Wheew

I'm sitting here with a heart that is completely overwhelmed. Seriously. I can feel my heart in my throat. I feel like the Grinch, like my heart has grown 3 sizes in a day. Don't worry, though...it's overwhelmed a good totally awesome way. So far, we've sold 38 bracelets. Mmhhmm, you heard right..38 since Monday! I'm overwhelmed with the responses we've gotten. People who we have never met, showering us with love. Giving little pieces of themselves to help us bring our child home. Helping us to give love and comfort and joy and safety to someone who may never have an opportunity to feel those things. I think back over the last couple of years and I stand amazed. I'm in awe of my Father and the way He loves. He held every tear I cried in His hands. He counted each and every one of them. He used those tears. He healed us and made us stronger to prepare us for this. Holy.cow. Are you feeling overwhelmed yet? Honestly, I don't feel I have the words to adequately describe my feelings. All week, I've been feeling anxious. Waiting. (I know, I know, the waiting has JUST begun). I'm waiting to hear back from several baby homes. I'm working on a boat load of paperwork. Waiting. Today, I surrendered it. I surrendered it all. I got on my knees, put my hands in the air, and prayed. Out loud. Tears on my cheeks and a quiver in my voice. I placed my worries, inpatients, anxiety at His feet. He took it from me. This is His plan. It always has been. I'm leaving it up to Him. I'm surrendering and feeling so free. It's not for me to figure out. He already has. Thank you so much to all of you who have bought bracelets. Thank you so much to all of you who have donated to our HUGE sale.(Our next fundraiser.I'll post about it soon!). Thank you so much to all of you who are praying. You all make my heart want to explode.

Fundraiser or Funraiser. whichever way you choose to see it.

Fundraising has begun. Won't you help us? This fundraiser is a.w.e.s.o.m.e. A sweet friend gave me a bracelet from this company a while ago and I love it. I love what is behind it, as well.  Luke Wright, owner of Mudlove Pottery, graduated from IWU a few years ago. He is very passionate about helping people and serving God, so he donates 20% of all his profits to new water development in Africa through ICDI. He has graciously agreed to help us fund raise through selling his bracelets. All bracelets will say 'redeemed'. You will get to choose which color you want your band to be. And get this!! These beauties are only $12. By buying a bracelet, you will help us bring our baby love forever home, plus you will be giving someone in Africa clean water! How cool is that?!?

When you are ready to order one of these beauties just do the following:

• Message, email me, or use the Pay Pal button (Top right corner of blog page) with what color of band you want.

          You can choose from the following colors:

           Red           Orange
           Yellow       Neon Green
           Light Blue   Teal
           Purple        Hot Pink
           White         Black
           Brown

            

• Tell how many you wish to order
• Leave me your shipping address
• Mail me a check or use the Pay Pal button for your total order. No tax. No shipping. Pretty sweet, huh?

 

You can email me at bvboswell@hotmail.com, post a comment on this post, or use my Pay Pal button. I will process your order once I receive your check or pay pal confirmation. Remember, we are ordering in bulk, so it may take some time since they are all hand made. Thanks for blessing our family and helping our dreams become a reality.

All orders must be in by December 1st if you wish to receive in time for Christmas.

xoxo

homemade goodness

In starting our adoption journey, Trey and I have been trying to find ways to save money. After doing a bit of online research, I decided to try my hand at homemade laundry detergent. Annnd I love it. I tried the powder kind and it was super easy. It called for only 3 ingredients and the hardest thing I had to do was grate up a bar of soap. The most awesome part is the total cost of the 3 ingredients. They only cost about $10. (You can make multiple batches out each box you buy) So, if you wish to try it along with me, here's the recipe. Enjoy.

• 1 bar Fels Naptha soap
• 1 cup of Borax
• 1 cup of Arm & Hammer washing soda (not to be confused with baking soda)

( I found these items at my mom's grocery store, Hodsons. I also found them at Meijer.)

1. Grate the bar of Fels Naptha finely (it smells wonderfully fresh)
2. Mix the Fels Naptha, Borax, and Arm & Hammer and poof, all done!

Use 2-3 tablespoons per load of laundry depending on how hard your water is. Fellow Swayzians, you most likely need to use about 113 tablespoons....well, maybe that was a slight exaggeration. I use 3. Here's to great smelling clothes.

Here goes nothing...no scratch that....here goes everything.

