A little bit of this and a little bit of that...

Last Friday we finished up 8 months of waiting, now we're into month 9..If  I were physically pregnant I'd be ready to pop. Sometimes I feel like I'm about to pop anyway.
We're beginning to enter a busy season, I'm looking forward to it, it'll keep me occupied.

This weekend I'm headed to Created For Care in Atlanta, GA. I get to meet all my adoptive mama friends in real life! Now, they will be real life friends.  I'm so looking forward to this time to rest and be encouraged with other moms in the same spot as me, and thankful to my parents and hubby who are helping me get there (ps, I've never flown anywhere by myself expect to and from Portland...I'm terrified to switch planes...)

You might have notice this poor little blog has been neglected a bit, well, there's a good reason. I'm now blogging over at Give1Save1Africa too! So, if you or someone you know if adopting..send them our way! We can help you! I'm learning to manage my time...it's coming along...

Some things I'm looking forward to:

1. Created for Care (Jan)
2. Hume Lake Winter Camp with the High School Students (Feb)
3. RWANDA!!!! (March)
4. Grad Classic and Justin's Birthday (April)
5. Summer begins! (May) and ONE YEAR DTE!
6. Graduations galore and Kickback (June)
7. Backpacking with Justin! And my birthday (July)
8. SUMMER HUME (August)

So as you can see, we have a full exciting schedule coming up, throw in a referral somewhere over the next 7 months and it'll be pretty dang perfect.

And for your viewing pleasure, these are one of the (many) pictures from our high school ugly Christmas sweater party.  It's pretty awesome, these are some of our staff and some random students who snick in...gotta love 'em. You can laugh, it's pretty hilarious.  And completely not in the actual background, oh well.  Oh, and Lauren, that's your son in there trying to do flips out of Dave's arms ;) 

Going...

I'm going to Rwanda

I actually can't believe I'm writing those words.

In March, a group of friends and I are headed to Rwanda with Africa New Life

It's crazy how many random connections we discovered throughout planning this trip

It's totally confirming where God wants me to go.

The founder of Africa New Life went to my alma mater, Multnomah (well, he went to the seminary, I went to the college, but kinda the same thing ;) )

Africa New Life's women's ministries partners with Noonday Collection

I am so beyond excited to meet these women who's stories I've shared and who's work I proudly display at shows.  Getting to meet these women in person, and hug them, and thank them and tell them how many people care for them and ask about them and want to hear their stories. It's priceless. 

I'm sure I'll cry.

We're going over on a vision trip, to see about possible long term partnerships with ANL. What I love about ANL is that they are Rwandan run, helping the Rwandan people.  They have an amazing ministry and I'm so excited to be able to go and learn more about it.  We have no idea what God has in store for this trip, but I know it's going to be life changing and I'm ready!

There are some ways YOU can  be involved too! Wanna know how?

1. PRAY PRAY PRAY. Please pray for me and our team, pray that God will make us uncomfortable and feel called to action. Pray for health while we travel and while we're on the ground.  Pray for those who we're going to come in contact with, God already knows-pray he prepares our hearts and theirs.

2. You can host a Noonday Collection Trunk Show! For the months of January and February all Noonday commission will be going to my trip costs.  By hosting a show not only are you helping me with the finaicial part- but you're becoming a direct link to the women I will meet! We can take pictures at your show and I can show these women in Rwanda all of you who care for them! There are also some sweet incentives in Januray and Fevuary if you decide you wanna host a show, let me know and we can talk.

So why am I going? Becuse for over a year I have felt a nudge from the Holy Spirit saying it's time to GO and I'm too comfortable right now, it's time to get uncomfortable.

My friend Jessica from Noonday recently took her 6 year old daughter to Africa. they visited Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda.  Here's an expert from the blog she wrote right before she left-it's a beautiful explaintain on WHY we go.

"When Amelie, my 6 year old, is 22, I want her to tell me that her life isn’t all about her. I want her to risk everything, to lay down her life, in order to co labor with Christ to make His love known among the poor, the oppressed, the disenfranchised. I am taking her with me to Africa so she can SEE the face of poverty; the face of strength and beauty. I want her to see that Africa is not just a land of moms and dads so poor that Americans have to send lots of money to “sponsor” their kids.  It is a place where God’s image bearers dwell. Talented people, who with a market place for their goods, can create beautiful things and overcome insurmountable odds. She will meet the ladies behind the accessories that have filled our house and now office for 2 years and know why mommy is working so hard. She will see the 50 crib room that Jack called home, and will meet many other kids without moms and dads. I want her heart to be ruined and wrecked for the God who ruined himself for her." (see full blog post here)

 ^"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."

