documents back and fingerprints rescheduled and other big news

Well, I guess CIS didn't know they were closed December 26 when they sent us that notice! So our fingerprints are rescheduled for January 7. It doesn't set us back any because I am sure our homestudy is still in some pile on a shelf in someone's office. I am hoping it is a very efficient, merciful someone so that we will quickly know if we need no corrections to our homestudy or even none!

Also, the UPS woman brought all of our beautiful documents yesterday, authenticated by the Chinese Consulate in Houston. They came back!! I see great beauty in perfectly executed paperwork, in some weird way. So now we have everything ready for our dossier, except the paper from CIS.

Okay, so the big news is...we have decided to homeschool Jake and Landon next semester and hopefully beyond. Who knows what child #4 will bring, but I am hopeful it will work out even after she gets home. It has been a very long, God-led path to this journey. I can't call it a destination because I have come to realize that there is no destination in this life. We never arrive or get settled and I have made an effort to stop saying "well, maybe one day when..." All we have is today.

Basically, they were doing well in a really great school with lovely teachers and I still thought constantly about keeping them home. Even though when they first started school I was so happy to be alone for once! As they get older, I see that time is so short. I can't get these years back and we were in a cycle of get up at 6am, school, get home at 3pm, homework, piano practice (or lesson), soccer or gymnastics, chores, pehaps some free play or a friend over, dinner, bed. And by 3pm I'm tired anyway! We were missing the best of each other.

Maybe more later once we start. I am terrified and excited, but I know it will be okay. As I cleaned out their backpacks last week, I found these two things I had to share.



From Jake (age 9):
"Three Wishes"
1. Give poor people in China homes
2. For all kids in the world to have food.
3. That cancer had a cure.

From Landon (age 7):
"Thanksgiving"
I'm thankful for my friends, family, food and water, school. Grandparents too. My teachers, friends, Thanksgiving, Christmas and other holidays! I'm thankful for my house and classroom. I am thankful for shelter and you should be too.


Psalm 127:3-5
Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children are a reward from Him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.

Logged in at CIS

So, we just found out this week that we are logged in at CIS, which is US immigration. We need their approval to adopt a child from another country. Our date is 12/5, and people have been waiting about 90 days for that approval. But the process is relatively new, and I have seen people waiting 150 days, or 59. This approval is the final piece of our paperwork! We are hoping to be matched between now and then, but that timing is another unknown piece of the puzzle. In this part of the process we also have to be fingerprinted by the FBI again, just in case we've done anything since October. It really pays to be an upstanding citizen since birth in this process. Our fingerprint appointments are at 9am on December 26. How CONVENIENT. I'm rolling my eyes as I type...

My mom got chemo yesterday, which is great, since last week her white count was so low she couldn't get it. Fluid still gone, which is great!!

FedEx woes

So got a call from FedEx. Yes, my heart was pounding...I'm thinking they will say, we are so sorry but our truck ran over your documents. No, not that bad. But the Houston Consulate no longer accepts FedEx deliveries. Huh?!! So they have to send all of our papers back to us and I have to re-send them via UPS. Have you seen Australia? (the very long Baz Luhrmann movie that is) I keep thinking of our papers saying "I sing you home to me" Please, please come back to me, papers.

My mom and I took Lilla to see the Nutcracker at the Fox Theater on Friday. She loved it (well, for about 30 minutes) and wants to know when she can be in it.




Also, here's a cute picture from our 3rd annual Garage Nativity Play. We had about 20 neighborhood kids. So cute! It was very nice to focus on God coming to earth so early in the season, as opposed to trying to just squeeze him in the last Sunday of advent.



Check out this verse that I have been pondering.

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you." John 15:9 Whoa. That is Jesus talking there. I think that means he loves us as much as God loves him. Jesus loves us as much as God loves him, his one and only son, a very part of him. Well, himself actually. THAT is what Christmas is about. God's love for us. Jesus loving us so much that he humbled himself and became a helpless baby, confined to a human body for a time so that we might know him.

