Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The best $5 spent and news

I think we will start this post out with a picture of the best $5 I have ever spent at the Swap meet. To fight evil is necessary  for one to have mud boots, plastic bat, Star Wars jammies and an super awesome Nacho Libre outfit!  In the words of my father in law, "Good thing that kids is home schooled!"  He was not referring to one of my children but now he can.



Now on to more important things:

We are so honored to be partnering with Lifesong for Orphans.  Their desire is to bring joy and purpose to orphans by mobilizing the church, His body, where each member can provide a unique and special service: some to adopt, some to care, some to give.

Our partnership allows us to have an account set up for our family for donations.  That means that 100% of all funds received by Lifesong for Orphans go directly to cover adoption costs.  Nothing is taken out for administrative costs.  To make donations towards our adoption, checks can be sent to the following address.  Please indicate last name and # in memo:


Kohler #3151

Lifesong for Orphans
PO Box 40/ 202 N. Ford St.
Gridley, IL 61744

We also have the opportunity to take part in a Both Hands project.  If you have 3 minutes...please check it out the video below.  

Both Hands is based on James 1:27 -- Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

It's an opportunity to bless a widow by working on her home, while also raising money to bring a child home to a forever family.  It works like a 5K race/fundraising event.  We ask friends and family to be on our team and send out letters to their contacts, asking them to consider a one day sponsorship as they work on a widow's home.  We would ask local business to donate supplies for the widow's home.  It will be a fun day for families to get together and serve.  The best part is that all the monies earned go toward our adoption fund to bring our little girl home.  Both the widow and the orphan are taken care of. Please let us know if you would like to be a part of our team.
















Thursday, March 7, 2013

A Roman Viking Medieval Story


Far, far away lived a Roman Viking Medieval king.  He ruled his kingdom with dignity and humor.  He was but a rich man with many horses and chariots and a fabulous medieval castle with all the plastic accessories any Roman Viking Medieval king could possibly need.  The king was most excited to receive the news that the noble Kohler family had gotten there new adoption number for the month of February.  He enlisted the most talented painter to paint the number 107 and called all his people to celebrate.  The merriment lasted for days until the dastardly Lego guys broke up the fun.  Then mom said to clean up these toys or I'm going to suck them up with my vacuum (and you know my Dyson will suck them up!!)


February's Number is brought to you by Elias........107.  

Thursday, January 24, 2013

New Year of Transformation



My Utmost for His Highest


Transformed by Beholding

The greatest characteristic a Christian can exhibit is this completely unveiled openness before God, which allows that person’s life to become a mirror for others. When the Spirit fills us, we are transformed, and by beholding God we become mirrors. You can always tell when someone has been beholding the glory of the Lord, because your inner spirit senses that he mirrors the Lord’s own character. Beware of anything that would spot or tarnish that mirror in you. It is almost always something good that will stain it— something good, but not what is best.
The most important rule for us is to concentrate on keeping our lives open to God. Let everything else including work, clothes, and food be set aside. The busyness of things obscures our concentration on God. We must maintain a position of beholding Him, keeping our lives completely spiritual through and through. Let other things come and go as they will; let other people criticize us as they will; but never allow anything to obscure the life that “is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). Never let a hurried lifestyle disturb the relationship of abiding in Him. This is an easy thing to allow, but we must guard against it. The most difficult lesson of the Christian life is learning how to continue “beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord . . . .”

Friday, November 30, 2012

October's Number

Please forgive the delay of our monthly number due to technical problems (Mac was in the shop.)  Along with the monthly number is a photo of one of the beautiful guitars my husband builds.

October's number is......   117.  Yes, this month we moved one place.


Sunday, October 7, 2012

September's official number is...


Our new official number for September is....118.  We have decided to have a different family member choose creative ways to show our monthly number on the wait list and this is Ivory's month.

I also have something pretty for you.  We had the pleasure of attending a little ones 1st birthday and I made one of my Birthday hats for her.  So fun.




Thursday, September 20, 2012

Dossier Done!!!! #122


Woo Hoo!!!!  We did it.  Our Dossier is in and we are officially on the waiting list.....

