A visit with the Barkers!

Last Thursday we were blessed to spend a little bit of time with the Barker family! Aaron and Ronda were good friends of ours when we lived in Tacoma, and it was really great to connect with them again before they left for their next adventure! Next week they are moving to Kona, Hawaii to join up with the YWAM base and do full-time missions work, using Kona as their homebase. Their faith and courage is incredibly inspiring and we have been so blessed to watch their journey this past year. Love you guys!

Ronda and Kirsten

Caleb, Jacob

Ariel, Caitlyn, Hailey (current ages: 7,6,5,4,3!)

Just the girls: Ariel, Caitlyn, Hailey

Buddies! Caleb and Jacob

The first 10 days

The past 10 days have been quite the roller coaster! There are so many things I could comment on, but I'll just have to highlight a few:

--The transition to 3 has been incredibly easier than expected! The "little Miss" has received quite a bit of attention and is often fought over at every meal, car ride, etc....."NO! It's MY turn to sit by her!" "NO! It's MY turn! You got to sit by her at breakfast!" The kids have been extremely generous with their things and I have been so proud to see their interactions with her.

--I am SO ready to be done with diapers! Haha! I really, really appreciate having children that are potty trained and I am motivated to potty train this little one as soon as she shows interest! (don't want to push her into anymore transition! )

--I am in NO rush for another child. :) We could still technically get a phone call for another child, but three is fine for now. We have our hands full!

--The foster/adopt process is WAY more complicated than we ever would have expected! The process is long, unpredictable, and inconsistent. We are in this for as long as it takes, risking our hearts, and giving all. As much as I have tried to guard my heart and be realistic about the process, if I chose to be guarded and not give everything I have to this little one as I would my own biological children, I would have so many regrets. How could I justify it if two years from now she were to return home and I hadn't loved her to the the fullness of my capacity while in our care? My only reason for holding back would be to protect myself and that is not something I want hanging over my head! I understand that the risk is great...the cost is great... and the sorrow could be great....but that is a risk we are willing to take. I trust 110% that God will meet us where we are at and either celebrate with us, our heal our hearts. For now, we are taking it a day at a time and loving her as much as we can today. There is nothing more we can do.

I hope you enjoy these couple photos. As I said before, we can't post any photos of her face, so these will have to do. :) Thanks, friends, for your support!

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Top 5 Things From Day 1:

Thank you so much, friends and family, for your support of us in this season! We are so excited to start this new chapter in our lives and hope you will check our blog for updates. :) Unfortunately, because of legal reasons, we cannot share her name or post any photos on our blog, and the information we ARE allowed to share is limited. These blog posts will have to do for now! (I will reference "her" as the "little Miss")

Here are the top 5 highlights from day one:

5. Back to diapers again. It's been a couple of years since we've had a little one in diapers, and after EVERY diaper today being poopy, I sure have the motivation to potty train this little one!

4. Needing to make a "quick trip to Wal-Mart" for 2 things I forgot to pick up yesterday. First of all, "quick" and "Wal-Mart" should never be used in the same sentence. It took us roughly and hour and a half to load up 3 kids in the car, make our trek through the store, and then get home to unload. And yes, we actually live close enough that we can see the store out of our window at home.

3. I decided to have Micah put the double stroller in the back of the Suburban because I thought that the little Miss might do better if she could sit next to Caitlyn (our stroller is a side-by-side). It quickly became apparent that pushing two girls who are 35+ pounds each counted as Micah's workout for the day. The weight was not distributed well because the girls kept leaning forward. Micah kept asking them to sit back, which Caitlyn was not doing, but the little Miss was listening quite well. She was so baffled that Caitlyn was not obeying! She had this look of shock on her face time and time again when Caitlyn would lean forward on purpose when Micah wasn't looking (I had the privilege of pushing the cart behind them and viewing these interactions) Finally, after saying virtually NO words for the first several hours of being with us, she looked at Micah, yelled "DAD!" and flailed her arms towards Caitlyn as in, "Aren't you seeing what she's doing?!!" It was hilarious.

2. Watching her and Caitlyn do laps through our house, pushing a dolly stroller and giggling like they have known each other forever. I know a true friendship is blossoming already.

1. Rocking her at bedtime, as she just looked up at me with bright, shining eyes and precious smile. I wonder what was going through her mind...to be in a new house, with new kids and new adults and a new room with a new blankie.....

We are so grateful. Happy, thankful, and joyous seem to be words that fall incredibly short of the true honor we feel to play a small part in God's plan for this little one's life. Whether she is with us a month, or for the rest of her life, we have such peace in knowing that we have said "yes" to the journey. God will take care of the rest. He will guide our hearts--guard them if they need to be guarded, and expanded them if we need to give more. We are trusting Him.

