Summer time

It feels as though Summer is officially here! 90 degree weather and pool time!! I have my second sunburn of the season; which is odd because I didn't burn at all last year...but oh well I love Summer time! This Summer is even better than the last because we get to meet baby A.J!!! T-16 days and counting! T-10 days until A.J.'s birth mother appears in court! -Mama 2 be!

Second that!

I second everything my husband said in his last post! I am also pleased to announce that we are now T-17 days!!!! -Mama 2 be!

Parental Sacrifice

Let me first remind that I am not one to espouse evangelism. I must, however, admit that in this adoption process my faith and my church are often appearing overly relevant. To this end, yet again, our minister and his sermon spoke to me and found volume in and to our time and situation.

This process of adoption has definitely changed the way I see everything. Everything. This week's sermon was titled "Why We Remember" and focused on Titus 3:3-7 (in case you'd like to reference this). Our minister, Dr. Bruce Tippit, always offers talking points to the congregation in the program. I found my connection, this week's relevance, in a modification of the sermon and the talking points. This week's talking points, directly from the program, were:

• God in Jesus Christ loved us in spite of what we could never be (Titus 3:3-4).


• God saved us in spite of what we could never do (Titus 3:5a).


• God changed us even though we couldn't change ourselves (Titus 3:5b).


• Jesus gave himself for us when we had nothing to give (Titus 3:6-7).

I thought the scripture which spoke of the grace of God in saving us without our doing anything to earn it and without any expectation of return was moving and spoke to the solidity of my faith. Making this even stronger, the scripture and the above talking points brought my mind directly to thoughts of our little girl and how we are in this process in very much the same way as was spoken in the scripture. To this end, I made a few modifications to the talking points:

• WE loved our little girl in spite of what we could never be. Despite all of the things that we will fail at in our lives, we decided that our little girl mattered more than our failures to be more than what we are.


• WE saved our little girl in spite of what we could never do. Despite all of the things that we will never be able to do (save the world, change all the bad, prevent all of our mistakes), we decided that saving our little girl was far more important.


• WE changed our little girl's life even though we couldn't change ourselves. Despite all of our failures to change the aspects of ourselves that need changing, we decided that changing her life-- her situation-- was far more valuable.


• We gave ourselves for our little girl when we had nothing to give. Adoption is expensive. Each time a moment arises, more money is needed, and each time we have miraculously had the money (through saving and through the grace of God). So... Despite the limited resources that present themselves to us, we give ourselves to our daughter.

Once I had made these modifications in the program, I showed them to Megan. She took my modifications and added our little girl's birthday to the end of each bullet in place of the scripture verses. Each talking point bullet now reflected my modifications with "11.15.10" at the end.

After a few moments it became apparent to me that there was yet another set of modifications to the talking points which equally applied. These modifications reflect the ideas of the sacrificial parent (God, and our immediate parents). These modifications made me realize that our parents made the same sacrifice that Dr. Tippit was talking about in his sermon. Hence, I modified the bullets once more:

• WE loved our little girl in spite of what SHE could never be. A parent, my parents, Megan's parents love without expectation of reward in the form of what the child will become.


• WE saved our little girl in spite of what SHE could never do. Again, no reward, no return is expected in the unconditional love of a parent.


• WE changed our little girl even though SHE couldn't change herself. Time and time again parents save and change when the person being saved and changed is incapable of saving and changing.


• WE gave ourselves for our little girl when SHE had nothing to give. This is directly applicable to our situation but is also applicable to the love of a parent to its child and continues to reflect the idea that no reward is expected.

In the love of a parent, in the love of God, in the love of Megan and I to our little girl, nothing but presence is expected. We have decided to make this trek to bring home our little girl despite what she could never be, never do, can't change, and despite the fact that she has nothing to give. Likewise we have made this decision in spite of all that WE can never be, never do, can't change, and with what little we can give. Ironically, God asks the same: we are asked to only carry the love and the living message and to remain present as Christians.

