Time to Wait

Is there any other time? Well, yes, there is. But right now this is our season. Waiting for the room to be finished, waiting for Spring Break, waiting to be matched with our precious Little Girl!!

Thankfully, this last week has been another very productive week as far as home renovations go, and as usual, everything is taking WAY longer than I want! I absolutely adore my husband and dad for all of their hard work, but I am really getting anxious for some Spring Break Fun for the whole family!! Did you know that it takes three hours to put up baseboards? Three. Hours. Just sayin'. :)

Let's recap shall we?

We have floor and trim since I last posted, but I thought it would be fun to take a little walk down memory lane. 

This is what the room looked like before we got started. It was a playroom and had carpet, two small closets, 2 concrete walls, and 2 walls made of wall board. This is an old pic, so I apologize for the bad lighting.

This is Dad ripping out the two closets. Notice the small hallway in the room to the right of the closets?

Then it looked like this. I mean. Do you even know what you are looking at?! This is me standing in the room taking a pictures the exact same directions as the above pics. All the walls have been ripped out and re-framed.

Finally! Dry wall was put up and this is the new closet door. The closet is crammed full of half the stuff that used to be in that room! There is no trim, light, flooring or paint done at this point.

As of LAST NIGHT the floors have been put in, everything has been painted, new lights have been installed, and the baseboards and crown molding are up!

Please Pray, in the name of all that is good and holy, that we finish this room by the weekend!!

In Adoption news, we had a really wonderful weekend at our adoption training, "Crossings." It derives its name from the journey of the Israelites, wandering 40 years in the desert before entering the promised land. What a wonderful, hard, terrifying and, at the same time, encouraging weekend! The purpose of Crossings is to "Prepare us for the worst while hoping for the best." I cried. Twice. I laughed, a lot. I am thankful for professionals who came and shared their wisdom with us, for three awesome adoptive families who shared "real life advice," and for the connections I made as we continue our journey. One of the sweet families we met got their Travel Approval just yesterday and will be leaving in a few short weeks to bring their little girl home!! Most of all, I am so thankful to God that he called me to this path. It is amazing to me as I look back on so many things that have happened over the course of my life, but especially in the last two years, to see that so many of these experiences were bringing me to this point, and I didn't even know it. There is absolutely no greater joy than to suffer with Christ that we may also share in his glory. 

Will it be fun? Sometimes. Will it be easy? Probably rarely. But will it be worth it? Absolutely. If you want to become a better spouse or a better parent, just hop on the adoption train at Lifeline. They will equip you through His Spirit like no other! I seriously wish I had this training before I had my first two children!!

This week we got to review another file. It was a file of a waiting child, one with more severe needs that can be reviewed at any point in the adoption process, not one of the files from our partnership orphanages. I really feel like God was using this experience to teach me and grow me and prepare me for receiving our daughter's file. I wanted this file to be "The One." I  tried so hard to make it fit.I wanted our wait to be over, but at the end of the day, God made it very clear that I needed to simply Trust, Obey and WAIT. She's out there, and when I see her, I will know her!!

The last thing we are waiting on this month is to hear back from our LAST grant organization. To date, we still need to raise about $22, 000 before we travel, and we hope to travel this summer. Doesn't that number just make you laugh out loud?! On paper, it nearly looks impossible, but I know, with God, all things are possible! We are having our last MAJOR fundraiser on May 13-14. This will be a MEGA YARD SALE that incorporates our Adoption-ade Stand and our Shop to Adopt!

If you are interested in donating to our sale, start saving now. If you are interested in helping work a shift during the weekend, please email me or private message me on Facebook!

Thanks again for following along. If there is one thing we are certain of in this uncertain journey, it is that we need our village! Thanks for being our people! We are going to need everything you've got!:)