well i have good news and good news.
went to the geneticist today for the little baby and his parents did not come to the appointment, which made for a stress-free, lovely, almost holy experience. ;)
the other good news?
he does NOT have fetal alcohol syndrome. woohooooooooo!
one by one, we are checking off the boxes. no fetal alcohol, no damage from shaken baby. yeehaw!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
update
well we are nearing the end, folks. this sunday, our 90 days are up. --the 90 days the extended family has to come forward and say they want to attempt to get our little man. he will no longer have any ties to the biological family he originated from. sad, yes. but we rejoice that we get to have him as part of our forever family. he will be elijah miguel. elijah means God is my salvation and miguel is one of his names now, which means "who is like God?" not sure if y'all put it together, but now we'll have our two angels: gabriel and miguel (michael). everything should be finalized july 23, my parents' 43 anniversary. 2 down, people.
2 more to go.
the two newest boys have pre-trial in august so we will know by august 2nd where this case is headed. it moved so much faster because their case has been open since they were put in the shelter, months before we ever heard of them or received them into our family.
the sell of our house is still up in the air. 4 showings in the past month, but nobody's interested. it's all good. no worries. we live in a 1754 sq ft. house with 4 young children, but we have everything we need. how fortunate are we? very!
we finished up our kelly minter study on ruth and i love it. everybody should do it. apparently there's also a book called "the gospel of ruth," (blasphemous? i don't think so but i did not go to seminary to make that decision, so who knows...) that is also pretty good from what i hear. next up? the excellent wife study by martha peace. good good stuff.
what are y'all up to? what are you learning? what is up-in-the-air in your life?
2 more to go.
the two newest boys have pre-trial in august so we will know by august 2nd where this case is headed. it moved so much faster because their case has been open since they were put in the shelter, months before we ever heard of them or received them into our family.
the sell of our house is still up in the air. 4 showings in the past month, but nobody's interested. it's all good. no worries. we live in a 1754 sq ft. house with 4 young children, but we have everything we need. how fortunate are we? very!
we finished up our kelly minter study on ruth and i love it. everybody should do it. apparently there's also a book called "the gospel of ruth," (blasphemous? i don't think so but i did not go to seminary to make that decision, so who knows...) that is also pretty good from what i hear. next up? the excellent wife study by martha peace. good good stuff.
what are y'all up to? what are you learning? what is up-in-the-air in your life?
Saturday, June 19, 2010
girls weekend
sooner than promised, these are the pics from my girls' weekend.last weekend, i went to visit my friend stormatha, that's what i call her, to hang out and enjoy some relaxation time.
our friend lauren drove down the next day. lovely lovely girl time. i realized half-way there that i had not been away for a fun trip since before we ever had kids. i went to a conference once overnight, but that's not the same.
here's a pic of the place where we stayed. storm is housesitting and so we got to enjoy a beach vacation FO' FREE.
the people who own the place are currently building a house so we enjoyed the smaller quarters out back, complete with a banjo!
we thought this was interesting. whoever wrote this was not overly dramatic. none of that "i love jeff" nonsense. watch your back, jeff.
my favorite part of the weekend was reading trivial pursuit cards to each other while eating yummy friend shrimp and friend okra. (those are the two most important food groups).
storm and i had to walk the dog everyday at the beach. whatcha gonna do? life is hard. walking at the beach, daily, in the breeze, enjoying seagulls (as much as one can) and talking about the creepy old hotel that would be less creepy once remodeled. good times. who could ask for anything more?after dinner we watched "whip it" which makes me happy. anytime you pair a coming-of-age story with girls being athletic and tough, it rocks my face off.
we stumbled upon a yummy treat by snyder's of hanover. it's pretzel bits that are honey mustard and onion flavored. delicioso!
i actually got some sun, which means my chicken-fleshy-looking legs are less chicken-fleshy-looking.
apparently this poor person lost their shoes and had to endure sharp oyster shells. can you not read the sign? we think it might have been a leprechaun. look at those buckles.
i like this. crabs are much more threatening with teeth. grrrr.
i have no idea who this person in the corner is. -some strange woman. ;)we had trouble getting a good picture of all of us. you should be appreciative of the fact that i edited these photos and only put up the ones where our eyes are open and not crossed.
here's us. lauren, storm, and myself. now let's put our feet up and relax a bit more.
aaaahhhh
girls weekend coming up
i went on a girl's weekend to palacious, tx last weekend and i have some cute pics i will share with you soon.
this weekend is being spent eating kolaches and throwing kids onto couch cushions. ;)
hey, you gotta have some fun, right?
this weekend is being spent eating kolaches and throwing kids onto couch cushions. ;)
hey, you gotta have some fun, right?
