Update... Well, It's About Time!

I've updated FaceBook, but many of you stay in touch through my blog which has been sorely neglected the past few months.  After we moved into our house, it seemed as though someone hit the fast forward button and time to write was lost in the shuffle. 

Life has been full in a very good way and we are finding all our new normals just in time to upheave them again!

Most of you know, last April we officially started our adoption journey.  We were matched with a sweet girl who is six months younger than Caleb.

 

ISN'T SHE A DOLLY!!!

 

 

Well, a month or two ago, we were contacted by our agency with the news that this little guy was available too, so we decided to expand our family by TWO!  We are very excited about this amazing opportunity for our family.  

HE IS SO PRECIOUS!!!

 

 

This guy is six months older than Caleb. 

 

 

At this point in our GREAT ADOPTION ADVENTURE  we are about done with our dossier, in fact we have sent all but one document to our agency for final review.  After our dossier is completed and goes to China, hopefully by the end of the year, we hope to be able to travel to get these babies by April or May 2015. 

 

We are very excited about this.  And THANKFUL that God would choose to use us in this way. 

 

By the end of the year, when we mail our dossier to China, we will have $3640 in fees due.  If you would like to join hands with us and give toward these specific fees we would be so grateful.  We have a 501c3 ministry who is partnering with us where you can give easily online. 

 

I'm trying to figure out how to put their snazzy button here, but until then, you can use this link:

 

 

AdoptTogether Link

 

 



So that's what's new with us! We'd love to hear what's new with you.  Let us know and keep in touch.  Have a beautiful and blessed Holiday Season! 

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!  We are so blessed to have such a wonderful group of family and friends!

Love y'all!

Finding Gratitude...

Almost Thanksgiving, tick tock, tick tock time passes by. How can it be that I've lived almost a year with out my mom. I remember.

She loved the Holidays... I mean really loved them. Today I was in a store with my girls that was decorated exceedingly early for Christmas. I became excited with my kids, we talked about decor and lights and meals. But tonight, in the quiet, I ache. I miss her. I talked to my mom nearly everyday. I told her about all the little mundane details that no one else cares about and they mattered to her. She delighted in each of the kids and the little things they had said and done each day. 

I would tell her about the two little lizards Natalie and I almost sat on in the chairs, in the cold early morning while stopping at our friend's for a break from our morning jog. They were all curled up together as chilled as could be. Thankfully I saw them before I sat down, I picked them up and incubated them in my hands, hot from jogging. They were so still we thought one of them was dead until it started squirming. Then it ran away. She would've cared about that story. 

And then how I was putting a roast and veggies in the crock pot and decided to call some friends on a whim and invite them over for dinner that night. She would've cared about that. 

And this, she would want to see this silliness

And how Caleb has had a burst of words lately and can say difficult names like "Lily" but still does the sign for "please" and can't say the word. Then later she'd call me and tell me about a commercial she had seen or a show she had watched that had just the solution for his speech issue. BECAUSE SHE CARED. 

I miss her with all of my heart. We will meet again someday and I know that now she is ALIVE!, more alive than she ever was on this planet. When we meet again I plan to just sit and hold her hand and be there with her, maybe much like the last few days I had with her. So precious was the gift of those days God arranged for us last year. 

So as we approach Thanksgiving, I'm grateful. I'm grateful for a mom who loved Jesus and taught me to do the same. I'm grateful for a mom who chose a spouse who became my dad. And I'm eternally grateful for our living hope, Who makes all things new, and gives me the knowledge that Mom and I will worship Him together in eternity.