Letter to Family & Friends.....

           As  many of you know already, we have begun the process to adopt a child from China. This decision is the product of many months of prayer and discussion. We feel that God has blessed our family beyond imagination and that He is leading us to share these blessings with an orphaned girl from China. This is not a decision that we take lightly, but we know that He will guide our steps. Our three biological children; Alaina (7), Melanie (6), and Emily (3) couldn't be more excited, and we know they will be amazing sisters. They each have a love for Jesus and are excited to bring this knowledge to their new sister.

            Right now, we are still in the paperwork stage of the process. We have completed our home-study and await approval of our paperwork from both the United States and Chinese governments. Once this process is complete, which we expect by November, we will begin the wait to be matched with a child. That wait could be long or short, we trust God will direct us to the child He has waiting for us, and we will travel to China to bring our daughter home four to six months later. 

            Adoption is not an easy process. The paperwork, waiting, and travel are stressful, but that is the easy part. Our daughter will have a "special need" that requires extra attention, and although we don't know what it will be yet, we have begun to try to prepare our family for this addition. The best way that we can make this preparation is through prayer, both ours and yours. We are asking for your support. We have been blessed in this community with amazing family and church support, which is what we want to share with a girl who would otherwise never know the such love existed.

            Please pray that:

                        - God will lead us to His will, and we will faithfully follow Him.

                        - We will be patient as we wait for His timing.

                        - He will prepare our family for the changes ahead.

                        - He will protect our daughter while she waits for us.       

                        - He will provide the means and funds necessary to bring her home.

            We do not currently have the funds required for this adoption, but believe that God will provide for His will to be done. Adoption is expensive. Our estimated cost will be around $30,000. This is due to the costs of travel, home-study and domestic paperwork preparation and fees, and Chinese adoption fees. This last category is the bulk of the cost. Around fifteen thousand dollars will be necessary for fees such as Chinese medical exams, paperwork, and reimbursement to the orphanage for taking care of our daughter while she waits for us. We have been saving for these costs, living as frugally as possible, and seeking additional work to provide for these costs. There is also an Adoption Tax Credit made available from the US Government that we hope to qualify for once the adoption is complete.

            If God would lay it upon your heart, we would ask for your support as well. Our first request is for your prayers, as detailed above. Financial support would also be very appreciated, but is nothing compared to the power of prayer and love. If you decide to do so, we have set up the following fund to be used exclusively for adoption costs "adopttogether.org/bertschfamily". Your gifts through this fund are tax-deductible. Payments can be made online or checks can be payable to AdoptTogether with Bertsch in the memo.

            Regardless of how God leads you to support us, we would love for you and your family to join us as we celebrate the wonderful family and friends He has blessed us with at our Fall Festival. We look forward to your company.

In Christ's Love,

            Nick, Brooke, Alaina, Melanie, and Emily Bertsch 

Adoption Beginning

Welcome back to our family blog! I obviously have not been great at updating our blog in the past umm ...year and a half. That is sad! A lot has changed in that gap including our newest adventure. 

God willing, we are adopting a daughter from China!

A few years ago, we were introduced to a local ministry that provides hope and guidance to orphans around the world. Forgotten Children Worldwide,  https://www.forgottenchildren.org/ ,

opened our eyes to devastating issues around the world and God open doors of opportunity for me to get involved. My passion for orphans quickly grew but I was unsure if adoption was part of God's plan or serving in other ways was my future. I definitely felt a desire to adopt but Nick had no desire at all. In February 2012 I officially joined the FCW sponsorship team. AMAZING!!! God is doing glorious things and I get to help. Serving in this ministry did not fulfill my desire to help. Instead, it made my desire to adopt grow even stronger. 

Adoption is not a new term in Nick's family. Our Bertsch family has been blessed by adoption twice in the past 5 years. I have a nephew from Ethiopia (home June 2008) and a niece from China (home December 2012). They are such blessings to our family and we all look forward to watching them blossom. They now have the opportunity to hear about Jesus and to have a loving family. God is so amazing and I am so thankful He has brought them into our lives. As these two children joined our family, we could ignore the devastating numbers of children just like Eli and Adalynn. I continued to pray for the Lord's direction.

Our official adoption journey began in January 2013.  Adoption has been on my heart for many years but in January, God was speaking clearly to Nick that we should start the process. God told Nick to "just do the next thing" and He will take care of the details.  We both like to have an exact plan for our adventures and have everything laid out. For this adventure we did not and that was petrifying and still is at times. 

The financial stress of adoption is not secret to the community. We all know it is very expensive and that can seem like such a mountain to climb. We felt God leading us to  have faith and trust in Him with the financial part. So with out a plan and without a large amount of cash saved up we decided to follow God's prompting and have FAITH.

