Without a doubt, we are overjoyed to share with the world what God has done for us, in bringing us our newest son. I am thrilled to tell people in person, I am delighted to have this blog to share with all of you in blog world, and if I could, I would shout it from the rooftops: "We have a son!!" God is so good.
But I think it is important to point out that we are not going to be sharing every detail about him, such as information about his family of origin. His life history is his story, and it is personal. We believe that it is up to him, when he is older, to decide what he wants to share and with whom he wants to share it, and what information he wants to keep in his heart. Until then, we're going to keep mum.
So, hopefully folks won't think it is rude if I respond to an inquiry with a pause and a bit of a stumble, followed by an "Um, you know, we're going to keep that information private." But anyway, that's what we're going to do. In general, though, keep in the mind that the nature of adoption involves loss.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Getting ready to travel
Although we don't have our travel dates yet, we did have a travel preparation conference call with our adoption agency yesterday. Irina provided us a lot of documents to read, walked us through the process and all the steps involved in the first trip, gave us several suggestions, and answered all of our questions. It is so great to work with our agency -- I feel so comfortable and well-taken-care-of. I suspect that we will hear very soon what are travel dates are.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Please help save the adoption tax credit
Dear friends,
Please contact your U.S. Representative and urge them to support the bipartisan bill H.R. 4373, the Making Adoption Affordable Act, which would allow the adoption tax credit to extend permanently in the future.
You can reach your Representative in the U.S. House of Representatives by calling the U.S. Capitol Operator at 202-225-3121 and asking for your Representative's office. If you don't know your Representative's name, go to http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ and enter your zip code.
If you don't know what to say, here are some ideas:
-- I am a constituent in your district and the adoption tax credit is important to me. (It matters to me because...)
-- I urge the Representative to become a co-sponsor of The Making Adoption Affordable Act, H.R. 4373.
-- If Congress does not act, the credit as we now know it will expire in December, 2012.
-- H.R. 4373 is bipartisan and it supports all types of adoptions (domestic private, foster care, and international adoptions).
-- This tax credit has made adoption a more viable option for many parents who might not otherwise have been able to afford adoption, allowing them to provide children with loving, permanent families.
If you want to learn more about the adoption tax credit, go to http://adoptiontaxcredit.org/
Also, "like" the Save the Adoption Tax Credit on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/AdoptionTaxCredit
This adoption tax credit is an extremely important issue to our family and many people that we know. Although I can't say for certain that without it we wouldn't have been able to adopt (e.g., maybe we could have done lots of fundraising, worked extra jobs, sold the house and moved into something smaller, never eaten in a restaurant ever at all, no vacations, etc.), I can say that our life would look a whole lot different without it, and it is almost certain that our family would be smaller. The adoption tax credit has made it realistically possible for our family to adopt twice and to prepare to do it again.
Please call your Congressman's office. It will only take a few minutes, and they honestly do pay attention to calls from constituents.
Thank you so much!!
Please contact your U.S. Representative and urge them to support the bipartisan bill H.R. 4373, the Making Adoption Affordable Act, which would allow the adoption tax credit to extend permanently in the future.
You can reach your Representative in the U.S. House of Representatives by calling the U.S. Capitol Operator at 202-225-3121 and asking for your Representative's office. If you don't know your Representative's name, go to http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ and enter your zip code.
If you don't know what to say, here are some ideas:
-- I am a constituent in your district and the adoption tax credit is important to me. (It matters to me because...)
-- I urge the Representative to become a co-sponsor of The Making Adoption Affordable Act, H.R. 4373.
-- If Congress does not act, the credit as we now know it will expire in December, 2012.
-- H.R. 4373 is bipartisan and it supports all types of adoptions (domestic private, foster care, and international adoptions).
-- This tax credit has made adoption a more viable option for many parents who might not otherwise have been able to afford adoption, allowing them to provide children with loving, permanent families.
If you want to learn more about the adoption tax credit, go to http://adoptiontaxcredit.org/
Also, "like" the Save the Adoption Tax Credit on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/AdoptionTaxCredit
This adoption tax credit is an extremely important issue to our family and many people that we know. Although I can't say for certain that without it we wouldn't have been able to adopt (e.g., maybe we could have done lots of fundraising, worked extra jobs, sold the house and moved into something smaller, never eaten in a restaurant ever at all, no vacations, etc.), I can say that our life would look a whole lot different without it, and it is almost certain that our family would be smaller. The adoption tax credit has made it realistically possible for our family to adopt twice and to prepare to do it again.
