Wait patiently for the Lord...

Wait patently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord. Psalm 27:14

I've been thinking all week about how to update this post. God gave me this verse and it spoke to me big time as you can imagine, it's the patiently part that I'm not so good at. Here is where we are at. It sounds like the birth mother has changed her mind, it's not excactly that simple but that's as far the details as I'm going to get into, because it really doesn't matter at this point. Our profiles went back out to the agencies we were working with orignially, and now we are still waiting.  The baby we were waiting on is probally not going to be ours, and we are moving on. 

I was doing surprisingly well with it all,  I thought I'd be devastated if something like this happened, but I have felt the grace of God around me teaching me and comforting me. I've tried to resist the "why did this happen?" questions and just accept that this wasn't our baby. I've been doing really well with it all accepting it and moving, on.  After all, I was the one who always said "there is always a risk with adoption" Now, I'm living it and trying to figure out what God has in store next. 

I was doing really well until today. . . I don't feel very patient today, I don't feel very brave or courageous, and really I feel sad. I'm not sure why I'm so emotional today, maybe it's because it's my birthday? I think I will blame it on that, whenever someone asked me, what I want for my birthday, I'd autmatically think our baby. I hope this doesn't sound pathetic. I am so blessed,. I have a super-hero husband, two of the best kids in the world, friends and family who love me, I really couldn't ask for more. It's just hard to wait patiently and surrender this process everyday to the Lord.  And it's hard to wonder about a baby girl in a far away state. And wonder why I had the last 7 weeks to pray for her and grow attatched to her and wonder what she's look like in our family. 

So there you have it an update. I will be fine. Tomorrow I will wake up and it will be a new day, and I will remember why God gave me this blog name "a season of hope" after all he is the one who gives us hope. So here is to surrendering to him in the good times and the hard times. 

We just got  back from a fun weekend at my parents farm. My uncle was home from Washington with his family. We had a great time visiting and catching up. We went fishing on Saturday and the weather was beautiful! It was a great time to relax and reflect and mostly just get away. 

As far as adoption, I don't really have anything else to update but wanted to thank each of you who have chosen to go on the wild ride called adoption with us. We couldn't do it without you and wouldn't want to. So to any of you who have called, written, or prayed for us we thank you. We'll keep you updated as we know more. 

THANK YOU.

Not sure what to say...

I may have shared this before but when I started this blog I didn't think I would have any trouble spilling my guts for cyberspace to read. Now that I'm here, it's a little harder than I thought. I guess I care a little bit too much what other people think and when I committed to keep people updated on our adoption I didn't think about having to report the hard things too. So here we are in the middle of a hard thing. 

I'm not going to go into too much detail but the birthmother we were working with is making some poor choices and things are a little up in the air right now. I'm not exactly sure how to feel. I'm Ok, but feel like I have this dark cloud hovering over me that I can't shake. Didn't that happen to one  smurf, or maybe it was that crabby carebear. Anyway, I'm trying to be real and hopeful at the same time and not really sure what that looks like. I really don't know what to say other than I would really appreciate your prayers.

I know so many of you have thought and prayed continuously for our family and I thank you greatly. But I need to ask again. Please pray for the situation, I don't even know how to ask you to pray, but God knows, and I trust he will be faithful. 

Here are some of the fun pictures I promised from camping last weekend. We had such a fun time. Our friends camped with us and we made great memories. I also added a couple from the rummage sale yesterday!

There's nothing better than roasting marshmallows in your jammies! Here is Lydie and our friend Cooper cuddling before bed time!
Here is the turtle Jonah and I caught when we were canoeing. Aaron didn't believe I could catch a turtle while in a canoe, but we came into this little bay area and there were 6 turtles sitting on a log. This guy just sat there and waited for us to float right up to him and pick him up!
Jonah was so proud of himself when he got to paddle. Kate and I took Jonah and Lydia out first and had them sit in the middle. There were two loons (Linda and Larry) floating in the water. I had no idea how big they were! They let us float very close to them, within 12 feet or so. It was great! Then I let Jonah go for a ride. The paddle was too big for him. But he listened very well to the directions and didn't drop the paddle  in the lake.
Here is my little lemonade stand man at the rummage sale. He did so great and it was a great math lesson too. Now he knows there are 4 quarters in a dollar and he did a pretty good job of making change for people. The highlight was when people would give him a dollar for a 50 cent purchase and let him keep the change he was so excited. And the part that warmed my heart the most was the fact that he was so willing to give all the money to help bring our baby home on an airplane. He didn't ask to keep any of it. 