With millions of orphans worldwide, it is hard to narrow down the field to specifics  They all need to know Jesus and they all want to feel unconditional love.  We were open to domestic and international adoption but through lots of prayer, God lead us to international adoption. It seemed that there were so many different countries to adopt from, we did not know where to start.  A local orphan ministry, Loving Shepherd Ministries, https://loving-shepherd.org/ ,was able to guide us to the point of choosing a country and then deciding on an agency. The month of January was spent in deep prayer on the specific topic of adoption.  In February 2013, we sent our application to Holt International that that was just the beginning of our adoption adventure. 

http://www.holtinternational.org/

Right away, we set up our first home study visit. On April 3rd was our first home study visit. We were very nervous and the kids were very excited. May 3 was second visit and we were excited to have both visits out of the way. 

Our next step was to complete 12 credit hours of Hague training. We completed this by the end of May and it was another item checked off our list. 

For the next couple of months we started collecting certain documents that would soon be use in our dossier. A dossier is every detail of our lives (birth certificates, marriage certificate, employment letters, passports, financial status, medical exams, police clearances, photographs) put into one large packet to be given to the Chinese government. As of now, our documents are all completed and are waiting to go to Indianapolis to be state certified.

Our home study was in our hands on July 24 2013. It was such a great feeling to finally have that done and ready to go. Our next step was the I-800A. The I-800A goes to the Department of Homeland Security for our immigration approval and our fingerprints. Our fingerprint appointment is today down in Indianapolis. We are also taking along the remaining documents that need to be state certified for our dossier. Those documents are being sent to the Chicago Consulate today for authentication. We will wait for another 30+ days to get our approved I-800A which is called the I-797. Our approval will then need to be state certified in Indy and then sent to Chicago to be authenticated. THEN....our documents are headed to China!!!! As of now, our projected travel time frame is March-August 2014. There is a lot to be done before then.

Since we are further along in our process, we are ready to start fundraising for our daughter. We have a couple smaller fundraisers planned and one large one scheduled for this fall. We are blessed to have family and friends willing and ready to help us raise money to bring our daughter home. I will post later this week on ways that you can support our adoption financially and in prayer.

This is a lot of paperwork and is very time consuming but our daughter is worth it. Our entire family is very excited to see what God brings out of this adventure. Could we ask you to pray for the millions of orphans that will never get the chance to know about Jesus and for the Mothers who have to make difficult choices for different reasons. Our daughter are all very excited but this is going to be very hard on them as they welcome a new sister into our family.We would love for you to join us in prayer as we continually seek God's direction is this long and difficult path.

DIY Pom Poms

Emily turned 2 on January 1st and I wanted to decorate with out spending a lot of $$$. While browsing PINTEREST (love it!!!) I found this DIY tutitorial for Pom Poms. I loved these from the start and knew I had to try.

On New Year's Day we had my family over for breakfast to celebrate Emily's birthday and Nick's family over for dinner. I got up early to make these quick before my family came over. I was not thinking clearly (late night before, 5:30 am and a Sunday) and did not take any pictures during the project. ugh!

I have always loved crafty, DIY, creative thinking projects but, in the past 10 years, I did not continue any of that after getting married (will be 10  years this May!).  I think my girls have a lot to do with me wanting to do more now. They LOVE IT when I make anything and they also have a love for being creative! YAY!!!

So, anyways, I made 9 tissue balls in about 45 min and it was SO MUCH FUN! I hung them all around the kitchen and living room in clusters.

Emily loved them for her party and so did I!

Today, I took them down and put them in the girls' rooms for some great decoration!

Here are the basic step by step instructions to make your own pom poms.

Be creative with colors, patterns and sizes! Good luck!

Next week I am making bow boards/picture boards for the girls. Check back soon!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Since I have challenged myself to 12 DIY projects for the year, I wanted to get started right away.


Laundry soap has been on my want to try list for quite some time now. I was scared of how hard it would be to make and how it would work.


It was easy to make and so far has been doing great compared to my old name brand detergent. Since this soap does not suds much, it is great for my new HE washer!! (Merry Christmas to me!!!!)


 I will admit that it has been a little difficult getting use to the fact that more suds does not equal more clean.


I wanted to try homemade laundry detergent for 2 reasons.

#1: My girls all have eczema and often get skin rashes. I have read that this soap is extremely mild and great for sensitive skin.


#2:  Cost
             soap: $6 (which will make at least 6 if not 8 gallons of detergent)
             grater: $2 (I didn't really want to use my regular cooking utensils for soap making :)

             funnel: $2

             2 gal. of bottled water:  $2 (we have rusty water)

So really this will cost $8 for  6-8 gallons of detergent. YAY!!!!




This literally took me less than 1/2 hr to prep, make and clean up. I totally expected a lot more work!


I found many different recipes for laundry detergent but chose this one because of all the great reviews. As I continue to make laundry detergent I will probably find special tips & trick to making it better. For now, this seemed to work and so I will share my method with you.


Let me know if you make your soap, if you like it and if you have suggestions for next time. Good luck!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

{use 1/2 c per load}

• 1 bar of soap (any kind you want).

            ** I used Ivory because I heard it was easy to grate and wonderful for sensitive skin.
            ** Fels-Naptha is more for laundry soap & smells good.
                 I just wanted to be safe with Ivory this time.

