we've started!!!

we spent the afternoon yesterday cleaning out the garage.
in anticipation of bringing all the stuff up from the basement for the yard sale that people have already dropped off!

this afternoon we will paint a big banner to hang up during the sale.

this is so exciting.
i can not WAIT to see what God is going to do through this!

i've been so humbled at the help and support we have already received...phone calls from friends of friends wanting to drop stuff off...a check in the mail that said it was to be used to cover the costs off supplies for the yard sale...God has is ALL covered, doesn't He??

yet i'm on the edge.

there is SO much on my plate...crazy spring sports schedules, triathlon training, teacher appreciation week next week, playing and reading to my 4 kids (which i spent this morning doing just that...i hate to admit how long it had been since i spent an entire morning doing that....), re-decorating all the kids rooms as we re-arrange them to make room for 2 more!, nursery commitments at church, throwing a going away party for friends (in total denial that they are leaving...but excited about a party!), having people over both nights this weekend...

not to mention the normal cleaning/cooking/homework helping/laundry/everyday stuff! :-)

my head is about to explode.

BUT...NO adoption paperwork! yippee yahoo!!!!

i'm trusting Him with each moment.
because i have no other choice.

if you think about it, can you pray for us (me??)
i'd covet your prayers for my time, patience, strength this next week.

thank you!!!

He's got me in a place where it's ALL HIM because i got nothin'!
it's painful, and hard...yet i LOVE it!

our dossier is complete!!!!!!!!!!

i seriously doubted that we'd EVER say those words...but it's true!!!

we received the rest of the documents on saturday - authenticated and ready to go!

i spent saturday afternoon making 3 copies of every document.

then we spread them out all around our dining room to compile the 3 complete copies we needed.

we have 1 stack of the actual, original dossier.
2 copies to give to our agency.
and we keep a copy.

rebekah helped :-)

and, here it is...

you have NO idea what this stack of papers means to us.
SO many hours...so much money...

and one step closer to those 2 little boys in Rwanda!

pat walked into our agency this morning and handed them over!

i'll talk about what the next step is soon...just let me enjoy that we are finished with this one for a moment! :-)

oh how she gets it

i've been DYING to share this post...but i had to wait...you'll see why!

a few weeks ago, my friend robyn, commissioned REBEKAH to make shirts for her 2 kids.
not me.
REBEKAH.
robyn GETS how rebekah GETS this adoption thing (and water thing...and loving others thing...she's amazing!) and she wanted to give her an opportunity to raise money for her 2 brothers to come home.
robyn, i can't thank you enough for this opportunity!

so, i bought the shirts.
rebekah picked out the fabric.
i helped her draw the shapes ("water drop" for jackson, "africa" for belle)

there were some learning moments...she cut out the first water drop very sloppily.
i made her re-do it.
lesson on doing things WELL. especially when you are doing them for someone else.
but we should always do things WELL!

she was nervous to push the pedal and guide it through the machine herself.
but i wanted her to feel the accomplishment...and she wouldn't if i did it for her.
so i encouraged her from behind (and prayed REALLY hard! because i wanted her to feel this accomplishment!)
and she did great.
it took FOREVER.
but she did great!!!

and i don't think she would have that light in her eyes if i had pushed the pedal or guided the shirt through the machine.

rebekah, i'm so so proud of who you are. of how you love everyone around you before yourself. you inspire me. i love you so so much!

here is the video of robyn's kids receiving their shirts. i SOBBED. to be a part of this whole big thing God is doing is just amazing.

i have no more words.

**edited to add: you WILL be able to order these from rebekah...more to come on this soon! (once our dossier is on it's way -we're SO close! and the yard sale is over in 2 weeks!!!!)

authentication trip!

we were all so excited for our trip to richmond!

{joshua wrote this the night before...}

i had butterflies in my stomach.
the day had so many pieces...and it was literally planned out to the minute.

after my 6 mile run in the morning, i got ready and got the car all packed...snacks, lunch, meal packed for friend, bag of activities for the kids if we had to wait long at the authentication office, change of clothes for everyone, pj's for everyone, camera (duh!), paperwork to be signed, bikes and scooter. the car was pretty full! :-)

first stop, IKEA!
it's about an hour of us...and i'm making the girls new duvet covers and wanted to get comforters to go in the covers at Ikea.
it was on the way from our house to Richmond, so it made sense to stop.

this is the only picture i have from there...it's a SUPER kid friendly place...and i utilized this great seat on the back of the bathroom stall for sawyer! :-)

we got to ikea at 10 on the dot (when it opened) and were headed back to the car at 10:30 (exactly when i was planning...) until i realized i had somehow gotten 1 twin and 1 FULL comforter! so...back through the store (which, if you've been to ikea, you KNOW is not easy!) to get another twin. buy it. and return the full. now i'm getting back on the road at 11 am. ugh. behind schedule already.

get back on 95.
it's a parking lot.
ROAD WORK!
it should be illegal to do road work on 95 south between NOVA and Richmond on a friday.
seriously.

once the traffic starts moving i *somehow* make up for lost time.
until my GPS sends me towards Charlottesville instead of into Downtown Richmond.
i call Leah and she gets me back on track...but i was 30 minutes away from where i wanted to be...more lost time...

get to the authentication office.
well, park 4 blocks away from the authentication office.
load the stroller up with all our bags (lunch, activities, paperwork, sawyer's clothes - he was still in his pj's! :-))
pay 2 hours worth of a meter

then walk to the authentication office.
it's 1:30pm-ish.

hand over our paperwork.
she takes one look at it and tells me it will take a couple hours.
it should be done by 4 pm.
not what i was planning on...i was hoping to wait for it and be done.

