Valentine Decorations

The kids want decorations in our house all year

Sometimes, it's hard to find things around the house or come up with ideas

We mananged to find everything right in our house this time.

This is what we did with all of this

Turned out great.

 The kids think we are supposed to decorate every month for some reason.  They love decorating!

Packer Day

On Friday the kids had packer day at school and a pep rally

seriously....

I can't believe these schools do these kind of things.

I was never big into cheering for teams on t.v

We watched very little TV if any when we were younger

Never had time for it, so the whole game thing on TV was never really my thing

I was into a ton of sports and they were my life growing up

but that was different

The kids and the other BIG kid(dad) had a blast making these t-shirts that nanee bought for them

We have 2 Steeler fans(they were fans years before they got to the Super Bowl) 

(I am not sure what he is doing with his fingers)

We are not fair weather fans here in the Funkhouser household

You pick a team and stay with it

Through the good, the bad and the ugly

Way to go Pack!

 Fear
Great sermon on Sunday by our guest speaker Andy Starling(sorry I don't have a picture to add of Andy) from Victory church in Oklahoma
His wife Kristy did an amazing job singing

Beautiful voice
His sermon was about fear and how we let it control our lives
What are your fears
spiders
dying
being home alone
never being married
losing a loved one
animals
heights
water
drowning
the dark
the list could go on and on
It really hit me and brought me to tears
I have so many ideas, dreams and thoughts  swirling in my head
but waiting for God to show me the way and guide me.  We have been praying for answers to lots of things for months, it just gets so hard to be patient especially when YOU want to get going on things and you have extra time too.
Are these thoughts from God
 Are these ideas from God and
not just things I think I can do 
 or want to do
The fears I have our making the next step and committing myself
The what if's always come back and haunt me

2 Timothy 1:7
For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

2 Samuel 23:20-21
20 There was also Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant warrior from Kabzeel. He did many heroic deeds, which included killing two of Moab's mightiest warriors. Another time he chased a lion down into a pit. Then, despite the snow and slippery ground, he caught the lion and killed it. 21 Another time, armed only with a club, he killed a great Egyptian warrior who was armed with a spear. Benaiah wrenched the spear from the Egyptians hand and killed him with it.
 
Lion chasers know that the bigger 
their God is the smaller the lions become
Lion chasers  understand that playing it safe is risky
You get one shot in life
Will you have regrets when you die
Dreams that are not fulfilled because of fear
constantly making excuses for when the time will be right for you.
Can you
Chase your fears today ?
without faith it is impossible to please God...Hebrews11:6
We live by faith, not by sight....2Corinthians 5:7
Have a great Friday! 
Care, Prayers and Hugs
Love
Jill

 Valentine's cards
We always make homemade valentine's cards for school
They like to ask for craft supplies as gifts.
We are huge crafters, but that stuff costs a lot
We are not into the whole valentine(holiday) so to speak
We believe in lots of loving every day

80 cards later, we are done
and Jonah could've kept going
Odin was barely hanging on
Have a great Thursday!
We are buried in snow here.

Making cookies

Odin reads the recipe to us

the Little's mix it all up

then we all roll the balls

Wish you could come over and have some

Chocolate Chip/Peanut Butter Chip Peanut Butter Cookies
Today we are doing some fasting and praying if you would like to join us.
Praying for guidance for our family and some clear direction.
Thanks for all your prayers and donations!
We love you!

Jonah's 6th Birthday

We chose to celebrate Saturday since daddy had to teach on his actual birthday.

I asked this sweet little guy what he would like for his birthday a long time ago, so I would have plenty of time to do whatever I needed to do

He says, I would like a gift card to Africa to get my brother and sister, get out of there fast and fly home.

that would be a pretty big gift card, I said

Then he said, how about sponsoring a child for $34 a month for a year and then we can write to each other and send pictures.

I love the idea but we cannot afford that when we are trying to save for an adoption, I said, maybe when we are finished with this we can find a way to do it.

Love his heart

so so giving

We started the morning out with eggs and sausage and juice(his choice all day-we serve him and he is free from all chores and helping).

Then he chose hot dogs and soda/juice for lunch

My kiddos love to do cheers

Then we headed off to Appleton

 and went to an indoor play gym

Look at the sweat!

Then Jonah chose to go out to eat instead of a gift.  My children love to go out to eat, but we don't.  They can pick that for their birthday gift or ask for gift cards towards a restaurant if they wish.  They think it's so neat.  I always have coupons too so that helps. 

