11/30/2010

Finding ordinary beauty...


It's been entirely way too long since I had the opportunity to do something selfish and spontaneous. The other day Jory and the kids were gone, and instead of knocking one more thing off my to do list, I took myself on a little nature walk. As I walked I was reminded that my life is more than this international headache, it's more than fundraising, it's more than my job as a mother and all the insanity that goes with it. My life is a fantastic swirl filled with my favorite people and beautiful things that God is wishing I would notice. On this day, I noticed these beautiful weeds growing along the side of the road. It makes me wonder what else I haven't noticed. What haven't you noticed lately?

11/28/2010

What I've learned...


This fall we've been studying the old testament heroes in our Bible study. Most of the people in my social network are familiar with Moses and Solomon and the others we learned about in Sunday School. A few people know enough about these characters to know about their flaws and personality quirks. It's not a secret that God uses complete idiots like Gideon to do impossible tasks, but what I've learned this fall is that He isn't finished yet. He's still using flawed people (like me) to do His work. Personally I think we got off easy. No giants or armies to take out, no questionable governments to overthrow. Just a little boy, and an international headache to put him where he belongs.
And guess what? God didn't need reliable technology to do His work. He didn't need it to accomplish His tasks in the Old Testament, and He doesn't need it now either. He knows we've had problems with both computers, cell phone, internet, and television. And He doesn't care, because He doesn't need them.
As far as our adoption proceedings, all is well for the most part. We recently met with our social worker for the first time, she was an absolute joy. She came to the house to have a quick look around and meet with our children. She assured us that even though people look at our financial situation and wonder what we're thinking, our family dynamics are ideal for welcoming a child who may have trouble forming emotional attachments to other people. Maybe we aren't as crazy as I thought we were.
As far as our progress goes, we have a few little tasks to finish in order to complete our home study, and then we're ready to start our dossier, which is a fancy term for more expensive paperwork.

11/11/2010

blessed


This past week has seen its shares of ups and downs. The saga of life without reliable technology continues, but it’s nothing we haven’t learned to live with. In the midst of our technological issues, we have seen a ray of hope and blessing. That blessing comes in the form of friendship. We know that one of the many ways God chooses to bless us is through our friendships, and we’ve gotten a healthy dose this week. This week has seen several get-togethers and play dates, all of which have been a joy. Without them realizing it, our friends have stepped up in a big way. And we are so grateful.
Recently our friend Phill and his daughter Mary traveled to Russia on a mission trip. While they were there, they were able to visit with Max and a few of the other children we met last summer. They brought back pictures and stories from their visit, which they shared with us at a gathering for adopting families. We haven’t had much contact with Max or anyone from the orphanage this fall, so it was really nice to see all of him and his little friends again. It’s nice to know that Max isn’t a figment of my imagination. He really does exist. At the gathering, we were also able to spend some time with a few of the other families who are also adopting. Most of the families live here in town, so we see them pretty regularly, but we were thrilled to reconnect with a family that lives about an hour away who is adopting Igor, Max’s best friend.

11/04/2010

Welcome November

October has come and gone. Honestly I’m not sorry to see it go. Our October was a crazy swirl of photo sessions and technology that didn’t function properly. October is a notoriously busy month among photographers, as it’s the prime month for outdoor photos and there’s plenty of time to get photos to families for their Christmas cards. So yes, its safe to say that I took a lot of photos last month, which means that we made a plenty of money towards our fundraising efforts. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that we faced so many technological crises during what has so far been one of our best months for fundraising. It’s also interesting to note that our television (that was totally dead for at least 3 weeks) is now functioning at %100. It’s working better than it has in 6 months. It’s earned a new nickname, Lazarus.
So now that we are mostly done with photography, we get to sit around and twiddle our thumbs until we get the call to go get Max right? If only. I still have $30,000 to raise. Although I’m rather sad to say “goodnight” to taking pictures for the year, I have several new and exciting fundraising ideas to get me through the winter. I’ve teamed up with some other families in our community who are also raising money to bring their kids home from Russia. Together we’re doing date nights at our church, and a gift-wrapping weekend extravaganza. We also have a youth band concert and 5k fun run on the back burner that we’re still trying to figure out logistics on. Oh, and we designed a t-shirt! It’s so cool! When we have a finished shirt, we’ll have it for sale at all our various events. It will also be available for purchase here on the blog. Proceeds will go to our fundraising efforts…
So yes, we have a lot to distract us while we wait to go get our son. And then there was Halloween. So of course I have to share a pic of my girls in their costumes. These are for you, Dad. The one where Louisa was pretending to shoot me with a toy pistol was better, but it's probably not in my best interest to publish during this phase of my life.

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