ITCHY

After arriving home from a meeting tonight I discovered I was covered in hives.  I'm definitely a bit itchy, but I'll take it as a good excuse to drug myself to sleep tonight with a little Benadryl.  When I'm extremely stressed this is one way my body reacts.  This reaction could be from one of 2 things, or both:

1.  Our HOA is in the process of building a park and I'm the chair on this committee.  I actually just got home from this meeting and am on a mission to find thousands of dollars to make this park happen.  Trying to make it all work out on a very limited budget is definitely stressful. 

2.  The adoption is definitely stressful, especially when families much higher than you hear about their papers being processed, and we know nothing.

sesamestreet.org

This picture would make a GREAT advertisement.  We love SesameStreet.org.  My kids love it because they get to play games on the computer.  I love it because it's free, educational, and meets multiple age ranges.

Hair Experiment

As a child we had a Saturday Night routine that I dreaded.  Many a Saturday nights my mom would put sponge curlers in our hair so that our hair was curly for church the next morning.  Sleeping on these was extremely uncomfortable.  Well, I thought I'd put my daughter through the same torture.  =)  Actually, my daughter saw the curlers in my cupboard and requested them.  So we experimented.

I used the larger ones since I wasn't sure how curly it would make her hair

This was my daugher's desired outcome, to have curly hair like her brother

The Final Product

It didn't turn out as curly as we thought, but still very cute.  Kristin loved it and wanted curlers in her hair again the next night.  Next time we'll try smaller curlers.

Make Believe

My children constantly live in a world of make believe, they also love wearing costumes.  Every day they pretend to be someone or something.  Lately they've been pretending to be knights and dragons.  It's fun to sneak up on them and listen to what they are saying.

I've realized that I too have been living in a world of make believe when it comes to our adoption.  Some may call it denial, but I prefer "make believe."  We are now in our 16th month of this journey and I feel like I know so much yet nothing all at the same time.  In my "make believe" world, all the families below us already have been approved and their referral's are being processed, even if they haven't officially received their approvals.  And even though people above us have received approvals, my "make believe" world has convinced me that any day now there will be mass approvals, including ours.

You may also notice that the title and look of this blog has changed a bit.  It's no longer "Our Journey to Africa," but "Our Life Journey."  This change is also because I believe we will bring our babies home soon, thus starting the next chapter of our lives and continuing whatever journey God leads us on.

So, as you can see, I'm not in denial, I'm just living in a magical world my mind has created that I don't plan to leave any day soon.  Pretty sure if I leave this world of make believe, I'll have a complete breakdown.

Going Out

This weekend my hubby and I went on a date just the 2 of us.  We try to make this a habit, but lately it hasn't happened.  Let me just say we had TONS of fun and we felt like kids again.  The next day we talked about how much fun we had.  At one point I said "I had so much fun going out with you last night."  My husband's response, "Oh?  Now we are going out?  Don't you think we are moving a little too fast?"  Gotta love him! =)

Zoo Experience Like None Other

My kids love the zoo, and thanks to my wonderful husband and the fabulous zoo pass he bought us for Christmas, we will be visiting the zoo quite often.  You never really know what you will see at the zoo, each animal is out more or less and their activity level also seems to vary depending on the weather and time of day.  Let's just say it's always an adventure.  This week at the zoo there were some strange happenings in the gorilla cage.  To keep this from being an R-rated blog, lets just say the male gorilla was pleasuring himself.  Thankfully my children were completely oblivious, so we just moved on like nothing happened.  The kids also got to feed some birds meal worms, this would have been more exciting if the birds were interested.  I did find the Tapir interesting, it can shoot its pee great distances (fairly often too, I might add) and it makes the strangest noises.  I look forward to seeing what other crazy experiences our next trip will bring!

my son is a little annoyed that I'm taking another picture =)

pulling all 3 was quite a work-out

she sat on this bear and told me I needed to take picture

Tennis Lesson #1

This week I had my first tennis lesson.  What made me want to learn how to play... well I'm not quite sure.  I never really seem to have a method for my madness.  But if I did have a reason it might sound something like this: it's free, we have lots of courts here in town, I could teach my kids to play when they get older,  it would make a great outing with my husband, etc.

Meet  "G," my brave and fearless coach (a.k.a. my little sister):

Isn't she cute?  My sister did a great job and was VERY patient with me.  There was a lot more running around than actual playing.

