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Blue Chalk and Love Notes :: Lessons from a 7 Year Old || 4 Months Post Adoption

We bought a new rug. Thanks to some welcome home gift cards and a giant, yet washable, stain on the upper right corner, we walked out of Kmart with a giant size piece of carpet for less than my Aldi grocery bill.

The basement had decidedly been quartered off to make a playroom for our girl, who has befriended most of the children on our street and hosts tea parties, art classes, and teaches school to unknowing 3 year olds.

My living room and my minor OCD were not surviving the traffic.

The finished product (on a minimal budget) made me and our girl proud and so with excitement I announced that she could have her "quiet time" in the basement in her new play room.
(We have a quiet time every day for 1 hour to refuel her engine and give her a bit of time to wind down. But let's be honest...it is really for me.)

I heard the pitter-patter of feet running up the stairs, far too early than previously agreed. As an excited 7-year old face peered around the corner I automatically knew. Some thing had gone terribly wrong.

"I have a VERY awesome gift for you, Mommy." Blink. Blink, blink, blink.

I slowly walked down the steps, eyes half open because she had requested me blindfolded - to which I met her with a compromise of no.

As I entered the quarter size playroom and looked down, I gasped. The brand new white/cream/beige carpet (should of seen that one coming) that had been so delicately placed in our child's playroom (again, really didn't seen this coming?) was covered, COVERED, in bright neon blue chalk.

It was like a Smurf crime scene.
Her pride soared.
My jaw dropped.

As I looked from the carpet to her face and back again, it was obvious that I was in shock. And her joy went from soaring to broken.

"What did you do?" I asked.

And in a quiet voice she said, "I wrote you a love note."

As I looked closer, I realized that all the lines and circles and shapes were not random. They were calculated. And designed with care.

I LUV U MOMMY! heart shape. heart shape. heart shape.
N J E F. (This is her sleek way of writing code for our family - Nosipho, Jessa, Erik, Family) heart shape. heart shape. heart shape.
LOOOOOOOVVVVVEEEEEEEE. heart shape. heart shape. heart shape.
Chicken shape. (I'm still not totally sure how this one fits into the love note, but I'm sure it will come to me in some divine revelation when she is 16. Or she just really loves chickens.)

I am no adoption expert. Not even close. But even the worst informed adoptive parent would know two things in this situation:

1. My response to this situation was absolutely horrible.
2. We are the luckiest people in the world.

Adoption is hard.
The waiting process is daunting, exhausting, and heart-breaking at times.
And when you finally cross over to the much anticipated moment of meeting the child you have prayed for, cried over, pursued, and worked so hard to bring home, there is a part of you that feels like you should be singing and dancing everyday.

I am amazed at how quickly that emotion fades. And how quickly I forget that this is the little girl that stole our hearts and set us on a life-changing path.

When your daughter is kicking, screaming, crying, and scratching for anything she can touch in the heat of a total breakdown because she doesn't know how to express her needs, you forget that there is a little person in there that is broken and hurting.

When your 7-year old is asking you to dress her every morning and carry her to bed every single night when you know she is capable of doing it and all you want is 5 minutes to finish eating your cold dinner, you forget that there is a child in there whose basic needs have never been met the way they needed to be.

And when your daughter, who you adopted only 4 months ago, gives you kisses and hugs everyday and writes love (did you hear that? LOVE) notes in your brand new carpet, you forget that it is nothing short of a miracle that this little child is your daughter. And that by the grace of God, she has been able to find small pieces of healing and little reasons to trust, despite the many, MULTIPLE (like on the daily) moments where we TOTALLY screw up this whole parenthood thing.

We eventually scrubbed out the blue chalk and the stain in the right hand corner of the carpet. The stain came out completely. But there are hints of blue all over the rug and I am thankful for that. Thankful for the reminder that mistakes along the way are often more beautiful than perfecting the process.

Home.

We made it. It may have been a little over a week ago and it may be that I have been too tired to even think about posting on our blog...

But we made it. By the grace of God, we traveled over 9,000 miles, 23 hours, and 3 viewings of Frozen on the airplane to arrive back in Minnesota and into the arms of the people we love.

