My Jo - a Haiku

My Jo - a Haiku
(dedicated to Josie and Mrs. Hochstettler) :)

Grass whistle lessons
Gentle wind blows, sun peeks through
Just me and my Jo.

Adoption Update

Friday night, a beautiful storm, cheerio crispy bars (we ran out of rice crispies), and off to watch a movie with my man. It doesn't get much better than this.

It's been a crazy few weeks. Good, but crazy. Just wanted to post a quick adoption update. Last week our awesome social worker finished the draft of our homestudy and sent it off to our international agency (Thanks, Jennifer!) It will take 1-2 weeks for them to review it and suggest/make any needed corrections and then they will hopefully approve it and send us the remainder of our dossier documents. Hopefully we'll wrap up the dossier one-two weeks after that, and then send everything in to the international agency. At that point, we'll be officially "waiting" and on the waiting list to accept a referral of a child or children. Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you guys that we felt most at peace about opening up the possibility of bringing one OR two children home. Our homestudy will state that we'd like to bring home either one little boy under 24 mo., or two children under 48 mo. - whichever comes first. The likelihood of us bringing home siblings is small because the waiting list for siblings is long and the list for boys between 12-24 mo. is short, but we just really wanted to keep the option open in case that's what God's got for us.

We're not sure how long we'll be waiting and definitely covet all of your prayers! I've found that when the ball leaves our court, that's when Satan really has a "hay-day" and likes to plague me with worry, doubt, and all sorts of lovely junk like that.

Oh, and we have our appointment to get fingerprinted by immigration (again) next Saturday. I had a scare this week because our fingerprint notice stated our case type wrong - as in stating that we filed the wrong application and I REALLY didn't want to spend $830 a 3rd time to rectify that! Thankfully it seems to have been a typo and has no negative effect on our case. Thank you Lord!

I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend!

The Hair Cut

"It's O.K. bud, hair cuts aren't so bad - it'll be really quick and then you can take a bath!" (Check out his face - he's totally not convinced...hee hee.)

"If you stop moving I'll be done so much faster!" (I'm really not torturing my poor sweet boy - and how do you like my double chin? ha ha ha)

"All done - now that wasn't so bad, was it?" (Again, he's totally not convinced! What a fake cheese-face! ha ha)

Moses

My little Moses - we get to meet this weekend!

Abby Rose

We started this blog in January before Carys and Moses were born, so I've been posting as they arrive, but there's somebody else I can't wait to introduce...our sweet little niece Abby Rose. Ross' brother Chris and his wife Janelle blessed our family with our very first niece and cousin in July. I just got new, updated pics tonight. Here she is!

Miss Carys

We got to meet our sweet little niece Carys in person for the first time yesterday! And the best news - Mike, Sarah, and Carys are moving back home!!! His job starts May 1st (my b-day - what an awesome present!), so they'll be back next weekend for house-hunting, etc. Yeah!!! I can't wait to babysit. Thank you so much for coming, Sarah - we love you guys so much!

Horse Class

The kids have been going to the "Three Sister's Ranch" for horse class the last four weeks. They have three mini's, one pony, and one full-size horse. They've had an absolute blast. Today was graduation day.

Deep Thoughts...Take 2

OK, deep thoughts...take 2! (Sorry to those who got take 1.) :)

I posted an entry earlier today that really got me thinking about the power and limitations of written words, interpretation, and all kinds of stuff. As I started cleaning my bathrooms (what I should've been doing instead of blogging...hee hee), I had some more deep thoughts and wanted to take another crack at it.

As we've continued in this adoption process, I've become so much more aware of the incredibly many and diverse ways we all could be a part of reaching out to orphans. In my desire for all of us to "be the hands and feet of Jesus," I do NOT mean that everyone is called or will be called to adopt. Speaking metaphorically, as the Body of Christ, if we were all fingers, how would we GET anywhere? And if we were all toes, who would do the hugging, holding, and reaching out?

There are SO many ways for all of us to reach out to orphans around the world - prayer, missions, child sponsorships, financial support of adoptions and adoption ministries...the list goes on...www.cryoftheorphan.org is a great place to find out how we could all get plugged in - and in this arena, no "way" is better than another.

There are SO many different ways to serve and paths that God leads us all on...how we choose to educate our kids (public school, private school, homeschool), what local church He's called us to, etc. We just need to be willing to open up, listen, and be willing to be used no matter what He calls us to do.

I guess Prov.3:5-6 is the best way to sum this all up no matter what God calls us each to do for His kingdom and even for the little, seemingly insignificant decisions of the everyday - "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths."

It's a....

BOY! My first nephew was born today around 12:30 p.m. Moses Hickok Keen is 21 1/4 in. long and 7 lbs. 11oz. Miles finally has a buddy! We're all so excited to meet him! Pictures to come...

Labor!

My sis Macy and her husband Eric just called and "Lovie" is on the way!!! Contractions are 3-4 minutes apart and she's completely thinned out. I'm sleeping by the cell phone tonight!!!!

I really can't believe it's already April! Time has really been flying by...I've been drowning in paperwork and trying to keep up with laundry, homework, piano lessons...ugh. But I had a lot of fun April Fooling my girls this year (a good laugh and stress reliever!) The night before I set all of our alarm clocks an hour ahead (and the alarms) so they thought they were waking up at 8 a.m. when we should be out the door - which totally freaked my conscientious girls out (it's OK, I didn't play it up for more than a minute.) Then I put sardines in Josie's lunch (which she grossed out about but Maggie devoured after school. ha ha ha) and a big hunk of cheese in Ellie's (which in her mind is a million times worse than sardines.) he he he

Anyway, last night we took the kids to "Children of Hope," an international children's choir composed of mainly orphans (www.worldhelp.net.) They sing to raise awareness of the orphan crisis around the world and specifically the AIDS orphans in Africa. The numbers and statistics are staggering. It's amazing what Christ's church could do if we'd all be His hands and feet!

What was as touching to me as seeing those precious kids sing their hearts out and dance in utterly pure worship, was to see the awe and budding passion in my girls' eyes. Ellie was especially touched. As we got in the car she said, "I really, REALLY want to adopt now!" My sweet, sensitive, DRAMATIC, introspective girl sat at the end of her bed last night and said, "Mom, I feel so different tonight. I feel really good. I'm not worried, or stressed out about homework or anything!" It's so neat to watch her grow, stretch, and begin to look past her own wants, needs, and desires and to see the needs of others - and feel that passion and desire to reach out!

And Ellie is officially 10 1/2. I can't believe it.