Going to Cali!

Woohoo! I just booked two flights to California! Chuck and I haven't been out to see his family in way over 2 years now. And the cool thing is that we will be there for Chuck's birthday, too. Yippee! I can't wait!

Inn n Out, here we come!

We will also be meeting our nephew Jake, who was born in August.

Yeah!!

Dr. Appointment

I just got home from a doctor's visit. I'm still pregnant! 8 weeks and 1 day to be exact. We saw the heartbeat again and the baby was actually "wiggling." Fun. I also get to stop taking the progesterone. Yeah!! It was gross.That's all for now.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

We hope you and your family have a truly wonderful Christmas Holiday.

We are taking it easy. We went to bed early last night and watched an episode of House. Then we slept in late (yeah, I got up 15 minutes ago). It will be a nice, quiet relaxing day around here. This *should* be the last one. We said that last year, though. While we HATE that our boys aren't here with us, we are totally taking advantage of not having kids and enjoying the quiet.

If your day is full of hustle and bustle today, please don't forget why we celebrate!

I Puked

That's right. It happened. I brushed my teeth this morning and then stood there in front of the sink fighting the gag reflex. It won. Daddy Bear was kind enough to come in and hold my hair.I can literally count on one hand the number of times I've puked since 4th grade. I sure hope this doesn't become a common occurence.I was smart enough to have not eaten breakfast prior to brushing my teeth. That will be my practice throughout the pregnancy - brush on an empty stomach.I know, I know. What a lovely Christmas Eve post!

Feeling Better

The nausea has subsided!! Yeah!! Thursday I felt so sick between nausea, the sniffles, and a headache that I cried.Friday I woke up with next to no nausea. It was a good thing, too, because I babysat all day for a friend who just had a baby. Yesterday and today have been the same. I'm kind of burpy, which is yucky, but it is way better than being nauseous. I was scared that maybe I'd miscarried since I felt so much better, but I still have some other pregnancy symptoms (such as nearly puking when brushing my teeth!).So, if you prayed for me, thank you. I was beginning to think I wasn't cut out for pregnancy!On another note, I've been looking for a new doctor because I've been really disappointed with the staff (not the doctors) at my current office. I just can't imagine working with those people until August. I think we've found a new doctor. She's the Chief of Staff of OBGYN at the hospital I want to deliver at. I'm really hoping they are open tomorrow morning so that I can schedule an appointment. A prayer request would be that they could get me in THIS WEEK. That's all for now. It is time for bed!

Cried Like a Baby

Okay, I have to share this because it is hilarious.Have you seen the Tide commercial for loads of hope? If not, I'll give a brief run down. Tide has this semi that they take to devastated areas (like New Orleans and Southern California) and they pop it open and it has all kinds of washers and dryers. So they go to these devastated areas and do laundry for people because "clean laundry gives hope." Yeah, it got me good.I saw the commercial for the first time last Sunday on AMC. Chuck was in the kitchen and had to rush to the living room to find out why I was audibly crying and laughing. I was crying over the commercial and laughing at myself for crying over the commercial. By the time Chuck looked at the TV, the commercial was over so I had to explain. I was laughing hysterically at myself while wiping away my tears. So when I got to the line about how "clean laundry gives hope" I lost it all over again.Then, today, Chuck saw the commercial for the first time and called me in to watch it. Due to the miracle of Tivo (which has revolutionized my life!) he was able to rewind it and we watched it together. And yup, I cried again. And it's not just like a few tears. It's full on messy sobs.Ah, blessed hormones!

December Photos

Noah

Samuel

Samuel

Samuel

Samuel

Every once in a while we get more than one photo of the kids. This month was Samuel's turn for a photo shoot! Gosh, I can't wait to have them in my arms!!!!!!!!!! Lord, please, soon!!

Don't forget to read the post below for some awesome adoption news!

Praising God!!!!

We just got the most wonderful news!! Our adoption is complete in Haiti!! We just received an emailed copy of our Adoption Decree. Noah and Samuel are ours!!

What a wonderful Christmas gift!!

Next is passports and visas. Passports are taking, on average, 4 months. Visas are another couple of weeks. Of course, things could speed up or slow down.

Wow!

Apology

I'm apologizing in advance for the late Christmas presents and Christmas cards.I had really hoped to mail stuff today, but that didn't happen. I haven't even located the Christmas cards that I bought months ago.I woke up with a cold. Adding the sniffles to nausea is not fun.Please, dear Lord, let my morning sickness end at 12 weeks.

Thoughts on Morning Sickness

Most of you know that I was pregnant before. When I got pregnant before, I wished for morning sickness so I could lose some weight. Well, I never got morning sickness and the pregnancy ended in miscarriage at 9 weeks.This time around I definitely have sickness. I don't know if I would call it "morning" sickness, though. I wake up feeling great and then about 30 minutes later I start to feel like crap. For the rest of the day pretty much. So, in my opinion, the term "morning sickness" is a lie straight from hell. It should be called something like "pregnancy sickness." Or "feel like crap most of the time sickness." Or even just plain "sickness." Using the word "morning" is quite deceiving.Now, you'd think (if you've never experienced morning sickness) that I'd be thrilled because now I can lose some weight like I dreamt about durning the first pregnancy. Not so. What I've learned about morning sickness is that it isn't so bad if you keep something in your stomach. So, in order to not feel like total crap most of the time, I have to eat something most of the time. It is a complete oxymoron, but it is true. I met a woman in September who told me she was super sick her entire pregnancy, but she gained 60 pounds. I couldn't understand that for the life of me. Now I do. God help me if I gain 60 pounds.When I tell some people of my morning sickness, they say something like, "Oh, good. I mean, it's good that you're feeling sick because that means your body is reacting to the pregnancy hormones." Yeah, I can be grateful for that, I guess. But really, ultrasounds and bloodwork can also confirm my pregnancy and out of control hormone levels.In my years of ignorance, I thought morning sickness had at least one good quality - weight loss. But now, I am here to tell you that there isn't a single good thing about morning sickness other than the idea that I will probably stay pregnant this time.Here are some anti-nausea recommendations I've been given:
Saltine Crackers - they do help
Peppermints - not so sure about these, I don't like them
Jolly Ranchers - haven't tried them yet
Potato Chips and Lemonade - weird combination that I'm afraid to try

Welcome

I've created this blog to track our journey as we go from having zero children to three.The first two will come through international adoption. We are thinking they'll be home in May or June.The third will be our first biological child, and he or she will be born in early August.We know people think we are crazy. They tell us they are concerned for us. But we are trusting God that His hand is in all this.I created this blog as a SAFE place to share my thoughts and feelings. I will mainly track the pregnancy on this blog because we have a blog for our adoption. We wish to remain completely anonymous on this blog, so I will be called, "Mama Bear." My husband will be called, "Daddy Bear." Our adopted kids will be called, "The Dynamic Duo." And the baby will be called, "The Lil One."I ask that if you post comments, please don't use our names. We will not connect this blog with the adoption blog either, so unless you know us in real life, that one is off limits. I also need to ask that you not link this blog on your own. Sorry. We need to protect our adoption.So, thanks for checking things out here. Since I'm sick a lot with morning sickness, there will probably be a lot of whining. I'll apologize in advance. I don't do sick well.That's all for now!

Before and After

Well, the majority of our painting is done. We just have touch ups and tape removal left. We originally thought we'd paint all the wood trim white, but we are kind of liking the wood with these colors. Poor Chuck worked his butt off Friday through Tuesday (with lots of things inbetween, otherwise it would have taken less time). I only did minor painting. Our bathroom is done, too, except for touch ups. I do touch ups, so when I get around to them they will get done.

Fun Christmas Survey!!

You are tagged if you read my blog!

This is fun - it's a Christmas Survey! Please post it on your blog or do it through email.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Gift bags when available

2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial. Getting a real tree in the stand is no fun. It can cause fights at our house.

3. When do you put up the tree? Hopefully before Christmas. This year we’ve had it in the garage, ready to go, but we were painting and wanted to finish that first. (We just have touch ups and need to take the tape off.)

4. When do you take the tree down? As soon as possible. I once took it down the day of Christmas. The cats like to torture the tree.

5. Do you like eggnog? No, it is sick.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Cabbage Patch Kid

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes

8. Hardest person to buy for? My Mom

9. Easiest person to buy to buy for? Chuck

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Yarn. For real. And it was used.

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Probably the Home Alone movies, although after reading my sister's answer I must change it to Elf. My favorite line is, "Santa's Coming! I know him! I know him!"

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Just in time to get them shipped priority mail.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes, it’s called regifting. It's a wonderful thing.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Ham biscuits – they rock. Never had them until I moved to The South.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? We use clear, but I’d love to have the old school colored ones with the big fat bulbs. Remember them? Yeah, I know they make something similar now, but they are just not the same.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Sleigh Ride, done by the Chipmunks is my absolute favorite.

