progress

I apologize to those of you that check regularly to see if I've blogged. I realize I've let you down many times! Again, no excuses...just a lack of motivation.

So, now onto those promised pictures of the somewhat slow progress of the baby room. I have ideas of what I want to do in the room, but just need to get them into action!

Anyway, this is what it looked like before:

It looked fine, but Ian had a great idea to spice things up a bit.

So, with a little bit of work...

(It was a Rider game day so of course, the jersey must be worn...even while working!)

We ended up with this! I think my amazing husband did and incredible job!!

There are still lots of things to do to get everything ready for the baby, but I'm pretty excited about how this project turned out.

On the adoption front, we're anxiously waiting to hear of the first referral in a LONG time! Our agency said things would get rolling again the end of November and here we are, almost December. We were also told that there is a good chance there will be 1 or 2 referrals before Christmas and that things should get busier in the new year. That was good news to me!

Another positive note is that our agency has opened a baby home in Durban and the first few babies have already arrived there. MOT works so hard to care for these babies and the home will hopefully allow them to be place with their forever families at a younger age.

So that's what's new right now. We keep praying that the new year holds some good news for us. I love the Christmas season and am really trying just to soak it all in and remember why we celebrate. I have SO much to be thankful for! We also feel so blessed to have the encouragement and support that we do. Know that your prayer, love and support is noticed!

To all my fellow waiting families...I'm thinking of you and praying for you often! Love and hugs to you all.

Adopt Walk

Yesterday we participated in the first annual SaskAdopt Walk and had a great time! The event was held to raise awareness of adoption and to raise money for the Adoption Support Centre of Saskatchewan.

Then, later in the day we got together for supper with the families from South Africa. To all of you families..."Thanks for the visit! We appreciate you all very much!" Thanks also to Riley & Candra for hosting!

Here's a news clip of the event which includes an interview of one of the families we are blessed to know. (See if you can spot us in the background of one of the clips...Ian's beard will give us away!)

http://www.globalsaskatoon.com/video/index.html (go to Nov.13 evening news)

That's it for now...

**Coming soon - baby room wainscotting pictures!**

November

Believe it or not, I've been meaning to blog for the past week! Finally, I had a moment to put down my thoughts.

I've been looking forward to November coming and now, all of a sudden, we're into the second week already! This means it's that much closer to the end of Nov. which bring us to referral time! I can hardly wait to start hearing of referrals again...even if it's not ours. It's been so quiet for the past few months (no referrals since May) and I'm anxious to hear of kids being joined with their forever families.

November is also Adoption Awareness Month. In fact, this weekend Ian and I are participating in the first ever SaskAdopt Walk. We have a team of families from South Africa and I'm looking forward to visiting with these great families again and walking for a great cause.

November also brings "No Shave November" at work (for Ian...not me). He suggested the other day that maybe he should keep it growing until we get a referral. I politely told him that would not be the best idea. At the rate his facial grows, I might be able to braid it by the end and I'm pretty sure that neither of us would be too pumped about that!

The other day I was reading a fellow waiting family's blog and this video brought me to tears. I just had to post it (Shanie, I hope you don't mind). I often wonder what that moment will be like when we meet our child. We're definitely awaiting it with great anticipation! After watching this video, it confirmed again for me that adoption is God's plan and that Ian and I feel called to grow our family in this way. My heart is already full of love for our baby.

So, if you're anything like me, I would suggest you grab the nearest box of tissues and enjoy this family's story.

Mommyhood

I've been having the HARDEST time wanting to go to work lately. That's unusual for me because I honestly love my job and have often looked forward to going to work in the morning. Maybe it's because of the smiling, adorable faces of the kids (well, most of them :) ) that greet me every day or maybe it's because I have always felt that my job is making a difference in the lives of those kids that struggle in school. Whatever the reason, work has never seemed like a "have to" but more of a "want to".

Now, a bit of history for you. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a mom...a stay at home, bake cookies, help at school, colour & craft, cuddle up on a rainy day, keep the house in order kind of mom. In fact, in my grade 8 speech I said that being a stay-at-home mom was what I wanted to do with my life. My mom stayed at home with us while we were growing up and I loved every minute of it! I've never doubted those desires God has placed in me.

