Busy...

I am neck deep in zebra and pink around here...

Vivi's birthday party is this Sunday and the preparations are keeping me very busy, as you can see! We are looking at about 10 little girls coming. Brandi said her daughters keep asking "Is today Vivi's birthday party?" They are driving down from Kansas!

I likely won't be on here much this week as I hammer out the remaining details.

This is my favorite Vivi birthday party to date...I just hope we can fit everything I have planned into 90 minutes! Shh...don't tell Vivi she has two very big surprises coming her way (besides the excitement of family flying in)... a beautiful Barbie bike from one set of grandparents and the very desired Toy Story 3 Ken and Barbie doll set from the other.

She is going to be SO excited!!!

He loves us....

For more than a month now, we have been attending a new church. It is small, but not in a "these people have been here forever" kind of way. More like family-small. And we were embraced immediately and have felt very, very loved and welcomed. Isaac LOVES the kids program and last Sunday was our first Lifegroup (small group of families who get together for dinner, prayer, and to do a book together). When we got out of the van, several boys ran down the front yard and yelled "Isaac!! Hey Man!" He is already known! He has since asked when are we going back to see all those friends again atleast once a day!

Coming from the huge church we had been attending for 2 years, to come here and quickly become known has been a very, very comforting thing for this season of our life.

There was a time when we wanted to be anonymous. I wanted to blend into the wallpaper. I felt scarred and wounded by the abundant fertility that was church to me. Being known to the point of getting baby shower invitations every month and having to endure yet another set of questions about why we couldn't have our "own" kids became so painful that going to a huge church where noone knew us felt really safe. But now, we are at a place where we so desire to know others intimately and to be known. And we think we have found that where we are. The worship pastor has befriended Billy and he may begin to play guitar with the worship band some Sundays. The church is only 10 minutes away and we have already met several families who live in our small town, a couple from our lifegroup even brought us dinner because of J's surgery. And another wonderful thing is that we have already connected with several adoptive families, including another couple in our lifegroup who adopted all 4 of their children and the worship leader and his wife who are caucasian with an asian son. There was a song he sang today that I think is one of his favorites to do, and has quickly become one of mine- How He Loves Us, by David Crowder. Read these lyrics and let them sink in for a moment:

"And He is jealous for me. Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree. Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy. When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions. Eclipsed by glory and I realize just how beautiful You are. And how great your affections are for me. Oh how he loves us, oh how he loves us, oh how he loves us all. And we are His portion and He is our prize. Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes..." I looked down at little J in Billy's arms (we kept him out of Sunday school because his throat is still hurting), as we sang this song and I thought, Wow. How great my God's affections are for me that he brought this child to our home to be ours. We did nothing to earn or deserve him....grace did it....we are not even the best parents in the world...but grace meets us there to meet his needs...this child who didn't have a secure home is now home with us. Oh how He loves me....Loves me enough to meet my needs right where they are. Loves J enough and Isaac enough and Vivi enough and Billy enough to put us together, perfect for one another. My kids aren't "lucky to have me". I didn't rescue them. They rescued me. Jesus rescued me.

And He brought us to this little church that has been a healing balm to my weary soul. After the worship set, the leader saw J squirming and brought him a cup of crushed ice that kept him busy and quiet the whole service. Afterwards, the director of children's ministry told us she saw Jordan give us the ice and said, "awww...I hope ya'll feel very loved." Yes! We do. When the pastor gave his prayer before his sermon he said "And we pray for Billy and Laurie sitting over here and their little guy with his hurting throat. That Lord, you may comfort and heal him." Now that is a small church.

Lord, thank you for loving us so intimately that you desire we experience intimacy with those in the Body. We have wandered because we were weak and scared, and selfish...and you continue to point us Home again. To the place where we belong. Thank you.

Come On Barbie....let's go party!

The invitations have been sent.

It is a girls-only event.

You can imagine how her brother feels about this.

The menu and party schedule are planned...Nana and Aunt Beth's flight is booked...

and in the next 10 days I will be assembling the party favor bags, working on a cupcake stand, and buying the last random things we need. Like double sided tape, more ribbon, the game prize, and black gel icing.

I told you it was random. :)

How is it that THIS child is turning four years old in 11 days?

J's Surgery

J had his tonsils and adenoids out on Tuesday. Here he is waiting to go back for the surgery.
He is SO good about having medical procedures done. He whines a little but doesn't fight it and barely cries. And here we are admitted into our hospital room. The Dr. wanted him to stay overnight for observation since he was diagnosed with "severe obstructive sleep apnea". She said that his adenoids were so big that they were virtually cutting off his air supply. Yikes!
I ordered him peaches, jello, and icecream and in about 3 hours he ate it all! That night he moved on to mac n cheese and spaghettios. We were model patients with getting him to rest and drink.

A volunteer came and did a craft with him.

The next morning he really wanted to get his own clothes on and was begging to have his IV port taken out, which they didn't do until right before dismissal.

He watched TV nonstop and was very happy to do so! Toy Story 3 kept coming on the movie channels and this is his favorite movie, so that kept him very entertained. My biggest complaint was that the nurses did not check on us very often at all and I had to ask 4 times in a timespan of 40 minutes for his pain meds to be brought to him. If they mail me a survey of our visit, I will be filling it out for sure. Also, when they took his IV out, his hand didnt clot so I looked down and his whole had was covered in blood and dripping all over the floor. That made him very upset as were were being discharged.

Today, our biggest problem is that he does not want to swallow- even with his pain meds being given every 4 hours round the clock. So he talks muffled with a huge mouth full of spit and you can imagine how hard it is to get him to chew and swallow any food! He kept his one bite of pancake in his mouth for 15 minutes until I made him spit it out.

So I know I am going to be in for long day of him saying he is hungry. :(

9 Months

According to our ticker at the bottom of the blog...we have been waiting 9 months and one day for our baby to come home.

What are we doing to prepare? Honestly...not a darn thing! The crib is currently being used for all of Vivi's birthday party supplies, the nursery houses Isaac's stack of Lego drawers, and J's clothes in the closet, and I haven't bought a baby item since the summer when we opened our preference to a boy or a girl. SO...pretty much we are just waiting!

In this past month of waiting, friends gave birth, people announced pregnancies, a couple brought their first son home as an adoptive placement, and another friend sends me emails of toddlers boys that she is submitting their homestudy on (that is SO fun!). So although nothing is going on for us on the adoption front, lots of new families are being formed around us. Does it feel like we have been waiting 9 months? No...not really. Nine more months would put us at November for a wait total of a year and a half. I am really, really okay with that. Even though I wonder where our baby is, will our baby be a he or she, and when will they come... on the other hand I feel like our cup is really full right now, and I enjoy the freedom to do things with my very active other 3 kids without being tied to the house with a newborn. And our agency is SO good about emailing often to keep everyone knowing they are advocating for their waiting families. We don't care to know if and how many times our profile is shown, or the reasons why we might be passed up, because we know that our baby will come in God's timing.

So off we go into month 10!