Not Our Referral, But Still Exciting News!

My 5 year old daughter came home from school today wearing a tooth necklace with her first tooth she's lost inside! She has been wiggling and wiggling her loose tooth for weeks, so excited for it to fall out, and today it finally did! And to make it all the more exciting, it happened at school and when kids lose teeth at our elementary the teacher sends them to the nurse who gives them a tooth necklace, kind of a tooth locket, that they snap their lost tooth inside and wear it around their neck the rest of the day!

My 2nd grader has talked about the tooth necklace many times during his 3 years of elementary and this year my kindergartener has talked about it a lot, too, but we've never gotten one to come home to our house before because all my 8 year old's lost teeth have been at home!


And then there were excited conversations about the tooth fairy. My daughter said, "I wish I could see the tooth fairy. I want to see if she's small like a fairy or big like a person. I know she's a girl. The tooth fairy has to be a girl! I want to see what color hair she has and what color skin and what clothes she wears and if she has earrings."

When she put her tooth in her tooth fairy pillow and under her pillow, she insisted on including this note:

Note reads: "Dear Tooth Fairy this is my first tooth."

I think she's lobbying for extra money!!

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And for even more exciting news there's this:


Oh yes He is! And that is amazing news to be celebrated every day!

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I got some candy and a water gun to fill each of my kids' Easter baskets, and I was going to get them a bigger present, like a Barbie or Lego toy, because that's what we typically do for the Easter baskets. But, I didn't actually get around to buying the slightly bigger gift for the baskets, and then I got to thinking, "Why am I stressing about buying my kids gifts for Easter, it's not like they died on the cross for my sins and rose from the grave on the 3rd day sealing my fate for eternal life with God if only I choose to believe?"

I ran the issue by my husband and we decided for our kids' Easter present we'd give 5 ducks and 3 rabbits to children with true need! We donated the animals through World Vision and I was even able to print cards out for my kids with a sweet picture of a child holding a bunny and a child holding a duck. I'm so excited about this Easter present!

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Happy Easter!

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Any Guesses?

The day my older kids filled my 3rd child's crib with tons of random stuff during naptime was admittedly not my finest parenting moment, but a pretty funny memory none the less!



As that toddler in the picture approaches 4 years old, it feels like it has been so long since we've had a crib set up in our house (going on 2 years), but before that it was set up constantly for the previous 6 years straight. The day the crib came down was bittersweet, the end of a busy, blessed era. We still have that crib in the attic, and throughout this adoption wait we've wondered if we'd need to set it up again or if we'll be matched with a child old enough for a big bed. We truly will be thrilled either way, people don't believe it when I say I don't have a preference infant or toddler, but there are pros and cons to either!

We are keeping the faith that we will get our adoption referral soon (we're just learning to re-define the word "soon"), but in the mean time I thought it might be fun to log some guesses. Anyone want to guess how old the little girl in our referral will be? Remember we are requesting a girl anywhere between the ages of 0 to 30 months.

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What if?

Have you heard this new song from Laura Story? It's awesome! And the lyrics are amazing!

As so many of us wait longing to bring home the children we're adopting, this line resonates with me, "What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy?"

When you look back over your life, haven't you seen great blessings come from the rain, the hard situations, the things you just never would have chosen for yourself?

But God in His infinite wisdom and mercy chose them for you.

"What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you're near?"

What if?

Whatever hardships, difficulties, anguish you're having, I'd be willing to bet God's going to do something amazing with it all, if you'll let Him. And by amazing I don't necessarily mean something that is going to make your life easier or more comfortable, but something that will bring Him glory and in the process bless you more than anything you could imagine for yourself.


P.S. I have no idea why I'm using the word "you" here in this post, it should be "me"; I'm preaching this message to myself tonight!

It's empty!!

I can't wait to show you this. It is something that has not existed in our house in a long, long time!

My in-box (the one on the top) is empty!



Remember what it used to look like?


So how did I tackle it?

Well, unfortunately there was no secret trick. I had to go through each item one by one and toss it, file it, put it away where it went, act on it (as in RSVP to it, mark it on the calendar, sign and send to school, pay it, mail it, call with a question about it, schedule the appointment the reminder card was to remind me of, etc.) or in the case of a catalog, resist the urge to sit down and thumb through it!

So, it was not fun, but so worth it! And it got easier because as I got closer to the bottom of the stack, most of the papers were so old they related to an event that has long passed so they were easy to throw away. It's great to be free from the nagging feeling of that pile and worrying there was something urgent in there.

I'm hoping the pain of the cleaning out process helps motivate me to tackle this little chore daily when it's just that, a little chore!


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Good, Better, Best!

Coloring Easter eggs is a good thing about Eastertime!


Even better? An Easter basket that doubles as a purse!


