Words to live by- out of the mouth of a 5 year-old

Each of my 5 year-old girls got a beautiful cross necklace as a gift from their grandma and grandpa several months ago. The necklaces are highly treasured by the girls and are worn quite regularly. The other day, one of my girls came up to me out of the blue and said, "Mom, whenever I am sad, I just look at this (holding the cross up) and it makes me happy". I asked her to repeat what she had just said to her dad, so she did. She then flashed us a beautiful, carefree smile and skipped away. How simple, I thought... that's all there is to it. Thanks for the reminder, God!


"Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you"

1 Peter 5:7


"I am leaving you with a gift- peace of mind and heart.
And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give.
So don't be troubled or afraid." John 14:27


"Always be full of Joy in the Lord. I say it again- rejoice!"

Phillipeans 4:4

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! He is risen!
Happy Easter to you all! We were greeted this morning with snow! The flakes were huge and it was beautiful!

We just got back from Easter service at church, which was followed by an Easter egg hunt. The kids had a blast.

The coolest thing...the eggs were dropped by a helicopter!

Great idea, Pastor Dale!

Now the kids are gorging themselves with candy and Easter eggs, of course :0)

An Orphan's Prayer

I was cleaning out my mailbox for my Russian adoption chat group today. I always meant to post this, but I never did. It moves me deeply every time I read it.


An Orphan's Prayer

I am waiting...somewhere far...far... away on the other side of the world.
I may not know who you are or what you look like,
But somehow deep in my heart I know you are out there.
That one day you will come and find me.
It's a long journey, and it takes a lot of time...
I wish it could be easier.
But I know that the ones who come for me will not count the cost.
They will only see the joy of finding me.
For now I abide in the fields of the fatherless.
Day by day wondering why I was born here and not somewhere else?
Asking... why my life couldn't have been different?
It is so lonely...
Even though I am surrounded by hundreds of other children,
I know that something is missing... I know in my heart that I need
a place to call home.
My arms long to be wrapped in a father's embrace...
I long to be saved by a mother's love...
Gazing out of the orphanage window, I offer a prayer of hope,
"Oh God please help them come quickly."
Even as I lay in the darkness each night somehow I feel assured,
That no matter how lost I appear I am not alone.
Holy hands guard my steps, sacred fingers wipe my tears, touching
my lonely heart.
The one who made me,
The God that knew me before I was born,
Hears me every time I call.
He whispers His promises in my ear.
I listen with hope to His voice.
But what I worry about most is that no one wants to look for me.
The fields are vast and there are so many scattered all over the
earth.
I wonder how one little child, so lost, can be found?
Yet He calms my heart and assures me that He will find you.
That He will make sure you hear His voice clearly.
He has promised me that He will make a way through the fields,
That He will personally cut a path, and lead you right to my
orphanage door.
My prayer is...
When He speaks... Please don't forget to listen...
When He calls don't be too afraid to go
For I am waiting...somewhere , far...far... away
On the other side of the world
To come Home.

Author Unknown



I am certain that even though our son is barely two years old, he knows he is missing something. He may not know exactly what, but I'm sure he feels it.
Here is what I want my son to know about the time we have spent searching for him and waiting for him to come home.

Oh my dear son,
We are waiting too.
We want to have you here so badly!
But you are not alone.
I only hope that someday, you can truly know
That you were NEVER alone.
That God planned out all of your days before even one of them came to be.
He was and is always with you.
Did you know that you have always had a Mama and a Papa?
God always meant for you to be ours,
Just not right away.
Why?
We cannot fully understand.
Someday we will know all of His reasons.
For now, we will have to trust Him, and know that He declared,
"For you know the plans I have for you,
Plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
Plans to give you hope and a future." (Jer 29:11)
He loves you more than you will ever be able to fully know.
Even more than your Mama and Papa.
And we love you sooooooo much!
He has already proven His love for you time and time again in the short time you have been on this earth.
And He will continue to do so for the rest of your life.
You know what is incredible?
He told us about you.
He did!
Even before you were born.
He found us and helped us to find you.
It did take time, so much time.
At least that is how it seemed to us.
But God's timing is perfect.
Did you know that?
His plan is perfect,
And He made the path clear.
He led us straight to you!
Would we change this path if we could?
No, we would never even consider that,
For this is the path that led us to you.
He has answered your prayers!
He has spoken,
And we listened.
He called,
And we went to the other side of the world to find you.
What a joy and a gift you are to us!
We have never and will never count the cost.
Soon, my precious boy, we will be at the end of the path.
We are coming for you,
And we will bring you home...forever!