Meet my pit crew (a.k.a. ball chasers):

My kids thought this was so much fun.  Who knew that they'd enjoy an hour of chasing and picking up tennis balls.  What a great way to wear them out! =)

 

Doubting Faith of An Israelite

God completely hit me over the head yesterday and made me realize that I wasn't trusting Him completely with His plans for our adoption.  A friend shared with me Numbers 14, which I really needed to read yesterday because it made me realize my faith was much like the Israelites.  Instead of remembering everything God has already done for us on this journey, I've been doubting his future promise and not trusting Him to help bring our sweet babies home.  This journey has tested my faith in ways I've never imagined, and even though it has been rough, I have learned so much and have been blessed every step of the way.  So here's to a more Caleb-like faith and less of and Israelite-doubting faith.

You've Got Mail....Or Not

Checking my email is usually a daily task I look forward too.  Things have constantly been moving in Rwanda and it's so exciting to see what's happening next.  Well lately (especially today), I have not felt the same about checking my email.  Instead it has become more of a dreaded task.  Instead of checking it first thing in the morning like I used to, I wait until the afternoon, partially out of fear.  Why fear?  Well, this is what happens: I go to my email and have excitement thinking today might be the day we hear something from Rwanda.  After opening my email, all the excitement washes away and turns into great disappointment.  I feel like it takes me a couple hours to recover from this emotional roller coaster.  Maybe I should take a break from checking my email?  I obviously need to trust God's timing more, I thought I was, but this definitely says otherwise.

Vacation Lodge

I am very excited to introduce our new 3 bedroom vacation lodge:

This, by the way, is the closest we will get to ever owning a vacation lodge.  And, for the record, it actually is called a vacation lodge.  It has dividers to make 3 rooms and it could very easily fit 4 air mattresses.  It's perfect for our growing family.  We got this tent for Christmas and I've been dying to set it up, so this afternoon I finally cleared out some space in our unfinished basement and set it up.  Looking forward to many fun camping trips with this tent.

This tent is SO massive I couldn't get a good picture of the outside, so instead you can see a glimpse of the inside and it's massiveness.

Boring

So I realize that after my last post some of you may think we are completely boring people.  I mean really, who plays with their kid's toys after they go to bed.  Well, here's a thought for you to ponder, I heard someone once say "you can only be bored if you are boring."  We're just enjoying the little things in life! =)

Truth Revealed

As a child I vividly remember not wanting to go to sleep because I thought I was missing out on something fun or important.  We now see this same trait in our daughter who can be caught on various occasions peaking out of her room to see what we are up to.  Well the truth is, there is never a dull moment in this house, never (if you've met my husband you would understand).  This is what we were doing last night after the kids were in bed (sorry, my hubby refused to be in this picture):


Making our own version of Radiator Springs with our son's new geo-trax.

GOOD TIMES!  You can also catch us on many occasions enjoying a good sword fight (if you don't already own it I highly recommend the new wii sports resorts), SO FUN!

HEADLESS

This is what I woke up to this morning, this is also our daughters favorite doll because it's baby Cinderella.  I kinda looks like something out of some strange horror movie.  And to be really honest, it was kinda hard not to laugh.  But out of great sympathy for my daughter, I refrained from doing so.  This morning our daughter hands this to me and says look what her brother did.  She then proceeds to me tell how she cried.  My son on the other hand looks at me, smiles, then says, "I laughed."  Oh the joy of little brothers!

BIRTHDAY

I love birthdays!  This weekend was our son's 3rd birthday.  This birthday was especially fun just because he was so excited.  It's really the 1st time he's completely understood that it was his special day and he's been talking about this for weeks!  We had a big party for him this weekend and then he got to pick something fun to do on his birthday.  So we took a trip to the Children's Museum & McDonald's.

Each of our children bring something unique and special to our lives.  This little boy brings nothing but laughter to ours.  He's such an entertainer and loves to make people laugh and smile.  He is also a love bug and seems to know exactly when someone needs a hug, a kiss, or some cuddling.

He had quite a rough start to life when he was first born, but you would never know it now.  God has brought him through a lot and he has already touched many lives in so many ways!

There's something about his silly facial expressions, big brown eyes, and crazy curly hair that just makes you smile. =)  This kid draws attention everywhere and makes friends with strangers quickly.

My work of art (thanks to a mini-cake decorating lesson from a good friend).  Currently this little boy LOVES the movie Cars.  If I let him, he'd watch the movie daily.  Needless to say, we are SO excited that another Cars movie hits the theaters this summer.


