Timothy's New Face

Timothy has a new face. Daddy's really proud cause it looks like a boxing injury :) On Tuesday afternoon, we were headed out the door to our weekly craft night with my family (no crafting actually gets done, but that's a whole 'nother post...), when my beautiful and slightly clumsy baby boy tripped on his shoe and WHACKED his head onto the hearth of the fireplace. Needless to say, he was NOT happy. I decided to take him to the ER and sure enough, they gave him four little stitches above his left eye. HOOO-boy!! was he ever not happy with that decision. As a mom, it's hard enough to see your child get hurt, but when the hurt also involves some voluntary hurt like stitches, it just about tears you apart!

Without further ado, here is my little fighter man...

Summer's here! Just in Time for... Summer!

Our beautiful, though sporadic, weather seems to have finally arrived, just in time for summer! We're looking forward to a nice weekend for our first Splash and Play at the Henry Moses Aquatic Center... here's hoping all of our Sundays at the pool will be nice!!

We're Not Alone

Well, I'm trying to keep my chin up these crazy adoption days. I've had so many encouraging conversations with folks from the adoption boards that it's not a hard thing to do... but nevertheless, we are having to face some difficult truths about our adoption. It also seems that more and more people are realizing that the orphanage situation is not what we all signed up for (ie. no referrals). We will have a few big and very hard decisions to make in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned to find out where God is leading us!

Will it EVER happen???

Well, I finally asked THE question to our agency and finally got somewhat of a more "firm" reply. For some time now, I have been wondering if maybe I missed an email or some sort of communication from our adoption agency that stated they had received 5 referrals and it was really going to be a banner year (though of course I knew in my gut that couldn't be true). In the world of adoption, your mind tends to hold onto those last threads of hope. Those threads are pretty thin right now. The question I asked was, did I miss something or is it really true that the last (and ONLY, I might add) referral was in December? The answer...

"We were hoping to have another one by six months, but I just communicated with Taiwan. You are right, we haven’t had any infant referral since December. We may not have it for a while. I talked to Taiwan last week, and they don’t have any infant available at this point. Originally we were told 6 months now we are expecting longer referral time. In your case, it could be more than 3 years."

Ouch. So, what do we do?? Do we switch agencies? No other agencies seem to be taking applications at this point. Do we switch countries? Sticking with our agency, China is our only other option (it's a small agency). In my mind, I knew that the wait could be three years, but to hear that it could EXCEED three is beyond comprehension. We WANT to do this. We feel like GOD is telling us to do this. WHY is it so hard???

Remember when...?

Remember the days when you could sleep anywhere (or doing anything)? Neither do I.

To Work or Not to Work... that is the question

Well, I have once again come to a crossroads with the working or not working situation. There has been a position listed at a local hospital that would be a residency for the Birth Center. I have always wanted to try out working in this area of nursing. For as long as I can remember, this is what I have wanted to do. But I've always been hung up on the fact that when you're learning a whole new position, it's a lot harder to get a rhythm when you're only working part-time. This particular position would only be 60% night shift(which works out to be about 24 hours a week, split into 12 or 8 hour shifts... so, 2-3 days per week). It has been almost 2 years (in July) since I worked last on 7SE and that was only one day a week. It has been 3 1/2 years since I worked (mostly) full time. This lapse of time is beginning to make me feel a little rusty in my skills, which makes me think this would be a great opportunity, but also scares the beegeebers out of me since I don't know what I am doing any more! Also, when I did work the full time stuff, I didn't have two little boys to think about and I DO love staying at home with them all the time. I JUST DON'T KNOW!! Such a conundrum. In the meantime, I have started to get my resume and cover letter ready for take off. I'll let you know what I decide.

Happy Anniversary To US!

Well, actually, it was yesterday, but who's counting? This was number 7 for us and never stronger. Steve is my best friend and my encourager. He is a lover of Christ. He always reminds me to have faith, especially in the adoption realm. I love him more today than when I met him 10 years ago at Boy Scout camp (yes, I said BOY SCOUT camp).

To celebrate we got a babysitter, hopped in the car and drove... to COSTCO! And HOME DEPOT! And OLD NAVY! And TACO DEL MAR! I admit, not very romantic, but it was lots of fun, just getting to spend time with each other, such a rarity with the craziness of kids and family time. I wouldn't have changed it for the world.

So, Happy Anniversary with many many more to come. I just pray that God would continue to bless our family and hold us safe in His loving care. He has already done amazing things here.