The Wait

So it has been a while since I've updated on our adoption process. Not because I haven't wanted to. Believe me, I could talk about it a LOT if you let me. : ) There really just isn't much new to say. Our dossier was sent in just before Christmas and while that came with lots of excitement (i.e. this) it was soon followed up by a bit of a let-down. While the paperwork and expenses were extensive and stressful at least I felt like I was doing SOMETHING to help bring our son home. At the moment we are just waiting. Waiting. Waiting. I hate that it's out of my hands now. What I wake up each day hoping to get is our referral. This will be a name, a picture and background information on what could be our future son. We  will have the opportunity to review the information, pray about the decision and then say yes or no to the little boy on our screen. I know I should never say never (right, Justin Bieber?) but I can't imagine very many scenarios where we would say no but that's the process anyway.

Here's what the dictionary has to say about waiting (I can tell you were wondering)

·         to be available or in readiness

·         to look forward to eagerly

·         to continue as one is in expectation of

·         to remain inactive or in a state of repose, as until something expected happens

Check, check, check and check. We are WAITING. And I'm not a fan. A friend recently send a kind donation and with it was this necklace that basically sums it all up for me:

The heart is over the spot in Africa that we will be heading....Kinshasa. Oh the longing for that little heart.

I was looking into a t-shirt fundraiser we  were talking about and they had some listed under the theme "Paper Pregnancy". Cute, right? All my fellow adoptive mommies will totally get that. The shirts had clever sayings like:

·         So far no morning sickness but the paper cuts are terrible!

·         Motherhood: No stretch marks required

·         Fatherhood: Requires love, not DNA

I can totally related to these. I've often tried to equate the waiting for this adoption to the waiting during a pregnancy but there are some flaws in that theory. For one, when I've been pregnant I know exactly where my little one is....generally hanging on my right rib cage. I'm secure in the knowledge that the only harm being done at any given moment is that Crispy Creme donut I should have avoided that morning.

A second difference is the timeline. With a pregnancy it's pretty straight-forward, 9 months give or take. We're 8 months into this thing and don't really have any idea how much longer we could be waiting. Another 8 months? Ugh.

Another one is in appearance. While we didn't know exactly what our sweet girls would look like I could take a look at my hunky husband and glance at myself in the mirror and get a pretty good idea what might be popping out. With our son I just have NO IDEA what to imagine. I just want that picture so much! To know in my mind what I know in my heart....he's ours.

Well, I guess I've drilled in the truth about our situation right now. I'm waiting. I don't like it. I'm pouting about it. I've been so blessed by friends and family asking though. I really love that he's on your minds as he is ours. Please keep praying for him (and us). We know that all of this is in God's hands and while my impatient side balks against the unknown I do have great comfort in knowing that each day that goes by is one that God has designed to bring us one day closer to completing our family.

"And He said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority'." Acts 1:7

Boys Will Be Boys

Well, as I mentioned here we bought another house recently. I guess I should say that we bought a lot that had an unfortunate house on it that had to go. The city had condemned it and we have other plans for that space. So, the guys excitedly prepared to push the place in. They were so funny talking about it and planning for it. It just reminded me how whether a boy is 3 or 30, destroying something is always fun. : ) We had quite a crew there to watch/help. Several dumpsters had been placed before the tear-down and were cycling in and out throughout the day as they got filled up quickly. It's amazing to me how fast a house can be brought down and cleared from a lot. This was all done in a day...

Before:

During:

After:

We live in a small town and while that comes with it's advantages it also has some draw-backs. Like the nosey people who felt it completely within their right to glare, call and complain and/or stop by to ask why we weren't restoring the house. Or if we really had to cut down that tree that was rotten through to the middle.  We just had to laugh. No one seemed too concerned about this home as it sat empty rotting for the last 10 years but now suddenly it was their mission to restore it to it's former glory...or at least guilt us into doing it. Funny little town. : )

So, now I guess it will be on to re-zoning and getting the new building plans tweaked to our liking. At least we've got a pretty adorable foreman for the job...

Jelly Sandwiches and Shampoo Body Wash

We're SO tired. While we've been home from the hospital with our little one for a couple weeks and the other two have since ditched the worst of the coughs and runny noses, we're still not quite at 100%. For the last couple weeks Mara hasn't gotten back to her sleep-through-the-night self. She just gets so clogged up with crud still and that hinder's her pacifier which, in turn, wakes her up. We've tried lots of stuff, sucking her out, propping up one end of her mattress, the humidifier, vapo-rub, etc. She just has a rough time. The other night I was on shift until 2:30 then Derek took over and ended up just sleeping on the floor of her room the rest of the night. Friday night we went to bed around midnight. At 12:45 Mara started up with her coughing/fussing. After a couple attempts to give her the pacifier and sneak back to bed I gave up and brought her up to the couch with me.  I finally got her settled down (sorta) around 3:45.  I don't know if I ever stayed up till 3:45 even in college! 

We're surviving though. Luckily I've got an amazing husband that is happy to help out and I've been able to sneak a nap in now and again. Doesn't mean I haven't found myself falling victim to the lack of sleep....

• I pack our lunch on Tuesday's to eat between Bible study and swim lessons. It wasn't until we had almost finished last Tuesday that I realized I had put two peanut butter slices together and two jelly slices together.  No wonder that first half seemed so sweet and the second half was a little sticky to get down.
• This morning I caught myself putting a blob of shampoo instead of body wash on my spongey loufa thingy. Well, soap's soap....right? 
• I was trying to get Brecken into her pajama sleeper the other night and couldn't figure out why her arm didn't want to seem to reach the arm hole only to finally focus in and see that I was trying to shover her into one of Mara's sleepers.  Sigh.

