The Mauldins

So I said it was busy in December.......

2010-04-30T10:38:00.003-06:00

Well little did I know at the time but when I said it was busy on my last blog I was about to be surprised with more craziness than I had anticipated! So much has happened since December. We decided to move back to our home in Alberton. It was much more complicated than just deciding to move. It was a combination of a bunch of things but nevertheless it was a fast and furious time. We made our decision and moved 2 or 3 weeks later. I did like Billings, and there are times I miss living in the city, but I do love our house and it is so nice to watch the kids play in the yard and not have to worry about them.

After we moved and got the house set up enough to sleep there it seemed we had events planned every week! The Purity Retreat that we do every year (that I absolutely love), then I had a weekend conference with Mary Kay (an endeavor I started up again in Billings) and then it was the Shepherd's conference(AMAZING). Plus I started school up again! I may have slightly overloaded myself but we made it through!! I was so exhausted...wanting to sleep all the time...and well exhausted is the only word to use! I thought it was from the move and busy schedule but apparently I was oblivious to the fact that I had not had a period since the beginning of February! A couple people asked in jest if I was pregnant and I just laughed....I looked at the calendar and thought maybe I should take a test.....sure enough I was pregnant. I was 8 weeks pregnant actually!! I took the test and the line in the results window of the test showed up before the line that shows the test is working......I laughed again. Chris was on the road with work so I sent him a picture of the pregnancy test and his text back was....HA!! I am due November 6th.

We were a bit surprised, but so excited! I was a bit anxious about it....the last two pregnancies have been miscarriages and so there is part of me that wants to be positive and believe everything is okay and then there is part of me that is begging for this one to stay put!! Ultimately it is not in my hands and I have to trust God! He is a good God and has good plans, no matter what the world my try to tell us otherwise. He is amazingly faithful, and sent someone who prayed over me and the baby. They had no reference to my past pregnancies and as they prayed they felt God saying that this would be the best pregnancy I have every had( many of you know mine our miserable!) That this baby would be healthy and no complications and I would have great joy during this pregnancy.

I am going on 14 weeks now and this had been a completely different pregnancy. I am usually super sick, and i get migraines regularly. I was getting them every other day sometimes with the other two and I have had a couple headaches but not a full blown migraine....and I haven't been sick....nauseous but not puking all the time! And we had a great ultrasound at 12 weeks and we watched little feet and hands moving all over and heard a beautiful heartbeat!

We are so excited about our expanding family! This pregnancy does put our adoption on hold for a bit, but we are still planning on going through with the adoption. Ethiopia requires our youngest be a year old before bringing in new children. This will give us time to get settled and finish up all of the requirements for the adoption in the mean time.

I love our crazy life and we are so blessed to be the Mauldin's!

Encouragement....

2009-12-10T16:05:00.002-07:00

Life has been so busy and the one thing I always intend to do and never do is blog. I wait till the end of the day and feel like I lack creativity and then put it off till later. Well now its been almost 3 months!

Well I wanted to update on the adoption. We have been waiting for our house to sell.....which it hasn't and it has been getting very discouraging. I want so badly to move forward with some speed with the adoption process and yet we are forced to take a VERY SLOW pace. I try to keep in mind that God has perfect timing, but then I hear about the other families that are getting ready to fly to Ethiopia and pick up their children and my heart yerns to doing the same. I am so excited for our friends of course! Just feeling like it is taking forever to make progress on our own adoption.

We had a huge blessing the other day..... I was told that a family came to church and chose our family to donate 500.00 towards our adoption!!! I was so incredibly blessed. It was amazing timing. It was a huge financial blessing and at the same time a reminder from God letting us know we are doing the right thing and HE WILL TAKE CARE OF THE DETAILS!

Why is it so hard to remember and trust that sometimes? I am so humbled and I can't wait to see the other ways God takes care of us!

Preschool for Cadence

2009-09-12T21:57:00.003-06:00

Cadence started Preschool on September 1st. He had to got through a week of Tegan being away at school and he complained about it all day. He missed his sister very much, apparently mommy is just not as fun.

Cadence and Tegan's favorite thing is walking to school every day. Actually this is one of my favorite thing too. It is so nice to be outside and enjoy the sounds of kids laughing with excitement about another day at school. When we moved I told Chris I would love to live somewhere close enough to a school so I could walk with them everyday. Not only is the school a block away, Buster's preschool is on the same street as our house! I am so blessed!

So now I have a whole new routine. I am up at 5:00 to work on my own school work for an hour before the kids get up. I created a chore list for them so they know what to do every morning and it seems to be working well. School starts at 8:20 for Tegan so we drop Cadence off first on Tuesday and Thursday and then Tegan and I get to spend some time together for the rest of the walk. Then I get to walk and get them at 2:25.

Both Buster and Tegan are very happy to be at school and feel very grown up! It is too cute!

School is our new adventure!

2009-09-05T07:54:00.012-06:00

The First Day of Kindergarten!

