MY GIRLS!

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow...

SHANAY AND JESSICA WILL BOTH HAVE THEIR BRACES OFF...THESE ARE A FEW OF THE LAST SMILES OF MY TWO TEENS WITH THEIR BEAUTIFUL BRACES..JESS GOT HERS OFF LAST WEEK..I WILL POST PICS OF THE BOTH THE GIRLS TOMORROW WITH THEIR BRACE-LESS TEETH. THIS HAS BEEN VERY EMOTIONAL FOR ME...MY BABIES...SOON TO BE WOMEN! UGGHHH..THEY ARE WONDERFUL YOUNG LADIES WHO LOVE GOD WITH THEIR WHOLE HEARTS...THEY ARE ALSO STARTING WITH THE 'CRUSH ON BOYS' STAGE! I LOVE MY GIRLS SOOO MUCH!

 

 

 

 

Hopeful

Today started off icky, but became hopeful. It usually does. I heard someone talking about how they wish they knew what would happen in the future...whatever the situation was. Not adoption related. I started to think how so many adoptive parents wish they knew when their kids were coming home. It lead to me to think about how glad I am that I don't necessarily know what the Lord has in store for tomorrow. How exciting is a life that is all planned out? To just follow the course knowing what is next really wouldn't be that exciting. I was thinking back to many times hanging out with our small group and my bff pammi and i smiling contentedly at eachother because they were all chasing their toddlers..our kids were older...life is getting pretty easy!! Then God must've been smiling! He knew what was in store!! I just laugh..if i had known, i wouldn't have gotten to enjoy that moment with pammi..or maybe i would have enjoyed it more...hmm...Pam, we need to do some hanging out and relaxing soon before i am chasing the boys around!!

In my anguish and pain of the 'waiting' the Lord reveals over and over to me that he feels that way about his children. He wants them to all know him and love him. The biggest thing I struggle with is wishing Markenley, who is 4, know how much we love him...wanting the orphanage staff to constantly remind him of that. Isn't that what we are all called to do? Tell others that their heavenly father loves them so much and wants them to be with Him? What can we do today to share that love with others?

Anyway, life is good. I have a wonderful amazing family. Wonderful friends! A super fun job. An amazing Heavenly Father and HOPE.

love you all lots,
renee

Feeling SAD

It has been a difficult day. We have so much faith in our wonderful Lord. We know he LOVES our boys...but we miss them. :( Is there anything we can do to help bring them home? After all..besides God, who cares more for them than we do? We feel frustrated for lots of reasons that i cannot go into right now...disappointed and sad.

Please pray that our boys will exit MOI soon. We are praying that our file has no errors and will be signed out VERY soon.

We just want the best for them...that's all.

I have been struggling with feeling guilty for thinking about them so much, as if I am not happy with life as it is. That's not true..i love my family, love my life, but..my family isn't all together..wouldn't it be odd if I didn't think about and miss my children? Taylor will be going to science camp for a week soon, i will miss her terribly when she is gone. She will only be an hour away, and in a very safe environment.
We haven't seen Markenley and Solomon for about 6 months. That is way too long. It stinks that days and weeks go by without progress...weekends come and you know that nothing can happen until the next week....if that.
I picture Markenley the day we left him, head down, sobbing...i wonder what he is thinking, what does he understand? Does he feel abandoned by us? Does he know we are coming back? What do the staff at the orphanage tell him? We have NO communication with him...
We miss our boys.

:(

"When are you coming to get us?"

They need to come home!!!

"I want to go home Mommy!"

What have we done??

I think my husband is going to cancel our cable!! I will soon be banned from watching anymore home improvement shows!! It always looks so easy on tv!!
Well, if you remember, we did a room swap with the kids, so in Jan. I did their rooms. Then I decided that our blue hallway had to go..so that went taupe..which meant the ceiling in the hall and the linen cabinet, ugghh...
Then we decided that the carpet in our living room had to go..it is old and icky, and may be the reason for Jessica getting sick all the time..who knows...
There is hardwood floor underneath..they are really old and we re-did the floors in our bedroom and they turned out ok, they were a lot of work and no matter how much we sanded them they didn't stain as well as we wanted. So, i thought I would call my favorite place Empire Carpets (they come and give you a quote one day and do the floors the next). I LOVE THAT!!
They came out but were very pricey!! So, as soon as they left I remembered this commercial I see on HGTV all the time..lumber liquidators!!! I went on their website and they were having this big sale..and they were only like 10 minutes from our house!! So, we went down there and for super cheap bought all the flooring!! It literally saved us $12,000!! "We can do it ourselves, it's easy, I see it done all the time on TV!" is what i said to Todd!! We decided to do the entry way, which was tile, the kitchen, which was wood already but was starting to splinter, and the living room which was carpet with the hard wood underneath. We thought it would look great since it was all connected if it were the same.
Meanwhile, since we are going to do that we might as well re-paint our kitchen cabinets!! They had been painted white years ago..but were starting to chip. They were brass hardware...not really my style! :)
So, Friday Todd took down the cabinets for me. We were both busy friday night at Church, I was running our family fun night and todd was in a meeting. Saturday Todd was gone all day at Church. So, i was on my own. My daughters friend Galen was over, and so he and I sanded all the cabinets down....all day!! Then we started to move furniture and all the stuff from the cabinets..we wanted to start demo-ing the floors!! I know, finish the cabinets first..but demo sounded fun!!!
Todd got home, he gave us the go ahead..and helped us move the big stuff. Bye bye carpet!! Bye bye tile!! Oh my goodness, tile is HARD to break!! The kids did most of the tile removal...we gave them hammers, safety glasses and a sledge hammer and they were going at it! It was fun, at first!! They did great!! Taylor did a lot! I was worried that she was going to be so sore, but she was fine. A neighbor girl who is 6 was helping too..she is tiny and it was adorable to see her going at the tile like a maniac..we made sure she knew she couldn't do it at home! Anyway, the kitchen floor was a bear to tear up. Our neighbor had this tool.. it was this big bar thingy that weighed soooo much and it helped a lot..Shanay and I did a lot of the floor,to surprise todd, although it probably would have been really easy for him because he is a strong man, for us it was hard!
So, that was done over Sunday and Monday.
Sunday and Monday I painted the cabinets. I painted them white...i so wanted to do a color..but i am finding that i change my mind about colors a lot...so I painted them white!!
Well, Todd is finding that actually installing the floors isn't that easy!! He is stressing and wants to do them right..he has read too many websites!! There is the uneven walls...the going into one room from the other to consider etc. etc.
There is this awesome guy at church that does construction, i kept telling todd to call Gary...
well, today he finally called Gary...Gary is coming over tonight to point todd in the right direction...maybe we will have floors done by tomorrow..or Friday??? :)
My next project....an organic garden!!
I do have to say, I do have the most amazing hardworking husband in the whole wide world. I am so greatful to him!
I told him that I feel like I am 'nesting' but i am not pregnant, so i can take on bigger projects!
Love you all...pray for Todd!! :)

