i also must admit, i have never fasted before in my life. if you know me at all, you know i love food. i may occasionally skip breakfast and eat goldfish and a coke for lunch, but i love to cook and i love to eat. and there is rarely a night that goes by that i don't end up on the couch with a bowl of blue bell mint chocolate chip. this is going to be hard for me. i had to heat up lunch for the kids. leftover spaghetti and garlic bread. it was tough. but it's not as tough as what Jesus did for us. and i will survive. i am amazed at what this feels like though. it's hard, but it's hard in a great way. i love the tears that are forming in my eyes as i pray each hour. i love the emails i am getting from our close friends and family as they write sweet words that lift us up. while i am praying selfishly that favor is found on us and our case, i also pray for the millions of other orphans in the world who don't have a family waiting for them. would you pray for those too?
Monday, April 8, 2013
preliminary hearing
today is the day that determines when we get to meet our sweet violet. the preliminary hearing is sometime today. ethiopia is 8 hours ahead of us. so, allan and i decided to fast and pray throughout the day. we ate breakfast at 9:00 am and will fast until 9:00 am tomorrow morning. our hope is that the judge that hears about us and our case today will find favor and mercy on us. we have already experienced a three month delay due to licensing issues. most times the court date is assigned 4-6 weeks after the preliminary hearing. that means we will most likely travel in may to meet her. there are times though when a court date happens one week later. obviously, this is our preference. yes airfare is more expensive, yes it puts a lot of stress on getting everything ready, finding places for the kids to go, finding people to cart them to and from their activities, finding a poor soul to do school with them 3 days a week. but, the Lord will take care of the details, just like He always does. He tells us not to worry, and we will obey that command. so, while traveling as early as 1-2 weeks from now, may not be the plan for Violet, we pray that during this time we will cling to His words and promises. we pray that through this entire adoption, HE receives all the glory.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
blog title change
i forgot to mention i changed our title. when we started this blog, we searched and searched for the "right title." we failed. we found it now. be filled with joy. that's our attitude right now. we know we are going to be filled with joy when violet is home. and the lord is teaching us all about that right now.
patience
the Lord has definitely been teaching our family about patience lately. it's such a hard thing to learn, and i may be the very slowest learner of all. sometimes i wonder if the delays we've experienced through this process may be my fault. i can't seem to grasp the idea.
here's the latest on the timeline...subject to change.
originally, we were told we would travel sometime between january and february. then we got a call saying that the orphanage violet went to for a few weeks had to have their license renewed. nothing major, totally common, should be done in 2 weeks tops. that call came on december 28th. i marked on my calendar 2 weeks from that date and emailed my social worker. no news yet was her response. i know you are probably wondering what does the license being renewed have to do with anything. the long and short is that every two years an orphanage has to renew their license. in america we would apply for that renewal before the old one expired, right? however, in ethiopia you don't apply for that renewal until the day your old one expires. well the two weeks turned into a month and a half. on february 11th, we heard that the orphanage violet had been at received their new license. praise Jesus! so, now our case could be taken to court for a review. i assumed that would happen the next day and they'd determine a date for travel. i assumed wrong. big shock. i'm a really slow learner. i learn more and more that i don't understand this process nearly well enough and even if i did, things are subject to change. :) so, on feb 27th we received an email that our case had been filed at court and the preliminary hearing was scheduled for april 9th. i almost cried! april 9th. for a preliminary hearing. the preliminary hearing is where the birth mother would show up and say that she understands that she is placing her child for adoption. we do not travel for this. in the case of violet, there is not a birth mother that they have found. so, the judge and the director of the transitional care home will meet and discuss her case. at that time the judge will transfer our paperwork to MOWA (ministry of women's affairs) and we will be assigned a travel date.
