Happy Sunday!

Spring Break 2015

I am absolutely loving the weather we are having this week.

It is gorgeous outside.

The guys are appreciative of it too. 

They are working hard on The Barn. 

The Barn will be storage, a shop for Andrew's woodworking tools, and his new office space.

Got to make room in the house for our babies to come home.

I call them our babies, but we aren't expecting to adopt babies.  They are school aged kids.

But they will still be my babies.

The Barn is going to be huge.

I know Andrew is thankful to have Pryce and Big Man here this week to help him. 

They are making memories.

My job is to keep them fed and hydrated.  I'm pretty sure I've cooked more this week than in my entire life.

And you know what?

I've enjoyed every minute of the cooking, cleaning, and laundry.

It blesses my heart to serve the guys.  

I've attempted and succeeded in making some traditional Weaver meals this week.

Not going to lie.  I'm pretty proud of myself.

Mexican Dish was my first adventure.  The guys loved it.

Even I liked it.

My second adventure was chocolate gravy and biscuits.  

Thank you to my sweet brother-in-law, Chris, for walking me through an easy recipe.

In the moments I haven't been cooking or cleaning I have been tucked away in my office working on a couple of scrapbooks.  

I've missed scrapbooking.  It's therapy for me.

It's something I hope my daughters enjoy doing so that we can scrapbook together.

It's been a good week.  

Why A Sibling Group

This is my younger brother, Seth.

He is one of my best friends.  Growing up we spent many of days fighting, but we also spent many of days playing outside together.  

During the winter months Seth would get moved to my bedroom and we would close off his bedroom.  Before we would fall asleep each night I would pretend to be asleep and would roll over and lay my arm across his face.  He would gently put my arm back on my side of the bed.

I would do it again.

(I wasn't always the nicest big sister)

Again he would gently move my arm.

Next I would throw my leg over him.

He must of thought I was the wildest sleeper ever.  

A few times I would "fall" out of bed.

And every single time Seth would pick me up and put me back in bed.

Fastforward several years.  

I remember a particularly hard weekend while I was in college.  All I wanted was to come home for the weekend but I was a poor college student with no gas money.  Seth gave me his allowance that week so that I could come home.  It's was an act of kindness that I will never forget.

Now my brother is grown and married.  He's about to be a daddy for the first time in a few months.  

Twins!

I cannot wait to watch him take on that little adventure.  I know he will do it with the same enthusiasm and dedication that he gives everything he does in life.  

Andrew is the youngest of six.  

His love for his siblings in one of the many things I love about him.   They are some of his very best friends.  They too have story after story of great memories from their childhood.  Lots of mischief and lots of laughter.  

Our siblings are a big part of our life.  

When we made the decision to adopt we knew from the beginning that we wanted to adopt a sibling group.  It absolutely breaks our heart to think about these kids growing up without their brothers and sisters.

They've been through enough already.  They've lost their parents and pretty much every part of their life as they've known it.  

We want to give a group of children the opportunity to grow up with their brothers and sisters.  

So why a sibling group?

Because we can't imagine life without our siblings.

The Roller Coaster Ride of Adoption & Infertility

Adoption has a way of being a beautiful distraction.

It is a new dream.

A new path.

I don't mean that to sound like adoption is a second best option because it's not.

I believe it is the best option.

I believe it is the best option because I believe it is God's first option.

But every once in awhile my mind stops dreaming about adoption and slips back into that deep desire to have a biological child.

I'm not sure I will ever stop wondering what it would be like to go through a pregnancy and give birth to a child.

Sometimes I still cry out to God that it just isn't fair.

And then I feel guilty.

God has called me to be an adoptive mom.  

And even though I haven't experience that yet, I'm pretty sure it's going to be the most amazing thing EVER.  

I am incredibly humbled that God would choose me to walk this path, to adopt children into our family, and be their mom.  

I find myself asking Why me? quite often.

Sometimes it is Why me?  Why can't I have babies?

And sometimes...

Sometimes it is Why me?  Why do I get to be the one to adopt?  Why did you choose me for such an amazing thing?  I can't believe you chose me.  

Adoption and infertility make for a roller coaster of emotions.  

Ups and Downs.  

Highs and Lows.  

Thankfully I do not have to ride alone.

SSMT: Verse #6

Last weekend at the HOPE Conference the keynote speakers shared two verses with us as they closed their session.  As soon as I read those words something in me stirred.  I knew they would be my next memory verse for SSMT.  

They are found in the 43rd book of Isaiah.

Such a beautiful promise.  

Life Lately

It's 4:30 in the afternoon.

Andrew and I are laying in bed enjoying our Snow Day.

The dogs are at the foot of the bed.

Other than the hum of the television (that neither one of us is really watching) the house is quiet.

I wrote those thoughts last Thursday.  I can't help but wonder how many "quiet" days with just the two of us we have left.  It's a very bittersweet thought.  I cannot wait until our house is filled with kiddos and silence is a rare thing.  But at the same time I treasure these days of just the two of us.  I thank God for each day we've had together.

Last week we had our fingerprints done for our FBI background checks.  Once those come back our home study will be ordered.  We are told they have 45 business days to complete the home study.  

The home study is our last step before we are declared an open home and can be matched with children.

It's a little crazy to me that in just a few short months we could be meeting our children for the first time.

Parenthood is right around the corner.

I am excited, nervous, scared, happy, and thankful all at the same time.


We bought two twin beds yesterday.  I'm looking forward to getting to know our children and creating the perfect room for them.

This past weekend we attended a two day conference for foster and adoptive parents.

We had such a good time.  There were several families there from our little town so we were able to make some new friends that are going to be a great support system. That might have been my favorite part of the conference.

In one of our breakout sessions a sweet couple with a large family shared one of the ways they stay connected with their older children.  They have Open Mic Nights.  Each night after they put their little ones to bed they put three of their four teens to bed.  The fourth teen gets to stay up and have 30 minutes of one on one time with mom and dad.  I love this idea for any family.  They talked about how these are some of their sweetest and most tender moments with their kids.  I looked at Andrew through tears and said "We are stealing this idea."

SSMT: Verse Five - Love

Love.

That words seems to be on repeat in my mind.

And not in a I love everything and everyone around me kind of way.

But in a God telling me I don't understand what it means to love people the way He loves people kind of way.

A step on your toes and make you cringe kind of way.

It's a word I've really been thinking about studying lately.

What is love?

1 Corinthians 13 tell us

That's a pretty serious definition.

That is a God kind of love right there.

My mother-in-law bought me a journal for my birthday several years ago.  At the time I was using a journal I already had so this new journal got put on my shelf.  

(I might be a collector of journals.)

I pulled it out a few days ago and pleased to remember that it has topics of study in the front.

One of which was...

You guessed it.

Love.

My fifth memory verse for the Siesta Sister Memory Team comes from my study on Love.