's Finished Creation!

After the creation time...we had a lovely luncheon and then had a fun time of games and fellowship! Thank you Bennett family! We love you!

 20 children, and 3 grown ups equals tons of laughter and fun for all!

We can't forget little "Clifford", too!

We've Got The Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy.....Down In Our Heart!!

(Acts 2:28) You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.'

It is with great joy that I write that just last night, a hugely generous donation of cash came in totaling $500.00!! Oh my goodness! Thank you Lord!!


So now we humbly bow before the Lord and ask Him for 137 more people to give $100.00 for an adoption of one of His precious babies!


Love to you all!


Mary

141.75 and counting!

God is soooooo good! He's amazing! We are humbled beyond words that just last week....$525.00 came in toward our adoption! Thank you Lord! We'll keep you posted!


Please, too, if you could, pray for the 2 birth mom's we learned about from the attorney that we could be matched with:


Tiffany---giving birth January 17th to a baby girl.


Elizabeth--giving birth February 27th. Unknown if it's a girl or boy.

Psalm 95:1-6
"O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker." (KJV)

 

 

PRAISING THE LORD FOR 145 AND COUNTING!

"Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow." James 1:17


We stand amazed here at Grace Abounding Farm where the Grace of God certainly is abounding! In this last week, we've received 3 wonderful gifts toward our adoption journey! One came from a brother and sister in the Lord on Sunday, and another came in the mail today! 

Just when I was getting concerned and wondering how and when the Lord was going to provide, He again reminded me of the above scriptures. He reminded me to be still, and trust in Him, and he reminded me also that every good and perfect gift is truly from Him!

Another gift came in an unusual way. We've been having church in our home once a month. On the Sundays when we do, we bring our dog Levi to a wonderful dog resort about 5 minutes down the road from us. It's run by a lovely lady, and she truly does love us!

When we dropped Levi off on Saturday, we mentioned our adoption process to her, and she was so excited. She herself has 6 children and she is a grandmother 3 times! So when I went on Monday to pick Levi up, and pay her, she refused payment and told me to put it toward the adoption! Wow! That was such a gift!

Again, God is continuing to remind Glenn and I that He is in control and He will provide!!! We've all enjoyed reading the missionary story of George Mueller. He cared for the orphans and totally trusted God. There were times when he had NO food or milk for the hundreds of orphans in his care. He would pray and ask God to provide and trust Him for it, and then shout the order...."SET THE TABLE!". Folks would mumble and say..."why is he asking us to do this?? We have NO food!"...and yet he trusted God and set the table anyway, and then, in God's perfect timing, and so that NO man could take credit for it, God would provide! EVERY SINGLE TIME! It's faith like this that can move mountains! It is miracles like this that show God's grace and love to all, including those we don't believe now! We are sooooo excited to see how many people come to the Lord through our little journey!

And so, it is with great faith that we, the Winslow family shout out-----SET THE TABLE!!!

Thank you for keeping in touch with our journey! We love you all! xoxoxoxoxo


M.

ps...My mom said we needed to add a baby to the table, and this was the best I could do! This is for you, Mom!

Love,
M.


                                                      

Praying for 147 people to give $100.00!

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."  Matthew 7:7


Today was an incredible day on our adoption journey.  Starting yesterday, I purposed to pray specifically for 147 people to give $100.00 to pay for our adoption fees. I was inspired to pray this after my Mom led the way by giving us the first $100.00 the day before. God tells us to be specific in our requests and I decided to do just that. And so we prayed.......


Today, we were on a fun family excursion to head ice skating again. We were joined by our dear friends this week. We started our time off by having a quick lunch at McDonald's. (not my favorite place, but fast and convenient for sure!) Where else can all 8 of us eat for 20.00???


Okay...so we had our lunch. The 14 of us took up a whole section of the restaurant. At the end, I got up and went to refill my cup of water. A man sitting near the drinks said to me..."Are you with a church group?", and I told him we weren't. He then asked me, "Is that your big van out there with all of the Christian fish on it?", I told him it was. He then said..."Wait one minute", and he opened up his wallet and handed me a bill from it. I didn't look to see what it was. He said..."Please take this from me and use it however you would see fit!"...I started to cry as I thanked him for it. 