friends, this is where you come in. on april 9th we need your prayers. we need you to pray that they will find grace on us and that letter will be received with a very fast turn around time with a travel date. all we can think of is that each day that we aren't there, we lose a little bit more time with her. we want to have her in our arms, hugging and kissing on her. we want her to know us. they say that attachment is a little harder the older the children are, for both parents and children. we know that violet is being held in our Savior's arms while we can't be there. i know He is comforting her. i know she is well cared for where she is, but i also know the reality is that she isn't as well loved as she will be in our arms. so pray friends, pray for us. pray for violet. pray that our heavenly Father is wrapping his arms around her and she feels that. i know He is.
we did hear through a facebook group of adoptive families from our agency that she is one of the happiest babies in the orphanage. now if that doesn't make you smile, i don't know what would. oh how i wish i could show you her picture. she is a beauty.
thank you for walking this walk with us. we are honored that so many of you ask about the latest news each time we see you. and we apologize if we seem bummed when we say "no news." we are grateful for all the Lord is teaching us during this time. it's hard y'all. but it is so worth it.
here's the latest on the timeline...subject to change.
originally, we were told we would travel sometime between january and february. then we got a call saying that the orphanage violet went to for a few weeks had to have their license renewed. nothing major, totally common, should be done in 2 weeks tops. that call came on december 28th. i marked on my calendar 2 weeks from that date and emailed my social worker. no news yet was her response. i know you are probably wondering what does the license being renewed have to do with anything. the long and short is that every two years an orphanage has to renew their license. in america we would apply for that renewal before the old one expired, right? however, in ethiopia you don't apply for that renewal until the day your old one expires. well the two weeks turned into a month and a half. on february 11th, we heard that the orphanage violet had been at received their new license. praise Jesus! so, now our case could be taken to court for a review. i assumed that would happen the next day and they'd determine a date for travel. i assumed wrong. big shock. i'm a really slow learner. i learn more and more that i don't understand this process nearly well enough and even if i did, things are subject to change. :) so, on feb 27th we received an email that our case had been filed at court and the preliminary hearing was scheduled for april 9th. i almost cried! april 9th. for a preliminary hearing. the preliminary hearing is where the birth mother would show up and say that she understands that she is placing her child for adoption. we do not travel for this. in the case of violet, there is not a birth mother that they have found. so, the judge and the director of the transitional care home will meet and discuss her case. at that time the judge will transfer our paperwork to MOWA (ministry of women's affairs) and we will be assigned a travel date.
friends, this is where you come in. on april 9th we need your prayers. we need you to pray that they will find grace on us and that letter will be received with a very fast turn around time with a travel date. all we can think of is that each day that we aren't there, we lose a little bit more time with her. we want to have her in our arms, hugging and kissing on her. we want her to know us. they say that attachment is a little harder the older the children are, for both parents and children. we know that violet is being held in our Savior's arms while we can't be there. i know He is comforting her. i know she is well cared for where she is, but i also know the reality is that she isn't as well loved as she will be in our arms. so pray friends, pray for us. pray for violet. pray that our heavenly Father is wrapping his arms around her and she feels that. i know He is.
we did hear through a facebook group of adoptive families from our agency that she is one of the happiest babies in the orphanage. now if that doesn't make you smile, i don't know what would. oh how i wish i could show you her picture. she is a beauty.
thank you for walking this walk with us. we are honored that so many of you ask about the latest news each time we see you. and we apologize if we seem bummed when we say "no news." we are grateful for all the Lord is teaching us during this time. it's hard y'all. but it is so worth it.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Perspective
Perspective. It's not a word I think about much. The dictionary defines it as a mental view or outlook. Two weeks ago my perspective changed. Two weeks ago, we received a call that little did we know would change our perspective on life.
It was a mostly normal day. It was a Friday so that meant the kids were home that day with homework. We were finishing up and I was straightening up the house before we ran to the store for a few things. We hopped in the car to run to Target. My phone rang with a number I didn't recognize. I have learned to let these numbers from out of state go to voicemail. I guess I was feeling nice that day and answered it. It was our social worker, Lesley, from the adoption agency. Here is our conversation....
Me: "Hello?"
Lesley: "Hey Sarah, it's Lesley from Lifeline. I had a quick question for you."
