God has cleared our calendar!

SNOW DAY!!!!!!!!

God is so good!  After Derek and I went to our first appointment with the case worker for our homestudy, we left the office with an entire folder of paperwork to be filled out.  Hallie, our caseworker, bascially told us that the timing of this homestudy is up to us.  Some couples finish in a week whereas, others take months.  Well, being that God has spoken loudly and clearly, we both knew we had to get started.  The only issue was our booked calendars.  Both Derek and I teach and have after school obligations along with Ava's nightly homework so we felt a bit overwhelmed with finding the time to complete all the detailed paperwork.

This week we were abundantly blessed with a major snow storm in Tennessee.  School was cancelled all week for us, so we got right to business. The minute Ava went to bed, we got to business and completed all our paperwork in three days. Not only did we have time to work on our adoption homestudy, we found time to be a family and rest which is also a blessing.

I know this is God's work at hand and it is such a comforting feeling.  He is looking out for us and has totally given us answers to any challenges or obstacles we have faced so far.  We are taking one step at a time and trusting in HIM. 

Right now, our prayer is that this birthmother gets our profile in time and considers our family. 

Siblings are a blessing!

Here are my siblings with our father on Father's Day.  My parents were married very young and started their family right away.  My brother, Josh, is 41 and has paved the way for my sister and I even though we are all very different.  He is super organized like my father, but also athletic/ and GQ I might add.  He taught me how to drive stick shift, how to run quickly in track, and took me to and from my job in college.  I totally leaned on him for many things growing up.   My sister, Wendy, is 4 years younger than me and is the musician/artist. All of us grew up on top of a Swiss style restaurant.  My parents ran the restaurant and we all started working at a young age. Wendy was probably the youngest at 3 years old. She would go from table to table offering the customers pudding pops from our family freezer upstairs.  I often watched her and made her play school with me for many years.  Us kids sure did learn the majority of our work ethic from these 5 years at the Chateau Dining and Cocktails.  Of course we had our sibling fights, but we are such a tight family and always have been.  Josh now works for the Rutherford school county as their TCAP/Safety Coordinator and married a sweet girl over 20 years ago named Cindy and they have two boys.  Wendy is still the artist helping musicians become famous, as Ava would say.  She just opened her own Music licensing company with my brother and his close friend.  She is married to a Texan, Drew and they have two boys as well. Wendy and Drew  convinced my family to all move to Nashville 7 years ago.  They were down here living the dream and we loved it.  My entire family picked up and moved the same month in 2007 from Wisconsin. The unique characteristic about our family is we love to DO life together.  We help each other out. We are cheerleaders for each other. We are very blessed and truly love being around each other.  

Every day I thank God for them.

Meet Mona and Boppa Folven

Mona and Boppa Folven

Meet the best in-laws I could ever ask for.  Mona's name is really Marcia but when Ian was little, he could not say Marcia so he called her Mona and it just stuck. Boppa is Boppa....well, it just fits him.  

One word to describe this set of grandparents is JOYFUL.

I have known this family since 1996 and truly feel blessed to be a Folven. Marcia is a great listener and truly just loves when the family is all together, so much that they moved south to be closer to everyone. Boppa loves to travel and help others. He keeps very busy. He goes fishing each year in Alaska where he has another home.  He sends us 50lbs of fish which is truly a blessing. They both travel often with my parents which is rare to see in-laws that are so close and truly love each other.  Angella and Mike are so much fun to be around and filled with giving hearts. They have helped us so many times in our life. Jeffrey is newly married and we love seeing them when they come north from Florida.

 

 Derek with his sister, Angella and his little brother, Jeff

 Ian is the oldest grandchild and Angella's first.

 Meet the new Nicky Folven.  Both Derek and Jeff married a girl with the same name and both are teachers.

Meet Aunt Angella, Uncle Mike, Ian and Garrett

Garrett is like Ava's twin.  He was born 20 days after Ava and they are the closest to siblings as you can get.  She loves when Mona brings him to TN to visit during the summer.

Meet the Mr. and Mrs.

