We are okay

Just letting you know we are okay. As you know the tornados destroyed parts of downtown and many other places cities, towns, and homes and families. Our house is fine. We are fine. Just waiting for power to come back on which may be a few days. I'm at moms, so that's why I can blog. They have power and hot water. :)
Thanks to everyone who checked on us. We sure felt loved!
As it comes to mind, pray for the 6 or 7 states and the families who were affected by the storms. There is much rebuilding to be done now.

We still haven't received word from the Embassy yet. But wow, the skymiles are flooding in! So exciting! We are SO thankful for everyone who has donated their skymiles! If you have any Delta skymiles and would like to donate, leave a comment of how we can reach you and Brent will gladly give you instructions.

S.N.S.

S is for Shower
We had the 3rd adoption shower a few weeks from our home church. It was just as great as the other two! But there was an extra suprise. There is a class of senior adults who said they were going to do the "grandparent" gift. So they got 2 bikes and tricyle for the kids! They even got 2 helmets. WOW! We were so excited! We started to purchase some bikes one day, but we weren't exactly sure what to get and decided to wait. Then these gifts came and they were perfect! They were exactly what we wanted! (even though we didn't know it until we saw them! haha!)
There are lots of miles to be driven on those tires!

Since the world (or rather part of the world) is celebrating Holy Week, our agency said all activity (i assumer legal activity) has ceased in Peru and will start again next week. Hopefully then the Embassy will send our approval and we can be on our way. We didn't realize we had to wait for this part, so it's MUCH longer than we thought. But God has His timing, so for now we are still waiting.

N is for Notice
I also turned in my notice at work the other day! WHAT?!?! I don't know why I got so nervous, they have know about the adoption and me leaving from the day they hired me.

S is for Skymiles
This is the most important paragraph in this post.
If you have any Delta skymiles you wish to donate to us that would be fabulous! Just leave a comment or contact me and I will get you the information.

If Life Had Background Music......

then this would have been my theme song the past two weeks. :)




Song: "This Is The Stuff"
By: Francesca Battistelli

Okay! No more complaining!!

I'm still here. We were gone for a few days. We head to SC to see some friends and then GA to a marriage conference - which was phenomenal! Then we went to MS to visit some more friends. It was a very nice vacation. I still have a few days off so that is terrific!

The marriage conference was put on by FamilyLife.
There were about 500 something people, so it was nice to be in a smaller conference. The longest married couple there had been married for 46 years and there was a couple there who were only married a month ago! I love where Brent and I are in our marriage. I would not want to go back to being a newly married couple, but I can't wait to be married for 46 years!
I may blog more about the topics at the conference a bit later.

There has been a little movement in the adoption area! YES!! We got our approvals from Immigration in the mail today! We got these back so fast! Amazing! Our agency said Peru will approve those approvals and then on to the next step!

Well I'm tired from travelling. Just wanted to check in!

April Showers....

Well it's close enough to April anyway. We have 3 adoption showers to celebrate! Our family did one for us this past Sunday and we have 2 more in April to look forward too!

It's so exciting to see everyone come together and give towards the lives of these kids! One of my favorite surprizes was gift in the mail from Angela! A box from Amazon full of Max Lucado children's books! I love these books and I can't wait to read them to the kids! My mom and I also went to consignment sales this weekend. Confession: it was bit overwhelming. I wasn't completely sure what to get, but picked up a 2 games, a puzzle, some legos, and some more books! Brent and I are going to a marriage retreat soon and we will get to go to IKEA! Maybe we will find some goodies for their rooms!

We have a lot go get ready around the house so we have got to get moving!
We are still waiting to hear back from Immigration. They said it could take up to 5 weeks. I think this starts week 2 of waiting. So we are okay.

Here are the only pictures from the shower. I wanted to take more, but with all the people to see and talk to, I forgot.

A story while you wait part 2

So we drove home December 15 feeling pretty low. What happened? Did we hear wrong? What was going on? There was not a booming voice from heaven with an explaination. So we just waited. We didn't really do anything with the adoption for the next few weeks. Christmas and New Years kept us busy!

