7!

I'm not sure how I missed writing about this over a month ago...but Emma turned 7 on January 7th...wow! 7!  It still feels a little weird to say she is 7.  She has grown up over night and way too quickly.  We celebrated with a bowling party (in case you were wondering, bowling is pretty entertaining with a bunch of 6 and 7 year old little girls).  And Emma had a great surprise when Nana and her cousin, Annie, came to visit and have a sleep-over.  A super fun weekend for one super sweet little girl!

7 Things I love about Emma:
1. Her contagious laugh
2. Her sensitivity
3. Her caring heart
4. The way all she (still) needs is a hug to make things better
5.  That she is so brave
6.  How she teaches me about grace every day
7.  The way she completes our family

Emma, you are an amazing daughter.  You are kind and loving.  God has incredible plans for your life, and I can't wait to see what they are.  I love you so very much.  You will always be my cuddlebug.  Happy Happy 7th birthday!

He loves us!

   So, we had our first set of stitches this week.  Emma fell while riding her bike and busted open her chin.  Sweet girl had to have 10 stitches (plus a layer of dissolvable ones underneath).  She was so incredibly brave.  She didn't budge once during the 45 minutes it took to do the stitches.  And we were so blessed to have a neighbor, who is a PA, that stayed late at work and waited on us to get there to sew Emma up.  Such a blessing!!!
   I was so caught up in the moment while it was all happening....trying to figure out what to do with Liam while we went to the doctor, trying to get in touch with Brad, trying to make sure she "needed" stitches, switching out the paper towel she was holding under her chin as it filled with blood, looking for my keys, cell phone, purse, running out the door, filling out paperwork at the doctor's office, holding my baby's hand while she had to be so still for so long, talking to her to keep her mind off what was going on, telling her how much i loved her and giving her a million kisses.....that it wasn't until late that night after I'd gotten her to bed that it hit me how much pain she must have been in.  Not that I didn't think about her being in pain while it was going on, but I started to think about how much that fall must have hurt.  And I began to feel painfully sick.
    I remember being at College Life (a weekly meeting all of the YL leaders had) when I was at UGA, and listening to our Area Director speak.  He was talking about how he never fully understood how much God loves us until he had his own children.  I remembering hearing that and thinking how true that probably was but not fully understanding it because I didn't have kids yet.
     Well, now I do have kids.  And now I do understand.  It is almost impossible to put into words the love I have for my children.  I would do anything for them.  They bring me more joy than I ever thought possible.  And I never want to see them in any pain....physical or emotional.  It is gut-wrenching to watch them hurt (especially  now that I have a 7 year old who is just beginning to learn what it means to be hurt by friends).  They make me laugh, cry and just make my life whole.
     How unbelievable is it to think that this is how God loves us.  That we bring Him so much joy.  That he delights in us.  That He smiles just watching us and knowing that we are His.  That He hurts when we are in pain.  That He would do anything to let us know that He won't ever leave us and that He is with us through it all....the good, the bad and the ugly.
    I don't know why it is so hard for me to fully believe this.  Or why it is so easy for me to forget it sometimes.  Maybe I just take it for granted or I've heard it so many times that I don't fully let it sink in.   I'm not really sure, but I do know one thing.  I want to know and feel this love.  This never stopping, never giving us, always and forever love.  To know how much I love my children and knowing that God loves me infinitely more than that....WOW!!  I pray that I rest in this.  That every day I am reminded of His amazing love.  It makes me think of a song that I love:

He is jealous for me.
Loves like a hurricane and I am the tree, bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by Glory.
And I realize just how beautiful you are and how great your affections are for me.
And, oh, How He loves us so.
Oh, How he loves us.
How He loves us so.

I pray you know this love, too.
   

Tis the season to rejoice!

    Christmas break comes to an end tomorrow.  Time to get back into the swing of school, schedules, getting up early, homework and everything else that comes along with "reality".  I have to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed the last 3 weeks.  I know some mommas are more than ready to get their kids back into school...but this momma has loved having her babies home.  Lots of sleeping in, cuddling on the couch, staying up late, playing with friends and just being together.
     It would take way too long to talk about everything we've been up to over the last few weeks, so I thought I'd just do it through some pictures.

