Day of Excitement....

We are so blessed to be surrounded by people we love who are on the same journey as us, this crazy road of adoption. Some roads are bumpier than others... last year we watched as our beautiful friends grieved the loss of their foster/adopted daughter go back to her birth mother. While their strength has been amazing, the ability to see God through the tears and heartache was inspiring. We have been honored to have many conversations about how God does truly have a plan for our children, that sometimes we don't understand.

This week, they have been given the exciting news of a new daughter to enter their home... she is just a little thing and we are all excited to watch as she gets to grow into this amazing family. So with hopeful hearts we pray for this little person, her heart, our dear friends and their tender hearts. Hope you can join us as we pray for them!
Here is her blog...  http://kuhldays.blogspot.com/

On a little side note, we got word that our Dossier was on its way to Ethiopia today!! I am so excited for such a wonderful day full of wonderful news!

Paper Pregnancy

Its funny how God can change our hearts when we don't even realize it happening. It would be an act of God for me to get pregnant... and I mean a total act of God! I know He is Alive and all powerful so that knowledge alone over the past two years seems to keep me wondering? Is it possible?

But now, after two years of watching most of me friends carry babies in their bellies and show the obvious signs of having a new addition to their family, I am not envious anymore. This is a big step for me! God has changed the way I am viewing things. I don't even care anymore that a stranger on the street doesn't know that we are adding a beautiful person to our family. I am not worried about random people we don't see very often asking when we finally do have our baby girl, where she came from? Because I know it doesn't really matter. 

So, I am excited to announce.....!!! I am having a paper pregnancy!! And for my own benefit I am going to list all the positives to this pregnancy instead of the regular kind.

1. No stretch marks

2. No throwing up

3. No feeling like a bowling ball is resting on my bladder

4. Not putting an extra 60lbs on

5. Not having to wait 2 years to fit into my old clothes, which by then are out of style.

6. Not throwing up!

Anyway, I know there are many beautiful things that come with carrying a baby in your belly, but I am going to focus on the less amazing ones and go with it! 

Here is where I am in the Paper Pregnancy... our Dossier (all the documents we have been gathering over the past 10 months including: 33 notaries, 33 State Seals, and every authentic legal document possible) is in Washington D.C. getting the official "GREAT SEAL" from the United States Secretaries Office. 

I will keep you updated, but we are hopeful to have an update come Monday!!  

Special Moments....

I feel like this picture is true to Noah's personality... funny, quirky and fun loving... and most of the time he does this all in the same moment. Yet, there is a side of him that I am so thankful to see when most people (even Daddy) don't see very often.

Most nights, Daddy puts the big boys to bed and I put Noah to bed. We each have our own routine. Daddy reads and normally there is lots of giggles and some noises that Mommies don't like to hear. I normally read, do a little "baby massage" and then we sing a song and pray... Tonight was different. We had been out and it was already an hour past bed time. I was tired and I could tell Noah was too. So tonight we skipped most of the routine and went right to the song and prayers. But as soon as I put him in bed, he was crying, "please momma snuggle me". How could I say no?!

So we sat in the chair in his room... his little hands rubbing up and down my arm. Slowly he stopped rubbing and I could hear his breathing change over to sleep. There are so many days where we are so busy and things move so quickly I forget that he is just a little guy still. He talks like a 5 year old and keeps up with the big boys so well, but really he is still so small. I sat there, holding a sleeping Noah, and took a mental picture.

Now that all we have left to do is wait for a phone call from our Social Worker that we have been matched with a baby... I want to make sure that I take time to make special moments with my boys before life changes once again. I am so thankful for those boys, they have changed me and I will forever be indebted to each of them.

A simple question... an opportunity...

There are over 147 million orphans on this earth... that statement alone breaks my heart! The question is, what are we going to do about it?!

The number one question that I get asked, over and over again, is "Why did you choose to adopt?" Now this is something that Ricky and I knew ahead of time that we would need to have an answer for..... we hoped and prayed that it would be asked. In the same way you pray that someone will ask you to give an answer for your hope! The answer is really simple actually, yet it has changed our lives forever.

It says in Romans 8:15 "For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father." What a true blessing, that without the natural process of birth, we are still able to be sons and daughters of the most gracious, loving, everlasting Father. That though this "adoption" we are heirs to the throne... that we have a home awaiting us, our forever home. Christ has changed our lives, forever.

I am not going to be so bold to say that by any means, we are Christ-like, but with all our hearts we desire to be..... that is the constant theme in our household. The reasons we constantly remind our boys to speak with respect, not only to us, but to each other. The reason we are on a narrow hard path to show the world a Christ-centered marriage. The reason we go over and over God's word with our boys, the reason behind what the world see as madness... is to be Christ-like. I am also not naive enough to think we will ever be close... but isn't the point to try? Isn't that what we have been charged to do by our Father?

So the answer is this: To bring a child into our home, out of love and by choice... is exactly what Abba has done for us... “His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave Him great pleasure” Ephesian 1:5

PEACE... and a promise!

PEACE....

It's Saturday morning, I have been thinking about this post for almost 4 days now. I know, nothing like getting right to it! Seems our lives have been full of that lately. But more than ever before, I am confident in God's opportune timing.

My whole life, I have been told over and over that God's timing is perfect. We have all heard that right? This year, those words, have become real and alive for me. Almost a year ago, we started down this road of adoption. Our goal: To bring a baby girl into our home as fast as we could. In reality, God had better timing. Things that should have taken 6 weeks took 4 months. Things that should have taken 1 day, took 6 weeks. The paperwork that was suppose to be done and ready to go, really wasn't after all. All of these things could have been a deterrent and been a frustration, I am not gonna lie to you, sometimes they were. But for the most part, I was at peace with how long things were taking.

Now that we are done, all we have left to do it wait... I am confident that God has planned this out perfect for our family. Things have changed in Ethiopia over the past year. We will now make two trips together to formally adopt Grace... and then return to pick her up a short time later.

The wait time for a referral went from 12-18 months to 6-8 months. The flights to Ethiopia have gone from $6000 round trip to about $1300 round trip.

You get the picture though... right? God planned for the delay in our paperwork... he planned for this to be a blessing to our family, instead of a stressful time.

More than anything, God has brought our family to a place of peace. With the realization that after asking and asking for peace, it hit me like a load of bricks! Ephesians 2:14 For HE HIMSELF IS OUR PEACE.... (emphasis mine) How can we be seeking and asking for something over and over again, when the moment we decided to follow Christ. To live our lives to honor Him, to accept His loving forgiveness... we had PEACE.

I am so grateful for that understanding and I am excited as we come to the second step in our adoption journey. This step is less work, but will require a great deal of PEACE. Waiting for a phone call asking us to accept the referral of a baby girl will seem like forever away, but in reality I am confident that God will use this time in our lives just as He used the last year. To prepare and make Himself more real, more known.

I am going to promise to blog more... there is my promise.