      You guys might remember me saying here that our journey according to His will is to be continued. Well, ladies and gentlemen, the continuing has begun! Here it goes....after lots of prayer, lots of denying what He wants for us, lots more prayer, lots of encouragement from special friends, lots and lots and lots of prayer, we have decided now is the time for us to take a faith step and follow God's plan. We have started our journey to adoption! As a family, we have felt for a long time that we are meant to be more than a family of three. Through the devastation and heartbreak of having multiple miscarriages over the last year, we believe God was preparing our hearts for something huge. Through those hardships, we began seeking His will, not our own. And I'm super excited to say He has opened our eyes to International Adoption. We feel Proverbs 24:12 says it best, "....Once our eyes have been opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act."
      With prayer and the desire to seek God's will, we've explored and researched many options for adoption. God is making it clear to us what it is He wants us to do. Right now, we are focusing on finishing up our home study. Once that is complete (hopefully by July), we will be traveling to a babies' home in Uganda, Africa. On our trip, we plan on keeping our hearts open to whomever God has planned for our family.
      If you are wondering how you may help in our journey, here are things that will help us the most:
1.) Prayer

• Pray for our marriage. Pray that we will remain steady and strong and continue to put God as our focus as a couple
• Pray for our family as we move through this process together. Pray for Trenner. Pray his heart is prepared to be the big brother we know he wants to be.
• Pray for our child that is waiting for us. Pray our child will be safe and loved while waiting for us to bring him/her home.
• Pray for our funding

2.) Participate in our fundraisers

• I will post about every fundraiser we are having. I feel each of them deserve their own special shout out.

3.) Donations

• We humbly ask you to prayerfully consider giving a donation to help us meet our adoption expenses. We realize adoption is a costly adventure, and your donations will help give a child love, protection, and a family for the rest of his/her lives.

      Thank you so much for taking the time to read this lengthy post. We look forward to keeping you posted every step of the way. Please don't hesitate to ask questions, either. We are ecstatic with the work God has done, and is continuing to do in our lives and love to share about it. We know the road ahead is long, but with God as our strength and guide, we know the trials will be far outweighed by the many blessings.

Love to you all!

Trey, Bridgette, and Trenner

  

back to us

Last Wednesday the husband and i decided to take a day for us. my mom graciously watched Trenner for us aaalll day while we took a trip from the past and went fishing. together. just he and i. back to the 'original us'. we loved fishing together while we were dating in high school. Trey, actually, named his first boat 'Victoria' after me.  now, i don't mind fishing. actually, i rather like it. however, getting up at 5:30 in the am, not so much. but in order to be a good wife, i found it necessary. the early bird catches the worm fish, right? we got up, staggered around, put on layers and layers of clothes (it was 32 degrees when we left but 65/70 degrees by the afternoon), and packed our picnic lunch. after stopping at a super cute little breakfast nook in Silver Lake, we hit the water. and trey did what he does best. fish.

i love seeing my man so happy.

it's beautiful seeing my love in his 'zone'. he's so at peace on the water. and he actually knows how to catch fish.
i didn't actually fish.

 i mostly did this:



and a little of this:

these beauties will be for sale at the paper roSe sale May 20-21st

we enjoyed the scenery:

and each other's company. kind of. (while fishing, a lot of talking is frowned upon.) so, we soaked up the silence. (anyone who has ever been around Trenner knows we don't get much silence in our home)

we made it back to 'us'. and oh how lovely 'we' are. 

You know you want it.

My husband is selling his motorcycle. A sad, but happy day. We are selling it for good reason. I know it's going to be hard for him to say goodbye, though. Could you be the lucky one to buy it?!?! Just imagine: cool spring air blowing in your face, your hair swept back, the feeling of pure freedom, GOOD GAS MILLAGE ( I know this is reason enough with $3.83/gallon of gas!)!

It's a 2003 Yamaha Virago, 250cc.
We are asking $2,500.
It's in GREAT condition. We just replaced the battery on April 8th. It's an excellent beginner bike! Spread the word! Help us sell it!! Buy it! Something! I'll get on my knees and beg if you want me to.....

A well deserved shout out

Our whole addition is drywalled. Yep, you heard right. All drywalled. This definitely would not have been made possible without the help of all of Trey's brothers and dad. Each of them traded in their day off for a dusty, exhausting, dirty, but fun, day. It's so great to see all the boys together. They enjoy each other. They laugh at the most ridiculous things like farting. (We've had the discussion asking at what age are you when farting is not funny. Mike has assured us he is not at that age yet.) They all work hard and never complain. I'm so thankful for each of them and the work they have done. I am even more thankful, though, that Trey has great a great dad and brothers he can call friends.



Mike, Trey, Brady




The Brothers: Trey, Brady, Classic Chip



All the Boswell Boys


.......and Who doesn't need a little comic relief from Chip?





can i get a whoop whoop?

   Soooo...do you remember this post? Remember the last paragraph? Go ahead...read it again. Now, do you remember me saying that God has been working overtime on our hearts? Mmmhhmmm... yes He has. We've been praying for His will, not our own. He is faithful. I can't say it enough. God = faithful. period. Big things are coming. I just know it. I'm begining to see where He is leading. Will you wait in anticipation with me?