90 days

Today begins the process that we have been waiting for...for over a year.

I think I would have adopted you the first nite if they had let me. But alas, we had a year of growing, learning and praying to do to arrive at this day.

All the fears of this last year have melted. They are now memories of growth, prayers, tears and learning to enjoy the moments.

We arrive gratefully, humbly & joyfully.

We are grateful that we were chosen to be your parents. Literally chosen. Chosen by God and chosen by a team of CPS workers. *big sigh of relief*

We are grateful & humbled that we were chosen to walk through this emotional, trying, challenging and spirit-growing last year. And we would do it all over again because you are worth it...every bit.

We are humbled everyday that the grace of God allows us to be apart of the big plans He has for your life. You are going to do some amazing things, I can feel it.

We are so joyful.
Just overwhelmingly joyful.
Happy beyond words.
Thank you Lord.

"The Lord has done great things for us, and our hearts are filled with Joy." Psalm 126:3

June 11, 2010

There are days in our lives that we just never forget.
Wedding day
graduation day
days with grandparents
and for some people the birth of their children.

But for us, it it's a little different. We weren't there when you were born. While your birth day is so important b/c without it we wouldn't have you...the day I'll always hold close to my heart is the day you came into our lives.

One year ago today you arrived.
4pm, tiny & asleep.
We were scared, excited and scared.

I remember that afternoon & evening like it was in slow motion and one big blur all at the same time. From the phone call to them bringing you to our door....It was surreal, like a dream. What size diapers do 28 day-old baby's wear? How much of a bottle should he take? The poor social workers were younger than we were...they didn't know either. Lots of phone calls...mom, help.

That first week, I remember being afraid to love you too much. Knowing that any day they could call and come pick you up. I would kiss your little feet, your little hands and the top of your little head...but for some reason I couldn't kiss your little face. It somehow felt too personal...too motherly. I think that lasted about 3 days, and I caved. I realized that it didn't matter how I felt. You deserved, needed & craved love. 110% love. Holding back because I was afraid of myself getting hurt was doing you a disservice. You needed a mother right then, not when I felt it was ok.

A year ago if someone had asked me if we were prepared to have an infant at our house, I would have said no. We wanted one, but didn't think we were actually ready.
Funny how I now realize that this role is something I have been preparing for my whole life...unknowingly, innate, instinctive.

I always make a wish before I blow out my birthday candles, just silly, never expecting it to actually come true. When I turned 30 I wished that I could become a mother before my 31st birthday. My wish came true. You made me a mother.

You are my wish, my prayer, my hope.
You are fearfully & wonderfully made.
You are a blessing & a joy.
A dream come true.

Grateful that we have been chosen to be your parents.
Thankful for the last year, hopeful for 100 more.

One singular sensation

...every little step he takes...

Happy birthday to my little love.

In not quite a year you have completely rocked our world and given me the best on-the-job-training I've ever had.

Busy doesn't seem to adequately describe you...hell-bent would be a better description, but I know my mom wouldn't appreciate me saying hell in a blog so we'll just call you determined.

You laugh, alot. You smile, alot. You eat, alot. You are ALL BOY!
You chatter.
You sing when you get sleepy and you clap your hands when you're proud of yourself.

You are joyful.

You love bathtime. You love Harley. You love music. You love books.
You love your dada.
You love to snuggle. You love faces. You are affectionate.

You are opinionated.
You are curious.
You are messy.
You are funny.

Because of you I have learned:
how to fight the good fight.
how to live; faith, hope & love simultaneously.
.............that faith is more than just belief, it's a call to action
.............to hold out hope against all odds
.............that love never fails, even on the unloveable.
that love is a choice. not always the easy choice, but the necessary choice.
that God hears my prayers.


You are more than we could have asked for or imagined.

We couldn't be more happy to be your parents for this time in your life. Reminds me of my favorite story..."for you have come to this position for such a time as this."(karis paraphrase) Even if it was just for this year, you are/have been a joy & a blessing.

Praying for forever, but grateful for the now.

For this child I have prayed, and the Lord has granted my request.
~happy birthday my little love.

Love Wins.

Everyday i learn that when it comes to this whole process of foster care & adoption there's really no set playbook. No one can say 'this is what happens everytime & this is what happens next' b/c every case is different. It's all just speculation and assumption of what has happened before...

ha! kinda like life i guess.

all that to say, decisions were made today at the mediation, some decisions were good for us...but most of the decisions just result in more waiting on our part. tomorrow's trial will just be a formality of paperwork, unfortunately.