James 1:27

My word

I've spent waaaayyy too much time over the last few days reading over blogs and seeing what people hope for 2013, I love the idea of choosing a word to focus on.  I wrote a few days ago about my hope to live out Isaiah 58 this year (and the years to come) but with that, I wanted to choose a word that I also want to focus on, peace. 

Our lives are busy, and they're not gong to slow down, which sometimes really overwhelms me.  How I choose to handle situations is an example of Christ in me, and if I freak out and stress everyone and their mom out, well that's just not the best example right?

For 2013, along with living out Isaiah 58, I'm choosing to live out peace as well.  I love what my friend Beth wrote on her blog about her theme for the year, she used this verse as an example and it totally spoke to me.

"You will go out in joy and be led fourth in peace." Isaiah 55:12

What word would you choose?

58, my hopes for 2013

I loved reading other peoples goals, hopes a dreams for the new year.  It's inspiring to see so many want to make changes to their health, lifestyle, families and their spiritual walk.  It makes me so excited for a new year, a fresh start.

Yesterday was our anniversary, 5 years, 5 big ones, half a decade.  I love to just talk and dream about what our next year will hold, Justin on the other hand is quite the realist and when I ask him what he thinks will happen in over the next year his response usually is "whatever God wants to happen." He's the realist,the brake pedal in my gas pedal thinking. haha. But I don't let that stop me and I usually go off on huge tangent of a dream I want to happen.  

This year has been a year where I have been wrecked for Jesus.  He has opened my eyes to a world that desperately needs Him and He has called me to be a voice for those cannot speak up for themselves and to show love to those who might name never experienced it.  He is doing big things my friends, big things in my life and my husbands life and the lives of those around us.  There is so much I want to share, but just not yet ;) 

Our prayer and hope throughout our adoption journey is that God would be made famous in our story, because He is the reason why we're here at this spot.  He is the reason why our eyes were opened and continued to be opened.  This year will be full of adventure, joy, fun and I"m sure some sad times too, but it will all be to make Him famous. 

The other night I had a friend recommend watching the film 58.  It's a documentary about living out Isaiah 58. We watched it and were so inspired to live it our more than ever!

ISAIAH 58

1 “Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins. 2 For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. 3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. 4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. 5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself ? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?

6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter– when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? 8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. 9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, 10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. 11 The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. 12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

13 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, 14 then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.” The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

For my 2013, I want to live this boldly and proclaim it daily! 

Want to check out the documentary 58 yourself, do it!!! 
(this is a teaser, are you pumped to watch it?! Check out their site here
and you can find the documentary on Netfilx and YouTube)

Water for Life

Did you know that over half the worlds population lacks clean drinking water?

Did you know that children walk miles each day just to access muddy, disease infested water, and then they drink it?

Did you know you can do something about it?

When we started this journey to our son, our eyes were opened wide to many different crisis all over the world.  The orphan crisis, the AIDS/HIV crisis, the water crisis, the list goes on and on.  Sometimes the reality of this world can seem overwhelming.  But we all can do something.

Do you have $79? Not $79 a month, just $79? Did you know that just $79 can provide a family with clean water...for life? That's literally less than our water bill.

"Every day over 4,000 children are dying of water-related diseases such as cholera and typhoid that are easily preventable. Many more are suffering sickness, diarrhea and acute stomach pains – illnesses that stop children going to school and growing up into healthy adults." source

Just $79 provides a filtration system for a family.  Not only are these families given water, but they are presented with the gospel thanks to Compassion International.  I would encourage you to check out their site, for $38 a month you can even sponsor a child, we love our Compassion sponsor child, I love seeing a letter in the mailbox from Compassion it brightens my day.

Giving the gift of water really can save a life, and it just $79...

