Puzzles

We got the puzzles in the mail a couple days ago!

I was so excited to start putting them together, so we started on the Bunny Babies puzzle since it was only 300 pieces. Here's the progress on it:

I convinced Caleb to help me:

 

  He doesn't like being in pictures much. 

But he even admitted that he had fun helping me put the puzzle together!  :-)

Much better picture  :-)

Not a great picture of me, but oh well  :-P

Kinda blurry, but you can still see it

Blazey wanted to help put the puzzle together too  :-)

ALL DONE!

We have 15 puzzle pieces sponsored so far. I have glued the puzzle together and am going to write all the names on the back of all the sponsors! Let me know if you'd like to sponsor this puzzle or the giraffe one!

So, I realized as I opened the giraffe puzzle that the entire thing is MANY different shades of brown! Set all the pieces out and this is gonna be a challenge!!

I started with the border today:

We have about 20 pieces sponsored of this puzzle so far! Such a great start!! :-)  Please let me know if you'd like to sponsor our puzzles. All amounts go into our Adoption Fund!
 

Adoption vs. Abortion

This really makes me sad and sick to my stomach. How can so many people just think they can kill their babies through abortion because they "don't want them" or "don't want the hassle" of kids?! Here we are trying to adopt a newborn/infant and these people just go and abort their babies. There are soooo many families across the US that are trying to adopt and now it's just getting harder and harder since the legalization of abortion and because of more contraceptives and "plan b" items.
I mean, I understand that most people don't care/believe that abortion is murder, but why can't you give the baby up for adoption? Those people that argue about pro choice have already been born. If their parents thought about or tried aborting them, I don't think they would be as pro choice. I'm not trying to get into an argument about "pro life" vs "pro choice". It just sickens me that it's so hard for us to find a baby to adopt because so many are being killed and not even given a chance at life.
Sorry if I'm being too blunt; this has just been weighing on my mind lately.

I know that God has a baby picked out for us. He is leading us down this road to our child through adoption and I can see His hands working in it. Though it's hard a lot of the time (hard to wait, hard not knowing yet, hard seeing tons of articles, etc about abortion), I do believe that He is working to bring our baby home to us. My good friend, Holly, told me that I am waiting with such grace and joy. Thanks so much, Holly, but the truth is that a lot of the time, it's hard to smile. I've hated waiting... it's one of the hardest things in life for me. Waiting for the "right guy" (totally worth it! My husband is the best man, better than I could've imagined a man could be!), waiting to get married (again worth it because we didn't want to have a lot of debt when we got married), waiting to get pregnant... which didn't happen in almost 3 years, so now waiting for our baby through adoption. I know it will be worth it when I get to hold him/her in my arms for the first time. So many people tell me that it's soooo worth the wait. I can see that, but while I'm here in the midst of waiting, it's so hard.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is mostly asking for a request for prayer. Please pray about all the expectant mothers out there that are considering abortion. Pray that they would choose life for their little one... maybe even the baby for us! Please pray that God uses this time to soften their hearts and that He uses my pain in waiting for a baby to be for His glory. Pray for the doctors doing abortions and the people working in abortion clinics that they would see God's light in their lives (and the lives they are about to end) and come to know Him through it all.

Thanks for all your support and prayers!

Puzzle Fundraiser! :-)

We have started a puzzle fundraiser! We purchased 2 jigsaw puzzles that will be assembled, framed and hung in our baby room. For this fundraiser, we are asking for sponsorship of pieces. Once we get each sponsorship, we will start assembling the puzzle. We will write your name on the back of each puzzle piece you sponsor so we will always remember how you've helped us bring our baby home! After the puzzle is completely sponsored and assembled, we will frame it in a double glass frame so we can see the back with all the names as well as the front!

Here are the puzzles we will put together:
1) Giraffe Kiss

This puzzle is 1,000 pieces. We are asking for $2 a piece for sponsorship. You can sponsor one piece, or more if you'd like!

The next puzzle:
2) Bunny Babies

This puzzle is only 300 pieces. We are asking for $2 a piece for sponsorship on this puzzle. Again, you can sponsor as many pieces as you'd like/are able.

I thought both of these were too cute not to buy, so we got both!  :-)
Please email me at kt_hurley@gmx.com and let me know which puzzle you'd like to sponsor and how many pieces you'd like to sponsor. Then, please mail us a check/money order to:
C. Hurley
PO Box 1538
Las Cruces, NM  88004

Thanks so much for all your support and prayers. We really appreciate all of it!! God Bless!!!!!

