some might wonder...

what our days look like.

and because some most times, pictures are better than words::

 (you wouldn't believe how many cows we see walking the streets!!!)

 (safe, brotherly distance;)

 (bowling...i know o-boy's eyes are shut but i uploaded the wrong one and it takes too long to fix it!)

(anti-itch cream...mosquitos LOVE this boy!!)

sharing (it happens sometimes!)

tired yet?!?!

easter::2011::ugand.a

no fancy dresses
no [ironed] shirts
no running around from place to place
no elaborate schedule
no expensive meal...

just me. and my {immediate} family. and a few friends;)

celebrating the resurrection of our king.

ugand.an style.

no nonsense.
just simply celebrating and enjoying the blessings that easter day brings.

enjoying eachother. and nothing else.

OH happy day. .. ..... .......... . ..... ...

flight plan.

we should be sitting in the airport right now. waiting to fly home. but we aren't.
and that isn't the plan anymore.

we were hoping to get news of a court date today. but we didn't.

clearly, god has other plans and we are thankful that he is the author of this story.

i will be honest. it has been a hard day...hard without any news...the kids had a hard day too {almost as if they knew we weren't going home}

yesterday, i was talking to o-boy and asking him if he missed home. you know what he said??

"don't talk about it momma." i pushed a little more and he said it again, "MOMma, don't TALK about it!" i then asked him if it made him sad....he answered the way any little boy would after being away from home for over 6 weeks. with the sadest look on his face, he just nodded and i knew we were done talking about it. my eyes welled up and we were on to something else.

the past 6 weeks have probably been the hardest weeks of my life. seriously. we are tired. worn out. our kids are tired and even more worn out than we are {if that is possible:)}.

but this is not the end. there is one verse that keeps running through my head. day after day. after day after day. and it is this :: The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still. [ex 14:14]


the lord is fighting and we WILL {continue} to be still. because this is where HE has us. THIS is where he wants us RIGHT now. i posted a quote last september that encouraged me then and it still does now. especially now...read on {note what i wrote after the quote.....}


**remember this: God may not do what you want, but He will do what is right ... and best. He's the Father of forward motion. trust Him. He will get you home. and the trials of the trip will be lost in the joys of the feast.**  {max lucado}

oh and can someone please remind me of these truths when i am in country. and as we are waiting to travel. and when i am home. and. ... and .... and ... for the rest of my life.............thanks:)


a few days ago, a dear friend sent a note of encouragement and in it, were my own words from that september day...
god knew that i needed that sweet word then and now. as for tonight, we are praising Him because HE IS the father of forward motion. AND HE will get us home {sometime;)}


so for now...we will be "still" in africa and wait expectantly for what is to come...even if it isn't on our own time. 

cupcakes anyone??!

in case you didn't know....

HE IS OURS.

our sweet babyu is f i n a l l y. OURS.

after 569 DAYS::over a year and a half.

he. is. ours.

OFFICIALLY.

and boy..he might be one of the sweetest things EVER.

his cheeks. his belly. his lips...

....EVERYTHING is just sooooo squishy.

he has some serious squish...he is so lovable..

and so, completely and utterly

WORTH THE WAIT!!!!

can you tell we are in love??!

hard to believe..

it has been 5 weeks as of yesterday since we landed in this beautiful country.

5 weeks...
    away from friends and family.
    away from the comforts of our home and community.
    of learning about the people and places of our babies birth place.

and 5 weeks of soaking in EVERYthing around us.

it has been a glorious 5 weeks. meeting our sweet ones, loving ALL of our babies and becoming family. tried and true family.
the last 35 days have been hard, tiring, emotional and very trying...

but at the same time, the past 35 days have been filled with so much joy, laughter, yelling and giggles.
we are blessed and oh.sothankful.

it is hard to believe how fast we became accustomed to life here in africa. we don't think twice about strapping the babies on {sometimes all 3}, taking a taxi, shopping in the market for fresh produce {one of the best things ever!!}, asking for the 'real' price...not the mzungu {white person} price, washing laundry by hand, the blackouts.....this life...it has become our own.

we have adopted this new way of life because we are here and want to be present..we want to see what god has for us in the time that he has allowed us to be here. we want to soak as much of this country in that we can so that as our children grow older, we can tell them stories. many, MANY stories about where they were born and where they spent the first years of their lives. we want this place to be a part of us forever. we want to be changed by this place...i believe we have been. i pray the things that we are learning are forever engraved on our hearts. and that when we return home {whenever that may be...}, we would be a changed family.

i do believe we are a changing..

and i am pretty certain, it is for the better.

let the countdown begin

we have about 16 more hours until we board..

bags are [almost] packed

house needs to be cleaned 

and a few other loose ends need to be tied up

o-boy is sick. very sick...fever, cough, snotty nose..the whole sh'bang.

it came on last night and has settled in very quickly...