Yea for mom

I'm sure my mom is so thrilled with me sharing all about her weight gains and losses but I have to share again--she has lost about 25 pounds of fluid in the past week or so! Praise God! FINALLY something worked. Lilla has been praying and praying about this and sometimes it is really nice to have a clear answer--and the one you wanted too.

Adoption news: All of our documents (except the one we are waiting for from US immigration) are at the Chinese Consulate in Houston getting their final stamps! It was very hard to seal them in the FedEx envelope and send them. Like mailing a child. Well, maybe more like a pet. But still, I labored long on them and they are precious and irreplacable! FedEx, don't lose them.

I just read this "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Luke 4:18 Jesus reading from Isaiah

Do you ever think of yourself as a poor, blind, oppressed prisoner? I don't usually, since I have a great house, I can see and I live in a free country. But I realized today as I read that, I sometimes am. Maybe more on that later.


Do you like the snowflakes?

praise time and tagged again

First of all, the diuretics or change in chemo seem to be helping my mom get rid of some of her fluid, so that is a big praise!! My family had a great Thanksgiving together. We had my parents, aunt and uncle and my brother and his wife and their son over for dinner. Jake and Landon came up with some fun additions to our dinner. First, they made handprint turkeys for everyone's place card. Then on the back they put a Thanksgiving trivia question and stumped some of the adults with questions like "What was the Mayflower Compact?" (an agreement among the Pilgrims that they would vote on all decisions and the majority would rule basically) and "In what year did the first Thanksgiving take place?" (1621) Then, this month we have been gradually making a wreath with little paper leaves on which we write what we are thankful for. So they cut out extra leaves and everyone around the table wrote something they are thankful for. We put the leaves back into the turkey can (coffee can made into a turkey by Mr. Creative Jake) and then everyone chose a leaf from the turkey, read it out loud and tried to guess who wrote it.

In other thankful news, we sent our I800A form and homestudy to CIS and are now awaiting biometrics appointments and final approval so we can send our dossier to China. In English, or for those who don't speak adoption-ese, that means we have officially gotten the ball rolling over here in the US to get permission to adopt an orphan from overseas. They have to approve our homestudy and give us fingerprinting appointments. We need this fianl approval to get the last piece of paper we need for our huge pile of papers to be sent to China. This will be the third time we have been digitally fingerprinted by the FBI in the past 4 years. Seriously! Just know there is nothing hidden about us whatsoever, if you have ever wondered if we lead a secret life. We don't. We have also gotten everything off to our agency and are officially "waiting for a match" and we are thinking we will have a little picture in early 2009! Still likely won't travel until about fall of 2009 though.

And the tag (from Jen again)--
The Rules:
1. Grab the nearest book
2. Open it to page 56
3. Find the 5th sentence
4.Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with instructions
5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book or the most intellectual - Pick the CLOSEST

Okay, The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease..."Any of Tory Hayden's powerful books about the psychologically damaged children she has worked with through the years..."

I tag Abbie, Sharla and Lovell.

Army of Women

Hi friends--
This is a new thing I have just heard about:
If you are a woman, please consider joining the Army of Women. It is a research initiative to get more women involved in breast cancer research. There is no obligation to participate in any studies but you will be emailed from time to time with study opportunities. Here is something concrete you can do to honor all the women (including my mom!) who have fought breast cancer and help keep our daughters and granddaughters from having to suffer.

Mom again and other randomness

So, my mom got her port put in yesterday and got her new chemo. It has the potential to burn going in, so a port will help protect the vein. She also had some fluid drained (not much) and doubled her old diuretic and added a new one. She will see her doctor Wednesday to chat about everything. The fact remains that she has now gained 30 pounds of fluid in a few months. I know she is so uncomfortable and I hate that. Lilla prays for "Mimi" as they call my mom, every night.

Here is a cute picture I caught of Jake and Lilla dancing to "The Sound of Music." He is such a good big brother! Don't tell him you saw this.



