JULY 2013

OUR JULY 2013 COLLAGE

HIGHLIGHTS

Lee reached the New Testament at the end of the month! 2 years this boy has been faithfully reading through the Bible and he is moving from Old to New Testament!

Miller's first experience with fireworks on 4th of July!

River trip with Blackburn Family the 4th of July weekend

Miller and Blakely - buddies & cousins

Lee taking Miller for a ride on the knee board. 

Miller and JayJay riding the tractor at the deer camp

Lee and I painted the nursery!! Grey in color.

Miller Blackburn turned 2 YEARS OLD on July 30th! We took him to the children's museum to celebrate.

He is having a Mickey Mouse Birthday party this weekend.

Unfortunately, we did not move up any spots on the waiting list.

Still number 66 for an infant and 32 for a toddler :( 

Adoption, Pregnancy, Life

I'm up late and it's quiet... so I decided that I would do a little blog post. I don't have anything earth shattering to talk about, but just a few little updates on life. 

ADOPTION

I cannot believe that at the end of August we will have officially been on the waiting list for 1 year!! Geez... time has flown by and crept by all in one. 

With our 1 year "anniversary" for DTE approaching, we have lots of updates to do.

Boring, but necessary paperwork.

We filled out the paperwork a few days ago (July 22) to update our fingerprints. 

I kinda had a bad attitude filling out paperwork. I will be glad when the non-referral paperwork is complete!

After we filled out the paperwork, I grabbed Malachi's journal and flipped through the pages to see what we were doing in July of last year. Ironically, I had written in his journal on the exact same date last year - July 22. So I snapped a picture of the scripture I had written.



Love that scripture. However, that scripture reminded me of the weight of responsibility Lee and I have in raising young men. They are my boys right now, but I am not raising humans that will remain children. I am raising men to be sent out into the world.
Lee and I are the warriors.
Lord help us shoot our "arrows" in the right direction.


PREGNANCY

I am 31 weeks pregnant!
Seriously, this pregnancy has flown by! I am getting nervous as the weeks keeping coming and going!
And let me tell you... I have a wild little boy in my belly! He literally never stops moving!
We made a "small" step of progress this week! We painted his nursery!
It's grey for those of you wondering. The colors in the picture didn't really show up right.
Nope... don't have anything other than grey walls picked out. No theme. No bedding.
Yes, we do have a name picked out.
I plan to blog about that at a later time.





LIFE

I love artwork.
Why?
I don't know.
I just do.

I like to write.
Why?
I don't know.
I just do.

The past week or so I have had the "urge" to do a little art.
Lee said yesterday, "you seem yourself again."

A local artist that I was reading about made the following statement when asked why she loves to paint.

"I paint because there is something inside of me that needs to come out."

An expression.

For those of you who love to paint or write - you completely understand what she is saying. There is just something inside of me that wasn't meant to remain there.
It was meant to come out.
So... I have decided that I am going to "attempt" to not keep stories that I would love to blog about held inside.
I am also going to "attempt" to let expressions of art flow freely and TRY not be self-defeating.
I want to be myself, and ultimately be all of who God created me to be.

I will end with this precious new addition to our house.
It was a multi-person project.

I came up with the idea.
Lee, his cousin Sha, and her son, Ty, all graciously went along with my idea. They took a quick trip to Lowe's and Hobby Lobby.
Sweet Lee (and Ty) built the frame.
We painted and distressed and glued burlap.
I painted the word "BLESSED" on the bottom.
Then I sent it to my sweet and talented friend, Felicia Robbins.
I said "Felicia, just make it pretty. Add some birds or something. Oh and make that word "blessed" look better. I'm too pregnant to stress over this :))"
She did! She made the whole thing come together beautifully!!
Check her out on Facebook. Her page is Robbins Roost Designs.
She's great.

Anyway.

Felicia called and said "Abby, I'm thinking 5 birds." She went into all the details of having 2 birds one color, etc. etc.
Finally... I understood where her sweet brain was going!
5 Birds for our family of 5.

2 birds one color (me and lee)
Then she said, "tell me some other colors you have in your living room."
I spouted off some colors and she said, "okay, perfect. I will pick a few colors and get it to ya."




Isn't it pretty??
Obviously, I need to get some family pictures in it! One step at a time :)

I proudly shared this picture with my coworkers the day I was going to pick it up.
At first glance, you wouldn't think anything special about the number of birds.
But I told my coworkers that they represented our family.
My boss replied "yeah, and that's your colors too."
Me: What?
Boss: Your colors. Those are your colors.
Me: I am confused. My kids aren't yellow, green or red.
Boss: No, no. The flag. Aren't those the flag colors?

