Tshirts

We have our tshirts for sale! We are very excited. We are so thankful to Katy Wallace for designing them for us. You can order them here on our blog or you can contact us directly to order.  I want to tell you a little about our design.  It is very personal to us.  The back Adoption has a red cross. That is because God adopted us as His children.  The sentence that says God gets glory we get Joy, is one of Joels mottos at our church.Of course Joy will be our baby girls middle name(if we have a girl)  The white sun is from the Marshallese flag, which is the people group from which our baby will be born.  The palm tree represents the Marshall Islands where her birth family is originally from.  The front pocket design has the same palm tree and white sun. It has red flip flops because the Marshallese women wear flip flops. The verse says because of Gods love for us, we are called to be children of God.  Kaleyah-our daughters first name (if we have a girl). means "called" in Greek. So the verse talks about how we are called to be Gods children, a reference to adoption. Because of God's great love for us, He called us to be His children. He gives us all the rights to inherit his kingdom in Heaven.  He loved us, called us, forgives us and paid the price for our sin. His love is amazing. It is for that reason that we are called to be parents to a little baby, maybe a little girl names Kaleyah Joy, through the miracle of adoption.  We appreciate your support of our adoption, especially your prayer. That is the most powerful support you can give us. Thank you!!!

Waiting

This week  is the first time I have felt a bit discouaged and began to doubt that anything was really happening.  I was thinking maybe we are waiting for nothing.  Maybe we would never get a call from our attorney. Maybe she is working with so many clients that we have fallen through the cracks.  I talked with two of my frineds who have blazed this path before me but with adoption agencies.  They both said that this is normal during this process.  You get to that point where you just sit and wait.  One friend really encouraged me when she told me that the waiting time is when God worked in her life so much. God taught her to Be still before Him and wait on Him and His timing. I keep saying that His timing is perfect.  The truth is that I still want it in my time, on my terms and conditions, when everything is in place and ducks are in a row and we have our beautiful baby room (well half of Caris' room) ready and all the accessories and all the beautiful family photos of our family holding up a sign that says waiting for you or growing in my heart or something really cool like that.  The truth is that maybe God will use this time in my life.  There is no maybe about it. He will use this time. Time to teach me what is important. Time to make me dependent on Him. Time to show me what is important and that He is all I need. Not all the stuff. When I get totally honest with myself, it is not that I fear a baby will never come.  I fear that I will long for her and miss her so deeply before she comes,  that it  will break my heart.  I don't want to hurt. I don't want it to take long enough for me to ache for her. I don't want to get uncomfortable.  I want the picture perfect scenerio and then my beautiful baby girl will come home.  But what does God want?  Maybe he wants to break my heart for what breaks His.  Maybe He just wants me to Be still before Him and Wait on Him to reveal His plan.  And then, he expects me to be obedient, no matter how it feels.

Oh God, change my heart and help me to Wait on You, no matter what.

I did call our attorney and briefly spoke to her. She said no babies were coming her way right now.  

So we  wait.
Shannon

Maybe fall

Well we really don't have any major updates.  Our friends, two different families that are working with our attorney, are on board. We are all expecting and praying for at least 2 little Marshallese girls and one little boy this year.  We are so excited that each of our children will have friends at church that look like them! Joel spoke with our attorney a few weeks ago. She said we would have a baby this calendar year. No mention of this summer so we are, at least, not anticipating a baby during the hectic schedule of summer. This is a tiny bit disappointing but at the same time, gives us more time to prepare, increase the adoption fund, apply for more grants and pray for our baby girl.  It gives us more time to focus our attention on the three gifts God has already given us.
I've thought a lot about my role as a parent lately.  Parenting is difficult even in the best situation.  To teach and mold and inspire and encourage and train and discipline and shape a child is such an enormous responsibility.  Joel and I are the ones God has given this responsibility to for Isaiah, Caris and Elijah and one day for Kaleyah Joy.  I recognize so many failures along the way.  I don't correct with a loving tone,  I don't set a good example in some areas, I don't remember to follow up with everything I should,  I don't give enough hugs.......and the list goes on and on. But one thing I do is love them with my whole heart.  I would give anything to insure they are all happy and healthy.  I would love to be able to protect them from the heartaches of this world. It is that realization that brings me back to my most important responsibility as a parent.  Pointing them to Jesus. If I don't cook a well balanced meal, or I react harshly or I fail them as I do so often, if I point them to Jesus then I have given them the most important thing in the world.  Not only am I to point them to Him, I am to lead them to Him as well. It is what they see in their Dad and I  that will leave a spiritual legacy.  It is our example they will follow or at least learn from. Thankfully, they have many Godly grandparents, Aunts/Uncles and church family to help us lead them to Jesus. But WOW!  I have a lot of work to do in my own relationship with Jesus but He will help me. He will sustain me and He will forgive me when I fall short. He will give me what I need to give them what they need.  Thank you LORD for loving me, a sinner and for blessing me with these children. May I point them and lead them to You!