All this while...Glenn was wondering what in the world was going on over there. He kept a close eye on it. When I got over to our table, I told him and held out the money and saw that it was a $50.00 bill. Glenn said I should go over and tell the man how I had just prayed that morning for our adoption, and I told Glenn that I wouldn't be able to get through it without crying. So Glenn went over. Glenn shook his hand and told him about our adoption and about my prayer. The man told him that he was blessed with some extra money for a job he had done, and felt led to give it to us! A complete stranger, and yet a brother in the Lord! He is pictured with Glenn above!


Thank you dear Lord! We stand amazed! I intend to use our blog as our monument to build for Him during this incredible journey we have just begun one week ago today!

Put together some loose money I had in our adoption fund jar, and now my prayer request is for 146 people!

 

Adoption Update!

We had a wonderful meeting with the attorney yesterday. We presented her with our family profile, and she absolutely LOVED it! She admitted, though, that because we are a large family, and that could be difficult as a lot of birth mothers like their baby to be the "only" child. We know that God has a plan though, and so we continue to look to Him. He knows who He has in mind for our family. For this we are so thankful.

Margaret, (the attorney), shared with us about 2 birth mothers in Arizona that we may be matched with. Here is some simple info on them so that you can be praying with us.


1.  Birth mother named Tiffany. She knows she is having a girl. The baby will be 100% caucasion. Mom has 3 other kids. 2 of the kids live with the grandparents, and one lives with Tiffany. That child is 1 year old. Birth Dad is unknown. The mom used some drugs during her pregnancy. She hasn't used any since July. She is due to have the baby on January 19th! That's just 5 short weeks away!

2.  Birth mother named Elizabeth.  She doesn't know if she's having a boy or a girl. This baby will be 100% brown skinned! Birth Dad unknown. Elizabeth is due to have her baby on February 27th. That's pretty close by, too!


Both of these babies can be considered hard to place. One due to drug use, and the other due to skin color. Neither of these things bother us one bit!


We left there very encouraged. 


So what do we do now you ask?  


Well...first of all we pray, pray, and continue to pray! Will you join us in praying??


Second of all, we need to get a waiver from the state of NH to have more than 6 children in our home. I don't think that will be a problem from what I am told as this would be a private adoption.


Next, we need to trust the Lord to provide the money needed.


How much is that going to be you ask?? We aren't sure exactly, but somewhere in the vicinity of $15,000.00. That sure does seem insurmountable to Glenn and I, but we know that God will provide it. Glenn enjoyed reading the missionary story about George Mueller. Glenn was amazed at how time and time again, there would be a need, and God would provide, just at the right time! Using just the right people! We are excited to see how God provides and who is called to help!




On another note, please be praying for my cousin and her grandchildren. The grand daughters (3 of them) have been in foster care since July. They are in a wonderful Christian foster home and are doing really well. My cousin wants them to be with us. There are laws in place that allow relatives priority when caring for foster children. However, we are considered "full" with our 6 children under 18. We are checking into the law further to see if there is any leeway in it. We'll keep you posted!

Thank you for your prayers!

We love you all!


M

We Are Answering God's Call!

This has been an incredible week in more ways than one. We stand amazed at the work our Lord God is doing in our lives! James 1:27 tells us to care for the orphans and the widows. God has blessed our family greatly with Grace and Jon, Junior and Elisha, and now little Nicole. 

We so loved caring for baby Paxton at this time last year, too. That was a terrific 7 weeks. It's hard to believe that he is now one! Oh my goodness!

We recently learned that my cousin's grandchildren are in foster care due to neglect. They are in a wonderful Christian foster home, which is a blessing. As far as the state of NH is concerned, we are considered "full" right now, as we have 6 children under the age of 18. The only way that the state would place another child with us right now, is if they are a biological relative of the children we have in care. For example, if Nicole's Mom had a baby that came into foster care, they could come to our home regardless of how many children are in our home. 