Moment of silence.

Why, yes.
Yes, those are the Ethiopia flag colors again.
Green, yellow, red - in that order.

I later told Felicia and she laughed saying that she hadn't thought of that at all, but that she had carefully considered the placement of colors.

There's so much more to life than what meets the eye.

Always.

God is an artist.

His art always has more depth and meaning than what meets the eye.

June 2013

Here is our June 2013 collage

We FINALLY MOVED on the waiting list again :) 

#66 for an infant (0-18 mos old) - up two spots! 

#32 for a toddler (18-24 mos old) - up one spot!

After 2 years, I reached the final book of the Old Testament (Malachi). My journey through the Bible continues into the New Testament. 

On June 5th, Lee officially started working for M.O.R.A. 

Miller LOVES the pool. He loves to jump (one hundred plus times). 

Summer isn't summer without a snow cone aka "shaved ice" at Bop's.

Our first squash out of our very neglected little garden. 

We have "neighborhood ducks." They will eat whatever you give them! We named them "Daisy and Donald"

Picture of Miller and Lee on Father's Day. Miller loves his daddy! 

Happy July Y'all 

Thanks for the Adventure

I sat on the porch reading my Bible this morning. I was so excited to flip the pages and begin reading the New Testament. You see, TWO YEARS ago Lee and I made a commitment to read through the Bible. Yes, I know this can be done faster... but we decided to go at our own pace. Honestly, the "read the Bible in year" plans stress me out because if I miss a day or get behind on the schedule, I tend to focus more on catching up than on what God is trying to teach me. 

So... slowly but surely we are on this journey through the Word. 

Lee is a few books behind me, but not far :) 

I only made it one chapter this morning and I just HAD to start writing.
Matthew chapter 1
Mary is pregnant. Joseph is not the father. Joseph decides to divorce Mary quietly so that she would not be stoned. He thought this was the best option.
Then God intercedes. Sends an angel that tells Joseph to MARRY HER!

Matthew 1:24 "When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the LORD had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife."

Joseph knew that doing this would not be socially accepted. Joseph knew that people would question his righteousness. This would make him look "guilty" of impregnating Mary before marriage. Life would never be the same if he chose this road.
Joseph had a fork in the road.


I began drawing the above forks.
Divorce Mary OR Marry her
Please the world OR Obey God
Protect your social status OR Forfeit your social status for true righteousness

Joseph heard a word from the LORD. Not just an "I think that's what God said, but an I KNOW THAT'S WHAT GOD SAID." Joseph had a choice to make. This was a much bigger choice than he probably realized at the time. After all, he would adopt and father THE CHRIST. Jesus wasn't Joseph's blood relative, but God was asking Joseph to be the earthly father to Jesus.
Praise God Joseph took the road less traveled.
Joseph said "yes" to God. He laid his own life down for the Lord in that moment. His future. His dreams. His idea of what life would look like. He laid it down.
I am sure that people mocked Joseph, told him he was crazy, that he was ruining his life and his future family's life. I am sure the criticism flew in faster than Joseph could blink.

BUT

That still, small voice of God probably encouraged him daily, "keep stepping forward Joseph, I am here, keep pressing on."

Joseph had the privilege of being the earthly father to his heavenly King. Joseph could have missed that opportunity with one small "no."

I cried during the cartoon movie "UP" yesterday. Many of you have probably seen it. The little old man misses his deceased wife. He begins looking through a photo album of their life together as he sits next to her empty chair. Photo after photo of their life. They had some great times. And at the end of the book, below a picture of them well in age, the wife signed the book:

"Thanks for the adventure.
Now go start a new one.
I love you." 

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of a husband like Joseph. A man who is willing to say "yes" to You at the risk of being rejected by friends, family and society at large. Thank you, Lord, for placing Lee and I at a fork in the road very similar to Joseph's, and for giving us courage and strength to take the road less traveled. The criticism and rejection have come. The emotional blows have hurt. People have called us crazy and told us we were ruining our lives and our kids' lives.

BUT

They cannot hear the still, small voice that whispers to us "keep pressing on kids."

I wonder if at the end of it all... Mary and Joseph sat drinking their coffee, reminiscing about life when one of them looked up and said "I'd choose to do it all over again. Thanks for the adventure."

I recently had a pivotal moment. It came after our garage sale. Prior to the sale I was struggling emotionally. I blogged about it a while back. Worry. Fear. Doubt. God answered, as He always does.

