Our Biggest Birthday Week Ever

Dave and I aren’t really into extravagant holiday celebrations. The one time of year where we actually get excited to celebrate is here. We call this time “Birthday Week.” For the past six years that we’ve been together we’ve celebrated birthday week starting today, July 31^st (my birthday) and finishing up on August 5^th (Dave’s birthday).This year will be the best birthday week ever. The July 31^st kickoff will begin as we board a plan for the first leg of our journey to Ethiopia. We will spend the days in between loving our kids and spending time in their birth country. Traditionally birthday week ends on August 5^th… which is our COURT DATE! I think the celebration will continue on to the next day. Just like any party though, there is an end and usually a feeling of exhaustion and sadness that its over.

As I sit in my living room writing this, we are waiting for a friend to pick us up and take us to the airport. I truly believe that God has given us a great gift of peace. Throughout the days leading up to this we've been surprisingly calm and enjoying each moment. I had thought I'd surely be a mess of stress. I even slept really well last night. The bags are packed without any last minute, crazy, running around moments... and WE ARE READY!

Just over two weeks ago...

It was just over two weeks ago when we were sitting in a Mexican restaurant waiting for an email to arrive with the first pictures of our kids. Here is Stacy, looking at the picture. God is good and we will meet our kids face to face in just a few more days.

Girly Girl

For nearly two years we've been planning for a son. From time to time we would buy boy clothes or toys at garage sales. When God surprised us with the amazing blessing of a daughter and a son we were thrilled. This means that in a short amount of time we've wrapped our minds around having a girl and our hearts have fallen in love with her. In the mean time I've been getting excited about girly things. Going into Target is a whole new world now that I stop and see all the pink!

This is the first piece of clothing we bought for our little princess.

I've been having fun making headbands for her too. These are just the first few.

A Dream

Last night I had a silly little dream that filled my heart with happiness. I've tried so many times to visualize meeting our children for the first time... but have no idea of how how it will be. We pray that God will fill the moment with blessing and His glory will be evident in each moment. We pray that all of our hearts will be connected and that our babes will know how deeply we love them.

--but last night I had a dream that we walked in the gates of the transition home and our little girl came up to me, smiled, and said, "Mama... I like your fingernails". In the dream my nails were purple!

--and our sweet little man held his arms up to David and said, "Papa, hold me."

Obviously, it isn't going to happen like this... they don't speak English yet, haha. Though I think I will paint my fingernails purple for the occasion. We are so excited to see how it unfolds and overjoyed that we will be with them in under a week.

Wild Wednesdays

It has been a month of Wild Wednesday's.

*2 weeks ago- on a Wednesday evening we got a call that changed our lives forever. We learned that God had a precious son and daughter for us in Ethiopia.

*1 week ago- I got a call that said we were leaving for Ethiopia in a little over a week for our August 5th court appointment and would meet our children.

*Today I travelled back to Colorado and am finally living under the same roof as my husband after an amazing summer of blessings and God's beauty.

*Next Wednesday we will be in Ethiopia meeting our little loves for the first time.

That is a lot happening in just a few weeks. Stay tuned for more!

Boxes

It seems so easy to put God in a box and say "God, this is what I need right now." A friend and I were talking about this at dinner this evening.

Throughout this adoption we have been blessed to see miracles happen. The blessings have been incredible and I know many more have taken place that we haven't even noticed.

We could be praying (and have) "We could really use more money to pay for the plane tickets" BUT that's not exactly what we need. It's just one way to take care of the real issue of needing to get to Ethiopia.

Rather, we should be praying "God, we trust that you want the best for our family and that you are in control. And, we will be ready to seize the opportunities you put in front of us."

We do ask that God influences our court dates to have days on both sides that will cause the flights to be cheaper. Or that the tickets are booked at just the right time so that they are cheaper than they otherwise would have been. Or when we get to the airport and travel we make the best decisions and don't make costly newbie traveler choices. Or that we are smart and don't pack to much and incur extra charges for too much luggage. Or that a flight on the way home is overbooked and when we offer to take the next flight they say "Here's two tickets for anywhere anytime." Now that's what I'm talking about. Those are some of the ideas I'm giving God but I'm certainly not going to put Him in a box.

We are excited to see how the rest of our adoption journey unfolds. We're getting closer.

Getting Closer

This weekend we are working to get the kids' room ready for them. The transition from office to children's room has been gradual and the twin bed has been in here for a while now. Now we are just trying to track down another twin bed!

We are making scrap books to leave with our children after seeing them for the first time. These are very valuable because they help our children see where they will soon be. There will be pictures of us, our home, our dogs, their room, airplanes and our cars. Hopefully this will help alleviate their anxiety about the many new things they will soon be encountering.

God moves FAST.

After an amazing week of letting it sink in that God is not only blessing us with one little boy but a beloved daughter too... God shocked us again.

We were told that it would likely be 4-7 months, maybe more before we travel to meet our children. It was hard to hear, because we love them so much and want them home, but also realized that it gave us time to prepare our home and our hearts for two precious little ones.

Yesterday, just one week after learning that we have a daughter and a son we received another amazing phone call.

We are leaving for Ethiopia in 10 or 11 days (still working on tickets). We will meet our children just under three weeks of learning about them. GOD IS GOOD, and he is moving FAST! We have a court date scheduled for August 5th (David's birthday). What a gift!

Please keep us in your prayers as we make this huge journey and prepare for it in all ways.

Stay tuned.

Referral: God's Timing is Perfect

-I am a few days behind on posting about the amazing news that changed our lives. As I've mentioned earlier, David and I are living in different states for the summer. I've been living with and learning from an amazing adoptive family... and David is at home in Colorado. Wednesday seemed just like any other summer day--

--but then my phone rang in the evening. I saw that is was B our case manager at AGCI. I figured she was calling for our bi-monthly update and check-in. I answered the phone and she asked if I had a little bit of time to talk about a girl and a boy~!~!~ Whoa, did I hear her right? We tried to conference call David but were unable to get ahold of him. After a few attempts, I called the neighbor across the street and had her knock on our door and tell David to call.

---By the time we were both on the phone with B she told us that the power had gone out at the office... so we waited about 25 minutes and then we were all together on the phone. She started to tell us about about a 4 year old girl and her 18 month old brother. Excitement and anticipation grew like crazy as she told to log in to our email as she was about to send us documents...

----Then, the server was down at her office. We waited, and waited, and waited some more. We finally started to realize that we were not going to see the information or pictures of our babies until Thursday.

-----And here is another reason why our GOD is GREAT and His timing is PERFECT. David was already planning to drive to Kansas (my home town) and pick me up Thursday night. So, when we finally were able to receive the email we were together. We read all of the information (which is our children's story and is confidential). We said YES! Surprised and elated, we knew that these were our children that God has been preparing our hearts for. We then had to wait 15 minutes or so for her to compress all the info and finally send us their precious pictures.

----Because we are silly and were starving we went to a Mexican restaurant down the street that we love. Sitting down in our booth we opened the pictures on my phone and saw our kiddos beautiful faces for the first time. That restaurant will be a place of celebration for years to come I think.

---Like I've said a million times before, God's timing is perfect! I've spent the weekend back at home in Colorado with David. We've been busy completing the referral acceptance paperwork and dreaming about life with the littles at home.

--Tomorrow our paperwork will be headed to our agency and I will head back to Kansas for four more weeks.

-We do not know when we will receive a court date and meet our children.... of course we pray that it is soon, but fully trust in God's timing. Until they are legally adopted we can not post any pictures, but I assure you... they are precious!