obedience

Well, as I sit here, I really don't know what to write. We don't have any news, but I want to keep sharing my thoughts and feelings through all of this.

I was reading my last post, I felt that I didn't explain myself fully or in the way I intended. When I talked about how I'm thankful to the birth mother, I am in no way thankful for the poverty & difficult situations some people face or that a mother had to give up her baby.

What I meant was that, through all of the heartache and helplessness that these women must feel, I'm thankful & humbled for the opportunity that God has given us to adopt a child. It would obviously be so much better if children were not abandoned and if parents were able to always take care of their children, but that's not the reality. The reality is that there are over 140 million orphans worldwide.

These are some of the things that have been on my heart lately. We really feel called to adopt. It's hard to explain the peace we felt when we made the decision to adopt. Yes, we want to become parents and Yes, part of us adopting is simply our desire to start our family, but it's also more than that. We feel God has asked us to choose this special way of starting our family and maybe in the process, others will feel led to consider adoption. For us, obeying the call to adopt is our way of honouring Christ with our lives. I really wouldn't want it any other way.

As I said before, there's not really any news. Since the World Cup starts this week, we know we can kind of relax (well, at least not feel my heart pounding when I get a call at work) until mid-July when the tournament is over.

Something exciting for us is that we get to meet the South African social worker who works so hard to match us with a child. She will be in Regina on June 26 and in Canada for about a 1 1/2 weeks. Ian & I are really looking forward to that and are hoping that meeting her in person will help us in the whole process.

Anyway, thanks for reading! I'll try to blog more...I really will. :)

Mother's Day

I thought this might be a tough day and although there were some tough moments, it was good.

We spent the evening with my family and I'm so thankful for my own mom. She has been a beautiful example of a wife and mother to me over the years and I hope to be able to be that kind of mom to my children.

I am also so thankful to our future child's birth mom for making what I'm sure was or will be a terribly hard decision, but one that allows Ian and I to experience the joy of parenting. We will forever be grateful to her.

I am also thankful to my husband for making this day special for me. He has a great sense of humour and a soft heart. Here's what I got this morning...

(In case you can't see, it says "To: Mommy")

He wrote me a letter as if it was from our baby. I couldn't help but shed a few tears! I also love that fact that he took the time to write the letter in "kid looking" printing! What a great gift!

I hope all you mothers out there had a wonderful day as you are truly blessed with your children and I hope to celebrate fully with you next year!

persistence

I'm just having one of those days where I'm questioning everything....

Did we put the right wording into the profile of ourselves? What will they think of us? What if we missed something important? What if we end up waiting way longer than expected? What if the judge turns us down? etc.....

I don't know why I do this. I know I'm being ridiculous.

This morning, I opened up the Bible, not knowing where to read and the parable in Luke 18 of the persistent widow caught my eye. Now, I might not fully understand the meaning of this passage, but it spoke to me today. Basically, this woman continues to approach the heartless judge until she wears him out and he gives her justice. Jesus goes on to say that if even a godless judge does this, surely God (who loves us!) will give justice to his chosen people who plead with him day and night. Yet, here I am...doubting.

However, I will not give up hope and I will continue to pursue a life of faith and prayer. God is good and I am thankful for all the growing pains!

Some music for you

As we continue to wait, I'm trying to think of things I can do to keep from going crazy. Most days, I'm not succeeding! We are, however, hopefully getting a crib this weekend and setting up the baby room will be great. As long as the bed isn't empty for too long!

We've also been trying to pick some names which has been way harder than I every thought! There's not a whole lot that's really jumped out at us, but I would like to start narrowing things down soon. While looking through baby name books though, we came across some names that will definitely NOT be given to our child... Fifi-Trixibelle, Diva Muffin, Moon Unit, Dweezil...yikes!

Ian and I have been listening to Ladysmith Black Mambazo lately which is a group from South African. I've been loving it! Anyway, the pictures in this video aren't very clear, but I like the song. Just so you know...Shosholoza is a Zulu word that means go forward or make way for the next man.

Enjoy!

SK "get togethers"

Throughout this whole process we've been able to get to know some awesome families! It's been such a blessing to be able to visit and share with couples who know how we're feeling and what the process is like. I thought I'd share a couple of pictures of some of the great families we've been getting to know...

This was the first time we met with a few couples.

The ones on the right are in SA right now and getting ready to bring

home their son and daughter.

The cake we had at our last get together

There are a few spouses and most of the kids missing in this picture, but these are

some of the other families.

Two very adorable kids!

Hi!

I know, I know, it's been a while since we've posted anything on here. I guess I've realized blogging isn't one of my strong suits. To be honest, it's sometimes hard knowing what to say, but we really will try to post more often!

Anyway, enough excuses. :)

So, the past few weeks have been good. It's hard to believe that it's almost been a month already since our paperwork got to SA. It's gone by fast which is great! Yesterday we met with some other families who have/are adopting from SA. That's the second time we've met with some families and it's been really good to meet their kids and talk about the process. We found out that one of the families just got their referral on Thursday and they've been waiting less than 2 months, so that was encouraging to hear! (For those of you who don't know what a referral is, it's when you get the call that they have a child for you)

We've been trying to do a lot of reading lately, but at times it's overwhelming. We've mostly been reading about transracial adoption and although there is some helpful information, sometimes it's too much to think about all at once. I think we'll really continue to learn as we go.

We've also been trying to learn more about our baby's country and recently bought a book called "A Rainbow in the Night." It's about the history and birth of South Africa which I think will be really interesting. Along with learning about the country, we've tried a few SA wines and listened to more of the cultural music. We really look forward to having the African culture a part of our lives and family! I was trying to upload a video of some SA music, but couldn't get it to work so I'll have to try again later. If I get pictures from our gathering with the other families, I'll post those too.

We continue to try and be patient in our waiting. There are days when it seems easier and days when it's definitely tough and I feel like I'm going crazy. We pray for our baby every day and can't wait to meet them and bring them home!

Well, I don't have much else to say right now, but I promise to try to post more! Who knows what the next couple weeks will hold...maybe we'll have some exciting news to share!

Thanks for reading...

Heidi

And The Waiting Begins...

Well, we have some exciting news! Our dossier was mailed to S.A. yesterday and should be there by Tuesday!!! This is SO awesome for us! At the beginning of the week we got in touch with our agency and they said that it should be mailed in a couple of days. I wasn't holding my breath, but was hoping that it would at least be Friday...and it was!

So now, all we can really do is wait. The social worker in S.A. will get our dossier and we can start to be considered as adoptive parents when she has a child that can be adopted. Our agency said that a referral could happen at any time. They also said that the social worker is working hard at getting through files in the next couple of months, so that could be good news for us! It's really hard not to get our hopes up that a referral will happen soon but I'm also trying to be realistic because it could be 12 months.

I am looking forward to this part of the journey because there's nothing more for us to do. I'm trusting that at the right time, God will place the right child in our family and that will be a great day! For now we continue to prepare...reading, buying luggage for the trip, getting baby stuff, getting immunized, picking names and just enjoying the time we have together.

Thanks for reading and praying for us through this. We really appreciate all the support we've had from family and friends. It means a lot!

Have a great day!!