Jake and I are currently reading The Tale of Despereaux. Can't figure out italics or underlined, but it is a novel, in case you didn't know (and are annoyed at improper citation, as I am). Landon is reading it with his class right now. I am the kind of mom who makes the kids read the book before they are allowed to see the movie. That's the kind of reader I am--if you see the movie first, it ruins the book for me, plus they usually get it wrong and it messes up your ability to imagine on your own. Anyway, I am so glad we are reading it! I highly recommend the book to anyone. Here's my most recent favorite quote:

"Reader, you must know that an interesting fate...awaits almost everyone, mouse or man, who does not conform."

Happy Thanksgiving!

OOhhh, and I figured out how to add my song--you can play it to see where the name of the blog came from.

Quick mom update

So, my mom's scans and everything looked pretty good, no worse and possibly better! Great news! Also, the fluid they drained from her looks good, as far as the pathology goes. The bad news is she still has about 20 pounds of extra fluid in her body. And when you're 5'2 that's a lot. I should know. I'm 5'2 and if I gain 4 pounds my clothes don't fit. Keeps you on your toes if you can't afford a new wardrobe. So I can't imagine how bad that must feel. Her doctor friend thinks it could be one of her chemos that is causing the fluid, so they are going to stop that one and try a new one called Navelbine. They have to put a port in for that, so she will get the port and start the new chemo Monday. Please keep praying for this fluid to go away. None of the usual things (like compression garments) work because there is nowhere for it to go. I'll leave you with a few verses I read today--

For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
2 Corinthians 4:7-9

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
1 Peter 1:6-9

Bell's Palsy

Thanks for everyone who has been asking...I forgot to update that the Bell's Palsy is GONE. A little over a week ago, I started tasting everything and finally my eye has started blinking again! It doesn't feel 100% right yet but it is so so much better. Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes!

I'll throw in a funny Lilla story:

Mark works from home so when Lilla is home for lunch a few days a week, we eat lunch together. Another aside is that Jake and Landon have been working on "hygiene charts" for Cub Scouts (thank you Cub Scouts for telling boys they NEED to take baths and showers!) Lilla made her own pretend chart too and has been randomly putting check marks on it. So, after lunch one day, I was cleaning up, doing dishes and stuff and Lilla and Mark were fooling around, being silly. And Lilla walked over to her "chart" and put a mark on it and said "Goofing around with Daddy, check!" We about died laughing.


This is how Lilla and Landon play together--wrestling, jumping, hiding behind the playroom sofa and kicking each other in the face.

National Adoption Month, bronchitis and a smelly car

Wow, having sick kids really changes the days. Lilla finally went back to school today after 3 days home with bronchitis and conjunctivitis. Landon also stayed home with a cough Monday. And one day, my internet connection wasn't working and my tech support guy (aka Mark) was out of town. It was actually enjoyable to feel free of the computer and not be able to do anything since the kids were sick. I think there's a lesson in there somewhere and I'm trying to learn it!

I have been watching an Andy Stanley video series called Take it to the Limit. He talks about how so many of us are living life with no margins, rushing from one thing to the next and striving for money, lifestyle, position without really thinking why. He suggested starting each day by asking God what HE wants us to do with our day. Psalm 90:12 says: Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Also reminds me of an essay I read (and keep meaning to re-read, but hey, who has the time!?) by Charles Hummel called Tyranny of the Urgent. You can read it here
Anyway, he and Andy both say that we often choose what is urgent over what is important. Answering the phone, checking email as soon as we hear the ding, hurrying to a meeting are all urgent. My kids, my marriage, my health, time with God are all important, but often get squeezed by whatever is in front of my face. Thoughts to ponder.

Speaking of urgent, when we got in the car this morning to go to school, all the kids started yelling and accusing each other of making a bad smell. If you know what I mean. And I am yelling, oh stop it! Let's go! But then I get in the car and am knocked over by what appears to be the scent of a rotting corpse in my car. So as usual, I am thinking someone left a milk cup, but really this was beyond. We started looking for cups under the seats and in cupholders, kind of like an archaeological dig. You know your car gets bad too sometimes. Then I have a sinking feeling and go open the way back. And the smell gets worse. Guess what I found? A package of chicken that had been sitting in the car for 4 days. At least it isn't summer. Mark, FYI it was the cheap chicken from Target, not organic free range cruelty free $8/lb blissful life and then death chicken.