We looked into changing the legislation so that the state could decide that an experienced family could have more than 6 children in their home. The legislation can not be changed until 2013. We were hoping to get it changed in February so that we could be a back up plan for my cousin's grandchildren if need be. This was not to be. This was not God's plan for our family. 

So after great prayer and looking to the Lord, we feel that He is leading us to pursue a private adoption this coming year. We are being called to adopt an infant from the United States. We have recently learned that brown skinned babies, as well as other nationalities, and special needs babies are NOT in demand. In our country what is in demand are "perfect" white babies. So we are going to request to be referred to the babies that need a home.

We have located an attorney in NH, that comes highly recommended. She has worked with 2 other families that we know, and they love her. 

On Friday, as a family, we decided to go this route. The initial consultation with the attorney is $225.00. We sat down, and put together an envelope. It privately went from person to person within our little 8 person family. Each person gave from their heart. When we tallied up the total in the envelope, it contained $291.02! Isn't that amazing? I burst into tears of joy! We called up the attorney's office, and she asked if we could meet with her on Monday, December 5th. (That's tomorrow)...and we are super excited!

We are bringing with us our homestudy from the state of NH, as well as a profile about our family that I created.

God's word tells us:  "Without faith it is impossible to please God" Hebrews 11:6.


We are stepping out in faith. We don't know what the future will hold, but we are trusting God for the outcome!

I came across this poem and thought it was a touching tribute to adoption.

I tiptoed into your room one night.
I watched you sleeping there.
Your tiny body looked so snug
Wrapped in peaceful slumber's care.

I thought of how you came to be
The child we'd longed to know.
I wondered at the sight of you:
"How could she let you go?"

Tears streamed down my cheeks as I
Felt the pain she must have known.
For I will have to let you go
Some day when you are grown.

A mother I might never meet
Had given me her son.
Yet, surely as you've filled my heart,
A piece of hers you'd won.

"How could she let you go?"
The question kept returning.
And in the depths of my own heart.
A question kept on burning.

"How can I ever let you go
When years have come and gone?"
I stood there by your crib until
The nighttime turned to dawn.

And as the sun peeked through the shades,
The voice of God broke through.
"I trusted her to give him life
And now I'm trusting you.

"To show him what is right and wrong,
to love him and to be
The one who teaches him the way
To come back home to me.

"He wasn't hers to give, you know.
And he's not yours to own.
I've placed him in your life to love
But he is mine … on loan."


Please join us in praying for God's will with our adoption journey! We'd love to hear from you, too!

We are totally trusting God for every step of this process, to include all of the finances. To our Heavenly Father, this is what He loves to do for His children!

In His Care and Because He Lives,

Mary for the Winslow Family

Our 2nd Annual Cut Your Christmas Tree and Fellowship Fun with the Lowman and Hunt Families!

Two years ago we found out that our dear friends the Lowman family usually got their real Christmas tree from a parking lot of a store! We told them they should make a day of it and come to our home and we'd go to a wonderful tree farm up the road and do it together and all eat dinner together, too.

So last year they took us up on it, along with many of their family members from as far away as Kittery, Maine, and Deleware! It was so much fun we decided to make it an annual tradition. Last year we had 23 here at Grace Abounding Farm.

This year we were blessed with 21. It was a wonderful time of tree cutting and food galore, and of course we ended the evening with a rousing game of "All in the Family". (of which I as a 1st time champion!) Usually I'm the name reader!

Check out the fun!

It took quite awhile for me to find the "perfect tree"...But here it is!

So my sweetie set about to cut it down!

Then there is the matter of dragging it back to the main house!

Then it goes through the "gift wrapper" to get bundled up!

Sleigh Bells Ring...Are you Listenin'?

Back at home the kids had so much fun reading and enjoying fellowship!

The food was amazing!

Meet beautiful Katelyn! She's so special!

A fun photo shoot by:Grace!

Take a peek at all of the desserts!

The smoochin' Lowmans!

Amidst the noise, Mr. Dave was able to sleep!

We brought the tree into the house this morning!

After church, we added the lights. Tomorrow will come  the ornaments. Nicole is just a little bit excited!