Derek 39, High school English teacher

Niki 40, 7th grade science teacher

Married for 10 years; August 14th 2004

Met in Scotland on a study abroad program

We know the Lord brought us together that year in 1996.  We both traveled to Scotland to travel abroad. We lived and went to school in a castle called the Dalkeith House right outside of Edinburgh.  We both were born and raised in Wisconsin, our home towns 17miles apart.  I guess we had to travel across the country to meet.  Our relationship began as great friends and blossomed into a love that has bonded us together forever. We took God as our partner and let him guide us each and every day.  

Get a glimpse of Niki

  Niki gets permission from her principal to use her planning time to join Ava for her holiday parties!

As a family, we love to go hiking and biking to all the state parks in TN. We even take Hugo.

We have been bringing Ava with us canoeing/camping since she was 6 months old.

 I guess dressing up to teach Newton's Laws helped her earn Teacher of the Year. :)

 Arts and Crafts with the kids is where you will find her.

  This picture needs no description.....PURE LOVE!

 Niki is a baby magnet!  The babies love her! Lennon is the newest nephew!

Adventurous!  Ava will try anything new just like her mom. 

ROCK THE CAUSE....Katy Perry!  Not a day goes by during Spirit Week that Niki is not dressed up!

Instagram-nikikubs

I invite you to check out our Instagram.

She goes by nikikubs since her maiden name was Kubly.

My mom is crazy about taking pictures.

Get a glimpse at Derek

     He is a wonderful uncle!        He teaches Ava everything I could not.

                     He taught her how to shoot bow& arrow.  He cooks dinner almost every night.

                              He works the entire summer building decks to provide for our family.

                                                      Loves to take us to the drive-in movies

                                           He is super playful and loves to make Ava laugh!!

Meet the Kubly's

A growing family

Meet the Kubly's.  I feel truly blessed to be raised by these wonderful parents.  Over 25 years of marriage, God as their partner and family as their priority speaks volume.  The road for them has never been easy, but God has pathed the way.  They have always led by example.  I always knew I wanted to grow up and be just like my mom.  I also wanted to inherit my dad's quit wit to find deals, save money and make a way when every obstacles says it can't be done.  When we all decided to move to Tennessee 7 years ago, they followed and are apart of our daily lives.  They are there anytime we need them.  To me, that's what family is all about.  We can count on them! 

Maleficient Rules Again!

 Maleficient Rules again!

Tradition is what our family is all about. Ava Joelle will be the first one to tell a new friend about our fun traditions in our family. We love dressing up for Halloween Trick-or-Treating in our neighborhood.  Every year Ava gets to pick the theme our family will go as and yes, Hugo, always gets to play a part.  You can not tell that much from this picture but his wings are representing the raven.  Dad lucks out since most of Ava's themes need a handsome, Prince or King so he gets to reuse his costume each year. 

Love what you do!

                                                                       Love what you do!


My wife Niki and I are teachers.  Why are we teachers?  Is it because we have our summers off-as commonly speculated?  Is it the amazing pay?  Is it the inspiring administration?   I believe teaching is a calling.  We enjoy young people, and we enjoy watching them grow and learn.  

A teacher's life is never boring.   We do our best to motivate and create lessons that are engaging and even fun.  The challenges are many, but rewards are great.  The young people in our lives keep us young.   We continue to grow old together, but we don't feel any older.  We only feel old when we see a student from a decade ago.  It is amazing to see watch these young people grow and blossom into caring adults.

This is my 8th year teaching high school English in Tennessee.  Previously, we lived and taught in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Niki wanted to move down to Nashville after we visited her sister and brother-in-law a few times.  We loved the climate and the culture.  Niki's whole family ended up transplanting down to Tennessee and now we have plenty of aunts, uncles, cousins and grand parents to be close to.  We all feel that this is our home now, but we still root for the Green Bay Packers.

God is good.  He blessed our family with a wonderful daughter Ava and the perfect dog Hugo.  We have been trying for years to add to our family, but it hasn't been in His plan. We don't know what the future will bring, but we do know that we have a lot of love to give.