We are number 122 for our precious girl (age 0-3) 

Friday, May 25, 2012

What's going on with our adoption?

Photo by Brenda
An  adoption update.  We made an official decision to pursue adoption in Ethiopia in summer of 2011.  We took care of a few loose ends and payed off some debt.  Then we officially signed up with All God's Children International adoption agency on December 31, 2011 to pursue some worthwhile debt.  For the last 3 months we have been on the home study "paper chase".  We are happy to announce that our home study is completed and sent off to our Social worker.  Whew!! This was much more involved and required more than our domestic adoption home study.  Once we receive our notarized home study we send it off to USCIS and wait for our finger printing date in LA.  After USCIS sends us our approval then we take that and put it with home-study and other documents  that make up our Dossier.  We hope to have this all completed by the end of June.  Then we wait 20 plus months for a referral of our little girl anywhere from the age of  newborn to 3 years old.  Yes....it's a girl.  

Some of the paper work...
Trusting God with all our heart,
The Kohler Family



Tuesday, February 14, 2012

A Different kind of Valentine


This Valentine's Day I didn't get a box of chocolates or flowers.  There wasn't a silly stuffed animal in pink of red holding a heart and singing songs or a frou frou card to say, "I love you!".  It's not that I have anything against those things....I just happen to be a practical gal and didn't get any of those things for him.  Tonight the  bank teller asked, "Do you have any Valentine's plans?"
I kindly replied, "No, I'll be at Awana's tonight with 2 of my kids." : )

And as I drove away and headed to the post office to send off our adoption fingerprints to the FBI and his passport renewal I got a big smile and thought of the wonderful Valentine's gift my husband is.  Here is a man who is taking this journey of adoption again and this time half way across the world.  Here is a man who truly loves God and has taken such wonderful care of me and my children.

Happy Valentines Day, Chris!  and thanks for taking the silly picture above with me.

Monday, February 6, 2012

The Heart of it



Now this is a reason to make jewelry.  This is what makes me smile and happy to be a part of etsy and this blog world where God brings us all together.  I had the honor of donating this piece for a fundraiser for this lovely family who are adopting there sweet little girl, Shannon from Bulgaria.  It's beautiful to be a part of bringing their girl home.  Lord, thank you and bless them richly.

Russian hand painted brooch with fresh water pearls, black spinel gemstones, rhinestone rondelles, sterling silver chain and clasp.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Thursday, December 1, 2011

How to Make Large Prop book


I know you all asking yourselves, "How do I make a very large fake prop book for my daughter's Christmas play?"  Well you are in luck.  I learned how to do this from the help from Dave Lowe (he was kind enough to share on his blog to help out this Mom)  Thanks Dave.  Here's my Tuesday Tutorial on Thursday.  Or presenting Thursday Tutorial....

Onward.  First start with foam core and cut front, back and binding.  Take chipboard (thin dense cardboard like on the back of paper pad) and use that to cut embellishments, strips on binding and raised middle.  Make sure it fits together then glue with spray mount.  I also added cut down furniture nail heads to the 4 embellishments in the corners with glue gun (seen in the next pic).



Next you will decoupage paper towels to your book with watered down Matte Modge Podge and let dry.  This gives a textured and weathered look.  When it's dry tape together on the inside and use glue gun if needed on the outside.


Now we add gold paint and let dry.  Then stipple and wipe off burgandy paint to give a distressed look.  Then use stickers or your handydandy Cricket to cut out the title of the book and glue on.  Also add holly to the corners because it's a Christmas play and The nice Director wants holly.  Then take your Mod Podge and decoupage the whole book to give nice matte protection.  When it's dry glue in fake pages that have been crumpled and distressed with ink on the edges.


And here is the finished prop on stage.  Isn't that stage warm and cozy?  Makes me want some hot chocolate.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Cardboard box, tape and some paint



Look at this supper cool car that my brilliant husband built for Elias' Awanas Drive In Movie Night. This night is so much fun for the kids because they get to play games, parade, eat, and watch a movie in their cardboard box cars. Can you say over achiever.....really this doesn't look like a box to me.
And I had to share Ivory's Awana box car Airstream from 2006 also built by Chris and painting and images by me. Don't you love the picture of us looking out the back? It's a real photo blown up.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Orphan Sunday....today!



