Lately

The Blackburn household lately.

• We have been loving the television series "The Bible" on the History channel.

Literally. It just excites us to watch it. Lee was watching it earlier today and he said, "I mean it's amazing to think that there were people who actually got to see, listen to and talk to Jesus while He was here on earth."
Now obviously, intellectually, we know this Truth, but there is something neat about seeing it acted out.

• I am 14 weeks pregnant today and beginning to get anxious/excited about finding out if we are having a boy or girl! We have no names yet for either sex. This child may be born without a name :) Lee firmly believes we are having a girl and I kinda have a feeling it's a boy. We will know soon enough.


• Speaking of being 14 weeks pregnant: I am feeling better! Nausea visits me much more rarely, and my fatigue has improved. Last week it was literally like someone flipped a switch and I started feeling better! I don't think I realized the fullness of how awful I have felt until I started feeling better! Praising God for carrying me through the first trimester!

• Lee says that I am nesting! :)
Yes. Nesting already at only 14 weeks pregnant. Either Lee is right or I am on a HUGE cleaning spree. We have literally been turning this house upside down.
Can I confess something?
I'm unorganized. I'm actually not very good at keeping my house clean.
There. I said it. All of you OCD people can gasp now :)
My house rarely smells like bleach. Clutter doesn't bother me. Cleaning does not come natural.
I'm very much "right brained." I'm easily distracted and it takes me hours to clean an area that Lee can clean in 30 minutes.
God created us to operate differently.
However.
I want to learn.
Lee and I had this discussion today and he is so precious in wanting to help me as much as he can (even if that means hiring a maid :)) no offense against people with maids! Id actually love one :)

But my response to him was, "I want to learn. I don't need a temporary fix to a long term problem. I want to learn the skill of keeping a house together, while still living life to the fullest, playing with my kids, studying the Word, painting, etc."

So I'm trying :) my house will never always be spotless and that's okay! Notice I said "keeping a house together" not sparkly clean.

I love, love, love the Chinese proverb:

"Give a man a fish, feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime."

More on that at another time.

• On the adoption front:
We are currently completing paperwork for our "concurrent adoption." It's paperwork that has to be done by families who become pregnant during their process. We are waiting on our social worker to complete a letter on our behalf.
And we are waiting. Slowly creeping up the waiting list for our boy. But I continue to be encouraged by other families at all stages in the process!

Garage Sale!

On May 5th last year we had a huge garage sale fundraiser for our adoption. The response and generosity of you guys was awesome! It was a lot of work but I feel like it paid off in the end. Click HERE to see my garage sale post from last year.

So.

Lee and I have decided to have another garage sale fundraiser for our adoption on Saturday, May 4th. 100% of the proceeds will go directly towards our adoption.
We have raised/received a lot of money so far, but realistically we are only about half way there. We needs approx 12-15 thousand more to be fully funded :-/
So. The garage sale will be well worth it!

We will begin collecting items around the beginning of April. So keep us in mind when you begin your spring cleaning!

Organizational things we will need:
Tables
Boxes
Signs
Clothes hangers

(tables don't have to get to us until end of April- but it's good to have a count of how many tables we have. We will get them back to you after the sale).

Items that sold QUICKLY last year:
Purses
DVDs
TVs (the old, fat ones :))
Home Decor


Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare for and complete this garage sale. Pray for God's hand of favor, but also that His name would be glorified and spread through the entire process.

Yes, I am Pregnant :)

As announced in my previous post... Lee and I are expecting! I am 12 weeks pregnant today. I have blogged one time in the past month and a half. My lack of blogging is completely to blame on the severe fatigue and nausea that has decided to hang around this first trimester. Seriously. I have literally just been trying to survive. Remember, along with the nausea/fatigue, I have a wild 19 month old boy I've been chasing around. Not complaining. Just saying that blogging simply hasn't been a possibility.
My lack of blogging has absolutely not been because I have lost my fire for adoption secondary to pregnancy. Nope. Not even close. Lee and I are still absolutely on fire for adoption and for our sweet Malachi. Which leads me into the questions that most of y'all have regarding our pregnancy.

1) Are y'all still going to adopt? Absolutely!! Pregnancy hasn't ever wavered our desire to adopt. For those of you unfamiliar with our story - we were called to adopt before we even found out we were pregnant with Miller.

2) Was this a surprise?
That question is kind of hard to answer :)) I was NOT surprised to be pregnant again before completing our adoption (we've been discussing this because of increased wait times). However, I WAS surprised that pregnancy happened so quickly.

3) How does this affect your adoption process?
We will have to update our Home Study (which we would have had to do regardless).
We will continue to move up the waiting list (we won't lose our spot in line). However, IF we became "#1" on the waiting list before this new baby is 6 months old, our agency would skip us until our child was 6 months old. Then we would be eligible for a referral (being matched with a baby) .
But since the wait times have increased so much, we feel confident that our newest child will be well over 6 months old before we are next in line for a referral.

Thanks for continuing to journey with us! I am HOPING and PRAYING that the fatigue and nausea will fade since this trimester is coming to an end. Hopefully then I can do some more blogging :)

Please continue to pray for us! With warmer weather coming (yayy!!) we are talking about some fundraisers. possibly even another garage sale. I will keep you guys posted!

And pray for Ethiopia. Pray for the orphans there and for the government to be effective in placing kids in forever families!

Ceramic eggs for all my babies

This mama is ready to have all my chicks home!!

New Number + February recap

This is our collage for the month of February. You can check out THIS POST if you are wondering why I have a collage for the month :)

Pictured above:

• Our announcement card revealing our PREGNANCY!! So cute! Our photographer AMY BECKLEY is awesome! Check out her blog! You will be blessed.
• Family photo
• NUMBER 72 for Malachi!! Up 2 spots from last month :)
• Miller fell in L.O.V.E with hats this month! He will request to wear them and actually doesn't pull them off.  
• Jump House inside our living room!! February has been marked by COLD, RAINY weather! We definitely have cabin fever!
• And last, but definitely not least is the bottom right picture of my child in a trance watching MICKEY MOUSE!! Y'all... literally... he LOVES this show!
• not pictured is my Hubby's week long birthday celebration :)) Happy Late Birthday, Lee!

Not that y'all have missed me :) but it has been approximately 1 month since I blogged. I can't even apologize for the month off because nausea and fatigue from pregnancy has consumed me! I'm 10.5 weeks pregnant now so hopefully some of this will lift soon and I can get back to blogging, etc.

I do not have time right now to elaborate on pregnancy and how that affects (or doesn't really affect) our adoption. I promise to attempt writing a post on that this weekend (or next week :) ).

Rest assured.... we are STILL ADOPTING!!

This pregnant mama almost did a toe-touch at work when we moved up 2 spots this month!

I want all my little chicks home!! Soon!

Thanks for reading!

Happy MARCH!