Against all odds

By the grace of God our adoption application was APPROVED! It wasn't pretty. It was downright embarrassing. As I looked over it last night I was reminded again that we would need divine intervention for any of this to work out. I’m happy to say that it can only be God’s will for us to move forward because no one in their right mind would have approved us. Thanks to each one of you who prayed on our behalf and are traveling this road with us. We’re going to need you!

Bracelet Fundraiser

My dear, sweet, and so very talented friend Brooke, offered to photograph our fundraising bracelet! Didn't she do an amazing job? Makes ya just have to have one, huh?

Click on the bracelet to the left to enter my Etsy shop and buy a few to give as gifts. All sales go directly to our adoption fund.

Wanna watch our fund-o-meter reach $20,000? Click the donation link to the left and follow our story as God moves people to bring our baby home!

Wow. Weren't those precious? Checkout more of Brooke's work and thank her for being part of our adoption community! http://www.facebook.com/brookejagomullins#!/BrookeMullinsPhotography

Here goes nothin!

Yikes! The application is in and paid for! So exciting and so much pressure. This morning I realized that I'll be living in fear of rejection for the next 2 years. We'll just say 2 years, but we all know that we only have 1 year and 10 months for this to work. Not that I'm counting or anything. I feel that many people are asking "what about the two kids you already have? What about Aisley and Hayes?". That's an easy one. Aisly is super excited to have a sister to play with and Hayes couldn't care less. Living out what God has asked us to do will allow Him to teach them so many lessons that we couldn't teach them. Plus, what would it say about who God is and our faith if we didn't follow this calling? If we didn't do this we would be telling our kids that it's ok to ignore God's prompting if it's hard or uncomfortable. We might as well say that we don't believe God's plan is better or that we don't have the faith to trust Him. Even if we "fail" at this attempt to adopt, Aisley and Hayes will see that following God's command is a priority, takes faith, and that God is in control. These are things I want to model to my kids. Alright, moving on. The next step is to wait about a week to see if our application is approved. If it's not approved, then we'll take a step back, pay off debt and pray. Our next opportunity to adopt won't be for 7-9 years, so we'll have lots of time to adjust. If we are approved, then we will viciously attack fundraising so that we can pay the $20,000 worth of fees. If we are approved, please pray for our fundraising events. It will take divine intervention and God moving hearts in big ways to raise that kind of money. Praying will be the best way to support our family.

Adoption or bust!