Faces of Adoption from Videos for AGCI on Vimeo.

This is video from our adoption agency, All Gods Children International with Matthew West's song, "One Less."

Today is Orphan Sunday. Orphan Sunday is a call to the Church for awakening and action on the part of the orphan. What can you do?

Friday, August 26, 2011

Fabulous Coffee

Announcing our new online coffee shop:

justlovecoffee.com/TheKohlers

We will admit that we are coffee snobs. We own our own Expresso machine that gets used twice a day and even more if friends or family stop by. We even call the machine by name....Expobar. If it wasn't so big, we would take it with us on our vacations in our trailer. That being said, we are serious about coffee and always on the lookout for superb coffee beans that give a bold shot of espresso with rich and lovely crema. Well we have found the ultimate roaster with superb beans!! Even organic coffee beans (organic is the way to go if you are going to be drinking this much coffee : ) The 3 coffees that we sampled were all wonderful. This is top quality Fair Trade, mircro-batch roasted deliciousness. We are happy to be partnering with Just Love Coffee Roasters in our adoption fundraising efforts.

A little about Just Love Coffee from their website:
Love kids? Love coffee? We do too. There are an estimated 143,000,000 orphans in the world and this number is expected to grow. Rob Webb, founder of Just Love Coffee Roasters, knows personally how expensive the adoption process is. The thought of having to raise tens of thousands of dollars to adopt a child is staggering to many. It can be the obstacle that stands in the way of a family's commitment to adopt, and many times slows down the process of bringing an adoptive family's child(ren) home. Many people don't know where to start. Just Love Coffee Roasters wants to be that starting point for raising money to help unite the families with their children.

We have set up a online coffee shop and we are selling bags of coffee for $13-$14 for 13oz. bag plus shipping. The beans are for drip and espresso and come ground or whole bean with over 18 to choose from. (The shipping is the same if you buy 1 or two bags.)


Friday, July 1, 2011

The Call

God gives us each a passion, a gift, a calling. For each of us it looks different. We cannot ignore it…He calls us. We press on forward trusting our sweet Father and listening to his voice. Only He can give us the faith and perseverance to walk it out. And so we step out in faith.

Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love God. 1 Corinthians 2:9

Our hearts ache for the fatherless. 147 MILLION ORPHANS. Fatherless, Motherless. Our Arms are open. Our hearts are open.

Ethiopia, Africa. God lead us. Friends pray for us

This blog of mine...


Oh this blog of mine. It sits so quiet. So neglected. I hesitate what to write. What to share. Afraid to say the wrong thing. Do I have anything to say worthy of your time? Maybe. I think the problem has been on keeping reserved and not writing from the heart. This is after all a journal of sorts documenting this precious life that God has given me for just this time. But I do confess that this journaling/writing thing does not come easy to me. I have never kept a paper journal. Talking, sharing my heart face to face is what I am good at. And so I will have to write as if I am talking with friends and family. Not get caught up in the typed words on this screen. Here we go....


And the random photo of the earrings is to keep things creative and pretty here. Every blog post needs a photo! I made these for a dear friend (they were a gift from her lovely husband.) They are fashioned with amazonite stones, vintage shell rosary and sterling silver accents.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

What I am listening to....

This so deeply touches my heart.


Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Chickens...a year later.






A year ago we began with 10 chickens and now have ended with 5 hens (2 Ameraucana, 2 Buff Orpingtons and one super cute white Silkie) and of course a beautiful coop the husband built. We are enjoying our delicious organic eggs and silly little hens.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Thankful.....

I'm thankful for 3 months, 3 birthdays and 3 wonderful kids.


Friday, April 1, 2011

My daughter and her random photography of our kitchen








There's more were these came from...my computer is full of these random photos including photos of all the food in our fridge and cabinets.