Merry Christmas!!

Oh, what a wonderful time of year!  This Christmas season has been so different and I have loved every minute of it...okay, almost every minute. ;).   Having a child to celebrate the season with makes everything so amazing!   Just today I was driving home from running a few errands and I was thinking about all that God has done for my family this year.  All I could do was just smile and think, "only You could do all this, Lord...only You".   Dave and I have a few things the Lord is doing for us at this very moment.  I am not ready to let it out over my blog, Twitter, or Facebook, but soon very soon!  

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I am so excited to spend it with my two favorite guys!!  This may sound silly, but for years I couldn't wait to read The Night Before Christmas with my children and tomorrow night I finally get to do it.  

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!! 

One of my favorites of Aiden with his Aunt Lily!  They are from the same foster home in China!

 

A visit with Santa!

We went to see Santa last week and all Aiden asked for were games.  He's an easy kid to please!

New school!!

Today when  my little man woke up he was super excited to meet his new teacher at his new school! After much prayer and talking Dave and I decided to put Aiden into public school.  I have been homeschooling Aiden over the last couple of months.   What Aiden needs more than anything right now is for me to just be his mommy, so I am removing the role of being his teacher,  It was quite different with Aiden in school and not "officially" working.  Don't get me wrong, my day was full, but it was just different.  I have always found great fulfillment in getting dressed, heading into work and getting things done.  I always have a million things to do, I just have to get focused.   


Tomorrow I am celebrating my 10 year anniversary and can hardly believe it!   I have done so much in the last 1o years.  Things that have changed my life and things that I never want to repeat (ha-ha). One thing that I know is that I married a wonderful man and I love him with all that is within me!

Baking with mommy!!

He loved helping me bake an apple pie for Thanksgiving!  Tomorrow he will be helping me bake an apple tart.  Let the holidays beginning....!!!!

Another evaluation over with!

I took Aiden to have a communication evaluation done at All Children's Hospital in Sarasota.  We are so blessed to only have to drive 15 minutes to get to a fabulous hospital.  The therapist was phenomenal and had a lot of positive things to say about Aiden's speech.  He has develop a lot of bad speech habits over the last 5 years, so now we are on the road to breaking the bad habits and creating proper speech.  It seems like the road is long, but Aiden has such a strong desire to correct his speech.  It breaks my heart sometimes, because I know he is fully aware that people can't really understand him.  He is such a sweet, sweet boy and wants to learn the right way. 

Last week we had Ashlea from Aiden's foster home visiting from China and he just adores her.  We have had a couple of crazy busy weeks, but things have settled down a bit.  Today Aiden had one of his best days and it was so nice!!  We see him relaxing more and more.   We had our final visit from our social worker and were told that we should have a court date to officially adopt after the new year.  

GOOD News on Aiden's cleft Lip/Palate

Yesterday we got GREAT news about Aiden's cleft lip/palate.  We have, in my opinion, the most wonderful plastic surgeon.  He said that out of all the Chinese children he has seen, Aiden's surgeries in China are some of the best.  He does have a little opening that allows some air through, but he didn't seem to think it needs to be closed immediately.  So, Aiden is good until he is 7 years old when he has to have a bone graft and at that time they will close the tiny hole in his palate.  He has all his teeth, which is huge!!  The next step is to see a dentist on his cleft team.  My first thought of Aiden's next surgery is, "What happens if we are overseas", but that is easy.....one of us will travel back for the surgery or God will prepare another avenue for Aiden to have the best care somewhere else.   I love serving God.  No worries, no fear....complete trust, unspeakable joy, and peace that passes all understanding!!

We did go trick or treating (just a fun time to get some candy) on Sunday.  I don't have any pictures right now, because I shot them in a RAW format instead of JPEG and those can only be processed through Photoshop and my desktop is in the shop.   However, my little man dressed up as a ninja.   My view point of the night, the houses with lights on were sparse and maybe having a dress up party would have been better.  Overall, we had a great time with the family.

A LONG overdue entry.............

I can't believe it has been over a month since my last blog. Over the last 4 weeks we have gone through a few fires, but with fire comes the refining process. And we all have been being refined. The first two weeks of October were rough and that is really putting it nicely. However, we made some adjusted based off of wonderful counsel and we have seen significant improvements. I really believe there are times when you make small adjustments and yield huge results.  Dave and I are so thankful for the huge support system we have and especially the guidance of the Holy Spirit, our Helper in life. 

