With Great Faith...

God is ALREADY rockin' our socks off throughout this whole process of adoption! We feel so blessed by the responses that we have already gotten of support and encouragement! We just wanted to share with you really quickly how AMAZINGLY cool this is...

Our next adoption step will cost us $550.
We arrived home last night from leading an awe-filled and super incredible College Group Winter Retreat feeling so filled and so pumped up about the ways that God has been working. When we got in the door, we were greeted with a pile of mail that had arrived on Saturday. After opening a few notes of encouragement that we received, including a special gift from one of my best friends in the world, we added up what we have in our adoption account.

The total: $549.57!

Just 43 cents short of our goal for this next part of the process!

So cool to be reminded of God's faithfulness, provision, and that He is a big enough God to be working and moving in more than one way at the same time!

Getting the Word Out...

Wow...I feel like someone who looks at a map on paper of what it looks like to run a marathon and says, "FO SHO! I got this in the bag!"
You slip into those running shorts, lace up those tennis shoes, charge up the iPod, and hop on the road, then realizes 2 blocks later that running is way harder and way more exhausting than it looks on paper.

Yup. That is me today.

But lets be honest...I TOTALLY want to do it! I just didn't realize the actual "running" part isn't as easy as the Nike commercials make it out to be.

I've got the shoes. Got the map. Got the jams. Now we just need help training! So, I'm calling on all of you who have better lungs and better training than I do...

HELP US GET THE WORD OUT!

As we begin our adoption journey, we are going to need all the help that we can get! We already have felt the love and support of so many around us and feel so blessed by our friends and family. But, we still need help! We believe so deeply in this call, so deeply in the Lord's faithfulness, and so deeply in the whole process of adoption and God's call on all of our lives to love and protect the orphans!

So, how can you help? Just talk about it! Let people know about us or others that are going through this journey. Direct people to our blog. Get involved!

I've learned that it is easier to run with an accountability partner anyway. So...let's lace up those tennies and get going!

Focal Point.

This is where we are keeping our eyes today. It is easy to forget sometimes...but after all...He is holy. 

In case you were wondering...

Yup. That is right folks! We have officially started down the road of adoption! And holy cow...

And we are STOKED!!!!

More than 2 years ago, we started having conversations about our future, our family, our desires for what that family might look like. Knowing that we had some odds against us, we brought up the idea of adoption...scary and seemingly unrealistic. But, both of our hearts were filled when we would think about even the idea! God was clearly moving...and we are learning not to mess with God.

Over this past year, we have been to doctors, had some testing done, and done our fair share of research as to the problems we were facing with our own intentions of being pregnant. We sat down and made the decision that this would be as far as we were going to go. No needles, no excessive testing, no procedures. If we were going to spend our money somewhere, it was going to be on a child that needed a home.

Now obviously we had our own plans. Right?
The ones that when God says "Walk Forward," you say, "God...clearly not right now. You obviously don't understand our timeline or plans!"

We decided to wait to pay off our debts, set into place a secure savings, and THEN pursue an adoption that would take maybe 2 or more years. Sounds solid, yeah?! We thought so too!

But, God had different plans.

There is honestly nothing scarier and more awesome than going to your spouse with a tug on your heart to do something that you had specifically talked about NOT doing and then finding out that they had the same tug. And that tug....well that tug is changing our lives.

So...
God is moving and preparing, we are trusting and praying (and filling out TONS of paperwork), and within the next few years...we will be the proudest parents of a little boy or girl from Ethiopia!

This is the beginning of our journey and we are so scared, nervous, excited, elated, and looking forward to what God has in store for us...because we know the end result is going to be incredible!

And that is why God rocks.

This is big. Really Really big!

You are not going to want to miss this. We have some really big news. (and just to squash any unnecessary rumors...there is no bun in the oven!) But seriously...you'll want to know. So, to add to the intrigue...you'll have to wait. We will let you know on Saturday!

The Heyse Girls and Company!

Over the break, we had the awesome chance to sneak out of the house while we were in St. Louis to do a mini photo shoot of the Heyse Girls, their husbands, and the man, the myth, and the legend - Taft! We came up with the idea as a gift to my parents for Christmas...MAJOR SUCCESS!!

The 7 of us ended up at the park where Erik and I had our wedding reception and snapped a few great shots of each couple and Tmaster-flex! (It helps when you have two photographers in the family!) I would have to say...the most amazing part was that it only took us about 15 minutes to pick out the pictures we wanted to put in the frame! If you know any of the Heyse girls...you know that this is basically a miracle!

My parents loved the gift, even shed a few tears, and we have some great captured moments to look back on from Christmas 2011! I seriously feel like I am blessed with the best family in the world!

Home Sweet Home

How fast the holidays have come and gone. We had an amazing Christmas, spending time with the Heyse family in St. Louis, MO. The whole family was there...Dad, Mom, Stephen, Keresa, and Taft and Weston and Beth!

The time was packed full of good family fun, cookie making, going to downtown St. Charles to see the lights, a visit to the Tap Room, and many nights around the fire with glasses of wine! We also got to spend some much needed hang out time with the cousins and had a few great days of catching up with old and dear friends.  

I finally got a chance to put together a few of the MILLION pictures that I took over the 10 days that we were home. All of the kids even got a chance to go out on Christmas Eve to take a mini photo shoot as a present to my parents. (Those pictures will come later)

It was heart-filling, refreshing, restful, and unforgettable. I LOVE being home. There really is something so true about saying "Home Sweet Home."