Then one day, we got an email from our agency. It contained a list of children waiting for a home. There was very little information. Just names, ages, and a sentence or two about the child/group. One group of 3 caught our eye. Honestly, it was because of their ages. So we decided to inquire about them. About a week later, we got a bit more information. A reference card if you will. Containing basic, non-detailed information about each child.....and a picture. Whoa. Cuteness was everywhere! We thought for a while and decided to tell our parents that we were considering these kids. By now it was the middle of January. The snow came and went and Brent's hand had been bothering him greatly for a few weeks.

We decided to send a letter of intent. Our updated dossier was translated and re-submitted. This took about a week. The consejo for January was the last weekend. We were told that our dossier was held up and did not make it to that consejo. We were pretty thankful for that. The doctor scheduled Brent's surgery for the middle of February and recovery was either going to take 1 month or 3 months depending on what he found during the surgery. According to the MRI and the doctor, Brent had DESTROYED all the cartilige in his wrist. He could not even pick up a bottle of water and was in EXTREME pain and had not slept through the night since before Christmas. He usually only got about 2 hours of sleep a night. We were both having a very hard time spiritually and emotionally, Brent physically, we were struggling really bad. In fact, moving to Antartica was very appealing! So if we had been assigned the kids in January, there may not have been enough time for Brent's recovery nor our spiritual/emotional recovery.

So we were ready set for the February consejo. :) We decided not to mention to anyone except our immediate family that we inquired about the 3 siblings. Just wanted to keep it on the down low since the last time it didn't go so well. It was hard when everyone would say, "well how are things going with the adoption?" My usual response was that we were just waiting. Which was true, we just didn't specify that we were waiting on a certain 3 kids.

My birthday came - I am now 30! Wierd! Brent's surgery was the next day after my birthday. That was the best day. Ever. He was instantly out of pain (except for normal surgery soreness) and he has slept through the night since the 2nd night! PRAISE THE LORD!! Also the Sunday before our pastor preached on Psalm 55. It was great. In the Psalm, David says he wants to have wings like a dove so he can fly away. Funny - so did we! Then at the end David still places his trust in the Lord, even though his own son is trying to kill him. God used that in our lives. Hope was reborn!

This brings us to present day! Sunday came and we told our Sunday school class - hey we might get kids Wednesday. So we had a few more prayer warriors with us. Then Wednesday came, the day of the consejo. I was off from work and headed to the doctor. Wow. I didn't even know what to pray. The only thing that kept coming to mind was "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." There were 2 other families in our agency who had requested children and Peru does not like to show favortism by giving children to more than one family in the same agency. So we knew there was a possibilty that we would not get placed with the children this time around. Then Brent got an email around noon saying it was very possible that we were getting them. Then at 4:55, I got a phone call. It was not my area code, so I debated on whether or not to answer it - could have been a wrong number and I have our agencies in my phone and their name was not popping up - but I answered. It was P from our agency! What?! She had just gotten a call from her daughter! Peru had just posted everything on the site! It was offical! We had the 3 kids. They never post anything early - it's usually the next day. P said she and her daughter usually have a race to see who can check the site first the day after the consejo. Wow! Amazing! I called Brent.

We had to print off our acceptance letter. So we also printed the picture we had a few times and after church headed off to our parents to show them the picture of their new grandchildren!

I emailed P today, just to make sure it was till official and that they had not changed their minds. It's official! We got the docutments today.

We are so excited. We don't have a clue what to do next. The next few months are going to be a whirlwind I think. Thank You Lord!

"Tonight’s the night......Two worlds collide in a beautiful display
It’s all up tonight
When we step across the line.......We can sail across the sea"

A story for you while you wait.....

My friend Sharon and I have been chatting a bit the past couple of days. She and Tim are adopting from Ethiopa. They will be adopting 2 for sure. We both realized that it takes a while to get where you are going in adopting. You can read about her experience here.

