My father died, unexpectedly, Sunday a.m. He and my mom were married for 53 years and have lived with our family for over ten years. Please pray for all of us as we grieve his loss.


In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the ABBA Fund- earmark your donations for the Walter Horton fund.

We are setting up a Grandpa Horton "zipper" fund to offer perpetual adoption loans for families adopting "heart babies" from China. My father had open-heart surgery in 1996, and he and Sarah Mei often "discussed" their matching zippers from surgery.

We know we serve a good and sovereign God who is holding us all in His hands.

Automate Your Monthly Payments

I thought I'd pass along my favorite simplifying hint for finances...automate your monthly payments. I understand the time/value of money. I know by automating your monthly payments you might lose a few days of earning interest on your own money. But lets' face it...in today's economy, with the extremely low interest rates, simplifying my life is more important than the few pennies a month I lose in interest.

I first read about this idea in David Bach's book, The Automatic Millionaire.


After reading his book, I automated all of our regular monthly payments:

Telephone
Electricity
Mortgage Payment
Auto Insurance Payments
Life Insurance Premiums

The only monthly check I write is our tithe check.

It's great peace of mind to know everything is paid, and it saves me a few hours a month in writing bills, etc.

Just a note...our finanicial fast didn't include our automated payments:)

Chenzhou Sisters Reunion

Sunday we were blessed to be able to travel to Columbia to visit Sarah Mei's Chenzhou sisters. Lanie, Lilly and Sarah Mei shared the first 16 months of their lives, together, in the Chenzhou orphanage. We live within a two hour radius and are so blessed to be able to get the girls together!!

We had a GREAT lunch...thanks Bryants for the BBQ and banana pudding!! And a wonderful time of fellowship.

The exciting news is the Bryants brought home their 6th child (2nd from China), Ellie, last year. The Barbee's are paperchasing for their new daughter, Mia, waiting in China. And we're waiting to bring home Isabelle. Once we get all our girls home, we'll have a combined total of 16 children...7 adopted from China!!

Lanie and Sarah Mei share a hug.


Lanie and Sarah Mei ride the Bryants VERY patient donkey, Bradley!!


Lilly and Sarah Mei take a stroll.

Now for our financial update....
We were blessed with a dozen eggs from the Bryant family on Sunday, so supper last night was egg salad sandwiches, chips and fruit. We did not spend any money on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday...phew, only 22 more days left in our September financial fast.

Saturday Shopping Deals

I made my bargain shopping circuit and visited CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid and Food Lion. With a little preparation last night...matching coupons with sales fliers...I made the trip in just 2 and 1/2 hours and that was with Sarah Mei in tow.

I've been honing my skills, over the last two years, at using coupons and sales match-ups to try to maximize our spending power. If you're like me, I only shopped at Walmart, before, for my toiletry items. Now I do the majority of my shopping at the 3 drug stores (mentioned above) and do much better with their coupon deals. It takes patience, a willingness to stock up on items during sales cycles, and lots of trial and error, but it's well worth the effort. My favorite blog about couponing is written by a young mom with 3 children...very wise for her age...check it out www.moneysavingmom.com

Now for my deals:

I divided my CVS transactions into 2 seperate groupings in order to maximize a $5/$25 coupon and a $5/$30 coupon that I had from CVS. In the 1st transaction I bought the items in the above photo, spent $8.17 from a $25 gift card (that I earned by transfering a prescription)and aftering mailing in a rebate form, I'll get a $10 Swiffel gift card by mail. That's a net profit of $1.83...not bad.



The 2nd transaction at CVS included some 75% off summer items along with a few non-sale items that I just neeeded. I spent $21.16 using the balance of the 1st gift card and a partial 2nd gift card (that I also earned by transfering a prescription.) Net spent out of pocket: $0 and I earned $2.50 in ECB's (ECB's print at the end of your CVS receipt and spend like cash the next time you shop.)


Next I went to Walgreen's and purchased the above items...the toothbrush was free with Walgreen's register rewards and the other items cost a total of $6.36. (The cheese came out to $3/lb. which is a pretty good deal for cheese.)


