Amazed and Thankful

This isn't about Carrie or me. It is about so much more and we are at the bottom of the list of people that it is about. God is at the top and we are on the bottom (in the cellar). In the middle, we have S and E, Mrs. Lee, our foreman, our videographer, the donors and the workers to just name a few. Carrie and I are amazed at the response this video is generated. It would be really easy to look at it and say look what we did, but I feel lucky to be included in this whole thing. God doesn't need me. But I so desperately need Him. I am just thankful He loves me. The fact that He may entrust me with raising these two young Russian children is incredible. Why me? I could work on 1000 widow's houses and still be unworthy. The day we were composing our letters these lyrics from a Caedmon's Call song came to mind and we put it at the top of the letter: We put the walls up, but Jesus keeps them standing. He doesn't need us, but He lets us put our hands in. So we can see, His love is bigger than you and me. I think that sums it up.

Both Hands Project

We had a great time and got a ton of work done. Thanks to everyone who was apart in making this happen. We couldn't have blessed Mrs. Francis the way we did without your help. There is still time to give! Make Checks payable to "Lifesong for Orphans" and write "Tweten #1009" in the memo line. The address for Lifesong is: Lifesong for Orphans PO Box 40 Gridley, IL 61744 Okay, Carrie Here. I didn't want to try and figure out how to put the youtube video up again and so I'm just going to tack on to what Tim already wrote. This weekend was amazing. I don't know that I've felt the prescence of God as strongly as I felt it for eight hours on Saturday. From getting the entire house painted to finding Evan's wedding ring after a furious search God led this project and we were just the hands. The adoption feels real now. I think someone called me a mom for the first time this weekend and it was almost too much. And God is moving our hearts, especially for little E. I know he's moving Tim's heart because yesterday when I started looking at children's furniture for the eighty billionth time on the internet and I pointed out a cute little girl bed he said "that's too big, she needs a smaller bed than that". His heart is bigger than I can tell you. And we are truly blessed. We have wonderful friends, wondeful families, a wonderful church body, we've met a wonderful woman in Francis Lee, and God is good.

Lots of News is Great News!!!

So we finished our homestudy yesterday. It was relatively painless. Our social worker came out and was probably only here for twenty minutes.

And then this afternoon we got the email we'd been waiting for. We can get S. They found another agency. And E is still available. It's the reason she's still available that's a little problematic. We knew their mom had tested positive for HIV and Hepatitis C but that S was negative. E is still testing positive but she's only a little over a year old and apparently false positives are pretty regular up until about 18 months, although from what I've read it's can be true even later than that. We have to ask ourselves if we are prepared to raise a child with these medical problems. We are keeping the door open for now. I can't bear the thought of splitting them up or leaving my little E in what I've read are terrible baby homes (they put babies that test positive in separate baby homes). Tim is more skeptical. 

We also found out that little S just tested positive for TB. This isn't tragic, it may just delay our travel. But pray for the little guy. Pray that he heals fast and that God would prepare his heart for us. 

But we got them. We are a go!

Pray for No Rain

So our Both Hands project is this SATURDAY!! But there is rain in the days leading up to the project day for most people this wouldn't matter, but for the widow's house we are working on there is a stream right in front of her house. If there is too much rain then the stream becomes to large and we will not be able to cross it. I feel like maybe we could call up Moses. Bible humor never gets old. I also kept thinking of that old game "Oregon Trail." I would like to forge across the river. Maybe float across or take a ferry across. Please pray for no rain. I know that we could reschedule the work day, but I also know that God is bigger than any rain cloud so we are just having faith that His will is done with our work day. Our foreman and I did some work on her house last night. I had my first experience with a pressure washer. Our foreman caulked some windows up all in preparation for all the millions of Junior Highers and High Schoolers that will soon be descending on her house to paint. I am really excited about this project and I really want her to be blessed by our efforts. I also want her to see Christ's love through our actions, so please pray that we are minimized and God is maximized on Saturday.