18. Travel for Christmas or stay at home? Both, though I prefer to be in my own bed.

19. Can you name all of the reindeer? No

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Bow

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Eve

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? The rushing around.

23. What I love most about Christmas? Getting together with people.

24.) Favorite winter outdoor activity? Sledding! But I don't do it so much here in Virginia :(

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Love,
Juli

Painting

Last week the painting began.

Chuck started with our bathroom. It had awful blue wainscoting. We are turning the wainscoting white and the walls above it brown. It will be the same as the bathroom in our old house. We had just bought all the stuff for that bathroom before we put the house on the market and we liked it, so we are doing the same to our bathroom here.

Today we've been taping off the living room, dining room, and kitchen. We are doing burgandy and burnt orange with some grey. We finally have a big enough space to do some really rich colors. I'm excited to see how it turns out. We will also be painting ALL the trim and doors in this house white like we did at the old one. It just completely changes and updates the look of a house. We aren't starting the trim for a while, though. I learned last time that it is a HUGE undertaking.

We have big plans for a few other rooms, too. Upon putting together a race car bed, I realized that they do take toddler mattresses. My mom had assured me that they take twin mattresses, but they don't. So, we bought some Cars bedding sets and the boys will have a Cars theme in their room. We've decided to go a little crazy with color in their room - one wall will be red, one will be yellow, one will be blue, and the final wall will be painted with chalkboard paint. Cars makes a border that we will put up as well. That should be fun for them.

Our spare room is a pale green. We only need to paint the trim white to finish that room up. One day it will make a nice nursery. For now, it serves a great purpose as guest room.

I'm not sure what Chuck is planning to do in the office. He really wants blue and tan. We'll see. That will probably be the last room we do.

We want to paint our room a sagey type green. I'd love to get a new comforter set, but it's not a priority and they are so expensive.

The main bathroom needs an overhaul. We have wallpaper to take down and a vanity to replace. The tile in it is black and white, so we need to look for a theme that will go with the black and white tile. We also want it to be kid friendly, but not a total kid bathroom.

Oh, and the grey that we are doing in the main rooms will be the color for the hallway. Since our hallway is mostly doors and doorframes, the grey won't be too depressing.

Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures of our finished living room, kitchen, and dining room this weekend. I'm bummed that it's nearly 3 p.m. and we haven't started painting yet.

God is Good

He really is. Chuck and I have been blessed in so many tangible ways lately, it's almost like God is trying to show off. I just had to share that.

Bummer of an Update

Well, our paperwork hasn't moved yet. Here's the update I woke up to this morning:

Hi Chuck and Juli
I hope this email finds you well and that you had a lovely Thanksgiving.
Your dossiers for the twins are still in process for 2nd legalization. We anticipate their completion very soon, though. This is exciting because it will mean the completion of the adoption process itself. You will then have MOI, passports, INS, and visas!! Just so you know, as the process draws closer to the end, I will email you more frequently with necessary information or steps you need to do in addition to your monthly updates. As always, please email me if you have any questions.

Yeah, so I am bummed. I take some comfort in the "very soon" part of the email, but only time will tell.

I was so hoping our news would be better than this.

Who Did It?

What we have here are the cats' food and water dishes. In the water dish is a drowned toy mouse. This is a frequent occurence at our home. I'm not sure which one it is, but one of them insists on drowning the toy mice. One of them (Gracie) also insists on eating like a pig and backwashing food into the water dish.

Suspect #1 - Grace Marie. (Yes, they have middle names. They needed middle names as kittens because they were getting in trouble ALL the time.) AKA Gracie. AKA the cat who can turn anyone into a cat lover. AKA Juli's cat. This is an awful mugshot of her.

Suspect #2 - Sabrina Louise. AKA Beener. AKA the snottiest cat around. AKA Chuck's cat. She is a beauty, but has little to no personality. In this mugshot she appears surprised to be a suspect.

So, who did it??

November Photos, Finally!

Samuel is on the left and Noah is on the right.

Dumbfounded

Dumbfounded is a good word for how I feel about our adoption lately.

It is completely unbelievable to me that it is November 26th, 2007 and our boys are still not home. It shocks me and angers me. Never in a million years did I think we'd wait this long for our boys to come home.

Few things in life have been this utterly shocking to me. About the only thing that I can compare it to is how I felt for months after miscarrying. I just could not believe that had happened to me. Sure, I had been through it. I remembered the ultrasound, the doctor's words, the surgery, but how on earth did that happen to me??

Well, that's how I feel about this long wait. Yeah, I've been waiting all this time, but suddenly I'm just completely flabbergasted that this is my reality. Like, how did this sneak up on me? I feel almost like I've been assaulted. It is surreal, yet it is the truth. We will spend another Christmas without them. We missed their birthday. They are two and we have lost those first two years that are so essential when it comes to bonding and attachment. It makes me so mad.

I truly believe that if it weren't for my relationship with God that I would have lost it a long time ago. People tell me all the time how patient I am. Well, it's forced patience. What else can I do besides wait? I try to keep a good attitude because that is what God would have me do in this. But some days just stink.

Yes, I would do this all over again, in case you are wondering. It has been hard, but it has also been filled with joy and excitement. It's been a path of getting to know God more deeply and seeing Him provide for our needs in truly miraculous ways. It's been more good than bad.

But I'm still dumbfounded.

Quiet

All is quiet here at my sister's house. Christi and her husband Jeremy and Chuck are all sleeping. We all planned to go shopping early this morning, but we forgot to go to sleep beforehand. So, at 1:15 a.m. I decided not to go shopping. I need my sleep and I was no longer pleasant to be around. That is an understatement. The crazy threesome left the house at 1:15 a.m. so they could partake in some awesome deals. They were all home by 11 a.m. and have been sleeping for a few hours now.

This has given me some time alone that I hadn't anticipated on this trip. So far I've done my Bible Study, researched a free airline ticket that Chuck got, looked on Craig's List for a job, and researched going back to college. I'm not too far away from a degree in English and I'm thinking of taking a class in January. I know that it is quite some time before the boys come home (passports are taking 4 months and we aren't even there yet), and I'm tired of wasting time waiting for them to come home.

Forgive me if that sounded wrong. I'll explain. In many ways, our lives (me and Chuck's) have been on hold for two years because of the adoption. Every decision, every purchase, everything is weighed against "when the boys come home." I have been unemployed for nearly a year because I'm staying home with the boys and we knew it would be wise to put some time between my fast paced work and being at home with two toddlers. We knew I needed a chance to slow down. Well, if I slow down much more I won't be moving! The same holds true for finishing my degree. Three semesters have passed and each time I said I didn't want to sign up for a class and then have the boys come home in the middle of it. Well... I'm tired of doing nothing as I wait. I'm a "do stuff" kind of gal.

Now I know some of you who are reading are thinking I'm crazy because Chuck and I have had a whirlwind year as he retired from the Coast Guard, went into ministry, we went to Haiti (Chuck once and me 3 times), we sold and bought a house AND moved; and yes we are 99% unpacked. Those of you who know me well know that I stay pretty busy doing stuff. But, I have goals in life that have been on pause (and will definitely stay on pause in the early years of having kids) because I thought our kids were coming home.

So, I'm researching things and praying that God will lead me in what He will have me do. I hate school, but I want to finish my degree. I would love to make some extra income and potentially buy a minivan with it. God will have to lead me to His plan in all of this. If He wants to keep me on pause, so be it.

a lil' bit of everything

First and foremost: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!!!!!!!! This is the first birthday I've been able to spend with my mom in years. Chuck and I drove to MI yesterday to be here for her birthday and Thanksgiving.

Secondly, Happy Thanksgiving! We have so very much to be thankful for. In case you're reading this and just not feeling it, I encourage you to think hard about this, especially if you live in the US. I have met some of the poorest people in the world and I have found them to be ever thankful. It's not about what or who you have. If your hope is in Jesus, you have eternity to be thankful for. If your hope is not in Jesus and you want to know more, please email me at ittybitties@msn.com. I'd love to talk to you about that.

It's been a week since I've posted because I've been beyond busy. I'd like to share some highlights from our week, though. On Sunday we had a BBQ for the people who helped get our church campus started. What we thought would be 20-30 people was actually 74 people. It was awesome. We had so much fun. Thank you to all of you who came out on Sunday. We appreciate you and the sacrifices you are making so much. Lives are being changed for eternity because of you. Chuck and I love you all!!