Next stop...RiteAid. Again I had a $5/$25 coupon that allowed me to buy some items that weren't on a great sale. I bought all the above items and spent $17.21 which...you guessed it...came off a gift card from a prescription transfer. I'll also file for a monthly rebate check (last month I got a check from RiteAid for over $30)from this transaction I'll earn $3.50 towards my monthly check.

My final stop was Food Lion. After the $6.00 spent at Walgreens on cheese & soup, $2.00 Phil spent on a tea this morning at his Men's Bible Study, and do I dare say it...my $4.00 Starbucks (gasp!!)...I had $28.00 left to spend on our weekly groceries to meet our $40/week grocery goal. I spent $25.06 at Food Lion and was pretty happy with the deals that I got there.

Obviously we are using food items that we have in our freezer and pantry to augment our weekly grocery trips. Our biggest challenges are milk (we only buy organic and it's over $5.00/gallon) and fresh produce. Thankfully an Aldi grocery store, just a few miles from our home, is supposed to open sometime in the next week or two. That will be a HUGE help to our grocery budget.

Summary for the Day: Spent $37.06 on groceries!!

Thanks for following along. And if you haven't tried couponing...give it a try!!

Raleigh, A Children's Museum & Our Financial Fast Update

Wednesday, as I posted previously, AnnaGrace, Sarah Mei and I made the 3 hour drive to Raleigh to have our adoption documents authenticated. We arrived in Raleigh at 9:30 a.m. (the documents had to be in the Secretary of State's office by 10 a.m.) The officer informed me that we could pick the completed documents at 2:30 p.m. I saw signs pointing to a Children's Museum, just a few blocks from the Secretary of State's office. I threw up a prayer asking God to make it affordable and walked inside. Praise God they had a home school special...teacher's (that's me) got in free and it was only $4/child. I decided to spend the $8.00 and we spent the next 4 hours in the most incredible children's interactive play area/museum!! If you're ever in Raleigh, it's a must see if you have children 10 or under.


After picking up the documents, I was disappointed to discover that 2 of our documents had to be redone...that's when I caved on our financial fast....walking in the flesh...sigh. I booked a hotel room (it was free with points we had accumulated) but I bought a Starbucks coffee (true confessions) and ordered a pizza. Total in the hole for the day: $31.00

The good news...my sweet husband had the 2 documents redone, so they were waiting and ready when I got home yesterday. Yesterday at 4:30 p.m. all our documents were overnighted to Raleigh and/or Washington D.C. to a courier who will hand carry everything to the U.S. State Dept. and the Chinese Consulate. Lord-willing they will ALL be back in our hands by next Friday and then we can overnight them to our adoption agency.

In addition to completing the 2 adoption documents, Phil made 2 returns and bought me 3 red roses with part of the proceeds. His note to be was "Just Because I Love You." How sweet is that! After 22 years of marriage, it just keeps getting better!

Our Net Financial Outgo since Sept. 1st: $6.00 (after expenditures and reimbursements from returns).

Tomorrow I get to go grocery shopping with our $40 weekly budget (part of our financial fast.) I am busily cutting out coupons and matching them with the store sales fliers. I'll let you know how it goes...tomorrow.

One Additional Praise....God met our needs in the most unexpected way yesterday. I received an e-mail from another adoptive mom with a heart of gold. She said she had dress shoes that her girls had hardly worn and aren't using, and she's shipping them to us!! We truly do serve an awesome God who provides abundantly more than we ask or expect. Ashley...THANKS just isn't adequate for your sweet gift to us. I pray God's rich blessings on your family as you continue the adoption of your son!! Check out her beautiful family at her blog.

When I first received the e-mail my reaction (again...in the flesh) was that's nice but I wanted to dismiss the offer (not because I wasn't THRILLED with the offer...but quite frankly due to pride...it's SO much harder to receive than give.) Last night as I read another chapter in Adopted for Life by Russell D. Moore

a statement he made, concerning his own pride in accepting help when they were adopting, convicted me..."Maybe you just need to repent of your pride and self-confidence and just let somebody bless you." Ashley...thanks for blessing us!!

