Just Hanging Out

We are just hanging out here, and of course, still waiting. We're not totally sure which person we are waiting on exactly, but you can bet your boots if I knew, I would give them a friendly, "Hello, how can I help you?".

We have been staying busy joining in on the usual Christmas festivities, and normal life things like ...baby-sitting, working, eating, brushing teeth, etc. I actually cleaned part of my house last week too; yes, that is worth noting.

I am an all or nothing kind of person. If I have a project going on, our house gets the brunt of my preoccupation. But, by golly, when I decide to clean it, I will do it right---when I can't think of anything better to do. Oh, but heaven forbid that I put up our Christmas decorations if my house isn't clean. In fact, tonight, I will decorate the mantle after I finish cleaning the rest of the house. Because the house needs to be totally clean first. I know some of you get what I am saying. Lest a small percentage of you start thinking I keep my house meticulous, I dare you to come unannounced and walk across my kitchen floor barefoot, and try not to stick. I have given my mom instructions to keep her shoes on before; true story. 

Okay, so it's not always that bad. I wouldn't want you to think that I am THAT bad of a housekeeper. I just happen to have my moments. Often.

You know I am running out of things to talk about because I have been talking about Christmas decor and sticky floors for about three paragraphs.

We are really, really missing A this holiday season. We can't wait to have her here to celebrate with, and enjoy special moments together. In HIS time, we know.

When the time is right (after we get our approval), we are going to send this picture of us to A in one of her books we made for her. We are trying to get some more recent pictures together again--I am thinking A will see this picture and start comparing it with the ones we are sending her from last year of us, and get a kick out of how much we've aged since we've started this adoption journey. Har.

Last weekend, we celebrated Christmas with Mr. Fly's side of the family. It was nice and relaxing...

We received some super sweet gifts for A. We opened them on her behalf, but will keep them in their packaging until she comes home. We know that she has very few toys right now, so she will most likely be in awe with any kind of gift or toy. We have friends that adopted a son from her orphanage. At around the age of 7, their son did not know how to open a present when he joined their family, but he was such a happy child with what he had. A few months after he joined their family, this same sweet boy was asked via sign language (he has a hearing impairment), what gift he would like for his birthday?

He replied back to his father by signing that he wanted a picture of his adoptive family. {{pass the Kleenex, please}}

This is a good reminder for Mr. Fly and I that no "thing" or "toy" can replace the love the of a family who loves you, and wants you.

 --opening A's gifts.

---Mr. Fly opening another gift for A. He got a fancy new camo handkerchief in his stocking ---if you couldn't tell. He found alternative uses for it as a wanna-be motorcyclist, but decided it was a little itchy on the head. ::bald spots, perhaps::


















Please remember A's adoption process in your prayers, and pray that we receive a word of approval for us to be A's family very soon. The wait is getting long, and we really desire her to be with us so we can be her family, and show her how special and loved she is to her Daddy and Mommy. Aside from the obvious love we have for her, it is also very important for her to be home soon to receive the medical care she really needs.

Thank you so much.

If you are an Amazon shopper, we are now approved to be Amazon associates. Basically, this means we get a 4% kickback if you shop Amazon by coming to our blog first, and clicking their link on the blog homepage that takes you to the Amazon.com website. The 4% kickback will go towards adoption costs, and will also help us purchase therapy equipment and specialized educational tools for A. Anyway, so if you remember, maybe you can keep in mind to come to our blog first prior to shopping Amazon. :) We appreciate it--

A Little Chat and then a Good Cry Recipe

I came home from running errands tonight, and probably not to your surprise, little miss is on my mind. Like normal.

Thinking about her, and just feeling so thankful that A has grown in our hearts over the past year, and rocked our little world upside...no. Right side up.

Yes, I've noticed I talk mainly about A on this blog. This is kind of her small space in my life where she can be present...I haven't blogged much lately because I guess I've lacked writing inspiration in the wait. I'm a fair-weather blogger, you could say. Kind of a sore loser, huh?

It has officially been a year now since we started the "process". Last year on November 16, we were notified that A was still in need of a forever family.

A has been so good for me. So good for us...and she doesn't even know we've been rocked. What a beautiful person God is using to slowly open our eyes. ((clarification: I think the slow part is our fault.))