But here is ours:
When Brent and I started all this it was 2008. We were getting ready to leave seminary and staying with some friend for a couple of weeks. They were also considering adopting. An adoption camp from the Ukraine was passing through the church we attended. We also found out that Brent's mentor and his wife were starting to adopt from Nepal. It's so neat how God puts you on the same road with other people, even before you know that you are going on that road! Brent finally told me that during his time with God he was really being impressed upon to start adopting. I was just waiting on him to tell me. I had been praying for a few weeks about it myself. But I did not want to tell Brent and then have him just agree with me. It needed to come from the Lord.

We arrive here in August and I called the pregnancy center that I volunteered at for some months years ago to ask if they knew of any adoption agencies. I only knew of one and their office was in Texas.
They pointed us to Lifeline. We made an appointment to meet with a domestic social worker and an international social worker, just see what all this adoption stuff was about. :) I can't really remember anything about the meeting. I guess I knew this was where we were going and we just had to figure out a place. At the time Lifeline only worked with about 5 countries. We weren't old enough for China, the Ukraine wasn't for us, Guatemala is closed, so there were just 2 left. Should we go with a different agency with more countries? I asked Brent if he could adopt from anywhere in the world where would it be? His answer: Brazil. Brent has been to several South American countries and Mexico several times. So we landed in Peru. It was the only South American country that had a contract with Lifeline.

We finally mailed in our application in May of 2009. A social worker called me the next day and we talked about a few things on the application. A few weeks later talking with the social worker for Peru, we thought there were some red flags and maybe we should consider a different route.

Enter the domestic portion of our adoption.

We began our home study meetings in August of 2009 with Renee. We loved our domestic social worker, she is a fabulous social worker. But Peru would not leave us alone. October came and we were headed to Lifeline for the last meeting for the home study. We made it through the last of the normal home study meeting and took break. Next we were to begin discussing the information that was just for domestic adoptions. After the break, we took a deep breath and told our social worker that we really needed to switch back to Peru. Whewww! That was actually more nerve-wracking than you would think! But you must understand, we felt very wishy-washy. We had just switched from Peru to domestic and now we were changing back? What was going on with us! But our social worker was incredibly understanding. She even told us that through-out our whole home study with her, she thought there was just something not quite right.

Enter the Peru home study. We pretty much did our entire home study again, only this time with our Peru social worker! We worked with her from October 2009 to March 2010. Unfortuantely, we did not really click very well with her nor the director of the program. We usually left very discouraged from the meetings with them. So we made the decision to switch agency and we have a new placing agency. We instantly fit with them! It was great. They helped make the switch and getting documents sent over very easy and understood what was going on. They have also had a Peru program for 23 years! They helped us with our dossier documents.

After all the switching around our dossier finally made it to Peru in August 2010! A few weeks later an email came to our inbox with the information of 4 siblings needing a home. I sent the email to Brent as a joke asking him if he wanted 4 kids. He took me seriously! So we pondered and talked and emailed our agency telling them yes, we would take them. Our agency was very excited. I thought they would tell us we were crazy, but they went to work, emailing the lawyer in Peru and getting information.
But we discovered that we were too young. In Peru, you must be 18 years older than the oldest child you adopt. In our case, we would have only been 16 years older than the oldest child. We were totally okay with this information and went on about our business.

Fast forward to November 2010, another email hits my inbox. This time Peru is telling us that if we still wanted to adopt these 4 kids we could. WHAT!?!?! This is crazy! Wow! So for some weeks, we thought and prayed and thought and prayed and discussed this idea with our parents and some other families who adopted 4 or 5 siblings at one time. We made the decision to go ahead. Our letter of intent was submitted on December 1. That same night we received a phone call from someone saying they wanted to make a donation to our adoption fund. Another person set up a page with information for our friends to give to our fund as well. We thought, "surely this is the Lord blessing this decision! We are headed in the right direction."

