The journey

As I look back over the last year or so I can see the journey we've been on.  God started a big work in our lives and to be able to see where we are today, you have to see where we've been and how God has been nudging (or shoving) us throughout the last couple of years.  So, here are some snippets of some past writings...

October 2011: 
Lately, Gabe and I have been feeling God moving in our lives in a big way. It has been through a host of different experiences. We recently attended a marriage class, I attended a women's conference, we have been studying through a series at church entitled "Weird" on both Sunday mornings and in our small group, and I have been doing a Beth Moore Bible Study called "Believing God". In all of these things we have felt like God is doing something in our lives and our family and it's time for us to hold on because this ride is about to take off. We have struggled this year with a lot of extra (non-budgeted) bills because of medical issues and repairs. I had been having a "woe is me" attitude about it because at the end of last year we had made a commitment, on top of our tithe, to the church for a 2 year campaign. To me, I thought that meant that God should give us a pass for the next 2 years on any other financial hardship. Although it has been hard and we will still be paying off the extra expenses that we've had this year for awhile, we have been able to keep our commitment, have food on the table and the heat on in our house. Gabe and I both feel so unsettled about our current budget but without a lot of "extras" that we can cut out we are strongly considering downgrading our living expenses by selling our house and buying something less expensive. Our house isn't extravagant now and we love having room for family to stay with us. That is something we don't want to give up because we both feel strongly about spending time with family, so we are looking into possibly something not necessarily smaller but less expensive. We're not sure what that means yet and know this is not the time of year to put a house on the market. So, we're going to keep praying that God will give us discernment on this issue. We are hoping by spring, we may try to put the house up for sale and pray God will show us a house that will fit our budget and family. We just know that we are called to be generous and want to do everything in our power to be able to do that and leave our kids a legacy bigger than house payments. 

Well, as time went on, we didn't feel like moving was the right option for us, so we cut back where we could and continued to try to make wise choices with our resources.  God has blessed that and we have been able to give even more money away than we originally committed to.  We continued to read and grow and be stretched....

In November of 2011, we started helping out at a homeless mission in town as a family.  We started by providing a meal for it's 40ish residents once a month.  Then, we decided we wanted to be more involved so we started helping weekly for awhile with going and hanging out with the kids. We would  teach a lesson and play with the kids while the moms would do a Bible Study.  It was such an eye-opening experience for us as a family.  It was heart-breaking that while we lived 15 minutes away in a warm house with more toys than necessary for our kids, people were homeless, living in extreme poverty.  And our side of town seemed to live in complete ignorance of this issue.  It felt wrong driving back home to all the comforts of our lives.  The only reason we are more privileged is that we were born into families that were able to provide and teach us about God and most of those people weren't.  

I had been mentioning the idea of adopting another child to Gabe for months at this point but was trying to patiently wait for God to move in his heart if this was truly a path for our family.  Adoption is a big deal and we definitely needed everyone on board if it was to happen.  Well, helping at the mission helped do that for Gabe.  Those kids broke his heart for what types of lives they were growing up in.  And while we realize we can't take them all in, we can make a difference to one.  


Around Christmas last year I wrote this regards to the financial and medical struggles we had last year...
Now, while our future is still not clear to us and we are far from having it all together, we believe that God is going to use these struggles to bring about great things in the year to come for our family. We are excited and a little anxious about the future. But, we no longer want the "American dream". We want to see how God can humbly use us, a simple family, to change the world, one day at a time. 

Fast forward a few months, God was still working in our hearts in regards to adoption and we finally started sharing that idea with a few people close to us.  We started feeling like it was a good to start exploring how to make it a reality in our lives.  In July 2012 we started the process.  We made the call to a social service agency to start getting licensed.  We had decided that adopting through the foster care system was going to be the best option for our family.  We were really hoping to only take a child that would be adoptable.  But, as we met with the social worker and started filling out paperwork and praying about how God wanted to use this situation we decided that we were open to fostering no matter the outcome.  Obviously, it would be hard emotionally if the child lived with our family for several years and then had to return to his/her biological family.  But, maybe that's how God wants to use us, maybe God will use us to change a whole family and not just one child.  Maybe God wants us to adopt the child that lives with us and that would be great too.  We're willing to travel whatever waters lie ahead of us.  That doesn't mean we haven't thought through the hard situations we may encounter, the stress of adding another child, most likely who will have a lot of baggage.  We're not naive, just ready to be obedient to the journey God is asking us to walk.  We are in the process of getting licensed and are in the middle of the licensing classes right now which go until December.  Hopefully that means our paperwork will be all done and put us on the list for calls by the beginning of the year.  We're excited to see this journey play out in our lives and grateful that God was patient with us as we learned to give up the ideas and dreams and life plans we felt entitled to but were not His plan. 