I'm so thankful that God brought her into our hearts, and we can't wait to love her to pieces. Her daddy loves her so much, and I have a big feeling she is going to like him pretty good too. I love that he has chosen her to be his daughter. He is a special kind of person who loves much, and has a heart full of goodness.  For instance, he has this little saying that you may hear if you hang around him long enough... "Give grace until you're blue in the face"-- Mr. Fly. I need to ask him what happens after my face turns blue; we haven't gotten to that part yet. I am thankful for him.

Sadly, I haven't always shown thankfulness for God's hand in our lives that has taken us on some roads that at times I selfishly think really hurt, but I have always been thankful for parts of those hurts that brought A into our life. She belongs. Not for a minute am I not thankful for her. She is very much wanted.

Next up: These comfortable and blingy girly shoes made their way into our house tonight. $2. Goodwill. Need I say more?

I also had a little fettish about how they had the "Native American Ind*an" look combined with the sparkly "South Asian Ind*an" look. :) They belonged.

The poem I tacked onto this post  is what I deem a "Good Cry Recipe", because it certainly has the potential to produce some healthy tears. It is written from the perspective of a child waiting for their forever family to find them.

"THE WAITING CHILD”
A Poem by Debbie Bodie

I saw you meet your child today
You kissed your baby joyfully
And as you walked away with her
I played pretend you’d chosen me.

I’m happy for the baby, yet
Inside I’m aching miserably
I want to plead as you go by,
“Does no-one want a child of three?”

I saw you meet your child today
In love with her before you met
And as I watched you take her out
I knew it wasn’t my turn yet.

I recognized you from last year!
I knew I’d seen your face before!
But you came for a second babe.
Does no-one want a child of four?

I saw you meet your child today
But this time there was something new
A nurse came in and took my hand
And then she gave my hand to you.

Can this be true? I’m almost six!
And there are infants here you see?
But then you kissed me and I knew
The child you chose this time was me.

Ready to be Together as Family

A year has almost gone. Seasons have come and gone, and life moves on...this sounds like a start to a really bad poem, but that is kind of where we are at right now. Ready to be together.

Just ready to do life together. Play together. Eat together. Go on walks together. Not feel the sting when around other children knowing a little girl halfway across the world is waiting, even though she may not even understand.

F-A-M-I-L-Y.

Oh, and you definitely need to know about our adoption progress...

We recently realized we have been saying A's name wrong for the past year. Oh yes, we sure have. Nice parents, eh? We received a snippet of old video of A, and heard her name being said, and our mispronunciation began to sink in. A little comical, really. I thought for a minute we may just let it slide...
until Mr. Fly started correcting me when I was saying A's name the not so right way. So that was that. See us for corrective measures if you so wish. I think we got it this time!

You heard it first (well, close to the first anyway)--- We can now say our sweet girl's name properly. Adoption progress, right? That is as good as it gets, for now.

In rookie fashion, I have started to try to intentionally enjoy life, and to allow myself to truly soak up the beauty of God's seasons, instead of run, run, run from one activity to the next. Like for starters, I bought apple cider at Trader Joe's thinking that it was just going to make Fall dance in our house. It kind of did---good stuff. I also made an apple crisp, which was not all that tasty. My advice to you? Don't use outdated Crisco. Do yourself a favor, and shell out the extra few dollars to get a new can. Thank me later. Mr. Fly said it was yummy, but he is a strange kind of nice.

Anyway, Saturday night, I got the bright idea to go take fall pictures in a local park while Mr. Fly was working. I drove to the park on the east side of town to realize that the sun actually sets in the west, and my glowing natural light that I was wanting was no where to be found. It looked more like dusk. Not about to give up, I gave it my best shot, and turned my aperture or shutter speed (whatever you call it) way down, like way down. I just wanted some light, people. It didn't really work. I left with just a few dark and dreary fall with-a-hint-of-blur pictures. I would have taken more, but it came to my realization that I only brought my mostly full SD card with me. Pro move.

I left feeling okay ...I tried. I even attempted driving quick but oh, so cautious speeds across town to see if I could find some tree with the sun's glow on it, but alas, the sun had set.

Effort is worth everything in my book..

Secretly, I blame my Herculean effort to get an awesome picture on Don Angle, and his recent blog posts of nature. Help, Don! It is clear I just new a few quick basics to at least just get me started on the right side of town. Oh, and was that aperture or shutter speed I was wanting?

