Thanks Giving

Well, Halloween officially kicked off the formerly-known-as-dread-inducing-and-sad-wanna-be-parents holiday season ... and here we are now, giving thanks.

For prayers answered (and some unanswered, as well), family, adoption, birth mothers, sacrifice, togetherness, and stuffing.

In our home, we're also praying for our friends, T&K. For strength. For the peace that passes all understanding ...

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us.
Ephesians 3:20

Different Trips to the Same Place

I've seen this on a few blogs before, and I wanted to make sure I had it saved ...

Different Trips to the Same Place

Deciding to have a baby is like planning a trip to Australia. You’ve heard it’s a wonderful place. You’ve read many guidebooks and feel certain you’re ready to go. Everyone you know has traveled there by plane. They say it can be a turbulent flight with occasional rough landings, but you can look forward to being pampered on the trip.

So you go to the airport and ask the ticket agent for a ticket to Australia. All around you, excited people are boarding planes for Australia. It seems there is no seat for you; you’ll have to wait for the next flight. Impatient, but anticipating a wonderful trip, you wait-and wait- and wait.

Flights to Australia continue to come and go. People say silly things like, “Relax. You’ll get on a flight soon.” Other people actually get on a plane and then cancel their trip, to which you cry, “It’s not fair”.

After a long time the ticket agent tells you, “I’m sorry, we’re not going to be able to get you on a plane to Australia. Perhaps you should think about going by boat.”

“By Boat!” you say, “Going by boat will take a very long time and costs a great deal of money. I really had my heart set on going by plane.” So you go home and think about not going to Australia at all. You wonder if Australia will be as beautiful if you approach it by sea rather than air. But you have long dreamed of this wonderful place, and finally you decide to travel by boat.

It is a long trip, many months over many rough seas. No one pampers you. You wonder if you will ever see Australia. Meanwhile, your friends have flown back and forth to Australia two or three times, marveling about each trip.

Then one glorious day, the boat docks in Australia. It is more exquisite that you ever imagined, and the beauty is magnified by your long days at sea. You have made many wonderful friends during your voyage, and you find yourself comparing stories with others who also traveled by sea rather than by air.

People continue to fly to Australia as often as they like, but you are able to travel only once, perhaps twice. Some say things like, “Oh be glad you didn’t fly. My flight was horrible, traveling by sea is so easy.”

You will always wonder what it would have been like to fly to Australia. Still, you know God blessed you with a special appreciation of Australia, and the beauty of Australia is not in the way you get there, but in the place itself.

-Author Unknown

Speed of Life

We turned ten ...





























... and eight months this week.
















Is this for real?

Does it always happen this fast?

The growing?

The crawling?

The creeping?

The teeth?

The laughing?

The crying?

The eating?

So much ...

So soon ...

No pause button.

No rewind.

Just fast, fast, fast forward.

Parenting Book

I liked Bab.y Wi.se, with some Healthy Sle.ep Ha.bits, Bab.y Wh.isperer, and Ba.by 4.11 mixed in.

It is endorsed by my nephew, too - who turned on the swing, climbed in, grabbed a book of the shelf, and closed the latch.

Well?

The man did not wear the ruffled shirt ... but he did tell the story of the wide mouthed frog.

Even though we went early to have their pictures taken, the kids (and I!) survived the evening.

Mike talked about how adoption has touched our lives, and there's nothing that can make a girl cry like her love trying not to. I'm typically the one who tells our story to people when they ask, but I'm not a microphone kind of girl. So while the story line was the same, it was really awesome for me to stand there and hear it with his words, through his eyes, told with the healing of his heart.

Working Through the Issues Book

Adopting After Infertility was a great read for me because it sparked a lot of meaningful conversations between Mike and I.

National Adoption Day Candle Light Celebration

So this is where we'll be tomorrow ...

I think I've already mentioned how much we love our social worker, Denice.

Our last visit consisted of her chatting with Mike will she helped him get the kids into their jammies and ready for bed while I was grocery shopping. Now you know why you guys who get nervous about the social workers and the home studies and the interviews and the visits make me giggle - we put ours to work!

I can only hope this guy shows up in that ruffled shirt!

I'll let you know ...

PS - You know that we don't go anywhere, right? Just for walks, or to church, or to Mom's group. That is it. We don't go to the store (except for that one time), out to eat, run errands, attend events, dinners at friends (except for that one time) ... everything with three infants is tricky and hard and crazy and sometimes downright terrible.

So again, I'll let you know ...

Kids Book

I have yet to make it through I Wished for You without crying.

Sense of Humor

I was doing some blog housekeeping and I found this saved as a draft on January 23rd, and it made me laugh. So I'm hitting publish post now. It's nice to see that I still had my sense of humor intact.


So oh my gosh but I just realized that since our match fell through and we aren't adopting, we won't get pregnant!

Pants!

Mom Book

I think Secret Thoughts of an Adoptive Mother might be one of my favorites, of the books I read.

It helped me to feel ... OK.

And sometimes, that's all we need.