What We've Been Up To

Since it's been so long since I've updated the blog, I thought I'd try to give a quick review...

In November, Hadley and Grady both had surgery to repair their umbilical hernias.  They both did great and recovered really quickly! 

 At Christmas time, we snapped some family shots at the church.  This was the best we got out of a bunch of tries...I'm trying to decide if it looks like I'm smiling really big or clenching my teeth.

Grady discovered his favorite activity: vacuuming!  We had to hide the vacuum for awhile because he knew which closet we kept it in and would constantly ask for it!

We took a trip down to Nashville in February and had fun with the cousins at a Children's Museum!

 (trying to capture a picture of 3 17 month olds is hard!)

We had a follow-up appointment with Drake's neurologist in March so we stopped off at the zoo while we were in town.  

Hadley, Grady and I have been a part of some fun playdates through the church this winter and spring.  They are usually twice a month and gives the kids some great time to play and moms to chat!  This one was at the Illinois State Museum here in town. 

We re-painted our living room and had the kids add some artwork.  Drake had made a cool fish in art class at school, so we framed that and then had Hadley and Grady paint some canvases to add to it. 

 

Hadley wanted to get her hair cut so she got a super-cute new 'do!

We bought a season pass to our local zoo in town and have already made several trips there.  The kids liked the new wooden bird wing display where you can see how you measure up to the wing-span of different birds. 

This is a perfect picture of Drake's personality with Grady.  Drake is SUCH a good big brother and is such a big helper with Grady.  Drake will even let Gabe and I sleep in sometimes on Saturdays and will get Grady out of his crib and feed him breakfast before we even know he's up.  Yeah, that's pretty much awesome.  

My girl and I enjoying the sunshine this spring watching Drake's soccer practices.  

Hadley had her first swim lessons this spring.  She is not my water-lover so this was a bit (or a lot) out of her comfort zone.  She made little strides of progress but we'll be taking more lessons this summer to try to make more progress.  

Life with 3 kids is busy but oh so fun. Parenting is the most challenging and yet rewarding job.  The challenging seasons are just that, challenging but there are glimpses of the fruit of our labor as well.    Gabe and I have been through a lot of struggles over the last year with medical issues, extra expenses and parenting woes but with it has come spiritual growth that is challenging us to broaden our thinking on a lot of issues.  We're excited to see how God's plan unfolds in our lives and our family over the next weeks, months and years to come. 

20 months

Wow, I've been a real slacker on the blog.  Grady is talking more and more and has such a funny personality.   He's such a little ham with his dancing and prat falling.  He loves to make people laugh and has even started attempting his own knock knock jokes.  He seems to say more words every day, still a lot that only we understand, but I would guess he says at least 50 words now.  His hair is still what gets commented on the most.  It has gotten so curly and is especially curly in the humidity.  He's my solid little man, weighing in a little over 30lbs at his 18 month check-up.  He is a busy-body and loves to be outside kicking a ball, shooting a basket or mowing.  He also still loves the vacuum and general janitorial tools and tasks.  He's our future janitor (or at least a great husband!).  He definitely has an onry streak too and is at the "testing the limits" stage.  He is what you might call an "obvious" pooper, which in some ways is good, because I can usually tell when he is about to go.  So, lately I've been putting him on the potty when I can see it's coming and he loves the attention and applause he gets when he "produces" on the potty.  He is now getting used to sitting on the potty and will almost always go when I put him on it (usually before bath-time).  It almost makes me want to start potty training but he's still so young and since his speech isn't always intelligible by others I'm not sure if that's the best idea, but I do love that he loves to sit on the potty!  I can't believe he will be 2 in a few months, it is going by so fast!!  He is such a fun part of our family.