But the very, very best thing about Easter is a savior who died on the cross for my sins and yours and rose from the dead that first Easter morning! Jesus is alive! And through Him we can have eternal life with God.

1 Peter 1:3-4
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,"

Really?

Apparently I'm losing the war against allowing the puppy on the couch. Notice my husband is not pushing said puppy off the couch in this picture but rather cuddling with the puppy on the couch!

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And as a bonus nudging our puppy towards the "Best Pet Ever" status, I caught her drinking out of the toilet tonight. "Really?" was all I could think to ask her when I saw it.

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Years ago, before I had children, I ran a marathon. 26.2 miles! There was great crowd support with people cheering, entertaining, and handing out goodies all along the route. As I approached mile 23 the crowd began yelling, "You're almost there! The end is so close! Keep going!!" They were chanting those words to all the runners, trying to be encouraging. But, not having run the marathon course before, I believed them, like literally thought just around the next curve was going to be the finish line!

For 3.2 miles!

3.2 miles that included some hills, I might add!

I was able to finish strong, but looking back the last few miles were way harder than they'd have been if I hadn't thought the finish line was closer than it was.

The past 2 weeks waiting on our adoption referral has felt like that last 3.2 miles. Each day thinking, "Surely today!" and each day ending without "The Call". But, we're pressing on, just not carrying our phones absolutely everywhere with quite the same excitement and gusto we had days ago!
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Today my 3 year old used the term "LED light" appropriately in a sentence, so now I have to record some of the funny things he says before he grows out of them and I forget!

the dining room = "diving room"

scuba diver = "scooper diver"

restaurant = "restronk"

and this week there was Open House at his preschool, only I don't think he understood "Open House" being at his school because he kept referring to it as "Open School". Like, "We'll have dinner and then go to my Open School."

I'm sure I'll be thinking of many others to add to this list!

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Have a wonderful weekend!

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Let the Fingerprint Fun Begin Again!

In honor of the fact that our adoption documents are expiring and we have appointments to be re-fingerprinted next week, I thought I'd re-run the Unclassifiable post from last year.

But, this year? I'm prepared, thanks to Kathleen who generously shared her tricks and products!! Seriously, you can imagine my glee the day I got these babies in the mail!

Bring on the fingerprinting!! And for the record, just what exactly did I know about adoption hurdles a year ago? My 2011 self could definitely tell my 2010 self a thing or two about hurdles!


**The following was originally published by me here on this blog March 25, 2010.**

Unclassifiable! Yes, unclassifiable! As in not able to be classified.


That's what U.S. Citizenship and Immigration (CIS) finally deemed my fingerprints after I went in 2 different times to let them take my prints.

These fingerprints are crucial for our I-600A, which is the approval to be able to bring the child we adopt from Ethiopia into the U.S.

It sounds kinda cool to have unclassifiable prints, but in reality?

Not so cool.

Especially if you are not trying to live a life of crime, but rather trying to adopt a child from a foreign country!

So, after gathering police clearances (which was a whole adventure in and of itself) from 2 different police departments representing the 2 cities I've lived in during the past 5 years that stated I was not a criminal, I headed in today for my appointment with CIS (which falls under the Dept. of Homeland Security).

At 9:30 this morning I got to see my 3rd Department of Homeland Security office in my city. I had no idea we even had one before beginning this adoption journey and now I've been in three in less than three months.

And I'm here to tell you, the Dept. of Homeland Security? Doesn't mess around! You would probably be glad to know that such an important office to the welfare of our country has tight security and elaborate, specific procedures around their offices. But, should you actually have to go to one (or three), all the security and elaborate, specific procedures just serve to stress you out!

There are tons of signs posted everywhere, which are just printed out on white pieces of paper and taped up, explaining the various rules and procedures. They say things like, "Place bags here to be x-ray scanned, even sunglasses must be sent through the scanner." "Turn off your cell phone." "Turn in your appointment form here." "Stand here and wait to be called. Do not approach the window until you are called." "Have your picture idea ready." "Fill out only the highlighted areas" "Exit this door."

I graduated from a university with a degree, but somehow I am still not smart enough for these offices. I did tons of things wrong each time.

Today, there was a no food rule (which I don't think the other 2 offices had) and because I had my toddler with me, I had packed several snacks in my purse, all of which were confiscated at the security checkpoint by the scanner guy! Sorry, I must have missed that sign!

But, praise God, the actual appointment didn't take very long. And after swearing under oath that I am not a criminal and providing police department proof that I am not a criminal, I think they may actually believe I am not a criminal. And hopefully we'll be getting the final approval in the mail soon -- the last document we are waiting on before we can be on the wait list for a child!

At least I don't have to gain 30 lbs for this child, but if these hurdles keep multiplying I am gonna need an epidural!