We have so much to be thankful for. We are figuring out this new life one step at a time, but praising God for His unending mercies, faithfulness, and grace.

Learning each day how to live and breath into our new role as parents.

There is a lot to write about, a lot to discover, and a lot of really hilarious things that (as parents) we probably shouldn't be laughing at. (We will be reporting all these missteps and adventures as soon as we have one solid night of uninterrupted sleep).

For now, here is a little glimpse into one of the most precious moments of our lives.

Thank you to all who have been praying, supporting, journeying through this adventure with us. We know that the hard part is just now starting, but are so thankful for the love we have been shown.

It is good to be home.

Guided.

Yesterday we went to a botanical gardens-y type place. They also served wine, so I don't know what that qualifies as, but it was awesome.

And big.

(Side Note: For those just checking in...we (being me and Nosipho) are still in South Africa. Erik and I left for South Africa on February 11th and Erik headed back home to the States on March 12th. Nosipho and I are waiting for her unabridged birth certificate and temporary passport to be able to leave the country. Time of departure? Unknown.)

Back to our adventure. 

The gardens were big enough to need a map to walk around it. And since it seems that we have added a daughter to our family who is strong-willed, independent, and adventurous...she controlled the map. 

At first, I was trying to explain that you have to hold it right side up in order to really know where you are going. After a few minutes, I just gave up and decided to trust her (and the people in yellow shirts that actually knew where we were supposed to go).

I should learn to trust more because even though the map was upside down, she seemed to know exactly where we needed to go.

What looked upside down to me made complete sense to her. 

And though our journey took maybe a bit/way longer than I would have liked, we stumbled upon places that we never would have seen had I been in control of the map. 

Do you see where I'm going with this?

I've been struggling quite a bit with understanding why God isn't making things happen faster here on this end. If it were up to me and my AWESOME navigational skills, we would have been out of South Africa yesterday. 

But I'm starting to see little glimpses of the blessings that come from long journeys. (You would have thought this lesson would have been learned in that whole 3 year journey to adopt Nosipho, yeah? #slowlearner #foolmeonce?)

But even when I'm kicking, screaming, and awkwardly crying to old episodes of Hawaii Five-O by myself after sweet girl is asleep, I'm starting to hear God's voice a bit clearer. 

The map may look upside down, and this path may not have been the one you would have chosen if you were in control...

But the journey will be beautiful.

And I promise, I'll bring you safely to the exit. 

South Africa, Family of Three, and Katy Perry

My plan was to blog in South Africa during our adoption.

No one ever told me that having a 6 year old would not allow for that..easily. 

Touche Parenthood. Touche. 

But, in an effort to bring some news and updates to all of you, I decided to put down my obsession with Candy Crush (post bedtime), grab a glass of wine and go sit outside on the patio of someone's house to capture a few minutes of stolen internet! Boom. This is Africa. 

The last 2+ weeks have been a complete whirlwind. I liken it to the part of the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy has not yet figured out that she is in a dream and a house just crushed a witch. Oddly exciting, somewhat confusing. Definitely foreign. 

We arrived in South Africa after a long 37 hours of travel through too many different countries to list. The day following this, we met our daughter. Our beautiful, vivacious, energetic, independent, and amazing daughter. She is beyond anything we could have ever dreamed. God absolutely knew what he was doing when He weaved our family together.

We spent our first week visiting her each day at her orphanage, getting to know each other, and eating a lot of hamburgers and french fries. (Don't criticizes this unless you have a adopted a 6 year old from a foreign country. You literally do whatever it takes.)

Enter Katy Perry. We found our first days of bonding with her to be quite difficult. She didn't really want anything to do with us after Day 1. We tried everything. We were super cool. I mean, pullin' out all the "cool parent" tricks. I was like "Dang, Erik. We are awesome." Nosipho was like, "Not so much."

Who knew that Katy Perry and her Prism album would single handedly open up the door to instant bonding. With 1 (or maybe 500) plays of "Roar" and "Darkhorse", we were a VonTrap family miracle on our car trips to fast food. I'm 100% convinced that Katy would want us on stage with her. We have hand motions. 