Well school started here in Billings on August 26th. Tegan started kindergarten this year and was so excited to go to her new school. My mom, grandma, and great-grandma came over to watch her go to school for the first time.

Tegan picked out her new outfit that she wanted to wear, got her luch together and put her backpack by the door Tuesday night so it would be ready to go. Wednesday morning she woke up beaming and got dressed and her hair all done up and we got ready to walk to school.

We got to school and lined up for class, walked in and found her seat, but then she realized we were all leaving her there and the tears began. This was awful for mommy. I hated leaving my baby girl by herself while she was crying! But she came home happy and ready to go back the next day.

Thursday we had more tears, and she came home saying that she wanted to stay home on Friday! I was hoping that she would have forgot about not wanting to go by the next morning. No such luck! She cried because she didn't want to go. I asked her why and she said because they moved her table! Turns out the teacher was moving the kids around every day so they could meet all the kids and see who sits well with each other. Tegan is not one for change so this was extreamly upsetting for her.

Well two weeks into the school routine and Tegan doesn't want to stay home on weekends! She absolutely loves school. In fact I walked her to school the other day and when you get to school they have a circle that all the kids walk around until the bell rings, and she looked up at me andsaid "mommy can you not walk the circle with me today?" Ahhh...mommy was both sad and delighted! Sad that she didn't need me and delighted that she was okay without me.

It is a scary thing to hand off your child to someone else, knowing you cannot be there to monitor every move and interaction; however it is improving my prayer life...Ha ha! I am so blessed that God gave us Tegan, and I know that ultimately she is His child and I trust him more than I trust myself and I know He has the best in mind for her!

I have been ordered to BLOG

2009-08-11T08:14:00.007-06:00

Okay Kylie.....Here I am adding to our blog....finally! I am going to take your advise and not blog only about the adoption but family life in general as well. I don't know if I can be as dedicated as you are Kylie....but I will try! :)

Summer is flying by. It has been a whirlwind because we have been back and forth to Alberton/Missoula to work on our house that is on the market. Every trip we say....."only one more trip, and we will be completely finished!".......and yet the trips keep on coming.

Our last trip was so productive. The house looks great and we are praying for the perfect buyers!

Me and the kids got to stay at my moms house for almost 2 weeks. It was so nice to be able to hang out with family. My brothers kids came on the weekends and the kids had so much fun!! They love their cousins! Here are some pictures...... oh, and yes that is a chicken in the car with Tegan. She named it short tail....and it lets her carry it around all over! I think it is disgusting, but she loves it!

What started this journey?

2009-05-27T19:11:00.008-06:00

What started this journey? Well.....I (jama) have always envisioned a large family; 5 kids seemed like a good number to me! When I was 17 or 18, my youth pastor adopted a little boy, and it ignited a desire to adopt as well. From then on I imagined ethnic children being members of my family someday. However, as life went on and I ventured out of my home, married Chris and started a family, the actual process of adoption seemed out of our reach. It wasn't that we did no want to, but as with many things it seemed the practical thing to do was wait until we were a bit more established financially. We would still discuss the idea every now and again but it was always as something further down the road.
After our big move to Billings, our focus was on settling into our rental, finding a church, and wrapping up details with our house back home to help it sell. We were so blessed to find a church right away. Harvest Church is the answer to our prayers, in fact everything about the way we found it is amazing. (I will have to write that down at another time.) But on our first Sunday at Harvest we noticed an announcement on the weekly bulletin regarding an upcoming opportunity called Ethiopia Hope project. Along with putting in a well, and helping with other projects to better this community, the Hope project is joining with Christian World Adoption (CWA) to help with the development of Acacia Village and in the placing of orphans from Ethiopia into families throughout Montana. We didn't know when all this was taking place but we looked at each other and said "that would be so awesome!" We were serious, but again we knew there was a lot to be done before we could start that process.

A couple months later Tegan came to me and wanted me to go downstairs with her to see something. So i followed her downstairs and into her room; she had her doll bed set up with a baby pillow and rattle neatly placed on top as well as a blanket folded and draped over the edge of the crib. She looked at me and said this was for the baby that was coming. I smiled and said she was sweet and went on with the evening not giving it another thought.

The next day (April 3rd) I had planned to go to a MOPS meeting to gt to know some women here in Billings. My morning was awful! I was running late and the kids were not cooperating at all. Basically, I was in a bad mood and had a horrible attitude. I just wanted to stay home and be left alone......I think I bit Chris' head of multiple times as well.....poor guy! But in spite of me being a jerk, Chris told me I needed to get out of the house and meet people. He pointed out it would be good for me to meet women and good for the kids to play with other kids. So bad mood and all....I went to the meeting. Little did I know that when I returned home my life would be drastically different!

I arrived at the meeting, settled in a spot at my table and chatted with a few of the ladies I had met briefly at the meeting prior. There were two speakers that morning. The first talked about her walk as a mom and raising children who were strong Christians and also about being willing to do the things God asks of you even when it seems crazy or difficult. God brought a baby into her and her husband's lives through a chance meeting and after many crazy circumstances they ended up adopting her.

