We did it!

We chose an agency.  We are very thankful to have taken this next step...the agency has been extremely helpful.  We have received an ENORMOUS amount of information to sift through.  And read through and work through.  
We filled out and mailed in our application while simultaneously working on getting Amby an OCI card.  It's a lot of paperwork.
We had to buy a new ink cartridge for our printer.  And I may need glasses from reading all of the fine print.
You may not know this about us, but neither Amby nor I are "paperwork people."  I am pretty sure that when we filled out our spiritual gifts assessment for church (granted, it was about 10 years ago!) that we could not have possibly scored lower on the administration part.  While we are definitely organized in some (most)(ok, some) areas of our life, I would say it is out of necessity & responsibility, and not out of a love for filing, collating, and labeling.  
When we took the adoption class, David (our teacher) said, "Couples, there will be one of you who will be more drawn to the paperwork side of this.  You'll probably take the lead on filling out all of the forms and gathering information."  Amby and I glanced at each other.  Nudged one another...and giggled nervously.  uh-oh.
Fast forward about 3 months and here we are.


We received an email yesterday with 29 attachments.  TWENTY-NINE ATTACHMENTS.  I'm pretty sure I broke out in hives.
Here's the good news:  once I read through the email and attachments, it was a little less intimidating.  It all made sense (& our caseworker has been remarkable at answering our questions- "What's apostilled?").  And we got a great checklist to help work our way through the dossier paperwork.
Here's the great news:  there's a child at the end of all of this.  Our child.  Our child who is waiting.  And we are waiting, too.


So, when I get overwhelmed-  and I know that it's still so early in the game-  I pray.  I thank God for the paperwork and for the opportunity to get to dive in and trust Him.

Lily Louise.

1 week

6 1/2 years

In my last post, I mentioned that Lily was sick on Monday.

Well- she was actually sick all week.  She missed school every day.

I hated that she felt puny and tired.

It was frustrating that we weren't sure "what was wrong."

Amby actually put her on antibiotics yesterday, and she finally seems to be feeling better.

To be honest, though, it's been so great to be with her.

Lily and Kylie have had a great time. (gracie has been at school- bless her heart!)  They've played "baby" all week.  (it's been a dream for both of them:  Kylie is the baby.  Lily is the mommy.  Lily has someone to stroll around (in the baby doll stroller), boss around, help get dressed, read to and feed.  Kylie gets to be the baby & the recipient of Lily's undivided attention.)

I have loved getting to be with Lily-   

Time has slowed down this week.  (at times it's felt like it has screeched to a stop)

Plans have changed, and we've both been disappointed.  But, all in all-  we are grateful that, for the most part,  we are healthy.  Our friends (& familiy) have brought us board games, picked up and played with our sisters, and called (texted and emailed) to give us encouragement.  

This week, despite our sickness, we have been blessed!

Shout out.

It's a Christmas Miracle!
We got our Christmas card out.  Before Christmas!  And it's actually pretty great.
I wish I could pat myself on the back for this incredible feat.
However, all I did was hit "send."
Missy took the picture.
Missy found the card.
Missy edited the picture.
Missy put it all together on Tinyprints.

I wrote the text and added the names and ages of our girls.
Does that count for anything?

Sadly, it was even Missy's Tinyprints account.
But we paid for the cards!
Ha-  all of the credit should go right here.
Cause I'm all about the credit.

Seriously-  thanks, Missy, for setting us up to have the greatest Christmas card of all times.  (in my head, I kind of hear an echo after that last part).

You ROCK.

A Whole Lotta Nothin'

So, today has been a very special day.

We've been HANGIN' OUT.  We took the big girls to school this morning (Lily and Gracie), and I informed Kylie that we were going to do a little housework (I think she was a little mystified- what is this strange word, housework?).  

I made my list, sprayed the countertops in the kitchen with Pine-Sol, and then the phone rang.

It was the school nurse...Lily was sick.  Thankfully, it wasn't throwing-up, hacking cough, go to the doctor sick (although she was a little disappointed that we didn't get to go see Amby!!). 

It is, however, run-a-little-fever-and-feel-puny-sick.  So, I set her up on the sofa (remember that?  when you were little, and your mom set you up on the sofa with your blanket and your pillow and your brothers were so jealous??)  No jealous brothers over here, but one "sympathetic" little sister who promptly ran upstairs to get her blanket and pillow and set up on the chair.

There was much book reading and puzzle solving and an episode of Cat in the Hat (who knew?!) on PBS Kids.  We baked banana bread, made chicken noodle soup, and I gave myself an Oglevie Home Perm.

And then it was 10:15.

Wow.  

That's when it hit me-  my life used to be like this every day!!  Seriously, back in the day (and by back in the day, I mean the years when the girls were little and took morning naps-  which was a period lasting over 4 years, as our girls were so close in age) we did not leave the house until after 11.  We hung out.  We had dance parties, we did laundry and baked and played in the playroom. (that kind of looked like "we got baked in the playroom"-  no, that never happened.)  

