Sunday, February 13, 2011

More Story & Life Must Go On


We got a surprise package in the mail the other day. Our newest daughter and my mom had these made and sent this week - what a wonderful congratulatory and celebratory treat!! It was AH's idea, mom said.

One of the many steps to being ready for "Baby:" ordering her school books and materials to finish out this school year as a homeschooler.

It's still hard to know where to start with sharing our story here. I am thinking it'll have to come out little by little over time. Right now, there is zero time for long, thoughtful writing. We are in the midst of making many big decisions about life and education and such, as well as the house-wide purge and cleaning project, plus moving one child into a new room to make space for AH in with EG. This is nesting on steroids, I've decided!

 Some before pictures. This is the hallway upstairs and the room that MK and LC share...CA moved in with them last night. 

It's been years since we had a real deep clean and I don't know that I've ever purged the whole house and organized things in one fell swoop (well, this kind of swoop takes weeks). Anyway, my thought is that life is about to get busier, not simpler, so the goal here is to simplify dramatically and also to have a good deep clean under our belts, so as not to have to think about it for a long time.

 Real life goes on. LC imagining with PlayMobil toys...whistling while she worked. She's quite a songbird!

It's also a "clean slate," a good place for us to start with implementing some new routines and such for keeping things in better order.

So many blessings lately. While we were sad not to be with AH yesterday on her 11th birthday, we did have a webcam chat, complete with candles stuck in the coffee cake we were eating here for breakfast!

 Made whoopie pies for EG and MK to take to school this week. YUM!


Can I just say how encouraging it is when your church family takes care of you? Thanks be to God for two separate "we'll babysit all the kids for you" offers, which we used to get work done around here. And I praise Him for the day Mrs. M swept in and took care of everyday work (which has gone by the wayside even more than normal with all the focused other-area work) while I schooled the kids on Monday. Oh, happy day!

What's been such a challenge in all this waiting and preparation and waiting is the fact that "regular life" must go on...not only in the sense of schooling and errands and housework, but also emotionally and mentally...it's been hard to be in the now all the time. There's been so.much.uncertainty. for so long, and now that, by God's tender mercies, we're moving out of that phase, it's also difficult to take care of the here and now while we plan and hope and wait impatiently eagerly to go get AH and bring her home.


 Caught CA playing reflection games. On the right, she asked me to come shop at her store. I used my credit card, as you can see.

Our adoption story is so unique. Well, I know they all are! AH is (was! daughter now!) my niece. Through the amazing providence of God, and by the courage He gave her to speak up when things were not good at home, she came to be in my parents' care. If I had more time, I'd link back to some older posts from when this journey began for all of us. It was June of 2009, and none of us ever dreamed of this outcome, nor that the process would take the course it did.

MK/LC/CA's room, one week later! This was the fruit of yesterday's labors. The girls helped SO much! It'll never look this way again, but that's okay - it's a good starting point.

One amazing thing has been seeing the way Jesus has used the horribly painful and usually unexplained delays to accomplish His purposes. Though we were not sure of the end result of all of this, it was about 9 months ago that adoption became a true possibility. Back then, we thought it would occur rather quickly...but again, things were put off over and over, often for the most bizarre reasons! I'm talking court delayed due to snow (rare occurrence Back Home), court postponed because a judge called in sick, and far crazier reasons as well.

Anyway, one very obvious result of all that waiting has been much time to very gradually, bit by bit, be ready for this big change. It's been true for all of us: BB and me, my parents, our kids, and AH. The trickle-pace of this situation has meant time for all those hard conversations; it's meant opportunity for our hearts and minds to settle into a new reality; and it has resulted in deepened desire in each of us for this to happen. There's been that much more time to bond, and to think of ourselves as a family...

I'll sign off for now. I know this was rambly!

I have the sweetest thing to post about in the next few days: the thoughtfulness of my girls!

Oh, and my mercies list...gloriously long...I hope to catch it up here soon.

3 comments:

  1. What a thoughful gift for AH to give!! I loved the "love sister's" - brings tears to my eyes!! Happy Valentines Day sweet friend!

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  2. The M&M's brought tears to my eyes! I can't think of a sweeter treat for one sister to share with the others.

    As for "cleaning the slate" -- go, girl, go! You're doing great and you'll enjoy the fruits of your labors, especially after AH comes home and you transition into being a family of EIGHT!

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