You know you're an adoptive parent when...

1. The fact that there are 143 million children
without a parent to kiss them goodnight has made you lose sleep.

2. You realize DNA has nothing to do with love & family.

3. You can't watch Adoption Stories on TLC without sobbing.

4. The fact that, if 7% of Christians adopted 1 child
there would be no orphans in the world, is convicting to you.

5. You spend free time surfing blogs about families
who've experienced the blessing of adoption.

6. It drives you crazy when people ask you
about adopted child's "real" parents.

7. You've been "pregnant" with your adoptive child longer
than it takes an elephant to give birth.(2 years!)

8. You'd no idea how you'd afford to adopt,
but stepped out in faith anyway, knowing He'd provide. (& He does!)

9. You've taken an airplane half-way around the world
with a child you just met.
`
10. You believe God's heart's for adoption.

11. You realize that welcoming a child into your heart & family
is one of the most important legacies you could ever leave on this earth.

12. You know what the word "Dossier" means
& you can actually pronounce it correctly!

13. You've welcomed a social worker into
the most private parts of your life.

14. You shudder when people say your child's so lucky that you adopted them,
knowing full well you're the blessed one to have him or her in your life.

I AM AN ADOPTIVE PARENT..AND PROUD OF IT!

Blessing!!!

We recently received amazingly wonderful news!! There is a couple at our church who have one daughter. They are such wonderful parents, and are very strong in their faith. I have talked to her before about adopting. In the past she did not think she could do it, for reasons of their own. Well, recently we found out that they are going to adopt!!! She said that she remembers the exact day in July, Todd was sharing with the church the update on our adoption and she felt the holy spirit telling her to adopt. I am sure she could share this in a much more eloquent way!!!
I was feeling such a burden to adopt all the kids in the world...obviously we cannot do that. This was such a gift from God..a new inspiration for me..a new way to help children!! I will continue to share and be there to support anyone who would like to join this roller coaster ride. Don't forget, roller coasters have their ups and downs. As much as I want off the roller coaster (of the adoption process), I am glad we decided to ride it!! We will then jump on the coaster of 'two more boys in the home'!!
If you feel a nudge from the holy spirit and want to talk about it, I am here for you. Love you all lots!!!

Spring Cleaning Mishap etc.

I was having a good spring cleaning day today unitil..
I learned a lesson ...I knew this already, but was being naive..my husband warned me...TJ, my 9 year old thought it was a good idea...so I tried..I tried to give my cat a bath!!! It didn't take long to realize what a horrible idea this was. I have claw and teeth marks on my side to prove it. She is such a good cat, i thought she would nicely go along with my idea, i thought she may even appreciate it!!
Alas, I will just find something else to clean!!

I am patiently waiting to hear if some of my dear friends get good news today from our orphanage about their adoption process. I don't think we will hear anything, but really want to hear from others that they have moved along in the process. I dreamt about the boys last night. In my dream I was teaching Solomon how to say Mommy. I miss them so much.

Jessica has been in a lot of pain again. We took her to the ER on Thursday. They did an ultrasound and said her spleen is big..but they didn't seem too worried because they said it was the same size as the last time she had an ultrasound. Last time they didn't say anything about it being big. They did say not to do anything physical...sports etc. So, if it's not a big deal, why can't she do sports?? Odd!
They did blood work and that came back fine...they did another stool sample test...we'll get results later. I asked them to test for giardia..since she did get sick in Haiti...just trying to rule things out. They had said she had a pancreatice insufficiency, but now are wondering if that's what it is because she is still having pain and because she didn't have some of the symptoms that you would normally see with that. So, we are praying for an answer. She is sooo sooo tired of being sick. My heart breaks for her. If you could pray for her we would appreciate it.

Well, have a great day my friends!