The Wall Bloggers

This is a verse I memorized this week. It seemed so fitting to our place of answered prayer and yet continued waiting... Psalm 52:9 I will praise You forever, Because You have done it; And in the presence of Your saints I will wait on Your name, for it is good.

Today I had the joy of buying an outfit for our son. All these months of waiting, I have never even known which gender or which size we would need. Today I knew! So when we were in Sam's Club, and I saw the little boy's "Everyday easy 1-piece," I so sweetly turned to Scott and said, "Pleassse?" He said, "Okay." There were at least six colors/designs to choose from, so we let Adrianna pick one out. Very decisively (as is her way), she choose one with blue stripes and a tractor. It's the little things. We also had another sweet blessing. After traipsing around middle NM for several hours this afternoon, trying to get a view of the HGTV Dream Home, we were informed that the gated community where it is located is not open to visitors... yet . So our little caravan of Scott's aunt, uncle, mom, dad, Scott, Adrianna, and me stopped for a bite to eat before heading back to "big city." When we arrived back at the city, I dropped Scot...

In the language of "adoption pregnancy," adoptive parents love to tell the story of getting their referrals. Without the landmarks of usual pregnancies, it is a lovely step of importance -- akin to getting to see an unborn baby's first ultra-sound images. With a referral, as with an ultrasound, you finally have verification that the child you have been waiting for is truly there. And so, I would like to tell the tale of our referral... I guess, for me, this day began months ago. We officially became waiting parents last February 6, 2009 -- a day that is easy to remember, as it falls one before my birthday. Within weeks of that time, I began longing for our referral. Even by March, I started hoping that the phone would ring with news of our child. Alas, we began to see that the average length of time families were waiting was around 11 months. And yet, with each phone call, I had a split-second of anticipation, wondering if it was the news we longed for. As our elev...

Our dear friends, the Chesnuts, who moved to Georgia in June returned for a visit for the long weekend. Adrianna had not seen seen Will (except by pictures and videos) in almost seven months. To me, seven months seems pretty long in a four-year-old's brief time on earth. Knowing that Jennifer and I could pick up right where we left off, I wondered how Adrianna would take the return of her best friend. Would they be in different places of maturity? Would they still understand each other as they had before? We received our answer last Thursday, when Will came with me to pick up Adrianna from her CBS class. There was shyness between the buddies for about thirty seconds, before it was followed by hugs, clobbers, pushes, and holding hands. And Adrianna's special giggle, which only Will can bring out, came within five minutes of their reunion. Over the next four days, Will and Adrianna (and Jennifer and I) got to see each other every day. They got to play at our house to thei...

If you read my previous post, you understand my yearning heart these days. Our heavenly Father has been my source of strength. Yet my heart tightens with each day that passes without word on our child. And we have been facing the difficulty of ring worm's annual visit to our house. The worm leaves me with loads of laundry daily (around 15 loads last Saturday), to wash away the fungus from everything Rusty has touched in the last month. Experts say that ring worm can last on surfaces for up to one year. Thinking about all the places that leaves to uncontaminate is exhausting. Rusty and I bond each day over his anti-fungal baths. (I think he might be feeling a little resentment towards me now!) I am trying to take Nehemiah's command to heart: "Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." And so here was a funny spot of joy I saw today in the dishwasher. I do not know if you find a little spot of spilled food that looks like a duck humorous, but it t...

We have now officially been on our adoption waiting list for eleven months and one week (18 months since we started the process). The average wait for families waiting for the same age/gender child is eleven months. As you may note, we've waited our average. Now is just extra, bonus waiting. Our friends have been so kind in checking on us during the wait. But, as I explained to one friend yesterday, I am at the place where I feel that it is darkest before the dawn. I know the dawn of our referral is coming. But right now, with the waiting continuing, I feel the darkest part of the night. Our child waits. We wait. We just want to be united. Aptly, last week's lesson for the Sunday school class that I help with was about God's faithfulness to provide His promised child to Abraham. Abraham waited years. YEARS for his promised child. He had to wait until he was almost 100. He waited. I can wait, too. We serve the same God and He is still faithful.

I left our trip story unfinished with my former entry... Saturday, January 2, we set out to return home. Scott and I had even had big "discussions" a few weeks ago about when we would return home. He was pushing for Sunday, and I told him I really wanted to come home Saturday, so that we could unpack and have time to get ready for the week ahead. Alas, he finally agreed, and so we packed our bags, loaded our car, and set out for home on Saturday, around 1:00 pm. We were leaving from my dad's house, and took 285, because of its proximity to that location. An hour an a half into our trip, we came out of the mountains into the South Park valley. It was not snowing, but as soon as we entered the valley, snow blew straight across from west to east. The road ahead of us was white; the car just feet in front of us was white. Visibility was a matter of inches. And to make it worse, the sun blazed through each ice crystal, creating an blinding glare. Needless to say, we w...

We had a quiet Christmas as home this year. Scott's parents joined us, and Adrianna opened her presents (some from our thrift store... Shh, don't tell!). We had our usual Christmas breakfast of waffles (home-made this year) and berries. Yum! Since Adrianna enjoys gymnastics so much, she received a new leotard from her great-grandparents. Adrianna made a small picture for her grandparents. Scott blessed me with a new pair of slippers. My old ones quickly went to the "donate" pile in our garage! The day after Christmas, Scott's brother and his family came to NM for a few days. Our time together was brief, but the adults enjoyed a little conversation, and the kids enjoyed some fun play time.

Last week, before we left home, Scott's brother's family, and their three kids came to visit. We crammed in fun times before we packed up to go to Colorado. There, we squeezed in visits with both of my sisters, both of my parents and step-parents, two aunts, one uncle, two grandparents, six nieces and nephews, and a couple of friends. (To those friends and relatives we were not able to visit with this time, we'll try again next time!) We visited with one of my friends (Samantha) I have known since junior high and her husband (Edward), and were blessed to meet their adorable little boy. They even cued us in on a nearby Eddie Bauer store closing, so we got a little extra shopping fun together! Adrianna had fun playing kids' computer games with my mom, and telling her the animal videos she wanted to see on YouTube (she especially likes the wombat named Digger). And she enjoyed the personalized coloring books Grandpa Richard made just for her. She also got plenty of sto...