Quiet Book - First Page

So much is out of my control in this process. I don't know the ages or genders of our children. I don't know if we will adopt one or two (we are hoping for two). I don't know if we will be moving to another house before we go to South Africa. The biggest unknown: how long this process will take. As there is so much I don't know and so little I can do to prepare (at this point) for the changes ahead, I've decided to do what I can—craft!

Today I started crafting a quiet book. This past Wednesday I spent some time on Pinterest pinning all of my favorite sheets for the book (seen here). I'm planning on making some basic sheets (shapes, colors, letter recognition, counting), but I'll also be making some adoption specific pages.

The first page I made was a shapes page. It was good to get back into the swing of using the sewing machine. All that is left to add to this page are attach the snaps on the pieces and add the grommets so I can bind the book.

I'm excited to be able to work on something my child(ren) will benefit from.

It Is Well

Lately, I've felt the Lord gently and graciously preparing my heart for the possibility that this process may take much longer than I am hoping/expecting. It has led me to pray and to rest in the peace He has given me. I would like these children home as quickly as the governments would allow, but I just keep getting the feeling this whole process is going grow Brian and I in ways we couldn't anticipate.

This morning we sang "It Is Well" at church, which is one of my favorite hymns. It was so encouraging to my soul because I know no matter what challenges we face, all is well with my soul. Please pray with me that we would be able to bring these kids home within the year. Not only do we want to be parents, we want these kids to have a mom and dad. We will all become a bigger family together. That will be a beautiful day!

Home Study Interviews

Tomorrow morning, Brian and I will be heading to Palos Heights. It is the first of four interviews needed to complete the dossier (explained here). This first interview will be conducted with both of us. The next two will be individual. To wrap it all up, we will have our final interview, March 12th, at our house.

We are nervous about these interviews because we don't know what all to expect. We know there will be a lot of questions, we just don't know which ones. 

Prayer Request

• That would have calm hearts in the midst of these interviews and we could think clearly as we answer the many questions.
• That the Lord would begin leading the social workers to the right kid(s) for us. They will be the ones pulling files and suggesting kid(s) to us. We trust the Lord will lay the kid(s) for us on their heart.

Eyes on the Prize

I have to admit—I've been thinking a lot how life is going to change when we bring our kid(s) home. I have been dreaming about these kids by grooming our Amazon wish lists (so many books…), purging our house of clutter (a work in progress), and I've been reading a lot about being a mom. Yesterday morning, I took a moment before my day began and read Hebrews 12:1-3. It says (emphasis added):

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

This passage was a hard and an encouraging read. Lately, I feel pulled in so many directions (mostly in my crazy head). I am trying to enjoy the time before kids come, but am anticipating when they are ours. I am praying through what to do concerning my job. I am watching a lot of Psych (TV show). To top it off, it is the arctic outside, which makes me a hermit. All of this led me to the conviction that my eyes have been pulled away from Jesus. He is the one who makes this life worthwhile. He is the one who will give my life any sort of meaning.

So, I'll ask you the same question I've been asking myself: Where are your eyes? Where have I been looking? Maybe it is time to re-focus off of the little things in life, even if they seem huge, and shift our gaze back to Jesus. He will make this race for holiness possible. 

(Not so patiently) Waiting

Our home study paperwork was sent in three weeks ago today. We were supposed to receive a call at some point last week. This did not happen. Apparently the woman confused us with another couple and was waiting for my birthday to pass before calling—we would have been waiting quite some time!

Brian was able to wrangle a time out of them for our first home study interview, to take place next Tuesday in Palos Heights. Our final interview will be March 12th and take place in our home. This, in my humble opinion, is not happening quickly enough. If ever there was a time that my lack of patience was exposed, it is happening in this process.

Prayer Requests

• Our home study interviews would go well and be scheduled quickly (we still have 1-2 left to schedule between next week and March 12th).
• For patience. The stop and go of this process is driving me bonkers.
• That our kids would be waiting for us and we would be matched with them quickly.

Reading in the New Year

I know that once we carry our child(ren) out of the orphanage, our time will no longer be our own, so I want to spend this year reading as much as I can. Here is my super ambitious reading list for 2014. I don't anticipate finishing all of it, but here's hoping!

(READ indicates books I've finished.)

Adoption/Parenting

Parenting Your Internationally Adopted Child (Cogen) 
Shepherding a Child's Heart (Tripp)
The Connected Child: Bring Hope and Healing to Your Adoptive Family (Purvis)
Everyday Talk: Talking about God with Your Children (Younts)
Give Them Grace (Fitzpatrick)
Glimpses of Grace (Furman)
Come Rain or Shine: A White Parent's Guide to Adopting and Parenting Black Children (Garlinghouse) READ
Adoption Is a Family Affair! (Johnston) READ

Fiction

The Hobbit (Tolkien)
The Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkeban (Rowling)
The Divergent Trilogy (Roth) READ
Pilgrim's Progress (Bunyan)

Theological

Feminine Appeal (Mahaney)
The Christian in Complete Armour v. 2 (Gurnall)
The Heart of Christ (Goodwin)
Treasuring God in Our Traditions (Piper)
Pierced for Our Transgressions (Jeffery, Ovey, Sach)
The Praying Life (Miller)

Ridiculously Hilarious Category

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) (Kaling) READ
 

Paper Pregnancy

On Sunday night, we finished out paperwork for the home study. It was quite the labor of love. It included things that needed notarization, lots of checking boxes, many signatures and dates, and the longest paper I have written since I left college (10 pages to be exact). I even had to get a physical for this thing—drug test and TB shot included. I am really starting to understand the term 'paper pregnancy'*. 

