owen's in love

it is so cute to watch owen fall in love with babyu without ever meeting him. he sets the table for him. he tells us what chair he wants babyu to sit in, brings toys to me that he wants babyu to have, tells me that babyu can wear his clothes that are too small, asks if babyu can have some fruit, sausages, etc (anything and everything we are eating), asks if babyu can swim in the pool and asks to go get babyu. seriously. the other night, while we were driving, owen looked at me and with the sweetest voice ever, asked if we could go get babyu. really?!?! i looked at him with tears in my eyes and all i could say is "soon, soon o"...

he loves him and he has never met him, not even seen a picture of him but the love is there and it runs deep.

i pray as they grow old together, the bond that develops will never be broken. i pray they would change the world together. that they would never be self seeking but always look out for each other. that they would put others first, even before themselves. i would love for them to know what they stand for, know what they believe, to know what is important and never let others persuade them otherwise. i pray that they would encourage one another and always be there for the other. no matter the circumstance.

will it always be peachy?? of course not! i am sure there will be hard times but i pray the hard times would only make their relationship stronger. i love my big brother to pieces. sure, we had hard times growing up (like the time he hand-cuffed me to the deck:) but i love him so much and am so thankful for the blessing he is in my life. i pray that owen would be in babyu's life what my brother has been to me and thankfully still is.


i can't wait to see owen and babyu together....can't wait!

(written Monday, June 21 while unplugged;)

getting closer...

a couple of weeks ago, we received an email from our agency informing us that we should (let me emphasize should) be getting our referral by mid July. we aren't counting down the days (but if we were, we would see a picture within 17 days;) we are however, hoping for good news in the coming weeks. oh to see a picture. i am already in love with babyu but to see a face....ahhhhh. .... i can't wait.


here's to hoping.


soon, babyu, soon we will *meet* you by picture..and i am soooooo excited!

amazed.

we keep a jar in our kitchen to collect all the money for our adoption. one of those vintage, blue jars. it is quite large--i love it. well it has been awhile since we have counted up the money. whenever it is empty, it always seems as though it has a slow start getting filled again. we put in all our spare change, money we find in pockets, random rebates we get in the mail, checks people give us, checks from Just Love Coffee ( you can still buy some!:) and from other fundraisers. today, i finally made time to count it up and put it all in the spreadsheet. we like to keep track of everything:)

guess how much?!?!?!
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$2110.54

can you believe it??? i am amazed! unbelievable, really. wow. i can't stop smiling. we have been so blessed. i have tears in my eyes as i look at the bag to take to the bank. $854 is from our last garage sale and a good amount is from the ugandan necklaces we are selling (yes, we are still selling them...:). it is one of the few times i am worried about walking into the bank with so much cash in my trusty ziploc. oh wow.

thank you. it is because of you all that we even have $$$ to put in our adoption fund. Thank you! your support means so much to us!

one. step. closer.

words cannot express

During this entire process, we have been blessed abundantly by so many different people. Family, friends, neighbors, friends we know through the adoption community, people we just met..by so many people near and far. Thank you. Thank you for blessing our family during this crazy process. Your prayers, support, encouragement, free childcare, cards, flowers, meals, money, random visits (the list could go on and on!) have meant the world to us. 


Thank you for walking this path with us. We know it isn't easy to live in this economy and we thank you for making the sacrifices you have made so that we can be closer to meeting our sweet one. I have been moved to tears countless times by your selflessness and by your giving spirit. Thank you for loving our family this way. Thank you for living in community with us.


much love, a, s and o

Father to the fatherless

I just saw this on my friend Brittany's adoption blog, lovingtheleastothese (yes, a *real* friend...and by *real* I mean local...we do see eachother unlike so many of my other *friends*....the adoption community is crazy - in an amazing way!!) Brittany is in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. Can't wait to see the sweet girl God has chosen to join their family!! 
Thanks Brittany!
This video is too good not to share...God's heart for the orphan

warning: this may cause your heart to be stirred

this family leaves in less than 1 week to pick up their son. amazing. 

one more child will know the love of a family. beautiful.

room at our table

Tonight at dinner, Owen looked around the table and asked, "where is babyu?" Andy explained that he is in Africa and that we would go see him soon. Then Owen looked again at the table and said, "we need another chair. a chair for babyu!" Sweet boy-he pointed to where he wanted him to sit...right between me and him. so cute!

I pray as we welcome another babe into our home, we would 
always have room at our table. in our house. and in our hearts.

Always.

Love is winning

Check this out...Light Gives Heat has a new movie: moving on...it is going to be good.

just a glimpse

Tonight I had the privilege of watching my good friend's son while her and the husband went out on a much needed date night. All night long I couldn't help but wonder about babyu. You see, it is a good possibility that our baby will be fairly close in age to Noah so it was such a blessing to hug, hold and play with a sweet boy just a few months older than our child (we are speculating age by what our US approval states). I had such a sweet time with him and couldn't help but wonder if they have some of the same mannerisms.

Noah was giggling like crazy as I was feeding him dinner.

When I tried to feed him a kiwi and banana mixture (sick, I know:) he would wrinkle up his nose and get this disgusted look on his face.

Everytime he sneezed he would laugh uncontrollably.