He was so excited that they sang to him and gave him a free hot fudge sundae.

Then we went home and had cake and opened gifts from family.

He is excited for the cake!

 bugs and blue lizard

Thank you everyone for all the wonderful gifts. 
He loved them all and was so excited!
Thanks for all the wonderful cards too. 
Odin loves to read them to him.
We are so greatful for such a wonderful guy God has blessed us with!

 Thought you'd get a kick out of our  kitchen faucet.

It's been like this for a long time, just don't want to have to spend the money on a new one. Replacing things and buying new just cost so much money.
We were able to rig up the old handle on there yesterday morning and it's working.  It just tends to drip a lot. 
We will see how much time we can get out of it.
I am feeling a little better just coughing a lot and I have so much junk in my airway yet.  We went sledding yesterday and I struggled going up and down the hill  breathing.  The cold air just about did me in.  Have a great Monday!

Sick

I had gotten a prescription on Monday for a serious cough that wouldn't go away

Well, it didn't work and I only got worse

Drove myself to the Dr. with Olivia and Jeremiah in tow thinking I would get a blood test and wound up with tons of chest ex-rays

My oxygen level was at 85% and my lungs were terrible

Glad I went in

Olivia loved the nurse with red hair

She says,"she looks like Aerial"

They were having fun in the ex ray room of course

Outcome...Pneumonia

So, I got me some antibiotics and an inhaler if I want and we are ready to tackle this thing.

I have just never been sick

I hear this is just a bad year for this stuff

So, I am working away on rummage and laying low

Thanks for all your prayers and for all your donations to help us along this wonderful journey.

We are forever grateful!

Buy a shirt and help support our adoption!

You have until February 18th

This wonderful family has chosen us to showcase for their shirts.  Go to their blog below and check out their shirts.  When you order make sure you put down that it's for The Funkhouser Adoption and the proceeds will go directly towards our adoption.

http://africaboundandrews.blogspot.com/

They come in kids sizes too. 

Happy Shopping!

Thanks for all your support!

With Love

Jill

Happy 6th Birthday to Jonah!
sweet
sensitive

seriously dramatic(every scrape you get, you would think you lost a limb)
loving

nurturing
helpful
faithful

honest
energized
passionate
You came into this world and had a rough start from the beginning.
God had a plan
At about 6 weeks old you got sick
and sicker
then you started to turn grey on me when I was driving to my parents house
Took you into the on call Dr. in our town which was my old pediatrician and family friend
What are the odds of that?
You had a rapid heart rate and then seriously slow breathing.  You were so slow that the
only way we could tell you were breathing was by having a pacifier in your mouth because you wouldn't stop screaming
We rushed you over to the hospital and checked in
they ran all sorts of tests that were negative so they did another test for RSV where
they swab your nose(kind of like a pap smear)
While we waited, I'll never forget the nurses telling Dave and I that if you pass out and turn blue they'll just come and restart you.
Of course you keep passing out on us and we watched them do CPR on you
That's when we knew it was serious
Then all of a sudden 2 people in flight gear come into the room from "flight for life" to take you to Children's Hospital.
It was so surreal
The pilot said they hadn't risked flying because there was a crazy snow storm outside and it's an hour drive...so they hopped in the ambulance and Dave drove right behind us.
So, the whole way in the ambulance
you kept passing out and the nurse keeps restarting your heart and giving you CPR and then she says to me, I need you to fill this out and we are going to have to go through the paperwork of thinking an planning a funeral
I seriously just said ok....stunned
She was so sweet and just doing her job very professionally. 
I just answered away and got to thinking about how fast our lives can change in a blink of an eye
WOW!
We got there and went to the ICU
We were straight at the end of the hallway and I'll never forget that feeling of walking through those doors and seeing and hearing all the hurt and pain
You just wish you could help and take it all away
So when we get into the room there is like 5 nurses(they all looked like they were 18 and just started, at least in my eyes)(of course they were in their late 20's and nice as pie) setting him up and working with him
They ran all these tests, set up the feeding tube, and  intibated him right away.

He was lifeless just like that
  They had to do the breathing for him because there was no way he could do it on his own.  