If you want a good laugh, watch the video below.  He was so excited all day about his birthday party.  He loved every bit of it and was nothing but smiles until we sang to him.  He wasn't quite sure what to think, or who to look at for that matter. =)

Super Bowl & Sex Trafficking

While many of us plan to enjoy the Super Bowl today without a care in the world, there is a great issue at hand.  Sex Trafficking.  Check out the link below, don't be blind to what's going on in our country, or the rest of the world for that matter:
http://blog.beliefnet.com/redletters/2011/02/pimps-expect-big-score-at-super-bowl.html

Veggie Tales

Sorry for the random ranting last night, just feeling a bit frustrated at the time.  But we truly do believe that sometime this year we will bring home our sweet babies, and we are so excited about this.  In the mean time we will keep preparing as much as possible (there are so many unknowns that this can be hard).

God also seems to have perfect timing as well.  The Veggie Tales video my kids happened to pick to watch today was all about patience.  God can definitely speak to us in random ways. =)  Even through a Veggie Tales lesson.  Looking forward to many more months of patience, trusting, learning, growing, and relying on God! =)

Hero

One of my favorite songs right now is called Hero by Abandon (you should check it out).  It's such a great reminder that we aren't alone, we do have a Hero who died to save us.  I've found myself listening to this song a lot lately, I need a hero right now, this waiting has been tough.  I was doing so good for a while, but the silence over the last couple weeks has really gotten to me.  Adoption is a hard & rough journey, don't ever let anyone tell you differently.  Birthing a child is much easier.  Yes it can be physically draining on you and your hormones are out of control.  But the roller coaster that goes along with international adoption is the hardest thing I have ever done.  In this time we have really had to learn patience and trust God's timing.  For over a year now we have been preparing for 2 more babies and for our trip to Rwanda.  And to be honest, I'm tired of preparing, I'm tired of waiting...  But obviously God still wants us to wait and trust.  I recently read something that talked about how important waiting is because during that time we can grow so much or choose to become bitter.  Take Abraham for example, he waited multiple decades for his promised child and during that time it seems that his faith grew.  It's definitely not in my nature to wait, never has been, I've always been a rather impatient person.  I've also found that this waiting seems even harder the closer they get to our dossier number.  Sorry for the randomness and unorganization of this blog, I'm really struggling to gather my thoughts.  So...I guess I'll go back to waiting...thankfully we aren't doing this alone, we have a hero by our side: "there he goes, a hero, the savior over the world...."

Randomness

I don't really have much new to say, I feel like I've been in another world lately.  God has definitely answered prayers and things have continued to move in Rwanda.  I find myself checking my email obsessively now just to see who else received their approvals.  Please pray that each of these families get their referrals soon.

Here's a random picture I thought you might enjoy.  Our daughter has a way of making everything girly (he was wearing high heals as well, but they kept falling off)!

2010 Book Review

In addition to reading many adoption related books last year, I also read some great books that I would highly recommend to all of you out there.  Please keep in mind too that I'm not a huge reader, so a book has be pretty good for me to actually finish the whole thing.  Here are my favorites from 2010 in no particular order:

The Hole in Our Gospel

Tom Davis (I recommend reading all his books, my favorites are Fields of the Fatherless & Scared)

Crazy Love

Radical

Sacred Waiting (I'm currently reading this one and it's very convicting)

Happy New Year

I can't believe 2010 has come and gone.  I enjoyed looking back at all our pictures from this last year, as our kids have gotten older we have enjoyed many wonderful adventures together!  Looking back at this adoption journey, lets just say its been a rough road filled with unexpected blessings.  We truly believe that sometime this year we will bring our children home.  But what that time-line looks likes we have no idea.  There were more approvals last month, we are praying that this movement continues!

In the mean time I will continue reading more books that have been recommended to us.  Last fall I went through every adoption book ever recommended to us.  Each of the books I went through was recommended by other families who have adopted, our adoption agencies, and Adoptive Families Magazine (which I highly recommend subscribing to).  So for you adoptive families out there, here is the list of my favorites so far:
       1. The Connected Child (by Dr. Karyn Purvis)
       2. When Love is Not Enough (by Nancy L. Thomas)
       3. Adoption Parenting: Creating a Toolbox, Building Connections
There are many other really great books out there, I went through over 30 of them.  But they all started to get very repetitious of each other.

We wish you all a Happy New Year!!!  Praying that each of you finds ways to bless others in this new year!!!