He's got this!

Lately, Tommy and I have been feeling really discouraged about the adoption process. As some of you may know, in domestic adoption the birth mother chooses the adoptive parents by looking at scrapbooks we create about ourselves. ALOT of emphasis is put on these books. They are supposed to be big, colorful, and full of pictures of our house, our families, our vacations, and activities. We are supposed to make ourselves look as "fun and interesting" as possible. Adoption is wonderful and mandated by the gospel. Where would we be without our spiritual adoption in Christ? But, this process seems very superficial sometimes. What do our vacations, house, or activities really have to do with what type of parents we will be? Why does it have to be this way?

Well, the other day Tommy got an email from a friend that he hasn't spoken to in months. She and her husband adopted a child as well, and here is what the email said.

"I have been thinking about you and your wife for the last couple of days…I keep hearing GOD tell me to contact you…so how are you?

Do you ever watch the George Lopez show…I watch it sometimes on Nick at Night and he is always telling his wife, "I got this!" which usually means he is going to mess it up! But it is so funny that I love that phrase…Well, this summer when my church, at my insistence, did our first VBS in years, GOD kept telling me, "I got this!!!" He made it a HUGE success!!!!

Now, he keeps whispering to me to let you know that "He's got this!!!" I don't know what this is…but rest assured He has it…"

Our God is an awesome God, and He's got this! This process may not be perfect, but He is sovereign over all of it...Amen!

We're having fun!

So we are in the wait, but we're trying to have some fun, too! Lately, Tommy and I have started a "Discovering Alabama Tour." We both grew up in Mississippi and know and love our home state very well. But, we have lived in Alabama for several years now and realized that we don't know much about our new home state. So far we've visited Rickwood Caverns, Noccalula Falls, Desoto Caverns, Auburn, Cullman, Cathedral Caverns, Cheaha State Park, Mentone, Gorham's Bluff, and most recently this past weekend Morgan Creek Vineyard.

Little did we know that Alabama has 13 wineries! Why go to California when you can just visit the great state of Alabama for some fine muscadine wine?!? This past weekend was Morgan Creek Vineyard's fall festival and annual grape stomp. We didn't decide to go until Saturday morning, and as we drove to Harpersville, I was a little afraid we might be the only ones there...that would be awkward...boy was I wrong! There were tons and tons of people there, and we had a blast! They had a band, barrels set up where you could stomp the grapes, wine tastings, winery tours, and Full Moon Barbecue served lunch. However, the best part of the day was definitely the Lucy Look Alike Contest! Here are some pictures and fun facts about Morgan Creek Vineyard.

The entire production process is done in this one room. They make muscadine, apple, peach, and blueberry wine. Muscadine wine does not have to age after the fermenting process, but they age the apple, peach, and blueberry wines about 6 months.

They produce 15,000 cases of wine a year, and ship to 400 stores across Alabama AND Mississippi.

Here is the vineyard. It was really pretty even in the sweltering heat!

One of the Lucy's competing in the Lucy Look Alike Contest

And...

Our favorite of the 30 something Lucy's that competed on Saturday! Hope ya'll had as much fun as we did this weekend!

Adoption Anxiety

So far, all my post have been reflecting the fun and exciting side of adoption. Adoption CAN be really fun and exciting. The sense of urgency that you need to be ready at a moments notice is very exciting. It is fun to anticipate when we are going to get the call, how we will tell our family and friends, will we get to meet our birth mother, will we be at the hospital when the baby is born...even in the delivery room? But...

The adoption road is long. There is a HUGE risk in adoption. There IS such a thing as a failed adoption. Our journey to adoption was long and hard. I have some days when I am flying high anticipating what the Lord has in store for us...and I have some days when my anxiety level is so high I feel like the Lord pulls me back just before I go over the edge. I have been so angry at times. The wait is hard. It is hard to see family and friends have babies. Sometimes it is even hard to celebrate with others. It just does not seem fair. But...

Tommy and I feel called to adoption. We feel called to this struggle, and that is what adoption is sometimes. It is a really hard struggle within yourself to stay committed, to stay strong, and to stay focused on the Lord, and remember that the Lord chose this precious child for OUR family from the beginning of time. Life is full of struggles, and there is no better place to find relief than in God's word. Here are some scripture verses that I look to to remind me of God's steadfast love and faithfulness and that He is my refuge and strength.

"...I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you."

Jeremiah 31:3

"but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." Isaiah 40:31

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21

God is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling." Psalm 46: 1-3

"'Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!' The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress." Psalm 46:10

I hope these verses lift your spirits, if you are struggling today. Thank you for your continued prayers and support!

The Bunnykins' First Easter Basket

This past Easter my mom, a.k.a. Bibi, was sweet enough to think of our little one when she was getting Easter happies for her other grandchildren. Bibi's love language is definitely giving. She always remembers special occasions or anticipates special occasions to come with thoughtful cards or happies. Bibi, it does not go unnoticed, and it is definitely appreciated. Thank you!

So last Easter, Bibi gave our baby to be a precious Peter Rabbit feeding set by Beatrix Potter. It will definitely be put to good use. I can just image a high chair set up in our dining room covered in baby food! On that Easter morning, Bibi also named our little one the "Bunnykins." When my sister was pregnant with her first, we called him "Peanut"...and we called her second child "Sweet Pea." So, nicknames for babies on the way are becoming quite a tradition in our family. I think that "Bunnykins" is very appropriate considering his/her first Easter gift. I've included a picture of the sweet feeding set for you to see, appropriately taken in the dining room.

Moments of Frustration...Our Poor Bushes!