I have to take a moment and just share how thankful I am for our new home. The weeks leading up to our move were torturous because we weren't sure if our old house was ever going to close. I barely remember it, though. We are so happy in our new house that the weeks leading up to it are a dim memory. I've been told it will be this way with the adoption. All the pain of waiting supposedly becomes forgotten. Back to the house. We NEVER EVER could have hosted a shindig such as the one we had Sunday at our old house. Never. Now, don't get me wrong - it was crazy at our house with all those people (nearly half of whom were kids), but it was manageable. We are so thankful for our house. Did I say that already? God has been so amazingly good to us.

Tuesday I got to spend a good part of the day with a great friend. It was so nice to hang out and relax with her. We had plans to organize her apartment, but quickly decided that a relaxing lunch and some light shopping would be a better way to spend the day. It was great and just what I needed. Thank you, Nicole, for being my friend. I love you!

Tabitha is on the mend and was discharged yesterday from the hospital as planned. Please keep her in prayer as her hip continues to heal. Please pray especially for her family and even more specifically for her baby son, Hayden. It's never easy when the mommy is out of commission.

In adoption news: There is none. We now get our pictures mid month and our updates at the end of the month. Pictures are going to be late this month, so I'll post them once we get them. Our update should come on 11/30. Please join us in praying that our update this month is that we are out of 2nd Legalization and that they have our adoption decree. In fact, you can pray that they email us a scanned copy of the adoption decree. After all that happened with miscommunications about where our paperwork was at, it would really build trust if we had a copy of our adoption decree.

I think that's all. I wish you the best this Thanksgiving!

Surgery Update

I heard from Tabitha's husband a little while ago that surgery went well. Actually, it went better than well. The surgeon was sure he was going to have to break Tabitha's femur to do the replacement, but he didn't have to do that. That is awesome!! This significantly cuts down on her recovery time. God is so good. Thank you for praying!

Please Pray for Tabitha

My good friend, Tabitha, is having major surgery Thursday morning. She's only 28, but needs a new hip. She goes in for hip replacement surgery first thing in the morning. Please pray for her, and also for her family. She has 3 boys - 8, 6 and 16 months. Her husband, Chris, is going to have his hands full. Please join me in praying that they are surrounded with loving, helpful people in the weeks to come as Tabitha recovers and that God comforts her kids when she is unavailable to them. Thanks!

Christmas Presents

The boys will be in Haiti for Christmas again. It breaks my heart, but there's not anything I can do about it.

Our orphanage gives us a list of specific items to purchase for our kids for Christmas. This year, as toddlers, they will receive:

An Outfit

Sandals

Underwear (no, they are not yet potty trained)

Toothbrush

Toothpaste

Beach Ball (they love them)

Construction Vehicle (soft and makes noise)

Also pictured are engravable ornaments that will not be sent to Haiti. This is a tradition we began last year for the boys.

I sent our gifts today to someone who will be traveling to Haiti soon. We will probably get pictures of the kids with their gifts at Christmas.

I'm not at all ready for Christmas. It was just 100 degrees. How on earth is it already time for Christmas??

Birthday Cake

On Friday I made a cake for the boys. We decorated it on Saturday and video taped ourselves singing happy birthday to the boys. It was sad of course, but not as bad as I expected. We had a lot of people praying for us and I know that made all the difference. Thank you to all our dear family and friends who prayed for us on Friday.

Two

Today, two is an important number.

Two years ago yesterday was the due date of a baby that I miscarried.

Two years ago yesterday we got news that our adoption application was approved and we would be adopting from Haiti.

Two years ago today I prayed very early in the morning and thanked God for getting me through the due date day. It was during that prayer that I realized something. Here is an excerpt from my prayer journal that morning:

What an amazing day yesterday! I had been so afraid of November 8th and I didn't even shed a tear. There was just overflowing joy and excitement about our adoption. Also, I had a thought this morning. I've told You that I expected to be pregnant by November 8th and I realized that our baby is in the womb right now - more than likely! That isn't ironic - that's You. Thank You. So please be with our baby and his or her mom.

Two years ago today our precious sons were born and I was praying for them as they were being born. What a gift that is. They were born at home, and their family wasn't expecting two babies. Two years ago today their birthmom passed away. Two years ago today thier birthfather, in great mourning, began to care for his two sons on his own because he had no family to help him. For a little over two months he took care of them before realizing he couldn't do it on his own.

Two. It's an important number today.

I have two competing emotions today. Happiness and sadness. Happiness because I can look back and so clearly see the hand of God. Happiness because our boys have made it to two years old in a country where a lot of babies don't make it to two. And I have sadness. Sadness that they are spending their birthday in an orphanage. Sadness because they have no idea that it's their birthday or what a birthday is. Sadness because they won't be wearing party hats or blowing out candles. I also have sadness for their birthfather. Today marks two years since he lost his wife. I can't imagine how hard today is for him.

Two. No child should have to spend their 2nd birthday, or any birthday for that matter, in an orphanage.

Two.

Happy Birthday, Noah Elise and Samuel Eli. I'm so sorry we're not together.

For Christi

Living Room

Living Room

Kitchen

Dining Room

My darling sister, Christi, has been bugging me for days for pictures. These are just a few. It's too cold to go out and take outdoor pictures and the bedrooms and office aren't quite ready for the worldwide web.

Progress

We are getting there. All the kitchen, living room, and office boxes are officially unpacked. Not everything is where it should be since I'm not sure where to put everything. The boys' room hasn't been touched yet and there are a lot of furniture boxes that I'm banishing to the screened porch to be broken down on a later date. We aren't using the attic here since we have so much storage space in the garage and shed, however the shed needs a new roof before we put stuff in there. That means the garage will remain overcrowded until that project is completed.

There will be no pictures hanging on the walls tonight unless Chuck does it. He is our interior designer and he's not sure where he wants things.

I'll leave you with a funny story. First of all I need to confess that I've watched Saw 1,2, & 3 all within the last 2 weeks. I'm not into gore and horror, but I was told there are some good twists in these movies and I'm a sucker for a good twist. I'm here to tell you that the twists aren't worth the gore at all. Those movies are awful. Anyway, I'm digressing. I've told you about the Saw movies so you'll understand that I'm a little on edge. I'm not a scardey cat usually, but lately I'm just on edge. Well, we are new to the garage thing. We've never had one before and ours is attached. Yesterday I left the house for about 3 hours and totally forgot to close the garage door. I realized it halfway into my trip out, and I was quite a ways from home by then. More than anything I was afraid someone was going to steal the riding lawnmower in the garage. When I got home and saw that everything was in the garage as it should be, I realized that someone could be waiting in my house with some crazy gadget and a test (you'll need to see a Saw movie to understand that) for me. So, I did the smart thing and entered the house and grabbed the biggest kitchen knife we have and did a thorough check of the house. I felt a little silly after the fact. So, the big lesson learned: Close the garage door!

Still Unpacking...

Just an update - we're still unpacking. Our friends Dana and Samantha came over yesterday and were such a huge help in getting our kitchen unpacked. Thank you so much, Dana and Samantha!!! You two rock!! They also helped us build our dining room set and a plastic cupboard for the garage.

The boxes are slowly dwindling away. Our room is pretty much unpacked. I just unpacked the linen closet. We need to build a new shelf unit before the office can be completed. There's a lot of miscellaneous stuff that I'm not sure where to put. We are also new to the whole garage thing, so there are many items that will go in there. Right now the garage is a wreck with one narrow path.

Tomorrow night we are having our Gel Group (small group) meet here, so progress is necessary. I'm hoping to even have pictures hanging on the walls by then. We'll see.

My sister keeps begging for pictures. The camera has been located, however I can't take pictures yet. I'm a little too vain to post pictures of my house in this condition on the internet. Soon, Christi, soon.

Oh yeah, one more thing - we have a home phone number again. If you want it, please email me at ittybitties@msn.com. We'd prefer to get more calls on the home phone since we've gone over in cell phone minutes two months in a row.

That's all for now. The boxes are calling.

We Moved!

This is just a quick post to share that we have moved! It all FINALLY came together late Thursday and we were able to close. We've handed over the keys to the old place and we will be unpacking fools this weekend.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your prayers!

Great Adoption News

We got our monthly update late last night.

We have Judgment - yeah! The next step in the process is 2nd Legalization. Please join us in praying that we receive this quickly. Once 2nd Legalization is complete the adoption decree gets drawn up and that is the document that makes the boys legally ours in Haiti (here, too, but they need passports to get here).

YEAH!!

There's Good News and Bad News...

The Good News: We closed. On both places.

The Bad News: Our buyer didn't close.

It is necessary for our buyer to close for us to purchase the new house. We aren't approved to buy the new place unless we sell the old one.

Honestly, I still don't understand why we did close, other than the fact we were led to believe that our buyers would. We didn't learn they wouldn't be closing today until after we left from closing.