Please call your Congressman's office. It will only take a few minutes, and they honestly do pay attention to calls from constituents.
Thank you so much!!
Thursday, July 19, 2012
My precious little boy
By now you know that I practically have his photo emblazened on my retinas! He is just so adorable! I just have the one photo of him, but I can already see parts of his personality shining from it. In the photo, he is sitting in a wooden rocking chair, an adult-size chair, so of course he looks small in it. But he already is looking like a little boy rather than a baby. He is dressed like a little boy too, rather than in a baby kind of outfit, so that probably adds to the boy impression. He is not looking directly at the camera, probably at someone that is standing next to the person holding the camera, and has a bit of a smile on his face. No fear, no uneasiness, just sweet and happy. One of his hands is up, as if he is just about to launch into motion in typical little boy fashion. He looks happy, well-fed, well-cared-for, healthy, and content. Just a honey, and I am just so overjoyed that he will be part of our family.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Still in la-la land
The last few days since finding out our big news have been great. Three days of bliss. I am most usually sitting or walking around with a big goofy grin on my face and making up hums about my baby boy. Or staring at his picture -- I've probably done that for eight or ten hours, give or take.
It has been wonderful to share the news in person, and to show his photo! Absolutely the best! And of course, everyone agrees with me that he is a total cutie pie! He just is! So if you are local, and want to see his picture, let's do it.
But I am also so happy to have this blog to keep in the loop those of you who have been praying and hoping and anticipating with us, but whom I haven't seen yet. Unfortunately, I can't post his photo up here, but once he is home, we can definitely do that.
We've also spent several hours in the basement going through our stuff and planning a big garage sale. We have been storing all sorts of baby clothes, toys, and equipment since Mario and Erik outgrew it in the anticipation of possibly needing it again, but with not knowing the age or sex or whether it would be one more child or two, we have been storing a lot a lot a lot of stuff that it turns out we aren't going to need for our new boy. So we are going to have a huge sale on Saturday July 21st, and if you are local, or know someone that is who needs baby stuff, come on by. We've got a crib, a million strollers, high chairs, one of those exersaucer things, a jumper, all sorts of boy clothes age 18 months and younger, board books, and tons of baby toys. Plus I am in one of those big purge moods, so we are also slimming down on a number of things, nonbaby-related, that we just aren't using and are taking up space and we might as well get rid of because who knows when we will ever get to again. On all this stuff, we'll give you a great deal, and it will help us with our travel expenses which we will really really appreciate.
Well it's time to run now and take advantage of the early morning "coolness" and get some biking in before swimming lessons. Man, I love summer!
Thank you again everyone that has sent well-wishes! It means so much to me, and I thank you tremendously for sharing in our joy.
It has been wonderful to share the news in person, and to show his photo! Absolutely the best! And of course, everyone agrees with me that he is a total cutie pie! He just is! So if you are local, and want to see his picture, let's do it.
But I am also so happy to have this blog to keep in the loop those of you who have been praying and hoping and anticipating with us, but whom I haven't seen yet. Unfortunately, I can't post his photo up here, but once he is home, we can definitely do that.
We've also spent several hours in the basement going through our stuff and planning a big garage sale. We have been storing all sorts of baby clothes, toys, and equipment since Mario and Erik outgrew it in the anticipation of possibly needing it again, but with not knowing the age or sex or whether it would be one more child or two, we have been storing a lot a lot a lot of stuff that it turns out we aren't going to need for our new boy. So we are going to have a huge sale on Saturday July 21st, and if you are local, or know someone that is who needs baby stuff, come on by. We've got a crib, a million strollers, high chairs, one of those exersaucer things, a jumper, all sorts of boy clothes age 18 months and younger, board books, and tons of baby toys. Plus I am in one of those big purge moods, so we are also slimming down on a number of things, nonbaby-related, that we just aren't using and are taking up space and we might as well get rid of because who knows when we will ever get to again. On all this stuff, we'll give you a great deal, and it will help us with our travel expenses which we will really really appreciate.