Now on to the IMPORTANT. This month is National Adoption Awareness Month. I am sure you are aware of adoption if you are reading this. Please don't forget to pray for orphans and abandoned children around the world. And if you feel so led, this is a good time to support adoption, either by adopting or supporting a cause that helps children who need it. I put a list of some of my favorites on the right.

Did you know that the Bible actually says a good bit about adoption and orphans? For one thing, to take care of them.
James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.


But namely that we Gentiles were once orphans and God adopted us as sons and daughters. We got grafted into the old family tree.

After we adopted Lilla, I got the true meaning of that image. Our sons are amazing and having them was quite the bonding experience and I love them so much. But it just seemed normal and easy. My heart goes out to those who have had fertility problems and I know I am not as thankful as I should be. But when we adopted Lilla, that was something entirely different. It was very special, chosen, waited for, wished for and when it finally happened, I couldn't believe she was OURS. When I hear people ask if I love her the same, I think, well I definitely don't love her LESS if that's what the question means. But it is different because I am still so in awe that this child who was not born to us could fit into our family so perfectly and that I could love her and care for her and give her all the rights and priveledges we give our sons even though she came from somewhere else. Dare I say it is almost more special?

Same as how God looks at us. We were CHOSEN by him, not by anything we did or didn't do. Out of love for us and a desire to have relationship with us.

Ephesians 1:4-6
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

Oh, PS-Our homestudy is done and very soon we'll be "in line" as waiting parents!

Update from my mom

Hi, I was very encouraged today after meeting with the doctor at Dana Farber Cancer Ctr. in Boston. She was wonderful and spent a long time talking with Dan and me. I was afraid she was going to tell me to "get my affairs in order." Instead she kept talking about how healthy I am except for cancer. She thinks the fluid in my abdomen may be due to toxicity caused by the Avastin. She says the side effect is rare, but they have seen it several times. She recommended I have new scans to see if the disease has progressed. If it has not, she recommends I continue on Taxol minus the Avastin. In the meantime, she says I should have paracentesis to drain the fluid and to do some pathology on the fluid. If the disease has progressed, she suggested exploring clinical trials at Emory or here at Dana Farber. Alternately she suggested a chemo, Navelbine which I am familiar with. I am very open to a clinical trial. Hope this isn't too confusing or too technical. Bottom line, there's still more we can do. We head home tomorrow. I have already e-mailed and heard back from the nurse at Emory who says she is busy scheduling what I need. I made Dan take me to the Museum of Fine Arts this a. m. before my appointment. It's a wonderful museum with some nice impressionist art (Van Gogh, Cezanne, Renoir, Degas, Monet, etc.), a large collection of art nouveau jewelry, and an exhibit of portrait photographs which Dan even liked (am drawing a blank on the photographer). Thanks to everyone for all your prayers, support, good vibes, etc. Talk to you soon! Love, Page

From Katy:
And she will be getting the paracentesis this Thursday. Great news! We are going to see Coldplay tomorrow night (me, mom, my brother and his wife). Should be fun.

from my Bible study this week:
(Jesus talking here)
He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you."
Luke 17:6

And um, yeah, here we are at the neighborhood Halloween party...2 pirates, a bride, a shark eating a kid and a zombie skeleton.

Pumpkin Carving

We started Halloween celebrations this weekend. I really love Halloween! Some Christians don't (which is fine, not that there's anything wrong with that...just sayin') I try not to think too much about the un-dead, vampire/werewolf element and focus on the fun. Even though Landon will be a zombie skeleton this year... We actually let the boys carve their own pumkins this year, which thankfully only resulted in one minor band aid level casualty. The top picture is mummy crackers (Club Sticks with white chocolate) and the bottom photo is matchstick carrot spider web with black olive spiders. We also had mummy dogs (hot dogs wrapped in crescent roll strips) and swamp (green Ramen noodles). Yes, maybe that meal was a little low on nutrition. Yum!