Ok and right here is suppose to be a very silly picture of Kate and Aaron playing dress-up with vintage rummage sale clothes standing at the end of the driveway with items in each hand trying to sell them. It was hilarious, but I can't get the picture to upload. Oh well. Maybe later. 

Happy Fathers Day everyone, bye for now.

 

Important donation information

I got a call the day after I sent out our letters from the people we are working with at the MICAH fund and they clarified some things for me as far as designated giving. So if you are someone who I sent a letter to this important for you to read, and I 'll try to make it clear. 

We applied for a grant through the MICAH fund and were accepted, we don't know the amount yet, but we will get some money from them. Praise God! Now as far as the designated giving. If you send an amount of money to the MICAH fund and put our names on the memo line. It will go to us as long as we haven't gotten our baby yet and they haven't sent us our grant money. They will send our grant money when our placement fee is due. This when we get the baby.  I hope this is not too confusing.  I thought I'd highlight your choices. 

If you send "designated funds" to the MICAH fund you:

• Your donation is tax deductible
• I'm trying to raise awareness about adoption and the MICAH fund is great place to start.
• If you wait too long to send, (after the baby is born)  your money may not come go to us.
  

If you send donations directly to us:

• Your donation is not tax deductible 
• Your money will go to us and we will be used for placement fees and travel costs.
  

A friend at church asked me today if people could donate frequent flyer miles to us to help with travel costs. Because I don't fly that often, I hadn't thought of that but if you can transfer them, it would be a great blessing to us. And another way you  could help. Just thought I throw it out there. 

Now no matter what you decide, please continue to keep us in our prayers, this is an exciting time in our lives, and we greatly thank everyone who had been there for us and is praying for us. We had the first half of our rummage sale tonight, and despite a few showers going through, I think we had a good turn out. 

Adoption Central

Now that school is done and we officially did our camping trip for the summer, (we went last weekend and had a blast! I'll try to get some pictures on later) if feels like it has been adoption central, in my mind anyway! Today I sent out 75 letters for asking people to support us with thier prayers.  I have been thinking about doing this since February, but I think I was just too proud. God just kept reminding me to do it. So with some  inspiration from some people who've been in our shoes, and some encouragement from some great friends to go for it,  I wrote the letter while we were camping. ( A very cool God story , maybe for another post). We are also getting ready for a garage sale this weekend at some friends of ours.  I knew she was having a sale but she told me last week that it was for our adoption. I'm so humbled and grateful! So we have been trying to clean out and I will be up very late tagging items!

Please pray that lots of people will come and we make a few bucks! 

Whew!

Well, I made it. My last day of school was today. After a week full of catching up with friends before the summer and tieing up lose ends at school. It's done! YEAH. I feel like I can take a deep breath and now just concentrate on spending great summer time with Jonah and Lydia getting ready for this baby. I haven't written much on her lately about adoption, even though it is NEVER far from my mind. I feel like I'm suppose to be getting all of this stuff ready, but not really sure what I"m suppose to do. Do I paint my kitchen or not paint my kitchen? Do I start cleaning out cupboards for the summer or concentrate my time spending LOTS of time with Jonah and Lydia to make up for when I'm gone. Decisions-decisions. . . I guess  I'm truly is the "nesting" phase and just want to make the most of my time!

Nothing is really new as far as the adoption which is a good thing. We get an informal update once a week. Everything seems to be going as expected and the birth mom is doing well and as of June 16th she will be  36 weeks. I'm remember that being is considered "full term" so I am very excited that she's almost there. It's so weird thinking about the summer and how it will all play out. I very excited for this adventure.  I know God has big plans. If you think of it, here are some the things you could pray for:

* Raising money to help cover the cost of the adoption and living in Alabama for 2 weeks.

* Pray for a healthy delivery, healthy baby and for strength for the birthmom.

* Pray God starts preparing Jonah and Lydia for a new baby, and the time we'll spend apart.

* Pray for timing, not really sure what timing, but it looks like this sweet baby girl could be born smack in the middle of Aaron's fireworks season, so he may have to leave us down there for awhile, depending upon when she's born. Pray for peace in his heart. 

I think that's all for now, thanks for checking up on us, and don't forget to leave a note now and then, so I know your out there.