I don't understand it all, but we've been told they will definitely close in the morning. We were also told they would definitely close on Wednesday and they didn't. We will have to go back and resign some documents because of this.

Thank you to everyone for your prayers. If you could say some more, that would be awesome. The packers are coming in the morning. We aren't canceling them.

The very best word to describe this whole ordeal is UNBELIEVABLE.

Closing is Scheduled

We are scheduled to close at 2:00!! Our buyer will close at 2:00 also.

It seems that once we got to a place with God where we said, "Whatever Your will is is okay with us. We will stay here if that's the plan" things started to happen.

Yes, things could still go wrong, but we are feeling pretty good about things right now.

I'll definitely post after we close.

Uphill on the House Rollercoaster

Well, we are going uphill on the house rollercoaster. Ed called at about 4:00 to tell us that he learned that our buyers have been cleared for closing and they are actually scheduled to close tomorrow afternoon. The only thing is that their closing office is waiting on their documents. Once they get the documents we are clear to close. So, we may be closing at noon tomorrow. Ed is going to call in the morning to let us know.

I called my sister, who works in the mortgage business and she said it all sounds good to go. So, that's the scoop. I'll for sure post if we close tomorrow.

Article on our Church

Here's a link to an article about our church's bar service:

http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=135797&ran=83937&lpos=spot3&lid=homePO

I've heard that it's also on the FRONT PAGE of the regular paper. Very cool!

We Didn't Close

Once again we didn't close.

Now it is some crap about tax records. We've been told we will definitely close on Wednesday. I'll believe it when it happens.

I'm trying to have a good attitude (it's not working). However, I feel like we are being jacked around by the people buying this house, and that is frustrating. This morning the story was that they were having a hard time scheduling their closing today (in VA we don't close together). Then, we finally got the truth - that they aren't ready to close.

I'd feel a lot different about this if they were even the slightest bit apologetic, but they aren't. We've put our life on hold for 11 days with crap everywhere in our house and now in my car and they can't even say, "Hey, we're really sorry we've inconvenienced you again." Argh!!

Okay, time for an attitude check.

Attitude has been checked and a paragraph erased. God is good.

Adoption News Dream

I had a brief dream last night about our adoption process. I dreamt that I was told that we have an adoption decree. An adoption decree is the legal document that makes the kids yours. As you can imagine, it was a wonderful dream!

Monthly process updates come out at the end of the month, so I'm excited that it's the month's end. Great news would be that we have Judgment. Unbelievable news would be that we have 2nd Legalization as well. A downright miracle would be that we have an adoption decree. But hey, God can do anything.

Please pray with us that we get at least great news this month. We've waited a really long time. Our time in Parquet put us behind many families who started the process after us. Some of those kids are home already. God's timing is perfect AND He hears our prayers.

Closing Monday

It sounds like we are going to close on both our homes on Monday afternoon. On Monday of this week someone came to survey this property. Ed keeps calling to tell us that things look good for a Monday closing. We scheduled our buyer's walk through for Sunday afternoon. Today we scheduled our walk through, also for Sunday afternoon.

Too bad Chuck and I are in denial that we are moving! Seriously, after what happened last week we are both kind of like, "Sure, whatever." Don't get me wrong, we don't have bad attitudes about it. We are just really careful about getting all excited again. It's all very anticlimatic. Maybe we will get excited once the papers are all signed. That's after we throw up from being shown how much we will really pay for the house once we pay 30 years of interest!

Today I scrubbed the stove and fridge. Why is it that my appliances were never this clean for us? We've lived here 3 1/2 years, and I've only self cleaned the oven once. It is sparkling now. The fridge was downright gross when I pulled the drawers out. How on earth does cat hair get under the drawers of my fridge? Sick!

So, the plan is to close on both houses on Monday and rent this one back through Friday. We will slowly begin moving things over Monday night through Wednesday. Tuesday or Wednesday will be a cleaning frenzy at the new place. Thursday the packers come to pack up all our crap. Friday they move the stuff from here to there. Friday afternoon we hand over the keys and say goodbye to our first home. Sniff.

God's Provision

About a month ago Chuck and I decided that at the new house we will set up the race car beds for the twins and have just one crib in the room. We need to give the other crib back to our friends who are having a baby in December. We figure that if the boys still need to be in cribs we can get another one at that time or just use the pack and play.

So, in deciding to set up the race car beds I had a realization. The beds use twin size mattresses, not crib mattresses. So, I realized that we would need to get bedding for the beds. We have sheets for twin beds, but no blankets.

The very next day I got an email from my friend Stephanie. She wanted to know if we had any use for two matching twin size bed sets that are construction themed. The sets consist of matching sheets and quilts. I immediately saw how God was providing for our needs and said yes.

These bed sets were used by her two sons, Noah and Samuel. Yes, her boys are Noah and Samuel, too. Isn't that awesome?? God is so good.

Thank you Stephanie and Doug, and Noah and Samuel, too!

Please Continue to Pray

I posted yesterday about sick babies at the orphanage. One passed away this morning from pneumonia. Please pray for those who loved her. I'm not sure if she had an adoptive family, but her nannies and her birth family will surely miss her.

For just a moment, pause and thank God that you live in a country where babies rarely die from pneumonia. If your kids are healthy right now, thank Him for that.

This isn't just words on a blog. It's real. A baby died this morning.

Father, please protect the rest of the kids at the orphanage from sickness. Please be with the other two babies who are still in the hospital and heal their little bodies. I ask that one day soon, babies in Haiti wouldn't have to die from pneumonia or diarrhea or hunger. Amen.

The Strength Behind Doing and Being Good

I just finished reading a short devotion. It was good, right up until I hit the last sentence. The last sentence made me feel a little sick, because it reinforced some old ideas I had about Chrisitianity.

You see, up until the last month or so, I wasn't understaning the full scope of the Gospel. Yes, I believed Jesus died for me and I've asked Him into my heart and I fully believe I was heading to Heaven, but there was a big grace part I was missing.

It's the part that tells me who I am in Christ. You see, I became a Christian and started doing good things. A lot of times it was because I wanted to, but sometimes it was because I felt I had to. You know, Christians do good stuff, I'm a Christian, so I'll do good stuff too. My heart wasn't necessarily in it. I could pull that off.

What I couldn't pull off was who I was on the inside. I still thought mean things (and sometimes said them, you can ask Chuck about that), I still had bad thoughts, but most of all, I knew who I really was and I certainly didn't want you to know the truth. I was a sinner to the core. The stuff I had done in my pre-Christian days still had tremendous power over who I was.

But recently I have learned about who I am in Christ. I'll admit, I've heard it before, but I finally heard it if you know what I mean. I learned that I am a virtuous woman. Not that I have to try to be, but that's who I am in Christ. I learned that I can love like the famous love verses in 1 Corinthians 13 - not in my strength, though. I've learned what it really means to "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Cor 10:5). I've learned that when the bad thoughts creep into my mind they are not of Christ. And if they aren't of Christ, then they are of Satan. I used to think they were of Juli. Seriously, I did. See, Jesus owns my soul and Satan can't touch that so he goes after my thoughts and emotions. And for a long time he did it well.

It used to be that when I read a Bible verse on how we are supposed to be as Christians, I took it as instruction. "This is how you are supposed to behave, Juli." Now I take it as a promise. "This is who you are, Juli." You see, we can't follow the law in our own strength. If we could we wouldn't need Jesus. Think about it. If you can be good all on your own, why do you need Him? That is exactly what I was trying to do. But, you see, when we tap into His power, we are able to live out the law. We do it in His strength, not our own.

I know that this is the Gospel at it's core, but how many of us truly live it out? I know too many Christians who aren't living in Jesus' strength. And I can say that because I was one. For over 6 years I lived that way. And this leads me to the reason of this post. Too much Christian teaching out there tells us what to do and be as Christians. And sometimes they add in or gloss over the idea that it's through the strength of Jesus that we do and be. However, my devotion this morning ended by telling me what to be. And as my stomach twisted and I thought about devotions past, I realized that somehow many of our teachers out there have forgotten to keep reminding us that we do and be in the strength of Jesus.

Orphanage Prayers

I have another prayer request. I'm so grateful that there are people who read this blog and pray.

There are a few babies at our orphanage who are pretty sick. Please pray for them. They are in the hospital. This time of year the temperature drops a little in Haiti, and that means kids (and adults) get sick. Please pray for all the kids and staff at the orphanage to stay healthy.

We have not heard that our boys are sick, praise God.

Thanks!

The Battle Belongs to the Lord

I'm doing an awesome Bible study right now. It is so perfectly timed by God for my life.

Without going into a lot of detail, I was quite disappointed this weekend in regard to our adoption. Please, no inquiries via the comments. I will delete them. Email me privately instead at ittybitties@msn.com.