Well it's time to run now and take advantage of the early morning "coolness" and get some biking in before swimming lessons. Man, I love summer!
Thank you again everyone that has sent well-wishes! It means so much to me, and I thank you tremendously for sharing in our joy.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Hurray!!! It's a boy!!!!!!!
We are so excited to say that we have accepted the referral of a 19 month old little boy!!
Yay!! Yay!! Yay!! Yay!! Yay!! Yay!! Yay!! Yay!! Yay!! Yay!! Yay!! Yay!! Yay!!
He is beautiful and perfect and wonderful and precious and we are so in love with him!!
It all went down on Thursday afternoon, two days ago. The boys and I had been to the zoo all day, having a great time. It started to get pretty hot in the afternoon, so we stopped off to get sno cones on the way home. We love sno cones!! We drove home, the boys still had some of theirs left, which happened to be cherry, so I carried the sno cones inside and set them down on the kitchen counter. Then I went out the front door to grab the mail out of the mail box, and in the 4.8 seconds that it took to do that, Erik had picked up his sno cone, taken it into the playroom, and dropped it all over the carpet in the playroom! Ugh! Bright red cherry sno cone splashed all over on berber carpet! So after a few choice grumbles, I grabbed a little scrub brush and a wash cloth and set to work trying to clean it up before it dried.
The phone rang.
I came so close to not answering it.
Seriously, seriously close to not answering it.
But for some reason I got up off my knees, walked into the kitchen, and picked it up.
It was Irina from our adoption agency.
Even though it is such a total rarity for her to call, the bells did not go off in my head at all that this could be THE CALL. I was still distracted with the carpet and all, so I chatted with her a bit before she finally said something like, "Is this a good time to talk?" "Oh sure," I said. "I'm just trying to clean red sno cone out of the carpet, (grumble, grumble, grumble)." Can you believe I was so fixated on that goofy carpet?!! So she laughed a little and said, "Can I ask you to sit down?"
Well at that point, the lights went on, the bells rang, and angels started singing, I started gasping and shrieking and laughing, and of course I sat down!
Somewhat coherently, I just started saying, "Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!!!"
She tells me she has a referral for us. A little boy!! She tells me his birthday: December 13, 2010!! And she asks if I want to hear more.
"YES!!!!" I shout.
We talk for a while longer, and she sends me a long email with lots of attachments, including a photo of the little guy. Oh my goodness, is he a cutie! I'm not able to post his picture, but take my word for it, he is a honey pie.
I called Jerry at work and tell him the big news! Then we told the boys! They were super excited too and wanted to go get their little brother right away!
Jerry and I talk to Irina more the next afternoon, Friday. We officially accepted the referral (yippee!!!!!!)and talked about next steps as well.
I am just totally on cloud nine with this little honey. I can't wait to see him! We don't know when our travel dates will be: maybe in a month, maybe less, maybe more. Right now, I am just so excited that we have our referral. Praise God!!!
Yay!! Yay!! Yay!! Yay!! Yay!! Yay!! Yay!! Yay!! Yay!! Yay!! Yay!! Yay!! Yay!!
He is beautiful and perfect and wonderful and precious and we are so in love with him!!
It all went down on Thursday afternoon, two days ago. The boys and I had been to the zoo all day, having a great time. It started to get pretty hot in the afternoon, so we stopped off to get sno cones on the way home. We love sno cones!! We drove home, the boys still had some of theirs left, which happened to be cherry, so I carried the sno cones inside and set them down on the kitchen counter. Then I went out the front door to grab the mail out of the mail box, and in the 4.8 seconds that it took to do that, Erik had picked up his sno cone, taken it into the playroom, and dropped it all over the carpet in the playroom! Ugh! Bright red cherry sno cone splashed all over on berber carpet! So after a few choice grumbles, I grabbed a little scrub brush and a wash cloth and set to work trying to clean it up before it dried.
The phone rang.
I came so close to not answering it.
Seriously, seriously close to not answering it.
But for some reason I got up off my knees, walked into the kitchen, and picked it up.
It was Irina from our adoption agency.
Even though it is such a total rarity for her to call, the bells did not go off in my head at all that this could be THE CALL. I was still distracted with the carpet and all, so I chatted with her a bit before she finally said something like, "Is this a good time to talk?" "Oh sure," I said. "I'm just trying to clean red sno cone out of the carpet, (grumble, grumble, grumble)." Can you believe I was so fixated on that goofy carpet?!! So she laughed a little and said, "Can I ask you to sit down?"
