Tuesday, October 26, 2010

A Fun Step

Photos!

We are up to our ears in photos!

The next step of the adoption process is putting together pictures for our family profile. The family profile is what birth mothers look at when they are deciding which famiy to place their baby in. So it's very important. We are having our agency compile it for us, since they do this all the time. They gave us a list of types of pictures to put together for them. They requested 80-100 pictures to choose from so that they can have options.

Well, I am providing some options! How on earth do you summarize the last 7 years of your life in 100 pictures? I have no idea. Right now my count is closer to 200 and I haven't included our wedding pictures yet.

By the way, I was hoping to find a picture of someone up to their ears in photos to include with this post. (kinda like the one with all the paperwork) So I went to google images and first looked up "pictures" then "photographs." Ugh. Danger. Don't do that. And not in my somewhat-typical sarcastic voice. Seriously, don't do that. There is so much slime out there. I have no idea how some of those images were even classified as pictures or photographs.

So now I'm off to bleach my brain while I wait for the computer to finish uploading the next couple hundred photos.

Ta ta!

copyright (c) Elizabeth, Bug's Beef. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Ever Disappearing Me

Ok, so the reason why I've been gone from my blog so long this time is because we made it over the bump mentioned in my previous post. So now we have: paperwork!


Mercy.

I'm going to make photocopies of everything, but I'm pretty sure when it is all said and done we will have filled out more than 100 pages of forms. My sweet son and I drove about the metropolitan today getting physicals for our home study and collecting birth certificates. We also swung by a Court House to get marriage certificate copies.

I'm most the way through the first step, though. Once my husband finishes his lengthy self study we can send off the first pile of papers. The others will wait until our social worker actually comes to the house.

So I'm sorta sorry I've been gone. Sorry for you, but not for me. When my fingers touch the keyboard now, they are either preparing for our baby or talking about our baby. Woo Hoo!

I'll try to keep you posted on the goings on, but if I'm entrenched in paperwork again, it may be awhile. Because now I have to start finding information to create our family profile. Not only is it answering more questions, but it's going through photos and finding the best ones that represent us. How on earth do I buzz through five years of pictures? I have no idea. God will have to help me. Otherwise I'll be stuck flipping through pictures, reminiscing, until Christmas.

copyright (c) Elizabeth, Bug's Beef. All rights reserved.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Ambiguity

Sometimes ambiguity is frustrating. Sometimes it is delightful. Here is an example of the wonderful side:

2 Timothy 1:12

That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day. NIV

and that is why I suffer these things. But I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day. CSB

So which is it? Has it been entrusted to us by God, or have we entrusted it to God?

It's not just these two translations that are in disagreement. Check out Crosswalk.com's comparison of verses here. Apparently the original text is a bit ambiguous.

As I try to figure out which one is right, I realize the answer is both. There is nothing that I can entrust to God that He hasn't already entrusted to me. Pretty cool.

copyright (c) Elizabeth, Bug's Beef. All rights reserved.

Monday, October 4, 2010

A Baby Bump

We have a baby bump. No, my abdomen is not increasing in girth. We have hit a snag in our process to adopt.

The agency that we felt we were supposed to use has us now waiting for the waiting list. They are so backed up, with so few babies available, that we can't even get on the waiting list yet. Ugh.

It hasn't caused me to crawl into the depths of despair, though. This obstacle is making me more curious than anything. We know that there is a specific child for us to adopt, just as there was a specific child that we gave birth to. I'm really just trying to figure out how to get my hands on my child. Do we go with another agency? Do we stick with the current one? Is it both? Do we have a couple of kids, and each agency has them?

Questions, questions.

In the mean time, though, I got the nursery painted. Woo hoo! Four colors of paint later, most people would think it just looks green at first. But closer inspection reveals a subtle color wash that softens it up quite a bit. (I'll try to remember to take a picture and post it, but I'm not sure the colors will show up well)

Even though it looks likes we're eons away from having our baby, I am still confident that God has a baby for us, and that she will be arriving very soon. So I'm nesting. The nice thing about nesting for an adopted baby is I have a lot of energy. It helps keep my focus on the promises we have from God, and off the barriers that keep getting erected. Not that I'm burying my head in the sand, I just find it easier to do something with my belief, rather than sit around reminding myself that He is faithful.

If God brings me to your mind in the coming weeks, will you pray this verse? God showed it to me last week after we heard from the agency. It's perfect.

Now may our God and Father Himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. 1 Thessalonians 3:11

I pray that God clears the way for us to our daughter, and quickly. Amen.

copyright (c) Elizabeth, Bug's Beef. All rights reserved.