In my Bible study today I read 2 Chronicles 20:1-30. It's a wonderful story of God totally taking care of a situation that was totally out of control. I encourage you to read it. King Jehoshaphat and his people are about to get hosed by the enemy simply because the enemy is so much greater in numbers than they are. Ever feel like that? I sure have. So anyway, God speaks to them, and part of what He says in 20:17 is, "You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you."

After God tells them this, Jehoshaphat and his people worship God. And while they were singing praises, God defeated their enemy for them. Pretty cool, huh?

This really spoke to my heart in regard to our adoption. This battle is the Lord's battle. Rather than fight, I'm going to worship Him and take up my position, which is to keep my eyes on Him. I will stand firm, expecting deliverance. I will not be afraid. I will not be discouraged. I will face them tomorrow, whoever they are, and the Lord will be with me.

Now a word of warning to my enemy: You were better off when you were in battle against just little ole me. As of right now, you are battling against the Lord. I have given it to Him. Why don't you go ask Satan how well it will go for you. Whoever you are, wherever you are, you are up against the King of all Kings. I almost feel sorry for you, almost. My heart beats hard just typing this. The second grader in me wants to say, "You are in BIG trouble." As I sing praises to the Lord, He will be in battle against you on my behalf. You will not succeed in keeping our boys from us.

Go God!

October Update Photos!

Samuel nearly smiling

Closer to smiling...

Smiley Noah

Getting pictures or updates on process is golden on the long path of adoption. It is sooooo good to see our boys' precious faces. Oh, Lord, bring them home soon.

Happy Birthday Blog

Today our Blog turns 1. Yippee!!

It is funny to me that starting the Blog completely stressed me out because I thought it would be so hard. Blogger makes it so simple. I encourage you, if you have been afraid to start a blog, to give it a try. I have found it to be an easy way to share information with our friends and family. It is also, at times, a great piece of encouragement. It will also serve as a record of our journey to our boys. You can actually have your blog turned into a book. We will do that with this sometime in the future so that our boys will have a piece of their story forever.

Thanks to those of you who read, and especially to those of you who comment. I'm not a great commentor on other blogs, so if you don't leave comments that is totally okay.

Happy Birthday to Blog
Happy Birthday to Blog
Happy Birthday dear Blo - og
Happy Birthday to Blog!

Yes, I am a dork. I'm okay with that.

Super Bad News

We are not moving this weekend. Or next weekend. Our buyer switched jobs last month, so we have to wait to close until he is in his new position for 30 days. The soonest we can close is the 29th, which is a Monday. Talk about a bummer.

We have packed all our cleaning stuff and our toiletries. Our living room is full of stuff that was in our attic. We have suitcases packed. We are paying for utilities at the new place. I was so ready to move.

We are mostly bummed for how hard our loan officer and his mortgage processor worked to get Chuck's disibility rating. They got it today. So, we don't have to pay the VA funding fee. That is a huge praise. A lady named Brenda worked really hard to get it. I feel most sorry for her that we aren't closing on time. If you could say a little prayer that God blesses her, that would be awesome.

Chuck and I are going to hang out tonight and try to keep our eyes on Jesus, so if you call and we don't answer, please don't take it personal. We just need some time to process this.

Thanks.

More Prayers Needed Please

Well, we need to ask for some more prayers. The people who are buying our house haven't come out of underwriting yet. This means they aren't yet ready to close. Our agent says that they are close, and if they come out of underwriting early tomorrow morning, we can still close on time at 3 p.m. tomorrow. So, please join us in praying that their file comes out of underwriting and that the loan documents get emailed by tomorrow morning. We trust that God wouldn't bring us this far to just drop us off on our face. He has it all planned and figured out, we trust that.

Thanks!

Please Pray

2:00 Update: The move has been rescheduled to Friday. We haven't confirmed with our buyer that this is okay. Please join us in praying it's okay. It's technically their fault we are in this predicament anyway since they are the ones keeping us from closing tomorrow. So, the packers don't come tomorrow; they come Thursday instead. Friday they will load our stuff and take it to the new house. I will be really happy when this is over.
_________________________________________

I need to ask for prayer for our closing and move.

Our closing keeps getting pushed back further and further, and at this point will probably delay our move. I learned this morning that the moving company won't move you on the day of closing. Our closing will likely occur on Thursday, which is the same day we were to be moved. So, now we are likely going to reschedule our move for Friday. We are waiting to hear from our buyer to see if they are okay with us being in this house a day longer.

I trust and believe that God has a plan. I would like to be in on it, though. Please join me in praying that things get figured out so we can reschedule the move if need be. This is a big opportunity for me to not stress out and keep my eyes on Jesus. That's what my Bible Study has been teaching me. I guess this is my opportunity to put it into action.

Thanks!

It's Best to Call...

If you need to reach us this week, please call us. We'll be checking email intermittently. We will be without Internet Thursday and Friday.

We move on Thursday. I think we close late on Wednesday (we'll see).

No word yet on if the Someone was able to help Chuck's VA file. I'm still praying.

Shoot me an email at ittybitties@msn.com if you want our new address. Our cell phones will stay the same and we will be adding a home phone. Two months of going over our minutes on our cell phones makes a home phone very attractive.

Packing of toiletries and cleaning supplies has officially begun. My denial about moving went out the window today. Oh my gosh, I'm moving this week. I have so much to do. Thank God for movers!

Someone Knows Someone Who Knows Someone

And that someone may be able to get Chuck's Veteran's Affairs disibility rating done before we close on our home. Please pray that it is so. It makes about a $6000 dollar difference.

And if you're going to be praying for that, could you add prayers that our closing can happen on Tuesday instead of Friday OR that we can get our move changed to accomodate the fact that the seller WILL NOT let us in before we close?

On a happier note, we had the new house sprayed for bugs today. The bug man told me that there shouldn't be much of a bug problem there since he didn't see much to be concerned about. That's good news. That doesn't cover mosquitoes. Mosquitoes seriously own the city, so that screened in porch will be well used.

Tomorrow morning we have someone coming to estimate how much crap we have that the military will have to move. We're getting closer! Saturday, I think, will be the day that I pull down all the pictures and fill nail holes.

That's all for now.

Draw Your Strength from Him

Ahhh. Just what I needed. I'm doing this great Bible Study called "Because of Jesus" by Connie Witter. It is awesome. Since I've been waking up sick this week, I wasn't as far along in the study as I should have been. But once again, God's timing is perfect. The title of today's study was, "Draw Your Strength from Him." Yeah, perfect for where I'm at today. When I opened the book and read the title I knew it was going to be just what I needed. I envisioned this fuel tank within me that was empty. It seems that no matter what I've tried to fill it with today, I can't. I realized that I need to fill it with God. He is the only good fuel for my soul. I'd been trying to fill it with updates on our adoption, encouraging emails, reading blogs, reading comments on my blog, and information on Haitian adoption in general. None of that is fuel for my soul, but when I'm expecting it to be that fuel, I'm deeply discouraged when it doesn't fill me. The ONLY fuel I need is God. I will walk through the rest of this day with Him as my fuel. And maybe, just maybe, I've learned a lesson today that will follow me all the days of my life.

One of Those Days

I'm having one of those days. You know, the ones where nothing seems to go well, the ones where your emotions are all out of whack, the ones where you think, "I just can't do this."

I'm adoption weary today. I've read too many stories recently of failed adoptions. So, not only am I tired of waiting, I'm also afraid. I know that fear is not of God.

I'm house weary today, too. The seller of the house we are moving into will not let us in early. It is vacant and we are willing to pay rent, all of which is normal practice, but they won't budge. So, we are attempting to move up our closing date by 3 days and rent back this house. I'm also pretty bummed that God hasn't come through yet on the VA disability rating. He can do it. I'd like Him to do it. He hasn't yet.

I'm not feeling well to top it all off. I'm not sure if it's allergies or the flu, but I've had a headache for two days now and I feel nauseous.

Sorry to whine. Just being honest here. I'm going to spend some time with God now.

Yesterday's Service

First of all, I apologize for the tardiness of this post. I said I'd post in the a.m. and it is definitely p.m. Most of this a.m. was spent sleeping because I had a fabulous time with a friend staying up until 3 a.m. playing some Super Mario Brothers 3 last night. We whipped out my old Nintendo and had ourselves a little sleepover. It was mad fun, but I am way too old to stay up that late!!

