October Update

For those of you who read September's update you may be thinking, "Isn't that the same number they had last month?"  Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!  Sadly, yes, we did not move up on the wait list for our baby girl.  August was full of updates and postings of referrals and September just wasn't.  In fact you could hear the cyber crickets chirping, but that's just how it goes sometimes. 

I am a little sad about this, but not totally crushed. There has been so much going on in our lives lately that this number is put into perspective.  (Posts to come about the latest happenings).  I am giving everything, especially our adoption to the Lord.  I know everything has always been His and anything I thought I controlled was a big fat joke.  My worrying and planning, my calculations and thoughts are all from such a limited point of view.  And to be quite honest the physical and emotional toll of all my "fake control" is getting to be too much.  So there you go.  I'm refusing to worry for my daughter.  I'm refusing to calculate when I think she may be home and if I need an extra Easter basket or Christmas stocking.  I just can't do it. . . not today at least.   I don't know if I will be able to say this tomorrow or in an hour, but right now I am clinging to His promises.  I wish I could say this was my plan since I'm uber spiritual, but it's really just because it's all I'm capable of right now.

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."  2 Corinthians 12:9

Have Some Compassion

Since starting our adoption journey, and even before we began this process, my heart has always been for children.  They truly are humanity in it's purest form.  So innocent, trusting, helpless, and priceless.  I have prayed to have my heart broken for the things that break God's heart and some days it is too much to bare.  The sadness in this world is crushing.  But once you get out of the fetal position and dry your tears (If a person were to do that...), you become bold.  Bold, that because of Christ living in you, you can make a difference.  Maybe not for everyone, but for at least one.

 If you think back to your childhood  maybe it was wonderful or maybe it is something that holds a lot of pain for you.  Mine was a mixture of both, but through God's amazing grace here I am.  Growing, learning, changing, and most importantly walking with Christ to try and be just a little bit like him.  He rescued me from bad situations and saved me from my own sin.  In that process he sent me so many people at just the right time and in just the right ways to get me to Him.  There were people who filled my belly and people who invited me to church. There were people who kept me safe and people who assured me that I could be forgiven.  Do you think you could be that person for someone? 

Right now there is a wonderful opportunity to be the hands and feet of Christ through Compassion International.  September is Blog Month for them and they are trying to get 3,108 children sponsored.  Right now they are 881 short.  881 faces with beating hearts and sweet eyes looking to people like us to help them at just the right time and in just the right ways.  Click the link below and you can search for children from specific countries, ages, and birthdays.  You can help provide financially for food, clothes, education, and more.  You also correspond with your child through pictures and letters so you provide for some of their emotional needs as well.  You can encourage them and reassure them with each letter of your love and God's love for them.  Please prayerfully consider if this is the way God wants you to care for the least of these.  I guarantee your heart will be blessed by them, just a much as your sponsorship blesses them.  This is also a great way to show your kids how to live out their faith and invest in someone else!

Link to Compassion International
http://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/sponsor.htm?referer=112698

HERE ARE JUST A FEW OF THE SWEET CHILDREN;

To sponsor Nathaniel in Bangladesh click below;

He has been waiting for a sponsor for 421 and lives in

an area with high risk of exploitation and abuse

http://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/child-biography.htm?needKey=BD5060249

To Sponsor Margaret in Tanzania click the link below;

She lives in and AIDS infected area and is in an

area with high risk to exploitation and abuse

http://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/child-video-biography.htm?needKey=TZ2520106

 

 

To sponsor Anitha in India click the link below;

She lives in a area at high risk for exploitation and abuse

http://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/child-biography.htm?needKey=IN1940141

 

To sponsor Agung in Indonesia click the link below:

http://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/child-biography.htm?needKey=IO5840185

 

 

Please leave a comment below if you sponsor a child, I would love to know and pray for you and your sponsored child!!!

 

Family Vacation!!

We just got back from a fun filled week in Myrtle Beach, so I have to document the vacation!  A few months ago we decided to take a little family trip once all the big kids started school and the rates were cheaper.  To be honest we struggled with this a little since we are saving for our adoption, but it boiled down to, do we make memories with the kids God has already given us or do we save?  The choice became very clear when we were told our referral timeline was bumped up from 6-9 months when we first applied, to 11-12 months at the time our dossier was received in Ethiopia.  So we went for it, and I'm so glad we did!
We started out on our long drive on Sunday, after Josh and I returned from Empowered to Connect on Saturday night (Blog post coming soon on this amazing event!!).  Hadley couldn't make it the entire way since by the time you have potty breaks, lunch, and dinner it would have been well over 12 hours, so we stopped for the night in Ashville, NC.  Monday morning we made it to the beach! Can I just say, seeing the ocean, smelling the ocean, hearing the ocean does my heart all kinds of good.  I could live at the beach, no problem. It only requires my entire family to agree to move as well : )
We had a great time, even though it was only really sunny on our last day.  We still went to the pool, beach, baby pool, and lazy river everyday.  Usually after lunch Hadley would nap and then we would all get ready to go out to dinner.  We did venture out to Ripley's Aquarium, Broadway at the Beach, and we may have gotten ice cream more than once ; )  Cameryn absolutely loved everything and had no fear when it came to playing in the waves of the ocean.  I delegated that task to Josh since during the short time I took her out a piece of seaweed clung to my leg and I screamed leaving my three year old to fall on her butt and fend for herself! Not a proud moment. Hadley did okay. We joked saying that she is "travel size" but does not travel well.  She was either really happy or really unhappy on our trip.  She liked the pool sometimes, the ocean every now and then, and the sand for a little while.  I was very impressed that she wasn't really a bit afraid of the ocean.  She put her tiny feet right in the surf and would splash her hands in the water. It was so precious so see our tiny girl next to the enormous ocean and know that God made them both.
We had a great week making family memories and showing our girls lots of beautiful things that God made.  We drove through the mountains, played at the beach, looked at the moon, listened to the waves, and examined incredible creatures at the aquarium.  I am so thankful for these things and for getting to see it all through the eyes of my kids.

 Riding the luggage, ready to hit the road to the beach!

 Happy to be out of the car

 Sisters

 I can never get them both to smile at the same time!

 Precious Grandparents

 Our little fish

 Baby pool time

 Hadley's first time at the beach

 I LOVE this picture

 Camy loving the waves

 Family pic

 Staying afloat in the living room

 Camy holding a horseshoe crab

 Pretending to be scared at the dinosaur exhibit

 "Ish!"

 Daddy and Hadley inside the puffer fish tank

 "No feeding the animals!"

 Riding rides at Broadway at the Beach

 

Happy Girl!

Cuteness Defined

 Showing off their muscles

 Strong Girl

 Kisses

 Family Movie night

 Will and Camy, taking Hadley for a ride

 Beautiful girl

 Cousins

Dress up in my old formal dresses!  Let's face it, I'm not fitting in those things ever again, LOL!