The night after the sale, Lee, Miller and I were eating at Corner Bakery. I looked at Lee and said, "You know? I choose THIS life every time."
"What?" Lee replied.
"Every time I am tempted to think that it would just be easier to please the world and fit in with society?"

"Every time, I choose THIS life. Never once is my heart content to choose the other."

I want to sit on the porch with Lee one day... Heads full of white/silver hair... Drinking coffee and reminiscing about life. I want to remember to tell him:
"Thanks for the adventure. Now let's start a new one."

My Husband Has A New Job?!?!

I quickly inserted in one of my recent posts that Lee (my husband) has a new job. 

I honestly don't even know where to begin on this post. 

I wanted to write about it because we honestly haven't even told very many people about the switch. Mainly because it happened SO FAST! 

This was the picture taken of Lee's last day at U.M.C. 

Lee LOVED his job at U.M.C. He loves all of these people pictured above! 

And let me tell you... these people were so amazingly kind when Lee told them he was switching jobs. 

They said the sweetest stuff about my husband and his character. 

That week opened my eyes big time!
I want to thank all the U.M.C nurses for being so amazing!! 

So now to the Q. and A. 

Where is Lee working now? 

Lee took a job with M.O.R.A. (Mississippi Organ Recovery Agency)

Was Lee looking to change jobs?

Not at all! As a matter of fact, Lee randomly text me one day saying "hey, I think I am going to apply for a job with MORA." I think I laughed out loud thinking "really? how random!" We had never even discussed him switching jobs because he loved his so much. However, as discussions and prayers began over this new opportunity, I just knew that this was the next move for us.
And I was S.C.A.R.E.D.
Change is hard at any point in life. But remember... I am 26 weeks pregnant and that is a LOT of change! Especially with Lee's schedule completely changing.
But it's good. I can see God's hand everywhere.

Will Lee be home more with the new job?
Yes! This was actually one of the deciding factors! And so far - I am loving it!

What is Lee's "role" in his new job?
Nursing. Direct patient care. Getting patients ready for the O.R.
I don't know anything beyond that. You will have to ask him! But so far he loves it.

Hope that cleared up a few questions :)

Last but not least!
GO BULLDOGS!!!
2-0 in College World Series!
MAROOOON.... WHIIIIITE...

I've been a little sad...

So, I've been in somewhat of a "funk" lately.
Last Friday we received an email about some new changes in Ethiopian adoptions.
These changes have been put in place by the U.S. government to protect children and help cut down on corruption in adoption.
Unfortunately, the email notified families that the wait times for bringing a child home will probably yet again increase due to these changes.
Another adoptive mom in our agency wrote a blog describing the exact changes that are taking place.
If you are interested in knowing more, please read her blog by clicking

HERE

Honestly, there are so many dynamics to international adoption, so many steps, so much "red tape" that it is hard to describe it on a blog post.
So I am not even going to attempt.

In a nutshell, more change has happened and the time it will take for us to actually have Malachi in our arms continues to increase.
And this mama's heart is sad.
Lee and I long to see our little man. We long to hold him. We long to begin life with him.
Yet we wait.

On Saturday morning (after the email on Friday), I woke up and just began praying about adoption. I opened the Word for my morning study and stopped on this scripture.

"Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD, 
I will be joyful in God my Savior." 

Habakkuk 3:17-18


Although our home remains without Malachi
Although the journey seems hopeless and never-ending
We will rejoice in the LORD.
We will be joyful in our Savior because He is faithful to complete the work that He has called us to.

This is where we are today.
My emotions may be crazy
But God is still on the throne
We may be surprised
But HE is not.

Continue to pray for us and for orphans all over the world.
Pray for God to defend the cause of the Fatherless.

May 2013 Collage

Here is our collage for May 2013. 

May was a busy month for us :) 

Starting on the left and going down by columns:

*Jax and Rosalie's Birthday Party - Miller loved the cupcakes!!

*Blakely and Miller at our Garage Sale

*Eating at the Oyster House in Gulf Shores, AL. Our 3 year anniversary dinner... maybe?! :) 

* Family beach pic (more to come)

* Lee's last day working at UMC. :(( Another post on this later.

*We are still #68 on the infant list

* Celebrating summer time with Ice Cream! 

* Miller riding Uncle Rob's zip line

*Africa cookies we sold at the garage sale

* We are still #33 for a toddler 

May was a good month. A busy month. A "life changing" month. 

On the adoption front, we didn't have any movement this month. There were a few referrals that went out with our agency, but they did not move us on the waiting list. 

So... we wait. 

But there is some exciting adoption news swirling around... I will post at a later time when I understand the changes a little more!