Big hearts

Gracie painted a picture of her and her new sister. I love that her heart and mind are already welcoming this child into our lives. It'll be a while before we are even matched, but this child is loved. Gracie asked if we could go ahead and get bunk beds so we could hang the picture above where her head would be. 

Update

Since Jason last posted we have switched back to Ethiopia for our adoption. I say switched back because our first thought was with Ethiopia but after our initial meeting with Lifeline we thought China was where The Lord was leading. After much prayer and discussion we felt fully called to adopt one child from Ethiopia. We are leaving the number open to two children, but we do feel called to adopt one child at this time. We are so excited (as are Gracie and James) about the future The Lord has planned for us. 

One of my sweet friends gave me an adoption gift and I couldn't be more thrilled about it! The necklace below is one I got for Mother's Day this year. It has the kids first initials, a heart and a pearl on it. I had already been thinking about how I would need to add another initial when we knew the name of our child. Janelle gave me a charm with Africa stamped on it and I added it to my necklace. I feel like a kid on Christmas morning!! This charm will serve as a reminder to me to be in prayer daily for our newest child! 

There are so many things that are uncertain at this point (especially the time frame), but one thing is very certain: The Lord loves this child more than we can ever imagine and I'm so thankful that He will be sustaining us through all of this. We turned in our first home study paperwork and mailed off our fingerprints this week. We are hopeful to have our first home study within the next month or so. 

And then there were...6?

We have some cute kids...seriously. Look:

So imagine my surprise when Sarah and I started talking about another child a couple of months ago. Sarah has struggled with wanting to carry another child, and I have struggled with the idea of long nights, poopy diapers, etc. However, one other thing we have wrestled with over the past two years is the idea of adoption. We've talked about it on and off for that long, but we always managed to have an excuse not to proceed. And then, August came.

August marked the end of my 7th summer in real estate. I got into real estate in the summer of 2007 when the market began to slow, and, within a year, we were struggling as a commission family in a market that was in turmoil. Fast forward to this summer, and we have a rebounded market. Why tell you this? It was my crutch for not going through with adoption - financially we weren't capable of supporting another child. Sarah, meanwhile, was having difficulty with the idea of not carrying another child (if we even had another one). It was in August she went to a conference at Dawson led by Jen Hatmaker. Apparently, there was talk of adoption. This led to about a month's worth of discussions between Sarah and me on adoption. 

Finally, on a Thursday afternoon, I went online to Lifeline Children's Services and ordered an info packet. "What's the big deal? It's just information, and we don't have to commit to anything." Yeah, I was wrong. Did you know there are over 147 million orphans worldwide? I didn't either until I started looking at the research. Most of these children will never have a chance - no education, no skills, no family. That last one is hard to comprehend. I was raised in a home that valued family. My parents stayed together until my mother's death. I have a close relationship with my sister. We were part of a church family that cared for us and taught us the gospel. I can't imagine my first 16-18 years of life without a mother and father. 

We've felt a calling to China and have submitted an application for that country. There are 20.5 million orphans in that country alone. Why? I don't know. I guess it's what many in the evangelical community call a "God thing" is the best way to explain. There are many coincidences - Sarah's brother is fluent in Mandarin, China was the one foreign country my mother went to (she was a big fan of Lottie Moon for you Southern Baptists), but really we just can't get that country out of our mind. It comes back over and over again. 

If you notice at the top, I wrote 6. That's because we feel called to adopt 2 - a boy and a girl. One of the biggest reasons for me is I want them to have someone to lean on and understand what they are going through as they grow up. A more self-serving answer is Gracie wants a sister and James wants a brother! But, again, we just feel a calling...a calling from the One Who adopted Sarah and me many years ago. While I was far away from God (as far as an eight year old can be), I felt God call to me. Now I understand that He sought me out and adopted me into His family. Through adoption, God's calling is again lived out. Sarah and I believe we have 2 other children - our children - on this earth. The problem is they are on the other side of the world. We now have to seek them out and bring them home. May God bless us on this journey!

A New Creation

Today is a very special day for our family. Gracie was baptized this morning by Jason. 

 A couple of months ago Gracie talked with us about how she was ready to participate in communion and be baptized. She was ready to publicly say that she was following Jesus and wanted to serve Him and love Him more than anything else. Gracie has had wonderful training outside the home that we are so thankful for. From the beginning, Gracie had a community of believers praying for and loving her at University Baptist Church in Chapel Hill and sweet nursery workers that loved on her during our short time in Mobile. When we moved back to Birmingham we joined Dawson and Gracie was loved, prayed for and taught by wonderful believers. We began a new journey back in the spring with a church plant called Haven Field. This has been a big change for our family (and all of Haven Field), but it has been a great one. We meet each week at the Library in the Forest in Vestavia. After worship this morning we all moved across the street to Wald Park for the baptisms and then a picnic lunch. I have been praying for Gracie since before she was born that she would know and love the Lord at an early age. We are so thankful that God has called her by name. We will continue to pray for Gracie and we covet your prayers also. I shared this morning (through tears) how special I thought it was that Gracie was being baptized next to her school because I know that God will use her in that place to build relationships and share the wonderful love of Jesus with others. 

"If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved." 

Romand 10:9-10 

 We were invited to share words of encouragement with each child before they were baptized. I totally lost in and cried through my words to her. 

 Listening to my Mom "Ma" share a memory of Gracie asking for her big Bible when she was 2

 Gracie thought the water was really chilly

 Sweet Friend (Betty) came to celebrate with Gracie

 Some sweet words being shared

Grandmom and Mr. and Mrs. Guy (MK and Steven, the newlyweds) *Steven was holding an umbrella for Grandmom and I purposefully didn't get the umbrella in the shot because I thought I could take Stevens arm out of the picture. I haven't figured out how to do much of anything with pictures on our Mac, so sorry Steven! 

 Gracie and Ma

 James didn't want to be left out

 Uncle Marland and Aunt Betsy with Gracie

 Aunt Beverly and Granddaddy

Spring break in pictures

We spent the week in Frisco with Julie and her family and had the best time! Here are some more pictures from our time together.

The Perot Museum

On Thursday we spent part of the afternoon at the Perot museum in Dallas. It was amazing and the kids had a great time. This was definitely a fun place for the kids, but this would be a really neat place to go without kids sometime (they actually have one evening every couple of months where children are not allowed). Here are some pictures from a few of the exhibits. *explanation for the picture of the four cousins where James is looking up...they were having a hard time looking at the camera at the same time so I said "when I say 3 look up and say cheese"...James looked up :)