I feel like the last eight weeks I have been a slave to my cell phone trying to get all of Aiden's appointments scheduled. At this point all the balls are rolling and I have EVERY appointment that I need right now scheduled.   Next week we have his cleft eval, and appointment for speech at a local school and our final post placement appointment with our social worker.  I have made a commitment that from the week of Thanksgiving to the New Year that we our going to take a breather from everything and enjoy the holidays.  I love this time of year!! 

Please pray for us that we would receive favorable reports from all the professionals dealing with our adoption and that we get a court date for December. Dave and I want to have our adoption finalized by the end of the year.  ~Thank You!

Breakthrough after breakthrough!

We had such a wonderful weekend and have been experience breakthroughs with Aiden nearly each day.  On Sunday he mentioned that his name was Aiden Jian (& former last name).  The first time I tried to tell him that he had a new name, which was during the first week he was home, he completely shut down on me for about 35/40 minutes.  Well, on Sunday I sensed the opportunity to say something again and he totally accepted his new name!!  He also seemed proud about it.  God is so good!  His play therapy is going well and we have our 1st post placement visit on Friday.  We started homeschooling on Monday and it was fairly successful.   We decided to home school his first year of school, because of all the changes he has recently gone through.  We are getting on a schedule this week, for me this is a very important factor in being productive.  Aiden even got up early with me this morning to meet our youth kids at See You At The Pole,( a student lead prayer event).  He did great!!   We are still working through some things, but as Dave and I continually yield to God, He will guide our every step!  

Overwhelmed by love from family and friends at Aiden's "welcome home" party

Yesterday afternoon Aiden and I headed to his "welcome home" party, which he was confusing for his birthday party.  I had to keep explaining that his birthday was after Christmas, but I eventually just allowed to him to think what he wanted to think.  I must admit, I was a bit concerned on how Aiden would respond to a large group of people and having all the attention on himself.  He had a very rough day on Saturday and it did trickle over to Sunday morning a bit, but, in the end, he did amazing!   He used manners, was interacting with people, and he even came to sit on MY lap (huge breakthrough).  He wanted me...ME!  That touched my heart in a way that I could never explain.   The entire afternoon touch my heart deeply.  I am constantly overwhelmed by the love of my family, friends, and God.   Aiden was blessed beyond measure!!   Thank you to everyone who shared the afternoon with us yesterday.  Thank you for taking time to rejoice with Dave and I and to celebrate and say...."Look what the Lord has done"!

Aiden with his loot!

Christian Life Center had a float in the Labor Day Parade this year and Aiden had a blast helping.  He was the cutest little guy waving in the entire parade!  ...Okay, so I am a little partial, but isn't that my job?  

Life is still in transition mode, which isn't a bad thing, it is just new and different.  We call it being "loosey-goosey" in our household or for all those that like the normal word.....flexible.   We learned being on the mission field that flexibility is the name of the game.  Easier said then done with a personality like mine.  I like order, schedules, knowing where I have to go and when I have to be there.  Well, I am still that way, but after living in China I understand the great importance of being flexible and not getting all flustered when life throws you a curve ball or it could be a person throwing that curve ball.  So, with our new little man in the house I had about a week where I found my identity tied up at work and felt loss instead of looking at the beautiful treasure we have been blessed with from the Father. Please don't misunderstand, I adore my son and I look at him and I am in awe of how great God is.  He is always faithful! I was looking at Aiden yesterday while we were at the beach and could see the hand of God all over his life.  Even though Aiden has experience a tremendous amount of loss and rejection over his little life, God has never left him.  When we pray, we pray that all that loss would be covered with love, security, trust, peace, and joy.  And I am not believing for 6 months to a year for this.  I am believing that this healing and restoration happens to my son suddenly....today, tomorrow....quickly.  The Father wants Aiden whole today!  So, I stand on that promise.

And to end.......... I love being a mommy!

New Pictures!

Aiden feeding the turtles in Austin, TX

I found him sleeping in the chair on his  2nd night at home.

He just got his haircut by Mr. Steve!  We got done and he said,"mommy, I love my haircut!".

Showing off a new shirt from Dave's friend in CT.

I have been a "mommy" for a week!

It's hard to even describe everything that has happened in the last week.  Everything moved so quickly once the family signed the consents for Aiden.  Since we have arrived home I think Aiden has met most of our town or at least that may be how he is feeling.  On Tuesday he met my parents and all his aunts and uncles and he met Dave's mom.  We had a break on Wednesday, then on Thursday he met a few ladies at bible study and then a bunch of crazy teenagers that evening.  Aiden did great with the teenagers, if you are willing to engage him and play thumb war he is all yours! Friday we went to Dave's work and Saturday and Sunday we had church.  So, you can imagine that by Sunday afternoon he was done with all the new faces.  He was actually calling his preschool teacher at church "grandma" and I had to tell him not everyone is grandma....so funny!  Last night we went to my parent's house and Aiden had a great time playing with Aunt Andi and Uncle Tommy.  Aunt Lily is still adjusting to sharing the attention, which is totally normal....after all, she is the princess.