In a perfect world, every party involved in the mediation today would have agreed that we are the absolute best choice for this child. That plan would be taken to court tomorrow, the judge would think it was a great plan, bang the gavel & dismiss court...cut, print, end of story & we all live happily ever after.

But I guess my version is a little too pie-in-the-sky for real life.

In real life there's a lot of red tape.
In real life they like to exhaust all other possibilities.
In real life not everything goes as planned the first time around.
In real life you have to listen to a lot of other opinions that don't make much sense.

disappointed, yes.
pressed, but not crushed.

Hopeful, always.

We have to hold out hope that love wins.
Love always protects
Love always trusts
Love always hopes
Love always perseveres
Love never fails.

it doesn't say that love always gets its way. but i refuse to doubt that love isn't the right decision.

...like a polaroid picture

Tonite was one of those nites that you know you'll remember forever. It wasn't a special occasion and nothing particularly unusual happened. It was just one of those times where you catch yourself in a moment and you realize...something.

My mind is like a polaroid sometimes.

Like the first time I realized that I was in love with Kris. I mean for real in love...not just I really-really like you. I can replay it in my mind and remember everything down to what I was wearing(including the shoes).

It was a perfect spring Sunday afternoon, we were driving w/the windows down...of course, b/c it's oh so much more romantic than if I said and 'we were driving w/the a.c. on'...but seriously, I remember looking over at him as he was driving and it just hit me...THIS IS IT, HE'S THE ONE...and then I laughed out loud.
For some reason I found realizing that this was the real deal amusing. He then asked what I was laughing about and of course I said "nothing".
I knew at that moment that I didn't want to go anywhere or be anywhere if he wasn't going with me. I wanted to ride in the car forever with him...in the passenger seat. (b/c everyone knows the passenger controls the radio)

Tonite was like that...but in a different way. This was the first time I realized(or let myself realize) that this could be it forever.
Soon it could be the 3 of us...

Yep, filing that polaroid away.

I think for the past 10 months we have hoped for the future, but never let ourselves think of or dream about the future. I think tonite was the first time I felt free enough to let myself dream about the possibility...possibilities.

a lefty?
1st baseman?
When do you start T-ball?
and play the drums.
or the guitar.
another musician in the family would be so much fun.

I almost hate to post this one b/c I don't want to jinx anything...b/c I know that just b/c something has potential perform a certain way doesn't mean that it always lives up to it.

But I can't help but think that fostering love would also be fostering hope.

And my hope is in the Lord and He has has already done immeasurably more than all I could ask or imagine, so right now I'm letting my imagination run wild. The possibilities are endless and the potential is good...I won't say great, yet...but good.

Fostering Hope...i like the sound of that.

get in and hang on

knowing I need to update...but not sure where to begin.

It was this way all month long. March was hard. Wouldn't want to repeat it.

I've heard the old saying that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. And that couldn't be more true for us this month. There's a lot I can't share, but what I can say is that for as difficult as the first 3 weeks in March were, this last week has made up for them.

This was one of those times in my life where I know that God was/is growing me to be something more. It's hard, growing pains aren't easy...but necessary.

With April 20th still being the big day, most of the last month felt like a count down to how many days we had left with him. It's hard to even think about now. Everything is completely out of our control...our future with H is literally in the hands of strangers.

Kris and I basically had to come to the conclusion that we needed to be grateful for the time that we had been given with H and not be mad if we weren't given more. We weren't even guaranteed that he was going to be with us 3 months let alone 10.

We had to be thankful for what we already had. Praying for the child we love & praying for his future, but thankful that we atleast had been able to have him this long.

I think God led us to this place so that we wouldn't love the gift more than the giver. We are blessed to have this sweet baby, but we are more thankful to God that He chose to bless us with H for this time.

So talk about roller coaster, by last week everything had changed...and in our opinion for the better. Nothing is definite, we still have no control, and we know it could all change again, but we see God working.

As of right now H will atleast be with us thru his birthday in mid-May. I couldn't be more happy to know that we get to celebrate his first birthday. It just makes my heart happy.

Alot can happen between now and April 20th(all prayers appreciated) but right now my heart & mind are at peace. I don't know if it's the calm before the storm or the peace that passes all understanding...but right now it doesn't matter.

