Lovely Delay

A shipping delay in our profile books? Of course there is!! They were supposed to get here yesterday & even though there is a tracking number, no update. I was hoping for a suprise visit from Fed-Ex but no such luck. Oh well, what's 1 more day in the grand scheme of things, right? The longing is starting to set it more & more. My mind is starting wander more & more to thinking of who he is & what he will look like. Who will be our birthmother & what her story will be. What will that phone call be like? Will the baby be born already or soon? Or will it be a couple of months yet? What kind of baby will he be? Will he have dark curly hair or not much at all? We just can't wait to see how this will all unfold!! We know God's timing is perfect!

I will let you all know if they make a sudden, magical appearance!

Living by Faith

Well, as those in the adoption world knows, there are many ups & downs involved with the process. Luckily, we haven't had anything too big in the terms of ups or downs. We will take that as a blessing. These minor bumps that we have encountered will be so worth it in the end. But I do think that Satan has used several things that have happened to try to deter us from doing what we know God wants us to do. Let's face it. Wouldn't Satan just love it if a couple of things happened that caused us doubt & fear to the point that decided to not listen to God & follow through with this adoption? Some may doubt that this is how it works  but I am fully convinced that when you are doing something public, like adoption, because of faith, Satan is going to do his best to not let that happen. These minor things, while inconvenient, will not work though. Just when we were doing so good at saving money & getting to the point of being able to put a good chunk of money in our fund, we find out Brian's work car needs all new tires. Then we find out it needs all new shocks, struts & an alignment. Then our air conditioner in the house wasn't working. Then his pickup won't start & has to be fixed. Then our sump pump hose came out of the drain & sprayed water all over the place, ruining our Netgear box for our internet. All these things combined cost us a great deal of money that we were hoping to save.  But we are fortunate that we had the money to begin with & we don't have to wonder where we were going to come up with the money to fix those things. We may have less in our adoption fund but we still have time & we know that God will provide. For those of you that know us & all our basement issues in our old house, you will know that only having a little bit of water sprayed around in our utility room is NOT that big of a deal. Neither is having to have some vehicle repairs. A setback? Yes. A cause for us to stop listening to God. NO!

Also, we decided this week to apply to another agency. After much research we have found 1 that is very similar to Hope for Adoption. Hope for Adoption is a very new agency & they are encouraging their adoptive families to apply to at least 1 other agency.  I talked with both agencies this week & feel very comfortable working with both. The new agency works in almost every state in the US so the only problem that might present is travel. We have now introduced the possibility of needing to fly, depending on the state our birthmom is from. We had looked into this option earlier & had decided that driving was going to save us money since we wouldn't have to rent a car either. But we will just have to wait & see what happens with that. I just hope that if we have to fly, we can find some good rates. So, I ordered more profile books & they will hopefully be here sometime next week. I will let you know the new agency name once we get approval.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we continue going through this process. We have been amazed by what God has shown us already in the short time we've been on this journey.

Boys' Room

Here is a picture of what we did to rearrange the boys' room to make room for another little boy. I can't believe how nicely it all came together. I still have some things that I'd like to do but they have more to do with his name, which isn't 100% decided so we will wait on that til he is here. Enjoy!

Can't Believe She's 15

Seriously?? How in the world can she be 15?? I just think that it is so unfair that they she has to grow up! Now don't get me wrong. I love to see my kids grow & mature but the realization of how fast it's going is starting to hit me. I don't really like it at all!

I can't believe that it was 15 years ago that I was in a hospital room, wondering how in the world I was going parent this beautiful baby girl by myself at 17. That's only 2 years older than she is! Yikes! Okay, I wasn't really alone since my parents & family were totally there for me but there is something to be said about the emotional support of a spouse. I can say that now since I'm on this end of things. Regardless, I couldn't be more proud of my daughter & who she has become. She has embraced who she is better than I ever would have done at her age. She has a faith that Christian parents dream of for their children. Quoting the title of our blog, it really is "Only by God's Grace". We love how you will just pitch in & help around the house (well, most of the time). We love how Jackson just adores his "Lala" & loves to spend time with her. We love how responsible  she is with her school work & extra activities. We look forward to seeing her grow & mature. We also look forward to embarrassing her in front of her friends alot too!

Alexa-Hope you enjoyed your day today & we wish you many more birthdays in the future!

This & That

I knew this waiting period was going to be hard to get myself to post. Just didn't think I would have this hard of a time coming up with things to talk about. For those of you who know me personally, this comes as a shock! It's not for a lack of stuff going on. It's more like "Do people really want to hear/see what we are up to day by day? Do they want to still hear that we are still waiting & haven't heard a single thing from our agency since our acceptance letter?" This will be the hardest part & most boring part of this process but we haven't had time to dwell on that. There are times I would love to get that phone call & others when it would be so overwhelming. Just have to rely on God's perfect timing.

Saturday we travelled up to Minneapolis to have a grant interview with the MICAH fund. It stands for Minority Infant & Children Adoption Help. We really couldn't find a reason to stay overnight & with all the stuff going on, we decided it was easier to just drive up & come right back. It was all worth it since we qualify for a grant. It works a little differently since domestic adoption can me unpredictible with timing. Since the amount that they have fluctuates with need, they wait til you are placed with a child & know your final expenses to disperse funds. So when we know who/when, we let them know & let them know what we have left to come up with. This also means we don't know a specific amount just yet either. We know what they don't usually go under so we will just keep it in the back of our minds what we might end up with.

We are still hosting the suppers in our home or at your home. We haven't been focusing too much on that since we really haven't had much time to host. We know that summer is a very busy time for everyone but if anyone is interested, we can give a list of possible dates. Or if you have a particular event that you want food for, just ask & we will see what we can do. We have several options for menu & we've had a great time with those who have already participated. I know they would give a good recommendation! haha! We just need to do a few more to get us enough money for our placement fee. Then we can focus on travel expenses, birth mother expenses & legal fees. If anyone has any other "not so time consuming" fund raisers, we are open to that too.

Well, off to get some things done. Domestic duties are calling & I'm really trying not listen. But if I don't, it won't get done & our families can tell you that I don't do well with that. I've got that Dutch thing in me that can't resist having a clean house!

Summertime

We are now in full swing of summer. No more school, no more schedules. Oh wait, we still have schedules. And quite busy ones too, if I may add. There's drivers ed, camps, Bible school, and some pool time. Well, I guess pool time isn't on the schedule but I will carve out some time for that. We've already spent plenty of time riding our bikes & fishing at our local pond. Jackson was so excited to catch his first fish tonight. He didn't want it anywhere near him though. Here are a few pictures from our outing to our local pond to roast hot dogs & to do some fishing.

Think he got a little dirty?

See how he is trying to get away from the fish he so proudly caught?

Reminder

Just a reminder for those who have considered giving to the 10K in 20 Days. There are only 3 days left & the goal of 10K has still not been reached. Please consider giving even just a little to help out 26 families that are trying to bring home their children. Once you donate, you will be entered into drawings for numerous giveaways that she has posted on her blog. You can be entered more than once by donating more than once. There are some awesome gifts she is giving away & today there is a little extra insentive. Please visit the blog & see all the things this family is doing in the name of adoption.