We'll try this again....

Happy New Year!!!!
~Love,
Maureen

We wish you a Merry Christmas…

    And a Happy New Year! I was doing considerably better with blogging then fell off the blog band-wagon with preparing for Christmas, which was lovely! We got to visit the real farm, see the family, enjoy a snowy white Christmas, & share our good news in person! This momma proved she could still milk & pitch hay, and the kids begged, to no avail, for a calf. There's nowhere to hide keep a calf in the suburbs. Sarah & I went to a Holstein herd dispersal today in Hanover, for fun, and we found some lovely cows that we could not bring home. Sad to see yet another farm go out though.

Yes, I did take pictures of our trip. No, I am not trying to upload them tonight! Tomorrow it's back to the real world & a long day awaits. Santa brought me an espresso machine for Christmas (expresso, if you ask more than one of my dc…), so I can go fortified with caffeine, without paying Starbuck's prices. I have uploaded the family Christmas card (the ones I rarely get sent, yes, I know, *ducks* b/c this year's are still not sent) picture. Ellie dog conveniently popped into the picture precisely as I snapped it. Cool effect for a total accident.

We'll see when it posts if it's ginormous or not. ;-)

 

    In other news, we completed Round 1 of 3 in our home study & am slowly gathering the last of the paperwork for that aspect. Looks like we'll be wrapping that part up by Feb. 1. Hard to believe how soon that really is! HS behind us, we can move on to other mind numbing important paper filling/gathering/apostilling activities. ^_^ The documents mentioned in the last post DID arrive, safe and sound, and considerably faster than I though. Go DHL! Short week, travel, and sundry details kicking in, I haven't TOUCHED any forms this week (Sorry Meg!) but we did have some fun working on what will be the girls' (plural, so cool to say) room. We'd gotten a bed which is looking to be increasingly ideal, as it's fairly high (easy for transfers) and has under bed drawers & storage (ideal for both supplies…and stuff we need but lack a better home for!) It also looks like we are also being blessed with a specialty pediatric wheelchair from another adoptive family in the Midwest. It's should be the perfect size for Princess P. to begin with. D. THANK-YOU SO MUCH!!!

    Well, it's 10:20, and past my bed time! I hope that each of you had a bless Christmas. I pray each of you truly felt the presence of Jesus, and the magnitude of His birth this season, and that we will all grow in Him this upcoming year. From our home to yours, have a safe, blessed New Year!

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16

~Maureen & Family

    

Help Me with My Unbelief

 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24 NKJV)

 

    First, an update: Didn't get any takers on the give away for Mandy over at Blessings Eternal but I also know that this is a busy time of year and there are many, many worthwhile fundraising opportunities going on and not but so much time or funds! Praise Jesus we serve a Lord who is not dependent upon us! While the chances remain 50/50 but what $20 worth of coffee might not be of just as much or more usefulness to Mandy & Co. right about now, the value will simply go into their FSP to help bring Benjamin home. Please continue to lift this family in prayer as they complete their journey to adopt, and begin now the work of becoming a family. Prayer is not the thing we do when we have nothing else to do; it is the thing we bring first to our Father in heaven, who knows of what we need before we even ask it (Matthew 6:8, among other places.)

    Now, in the interest of full disclosure, this morning was not my shiny moment of belief & faith. J Having received the last document to send for our initial commitment packet to the MOJ in Princess Penny's home country, I herded the kids into the gigantic white van at a preposterous hour of the morning (all large home schooling families drive gigantic white vans. Most of us name them. FWIW, ours is named 'The Great White Hype'.) I proceeded to downtown Richmond to the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth to have the documents apostilled. The way I read the paperwork, you needed to have the paperwork there by 10 AM, to have same day pick up after 3:30 PM. Given it is Monday, we're going downtown, and there is basically little to no parking under the best of circumstances, I might have done well to leave earlier. And look for parking on line before leaving. And consider just having the forms mailed. ^_^

    Flashing forward; it's now 10:06 AM and I am cruising East Broad Street with nary a parking space in site. Not one that would accommodate so much as a moped, much less the GWH. Nothing to the north, nothing to the south (at least not as far as I was willing to drive and park), and I am nearing tears and certainly at the snapping point as we cruised back up the street again. Sarah cheerfully tries to encourage me: "Don't worry Mom, God's going to take care of us and get Penny's forms done today!" While I appreciate the thoughts, I am frankly thinking 'Yeah, but God's not trying to park this stupid van in Richmond on a Monday morning.'
L Ready to give up, find coffee, and go have a good cry, I decided to make a pass at the hospital/Museum of the Confederacy deck. I pull in and am met by a parking attendant who assures me there are no spaces for anything of this size left. I am officially stick-a-fork-in-me done at this point and pull through, only to be met by second attendant 25' from the exit. After a slightly confused exchange on my end, he offers us a $5 valet spot at the top of the deck. Better parking is not to be had. Considerably bolstered, the kids and I set off on the 4 {big} block hike over to 1111. Which went amazingly well, and we managed to attract minimal to no extra attention. Apparently a Mama with a baby tied to her chest and 5 others in stair-step tow behind her is not the weirdest site you'll find in Richmond. We found the building, and then found the correct entrance to the building, and probably entertained the security staff to no end with our fascination with metal detectors and bag x-rays (no worries they'd ever suspect we were from the suburbs…..) The clerk's office was not busy and I handed over my forms, about to turn and head out, when the woman stopped me in my tracks.

'If you'll have a seat in the waiting room, this will take me about 20 minutes.'

I felt as though God hugged me there on the spot, as the Holy Spirit whispered-and Sarah nearly shouted- 'See? I told you.' Yes Lord, forgive my unbelief. In reality, we walked out of the building 12 minutes after we signed in, apostilled documents in hand. I was able to have everything in a DHL envelope and sent off by 1 PM. This alone would have been more than enough. And yet God went further. A full day ahead of schedule our family's profile page and FSP was set up on Reece's Rainbow. Thank you so much Michelle!!! And He went STILL further, and gave us a lead on another important thing. This I'll keep still on until it's a sure thing, and then shout of His goodness and mercy from the roof tops! God is good….All the time!

 

While not the smoothest of segways, please let me call your attention to two other time sensitive things:

1) Tomorrow (12/4/12) is the anticipated Senate vote on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. While this seems a lovely thought, once glance around Reece's Rainbow or other international special needs adoption site and you will quickly see that the rest of the world doesn't exactly even remotely place the same value on the lives of persons with disabilities. My daughter is 12….and she weighs less than my 10 month old. I rest my case. Please PLEASE call your senators and encourage them to protect our citizens and the strength of our existing laws by voting NO. Susanna over at The Blessing of Verity did a wonderful post on the topic, and includes the link to the Congressional Switchboard. It takes < 2 minutes to call and share your opinion.

2) On a considerably brighter note, Amy Rainey and crew over at Hidden Treasures have another fabulous fundraising auction going on, this time for Awesome Adam!!! If you are still Christmas shopping, you should mosey on over and see if you can't wrap up your list while helping to bring Adam (who is in the same orphanage as Princess P.) home. And even if you are one of those insanely organized done-by-the-15^th-of-August folks, you should STILL go on over.