On the Verge...

 I haven't blogged in so very long, I can't remember when and I'm not going to stop this thought train to go and check. Suffice it to say, it's been awhile. But I showed up here to share (and document) a major event in the life of our family.  Before Moses came home, I would see adoptive families posting about their kiddos' "Tipping Point Days". I recently heard it called something else as well, but I'm too tired to think of it right now. Basically, it is the day when your adopted child has been with you for as long as they were not  with you. For kids that were adopted at 1 or 2 or 3, that seems to come quickly and maybe feels eventful, but not monumental. Well, when we got custody of Moses he was about 4 years and 9 months old. I remember coming back to America and seeing someone in my adoption group post about their 2 or 3 year old's Tipping Point Day and thinking I should figure out when Moses's would be. So I did. I sat down and figured ou...

At church this morning, a couple got up after the sermon and shared a story of how the Lord had gotten them through a time of trial through the truths in His word (we were in Nehemiah 8 this week). The encouragement being that during hard times and "easy" times, believers should cling to, revere, celebrate, and obey Scripture. This couple had been told that she would never be able to conceive without medical intervention and they were about to start trying IVF when the husband felt the inclination to wait for 6 months before they started down that road. It was a struggle and there was a lot of grief they worked through, but only about a month into their waiting, a friend felt lead to pray that the wife's womb would be opened and they eventually found out that they miraculously conceived naturally that day! Their baby is due in a few weeks.  This was a huge praise and an incredible encouragement that the Lord can perform miracles while we wait on Him. But, can I confess so...

Hello again, blogosphere! So so much has happened in the last almost 6 months. The most significant of which is: WE GOT MOSES HOME!!! I thought I would recount the story here and now mainly because I think it builds my trust in Him to remember and celebrate anytime that God showed His faithfulness in my waiting. It also just gives him all the glory to share stories of His goodness and perfect timing! All that talk about feeling like Moses was supposed to be home the first week of June because that's when Joanna's due date was and how great it would be if he were home at the beginning of the summer, but thinking we would have to go and push things through ourselves.... Yeah... all of that... THAT all happened, except without ANY pushing on our part. God did it ALL. Basically, the orphanage finally got someone to go into the judge's office during the strike to find the court order so they could copy it and they found it had been done the day before the strike started, it...

I have written so many half blog posts over the last few weeks, but I've gotten derailed and then the information is out of date. So I'm going to try to be brief, get to the prayer request and actually post this one, because we really literally be on the verge of our departure to go get our sweet boy. Most of you know that we got our official court order on April 5th, after being matched with Moses for almost a year at that point. That is pretty long, in the world of India adoption. Our coordinator originally had told us that we might have him home by his 4th birthday in September, but delay after delay and slowdowns and missing papers and a general lack of urgency left us with our written orders April 5th. When we finally saw the digital copy, we found a number of errors. We let the our agency know and they sent them through and we saw the corrections uploaded to the site on April 12th. They had told us that they would get the certified copy of that court order within 10-12...

It's raining here in Austin. It's been off and on since yesterday. Coincidentally, last night Cyclone Fani made landfall in Odisha, India and as it continues over the next few days, the eye of the (the then tropical) storm will come very close to our son´s rural town in West Bengal. The wind and rain could cause some serious damage in such a small town and the aftermath could be significant. Sometimes, it's hard to take something seriously that is happening to other people on the opposite side of the world. We see the news (maybe), a facebook friend reminds us, we pause for a moment to pray, and then we carry on with our "normal day". But as the rain has continued here over the last day, it has been easy for me to focus more on what the people in India and Bangladesh are and will be going through. It's also so much easier to focus on it when a member of your family is there and you have no idea what's happening to or how this will affect him. I'm ...

For the first year and a half of our adoption process, we were the only people we knew that were adopting from India. Last summer, I did find an online community of TONS of other families from all over the world who were adopting or had adopted from India and it has been a game changer for our process. One of the most valuable aspects of this community, for me, is seeing that the kids eventually do come home.  In fact, that is an oft quoted phrase, usually accompanied by an adorable picture of an adorable kiddo. "They do come home." It's so good to see and remember. Comparing timelines is also a helpful benefit to knowing other people going through the process. At first I was scouring the internet for any other blog posts that might give us any idea as to how long our process might take. So, for that reason, I thought I'd share our timeline for information, encouragement, and posterity. I hope it will also help those who would like to to know how to pray and to rej...

It was September 2015 when Quinn and I felt that we wanted to add a 4th child to our family. It's hard to explain how you know that feeling or how it's even possible to have that feeling when our arms were already so full with our first three kids. But there was just this space  that we felt. A space that was ready to receive another child. I've explained in previous blog posts that we were contemplating adoption at that point, but got pregnant that week. And that's when our arms and hearts began aching to hold our next child. On January 13, 2016 (three years ago today), we felt that ache even deeper in our hearts when we held Joanna in our hands when she came out miraculously easy after passing away at about 17 weeks gestation. We had been scheduled for a surgery to have her removed, but I am so, so glad  that she came to us whole in the hospital so that we could spend time holding her. It was weird and strange because they don't look like a normal baby at that ...