• 1 cup of Borax 
• 1 cup of washing soda 
• a big pot ( that holds more than 2 gallons) 
• a grater
• a funnel
• a long spoon
• 2 empty gallon jugs/containers or 2 gallons of bottled water

Grate your bar of soap into your pot.

Fill one gallon jug and pour water into pot with grated soap.

Cook until the grated soap dissolves. (My water was cold and it took 10-15 min on med/ high heat)

Add the Borax and washing soda.

Bring to a boil. It will coagulate.

Turn off the heat. Add 1 gallon of cold water. Stir well.

Pour 1 gallon of your detergent into each container.  A funnel helps tremendously.

I thought that the drink dispenser that I has stored away in a cupboard would work perfectly. I was wrong. The soap was too thick. I ended up using the bottled water bottles that I had just emptied. I may decide on something different for future batches but this works for now.


The detergent will thicken when it cools. Shake with each use.


Since I was not going to use the drink dispenser for the detergent, I decided to use it for the vinegar. For a couple months I have been using white vinegar in my wash loads to freshen them. Vinegar will not only help the everyday laundry to be fresh but will also fix those loads of laundry that we forget about and stay in the washer way too long. A bouncy ball is perfect for the vinegar. I fill the ball 1/2 way with vinegar and just throw it in every load. Since my girls have sensitive skin, this does not give a smell to our clothing but just freshens them. A large bottle of vinegar is much cheaper than fabric softener. Here is a site that gives more uses for vinegar in your laundry.

*** to address those of you with the issue of the detergent becoming too thick. Try using 1/2 of a bar of soap instead.

2012 Resolutions

Every year, I enjoy the feeling of a fresh new start. The past resolutions were your typical: loose weight, eat healthier and give more. Don't get me wrong, those are great goals but I did not put a lot of thought and heart into deciding on those goals.


 I took my "me time" and prayed about what GOD wanted me to do with my fresh start. After a couple weeks of prayer, note taking and ideas I finally had a list of improvements and new goals that I felt were realistic and doable.


This year, I want to be a better person for myself, as a wife, mother most importantly.. for God!


I am the type of person that needs accountability to others if I am going to have success. I would like to use this blog for many different things this year. I would like to expand this blog from a journal of our daily lives to a wide variety of subjects. Maybe include meal planning, coupons, fitness, house projects, and DIY projects [of course that would include a little Pinterest :)]


It is going to take some time to figure it all out but I would like to start by sharing with you my goals for 2012. I hope that by doing this I will become accountable to you and maybe, just maybe, become a better person.


Goals for 2012
Personal:

• Be more prompt.
• Rely 100% on God.
• Set up family binder.
• Plan meals.
• Tackle 12 DIY Projects.
• Take more pictures and organize them better. 
• Make 5 picture books. 
• Start college!

  Marriage:

•  Read and pray more with Nick.
• Pray for Nick daily. 
• Do something special for Nick, at least once a week. 
• Continue to have monthly date nights.

Children:

•  Plan monthly activities for kids.
• Go on at least one family vacation. 
• Start Grace and Truth Memory Book.
• Schedule dates/outings with each of the children individually.

Ministry:

• Be more involved in our church and community.
• Write at least 2 handwritten notes every month to encourage someone.

Blogging:

• Grow my blog and have fun with it!
• Blog monthly about my goals to stay accountable.

Health:

• Be healthier for myself, Nick and the kids.
• Complete 2 exercise videos at home per week.
• Take 2 classes at the y per week.
• Finish couch to 10K plan.
• Run in the Forgotten Children 5K race.
•  

Home:

• Tackle house project list. Complete it by end of year?
• Keep home "30 minutes to company" clean.

Financial:

• Continue to tithe 10% of our income.
• Give generously to needs in our community and around the world, as God prompts us. 
• Set up an emergency fund. We will start with $3000.
• Start cash system. Pay bills online and use credit cards for online only.
• Bump up couponing and lower weekly grocery bill.
• Start college funds for the kids.

There, now my life is an open book and I feel really good.
I pray that you will keep me accountable as I work through these goals for the year.
I will be referring back to this list at least once a month and giving updates on my progress.

I would love to know what your top goals are for your fresh start!

Bloomington Trip

Nick and I took a trip to Bloomington a couple weeks ago. Our first stop was the Oliver Winery.

WOW! We were amazed by God's creation. They have an outdoor picnic area that is stunning.

We enjoyed their sampling stations and found that we really like their semi-sweet wine.

 Another stop during our trip was The Chocolate Moose. I heard this was a must stop place. It was delicious!!!! I ordered a carmel sundae that was made with homemade ice cream and caramel.

YUMMMMYYYY!

Nick ordered their extra thick hot fudge shake. He enjoyed his too!

Thanks to our wonderful parents for watching the girls. We have special parents that are always available to us. Thanks!

Overall, this was just what we needed.



Church Picnic

Tonight was our first time attending the church picnic. It was a lot of fun and the weather was PERFECT!

We enjoyed the large selection of food and fun activites.

Alaina and Melanie had fun playing the different games and obstacle courses.

 Nick took all 3 girls on a hay ride.

We left the picnic tonight feeling blessed and thankful for our loving church family.