Saturday, May 28, 2011
Prayers Please!
Adoption News: We found out Thursday that apparently our homestudy is at the mercy of a supervisor who has to approve it and sign it in order for it to get to be released to us. To make matters worse, she was out of town this week and I get the feeling isn't the best about responding to emails/important matters in a timely manner. Please pray that she gets to it early next week so we can get our homestudy sent to our adoption agency who will send it along with all of our other documents to Ghana. GOOD NEWS: We thought it would take 90 days after submitting our Dossier to get a court date but according to our social worker it may only take a month or two! Amazing!
Friday, May 27, 2011
Happy Birthday Grayden!
I can't believe it that my little boy is turning 5 today! It hardly seems like 5 years ago that we were living in Iceland and our first child, our strong willed boy, was born. At the same time, so much has happened since then it feels like it has been a long 5 years! We measured Grayden this morning, and since March he has grown a whole inch! Being the birthday boy, he got to choose breakfast and of course chose waffles with peanut butter and syrup. Now the kids are hiding under a huge tent in the living room constructed of dining room chairs and about all the sheets and blankets I could find. Gotta love birthdays!
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Rain Rain Go Away!
I'm not sure but I think this is day 21 in a row that it has been gray and rainy...I'm starting to feel like I live in Iceland again, and not happy about it! Hopefully the sun will be back out tomorrow! Our homestudy is done, just waiting supervisory approval and our signatures after that and off it goes! Meanwhile Grayden is turning 5 on Friday!!!! So birthday plans are well underway! We are going to do a little family birthday celebration tomorrow and go to Bear Country (IF it's done raining!) and then Friday night have his party with friends. It is hard to believe that its possible he is already turning 5. 5 years ago, in Iceland I had a 22 hour long labor for that child! Phew, what a day that was. Personally I'm quite glad that I don't have to go through childbirth again, I would rather have jetlag to have another child anyday. And I had natural, "easy" births! ha!
I kind of hope that I can come up with something productive to do today with the kids inside. I've exhausted all the baking, coloring, play-doh, beanbag jump wars, movies, and playing with rice that I can.....I've got nothing left! Maybe a trip to the library or something is in order. Wow you can tell I'm bored, isn't this an exciting post!
I kind of hope that I can come up with something productive to do today with the kids inside. I've exhausted all the baking, coloring, play-doh, beanbag jump wars, movies, and playing with rice that I can.....I've got nothing left! Maybe a trip to the library or something is in order. Wow you can tell I'm bored, isn't this an exciting post!
Sunday, May 22, 2011
A Monumental Week!
We should be receiving our homestudy draft at nearly any moment to review and have signed for finalization! This is a huge mile marker in our adoption process because now our Dossier can go to Ghana and we will have nothing else to do but sit and wait for a court date. It is at this point that the ball goes to the other court, so to speak! I am so thrilled that it looks like this week we will be sending that off. Praying for God's supernatural provision, His hand on our circumstances and Akwasi's, and His will for our family. By Faith I will trust Him when all things look impossible.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
What Faith Looks Like in my Life
In my life, I find that it can sometimes feel a little mundane. I'm sure you moms know what I'm sayin! Dishes, laundry, clean up the cheerios, the spilled milk, change the diaper, dishes again, laundry again, sweep the floor, scrub the toilet.....kinda like the girl who read, "lather, rinse, repeat" on the shampoo bottle and never stopped the cycle....that's my life! So sometimes I think, "God where is the opportunity for faith?!" and "How am I supposed to keep a good attitude in this mundane existence?" Don't get me wrong, I stinkin' love staying at home with our kids, being a full time mom. Just as I type this Grayden came out of his room after being sent to his room for a time-out for disobedience and said, "Mom, I prayed to God in my room to help me have a better attitude" with a smile on his face. Moments like this make it worth the spilled milk.
Anyway, I have decided that motherhood in itself requires much faith. Everyday I have to ask God to give me more strength, more patience and more wisdom to accomplish the tasks before me and somehow not ruin these precious lives he has put in my care. I want to not only accomplish the tasks, but do it with joy. I have begun to find a deep joy in the mundane, in the dishes and the laundry. While I do them I praise God that I have dishes and laundry to do, because he has blessed us with food to eat and clothes to wear. I just keep taking my thoughts captive every time I want to have a pity party for myself and throwing them out the window, replacing them with thankfulness and doing my work as if I was doing God's laundry =) Ok, admittedly if I was doing God's laundry I would probably iron more than I do now....
