Saturday, April 20, 2013

The One Where I Refuse to Acknowledge that it Snowed Today

The title says it all :)

I still think it's spring and beautiful and sunny and warm.  We spent most of the week in short sleeves, though this weekend has proven that it was a good idea to keep out the coats and hats and snow boots just a wee bit longer :)  Maya was disappointed that we couldn't plant anything in our garden yet...soon, baby girl.  Soon.

Pictures.

Michael trimmed the bottom of 2 pine trees in our front yard, and the girls are so excited to have "tree houses" :)  They carried their picnic table from the back deck and put it under one of them so they could color outside.



Milo loves being part of the crowd now.






He will now smile on command if I ask to see his teeth :)

That's a black eye, not eye shadow.  Same eye as last time, poor thing.




Friday, April 19, 2013

Necklaces!

Michael and I have been blessed with amazing friends.  They have taught us so much, prayed over us, taken care of our kids when we needed them, allowed us to take care of their kids (which is truly a blessing as their kids are pretty awesome).  We have shared dinners and participated in Bible studies together.  They have even attended (and photographed!) the births of Charlotte and Milo.  They have given counsel and shared in the excitement of our adoption, and just when I thought we could not be blessed any more, one of our friends stepped forward and offered to sell her beautiful, handmade necklaces as a fundraiser for our adoption!  I don't know what we did to deserve such blessing.  God is so much bigger and greater than we could ever hope to imagine, and He continues to show us that He will provide if we just come alongside Him.

If you are interested in purchasing one of these BEAUTIFUL and reasonably priced necklaces, you can contact Jamie at jamiellee@juno.com.  She is able to accept payment via PayPal (super easy, right?!) and we'll get the necklace to you ASAP!

100% of the proceeds go to our adoption, so you can get something for yourself (or your mother, wife, sister, daughter...Mother's Day is right around the corner!) and help save a child from an orphanage at the same time.

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$5 each
She also has the letters A, B, D, E, K, M, and N available

  

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$5 each
She also has 2 purple, 1 green, and 1 royal blue butterfly available

 

 

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$10 each

  

  

  


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$8 each
She also has a few other colors available (some shades of pink, darker lavender, and white) so check with Jamie if you don't see what you want!








Thank you in advance for even considering supporting our adoption!

Monday, April 15, 2013

Dirty Kids, Awesome Friends

Now that spring is officially here (yay!!!) we are ending the days tired out and dirty.  I had to clean out underneath the kiddos's fingernails yesterday :D  Right now we are extra busy as we finish out the school year and attempt to finish collecting everything we need to submit our dossier to our adoption agency (read more about our adoption at my other blog, HERE).

Last weekend the weather was awesome so we had an impromptu cookout with some of our very best friends.  Michael took the opportunity to demonstrate some neat science experiments (mentos + diet soda = giggles all around :)).  After the lesson we roasted some marshmallows and hung out.  I am so looking forward to many more nights like that this summer and for many summers to come.  We have been very blessed with a pretty amazing group of friends to share our life with.

Pictures.

Milo and Uncle Chris entering a coloring contest.



kiddos gathered around Michael, waiting for the magic to happen












As much as I *love* Milo's snowsuit, I am hoping we won't need it anymore this year!

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Paper Chasing, Part II ~ the Home Study

We met our social worker for the first time last Wednesday.  So far things have gone well...I think.  You know how sometimes you go out with friends and you get extra comfy with them and talk more than you meant to and then you get home and analyze every.little.thing you said all night long?  Well, imagine that, but now imagine that it's not your friends with whom you turned into Chatty Cathy, but rather a social worker who kinda sorta holds your adoption in her hand (or laptop, really).  So I've been stressing just a teensy about every word that came out of my mouth, about my nervous attempts at humor, how my 18 month old (who had just gotten over a stomach virus) wanted to nurse for 37 seconds at a time approximately every 4 minutes for the whole 2 hours she was here.  If you're on Facebook you'll also know that I dreamt we "failed" our home study (not even sure that's a thing?) by not getting enough points in a basketball free-throw competition.  Guys.  You don't even understand how bad I am at basketball.  This could be a major setback ;)

She said she'd call if she started writing the report and needed more information on anything, and so far no call, so I'm hoping no news is good news.  In the meantime all I can do is pray that she saw through my oversharing into my heart, and that what she found there was pleasing :)

This process is proving to be quite the emotional roller coaster for us, and the wait, which we were expecting to be long, is looking to potentially be even longer.  My hope was to have our dossier submitted by the end of this month, but with the wait times at the USCIS it's looking like it might be much longer than that (as in, months longer).  I have been prepared for the 2+ year wait AFTER our dossier submission, but I've been told over and over that this, the paper chase, is the part of the process that we are in complete control over.  I've busted my booty trying to collect documents and write letters and schedule appointments for everyone in the family and rearrange our schedules to meet with our social worker and use vacation days (Michael's) to get things signed.  I have a folder this thick (imagine a very, very thick folder) of all our documents that I have had approved and notarized and organized and now ready to send...and in my attempt to control everything, I am reminded of a quote from the very spiritual and realistic show "Private Practice".

We make plans, and God laughs.

I am not in control of this, folks.  Not even a little bit.  And even though God has proven his sovereignty over this process again and again, I struggle with it not being in my control.  God has this.  I know that.

One little quick "God has this" story and then I'm signing off for the night.

When we were beginning the adoption process, before I even really put together that this is where God was leading our family, Jeremiah 29:11 kept popping up in my head.  "'For I know the plans I have for you' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.'"  Fast forward a couple of months, we've already been through the fairly timely, challenging, prayerful process of choosing an agency, and I'm checking their website (because that's what I do...read through a website that I've already read through approximately 400 times).  I scroll all the way to the bottom, and what do I see, but our verse!  I mean, it's not *our* verse, technically, but it's our verse!  Right there on their website!  Yes, it could be a coincidence, and yes that is a common verse.  But at that moment I could feel God whispering to me (again) that He is in control of this and that we just need to continue to trust in His guidance.