No adoption news as of yet...our homestudy is being written and we have collected all of our documents for our dossier, just need to now take them to the county courthouse, Secretary of State and then send them to the Chinese Consulate to get all the proper stamps and seals on everything. Once our homestudy is done, we will be officially "waiting" for a match.

As for the lovely Bell's Palsy...I really look okay (unless you catch me laughing really hard in which case I look lopsided) except that I can't wear eye make up because it is irritating. Which I normally like to wear, even to the grocery store. Yes, pride goes before destruction and all that. Having an eye that doesn't blink is very bad though as it is so dry that I have to put these baby oil like drops in, which make everything look a tad cloudy. And I am so tired I can't stand myself. I normally like to bustle around being busy (or wasting time, depending on the task) and I have enjoyed quite a bit of daytime TV lately, which is depressing. I would work on my digital scrapbooking but I have found that being on the computer makes me nauseous! Ah, joy. I have no Bible verses of wisdom this week. Maybe someone could send me one :-).

As for my mom, she had chemo today. She and my dad leave for Boston this weekend for her visit to get a second opinion on what to do about her liver, which is suffering from all the tumors. Please keep praying for that!

Ahhhh...my face!!

So who knows if anyone is reading :-) but I mentioned yesterday I think that I couldn't taste anything sweet, which was a total bummer...that progressed to a numb feeling on my face and mouth, a twitching lip and finally today my right eye doesn't close! Needless to say, I was getting a little worried and my wise friend said I should go to the doctor. I was thinking I should ignore it, but that got kind of hard. Of course, I am thinking the worst and imagining that we will have to put our adoption on hold. But thankfully, it is something not very serious, despite the scary symptoms. It is called Bell's Palsy and it should go away within a month or so. I don't really look too bad so far, just the disconcerting non blinking eye. Taking steroids and hoping it doesn't progress!

Landon's tooth

Landon finally lost his first tooth at age 7!

We had our final homestudy visit today and the social worker will start writing our homestudy soon. Just waiting for our FBI fingerprints to clear (the Georgia ones--the immigration ones will be in a few months). Feeling pretty confident we will be okayed there.

I am having a very weird day. Suddenly I can't taste anything sweet. It has really cut down on snacking though. I realized I pretty much eat because things taste good. When they don't taste good, why bother? Landon asked if I can still taste umami. lol.

More important news, my mom saw her doctor today and had chemo. The doctor gave her Lasix today for the fluid so let's pray that helps. Their trip to Hawaii sounded great and she was particularly thrilled to see lava! It has been a much thwarted quest of hers. And I know I joked about it before, but you really can bike down the volcano! They didn't this time.

a good picture!

So, I finally took a good picture (in my own very humble opinion!) with my new to me camera. It was a fluke, I think. But still...This is Lilla, age 4, our Jiangxi beauty.

Getting tagged and a cool blog

So, someone told me I was tagged. That would be Jen of The M's Have It. I met her online as we are with the same adoption agency at nearly the same phase of the process. I am supposed to list 7 things about myself:

(in no particular order)

1. I love RockBand. I can do expert as singer, Hard on Bass, Medium on Guitar and Easy for Drums.

2. I don't like things that are neither drink nor food (ie buttermilk, V-8, chunky smoothies...)

3. I always wear slippers in my house because of the crumbs.

4. I eat peanut butter every day, sometimes twice.

5. I can't fall asleep unless I read.

6. I would like to homeschool my kids at least one year and travel the US in a Winnebago.

7. I wish I could grow my own food, and raise animals for food too.

Those last two lead to part 2 of this post...

I will now Tag...

Melanie, Donna, Scott (who doesn't have time for this) and Jeri and well, that's it for now.

So the blog I just found via Jeri's blog is this: http://eclecticculturefarm.blogspot.com/

I am not putting it here just so I can win a gift basket, although that would be nice. I must confess, I have dreams of living this way. If it weren't for the fact that a farm is EVERY DAY, no holidays. I could be like a Monday, Wednesday, Friday farmer.

