Our Adoption Video

Wrote the name of this first song down in 2010 when we started the adoption process.

My friend Jackie H. had it in her adoption video of her son Miles and I absolutely loved it!

My heart is just bursting with thankfulness to God for His faithfulness in bringing our family together.

We needed these girls just as much as they needed us!

This Love by Mandi Mapes

I’ve never felt this way before
funny how you found you’re way to my door   
and suddenly my prayers are coming true
and these arms are not letting go of you

this love this love is the deep kind
you’re my baby, you’re my sunshine
I’ll hold your hand, be your biggest fan
and I’ll love you all of the time

our eyes are not quite the same shade
and your hair blows in the wind a different way 
but I am your mother and 
I love you just the same 
so I’ll take your hand honey 
and you can take my name

my heart has been redeemed,
adopted and now I know my Father
this grace that I’ve received 
I want to show you
I want to show you

this love this love is the deep kind
it hangs on through the storm and the sunshine
I’ll hold your hand, be your biggest fan
and I’ll love you all of the time

© 2010 Mandi Mapes

Song #2 "Least of These" by Audio Adrenaline

Photos at the end in the yellow/gray were taken by "Your Life in Stills Photography".

School is in Session!

 

After Labor Day we decided we needed to get started on this whole school thing.

Add some structure to our day.

 

 

 

 

 

{yup, verdict is in, I officially have the cutest class}

 

 

Even though our curriculum is currently residing on another continent, we are making the best of it.

My little sister (ESL teacher) brought me the mother load of ESL (English second language) ideas and curriculum for the girls.

 

We are getting the hang of it.

 

 

 

About 2 weeks after we started school, in which I had been calling school "shule" (Swahili), Esther informed me on a random Sunday morning that school in Swahili is actually kafunda (sp?).

Pretty sure she will be the teacher by the end of the year.

 

 

 

 

This Really Happened!

My sweet friend Jenny took these pictures for us at the airport. 

 

We are now home and thoroughly enjoying our new life as a family of 6.

 

 

 

As I was looking at these pictures, I am just overwhelmed by God's faithfulness....to our family....to these girls.

 

We are so incredibly thankful!

 

 

This is "For Real"

In 5 days or less, (not too good on calculating the whole time change thing) we will be meeting our daughters!

orphans no more, in our family for keeps,

we now have 4 kids,

been waiting for this day for so long,

it is finally our turn,

oh my goodness this is really happening!

My mind has been running on 3.5 years of delays, changes, bumps, disappointments, deferred hope and second winds that it is slowly coming around to the idea that this is "for real".

The girls' received their US VISAS 3 days ago!

Our bags are packed, tickets are booked, hotel reservations confirmed.

I can't sleep at night. A mixture of excitement, gratefulness, and sheer ohmygoodnesslifeisabouttochange is keeping my mind on overdrive.

eeek! 5 days!

{please excuse the fragmented post and run-on sentences, adoption has fried my brain}

Flexibility {must be a must}

We are living in the land of ever-changing plans. Pretty much on a daily basis.

I guess when a 3.5 year international adoption intersects with an international move, a little crazy is bound to happen.

And although there are many moments when my chest feels tight and I think to myself that I just need a puff of my old friend, the inhaler, I realize that asthma is not the culprit, but anxiety. Who knew anxiety could make you feel like an elephant resides on your chest?

But despite the few moments of anxiety, mainly peace is reigning here. I mean, how can you not have peace when you sit back and chronicle all that God has been doing? All the details that He has not only taken care of, but exceedingly and abundantly and way over the mark provided for. Here are just a few to show you His awesomeness...and oh, how He loves to bless (maybe I am just now getting this!) -

• He gave us a car! Yes, a car! currently residing in the city where we fly into in our new home country.
• He sold our house after 2.5 weeks of being on the market
•  He has almost 100% funded us for the next 2 years. In just 5 shorts months.
•  He miraculously completed our adoption which our gov't said could not be done until Fall. We go get our girls in 2 weeks. Just typing those words is baffling.
•  We were able to send a container to our new home and it made it out to sea. If you have 2 Lego-loving boys, you'll understand why a container full of Lego's is such a blessing to your transition.
•  He has provided a team for us to move with and serve with. Love these families already so much and having them makes the transition so much easier.
• The people He has placed in our lives to love us, pray for us, partner in ministry with us. Having so much support really encourages us!

There are many more blessings and many more to come. So even if plane tickets have to be changed again tomorrow, or another billion pieces of paperwork comes our way to complete our adoption (seriously though, does.it.ever.end?), we are ready for it!

After all, I am pretty sure flexibility is the name of the game in the line of work we will be doing in our new home county.

He is good to give us preparation for it!

I Cried All the Way to Our Honeymoon

It has been almost 14 years and I still remember how it went down; me in my "going away outfit" sitting in the passenger seat doing the ugly cry. My husband of less then 24 hours driving us to Dallas to catch our airplane that would take us to our honeymoon. I cried the.entire.way. I can't imagine what my poor, barely 21 year old husband, thought he had gotten himself into. {sidenote: just asked the hubs and he has no recollection of this event, so I guess it's all good!}

 It happened again two weeks before we had our first son, and then right before our second son was to be born. This kinda sadness that overcomes me. It is not that I am in anyway wanting to un-do the new wonderfulness to come, my mind just grieves the end of a season, a really good season of life.

So, here I stand tonight in my laundry room folding clothes, and that old weird familiar feeling starts to come over me again. But now I am 34 and not the 20 year old newly wed....and I recognize these feeling for what they are and it doesn't freak me out quite so much.

This time we are 39 days out from moving to the other side of the world. We have been anticipating this adventure for awhile now. Feel such peace in being right where God wants us. We've experienced adrenaline rushes, miracles, amazing provisions, coupled with stress and feelings of being utterly overwhelmed. Our crate left earlier this week with all our earthly treasures. The rest of our stuff is finding  new homes via Craigslist and garage sales. Our house went on the market yesterday....and we've had 4 showings in the last 24 hours. And I recognize that I am starting to grieve. It always sneaks up on me when I least expect it.

I am going to miss this house. The house my husband grew up in. The house we dated in. The house we moved into when baby #1 was just a month old. The house we put our blood, sweat and money into as we made it our own. The house we made memories in as a family.

But one thing nice about getting older is I can let myself grieve the end of an era.  I don't panic like I did years ago and think, "oh no, I must have picked the wrong college!" or "am I marrying the right guy?" I don't equate these feelings of sadness as equaling that we are on the wrong path.  I know that the next season is going to be different, lots of changes are going to happen, but it is going to be good. And someday down the road, I will look back on this new adventure that we are about to embark on and I will feel nostalgic, I will feel home.