Sunday Afternoon Rest

Boy, did we need this Sunday rest! And anyone who was a witness to the many meltdowns Jackson had in church, he is napping & we hope he stays that way for a while! Nothing like a strong-willed 2 1/2 year old in church to have you question anything you think you knew about parenting!

It's been another busy week in our household but it's also been a good week. Alexa is now done with school! I can't believe she will be a sophomore next year. I just don't like how fast she is growing up. Okay, I have to think of something else before I start the tears. Emma & Wyatt still have another week to go & will be done on Friday. Those stinkin snow days really added up this year. We had a bit of the stomach bug in our house with Jackson & Emma but everyone else seems to be okay as of now. I guess we wait & see if it will linger. We got to go to 2 graduation parties on Thursday for a nephew of mine & a niece of Brian's. Did I mention how quickly all these kids are growing up?? Someone really needs to invent something to keep that from happening!

We were also fortunate to be able to visit with some cousins of mine this weekend & meet their baby boys for the 1st time. It was so good to see them & I REALLY enjoyed loving on those 2 little boys. Jackson thought they were pretty cool too.

We have the Young Peoples pancake breakfast in the morning & then it's off to Lake Shatek for the day. We haven't been there since last year & we are excited to be able to enjoy it again. Thanks Tim & Chellie for always being willing to put up with all our kids for the day!

Well, I'm going to enjoy this rainy weather just a little by taking a short nap! Thank you Lord for setting this day aside for getting us to slow down & to be able to gather at Your house to hear your Word!

Officially Waiting

We are now on the list to be shown to birth families! I can honestly say that it is exciting but also now the really hard part begins. We have no idea (guess we never did) on any sort of timing & how long this part will take. Estimated time frames mean absolutely nothing at this point. We will just have to be patient & wait on God's timing. God already knows our son. He knows who he will be & when he will come to our family. He knows the whole journey that we will have to take for him to be with us. He also knows our son's birth mom & dad. He knows what they've been through & what will bring them into the agency to make the biggest sacrifice of their lives. No words can ever be put on any blog or any paper to convey what type of emotions that brings up. None. We can only continue to pray for them & what they are going through at this time. I know so many of you have but we continue to ask for prayers. We feel them. We really do. Nothing can be more powerful at this point!

No Longer a Soccer Mom

We did it. We made it to the end of the soccer season for 3 kids. I never dreamt that having 3 different kids with 3 different soccer schedules could be so interesting. I know there are you veteran moms who have been doing this for a long time & you definitely get a standing ovation from me for having the stamina to do this all year round. I'm glad that I don't yet. I guess this is where it comes in handy to have kids spaced out in age a little. We averaged about 6-7 soccer games a week, depending on weather. We really had a fun time & Jackson did better than I thought he would with having to tag along to all these games. Candy & pretzel were a life saver this soccer season. He also found it lots of fun to practice on the sidelines with his own ball. I'm sure there will be a lot of soccer games ahead for us in the future & we will try to enjoy the busyness of it.

We now move into ball season but Wyatt is our only 1 in that so that will seem like a piece of cake at 2 nights a week. Alexa is going to be starting drivers ed soon & will be going to open gym for the summer. I think she will like the flexibility of her summer to give her break. Emma will be going to Bible school & volleyball camp. Wyatt is also going to Bible school. I'm sure the kids will put lots of miles on their bikes & lots of hours at the pool. We are definitely loving the warmer weather.

Here are a few pictures from this season:

Not Impressed

I was reading a post by another blogger yesterday about a story that the 700 Club ran on the Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit that was held recently. I had heard about this event & was interested to see the story on it. The story was done very well & it really showed how God had worked in several families. What got me was Pat Robertson's comments afterward. I was not impressed by his view on adoption of children with brain damage or emotional & physical issues. I know at this point we are not expecting to adopt a child with special needs but I am most certainly still a mother of a child who was born with special needs & ended up with brain damage & died from complications from it. I don't care if a child got that way because they were born that way or if it happened because they were exposed to either drugs or alcohol before birth. Those children deserve the right to be loved & in a good Christian home. We need to promote adoption for all these children whenever we can to homes that can care for their special needs, not raise our eyebrows saying "Adoption is a blessing, if you get the right child." Careless comments. Fearful comments.