With updating the home study for 4 kids, we also had to have a new psych evaluation (i think to make sure we really weren't crazy! haha!) We drove down on December 15 to meet with the psychologist. The meeting went well. She asked for pictures when we got the kids and we walked across the hall to our agency where they told us an email was sent to them from Peru that morning saying our letter of intent was rejected and we could not have the kids. I really didn't understand was she meant when she told us. I thought okay, so we just submit it again. Then she said it again and I realized - "oh, we can't have them at all. Okay. Well now what?"

Too be continued........

New Read

I am currently reading "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire" by Jim Cymbala. I need this in my life.

Revolve Tour

This past weekend Julie, Michelle, and myself took 12 girls to the Revolve Tour. We had a great time. The Revolve team is very good. Britt Nicole, Hawk Nelson, Group 1 Crew performed concerts - they all put on fantastic shows. Jamie Grace and Kathyrn M (from So You Think You Can Dance) were also on the team and performed well.
The theme was Dream On. Going for the dreams you have in your life, yet realzing that maybe God has different dreams for you or wants to use your dream in a different direction than you originally intended.
Jenna and Chad were the main speakers. They do a great job at getting to the heart of the matter and saying things just right! Topics included (but were not limited to): boys and relationships, friendship, drama, teen suicide, trusting God, heaven, focus, telling the truth, and being yourself. We hope to go again next year....with even more girls! :)

The trouble with ligaments

It is snowing again! This time they are predicting inches! It's so cold here! I do wish that the snow had waited a few days. Brent has torn ligaments in his wrist and was scheduled to go see a specialist tomorrow. But now he will not be able to go because of the snow and ice. It is causing him a lot of pain and I hope that there are no long term effects since he has had to wait so long to see the specialist. I hope that they can reschedule him for sometime this week. He has some pain meds and anti-inflammatory, but they are really no help. His hand is so swollen that is looks like the hamburger helper hand in the commericals!

How did he tear the ligaments, you ask? Well he tore them by rolling a frying pan. Yes, really. He has a presentation that he does with feats of strength. He really enjoys it and incorporates the gospel while doing the feats. He even got to do a show in Colorado with Team Impact a long time ago. One of his stunts during that show was to blow up the hot water bottle and bust it! Well he blew up the hot water bottle and busted it! I was glad I was not there to see that! It's a dangerous stunt! But feats of strenth might be over for awhile - at least for his right hand!

So while you are reading this please say a prayer for Brent's hand/wrist.
Thank you!

Christmas

I am unusually excited about Christmas this year. I have been for awhile. This is unsual because Christmas is not my favorite holiday. I would much rather celebrate the fourth of July. But this year, I can't wait to enjoy each Christmas party.
We received an email update this week from some friends who are adopting from Ethiopia. In their email they highlighted some Christmas traditions in Ethiopia. I thought that was a good idea, so I went in search of some traditions in Peru.

This is what I found (from the random websites that I came across):

First of all it is the summer season.

Peruvians have midnight mass or they wait up till midnight - Noche Buena - and then the celebration really begins. Feasting and dancing with neighbors, friend, and family can last till early morning. Lighting fireworks add to the festivities.

Some communities perform plays.

The Nativity may be set up for a month before Christmas, but Jesus is not placed in the manger until after midnight on Noche Buena. Symbolizing that He has been born.

Another Christmas tradition in Peru is the chocolatada. A chocolatada is usually organised by churches, businesses or shops. The people there give hot chocolate, some bread or biscocho (a sweet bread with dried fruits inside), some sweets or maybe a toy to poor children (some websites included elderly people too)

Hmm.....Jesus, fireworks, and chocolate :) I think I will fit in.

Sidewalk

Our house is kinda in the woods. Meaning there is not a concrete driveway. The rocks have been so crushed that now when we drive up there is a whirlwind of dust surrounding our car. When it rains the water puddles up and we have to wade to the car. Our driveway is such that a paving company left a flyer at our house! HAHA! You know it's bad when that happens! So anyway, Brent corrected one problem by building the sidewalk pictured below. It's very nice! I like it!