Let me start this post by saying we LOVE our social worker. She has been amazing! She is sooo nice and down to earth. We could NOT ask for more...

Now, adoption requires ALOT of patience which is apparently something I need to acquire. When we started this process, our agency told us that it would take about two months to receive our FBI clearances, and it took almost eight weeks to the day to receive them in the mail. I didn't enjoy waiting, but I was expecting the FBI to take that long, and they did. Tommy's and my clearances arrived together on a Friday afternoon. Apparently that was a real blessing because couple's clearances don't always arrive at the same time. We finished turning in our homestudy paperwork about a week later and were told that our social worker would be calling us SOON to schedule our home visit. One day went by...two days went by...three days...a week... For some reason I thought that she would call us immediately. After three weeks of waiting, I was a little agitated to say the least. At last our sweet social worker did call. We were apparently third in line for a home visit, and as they say, the rest is history (see "Progress Update"). Why was I able to wait EIGHT weeks for our clearances but couldn't wait a mere THREE weeks for our home study visit? Well, I guess the Lord only knows.

One afternoon during our three week wait, we decided to take our frustrations out on the bushes in the back yard. Our azalea bushes were more like azalea trees, and Tommy and I had been talking about replacing them for quite some time. We wanted to save money by doing it ourselves. So that afternoon when we got home from work, Tommy went to town with the chain saw. It only took a day for Tommy to cut them down and for me to hall the GINORMOUS branches to the front curb, and it only took us a couple of weeks to figure out that we could not dig up the stumps ourselves and call a tree service to do it for us! (In the meantime, our social worker came and did our home visit.) Once the stumps were gone and the dirt was tilled up, we began to plant. We finished planting our new (much smaller) bushes the other weekend, and I have included some picture of our handiwork below. We love the new bed, but it was much more work than we anticipated. So, my advice to you is to think twice before you take your frustrations out on your bushes!

Philadelphia Cream

Tommy will tell you that I am big on making "snap decisions." Not about major stuff, but little things. Actually, I'm not a quick decision maker at all. I will think, think, think something to death, make a decision, and then change my mind at the last minute. Again, this is for small everyday stuff not major life choices. For instance, at a restaurant while everyone is visiting with each other I intently study the menu. When the waiter comes to take our orders, I ask him to take mine last, and I inevitable change my mind at the last minute and order something different...a.k.a. a "snap decision."

This is exactly what I did when choosing a paint color for our hopefully soon to be nursery. Even before we signed our adoption paperwork and really started our homestudy, I was thinking about a paint color. I looked through my paint deck numerous times and ordered many samples. (I'm a Benjamin Moore girl all the way!) After settling on a very neutral yellow/beige color, I ordered a large paint sample and looked at it in the room in all different lights. This went on for weeks...maybe even months. Well, fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. The day we needed to order the paint. I literally had the phone in my hand to call Rainbow Paint, and I thought, "This is not the right color for our Bunnykins!" I went to the design library at work and began looking for another color. That is when I found Philadelphia Cream! I ran it by a coworker, and she loved it too. So, I came home that night with a completely different shade of the most wonderful yellow/cream (although my husband couldn't tell the difference)...and I LOVE it!

We painted the nursery a couple of weekends ago. It used to be red. When we bought our house, we knew that this room would one day be a nursery. So, why we ever painted it red I cannot tell you. Well, two coats of primer and two coats of paint later, we both love the new color! I've included some pictures for your enjoyment. By the way, I did help. Tommy did not do all the work...although he did do most of it. What a great husband!

Progress Update

Some of you may be wondering where we are in the adoption process, and I am pleased to report that we are homestudy approved! Tomorrow we have our "exit interview" with our agency director. We have not met with the her since February, so I think she wants to meet just to talk about how the process will run from here on out. At the meeting, we will also turn in our adoption scrapbook.

The homestudy has been quite extensive. We officially signed on with our agency at the end of March, and the first step for the homestudy was getting background checks. We had to be approved by the FBI, ABI (Alabama Bureau of Investigation), DHR in Mississippi, and DHR in Alabama. So it's official, we are NOT criminals! It took 8 weeks for all of the background checks to come back to us. In the meantime, we gathered the rest of our paperwork together. We got copies of our birth certificates, marriage license, social security cards, tax returns, etc. We had to have references from pastors, bosses, lifelong friends, and family (which could not include parents "because they have to love us"). We wrote our autobiographies and had to get physicals. We even had to turn in vet records for Sadler, our golden retriever.

We turned all that paperwork in, and once the background checks came back, we had our home visit with our social worker. The visit went really well! Our social worker is so nice and laid back. It took about three weeks to schedule the home visit. So during that time, we worked on our adoption scrapbook. The scrapbook is what the agency shows the birth mothers and is basically how they pick us. Yes, in domestic adoption the birth mother chooses the adoptive parents. The book consists of a letter to the birth mother and lots of pictures of us, family, friends, Sadler, our house, vacations, holidays, etc.

So, that brings us to the present. After our meeting tomorrow, we will officially be a "waiting family." The wait will definitely be the hardest part of this whole process. Although the homestudy has been pretty crazy, it has been nice to have something to do. It made me feel like I was somewhat in control, which brings me back to God's sovereignty. What a comfort that God knows exactly when our little Bunnykins will be in our arms. I can't wait to look back and see how each step of this journey happened in His perfect timing. I know life always does.

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Tommy and I have thought of this verse throughout our journey, and I hope that if our precious child ever wonders why he/she was adopted instead of born into our family, that it will be a comfort to him/her as well.