Everyone Loves A Road Trip!!

What a blessing God has given us! Last Fall, Glenn and I were chatting about how wonderful it would be to go to Florida that coming winter. We hadn't been to visit my folks in over 8 years! They live in Ocklawaha Florida during the Fall and Winter. This is northern Florida. About 1.5 hours north of Orlando.

So...we calculated the cost of gas to drive our 15 passenger van down to Florida. At that time it gas was $3.12 a gallon. We figured it would cost about $800.00 round trip to go down, and then we had places we could stay with friends along the way, which would be great. We knew it would have to be LOW budget for sure. So....we prayed!!  Then...about 2 weeks later, the man we bought our van from called Glenn out of the blue and asked if he could rent his old van from us! He offered us....drum roll please....$900.00 to rent it from us! Well....there you go.....it was a no brainer...this was God's answer to our prayers! We said yes, and they lent us their old beater 15 passenger van for the 6 weeks that they needed to rent our van. It was win/win!!

So...now...the day finally came...we are on our trip!!! Yippee! We packed up our van last night, got up at 3:00 am this morning and headed for Delaware. Our first stop. Our dear friends the Lowmans---Janette and her daughter Suzy live in Bear Delaware and opened their beautiful home to us to stay the night. We'll spend another 2 nights here in 2 weeks on our way home, too!

Here's a peek at our first day on the road!!

Here we are at 3:00 this morning getting our last minute things together and saying goodbye to Levi!

Everyone did so well, even though it was super early!!

One big happy family in our van!! Even though we have seats in for 11, we had so much stuff including my parent's trash compactor and computer to bring to them, that we had to sit in the 8 seats...snug and comfy!!

Glenn did the first leg of driving...from 4:00---6:00 am. We ended up at a rest area in Massachusetts for our first fuel fill up before we hit CT, and higher gas prices, and to have our breakfast. We brought all our own food. So our breakfast was homemade granola and milk, and fruit!

Here is the gang in Woodstown, NJ. This is where we had our lunch stop and refueling. On the lunch menu was turkey sandwiches, goldfish, and fruit. Yum! Everyone is still doing really well!

Here is are our lunch ladies in action!! Go girls!

Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders...they don't upset us...all we ask is that you let us, serve it your way!

Okay...so we don't get out much....here is a toll booth on the NJ turnpike and it's the biggest we've ever seen! So we had to take a photo!

Here are some photos of the Delaware Memorial Bridge. It's a beautiful double bridge!

We've finally arrived at our luxury destination! Oma and Aunt Suzy's house!!

Junior loves to help out! They wanted to have dinner for us. Aunt Suzy had to work tonight, but she made wonderful stuffed shells, and bread, and salad, and a veggie! Yum!

There is Oma at the end of the table!

Mine and Glenn's room! Nice!

 So we'll head out here in the morning, around 9:00. Then we'll head to Wake Forest, NC, and meet up with our dear friends the Hillman's. We'll be staying at their friend's home, the Burke family! God is sooo good!

We made it here in record time, and didn't have any traffic at all!

I'll try and post daily!

Love to you all!

M

We May Be Growing by "two feet!"---Adoption update!

Update number 1:   Yesterday, we got the most amazing phone call from our attorney!…according to George Muller, the manager of many orphanages for the Lord, his saying always was…"Set the table and the Lord will provide!"….It's incredible to us that when Madelyn picked the date for my surprise baby shower on Saturday, February 11th, that God already new what He had in mind! It's amazing! We stand amazed!


So….We had a call yesterday afternoon from our attorney about a baby. This one is a bit different and definitely seems as though it's from the Lord. The baby girl was born on January 21st. She's actually at the Elliot hospital in Manchester, NH!!!! (This is the hospital I was born in actually--as a side note!) I don't have many details at this point. The fact that she's local, though, is HUGE, because it won't involve an out of state attorney and all of the fees!

She was born drug addicted and she's in the hospital withdrawing at this point. She'll be there for some time more, not sure how long. She's 1/2 Hispanic and 1/2 Caucasian.

no...this is not a photo of her....sigh...But it's what I'm imagining she might look like! I'm sure she's just beautiful! A precious creation from the Lord!

 That's really all I know at this point. I should know more first thing in the morning. The state is involved, and the mother is not pursuing trying to get her baby, and neither is the father at this point. The social worker from the hospital called our attorney and asked her if she might know of a family that would be a fit for her, and our attorney thought of us!