A homecoming and A birthday!

The hubby went to Las Vegas over the past 3 days for a manager conference/awards dinner/company trip. And unfortunately, I didn't get to go  :-(   But, this is the second year he has gone and this year was so much easier than last year! I wasn't anxious near as much; I had fun having the house and bed to myself for 2 nights  ;-)  It was quiet around the house, but had fun with my puppies! Last year, he told the oldest one (& most protective one), Kaylee, to "take care of her" -  She did! She was practically attached to my shin everywhere I went. She would sit right next to me when I made dinner or anything in the kitchen. She took him very literally  ;-)   This year, he told them all the same thing and they were protective of me, but Kaylee didn't take him literally as much this year - thank goodness! They still watched out for me and made sure I knew when people were walking or driving down the street.
I picked him up from the airport this afternoon and when we came home, the dogs were soooo excited. Our dogs love their daddy so much! This is what they did when they came inside to see that he came home:

They are so much fun!!! We are all glad to have him home again. Thank goodness this trip is only once a year!  haha


Today was also my Great-Aunt's birthday! It was bitter-sweet for her as her husband passed away suddenly about 6 weeks ago and this was her first celebration without him. We took her out to dinner and Caleb was able to come too! Yesterday, when I took her out to run some errands, she told me that she wanted some new frames for her glasses soon - as she has had hers for 20+ years now. So, for her birthday we bought her some new frames:

They say Happy Birthday across the top right under the candles. Haha!  She loved them and said she had a great day; that was nice to hear!!  :-)

On another note, we have finished our homestudies, fingerprinting, and paperwork. Waiting on the fingerprints to come back and then waiting on a birth mother. In the meantime, we are praying and loving the time we have together. We are still selling our adoption t-shirts to raise money for our Adoption Fund.

Well, that's all for now. Good night!!

We started a fundraiser!

**Please see our 'Fundraisers' tab to keep up with all our current fundraisers**

Caleb and I have been talking about doing some fundraisers to help raise money for our adoption! We don't want to go into debt trying to adopt.
I've started raffle for a basket of Avon items - tickets are $2 each and all the proceeds go to our Adoption Fund. I will draw names next week. If you want to buy some tickets, please email me at: kt_hurley@gmx.com

Also, as you can see on the right-hand side, there's a link to our fundraiser T-shirt store. It's through AdoptionBug.com and you can buy 6 different styles of t-shirts on our page and we get a portion of those sales which will all go into our Adoption Fund as well!! This will help raise awareness about adoption as well as supporting us! Please help us start the Hurley Family Tree  :-)

Here's the widget and our page link is: www.adoptionbug.com/churley

I'm going to be doing a Thirty-One gifts party fundraiser soon and a Pampered Chef fundraiser party this summer to raise money too.

We want to thank everyone for your prayers for us and support that you've given us as we've started this journey! We are soooo blessed!!!  Thank you Jesus for these amazing friends and family!

Nursery Easter Craft!

So I was going to post this last week, but our schedule was crazy. (see my last post: Thoughts On Life).

Anyway, I got an idea from a couple places online and decided to make my own version of this and included this recipe. So I made my own edible Easter garden with the kids. Since I had nursery kids (ages 0-3) I made a few things ahead of time and had them put it together on Easter morning in the nursery. Here's my step by step directions: 

Items needed:

- Cookie recipe (link to follow)

- Cookie cutters (cross and round)
- Bag of shredded coconut
- Food coloring
- can of Grands biscuits
- large marshmallows
- toothpicks
- Whoppers (or other small round candy - for rocks/stones)

1) Prepare Sugar Cookies. I used this recipe for Brown Sugar cut-out cookies and icing. Then I cut out crosses and circles, baked them and let them cool:

I didn't have a cross cookie cutter so I made a cross out of cardboard and cut out each cross with a butter knife. If you have a cross cookie cutter, this is a lot easier!  :-P

I just used a standard size (~2in) cookie cutter for these (they are for the base of the cross).

2) Prepare Icing. I made the icing and dyed each one a different color. I used blue, pink, yellow and green but you can make any colors. (I had some plastic egg cups for dying eggs, so I separated the icing into 4 parts and then dyed each one in each cup) I also wasn't going to iced the cookies until the next day with the kids, so they are in plastic bags to keep from drying out:

  

      

3) Prepare the coconut:

Green food dye(grass):          Coconut in a ziploc:

        

Add dye to coconut:           Shake until all covered:

     

     

4) Make the He's Risen buns:  

I prepared these ahead of time as well, but showed the kids how they were empty like Jesus' tomb was when he was risen. Make them with your kids though with this recipe. 