Well we survived the home study and will soon receive our notarized official copy. Then we continue to clean out the house,gather baby stuff, wait on a match from our attorney and save money.  We can apply for adoption grants after we have an official copy of our home study so that will be soon.  I am still working and that allows us to afford extra expenses or add to our savings account.
As I have followed other families in their adoption journeys, we are at the point where we are getting ready for some information.  We are trying to be patient. We want to wait on God because His timing is perfect. However,  not knowing how to plan the next few months is proving to be a bit difficult. I love to have my calendar in order and know when we are going where and what is going on in the near future. However, I don't want to plan or commit to too much because I don't want to have to cancel. Just not knowing. It almost seems it will be a long time before we get the call from our attorney but then it could be tomorrow. This whole thing seems almost unreal at this point but when we get a match, it will be all about getting ready for Kaleyah Joy.
Caris and I had a painting night last weekend where we painted some things for their room. Soon I want to paint the white tree on their wall and rearrange the bedroom.  It will begin to feel like Caris and Kaleyah's room once that beautiful tree is on the wall.
We have heard that one of our friends has received some great news about their pending adoption!  We are having dinner soon to hear the great news. We are very excited when we are able to rejoice with others as they work to bring more orphans home.  We have prayed that our adoption will encourage others to adopt. Another friend is feeling drawn to adopt and is asking us to pray.  I am so thankful that God is moving in hearts all around us to bring home orphans. To love the least of these and create forever families in ways none of us ever thought possible.
Until I have more thoughts or news to share, we will praying and Waiting on the LORD.

Rejoice! I'm 40!

This is the day the LORD has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.  Ps 118:24   This is my Daddy's favorite verse. Today will make 2 years since I've seen him, heard his voice, gotten a crazy phone call in the wee hours of the morning, heard his funny laugh and so many other things.  But, its also been two year since he went to Heaven, since he stopped suffering, since he left this world full of sin and heartache, since he began his true life that God created him to have. Its been two years that my Daddy has been in the presence of Jesus.  I know I will be there with him one day. This is only a temporary separation.

Today is also my 40th birthday.  I thought my 40th birthday would be a hard day for me as far as feeling old and leaving my 30's.  I mean at least in your 30's you can still hold onto some idea of being young but 40, forget it, right?  WRONG  I am embracing 40.  My new motto is Fabulous 40!  Not that I am fabulous but I want to have a fabulous year and I plan to. I'm hoping to be a new Mom.  I mean Mom of a new baby girl. I also want to be a new Mom. I want to be a different and better Mom to all my children. I want to be a new wife to my husband. I want to be a new sister and daughter and friend.  I want to be a new follower of Jesus with the excitement I had when I first gave my heart to Him.  I want to be a new creation, by Jesus renewing me each and every day, teaching and molding me into whatever He wants me to be.  I have new hopes and dreams for this year and I'm so thankful to be able to dream God sized dreams.  I'm so thankful for all He has blessed me with in this first 40 years. I can't wait to see what He has planned for the next 40.


The latest adoption news is that we are still interviewing with our social worker for our home study. We have two more meetings and the last one will be at the house!  Yikes. I hope I will be a new housekeeper this year and get rid of lots of this mess!  Got lots to do. But once the homestudy is over, we wait for our baby girl.  Oh and we are considering changing the spelling of her first name from Kalea to Kaleyah.  Also, Elijah has said more than once that he is also getting a baby brother and his name will be Sharky Jordan. LOL  I guess this family will see what the LORD has planned for us and if our little prophet knows something we don't.  :)

Today is January 15th, 2013. I did not realize that this would be my first post of the new year.  Last Thursday I finally dropped our homestudy packet in the mail.  This was such a good feeling. It took me so much longer than I expected to complete it simply because I started the home study, a new job after being home for more than four years and went through the holidays with all that entails.  But no matter it is done now and we are anticipating meeting with our Social Worker in the next few weeks to have 3 to 4 interviews and then we will be finished with this part of the adoption.  Once that is complete, we are set to adopt.  We will simply be waiting on our attorney to do the rest.  We can begin to apply for Grants when the home study is complete.  I hope to design and order our adoption shirts in the next few weeks.

Joel helped the kids clean out their rooms the first Saturday in January and they look great. Caris still has more cleaning out to do and we have to decide which furniture stays and which goes to bring in the baby bed and dresser for Kalea. I am looking forward to working with Caris to design her new foom for two.  We painted it lime green last March and it looks great. So everything we do will coordinate with that bright color. I think it is going to be adorable. As long as Caris is happy with it, then I am happy with it.  We have high hopes to finish our basement room for Isaiah to have a new bedroom. Then Elijah can move his toys to his room and out of the living room, just in time to move a pack n play and baby toys into the living room.  I never imagined my life to look like this when I turned 40 but I cant imagine it any other way. I guess we may be retired and still have toys and kid stuff all over the house.  That is fine with me.

The big kids and I started taking piano lessons last Saturday. We had a great lesson and the teacher is wonderful. She has us all really excited about learning to play. The big kids are playing the piano every chance they get. I hope this enthusiasm  lasts for awhile. I hope they will both develop a love for music and develop their skills. Im thrilled to be refreshing my skills. I have been pleased with the things I am remembering and that my teacher is teaching me a new method from the way I learned years ago.  This will allow me to play in church whereas before, I could not do it. So I am excited to see how fast I can progress. I hope pretty fast since I will have a baby, hopefully soon.