As we count these days, as these days rapidly pass, I am more and more aware of the changes in my soul as God prepares me and prepares Megan to embody his love and to pay his gift forward. We are ready to be parents and to allow our little girl to rejoice in the sacrificial love we have to give.

On this Memorial Day, I offer my remembrance to those who have served in the armed forces, those who have sacrificed in spite of all of the things listed above, to God (and Jesus Christ) who chose to sacrifice in spite of all of these things, and to our parents who have lived as models to the power and potency of true sacrificial parental love. I can only hope that Megan and I will continue this tradition passing it on to another generation.

Come, days, fly by so that we may board that international flight to lay eyes on our beautiful little girl.

One more down!

Days are flying by and I couldn't be happier about that!!! -Mama 2 be

-13 days until A.J.'s birth mother is to appear in court- prayers needed please!

Time is ticking

Twenty-one days until we get to see our A.J. and I'm already dreading leaving her. The only saving grace is that she is young and probably won't remember us leaving her. Please pray that things go smoothly at our court date and that we have a speedy embassy date! -Mama 2 be

Twenty-two more long days until we hold our A.J.!

The anticipation continues

Well as time passes we get closer and closer to seeing our little girl for the first time and it still seems like a dream...the actual thought of seeing her in person just amazes me. I am sure everyone is getting tired of hearing the same thing over and over, but all I can think about it holding her and giving her tons of kisses. If I'm half as emotional when I meet her as I am now she's going to think I'm a nut case lol.

I have been worrying lately about whether or not her birth Mother will be able to attend the preliminary court hearing and if our MOWA letter will be there...but then I saw this sign...it read " Worrying?...Stop and pray"...how fitting??!! Even my mother put it into perspective for me; she told me that it's out of my hands and she's so right. I will probably still worry about it, but I have been trying to let go and let God. Sigh, and hopefully I won't lose my mind in the process. -Mama 2 be

As of Monday

Since I may be busy Monday I have decided to go ahead and post Monday's count down number. Only twenty-four days until we see our little girl!!!! Love her more and more everyday! -Mama 2 be

The longest days

As the count down continues these next 27 days are already dragging on. I have packed donations and I am sure I will repack them another hundred times. I'm just praying that this time goes quickly! -Mama 2 be

count down begins!

Twenty-eight days until we get to hold our little girl! The excitement continues! -Mama 2 be

So little time!

It's crazy to think that in less than a month we will be traveling to see our little girl for the first time. Of course, we hope all goes well at the court hearing for her birth mother. While we know that day will be very hard for her birth mother we hope that she continues to think that the decision she made 7 months ago is still a great one and comes to court. We also hope that our MOWA letter is in the first court hearing...of course both of these could only happen if things went very smoothly...so cross your fingers and say a little prayer for everyone involved in this process please!

There are so many loose ends to tie up before we leave- boarding our dogs, someone to take care of our cat, find someone to watch little Amel who stays with us..long story...and how we are going to get all of these donations to the airport and then to Ethiopia in one peice...sigh...even with all of this to do we are loving this stress!!!

-Mama 2 be

We're leaving on a jet plane...

Some of the most beautiful words: "You will have to be in Addis no later than June 16th, morning!"

WE HAVE A COURT DATE!!!

We will get to see our beautiful baby girl for approximately six days starting on June 16 with our court date on June 20! It will be wonderful to see her, kiss her, hold her and will torturous to leave her on the evening of June 21. At least some solace can be taken from the fact that we get to move her to the foster home where she will have greater attention, constant medical, and where we will receive medical and photo updates every 7-10 days!

I am so pumped! After my LASIK I said that LASIK was the best money spent... this will now take that place.

Court

WE HAVE A COURT DATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We will be seeing our child on June 20th!!!!!! Whoo hooooo!!!!!!!