Me: "Oh hey Lesley! Ok, what is it?"
Lesley: "Well, I don't have any paperwork on this child, but we have some information that we will soon be getting a baby girl with a cleft lip and possible cleft palate. Would you and Allan consider that as something that is a medically correctable?"
Me: "Ummm, I think so. I definitely want to run it by Allan though."
Lesley: "Yeah, of course. We are only calling people who are coming up on the list to get a feel for what they think. Just shoot me an email and let me know once y'all talk about it."
Me: "OK, sounds great!"
After I hang up phone and realize the conversation I have just had, I immediately call Allan. He says we will talk about it later that night. We agree that it doesn't matter what she looks like, that this child needs a home and love and we can provide that. We email Lesley and say sure, we would be interested.
Fast forward two weeks. We've heard nothing. It's crossed our minds, but we haven't thought much about it. We've been busy. It's almost Thanksgiving, projects for school were due, family is coming into town, we are working on trying to get our house refinanced and our home study updated from the move. I keep thinking how I want to post pictures on the blog of the "new house." Our perspective is different then.
My parents came into town on Friday after Thanksgiving. We decide to go to a local Christmas tree farm. As soon as we get there, my phone rings. It says Ontario, Canada. I say, "that's strange," and hit decline. I jokingly hang up and say, "that was probably a referral." Everyone laughs. Here is where many of you are asking what a referral is. A referral is a picture and biological information on a child that they have chosen for our family. You can say yes or no. My voice mail dings a few minutes later with a message from the Canada phone number. I listen. I laugh. I say to Allan and my parents, "yes I declined a phone call for a referral." My parents willingly watch the kids while Allan and I run to the car to call Lesley back. She tells us again about a sweet baby girl who was born 4 months prior with a cleft lip and palate. She tells us how she was abandoned. She tells us she is ours if we want her. We cry. We laugh. We hug. We kiss. We have a baby on the other side of the world that is ours. It's a strange feeling. We haven't met her, but we love her. We stare at her picture a lot. We think she is beautiful. Two weeks ago, we would have thought our baby would be perfect on the outside. But, she's not. Just like we are not perfect. We may look it, but our hearts are dirty. But God created her in his image. And she's perfect to us! Perspective.
Prayers are appreciated as we anticipate her arrival. Prayers for paperwork to be fast. Prayers for her safety and health. Prayers for our children who say they understand, but are in for some major life changes. Prayers for bonding. She will probably be 8 or 9 months before we get to bring her home. She is beautiful. I wish I could show you how beautiful she is. Her name is Violet.
It was a mostly normal day. It was a Friday so that meant the kids were home that day with homework. We were finishing up and I was straightening up the house before we ran to the store for a few things. We hopped in the car to run to Target. My phone rang with a number I didn't recognize. I have learned to let these numbers from out of state go to voicemail. I guess I was feeling nice that day and answered it. It was our social worker, Lesley, from the adoption agency. Here is our conversation....
Me: "Hello?"
Lesley: "Hey Sarah, it's Lesley from Lifeline. I had a quick question for you."
Me: "Oh hey Lesley! Ok, what is it?"
Lesley: "Well, I don't have any paperwork on this child, but we have some information that we will soon be getting a baby girl with a cleft lip and possible cleft palate. Would you and Allan consider that as something that is a medically correctable?"
Me: "Ummm, I think so. I definitely want to run it by Allan though."
Lesley: "Yeah, of course. We are only calling people who are coming up on the list to get a feel for what they think. Just shoot me an email and let me know once y'all talk about it."
Me: "OK, sounds great!"
After I hang up phone and realize the conversation I have just had, I immediately call Allan. He says we will talk about it later that night. We agree that it doesn't matter what she looks like, that this child needs a home and love and we can provide that. We email Lesley and say sure, we would be interested.
Fast forward two weeks. We've heard nothing. It's crossed our minds, but we haven't thought much about it. We've been busy. It's almost Thanksgiving, projects for school were due, family is coming into town, we are working on trying to get our house refinanced and our home study updated from the move. I keep thinking how I want to post pictures on the blog of the "new house." Our perspective is different then.