We got him baptised and prayed over him constantly in the room

It was so dry and sterile and we wore yellow outfits to protect him from germs.
everywhere you looked were tubes and machines. We couldn't touch him without gloves on.
constant beeps and humming from the machines
one sweet moment I will never forget was your little mouth sucking every time you got food through the feeding tube.  So darn cute that babies just know how to suck.
moving and shuffling the machines around
meeting upon meetings with all these Dr.'s

Sitting all dressed up next him in silence just waiting and watching
I never cried that day 
nor slept for 48 hours
When we finally went to rest (in the hospital room they provided for us there)
I'll never forget that feeling of walking into a small tiny one room sleeping quarters
and falling face first on the bed and never moving again for several hours
All my clothes intact
shoes on
I cried my eyes out and asked God to do whatever his will was for this little guy
and that whatever he had planned I will be ok with
trying to find the strength to tell myself that we would be just fine 
We had so many wonderful friends come and pray with us and visit,we are forever thankful for all of you and helping us get by
We had to have Dave's mom come and stay with Odin at home, because Dave had to go back to work and we were going to be there for weeks
So it worked out great that way and then we just took turns driving there and staying.
When the time came to pull the tube out it was a huge decision the Dr.'s were not sure off
so we tried once and you just were not ready so we waited another few days and bam...it was gone.
You struggled for a few more days with the breathing but day by day you were getting stronger and stronger
Finally, we got the ok to leave
Back home we went
You had a long, recovery after that 
You were constantly sick the first year and a half of your life and totally crabby all the time.
You also developed torticolis after being in the hospital bed that whole time.
The nurses never moved your head
So your head was tilted one way all the time
Never heard of such a thing until we had to start going to Children's to do physical therapy for this every week. 
My goodness, who would of known that could happen
Learn something new all the time
It was crazy, you had to totally crank on his head
It looked like it hurt so bad but it was working and he healed fine after that episode.
No problems since
You were off to enjoy life after all this. 

                          Having fun in the snow yesterday!

Disclaimer:  Long post,  grab a cup of strong coffee...Lots of rambling here!

When we started this journey, it was a huge step of faith
This journey has made me step out of the comfort zone

step out of the worldly ring
shopping trips
keeping up with trends
Succeeding at things that don't really matter

finances
caring about what others think
becoming consumed with our personal life
I gave  a lot of MY personal plans up and started doing HIS plans
it's not just about following Jesus with your  heart and head
Is your dream big enough that you need God to accomplish it?
Pastor Glen just talked about this same kind of thing yesterday
Keeping up with status quo
I don't have it all together but
WE are personally getting to know God
It is our lives that are rescued
from living our lives without a purpose in HIM
Life
 is the long journey toward becoming Christlike
For us to understand the deep truths of Gospel, we must put ourselves in a position where
 pain and trials
might pressure us to the truth. 
The more you're
 stretched
the more you'll grow.
My faith is usually strong and mighty
but each day it gets bigger and better than the day before.
 I have seen God do such glorious things
He is truly amazing!!!
He has just been  providing, and providing every answer to everything we pray about. 

They are just falling on our lap

Praying to learn how to sew. 

This has been something I wanted to do for a long time, just never think I can do it
I want to sew  and be able to sell my goods for the orphans through a non-profit business that our friends own(below).

Well, my friend moved and has left us their sewing machine

Praying about starting a 501 non profit business

to help the orphans and
Linny and DW (our friends from www.aplacecalledsimplicity.com) have got one up and almost  running already.
 Would love to start an orphan ministry at church
Gotta get on Pastor Glenn about that

We also cook for the homeless a few times a month as a family and everyone loves it.

It is about a 35 minute drive and always on a school night
Eat bag lunches in the car
Have great conversations on the way
Friendships we've made since we've started doing this

Well the kids would love to do this 3 or 4 days a week

Seriously,
gas,
 time...
come on God  we are trying to save for an adoption here

I use every excuse in the book.

Our God has shown us that he will provide. 

Every time we have cooked and given ourselves

he has blessed us with a donation for the adoption

It is like clock work

He is truly amazing

He has given us so many opportunities

and just keeps providing for us

Opening doors that I never knew were there
Putting people right in front of us
Bending and twisting and breaking our hearts

Things and ways I never would of thought of.

We are being obedient and God is just working away on our hearts and other people's hearts

My heart is so heavy and so excited for our 2 little ones. 

Picturing their faces everyday

holding them

loving on them

Gods promises have a wait in them

It helps us focus on God

The waiting is necessary to grow our faith

Don't miss the blessings of obedience!

It will be all for the Glory of God alone!
True Joy and
Satisfaction in my heart

Thank you Jesus

Thank you too so many for all your prayers and donations.

We love you!

Romans 12:2
 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.