Okay, Church yesterday. It was awesome!! Most of our Launch Team was there at 7:30 a.m. to set up. I helped prepare communion. I broke the crackers, that was my job. Since I'm obsessive compulsive about most things, it was a good job for me. I had to break those crackers down to just the right size. By 8:45 we had communion ready to go. From there I went to help out in other areas, but most everything was done. We just had some straightening up and putting away of things to do. We were completely ready to go at 9:30. By 9:45 I was feeling like I could throw up and wondering where all the people were. And then they began to trickle in. I was standing near our information table watching the door and seeing people come in. Most had kids with them. Our people pointed them in the right direction for Children's Ministry and the auditorium. There was a good vibe.

Then, I got pulled into the toddler room (13 - 23 months). I agreed to help out there if they needed me. They needed me. Actually, they needed a lot more than me, but they got me. I walked into a room of 12 toddlers and about 8 of them were crying LOUD. It was insane. I grabbed a crying kid and settled her down. Then another and another. Two of them would not chill out. They were both toddlers of Lauch Team members and they both have a tendency to not like being left in Children's Ministry. We ended up having their parents come and get them because they were way too upset. So, we (me and 4 others) settled down with the babies and played. We talked about how God made the water and the dry land and the kids got to play with some water. One of them was insisting on getting in the tub of water. It was so cute!

So, I'm sure you're thinking, "That's nice Juli, but we want to hear about the service." I can only tell you what I heard since I wasn't in there: It went great!! The people were excited to be there. We show a video sermon and people seemed to be into it. They laughed when they should have.

After the service Chuck says people swarmed our info table looking for info to give to their friends. Chuck says it got a little crazy over there as people swarmed looking for stuff to pick up. I left the toddler room after most of the kids had been picked up and I hung out in the lobby looking for people to talk to. There were a few ladies there that I knew. They had attended a small group that Chuck led in Chesapeake 3 years ago. Both had stopped going to Forefront (because of how far away it was) and had also stopped attending Gel Group (small group). It was so good to see them there at church. They were pumped to be there and said they looked forward to coming back.

Chuck did really well. He remembered all his stuff that he had to say. He did jump up on stage before a video that he was supposed to wait for, but our production team just rolled with it and inserted the video later in the service. Some people who know him well told me that they could tell he was a little nervous, but that you wouldn't know if you didn't know him. I'm supposed to be able to view a video of the whole service sometime this week. There's a part of me that was relieved to not be in the auditorium because I would have been so nervous for Chuck that I don't know if I would have enjoyed the service. I sure hope that feeling goes away!

I will try to get Chuck to make an appearance on the blog so that he can tell you about things from his perspective. Oh, and by the way, he was so stinking cute on Sunday. He got some new duds and looked very handsome.

It Went Well!!

This is just a quick post as naptime is calling...

It went really well! We were set up with plenty of time to spare. The count I heard was that there was a total of 213 adults and kids. The people who were new were VERY excited to be there.

I spent the morning with toddlers, so I didn't get to see the service. I will get to watch a video tape of it, though. Chuck did great.

We are pooped and are taking a nap now. If I don't post more tonight, I definitely will in the morning.

Thank you for the prayers!

The Most Important Thing

The most important thing to me in the world is that I know Jesus. And not only that I know Him, but that I follow Him. It is in my choice to follow Jesus that I am promised eternal life in Heaven. If none of that makes sense to you, or if you want to talk more about this, please email me at ittybitties@msn.com.

The most important thing to me as a Jesus follower is that I share Him with others. He's just to good to keep to myself. I must talk to other people about Him. I've been given an amazing gift and the great news is that it's available to us all.

Tomorrow morning me and Chuck and over 100 other people are sharing Jesus with the city of Chesapeake. We've worked over a year for this. We've prayed harder than we've ever prayed before. We've made sacrifices of time, energy, and money. We've had immense joy and we've cried hard.

Tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. we will share the hope of Jesus. We have prayed that people will come. We ask that you'd join us in prayer in these last 19 or so hours. Please pray that people will come tomorrow morning and that they will find hope; that they'll find a place with authentic people who really care; that they'll find Jesus, even if they didn't mean to. Please pray that everything will come together perfectly tomorrow morning for our services. We meet in a high school, so there is a great deal of set up involved. Please pray for good weather. Please pray for Chuck as he'll be on stage and has to remember to say A LOT of things. Please pray that all we do tomorrow is a reflection of Jesus to others and that we bring God glory. It is all for Him.

My heart beats hard as I type this. I am so excited and nervous all together. My eyes well up with tears as I think about people who could be impacted by our church. In all my life, I've never felt that what I was doing was more important than what we are doing tomorrow morning. Sure, I've shared Jesus before, but never in this way. New churches are far more effective at reaching lost people than churches that have been around for a while (just ask Barna), so we have a great advantage when it comes to impacting lives.

To God be the glory. I'll post tomorrow and let you know how it went.

Jarrod, A Miracle

I think that all babies are miracles. The fact that God makes these little people, grows them inside a woman's womb, and brings them into this world amazes me. Sometimes, though, the lives of these babies are filled with many more miracles. Jarrod is a baby like that.

Today is Jarrod's first birthday. It's also Brady's first birthday. Happy Birthday, guys! They don't know each other, but I know them both and I can tell you that they've had a very different first year of life.

Brady has pretty much had a 'normal' baby life so far. He is such a cute little guy! I will see him later today and I look forward to watching him eat cake.

At about 6 weeks old or so, Jarrod became a victim of Shaken Baby Syndrome. He spent months in the hospital. The outlook was grim. I know his grandparents, whom I see once a week. They asked for prayer and I prayed. God kept this baby strongly on my heart. And slowly, healing began to take place within Jarrod. Each week I'd see Jarrod's grandparents and hear how he was doing. Their path was tough, but they walked it with so much grace and faith in God. They believed that God would bring healing to their grandson, and He has.

I have not yet met Jarrod, but his grandma shows me pictures. I still pray for him when God puts him on my heart. He still has some challenges, but the fact that he has made it to his first birthday is indeed a miracle when I think of his early days in the hospital.

When God shows us miracles, I think it's important for us to pause and thank Him - not only for the miracle itself, but also that we were allowed to witness it. So, thank you, God for the miracle of Jarrod and thank you for allowing me the honor of witnessing it.

Upcoming Move

We learned today that the house we are buying appraised for a little more than it needed to. Yeah!! God just keeps moving us forward. I've been guarded in thinking about what will go where, etc. in the new house in case things don't work out. This whole house buying journey was quite the rollercoaster ride, and I've been careful about getting to attached to this one in case something goes wrong. At this point, the only thing that can go wrong is financing. Our buyer is using a reputable mortgage company and so are we. We are approved for far more than we are spending on our home, so we should be fine. If our buyer were to lose his job, that would be a deal killer. I'm pretty sure he is military, so that is unlikely. I'm pretty sure Chuck won't be losing his job either.

Today I went out looking for refrigerators and dishwashers because we need them in the new house. Virginia is offering no sales tax on energy efficient appliances purchased this weekend. So, we will for sure buy our fridge this weekend and maybe a dishwasher. Anyone out there know how to install a dishwasher from scratch? Chuck can do it, but I don't want his back to have to do it. Those types of projects are killer on his back.

I also went looking for storage cabinets for the garage. I found what I want at Walmart. I was tempted to buy it, but didn't because I wanted to wait until we learned about the appraisal. Now that the appraisal is in, I'll probably go pick up the cabinet.

So, our timeline is 2 weeks. On Wednesday, October 17th the movers come to pack our home. While I LOVE that I don't have to do this, it's a little awkward to have people in the house packing up EVERYTHING.

On October 18th they will load everything up and take it to the new house to deliver it. They do not unpack our stuff. I'm glad. I like to do that at my own pace (which is furious) and put things where I want to put them.

We don't actually close on the houses until the 19th, which will be interesting since we are scheduled to move into the new place on the 18th. It is vacant, but we haven't yet worked out getting in early with our seller. Hopefully Ed will be able to get that worked out soon. We are actually hoping to gain access at least a week earlier. We want to have the house sprayed for bugs prior to moving in and we'd like to paint before the house is full of our stuff. We'll see how it goes. Plus, I haven't given up hope that Veteran's Affairs could come up with a disibility rating before we close so that we don't have to pay the loan funding fee. So, if you'd like to join us in prayer, please pray that we can get into the house early and that Chuck gets his VA disability rating very soon. God can do these things. They are so minor. We place them in His hands.

So, that's the scoop.

Link for the Bar Service

Here's a link to a video about our bar service:

http://www.hamptonroads.tv/index.cfm?locvid=133836&tid=r700&fv=1

Opening Service at the Bar

Last night our Pembroke Campus, the one that meets in a bar, started. It was awesome. I decided to go since I'll be serving in Children's Ministry at the Chesapeake Campus and will miss the sermon this Sunday.

