Sharing the baby

Elliana and Andy have started to play together a lot more lately. Mostly what Elliana wants, but also Andy's favorites, trains and balls. I got a picture of them sharing and playing baby doll, Elliana's favorite. She asked Andy if he wanted to hold her baby sister and tells him it is "me brother". Yes, she is a little confused, but she will get it down one day. Right after Andy holds the baby, she tells him the baby wants "mommy- me mommy, she sick." If you notice all the band-aids on the dolls head, she said she fell, a lot. This baby has many names too, Thaddeus, Lisa, Four, Cale- just to name a few. I am not sure we will ask her her input when we think about names for our newest one.

Sarah and Hagar

I was talking with my mother the other day and she shared what she was learning. God had promised a child to Abraham and Sarah and in earthly wisdom, they decided the timing for the promise to be fulfilled. God had His own timing. Because of their failure to trust God's timing, Hagar and Ishmael were hurt in the process. Yes, God worked it all out for His glory, but how much more of a blessing was missed by Abraham and Sarah. As we wait for God's timing in this adoption, I am convicted not to try to make it complete in my timing.

From the beginning

The first question people ask when they hear we are adopting is, "why". So I will start to share bits and pieces throughout the blog. God worked on our hearts separately before we even knew each other. I worked with orphans in the Ukraine for two summers and knew from the first time I saw a certain little boy that I would one day adopt a child. I will let Chris share his early desires of adoption later. Once we started dating and talked of family, we both said that we wanted to adopt. After we had Elliana we mentioned it again, but knew it wasn't the right time yet. After Andy was born, we both just started to move forward with talking to others about their journey and how to begin.
I have heard others say they could not love a child not biological as much. As horrible, but honest, as that is, I know WITHOUT A DOUBT, I have enough unconditional love for my adopted child and biological child. So has we wait to know our furture child, we pray.

Immigration

We just received our I-171H, meaning the US government has approved us to bring home an orphan from a foreign country. It is only good for 15 months so hopefully we will be home by then.

Test

This is a test. Hopefully I will actually blog soon.