Christmas tree shopping

Taking Christmas card pictures

Liam's Christmas program at school

Every year since I was Emma's age we've taken bags of goodies to kids at the RYDC (where my grandmother worked).  So fun to have my kids help with this tradition now.

Everyone helping out

Emma was the cow and Liam was the donkey at our  church for our nativity on Christmas Eve

Christmas morning...Daddys' new gun, so he can shoot Liam back

Sweet times on Christmas morning

Liam's pirate ship

I love the sweet concentration on his face when he's playing with his toys.  I could watch this all day!

Best thing about South Georgia on Christmas...it's warm enough to play outside on your new toys!

Emma and her new American Girl doll

Making Jesus' birthday cake

Best thing about making a cake...

Ringing in the new year with best friends

Watching fireworks

We also spent some time over the break serving and helping others.  It is an amazing thing to serve together as a family.  It's probably some of the most fun we had over the break.

We helped feed the homeless on Christmas Eve

We rang the bell for the Salvation Army

 And we also got to spend some time in Atlanta with family

   I'm also excited to write that our home study is officially complete.  We received the notarized copy 3 days before Christmas.  I had hoped we'd have it a few weeks before, but I'm so thankful to have that part done.  I sent off our Immigration application the very same day.  And I'm over half done with collecting everything we need to send off our Dossier.  Some days I forget we're even going through this process.  There's just so much waiting, and it can feel like it is all taking forever.  I don't want to get discouraged or frustrated.  Those are definite battles I'm fighting.  Instead I try to think that this time next year, there will be 5 stockings hung on the fireplace.  There will be 3 little faces that will come down the stairs on Christmas morning.  There will be even more laughter and even more cuddling and even more sweet time together when our child is home with us.

Now we're gearing up for a sweet little redhead who turns 7 on Saturday...

Giving thanks...

We had a great Thanksgiving break.  We stayed in town, played with friends and just spent a lot of time together as a family.  It couldn't have been better.  Sometimes there is nothing better than just having no plans and hanging out together.

One day this week, the kids made a thankful tree.  It was a lot of fun to do, and really neat to hear them talk about the things they are thankful for.  Here is picture of our tree...

And here's a list of what made it onto the tree:
Daddy, Mommy, Emma, Liam, Papa, Nana, Aunt Cindy, Big Bill, Poppy, Georgia, Hershey, Avery, Crawford, toys, our house, God, Jesus, dinosaurs, family, frogs & grasshoppers, Caitlin, Mama,  Aunt Rachel & Uncle Austin and heaven.

The Stewart Family enjoyed our usual Thanksgiving get-together the Saturday before thanksgiving.  Sadly, I wasn't able to go, but Brad, Dad and the kids had a great time.  And since we always do thanksgiving the saturday before, it always leaves just the 5 of us on thanksgiving day.  But this year, some great friends invited us to come to their Thanksgiving get-together.  It was a great day!!! And another reminder that we are blessed with some amazing friends.  Here are all the kids riding around on the boat after lunch...

We ended the break by watching a lot of college football, eating a lot of s'mores, going to the movies, decorating for Christmas and going to get our Christmas tree.  It was a great break.  One I am very thankful for.  It's always nice to slow down, spend time with friends and family and mostly to spend time remembering all of the many things we have to be thankful for.  Hoping your Thanksgiving was full of joy, as well!

Raffle Raffle Raffle!!

So, as I'm sure you know, there is a large cost that goes along with adoption.  Right now, we are in the process of trying to raise the $5000 that we need to send off our Dossier (crossing our fingers that we can do this before Christmas).  So, to help with that we are selling raffle tickets for a basket full of amazing gift certificates that is worth over $250.  All of these businesses graciously donated these gift certificates to us to help us raise funds....

Tickets are $5.  We will be drawing the winner on December 1st.  And here is what the basket includes:

$25 Harvest Moon

$25 Austin's

$20 Roosters

$25 Pearly's

$40 House of China II

$25 Loco's

$25 Carroll's Sausage

$20 Maggie Moo's

$30 Love Letters

DJ's Economy Car Wash

Please let us know if you'd like to purchase tickets!