When he got super excited, he would wave his hands and wriggle his fingers in all different directions.

and when he got tired, he would lay his head on my shoulder and nestle in. Oh how tonight was so good for my heart. I cannot wait to meet this little person God has been preparing us for. I can't wait to learn his many faces, his different voices, his giggles, his belly laughs, the way his toes fit together and the way his hand feels in mine. I long to meet this sweet one.

Thanks D for making this wait a little more bearable by letting me love on your son tonight. It was so precious. Thank you for giving me a glimpse of what my nights will look like in a few months.

Tonight my friends, my heart is happy.

World Cup, South Africa

Andy just informed me that Babyu is up and waiting for the first game. Oh if babyu only knew how much his daddy loves soccer, he might actually be waiting:)

"If YOU think you are TOO small...

...to make a DIFFERENCE, you've NEVER spent the night with A mosquito." --Betty Reese

dare to believe.

this is a season of waiting for our family and for so many of our friends. while we are waiting for our referral, we have friends who are waiting *patiently* for court dates...friends who are ready to travel to meet/pick up their sweet children and can't until they get word...friends who are also expecting referrals...and friends who are longing to carry a sweet child in their womb. for all of these situations, it is my prayer that we wait together, carry eachother and hope for one another.

*Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.* Galations 6:9


God is moving... working on our behalf. four (yes FOUR!) families have been united on US soil THIS week.

the harvest is coming friends.

know that we are waiting with you. hoping with you.

the joy is coming.

not about me

this life is not about me. not about my wants. not about my own agenda. and certainly not about my timeline. i have been so convicted about this the past few days. i want to live for others. i want to love others above myself and sometimes that means getting over myself. i have many blogs that i follow and feel so encouraged by the women i "follow" :)

i read this one at the beginning of this week from goodtobecrazy.blogspot.com and it struck a cord...

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I spent a lot of time lying awake last night. My baby, who is normally a great sleeper, started crying around 2:30am. She promptly put her little self right back to sleep but her cry had jolted me wide awake and I found myself lying in bed having the following conversation with the Lord...

Me: "Lord, please help me go back to sleep." 5 minutes go by. "Lord, please." 30 minutes go by. "Lord, PLEASE!!!" I have to get back to sleep. I will be exhausted tomorrow. My husband is in Uganda for crying out loud and I have two young children and a baby to take care of alone. Furthermore, I have all kinds of stuff to do tomorrow... I have to take my 4 year old to gymnastics, I have to drive afternoon carpool for Madeline, I even need to give Davis a couple of breathing treatments because he sounds congested. With all of these overwhelming tasks on my plate Lord, could you please, please help me out here??"

Lord: "Shelly, let me ask you a few questions... First, are you comfortable right now?"
Me: "I guess so. I wish I wasn't awake at 3:15am but I am laying on a $5000 tempurpedic mattress and covered by some cozy sheets and blankets."

Lord: "You said you have a lot to do tomorrow. How much of it did I ordain? Did I specifically call you to sign your 4 year old up for a gymnastics class?"
?

(go here to read the rest!)
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i want to acknowledge that my days are ordained by god. i want to live for him and not by my own agenda. i want my kids to realize that we are not supposed to be comfortable in this life because it isn't forever. i want them to learn this from me...by my example. and that would mean that i need to get over myself. this life is not about me.

hope is...

...the general feeling that some desire will be fulfilled. I have to be honest. I have felt a little down the past couple of days. I haven't lost hope completely but I think my hope was lacking. I was hoping for something that didn't happen just yet. you see, there have been a few different circumstances that led me to believe that we MIGHT would be getting our referral sooner rather than later (like last week sooner).

*this whole thing is so silly because with international adoption and probably all adoptions, you can't really count on anything until it actually happens*

It obviously wasn't anything concrete because as of tonight, we still don't have a referral. We haven't even been waiting a month so I officially am bad at waiting:) I was a little bummed at the end of last week but my brother and sister in law came to visit so it was a great distraction. Then on Monday night, I was getting excited again thinking this week could be it. But then Tuesday came and went and I was sad. I had a really great day with o-boy but I didn't really want to talk with anyone else.

It is funny because a referral is kind of like a due date (at least waiting for a referral). When o's due date came and went, I thought "I can do this"...until everyone started calling.... everyone I talked to asked if I was in labor yet. Well obviously not folks or else I wouldn't be on the phone:) and really, if I had o already, they would have known. Now that I am thinking this through, I think that is why I didn't really want to talk to anyone on Tuesday. It was bound to come up and I just didn't want to talk about it. I must say though that I did get quite a few emails encouraging emails. I so appreciated those!

I have spent a lot of time praying about this over the past few days because I don't want to be sad and I certainly don't want to lose hope. (sidenote: my husband is so calm about the whole thing---he is so excited to get our referral and waiting eagerly but he knows it will come at exactly the right time.) I know this as well but just today, I feel complete peace. We trust in a God who knows exactly who our sweet one is and exactly where he/she is. It doesn't really matter when I get the referral (although it would be nice to get it soon:) because God has already orchestrated the whole thing. I am so thankful that God includes us in His plan.

So for today, I am still hoping and eagerly waiting to see my sweet babe's picture.