Dedicated to Amy Bottomly!

I was recently and not so subtly informed that I've been a blogging slacker!! :) And... I agree! No real excuse.... just haven't had a lot to say. Still waiting for a court date. Tomorrow will be 2 months since our referral.... and that officially puts us in the "window" of getting a court date. (we were told it's a 2-3 month wait from referral to hearing of a court date.) I think my dad is getting antsier than I am, though. He's traveling with me on the first trip!!

But.... since my sweet friend Amy told me I didn't have anything new for her to read... here's a recap of life lately:

-Jake: He's almost 7 1/2 and becoming quite the boy! I'm LOVING this age. Just fun and special to really see him blossom as he gets older. He's having an awesome year in school (thanks to an amazing teacher who "gets" him and doesn't try to force him to fit into "the box". He doesn't fit-- believe me, I've tried!!) I could devote an entire blog to this issue, but I won't. :) Jake's my awesome, quirky, loving, freakishly smart little guy who's going to be an AMAZING big brother!

-Grace: Oh this girl! I'm either head over heels, in love and in awe of this funny, spunky, smart, crazy girl, OR.... I'm hyperventilating in a corner over her STRONG and stubborn streak! Currently, she is using Jesus to try to get her way: "Jesus told me that he doesn't want me to take a shower this morning." "Jesus just told me that he wants me to stay in the bathroom with you" (after I had asked her to leave so I could have some privacy--pipe dream, I know!!) And... like her brother, she is very excited for "new brother" to come home! She prays for him every night!

-New brother "M"- I wish I could share his name. It's a cool one. We had never heard it before. But, this little guy.... he's something special. The updates on him are just wonderful. He seems to capture the attention of people when they visit. He has a sparkle about him that stands out. His eyes twinkle in all of the pictures! I just can't wait to meet this little one. He was truly God's gift to us.

-Orphan Ministry!!! Woo Hoo!! I've been excited to share this news... though all the details aren't totally ready yet. After LOTS of talking, sharing, emailing videos, blog articles, links to awesome organizations, etc..... I think my pastor's finally just go sick of hearing from me and I got the green light!! (well, honestly, they're all on board and super excited). But, on March 6th, our church is devoting the entire church service to launch our Orphan Ministry!! More details to share soon, but we are partnering with an organization and getting connected in Ethiopia, and we will play a big role in the Foster Care community as well. But there is LOTS of work to do to get ready for March 6th!

So, there you go. Was that enough of an update, Amy? (and any others that actually still follow this lame blog!!) :)

And, I was going to post a few pictures, but I guess I really haven't taken pictures since Christmas!! (the month of January is going to be pretty bare in the family scrapbook!) I guess I'm bringing the camera to swimming lessons and basketball practice this week!

Connecting the Dots....

It's no secret that our journey to get our referral was long and exhausting! There were some big heart breaks during the last few months of waiting that made me, at times, seriously doubt that our journey would end with a new son home with us. In August, after 10 months of waiting, I started asking more questions about our wait. (I really did not want to be THAT family, but I think we are! :) ) Well, at the beginning of August we found out that we had already lost 5 matches, but they were already working on #6. And then September came and I was starting to feel like we were getting "close" to this 6 match being ready. But, near the end of September we get the call that our 6th match fell through, BUT they have, yet again, matched up with another boy. (Seriously, I was just about at the end of my rope-- why us?? Yes, quite the pity party). And then in October, I think, we get another call--UGH!-- at this point I was not enjoying the emails that said, "can we schedule a time for a phone call"! This particular phone call was to let us know that they had more background on match #7 and his birth date would put him and Grace under a year apart, and would we be OK with this?? Seriously--- like we would say NO?!?!? But, really, when we started the process, we were requesting a 4-5 year old boy because Jacob had just turned 6 when we got on the waitlist. We were hoping that the boys would be a year apart. But after waiting a year, Jacob turned a year older, but our referral parameters didn't change. So, we find out that our boy was brought to an orphanage in mid-September, and a week later, he was at the Gladney Care Center being matched with us!!! I started thinking..... we lost our 6th match in September. Our boy turned 4 in September. We would have never been matched with him if he wasn't already 4. Yes. God had this all worked out this entire time. He's the most PERFECT little boy for us! And, as I like to say... "I always wanted twins! At least this way I don't have to go through the baby and toddler stage with twins!" Win-win!

Even through my wavering faith and strength through this whole process, God had ever detail worked out. Deep down, I knew that. I was just having a terrible time being patient in finding out the details. :)