Amazing! A Lesson in Faith

Well, have I got a story for you!

Something absolutely incredible happened yesterday- it left D and I speechless.

Our flip house sold yesterday(see Sept.2007 post for pics/whole story).

That wasn't the shocking thing, though, because it is an adorable house and D did a great job with it, so I knew it would sell. Given the soft real estate market, we knew we should be realistic and expect low offers. We also knew the average time a house spends on the market in our area currently is 6 months. It has been 6 months.
In the past 6 months, we have had countless showings and no offers. I started to think maybe God's plan was something other than using this house to make money for our adoption. We had actually completely given up on making any money for the adoption with this house.

And then yesterday happened.

We got a call late yesterday morning that there was an offer on the house. It was substantially less than we were asking, so we were a little disheartened by that, but it was an offer! We figured we would counter it and hopefully come out at just SOME less than we were asking.

This is where the amazing part comes in...

Our realtor told us there was another showing at 6 PM, and it was a second showing, so she advised us to sit tight.

A little sidenote: The last time these people came to see the house was a few weeks ago. After that showing, my husband came home from work and said, "Well, I ruined the showing today. Don't expect those people to be back". He proceeded to tell me that he had stopped by the flip house (during work hours- he was on break) to put a new lightbulb in the front porch lightsocket because he knew there was a showing that evening and he had noticed it was out the night before. My husband is a police officer, so he was in uniform. Well, the people showed up to meet the realtor at the house a little early...oops! The first thing they see: a squad car and a police officer standing on the porch. LOL :0) He told me the lady said, "Well honey (to the person in the car), this is not a good sign, the police are here." I guess the realtor (not our realtor)showed up at that point, and my husband got a call, so he had to jump in the car and go. Don't know to this day if that whole thing was ever explained to them, but apparently the people liked the house anyway!

Back to yesterday...

At 8PM, my husband called (he was at work). The first thing he said was, "You are never gonna believe this". His voice was wavering, so I thought something was wrong. Just when my mind began reeling, he said, "We got another offer...it was for quite a bit more than we are asking- and they are pre-approved".

I could not speak.

How could this be? I said, "Are you sure?".

"Yes", he said. "Amazing, isn't it?"

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That word does not even do it justice.

God is GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!! He can do even more than we ever might ask or think. Did we even ever ask him to do that? No, I wish could say that we had. Our most recent prayers have been "God, please help us to break even, so this house does not keep us from bringing our son home. Your will be done". Luckily, we had lots of other people praying for us. Some of them must have been more faith-filled!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you who prayed that the house would sell!

Our closing date? Our son's birthday. He will turn 2 on that day.

Happy Birthday baby boy! God sold a house for you so your Mama and Papa can come to get you!

Mama Bird

A VERY exciting thing happened yesterday...I heard birds chirping!

I know many of you do not understand why this is so exciting, but I do know that those of you who have lived through this winter in the Midwest understand (again, how do people in Siberia do it?).

It's not that I don't like winter, I do! Nothing can compare to sitting by the fire with your family and watching huge, white snowflakes swirl all around outside. Or hearing your kids squeal with joy and anticipation as their daddy gives their sled a HUGE starter push at the top of a big, snowy hill. This is good stuff!

But spring is great too! And birds chirping is the first sign that it will be here soon. Time for the birds to nest. How fitting...

Time for me to nest too! Just like any good mama bird would do, I ripped the house apart this weekend. My poor husband, it probably scares him when I get like this.
It is amazing how much energy a woman has when it is almost time for her baby to come.

My mission: First, reorganize everything, starting with the closets.
Second, clean EVERYTHING!

So far, this mission is going well.

Gotta go, Mama bird has work to do!

WE GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got our petition to court!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Praise God :0)

Thank you for all of your prayers! This is so much sooner than we thought it would come. In fact, I thought my husband was teasing me when he told me the news- LOL!

We are beyond excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Soon we will be officially waiting for a court date!