Prince Charming

We spend a lot of time on this blog talking about the adoption. Which makes sense, because this is an adoption blog. But during this homestudy process we've both spent a lot of time talking about ourselves. And I thought what better time than now to tell you about the person I love most on the whole planet.

My husband, Tim (see him over there in that adorable picture?), is wonderful. He's smart and funny and generous. He lets me watch stupid tv shows and doesn't make fun of me when I take baths when it's 80 degrees outside or when I cry watching Jim and Pam's wedding. Wait, he did make fun of me for that but only a little bit so that's okay. He will often make dinner and then do the dishes. He brings me soda when I'm sitting on the couch and don't want to get up. He loves the cats a ridiculous amounts and is psychic when it comes to things sports announcers are going to say during football games. He is ridiculously excited about being a dad and doing dad things. He cares more about spending time with me than he does about his job or his car or the state of the lawn. He is my prince charming and now all you ladies out there are jealous.

This post has no other point than to let you all know a little bit more about my husband and why I am so excited to be adopting S with him.

Product Review

We received our psych evaluations in the mail earlier this week and as we read through them we were encouraged about our ability to be parents. But really why should an evaluation encourage us about our ability to be parents? We want to be parents. I think a lot of parenting is actually wanting to be a parent. I have no idea, but I am guessing that has a big part in being a parent. I was really thinking about all the evaluations we have to go through, and I am realizing that it is like we are product and all these psychologists and case workers are like professional product reviewers. I am just waiting for the form or evaluation that we are an 8 of 10 or that we 89% on the tomatometer. It seems kind of silly, but as we continue the homestudy, I just feel like a piece of meat or maybe an HDTV. I really want an HDTV, but I don't like to be reviewed like one. But I guess that is the process, and I am ok with it, because so far I am a pretty good product.

Homestudy Started!!!

We have officially begun the homestudy process! This is very exciting because that means that our homestudy could be complete in the next two weeks and then we can begin submitting paperwork to Russia. Hopefully the St. Petersburg problem will be solved in two weeks. If you pray for anything pray that God would move mountains there so that we can bring S home.

Things we have done this week:

• Printed out 2250 pages on our printer.
• Printed out 500 return envelopes
• Printed out 500 regular envelopes
• Spent what feels like a million dollars on stamps, ink, paper, pens, etc.
• Perforated the bottoms of 750 pages so that they would easily be tear off.
• Cleaned the house (at least the bottom portion of it)
• Met with Bethany
• Cried about S (okay, that was just me and just a little bit.)

That doesn't look like on paper how much it feels like. I'll talk about Bethany and then tell you what all the printing is about.

Tim and I went to Bethany on Monday to meet with our social worker and have a conference call with the woman in charge of their Russian program. Basically we got no real news. They are still working on it. Little S does have a sister but someone may be trying to adopt her separately. It's funny that they won't let people outside of Russia split up siblings, but they will let Russians do it. We know that if God wants us to get E we will. So we made a decision to get moving on our homestudy and when all the paperwork is complete we'll revisit the decision about St. Petersburg. We can always submit our dossier to Russia for a referral and if S becomes available in that time we can switch it. It was a good meeting though because our social worker, Lisa, seems really in our corner and like she wants to do whatever she can to help us get S. That was good to hear. Although it does seem like if we have to wait for a referral we might not have to wait too long because we would want a boy.

As for all the printing. Tonight is the big night of our Both Hands letter stuffing party. I'm trying not to be worried. Tim of course is not worried. His faith in this kind of stuff is bigger than mine. I just feel like we've put so much into this both time wise and financially that if it doesn't work we will have taken two steps backwards. I know that God is bigger than this, it's just the believing it part.

If you're coming tonight I will tell you that my mom is making cheesecake brownies and apple cake and we're getting two huge stuffed papa murphy's pizzas as well as a couple of regular ones, so you won't leave hungry.

Pray for S today. I don't know why. Just pray for him. Maybe it's a newly sprouting mom's intuition but I just feel like he needs it.