Pinterest would be proud!

Pinterest would be so proud of my girls. They threw me the best shower and really showed off their skills. I can't thank them enough for all of the trouble they went to.

We have been overwhelmed with the love and support we have felt from our church family through this whole process. I literally could not have done it without them. They have let me cry, vent, explain, confess, and so much more. Now the fun part begins, loving on our boy!

We Cleared!

(Praising the Lord)

I am still in shock! We cleared Embassy in EIGHT DAYS! For those of you who don't know, that right there, is a miracle!

Usually once you get submitted to Embassy, it takes a couple of weeks for them to get to your case, then they request interviews or phone numbers to investigate that our child is truly an orphan. It takes months.

So Wednesday night, one week after we were submitted, it seemed odd to me that I couldn't sleep. I literally knew the Lord was telling me to stay up and pray. I prayed until 3:00am. I think I dozed from 3-6 and then was awake again to pray. I knew that our night time is their day time so when we did get "the email" it would be in the morning. At 7:30am I woke up Jonathan and asked him to check his email. I just knew it would be there. After all, the Lord had kept me up all night :)

No email.

I was super disappointed because I felt like I read the whole situation wrong and maybe it wasn't the Lord, maybe it was my anxiety or that glass of tea I had too late. It was weird though because I had been so confident that the Lord was doing something awesome!

Exactly two hours later, my phone rang. The siren went off. (Our case worker's ring tone is a siren.)

We cleared.

We cleared.

We cleared.

They didn't email us for some reason but we cleared. In EIGHT DAYS! It really is a miracle.

I still can't believe it. We leave Wednesday to go get our son and BRING HIM HOME.

Thank you so much for your prayers and your support. We can't wait for you guys to meet our son!

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Embassy Submission Day!

Wahoo!!!

That's all.

Embassy!

Embassy here we come! We received all of our documents and will be submitted to Embassy on Wednesday! This is the best news. We knew it would take 7-8 weeks to be ready to be submitted. This morning, I was doing some laundry and I heard an email come in. My heart fell to my feet but then I thought, "No way, this is only week 6." So I assumed the email was a 40% off from Shutterfly...again. I continued my laundry. Finally, I checked my email and there it was...EMBASSY DOCUMENTS! Wahoooo! I screamed, Jonathan jumped, and Stella cried. It was hilarious.
So once we are submitted to Embassy, we wait for them to review our case and hopefully approve us to go get him very soon! Yay. This is a great day!

Hilarious and Honest Post About Adoption

This is seriously hilarious. Jonathan and I were cracking up. A very important read for adopting families.

http://give1save1.com/2012/03/05/guest-post-by-jen-hatmaker/

Discontent

It's the perfect Sunday. My wonderful husband is napping. My beautiful daughter is napping. I'm sitting in perfect quiet, drinking coffee and watching it snow. It really is a great day. Yet I feel discontent. I miss my son. I want to blink my eyes and have him home. Part of me wishes I was in the movie "Click" and I had a magic remote control that I could fast forward to the day we get to bring him home.
Then I'm convicted.
I'm reading a book about contentment. It's about soaking in each moment, even the hard ones. It's about relishing it, cherishing it, celebrating it, appreciating it for what it is. I'm not there. I'm not doing that.
Jonathan will only be exactly like this now, Stella will only be exactly like this now. If I blink away the hard days, I'm missing out on the beauty of the small moments. It's hard, I confess, to live it up. Discontentment is robbing me of my days and I won't stand for it.
Each day, I will give to the Lord, trusting his plan. I will not miss out on one more precious moment.

New Picture

We got a new picture of our sweet boy today. It has been a month since we saw him last and we miss him so much. He is getting big and his hair is growing. We love this little guy so much!