After a week, we broke through. We officially took her to our temporary residence to live with us permanently. We spent another week in Durban and on February 27th, she officially became ours according to the courts of South Africa. It was...perfect. 

We headed to Cape Town the day after, where we will be for the next several weeks. Here we will be doing her US Immigration Medical Exams, applying for her Visa and Passport, and rounding up all loose ends to get us to our exit interview in Johannesburg (hopefully by the end of March). 

Erik will leave on March 12th to head back home and back to work. (I may have had a complete emotional breakdown today about being a single parent for 2/3 weeks. I mean, maybe.)

Our time has been sweet. The girl is a riot. A firecracker. I think she wants to be Katy Perry (perhaps Juicy J, we aren't sure). But, she has brought some serious life to this family. She is strong, beautiful, and will definitely change the world. We know it. 

We are proud parents of our sweet daughter, Nosipho (No-See-Po) Ruth Anderson, and would not/could not wish for something different. 

We will try to update you all more than we have, but for now, prayers prayers prayers abundant for bonding, paperwork, the African process, and each steps forward as we learn to parent, love, and grow as a family! 

And, if anyone didn't get tickets to the Katy Perry concert, you are welcome to come over to our home when we are back. Free show. 

Up Up and Away!

Seriously. We can't believe that this day is here.

2 weeks ago, we woke up to a whirlwind of news, emotions, planning, and a lot of crying. Today/yesterday (I don't really know what day it is), we are sitting in the Paris International Airport, eating macaroons (I stress eat), waiting to board a flight that is going to literally change our lives forever.

I'm not a big cryer by nature. I actually have had to pinch myself to cry at times when I'm next to Erik who is a tender-hearted little soul. He makes me look bad. But, my eyes seem to have taken on the characteristics of a leaky faucet...on crack. They don't stop. I'm a disaster. We both are.

I don't really have a lot of words that I can say to let people know how we are feeling. I suppose if you have been there, you know. Excitement, fear, joy, anticipation, anxiety...I don't even know. I'm like a junior high girl's mood ring.

Either way, we wouldn't and couldn't be in this spot without a lot of you! Your prayers, encouragements, support, bags of donated clothes, toys, and cheetos...the list goes on. It is a joy and privilege to be able to share all of this with you. A total joy!

And holy cow. We can't wait to meet our sweet girl. And we can't wait for that first post we get to make introducing our daughter into your lives!

God is amazing. You guys are pretty rockin' too.

So here we go.

Let the Adventures of Noi begin!

Here We Come!

I have actually been writing out this blog post in my head for months.

It was going to be super elegant and quite epic, mixed with the slightest hint of humor (just for the people who prefer to awkwardly laugh in emotional situations).

All that went out the window. Real fast.
Instead, We are just a blubbering, hysterical mess. I can't even post a picture because we both look like someone who just watched Bambi 5 times in a row and then chugged 12 Monster Energy Drinks.

Please take a moment to picture this. That is us.

We woke up this morning to a phone call. THE phone call. And these 5 words...

YOU GOT YOUR COURT DATE!!!!!!

Exactly one year ago, we sat in a meeting with the face of our little girl on a piece of paper in front of us and said yes.
We said yes to the scariest thing we have ever decided in our lives. We said yes to something we knew nothing about. We said yes to God's plan for our family even though it didn't look anything like what we thought.

And holy cow. I'm so glad we said yes.

In the great words of Macauly Culkin, "This is it. Don't get scared now."

For something that we have been preparing for directly and indirectly for 3 years, we have never felt so excited, unprepared, anxious, elated, and ready.

Our court date is February 27th, which means we will be leaving in the next few weeks to get out to South Africa, meet our girl, and spend some bonding time with her before we head to court to make it all official!

Surreal.

After things calmed down a bit this morning (aka we could actually start to see again through our complete mess of tears) we actually took the time to look at our Facebooks and phones. This is how cool God is...

Three separate people had emailed us/messaged us saying that we had been on their minds last night and this morning and that they were praying for movement. Praying for amazing things.