Have you ever felt like you were supposed to do something? Something that you wouldn’t ordinarily do because it is a little uncomfortable or maybe even risky? Did you try to run and hide? Pretend you didn’t notice? Convince the voice in your head that it’s totally not the right time for that? That’s exactly how our adoption story begins. The Holy Spirit started at me last January. Maybe earlier, I just didn’t listen. But January is when I could no long ignore Him. Now, most of you know how stubborn I am. So I’m fortunate to love a patient and merciful God who is the maker of all hardheaded and dense beings…like me. God loves to teach me lessons in persistence and because I have a tendency to say NO Way, He lovingly and deliberately beats me over the head with the same idea until I finally surrender. The lesson I’ve learned and am still learning? God is far more persistent and strong-willed than I could ever be. So a series of events continued to occur for many months before Carey and I sat down and seriously considered adoption. We were finally ready to check out the whole adoption thing and jump in. But there were many stumbling blocks: cost of adoption, positive net worth (umm…so doctors can’t adopt until they’re like 60 then?) not to mention the restriction of certain mental health medications (this would be a good time to admit Carey and I aren’t as sane and perfect as we seem. What??? You never ONCE thought that about us? Humph!) and lastly, there’s a travel requirement that isn’t exactly resident-friendly. We are required to go to Ethiopia twice towards the end of the process. 1st trip is an appearance in court and to meet your child. 2nd trip is to actually bring that baby home for good! You’re usually not given a whole lot of notice before these two trips and we knew that would be an issue once Carey is out of the research years and in the role of Chief Resident (yay!). So basically, the odds were stacked against us and the only logical thing to do was to pay off all bad debt and see if any agency would listen to us plea about student loans. I think that plan actually satisfied Carey, who was not exactly in the position during his “80 hour” work weeks (yeah, right) to mentally or emotionally prepare for adoption. I however, was not satisfied. Go figure. I need to check with several agencies to make sure there was no way of beginning now. Sadly, they confirmed my fear and gave Carey many months to adjust and prepare for adoption. Isn’t it nice how great God’s timing is? So I tried to drop the subject and wait patiently. And by that I mean, I only mentioned it a few times a week instead of a few times an hour.  After starting to feel really discouraged, one day Carey finally said (totally out of the blue without any prompting or pouting from me) that he felt led and ready to begin the process. So we crunched numbers and glanced over the timeline and prayed, prayed, and prayed some more. He picked up as many moonlighting shifts as possible and we went back through our list of agencies. We set a goal to pay off credit cards and then try again. But I didn’t feel at peace about waiting this time. I couldn’t escape the sense that I needed to look deeper, try harder. My heart began to break for this child I know is over there waiting for her Momma. It started to become very real that my baby is huddled on a mat with 2 other kids without knowing that we’re coming. My baby goes through her day not being held, kissed, read to, loved on, or cherished. And that my friend, was just too much for this Momma and Daddy to bear. The Holy Spirit really did a number on us that time. Just broke our hearts. So I researched more and out of the clear blue sky, an agency I hadn’t seen before popped up! Just like magic! The agency fit our desires of being a Christian agency and held the appropriate credentials we insist upon. I thought, “Ok. This is it. This is the last thing I can do and if we’re rejected, then we’ll just have to wait another 9 years.” On Friday I wrote the executive director the shortest and most open email I could about our situation. I resisted the urge to beg, plea, and cry to him to accept us and give us our baby (because he’s got her locked up in the closet just waiting to be released, obviously)! And I started counting the minutes until he would be back in the office and respond to my message. Sunday we went to church and I cried, of course, for this baby girl and her suffering. I checked my email without much hope of a response and OH MY GOODNESS!!! There in my inbox was a message from the agency. I would’ve fallen over if I hadn’t been sitting. I know my heart skipped a beat and my stomach flew to my throat. This was it. This would determine our adoption story. “I think you can begin [the adoption process] now. Given your husband’s earning potential I think we could approve you in one of several programs.” I couldn’t talk. I could only get out gasps of air and weird sounds. I was prepared for rejection. I was prepared to wait 9 years when we were more stable. I was prepared to be told to pay off all bad debt and try again later, like all of the other agencies told us. Amazing isn’t it, how just a little encouragement restores your hope? We came home and Carey immediately started filling out the application and looking over details. We had been praying and hoping to know why God put this desire in our hearts, especially if we would have to wait so long to begin the process. Now we’re thrown to the opposite side of the car as this rollercoaster makes a sudden turn and begins the uphill climb. We went from being forced to take our time and apply later, which would give us lots of time to save and fundraise, to start now with no time to save and fundraise. As much faith as it’s going to take to round up the money, I much prefer to begin our journey now and get this baby home. So that’s it, that’s the beginning of our adoption story. We have every intention of displaying all of the process, emotion, and work that makes our story, right here on the blog. Please know that we want to be totally open about this so that our friends and family live this journey with us. It’s important to have your support and encouragement and even more important that you start to build a bond with our future child. You are thousands of miles away, but she needs you just as much as she needs us. You are her grandparents and great-grandparents. Her cousins, aunts, uncles, and neighbors. Most importantly, you are her prayer warriors and her village. Just as your love and care for Aisley and Hayes, you are beginning to love and care for her. While we will do so, so, much fundraising through our blog, family and friends don’t feel guilted into giving. All we ask is that you will support our journey through encouragement and prayers. We’ll leave the rest up to God!

Announcement!