Well at that point, the lights went on, the bells rang, and angels started singing, I started gasping and shrieking and laughing, and of course I sat down!
Somewhat coherently, I just started saying, "Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!!!"
She tells me she has a referral for us. A little boy!! She tells me his birthday: December 13, 2010!! And she asks if I want to hear more.
"YES!!!!" I shout.
We talk for a while longer, and she sends me a long email with lots of attachments, including a photo of the little guy. Oh my goodness, is he a cutie! I'm not able to post his picture, but take my word for it, he is a honey pie.
I called Jerry at work and tell him the big news! Then we told the boys! They were super excited too and wanted to go get their little brother right away!
Jerry and I talk to Irina more the next afternoon, Friday. We officially accepted the referral (yippee!!!!!!)and talked about next steps as well.
I am just totally on cloud nine with this little honey. I can't wait to see him! We don't know when our travel dates will be: maybe in a month, maybe less, maybe more. Right now, I am just so excited that we have our referral. Praise God!!!
Sunday, July 01, 2012
Vigorous
It has been seriously hard to find time to write on this blog. With the boys being out of school for the summer (and all the fun that involves) and me taking two courses (and all the work that involves), there is much less time to be able to devote to writing. I am not complaining whatsoever -- I love having more time with the boys: going places with them, being more relaxed and kicking back at home, reading, doing crafts, and I also am enjoying both of my courses very much. But the long and short of it is that there is less free-time available to think through a post and then actually to write it.
Nothing new to share on the adoption front, not directly that is, but I did want to share a sweet story of God's faithfulness. As I mentioned before, I was on the team that hosted the most recent women's ACTS retreat at our parish. As part of the preparation period, we were each given a word. The leadership team had selected words from the Mass readings for the Sunday that our retreat would end. They put them in a bowl, prayed over them, and we each picked a word. When I have done this in the past, I have really felt that the Holy Spirit has spoken to be through the word that I chose, words such as "humility," "surrender," "tenderness," "patience," (I think I got that one twice actually!!). Words I really needed to pay attention to at that time and that have had special meaning for me. So this time I was really looking forward to picking my word! And what did I get? "Vigorous."
Huh?
Huh?
Like Miracle Gro, or something?
I really did not know what to think of that word.
Ok, I said to myself, I guess I'll be healthy during team formation!! I can lift things and move things around with all my vigorous strength! Maybe I'll be very productive at the tasks I am called to do. It's not a bad word. It's good to be vigorous! If given the choice, would I rather be vigorous or not, I can't think of any reason why I would not want to be vigorous. Ok then. Vigorous.
Just kinda....
Odd.
I just didn't feel like it had any special meaning for me, at least it didn't at the time that I selected it. Well, that's still ok, maybe something will come to me later. It will make sense at some point during team formation or at some point on the retreat. I took it to prayer at various points and then just let it go, satisfied that it would certainly come to me later.
At no point during team formation did I get any kind of epiphany about "vigorous." Formation was fine -- just no understanding of my word.
At no point during the retreat did I get any glimpse of an epiphany about "vigorous." The retreat was wonderful -- just no understanding of my word.
Nothing at all.
Until we got back to our parish. I was on schedule to be the cantor for the 11:00 Mass, which is the Mass that the team and retreatants and families all attend together. Normally, and I mean every Mass when I am the cantor or even in the choir, I will review the music about a week in advance and at various times during the week to prepare as well as I can. Just because of busyness of having the boys home, and my coursework, and preparing for the retreat, yada yada yada, I did not look at the music at all, and I mean at all, until twenty minutes before Mass was scheduled to begin. So I went in the back with our music director and pulled out the music. We looked at the processional hymn, the offertory hymn, the communion hymn, the recessional hymn, the various pieces of service music, and it is all familiar. Then we look at the psalm.
And when I got to the third verse, I just about lost it.
Here's the psalm I practiced real quick and then sang, solo, in front of the entire congregation.
Do you see "vigorous" in there?
Man oh man.
That God!
Only God could have done that.
