15 Miles From Nowhere

Wow. Today marks one year since V left the gates of the orphanage forever. On one hand, it's hard to believe it's been one year. On the other hand, it's hard to imagine that she's only been in our home for a year - she is so firmly interwoven into the fabric of our lives, we can't believe we ever lived without her. This has been hands down one of the hardest years of my life. It has also been one of the most beautiful. If you're thinking - "She can't complain about it being hard, she CHOSE this life", you can just stop that train of thought right there. You're right. I chose this. It doesn't make it less hard. I'm not a saint, I don't have endless energy, and I don't have all of the answers. I'm just an ordinary, flawed mom who dared say yes to God, no matter what it cost. That doesn't make me any less exhausted, but it does make me enjoy the beauty along the way. One year ago today I left the orphanage with a scared...

It has been a long time since I've blogged. Our sweet princess V has been home just about 6 months now, and things are going incredibly well. She is blossoming, we all adore her, and life is good. I'll update more on her later. Despite how incredibly well everything has gone, this has been one of the most exhausting times in our life. There are many factors, but it boils down to the fact that even incredibly amazing change is still stressful. About the 5 month mark I became exhausted. A lot of it had to do with the fact that I made several trips with V within a short time period, and had to leave the other kids at home. Another big part was the sheer weight of all of the medical and educational decisions that we've made in the last 6 months. I was done. I needed rest. I was worn. On the way home from the most recent trip, the song Worn came on. I thought - "Oh man, I need this song! I'm so worn!" I love this song. I've felt so worn many times, and it...

Last night, I was sitting on the couch, and my precious L, my princess, walked across the room to where I was sitting and crawled up into my lap. It led me to start reflecting on just how far we've come in the last 5 years. While we have made a purposeful decision to seek out a child with special needs for this adoption, our initial plunge into special needs parenting was quite accidental. We have all come a long way since then. Our princess L is 5 1/2 now. Initially there were no signs that she might have special needs - no risk factors, no alarming tests, just the realization at about 6 months old that she wasn't developing properly. Up until that point in my life, I was very focused on worldly success and achievements - on DOING. I thought you made your impact on this world by what you did. Princess L didn't do much for a long time. She was over a year old when she sat up for the first time, close to 3 when she began walking. It was a long road. She wasn't very r...

Ways to support our adoption: FREE ways to help: Give us your stinky old shoes! - We are collecting shoes to be reused in developing nations through an entrepreneurship program. Our goal is 10,000 pairs, so it is a God-sized goal and we need your help! This program has BIG potential to pay it forward: our adoption grant receives 40 cents per pound for the shoes, an entrepreneur is set up to sell them and earn a living wage, and low cost shoes are available to people in need.  Even better: talk to your work or church and set up a box! If you'll watch it and let us know when it's full, we'll come collect them! We have a HUGE goal to meet, and we need your network too! Help us check the current drop offs and bring us shoes when they overflow. Since we do not live in town, this is an especially big help! Current drop offs are: Lumbermart and Stage in Guymon, the Methodist Student Center and Church of Christ Student Center in Goodwell, Mills in Hooker, and the Post Offi...

It's been awhile since I've updated the blog. If you want up to the minute updates, check us out on Facebook ! Yesterday was a very exciting day! We were notified yesterday morning that our dossier was submitted!!! WOOHOO! The rest of our documents had just made it into the hands of the facilitation team on Wednesday afternoon (their time), so we were pretty surprised that it was submitted so quickly! In fact, there was one document that we thought we might need to tweak and re-do, but it was great! Of course, 95% of the dossier had been there for at least a couple of weeks (this was the 3rd batch to send over) so they had everything ready to go. The next step is receiving travel dates! That will be very exciting! We can expect to receive dates in 3-4 weeks, although sometimes it takes more or less time. The family that was submitted before us received their dates fast, so we may not have a whole lot of time left! This is SUPER EXCITING except for the fact that we are still...

Adoption is a long, grueling, expensive journey. Many people have walked this journey with us, even if just from afar. Many times I have been to the point of questioning whether or not we can really make this happen. And every time, I have been encouraged from someone. God is working through YOU, each and every one of our supporters. We are down to the end. All of the approvals are in place, it's just minor paperwork from here on out. We still need our approval from her government and to pass court, of course, but I have faith in our facilitation team, who has painstakingly combed through our documents to make sure everything will go smooth with the government and judge.  I'm excited about this new fundraiser. It is designed to honor YOU, the tribe that is helping us get our little girl home. The people who are helping us save her life. YOU. Yes, YOU are part of saving her life - you really and truly are. We are just part of this adoption, we are not all of it. Without your...

SO, Monday it OFFICIALLY came. We received our USCIS approval! This is the last approval needed on this side of the ocean. I knew it was coming last week - I had called USCIS, and they confirmed that it was on it's way.  Here's the funny thing though - there was part of me that was still a little bit surprised. To me, the word "approval" is a scary word. Every step of the way I have been extremely stressed when we face another approval. You see, I have this picture of adoptive parents as completely perfect parents. They have to be perfect to pass all of those inspections and stuff, right? And part of this picture of perfection is the perfect looking mom wearing the cardigan and heels while effortlessly maintaining an immaculate house while her rich husband golfs. Yeah, I definitely don't fit that picture. So here I sit, midway through our second adoption, having received another approval, wondering when the heck I became perfect enough that someone would actua...