expecting.

I must say how much it means to me to have so many ask when they see me if there's any update on our Sweet P.  Adopting is similar to being pregnant in many ways, yet sometimes completely different.  When I had a big belly, it was obvious our family was about to grow.  I got questions right and left about the baby, and so it is wonderfully comforting to have people ask about Sweet P because it shows me they remember we are expecting.  


So, I read a blog that sent me blog-hopping and came across a giveaway for a necklace from The Vintage Pearl.  For someone who considers herself super unlucky, especially when it comes to contests, I almost didn't believe it when I got the email saying I'd won this necklace.  ...and the artist was generous enough to give me three charms, for each of my kiddos!  We've already chosen a name for Sweet P and I had her name engraved on another flower charm.  I suppose if the Lord changes things, I can always order a different charm, right?  But for now I'm wearing her name around my neck most days to keep her close to my heart.  


It is music to my ears to hear Peanut talk about Sweet P by name and even Buddy once in a while.  Peanut still calls her "our adoption child" often, but more and more she uses her name.  Love it.  I keep conversing with them both about how Sweet P will actually come live with us in our home.  Not sure how much it's sinking in, but I want them to know she is already their sister!  


That's it for today.  We just returned from K's family reunion and had a great time with them!  More on that to come soon...  once I am fully unpacked and get groceries back in the fridge.  Blessings, angela

quotable.

"My friends, adoption is redemption. It's costly, exhausting, expensive, and outrageous. Buying back lives costs so much. When God set out to redeem us, it killed Him." -- Derek Loux

adopted.

Today was another day when I was completed overwhelmed by the generosity of friends.  We literally have a garage FULL of furniture, toys, clothes, bikes, and more... all given to us to sell at our yard sale.  While pricing things I pondered over the three people who gave to us who were adopted as children.  Kevin ran back and forth to get van load after van load of things from a family from church, and when he returned a few minutes ago with the final load, he handed me a card.  In it were the most precious words of encouragement, even more so because they were penned by a woman twice adopted.  


Last month I was captivated by a book review of Russell Moore's Adopted for Life I read in Citizen. More specifically, C.J. Mahaney's foreword that was quoted:

I was adopted when I was eighteen years old. I wasn't an orphan, the way most people think of that term. I wasn't an abandoned child. But I was in a condi­tion far more serious: I was a stranger to the family of God, a slave to sin, and an object of the justified wrath of God.

   I too was adopted into the family of God at the age of 10.  Maybe you've never thought of yourself as such if you are a Christian, but the parallel is too beautiful to overlook!  Throughout the New Testament it says Christians are grafted into the Vine (John 15) and that we are adopted as sons (Ephesians 1:5).  The Bible is also full of adoption stories that I cannot wait to share with Sweet P... Moses, Esther, Jesus...  and the great purpose the Lord had for their lives!


   What makes us family is not blood but relationship.  I'm ever grateful the Lord chose to adopt me and am awed by the fact that He cares to know me intimately.  

sleepy.

I am looking through pictures from all our birthdays and found this video, taken on my birthday a couple weeks ago. It captures one of the moments I think I will miss most when my kids are grown up. Thankfully, I can go back and watch and laugh all over again when I am missing these crazy days of motherhood.