We are finally done with the wait!

We finally feel we have received a firm direction from the Lord! As you know the Lord has put outreach very heavily on our hearts. We had originally felt that the outreach He had for us, was mission work in Haiti. But after several encouragements and also some setbacks, He suddenly opened another door, we would never have seen, had we not been following His leading to Haiti. We have been so blessed by the outpouring of love that all of you have shown the Lord and to us with your support and prayers.

During these tough economic times, we have been so amazed by the monetary blessings that those of you who were able, have provided. As we will feel the Lord has opened a new door for missions in Ellensburg and closed the one to Haiti, we would humbly ask, that with your permission, you would consider allowing us to use the resources to help in the new mission field the Lord has put on our hearts.

To explain a little more about the new adventure the Lord is taking us on, I will tell you about how he brought us to it .

In early February, a friend who had been staying with us to rent the house while we were in Haiti, had matter of factly told us, that some people very dear to her in Ellensburg were looking to find a Pastor, for a group of people desiring to transform their Bible Study into a church. “Pastor Tony” from Yakima, had been helping them to find the right person to shepherd them. He happened to be a friend of our Pastor in Everett. Our Pastor encouraged Tadd to talk to Tony. Tadd gave him a call and He asked if he could come and teach on February 5th. We went down and were so blessed by the people and what the Lord was doing there. Tony called and asked us to come back on March 5th and teach again. We were even more blessed and after the teaching, Pastor Tony came and told us they would like to have us come down and Pastor their group! We were so blessed, overwhelmed, scared, humbled and excited, but very comforted by the fact that the Lord is capable, even though we are not.

We are now in the process of looking for a house to rent in Ellensburg, a job for Tadd (as the Church is just starting out, this is currently not a paid position). We are so thankful for those of you would were able to support us and would be so grateful if you would consider allowing your support to be used to relocate our family and aide in the start of this fresh new work that the Lord is doing in Ellensburg. We of course would understand if you had intended the finances to be used for missions abroad in Haiti. We would love to direct you to viable ministries in Haiti or if you have a different ministry you would like to support, we would be happy to return your check to you. We would very much appreciate a timely response, as we are anxious begin the new work the Lord has laid in front of us. You may contact us by phone at 360-398-7112 or e-mail at tncscheffer@hotmail.com also snail mail at 5556 Guide Meridian, Bellingham WA 98226. As always you can stay updated about what the Lord is doing in our lives, by going to www.gracecasechronicles.blogspot.com Thank you so much for your willingness to serve the Lord and be tools for His work.

In Him,

Tadd and Charity Scheffer

Looking forward

Well, after our last post, we had some great friend call and say they would be willing to provide the rest of the air fare we would need to get to Haiti. The Lord is so Amazing! Since we commited to teach in Ellensburg, prior to the Lord providing the money to move to Haiti, we will honor that commitment and see what the Lord does. If we have learned anything over the last six months, it's to leave all our options open and let the Lord direct us where He will. If Ellensburg is not what He has for us right now, we will head toward Haiti, as that is where his provision seems to be for now.

I think so much about all of our family and friend who are praying for us and supporting us and imagining how crazy this must be for you as you aren't sure what is going on in our lives until we talk to you or post. Usually by the time we do that, things have turned into a whole different picture than the last time. We want to thank you so much for your patience and compasion as this ride may be more crazy for you than us, as we see every step that the Lord is taking to get us where He wants, but when you are a Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt, Uncle, close friend or part of our church body. It is hard to get used to the idea of having your loved ones move far away to a foreign country, then get used to the possibility of them maybe not going, then throwing a whole other option into the mix.

Our lives go through very stable times and then crazy times. I think the Lord just wants to make sure we don't get to comfortable and forget we need to be willing to do whatever he calls us to, whenever he needs us to. We do understand, that as an on looker it can be very frustrating. We hope that God has given you the patience He has given us and that it has been a growing experience for you also.

God is so good to use the hard times to help us lean on Him and then He use that special time with Him, to teach us and comfort us. We pray that you have seen His amazing compasion and love, as we have over the last couple months and we will continue to see as long as we turn our faces to Him. May God bless your day and week.

We don't know the destination, but we've got a great travel agent!

Well, for any of you who love to be scheduled, have "all of your ducks in a row" and have a "back up plan". You should not read this post, it could make you immensly frustrated.