How crazy is it that on Sunday A.J. turned 6 months, Monday we had our 2 yr. anniversary and today we received our court date!! What a crazy, great week! -Mama 2 be

You Are For Me - Kari Jobe (Kari Jobe)

Love this song!

2 years ago today

Two years ago today I married my best friend. I always knew I would marry someone who makes me laugh and who wipes away my tears when I'm watching a movie i've seen a hundred times, lol, and I did just that. I married a great man, a man that has no problem going half way around the world to bring our daughter home. I couldn't have asked for better. Happy anniversary to us! -Mama 2 be

Birthday girl!!

Happy 6 month birthday baby A.J.!!!! We can't wait to see you! Side note- our 2 year anniversary is tomorrow!!! Whoo hooo!! -Mama 2 be

ughh

So I had posted several "posts" yesterday and they seem to have gone away. I am going to try to put those back up this weekend. Sometimes technology lets me down ugh . -Mama 2 be

updated nursery pics

Here are just some of things we've been busy doing in the nursery...We had to blur out A.J.'s face on the frame because we have not passed court yet. -Mommy 2 be

The calm "after" the storm

The last time I posted I was in a bad place. I was very angry and upset about not having a court date yet. While I am still upset about that I have been able to move past it, for now, and see the bigger picture- A.J. will be home with us forever before we know it. She will be in our family for the rest of our lives and I have a lifetime to smother her with hugs and kisses. Now, don't get me wrong I still want her home asap and cannot wait until the day that we get to meet her, but for now I have to remain calm and carry on. Sigh....Mommy loves you baby girl! -Mommy 2 be


(sorry about the Corona image posted on this picture...if I could take it off I would.)

It's like the sun is shining when the rain is pouring down...

It's a bitter sweet day. It's been two months since we received our referral and are still waiting for a court date. A.J. is nearing 6 months old and we miss her more and more. I love my baby girl, but today is a little hard to take in.


I do want to give thanks to a special family, despite this hard day. If it were not for the Zimmer family and their little Addia we would not be writing this blog to say the least. I can't remember now what holiday it was when we received an email from them, but we saw Addia's face for the first time in this email. It was such a beautiful little face that we just kind of looked at it for a few minutes without saying a word. Michael, my husband, then turned to me and said "I think they adopted her from Ethiopia"...I just looked at him and said " we should ask them about adopting from Ethiopia". We were in the midst of trying to conceive with no luck despite infertility treatments and had thought about adoption in the past. Little did we know that this email would change our lives. Within a few months we were sending in our application to adopt an infant girl from Ethiopia. Without that email we may never have thought of IA. It was such a blessing to receive that email in such a time of pain. Addia may never know how she changed our lives with just a simple email, but she has and we cannot thank her and her family,the Zimmer's, enough!! Thanks to them we now have a sweet little girl half way across the world. We owe them more thanks than we can ever say. Thank you Zimmer's! -Mommy 2 be

5.6 months...almost 6 months!

Well we finally got an update today with a picture and medical info. She looks like a little old lady! She is getting bigger and bigger!! The strange thing is she looks chunky but her medical says she is actually only in the 5th percentile or a little less. I don't know if this is right or not but the numbers seem much lower than they should be. She looks big for her age to us..hmmm...who knows lol. Can't wait to see her, whenever that will be. -Mommy 2 be

tears, tears and more tears

Well I had to blog about my frustration and sadness...we continue to wait for a court date, despite the many other families who have been receiving court dates. I am to believe that their paperwork was submitted after ours, but I never can know for certain. I know there is nothing I can do, but it hurts to see so many others with a set date and we are still here in limbo. I feel as though we should have received a date already, but who's to know how things are done over there. It's easy to say how things should be regarding adoption but who really knows what they do from day to day? I don't...I hate having no control. This is my little girl we are talking about and I have no say in anything right now. My fingers are crossed that we will receive a court date for June or July...my fingers are very crossed for that! -Keep us in your thoughts as we continue to wait. -Mama 2 be.