I got there super early with a friend who is actually on the Pembroke Campus Launch Team. Her job was to run the computer for the night. I got to help prepare communion. It was so neat to watch them get set up, to watch the band practice, to see the bar begin to fill up, and to see a real church service happening in a bar.

The bar was packed! There were well over 100 people (someone told me 108). At least half were people from our church, but there were lots of new faces. Even a few news crews came out. I'll be sure to post links to stories if they end up on the internet.

All in all, I'd say it was a huge success. It was nearly silent during the message, and it was an awesome message all about how God loves bad people and how our church is a church for bad people. Our senior pastor shared part of his own testimony of his badness and the forgiveness he's experienced from God.

My favorite story from last night is about a girl who stopped by our information table on her way out and picked up a free Bible. Someone overheard her say, "This is the first time I've ever even touched a Bible." Now how cool is that?? She went to the bar for the evening and left with a Bible!!

Church

I realized recently that I haven't blogged a whole lot about the church campus we are starting. I blogged about our Tuesday night bar service, but I don't think I've said a whole lot about the campus Chuck and I are involved in.

I've been pretty vague about where we live and all, but I'm just gonna spill it and hope that no one comes to stalk me.

We attend Forefront Church in Virginia Beach (yes, that is in Virginia). Well, I should say we used to attend Forefront Church in Virginia Beach. I say that because yesterday we began attending Forefront Church in Chesapeake (also in VA, right next to Virginia Beach)!! Chuck and I are involved in one of the coolest things ever - our church is going to a multi-site model to reach more people, and yesterday we had our practice service for our new Chesapeake Campus. It was awesome. It was not perfect or flawless, but it was indeed awesome. Last summer Chuck accepted the job for the Campus Pastor role at this new campus, but didn't come on staff until May. For over a year, he and the staff of our church have been working diligently to get our Chesapeake Campus started. Our Chesapeake Campus is live everything except for the preaching. We have video of the same message being preached at our Virginia Beach Campus. As our staff worked out the filming for Chesapeake, the bar campus (AKA - Pembroke Campus) evolved.

I was nearly in tears as I looked around yesterday - just in awe of how God brought everything and everyone together. We had a full Children's Ministry, we had a rockin' band leading us in worship, we HAD CHURCH IN CHESAPEAKE!! I'm just so excited that it's finally here and that God has blessed it so much. I can remember last year in November when we had like 3 volunteers signed up for our Chesapeake Campus. We probably easily had 60 people volunteering in some capacity yesterday. It is just incredible to have watched this grow. And I can't wait to see what God has in store for us.

Please join us in praying that this Sunday - our opening Sunday - will be a day that completely honors and blesses God. Please pray that many lost people will come through our doors and find hope.

I'll be sure to let you know how our opening Sunday service goes. Feel free to check out our website in the meantime: www.forefront.org

Responsibility

Responsibility - what does it mean? For years, I had no idea. It took some hard lessons in life to teach me about responsibility.

The kind of responsibility I'm about to talk about is not in the same category as taking care of your home or kids or health care. It goes deeper than that. The kind of responsibility I began to learn about 8 years ago is self responsibility.

You see, life is rough. Crap happens. Things go wrong. We get lied to. We get cheated. And we can live our lives as a victim if we want. I've learned that I ALWAYS have a part. Even in the super nasty things that happen in life. It's not always a big part, and it's not always that bad, but it is a ball I set in motion that I must look at.

Looking for my part in bad situations, quite honestly, sucks. I hate it, but I've learned that it is something I must do. I make decisions every day, and some of them come back to bite me. For example, right now my stomach is a wreck. Today Chuck and I ate at Outback (thanks to a gift card!) and I ate my steak medium rare. I loved it. I always do. But, I know that eating a nearly raw steak is going to upset my body, it always does. I made the choice, now I live with the consequences of that choice. I could just say, "Gosh, every time I eat a medium rare steak at Outback I get sick. How come they keep getting me sick?" But you see, the problem is mine, not Outback's.

I have some really hard stuff going on in my life right now. But, before I go pointing the finger I have to look for my responsibility in it. And it's there. I've made choices that put me in a position to be hurt. I have to take responsibility for that. It doesn't change the situation or the wrong that has been done to me, but it gives me a fair perspective and keeps me from playing the victim role.

And I think God blesses us when we take responsibility. It's what He's about, because it's truth. Taking responsibility for my actions is living out truth in my life. I've come to realize that not everyone out there operates this way, and that's too bad because there is so much freedom in it. When I look at myself for who I truly am and what I've done, I get free. The nagging in my spirit goes away and I have peace, even in the storms of life. It's when I don't choose to look at my part that I struggle. God's grace is so overwhelming when it comes to taking responsibility in my life. He is SO good.

Haiti

Many of you know, but in case you didn't, I was in Haiti last week. I had the wonderful honor of escorting a friend's daughter to Miami. Erlande is 8 years old and joined her family on Friday. It's one of the coolest things God's allowed me to be a part of.

I learned some sad news while in Haiti. I had the opportunity to talk to our Haitian processor and I learned that our paperwork is not as far along in process as we've been told. Yes, we did clear Parquet last week, but it was for the first time. According to our facilitator, your paperwork goes to Parquet, then goes for Judgment, then goes back to Parquet for the Judgment to be signed off on. We were told last Friday that we had gotten the 2nd Parquet approval needed so that our dossier could move on. On Sunday I learned that wasn't true. Our paperwork had been in Parquet since the end of January, so that's 8 months sitting in one office. Now we are waiting to hear that we have Judgment, then our paperwork will go back to Parquet for them to sign off on that. It was totally disheartening to learn this, but at least we know the truth now.

My stay in Haiti was wonderful. The last 4 times I went to Haiti we had to stay at an expensive hotel because that is where our mission trip leaders decided to stay. This time I stayed at Wall's International Guest House and absolutely loved it. It was not as nice as the hotel, but they made up for it in other ways. The food was delicious and breakfast and lunch were included in the daily cost - which is only $35 if you have an airconditioned room. The staff was amazing - completely polite and helpful. They went above and beyond to help me out. They have a great swimming pool that they vacuum daily. They also have wireless internet access available for only $2 a day. There were drawbacks - the showers were cold. Not ice cold, but definitely cold. The AC was only for five hours at night. There are not choices at mealtime - it's what they make and that's it. Overall, I felt that the good far outweighed the bad and I will never again stay at Visa Lodge if I can help it.

I've turned off comments on this post because I'm sure some people will be as upset as we were about what I've posted about our paperwork and I don't want a bunch of discouraging comments linked to this. I didn't share it to get people riled up. I shared it because this blog's purpose is to share our journey in adopting our boys. We post updates - all of them, good and bad. As always, feel free to email me if you want.

Inspection Went Well

I heard from Chuck that the home inspection went well. Thanks for all your prayers. With the whole funding fee problem I really prayed and asked God to use the home inspection as our way out if it wasn't His plan for us to be in that house.

The inspector found a few minor things that we will ask the seller to fix, but none of them are deal breaker items. The AC unit is 20 years old, so we will FOR SURE be buying a home warranty plan.

The only item left is the appraisal, and we're not worried about that.

Thanks again for your prayers!

A Dream Come True

Today I visited the Immigration Building and MOI in Haiti. I will blog more about my trip later. I want to talk about my visit to the Immigration Building.

Before I begin, I need to give some background info. On July 9th I posted about a dream I had. I'd hyperlink it if I could figure out how. Instead I'll paste it below:

In my dream I was in this great big room in Haiti, probably as big as a large gymnasium. There were tons of people - white and black, adults and kids. In this room appointments were happening that were making it possible for kids to go home to their forever families. It was loud and chaotic, but everyone was happily waiting to be called. There was happiness in the room because all the Haitian kids were very close to going home. Their American families were there
with them. I watched as one family got called. They were adopting two Haitian kids. I began to cry so hard when they got called because I knew that meant they were very close to going home. Pictures of the Haitian kids were taken for their passports so that the passports could be made. Then they waited to get their passports.In my dream I knew that it wasn't our turn. In fact, Chuck and the boys weren't there. It was like I was getting to watch it all happen. I wasn't
upset at all that it wasn't our turn. I was just so thrilled to see that these kids were finally getting to go home.

Today I believe this dream came true. We were in the Immigration Building and we had to walk through this huge room (yes, probably as big as a gymnasium). There were probably 30 rows of folding chairs, and the first 10 or so rows were filled with people waiting. As soon as we were in the room my mind flashed back to the dream. It wasn't exactly the way I saw things in my dream, and there weren't a bunch of kids, but I really sensed that this was the room I dreamt about. Passports are issued in the immigration building. I was with my friend, who was there to get her child's passport. It wasn't my turn, but I was so happy for her.

