Merry Christmas From The Kniep's

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Because we sure did!

We are so blessed to have so many family members who live around us!

And to top it all off- a family who celebrates the real meaning of Christmas!

JESUS!

*****

We are so excited to see what next year holds for us! 

Can't wait to see who God decides to put in our family! 

We are so close to having all of our paperwork ready to send in...and after that...waiting list! 

Bring on 2012!

Kisses From Katie

I just finished reading this book last week.

I have to say, that next to the Bible, it was one of the best books I have read.

I've read her blog for years, and like many people, I think we had a lot of questions of how she got to where she is today. The book answers answers all the questions, plus gives such  great insight to this girls heart for not only orphans, but for people in general. You can't help but read it and think, "I can do more!" My mind was just racing with ideas of how I could help people, and not just through adoption and other Christian organizations, but people in my very own community. 

If you haven't heard of Katie Davis, or read her blog about the work she is doing in Uganda, here is the link to her blog: http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/

If you want to purchase a book, here is the link to her organization: Amazima.org

Keeping Busy

Luckily for me...I have plenty of things in my life to keep me occupied from not thinking about adoption related stuff all the time! We have two kids, two dogs, two businesses, and one lizard. Yes, that's right, we have one Bearded Dragon named Izzy.

Meet Izzy

You could say he was one of those random purchases where not much thought went into it. 

We actually went to get some new fish for our tank...and there they were, little baby Bearded Dragons just looking up at me asking me to take them home. 

Here he is as a baby...so tiny!

Thanks to Izzy I have one more thing to take care of, which is great because I have been a little down lately about our adoption. It is so frustrating when there are things we could be doing if only we had the funds to do it! But like I said before, I know that God knows when our little one will arrive, and I'm not going to worry about it!

I have to laugh at myself when I'm getting out all our lizard supplies...calcium and vitamin powder, which I have to "dust" the live crickets in before I feed them to Izzy. (That definitely took some getting use to). And then let's not forget about the cricket food- I have to buy about 50 or so crickets, which last a few days, but they have to have food to stay alive that long. I NEVER thought I would be a mother of 2, dusting crickets in calcium powder and feeding them to a lizard...Yes, I'm strange :)

But Izzy has made a great addition to our family. We love him, the kids especially!

I think we'll keep him :)

Asleep In The Light

Keith Green has to be one of my favorite Christian Artists of all time. Yes, I admit, I still love to listen to 70's and 80's music, actually that's probably most of what I listen to. And to top it off, I love to listen to it on my record player...I think I was born in the wrong era!

This song, Asleep in the Light, still brings me to tears every time I listen to it. The words are so convicting, I can't help but listen to it, and immediately pray that God can use me to share Christ with others. I just finished listening to one his records for the um-teenth time this week- so I thought I would share it with you all!

New Schedules...

Sorry for the lack of posting lately...Our lives are crazy! So much has changed for us in the past couple months. I'm hoping we get use to the new routine soon! Some new things in our lives are....

*Josiah is going to school two mornings a week
*We opened a new business here in Morton (mortonrentals.com)
*We are working with Wyldlife again (Jr. high youth group)
*I work at church on Wednesday nights with 2 and 3 year olds.
*Josiah will be starting hockey in a few weeks

And I'm sure there are other random things here and there, but those are the newest additions.

As far as our adoption goes...well you can just about imagine how much extra time we have to do paperwork! We are hoping to get our dossier sent out within the month, which would be great so our agency can start translating it into French and ready to send over to the DRC.

One new thing for our adoption is that now people can make a tax-deductable donation to us to help cover some our adoption costs. I just want to make it clear that we are not asking for money, but there has been a few people who have asked about it, so we went ahead and got an agency to partner with us and set up an account for us. All the info is to the left of the screen, or if anyone has any questions, please ask me!!

I really hope I can have some more news about our adoption soon!! I can't wait for our paperwork to get done, so we can get on a wait list as soon as possible!! But I am trying to just trust the Lord, and remember that his timing is perfect!

Sibling Love

 My babies are 4 and 2! I can't believe it!

 Sy tries to kiss his sister....

...She wants nothing to do with it!

Josiah and Novea's Birthday

The best part about the the kid's birthdays being so close is:

Only having 1 cake!!!

I'm sure she covered the cake in spit :) 

It was SO hot outside, we were all sweating, but the kids had fun anyway! 

We are so thankful to all of our family who care so much about our kids!

We love you guys!