Anyway, I think I just feel ready for that chapter of my life to start. I've been longing to stay at home in my comfy sweats, clean, bake and make sure my house is in order. I'm not all that surprised as I've always been more of a homebody; however, maybe it's more than that. Wikipedia says that the nesting instinct "may be the strongest just before the onset of labor." Hmmmm...of course I'm getting ahead of myself, but you never know...maybe a referral is just around the corner. :)

As a side note, 8 months ago today, our dossier was mailed to South Africa. Some days it feels like an eternity ago and some days it feels the time has flown by. Either way, each month that passes brings us closer to meeting our little bundle of joy.

In the meantime we could always use your prayers: for continued patience & financial provision, for our baby who we love so much already, for the social worker in South Africa (Robyn) who is working tirelessly to find families for these children and for us as we prepare.

Well, I'm off to enjoy the cozy fireplace with my husband on this cold, snowy evening!

Thanks for reading

Here's What I Know

Well, with thinking that referrals were starting again in September and not hearing anything all month, I decided that it was time to call our agency. Thankfully, I was able to get in touch with Mission of Tears on Monday and had a pleasant conversation that gave us some answers (for now).

So, here's what I know...

- Referrals will be starting again in November. There's a new policy where children need to go into a database for 60 days before they are able to be adopted internationally. I guess things didn't get going quite as quickly as they had anticipated which is the reason for the delay.

- The social worker in SA has been working very hard, as she always does, and has 12 children on the database that could be potential referrals. This was really encouraging because she has about 24 files waiting for referrals so that's a pretty good ratio.

- Our agency is hoping to send out some information this week giving us an update on the program.

- The lady I spoke with from our agency said things should be getting busy in terms of referrals as January gets closer and we head into the new year. Yeah!!

So now I breathe again for another month without wondering "will we get the call today?" As much as I want referrals to be happening now, it makes such a difference to just know a little bit of what's going on and to know things won't really be happening for another month or so. We pray for our baby girl/boy all the time and trust that God is preparing us both to meet each other.

I was really encouraged after talking to Mission of Tears and am anxiously waiting for what the next few months may hold. Realistically it could still be a a while down the road before we get a referral, but I'm daring to hope that it will be soon.

Week of Dreams

I fully believe that God can and does speak to us through dreams, but I'm not too sure about the one my mom had the other night. Here it is...

We came home from South Africa, but not with a baby...with a 48 year old man! Apparently he wasn't the most attractive looking gentleman and, at one point, was all curled up in the fetal position. Everyone was excited and asking to see her new grandchild but my mom was so embarrassed to introduce him because really, who adopts a 48 year old!! Then, all of a sudden I was holding a 4 year old girl. Her back was to my mom and as we turned around, the little girl revealed gigantic lips that hung down onto her chin. So, any interpretations?

We've had other people tell us too that they've had dreams of our adoption. Not strange dreams, just images of us with everything from a baby boy, to a 5 year old girl to a vivid dream of us with twins. Ian also had a dream that we adopted 3 First Nations kids.

I'm not sure about the meaning of all these, but as long as we don't come home with a grown man, I'll be happy!

Labor of the Heart

I am still here, believe it or not. Sorry it's been so long. There are probably a couple of reasons for that but, if I'm being honest, I just didn't feel like blogging.

It's hard to know what to write when I have no real news to share. I feel that you'll be bored listening to my emotional roller coaster ramblings, but I feel that I need to get back on track and focus this blog on our adoption. I'm sure I'll still fill you in on what else is happening in our lives, but what I really want is for this to be about our adventure of adopting.

So that said...it's been a tough (well, tougher) week for me. The waiting just hit harder than it has in a while and I must admit, a few tears were shed. It's just so hard to explain and until you're in it you just don't realize the impact it has on you...emotionally, physically, spiritually. Our lives are in limbo right now which just emphasizes the importance for us to anchor our hope and trust in Christ. It's truly the only thing that's going to get us through this time.

Lately I've been thinking that I need to get back to setting up the baby room, reading about adoption/parenting, picking baby names and getting excited about all of that. So today I went to the adoption support centre to pick up a couple of books and it felt good. We're also going to keep working on the baby room. Ian has decided to do panelling/wainscotting in there and I'll keep looking for things to make it "homey" for our amazingly adorable new addition (I just know he or she will be cute!)

One of the books I picked up today is called "Labor of the Heart". That's exactly it. This child will be born of my heart. It's amazing how this little person, who we know nothing about, has such a special place in our family already and the day can't come soon enough when we get to meet them in person.

Thanks for listening. We appreciate your support, thoughts and prayer so much!