#6

We have officially moved to #6 on the wait list!!!! SO EXCITED!!! 

Thailand Flooding

I haven't had the chance to update my blog and talk about the flooding in Thailand.  Holt is keeping us updated on the status of the foster family's and foster children. Over 70 family's and children have been affected.  They are either living on the second floor of their homes or have had to leave due to the flooding.  My heart is broken for the families that were supposed to travel and have their precious babies home for Christmas.  From what I've read those fami have waited so long already because of delays due to the Homeland Tour.  I pray for God to give them peace and patience.  I know how hard it is already for us to wait and be patient, I can't even imagine how it feels to be so close just to be delayed again. :(

We received a new update today and HSF says they are still planning on sending out December referrals!!!  That makes us so happy!  We were worried that everything would be delayed because of the flooding.  We would appreciate prayers for the people of Thailand, the families who have been delayed, and for us.

Isaac's Big Weekend!!

Isaac's first morning of youth season...not very exciting...

The second morning...MUCH more exciting!!!

#13

 

We are currently number 13 on the wait list. We were hoping to move a few more places than 3 but we are glad to make progress no matter how small it is.  I know God has a plan and we just need to be patient and know that he is taking care of everything.  We feel blessed to be this far into the process.

So very thankful...

As I was getting ready this morning I realized that I haven't thought about "getting pregnant" in months.  Getting pregnant was a part of my daily thoughts for years. I thought about it when I got up and before I went to bed and a million times in between.  I know our adoption process still has a long way to go but I feel so settled.  I know adoption requires patience, and there will be times that I run short on it, but at least I know that it will eventually happen.  When you try month after month to get pregnant there is no assurance that it will ever happen. 
I always worry about making the right decisions in my life and I want to do what's best for my family.  Every once in awhile I wonder if adoption is really the right thing for us.  God reassures me every time.  Perfect example is the other day my nephew Kolten spent the night with Isaac.  While they were eating breakfast they were talking about Kolten's little sister Lily.  I heard Isaac say "I'm Lily's uncle"  and I said "no, she's your cousin".  He turned to Kolten and said "dang it, I want to be an uncle......oh, I know! When my Thailand sister has a baby then I will be an uncle!"  I grinned to myself and felt a warmness spread through my heart and I felt God's voice say to me "when Isaac's Thailand sister gets here your family will be complete and it IS the path that I want you to take"  Without adoption Isaac would never have the opportunity to be an uncle when  he's older and to know the joy that having nieces and nephews bring.  So, today I am so very thankful for God leading us down the path of adoption and that one day Isaac could be an uncle!  :)

Garage Sale

The First morning of our garage sale

Aunt Debbie, mom, niece Lily Jo, and sister in-law Kayla

Step dad Bobby and Lily Jo

Aunt Debbie and mom working hard!

Had to take a picture of this...the boys are actually folding clothes!

Lulu wanted to help...

Isaac and Lulu were both worn out...

Isaac and nephew Kolten napping...

Jason and my brother Matt

We would like to thank everyone who donated items for our garage sale, it was a great success! We raised $1,346.96!!!!  Call it pride or independence but Jason and I don't often ask for help.  We are more comfortable being the ones to help others so it felt a bit awkward to ask people to donate items for our sale.  It was such a blessing and humbling experience to see the amount of people who cared enough for us and what we are doing to donate their stuff.  Jason told me when we started the process of adopting that we would be surprised who would feel led to help us out and so far he was right.  The people that I least expected donated items or just handed us a check.  We will be forever grateful for everyone's generosity.

Officially Waiting!

June 30, 2011 we were officially added to the wait list!   I know that I had no control over where we were on the list but I told Jason I would be good with number 17 or less.  God knew what I could handle!  We are currently number 16!!!!   Friday, July 1 our dossier was en route to Thailand!  We are so excited!  Now the waiting begins...

Dossier completed!!

Today I sent our completed dossier to our adoption agency! I feel like I've been calm so far but right now I'm feeling very anxious. I can't wait to know what number we are on the wait list! It's not as though knowing will make it happen any faster, I just feel it makes us official. It's been a bit of a whirlwind since we started this process, everything up to this point has happened so quickly. Sometimes it's hard to believe this is really going to happen! I feel so blessed that this is the path God has chosen for us.

Home Study Completed!

Things have been crazy busy for us the last several weeks. I was so excited for summer vacation so we could relax and take it easy.  It has been anything but relaxing, but God is good and things are happening just as they are supposed to.  I was excited when we received our completed Home Study in the mail sooner than expected!  I was able to get our dossier papers notarized and the Secretary of States seal completed and sent off to D.C. for the other seals required before we left for vacation last Friday.  That had been my original goal but didn't think it was very realistic. God worked it out and allowed things to fall into place!  Now we are currently waiting for the dossier to come back from D.C. and all I have left to get together are pictures and passport photo's then it will be ready to send to Holt!

