Adoption-Step 5...WAITING!

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
Ever since high school, this has been my favorite Bible verse. It is God's awesome promise to us that He wants and knows what is best for us. As Matt and I wait to hear from a birthmother, I take comfort in knowing that God has my future planned and that the perfect family is waiting for us, just as we are for them.
I can't believe that we are actually finished with our paperwork and ready to wait for a call from a mom asking us to parent her child! It is amazing and quite nerve racking at the same time! Thanks to all for supporting our decision and praying for us. We love you all!!

Oops!

Alright folks, time to catch up. I'm a little behind on the many joys in my life right now. Everything is going very well. We're waiting on the final ok on our birthmother letter, school is going great, ISTEP testing is over (big YEAH!), and family and friends are doing fine.
Just wanted to share quick about the 10 yr class reunion on Sept. 14 and 15. What a great time we had tailgating at the NW football game on Friday night. I haven't been to a game in a long time (even though I do live close by still). We had fun even though it was very chilly and NW won so that's always good! Then we had our "formal" part at the College Football Hall of Fame. What a nice time to get to see people and see what they've been doing for the past ten years. A big THANK YOU goes out to Jessica and everyone else who helped plan the big events. We had a great time!
Also wanted to recap a wonderful ladies day out. Melanie asked if Jess, Jenn, and I wanted to go shopping in Michigan City at the outlet stores and hang out last Saturday. Of course, we said yes. Melanie has been so busy lately with new beautiful daughter that we haven't gotten to spend much time together. We had a great time (and found some spectacular deals!) I even got some new tennis shoes so I can get rid of the ones I've had since college. We had a great time talking, shopping, and eating together. Thanks for all the fun memories!

Adoption-Step 4....Almost....

Hey there all. Just wanted to update you on the progress. We are coming along! We got approved for adoption through our home study and we finally got a picture approved for our letter. So, I am hoping to get the prototype of the letter made and sent by Monday. Then, we have to make about 200 copies of the letter. After that, I believe we are good to go! It's getting very exciting and to the point where I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. For those of you who are curious, here is a link to our website http://www.mattandalicia.wordpress.com/ that we set up for the birthmothers to read.
Also, one of my co-workers recently asked me the thought provoking question, "Are you praying for your birthmother?" Hmmm....probably not enough. So if you think about it when you pray for us could you also stick in a prayer for our birthmother, whoever she may be, that she is safe and taking good care of herself and child. I'm going to try to pray for her more often too. Thanks so much. This process is much easier with family and friends supporting us!

kids...

I just have to share a "kid" story. I have a little girl in my class who is as cute as can be but she is quite the talker, or singer, or person who is always making noise! :) Luckily she's adorable so most of the time it doesn't bother me. Today she told the cutest story....
Last year, my teacher saw Joshua's backpack and said, "Joshua, why is your backpack so full?"
Joshua said, "I don't know." My teacher said, "Joshua, when I asked you to throw away the rest of your popcorn bag did you put it in the trash?" Joshua said, "Yes." Then my teacher opened Joshua's backpack and out spilled a bunch of popcorn! (By this time my little girl is just cracking up with her own story! I wish you all could've seen her!)
The part that puts the icing on the cake though is that I went to this student's first grade teacher to ask her about the story and the funniest part is that this little boy really liked to save food for later because one time she found pancakes in his backpack too! :) Just had to share...kids crack me up!

Adoption-Step 3

Slowly but surely the process continues. We are finally nearing the end of the part we "control"!! We had our home study this weekend, where a counselor came to the house, looked around, and interviewed Matt and me. I was way nervous about this step because I felt like it would be a job interview only worse! It's not just for a job, but a child! So, thankfully everything went well. The counselor was very friendly and easy to talk to. And the best news of all was that before she left she said, "....final step...."! Yeah. We're getting there. We're still waiting for my fingerprints to come back, our letter to the birthmother to be finalized, and our picture for our letter to be approved. The website is getting close to done (which I'll post a link to once it's mostly complete). It's such a wonderful feeling to get all this paperwork behind us. Hopefully by the end of this long Labor Day weekend, we'll be ready to sit by the phone and wait for a mom to call! :) Thanks so much for all the prayers!