please pray that as we prepare to board our plane tonight his little body fights this thing off as quickly as it came on...pray that the people around us would give us grace as we travel with a sick boy..and that a and i would not get sick..

thanks for joining us...we are thrilled to have you come along for the ride!

it's true.

we have a sweet girl. 

an itty, bitty girl that we are so blessed to have the privilege of loving. and adoring and longing for. 

a sweet girl that o-boy calls "the girl" {a term of endearment, i promise:). 

she lives in uga.nda. and she is oh. so. precious. 

so beautiful. 

at 8 months old, she had 6 teeth, weighed 9lbs and was 23 inches long. so she is itty, bitty. our o-boy was 22 inches and 8lbs7oz when he was born.

we will keep the details for her to share [if she wants]..but, we can tell you... our girl....she's a fighter. boy is she a fighter. our baby is determined and tenacious.

her name ??    nya. 

because we believe God has an amazing *purpose* for her sweet life. a huge *purpose* ... it also means *tenacious*...we are praying she uses that tenacity for the good of others!

we came to know about her 5 weeks ago. so she is 9 months now and growing and getting even cuter with each day. you should see her lashes....they literally touch her eyebrows. they are absolutely beautiful...can you tell we are in love? 

after emilyn,  we decided not to pursue another child..but i will say we did keep praying that god would make his will known. and..if there was another child that needed some love then we would surely give that love and be their family! the closer and closer we were getting to traveling, we were getting more and more used to the idea of being a family of 4 instead of 5. we were getting so excited to bring our sweet boy home and so excited to have the two boys. it seems like we were to be a family of 4. 


but once again, His plans were different than ours and we are so thankful..so thankful..

a few weeks ago, we got an email about this sweet girl and well...the rest is history;) she is ours. she is our daughter. our girl. THE girl :)

so excited to meet our sweet girl nya and our babyu (stories on his name to come soon!). 

really, words can't express what we are feeling now...the idea of having 3 littles..well, it just makes my heart leap for joy and makes my eyes fill with tears.  

our lives are about to get a whole lot more hectic, crazy, loud and busy...but, honestly, we can't wait. we can't wait to have these sweet children running through the house, screaming at each other, keeping us up at night, playing together, having some serious dance parties...the list goes on and on ...because quite frankly, all i do is day-dream (well that AND prepare for a family of 5 to spend 7 weeks in africa!!!)...yeah, we may not shower as much or do as much laundry..our dishes might pile up a little faster..we may will stay home more often...we won't get as much sleep.....we probably won't get time for ourselves...

BUT..

we will be united. we will be family. we will be together. at last.a family of five. 5. 

our kids will have to learn to cooperate, share and live in close proximity. we will continue to learn that love trumps things. it trumps stuff...it trumps all....we will all be learning to love more. love better. love well. we all will have to learn to love when it hurts. when it makes us uncomfortable. even when we are tired and don't want to...

we leave in 48 hours and we are feeling every emotion possible...

*************

we are coming babies...all 3 of us...can't wait to hold you close..take in your smell...smother you both in kisses and loves.. we have waited so long for this moment and now that it is nearing, i can't pull it together..words cannot express what we are feeling. know that we are coming soon..and we won't ever have to leave. never, ever. we are yours and you are ours. ah. my heart is overflowing..see you soon sweet ones. your family is coming!!! your momma and daddy are coming...and your big brother (along with dutch)...are coming...soon babies...soon

itsfriday

andmymind is running amileaminute.
really wanting to get away from this computer so i can get the million things i need to do today before everything closes for the weekend but things keep coming up.. so here i sit

in awe. in shock. of our great God.
not really though. he is the great I AM.
the almighty.
the great host.
remember? this is His party.
and man, is HE ever present.

i don't have time to talk details right now because we are leaving in 2 days. TWO....wow.
but we have encountered many obstacles this week. MANY.
everytime we turn around it seems like something isn't going as planned.
something else comes up.

but.

it's the nature of following our God.
it's the nature of adoption.
it's the nature of living a crazy life.

not for us.

but ALL for Him.

yesterday the day didn't go as planned...(shocker.)
spent a lot of the day in tears ...

after listening to some serious music and taking time to think about things and in the midst of my day falling apart..there was blessing after blessing after blessing..

after blessing.
after blessing.

i was reminded that God is always one step ahead of us. ALWAYs.
He has gotten us thus far. and is certainly not leaving us now.

we are choosing to praise Him in the uncertain times.
and in the good times.
in the crazy times. in the silent times.
when it seems like our world has been turned up-side-down.

because really. He has got us covered. He's got it.
seriously friends. to Him be the glory.

ohmygoodness

we leave in 5 days

land in ugand@ in 7 

meet our sweet, sweet babies in 8 
(lord willing!)

aaaahhhhhh! can't believe it is only  8 days  away....after waiting over a year and a half..