It has been a couple of weeks since we were blessed with enough money to go Haiti for 3 months, but we just needed enough money for the three extra plane tickets there and back for the extra 2 kids and parent. Our whole Haiti experience for the last 6 months has been a roller coaster of just trusting the Lord and seeing what he brings with each new day.

We first started our Haiti quest hoping to leave by last September. Then Tadd's brother got engaged and set a date for the end of November. We decided to stay for that and leave in Mid-December.

By end of December we did not have enough money to go and no one to rent our house. After a couple of weeks of waiting to see if we would be blessed with the funds to go, we decided no new funds had come in and so we needed to make a decision. We decided that since we had not seen the Lord's provision in the last couple of weeks, we would start making a move to stay hear and seek employment again. The next day our missionary friends we would be renting an apartment from in Haiti, called and said some missionary friends of theirs were taking a year off and wanted to store their furniture and let us rent it very cheaply. This cut a lot of the costs of moving to Haiti, so we thought maybe the Lord was telling us we needed to hold on a little longer and see what He would do, since He had helped us with this big break through.

A couple more weeks went by and no new funds came in and still we had no one to rent our house. We had thought that the furniture thing may have just been a coinsidence and maybe the Lord was telling us to move away from the idea of missions in Haiti. The next day someone told us they wanted to rent the house. So we felt maybe the Lord was telling us we gave up too soon and He possibly just wanted us to wait on him a litte longer and He would provide the money now that we had a renter. We waited another 2 or 3 weeks and still nothing. No more funds had come, so we decided to start getting used to the idea of staying here. The next day we had a huge financial blessing from some wonderful friends came in and that gave us enough money to secure a 3 month stay. We were back in the waiting, and figuring the Lord must have again, been trying to tell us to stay patient, He had provided the money to live there and He was definantly capable of providing the plane fare.

We waited another few weeks and in those weeks the Lord brought this Ellensburg opportunity to us and last Friday the Pastor that is helping the Ellensburg group out, called and said the group really enjoyed Tadd's teaching and enjoyed getting to know us better at the Pot Luck. They invited him back to teach on March 5th. They wanted Tony, (the pastor helping them out) to meet us, since he was in Israel when we went last time. The next day (of course) Tadd and I were talking and decided that the Lord must be taking us out of the direction of Haiti, as we have not gotten any further toward purchasing our plane tickets and He had possibly brought another opportunity in Ellensburg. Wouldn't you know it,Sunday evening some very Godly people blessed us with 1/2 of the money for our plane tickets to Haiti. God is amazingly good at providing for us and building our faith by showing us, we need to stop thinking and keep trusting.

Needless to say we are taking everything day by day and trusting that even though we don't know what lies ahead for us. The Lord does and as long as we hang with him, we will be where He is and that is the only place we want to be. I feel bad for Tadd and the kids as I am the one in our family who has always been so scheduled and such a planner. I need to know the plan and schedule what ever is coming up next. So I am so thankful to the Lord that he has used this whole experience to loosen my control on what I think I need to know and to build my trust in His provision and plan. I am just sorry Tadd and the kids had to go through my teaching time.

We will keep you updated as to what the Lord is doing, but know that if you feel left out of the loop, it is usually because we have no idea what the future holds either and the Lord has been faithful to help us be OK with that. Just last night I was driving home thinking if the Lord had allowed us to go to Haiti in September, like we had origianally planned or even December. For the origianl 6 months we had planned. We would have been coming home this month or in April. We would have had to leave with out our kids. It would have broken all of our hearts to have had them live with us like a family in Haiti for 6 months and then put them back in the orphanage and head home. I love how the Lord shows me these kinds of things, as if to say, "See I do know what I am doing, my plans are not your plans and mine are always better. I am so blessed to have such a great God who cares so much for me, there is no end to how many times a day he shows me.

Tadd though it would be a good idea to go a little old school with the pictures this time and show you our babies, as babies, for those of you who have not had the pleasure. I thought it was a great idea! Love you all! Enjoy!

Isaiah was mad at us (in the one below) for taking away his sunglasses to take a picture.

Can you have "God is Good" as your blog title, too much?

