One More Home

In my last post I shared that there were things going on in my little corner of the world. Plans in motion. Exciting times. So much so, I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how to explain what's on my heart. Can I go back in the past a little? Mind taking a glance to days gone by before we shoot forward? Two things stand out to me: First, our family's first attempt at beginning the adoption process. I know I've shared it before, but when we filled out our paperwork the first time, we felt we were answering God's call. But......let me have a little exposed honesty moment with you. I really, really, really wanted to adopt for little old me as well. I wanted the fun and the adventure. I wanted something new and exciting that other people would get excited about as well. Shame on me for feeling this way, but it was like signing up for a special club. Not that this was my complete motivation, but these selfish, pride-producing feelings were there. So, lookin...

So, many of you may be wondering, where exactly are we in the process of bringing our little girl home? I've spent my last few posts addressing the cause of the fatherless, but the whole topic of our adoption has been pretty much been MIA. Yeah, about that.... Last year, before Christmas, I found myself in the ER with my husband. Not for myself, but for him. He suffers from fibromyalgia, and we are accustomed to the ups and downs of the disease. Some days are fine and dandy, other days are a full scale battle with pain and fatigue. But, this time, things were a little different, and so after two chest X-rays, blood work, and various other tests we were sent home in the early hours of the morning.  In the days to come, more tests were run, and terms like MS and autoimmune were thrown about. In the end, nothing new showed up on the scene. It appears it was just a really bad fibro flair.  But for me, I froze.  In the fear of the moment, I completely shut ...

Happy 2014! With the onset of the New Year, so came the cold weather. Not enjoyable, let's build a snowman and make hot cocoa while our mittens dry by the fire cold weather. No, this kind of cold came with warnings not to be outside longer than necessary, and school closings due to temperature drops instead of snow-covered roadways. And, people, I needed my children to go back to school. Christmas has come and gone, the novelty of sleeping in and lounging in PJs had lost it's glamour, and the natives were restless. It didn't help that these last two days, while the sky may be clear, they couldn't go outdoors to play because it was just too cold. I feared we were getting ready to be an updated version of The Shining. When I give the instructions to read quietly to yourself, and instead I have one complaining of injury with an ice pack on his face and another hiding out in her room, we have a problem. Since when is quiet reading time a contact sport? We needed space fr...

"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel" Isiah 7:14 Merry Christmas, friends! Tis the season to rejoice in the Savior's birth. I don't know when you started preparing for Christmas, but I'm a staunch advocate of doing nothing involving Christmas until Thanksgiving is over. And, no, I don't mean after the lunch dishes are cleared away, it's game on for Christmas shopping or for decorating the tree. I mean nothing until the day after Thanksgiving at the earliest. I'm having a hard time with everyone trying to make the Christmas season begin sooner, and just yesterday I got my first email for after-Christmas sales. This year, I tried hard to create (okay more like force) memories to cherish. Decorating the tree, decorating cookies, Christmas concerts, Christmas lights. One by one, I dreamt of Rockwell moments that would be forever etched in the hearts of...

"It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning and your faithfulness by night." Psalm 92:1-2 ESV For the past month my Facebook feed has been full of friends and family participating in thirty days of thankfulness. While I have some friends that have rolled their eyes at the daily posts of this and that, I thought it was rather nice that the majority of status updates weren't about how annoying traffic is or how wretched Mondays are, but instead were saturated in thankfulness for the many blessings in life. Some of you were thankful for family, friends, health, employment, and yes, some of you were thankful that is was Friday and the promise that work was out of sight/out of mind for two days. I myself chose not to participate. Not out of spite or some noble stand against peer pressure to do what everyone else was doing, it just wasn't something I felt like taking part in. But, as ...

Let's take a minute and update the status of things in my household with regards to the adoption. I'm in education overload, people. Seriously, I think I might deserve some sort of associates degree in adoption/foster care/orphan care. I'm not asking for a doctorate or anything, but maybe something with a #1 or a smiley face sticker in the corner (ooohhh...scratch and sniff stickers, I love those) that I can post on my fridge or on my sweater for all the world to see. Since the beginning of this journey, I've: Read  Adopted for Life  by Russell Moore - a good place to start for those of you considering the call to adopt Read  Orphan Justice  by Johnny Carr - an excellent book if you'd like to get the big picture of orphan care and if adoption might not be in the cards for you and your family Read  The Connected Child  by Karen Purvis - the must have book for those who will ever have anything to do with children from hard places, Karen does a wonde...

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." James 1:27 ESV While in Haiti, our team visited three different orphanages. I, myself, went to two, and they were two very different experiences. I probably won't share both stories in this one post. Anyhow, if you can recall, before I left for this trip, I wrote that one of my reasons for going to Haiti was that I didn't just want to write and share my heart for orphans when I'd never been face to face with one. I wanted to be hands-on. I wanted to be a woman of my words, not just a writer of my words. So, before we departed, Jerry (a wonderful godly man who helped arrange our trip) asked us what did we want to do while we were in Haiti. And several of us girls, with smiles on our faces while bouncing a little in our seats replied, "We want to go to the orphanages!" Yes, we want ...