The faith to step out and bring a fourth child into our home is stretching, but amazing. I have to crack up at how God asks us to do things that look impossible. Not just having four children, but if this is of God we will know it, because there is no way we could come up with the funds otherwise. Just like any huge task we take on, I know I can't do this without God's help and I am so thankful for the next thing in my life that is going to FORCE me to rely on Him! I hope that my life looks like the lives of people in Hebrews 11. "By Faith, Ashley........" Jeremey preached about this last night and I keep wondering what my line would say?
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love." Romans 5:4.
Anyway, I have decided that motherhood in itself requires much faith. Everyday I have to ask God to give me more strength, more patience and more wisdom to accomplish the tasks before me and somehow not ruin these precious lives he has put in my care. I want to not only accomplish the tasks, but do it with joy. I have begun to find a deep joy in the mundane, in the dishes and the laundry. While I do them I praise God that I have dishes and laundry to do, because he has blessed us with food to eat and clothes to wear. I just keep taking my thoughts captive every time I want to have a pity party for myself and throwing them out the window, replacing them with thankfulness and doing my work as if I was doing God's laundry =) Ok, admittedly if I was doing God's laundry I would probably iron more than I do now....
The faith to step out and bring a fourth child into our home is stretching, but amazing. I have to crack up at how God asks us to do things that look impossible. Not just having four children, but if this is of God we will know it, because there is no way we could come up with the funds otherwise. Just like any huge task we take on, I know I can't do this without God's help and I am so thankful for the next thing in my life that is going to FORCE me to rely on Him! I hope that my life looks like the lives of people in Hebrews 11. "By Faith, Ashley........" Jeremey preached about this last night and I keep wondering what my line would say?
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love." Romans 5:4.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Another Adventure!
Today I have to laugh at myself for getting all worked up over the last couple weeks over all the things we have going on the next few months. I took the time to pray this morning over them, and one by one, God has begun to answer. I don't understand why sometimes I don't pray first BEFORE I choose to get all worked up!
I suppose I should fill you in a little on what is going on =) We are well underway in the adoption process, homestudy is nearly complete (should be done by Friday!) which is a huge marker in the process because as soon as it is finished it will join all of our other documents in our Dossier and go to Ghana to await approval. When the Ghanaian government approves our Dossier, we will be given a court date at which to appear to receive our adoption decree, as long as the judge grants the adoption.
We received new pictures of our precious little boy yesterday, which was so exciting for us! We have had the same few pictures since March and have been wondering what he looks like now, after 6 months or so has gone by since the first pictures were taken. We even got a picture of him smiling which was so neat to see! He is beautiful, and Jeremey and I both are having the hardest time waiting to hold him. We are just beside ourselves with joy about the thought!
Here he is! His name is Akwasi Amoah, which we will be replacing with Akwasi Merrill. We are still deciding on a middle name....he will be turning three in August =) As far as it depends on us, our adoption is going as quickly as possible. We are told that the normal wait time for approval from Ghana is 90 days from the time the Dossier is submitted. We will be making our first trip around September (if all goes well) to go appear in court, visit the orphanage and get to meet our precious boy! We will stay for approximately 10 days, then come home while we wait 6-8 weeks for the U.S. Embassy in Ghana to approve his visa and clear him for travel to the U.S. I have a feeling that will be a hard 6-8 weeks of waiting!
A little bit about our adoption journey:
We have been talking about adopting again since about a year or so after we brought Rosie home in September of 2006. We always felt that we would adopt from Africa, no particular reason really, just something we felt. And it turned out that we don't qualify for many of the other countries because of our age, number of children, etc. so that kind of settled that!
Last summer we decided to apply to adopt from Ethiopia, so we put in our formal application, and were getting together paperwork when at the same time, Jeremey separated from the military in August. Without having a future job secured, we had to withdraw our application from Ethiopia because of not being able to prove sufficient income. At the time, we were a little discouraged but knew that God had his hand on the process and it must not have been the right time.