PS: if you noticed the camo in the back ground - it's Brent's water balloon gun he built! It's awesome!

6 years

Brent and I have been married for 6 years now!
The week before, Brent backed into my car. So while my car was being fixed we got to drive this car. It was pretty nice. Too bad it's not a keeper!


This is some of our family. We had the best time with them that day!

Fall Cleaning

Lately, cleaning has become depressing. The house just gets dirty again, and again, and again. However it is imperative to my sanity, which has become non-existant. So off to clean I go.

Happy thought: I can pull out all the fall decorations today.

10 Good Things

Well here are a few good things from this week:

1. We received an email and back to the doctor we go. A few medical tests have been added, so we think we may have to get these complete soon. But our agency is checking in to it, so we should know by next week. But it's no big deal. Possible new blood tests and an x-ray. But what I love about this is that it means, SNA has our file and is reviewing it! Hooray!

2. I ordered five books on adoption from CBD the other day. They will be arriving soon.

3. I started working on some craft projects that have been sitting around for weeks!

4. Last week, Brent issued a challenge to our students, to carry the lunch trays of the peers when lunch was over. Some have participated, some have not. One girl in particular really had interesting experiences. The first few days, the kids poured milk on her, put ketchup on her, piled up the trays till they fell over, laughed at her, etc. She kept on for the next week. Yesterday and today the kids have begun to appriecate her kind gesture by thanking her and were not rude. Today the princpal asked her what she was doing and why. She explained she was trying to show kindness to others and be able to show them Jesus. So she got to share her faith with her principal and then her principal started helping her carry the trays to the kitchen! This chick is in 9th grade. We were proud of her!

5. Brent was able to speak to a football team, cheerleaders, and coaches this week.
He's getting to speak a lot this month.

6. Our 6 year wedding anniversary was Saturday! Posting some pics later.

7. One cute thing, my nephew is about to be 3. The other day my mom was saying the blessing at lunch. At the end of her prayer Destin says, "Thank You God for the pickles." How cute!

8. My jewelry shows are going well.

9. April and Tobi got to hear their baby's heartbeat today.

10. Eleven ladies were going to Planned Parenthood for an abortion. They changed their mind! Eleven little lives were saved! - I heard this on the radio from a group that was praying outside Planned Parenthood. We always give praise for LIFE!

What good things are happening in your life? What do you have to give praise for?

A Little News

Okay, not really, but it was a more uplifting title than no news!
We actually did hear from our agency in a group update. The Peruivan consejo meets once or twice a month to place children. This time around no one from the United States was chosen! We will possibly wait a year. This okay with me. I do know that God has His timing, so it could be early than a year, but let's face it, Abraham waited 13 years to have Issac!! It could be longer. I am okay with God's timing. I do not feel impatient right now. I do think God has lots to work on me before a child comes to our home!

Sometimes the adoption can consume our entire world. Our thoughts, financial decisions, our conversations, this blog, etc. Other times I feel like any moment now, we will just say "Suprize, haha, just kidding, we are not really adopting!" What I mean by saying that is, sometimes it doesn't seem real that there is a little girl or boy somewhere in Peru that is coming to our home some day. It seems more like a dream. I think, this is for "real" adults, people who know what they are doing and have children, (even though adopting a baby is way different than having a birth child - so I've heard! ha!) or people know more and have prepared more, something!!

We have friends who have adopted or are in waiting, like us, but I do wish they were closer. There are several churches around our area who have adoption support groups, however we are so busy at our church, we have not taken the initiative to get connected to a support group. I think I would like for us to do that soon.

Plus, I thought the other day that while I'm glad we have chosen to adopt a boy or a girl and are approved for 2 children from the ages of infancy to four, I have no idea how to get ready. What size clothes should we buy, what type of toys, bottles or sippy cups, pink or blue, baby blanket or toddler bed, and the list goes on........ According to what we have seen, there is only about 30 days from the time of acceptance to travel to country! 30 days to get physically ready for 1 or 2 more lives in our house! WOW!! :) But God makes all things possible, so I don't think I'll worry about that, until the day comes!

