Paint, quilts, and reasons why

The last week has been crazy.

Today I took the day off of work and did a whole bunch of stuff for the kids. I

cleaned out the closet in their room and then my mom and I went to JoAnn's to get quilting fabric for their quilts. This was an adventure as neither my mom nor I really quilt, but after seeing the price of toddler bedding I knew that that wasn't going to happen. So quilts are started. I bought two stuffed animals on amazon and Tim and I painted their room tonight. It's scary to prepare this way. Nothing is assured but God is faithful and it seems right and good.

We also waited all week for our home study to be approved. It was supposed to be approved today but instead we got an e-mail from our social worker saying that the director in St. Petersburg was worried because the courts there have been especially difficult lately and she wanted us to elaborate on why we wanted to adopt, why didn't we wait and have biological children first, why now, etc. This was a little hard to hear. There are lots of reasons why we want to adopt now and why we don't want to have biological children first but all of those reasons are pretty personal and none of them are probably going to satisfy a Russian judge. We wrote back a bunch of reasons but I don't know if it's going to be enough but as my mom said "God controls Russian judges too."

Pray for our homestudy and pray that God gives us the right words to explain our hearts.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday S!

Today is S's birthday. At least we think it is. I was telling my third grade class at church this and asking them to pray for me because I knew that today would make me feel sad and they didn't really understand why. So I've decided to take on their attitude and not be sad. On S's third birthday I didn't know he existed, on his fourth I'm praying for him like crazy, and on his fifth I will buy him the gigantic cupcakes from costco and some obnoxious boy present that is big and loud and that I will probably regret immediately.

We bought paint for the kid's room this weekend and last night at 5 pm I wanted to pull everything out of the room and just go at it. Tim wisely stopped me but the urge remains. We are so busy this week that no painting will be done until probably Friday. If I can wait that long. The paint makes it feel real. The fact that Tim has found toddler beds on the internet and that we have every intention of buying them makes it real. The fact that I called my mom this morning and was trying to subtly hint at her that I wanted to make (rather I wanted her to make) quilts for their beds and she brought it up first makes it real.

Also, it is very hard to figure out a room that needs to be both for a boy and a girl. I mean there is a reason that there is nothing on the walls in our room and that they are the same beige color they were when we moved it. We decided on green for the walls, with brown and navy accents for S and pink and brown accents for E. I don't know how this is going to turn out but we shall see.

Pray for my little S today on his birthday. He's four, and if you were to ask any of the 3 year-olds in my Sunday School class that is a very important birthday.

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.