#29

We moved 1 spot this month and are now #29! I feel like the little engine that could repeating over and over...."It's not about me.....It's not about me.....It's not about me....". It is about THEM. The children without families. The little ones who need the love of a family. And ONE of them found that this month!

When I put it that way it still makes me smile. It doesn't erase the disappointment that we didn't shoot down 5 spots, but it does give me comfort and I am celebrating with that ONE today! :)

It's not us yet....but someone will be kissing the cheeks of a precious little one that has been patiently waiting for their mommy and daddy! It makes me smile!!!

Past couple of weeks....

Our life lately....

 Celebrated Lance's 28th B-day with the family and friends

 Picked our very first cucumber and let it get waaaay to big....but it still tasted yummy!

 Gave the laundry room a much needed/much put off makeover

 Finished painting all our yellow doors and baseboards white! It.Took.FOREVER!!! This has been in process since October!

 Read with Max......he is a genius!

 Went to our first Skeeters game.....fun!

 Was introduced to the worlds most horrendous toy at work..."annoying orange" exceeds it's name! The kids love it though!

 More skeeters....

 Lance's b-day cake that I so lovingly made! ;)

Memorial Day at a friends house....Max had his first real swim!

That's about all that has been up the past couple weeks! I hope everyone has been having a great short week! 

Kreativ blogger award

My sweet friend Brittnie tagged me for the Kreativ blogger award. So sweet! So here are my required " 10 random facts about me "....

1. I am a night owl. I am always staying up really late and then peeling myself out of bed in the morning! I will never learn! :)

2. I haven't truly worked out in months and months and months and I am in a triathlon this Sunday! Oh my goodness! It is going to be brutal! I said yes months go with the notion that this would whip me into shape. It didn't.

3. When I am cleaning the kitchen at night, I take a towel and dry the inside of the sink....my mom does it too and I didn't realize how odd that was until recently. Why would you dry something that's meant to be wet! Oh genetics!

4. I still really look forward to getting home at night to see lance. As much as we are desperatly ready to have a baby I know I will miss the uninterrupted together in the evenings!

5. I am so ready to be a mom!! This is a far cry from the Kayla you may have knows 12 months ago! But I am totally there! I would trade in my job for making peanut butter sandwiches and changing diapers and would trade in my car for a mini van in a heart beat!! So ready for God to bless us with our baby!! So much so that lots of days are really painful. But I know our time will come and I can't wait!!

6. Lance and I will have been married for 5 years in a few weeks! We planned a big new Orleans vacation and then both decided to take the money and put it in our adoption fund instead. We still kept some of the time off but will be watching movies and eating cheesecake at home! It makes me so happy that Lance is already willing to make little sacrifices for this little one!

7. I just repainted our laundry room and sprayed the entire back door that leads to the garage with chalkboard paint! I love it and have had way to much fun writing little things on the door for us to read as we head out to our cars for the day.

8. One of my very very best friends/first college friend/college roommate, just moved close to us and her and her husband will be placing membership at our church! The thought of us being part of a church family together and doing life together for years to come is just SO EXCITING!! I mean SO exciting! We are already planning our children's marriages and of course ACU roommate/best friend situations is they are the same sex! ;)

9. Having my sister in the same town as me is heaven! Not sure how we managed before!

10. I love trashy TV. Not so much Jersey Shore trashy TV, but more like low budget shark movies where people are lost in the ocean for days and get eaten by sharks! haha can't believe I just admitted to that one!!

Ok, so I am tagging......Bethany(lifes twists and turns), Rachel (heirs with christ), Lindsey ( chillin with the campbells).....yipee! :)

Post on our little life lately soon.....it's been busy busy busy and I have been to lazy to put down the ipad and actually go to the computer to blog! ;)

I hate routine

Routines bother me. They make me antsy and itching to break them. I have always been like this. I don't know the reason, but when things become routine and predictable I want to change them right away. I'm sure a psychologist could analyse this into something horrible about my personality but it is just how I am.

When I find myself at the grocery store on the same day each week, find myself pulling into the same parking space each day at work or even stop and realize that I am literally brushing my hair at the exact same time each night while I am using the other hand to grab my conditioner out of the drawer I often think....it is just SO weird how our lives are so predictable at times. I am thankful that I have a simple, predictable life. However, I still think it is odd at times how routine humans really are!

The thing is, I am content person and can be happy in most all situations. However, I love to change things. I love to rearrange the furniture, or change my hair color. I even like to switch the side of the bed I sleep on every week or so. I don't like many things to become a "routine" if I can control it. (and I know children need routine...don't worry I won't be forcing my babies to switch rooms each week or anything)

But I had a cheesy light bulb moment last night. (And like I have said before, this blog is for me so if this makes you cringe I'm sorry)

As I was crawling into bed, with my 2 fans going, and my soaking wet hair drenching my pillow, I leaned over and heard "goodnight K" to which I say "goodnight L". Then this morning I hear a little whispering voice say "coffee is in the kitchen" while tucking me in a little, which is translating: "Even though you need to be at work in 30 minutes, I am not judging you for pressing snooze." I finally get up and grab my mug and head off to work. I get to my desk and wait until about 10am and have an email from Lance. Nothing important. Just wanting to say hello and tell me he can't wait to see me at the end of the day.

