Happy Meetcha Day

Two beautiful years ago we saw our daughters sweet smile for the first time.  Happy Meetcha Day munchkin!

April Pics

new commitment

  OK people.  I'm just going to put it out there that I have been a BIT of a failure when it comes to blogging.  My brain is just so tired most days that I can't think of anything to write.  I am making a new commitment though for our blog.  I will start at least doing picture updates, hopefully once a month.  Our computer has also been very crappy for a LONG time, but we just had it repaired so we're good to go!!
  On the adoption front there is not much to report.  We're waiting. The wait has slowed down even more than we expected, but we know our God is faithful to bring us our children in His perfect timing.  If you're reading this and have a moment, please pray for our other sweet friends on the waitlist.  There are families at the front of the list that were on the waitlist when we adopted A.  That's a LONG time to wait when you were expecting it to be a year at most when you started your adoption.  Please pray for encouragement and peace for these sweet families as God is weaving together their families.
  Please continue to pray for the children waiting for a family.  There is a new embassy/MOWA approval process that is starting to be tested out that might help speed the process up to help unite children with their forever families faster.  Pray for the officials and workers over this new process as they start to test it out.
  At home, our sassy daughter is every bit of a two year old.  Right now as I type she is dancing in the bathtub, not taking a bath, just a fun place to dance. If she is awake, her mouth is going. She is either talking or singing, but this girl LOVES to exercise her verbal skills. She loves to beat box with her Daddy and just an all-around bundle of fun.  I'll try and post some pics or video later today. For now it's time for lunch, so Mom duties must commence.  If anybody is still out there...thanks for reading!

God Bless
-a

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!  This year has been a year of many firsts for our family.  Last Christmas brought our first Christmas as parents.  It’s amazing how adding one more little person to the day can wear you out but brings such joy at the same time. 

  We started 2012 off by celebrating Aerin’s first birthday.  Amory has found her new role as official party planner to be great fun.  It was a huge blessing to be able to celebrate our daughter’s first birthday with our family and closest friends.  Even with just family it ended up being a large party! 

  

  Each new month has brought new developmental milestones as we have watched Aerin grow from a baby to a little girl.  She has gone from having 18 words at the beginning of the year, to speaking in complete sentences.  We never cease to be amazed at how smart this little girl is that God has blessed us with.  Those smarts and her strong will combined have made for some interesting times for us, but we thank God for all of it.  We have discovered that Aerin is just like her Mommy and sings as long as she is awake.  The only moments she stops singing is when she is talking.  Basically, her mouth is going non-stop at all times.  The only thing that can keep her quiet for any length of time is watching Finding Nemo or Winnie the Pooh (or pooh pooh pooh as she called him for some time).   Aerin’s favorite play time activity is still reading.  She would spend hours reading books if you let her.  There’s a little bit of both her Mommy and Daddy in that.  In May Aerin went to her first Texas Rangers game. She loves watching baseball and was able to stay for nearly the whole game. It was a proud moment for her Daddy.  (please excuse the overheated sweaty appearance)

  In June we took our first family vacation together.  We drove down to the Texas coast and enjoyed a few days in a condo on the beach.  Aerin loved the beach and ocean, though was not too fond of the heat.   Aerin’s favorite beach activity was walking behind her Daddy, as he made sandcastles and immediately demolishing his creations.   It was special to see Aerin’s excitement at seeing the ocean for the first time, as well as dolphins up close. 

   The rest of our year has been filled with just trying to soak up as much of our daughter’s toddlerhood as possible without letting the house get too out of shape.  Both Bryan and Amory being working parents is still very difficult and especially hard on a mama watching her baby grow up, but worth it for the moment as it has allowed us to start our second adoption.   In October we were added to the waitlist again and we are excited to see what child or children God is going to bless our family with next.  This adoption will be a much longer road than Aerin’s, but we’re ready to wait.  We expect to be on the waitlist for two years before we see our next children’s faces.

 God has blessed us richly this year with being able to see life through the eyes of a child.  Everything is new and exciting.  We see God’s faithfulness to us and blessings much more clearly now.  As Paul said in Philippians, we are also learning the secret of being content with were we are, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.   Our prayer for all of our friends and family as we wrap up this year and head into another one is that you may all be able to see God’s faithfulness and blessings in your lives clearly.  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13.