Fast forward to this March, in a three week time of prayer and fasting church-wide, we had lots of prayers we were searching for answers on during that time but on the top of the list was God's will for us in adopting again. On the Friday of the last week of the fast, we got an email from a photolisting agency who had just posted a picture and information on an African boy. So out of curiosity, I clicked the link and logged in, which I hadn't done in nearly a year since we had been looking before, and here was this adorable little boy named Akwasi Amoah from Ghana, 2 years old, which was the age we had talked about considering. I immediately called Jeremey and sent him the information, should I call the agency and ask about him? To which he replied, yes, call them and yes find out more about him and if we qualify for adopting from Ghana. Well, I called the agency and was still holding onto some pessimism because I figured if he had made it onto that photolisting, he probably had some severe special needs of some sort that maybe they hadn't described on the listing. (usually if children are "waiting" children, they have special needs) It turned out that a small cut on his head had gotten infected and bumped him up to the waiting child list. Ok....good news. And we met EVERY single requirement for adopting from Ghana. Ok....wow!
So I called Jeremey back and we decided to pray again and start the paperwork to adopt him. We started the training, and our homestudy process immediately. We are aware that we will meet some challenges, bringing home a 3 year old boy, of a different race, disrupting the birth order of our home. These are all things we had to consider, and pray about our willingness to handle the challenges we may face. But God has been so good to remind us (and specifically remind me because I keep asking!) that we can handle all things through Him who gives us strength and He will equip us along the way just as He always does!
We are thrilled and it becomes more of a reality with every day. Much like when your belly grows while you are pregnant and all of a sudden you realize, "oh my goodness there is going to be another baby joining our family forever soon!" I can't wait to hold him, to welcome him home, and to see all four of our children playing together. What an amazing journey God has given us, that we are so privileged to be a part of.
I suppose I should fill you in a little on what is going on =) We are well underway in the adoption process, homestudy is nearly complete (should be done by Friday!) which is a huge marker in the process because as soon as it is finished it will join all of our other documents in our Dossier and go to Ghana to await approval. When the Ghanaian government approves our Dossier, we will be given a court date at which to appear to receive our adoption decree, as long as the judge grants the adoption.
We received new pictures of our precious little boy yesterday, which was so exciting for us! We have had the same few pictures since March and have been wondering what he looks like now, after 6 months or so has gone by since the first pictures were taken. We even got a picture of him smiling which was so neat to see! He is beautiful, and Jeremey and I both are having the hardest time waiting to hold him. We are just beside ourselves with joy about the thought!
A little bit about our adoption journey:
We have been talking about adopting again since about a year or so after we brought Rosie home in September of 2006. We always felt that we would adopt from Africa, no particular reason really, just something we felt. And it turned out that we don't qualify for many of the other countries because of our age, number of children, etc. so that kind of settled that!
Last summer we decided to apply to adopt from Ethiopia, so we put in our formal application, and were getting together paperwork when at the same time, Jeremey separated from the military in August. Without having a future job secured, we had to withdraw our application from Ethiopia because of not being able to prove sufficient income. At the time, we were a little discouraged but knew that God had his hand on the process and it must not have been the right time.
Fast forward to this March, in a three week time of prayer and fasting church-wide, we had lots of prayers we were searching for answers on during that time but on the top of the list was God's will for us in adopting again. On the Friday of the last week of the fast, we got an email from a photolisting agency who had just posted a picture and information on an African boy. So out of curiosity, I clicked the link and logged in, which I hadn't done in nearly a year since we had been looking before, and here was this adorable little boy named Akwasi Amoah from Ghana, 2 years old, which was the age we had talked about considering. I immediately called Jeremey and sent him the information, should I call the agency and ask about him? To which he replied, yes, call them and yes find out more about him and if we qualify for adopting from Ghana. Well, I called the agency and was still holding onto some pessimism because I figured if he had made it onto that photolisting, he probably had some severe special needs of some sort that maybe they hadn't described on the listing. (usually if children are "waiting" children, they have special needs) It turned out that a small cut on his head had gotten infected and bumped him up to the waiting child list. Ok....good news. And we met EVERY single requirement for adopting from Ghana. Ok....wow!
So I called Jeremey back and we decided to pray again and start the paperwork to adopt him. We started the training, and our homestudy process immediately. We are aware that we will meet some challenges, bringing home a 3 year old boy, of a different race, disrupting the birth order of our home. These are all things we had to consider, and pray about our willingness to handle the challenges we may face. But God has been so good to remind us (and specifically remind me because I keep asking!) that we can handle all things through Him who gives us strength and He will equip us along the way just as He always does!
We are thrilled and it becomes more of a reality with every day. Much like when your belly grows while you are pregnant and all of a sudden you realize, "oh my goodness there is going to be another baby joining our family forever soon!" I can't wait to hold him, to welcome him home, and to see all four of our children playing together. What an amazing journey God has given us, that we are so privileged to be a part of.
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