A Dose of Encouragement

When I was little and learning to swim, my mom would stand in the water just a few feet away from me. As I swam toward her, she would back up slowly, repeating, "Come on, you can do it!" all the while. The image in my mind is crystal clear. She had a big smile on her face and her arms were outstretched. A few moments into my swim, I would realize she was backing up and I would scream, breathlessly, "Mommy, don't back up!". She would continue the routine described above, encouraging me every so often as she continued to back up. A few minutes into it, I would begin to panic, and scream, "Mommy, I can't do it!". Still with a smile on her face, she would say calmly, "Yes, you can sweetie!". I would continue to swim toward her, desperate to reach her. Finally, after what seemed like years, I would reach her, breathless and exhausted, but so happy to be safe in her arms. She would say, "Look where we are, sweetie, we are at the other end of the pool. You swam all the way across! You did it!". Only then did I look up and realize that I truly had made it. I had done the work, but her encouragement is what enabled me to make it to the other side of the pool.

It's amazing how, every step along the way of this journey, God gives me a little dose of encouragement just when I need it, just like my mom did for me when she was teaching me to swim. As I have said before, it has been a real struggle for me sitting here in the "waiting room". I wish I could say I always have a peace about it all, but I don't (some of the time, yes, all of the time, no). The fact is, my son is on the other side of the world and my heart is hurting.

Yesterday was one of those days. I crumbled under the weight of it all and let fear and missing my son overtake me.

What happened?

I found out our petition to court is not even being processed yet. This means it will still be awhile before we get it. Which means it will be even longer before all of our paperwork can be presented to the judge so we can be assigned a court date. Of course, I should have looked on the bright side of the news and been happy that we are getting close and that nothing is wrong that would potentially hold up the processing of the petition once it is actually time to process it.

Did I look on the bright side?

No... I went to my room, shut the door, and silently cried.

All the while, I was apologizing to God for crying. I prayed for strength.

Then my 5 year-old daughter walked in and silently handed me a paper. She looked up at me, with her big, blue eyes and said, "Mommy, I made you a card". Then she put her little hands on my face and said, "I love you, Mommy" and kissed me on my forehead. Then she said, "These are all of the people I love so so much, and you're right there"(pointing to me in the pic). She proceeded to tell me who all of the people are, and ended with, "And that's baby brother" (pointing to the boy in the bottom righthand corner).



Notice the Y's where she meant to put X's- so precious!


Wow, you are amazing, God! Thank you for using my sweet little daughter to help me get everything back into the right perspective!!!!! I know it seems little, but it was just what I needed to remember that God is in control. That he holds my precious son in his hands and we will be united when it is time. I know someday I will look back across this journey and marvel at how we actually made it...

With a lot of encouragement, of course!

A Visitor (uninvited)

I haven't posted much lately...I've been pretty uninspired. Something happened today that inspired me, though, so I thought I would share.

We had a visitor at our house today.

It was puke.

Have you ever noticed that when you have children and/or pets and there is a pukey day at your house, it is usually REALLY pukey? Well that is how it was at our house today.

It started at 5 A.M. with my son standing next to my bed in the dark, saying, "Mom, I'm really thirsty!" Something about the way he was saying it (maybe it was because he had his hand around his throat) jolted me upright immediately. But before I could even completely focus my eyes on him, it was too late...

The next moment, I was frantically saying, "Try to get to the bathroom, honey!" and chasing after him as he ran. But it could not be contained.

Did I mention my son went to a birthday party last night, where they indulged in a cake that had RED icing and he had RED punch to wash it down?

Wow! That sight of that covering most of your bedroom carpet will REALLY wake you up in a hurry!

Why can't I wake up like that on any other day?

Anyway, I screamed for my husband to get up (no, none of the activity detailed above awoke him), which he then did. He got the honors of taking my son to Prompt Care (turns out he his tonsils are infected with strep) and I stayed home to clean the carpet.

Did I mention that when I walked out of my room to help my son get ready to go, I was greeted with MORE puke? Apparently the cat had gotten ahold of some of our dog's RED food and had thrown-up all over the family room.

Lucky for the cat, I got the carpet clean before my husband and son returned home.

It's that nine lives thing.

Oh my...

Some days are just like that.