Thank you Lord!!

Right after I posted the last post, I opened my purse and unzipped a small pocket and lo and behold there were 3 - $1.00 bills in it. I NEVER keep any money in that pocket and have no idea why it was there. God, in His goodness, knew I needed encouragement today! We ended up at ZERO for our first day of our financial fast...instead of in the red.

Thank You Lord for being intimately involved in the details of our day to day lives!! To God be the Glory!

Tomorrow the girls and I get to drive to Raleigh to hand deliver some of our adoption documents to the Secretary of State for authentication. It's about a 3 hour drive, each way, but will save 3-4 days in processing time. Every day counts for our Isabelle!!

Day 1 - Financial Fast

O.k. for some reason I feel a great accountability to our financial fast because I've committed to disclosing our victories and failings with you, our blog audience.

So here's a summary of Day 1:

I had to get creative today because I needed to buy a ball (that one of our girl's OT said she needed for core strengthening)and some s'more ingredients for a cook-out we're attending on Sunday.

Allow me to digress for a moment...We're REALLY looking forward to our Sunday outing because we're getting together with Sarah Mei's Chenzhou sisters, Lilly and Lanie. The girls grew up together in China before they were joined with their forever families. We adopted the girls just weeks apart and are blessed to live within a 2 hour radius. Check out Lilly and Laine's family's blogs!!

Back to our financial summary:

I returned 2 pillowcase covers that I purchased and decided I wasn't going to use and received a $18.04 refund. With the refund amount I purchased the ball, graham crackers, and chocolate bars...all for $19.11. I scrounged around for some change in the bottom of my purse and it was an even exchange. Victory #1

A small set-back...I take part in a great book exchange called Paperback Swap. I LOVE books and try to purchase only ones that I know I want to keep; however, occasionally one will come home, and I'll decide it's not a keeper. When this happens I post them on the Paperback Swap site. Once a request comes in for my book, I ship it and get a credit to purchase any other book (for free) on the site. Basically you get books for the cost of postage - $2.38. It's a great program and works almost flawlessly. That brings me to our 1st small set-back...Another member accidentally sent me a book designated for another member, so I agreed to pay the shipping to forward it and in exchange I got an extra "free book" credit. That's great but I had to pay $2.38 out of pocket, today, for postage...sigh.

Summary of Day 1 - In the red - $2.38

I know these details are riveting...just humor me as I hold myself accountable by posting for all the world to see.

As the summer recedes into our memory...and our homeschool is now in full-swing...enjoy a few photos from a day at the beach this summer...

30 Day Financial Fast

In preparation for our upcoming adoption of Isabelle...our family is taking a 30 day financial fast. We did this once, about 6 years ago, and found it very interesting and challenging!

So here are the rules for our personal 30 day fast....NO SPENDING except for the following:

Gas

Groceries - limit of $40/week (for milk, produce and the bare necessities.)

Garage Sales - the sales are GREAT this time of year, and it's how I outfit our girls so we'll still be going to garage sales on Saturday morning.

Adoption Costs

Other than that, we'll be content with all the blessings God has provided us.

We'll finish up projects that need to be done with all the time saved from running errands.

We'll get creative in meeting unexpected expenses.

We'll brave the fashion police....let me explain. The girls still have only their white sandals for church. We usually switch to our black shoes around Labor Day. I must confess that I was tempted to run out, yesterday, and buy everyone their winter shoes...but that seemed like cheating on the financial fast....so we're going to brave the fashion police and wear our summer shoes for a month longer!! In the scheme of eternity, does it really matter??

We're going to learn to lean on the Lord instead of our own financial means.

So if you're feeling brave and/or inspired...why don't you join our 30 day Financial Fast Challenge and let me know how it goes!! (And if you see us holding up signs that say "We'll work for food..." have mercy on us and throw us a morsel:) )