Whenever we embark on a journey of adding a family member, there will be unknowns, whether by birth or adoption.  We know this on a personal level. There are no guarantees. We may say that we aren't open to this or that with our future child but we really don't have something set in stone that says that our future son won't have these issues at some point in his life. The fact is, there are blessings in children with special needs. We know this, some of our friends know this. God will blesses those families with a unique blessing. Some far greater than this world will ever know. For that, we praise Him & try to disregard the words of careless humans & go back to the word of God for our direction in life.

Matthew 25:40


40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

It Has Arrived!

Got an email from our caseworker today that our precious package made it there safe & sound! They will have to go over everything & then let us know when we are officially approved. Then our wait begins. I don't know if anyone can prepare themselves for this stage. I know ultimately we are never fully in control but at least in the paperwork stage we had a hand in filling out papers & making profile books. We had long discussions on possible situations we would be willing to consider & how we would handle certain things. Now that all those things are decided & we've done what we can, it is ALL up to God. There is nothing more that we can do to speed up the process or "make" a birthmom choose us to place her child with. This part of the wait is going to really test our trust in God's timing. I know looking back on so many things we see God's perfect timing but I totally stink at the "waiting" on Him before things happen. I keep not wanting to learn that lesson so God has to try to teach me over & over again so I get it right!

So, to fill my time(like I need help with that this time of year), I've been working on a little project that I've wanted to do since we moved into this house 9 months ago. Alexa is really into photography & has taken a couple of little classes on it. She took some pictures last year that blew our socks off & I knew I wanted to do something with them. After looking at several options & not really having a ton of money to spend on it, we decided to mount them on wood boxes to make standouts. I ordered the pictures in 16 X 20 & Brian built the boxes out of wood & I painted them black. Then we mounted the pictures on matte board & put them on the boxes. They turned out awesome! Thanks Brian for doing this for me! Here's a pic of what they turned out like! We think she's got some talent in this department!

On a Midnight Train to Georgia

Yes, they are leaving on midnight train to Georgia! That would be our homestudy, application & profile books! We completed that last step of our official paperwork to send off & we are now officially "waiting"! We still have to wait to be approved by our agency but there is nothing more that we can do on our end. Reality is setting quickly. The fact that our future birthmom may already be pregnant is hitting me hard. Brian has a gift for getting me to freak out & then use it for his entertainment. I got back from mailing everything off & he says to me "So, you ready to get a call next week if it were to come?" Yeah, I freaked out & yes, he laughed! The likelihood of that happening are slim but we have no idea what God has in store for us in this next process. Let's face it! Do we ever know what He's got in store for us?? Things can change in the blink of eye, for better & sometimes for worse. We know that we will be on a roller coaster of emotions for a while here but we also know the blessings of Him telling us to "Be Still". That is where we are at right now. Just being still. Well, if anyone knows this house it's anything but still! We are now just relaxing in the fact that the last 2 1/2 months of getting everything ready paper wise is now at a close.

Your prayers are being felt & we continue to seek them. There is nothing greater than God's people coming together in His name!

Wonderful Opportunity

This afternoon I was checking in on some of the blogs that I read. One of my favorites is http://www.storinguptreasures.com/. They are doing an amazing thing for families in the process of adopting. It is called "10 for 20". They are trying to raise $10,000 in 20 to help out 26 families. All that was required was to put a link to our blog, do a post on their event, & donate $5. We are 1 of those 26 families on that list. They themselves have adopted several kids & want to help pay it forward. There will be 1 family who will randomly be awarded a larger amount but everyone will receive at least something. We are asking anyone who would be willing to help them raise this amount to help so many families bring their little ones home to go to their blog & consider making a donation. No matter the amount, it is still giving in God's eyes. If all of us do a little, we can accomplish so much!

Brian & I have actually talked about what we would like to do when we finally reach our goal financially to finish our adoption. We have been trying to come up with ways to give back & to "pay it forward" for everything that we have received. We have opened our hearts to a child in need but we by no means have the money to pay for this in full yet. We had to rely on God to give us the avenues necessary to complete this adoption. He has been showing us that He is all over this process. Not for 1 second do we believe that any of this is our own doing. We know God funds what He favors & we know from scripture that He favors adoption. We are adopted by Him & He shows us so lovingly the perfect example of what it is supposed to look like. We hope that we when are finally placed with our little one, that if there is a family out there that has this same desire but feels that money is the only thing holding them up, that we might be able to give that encouragement that there are people out there willing to give of their time & money to support them.

Please join me in prayer for God's blessing on this family that has been so gracious to help numerous families bring their children home!