Check it out here

How to be a village, part 1

Recently, we've been getting lots of questions on how people can help us during this waiting phase, what they can pray for, ect.  This is a tough question to tackle because, if you haven't learned by now, adoption is an emotional roller coaster, and those needs can change daily, even hourly during the waiting period.  Jen Hatmaker wrote a great post on "How to Be The Village" for families in the adoption process.  Hatmaker breaks her post up into 2 categories; before and after the airport.  we won't talk about the "after the airport" part today, but I'll share with you what she writes about how to be the village before the airport, during the waiting phase.  It's long, but it's so helpful and she writes it much better than I ever could...

Supporting Families Before the Airport

"Your friends are adopting. They’re in the middle of dossiers and home studies, and most of them are somewhere in the middle of Waiting Purgatory. Please let me explain something about WP: It sucks in every way. Oh sure, we try to make it sound better than it feels by using phrases like “We’re trusting in God’s plan” and “God is refining me” and “Sovereignty trumps my feelings” and crazy bidness like that. But we are crying and aching and getting angry and going bonkers when you’re not watching. It’s hard. It hurts. It feels like an eternity even though you can see that it is not. It is harder for us to see that, because many of us have pictures on our refrigerators of these beautiful darlings stuck in an orphanage somewhere while we’re bogged down in bureaucracy and delays. 

How can you help? By not saying or doing these things:

1. “God’s timing is perfect!” (Could also insert: “This is all God’s plan!” “God is in charge!”) As exactly true as this may be, when you say it to a waiting parent, we want to scratch your eyebrows off and make you eat them with a spoon. Any trite answer that minimizes the struggle is as welcomed as a sack of dirty diapers. You are voicing something we probably already believe while not acknowledging that we are hurting and that somewhere a child is going to bed without a mother again. Please never say this again. Thank you.

2. “Are you going to have your own kids?” (Also in this category: “You’ll probably get pregnant the minute your adoption clears!” “Since this is so hard, why don’t you just try to have your own kids?” “Well, at least you have your own kids.”) The subtle message here is: You can always have legitimate biological kids if this thing tanks. It places adoption in the Back-up Plan Category, where it does not belong for us. When we flew to Ethiopia with our first travel group from our agency, out of 8 couples, we were the only parents with biological kids. The other 7 couples chose adoption first. Several of them were on birth control. Adoption counts as real parenting (Not to mention the couples that grieved through infertility already. So when you say, “Are you going to have your own kids?” to a woman who tried for eight years, then don’t be surprised if she pulls your beating heart out like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.)

3. For those of you in Christian community, it is extremely frustrating to hear: “Don’t give up on God!” or “Don’t lose faith!” It implies that we are one nanosecond away from tossing our entire belief system in the compost pile because we are acting sad or discouraged. It’s condescending and misses the crux of our emotions. I can assure you, at no point in our story did we think about kicking Jesus to the curb, but we still get to cry tears and feel our feelings, folks. Jesus did. And I’m pretty sure he went to heaven when he died. 

4. We’re happy to field your questions about becoming a transracial family or adopting a child of another race, but please don’t use this moment to trot out your bigotry. (Cluelessness is a different thing, and we try to shrug that off. Like when someone asked about our Ethiopian kids, “Will they be black?” Aw, sweet little dum-dum.) The most hurtful thing we heard during our wait was from a black pastor who said, “Whatever you do, don’t change their last name to Hatmaker, because they are NOT Hatmakers. They’ll never be Hatmakers. They are African.” What the??? I wonder if he’d launch the same grenade if we adopted white kids from Russia? If you’d like to know what we’re learning about raising children of another race or ask respectful, legitimate questions, by all means, do so. We care about this and take it seriously, and we realize we will traverse racial landmines with our family. You don’t need to point out that we are adopting black kids and we are, in fact, white. We’ve actually already thought of that.

5. Saying nothing is the opposite bad. I realize with blogs like this one, you can get skittish on how to talk to a crazed adopting Mama without getting under her paper-thin skin or inadvertently offending her. I get it. (We try hard not to act so hypersensitive. Just imagine that we are paper-pregnant with similar hormones surging through our bodies making us cry at Subaru commercials just like the 7-month preggo sitting next to us. And look at all this weight we’ve gained. See?) But acting like we’re not adopting or struggling or waiting or hoping or grieving is not helpful either. If I was pregnant with a baby in my belly, and no one ever asked how I was feeling or how much longer or is his nursery ready or can we plan a shower, I would have to audition new friend candidates immediately. 