When I had the dream, a good friend told me she believed it was prophetic. I believe it was. When I thought about the dream back in July, it made no sense to me because why would I be in Haiti where passports are issued if it wasn't my turn?? Well, I was there today and it wasn't my turn.

Just another sprinkling of God's love in my life.

Prayer Request

Okay, we have a prayer request.

We are using Chuck's VA benefit for our home loan. As you probably know, Chuck was medically retired from the Coast Guard in May. As a disabled veteran, one of the benefits is that we don't have to pay the funding fee for the VA home loan. Well, Vetran's Affairs hasn't yet rated Chuck for his disability, so therefore we aren't yet eligible to have the funding fee waived. We are talking thousands of dollars that we will have to roll into our mortgage.

Chuck has been on the phone with Vetran's Affairs and they have told him they are sorry, but the best they can do is pay our lender the funding fee once he is rated (which could be a number of months). That's great, but our monthly mortgage payment will be higher because of this. Even though Vetran's Affairs says there is nothing they can do, we know God can do it. If it's His will for us to not have to pay the funding fee, He will make it happen. Please join us in prayer that this is so.

I really feel like this is just one more of Satan's schemes in our life lately to get our focus off of what is important. We will continue to keep our eyes on Jesus and the direction He has for us.

Update on House Stuff

Our house passed the termite and moisture inspection yesterday, so it is good to go. Our home inspection on the new place is scheduled for tomorrow at noon. If the inspection turns out good the appraisal will be ordered. So, we are getting there. I'll blog more when I know more.

About the House

I just sent an email to my friend Kelly, telling her a little bit about the house, and realized I should share some details here. Earlier this week Kelly reminded me that when the original house we fell in love with became unavailable I told her that obviously God had something better in store for us. I had lost sight of that. I told Kelly that there was no way God could give us something better than that in our price range because that sold for more than what we are willing to spend. I should have known better. Not only is the new place better than that one, it's also in a better school district. I'm sorry I doubted God and Kelly.

Anyway, the house is 1300 sq ft, which for us is exactly 220 more sq ft than we currently have. It also has an attached one car garage and an attached screened in porch. I LOVE a screened porch, especially in a city where the mosquitoes seriously wage war against the residents.

It has 3 good size bedrooms, and the master bedroom has a bathroom with a stand up shower off of it. It has lots of closet space. The living room is huge with a vaulted ceiling (which Chuck loves). The dining area isn't a separate room, rather it's off of the living room and kitchen. There is this bonus area off of the dining area that will work as an office for us. The kitchen is vintage 1957. The only things that are maybe newer is the linoleum flooring and the countertops. The rest is all original, but pristine. It has a very retro look about it. There is currently no dishwasher, but that will change, I promise. My Dad and Chuck spent some qualitiy time nearly 3 years ago putting in a difficult dishwasher. Hopefully this one will be easier. The cupboard space isn't great, but it's probably better than what I have here. I will definitely buy a storage cupboard for in the garage for a lot of my smaller appliances. The street is a cul de sac, although the house isn't in the the cul de sac. Our current home is on a very busy cut through road. We are sooooo looking forward to a street with less traffic.

Our home inspection is Tuesday, so I'll let you know how that goes. I'm so excited. If things work out we will close on both houses on my birthday. The people buying this house want to get in sooner, but we just can't move before the 18th.

That's all for now.

Out of Parquet...And Into Parquet

What a marvelous day it's been!

First, we get fantastic adoption news.

Then, we get fantastic house news. The seller of the home we made an offer on counter-offered something reasonable, so we accepted it! That means we have a house!! Well, it needs to pass a home inspection and a termite and moisture inspection first and appraise, but as long as it does, we have a new home. God is indeed good!!

About the title - we got out of a step called Parquet today in our adoption process. The home we will move into (as long as inspections and the appraisal go well) has parquet floors. Real wood parquet floors.

Yeah for God!!

Great Adoption News!!

We got word today that our paperwork has been released from where it's been stuck (Parquet). Woohoo!! We are thrilled. The next step is the one that makes the adoption final, so we are getting there. After that is the long (and I mean long) wait for passports.

Something kind of funny... the house we put an offer on (and are impatiently waiting to hear about) has parquet floors throughout (except in the bathrooms and kitchen). Kind of ironic.

Now get up an do the happy dance for us because this is great news!!

The Guerilla Lover(s?) Got Us

At our church we like to call ourselves and be "Guerilla Lovers." We want to show God's love to people in such a way that they are kind of overcome by the love.

Well, a guerilla lover or some guerilla lovers got us. Yesterday Chuck found a gift basket on his desk at work addressed to us. Wow! It had some great stuff, but more than that it was someone loving on us. Thank you to whoever you are. It touched our hearts and came just in time. I've been in near-meltdown status for much of the week, and this really helped me refocus. Thank you! It is nice to be loved.

House News

Gosh, where do I begin? Well, our house appraised where it needed to, so we definitely have to move out. That's a wonderful thing, but I'll be even happier about it when we have a house to move into. I was really sweating the appraisal. We listed our house way above the city assessment amount, but we've done a TON of work to it. Apparently the appraiser so that. Yeah! The last house I posted about didn't work out. The people just weren't ready to move, which is weird since they put their house up for sale, but whatever.

We wrote an offer on a great house this morning. We'll see how it goes. I'm trying not to get too attached to these houses anymore, but I'll tell you that I REALLY like this one. It has plenty of space for us and a screened porch, which I love. I'll let you know when we hear something. Unless God really doesn't want us to be in that house we should be able to negotiate a contract on it.

Chuck scheduled our move for October 17-18. We should close on this house on the 19th at the latest. That is my birthday. So I might just be getting a new house on my birthday. Fun.

I Went to the Bar Last Night...

Last night I spent a few hours attending one of the coolest things I've ever been a part of. Before I tell you about it, I have to give some background information.

Chuck and I have been attending Forefront Church (www.forefront.org) for 5 years now. We've been meeting in a high school auditorium all that time and we have no plans to build a building. I worked there for a period of time as an administrative assistant and now Chuck is on staff there as a Campus Pastor. I always loved Forefront before I worked there, but once I began working there and learned how intentional every single thing they do is, I really fell in love with the church.

We use a lot of humor, really rockin' music, funny skits, pop culture, games, and much more in an attempt to get visitors to uncross their arms and let the music and the message sink in. Before I worked on staff I thought we did all that stuff just to be cool. That's not it at all. We do all that stuff because we want to reach lost people. We don't want to be the cool church in town that all the Christians flock to. We want truly lost people on the road to nowhere walking in our doors. And we get a lot of those people.

The original vision of Forefront was to have different locations all over our area. We live in an area of about 7 big cities and there are all kinds of waterways. Traffic is a mess. So, it's not always likely that a person two towns over will come to our church because it's a long drive. Over two years ago our church started moving in the direction of starting another location, or campus. I've sat in on a lot of training for this church model, so I can tell you that there are many churches across the country who have been very successful with multiple campuses. Logistics are a lot of work to figure out, but once the plan is in place you can keep adding campuses fairly easily. It's an awesome way to reach more and more people. And in our area, it's the only way that our church can reach out beyond our circle.

On October 7th our 3rd campus launches, and Chuck is the Campus Pastor of that location. The preaching at that campus will be video of our Senior Pastor. That campus will also meet in a high school. On Tuesday, October 2nd, our 2nd campus launches. The 2nd location came about because we needed a midweek place to film our Senior Pastor preaching so that on Sunday morning the two campuses would hear the exact same message. God's plan for that video venue turned out to be The White Horse Pub in Pembroke Mall. Last night I went to the first of two practice services for The White Horse Pub location. It was awesome. There were a number of us from our church there, but there was also a bar full of people who didn't mean to, but ended up going to church last night. They enjoyed the music and the message. They didn't go running out the door. They stayed. The owner and his waitstaff enjoyed it too. We brought in a lot more business than they are used to getting on a Tuesday night.

Okay, if you are reading this and you are thinking, "Oh my goodness, this is blasphemy!" I'm going to tell you that you have a right to your opinion. I'm also going to ask you a few questions.
Who is the last lost, and I mean truly lost, person that you successfully reached out to and brought to Jesus. How many non-Christians do you hang out with? How many want to hear what you have to say? How well are you fulfilling the great commission in your own community?

I believe Jesus would preach in the bar, too. He repeatedly reached out to the people the Pharisees wanted nothing to do with. You know why? Because those lost people in the bar are precious to Him. He loves them just as much as He loves you and me. He hasn't given up on them and neither should we. Should we expect that these people will clean up their act and come to church on Sunday morning to hear about Jesus? No. As Christians we should be reaching out to them.

So, I'm pretty excited about what our church is doing. You don't have to be. But I wanted to blog about it because it is seriously one of the coolest things I've ever witnessed.