Check out Don's recent work...
 http://www.donanglephotography.com/blog-3/

I imagine you all would just love me to share my artsy photos of the dusky trees I captured. If my camera card was not still in our car, I would consider sharing immediately. I guess you will just have to wait for now.

If you think of it this week, please pray with us that our approval comes very soon.

We ache for the moments when I won't need to race across the wrong side of town to take inspiring pictures. How wonderful it will be when we can take pictures of our girl, and show her how precious she is in the Lord's sight. In His time.

In the Midst of Quietness

No news on the adoption front lately. We don't really hear anything. Too quiet. I wish I could say things were speeding along, but we're just kind of hanging out here.

That is the way it goes, they say.

We started the official process to become A's family almost 10 months ago exactly. We found out about her over a year ago. The time has f-l-o-w-n in some ways, and in other ways, it seems like a really long time.

We have been waiting on a big approval from I*d*a for over two months now. This is pretty normal, well, really normal, but we would prefer to not be normal. We had a friend and another family that had their approvals processed super quick, so we got our hopes up, and probably shouldn't have done that to ourselves. We're praying that things happen sooner than later because we know time with her is so,so precious and necessary right now. Crucial, really.

While we wait, we do what all normal people do... things like---have consecutive fundraising garage sales.

We finished up the final adoption fundraiser garage sale of the year this past weekend at our house. It was a pretty good sized sale, and was mostly leftovers from our previous sale, with a few new goodies mixed in here and there. The sale went well! We are glad we decided to do it again.

I had planned to make and sell baked goods, and serve hot drinks as I sat idly by the sale table in my nicely pressed linen skirt, and tamed hair, and of course, if you know me, you know that didn't happen. The hair was a flyin, people! I was laying on the bed the night before the sale at some odd hour after organizing the sale, and I told Mr. Fly that I was about to go to Kroger's to buy ingredients to make scotcheroos. Mr. Fly, in all of his good reasoning, notified me that I was not going to Kroger's, and that my sound mind was worth more than the delicious goods I was about to make.

Can you see who is the rational one in our house?

Okay, so maybe I was relieved that Mr. Fly foiled my plans, but I did get pained during the sale when I saw the little old men that would be so happy to buy a nice gooey scotcheroo, and cup of coffee while their wife scoured the reject Santa Clause collection table.

edit: My dear hospitable mother did bring coffee the first morning of the garage sale, but after that, I faltered on the coffee as well.

Am I still talking about food?

Anyway, it was great fun to catch up with some neighbors throughout the garage sale. The neighbor boys would come every night right before we closed with pockets full of loose change to see what they could barter with me on, or better yet, what they could get for free. It was pretty stinkin' cute, and was a win-win for all of us. It was so fun to see them with all their loot, and I am just about positive that their mothers welcomed them and all of their treasures home with open arms...? I didn't ask.

It was a good chance for me to tell the neighbor kids about A, and to fill them in on her story. The boys told me they would be nice to her, and some of the neighbor girls are ecstatic about the possibility of getting to help out with her...be still my heart.

I had a restless dream last night that we had another garage sale that started this morning, and we were starting to get some "stink eyes" from the neighbors. Note taken.

I went to an Empowered to Connect parenting conference 2 weeks ago in Nashville. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Mr. Fly was unable to get off work, but I was so glad I decided to go. More on the conference later.

Also, we took our first sign language lesson today...oooo boy. 

Standing in Puddles of Joy ::because our cups have overflowed::

I have attempted to write this post on several different days over the last couple of weeks... I could never finish the post because I don't know how to fully express our gratefulness after the cook-out/adoption benefit celebration that was held for sweet A.









































Joy. Blessed. Thankful. Faithfulness of God. 

Those are just a few words that try to describe our hearts.

Some of our dear friends and family organized an evening in honor of A...to celebrate her life, and a cook-out to raise funds to bring her home.

Thank you so much to everyone who helped make the night what it was...all of you. I can't hardly even name everyone who put time and effort into pulling the evening off.

Thank you so much to all of you who came and to everyone who prayed for the evening.

The party was decorated so cute! Lots of fun details everywhere. I didn't get a chance to take very many pictures myself, and capture all the fun "pin-worthy" details, but do have a few more pictures that a friend took on my camera, and some my mom took. If anyone has any pictures they took, send them my way please!