We have been busy the past few months. I counted the other day and between now and January, we have 2 weekends where nothing is scheduled! I hope to post a little more often and a little less serious!

My fantastic sister-in-law, April, is pregnant! May 20 will add another niece or nephew to our family! They are super excited and it is so fitting that she is pregnant at this time. I am so glad for her!

Well this is far too long. Gotta run.....leave some love!

In Her Shoes

These are my favorite shoes. They were under $10 at Shoe Dept,so that makes them even better.

Yesterday I met a lady at a jewelry show. I think I would like to walk in her shoes a bit. Here are her fun facts, in no particular order.

P is 70-ish. She and her husband, J, lived in Germany for 5 years. She used to be a shoe model and got to keep every pair she modeled. P and a friend were once kidnapped for about an hour in the Philippines. After much praying, they were able escape because the car broke down. She and her friend had a private tour of the President's home in another country and viewed many places the general public is not allowed to visit. She speaks on prayer. J is an evanglism teacher. The President of the seminary where J teaches used to be one of J's students. They have lived all over the world. They places they have not lived, they have visited. Once while in Sweden, they watched the sun set and then bounce right back up. They have been married for 53 years. They vacationed in Hawaii for 5 weeks and spent a few days on a remote Hawaiian island living in a tree house. J now has cancer and they will soon be returning to their home state.

Every ounce of P shines with her love of Jesus and life. She is bouncy and light-hearted. I loved getting to meet her. I do wish I had more time to visit with her. I imagine she has many more stories to tell and much more to live.

Mission

Last week Brent and 4 other guys from our church and another church in town returned from Peru. They left August 3rd. Brent and Jeremy returned home early to attend the funeral of Jeremy's grandfather. The others returned yesterday.

I hope that Brent will blog about his trip this week.

Our dossier is on it's way or should be at the consulate now. The next stop is Peru!
I am getting worried that we are going to wait longer than anticipated. By longer I mean 18 months - 2 years. I don't know why. To Brent, longer is February 2011. But that seems a short time away for me. I know God has things all in His timing. It's been my experience that when God decides it time for something to happen, it all comes about very quickly!! So if we could all pray 2 Chronicles 29:36 -
"And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced because God had prepared for the people, for the thing came about suddenly."

The jewelry sells for our adoption are going very well! I hope it continues to go so well. I don't have any parties booked for September, but it's just the middle of August. Perhaps, you would book a party?

Rather randomly, I've been considering a masters degree in psychology. What do you think?

A FEW WEBSITES FOR YOU

HERE ARE SOME WEBSITES YOU MIGHT WANT TO CHECK OUT:



VIEW THIS WEBSITE FOR DEVEOTIONS FROM GENESIS: www.nicolelhvaughn.tatepublishing.net









VIEW THIS WEBSITE FOR HIS VOICE GLOBAL: www.hisvoiceforsudan.com

P.S.

Oh, I forgot to mention. We thought that the lady who conducted our psychological evaluation may have been Buddist. We cannot be for sure. Maybe she just collected little Budda statues and put them in her office. But it was really interesting to watch her as we shared stories about what our God had done and is doing. We even got to share with her a little bit about God sending Christ to come adopt us by His death on the cross. Had she been a Christian, we think that her responses to some answers we gave would have been different, even if she did need to word our respondes in a certain way for the auhorties in Peru. The only way to explain our whole adoption experience is God.

Today in Sunday School our teacher asked if God ever asked us to do something "big" for Him. Big is relative term depending on you. It could be cooking supper every night for you family, resigning your church and not know where God is taking you such as Francis Chan and his family did, to anything in between.

Sometimes I think I know what type of life God might have for me and Brent. It comes in fleeting thoughts. I'm pretty sure I would like it. I know I am not ready for it.
Maybe this is preparation stage. I don't know if I am preparing well.

Okay, church is out....going to lunch.