we leave and eat our lunch in a little courtyard right outside of the building.
the kids are doing AWESOME!
no complaining...going with the flow...(joshua is asking every few minutes when we are seeing owen :-))

after we eat our lunch, we walk back to the car and hop in. just as i'm ready to drive away, a man in a suit and holding a Bible in one hand knocks on our window. i roll the window down. he asks me if there's anything he can pray for us? we have a little conversation. and he prays for us right then and there. as we drive away, the kids are amazed! that a stranger would pray for us!

we drive to leah's house to hang out, play, and let sawyer take a nap (it's 2:30...WAY late for sawyer's nap! but he was going great!)

the kids had a ball playing outside.
they made a playground for the caterpillars they found :-)

leah treated us well!
i had a diet soda (ahhh!!!!)
the kids got juice boxes.
we had yummy cookies!

leah and i sat outside and caught up a little while the kids played (NOT long enough though!!!)

the authentication office called and said my documents were ready to be picked up.
leah graciously watched all my kids so i could go back downtown to pick up the documents.
i left about 3:30 pm and got back to her house at 4:15 pm.

the building.

the office...
a few of our documents were not filled out properly by the notary.
so we need her to fix that and then we will mail them in.
i was super sad and frustrated and disappointed.
i called pat and vented.
had a little temper tantrum in the car on the way back to leah's.
and then was fine.
there was nothing else i could do...it was NOT going to ruin the rest of our day!

got to leah's, woke sawyer up, gathered all our stuff and headed over to the fogarty's.

it was about 4:45 pm by the time we got to their house.
we were supposed to be there at 3:30 pm...so both joshua and owen were SUPER anxious...

they were SO cute together from the second they got out of the car!
their relationship is so sweet...i just love it!

everyone played outside...

i ended up forgetting my water bottle at leahs, so she drove it over to me and cary (her husband) stopped by on his way home from work. the kids loved seeing him!

oh how i loved getting to hug ali's neck...baby ryan is a week old and i've never been able to see her so soon after giving birth! she looks AMAZING! and ryan is the cutest thing ever!

the visit was way too short. but precious all the same.

we left the fogarty's and stopped for dinner on the way to our last stop.
chick fil a!
how cute are the kids??

our last stop was the Thompson's house.
they adopted a little boy from Rwanda in January...and live in Richmond. when she saw i was going to be in town, she asked me to stop by! we "know" each other through our blogs, but had never met in person.

and it just so happened that the Thomas' were visiting this weekend also - and also adopted from Rwanda (they were in the same travel group!)

both families were so gracious to let us crash their party!
my kids loved it...took about 3 seconds to get comfortable and then jumped right in!
i treasured seeing these sweet families in person...and hearing from them...

we left at 8:15 pm...and got home at 10:30 pm.

quite the day.
long...but so so amazing.
i felt your prayers in such a real way.
and the kids were unbelievable with all we did!

it was a GREAT day...and i felt like i got hit by a truck when i woke up the next morning :-)

WE GOT OUR APPROVAL!!!!!!!!

it was raining.
i grabbed the mail as we ran in the house from getting joshua on the bus and saw this return label right away!!!

i tried to keep from getting too excited after last time.
but i would have been devastated if it wasn't our approval.

{i have to make a confession...i emailed USCIS last Monday asking about our approval. they emailed me back and said it should be mailed out in 3-4 days...so i was even more hopeful that it would be arriving soon. yet at the same time very guarded in getting too excited.}

thankfully, it WAS our approval!!!

those of you that haven't been through this process are probably having a hard time understanding how much this 1 piece of paper means...but it means a lot!

it means that the United States has approved us to adopt 2 little boys.
and it was the last piece of paper we were waiting for to be able to send all our paperwork over to Rwanda.

but, of course, it's not that easy.

now that we have all our paperwork, we have to get each piece of paper (and there are a LOT!) authenticated (which is a step above "notarized" - which they are already all notarized). you have to get stuff authenticated at the Capitol - in Richmond - in our case. you can mail it and wait 3 or so weeks...or drive there and walk in and have them do it. um...we are driving to Richmond on Friday (works out nicely that the kids have a teacher workday that day...but i would have taken them out of school anyways...) :-)

over the weekend we will make 3 copies of EVERYTHING and get it all organized and then (hopefully) i will drive it to our agency on Monday and drop it off!

at that point it will be out of our hands. (which at this point sounds nice...but the next wait will be even longer and harder.)

they will approve everything and it will go through a process of being translated and sent to Rwanda!!!

once it arrives in Rwanda we will wait again for approval from their government. right now that wait is about 6 months...and traveling about 2 months after that to bring our children home.
AHH!!! SO excited today!

{and in all the excitement i TOTALLY forgot that i was supposed to register Bailey for kindergarten today. at her school. from 9 am to 3 pm. i remembered at 2:30 as i was picking the kids up from school. bailey and sawyer were sleeping. we ran home, woke bailey up and RAN back to the school just in the nick of time! she had sweet pillow crease marks on her face as she registered for kindergarten...at least i already had all the paperwork filled out!}

it would have been too perfect

to get our approval on my birthday.
wouldn't it?

we didn't get it.

i was afraid i'd be EXTRA disappointed today.
i thought for SURE God would "bless" me with that gift.

i'm not as disappointed as i thought.

i'm more resolved than ever.
no matter how long or how hard or how many days of an empty mailbox or how many hurdles we have to jump...
i will keep going as long as it takes to get to those 2 little boys.

this is only the beginning.

i need to build my "strength" and i'm trusting that this is one way He's using to do just that.

i know He has called us to this.
and He will provide what we need.
but i also know this is going to be a hard road...not easy.
and i'm ok with that because it's His road.

i'll focus on the other gifts that i can hug today...my amazing husband and 4 children that are so excited to be celebrating my birthday with me!
{and a part of my heart is always yearning to hug them...}