God is fighting for us. God is fighting for our girl. And so are all of you.

None of this has been done in our own power and it will continue to not be done in our own strength. For each of those prayers, each of those encouragements, and each of those moments that you have taken to lift us up...we can not thank you enough.

The road is not over yet and I know we will continue to need TONS of prayers as we travel and become a family. And probably even more as we navigate becoming parents (Holy Crap. Let's cross that bridge when we get to it.)

But today....today is a long awaited day of praises. Like crazy dancing like a mad woman and singing at the top of your lungs praises.

Just do it. You know you want to. Because...

Sweet girl, here we come.

The Injured Reserve

This thing is going a lot different than I thought.

This is all I kept hearing while Erik was watching a video in our living room last night.

I immediately was quick to tell him that I obviously did not like that man who was talking on the video. I think my exact words were "Well, that is stupid." (Watch the video and you will clearly see that what he says is amazing and not stupid in any way. I was in denial.)

This thing is going a lot different than I thought. We are on the injured reserve list right now. Benched for the time being. As far as we know, we won't be called into the game anytime soon. At least not until after Christmas.

This thing is going a lot different than I thought, but God is still faithful.

I never thought an NFL Quarterback could bring me a big dose of perspective on our adoption. I was wrong.

A No News Update

Whoever came up with the phrase "No news is good news" obviously never adopted.

Frankly, I want to punch that person in the face. A little abrasive?

But, because we have had a lot of people asking us what is going on, I figured I'd give you an update. A "No News" update.

So what is going on? Here is the 411.

Last time we updated you all, we told you about the date debacle on some of our documents. The issue was resolved (much more quickly than anticipated, which was a huge praise) but then the government decided that they couldn't make civil decisions and shut down. Well played, guys.

When we first arrived in Minnesota in August, we had to get new fingerprints for our Home Study update. Since I literally think that most criminals haven't been fingerprinted as much as we have, we skipped on down to the police station like pros to repeat this process for the 4th time. They said it would take 2-3 weeks.
As of 2 weeks ago, we still hadn't passed our background check. (insert California being a little slow on the uptake and the Federal government being, well, preschoolers.)

As for our referral and court dates, basically, we have to pass a second stage of immigration here in the US, then that approval has to be sent to South Africa, they have to approve our approval and grant us a court date all before mid November so that we can be out of South Africa by mid December before the courts close for the season.
However, we couldn't file for immigration until our Home Study update was complete which needed the fingerprints that still hadn't been approved.
See how confusing this is? If I didn't believe that God was the greatest puzzle master in the world, I think I would just have given up.

So, our agency decided that we were going to basically throw out procedures and just start the ball rolling on everything even though the very first puzzle piece wasn't in place. That is what I'm talkin' about! Rebels!
We applied for immigration without our completed Home Study update, then finally heard back about our fingerprints and finished the update. I was able to talk to our Immigration Officer and explain our situation and (Praise the Lord!) she is great! As of right now, things are pretty much dependent on her to push through our case and get our I800 approval done more quickly than usual.

That is so much information.

I sometimes forget that it all makes so much more sense when you have been looking at all the paperwork for the last year. Sorry? #notsosorry

So where does that leave us?
Well it leaves us completely vulnerable and completely out of control.
If you haven't learned anything about me yet, these are 2 things that make me kick and scream and throw things.

Best case scenario, our USCIS officer pushes through our I800 application and South Africa grants us a quick court date and we leave in the next month. That is like..."winning all the gold medals in the Olympics in every sport" best case scenario.

Worst case scenario, everything gets put on hold until after the new year and we wait. Again.

I'm for the gold medals, personally.

As we said in our last post, we are praying for things that don't make sense. Praying that the greatest puzzle master of all time is going to blow our minds by putting together all the pieces in the craziest way possible and get us to South Africa before Christmas so that we can finally bring our little girl home.

But we are also praying for patience and peace, trusting that God's timing (although in the thick of it doesn't always make sense) is better than ours.

So until there is news...we will be on our knees praying.

