Our adoption journey...

If you watched our last post (the smile box video) you heard the great news.... 11/1/11 was our Gotcha Day!  We  have been blessed to be able to raise this sweet little girl from the time she was just a week old.    There were times when it wasn't easy, but as with all of our children there are days both good and bad!   Thankfully God is gracious and never gives us more than we can handle!

  And wonderfully God's grace is sufficient for all! 

  I want to share a few photos and stories with you....the day we took her home from the hospital one of our children, having just had a foster placement abruptly end, said they would help care for this child but could not commit to LOVING her.After about 6 weeks the child said "Mom, I am starting to fall in love with her".  This was true of all of our hearts, you love knowing that it may hurt if the child is reunified or placed elsewhere. We pondered the truth, that really each of our children is not our own but God's whom HE loves and desires the best for even more than we do!   (Jer 29:11)    

As sweet as that is, the journey of fostering has reminded us so often of God's love for us, no matter what.  He loves us no matter where we are.  He is always there waiting for us whatever choices we or others make.   He calls us to love even if its not easy!  That is a hard thing to allow your children to learn~ our instinct is to protect them from hurt, but in doing so we often prevent them from the deeper love that God desires to pour out!

 We are reminded that all of us have been adopted, into Christ's family! (Rom 8:15)  We are his children whom he loves very much!  People have asked us how can you love a child that isn't your "own" (meaning biological)  well since this is our first adoption, our other 5 children are biological, so I didn't know.  God has poured such peace (I Tim 1:14) over my heart this week and we prayed during this journey that God would grow children he desired to be in our family in our hearts (instead of my womb) and we truly feel that  this little one is loved just as much as all of our other children.
When asked if we were willing to adopt her at one of the meetings last year, one of our children with great concern worried it would be too expensive.  The child firmly stated that all the money the children had been saving to purchase a wii should be spent on Grace instead!  WOW what a blessing to know the children love this little one so much they are willing to put aside their own desires!  She has a special place in each of our hearts.  As thrilled as we are to know she is now ours, we know that her biological family misses her and loves her and we pray that God will pour out his compassion on them.  We are so thankful for her mom's gift of life for this precious child. The whole family (including both sets of grandparents) were able to be in court and witness the welcoming of this child into our forever family!

 Each of the children have grown to love her and are wonderful big brothers and sisters! They each got a sibling bracelet to commemorate this special day of welcoming their little sister :)

We were honored to have our adoption on the first day of November, 

National adoption month,

   we were even more honored to have good friends the Quittshcreibers join us as they celebrated their one year anniversary that day of being in a Russian court for the adoption of 2 of their children!   A special day indeed!

 Grandma K "Gigi" was a huge help being here for this busy weekend!

 And Grandpa K "Papa" too!  What a blessing to have them be a part of this special day!

 Grandpa and Grandma Q (who were foster parents while Steve was growing up) were here too (it worked out great that they are staying in the area so they could be here!)  God is so good to work out even those details!

 Sisters are special, as her 2 older sisters help love, train, and care for her she is very blessed to have such wonderful role models to look up too! 

We are so thrilled that we are able to officially welcome the "little sister" into our family!!!

Thanks for all your prayers and support through the last 2 years!   If you have any questions on fostering or adoption we would LOVE to talk to you!  please pass this information onto anyone who maybe interested along with our email moquak@gmail.com and we look forward to helping the 140,000,000 orphans of of the world find forever families too! (James 1:27)

As the starfish story goes ~ we can't take care of all of them by ourselves ~ but we can take care of this one, with God's love and pray others will answer his call too!  

Steve and Amy Q and family

www.quakflock.blogspot.com

Felt like just yesterday....

Both Steve and I grew up at a campground called Sandy Pines. We were blessed to be able to spend Memorial Day weekend there with family and friends! So good to spend time with old friends and just relax for a while! The kids enjoyed the water and Steve took the little boys out in the row boat which they enjoyed. Jumping off the dock is hours of fun :) especially when the water is so warm.And always fun playing games with Grandma! Chuck had spent most the week there working with both Grandpas, getting his golf cart license and hanging out with friends! WOW is he getting old! Its been a long time since the water has been this warm on Memorial day weekend -- really felt like the middle of summer instead of just the beginning! What fun to have a few days to really relax, we enjoyed a few really nice sunny warm days (which we made good use of the beach and water park!) and a few rainy days which made for good game and movie days :)

All the K cousins what a crew! looking forward to another on in the mix next month when my brother and his wife have their first! YEAH! That means another trip to MI to meet him or her soon! Tutu with a piggy back (Sydney) and piggy front (Molly) Eugene and Grey enjoy playing BOY stuff!

Ria is the bottom of the sandwich with Raleigh, Brinley and Sadie on top! Even though the weather wasn't great we did get to the water park with cousins for a bit, some of them did a round of mini golf then we hung out in the trailer (all 20 of us!) COZY! Thank goodness Grandma keeps good snacks and lots of games! and sports on tv keep all the big boys (and dads) happy!!!

We were glad the Cuthbertsons and Snoeyinks could join us for an afternoon Tuesday which turned out to be a GREAT beach day and that meant a stop at the ice cream shop. Sad I forgot my camera :( sorry no pictures of the yummy delicious ice cream! (Karen if you got any send them over!)
A stop at the Regans before we left was a real treat for all of us! The boys enjoyed a grass fight exploring the barn and just being with friends, the rest enjoyed being with friends, the smell in the barn (just kidding!) helping with chores... well they were willing anyway! And we enjoyed some adult fellowship!

So that was our side trip we squeezed in before heading to Chicago area convention, a few more hours in the car -- they all blend together!

"May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God,

and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." 2 Cor 13:14

Mmmm... homemade applesauce!

We had a delivery of apples fresh from up north a week or so ago! So what do you do with a bushel and a half of apples?? make applesauce of course! Thankfully we had the experts here (my dad and mom) to help!
Its all in the line up! first you fill the sink with water and put the apples in,
then the peeler gets going -- peeling apples is fun with this tool!
Then the corers/slicers get to work. That is the hard part!
Once the pot is full add a little water and boil for awhile.

oh and of course enjoy the peels -- they are the best part :) and the chickens didn't mind all the leftovers either!!

After it cooks down add some sugar and cinnamon. Then pour into freezer containers and start the next batch --
house smells delicious and we can pull fresh applesauce out of the freezer for dinner anytime -- well until it runs out!

Stone Soup

So the lesson was R rock... we read the story stone soup.
Stones are pretty much like rocks, and he wondered what it was like so........ He found a GOOD rock
and washed it up really well
then put it in a pot of boiling water.......

found a few other things,
like potatoes, carrots, celery, corn, meat,
tomato soup and some seasonings
let it cook a long time............
bake some flower rolls (flowers are always by rocks :))


sit down with the teacher to enjoy your creation!!!

STONE SOUP IS YUMMY!!!!!

When you think you don't have anything for dinner... just go out to your yard, find a ROCK and make your own STONE SOUP! :)