Lulu's first Birthday

Yesterday was our dog's 1st Birthday!! I thought I'd post  picture's of Isaac and Lulu together...I can't wait until Isaac has a sister to be in picture's with him. :)

Progress Update

 I thought I'd take a few minutes to update about our progress.  It's amazing how you can feel like you have done so much work but still feel like there is still so much to do.  I'm sure that things will slow down after we get our dossier finished.  As of right now we have sent in our home study payment, filled out and sent in all our home study paperwork, and just verified today that our case worker has received all our reference's questionnaire's.  Also, we had our first visit with our case worker May 24th.  She called the night before to see if she could come to do our home visit.  God knew that it was best for me to have as little notice as possible or I would obsess over it and drive myself crazy.  My house was already clean, thankfully I didn't have to worry about that.  I was just excited to be making progress.  It was nice to finally put a face to a voice because we had talked several times on the phone.  We really liked her, she was very nice and helpful and patient as we asked all kinds of questions.  She wanted to see our house, she played with Lulu our dog and talked to Isaac about how he feels about adopting a little girl.  Right now we are waiting to hear from her to schedule our next visit.  She was thinking the end of this week or the first of next, so we'll see.  In the meantime I have almost all our dossier paper work together.  Hopefully I'll have it all ready to go by the time she is finished with our home study.  Anyway, that's the plan. We would like to thank everyone who has read and shown an interest in our blog and we would appreciate you prayers as we continue on this journey.

Where should I begin...

My husband Jason and I decided when we got married we would wait 5 years before having children. Which by the way we planned on having 2 kids 3 years apart. That was our plan but not God's. The first part of our plan worked out great, we had our 5th Anniversary in October of 2002 and had our son Isaac in December. Everything About my pregnancy, labor and delivery was perfect and I loved every minute of it except the morning sickness. We were blessed with a wonderful, healthy, tender hearted son. Years later I came to believe God allowed it all to be so perfect because he knew it was the only time I would experience it.
Before Isaac was a year old Jason and I decided to start trying for baby number 2. 6 months turned into a year. 1 year turned into 2,3,4...nothing...we started testing which resulted in nothing. Every Dr. told us there should be no reason why we couldn't get pregnant because we had once before. The years of the emotional roller coaster was becoming to much for us. Although there was still a void in our hearts we decided to just be thankful to God that he gave us Isaac. Instead of wasting years obsessing over a child we didn't have we were going to enjoy every moment with Isaac.
I did pretty well most of the time putting it out of my head. Of course until I would hear someone's pregnant, or when I would see a child that's neglected. I would ask God "why"? I felt like I failed Jason, myself and Isaac because he didn't have a brother or sister like other kids his age. I would get angry just looking at the spare bedroom sitting empty!
For the record we have a wonderful life, we are blessed with so many things. My wonderful husband and son, our jobs, health and home. I figured if God wanted us to bare the cross of infertility then we would.
Just this past March I went for my yearly check-up. Which happened to fall on the same day that my beautiful, precious niece Lily Jo was born. I went straight from the hospital holding my niece to my Dr's office that was full of " moms to be". My Dr. was very candid with me, he told me if we wanted to pursue having another child the time is now. He pointed out that I'm 32 and at the age of 34 I would be considered high risk. If we want to try to have another baby he would send us to a specialist in Kansas City. I was grateful with his honesty it felt like a wake up call. I knew that I could not go back to that emotional place for something that wasn't guaranteed. So, the small part of my heart that secretly held on to the hope I would just get pregnant slammed shut. It was what I already knew I just needed to hear my Dr.say it.
Two weeks later Jason, Isaac and I went to a Jason Crabb concert. During the concert he spoke about children he sponsors through World Vision. He was asking others to do the same. Isaac leans over and whispers that he wants to sponsor a child, he said he would give up his allowance in order to do it. I told him to raise his hand, so they passed us a packet. When we pulled the picture out of the little girl my heart melted. I thought what if this was my first glimpse of a child we were adopting? I could take her home and love her! That is the moment God spoke to my heart. We could adopt and one day we would be shown a picture of a little girl that we could bring home to love forever. A few days passed before I mentioned it to Jason. I think he was surprised at first but it didn't take long before he was on board and just as excited as I was. After reviewing information from several agencies, we felt God was leading us to Thailand. The financial burden of International adoption is very heavy and for Jason and I, who are used to cautious planning of our finances, we will have to rely on faith in God's plan that he will provide a way. Although apprehensive, once the seed of adoption was planted in our hearts there was no turning back...we mailed our application April 15, 2011.