Hello All!

Hi, just thought I would write down some fun family things going on...

• Aunt A. moved closer to us for school and she sent her schedule today of classes...this was our (the girl's and my) reply: Perfect! The girls just decided to hold Auntie Appreciation 500, Thursday from 9-11. Attendence is not mandatory but a free lunch follows each session. Haha!

• I was mixing together some burrito insides and Kj says to me: "Mama, when I make bean soup, I add water." She then proceeded to tell me what else she puts in, including hamburgers and cheese.

• L is really going now with the walking. I think it took our camping trip to get her confident enough: the uneven terrain of grass and gravel! She now just walks back and forth down the hall or from the kitchen to living room or around the coffee table...just because. Kj is enjoying it too. She "chases" L...at a very slow pace but it gets the girls giggling!!

• We have lots of questions and few answers but little rays of hope in the adoption journey. One thing we know is that if this adoption doesn't work out for some reason, there will be one in our future!

• We're going to the pool today! Well, I am writing this all to you so that I actually do take the girls. They are down for an early nap and so we will have time when the wake up...and with my burrito making, my supper planning is complete - no reason to rush home, or stay home in the first place!

• We went camping, L's first time, in my uncle's backyard. We were also joined each night with a large gathering of extended family! It was so wonderful! Very thankful that our campsite didn't work out. Also, Kj went fishing with my uncle for the first time ever. She caught a "norvern." Didn't get a picture though because we had misplaced the camera. I'll just record the memory in other ways.
  

Searching for Hope

We haven't heard anything from the people that are going to tell us where to start with our adoption process...so during the waiting I have been doing some research. Well, all the things I found last week told me that it would be an impossible journey. But today, I found hope. I found this website:




They have various guest bloggers and one was in the final stages in adopting from Sierra Leone. Yeah, yeah, yeah!! So, I emailed the guest blogger and asked if I could follow her blog, and maybe will be able to get some insite from her as to where to start or who else I could talk to!! Yeah, praise God!! Just a little excited!

Whoa! Where Did That Idea Come From?

To a lot of people who know us, the announcement that we were pursuing an adoption has come as a shock. No warning, no previous conversations, just a quick message that it was "in the process". Well, let me bring you into our adoption thoughts timeline.

• March 2010 - our beautiful L was born.
• November/December 2010 - an acquaintance was finishing up their adoption journey...well, I guess the process doesn't end with the bringing home of your child, but for this purpose we'll say it did. :)
• March 2011 - another acquaintance finishes (their blog being private, I will not share it with you.).
• September 2010->May 2011 - I studied Isaiah and near the end it our study referred to a passage I was becoming familiar with: James 1:27 . I had been reading James in repeat as suggested at A Holy Experience.
• March 2011 - a friend tells me her family is starting their adoption journey.
• April 2011 - Kevin's sister says she is looking into adoption, as a single mother.

How many times could I see people living out James 1:27 and not want to be a part of that ministry? It would be perfect...we're not sure if we want to have more of our own flesh children, but we're not sure if we should be "done". I have wondered how I could bring more children into the world when there were so many needing loving families. We talked about it some, but Kevin didn't think the timing was right. I agreed, L had just turned 1 and I was just starting to breath a little easier. ;) I will admit, I often get overwhelmed. I know that adoption will stretch me and may be more overwhelming than having a birth - 3 month old and toddler. But I also know that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13)!! I know that God has put this desire on my heart (Ps. 37:4).

• May 2011 - We were asked to consider adopting M, brother of Z whom Aunt C is working towards adopting.

I told Kevin about this option. We talked about it on the way to my parents' house for the weekend. We decided that we would pursue M's adoption. We didn't know how far we would get into it. We knew there was another family also interested in M's adoption. We knew that adoptions in SL are rare to impossible. But we know that God has a plan in this. If it is just to open our hearts to adoption, if it is just to learn to pray more... Ok, that was my thinking a couple weeks ago...now, I'm more on the he'll be in our family, it's just a matter of when! Hahaha.

• June 2011 - We were chosen (between 2 families) to continue in the adoption process.
• June 2011 - You all know, and now you are in the waiting game with us!

All of the sudden for you, gradual building process for us.

Also, something mentioned in our Sunday School class about James...James can be seen as a very "works to earn salvation" oriented book. So, I want to end with this verse:

Ephesians 2:8-10

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Just Waiting

Waiting and dreaming. What will it be like to have three children? What changes are going to take place? Can we find a carseat so that we can fit three in a row in our car? Or will we have to get a new vehicle? Will Aunt C. want our car if we have to get a new one as her's was sold before she left for her current job? Should should Kj, L and M share the same room? If not, who will be the one to move to another? When will they call to tell us what to do next?