Here’s what we would love to hear Before the Airport:

1. Just kind, normal words of encouragement. Not the kind that assume we are one breath away from atheism. Not the kind that attempt to minimize the difficulties and tidy it all up with catchphrases. We don’t actually need for you to fix our wait. We just want you to be our friend and acknowledge that the process is hard and you care about us while we’re hurting. That is GOLD. I was once having lunch with my friend Lynde when AWAA called with more bad news about Ben’s case, and I laid my head down on the table in the middle of Galaxy Café and bawled. Having no idea what to do with such a hot mess, she just cried with me. Thank you for being perfect that day, Lynde. 

2. Your questions are welcomed! We don’t mind telling you about the court system in Ethiopia or the in-country requirements in Nicaragua or the rules of the foster system. We’re glad to talk about adoption, and we’re thankful you care. I assure you we didn’t enter adoption lightly, so sharing details of this HUGE PIECE OF OUR LIVES is cathartic. Plus, we want you to know more because we’re all secretly hoping you’ll adopt later. (This is not true.) (Yes it is.)

3. When you say you’re praying for us and our waiting children, and you actually really are, not only does that soothe our troubled souls, but according to Scripture, it activates the heavens. So pray on, dear friends. Pray on. That is always the right thing to say. And please actually do it. We need people to stand in the gap for us when we are too tired and discouraged to keep praying the same words another day. 

4. If you can, please become telepathic to determine which days we want to talk about adoption and which days we’d rather you just show up on our doorstep with fresh figs from the Farmer’s Market (thanks, Katie) or kidnap us away in the middle of the day to go see Bridesmaids. Sometimes we need you to make us laugh and remember what it feels like to be carefree for a few hours. If you’re not sure which day we’re having, just pre-buy movie tickets and show up with the figs, and when we answer the door, hold them all up and ask, “Would you like to talk for an hour uninterrupted about waiting for a court date?” We’ll respond to whichever one fits. "

Ok, so I know she may have said some things that may or may not have ruffled your feathers, but there is truth in some things she writes, and there are many things that we can relate too, we also have had (actually more than one person) ask us if our son will be black, bless their hearts.  And while we 100% know and believe God's timing is perfect, sometimes you just want to hear "waiting sucks." Anyway, this is just part 1 of Jen's post, part 2 will come later when we prepare for "after the airport" :)

I like adoption

First, thanks for all your encouragement after my last post, it was a rough day and I'm feeling much better-we all need to be a little raw sometimes you know?

Anyway, ok so there's been this video that's been circulating through facebook land and it's awesome, so awesome that I want to take some time to share it with you and talk a little about it.  It's called "I like adoption" and it's from the campaign "I like...( enter your word here)" which is an awesome campaign, my friend Beth wrote a little blurb about it over on the give1Save1 site the other day about living generously. It's basically a campaign for just that, to live generously.  Get this, so you can sign up for like a 3 day "trial" of living generously and they'll send you an email every day on what you can do to intentionally live generously.  We all know we should be generous, but when you're presented daily with a "task" it makes it a little more fun, you're seeking out those opportunities (which lets be honest we don't all do, but if you do, that's awesome!) It's funny all three day's when my "tasks" came to my inbox I'm like "there's not way that will come up in my everyday life!" And then, it did, usually pretty quickly. I'd tell you about all three days...but I really want you to try it for yourself ;)

Ok, so back to the "I like adoption" part of it.  That's the video where I first hear about "I like..." This video is just so sweet and real, okay so now you have to watch it so I can tell you my favorite parts, so watch it...

Go watch it here! 

(because I can't figure out how to get it on this blog haha)

Ok so I have tons of favorites, I totally cried when the boy started playing the piano. And Justin and I watched it together and totally related to the gas and brake pedal...I'm ALWAYS bringing up new things to Justin. 

But in all reality, when he mentioned that their repair man said their house looks like a united nations meeting, I got goosebumps..because that's what I desire for our family; children from all over the world from all different backgrounds and with different stories. I looked at the family in this video and thought, that's just like a little piece of heaven in their house. 

and that my friends, is why I like adoption...