The Backstory In the Fall of 2015 Quinn and I both felt the Lord putting a 4th child on our hearts. We have felt the pull toward adoption since we were first married and knew that the Lord would let us know when the time was right for that. So we prayed that He would either let us get pregnant quickly or we would start the adoption process and know that was the route He wanted us to go. We got pregnant that week, so we felt like that was it. Then  Trisomy 21 happened . And we lost our sweet 4th child,  Joanna , at 18 weeks (links to those blog posts, if you haven't read them and want to). During the five short weeks we "knew" her, God gave us so much grace in preparing us to do whatever was necessary to take care of her special needs. So one of the things that Quinn and I both felt sure of was that Joanna's little life opened our eyes to see special needs in a new light; something we didn’t need to fear, but could embrace with God’s help. So, in February of 2017...

I just found this post from more than 3 years ago about Simon that I never posted! He is hours away from turning 4, so I thought I'd post it for fun. So glad that he now sleeps through the night and eats any food that we eat. And he doesn't toss his cookies any more, for which I am veeeery grateful. ***** Simon turned 8 months on November 17th (Abram's 4th birthday). In the interest of fairness, I am doing a post for each of the kids on their recent age milestones. Here is an update on Simon's 8th month of life! Weight:  8.6 kgs (That's almost 19 lbs and the 45th percentile) and 74cm (about 29.5 inches and the 90th percentile for length). He definitely does NOT have a problem with weight gain, like he had his first few months of life. Phew! Clothing size: 9 months. Because of the length. Actually, Quinn put him in a 3 month onsie the other day and he didn't look too absurd. But sleepers are a definite 9 months because he doesn't fit in anything else. ...

I woke up this morning and did what I do almost every morning in between the, oh, 5th and 6th snooze on my alarm when I finally tell myself that I need to actually start to wake up: I browsed facebook. I want to immediately sit up and pull my Bible off my nightstand, open it and with all alertness begin to meditate on the Word of God to start my day. But it's the alertness that eludes me. So, short of having my nespresso machine on my nightstand as well, I have to do something to make my brain catch up with my desires. And facebook is always there. This  morning, I began scrolling, like any other morning. I read headlines and intentionally like, love, or ha ha, friends' pictures and posts and largely pass right by videos. This is mostly due to the fact that my husband, Quinn, is usually still asleep next to me and the sound of a facebook video first thing in the morning could probably single handedly start  his day off on the wrong foot.  But this morning, a video...

A friend asked me recently how we organized all three kids' clothes in their room since they all slept together. Since moving into our new/old house, I've had to get even more creative, but it's really worked out pretty well! So I thought I'd share what we did just in case it might be helpful for anyone else.  First of all, all three kids in one room is definitely awesome. Some people fear it and, depending on your kids, it just might not be possible for you. For us, it just worked out. We traveled so much and the kids were in all different kinds of beds and sleeping scenarios that they were pretty flexible. And now, after a year of them all sharing a room, we are able to have a pretty epic happening with one child in the room while the other two sleep right through. We will eventually give Selah her own room, but that won't be for a few years. So here we are, with three kids in an 8x10 ish room, sharing our tips with you! I knew we wanted a Kura bed from IKEA becau...

8 years ago tomorrow, I married the sweetest, kindest, most Jesus loving man that I know. A few weeks later (after our honeymoon in Idaho), we moved together into our first house.  5 years ago, this month, we made the final decision to join our friends and the work they would be starting in the UAE and began the long process of actually launching.  3 years ago, this month, we moved from Sharjah to Fujairah, where we thought we would spend many years to come. 1 year ago, today, we flew from Boise back to Austin to begin a new life here. We grieved as our friends packed up and sold our house worth of stuff in Fujairah. We said good bye to people over the internet that we had planned to be hugging in person that same day.  7.5 months ago, I heard our sweet baby #4's heartbeat for the first time and they gave us an official due date of June 14th (today).  5 months ago, yesterday, we held our sweet baby Jo in our hands after losing her at 18 weeks. We knew, if she made it...

Alright. I'm finally sitting down at the computer (whaaaaaat?!) and posting the recipe to this plantain dough I've developed. This might be similar to another recipe out there, but I haven't ever seen it, so I've been working on this for awhile and now, I think, it's ready to share! Since starting the Auto Immune Protocol diet last year, I've been searching for a good pizza dough recipe. That's where this recipe started.  With more or less coconut flour, this dough can be used for pizzas or sandwich bread (more) or muffins (less). So, here it is! Plantain Dough Preheat oven to 365. Ingredients: -1 just ripe plantain (yellow with just a little black). -2.5 tbsp coconut oil -1/4 cup coconut milk -1 tsp baking soda -1 tsp apple cider vinegar -1/4 cup coconut flour (for muffins), add 3 more tbsp coconut flour (for pizza or "bread" dough) Peel and cut plantains into large chunks. Blend with an immersion blender unti...