An ordinary day, until...

Approximately 3:30 eastern time, when Natalie made the infamous call.

Here is how it went.
I was out running errands while Micah was in preschool and i decided to go to Starbucks on my way to go get him. So, I am sitting at the window waiting when the phone rings. I open my phone, and see UNKNOWN. I of course think all in two seconds,"Natalie, no it can't be. I have had to many of these and they are never her." But as I am saying hello and she is saying "This is Natalie," the man at the window with my coffee is trying to give it to me and tell me if I don't like it I can get something else. I give him a BIG smile and pull away.

So, after much squealing and laughter and a little info. on Isaac, I realize she is calling on the day Trevor doesn't come home until 10pm ish. What am I going to do. I tell her, I will do everything I can to get us together. I call Trevor, tell him and shock abounded. He could not believe it was finally happening. Me either.

We decided to wait until 5pm for Natalie to call me back and that I would go through the info with her (minus pics.) on my own and then we would wait and open the pictures when we were all together later that night. We wanted us all three to be together when we saw Isaac for the first time. I get off the phone with her, hop in the car take Micah to a friends house, pick up another friend and drive to Durham(where my husband is. He had the Young Professionals bi-weekly gathering). We stayed through the announcements and drove home. It was 9pm ish by the time we were all home and could open our email and see our precious boy. And boy is he precious.

Natalie said it would probably be 3-4wks before we hear about a court date. So, we are buckling up for another wait. She said it could be 2+ months before he is home. Hey, what is 8-10 weeks when you have been waiting as long as we have. We trust God, His timing and His perfect will for our family. What more could I ever ask for.

Adoption Awareness Month

Our Story.

Our story begins a lot like most. We desired to be parents. So we set out on the journey to conceive. We knew it would be difficult, but we knew God was the God of impossibles. Three years later we decided to seek advice from a fertility clinic. After we were given our options we decided not to rush it, but to pray and wait for a clear answer from God.

On June 24, 2002, I was praying and seeking answers about what we should do and in the stillness of that moment God spoke to me so clearly and said "Adopt," and gave me a vision of Moses being sent down the Nile river. A picture of adoption. We were flooded with emotions and fears about what to do. After six months of waiting patiently and praying we felt we should move forward with what we felt was God's answer and our step of obedience. We met with a SW (now dear friend, Cindy) and proceeded with a domestic adoption. During that year God used an amazing experience common in private adoptions to have us seek another route. We met with Cindy again to discuss IA adoptions.

In March of 2004 we began the process to adopt internationally from Russia. In May of 04 we received the referral of sweetest, most adorable little boy, we named Micah.

On June 24, 2004, two years to the day from when God told us His choice for us was adoption, we were meeting our son for the first time. We had the amazing and unique privilege to keep Micah with us for 72hrs. He was the happiest kid, he laughed at everything. We bonded and fell deeply in love with our son. Then, it was time for him to go back to the orphanage and us back home. You see, in Russia they require two trips, one to meet your child the second to make it legal in court. That day I felt my heart would be reaped from my chest.

On July 27th, we were reunited, on July 29th he officially became ours and on August 3rd we were home.

It would take a novel to express the emotions we went through on this journey to adopt our son. Now, my outlook on adoption is different than when we started. We knew that adoption was and still is the way God intended to grow our family, but it has a much deeper purpose. As we have grown closer to Jesus, we have come to realize more and more the true sacrifice that Jesus made to adopt us as His children and the love that poured forth for us to become a part of His eternal family. Our hope is that our family would be a picture of the Gospel of Jesus.

Christmas Tree Lighting...

Do you see the resemblance?

I know I know, it is not even Thanksgiving yet! We do usually wait to put up the tree until the day after Thanksgiving...BUT, we are not going to be home until well after Thanksgiving and we wanted to have it up when we got home. We had a great day putting it up and decorating the ole home.

So, we are expecting to coast on through week 16 this week and right into 17 next week, which only leaves us two more weeks. I did speak to our coordinator last week and she said they have had no family wait longer than 5 months. I told her she could not make us the exception. We are well on our way now. I would never have imagined it taking this long, but now when I look back it doesn't really seem that long and i know that is how i will feel when Isaac is finally home.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

ORDER NOW!

FREE SHIPPING at Just For You, if you order by November 20th. All orders will make it in time for Christmas if you order by November 20th. They make great Christmas gifts. ORDER NOW!

Stuff Every Where....

I wish I had taken a picture of my house over the past few days...but I didn't, sorry. Picture above was added later. It is what is still left to be put away, mostly clothes.
My parent came to vist this past weekend and brought all of Micah's old cloth's, shoes, bedding, crib, toys, etc. for Isaac. And let me just tell you my 800 sq. ft. apartment got a lot smaller. I was tripping over tubs and boxes, not funny for the neat freak that I am. So, today I spent all day moving furniture around completely rearranging to fit a crib into M & I 's room. WOW! I had been debating the whole crib thing but finally settled on putting it up (not yet, but soon), thinking this will be best for Isaac for a while.

Today, was 15 weeks. I can't even believe we have been waiting this long. For me it has gotten a lot easier. Not sure why, but the days just seem to be flying by and the hope is there everyday, but not the anxiety, Thank You JESUS! If Natalie is correct and 5 months is the longest we should wait then we have 5 weeks to go or should I say we should recieve a referral within 5 weeks. That to me is exciting. I thought in the begining weeks 8 and 10 would be exciting because my expectations were to get it then, but they and the next 3 were really hard. Now, I feel like we are in the 7th inning stretch. Definitely looking forward to winning in the bottom of the 9th. Come on, no extra innings, PLEASE!

So much FUN!

This past weekend our good friends Carmen and Aaron and their sweet little boy Ezra came to Durham for our church's Global Missions Conference. They were here to represent their church plant Gallery Church in NY,NY that the Summit Church partners with. I continue to be amazed at how over ten years God continues to intertwine our lives through the ministries we are a part of. We got to spend five days hanging out and catching up. Great Times!

After much encouragement I have made public a small business venture and wanted to share it with you. I have created a blog and would love for you to visit. You will find a link for JUST FOR YOU under Good Stuff on the left side of my blog.

When?

So we keep getting ask "When" we will hear something about Isaac? And our response is always, "Any day!" Well, it will be 14 weeks on Tuesday and 7+ months for the whole thing and it is getting harder to believe that it will be any day. I know it still could be "any day" but my enthusiasm is waning.

It struck me last week that we are only 8 weeks out from Christmas, so the hope of him being home for the holidays is dwindling. Now, we can only hope it will still be the first of the year.

BUT, in the midst of it all God is my joy. I find delight in Him and because of that the wait is bearable. We pray our wait will end soon, but rest in HIM.

So, for those who live near us, you will know "When," it happens, because there will be LOUD praising and rejoicing and for those who live all over the great ole USA, you will know "When," because we will be bloggin all about it.

Halloween Night

Just wanted everyone to see the cutest Ninja Turtle ever. We went tricker treating in Historic WF down Main St. with Micah and his entourage last night. There were literally hundreds of kids and adults out. It is such a cool area to go. The historic homes are all decked out and everyone is out sitting on their porches. So much fun.