Joys

I have been a bit of an unfaithful blogger as of late. I've been keeping all of my wonderful experiences to myself so I decided to write a post that will probably be a bit rambling... so brace yourself! First of all I wanted to write about the great time we had with the most adorable kids last weekend. (And I know mom and dad will be mad that Gracie has her finger in her mouth, but that picture was just too cute!! It was right before nap time. :) ) We got to babysit the Frye kids while Amos and Jess had some time to themselves. Matt and I had a great time. We were definitely very busy! Both kids were excellent as usual and we were very blessed to get to spend time with them. It's so neat watching them both grow and develop into little people! :)

Speaking of little people, I also started school this past week. It's always sad to see the summer end, but I like getting back into a routine and meeting new kids each year. So far so good, but we've only had three days and I think the kids are still on their best behavior. :) The beginning of school is always exciting because of the possibilities for the coming year. I didn't know any of the students before hand, so the "unknown" is always a little scary, but of course everything turns out fine! God always gives me new challenges, which keeps life interesting!

And finally a joy for friends. I am so thankful for all of the friends in my life that make me laugh and help me figure life out. We had a Sunday School party at Jamie's house on Friday. It's been great getting to know her more and spending time with her. Then on Saturday, Jess and Jenn and I went to the most awesome restaurant...Hana Yori's (sp??). Everything was SOOO tasty. Those girls always keep me laughing and I love how open and honest they both are! (Plus they are my most faithful commenters on my blog! :) ) Love you all and don't forget to share with others how great you think they are!

Adoption-Step 2

Thank you all who have been praying for us and keeping our family to be in mind over the past few months! I was hoping to be a little further along in the process now that it is August, but God's plans are not always the same as mine! :) We did finally get the last of our paperwork mailed today! After some set backs from blood tests and fingerprints, I think we have that part complete. Now as we are waiting to schedule the home visit with our counselor, we need to finish our birthmother letter, which is in the final stages already, and put a website together, which we know very little about! :) Through all the set backs I have been so very thankful that I have been off of work to be able to have the extra time to run all these errands. Please keep thinking about us and I hope to have another adoption post soon!!

Harry Potter and Dale Hallow

So, back to real life. I just finished reading the last and final book from J.K. Rowling's series Harry Potter and let me just say WOW! What a talented writer to be able to write for young and old alike and to be able to tie seven books together is just amazing. What a blessing for her to be able to get people interested in reading books (even if they are written for kids!) and teach others about important characteristics just as courage and love! I'd recommend the series to anyone, no matter what your age or level of love of reading!

And now that all my time is not being consumed finding out what happens to Harry...I have time to post pictures and comments about our recent trip to Tennessee! If any of you are looking for the most relaxing vacation, I would definitely suggest a houseboat. It was so peaceful out on the lake and beautiful. We had time to spend with one another and just take it easy. Below are a few pictures from the trip:















Matt took a few hours out of each day to try out his fishing boat and when that didn't work, he started to improvise! He did catch enough fish for each person who wanted one to have one on the last night!





















My lovely family (Why we decided to take a family picture on the last day of the week when we had only had "lake showers" is a mystery! :) )

Loving well

I am blessed this summer to be in two Bible studies with friends and co-workers. In one of the studies I am learning how to love others...no matter how difficult some may be to love! :) It is a Beth Moore study called Loving Well. She uses 1 John 4 as the basis of the study and comes up with 4 key points to loving anyone. They are:
1. God is perfect love.
2. Nothing can separate me from God's perfect love.
3. God pours His perfect love into my imperfect heart.
4. Accessed, I can love anyone through anything.
I was challenged to memorize these key points to use when I come across someone who is difficult to love. God calls us to love EVERYONE!! And because we are humans, it is beyond our capability to love some people, but with God's love in us, we can. I thought I'd share and I hope to keep these points with me...especially once school starts again because it is much easier to love people in the summer! HA! :)

Heads Carolina, Tails...

We had a great time visiting my sister, Kristina, in Fayetteville, NC over the past week. She was a wonderful hostess, even though we had little time to "chill" :) ! The area is beatiful, although hot and humid. We spent one day at the beach in Wilmington where we also went shopping, visited a Serpentarium (see pictures below), and got to eat fresh steamed crab.

Kristina and I also got to do some "girly" things like go shopping and lay out at the pool while Matt played Xbox at the apartment. Don't go feeling too sorry for him though, we did find two disc golf courses to play! We also got to attend church with Kristina, play some mini-golf, and tour Fort Bragg. Luckily Matt came along because he helped Kristina fix some things around the apartment and saved us from the killer cockroach in her bathroom! :) I feel very blessed for the opportunity to visit, but I'd much rather have her closer by!

A bushmaster and reticulated python at the Serpentarium. They had some pretty cool and DEADLY snakes there!

Kristina enjoying her first whole steamed crab. Watch out...they may bite!