Questions

A few years ago M and I spent our New Year's Eve reviewing the waning year and looking forward to the fresh one approaching. It made for a very fun and memorable evening.

Having a baby made the last couple of New Year's a bit boring. (Unless you consider slumber thrilling - which we did) Now that we've caught up on our sleep, though, we want to greet the new year with better focus. We got our hands on a list of 31 questions to help us. I won't type all of them (laziness & copyright) but here are a few:

• What's one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
• What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?
• What area of your life most needs simplifying, and what's one way you could simplify in that area?
• Who do you most want to encourage this year?

Let me know if any of these help change your course for the better.

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

Rum Pum Pum Pum

Merry Christmas!

Our little family of three spent Christmas Eve with my sisters, their families, and my dad. My son was thrilled. He is convinced that his extended family is populated by the coolest people on the planet. His older cousin is tons of fun and has the best toys. His younger cousins are kissable. His uncles wrestle with him and his aunts listen with attentive awe to all his stories. Papi (grandpa) is absolutely the best; he tickles and wrestles and laughs. What fun!

Our schedule looked a bit like this: eat, travel, pick up food, eat, play, nap, eat, play, church, eat, open presents, play, eat, travel, sleep.

Let's hone in on church. We went to the Christmas Eve service at my sister's church. Early into the evening the music leader invited all the kids to come up on stage to listen to a story. So my little boy followed his cousin up the steps to the stage. The tiny detail of sitting and listening to the story fell off his radar when he saw the drum set, though. My child beat a rather determined path to the drums. He pulled his little 2-year-old self up onto the seat. He grabbed the drumsticks. Just as he was getting ready to rock into his career launching solo the music leader was able to grab the drumsticks and lead him back to the group. By the time he rejoined them, he found his daddy waiting. Daddy stayed on stage to help sweet N sit and listen. Also, it gave Daddy's ribs a chance to heal from Mommy's elbows digging into them.

Fortunately we were able to laugh with everyone in the room. It wasn't embarrassing because he wasn't being awful. My baby boy just loves music. And apparently he's comfortable in front of an audience. A number of people approached us after the service to tell us that N made their Christams Eve. I'm so glad he could bring happiness just by being his adventurous self.

I know it's not nearly as funny reading about it. But just try to imagine my son darting to the drums as everyone else sits quietly waiting for a story. It was hilarious!

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

Not Us

We heard back from our adoption coordinator yesterday. The birthmom of the baby boy chose another family to parent her son. She did love us, though. But what's not to love when this is the first thing you see?

Our Engagement Picture

We're not heartbroken at all, which is fabulous. We truly were not expecting her to chose us. We still have visions of pink dancing through our heads. She was quite blessed by our profile, though. So I am very glad we were able to bring encouragement to a woman in the midst of a difficult situation.

We continue to wait. Praying that God will bring us our child soon.

***And though we will raise whomever You bring us, may we have a girl pretty please?***

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

Presenting: US!

At 1630 CST (4:30pm for all you civilians) a birthmom will be looking at our family profile. She will be looking at a couple of other families, too. After looking at our profiles she will decide which family she would like to place her baby with.

I'm not the least bit nervous. Perhaps that's because it's still three hours and sixteen minutes away, though. I don't know. I'm confident that God will bring us the child He has for us, though.

My prayers have been directed toward the birthmom. Even if she doesn't chose us. I'm actually assuming she won't. So even though I am pretty confident that she is not the mom of our baby, I am still praying for the young woman. What a difficult decision to make.

I will definitely post more information when I know it. Whatever her decision, my heart is at peace.

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