God Bless Text Messaging

I got two wonderful pieces of news today.  Knowing B had a doctor's appointment, I was eagerly awaiting that little text message *ding* from my phone.  (Thanks, Tara, for teasing me this morning!)  The morning came and went.  Lunch and the afternoon came and went.  4:00 came, 5:00 came, and then...

B: Hey my c-section is scheduled for the 27th of April.
Me: Everything looking good?
B: Yeah babies are as healthy as can be.

Praise the Lord! Healthy babies coming in four weeks! AAAAAH!!!

I feel like I’ve been waiting to find out when Christmas will be! Meanwhile, I finally, finally picked out fabric for the babies’ room. I’m so thankful to have a great friend who’s a pro at all this stuff. (Check her out at http://www.savvy-stitches.com/.)  Stripes and dotted circles are for window treatments and the other two are for their bedding.  I'll probably also use all four fabrics for various other things in the room.  Paint color is in the middle.

We had our first baby shower last weekend and it was wonderful and weird. Weird because it took a while to even feel like it was ours. Everything has happened so fast, and we’ve been so busy trying to get things in order, we’ve barely had time to let it all sink in. Yet there we were, opening gifts and eating cake and drinking punch. And let me tell you, not being pregnant at your own baby shower is definitely strange! We were so blessed that night by the outpouring of love and generosity. We now have stacks and stacks of diapers, our double stroller, and both of our car seats!

Tonight I was unable to make it to church, but Tim came home with a surprise from the kids there.

How adorable!  Hand-made fleece blankets and burp cloths with their hand, foot, and finger prints.  I've worked with these kiddos (and siblings and parents) for the past few years and love them SOOOOO MUCH.  It's like getting a gift from my babies for my babies!

March has been a wild ride.  As we've gone through this whole adoption process, Tim started a new job, I turned 32, we got to take a great trip to Atlanta, Kentucky has made it to the Final Four beating three of our "hated" teams along the way, and Spring has refused to show its face.  Crazy.  And now I will admit that I just typed "I turned 31" and didn't even realize it until my final edit.  A girl can hope, right?

So many prayers beyond ourselves this week and upcoming weekend.  Chuck and Abby travel home from Ethipoia with Zeek and Layla on Friday.  There will be teams from our church heading to eastern Ky. and also to Arizona for mission trips during spring break week.  And finally, the baby of some friends born just last week is suffering from major heart problems.  Please take a minute to pray for baby Owen.  My heart breaks for his family as I rejoice in our good news.

More updates as I have them.  For now it's back to organizing and cleaning - only four weeks left!

Everything's FINE!

How do you feel?
     I'm fine.
Fine? You know what "fine" stands for, don't you?   
     Yeah, unfortunately. Freaked out... Insecure... Neurotic... And emotional.

From one of my and Tim’s favorite movies, The Italian Job. And that’s EXACTLY how we feel right now – FINE!

We found out a few things this week, as B has had two doctor’s appointments. She will go back to the doctor on Monday and they will be scheduling her c-section for sometime at the end of April. All of a sudden we are down to one month and counting! She has also been put on bed rest, so we ask your prayers that she will adhere to that and that the little ones will hang in there a few more weeks and not try to come too early. They are around 33 weeks right now. This week’s ultrasound also showed a boy and a girl, so we’re about as sure about that as we can be at this point!

Wanted to share a couple of fun stories from the past few weeks.

Telling my 93-year-old Grandma was so much fun. She has lost all of her hearing, so we ended up making her a short storybook. Her reaction was priceless! The next day she had my dad take her out shopping, because she just had to be the first one to get the babies a gift. Those little green receiving blankets will be cherished forever!

Quote from our little friend Colby after being told by his mom that we were going to have two babies: “Does that mean Tim gets to have one in his belly too?”

And our friend Austin insisted to his mom that twins could not be a boy and a girl. Twins have to be two boys or two girls that look exactly alike.

We were able to take one last trip together before our world changes forever. My parents had planned a big family vacation for the end of May, which obviously is not going to work for us anymore! Our “consolation prize” was that they took Tim and me down to Atlanta for the SEC Tournament. Let’s see… beautiful weather, great seats, a throttling of the Gators, and another trophy? I think I’ll take that as a consolation prize any day!

And God had neat plans for that trip too. The entire weekend at the games, we sat in front of some really nice guys from Alabama. They all seemed to be older high school or college age, and then there was one older gentleman. We joked and talked with them for a few days – cheered for them against Georgia and then beat them the next day, lol. But they were so nice and polite and a lot of fun. On Saturday mom got to talking to the older man, and found out that he was the father of the three guys beside him. Mom made the comment that she had three girls, and he said that he also has a little girl – who they adopted from China. (And her name is Lucy Grace, which is crazy, because my aunt is Lucy and her adopted daughter is Grace!) Mom then shared our adoption situation with him, and it turns out he is on the board of a large international adoption agency. Needless to say we got to talking about a lot of things after that, including Radical and David Platt, because they’re from Birmingham and attend one of the other large churches there. So cool.

 As I am writing this, our friends Chuck & Abby are in Ethiopia preparing to come home with their children Zeek and Layla! We also have some friends in China who will be home soon with their new daughter!