Nothing I Hold On To

I was woken up this morning by a hot cup of coffee on my bed stand  from my husband. Coffee and then really loud worship music in the bathroom while he showered.

Don't get me wrong, I love worship music. And worshipping. Just not before my coffee. (That is probably a stronghold worth working on.)

"I lean not on my own understanding. My life is in the hands of the maker of heaven."

Boooooo. I like my coffee. I like my own understanding. Control issues much?

"I lean not on my own understanding. My life is in the hands of the maker of heaven."

We get it, Will Reagan, you don't have to repeat yourself a billion times. What is the point of that anyway?

"I give it all to you, God, trusting that you'll make something beautiful out of me."

Whoa. 

"I will climb this mountain with my hands wide open. There's nothing I hold on to."

Clearly, God doesn't care if I haven't had my morning coffee yet to start a conversation with me. 

I'm clearly moody about it. But, I'm listening. 

Maybe just with one ear. 

There's nothing I hold on to.

In my life, especially with our adoption, I sometimes find myself in too deep. My thoughts, my words, my actions, my world...I cling so tightly. 

Recently, it has been even worse, wondering if we are going to get through to court before December, knowing that if we don't have a court date for November, we will be waiting until after the new year to bring our girl home. We are pushing through paperwork, talking with immigration, mass communicating with social workers, praying for governments to play nice, compiling our travel expenses knowing that if this all goes through we might have just a few days notice to hop on a plane and go. 

"I will climb this mountain with my hands wide open. There's nothing I hold on to."

And then there is that. How do you even climb a mountain with no hands! That doesn't even make sense. 

I suppose that is the point.
Got it, God.

We are praying for things that don't make sense. That seem impossible. That can't happen.

Nothing I hold on to. 

This is our prayer and we ask that it be yours for us as well. With prayers of court dates, paperwork, miracles, our daughter...

We ask for prayers to climb this mountain with our hands wide open. To rest in the hands of the maker. That we would be made beautiful through this process and His glory would be made known. 

Nothing I hold on to.

Nothing we hold on to.

Hurdles and Skinned Hands

Have you ever been so excited about something that you awkwardly tripped, flung yourself forward, hit the pavement, and felt the searing pain of the palms of your hands scraping across the gravel?

You know, the pain that doesn't show up in the form of cool battle wounds or scars but burns to the depth of your being for like 5 days straight?

I'd like to say that these incidents were isolated only to my growing years of childhood, but seeing as I am quite clumsy...this is a normal occurrence.

It hurts. A lot.

And although a meager metaphor for our lives right now, it was the only thing I could think of during this last week as we have journeyed through our referral acceptance.

There is nothing quite like receiving your referral for the first time. Feeling the joy, anticipation, nervousness, fear, and hope all wrapped into 20 pieces of paper that probably meant nothing to anyone for a long time.

Seeing pictures. Hearing her story.

Beautiful.

We got so wrapped up in the joy and excitement that 1 week later, as we took a closer look, we realized that there was a major date discrepancy in our daughter's paperwork.

All of the official referral and government paperwork had one date as her birthday and her birth certificate had another. It went through 2 agencies and 2 governments and we were the ones to discover it. (Insert my poor attitude here).

As we have been in communication with our agency, we found out today that the date has to be changed on all the paperwork including the government form. The amount of time this will take is unknown.

We have been promised speediness, but as we have learned quickly, that doesn't mean a whole lot.

Vulnerable moment: I feel like I have skinned hands all over. I'm hurt. I'm angry. I'm frustrated. And I'm still laying on the ground rolling back and forth wondering what happened.

Erik asked me this morning if I knew God was good. "Yes. I know God is good." "Then let's cling to that," he said. (He makes my flailing, out of control, banged up being look slightly pathetic.)

We are clinging. We are. It is just so hard sometimes with skinned hands.

The Start Of It All...well...kind of.

Oh hey.

Long time no talk.
That's my bad. Don't worry...you haven't missed...much?

The long and short of it is this...

In the end of July we got our South African Central Authority approval to go forward with our adoption.

