6 months waiting...

This book is one of the sweetest books I've ever read. It's by Scott Simon who hosts NPR's Weekend Edition, and in it he discusses his own experiences with and thoughts about about adoption (he has two daughters form China), as well as the experiences and thoughts of some of his friends. It's sweet, encouraging, thought provoking and full of love.

Stats:

We're #8 for girls, #7 for boys and #5 for either gender.

Please continue to pray for us, we'd love to bring this baby home by this summer, but we know that whatever God has for us is the absolute best thing.

5 months

Tomorrow makes 5 months on the waitlist.

Stats: we're #9 for a girl, #7 for a boy, #5 for either gender, and so #18 overall. Now, if all the either genders ahead of us are boys, that makes us #11 for boys and #9 for girls, but if they're all girls (not likely) that makes us #7 for boys and #13 for girls. The possibilities are endless... :)

In the mean time I got a part-time job at a book store, he's participating full-force in no-shave November, and we both spent the night at Chick-fil-a for 104 free sandwich coupons (don't be jealous!!).

It continues to be an uncertain time in our lives in some ways, which can make it hard to be very excited for fear of disappointed hopes, but we're praying and trusting. We're super thankful for all the friends that have and are gathering around us to pray and encourage. Y'all are the best :)

Barring any craziness, our baby is somewhere between a 4 month old fetus and 3.5 months old infant right now. So, somewhere in here:

 

(pictures randomly selected from a google search, and do not depict our actual child)

  That visual right there makes my heart ache to have our baby. It feels like "we're missing out" on part of his or her life. Part of me looks at these pictures and wants to hold him/her as soon as possible, but at the same time, it makes me think of our baby's birth mother, and what she must be going through. Nothing in me wants for her to have to give up her baby. Her emotional and/or physical pain I'm sure is beyond intense, and I pray intensely that my Lord, her maker, would draw near to her, comfort her, and show Himself to her.

In Feast Or Fallow... Featuring: More pics from Haiti

http://www.sandramccracken.com/

When the fields are dry, and the winter is long
Blessed are the meek, the hungry, the poor
When my soul is downcast, and my voice has no song
For mercy, for comfort, I wait on the Lord

In the harvest feast or the fallow ground,
My certain hope is in Jesus found
My lot, my cup, my portion sure
Whatever comes, we shall endure.
Whatever comes, we shall endure

On a cross of wood, His blood was outpoured
He Rose from the ground, like a bird to the sky
Bringing peace to our violence, and crushing death's door
Our Maker incarnate, our God who provides.

In the harvest feast or the fallow ground,
My certain hope is in Jesus found
My lot, my cup, my portion sure
Whatever comes, we shall endure.
Whatever comes, we shall endure

come, oh come, Emman- u- el
come, oh come, Emman- u- el

When the earth beneath me crumbles and quakes
Not a sparrow falls, nor a hair from my head
Without His hand to guide me, my shield and my strength
In joy or in sorrow, in life or in death

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the harvest feast or the fallow ground,
My certain hope is in Jesus found
My lot, my cup, my portion sure
Whatever comes, we shall endure.
Whatever comes, we shall endure

come, oh come, Emman- u- el
come, oh come, Emman- u- el

4 months

Another month down!!! Hopefully 4 months means we're somewhere around half-way through the wait to see our baby. Yay! Right now we're #10 for girls, #8 for boys, and #5 for either gender, so that makes us #21. Not many referrals this month, and I'm trying to find out why that is, but for now there's nothing to do but be patient and trust.


It's been a little bit of a chaotic month, full of uncertainties, but I feel like we're pulling out of that into a period of being able to relax a little and just be excited about this baby. People tell you at the beginning of the process that no adoption story is straight forward, but that they are more often than not full of unexpected obstructions and stressors. I believe them now :)

Favorites:
-Lunch date with my blog-friend. We ate, we talked, we bonded, we drank some buna, and we laughed our butts off... it was amazing!
-I've started working with a teen mom program here in town. I LOVE it!!!! I love the girls, I love the babies, I love love love it!! Did I mention the babies?!?!
-I love Fall...

 Here's an assortment of pictures from the last little bit:

Summer Concert Series

 I was soooo sick on this day

photography sKylllz

My boy

This is a series of pics from Young Life's All Area Club:

It was awesome!!

Young Life pursues un-churched, lost high-school kids. All these kids are being loved on by college-aged Christians. All these kids heard the Gospel that night, and they do every week!!!

3 months

Three months waiting today!!! That means approximately 4.5-6.5 months left before we learn who our baby is. We're 8th on the unofficial list for boys, 11th for girls, 6th for either gender, and on some computer screens i don't even have to scroll to see our name anymore :) Sometimes the numbers fluctuate a little, showing us move up as people get referrals, and move down as people find out about the list and put their info in the mix, but we're slowly, steadily moving up! Can't wait!!! Also, we've been batting around the idea of going on the "first trip" and just staying until our baby's visa is ready (which if all goes well would be 3-6 weeks after the court date). I don't know what that would look like, since so far I only know of a couple of families that have done or plan to do it, but there are a lot of reasons why we'd want to, so we'll be investigating and we'll keep you posted. Yay for three moths down!!!

This month's favorites:
-Books:
1. When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor.. and Ourselves - by Steve Corbett, Brian Fikkert and John Perkins  (I'm only like 2.5 chapters into it but so far so good)
2. Ethiopian Voices: Tsion's Life - by Stacy Bellaward (Children's book reccomended to me by a friend who lives in ET as an accurate and lovely representation of a typical child's life in ET)
3. Handbook on Thriving as an Adoptive Family: Real-Life Solutions to Common Challanges - by Dan and Renee Sanford (Lots of sweet and helpful stuff to say about attachment/bonding in infants and in older children)
- Touring local gardens
- The concept that life is not about me, but about God. - What?!?! - It's changed everything.
- Show Hope Foundation
- Coffee in the morning
- Good, long talks with friends, old and new :)

Beautiful Gardens and the Now

 

       It's funny how there's not much to say while you wait for a referral. People ask you excitedly what's new with the baby, and unfortunately there really is nothing to report. Life goes on. Brain space gets filled with other stuff: work, friends, life plans, dreams, thoughts. Soon. Soon I'll have pictures to share. Soon I'll get to enjoy, to absolutely explode in praises and thanksgiving over, the sweet snuggles and smells and giggles of our very own sweet baby. Soon, my life will change, drastically and forever. I feel caught in between two huge life stages, because even though I know that change is coming, I find myself still living in that pre-change era for a while. Some days I catch myself forgetting that I'm even waiting on something. The forgetting is easier emotionally than obsessing. Probably healthier in most respects. Today I feel like a woman, in my life, in my time with the Lord, in my marriage. Soon I'll feel like a mother, but I don't yet. I think that's okay.