Thanks to my friend Karen, I recently read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (which made me admire this way of living described in aforementioned blog), which I highly recommend, as well as Omnivore's Dilemma and Fast Food Nation. Of course, check them out of your library, save a tree and all that. I think about my food more than I used to now and have been trying to grow things to eat, as well as buy locally when I can.

I am not an all or nothing person, so I just do what I can. Plus, I like to go to Target, Starbucks and Chick Fil A, and I live in a city, so don't worry that I am going to get all holier than thou. But we could all be doing a little more thoughtful buying and eating probably, is all I'm saying....

Where we are

So, my mom is in Hawaii! I'm so glad that my mom and dad got to go. She said her swelling legs got kind of bad on the plane, but has improved since. She is going to Boston for a second opinion next month. She also sees her doctor at Emory next Monday, and hopefully I will get to go too.

As for our paperwork, I feel like we are making progress! I meet with our social worker tomorrow for my "alone" meeting. We have almost all the paperwork done for her to be able to write the homestudy. We've gotten our medical check ups, been drug tested, filled out many financial forms, gotten letters of recommendation, proved that we have health insurance and car insurance, and that we were married and born. All that's left is for Mark to get cleared by the local police (pretty sure he will be fine there!) and get fingerprinted. We have to get fingerprinted by the FBI twice! Once for the homestudy, once for immigration later on. Oh, we also have to finish our parenting class via DVD and online testing! No, it is not easier the second time. But it is still worth it and I understand why they have all the requirements.

So, after the social worker writes our homestudy, we submit that to U.S. immigration and WAIT for them to approve us. In the meantime, we prepare additional documents for China and our agency. There's a lot of overlap! At this point we will be "in line" to be matched. And I can't believe it, but a lot of families are being matched within a few months. So we could know who our child is by early 2009! Then while we're waiting for China to approve us for the child, we have to be sure to have all the documents for China notarized, sent to the county and state for certification and then to the consulate for authentication. It's a LOT of papers and it's called a dossier.

After our dossier gets to China and we get our initial approval from China, we can expect to wait 4-8 months until we travel. That's where I get "sometime in 2009" as my answer for "when are you going to China?" I'm guessing late 2009, just so I don't get my hopes up.

Right now I am researching medical conditions (in my free time between taking care of my family and home, worrying about my mom and doing paperwork, sometimes not in that order!) and trying to find doctors who will be ready to review files for us when we are matched. Did I mention that when we accept our referral within 8 hours we also have to have a doctor already lined up as well as a written treatment and care plan?! Okay, my blood pressure is going up.

Let me pause and take a deep breath (bold for my own reminding of myself!):

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:25-34 (Jesus)

Okay, everyone needs a snack and Jake wants to play basketball now....

Check the "Room for at Least One More" blog on the right if you have a chance. So much about God's faithfulness.

A few prayer requests

My mom is doing well and was awesome in a fashion show at Macy's this past weekend. It was a little who's who of Atlanta celebs, including Vicki Locke, Monica Pearson (who will always be Monica Kauffman to me!) and Mara Davis. But please pray for some extra fluid she has in her body to leave! It is a side effect of liver issues. She and my dad are going to Hawaii this week, and I'm sure she has some volcano climbing planned as well as a bike around the perimeter of Maui and maybe some parasailing on her agenda. If you know my mom, you know that I may or may not be joking there.

On another note, I have recently met a new friend and sister in Christ who is going with her husband on a very long plane ride to visit their daughter this week. They have been trying to adopt this little girl from a foreign country for the past THREE YEARS. I can't imagine waiting that long, especially when they already know who she is and know that she needs certain things that she is not getting. But I know God knows her too, and he is the helper of the fatherless and he is mighty. I am leaving it anonymous for many reasons, but just please lift this family up as they travel, that doors will open, papers will be signed, care will be given and mountains will be moved. God will know who you are talking about.