8 days...oh my.
it feels so good to say that. 

8 DAYS..ah.

.........

oh how we are so ready. 

SSSSSOOOOOOOOO ready. 

seriously..

little ones-your momma, daddy and your big brother are coming..

get ready for some serious loves.

we might NOT ever put you down.

no really...

because no one should live like this.

read this!!!  

.... my friend love is raising money to bring 85 people CLEAN water

 [sweet people living in a children's prison in Gulu]

....can you give just $20??

it will change their lives forever 

and 

maybe yours {if you let it!}.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WE ARE GOING TO UG@NDA!!!!!!! 


WE HAVE A COURT DATE!!!


praise God for HIS perfect timing.


AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH


seriously, having a hard time breathing since we found out...

blessings

a good friend of ours is on a plane right now headed to Ug@nda. not just for a visit but to move there. for the next two years. we are thrilled for him and excited to see just how God is going to use him during that time. please pray for him as he travels and gets settled this coming week and for all the details that go along with moving across the world.

{(side blessing:) :: his plans got delayed a week and so he talked to his pastor and the pastor suggested moving his commissioning to the next week because {get this!} a young woman was being commissioned the next week as well...guess where she is moving??? to ugan.da. seriously. they will be working for two separate orgs but they work pretty closely together in country due to the nature of the work....amazing...two people from the same community (same church even!) will be moving to the same country to do some amazing work for the next few years. unbelievable. i love how god works!}

obviously we have not traveled yet but we keep finding little blessings while we wait...like not only getting to see our dear friend but also having the opportunity to live life with him for the two months we are there....such a blessing! we had lunch with him back in dec and we thought he was joking when he said he was moving to africa..seriously, God...does the timing get any better?? we also learned of another friend that may be there serving for a month in april....we know god's timing is perfect and we are seeing things come together in unbelievable ways....

more to come later....;)

a gift from above

found this in my email this morning from a dear friend....

::The other day, *babyu* ignored the entire room full of toys in favor of a toilet paper roll, which he proceeded to pretend was a container of bubbles and blow them all over the room. The other kids noticed his game and started trailing him, pointing to pretend blowing bubbles as they all said, "bubbles! bubbles!" over and over!:) Everyone there loves bubbles, but *our boy* loves them most of all!!::

makes this momma's heart so happy. i love that he has an imagination!! canNOT wait to see what him and o-boy come up with!

{thank you rachel!!! rachel and i became friends when we found each other's blogs and found out we were with the same agency--meaning our kids are at the same home...we were matched with our sweet ones on the same day (july 19)...and they are in Ug now and were just given legal guardianship TODAY (well really last night:)...go here to see their sweet girl amelia!! rejoicing with you today friend!!!}

w.x.y.z.

so our God is good.

remembered how we prayed for Valentine's Day??? 

prayed for anything to happen on V Day???

remember how we mentioned it here 

and here 

and here and here ??? 

well, we didn't know what God had in store...

but we, TODAY on VALENTINE's DAY, we got word that 

we.

have.

a.

JUDGE!!! 

not a court date but a JUDGE...the next best thing to a court date!!

we will take it!!!!

when we first filed, a dear friend shared 

that filing is like the x in x.y.z. 

meaning:: x=filing :: y=court date :: 

z=getting on that long awaited PLANE!!!

well i am adding a w to the equation.

this is the new plan friends:)

w=filed {check}

x=assigned to a judge {check}

y=COURT DATE

z=getting on that PLANE!!!

i am liking where we sit at "x" 

but also waiting for that "Y"

and we oh so thankful for the sweet news we received on this day. 

God is good..oh so good!

**Like cold water to a weary soul 
is good news from a distant land.**

{Proverbs 25:25}

as HE was

"Jesus does not call us to do what HE did, 

but to be as HE was, 

permeated with love. 

then the doing of what he did and said

becomes the natural expression

of who WE are in HIM. "

-dallas willard

::quote of the day from o-boy::

"Momma LOOK: Pooh has a BIG belly like babyu!!" 

followed by uncontrollable laughter...

can't wait til we can smother that BIG belly with kisses!!!!

this month..

...COULD be the month we get to see, snuggle and hold our sweet boy. 


oh how we are praying it is!! 


THIS month. THIS MONTH FRIENDS. seriously. i LOVE the sound of that..
{and this is NOT a long month}


28 days

hoping in the next 4 weeks we are flying over to Africa to pick up our sweet boy. our son. o-boy's brother. your grandson. your nephew. your friend......OUR f a m i l y. 

never thought the first time we step foot on African soil would be to meet our precious son..
the sweet son we have been longing for...for OVER a year and a half....oh my..God is just too good.


my heart just started beating a little faster...and faster...andfaster...oh i can hardly stand it!

praying that FEBRAURY is THE month

{and maybe, just maybe, we get to leave on or before VALENTINES day...{please God!}}