Hosanna, Hosanna

Here is Isabella on Palm Sunday making sure she is ready to go into church for the Easter Program. She looked so sweet in a dress that Mom G had made for Kaitlin. Even better though was her little voice singing about being sad that Jesus died and then being so excited to sing Alive, Alive. Kids at Easter are just the best (not only because of the adorable clothes, but I do love that too).

As the Holy Week started I had good intentions of spending some extra time reflecting on Christ's sacrifice and doing some activities with the kids to help them think about it as well. Oh how quickly I get distracted by all the things that come up! It is so discouraging sometimes!

We finally recieved our packet of info from our agency-- wow, there is a lot of paper work! I'm really glad to get started on it and have something tangible to do to move the process along. I am going to try really hard not to complain about it! I can't help but wonder though if people who are famous that adopt have to do all this stuff :) Oh well I'm sure that it "builds character."

According to 2 Peter1:5-8 by adding to faith virtue-knowledge-temperance-PATIENCE-godliness-brotherly kindness- charity my life will be FRUITFUL in the knowledge of Jesus Christ! and that is what we want!

laura

We had our Homestudy!

Yeah, we are started with a major step in the adoption process! We had our homestudy done yesterday afternoon. It went great-- the woman who did it was wonderful to work with. It is really interesting to go through that many questions about yourself, your past, what you think about various things. I don't usually spend a lot of time reflecting so it was kind of a fun experience once I settled in. When it was the kids turn to talk they were all really excited! It was so fun to hear them tell someone else about what they were thinking! Once we were done we were both a little bit fried but really excited! Now we wait about a month to get the final product from the social worker. Then that will be sent to the agency. In the meantime there is plenty of paperwork to do!
laura

Spring is Coming and Answered Prayers!

I was thinking today about the number of things that happen that we take for granted. First, there is the new life that comes from what appears dead-- Brecken has announced that these small purple flowers we have are almost ready to be picked for me. Soon the ground will be absolutely blanketed with these cool little flowers but for now one or two are so exciting. Other than the coming of spring though, there are the little prayers that I pray and then over time almost forget. One of those prayers that I was reminded of today was prayed about 1.5 years ago. I felt that Kaitlin really didn't have a lot of friends that she could just play with whenever. Well in the picture there are two of the answers to a mom's wish that her daughter could know the fun of a playdate that is not planned by your parents, a fight that you work out on your own the next day over the fence, friends with whom to share all the snacks your mom will give you and then go to their house and see what their mom will give you. I am so thankful that God provides people in our children's lives to help them grow and mature. These little neighbor girls are some of those people! They also help this mom to learn a little more patience but I'm sure I will touch on that over the summer. For now I'm really glad to see them back over here to make mud pies with Kait!

Here We Go!

Well, I think that we will officially join the world of blogging and stop just reading our friend's blogs (and people that we don't even really know). I love reading blogs. I also love the idea of journaling but I never actually do it and can barely even get pictures into scrapbooks. I am hoping that this will help to me to keep some type of record of our life for a while. After reading an article about "momnesia" I am convinced that I will not remember everything that I want to remember about this amazing stage in life. We are so blessed with three awesome children and just recieved our email today that we are officially accepted into the Ethiopian adoption program through Children's Hope! We have our home study scheduled for Friday so things are moving along. This all comes after much prayer. We are over the moon excited about adding a little boy to our family and trying to keep in mind that this will all happen in God's time. Here is one of the pictures we took of ourselves to send with our application. I think we look pretty excited!(we didn't want to wait to have someone actually take a good one for us). laura