Homestudy APPROVED!!!!!!!!!!!

Or Homestudy Approve!!!!!(1st tweet) D!!(2nd tweet) as I posted on my twitter account yesterday. For all you fimilar with the Target lady on SNL that is the video we wanted to post, but just her saying, "Approved!!!" Also, I would like to point our that our homestudy got approved yesterday on MY birthday. I really cannot take any credit for that, because it was all the God. So now the real paperchase begins. We received a 58 page dossier from Bethany yesterday and we (more Carrie) began frevantly filling it out. And there is a bunch of money due with the dossier when we send it in. We are ready to get little S out of the sanatorium and bring him home. He is still sick with TB and we are praying for him non-stop. So that is where we are at as far as the adoption goes. Lifesong featured our Both Hands project and Carrie's writeup about that day in our their monthly publication "Mission Moments." Thank you to everyone who participated whether you were there or you gave. It can be found here. http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/MissionMoments/09Nov.html Lifesong recently changed their policy regarding monies raised by Both Hands projects. We will received all the money with no debt. That means that we will not have to pay back any of the money raised. If you were thinking about giving Lifesong there is still time. Lifesong has made it really easy too. You can give online now directly to our account. We are the one at the top. http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/bhProj.html

Joy

So it has been over a month since we completed our homestudy. We have been waiting on the approval of the homestudy since that time. What we thought would just be a day or two wait has been a draw out process that is both frustrating and time consuming. Russia is 9 hours ahead of us and so really the only time communication can happen is early in the morning here which is late in the afternoon in Russia. I would say that is a difficult month, but not terrible. But in the small group of 8th graders that I lead, we have been learning about joy. Yeah that is really hard to teach about joy when I have to deal with day after day of frustrating news. I have been angry, annoyed and exhausted trying to deal with this wait. But yet I teach about joy and contemptment. Oh yeah and then there was the week on being in joyful in trials. Good times (at least I got to study about the outcome of trials). I really don't think it was a coincidence. It is hard to be too upset when I have to read Phillipians. Paul wrote that from jail. He used the words joyful words throughout that book, 16 times to be exact. So that has been my struggle throughout our wait. I think that it really hits home with a couple of songs that I have recently heard. One is by Bebo Norman "The Only Hope." You can listen to it below. But he basically talks about how we have decided what we want and that is not always what God wants. I think it really is about joy. One line is "I want a star, but You are a galaxy." I want to cling onto that star, but God is so much more and that is where I need to be joyful.

The Only Hope - Bebo Norman

the other is by Steven Curtis Chapman (you have probably heard this one...I know I have). It is talking about the recent lose of his adopted daughter and that heaven for him right now would be to see her. Later in the song (you can also listen below), he talks about heaven being so much more. And my take away from both of these songs is that what I sometimes think as joy is just a glimpse when I do not allow God to be my source of joy.

Heaven Is The Face - Steven Cu...

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Happy late Thanksgiving everyone! We had a great thanksgiving with my mom yesterday and I made everything! The turkey, the sweet potatoes, the green beans, the rolls! The only things I didn't make were the desserts, that's my mom's speciality. We had a great day snacking on sticky buns and chips and dip and playing cards and napping. It was great having it at our house because it meant we didn't have to change out of our pajamas until 4:00. Hopefully next year we'll have even more to be thankful for and more mouths to feed!

Black Friday started early for me, I got up at 5:30 to go to Lowe's to buy a Christmas tree, the first artificial one I've ever had in my life which is sort of sad but last year the cats kept trying to eat the real one. They're still trying to eat the plastic one but hopefully they'll be less successful. I was home by six with a mocha in one hand and the tree in the other and Tim was still snoozing away. I also hit up old navy online which was awesome because they had all the same deals as in store without the lines and free shipping. We got a bunch of stuff and saved about $80. I also forced myself not to look at the kid's stuff because we don't need to buy any of that stuff yet. It is tempting though. 

We are so blessed and thankful for everything the Lord has given us. 

I hope everyone out there had a great Thanksgiving and is finding great deals today!

KGB

This knock knock joke sums up how we feel about Russia. (There is the H-E-double hockey sticks word in there so be please be advised)
via videosift.com

All I want for my birthday...

Today is my birthday and all I want is our home study to be approved. That and maybe for this cough to go away so that I can get more than two consecutive hours of sleep at a time. I will not lie, the past week has been frustrating. We must have given the adoption agency a hundred reasons why we want to adopt and it feels like most of them have been rejected as not good enough, too religious, not specific, etc. I'm almost to the point of asking them what it is they want me to say so that I can say it. I know this is part of the process, I know the process can be frustrating, but this specifically has been hard on me. Tim is so good, he just takes it in stride. I am not patient. I know that the longer this takes the less and less likely it is anything gets done in Russia before mid-January. We did get a wonderful surprise this week. I have been drooling over the Rosetta Stone Russian program for probably two months and our family sent it to Tim and I as a combined birthday present! BbI! (that's sort of Russian for Thank you!) We have such a wonderful supportive family we could not have asked for better! God is faithful. God controls even Russian bureaucrats. I will be strong, take heart, and wait on the Lord.

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.