Waiting for Isaac

I will be the first to admit that I struggle with impatience. I do not like to wait....especially for things that are exciting! Christmas is easily my favorite holiday, but it takes a great amount of self control on my part to not give loved ones their gifts as soon as I can get them wrapped. I am not known for purchasing gifts far in advance, wrapping them right away, and placing them under the tree to gaze at for weeks. I'm more of a "buy it, wrap it, give it" kind of girl! ;) As we've been on this journey of adoption, there have been numerous little "snags" that have really stretched my patience level. It took longer than we had to expected to complete the training, homestudy, reference checks, background checks, interview, etc.....but here we are, officially licensed. Officially waiting to see what precious children will be joining our family. We received our legal license in the mail last week on Wednesday, so it has not even been a week yet....but I just wanted to share what God has been doing in me and our family.

Since we started this process in the fall, Micah and I had always been in agreement about the direction we felt God was leading us: to get our license specifically to 'Foster Adopt'--meaning we would only have children placed in our care who have a long term plan of adoption. Either they would have had biological siblings who had already been adopted by other families, or they were 'legally free' to be adopted. Neither of us ever felt like we were signing up to just do foster care or respite care (very short term care). We never vacillated from this direction, and in fact, proceeded ahead with great confidence that this was the route we were to take.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have really started to grow impatient. Though we didn't even receive our official license until last Wednesday, I have been nearly consumed by the details for several months....who are these kids? Where are they? God-please protect them! When will they be joining us? When, when, WHEN?! I knew that my anticipation was turning to impatience when I decided to "help" God out a bit. Though it wasn't something I did consciously, it played out like this:

Micah and I were driving up to Costco last week when I decided to let him know I was thinking he may not have made the best decision by 'limiting us' to Foster Adopt instead of just general Foster Care (my MISTAKE #1). My rationale was that often times people who are general foster parents (without the intent to adopt) end up with the option to adopt children placed in their care in the long run...."Honey," I said...."Don't you think we might be limiting God by only being willing to Foster Adopt? It is taking SO long! (remember, we hadn't even gotten our license in the mail yet at this point!) Don't you think we maybe should have said that we would be willing to just do foster care so that we would have kids placed with us sooner?!" (MISTAKE #2) At the time, I honestly felt like it would be YEARS before we had a child (or children) placed with us and I was just not willing to wait that long.

Micah, kindly, but with great conviction, looked at me and said, "We are NOT trading Isaac for Ishmael!" I knew exactly what he was saying. In the Old Testament, God had spoken to Abraham that he and his wife Sarah would have a son. Sarah, was well into her 90's at the time and she laughed when she heard that spoken (as I'm sure I would have too)! Instead, Sarah gave her servant Hagar to Abraham to bear a son for her, and that son's name was Ishmael. God LATER fulfilled what He had spoken to both Abraham and Sarah, and they conceived a son whom they named Isaac.

Micah's point was that we didn't need to act like Sarah and help God out by "expanding our options" and "making it easier for Him" to fulfill what He had spoken to us. God does not need our help! In fact, God usually prefers to glorify Himself by surprising us with HIS amazing plan, not our I-think-I-have-it-figured-out plan!

Foster Adopt is easily the least glamorous of ways to expand your family. We anticipate that it will be challenging, emotionally strenuous, and refining. However, we also know that God will carry us through the challenges we face and will strengthen us through the process. I am excited to testify to His faithfulness through this journey!

So here I am, just over a week later, and my patience continues to be stretched. HOWEVER, I trust God, and I trust His timing. I trust Micah as he seeks God in leading our family. We may wait days, or we may wait several more months. But the one thing I know for sure is this: whether it be in the form of a little boy, a little girl, or both--I am DEFINITELY waiting for Isaac.

And you thought YOU had a lot of laundry....

This is what happens when Daddy takes 2 weeks off of work and Mommy chooses to do no laundry during those 2 weeks. This clean pile literally took me HOURS to fold and put away, but it was worth it to have 2 weeks chore-free. :)

Bye-bye tooth!

Caleb lotht hith firtht top tooth thith fall! :) His friends must have wealthier parents than us because we were informed that the going rate for a top tooth was significantly higher than for a bottom tooth! And since he lost both front teeth within a few days of each other, his piggy bank grew and our bank account shrunk. He was graciously informed that the front teeth were special, but in order to have enough money for all of the other little kids in the world, he shouldn't expected more than $1 from the tooth fairy for the subsequent pearly whites that fall out.

Catching Up

Ok, ok....I know that I am REALLY behind. So here are some photos from last fall up until this week! :)

Caleb and Caitlyn both played soccer this fall.....Micah got to be Caleb's coach, and Caitlyn got to play on a team with several other little kiddos from church. Here are a few photos from the season!