On the home front Aiden is still doing exceptionally well considering all the changes in the last year and a half.  We most certainly have more ups than we do downs.  He continues to push me away and then pulls me back in by telling me he loves me about 500 times in a row.  Last Wednesday was a difficult day; Dave was at work and Aiden wouldn't talk to me at all.  I must admit I felt quite overwhelmed and even closed my office door and cried for a moment, BUT that didn't last, I pushed through and relied on my Heavenly Father for His strength! 

I am still trying to get into a little bit of a routine.  I am working on getting Aiden into speech therapy and play therapy.  Everything else for his cleft will get done, but it will not be immediate.  We are focusing on just being with him. 

I know many of you who read my blog are praying for us and your prayers are powerful!!   .....Thank You!!

Making our way home to Florida!

Today we started making the journey home back to Florida.  We stopped at the Texas boarder to spend the night. We still have to wait until we hear from the Interstate in Texas that we have the go ahead to leave the state. Please be in agreement that we will hear something first thing tomorrow morning. 

When we left Austin this morning Aiden had a rough time and was mostly quiet for the entire ride.  I am thankful for the DVD player that Grandma and Grandpa let us borrow.  Aiden is still doing so much better than what is usual for this type of transition.  It is so Supernatural the way he is responding to Dave and I, despite the moments of rejection and being distant.  Right now Aiden is playing games with his daddy and they have so much fun together.  It is really very sweet! 

So, our goal is to be home very late Monday night and to visit family on Tuesday.  I do have more pictures to upload, but I lef the camera in the car.  We can't wait to see all our family and friends.  It has only been a week, but we MISS Florida! 

Thank you for all your prayers and love!

Day #2 of our transition with Aiden

Day #2 went so good!  We picked Aiden up at his Grandma's house around 11:00 AM and went to a park. Let me tell you...it is HOT in Austin, TX.  We had lunch by the river and then went to get some ice cream to cool off.   As we were dropping Aiden back off at his Grandma's house for a break in between visits (recommended by the social worker) he did not want to leave us, but we promised him that we would be back.  We picked him up again around 6 PM spent the evening together and he is now sound a sleep.  There are MANY positive things, but also some things that we have noticed that will take time to heal from.  Tomorrow the plan is to go visit grandma and say good-bye.  Although he was excited to be with us tonight, Dave and I think he doesn't truly understand that it is a forever thing, more like a fun night with fun people.  Please pray for us.  There are things that will be time issues, but for the most part the transition has been so supernatural.  We are able to stand and say,.....Look what the Lord has done!!

Enjoy the pictures!!

Day #2 of our transition with Aiden

We saw Aiden today!!

We saw our son today and it was a very good day!  Aiden came in with his Grandma and sister and definitely recognized us.  It was obvious that his Grandma Marilyn had been talking a lot about us.....such a blessing.  We spent nearly 2 hours together with the social worker and then another 30 minutes together after the social worker had left.  Aiden most certainly connected with Dave right away, but no so much to me.  Were my feelings a little hurt?  Sure.  However, we knew that this may happen due to the many "mommy" changes in his life, but we will persevere and through the power of God's presence and prayer this too will change quickly.  Aiden is very happy and very comfortable with us.

Tomorrow the three of us will go out by ourselves and then Aiden will spend the night with us.  If all goes well...and it will.....He will officially be united with us on Saturday.

Thank you for all the prayers!!

Tomorrow is the big day!!

Well, our travels yesterday were uneventful and it was actually very relaxing to drive.  We had one hang up when we were looking for a hotel room at 1 AM, but we found one and a had good nights sleep.   We went down for breakfast and I have never had such hospitality at breakfast as we did here in Louisiana.  I think we have about 5 hours left before we hit Austin, TX today.  We will be seeing Aiden tomorrow!

I will post pictures of our son tomorrow!!  Lots of love to you all!!

We are heading to Texas!!

