A Two Blog Night

Not because it was cold (though the cold did send us indoors for our ice cream date with all the girls), but because it was such fun!  Tonight we were able to pick up Danelle and Savannah and let them hang out will with all five of us...I thought the first meeting of all the girls and the interaction would be a little awkward as they may all be a little timid and shy, but do they look timid or shy to you?

Their first meeting couldn't have been more perfect!  We went to Culvers for custard and just as we were finding a (large...haha!) booth...Savannah said her great aunt, great uncle...great grandma and great grandpa were in a booth across the restaurant from us.  I was tempted to be shocked by the coincidence, but then I realized considering this a coincidence now would be close to blasphemy as there have just been so many God-designed appointments and who would have thought that the cold would take us to Culver's and we would meet some of their extended family.  These family members were so grateful and relieved to meet us and to know that the girls would be in a Christian home.  We spent quite a bit of time talking with them. 

After we were finished at Culver's we took a field trip out to our home because the girls have been really curious about their rooms...we just couldn't make them wait any more to see the house.  I was thrilled to realize I have a little interior designer in Savannah...a girl after my own heart!  She had all kinds of ideas of how we could do the upstairs space.  I am not sure if it was a brilliant idea to show them our house because it was then extremely difficult to get them back in their shoes and out the door back to their foster home.  I think everyone is feeling that this is a done deal and it should happen....yesterday!

Thank you for all your prayers...I would say this day has been pretty fosterrific!  The permagrin is making my face hurt!

PART 2 of the Two Blog Night: I have another praise to let you know about as I have been so thankful to know about it this week.  If you have been following this adoption process with us...you will know that at the end of March we were told another family was selected for these girls...and we went through some time of being very sad.  When the agency called to say the other family had not worked out for them about two weeks ago...I was happy for us, but I was concerned that the girls may have felt rejected by this experience.  I learned this week that the girls never knew about the other family.  I learned that there was a case of cold feet for the family and Danelle and Savannah never met them or knew they were in the picture...as far as they know we are the first choice for them.  I have just been so grateful this week that they did not experience anymore loss by having to know that this family decided not to adopt them...God knows what He is doing and His love knows NO bounds.  I praise Him for protecting their little hearts.

Two Days?

Savannah and Danelle (Pronounced like Danielle in case you are wondering...) are incredible young ladies!  Brad and I had a chance to meet them tonight and we felt like we were talking with our girls.  It is surreal to meet your daughters for the first time when they are older.  We talked about our new house, what their rooms are like, their school, their favs (of almost everything we could think of), our girls, Kooper, our church, activities we all enjoy, what our lives were like growing up, our extended family, crooked teeth and cavities, broken bones, how tall we are (or short we are :-) and anything else we could think of in the about two hours we spent together. Toward the end of our conversation we began talking about the next time we could meet and we, along with the foster family, agreed that we could pick them up on Thursday night and take them out for ice cream so they could meet our girls as well.  This is when the conversation got sentimental for me now that I am reliving the whole time...and I am so happy it did...I was hoping there would be some unforgettable moment from our first meeting that I could always treasure...I didn't leave empty-handed...thanks to God.  Danelle said, "Two Days????" (meaning that was going to be too long before we could see them again)...to which Savannah responded, "Well, if you go to bed right now...when you wake up...you can say tomorrow we will see them again and it will only have to be one day."  HOW CAN YOU SAY GOODBYE, or even, SEE YOU LATER TO THAT?  I wished I could have taken them home with us right then.  44 hours is going to seem like an eternity...have I ever mentioned I am working on my patience?

Noteworthy PRAISE!

This week has seemed to drag on as we have been anticipating a call from the adoption agency with an appointment for us to meet the girls for the first time.  Though I have been working on my patience issues..I still have a long way to go...haha!  Anyway, it looks like we will not be able to meet them until next week as they have plans with their foster family (it feels so weird to type that meaning someone else) for the holiday weekend.  The praise, however, is that I am being more patient than Brad...I didn't even email or call the agency this week to find out what was going on and it was driving him crazy to know....haha...just kidding about that being my praise (well, sort-of kidding) ANYWAY, the girls case worker met with them yesterday and told them about us and showed them our picture.  Side note:  When someone asks me to provide a picture for something I always think it would be funny to give them one that is not of me...so, I had this funny thought that I should give them one of the Addams family or something...though I am aging, my maturity level is not keeping up.  I reasoned against scaring the girls with our family portrait....no comments on that, please.  So my real praise is that they are very excited to meet us (even after seeing our picture)...I am sure they will probably experience anxiety when it comes time to start separating from their foster family, but this is still a great praise that they are really looking forward to meeting us.  GOD IS SO GOOD!  I hope you are seeing His divine hand at work in your life as well.