Our family was so blessed this weekend. We traveled to Ellensburg on Thursday and on the way down noticed Kenya was starting a fever. We debated about wether we should just turn around and leave Charity and the kids at home, since with Kenya sick, they would just be spending the whole weekend in the condo we were staying at. We decided against turning around because of time limitations and pressed on to the condo. Charity had been sick a week or two ago and it started the same way as Kenya's fever did, so we figured Kenya was in for the same week long illness. Charity was pretty bummed she would miss Tadd's teaching Thursday night and then the Potluck scheduled for friday night, then all this to just turn around and head back without meeting anyone down there. Needless to say we did lots of praying and when Tadd told people in Ellensburg that Kenya was sick, they prayed too. By 9:00 that night, her fever was gone and Kenya was running around the condo playing "doggy" with Elijah. (proof God is Good #1).

Friday we spent the day in Ellensburg with our friends Tonia and Trenton looking around the town and catching up. Then friday night we went to Paul and Suzie's house for a Potluck with some people from the church. We got ther at 6:00 and didn't leave till 10:30 feeling like we had just spent the evening with people we had been friends with forever. (God is Good #2).

We drove home and spent Saturday unpacking and getting ready for Sunday Children's Ministry at Calvary Everett. Sunday morning we drove to Everett and had a wonderful AM service with the kids, followed by the PM service at 6:00. Pastor Ken was out of town and had asked Tadd and our friend Nick (who is in ministry there also) to give their testimonies. Tadd shared about how he came to have a relationship with the Lord, and then he shared a little about our adoption journey. I was back in children's ministry, when a mom came back and said, "I am so sorry you have been through so much with your adoption, we are also adopting from Haiti". She went on to tell me about their amazing adoption story, it was so encouraging to hear that someone has gone through the same things we have and how the Lord has been so faithful to them also. (God is Good #3) Please pray for them also, their names are Chris and Kirsten Brady and they have been in the adoption process for a year and a half. Adopting 3, 3 year olds!!!

Thier blog is fireballbrady.blogspot.com if you wanna check out their adoption journey.

The Lord continually amazes us with how he specifically puts people in our path to encourage and love on us. He has blessed us this weekend with so many new friends that we have so much in common with. It is hard to understand how you can meet people with so many of the same experiences and know that it could only be God, bringing you together to encourage one another. Even though He does not have to give us those people, He loves us so much, He know it will bring joy to our heart to share with others and so miraclously, he brings your paths together. Thank you Lord for knowing what our hearts need and blessing us, by meeting those needs.

Here are couple of random pictures of Elijah in his new Gymnastics class, which he loves. Yes that is Elijah trying to get out of the foam cubes pit.

Also a couple, of the kids shooting hoops and playing soccer with Dad.

Work'in it out

Here are some pictures of Kenya Gymnastics and Elijah's Karate. They are really enjoying themselves. Elijah has decided, since it is time to see if he wants to take Karate again or do something different, that he would like to stop doing Karate and try Gymnastics. I think he thought Gymnastics looked like it had more things to play with than Karate. So he starts next monday and we will see how it goes.











Tadd's Grandma passed away this week and so we are preparing for family gatherings and a funeral. She was a great woman and definantly loved the Lord with all of her heart. We are so happy to know she is in Heaven with Our Lord and as Elijah puts it, "She can fly and do what ever she wants now, with Jesus." It's good to know your kids know, that if you have accepted the Lord as your personal Savior, Death is not the end, it's just the start of a new beginning. Please pray that all would go well with the arrangements and the Love of Jesus would be felt by all, as that is how Grandma lived her life.

We still have not gotten any closer to getting plane tickets to Haiti, so we are waiting on the Lord to see if He will provide a way, in the next couple of weeks. If not we will see where He leads us from there. Tadd has been given the opportunity to teach in Ellensburg next Thursday. As the Calvary Chapel there has been without a Pastor for about a year and some good friends of ours thought he would be a good candidate, so we will drive down and meet the people attending there and then teach that night at their mid-week service. We would appreciate your prayers for a safe drive as we will have to leave directly after Tadd's Grandma's funeral and try to get there in record time, to make it by the 7:00 meeting time. Please continue to pray for both this opportunity and Haiti and that the Lord will make His will, Our will and He will make His direction clear as we seek Him. Thank you for all your prayers. God Bless.