Then we'd get rolling after the little one got up from her nap.  Sometimes we'd go to a park.  Sometimes we'd meet a friend for lunch.  Or go to Missy's.  It was fun and relaxing.   I'm just not used to it.

So, with the exception of Lily feeling puny, it was a pretty great day.

We get to tell!

FINALLY!
Over Thanksgiving, we got to tell our family that we are pursuing adoption!  It was so fun to tell the girls.  Even though they don't fully understand, they are eager to meet their new sibling (how do you explain that it's going to be months and months from now?!).
We also told our community group, bible study and many friends.  Everyone has been so encouraging.

Telling has been a double-edged sword, to be honest.  We have been thinking about this and praying for so long that we want to share it with everyone.
On the other hand, there are so many unknowns.  It's difficult to answer most questions and know that things can change.  So far, our friends have been great with our standard, "That's a great question.  We're not sure."  or "Yeah, we're looking in to that."
It seems that for every answer we find, there are 2 more questions.
We have narrowed our countries down to China and India.  Amby has always felt led to Asia, when it comes to adoption;  I haven't had a strong preference, so it's been easy to follow him.  
We know a couple who just finished their 2nd adoption from China, so that's a great resource.  
On the other hand, there's India.  As Amby is 1/2 Indian, we are very drawn to an Indian adoption.  
However, it's been extraordinarily difficult to find information on adopting from India. 
Thankfully, Amby's dad has been very sweet and extremely helpful in getting us the information on which documents we need to have and...
Well.  We are hoping for a contact in India.  And we are praying that we can meet someone here in Dallas who has had a successful Indian adoption.  I would love to talk about it and get a real feel for what we are in store for.  (oh-  it drives me crazy to end a sentence in a preposition, but I can't help myself!!)


Thanks for praying...


On another note-
Amby and I ran the 1/2 marathon today, and we are blissfully tired!  We had a great time, and the new course was beautiful.  Jan and Jeet kept the girls, so we were able to head to Fairpark (with Keeley and David Silva) early this morning with no worries.  
Amby "donated" a 49ers jacket (it was FREEZING when we got there!!) and I left a jacket and a pair of yoga pants behind. (Amby just corrected the way I spelled 49rs!) (It's 49ers)  We both had a great time, got to see some incredible houses on Beverly, and I got lapped by a marathoner.  Good times.  
It was fun to see the Dries family, Suzanne Silva and her kids, and Allison Ates, Allison Griffin, and Angela Ponce.  Thanks for cheering, guys!!


Headed to bed...

Waiting for you...

Where do I start?  Maybe an explanation?  The story behind the name of our blog?  How I, completely inept at all things technological, happen to have a blog?

I'll start at the beginning...

For as long as I can remember, I have thought about adoption.
Then I met and married Amby-  and we both talked about adopting at some point in the distant future.  Before we had biological children, we thought adoption was a great idea.  Then we got pregnant and had Lily.  And 17 months later we had Gracie.  And then- a year and 1/2 later, we had Kylie.  And the idea of adoption was kind of lost amidst the  diapers and burp cloths and nursing pads and...well.  We didn't talk about it for a long, long time.


Then, a little over a year ago, I started thinking about adoption again.
Amby wasn't super surprised.  But, he was definitely "on the fence."  You see, after we had Lily and Gracie, we were done.  I was done being pregnant;  we were done having children.  We were ready to move on!  The next season!  
The road was ours and we were ready to hit it!
Ha.
Getting pregnant with Kylie was a huge surprise (I do not use that term loosely-  HUGE).  We were grateful and excited, but definitely a little wigged out.  THREE KIDS in less than THREE YEARS!  That's a lot!
And then, we were done.  Really done.  Get-the-surgery...(Amby).  DONE.


But the Lord wasn't done with us.
I couldn't get the idea of another child out of my head or my heart.  I would ask (older, wiser) friends, "do you wish you'd had just one more?  Why?  Why not?"  "What did you do with that hope for just one more?"


So, we started praying about adoption.  I knew that I didn't want to adopt if Amby and I weren't on the same page.  And I knew that it was a stretch for him to think having 4 kids was a possibility for our family.  (he comes from a 2 kid family)  So, I just asked if we could pray and see what the next step the Lord had for our family might be.


Within months, we discovered the next step for our family.  We learned about a class that our church offers for those who are interested in adoption- "If You Were Mine."  It's a six week class discussing the process of adoption.  After much prayer, we decided that our next step of obedience was to take the class.  The class was incredible-  and very eye-opening.  We learned countless facts about adoption.  We learned how accessible adoption is.  We learned different options.  Most importantly, we learned that it was just as faithful to choose not to adopt as it it to choose TO adopt.  The important issue was to know what the Lord was calling us to and to wait on Him.


So, we waited and prayed.  And prayed and waited.  And talked a lot.
And here we are.  On the road to adoption.  We are excited.  We are hopeful.  We are very wet behind the ears!!