My parents came into town on Friday after Thanksgiving. We decide to go to a local Christmas tree farm. As soon as we get there, my phone rings. It says Ontario, Canada. I say, "that's strange," and hit decline. I jokingly hang up and say, "that was probably a referral." Everyone laughs. Here is where many of you are asking what a referral is. A referral is a picture and biological information on a child that they have chosen for our family. You can say yes or no. My voice mail dings a few minutes later with a message from the Canada phone number. I listen. I laugh. I say to Allan and my parents, "yes I declined a phone call for a referral." My parents willingly watch the kids while Allan and I run to the car to call Lesley back. She tells us again about a sweet baby girl who was born 4 months prior with a cleft lip and palate. She tells us how she was abandoned. She tells us she is ours if we want her. We cry. We laugh. We hug. We kiss. We have a baby on the other side of the world that is ours. It's a strange feeling. We haven't met her, but we love her. We stare at her picture a lot. We think she is beautiful. Two weeks ago, we would have thought our baby would be perfect on the outside. But, she's not. Just like we are not perfect. We may look it, but our hearts are dirty. But God created her in his image. And she's perfect to us! Perspective.
Prayers are appreciated as we anticipate her arrival. Prayers for paperwork to be fast. Prayers for her safety and health. Prayers for our children who say they understand, but are in for some major life changes. Prayers for bonding. She will probably be 8 or 9 months before we get to bring her home. She is beautiful. I wish I could show you how beautiful she is. Her name is Violet.
Monday, September 10, 2012
before pics of house
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| front of house |
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| view of front porch |
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| entry |
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| living room |
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| sunroom/school room with doors to front porch |
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| dining room |
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| breakfast room off of dining and kitchen and butlers pantry |
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| butlers pantry |
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| back staircase |
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| half bath under stairs |
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| master bedroom |
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| master bathtub (all other fixtures are also pink) |
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| master dressing area |
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| bedroom 2 |
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| bedroom 3 with attached bathroom |
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| bathroom 2 has tub to left and shower behind sink |
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| built in cabinets in hall |
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| bedroom 4 |
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| bathroom 3 attached to bedroom 4 |
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| garage with apartment above |
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| small patio off of breakfast room |
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| looking into kitchen from butlers pantry/dining room |
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| stove |
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| back to stove looking into two separate rooms and door to backyard |
a move in our future?
allan and i had been discussing for the last year or so what we will do with space in the event we are blessed with two littles from ethiopia. our current house is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath totally updated to our taste. we've enjoyed the time we have spent here and really hated to move away from a great sized yard and a house that was completely remodeled by us. so we decided since we are also blessed with a very talented brother (brother in law) who is an architect, that we would add on. he started getting some thoughts gathered and taking measurements. in the meantime, i would still search the mls (housing market) for houses. however, i am extremely picky and never expected to move again. i also have said i never ever want to remodel again! it's just a stressful time and always ends up more expensive than you've planned. i think the fact that our schooling looks a little different than most and we spend 3 of our school days at home, i want a house that isn't constantly a construction zone. so because i'm picky and i don't want to remodel, the likelihood of us finding a house that is bigger and fixed to my likings was pretty slim.
so, allan and i are on a quick little trip to mexico once school was out and got a text from a friend/realtor that has showed us some houses in the past. he says "a new house on market and it is a newburn house." he says something about it needing some tlc and we are the people for the job. i laugh and say no thanks. quick trip to mexico over, we are home and i notice a house in a good neighborhood in fort worth, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths a pool, in our price range. i text our friend who agrees to meet us over there. as expected, the house wasn't going to work for us. we love our current house and making a move for a little more square feet and a pool didn't seem like a great choice. realtor/friend begs us to come look at the "fixer upper, in need of some tlc" that he had texted us about in mexico. we agree. and guess what, we love it! it's got the space we need and i can totally visualize the potential. which is also very shocking. allan usually has the vision for things. it's in a great neighborhood and will hopefully be a great investment (someday.) the kicker is, we know up front that the seller will not take a contingency offer (meaning if we want this house, we have to put an offer in and hope our house will sell.) for those of you who know me well, you know this kind of thing stresses me out! however, allan and i spent a few days in prayer and really felt like this house was made for us and that God will provide and take care of the details.
