finished.

On Tuesday K and I had a romantic date at 6:45am down to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.  Given he left that evening and has been gone all week for work, I was thankful for the uninterrupted couple of hours we shared!  


We drove south to USCIS in order to complete the final step in the adoption process, this side of actually bringing our little girl home.  Our fingerprints were taken digitally by the neatest machine (I know, I know, I sound like my Grams) and we were out of there in about 15 minutes.  Once the federal background check is finished, it will be mailed overseas.  Then we keep waiting... and waiting... and waiting...


I can't decide if pregnancy or adopting is more difficult in this aspect.  While pregnant, I was often miserable - usually at night when K needed a good night's rest for the following day's work.  I knew the whole ordeal would last 40 weeks, give or take, so it made each day of those final weeks full of anticipation!  I knew the baby would be arriving soon!  With adoption, you don't always have a good idea when your child will arrive.  They have told us one year from when our dossier was submitted to the country, which is March.  There's no guarantee though, as is evident with the mess created for Russian adoptions. 

Could be longer.  Could be shorter, I suppose.  There's no "due date" for Sweet P.  


All we do know is she is waiting and she is almost ours on paper.  She's already ours in our hearts and takes up a lot of my thoughts and prayers each day.  I have to admit I get to wanting her home so badly when I see little Asian kids about her age.  Sometimes so much it makes my heart hurt.


The Lord's timing is perfect and I'm learning to trust in that daily.  Thank you again for being along on our journey.  Blessings, angela

almost.

It's almost official.  On April 25th, two ladies (J and M) from our adoption agency will fly over the ocean to make a new video of waiting children, like what we watched to choose Sweet P.  The best news of it all is that our paperwork reserving Sweet P as ours will be submitted/processed while they are there.  YAY!  
I can't type it loud enough!  YAY!


J said we could mail her a quart-sized bag with things to take to Sweet P.  Our first gift!!  I'll admit, I have had the photo album ready since December because I hoped we could have sent it much earlier... but we had to wait until Sweet P is officially ours.  J said to fill the bag with anything else we care to send, but obviously it had to be somewhat small.  Here's what I decided upon:

finger puppets, hair bows and the photo album

I found a website to translate some phrases for the pictures.  It wasn't easy to get it to say exactly what I intended but I think the orphanage workers will get the idea when they read it to her!  This page says something that translates:

"How are you? As for me, I'm fine and miss you a lot."

Not exactly my word choice, but it will work.

There are plenty of pictures of her big brother and sister so she can get to know their faces.

Sweet P is about a year and a half right now, so it was difficult to decide what would be best.  I have a few more ideas for the future packages, which I'm hoping can be larger items.  ...but if you have ideas, please leave them in the comments!  I would love any ideas you have.

Blessings, angela

Resurrection.

Easter

I suppose dying Easter eggs is meant to be a bonding experience, but please be sure to have plenty of parental help on hand.  K was out of town for work and I thought it would be a memory-making time for me and the kiddos.  Memory-making is a correct assessment of the situation, but it wasn't exactly as planned.  Almost half of the eggs were cracked before they finished their color-coating dip in dye... thanks to my very helpful little guy.  So, now I wonder, what on earth are you supposed to do with a dozen or so colorful boiled eggs once the fun is over??  Maybe we'll skip this one next year and just stick to making Resurrection Cookies.

Easter is a precious celebration for followers of Jesus.  We celebrate His resurrection and the new life received when we accepted Jesus as our Savior.  I don't know about you, but I'm in desperate need of a Savior... left to myself I am the most selfish, sinful soul on the planet.  I am ever grateful for my sinless Savior, who obediently went to the cross so that I might have hope of Heaven!  

Our Bible study group at church celebrated Easter together, which was a fun time with all the excited egg hunters.  The older kids hid all the eggs and then we let these younger ones loose to hunt.

Hope you had a joyful time celebrating a Risen Savior!  Blessings, angela

catch-up.

A few pictures I failed to post during the mad-dash to the yard sale finish line.  Buddy loves anything with wheels, as noted earlier, but he really loves pointing out construction vehicles when we see them.  I might never know each of them by name if not for my little man.  I would forever generically call them "bulldozers" but now have the joy of knowing an excavator from a skid steer.  I'm positive it will help me in a serious game of trivial pursuit someday.  