  

We're still here

  If anybody ever reads, I'm sorry it's been sooo long since we've posted. BUT today I have felt a post brewing.  So, for adoption updates, our current numbers on the waitlists are 109 for a boy and 58 for siblings.That's actually some fantastic movement EVEN THOUGH we did actually move backwards on the siblings list.  Our end of October numbers were 113 on the boy and 60 on the siblings list, so I'll call this month progress.  How's that for a different perspective?  I was NOT so positive during the last wait when we moved backwards.  God's timing is perfect and He has already picked out our next child/ren.  We rest in that truth.

  Now, for the child that lives with us already.  Today, as I was pulling up to the house, Audio Adrenaline's new song, Kings and Queens, came on.  It was one of those moments that happen every once in a while still, where I am utterly overwhelmed by God's goodness.  How is it that God planned and beautifully orchestrated picking my first child from all the way across the globe?  How am I so blessed?  Every day I am in awe that God picked us to be physical example of what He has done for us in Christ.  We were lost, without hope, and God rescued us by the redemptive sacrifice of Christ and adopted us to be His own.  It is a beautiful thing to be a part of.  Best part of it all, we get to do it again.  Our God is so gracious.

Wooooo!!!

114 on the boy list, 57 on the sibling list.

  Guilty as charged...  I have been neglecting our blog, and I'm kind of sorry if I have any readers left.  I'm only kind of sorry because I have this amazing 20 month old sweetie that keeps me too busy and tired to do much writing, and I just can't be sorry for that!  Since my sweet hubby gave me an evening away and took care of A, I have just enough energy and brain power left to do a short update.
  Current adoption:
  Well, it's amazing the difference knowledge and peace can make when going through the paperwork phase of an adoption.  Things so far have gone so much smoother with our second adoption than with Aerin's, or maybe that's just my perspective this time around.  A couple years ago all of our hopes and dreams were wrapped up in the adoption paperwork, and still are today, but now it's obeying for future plans, not every day having hope deferred.  We pray every single day for the future children that God has for us, but I'm at peace now when I pray that, not struggling with a constant war within.  I am so thankful that we have obeyed God to adopt again so I can experience adoption this way.  This doesn't meant that there won't come a time that we go through those same emotions again, but for now we have peace to enjoy the daughter God has already placed in our care as we go through this adoption.
  So you want an update on the process?  Ok!  Our homestudy is complete! YAY!  I'm waiting to get it in the mail and then should be able to promptly send our dossier in to get waitlisted.  We're hoping to be on a waitlist by the end of next week.  That being said, (warning,thoughts on what I wish somebody would've told me last time coming up)  I know that is just our hope and the timing is completely in God's hands.  I HOPEFULLY learned my lesson last time of trying to control everything.  I want this time around to be able to easily surrender everything to God's control (not that I really have a choice in the matter, just much easier on me if I readily surrender).
  What's next?  We wait...and wait...and wait...and wait some more.  We're expecting this wait to be years people, so don't expect a whole lot of updates on our wait coming up.  I mentally, emotionally, spiritually, can not get wrapped up in the month to month hope built, then dashed, of the wait.  I have a little person who needs me present this time.  So, I'll update when I can, but maybe not monthly.
  Update on A: LOVE TO!  God is SOOO good to us.  A is 20 months old now and still in the 90th percentile.  She is smart as a whip and fiery.  Her latest favorite book is Brown Bear, of which she can already recite and can tell you what all of the animals are in it and what color they all are.  She says her ABC's and on a good day can count to 20.  She LOVES to sing and dance.  Her favorite song right now is Jesus Loves Me and she is super cute when she sings it.  She also sings Come Thou Fount with me every night before bed, all three verses.  Like I said, God is so good to us.  Daily I thank God for our sweet, silly little girl.  Daily I love her more and more.
  I was reminded today as I looked at a picture of God's sovereignty and perfect plans.  I was showing somebody a picture of our travel group that we went to Ethiopia with for court.  I was explaining who everyone was and was reminded that one of the families' dossier was submitted minutes before ours.  Not sure why our adoption coordinator shared that with us, but it has always stuck in my head.  God's timing was perfect down to the second.  That same family was matched with their son the same day we were matched with Aerin.  God determined that by making sure their dossier was reviewed minutes before ours.  God had the perfect little girl for us.  That people, is why I know that God is perfectly in control and I can fully rest in His timing.  I've seen it at work.  I snuggle with it every night at bedtime.
-amory