Addendum:  Brad would like for me to clear his name...and he states, "I was not impatient; I was just curious"  Good thing he is not a cat, right?

When it's HIS will...there's a way!

If you have been praying for us and following along with our adoption process, I have some crazy news for you.  Brad and I have been overwhelmed with God's goodness this week as we had a call on Tuesday from our adoption worker asking us if we were still interested in the two girls we had been working to adopt as we were working on our new home during the end of February, March and part of April.  We were working feverishly to get everything done so this would work out and we had been so discouraged and disappointed when we had heard from the agency that another family had been selected.  At the time, I was a little confused with what God was doing because I had felt He had given me clear confirmation that they would be a part of our family.  Kenna said at that time, "Well, maybe God is just giving us some time to get the house ready for them."  AND, even though I had hoped for the same thing...it is really hard to encourage your kids in that direction when you want to protect them from heartbreak and disappointment...so I just said, "Whatever God wants for us is the best plan...it is in His hands."  SO, it was such a surprise last week to hear that we are now back to the point of the agency considering us for them and this time...as a first choice for these two girls. We may have an opportunity to meet them this week...so, please continue to pray for us this week and for the girls as we hear they are feeling pretty anxious over the prospect of being adopted and having more changes in their lives.  Please pray that God will allow for a smooth and healthy transition time for all of us.  Your thoughts and prayers are treasured!

Mother Gothel or Snow White?

Karly thinks she has me down to a science....each day she tries to determine if I am Mother Gothel...

or Snow White...

Apparently, I have a Jekell and Hyde personality...this is so funny to me!  If I am stern with her she calls me Mother Gothel and if we are having fun and she is cuddly or trying to "butter me up" for something she will call me Snow White.  Brad, on the other hand, is only Flynn Rider to the girls....not exactly fair that they always see him as the winsome dreamboat...haha!  What can I say?...I guess I should be happy I am only part witch!  For now...

Being a mom and growing old isn't that bad if you can learn to laugh at life.  This Mother's Day my girls played some little tricks on me with their cards.  Kassi is really big into making her own cards, so I think I got something like 10 cards from her all with picture of frogs in them except for one...since I am not fond of frogs, her big joke is to scare me with them right now...every card said to have a frogulis (frogulous...I think she meant) Mother's Day...then the last card was really cute and she said to me, " this is not a frog"...I thought she was being really sweet until she said, "it is a toad!"

Kenna made a book of all the things she loves about me I thought it was a keeper...except on the front she drew a picture of me with a grubby SAU paint/working shirt on and she put strands of gray hair sticking out of my brown crayola hair-do...she thought she was so clever to even get the details of my gray hairs into her masterpiece. 

Brad and I worked on the house over the weekend because I promised myself to get a few rooms done (and mom has been asking for some new pictures of the progress of our home)...here are a few for you, mom and anyone else who is curious...other rooms aren't picture perfect...(haha...as if that is ever true) yet.

Happy Mother's Day....hope you are having a Snow White...sweet as pie, day!

Everybodys In The HOUSE!

I was at Chuck E Cheese this weekend dancing with my girls to a Rap song with these words in the lyrics and thought it would be a perfect title for my next blog...only our experience this past week has been the great UN-(W)RAP.  We stayed in our new home for the first night on Tuesday and...even though we need shelves in the bathrooms, blinds on our windows and trim throughout the whole house.  We are very happy to be getting settled and to start having some kind of a routine again.  I was hoping to have some new pictures for you, alas...there are boxes and clothing all over the place, we don't have internet yet...and I can't find my camera anyway...haha!  C'est la Vie!  Pictures will be posted soon. 

We are praising God for this home, for all the friends and family members who have helped us work on it to make it ours, and (even though I don't have much elbow grease left) for the ability and health to work on it and the sense of satisfaction over the home's transformation.  We are excited for our family's future as we are still waiting on God in the process to adopt.