Influential mothers

Grandma's Nanny and Mona with  our sweet, Ava

What a blessing motherhood is!  I would not be who I am without the Lord and the fact that my mother, Cindy Jo Kubly, on the left, raised me along with my dad.  To this day, I try to handle any situation how she would handle it.  The first and most important lesson I have learned from her is to always believe the best in everyone. Second is to seek to understand, truly listen and communicate.  These lessons I put into use daily while raising Ava.  I want to show her that no matter what God loves her and so do we.  I know I could talk to my mom about anything as kid and I knew I could trust her. I valued her advice and knew she had a forgiving heart and a gently, loving spirit.  The other mother in this photo is THE Mona, my mother-in-law and I could not be more fortunate to have a loving, supportive mom like her.  Mona and my mom became great friends the minute they found out Derek and I met while in Scotland.  Our families have had a close relationship ever since.  You do no find that very often.  We even celebrate holidays together which makes it special for Ava to have both sets of Grandparents together.

I knew I wanted to be a mother at a young age, just like my Ava. My plan, not God's plan, was to have at least 3 children.  In a way, I have hundreds of children since I have been teaching for 14 years.  I have found great joy in my career and truly care about my students way more than just their academic achievements. There even have been times when I truly wanted to save a few from the lives they were living.  I know God put this love in my heart and I still have tons to give.

Motherhood is a choice you make everyday, to put someone else's happiness and well-being ahead of your own, to teach the hard lessons, to do the right thing even when you're not sure what the right thing is and to put all your trust in the Lord to help guide you and lead your children to know Him. 

I am thankful for my moms!  God is good!

Please make me a big sister!

Hello-

My name is Ava Joelle Folven. Kids call me Ava J since there are so many Ava’s in my grade. I was born on October 5, 2006 which makes me 8 and I am an only child. I would love a brother or sister!!!! I love that I have neighborhood friends who are the ages of 4 and 6.  I play teacher and teach them every day. I really care about them. 

Our family is very Christian which means we love the Lord. We go to church on Sunday’s and we pray about everything including adopting a baby.  We all agree that we want another baby for our family.

Our family loves to travel, listen to music, and eat out at restaurants. We also spend a lot of time with our family members. (Nanny, Grandpa, Aunt Wendy/Uncle Drew, Uncle Josh/Aunt Cindy and my cousins, A.J., Cade, Lanz and Lennon).  We love to camp, hike and bike.  

Now let me tell you a little about me.  I love to swim, camp and spend time with my cousins.  On Thursday’s, I take horseback riding lessons. I play with my cabbage patch dolls that my mom saved for me from when she was little.   I love helping out people by caring for them.  I also love to clean so I can earn some money.  I also love to be on the stage…true fact about me. I am not afraid of performing on stage.  I have a play in April and I have a speaking part!

We have many traditions in our family. For each birthday, my grandpa dresses up.  When I had a Smurf theme party, my grandpa and nanny showed up as Smurfs.   We go to Kentucky to see my other grandparents for Christmas.  We bake a birthday cake each Christmas for Jesus, decorate it and then sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.  My family that lives here all get together and go on a trip each Christmas.  This last Christmas we went to Gulf Shores, AL. 

Every night my mom and dad tuck me into bed and tickles my back.  We say prayers and read a bedtime story.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about me and that you will like us. 

Love,

Ava J

God's Timing-Meet the Folven's

Christmas in Gulf Shores,AL

Today, January 3, 2014 marks the first day of an exciting journey. After years of praying, an opportunity to adopt has been presented to us. Over the past year, every time we felt blessed or just wanted to remember a special moment of gratitude, we wrote it down on a tiny piece of paper and put it into our giant 2014 mason jar.  We opened them up the other morning while having breakfast and there it was, a tiny note with the words

Dear God, Please give us a baby sister or brother.  

Over the past 3 years we would find many of these prayers written in many different places. Every night during prayers, Ava would pray for a baby to be in my tummy.
While we always felt we had more than enough love to give, we also felt strongly that if God wanted us to have another child that He would make that happen.  Our family went through the ups and downs of the possibilities and also a miscarriage when Ava was 4. I was comforted that God had the best plans for our family and continued living the life that He blessed us with.

We were born to love children. I have no doubt in my mind that Derek and I could provide a loving family for another child. I also know that God blessed us with Ava who is also very maternal.  She loves kids and wants to be their caregiver already. Besides being a teacher, being a mom was at the top of my list ever since I was young.  I was raised to put God first, family and career and in that order, a family will have balance and the blessing from the Lord.

I read a quote today that says,  "There are no unwanted children, just unfound families. I pray that we are the family they find."  God is in control and He knows our hearts.