We had a brief scare today because when we entered our tracking number for the envelope, and it didn't show up. We thought it may have been lost. We prayed and waited. Then, as if the USPS website came back to life in an instant, our package showed that it would be delivered either today (Tuesday) or tomorrow (Wednesday). Yay!

Next up: We will schedule three interview sessions - two at the Bethany offices and one in our home. These interviews, along with the paperwork we sent in, will be the basis for our dossier. 

Prayer Requests:

• That we would be able to schedule these interviews soon and they would go smoothly.
• For my job - My hours were cut from two days down to one. This is to be expected as Office Max Naperville is closing, but still unfortunate. I'm praying the Lord will provide another job, equally as awesome as this one.

*Paper pregnancy is the term used to refer to the paperwork in the adoption process that leads to the child(ren) adopted, much like a physical pregnancy.

A New Year

We hope 2014 holds big things for our little family. We pray that we will grow by adding kids into the mix, and that we will have the blessing of sharing that journey with you. This year, Lord willing, will be filled with many good things. Here are the things I pray 2014 includes:

• Lots of paperwork leading to referrals
• Seeing our children's faces for the first time when we open their files
• Decorating rooms in anticipation of the kids that will sleep and play in them
• Preparing to become parents (Crazy!)
• Visiting a continent we've never been to and experiencing a new culture and way of life
• Walking into an orphanage knowing that, when we leave, our lives will never be the same again

Please pray with us that 2014 will be the year we bring our children home. Unbeknownst to the them, this is the year their lives will change forever!

Sick Sunday

Well, this week was great for me, right up until Wednesday (Christmas) evening when I started feeling sick. Brian woke up Tuesday morning feeling ill, and promptly passed it all to me. He has since started feeling better, but I am feeling worse (if that is possible). Thankfully, I have a wonderful husband who is taking care of me and able to think straight, when I cannot.

This past week, along with fighting germs, we worked on our special needs checklist. This is a form where you go through a long list of illnesses, deformities, and special needs and say "yes", "no", or "willing to discuss" to each. This was the form we knew was coming, but it didn't make it any easier to fill out. The thing that made it so hard was knowing that if we had a biological child, we would welcome the child with any of these diseases or deformities. So we trekked through the form, with the help of WebMD and Mayo Clinic, and checked off all of the things we would be willing to accept.

Prayer Requests

• Please pray that, as we pray over this list, the Lord would make it clear we've checked "yes" or "no" on all of the special needs we should have.
• Please pray that we both would continue to recover quickly from the plague that has settled itself over our home.

Lazy Saturday

This is the first Saturday in a long while that we haven't had anything to do. We decided to start the day off by going to the gym—our kids aren't going to chase themselves, and I certainly don't feel up to the task right now. 

For the rest of the day? We're going to be setting aside a large chunk of the afternoon to work on the crazy pile of home study paperwork and this evening I'll be making pasta. That's right. I'm making pasta. 

My mom used to make pasta for her amazing chicken noodle soup. I have wanted to try making my own for a while, but was really intimidated. I found an easy recipe and decided to take the plunge. I'm trying the bolognese sauce recipe, also found on that page. I'll let you know how it goes. Happy lazy Saturday, to you all!

Adoption 101

Last night we had our first class through our agency, Bethany Christian Services. It was a good time of review, as most of what was discussed, we already had considered and talked about between the two of us. I especially appreciated seeing and hearing from other couples that are now walking down the same path we are. 

While we were there, we received a monstrous envelope filled with paperwork we will need to fill out (basically writing a novel) and legal documents we will need to hunt down in order to begin the home study process. 

We are excited to start this next step in our journey. This is a big one as it will result in our dossier (informative essay/documents sent to South Africa) being completed. It is my understanding that once we've finished this step, we will be eligible to be placed with a child!

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Prayer Requests

• That we would be able to set aside large chunks of our time to complete this paperwork and send it in.
• That the Lord would protect us as we are seeking to do something we know He has called us to.
• As we were driving home last night, our car died and had to be towed to a shop. Please pray that repairs would be quick and cheap, and that we would not be discouraged by disruptions in day-to-day life during this exceptionally stressful and hectic time.

Details, Details, Details

We've been asked a lot of questions lately, and there's a lot of overlap in curiosity. Here are the basics of what we have so far, and how you can be praying for us specifically:

WHO

We are open to a sibling group up to age eight, with medical and/or physical special needs.

WHEN

We are really hoping, and would love your prayers to this end, to bring these kids home by the end of 2014, which may mean Christmas in Africa! 

WHERE

We are really interested in adopting from South Africa. Brian is able to work remotely, which would be helpful in the 5-7 week stay to pick up the kiddos. We love the idea that we would have the opportunity to experience the culture our children would be coming from, maybe even pick up some of the language.

WHY

We want to adopt first because we feel strongly called to it. Adoption is not for everyone, but we believe it is for us. We were listening to the book Adopted for Life, by Dr. Russell Moore, and both felt strongly this was how God wanted to grow our family.

HOW TO PRAY

• Pray that we would have favor from the governments and this process would go quickly, allowing our kids to be home by the end of 2014.
• Please pray for us as we begin the steps of this process. Monday, December 16, is our first class (Adoption 101).

Hey There!

We have so many family members and friends who have a lot of questions about our adoption and the timeline, that we thought we would keep everyone up to date with this blog. We're excited to share our journey—the good, the bad, and the frustration (I'm sure it will happen). It is our hope that, through this process, we might even be an encouragement to some who are considering adoption for their family.

We know this is going to be a long process, followed by some good and difficult years as we adjust to being a family with internationally adopted children. We covet your prayers—for us as we are working through the sea of paperwork, and for our child(ren), wherever they may be.

Please feel free to subscribe to the blog by email so you will see updates when we post them. Thank you for the outpouring of love that we have already experienced. We are so thrilled to bring children into this community that we are blessed to be a part of!