As for our family, after a long weekend with the kids having Mark gone, Landon and I had a fun time at the pet store last night. Poor thing is allergic to cats and dogs and really paid the price afterwards but it was worth it!! The boy loves animals. We stayed at the pet store for about an hour and a half, visiting and holding the animals. He really wants a gerbil, but I have visions of a tiny furry body in a very loving, squeezing hand, so not sure about that. Here's a picture of his turtle habitat he built a few weeks ago for Turty (yes, sounds like turdy), an unsuspecting box turtle who finally escaped after several attempts and recaptures. Sorry so shady but I'm still learning to use my new camera.

sweet Lilla and the name of the blog

So this morning, Lilla and I were chatting a little and she was telling me all about how she loved to eat grits when she was a baby in China. Lol! (there are no grits in China that I know of--she just likes to talk about when she was a baby and it more often comes in handy for her to turn something down she doesn't want to eat by saying, oh, I didn't eat that in China!)

So the conversation turned to all her moms: me, foster mom, birthmother, other things she likes to talk about more than you could imagine. And she said "Mom, if you get sad during this conversation, feel free to use my bib to wipe your face."

Another thing I thought I'd share is where the name of the blog comes from....my favorite Switchfoot song! Yes, I may be the one China adoption blogger with no Steven Curtis Chapman song. Sorry to disappoint! By the way, if you are bored at the dentist's office this week, be sure to read the People Magazine article about SCC's family and how they are dealing with the death of their daughter Maria. Speaking of needing a bib to wipe my face on....

Anyway, back to the Switchfoot song, I'll try to put it on here somewhere but that may take me awhile to figure out. Anyway, it's a song called "Head Over Heels" and it seems like a love song, guy/girl love mixed in with a little God love. My favorite line is:

In this life, you’re the one place I call home
In this life, you’re the feeling I belong

It helps me remember that this place is not my true home, heaven is. But in THIS life, my family (by blood, adoption and faith) is the one place that feels anywhere close to "home."

I just can't resist. Give me a public forum and I will keep talking! So, I just wanted to share a few comments the kids have made about this adoption. Keep in mind that when we told the boys we were going to adopt a girl from China (who turned out to be Lilla) they both raised their amrs up and said "yea!!" When we told them this time, they said "what??!!"

This is what we have heard this time around....

Jake (9) said "well, it's about 85% good because Lilla will play with her instead of trying to play with us. And 15% bad because I hope she will be peace-loving unlike SOME people" (looking at Lilla).

Landon (7) said to the social worker yesterday, when asked what he thought, "it will be annoying."

Lilla (4) said to me the other day, "I can't WAIT to hold her in my arms! She will be called baby Kate."

Now the boys love Lilla and she loves them and they enjoy wrestling together and watching movies and playing outside together. But a certain one of them is always bothering other people's things and "accidentally" tripping over Lego creations, reducing them to rubble. I leave the deductions up to you.

More info on the Waiting Child program

I have had a lot of people ask me questions about the waiting child program. Basically, it is children with mostly minor medical needs, some more severe, but I guess that is very subjective. The most common needs are cleft lip/cleft palate, heart issues like VSD and ASD, orthopedic needs like club foot, missing fingers and toes, missing limbs (partial or total) and many other things you can read more about here if you're REALLY interested.

We filled out a checklist of needs we felt comfortable with, and we requested a girl, aged 1-4 years old. So when it's our turn, our agency will match us from a list they receive from China, and we will get a medical file and a picture we can email to a doctor to review for us. And we will have EIGHT HOURS to accept or reject the referral. Yes, 8 hours. Some people are really specific in what they request, but we opted for a broader range. I have been busy researching the various medical needs and while I do not feel I could ever be prepared for everything, I know we will be able because Christ is able.

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
Phillipians 4:12-13

Now, I don't really think I know what it is to be in need physically. But I do know spiritual, emotional need and have tried to fill myself in many ways, none working too well for long. And I know that having a child (adopting or giving birth) magnifies that need because as a parent I often have no clue whatsoever what I am doing! I see my lacking oh so clearly! And now we are planning to adopt a child we don't know, whose condition won't be truly known until we meet her. I have started to realize that it is not the particular condition that is scary to me, rather the fact that we have no control whatsoever over this child's personality, past, experiences and current care. But please do pray she is being well cared for. She is very likely already born, since most children are one year old at the very youngest and we expect to travel some time in 2009.