The countdown clock seems to have slowed down and for that I'm grateful...even though I am still waiting on it to break down completely :) ...one thing at a time.

theme songs

Maybe it's because I watched too many musicals as a kid. Or maybe it's because I was obsessed with this Disney songs record I had as a little girl...(yes I said record, I was 5 and records were still around. Like today's DVDs, someday my kids will say DVwhat?)
Anyways, I find that in different points in my life I seem to have theme songs. It's not like a theme song for each day, it's more like a theme song for a season or something. Mostly big moments/decisions and such seem to have a song that I obsess over while I'm in that time.

When I graduated highschool the song that was the re-occuring theme in my life was How Could I ask for More, by Cindy Morgan. I remeber feeling overwhelmed with the thought of growing up, going to college and leaving the safety of my parents house. And that I had so much to be thankful for. I listen to that song and I'm right back on the stage crying my eyes out at Senior Recital...yeah, probably not my best performance.

My senior year of college our little group of friends was obsessed with this unknown guy Matthew Perryman Jones. We all passed this burned copy of his cd around and my roommate and I just left it playing in our apartment ALL THE TIME. no seriously, we left it on repeat all day and all nite...like i said...obsessed. Kris and I even had some friends of ours play this song in our wedding. And everytime I hear Lead me to the Waters, it takes me back to that apartment with those hardwood floors and big windows that we left open all the time and me just waiting on Kris to get out of class so we could go drive around.

When we moved to Austin it was, to say the least, traumatic for my mom, sis & I. 6.5 hrs apart was not easy. It was a hard decision for kris and i and a hard move. But we knew that following God was more important than being comfortable. During this time I prayed and sang and cried to Jenny Owens, If you want me to. I heard it tonite in the car on the way home, Kris was trying to talk to me and I was completely lost in the song and the emotions that it brings back everytime.

Getting to the point...I haven't had/needed a theme song for a while. I guess you could say the last 5 years have been relatively calm, consistant, uneventful, happy. Until this last May. When we left our church home and steady job of 5 years and became foster parents all in 2 weeks. I guess you could say that for the 4-5 months leading up to this big change God was really working on my heart and the song that He gave me was Britt Nicole's Walk on Water. There's one part of the song that seemed to be asking the same questions that were swirling around in my mind:

What if I'm overtaken? What if I never make it?

What if no one's there? Will You hear my prayer?

The whole foster care licensing process was/is daunting. And at various points I just told Kris that this was too hard. They were asking for too much information and we didn't know how to get it or where to send it and couldn't they just take our word for it that we were good people and that we just wanted to take care of kids that needed a home and, and.... (Lets just say lots of tears were involved) And on top of all of that I knew that we were going to have to say goodbye to our youth kids and our church that we had grown to love and depend on for 5 years. This was our support system and I was scared and nervous about leaving it. But the chorus just echoed what I heard my husband and the Lord telling me:

So what are you waiting for? What do you have to lose?

Your insecurities, they try to alter you.

But you know you're made for more, so don't be afraid to move

Your faith is all it takes, and you can walk on the water, too

This became my heart song. It became what I sang to myself to help me take the steps I needed to take. To help me trust that this was/is the plan that God had for my life. I just needed to be faithful and rely on Him. (i learned there's a big difference in trust & rely, but that's another blog for another time)

This past Christmas a song came on the radio that made me have to stop the car and pull over. I had heard it the previous Christmas and thought it was a nice song, kinda cheezy, but good message. But it hadn't really grabbed me until this year. A Baby Changes Everything, by Faith Hill. I think I started to realize what Mary went thru being the mother of Christ. And yes, I know baby H is not the Christ child...even though he is pretty amazing. But still...I know that at this point, even though he's not ours, I wouldn't give this child up for anyone in the world.

And yet, she had to resign herself to the Lord daily knowing that this child was meant for something more than she could imagine.

That baby changed everything for her....and me.

And baby H has changed us too. changed our world. changed our dog's world...poor Harley. changed the way we see the world. changed the way people react to us. changed our conversations, changed our choices.

And I know that when the time comes, and it gets closer every day, that we have to be faced with the uncertain future of our little family, we will leave no stone unturned in order to find out how to fight for this child. Am I ready...no. Will I be ready...no. There's no way to prepare yourself for that...I've tried. We just love. At times, I almost think we're lucky because we know our future with H is uncertain and so we soak in every moment.

I don't have just one song that I've latched on to yet for this...season(for lack of a better word). When I find one I'll let you know. I guess it depends on what mood I'm in. Lately it's been a lot of Miranda Lambert...so I guess I've been in a kick butt and taking names kinda mood.

Interesting...many of the songs from my past seem to apply to our current situation. Listening to If you want me to made me realize how well those words fit on my heart, especially now. I like how God recycles things like that.