day two

so, God has such a sense of humor!! Yesterday I wrote that I was thankful for electricity, and then at 1:30am our electricity went out. I think that God wanted to make me laugh - and he did@!!! It finally came back on this morning at 9am. So today, I am extra thankful for electricity:)
my 20 of the day
electricity (again:)
warm showers
fluffy pillows
cupcakes
cuddly kids in the middle of the night
friends who listen to your complaining
friends who love to laugh with you
a hubby who loves you (even after three kids:)
a hubby who will watch the kids for a weekend while I play!
juicy pears
jelly bellys (especially the pear flavor:) - my theme for the day
a daughter who enjoys going shopping with me
the sun
candles
yellow daisies
a good book
good eyesight
colors
my parents
laying in bed on saturday morning just because!
What are you thankful for today?!!

Thankfulness - Gratefulness

I got the idea for this blog from another adoption blog that I follow - a place called simplicity (amazing story and such beautiful children!). I believe, especially in the place where I am right now) that thankfulness is a choice. Not much about my human nature says "instead of thinking about the negative, think about the positive!" So I am making the choice to be thankful. I am aware that for me, it will be a daily choice, and that I will backslide at times, but if I can run three miles a day during nap time, by golly I can be thankful! I am going to just list the things that I am thankful for, every day, even if they seem silly or ridiculous:). Please feel free to join me - I would love to hear what you are thankful for! I will limit myself to 20 things a day (so that I do not run out any time soon:).
I am thankful for:
comfy sweatshirts (the bigger the better)
fuzzy socks (in crazy colors)
chocolate chip cookies (the bigger and softer, the better)
my children right when they wake up and smell like sleep
real butter (oh yes - no margarine for me!)
jester hats (the bus driver always starts his day by laughing at me in my kids hat!)
the breeze blowing through my house (especially in the spring)
swings (big ones - where you pump so high you feel like you left the seat!)
sushi (oh, I feel a craving coming on)
fresh baked bread (do you sense a theme - maybe food related?:)
picnics (every day in the summer at the park!)
coffee with friends (as often as possible)
snow (alot of it - not just a few inches)
electricity (I am reminded of this one every time our power goes out!)
Friday nights (when I am not working the weekend)
waffles (every saturday morning)
seasoned mothers who wait to be asked and then offer such valuable advice
friends - the ones who will always be there, no matter how long it has been
worship songs - especially Hillsong (savior king is a favorite right now)
my hubby - he puts up with so much and never complains - I could never replace him!
Okay, day one. What are you thankful for?

This FBI thing

okay - so here it is. Another (hopefully short) post about waiting for the stupid FBI prints. I am going to try to be eloquent and explain exactly how it feels! (as eloquent as I ever am). I feel like I am trying to get pregnant. And it is not working. And I am taking a pregnancy test once a week, or recently about every other day. and it is negative. And I know that all I need to do is wait, but that still does not stop me from calling, day after day, hoping to get someone who has a heart softened to adoption. It is also very frustrating to hear from other families that just a few months ago it only took a week. What happened in a few months? No idea - but I am definitely not having a patient week. For those of you wondering, yes I did call today, no we are not in the system and the quite perky individual that I talked to had the audacity to not only tell me not to call back for another 4 weeks, she decided to add on to the 8-10 week waiting time by saying that it takes "10 weeks or more!" Seriously?!! What could be more important than loving on a child that has never felt loved?! Okay, done ranting for the day (maybe:). On to something that I am thankful for - I am so thankful for friends and family who are sooo excited about our adoption and have already welcomed Kyria into their hearts and lives. You all are my rays of sunshine today.

So, it has been awhile since I've posted - I would love to tell you that is because I have been so busy getting things done for our adoption, but sadly no. We are only waiting on fingerprints from the FBI to come back, and then we will be done with the paperwork and be put on the referral list to wait for a name and picture! Somehow, while I know that it will be equally hard to wait month after month to get a referral, at this time it seems preferable to waiting for fingerprints to come back. Anyways, yesterday I took Hannah to get her hair cut (it turned out so cute!!!) and we were talking to the stylist about our little girl in Ethiopia. I said that when she comes home I will have two boys and two girls - perfect! Noah responded that it will not be fair - he will only have one brother and two sisters, and he wants two and two. Then I said (jokingly I think!) that maybe we will have to go back for a little brother. after thinking about that for a minute, he told me that it still would not be fair, because Hannah would not have two sisters, maybe we should go back for another girl too. So, Noah has our child count up to 6 - which while terrifying (and highly improbable, especially due to monetary considerations), would be very poetic seeing as the blog name is our journey to 6, and that after marrying Eric I thought that 6 six would be just right. I guess we will see what God has in store for us!
On another note, my so thoughtful husband surprised me last night with a plane ticket to go see my forever friend, Kim, in atlanta next weekend. She has been there for 3 years, and while she has visited here I have never been there! So excited - especially because I am going by myself. While talking to Gini last night - I was reminded what that means - I get to fly on a plane by myself. No bag full of snacks, toys, and distractions. No worrying about if they will be loud, or if their ears will hurt. Now do not get me wrong - I love my little bugs. But 2.5 hours on a plane by myself - I am smiling just thinking about it! So, if you think about it, please pray for Eric next weekend. He is used to having the kids for the weekend when I go to work, but I am here in the morning and the evening, and this will be the first time I am leaving overnight and not taking the kids. I know that he will do incredibly well - but prayer never hurts!

"I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you, and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11. A few posts ago I was bemoaning my lack of patience. 10 years ago when Eric and I began talking about adoption, it was such a far off concept that I wondered if it would ever truly materialize. Then we began having our biological children, and again there was no need for patience (about adoption, anyways:). And now I am in a season of waiting. In the past 10 years, I have had many seasons. The season of being a burn nurse, a season a being first-time mom, a season of being a full-time nurse and a first-time mom, a season of being mom to two, a season of asking God why my child suffered, a season of leaving the familiar behind, a season of homesickness, a season of growth, a season of being a mom to three, a season of contentment. and now my season of waiting. Today as I was going through my "mommy books" I found a book from MOPS entitled "Just give me a little piece of quiet," by Lorilee Craker. I was looking through, finding paragraphs that I had highlighted in 2006, when I came across this section and the verse above. Next to it I had written "My time will come - my arms are waiting". Little did I know then that three years later my time is coming - and my arms are tingling with excitement. Here is the paragraph:
"At the moment, I am waiting for a child myself, a child who is growing, as I write these words, in her birth mother's womb on the other side of the world. Foreign adoption is a long, winding road full of setbacks and delays. And just when you think you have filled out your last scrap of paperwork, another couple of reams are thrown at you. Waiting to hold my baby daughter in my arms, to see her sweet face for the first time, is getting harder and harder. But I am holding on to the fact that God will sustain me and my family as we wait for her. And no matter how much I want to speed up the process, God is ordering my steps in His perfect time."