Ethan, Adoption, and Updates.

Hello sweet bloggy world,

Sometimes I still cannot believe how long I go without blogging these days.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I care less and less about the "issues" I used to be so passionate about and more and more find that I just love simply being a mom.  My three sweeties bless me tremendously.  They also grow me, stretch me, frustrate me, and mirror me.  Which in general wears me out.   But I absolutely don't want to be or do anything else except serve God, and raise these little ones.

Speaking of little ones, Ethan has his final court date for his adoption coming up soon.  His adoption was complete the moment we knew he would be ours, but the state likes to have it's say so Ethan is "officially" ours on October 3rd.  What a fun day that will be.  Do you think I will cry???  Maybe just a bit ;-)

And speaking of adoption, I am happy to announce that my sweet man and I, with much prayer and trepidation, have decided to adopt again come February.   We are very nervous and very excited.  But mostly nervous.  We are truly wanting to be in Gods will and I have to say, this is a scary decision for us.  We have decided to adopt older children, through the foster system.  And more than likely we will be adopting siblings.  Is this scary?  Heck yes!  Are we aware of the great needs these children will have, and the great turmoil that will enter our home?  Possibly.   But are we also aware that God makes all things new, and will use even the hardest of times to grow and benefit our family. Yes, God works all things together.  We think this is a good time to do it.  We have a house, a stable job, older children who are now a bit more mature and capable to handle some of the harder issues that come with adopting older children, and we have a baby who will never remember a bit of it :-)

Anyhow, Jake and I have been so blessed and so stressed as of late.  Blessed in more ways than I can mention and stressed because we have been letting things and feeling get in the way of our walk with the Lord.  We have been working through marriage issues, parenting issues,  forgiveness, communication, and our love languages.  And I am so happy to finally be seeing the fruits of the labor.  God is at work in us and in our marriage, and I am so grateful for that.  May we never stop growing.  I know what it's like to just stay stagnant, and not "feel" my need for the Lord.  It's not a good place.  But through our stresses we  have been brought to our knees in our great need for HIM to help pick up all the pieces.  IT is precious to watch the Lord do it.   I think the thing I love the most about Christ our Lord is that He isn't afraid of, nor does he shy away from, our messy messy lives.  He dives right in, and speaks truth.  Love his GRACE!

We would love to keep all of you up to date on our new adoption journey.  We even have a sibling group in mind as of now, and will contacting their social worker next week  to see if we can start visiting them and getting to know them over the next few months until we are ready to get everything started again for the adoption.  We are praying (and I hope you will join us in praying!) that the Lord will select the children he has for our family and that we would follow HIS lead and not our hearts.

May he bless you this day!