1 very short week later, we packed up a Uhaul and trucked halfway across the country to Minnesota to start a new chapter in life.

One even shorter week after that we arrived in St. Paul, moved into our new house, had a Home Study update, Erik started his new job as a High School Youth Pastor and we waited for our official referral. 

One very LONG month after that....

We received a phone call. And an email. Today.

You better believe it. 

WE GOT OUR REFERRAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are just a little excited. Just a little. 

Crazy ride in, eh?

More to come soon! I promise I won't make you wait another month to update you! But for now...

HOLY COW!!!! PRAISE GOD!!!!!

APPROVED!

Um. Yeah. No big deal. 

Just received a phone call that our case in South Africa was approved by the Central Authorities to adopt our sweet girl! 

We should be expecting our official referral somewhere on the road between California and Minnesota. (That is about 10-14 days for those of you who aren't mapping our travels!)

We are elated. Even in the midst of chaos, great news is great news.

Praise God. 

Because of you...

Because of God's people doing unthinkable things...

Rallying around us in ways that we could have never imagined....

Standing up for us when we felt weak, overwhelmed, and defeated...

Because you said yes to making a difference...

Thank you.

Thank you for your generosity.

Love.

Encouragements.

For everything.

This is what happened.

And IS happening.

Because of you.

Fathers and DAY 7.

4 years ago, I was sitting in church.
I felt a tap on my leg and looked over to my husband handing me a folded up piece of paper.

The question had been, "In what big ways do you want God to move through you and your family?"

I'm pretty sure at that point, my answer was God putting a Jimmy John's Sandwich Shop down the street from my house so I could use that as a ministry spot and eat all the lettuce wrap Italian sandwiches I wanted.

Erik clearly was on a different level.

I looked down at the piece of paper and to my amazement, written in golf size pew pencil was one word:

Adoption.

Before any doctor's appointments, before any conversations, before any "results"... God had placed in his heart the desire to become a dad through adoption.

So I don't think it is ironic today that our Give1Save1 week is ending on Father's Day.

He makes all things beautiful in his time.

So today as we wrap up a week of ridiculous, amazing, and unbelievable blessing, let's do it in honor of all the dads out there, who hope, dream, fight, cry, passionately love, and care for their kids...

For Erik. A Dad who has loved every step of the way, even before we knew what we were getting into.

We've got $1,800 more to go. If every friend of ours on Facebook gave $2 today, we would surpass this. So let's do it. Share, post, tweet, instagram...

Let's blow the socks off of this fundraiser in honor of Dad.

Give1Save1 Day 6 and another AWESOME FREE GIVEAWAY!!

So, for real peeps. When we said you all were awesome, we weren't joking.

And due to your overwhelming support and love, we made it WAY past $4000!!

As another way of thanking you all and another encouragement for getting the word out we have decided to giveaway...

An Erik Anderson original "many faces of Erik" 12-month calendar complete with themed season pictures! He mentioned something about Uggs.

(Ok, he literally said he would disown me if I didn't write that.)


But, for real...we actually do have something for you and I think you will love it! Because I do!!! And it is not just amazing, but it is for an amazing cause too!!

So, first person to write "You hit $5,000!" (when we hit $5,000) gets this:

This INCREDIBLE Arrow Necklace is from an INCREDIBLE company called "Story Company." They do amazing work to empower people all over the world to use their skills and creativity to make sustainable business and change! Check them out HERE for more information on all of the great things they do and the awesome products they help to provide! (Even if you DON'T win this necklace, you should just go buy it...or buy everything on this site because you will be obsessed!)

And then GO! Go like the wind and share our link!! Lets make this happen! Two Days left, people!!! WAHOO!!!

Give1Save1 South Africa Day 3!

So...

You guys are ridiculous. Like, good way ridiculous!

Not only are people all over the world pouring out love all over this adoption process but we are leaping toward our goal and it has only been 2 full days!

We can't wait to see what God is going to do this week, because He is already blowing past our expectations!

So keep spreading the news, sharing the link, praying, talking, jumping up and down like a crazy person...whatever you have to do to keep this thing going! We want Facebook to call us and tell us to stop posting this link because it has been posted too much! :)

We can't thank you enough.