Granted, I'm not Sarah or Elizabeth, but I am much more of an old mother than I am a young one. And even though my children (the ones in our home and the ones we anticipate) are not actually fruit of my own body, they are my fruit in every other way. Getting that word "vigorous" was such a beautiful wink from God that He will continue to be faithful to us as we grow our family in His sight. It felt so comforting and so confirming that we are on the right path pursuing number 3 and number 4, and that God will continue to be right with us.
I feel vigorous!!!
Nothing new to share on the adoption front, not directly that is, but I did want to share a sweet story of God's faithfulness. As I mentioned before, I was on the team that hosted the most recent women's ACTS retreat at our parish. As part of the preparation period, we were each given a word. The leadership team had selected words from the Mass readings for the Sunday that our retreat would end. They put them in a bowl, prayed over them, and we each picked a word. When I have done this in the past, I have really felt that the Holy Spirit has spoken to be through the word that I chose, words such as "humility," "surrender," "tenderness," "patience," (I think I got that one twice actually!!). Words I really needed to pay attention to at that time and that have had special meaning for me. So this time I was really looking forward to picking my word! And what did I get? "Vigorous."
Huh?
Huh?
Like Miracle Gro, or something?
I really did not know what to think of that word.
Ok, I said to myself, I guess I'll be healthy during team formation!! I can lift things and move things around with all my vigorous strength! Maybe I'll be very productive at the tasks I am called to do. It's not a bad word. It's good to be vigorous! If given the choice, would I rather be vigorous or not, I can't think of any reason why I would not want to be vigorous. Ok then. Vigorous.
Just kinda....
Odd.
I just didn't feel like it had any special meaning for me, at least it didn't at the time that I selected it. Well, that's still ok, maybe something will come to me later. It will make sense at some point during team formation or at some point on the retreat. I took it to prayer at various points and then just let it go, satisfied that it would certainly come to me later.
At no point during team formation did I get any kind of epiphany about "vigorous." Formation was fine -- just no understanding of my word.
At no point during the retreat did I get any glimpse of an epiphany about "vigorous." The retreat was wonderful -- just no understanding of my word.
Nothing at all.
Until we got back to our parish. I was on schedule to be the cantor for the 11:00 Mass, which is the Mass that the team and retreatants and families all attend together. Normally, and I mean every Mass when I am the cantor or even in the choir, I will review the music about a week in advance and at various times during the week to prepare as well as I can. Just because of busyness of having the boys home, and my coursework, and preparing for the retreat, yada yada yada, I did not look at the music at all, and I mean at all, until twenty minutes before Mass was scheduled to begin. So I went in the back with our music director and pulled out the music. We looked at the processional hymn, the offertory hymn, the communion hymn, the recessional hymn, the various pieces of service music, and it is all familiar. Then we look at the psalm.
And when I got to the third verse, I just about lost it.
Here's the psalm I practiced real quick and then sang, solo, in front of the entire congregation.
R. (cf. 2a) Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
to sing praise to your name, Most High,
To proclaim your kindness at dawn
and your faithfulness throughout the night.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
The just one shall flourish like the palm tree,
like a cedar of Lebanon shall he grow.
They that are planted in the house of the LORD
shall flourish in the courts of our God.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
They shall bear fruit even in old age;
vigorous and sturdy shall they be,
Declaring how just is the LORD,
my rock, in whom there is no wrong.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
to sing praise to your name, Most High,
To proclaim your kindness at dawn
and your faithfulness throughout the night.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
The just one shall flourish like the palm tree,
like a cedar of Lebanon shall he grow.
They that are planted in the house of the LORD
shall flourish in the courts of our God.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
They shall bear fruit even in old age;
vigorous and sturdy shall they be,
Declaring how just is the LORD,
my rock, in whom there is no wrong.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
Do you see "vigorous" in there?
Man oh man.
That God!
Only God could have done that.
Granted, I'm not Sarah or Elizabeth, but I am much more of an old mother than I am a young one. And even though my children (the ones in our home and the ones we anticipate) are not actually fruit of my own body, they are my fruit in every other way. Getting that word "vigorous" was such a beautiful wink from God that He will continue to be faithful to us as we grow our family in His sight. It felt so comforting and so confirming that we are on the right path pursuing number 3 and number 4, and that God will continue to be right with us.
I feel vigorous!!!
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