Now I'm already distracted from the thoughts I was trying to blog because I'm dreaming of the call when our attorney says, "I have a baby for you."   I feel selfish because we have friends who have waited years for this kind of call.  Our attorney feels confident that our process will move quickly and that possibly Kalea Joy will be born in the summer.  Having said that, we don't even know her Mom yet but God does and we believe he will knit our baby together according to His plan  and in HIs time.

Back to my original thought.  I have been thinking a lot about suffering this week. Some of our dear church family will bury their 7 day old baby tomorrow.  Our friend had an emergency C-section last Monday and the baby struggled until Sunday afternoon when she went to Heaven.  Our church is trying to minister to them as best we know how.  As  I have prayed for the baby and now the family, sometimes I don't even know what to say. I say the same thing over and over. I finally began to ask God to hear my heart because I could not make sense of the words. As followers of Chirst, sometime we cannont make sense of what He seems to be up to. I mean, His plan, is not always clear.  To see a tragedy like this and this family who is heartbroken, is just hard to understand.  We pray and ask GOd to heal and to protect and sometimes we see that prayer answered and sometimes we don't.  I have another frined who struggles with family issues.  She prays for answers and solutions and sometimes there simply are none.

We will never understand the immense suffereing that some endure while on this earth.  I do know that God sees the whole picture.  There is an awesome song on the radio now that says "you're already there, at the end of my life, waiting on the other side".  God sees the end of His plan which He promises will be more awesome than our minds can imagine. We cant even begin to fathom what is to come but He knows because He planned it for us.  I do know that sin and death were not God's original plan but sin invited it into the lives of mankind.  While here on earth, we pray for miracles but we don't always feel that God gives us our miracle.  I think sometimes the miracle is that God simply carries us when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death or through the deep suffering.  We find ourselves living through the unthinkable, somehow and that is the miracle. God carries us through it and teaches us valuable lessons through the pain.  None of us willingly sign up for that class.  However, when we find our selves in it, God does not waist it. My husband has said many time, God doesn't waist a hurt. He grows us in that place when we think we can't breath or take another step or face one more day.  He moves us along this life toward the plan He has for us, not to harm us but to give us Hope and future.  Jeremiah 29:11 says that He has a plan for our life.  I heard one more new song on the radio this week and I thoguth of my sweet frineds going through the loss of their baby.  I cant wait to hear it again because the words are awesome.  It say something like "When I can't understand your plan, I still know Who You are.  If we know who God is, we can hold tight to that when we walk through suffering.  we can trust God has a plan to give us Hope and a future. And one day, we will be with HIm where there is no more suffereing, only JOY forever and ever. I can't wait until that day comes.

Christmas Joy

Dec 25, 2012

Today is Christmas. It is 10:12 PM. We have had a whirlwind of family, food and gifts.  What a wonderful time it has been.  The older I get, the more I cherish times to be with the people I love. The more I love to remember my Dad and grandparents and my husbands grand parents and Great Jane and those family members that have already gone to Heaven. They are truly the lucky ones.
Our Christmas mantel is full of decorations and hand made Christmas ornaments from all of our grandparents, special friends and the first year of our marriage. When I first put out our Christmas decorations, I did not have anything from Joel's grandmother Crumpton and my Grandmother Todd. Last week, Joel's Mom asked us to come to Grandmother Crumpton's house and get anything that we wanted. I found a Christmas tea pot decoration that was perfect to add to my mantle. Then yesterday, while at Moms for Christmas Eve, she brought out some doileys for the girls to pick from that were made by my Grandmother or Great Grandmother. The one we chose is red and white and is the perfect finishing touch to my Christmas mantle. I am really excited that I now have something from all of our grandparents represented on our Mantle. It was the traditions started by them that we remember as children and through the years.
My Christmas decorations will never appear in Southern living magazine. I'm not that great at it. But my Christmas decorations mean something to me and my family. Every ornament tells a story and every decoration is a reminder of a special person or event in our lives.
Our kids were very excited about Christmas. Elijah, our 4 year old was especially excited.  He could not wait for Santa to come.  Almost every gift he opened was something he "had always wanted".  It's so much fun having a little one around.
I thought we would be matched with a birth Mom by now. I thought we would have a due date and some information on our baby girl but we don't. I'm okay with that. I am waiting patiently and trying to follow God's leadership and trust that His timing is perfect.
We are almost finished with all the paperwork for our home study. I hope to mail it by Friday this week. Then we can work on the interviews and hopefully have all our clearances and the study finished by Feb or March.  That is our only update. But we are happy and content and so excited that God has lead us to this place. God is making Himself so real to me and to my family. We know without a shadow of a doubt that God has lead us on every step of this journey so far and will continue to lead us. I pray we will be faithful followers of His plan for our lives.  GOD gets glory and we get JOY! Merry Christmas!