In any case, all I can rely on is Christ. It is he who fills the need, he who gives strength when I need it, he who will provide.

I'll add a cute Lilla story here--she is very interested in figuring out where "the baby" will sleep. Side note, I am tryng to encourage her to call our next (and yes, last) daughter mei-mei, which means "little sister" in Chinese. Because I think Lilla would really like a baby who takes a bottle and will do whatever she tells her to do, but more likely, it will be a toddler. I don't want her to be disappointed that she may be getting someone who fights back!

Anyway, we have our old crib (funny I never got rid of that!) and a trundle bed, either of which will go in Lilla's room. Here's our exchange from the other day.
Lilla: I want the baby to sleep in my bed.
Katy: Well, probably not IN your bed. maybe on the trundle beside your bed.
Lilla: But how will I reach her to kiss her before bed at night?
(Awww...conversation continued, me misty-eyed...)
Katy: You can just kiss her before you get in bed and then climb over.
Lilla: Okay, but if she wakes up and cries at night, I will sing her a song. And if she still cries, THEN she can get in bed with me.
(Awww....)

The beginning (and an update on my mom)

We are thrilled to share with everyone what has been going on with us--mainly that we are working on adopting again!

So, what are we doing? Why are we doing it? When did this happen?! Here’s a little insight into how we came to pursue the adoption of our 4th child.

Back in 2001, when Landon was born, Mark and I were certain we were meant to be parents of two adorable (and personality-filled) sons. They came to us the “easy” way, that is by birth, unless you are the one giving birth. But it was worth it and we were completely satisfied and overwhelmed with our newborn Landon and 2 year old Jake.

But a few years later, I started feeling like we were wrong. And I hear people say this all the time and before it happened to me I might have been skeptical. But the truth is, God put a little girl from China on my heart. And thankfully he later put the same thing on Mark’s heart. And now we have Lilla home with us. Her story is here.

If I am being completely truthful, which happens from time to time, I felt that we would have another child from China. And I thought this the whole time we were in China with Lilla. And a few months later, I told Mark about this thought. He did not concur. We love our children but sometimes 3 kids gets kind of messy and loud. And whiny. And time consuming. And did I mention messy?

So I tried to just enjoy the ones I was with, but every few months we would talk about adopting again. Mostly I would talk really. But over time, we started talking more about “when” instead of “if.” And the wait for China got longer and longer. And then Lilla started asking when were going back to China for a baby sister. She started praying about a baby and pretending her toys were sisters. Adopting again kind of became inevitable.

Because of the long wait, and meeting people both in person and online who had adopted a child through the Waiting Child program, I started to research adopting a child with a medical need. I looked back in an old journal the other day and in October 2005 I had written “SN? What issues?” meaning, was a special needs adoption in our future. I guess God had already planted that seed, forgotten by me but he was watering it.

And what had once seemed so scary with our other 3 kids (Will there be anything wrong with them? What if something is wrong with them?!) now seemed like it was meant to be a part of our life, something we not only could do but were called to do. A few verses kept coming to my mind:

“…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

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight Proverbs 3:5-6

It just reminded me that God has a plan for us and our children, and it is not my problem to have everything figured out and tied up neatly with a bow.

So thankfully my wonderful husband was also open to adopting a child with a medical need and so we did a little more research and talked a little more and found an agency we liked. And we did a little more research and submitted an application and a checklist with the needs we felt comfortable considering for our family. On Friday, September 19, we were accepted by FTIA.

And thus concludes (and starts, I guess) an amazing journey.

The timeline is not too predictable based on several variables, but we expect to be in China sometime in 2009!

Please pray for our little girl, who has probably already been born!

I also hope to have brief updates on my mom on here, who was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1990, and is now in year 7 of living with metastatic breast cancer. She’s an 18 year survivor! As of now, her most recent scan looks good and shows improvement, so she will continue with the chemo she is on. Praise God for that and keep on praying.

Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD. Psalm 27:14