Some of our favorite people in the world helped us put together this little video for you to enjoy...

Here we go, Day 3!!!!

Give1Save1 South Africa Day 2!!

It is a miracle that I am even able to see as I type, considering we were both in tears all day yesterday with the RIDICULOUS outpouring of love and support that we were shown in just 24 hours!

Seriously people. Like for real.

It is funny how I doubt and worry and get anxious so much when God continually shows His blessing in ways FAR bigger than I can even imagine.

If God had a Twitter, he would "#BOOM" all the time.

So we are on to Day 2 of Give1Save1 and have no idea what to expect because clearly God is in the business of doing that.

Here is a little recap from of our thoughts yesterday!

We love you guys so much!! Thank you!!!

Now lets go dominate Day 2!!!

Drum Roll.....brrrrrrrrrrruuuuuummmmmmm...

I know how much you guys all hate the suspense we leave you in on a fairly good basis...
But, would you have it any other way?!

So for those of you who saw our post on Instagram/Facebook yesterday, you know we have some big news! And big news indeed!!!

We would like to announce that this week...

WE HAVE BEEN CHOSEN AS THE GIVE1SAVE1 FAMILY FOR OUR SOUTH AFRICA ADOPTION!!!!

What?!??!

This is a HUGE deal!!!!!

As many of you know, in January, we started a second adoption of a precious girl on the waiting child list at our agency. She is 6, amazing, and beautiful!

Because she is a waiting child, this whole process has gone really fast and everyone working on making this adoption happen is working hard to bring her home to us. And we can't wait. Like, literally, can't wait!

Last week, we were notified of some fees that we were unaware of that need to be paid to keep our adoption going forward (somewhat crushing but not destroying news, if you know what I mean).
When all you want to do is bring home your daughter, these kinds of things can be heart-wrenching. I sat in bathroom at church crying for a solid 20 mins before I made Erik take me home.
It was messy.
Real messy.

But God is so good and we have realized that through struggle and trials, and stolen cars (which did indeed happen the day after this news), God teaches us dependance, strength, and reliance upon him and His people to bless and care for us.
And that is exactly what has happened.

People stepping up to the plate to care for HIS people.

So now, we are asking that you partner with us this week as we pray hard, work hard, and rock the socks off of this adoption by getting those fees paid and bringing our girl home!

If you are new to Give1Save1 or not new at all, we will still give you a bit of instruction as to what you can do!

1. All you have to do is click on the link below, or RIGHT HERE or THIS PLACE or YES RIGHT HERE and watch our video to hear our story!

2. Then click on the "PureCharity Button" on the side of the Give1Save1 Blog to donate $1 or more to support our adoption journey! (This is new for those of you who donated last time to make sure that all of our money goes directly to our agency and IS TAX-DEDUCTIBLE and super secure! You will just need to make an account! WOO!)

3. Spread the Love!!! This works totally based on your generosity not just to give but to share! So post it, tweet it, instagram it, do whatever you have to do to spread the news and get people on board!

We are $7,000 away from bringing our girl home!! So thank you in advance for your love and support and walking with us for not just this week, but for so many (past and future), and making it possible to hopefully bring our sweet girl home soon!

Let's do this!

A Battle Cry.

Funny story. 

I prayed for my spiritual armor today. 

It was a joke, God. I didn't really mean that I wanted to go into battle!!

But the battlefield is exactly where I am standing right now.

Without going into much detail yet, the Anderson's have had a hard 24 hours. A lot to handle in a short span of time. Yesterday, I told Erik to bring me home and I ate a lot of ice cream. 

Some adoption stuff, some life stuff, some "car stolen in the middle of the night" stuff.

But between those heavy double breath cries and some spoonfuls of sugar, I was reminded of a friend's blog way back from last year. And a quote that she posted that made me smile at the time. 

I may not be smiling today, but I'm battle crying. 

And as ugly as it may be, I am finding more strength than I could ever imagine to fight in a battle that I prayed to be prepared for. 

Bring it.