another back story, allan's parents go to lots of estate sales in the area. we call them to have them meet us over for a quick walk through before we put an offer in. and when we give his dad the address, he responds, "y'all can't buy that house, your mom wants it." allan's mom attended the estate sale this past spring. she fell in love and thought it would be the perfect house for us and our growing family. she did really love it and would love to have her hand in a project like this, but knew that it was too big for the two of them. however, she also knows her daughter in law well enough that i was never going to go for a house in that condition that needed to be remodeled. so she had never mentioned it to me. again, i had repeated over and over the past year, i will never remodel again. they were more than thrilled that we had found this house!
we put a contract on the house, listed our current house the next week, and had three offers on it within 2 days. two of our offers were asking price and one of those offers was from a couple who was willing to let us stay in it a month longer for remodeling purposes. so the next adventure begins! and God is good!
so, allan and i are on a quick little trip to mexico once school was out and got a text from a friend/realtor that has showed us some houses in the past. he says "a new house on market and it is a newburn house." he says something about it needing some tlc and we are the people for the job. i laugh and say no thanks. quick trip to mexico over, we are home and i notice a house in a good neighborhood in fort worth, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths a pool, in our price range. i text our friend who agrees to meet us over there. as expected, the house wasn't going to work for us. we love our current house and making a move for a little more square feet and a pool didn't seem like a great choice. realtor/friend begs us to come look at the "fixer upper, in need of some tlc" that he had texted us about in mexico. we agree. and guess what, we love it! it's got the space we need and i can totally visualize the potential. which is also very shocking. allan usually has the vision for things. it's in a great neighborhood and will hopefully be a great investment (someday.) the kicker is, we know up front that the seller will not take a contingency offer (meaning if we want this house, we have to put an offer in and hope our house will sell.) for those of you who know me well, you know this kind of thing stresses me out! however, allan and i spent a few days in prayer and really felt like this house was made for us and that God will provide and take care of the details.
another back story, allan's parents go to lots of estate sales in the area. we call them to have them meet us over for a quick walk through before we put an offer in. and when we give his dad the address, he responds, "y'all can't buy that house, your mom wants it." allan's mom attended the estate sale this past spring. she fell in love and thought it would be the perfect house for us and our growing family. she did really love it and would love to have her hand in a project like this, but knew that it was too big for the two of them. however, she also knows her daughter in law well enough that i was never going to go for a house in that condition that needed to be remodeled. so she had never mentioned it to me. again, i had repeated over and over the past year, i will never remodel again. they were more than thrilled that we had found this house!
we put a contract on the house, listed our current house the next week, and had three offers on it within 2 days. two of our offers were asking price and one of those offers was from a couple who was willing to let us stay in it a month longer for remodeling purposes. so the next adventure begins! and God is good!
kindergarten graduation
this is our first experience with an actual kindergarten graduation. we've done a few little awards ceremonies with friends who home school, but have never had an "official graduation." oh my, have we been missing out. i'm not sure how most schools do this, but at CLPS, it is truly special. each child wears the hat with the tassle which they all love. also, each child is presented with a medal and certificate that talks about the character quality they exhibited best throughout the year. sam's teacher gave him the quality of obedience. melt our hearts! seriously, we were some proud parents.
the kindergarten class was so large this year, they actually had two sections. one met on monday/wednesday and the other met on tuesday/thursday. sam attends the tuesday/thursday option, but both classes were represented at graduation.
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| sam receiving his award |
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| the top of this sheet is from the first day of school, the bottom from the last |
if anyone was like me and didn't expect a whole lot of learning in kindergarten, let this paper speak for itself!
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