Home Study Part 1

Well... we made it through the first phase of our home study! Mainly we were interviewed on our marriage... which I always love to talk about... so I was excited!!! And our reasons for adopting and if we have any fears, or family members that we see having a problem with our adoption. We go to Transracial Training on the evening of September 12th and our next part of our home study is the next day on September 13th. SO please just keep us in your prayers on those days. We are praying that we will learn all that God wishes us to. Please also continue to pray for funding. We still need about half of our grand total.... so about ten thousand dollars. We also ask for prayers as we put together our Dossier... there is a lot of paper work to get together... pray that we are accurate and don't miss a thing! THANKS!!!

BRAGGIN'

Check out Anne's Blog, Lizzie's Blog (you will have to check her older posts) and Katie's Blog.... you can click on their links down on the right side of this page. If you do this... you will see pics of our kids... these three young ladies have all been a huge blessing to our kids!!

I'm just guessing...

... you would feel this way too! Daddy has to leave in the morning. Please pray for our kids... they will be fine, they are in an awesome place with a lot of love. But when daddy leaves... their hearts are gonna flip flop for a while... and so will ours! Thanks!

Rob Working on Halo's Medical Clinic

Just a quick picture update on what Rob is doing in Haiti... and get this... unless things did not wind up as intended... after THIS he takes the kids to dinner and plays with them tucks them in, wakes them up, gets them ready for the day... goes to breakfast and BACK to work!!! I am so proud of you Rob! So many men draw a line... but you always give life your all in your own quiet patient way! I have to say... I am married to the most amazing man in the world! I love you!!!

Praise HIM... not just what He does

I completely love this picture... it has to be one of my favorites. I was in the nursery one morning while all the children were dancing and singing and I happened to get this exact shot of Isabel shouting " ALLELUIA"!!! And honestly... I had barely heard her voice until then... what a blessed first word for a mama to hear! And a girl after my own heart... praising God with both hands in the air!!!!

This picture is perfect for today because God had an awesome talk with me this morning about praise. As I sat and started to pray... I always try to praise God first and not just lay my list before Him. We were created to praise so that is what we should strive to do first in our prayer life... well, just as I feel I'm starting to get a hold of that concept... God takes me in a little deeper and tells me to FIRST praise Him for who He is and His character THEN praise him for what He has done.

He told me... with our spouses and children... when they praise us... we would rather hear them truly praise our character and not just say "I love you so much because... you always clean the house"... We would rather hear them say something like... "I love you so much for your giving nature, you never hesitate to bless people... by the way... thank for cleaning the house today!" ... Right!?? So it totally straightened me out once He showed it to me in that light. And as the picture shows above... children have got it right... I guess for the very young, I rarely hear them list in their prayer life that they praise Jesus for all He's done when they are truly praising Him, but more often in a sense it's just ... "ALLELUIA!!!!!"

Papa Is Coming!

Rob gets to go to Haiti tomorrow! Please keep him and his traveling companions Dennis, Steve and Sharon in your prayers! He is so excited to see the kids again! And I think it's a good thing I had supplied them all with a healthy supply of stickers!!!

Sooooo.... many of you have been asking for the stories..... from our last trip.... and I guess I have to admit I have been hiding out a bit. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure why... but I needed a little space... it is hard to talk about constantly. I feel bad about that. This adoption is SO SO SO exciting. But I feel like I get in this prerecorded mode when people ask how things are going, and I have been praying to get out of that and just be able to be candid with people!!! God is helping me tremendously with that. SO I WILL TELL YOU THE STORY YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR.... THE MOMENT OF ASKING...

Well... I wish I could say this was the expression we saw when we asked Caleb and Isabel to be our kids... but to our surprise it wasn't. Honestly, now that we look back and understand it though... we know why it wasn't. When we got to the Orphanage we were going to a wait a day until we asked them to be our kids... just to get reacquainted and not throw too much at them at once... but since the other children kept coming up to us and asking us if we were going to be C+I's parents... along with a couple nannies... we knew things needed to be taken care of sooner than we thought. SO up to You-you's apartment we marched. We sat down with the kids and You you explained that we wanted to have a talk with them. Caleb's face turned serious as he fidgeted with things around him Izzy just kinda sat there in her own world tugging on her barbie doll's hair as only a Haitian girl can. Rob then proceeded to ask if they would like to be in our forever family.... there was a slight pause that seemed to go on for 45 minutes... and I was thinking .... "SERIOUSLY??? We're going to be the first parents that have been rejected by the children they hope to adopt???? Oh what am I going to do??? How should I respond????" And then..... Caleb... looking downward and still fidgeting said....

Wi!! (FYI.. that's YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)


So he said it cautiously... and at first it worried me. Concerned about his happiness I hoped that he REALLY DID want to be ours. I did NOT want to be out of God's will or out of Caleb's will!!! SO it was hard when I didn't get the reaction that I had already played over and over in my own head. But... within minutes Caleb started to grin as he processed it all... Izzy kept tugging at Barbie... which we interpret as acceptance. =) We gave them both laminated sheets of pictures of us and our house and pets... we went down stairs and I watched from behind the scenes as Caleb went into the courtyard to show some friends the picture of his new home and new parents and pets. I saw him smile as he showed his friends... I needed to see that... and I saw him continue to just stare at all the pictures as he walked off by himself. Oh what was going through his head??? I wish I knew... was he scared, was he excited, both??? Was he looking at the picture of that horse and saying "ooohhhh boy... I hope I don't have to ride that..." and "OH BROTHER... how am I going to live with TWO WAH WAH's????" (Wah Wah is the name of the guard dog at the Orphanage... and Haitians are not nuts about dogs) I wish I could just get in both their little minds!!!!! I mean look in these eyes... what was IZZY thinking??????? We will touch more on that in another entry!!!!! =) She does cuddle good... I think that's an awesome sign!!! And I do know Caleb's love for us was extremely apparent as the week unfolded. He told us he loved us COUNTLESS times... with that priceless grin of his. And we could tell he meant it!!!! Why didn't he smile and jump up and down right when we asked him.... I think he was surprised that we were asking him for many reasons... I think he knew from our trip in MAY that he would be ours. We spent a lot of time with him... and I also think God confirmed it in his spirit that we were his parents. So... um.... mom and dad... why are you asking me something I have already said yes too in my heart??? I think that was what was going through his mind along with the other countless things that may go through a little boys mind at 6 years old, who has been given up by one set of parents only to stay at an orphanage for a year and to have a new set of parents on 7-7 07!!! Now he has a family that "will never Quit Him" as You you told him the day we left!!! We will never quit either of you! You're our babies and we will do anything for you!!!!!!!!!!!!