Some of you may already know this and some of you will be totally shocked: we've decided to adopt. Actually, we've always wanted to adopt, but God has really brought it front and center within the last year. I've contemplated this post and written it in my head a million times. This is nowhere near what I thought it would say. I wanted to be really pumped up and excited or sometimes I wanted to be totally defensive and rebuke the naysayers from the get go. Tonight, I just don't have the energy to do either one. So I'll keep it simple and stick to the facts. Here they are: We want to adopt a young boy or girl from Ethiopia. (Aisley just chipped in and insists that I say she wants a baby sister and her name should be Broom) We are completely and totally open to a waiting child. Also called a "special needs" child. I'll fill you in on that later. It's probably not what you think. The adoption process usually takes several years. You have to be financially secure to adopt and we are not. Yep, that's the truth. BUT we are working like crazy to pay off bad debt and will fundraise to help cover the cost of the adoption. Ethiopian adoption costs $30,000-36,000. So why are we doing this? Well, that is probably the simplest part of all of this. When I get overwhelmed and discouraged I remember that God put adoption on our hearts. And before He did that, He commanded that we (as in, all of His people) care for orphans: Deuteronomy 24 (NIV) 19 When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. 21 When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. 22 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this. Matthew 25 34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' Isaiah 1 (NIV) 17 learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow And of course: James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. There are others as well, but that was a long enough Bible lesson for today, huh? By the way, Aisley is memorizing James 1:27. This is her version: Religion that God likes is to care for the "orphanizers" and "wittles" and don't act like the world. Close enough for now! :) So there you have it. We're excited about adopting, but know it will be a long, hard journey. I hope to be able to apply by Christmas, but Carey isn't so sure that's a realistic goal. I've never been known for being realistic, so I'm going to stick with my optimistic goal. I'll keep you updated on our progress. I'm working on a donations website for those of you who want to help orphans without adopting. Donations are great, but prayers are even better. We'll need lots in the years to come!

Starting Fresh

Can we just start fresh? Pretend that I didn't disappear for a year? Thanks, that would be great. Now, where to begin....

It's our 1st research year of residency. Can you believe we finally made it? Me neither! And trust me, it has been everything we thought it would be. Carey didn't go to work until 11 this morning. 11:00!!! It's crazy to think that the alarm used to go off at 4:30. Yuck. Of course, not every day is this lazy. He's moonlighting tonight at Children's Hospital and won't be home until sometime tomorrow. So he'll have time to work on things for the lab if he needs to. Moonlighting is a term you've heard me say before. It's like a shift that he picked up for extra $$$. Yep, that's right. We can supplement our income now. Did I ever mention our crazy debt from his 4th year of medical school when he flew around the U.S. and interviewed at 14 different programs? 14 flights, 14 hotels, 40+ meals out...you get the picture. Did I ever mention the cost of moving across the country? I hope not. Back to the supplementing income part, I bet you can guess where it all goes. :)

Let's see, research is fewer hours, a chance to pay off some debt, and our opportunity to grow as a family. We're actually eating meals together again.

But don't let me fool you, research isn't a walk in the park. Carey is a highly motivated and competitive person. He takes his role in the lab very seriously and has every intention of getting published in as many journals and papers as possible over the next 2 years. It seems like he has the weight of hundreds of sick kids on his shoulders and is determinded to find a solution for their intestinal problems. He's currently growing intestinal stem cells in mice and something, something, something. Gosh, I really thought I was going to actually able to explain what he's doing. I guess I'm going to have to listen a little better. :)

Other than that, he's trying not to stress over the amount of hair that he lost during the last 2 years of residency and IS trying to correct the poor health gained over the last few years.

I think I'll have to ease in to this, if y'all don't mind. I'll try to be back tomorrow to update on Aisley and Hayes. No really, I will! :)

Bring Love In Lemonade Stand

If you're here, it must be because you want to donate to a fabulous organization! (They actually prefere "community" instead of organization but I can't seem to make that jump.)Bring Love In is a "community" that pairs widows and orphans in Ethiopia (p.s.-there are about 5 MILLION orphans in Ethiopia)creating a Forever Family and allowing the kiddos to stay in their home country. They prepare widows from a local church to mother 6-8 orphaned children, provide a safe, clean home, food, medical needs, and ensure that the kids go to school. Pretty brilliant, huh? Tomorrow I'm babysitting several kids from out life group and thought it would be the perfect opportunity for a service project. We're hoping to raise the $300 needed to fill a sponsor spot and support a Forever Family for an entire year. Who knows, maybe it'll be super hot tomorrow and lemonade will be in such demand that we can sponsor TWO families! :)So if you're local, please stop by. If you're not local, click the paypal link below to donate to our jar. You would be building families in Africa and creating a giving spirit our kids. We only need 12 people to donate $25 each to sponsor a family. Thanks in advance, friends!