Our second speaker was Jenny. As soon as she began to speak, I felt the strong presence of God settle in my heart. I remember thinking "God what are you doing? I don't know anyone here very well and here I am crying and Jenny hasn't said anything yet." I will admit I was pretty focused on me at that moment and the impression I left on these women. As you may have guessed, God really wasn't worried about my concerns of looking all put together! I do not know how to accurately describe the changes that were taking place in my heart. God had my full attention and there was no doubt that I would leave that meeting changed!

Jenny spoke about her journey of adoption. She told the story of how God orchestrated the details of her life, and their family, to prepare the way for two beautiful babies from Africa to become members of their family. At one point she told a story about her son, who at that time was 4 years old. He came up one morning.....very early and Jenny told him he had to go back to bed. At breakfast he told her that he went back to his room and never went back to sleep. While he was in his room, he said Jesus told him that they didn't need to worry about weather they were going to get a boy or a girl, but that they would be getting one of each and that he would pick them out and they would be perfect for their family. Jenny's little boy told the same story to his dad and they both knew that was had happened was from God and so they began calling their babies the "Jesus babies" and trusted God would do just as He said. To read the full story of Todd and Jenny's adoption go to jesusbabies.blogspot.com

When Jenny told this story, the tears flowed.... what had happened with Tegan the night before was not a coincident. He had been working out this very moment for years and NOW was the time to adopt. I sat at that table, in a room full women and bawled. This moment had been orchestrated by God, there is no other way to explain it. So many details, and previous conversations that were had throughout my life and so much of it was wrapped up in this moment. God had once again made Himself known in a tangible way. When this happened a sure confidence came and I knew that no matter what "He will work out that which concerns me"(Psalm 138:8) I spoke to Jenny afterwards and through tears tried to explain what had just happened. Another woman was standing next to me and listened. I didn't know it at the time but she and I would begin to build a great friendship through this meeting. Her name is Jana (pronounced like mine with a long "A"...ha ha our poor husbands!)

Soon it was time to pick up the kiddos from class and go home. Before I left I brought the kids to meet Jenny and her two children. I talked with Jenny a bit more and laughed a bit about the fact that I now had to go home and first, apologize to Chris for my attitude and then tell him we were supposed to start the process of adoption now...not further down the road. Jenny encouraged me that if God had worked out this moment for me, He surely had worked it out in my husband as well.

So i went home....and when I walked through the door I was bawling......and I am not exaggerating! I told Chris the whole story and just like Jenny said....God had worked out this moment for Chris as well. It was much different than mine but orchestrated perfectly. He agreed that now was definitely the time to adopt. And when we thought about how many we wanted, two was definitely the number. I was overwhelmed to say the least. I was so in awe of how all this came about and kept putting pieces of the picture together and thinking oh......yeah.....so that is what that meant....! As usual I just cried.....I cry over everything.......both happy and sad.....so this was to be expected. What I didn't expect was to cry until (I kid you not) 2:00 that after noon!! The meeting ended at 11:00.....yeah that is a lot of tears! At 2:00 I decided I needed to sleep. After a peaceful sleep, I woke up with the song "Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus" in my head. And that describes exactly how I felt and still feel. I am so at rest about his whole thing. I know without a doubt that this was orchestrated by God and all I can do is trust Him and have faith.

"Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."(Hebrews 11:1) Psalm 62:5 tells us that hope comes from God. We know that God has put the hope of two children from Africa deep in our hearts and even though I do not see them no I am certain that Chris an I will in the near future. I look forward to the day when we wrap our arms around them and welcome them into our family. My faith is strong and growing not because of our current circumstances but because of the One who works out all circumstances! I can't wait to see what God does!

The Mauldins

2009-05-25T12:32:00.001-06:00

Just a quick overview:

We moved to Billings in February due to changes in Chris' job. Before we agreed to move, we wanted to know without a doubt that God was our main focus in this decision. So we began praying, and weighing out the pros and cons of moving. This was not an easy decision to say the least. With a brand new house that Chris built himself, family living so close, and a church family we have been a part of for almost 10 years, there were a ton of emotional ties to where we lived. So we sought Gods will and asked for clear direction in this. After a series of events we knew the move to Billings was God's will and we both felt God saying that He had something huge for us as a family in Billings.

On the day we moved our church family prayed over us. Pam Jackson (I love you) was praying for us and kept saying "the Mauldins". She said we were going to grow so solid together and we would not be just Jama Mauldin and Chris Mauldin, but rather THE MAULDINS! A strong unity!

We have held on to this and even though we have only been in Billings for 3 months we are seeing this unity deepen and that "something huge for us as a family" feeling Chris and I had before we moved is already unfolding before our eyes!

We are so grateful for each other, and for God's direction and perfect plan.

We started this blog not to showcase our lives but to share the work God is doing and share the excitement of all HE can accomplish in our lives. I hope you will enjoy going on this journey with us! It is going to be a crazy, yet extremely precious one!