The attorney asked if we'd like to find out more about her, and possibly be matched with her. We said yes! Please pray for God's will with this! The attorney will talk with the social worker tomorrow and get many more details for us.

Also…many of you know that we are planning to leave for Florida on Friday. Please pray for wisdom and discernment regarding the trip and the timing of it all. We hope to find out tomorrow and possibly get put in touch with the hospital to find out more about when the baby will be released. We wonder if we should wait and go to Florida when she is released, or go and come back a bit early. We have many questions tonight!!!???? Please pray for wisdom and discernment for us! We are going down to stay with my folks in Florida and so we can be flexible if need be!

Update number 2:  Thank you all so very much for your prayers! Keep praying! Our profile has been forwarded to Child and Family Services in Manchester who is handling finding a home for this precious baby girl. It was forwarded by our attorney this morning. It seems that Child and Family services did not have any families that would be willing to consider this baby, and that is why the social worker emailed her friend who is our attorney.

In talking with our attorney this morning ,she told us that it would be fine to head out on our trip as planned, as it seems the baby will be in the hospital for another 2-3 weeks. She said as long as we have our laptop and cell phone with us, and that we can be contacted easily, that would be fine. So, we should know if the birth Mom accepts our profile sometime early next week. If there is any news sooner than this, the attorney will contact us.

Please pray for our attorney, too. Her name is Margaret Hall. She is heading out on Tuesday to go to England (her homeland) to tend to her dying mother. I asked if she'd like us to pray for her, and she said yes. Pray for her salvation ,and that maybe she may even see fit to read the missionary story we sent her on George Muller while she's on her journey.

If we need to, we'll head back from Florida early in order to release the baby from the hospital. We leave Friday, the 17th early in the morning. We'll take 3 days to drive down and be in Florida at my folks home on Sunday evening. Our plan was to stay there 12 days and leave Thursday, March 1st to head back. Arriving home on Sunday afternoon, March 4th.

We sure do covet your travel prayers, too!  Please pray that we would enjoy our time together as a family, and for our witness and testimony on our trip. Pray, too, for God's will with the precious little baby girl! I would just love to go right down to the Elliot and peek at her, and hold her,  but I know that I can't do that at this point, and I must just "be still" and look to God. Very hard for me for sure!

We'll keep you posted---I promise!

And so....one more thing. We've picked out a name for this precious little gal, if she comes to us. We researched Hispanic names and picked one:

We'll name her:  Rosalinda Marguerite Winslow



We'll call her Rosie for short...we imagine! 


Linda is my (Mary's) Mom's name, too! Marguerite was my paternal grandmother's first name.

So...please pray without ceasing for God's will in this little baby's life. 

We'll be blogging about our trip each day, too!

Love, M
 

Blessed Beyond Belief!! Thank you to my precious daughters and everyone who came!

Today I was blessed beyond belief by my family. My girls planned and orchestrated a total surprise baby shower for our adoption journey! There were 38 people in attendance and my own children. Glenn took me out for the morning to run errands and he kept me away until noon time. When we came into the driveway, I had NO idea what was happening. I actually had a brain cramp and thought that it was Sunday and we had missed church here at our home! What an amazing blessing! Our table is set now, BIG time!! Take a peek at my surprise! It was such a blessing!

Here is the some of the gang before I arrived!

I had many little girl helpers to open my gifts! It was precious!!

One of the fun games we played was "name that candy bar"...Candy bars are melted in diapers and then you have to try and name what type of candy bar it is! It's quite funny and a bit gross, but today, we had many ladies taking actual bites to try and guess which candy bar it was! It was a riot!!

We were also blessed with another 320.00 toward our adoption fund! This gives us a total of     $9, 520.00 !! Wow! We stand amazed! 


We were blessed with so many wonderful practical gifts from many diapers and wipes, to cute outfits and onesies, to a jogging stroller, and a diaper genie! Thank you everyone!!!  I love you!!


M

Celebrating God's Grace and His Faithfulness!

 Today, as we wait upon the Lord at this stage of our adoption journey, we want to remember some very important attributes of God.


"Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary."  Isaiah 40:31

"[Then] He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings shall you trust and find refuge; His truth and His faithfulness are a shield and a buckler." Psalm 91: 4



"Faithful is He Who is calling you [to Himself] and utterly trustworthy, and He will also do it [fulfill His call by hallowing and keeping you]". 1 Thessalonians 5: 24



"Yet the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen [you] and set you on a firm foundation and guard you from the evil [one]." 2 Thessalonians 3: 3



Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, extend to the skies, and Your faithfulness to the clouds. Psalm 36: 5

"

"May grace (God's favor) and peace (which is perfect well-being, all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity, and freedom from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts) be multiplied to you in [the full, personal, precise, and correct] knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 2 Peter 1: 2"

We cling to your promises in your word God, and we rest fully in you as we follow you in this adoption journey!

Several more hundred dollar donations have come in so far. We are now waiting on God to provide 53.69 more donations of 100.00 or however He sees fit to do that!

The waiting is hard, but we know that God is faithful and He is in control! What better place could we be in? I can't think of one!

Thank you God! We thank you and praise you and We love you!

The Winslow Family 

We Stand Amazed! Utterly and Positively Amazed!

Today we come humbly before our God and say....Thank you! Thank you so much Lord! Since our last post, we have received an additional $691.00! This means that we are actually down to only needing 58.89 people to give $100.00!! Isn't that amazing?? In the last week and a half, an incredible $1,941.00 has come in. Some of it from the most unusual and unexpected people and places! This is how our God likes to work. So that NO man can take credit for it!

We are still eagerly waiting to be matched with a birth Mom. The Mom, Nicole that we had mentioned, who is giving birth next week, has been matched with a family in Florida. We know that God has the perfect child in mind for us, and we just need to trust and wait on Him.

We just started a wonderful 30 devotional on Faith from George Muller. Today's entry had this scripture:  "Don't be afraid, just believe"  Mark 5:36

The title of today's entry was:  Triumphant Faith!

Here is a quote from the devotion:  "Faith is above circumstances. No war, no fire, no water, no business panic, no loss of friends, no death can touch it. It goes on its own steady course. It triumphs over all difficulties. It works most easily in the greatest difficulties. Those who really confide in God, because they know the power of His arm and the love of His heart as demonstrated in the death and resurrection of His only begotten Son are helped, whatever their trials and difficulties might be."

May we have this faith!

Join us in this prayer:

"Father, help my faith to rise above my circumstances today. Whatever comes my way, may I rest in the power of Your Son's resurrection and see Him seated at Your right hand. Strengthen me to hold on to Your unchanging love."  Amen

Praising God From Whom ALL Blessings Flow!!

 This has been another incredible day here at Grace Abounding Farm! We had our beloved church family here for our monthly church service. It's an amazing blessing to have the service in our own home. Today's message was all about our journey with the Lord. The message was tied in together by my girls singing a duet of "Every once in awhile on the journey". It was an amazing day!

Another blessing today was that we had an additional $1,100.00 come in from two families in our church. Praise God!! He is in control and He is providing, guiding and directing us. We continue to stand amazed and in awe of Him! So we are now down to 66 people!! Isn't that amazing? One dear, dear family in our church said to us this morning...."We are prepared to give you a check for $1,000.00 this morning. Do you need it now for this adoption, or would you like to save it for the next one?". How great is that? Thank you God! We know that every good and perfect gift is from above!

Have a wonderful afternoon!

Love,
Mary

JOY------the number is now 77 people to give $100.00!!

 We have unspeakable joy today! Thank you Lord! We had 2 more families pledge $100.00 each, and then just this morning, we had a family press $50.00 into my hand. We hadn't seen them in over a year! We also figured out our tax return on Monday, and found out that we will receive $5,700.00, which we are going to put toward our adoption expenses. We can file for that on Tuesday, January 17th! We are praising the Lord!!! So just this week, our number dropped from 134.5 people needed down to 77! God is soooooo good!

We have also been presented with another birth mother. We were given a call on her yesterday. The family that was matched with her has backed out of the adoption due to concern about the mom's consumption of alcohol. So she was presented to us, and we said yes, that we'd like our profile to be presented to her. We are willing to take that risk!

Please pray! We are short a significant amount of money that the Arizona attorney believes is needed. The birth mom's name is Nichole, and she is going to have a baby girl on or about January 29th. Our family is a carbon copy match to the family who backed out. It's not a coincidence at all! We know that God has orchestrated this! We also know that God is able to handle all of the details of this entire process! We have a great peace! We thank you so much for your prayers, and we promise to keep you posted!

We are specifically praying for softened hearts and our testimony, and for wisdom and God's will!

In His Care,

Mary