It's Back

And what would that be? Frustration & anxiety. 2 Huge monsters in the adoption wait. I was doing so well & all of the sudden, it hit me again. It's been almost 3 months & our profile still hasn't been shown to 1 single birth family. I know we are first on the list for a stork drop but I almost would be sad if a birthmom didn't take the time to look at our book & see our family or read our words to her. I keep wondering what the circumstances are surrounding our future birthmom & our son. We are so ready to just know who he is & see his beautiful face & hold him in our arms. Our agency has said they are working with several birthmoms right now that would be interested in our profile but their due dates are too far out. There's also no guarantee that they will chose to make an adoption plan in the meantime. So now we just wrestle with patience & try to lean on the words God has given us in the Bible to fix this restlessness. Please pray that we would be granted the peace of mind to continue this wait, giving glory to God for His blessings in this time.

We're Home

We made it home today after a week long camping trip to Yankton with people from our church. We had a blast & so did the kids but we are tired, have about 7 loads of laundry, are a little sunburnt & ready for our own beds. When I returned home in the middle of the week to work & pick Alexa up from camp, Brian received the "Father of the Year" award in my eyes. On Wednesday night, about 6 kids from our group all started throwing up around the same time, including Jackson. Not only was he there with 3 kids by himself, he caringly took care of a sick Jackson all through the night & cleaned up a few "misses" of the bucket. Needless to say, I think there are a couple of loads of laundry just from those incidents. At least no one else has come down with it so we can be thankful for that.

My computer is acting up so I'm using Brian's work computer but as soon as mine is up & running again, I hope to post pictures of our wonderful week. I can't wait to go again next year & have another little one along to join in the wonderful memories of this trip!

Getting Packed Up

We are getting ready to head out for the week to camp at Yankton with our church. We went for the first time last year & had so much fun. Of course with all we have going on with work & Alexa's volleyball camps, we will be making a couple trips there & back throughout the week. I think it will bring us a good balance & we won't be burnt out by the end of the week. Brian & I will each be taking 1 trip back for various reasons but will be spending most of the week there but our kids will be there the whole time. We are so glad for the time away. Of course we will be on high alert & have our phones with us at all times but I think this week will be 1 week that we will be okay if we don't get a phone call. We would love to be able to spend this week as a family. If Murphy's law come in to place, you know it would happen this week. Oh well, all in God's perfect timing!

Chaotic Week

What a crazy week it's been here! I wasn't really expecting this week to be this way but that's usually when life starts to get nuts. We've had VBS at our church at night from 5-8 & we've all spent time helping out 1 way or another. Brian has been gone for work & will be home today. YAY! I ended up working a little extra because of someone who had a sick child. My house is in need of serious cleaning so we've been working on that.  Alexa decided to paint her bathroom & I'm trying not to interfere since this was her idea. We had to register Alexa for school. Yikes! Can't believe that's right around the corner again. In some ways I'm ready for it to start again & in other ways not. Having her be able to drive herself to/from school activities has been a huge help. She starts her volleyball camps tomorrow & has camps & tryouts til school starts. We are getting ready to go on our church camping trip to Yankton next week. I am coming back to get Alexa from camp & working a little in the middle of the week else we will be relaxing the rest of the time. Well, I guess as relaxing camping is with 4 kids.

We did receive an email from our caseworker that we are now in the #1 spot for a stork drop. This is when the birthmom has already had the baby & just wants the agency to choose the adoptive parents based on who's waited longest. I'm not sure how often this happens but she gave us some things to have prepared in case of needing to travel quickly. Just please keep praying for our future birthmother & our son. We have no idea what her situation is like & what she is going through right now but we know that God does.

Why are We Doing This?

We've had several questions lately on why we are adopting and why we are most likely adopting an African American child. We actually love answering these questions & it gives us a chance to let people know the reality of the situation out there. The numbers break my heart. In fact, it makes my blood boil. African American women are 3 times as likely to abort an unwanted pregnancy & every 2 out of 5 pregnancies do end in abortion. 32% of abortions that are done in the US are for African Amercian women & that number is steadily climbing. The reason it is climbing is that Planned Parenthood has launched an effort to strategically place their abortion clinics in areas that are populated with at least 80-85% African Amercian or Hispanic people. There is no coincidence of the placing of these clinics. 1 of Planned Parenthood's former directors has stated that their main goal is to make money & the only way for them to do so is to perform more abortions. I know there may be some of you who disagree with our stance on abortion & who argue about the need for abortion when there is rape, incest, or for the health of the mother. Those abortions make up for less than 2% of all abortions performed. The rest of the reasons were for personal choice.

Brian & I are both pro-life. We believe that life itself is God's & for no human being to chose when it starts or when it ends. With that stance we also have a huge issue with these potential birthmoms making the sacrifice to give these precious children life & then when it comes to making an adoption plan, there are not enough or no adoptive parents willing to accept their child based on their race. It breaks my heart what these potential birthmoms have gone through & feel when this happens. The child they are carrying is precious in God's sight & he/she deserves a loving family to care for them if this birthmom is not able to do so.I couldn't have imagined what I would have thought if I had chosen adoption when I was in a less than ideal situation when pregnant at 17 & there was no one that interested in my child. We know that there is waiting that has to be done in adoption & so people think that when they have to wait, there really is not a need. That is not true. The numbers themselves don't lie.

Our stance on choosing the route we did is that when we profess to be pro-life & encourage these moms to choose life for their children, we had better put our word into actions & welcome these children of God into our homes.

"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me." Mark 9:37

Collecting Garage Sale Donations!

We really were trying to avoid having to do this type of fundraiser but we are to the point that after weighing the pros & cons, it seems like the best option. People always have stuff that they could get rid of & it doesn't cost a lot of money. We will be accepting donations from now until our garage sale that will most likely be held from Sept 9-11. This is a ways off but it will give us plenty of time to prepare & for people to drop stuff off. It is also when our town has city wide garage sales. We are also thinking of doing a bake sale at the same time but that will be decided later. Depending on weather, I thought maybe our kids could do either a lemonade stand or hot chocolate stand because we all know that Iowa weather can be fairly unpredictable. We will be making plenty of room in our garage & if anyone has any larger items that could wait til closer to the date, that would be great but if there is no other options, we can make room now. We hope & pray that God will bless this effort.

In other news, we heard from 1 of our agencies that we are now 2nd on the list for any "stork drops" for African American babies. This means that if they have any last minute placements where the birthmom doesn't want to pick the family, it goes in order of who's been waiting the longest & has requested that race & gender. This has made it all seem very real to us. We know that it might still be a while longer but this gives us an idea of where we stand as far as how many couples they have waiting at this agency & know this is where God wants us right now. We thank Him for giving us that reassurance that we were looking for!

Off Camping

We are headed out for a couple days to go camping with some friends. I am so excited to go relax & get my mind off all that we have going on. Of course I will still have my phone on my at all times but reception there isn't the greatest. Oh well, it's only 2 1/2 days & a break from all technology would do me some good. The weather doesn't look good for today but looks great tomorrow! Pray that the rain lets up!