Moving along...

So, I think it's official that I'm not very good at updating this blog.  I think about it often, but I rarely sit down to do it...and I have a really hard time coming up with what to say.  So, I thought I'd just give an update of where we are in the adoption process...

Right now we are finishing up our homestudy.  It probably would be done already, but after waiting for the FBI to run our fingerprints for 10 weeks, we found out yesterday that they had stopped  the process because they don't accept personal checks.  Of course, no one called us to let us know this.   And I've been anxiously going to the mailbox for the past 4 weeks.  Needless to say, this was very frustrating to find out.  It's the only piece of paper holding up our homestudy.  And we can't move on to the next step without a complete home study.  So, after a good cry yesterday....we've now come to find out that there is a faster and more efficient (but also much more expensive way) to get our prints run.  So, we're in the process of doing that now, and will hopefully be done with our homestudy in the next couple of weeks.  YAY!!!  And then we'll move onto our Dossier.

In our last meeting with our caseworker, she asked me what I thought would be the most stressful part of this whole adoption and I said it would be that there is so much I don't have control over.  I can't control how slow the mail is, how long is takes for someone to respond to me, how so many of these organizations look at us as just another number....how you can wait 10 weeks to find out something was "stopped" 5 weeks earlier but no one called to let you know.  So, there has been a lot of waiting and letting go and trusting that even something like the FBI not running your prints in the timeframe you thought they would is all part of God's sovereign plan.  His timing is not my own.  He knows exactly when we need to have things happen.  I'm working on remembering that more often.

We've also been doing some fundraising to help offset the cost of the adoption.  About two weeks ago, we had a Silent Auction and a Yard Sale.  On Friday night, we had a Silent Auction with numerous items from local businesses that were donated to us.  I am still in awe of the people and businesses that donated these items to us so generously.  It was a really fun night, and some friends went home with some great items:)  Here is a pic of the Silent auction before the night started...

We also had a Preview Yard Sale on Friday night (where everything was double price) and a regular Yard Sale on Saturday.  Again, we had so many people donate items for us to sale.  I was overwhelmed by the generosity of people...many who barely know us or had never even met us before.
Here are a few pics of  "before" the Yard Sale...

It was all a huge success!!

I also meant the whole night to take a picture of the amazing friends that helped us do all of this.  I could never thank them enough for everything they did to help make this night and day possible.  We could never have done this without them.  It's just another reminder of how we aren't going through this alone. Not only do we have a Heavenly Father who is with us every step of the way, we have been blessed with amazing friends who listen to me cry, call to check on me, come over before the sun has even come up to help haggle with "yard sale folk" and mostly who just walk alongside us in this process.  I hope you know who you are and how very thankful I am for each of you!!

Thankful...

   It's been almost 3 years since my Mom passed away.  There isn't a single day that goes by that I don't think of her.  Sometimes it's the smallest things, like spending time with my own daughter that remind me of my Mom.  Lately, it's been questions asked by Liam.  He was only 18 months old when she passed away.  I'd like to think that he remembers her, but I'm not sure if he does.  He always wants to know where she is and what I think she's doing in  heaven.  I wish more than anything that she'd been here longer, and that my kids had more memories of her.
   And as we go down this adoption journey, it's hard not to think of her constantly.  I wish she were here to share this with me.  It's crazy how many times I've just wanted to pick up the phone to ask her a quick question or to just tell her my fears and excitement as we go through this process.  There is just nothing that will ever compare to your relationship with your Mom.
   I sit here and wonder what went through her mind as she waited to bring me home.  Was she as nervous as I am?  Was she as excited as I am?  I would love for her to be here when we bring our child home.  But I'm so thankful for the years we had together and that God chose her to be my mom.  I am so incredibly blessed.
  And as I sit here and think about the amazing relationship I had with my Mom, I think about the child that is waiting for us.  The child that God has hand-picked for our family.  The child that I will get to love.  This child that is right now mother-less and father-less will soon be home with us.  He or she will be a part of this wonderful family that God has blessed me with.  I'm still fairly terrified, but I can't wait!