Waiting, Preparing and a Birthday

A little family update for anyone interested -

September:
Our house was overwhelmingly quiet the first month after O had to go back. It made us miss him all the more. Drew had a rather hectic work schedule with the start of football season. At the beginning of the month, I traveled to Michigan to help clean out and pack my Grandpa's stuff to move him down south to be closer to my parents. We also managed to complete all of our adoption paperwork and send it over to O's country to be translated and submitted to the government.

October:
Our paperwork was submitted to the government! This puts us on a timeline to hopefully travel in December or January to finish the adoption. My mom published her first novel, which would make a great Christmas gift or stocking stuffer! ;) We started working through Jen Hatmaker's 7 Experiment with our Life Group and we're loving the challenge and growth!

Today:
Today is our Little Man's birthday. We never could have imagined all of the challenges and changes we would face during the past year. It was sad to know that no one was celebrating our boy as he turned three, but we were buoyed by the thought that it would be his last birthday without family. And now, the reality is that we do not know when or if we will ever be allowed to bring him home. We still pray for our Little Man daily and know that God loves him more than we ever can.

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LITTLE MAN! WE LOVE YOU!

Saturday (11/9/13):
Our sweet Life Group is hosting a Garage Sale to help raise donations for our adoption. They all bonded with O this summer, and it's such a blessing to know that they already consider him to be part of our family! Short notice, but if you're local and have anything to donate or would like to come by to say hi, just let us know!

Ps. Feel free to have some guilt-free cookies, ice cream, brownies, cupcakes, or candy in honor of Little Man's birthday!

Weekend

Let the pictures and captions commence:

We actually woke up before him on Friday! That's right - he slept past 8!

We have a little local park and we decided to have a little family outing.

O loved every minute of his first ever ride on a Go-Cart.

He also had his first carousel ride. He was so surprised when the horse started moving up and down!

He made Drew sit down next to him.

Despite how he looks in this picture, he really enjoyed all of the park.

We also had our first ride on the tiny train. (the windblown look)

If he knows his picture is being taken, he always sticks out his tongue.

On Saturday morning, we got to have some of my breakfast favorites. Starbucks...

...and Shipley's Do-Nuts.

O prefers kolaches to do-nuts.

The boys had a breath-holding contest. O won three out of four times! He can go for up to 45 seconds! It's quite impressive.

He was so tired. He actually took himself to bed!

The boys surprised me with coffee delivery for my birthday on Sunday.

And I also got some breakfast in bed. They had practiced singing in the car and sang "Happy Birthday" together.  I didn't have time to catch it on film, but trust me...it was SO cute to hear O singing.

How handsome is this boy?! - (waiting to leave for church)

O begged to go to the water park on Sunday after church. He loves the water.

We all had a good time!

On Sunday evening we celebrated with friends at a local restaurant.

(Trying not to smile now that he knows Drew is taking a picture.)

We have the sweetest friends! E came wearing this cute little sign!

I promise one day soon I will write a real post with words and everything! But we are really enjoying the summer, and we cannot believe how quickly time is passing by...

Control

Don't worry, all! We have not forgotten the blog!

We've been waiting for some real news before we post, and had a couple delays from our expectations. Basically, we (mostly me) have been learning a lot about letting go of control and accepting God's plan and timing. Seems I need a lot of reminders about this!

To let you know where we are: Our paperwork is in country and registered, and we are just waiting on official word of travel dates. Saying that my emotions are high at this point, is a definite understatement! I was talking to Drew on the phone tonight (he left today for a business conference), and he was telling me that everyone there already knows all about the adoption. We both just chuckled over his statement. When people ask us about what is going on in our lives right now, this adoption and meeting our son are definitely the primary focus for both of us! We may not be able to post pictures of him on the blog yet, but it is guaranteed that everyone we see in person is forced to admire the pictures we have of our Little Man.

It's so funny how God works. This time last year, we would have said we probably wouldn't be having kids for a few more years. Now, we are about 6 months into this calling, and He is constantly having to slow me down! I suppose I always have been passionate when it comes to my family. Even Drew, who is almost always calm and easy-going, has started to catch the anxious bug. I know it will be hard to leave him there after our first trip, but we both feel so ready to meet our boy and make this thing more real.

And now, as has become the norm, I will wrap up with some pictures to show how we have been spending our time.

We have been doing some recreational reading. (These are the last two books I completed.)

We celebrated our little guy's third birthday with wonderful friends!

  

We can't wait to celebrate your next birthday with you, Little Man! 

And here is a photo set that sums up our feelings about waiting.

 

We hope to post again soon with more news! Keep checking back!

Also, if any of our readers have any questions, we would love to do our best to answer them! Just leave a comment on this post, or send us a text or Facebook message, and include your question.