Thursday, September 17, 2009

settling in now...

All the "firsts" of fall are now over. We are several weeks into the school year for Jared and Anna, and Lilly is into her second week of school. Cross country, pep band, scouts, soccer, AWANA, Kids Choir, orchestra, Women's Bible Study...it's all well underway. Life is very full, very busy, and very rich.

Now that the novelty of new fall routines has worn off, it's time to learn to cope with the busyiness of daily life with grace and patience. It's time for me to teach and motivate the big kids to do their best, work their hardest, act kindly, respectfully, and graciously always, be responsible for their homework, their belongings, their time. It's time for me to learn to get all the housework and errands done on Lilly's school days so I can simply spend time playing and being with her on her days at home.

It's time for me to *consistently* find myself sitting at God's feet, soaking up wisdom from His word, and pouring out my heart to Him in prayer. I need discerning eyes to see when to correct my kids and when to simply praise and support them. I need a heart that is not so full of myself that I get annoyed when the kids demand my attention at inopportune times. I need wisdom to find ways to occupy Lilly while Anna does her homework and needs my attention. I need to be purposeful in spending time and conversing with Jared, who is my easiest child to parent at the moment, but whom I fear I could lose touch with since I spend so much of my emotional energy on his sisters.

No photos today, just heartfelt thoughts, and a request for your prayers for me as a mom.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Why Adoption? Why China?

I'm sure that many of you, when you learned that Tom and I were pursuing adoption of a little girl from China, wondered "why?!" We may have taken some of you by surprise, and we thought it might be nice to share some of our thinking about this journey we are undertaking.

Adoption is something that, even from the earliest years of our marriage, we talked about as "maybe someday." The idea of adoption is appealing to us for many reasons. As Christians, we are adopted by God as his children through faith in Jesus. Adoption allows us to provide a child with the needed love, warmth, and financial resources we have been blessed with as a family. Finally, adoption allows us to add to our family at a time when our biological children are old enough to be more self-sufficient, and we are in a position financially to be able to welcome a child into our family in this way. What we hope to gain is an additional family member to love and learn from, and an opportunity to share the joy and love of our family.

We recognize that an adoption will bring unique parenting challenges to our family--especially since we are considering a child with special needs--and it is likely to put unique stresses on our family in a variety of ways. We are grateful for Tom's medical knowledge and for the great medical coverage we get through Tom's Air Force career, and we look forward to providing a forever family for a child whose medical needs might make it more difficult for another family to take on.

Finally, why China? My love for China, the Chinese language, and the Chinese people made China the natural choice. It was never really even a consideration whether to go with a domestic adoption or international; China was simply the natural choice that we immediately pursued, especially since there are so many children in China that need a forever family.

Chinese Word of the Day

The Time in China

When Love Takes You In

Our Adoption Timeline

  • Travel Dates--11-26 March
  • Swearing In Ceremony at Consulate--25 March (Lilly's 3rd Birthday!)
  • Consulate Appointment (CA)--24 March
  • Travel Approval (TA)--19 February 2009
  • Received Letter of Approval (LOA)--22 January 2009
  • Received Pre-Approval (PA)--25 November
  • Submitted Letter of Intent (LOI) to adopt An Xiao Xue, soon to be named Lillian Joy Xiao Xue, 1 November (logged in at CCAA 21 November)
  • Referral Call from CCAI asking us to consider An Xiao Xue's profile--31 October
  • Dossier Log-in-Date (LID) 3 July 2008
  • Dossier to China (DTC)--June 27 2008
  • Dossier Submitted to CCAI--June 2008
  • Fingerprinted at USCIS Jacksonville--April 2008
  • Application Approval ("We're Pregnant!") January 2008
  • Submitted Adoption Application and 3 References--December 2007
  • Requested Application from Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI) --November 2007
  • Decided to Investigate Agencies--October 2007