 A lot of people have asked about where we are registered. Here is the list:

Babies-R-Us
Buy Buy Baby
Target
Kohl’s
Wal-Mart
Elder-Beerman

 Look for an update next week once we find out what day everything is scheduled for.   :-)

Unanswerd Prayer = Best. Answer. Ever.

I’m about to tell you why sometimes God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers. (And yes, I’m laughing at everyone who will now be singing Garth Brooks for the next five hours.)

We are adopting newborn twins. In May. WOW!!!!!

So here’s the story:

We have some great friends at church, Freddie and Jen, who have walked with us through much of this adoption journey. They have an eight-month-old daughter that they adopted through the agency we began working with last summer. About three weeks ago, Jen got a phone call from her mom’s foster daughter (we’ll call her A) saying that she had a pregnant friend who was looking to place her child through an independent adoption. That afternoon Jen called and talked with me about it. We agreed that Jen would talk to A and see how the birth mother (B) wanted to proceed. (These girls’ names actually DO start with ‘A’ and ‘B’, by the way, which is weird. I just want to keep their identities private.)

Over the next few days Jen talked back and forth with A and then called me to let me know how B’s doctor’s appointment went. I will never forget it – I was in Los Angeles with my mom to visit my sister Molly, and we were having lunch at Venice Beach when I saw that she had called. I walked out to call her back, and while I was standing there looking out at the Pacific Ocean and the mountains when she dropped the bomb. They had just found out that B was pregnant with twins.

So naturally I wrapped up my conversation and went on to my lunch with Mom and Molly without saying a word to them. Sorry, guys!

In the days that followed, Jen was able to talk with B and eventually meet her. We slowly learned more and more of her story, and on Saturday the 5th of March, the four of us met for dinner. Let me tell you, I’m not sure I’ve ever been so nervous in my entire life. Tim said he thought I was going to shake everything off the table. But it was great. She was sweet and quiet and honest. It took us all a little while to warm up, but by the end of dinner we were chatting about all kinds of things.

B is a 19-year-old who already has a young daughter. Because she is unable in her current situation to care for another child (children), she knew early on in this pregnancy that an adoption plan was the best choice for her and the babies. She began to research just what to do, and decided that she did not want to use an agency, partly because she was uncomfortable with the cost for adopting parents. The same reason that moved us more toward independent adoption!

The due date is May 19th, but it is common for twins to go anywhere from two to five weeks early. We are “planning” for the end of April or first of May, and hope to have it narrowed down as she continues with her doctor’s appointments. Oh – and I almost forgot! They are 99% sure one is a boy and fairly certain the other is a girl. She hasn’t quite turned the right direction in the ultrasound, but hopefully she will soon so we’ll know for sure!

There are so many other cool parts to this story. (In the words of one of my girlfriends, “Is that not cool enough?!?”) Let me share…

The one great-grandchild on my mom’s side of the family is biracial. Well, B is Caucasian and the birth father is African American, so we will now have two more biracial great-grandchildren! (Not to mention a biracial grandchild too!)

Having Jen and Freddie involved is another amazing part of the story. While going through their adoption process, Jen began contemplating how she could get more involved. She has contemplated just what that means - working for an agency, becoming an adoption counselor, starting an agency, etc. Over the past few weeks she has done an OUTSTANDING job as the liaison between us and B. She tells me that she has loved it, and that it has given her even more encouragement and confidence to move forward. Jen and Freddie are now looking into the possibility of starting an adoption agency.

We have another dear friend involved as well. They attorney handling things on our end is our friend Dave. Just recently, Dave left a large firm in a big city to open a small, two-man firm in his hometown. While in the process, Dave had mentioned that adoption law was something that he’d really like to get into. Well, now he is, and he gets to start with us!

Not to mention that the very first adoption possibility that we were ever presented with from our agency was a boy and girl twins. Aaaaaaannnnndddd… we’re back full circle!

I will never, ever say that what we’ve been through the past few years was easy. Heck, I’ll even admit that when I heard the same old “It’s all in God’s timing… God has a plan…” I smiled and thought, “uh huh”. Of course we always knew that was true, but it was so hard to understand.

To look at it now… and the story God has written to involve all these people we love dearly… we are thankful that our prayers went seemingly unanswered for so long in order for it to be this way. Only He knew where Jen and Dave’s hearts were and where He was leading them. Only He knew that Tim would finally start a full-time job the same week we were presented with this opportunity. Only He knew that there was a girl out there who would feel the same way we do about agency adoptions.

And only He knows how we’re going to handle TWO BABIES!!!!!

I have to end by saying thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone out there. We know that there have been more prayers lifted up for us than we could ever imagine. There have been listening ears and encouraging words, kind hearts and sweet spirits who have been with us every step of the way.

We ask that your prayers would continue. Not just for our preparation and the health of the babies, but for B. She truly has a sweet heart, and mine breaks at the unfortunate situation she is in. She is so mature and selfless despite everything, and my prayer is that she will be able to improve her life as she says she desires, and ultimately to discover the love that only Christ can give her.

If you need even MORE details, we’re happy to talk to you about it. Just give us a shout! Look for an update from Tim’s perspective soon.

Guess our life really is about to turn upside down!