This backhoe loader was helping out with a project in our neighborhood, so K walked him over one day to check it out.

Finally, Peanut received the scooter she was telling everyone about at Christmas!

all smiles.

Blessings, angela

sale.

Saturday morning began a wee bit early for me.  My usual morning routine is to roll back over and sleep for every last second until Peanut comes in to wake me.  Works for me.  Works for her.  I detest alarm clocks.  ...but I was more than happy to wake at 5:45 because it was finally yard sale day.  Prepping for the sale was my day job for the past weeks.  Our garage had a big smile on Saturday because it was able to house my minivan again and wasn't stuffed to the brim with price-tagged items.  I could almost hear it sigh a big sigh as we drove off with the last load.

Some friends we first met in Japan offered the use of their driveway since their extremely large neighborhood has a community sale day.  They get tons of traffic and we'd never be able to compare with that since our house is sort of off the beaten path.  The location was perfect.  The weather was gorgeous.  Most importantly, the shoppers were eager!  

Friends and even a few strangers donated items for our yard sale, and the collection was quite impressive.  I sold most of the large or big-ticket items on craigslist before Saturday, yet we still had tons and tons of stuff to sell.  The picture below was really early in the morning... I didn't dare stop to take pictures when it got crazy a little while later.

My friend Ginny helped throughout the day taking money and making deals.  She is an amazing servant of the Lord and amazes me with her generosity of time and energy.  Can't thank her enough for waking early to help us and bring breakfast!  

It is difficult to put the day into words that capture the magnitude of what occurred.  I'll give it a shot.  One of the most incredible parts of it all were the stories, the responses to what we are doing... 

"I was adopted" 

"I am a birth mother"

"We adopted from Vermont"

"We adopted from Uzbekistan"

"We adopted from Kazakhstan"

"We adopted from Kyrgyzstan"

"I've been there and know what you're going through" from a mom as she handed me money

"I support what you are doing" from a fertility doctor as he handed me money

"I will put Sweet P (her real name though!) on my prayer list"

I've been reading Russell Moore's Adopted for Life and have been reflecting on my response to being adopted by the Lord and now an heir of the inheritance of Heaven.  Anyone who is adopted by Jesus must respond to being adopted.  We are no longer an orphan of the world, but called a child of God.  As we begin to understand the gravity of our adoption, we must respond, not out of obligation, but out of gratitude!

Since we began our first adoption, I have seen many responses.

Praying.

Giving.

Sharing.

Adopting.

All are fitting responses to a Savior who says, "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you.  I have called you by name, you are Mine." (Isaiah 43:1)

Thank you to so many of you for responding to your spiritual adoption by helping with Sweet P's earthly adoption.  I want nothing more than for her to know Jesus, and I'll begin telling her the stories of your help as soon as she arrives.  I know it will speak volumes to her little life of the goodness of the Lord and the generosity of her family in Jesus... which reaches well beyond the walls of our home.  

Buddy gave the day a big thumbs up!

Blessings, angela

part three.

Here's the final installment of family reunion pictures.  We truly had a wonderful time being together and can't wait for another trip!  Hopefully next time with Sweet P.  

Peanut loved playing with the toys her cousins bought with their money from Grandma.  These girlies played "make-up shop" and were pretending to paint Peanut's nails here.

Buddy got a hold of the hairdryer and went to work... at least he knew the ladies would appreciate his attention!  Aunt Janet drove over with Grandma Doris to get her hair styled, of course.

K is seriously the best dad on the planet.  

...and not just because he made Mickey and Minnie pancakes for the kids.

Our family with Grandma Doris.  She is so amazing!  She is 92 (hope you don't mind me sharing that!) and still plays tennis most mornings, rides her bike with friends and lives summers in Florida and winters in New York.  Don't tell this lady to slow down!!  

One of my dearest friends Kimmy came for a visit with her husband Kyle and her beautiful baby Alyse.  This little girl has an infectious smile!

Kimmy and I met 11 years ago when we worked together at a Young Life camp in the mountains of Georgia.  We were fast friends and stay in touch constantly.  Since we met, we have seen each other only four times... once in Europe where we had a whirlwind train trip through four countries and three times in Florida within the last two or so years.  Hopefully there are more trips in the future!

Downtown Disney

Alyse had no lack for attention.