Thursday, June 10, 2010
missing out
i was going to do a quick little list of all the happenings around our little home, but instead decided to take my friend's advice and do a PSA regarding biblical adoption. gird your loins. ;)
so a little background: today we had yet another doctor's visit with the bio parents. mom was the only one there. once again she showed up with family who wanted to take pictures and act like everything was hunky dory.
once again there was drama and craziness.
it was an interesting day. there are trials. fostering is hard.
and here we go. are you ready?
even though days are frustrating. the process is dumb (for lack of a better word). kids come to you needing love and might leave. sometimes you want to give up...we won't.
why? because although this is partially for the kiddos, it's for me too.
this has been an incredible pruning process. it has been a challenge, to say the least. as i told a friend earlier today, for those of you who say you couldn't foster because of whatever reason, i have to say you're missing out. you're missing out on endless opportunities to display the love of Christ selflessly to a child who might not like you, love you, or stay with you. opportunities to see how God works all things for good, even when you can't actually "see" it. opportunities for your own growth in Christ. opportunities for exercising your faith that God is, in fact, sovereign. will HE be sovereign if the child goes back home? what if the child dies when they go back home? would this press you or crush you?
i told someone recently that if CPS had informed us of all of the baby's needs and the big brother's behavior issues, we probably would have said no. ---because there is NO way that we, by ourselves, could do this. in fact, 4 days after we got the new boys, i stood in the kitchen, holding a sick, screaming baby, while one of our little boys screamed half the time and yelled "NO!" the other half, and the other two children acted out to get attention, i said in tears to my mom, "let me just ask the question everybody's thinking: how are we going to do this?"
but you know what? we do it by God's ability and not our own. and HE alone has worked it out. i can honestly give Him all the credit. by saying yes, we allowed ourselves to be open to what God wants for us and how He can equip us. sometimes it's good to be stretched, even though it's painful and difficult. i would NEVER, ever, in a million years, thought i could've done this. but by saying yes, i 've learned how strong i can be in Christ. i now know what i'm made of. what i'm capable of. what i can make do with and without. --because of HIM.
i'm not here to convict you. i just have to say outloud (or on blogger) that from now on, if you say to me the top 5 reasons it's not convenient or practical or doable to foster at this time or any, my answer will now be "well, you're missing out."
so a little background: today we had yet another doctor's visit with the bio parents. mom was the only one there. once again she showed up with family who wanted to take pictures and act like everything was hunky dory.
once again there was drama and craziness.
it was an interesting day. there are trials. fostering is hard.
and here we go. are you ready?
even though days are frustrating. the process is dumb (for lack of a better word). kids come to you needing love and might leave. sometimes you want to give up...we won't.
why? because although this is partially for the kiddos, it's for me too.
this has been an incredible pruning process. it has been a challenge, to say the least. as i told a friend earlier today, for those of you who say you couldn't foster because of whatever reason, i have to say you're missing out. you're missing out on endless opportunities to display the love of Christ selflessly to a child who might not like you, love you, or stay with you. opportunities to see how God works all things for good, even when you can't actually "see" it. opportunities for your own growth in Christ. opportunities for exercising your faith that God is, in fact, sovereign. will HE be sovereign if the child goes back home? what if the child dies when they go back home? would this press you or crush you?
i told someone recently that if CPS had informed us of all of the baby's needs and the big brother's behavior issues, we probably would have said no. ---because there is NO way that we, by ourselves, could do this. in fact, 4 days after we got the new boys, i stood in the kitchen, holding a sick, screaming baby, while one of our little boys screamed half the time and yelled "NO!" the other half, and the other two children acted out to get attention, i said in tears to my mom, "let me just ask the question everybody's thinking: how are we going to do this?"
but you know what? we do it by God's ability and not our own. and HE alone has worked it out. i can honestly give Him all the credit. by saying yes, we allowed ourselves to be open to what God wants for us and how He can equip us. sometimes it's good to be stretched, even though it's painful and difficult. i would NEVER, ever, in a million years, thought i could've done this. but by saying yes, i 've learned how strong i can be in Christ. i now know what i'm made of. what i'm capable of. what i can make do with and without. --because of HIM.
i'm not here to convict you. i just have to say outloud (or on blogger) that from now on, if you say to me the top 5 reasons it's not convenient or practical or doable to foster at this time or any, my answer will now be "well, you're missing out."