How to beat the winter duldrums

The winter cabin fever has set in over the past month or so with all of the cold weather. We have been de-void of some much needed fresh air and muscle movement. So we had a teletubby work out session with Cade and Kota (cousins) on Saturday. Yes teletubbies are a little young for my kids but when they saw it they couldn't stop laughing at how silly they looked. So I figured we'll do the teletubby work out and get some extra ab exercise in while they were laughing so hard.



Then we got all the build a bears out that Grandma and Grandpa provided, by way of Gift Certificates, for Christmas.


Followed by some brain marshmellow time on the DS, that Elijah gets so excited when Kota brings it over.


The 15th was Isaiah's Birthday and the "House Mom" who has blessed us and him so much, took him out for his birthday and here is a clip she e-mailed me after they got back.

"I just wanted to let you know that Isaiah had a wonderful birthday yesterday. He and Johnkeng ( whose birthday it is today) each selected one friend and I took the four boys to EpiDor ( our version of McDonalds) and they ate cheeseburgers, fries, and cokes and then got a cake with their NAME written on it. It was fun to see the satisfaction of having their names written down. None of the boys had been out to this particular restaurant ( which has air conditioning) and they were all freezing and wanting to go outside in the warmth after 45 minutes!! Made me laugh! Isaiah got car sick on the way home from eating too much :)
I just had a boy throw up all over my car last week ( as many of them get carsick because they rarely, if ever ride in cars) and I told Isaiah playfully that if they keep throwing up in my car, I'm going to stop taking them places... at that point Isaiah quickly put away the barf bag and insisted he was just fine!! "

We are so blessed to have Shelley and Clay taking care of Isaiah in the Boys home. I think this is the first birthday Isaiah has actually celebrated on his actual birthday, with items specifically for him. Because of the large size of the 2 houses (girls and baby house and then the boys home) it is not possible to celebrate each childs birthday on the day it accures. So if they have time and means they have 1 birthday celebration a month for all the kids who celebrated birthdays in that month. And it is pretty low key because of limited funds and availability of special items to celebrate with. Since Shelley and Clay moved into the boys home in July they have treated each boy special and as one of their own. They take the time to special order and gain support to get the extra items that aren't necessities, but that really make the boys feel special. God is so good and is so faithful to bless us with more than we could ever imagine.

We are getting very excited, we are so blessed by the support that people have so generously blessed us with. It looks like we will be able to go to Haiti for 2-3 months, instead of the originally planned 4-6 months. We really feel more at ease with the shorter stay, as we are told if all starts moving more steadily in the adoption offices, it is possible we could bring the kids home by late April or there abouts. We also would not have as much to take over and would not have to worry about renting our house, just getting more of a house sitter. Which the Lord has already provided. Now that we have the amount needed to live and minister in Haiti, we need to purchase plane tickets for 4 of us to fly to Haiti and (hopefully 6) to fly back. We have had some money put away for tickets, but not the full amount needed. We know that the Lord can provide this, as he has already been so faithful to provide the support for us to minister in Haiti as a family. If you would join us in praying for the Lord to add to his provision and provide tickets for us to get to Haiti, we would be very blessed.

Thank you agian to all of you who have continually supported us in prayer and monitary needs. We are always in awe of what the Lord does. He has been showing us over and over agian in the last couple of months, how he has kept us and blessed us in ways we never even knew, as we have gone through this adoption process. He truly is Our: Strong Tower , Provider, Comforter, Protector, Advocate, Keeper, Peacemaker, Foundation, Teacher, Deliverer, Hope, Healer, Abba Father, Best Friend, Our All in All, Our Everything! We pray that all of you, along with us, could remember that, every minute of everyday, it would save me so much worry and frustration, sadness and sorrow. God Bless you all and may you be blessed by what He does in your life today and every day there after.

Well, we are back into the swing of things. We started school again today (much to kenya and elijah's dismay)


And even worse, it started off with a bad hair day for Kenya. She got over it by about 3:00 when she went with Elijah to his first Karate Lesson and her Gymnastics Lessons.


We had been holding off on getting them involved in any extra curricular things, as we weren't sure when we were going to Haiti. We have someone coming to look at the house hopefully tomorrow and see if it is something that will work for their family to rent while they are looking for a house to buy. We figure we will get the kids in something and if we have to pull them out, it will not be to tramatic. Thank you for your continued prayer as we continue to seek the Lord and go where we feel He is leading us. We will keep you updated and as always you are all in our prayers.