We are about to leave in a few minutes to drive to Texas and get our son!!  I would say meet him, but we already did that during our life in China together.  We will keep you all update and hopefully will be posting pictures and video.  Aiden has lots of family and friends anxiously awaiting his arrival in Florida.  Please pray for a supernatural process through the interstate in TX.  Once they give us the clearance we can leave and come home. We are praying for clearance on Friday or the latest Monday.  Thank you for agreeing with us.

We are excited!!  

Practicing Photography

Two of my little sisters were the subject of a practice photo shoot. The sharpness of the colors don't come through to well on this blog.You can double click on a picture to enlarge it.  I still have much to learn.  I am more comfortable photographing anything that doesn't involve people.  Haha!   I have another photo shoot schedule on the 14th with my parents. Taking new shots for their website and media purposes.  Pray for me!

Interviews going on today in Texas

Well, our social worker is finally doing at least one interview we know of with the couple from Texas regarding Aiden. We hope she got the second interview scheduled, but we will know more by Monday.  We are waiting patiently, BUT truly hoping to have a game plan of when we can travel by Monday or Tuesday.

On a side note, we purchase Loving Your Kids on Purpose by Danny Silk.  Highly recommended by Aiden's foster mom and dad in China.  We have watched only the introduction session and we like it.  I'll let you know more as we go through the entire series. 

A long overdue update

The last three months have been typical waiting months when it comes to adoption.  My emotions have gone up and down and all over the place with the realization that we have a little boy, not a infant coming into our home.  Good thing as a Christian my feelings don't dictate my life.  So, fear and dread have no place, only faith, hope, and love!!   At this time we have the ball rolling again and I anticipate traveling to Texas in about 3 weeks.  If you have read my previous posts there are unique circumstances with this adoption.  I know that this wasn't God's plan for Aiden to go through everything he has gone through in the last 5 1/2 years, but the Father is the  Master at restoration and healing of our hearts and I know He will do that for Aiden. 

We have worked at getting his room ready for him and trying to prepare ourselves for this huge life shift.  After all, we have been married nearly 10 years and it has just been the two of us, you kind of get stuck in your "ways".  But we are looking forward to soccer practices, spontaneous stops for ice cream, Disney World, reading bedtime stories, Christmas morning, and everything else God has been preparing us to enjoy with our children. 

I will be posting as we get ready to travel and while we are there. 

It's never how we think it's going to happen......

I have found that over the last 5 years that we have been walking the LONG road of adoption everytime I feel like we are going to land things change. The first time around when we were trying to adopt through China a lot of things were miscommunicated and bottom line was that I was not yet 30 and well, that is a law in China. After nearly 3 years of loving and bonding to a little boy who we will always love with our whole hearts, we by default of circumstances moved away from that adoption.  Since then we have been pursuing an adoption with South Korea and we would have been matched in December of '09 if we had all the money.  As we were making our way back to the top of the list for a infant from Korea we get a call about a 5 year old Chinese child from Texas.  Crazy, right?   

So, we have been pursuing things with this little guy in Texas and talking with his parents.  Our hope is to bring him home by the end of June.  This is not what MY plan was, but I trust that God's plans are way better than mine and I know that all that my heart desires will come to pass.  It may not happen in the order that I imagined it, but it will happen.  

This is a picture of the little boy we are in the process of adopted.  As stated in my previous posts, we worked at the same foster home where he lived for a couple of years before being adopted. 

RELAXING...because right now it is necessary!

I am taking a no-where vacation with my husband for the next 5 days. We are staying in town, but disconnecting from the world. Or at least we are trying to. ....I guess I shouldn't be blogging right now!! Today we went to Siesta Key Beach and it was truly amazing. The breeze was perfect and I haven't felt that relaxed in a long time. Tomorrow we are going to spend the morning together and then head to church. Saturday night service is the only thing we have committed to for the next few days. We even left our cell phones in the car while we were beaching it up...and it was nice. Normally, I am a go-go-go kind of person, but lately I have felt the NEED to take a breather and just relax. So, these next few days are going to be glorious.

The adoption part of our life is again at a stand still. We are still progressing with a little boy that I mentioned in my previous post. Please pray for us. We are thrilled to see him again and to parent him. We truly love this little guy!

Unexpected Events happening in our lives!

So, here we are walking the road of a South Korean adoption and BAM...things look like they are changing. The short story is.... Dave and I worked overseas in China at a foster home our wonderful friends operate. A little boy from their foster home was adopted 16 months ago and recently his father contacted our friends and asked if they knew of someone that would adopt him. The family has gone through a very stressful and trying time since returning to the States. And it doesn't seem like there has been much, if any, attachment to this little guy at all. We were contacted and to us there is only one answer, "yes!". Did we have it in our thinking that we were going to adopt a 5yr old....no. But we have decided to say yes to this little guy, walk it out, and trust God for a baby. We are retaining the attorney today and will be walking this process out over the next few weeks. The good news for this little guy is that we have a number of people around us that already know him, because of either traveling to China while he lived there or simply through connection of our friend's ministry.