Sunday, June 6, 2010
nugget of wisdom
so i'm gonna share something with you guys that i just learned in my Bible study that you probably already know. it's likely, since i'm not the brightest theological crayon in the box.
we're doing a great study by kelly minter called "ruth: loss, love, and legacy." it's been pretty darn enjoyable and you should partake in it with friends and coffee. mmm.
anyways, we're currently wrapping it up but there's a random specific thing that really caught my attention.
at the end of the book of ruth, it goes through the lineage of boaz. in ruth 4:18 it talks about perez having hezron...etc. well eventually you get to the part where it talks about salmon. salmon had boaz, boaz had obed, obed had jesse, and jesse had david.
bear with me. i know geneologies are a bit...um...well let's just say it...boring. but they're not when you get all sorts of dirt on the characters included. in matthew 1 it says that salmon and rahab had boaz. if you read in joshua you'll see rahab was a prostitute. "ooh ahh. a prostitute in the lineage of Jesus," is usually how this is received. but here's what got me:
salmon married a former prostitute, rahab, and had little boaz. cute little boaz. (that's extrabiblical) -who grew up to be the kinsman redeemer of ruth. if you read through ruth, you'll see that boaz saw that ruth was a woman of excellence. -that all the noble and honorable things ruth had done for her mother-in-law had been spoken of to boaz and he found her to be a woman of character. she was a moabitess who left all she had ever known to accompany her mother-in-law to a faraway land where SHE would be a foreigner.
isn't it interesting to know who boaz's mom was? rahab. a prostitute. a canaanite, a foreigner. she, like ruth, saw that God was and is who He says He is. she, like ruth, left her home to be a foreigner in israel.
they say that men marry women like their mothers. :) it makes me look at the redemption story of ruth and naomi differently when i know where boaz came from. he was raised by a godly woman who had been a foreigner herself. rahab is one of only 5 women listed in the geneology of Jesus. to me, it's impressive. rahab raised herself a son of godly character who redeemed a moabitess, who in turn, gave birth to the great, great, great, (etc) grandfather of Jesus.
i bet boaz heard a story or two from his mother when he was growing up. -stories where she talked of where she came from, what it was like to be a foreigner, how she found mercy among the israelites because she had helped them. and then comes ruth. perhaps boaz's mother and her history is part of why he had so much compassion for ruth.
is this interesting to anyone else? can i get an alleluyer!?
we're doing a great study by kelly minter called "ruth: loss, love, and legacy." it's been pretty darn enjoyable and you should partake in it with friends and coffee. mmm.
anyways, we're currently wrapping it up but there's a random specific thing that really caught my attention.
at the end of the book of ruth, it goes through the lineage of boaz. in ruth 4:18 it talks about perez having hezron...etc. well eventually you get to the part where it talks about salmon. salmon had boaz, boaz had obed, obed had jesse, and jesse had david.
bear with me. i know geneologies are a bit...um...well let's just say it...boring. but they're not when you get all sorts of dirt on the characters included. in matthew 1 it says that salmon and rahab had boaz. if you read in joshua you'll see rahab was a prostitute. "ooh ahh. a prostitute in the lineage of Jesus," is usually how this is received. but here's what got me:
salmon married a former prostitute, rahab, and had little boaz. cute little boaz. (that's extrabiblical) -who grew up to be the kinsman redeemer of ruth. if you read through ruth, you'll see that boaz saw that ruth was a woman of excellence. -that all the noble and honorable things ruth had done for her mother-in-law had been spoken of to boaz and he found her to be a woman of character. she was a moabitess who left all she had ever known to accompany her mother-in-law to a faraway land where SHE would be a foreigner.
isn't it interesting to know who boaz's mom was? rahab. a prostitute. a canaanite, a foreigner. she, like ruth, saw that God was and is who He says He is. she, like ruth, left her home to be a foreigner in israel.
they say that men marry women like their mothers. :) it makes me look at the redemption story of ruth and naomi differently when i know where boaz came from. he was raised by a godly woman who had been a foreigner herself. rahab is one of only 5 women listed in the geneology of Jesus. to me, it's impressive. rahab raised herself a son of godly character who redeemed a moabitess, who in turn, gave birth to the great, great, great, (etc) grandfather of Jesus.
i bet boaz heard a story or two from his mother when he was growing up. -stories where she talked of where she came from, what it was like to be a foreigner, how she found mercy among the israelites because she had helped them. and then comes ruth. perhaps boaz's mother and her history is part of why he had so much compassion for ruth.
is this interesting to anyone else? can i get an alleluyer!?
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