Thanks so much for everything, Laura and Lindsey! You guys are awesome...

It was a blur of an evening, but so very fun! We are sad the guest of honor could not be there to celebrate with us, and can't wait to tell her stories of her "village" that loved her.

We were blessed so much by the amazing God-sized emotional and financial support given so freely for our family. We are so, so thankful us to have a wonderful family of prayer warriors and encouragers.  Thank you over and over for all of your continued prayers and your very generous financial support of bring A home. Thank you for taking the time out of your hectic schedules to be there. It.means.so.much.

We love you all! We think A will love you too.

----If anyone at the benefit saw the "guest list" that everyone signed floating around (just white sheets of paper), and know where it ended up, please let me know! We would love to have everyone's signatures as a keepsake for A. Kind of {really} sad we can't find it.

Overdue!

Jiminy Crickets!

We're already 9 months and 10 days into our paper pregnancy! We are way prego. Our brains appear to be swollen with paperwork retention, our hearts have a hole in them, and are contracting some 60 times a minute with some focal pain. They say our baby is doing well, and she is measuring quite large compared to the average newborn {{for obvious reasons}}.

We are praying that things will keep moving along...we are waiting on approval from the I*d**n government currently. Please pray this comes soon.

The delivery still looks a long ways away, so we try not to think too far ahead...because when we do, it just seems too long. Too far away.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,  as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Our heart's desire is for sweet A to feel peace and joy in her heart as she lives each day, and to know in her heart that she is deeply loved by the God of the universe, us, and her huge family in Christ.

In His time. Not ours. {ouch, my toes!}

He will work everything out that is in His plan and purposes.

We know it's true.

 

Yes. He will.

Something for Everyone

It was full. A garage sale lovers' dream.

We had our adoption benefit garage sale the last weekend of July, and the first weekend of August.

6 days of fun. Well, what I remember anyway.

It was crazy. Crazy awesome. God business.

In the middle of the busyness, I didn't get to take many pictures, but here are a few to give proof that it really was crazy big {{kind of like my newly acquired biceps as a result}}.

There were so many generous people who donated items, and a football team of family and friends who helped us prepare and man the garage sale. Thank you all so much!

A loud "shout out" {because we're a noisy bunch}to my Aunt Bren! She is a garage sale diva, and was a huge, huge help the whole way through. You can see her in this picture below, and she'll despise that her picture is on here, but should get over it eventually. She jumped in on the "dirty work", and would consistently keep showing up to help days prior to the sale when I was beginning to wonder if we would be able to get everything ready in time.

My mom, of course, was also a big help, and stuck it out even after she got sick during the garage sale---and folks, the weather was ... more than warmish and sticky. We had our own personal sauna. As I type this, I am wondering why we didn't we think to charge admission to our luxurious spa? Next time. Wink, wink.

Oh, Mary Kate! Why don't I have a picture of you?

Fabulous Mary Kate. She approached me and asked if I would care if she donated some of her antique items, and create a booth in the garage sale. "Um, let me think about it... Sure!" She has a heart for children who need families, and wanted to be part of A's journey home. The booth was awesome, and styled nicely; MK brought all kinds of antique and vintage flair to put in it, and then her cool sisters came and donated some more antiques for the booth. We pretty much had our very own antique road show. If you didn't make it to the sale by 8:20, you kind of missed out on much of this booth. Cleaned o-u-t.

Also, a big thanks to Dave A.! He arrived to help us bright and early the first morning of the sale to help hang signs, and ended up staying all day to help man and organize the sale. Huge help!

Some little people that came wanted to contribute too. Sweet? Yes, very much so.

Thanks, Parks!

Gracie helping with curb appeal!

 Caroline helping at check-out.

 

The sale went over so well, and we want to thank all of you very much who played a part in helping pull it off! From those who donated items, the kind owners of the building we used, friends and family who made yummy baked goods, all the family who came and helped hang up clothes, a dear friend(s) who kept bringing me lunch, friend who sewed up adorable handbags to put in the sale...the list goes on and on, and on.

A is loved. We are very blessed to have family and friends alongside us who share our heart.

Praise God! He is more than worthy.

edit: Thank you to everyone who CAME to the garage sale, and shopped, and generously donated. We really appreciated you stopping by!