I imagine him as my own. I was looking for different grants and ways to raise money for adoptions. I feel like we will be alright, but maybe that is at the end but we might need some money until any refunds come in. I'm not sure, so I guess we should look into funding. So, here are some things that I found:

• http://www.showhope.org/AdoptionAid/ShirtsOfHope.aspx - sell t-shirts to raise awareness of adoption and to support our adoption
• http://www.showhope.org/AdoptionAid/AdoptionGrants/AdditionalAssistance.aspx - list of adoption assistance programs
• http://www.showhope.org/AdoptionAid/AdoptionGrants/ApplyforaGrant.aspx - show hope grant application
  Applications cannot be submitted for independent adoptions (through lawyers, facilitators, or humanitarian organizations not licensed to place children)
• http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/application.html - grant application
  
• http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/bothHands.html - serving to earn towards an adoption
  

There were other sites as well, but it seemed like these were very inclusive. Especially the middle link. I am also finding out about the culture of Sierra Leone.

• http://www.everyculture.com/Sa-Th/Sierra-Leone.html
• http://www.sierra-leone.org/index.html

I also found out where my HS mathematics teacher taught. He would daily get off topic and talk about his time in Sierra Leone. Only 189 km from where M is right now...Google maps decided that that meant it took only 2.5 hours to get there...but from what Aunt C says, I think it would be much, much longer. No day trips there when we go to pick him up!

I will leave you with this:

Isaiah 58:6-11

New International Version (NIV)

⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
¹¹ The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.

M

Just received a few pictures of M. Here is one of them. Through Kevin's sister we heard that we were the family chosen to continue forward in the adoption of this little guy. In the next couple of weeks we will hear officially what to do from here.

A Brother?

So, we are praying for a miracle! Because that is what it will take to get a specific little boy home to our house. We're not sure the time-frame or if M is even chosen to be ours, but we are going to pursue the adoption of a 1 year old boy from Africa until the door closes completely or he is here in our arms...

The prayer that came from Kj when I told her we would all have to be praying..."Let's all pray Mama. Are you ready? "Dear Lord, Thank you. Can you give Kj and L a brother?""

The night before Kj had told me, in front of a group of friends, that she wanted a brother. Kevin and I had been asking her every now and then the last couple of weeks. The friends all chuckled. They were probably all thinking I'd have to get pregnant again...not now, no thank you. :)

A couple things about M:

• born on Kj's b-day = L's due date = perfect fit
  
• told he likes to snuggle so L will have some competition or they will just snuggle with each other... :)
• sucks his lip (as Kj her thumb and L her "I love you" fingers)

Thoughts In My Head

I was asked the question this week, "What would you like to learn in a couponing class?" It made me think a lot. I use coupons, but don't go out of my way to acquire them. I like coupons, and often lament the fact that we no longer have a printer to print off coupons. I suppose the printer would pay for itself, but we just haven't gone out to buy one. About yearly someone finds that we don't have one and we get their cast off. It works for a time and then dies. So, I can't get coupons that way. We don't get the papers that have the big coupon sections in them. Sometimes we trade with others. Our grocery store used to have amazingly good coupons in their ads and now it is just soda and snacks. All these thoughts made me think of this quote:

Necessity is the mother of invention. ~ unknown

Many parenting questions have been on my mind as well. For instance, what is the balance of playing with my children and doing my own thing? Doing my own thing meaning not just sewing or fun things but also keeping the house in order and balancing the checkbook and... the many, many other stay-at-home mom tasks. Which reminds me, I just got the bank statement in the mail before naptime... :) One friend told me to get the girls started on something and then go and do what you need/want to and come back every now and then and check. I have been working on that more and more. I think it was hard on them to begin with because I started right after I got back from a vacation without them. They wanted/needed me!! This week has been easier, for which I am very grateful. I can tell when I have lost track of the time and it is time for a snack, meal, or nap. L starts looking for me and Kj will tell me she just wants to take a nap (or eat). Here is a parenting quote I came across, not related to what I was talking about, but good nonetheless:

"You cannot control your children, you say. Then the Lord have mercy on you! It is your business to do it, and you must do it, or else you will soon find they will control you. No one knows what judgment will come from God upon those who allow sin in children to go unrebuked." ~ C.H. Spurgeon

This is L singing, "Ho, ho, ho, hosanna. Ha, ha, hallelujah. He, he, he, he saved me. I've got the joy of the Lord." Something to add a little smile to your day:



I used this song one day after my mom taught it to the girls. We were trying to get ready for bed and there was a lot of whining and squirming and parental frustration! It broke through all that and the rest of the process went much easier!! Thanks, Mom!!