Afternoon Mystery

Once upon a time there was an unsuspecting mama in the basement doing laundry.  She heard one of her little ones calling impatiently and decided (rather foolishly) to ignore the grumpy imploring voice.  After emptying the contents of the dryer into her basket, she headed up the stairs to be greeted by a scary sight! "Someone" had hauled the footstool from the bathroom all the way into the pantry, presumably, in order to reach something that "someone" had not been authorized to partake of.  The mama began to speculate.  "Could it have been the leftover chocolate from Grandma?" Nope.  "Hmm...could she have gotten into something even more sugary?"  The mama...

Read More

Blur

Life feels pretty much like this right now: An absolute blur. I have four children ages six, four, two, and 2.5months and I stay at home with them.  My day starts around 6amish (thank you evil Time Change) when this one tiptoes into my room to whisper very loudly, "Mommy, may I please lay with you?" Seconds later, she's followed by one or two of the others who also climb in begging for the chance to snuggle Mommy before the day really begins.  All the while, I'm feeling groggy and not wanting to open my eyes but being too squished to possibly remain asleep. And so begins the day. :) From then on, there are lots of tears, fights, laughter, messes, food, music, dishes, whining,...

Read More

Apple Orchard 2012

I am a sucker for traditions. I LOVE THEM.  I love having special things to look forward to each year, things we can count on and dream about and wait for.  A trip to the apple orchard kicked off our fall traditions...although this time we didn't actually pick any apples, but that's beside the point-we made a memory. Addie's version of roping is to wind the rope around the ears...very resourceful! My big four-year-old cutie lassoing away! Tali would have bounced all day! It was so much fun watching them laugh together. My girl's got some rad hair! Don't be fooled-Josh jumped, too...not with Titus! Family trip down the big slide Serious duck race competition My...

Read More

Smiles and Tears: Adoption Joys and Grief

(Bear with the junky picture quality as it's easier to grab my iphone w/a newborn in hand than it is to grab my Nikon.) When people ask how it's going over here, it's difficult to know what to say.  We're experiencing such a mixture of joy and sorrow all wrapped into one. There is deep joy as I stare into Titus' dark brown eyes, amazed that he is really here, really with us after years of praying for him.  There are smiles as I hear Addie Beth talking to her little brother ("Titus, will you tackle me when you're a big boy?  Yes, I bet you will!") and smiles as I watch the three big kids fight over who can hold the baby next.  There is incredible rejoicing over...

Read More

Thankful

Our days are somewhat crazy but filled with fun. Four little people to love and cherish and cook for and clean up after. I still can hardly believe that this is our life...we are so blessed. Titus fits so perfectly into our family.  It's incredible, really, how three weeks ago we didn't even know anything about him and now it's as if he's always been a part of us.  I could say it a million times-adoption is beautif...

Read More

Surreal

I'm sitting here holding Titus, feeling like I'm in some sort of a dream.  This is my baby.  The baby we've been praying for and longing for.  He's here...in my arms.  It is incredibly surreal. Titus is our son and our hearts are so full, yet there is such a mixture of emotions as we pause to consider all that's happened in the last three weeks.  There really has been extreme emotions of sorrow and joy that have exploded in our hearts over such a short amount of time. There's still a sorrow over the situation with the twins ending.  There's a mourning when I think of their birthmom and how much I miss talking with her and about the precious little...

Read More

The Broken and Beautiful Path to Our Son: Part 3

We woke up late that Thursday morning yet still felt tired.  Few words were spoken as we got into our rental car and headed to pick up lunch before we went to the airport.  We sang a sweet song we'd heard on xmradio the night before.  "My God is Awesome, He can move mountains, keep me in the valley...hide me from the rain.  My God is Awesome, heals me when I'm broken, strength where I've been weakened, forever He will reign."  Rain fell softly on the windshield and we drove some more in silence. I started wondering aloud.  "Why are we even here, Josh?  Isn't it just weird?  Why are we in Florida?"  He shook his head slowly and said, "I don't know." A...

Read More

The Broken and Beautiful Path to Our Son: Part 2

Amidst the sorrow of processing the unexpected end to our match with the twins, God continued to show us His love.  But experiencing His care didn't make all of the hurt go away-far from it.  There were many many tears, many unanswered questions, and a sense of complete confusion as to why in the world we were in Florida. We drove to a Starbucks, planning to spend some time writing a letter to the twins' birthmom.  We wanted to tell her we love her dearly and wanted an opportunity to share with her again how thankful we are for the chance we had to get to know her. We pulled into the Starbucks parking lot and Josh said, "Let's check out a different one, this one doesn't...

Read More

The Broken and Beautiful Path to Our Son: Part 1

God's ways are often so mysterious; they rarely make sense when we're in the midst of a dark cloud of sorrow.  Our week began under that cloud, ridden with tears and disappointment that our match to adopt twins had ended.  We love those twins and their selfless birthmom immensely so ending our match with them was excruciating and felt much like a death to be greived. That match ended as we were heading to Florida to meet the twins' birthparents.  (In fact, when we arrived at Midway Airport, Josh asked if we should just stay in Chicago.  Then while we were in line, I asked him, "Should we really just go?  What for?")  Instead of arriving and meeting the...

Read More