These are things I can count on everyday. A routine that I NEVER want to change. Ever! So my "I hate routines" mindset must not include Lance. I count on his predictability to make me smile each day!! :) And believe me, when Lance is not around for some reason and I don't have my email and coffee and nice encouraging morning send offs it's not a pretty picture! Well, its $5.00 wasted at Starbucks and me being late to work. :)

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day Mom!! I am so thankful that we live so close and get to spend so much time together! I am thankful that you read just as many Ethiopian adoption blogs as I do, I'm thankful that you research how to do black babies hair too, I'm thankful that you pray for our little Jane just as much as we do! I'm thankful that you love me regardless of how I may be acting, I'm thankful that you have taught me how to love Jesus and love others, I'm thankful that you have taught me the importance of loving my husband through your example. I'm thankful that you have taught me the importance of being humble and grounded in all things, I'm thankful that you have taught me how to show compassion and care for others. I'm thankful that you have taught me how to laugh at life and enjoy laughing until you cry just like me! I'm thankful that you like to have occasional night of watching moves and eating hundreds of calories with me, I'm thankful that you know the true need for the occasional diet coke and ice cream cone from McDonalds. I'm thankful that you understand the deep need for hair dye in a girls life but agree that no one needs more than some lipstick and mascara in their makeup bag. I'm thankful that you are always willing to be a good sport for the good of the group......white water rafting, repelling, zip lining, hiking, eating sushi 2 minutes after it was reeled into the boat....are just a few that come to mind,  I'm thankful for your friendship and can't wait for the years ahead!!! I love you Mom!!!

Here is an example of my mom's "good sport" attitude!! Flyfishing in the cold for hours! Such a great mom, wife, Mimi and mother-in-law! :)

On a slightly different note, I have to share how God has put my heart at peace today. I have to be honest, I was kind of dreading today. I was dreading an entire sermon about mothers and thought I would probably cry through church. But God took that away and I spent the morning in excited anticipation for Mother's Day next year! I spent all morning imagining what our family will look like next year and found myself excited and thankful to be an adoptive mommy. I found myself thankful that I am going to be able to step in a love a child for someone who can't and desperately wishes they could. As I was listening to the proverb about a wife and mother of noble character I was struck with how important it is to strive to be this type of mommy. It hit me that someone is entrusting me to parent their child and I need to make sure I am living up to this job that someone else has so graciously giving me.

Our agency sent me this poem today, I loved it. However, I pray that unlike this poem, our child or children will be able to know their birth mommy.

A Mother's Day Poem:

Once there were two women who never knew each other
One you do not remember, the other you call Mother
Two different lives shaped to make you one
The first one gave you life, and the second taught you to live it
The first gave you a need for love, the second was there to give it
One gave you a nationality, the other gave you a name
One gave you a talent, the other gave you aim
One gave you emotions, the other calmed your fears
One saw your first sweet smile, the other dried your tears
One made an adoption plan, that was all that she could do
The other prayed for a child, and God led her straight to you.
Now, which of these two women, are you the product of?
Both, my darling, both, just two different types of love.
~ Author Unknown

Green"ish" thumb

I must say that having a yard and planting flowers is one of my favorite things about being out of an apartment. Our back yard is still really struggling, but sitting in our swing on the front porch looking at all our pretty flowers is one of my favorite things. I know, I know I sound so old saying that! But I spend lots of nights swinging on the swing, chatting on the phone, watching the frogs eat the bugs. :) We were a little impulsive and planted tomatoes, pepper, basil and a cucumber plant in our front beds since our back yard wasn't ready for planting. Not the best idea, but I like the slightly wild look of flowers and plants. However, some of the plants are taking over and I just have no idea what to do with this much basil!!

 

I was WRONG adoption peeps!

So I wrote a post about slow downs in our process and I had some facts a little bit wrong. I said that we had to wait 4-6 months to travel for a court date post referral and this is not right. Our caseworker actually just told me that she always says "4-6 months" because the Ethiopian courts shut down for 2 months in the summer. If you get a referral right before this shutdown you may have to wait out those couple months and then wait a couple more to get a date once they open. However, she said the wait for a court date right now has been about 5 weeks.

I was also wrong about 1/2 of the orphanages shutting down. I was told today that the southern region of Ethiopia shut down their orphanages, which was about 20 orphanages. This means that the kids are still there but they are not processing adoptions (sad!). Lots of adoption agencies worked primarily with the southern orphanages. So, now that they are shut down, agencies are scrambling to partner with other orphanages. This is slowing down the referral process for Ethiopia all across the board and across all agencies.

The good news here is that once we are matched with our baby, it is looking like it will be a relatively quick process to get her home!! I am so thankful!!

Referral are still a bit slow, but we are moving each month! I am going to remain hopeful that we will bring this child home in 2012!!!!!!

I just wanted to clarify b/c I didn't want people to be getting wrong information from my blog!!! I was going off what I read on the agency site and have now had it all clarified for me!

Hurry home little Jane!! :)