15 Miles From Nowhere

SO, last week was a big week.  It's been crazy, but I've finally found a few minutes to update... After what felt like a million delays, our homestudy was FINALLY ready, so last Monday (8/17) I went to pick it up. Since the homestudy agency is in the OKC metro I took the bulk of our dossier to be apostilled at the same time.  An apostille is a state seal, where the state verifies that the notary is valid.  Anyway, we live about 4 1/2 hours from the homestudy agency & state capitol, so we drove up to take care of it in one day.  We saved probably about 2 weeks of mail time that way.  My mom went with me (BLESS HER!), which was awesome because it was a very stressful day.  We had a couple of hiccups, a lot of driving across the OKC metro, and a crazy day, but at the end of the day, this is where we are at: Our completed homestudy was overnighted to USCIS to catch up with the application that we filed last March.  They have had it over a week no...

So... I haven't blogged in a VERY long time.  Here's what has been going on with the adoption process since last summer... Last summer we had to put the adoption on hold for a little bit while we sold our house in Yukon.  It had been a rental property, and when the tenants moved out, we decided to put it on the market and use the proceeds toward the adoption.  Well, it didn't sell for several months.  And by the time we repaired things for sale, paid the mortgage for several months, and lowered the price we ended up basically breaking even.  So that plan failed.  Oh well, that's life!  But while paying two mortgages, having to do necessary repairs to this house (which we had just bought the prior winter & needed quite a bit more than we thought), we were financially drained. So we put everything on pause.  Then last August I went back to work.  I'd say that was a mistake for our family, but it gave us a big boost financially, so I can...

Mommy wars - What a dumb term.   Seriously, so dumb.   But the worst part is that this warring between women actually exists.   Sure, you can deny its’ existence, because it’s not always apparent – it usually doesn't even involve heated conversations.   Mommy wars exist in the form of judgmental looks, gossip behind closed doors, and breaking ourselves off into cliques.   It is a much subtler way of warring against each other, but the effect is the same – shattered self esteem, doubt over our every step, fear of judgment if we shake up the status quo.   These wars exist.   They exist between homeschoolers and public schoolers, big families and small families, SAHMs and working moms, single moms and married moms, and any other dividing line.   These lines exist and crossing them is tantamount to treason.   Once you cross a line, there’s a good chance your social circle will be altered.   Maybe our good friends will stay the sam...

Wanted to take a minute and update you on how the adoption is going and what are prayer needs are. First of all, we are SO BLESSED by the outpouring of love that we have received.  I honestly expected at least a little bit of negativity, simply because we are doing something so out of the ordinary.  Something this big and crazy tends to welcome criticism. I have also been so HUMBLED by the outpouring of help.  I hate asking for help, I really do.  I knew from the beginning that by asking us to do this, God was asking us to put ourselves out there and ask for help.  We are in the early stages and haven't needed a ton of help yet, but I'm already BLOWN AWAY by the love that has been showered on us.  Our cinnamon roll fundraiser was the perfect example.  We set up to sell at a local consignment sale.  We had no idea what to expect, so we baked a bunch.  We had people buy like crazy and got a few cash donations.  We had friends spreading...

This is a hot button topic that I would like to delve into.  Often adoptive parents are asked questions like this:  Why not adopt from the U.S. ?  How can you go outside of the country to adopt when there are plenty of kids in U.S. foster care that need families?  This is a very complex and personal issue, and I cannot answer for anyone else.  But I will share how and why we came to our decision.  First, you should know that we believe in orphan care for ALL orphans.  All of them.  That means those in the U.S. and those abroad.  And really, not just orphans – children in abusive situations, in poverty, in foster care, kids who just need adult attention, and on and on.  We need to find the needs and meet them.  Children are our future, and we need to take care of them!  It is my personal belief that it is far better to reach out and care for children than it is to attempt to reform them later on in life when they are in tr...

“For we walk by faith, not by sight” 2 Corinthians 5:7 I’m pretty sure I’ve recited that verse at least a million times a day for the last few weeks.  Right now we’re walking in the dark.  It’s pitch black out and we’re following a pin prick of light ahead of us.  We know where we’re going, but have no idea how we’re going to get there.  It’s seriously scary. The weird thing is, for the most part I feel calm.  This is not our journey – it’s God’s journey.  Since it’s His journey I know that there’s nothing I can do through my own power to get to the end – He has to guide me.  That’s the weird thing about walking completely blindly – you can’t help but rely on the One that is guiding you.  You can’t second guess where you’re going, because you don’t know.  You can’t try to change the path or take a shortcut, because you don’t know where the path is going next.  All you can do is take the hand of your guide and take one step at a ...

Why Adoption? Why on earth are they adopting? Don’t they have enough kids? I’m sure these are the top questions on most people’s minds right now.  So I’m going to go ahead and put them out there and answer them. YES, we have enough kids!  We have 5 beautiful, vibrant, wonderful kids.  Two are mine from a previous marriage but 100% loved by my husband as his own.  One joined our family through a temporary guardianship and we later had the joy of adopting him.  Two are ours together.  The 7 of us are close.  As tight knit as any biological family, and I would venture to say more tight knit than many.  We are strong.  We've weathered challenges.  We've seen God’s glory.  We've cried, praised, worshiped, and conquered together.  We've learned that blood and genetics do not define family – love does.  YES, we have enough kids!  Our house is full, and our ban...