We're so glad they could visit for the day!  

It was the perfect way to end our time in Florida.

Thanks for sticking around this long to see all the pictures.  

Next post will be all about Saturday's humongous yard sale. 

 It was incredible and I can't wait to share about it!!  Blessings, angela

part two.

Read the post below if you missed part one, then meet me back here for part two!

A few weeks before we left, K and I volunteered at the local Food Bank to earn free Disney tickets!  Can't beat that!  One day is never enough at Disney but we packed in as much excitement as possible from opening to the fireworks.  It was only tempered a bit by the fact that we all woke up with food poisoning, and we still had a "magical" time!

These girlies were like two peas in a pod all week...

Something about the show just makes me want to throw my arms up in the air and start dancing.  Seriously.

Pops and Grandma treated everyone to Mickey ice cream while we waited for the parade.  Buddy's never been given free reign on that much ice cream at once, and it's not surprising that he loved it.

All the grandkids were given money by their Great Grandma Doris (who came to visit the next day!).  I have never let Peanut go into a store and choose anything she wanted, so she almost didn't know what to do with the responsibility!  She found this headband and was so cute wearing it around the clock.  Okay, we made her take it off to sleep, but the moment she woke up she wanted it right back on her head.  

This cutie picked out a kitty with her spending money.  

Here is what it looks like when I'm in charge of five kids while the adults and older kids ride a roller coaster.  Thankfully this aunt knows that lollipops are a miracle candy and kept them happy for a total of about five minutes.  ...when I pulled out more.  

Below is the progression of Peanut on Thunder Mountain Railroad.  She's ridden kiddie coasters but not one quite so intense.  She was so happy when she was tall enough to ride, and I wanted to see her face so I shot pictures through the whole ride.  These are hilarious to me!  I had to compress the experience to eight shots, but I think you'll get the idea.  Hope you laugh too!

At least she still gave it a thumbs up!

Our last stop was the Philharmagic show before the fireworks.  3D glasses are so much fun, no matter your age!

Any day that ends in fireworks must be a magical day!  A bit more of our fun in one final post coming soon...  

Blessings, angela

blessings.

We were blessed by K's parents with a week at their timeshare along in Florida, along with the entire family.   It was a much needed reunion, considering we live too far away for their frequent get-togethers.  Plans were in the works for about a year, and we looked forward to it with a lot of anticipation!  We had no idea we'd be thick in the middle of an adoption by then, but thanks to their generous gift, free tickets to theme parks, and hotel reward points (from K's work trips),  it cost us no more than a couple tanks of gas and our usual grocery budget.  Can't beat that for all the memories with family!!

Our kids ate up every minute of it, especially time with all the kiddos!  Each time our doorbell rang, Buddy ran to the door hollering "cousins!"  The kids all warmed up quickly and had tons of fun being silly together.  Pops wanted to see how many grandkids would fit in the hammock!  I'm sure we could have squeezed in a few more...

K's sister Kristin has six kids (one is unfortunately in college and couldn't make it).  They were entertained by Buddy opening up his Bible and flipping pages until he came to his favorite story: "Zacchaeus!"

Thanks to K's job, we get one free day to SeaWorld a year, so we took advantage of that!!

Shamu was amazing, of course!  

The older boys took a challenge from Pops to sit at the front of the splash zone and, I think, earned a bit of money in the process.  I, on the other hand, ran for the hills when the whales started splashing the crowds. 

Buddy definitely missed his nap but seemed to think Pops' head made a nice pillow.  You take what you can get, I suppose.

The timeshare had a really great pool area, and we all spent lots of time out in the water playing.  Okay, well, I should admit it was never long enough to still get any hint of a tan... particularly since I made the family wear 70 SPF.  I am positive they will thank me when they are 70 years old and they don't look like a raisin.

Most evenings we took turns hosting and cooking dinner for each other since our rooms had full kitchens.  I doubt any restaurant would have appreciated 17 people showing up asking to sit together!

The whole family, finally together after at least four years!  ...and we've added four kids to the bunch since then.

We had the treat of one evening when Walt and Sandi, longtime family friends, joined us for dinner.  Over 20 years ago, he gave K his first airplane ride... and the rest is history.  It was a blessing for me to finally meet this fabulous couple!

More is on the way from the rest of the week...  Blessings, angela