The days are still fun and I love watching these girls grow and learn. What joy in the midst of sleepiness! 

Brecken particularly seems to have had another growth spurt in size and development. I hate that she's getting so un-babyish but she's so stinkin' cute and funny that I'm letting it slide. 

I love how she marches around and ALWAYS has each hand full of a "treasure" of some kind.

Stylin' on her way to church Sunday morning.

I may have shed a tear when I went in to get her this day. She just looked SO BIG and I couldn't stand it!

So, while I dream of sleeping more than 2 hours at a time I also relish the joy that is my days. Could there be anything better than raising three sweet girls!?  I can't imagine even a full night's sleep could be better.  : )

Sister Love

I'm the oldest of two kids. So, that means that I only had one shot at having a great sibling. Luckily for me I've got an awesome sister. Like, really really. And today is her BIRTHDAY!!

She's turning 27 but you know how there are some people that you just freeze in your mind at a certain age? For some reason I've done that with her at around 18....or maybe 22 but I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea that my little sister could be 27. That's just to grown-up. Too adult. Not to mention that it puts me above that number and I'd rather not consider that either...

Anyhoo...she's a pretty busy gal living in a huge city far away, working as an editor at cool jobs like Rand McNally, Groupon, and now Travelzoo. She worked for Groupon when they were just a handful of people trying to get deals to the masses. You know, before they decided the only thing we must do is golf and get facials. Seriously Groupon -- can't you throw in a deal to the zoo or a steal on diapers now and again?!

Oops, off track again. Her Travelzoo job now comes with some pretty awesome travel perks too. Think Paris for Thanksgiving, Dubai for the summer and Kansas for Christmas. Well, ok, so that last one might only have the draw of her nieces who adore her. She's the "cool aunt" who sends fun gifts, clothes from stores I can't afford and the only person they get to talk to on the computer via skype which in Taryn's mind makes her extra cool. 

.

She's a fiercely loyal friend, has a sense of humor that keeps me laughing, writes a blog that I wait (im)patiently for each day and loves adventure (skydiving, snorkeling with sharks, figuring out the train system in Chicago). 


I'm crazy proud of her and can't wait to see the places she'll go in 27. Kelsey, I love you and wouldn't pick another sister if I could.

Foam Rollers

When my mom was little her mom would put her hair up in foam rollers every Saturday evening before bed so that her hair would be just right for church the next morning. As I grew up we often did the same for my hair. I loved having the bouncy little ringlets all over my head. So, while wandering conquering the aisles at Walmart the other day I came across the same old foam rollers that my mom and I had used growing up.

You know, this style...

They of course had to come home with me and I excitedly explained the process to Taryn that Saturday evening. She was a tad skeptical but when she found out the process involved her watching a movie while I put them in she was suddenly a big fan or third generation traditions.

I'm not very smart and forgot to snap a picture of the back but it was super cute. Her hair holds the curl really well and they were just as bouncy as I remembered. She was excited to show her Sunday school teachers. Hooray for foam rollers!

Monster Joke

Red Monster: That cute girl over there just rolled her eyes at me.

Blue Monster: Well you'd better roll them back....she probably needs them!

 Ahahahaha!!

Random

This is some randomness.  Don't say I didn't warn you...

Some friends were in town a couple weekends ago so we met up with them at Exploration Place. We hadn't been there in a while so it was fun to watch Brecken get to experience it and to catch up with friends I wished lived closer.

 

Some days it feels like naptime will never come. But when it does, this is what is waiting for me....  : )

We've been working with Taryn a little harder on her letters, sounds and sight words lately. She's not the most.....ahem, joyful of learners. A lot of times we both end up angry frustrated challenged. She'd rather just color. So that means some creativity was in order. I'm having to bring back my preschool-teaching days for a little originality. I think we'll get there.  If not, there's only 14 more years left of her in the house, right?

This is the sign of a house full of girls.  Even the poor cow and horse can't escape dress-up time.

Made these tiny "bacon and eggs" the other morning for Bible study. I don't know why but I get a kick out of them.

Derek and I were debating going out to my parent's house after church on Sunday when these two took up the cause and began chanting, "Nana's house! Papa's house!" (Repeat, repeat, repeat)  Needless to say....we went.

Swim lessons are still going great. Yesterday they both swam all the way across on their own (the short length). They were pretty excited.  I think they spent more time on the bottom than the top and may have swallowed half the pool but I'll take it as they did....a victory!!

Do you watch the Bachelor? Have you been struggling with who it is that Ben looks like but can't quite put your finger on it? Conundrum solved....


























Taryn has really surprised me a couple times lately with how grown up she's getting. Comments she makes, chores she steps up for on her own, watching her become such a loving, helpful big sister. It's fun to see but is also just a reminder of what a short time we are blessed to have her with us in our home. I'm excited to see who she will become but pray that I can enjoy and remember each step of the way. And that I won't slack in my role of guiding her to be a people-loving and God-fearing woman.

Papa typically has something in his truck for the girls when he stops by. This time it was some cool glow bracelets. They made for quite the evening. When the sun went down we turned out all the lights and played for about and hour in the pitch black. The girls loved them and we had fun playing hide-and-seek with them, "writing" letters in the air, designing jewelry from them, etc. Taryn's slept with them every night since even though the glow's been worn off for a couple days now.  Gotta love $1 fun.

I tried to tell ya. Randomness. Right now you're wondering how you can get that time back. Sorry, about that. I hope the next blog on your list has a tad more substance. : )