We have chosen to trust the Lord, as we will all the days of our lives! He knows!

As we walk this out, I will continue to post. As soon as I know we are moving towards him definitely coming home to us, I will post a picture. He is handsome!!

I need some help...

Does anyone out in blog land know how to create a personalized blog page or where I can find templates? I see several blogs I follow personalized and I would like to do that. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you fellow bloggers!

Taking ALL of my spare time...

I haven't procrastinated on something in a very long time. Here's the deal, I have an online class that was basically at your own pace. I figured I would go to China in February and get back and take care of this class. Well, life gets in the way and here I am a slave to my computer until Monday. Why Monday? Because, either I will finish everything or not, it is my last day to submit my work. Even at 30 I am still learning. On top of this nonsense, I am sick once again. I am now attacking my immune system with many vitamins and plan to stay on them well after I recover.

On the baby road, things are rolling along. We still need about $9,200, but like I always write, we trust God and He is faithful.

I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful Spring. Maybe I'll be able to hit the beach next week!

... The ride of adoption.....

Life has been crazy busy. I finally feel like I have my head above water. After coming home from China, I just haven't felt like I was making any progress with anything. I shot my first wedding the day after I returned and have been working on those photographs. Just gave them to the bride and groom the other day, sure hope they like them! Weddings are high pressure. Not sure if that will be my area of interest... ;)

So, with all that going on I felt like things weren't moving along with our adoption. Which it is just a feeling, because God is always working on our behalf. As I wrote a few entries back we were pulled off the waiting list for Korea, because we didn't have all the finances to receive a referral (that was back in December). Since then we have been approved for 2 grants....and all the glory and praise goes to God. We still need about $8,500. However, we are stepping out in faith (because we are faith people and trust God in ALL things) and have asked for our names to be put back on the waiting list. The time frame is unknown and we need the $8,500 to accept a match....but it's just money and we serve a mighty God. My husband and I are very excited!!

I will not worry, nor have any fear. Fear not, only believe....this is what I choose.

Back from China!!

I just spent most of the month of February in China. I loved every moment of it, yes...even the difficult moments. I took a team over to the foster home our friends run to help out during Chinese New Year. This helped our friends give their staff some much needed time off. After a busy schedule upon returning from China, today I am feeling almost back to normal. It would be nice to rest one more day, but it is off to the office in the AM.

Things are progressing with our matching grant, as of tomorrow we have 15 days until our deadline. We did get a "no" on another matching grants, but we aren't moved. We put all our trust in God, not the grants. The grants are just avenues, not our source.

I can't wait to meet our son this year.

Our first YES!!!

Today we got a beautiful call from LifeSong letting us know that we have been approved for a matching grant!!! I got the message and dialed LifeSong's # as fast as I could. My heart pounding, Abby answered the phone, we exchanged greetings, and then she said..."I have GREAT news for you!" I immediately cried and then apologized for melting down on her. I am sure they get that all the time. After all, they are in the business of bringing families together. So, now I have to send out support letters (which feels a bit awkward,but I will do it despite my feelings) and stand in faith that the full support comes in by the deadline, March 15th.

God is ALWAYS faithful! Now, we just need to get back on that list for our baby.

One of my BW shots from my last photography class

Not being moved!

Yesterday we found out some information about our adoption. Because we don't have all our finances, we went from #2 on the list for a little boy to not being on the list at all. We are waiting to hear what the procedures are when we do have all the money. There is some conflicting information at our agency. It certainly wasn't the news that we wanted to hear. However, we are standing on the truth of God's promises and refuse to be swayed otherwise. Now, if I can get my emotions to line up with my Spirit...they are almost lined up, but depending on the conversation I may cry. I did that this morning and felt stupid.

It is just money, not to big for God.

Welcome 2010!

Happy New Year!!! I love 2010 already!! This is going to be such a wonderful year and more importantly, it is the year our son comes home.

Good news on the grant trail.... We should hear back from three of the grants we have applied for by February. Two will contact us in January and one in Feb. Thanking the Father for "yeses" to all of them.

I pray that this year will be above and beyond all that you could ever think or imagine. Remember, God will always respond to your steps of faith. Action is required.

Now, I am off to work for a few hours and then it is church tonight.