Prepare them as the recipe says.

I made these with the small biscuits and bad idea (the marshmallows all busted out of the bottoms). 

Make sure to use the Grands biscuits!  :-)

5) Frost the cookies!

I did this with the kids at church, but I frosted my own to show them first:

 I frosted a circle in green icing too and with a toothpick, poked one end into circle cookie,

leaning to back of the cross standing up. Allow to dry/harden  :-)

6) Put it all together! 

 I broke open the tombs to show them that it was empty. Next, I put the cross on one side of a paper plate and the tomb on the other side toward the top. Then, I scattered coconut around to look like the grass. Last, I placed 4 Whopper candies leading to the tomb. This is the finished result!

Here's the ones the kiddeos made too:

            

    

Happy Easter everyone! (even though it's a bit late  ;-P)

Thoughts on Life

I've been so busy and have had so many things going on in my head that it's time to write another post! It might be a little scrambled and jumpy but I want to talk about a few things that have gone on this past week  :-)

1) Time with Daddy

The hubby's dad came down for a few days and stayed with us. He drove in from WA on Thursday evening, stayed the night with us. Friday morning he went to see his dad and some other friends in town. Then Friday night we celebrated the hubby's grandpa's 80th bday! Met some awesome relatives and had a great time with everyone  :-)  Daddy left Saturday morning to go home. We had a nice visit (even though it was short) and had so much fun!!

2) Crazy Monday

So we were supposed to have our final homestudy on Monday but change of plans last minute! :-P    Found out that I was needed for babysitting from about noon on Monday til Tuesday evening. Of course I accepted gladly! I love my time with those two little munchkins (thanks Heather!). A couple of our friends were going to be coming through town on their way home to TX and we told them they could crash here for a night. That night just happened to be on Monday. It was so great having them and hanging out with them a bit (thanks for spending some time with us Araenae and Joni!). So needless to say with 2 munchkins ages 2 and 4, and 2 friends in town with the hubby and I, we weren't able to meet with our social worker. God had other plans for us on Monday and it was a great day anyway  :-)

Had some fun taking pics and videos of the kids and the hubby that night and Tuesday. Here are some of them:

The hubby playing with the kids and a ticklish duck.  

Cutie Pie  :)

      

The kiddeos reading books to the dogs through the screen door. The puppies are lying outside watching them   :-)

Oh the pigtails  :-)

Me and Keira  :-)

3) Gardening is just an excuse for grown-ups to play in the mud!  ;-)
I've been gardening the past couple days and I am so sore today! It's such great exercise!! Today as I was planting seeds, watering and pushing around the sand/soil and mud, I couldn't help but giggle at the thought that gardening is an excuse for grownups to play in the mud and water! Gardening is so cool - how God can make sand, water and a seed grow into a plant and then produce things like tomatoes, squash and carrots is so cool to me. I mean, only God can do that! And if He can do make something from nothing essentially, then He can certainly provide us with a child in one way or another!  :-)

4) Adoption is an amazing journey toward God!

Since we decided that we wanted to start this journey toward adoption, I've grown more in love with God. He is teaching us so much! I am more patient as I wait for this child than I was waiting to get pregnant. Caleb and I are spending a lot of quality time together. I'm loving having the kiddeos over here overnight sometimes - I'm learning so much and it's great practice for when we have kids!

5) Infertility (Which ties in with #4)

A lot of people have asked me why we aren't going to have biological children, if we've been tested for infertility and tried infertility treatments yet, etc... I'm going to answer that question now as I've come to figure it out completely. I don't want to know if we can't biologically have children. Firstly, if we did see a doctor and they told us we can't have children, I'm not sure how I would handle that in my mind. Secondly, nothing is too hard for God. He can give us biological children when/if that's His plan. Sarah and Abraham conceived long after they even thought they could have children. Who is to tell us that we CAN'T biologically have children?? Finally, I don't want to take pills or have different treatments that might help us conceive because I don't want to "play God". I'm not saying it's bad. I know some people that have tried different infertility treatments, and that's not a problem. It's just not for us - it's a huge waiting game too of 'if this will help this time.wait for it.nope...let's try this.wait...nope...etc. We are really excited to see where this journey of adoption takes us and maybe in the future we might conceive too. Who knows - only God!

Well, I'm off to celebrate my cousin's 21st birthday with her and my family! Road Trip!  :-)
Have a great weekend everyone!!!