Last Day of Summer

It seems like I was just letting my kiddos play with sidewalk chalk on the last day of school. And now...it's the last day of summer. Yep, I go back to school Monday for planning and then I meet my class Friday. School officially begins Monday the 9th.

Raleigh and I have been spending a lot of time praying for my new group of families- the parents and the kiddos. They really are kind of like your family during the school year. I mean I spend most of my awake hours each day during the school year with my class. I came across this John Eldredge quote from Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul. (Have you read it? It's a good book.)

“A woman of true beauty is a woman who in the depths of her soul is at rest…..she exudes a sense of calm, and invites those around her to rest as well……she speaks comfort….she offers others the grace to be and the room to become….in her presence, we can release the tension and pressure that so often grip our hearts…..Her spacious beautiful soul invites other to come, to be, to taste see that the Lord is good…A woman who makes herself vulnerable and available for intimacy invites others to do the same….in her presence, you can breathe again, you are free to be you….she unveils her beauty and invites you to life."

Oh how I long for this to be a picture of my soul. Especially when you are around children, they really do feed off your energy. When I am calm it truly does invite the children to feel at peace and comfortable in the classroom.

Lord, please calm my heart as I prepare to begin a new school year full of adventure, and reading, and friendship, and tears, and laughter, and math, and band-aids, and puzzles, and songs, and experiments, and discovery. Let me continue to discover You.

Zephaniah 3:17
The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
He will quiet you with his love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.

365 days...52 weeks…12 months…1 year

However you want to break it down, we’ve been “officially” waiting for our referral for one year. We started researching adoption and attending informational meetings in the summer of 2008, but it has been one year since all of our adoption paperwork, known as our homestudy, was approved. Raleigh and I are anticipating that we will hear from our social worker any day about scheduling a home study update. She will come to our home and basically talk to us and update any necessary information in our paperwork. I’m not sure if she will do a detailed tour of our home again, since she has already done this, but we will see.

Raleigh and I are thrilled to celebrate this fun milestone along our adoption journey. In honor of 12 months of waiting, I thought I would make a list of 12 things we have learned along the way.

1. When God calls you to follow him, he really will provide. (Did we have a savings account full of all of the money we would need to pay for this adoption? Absolutely not! Has God provided each time a large portion of the money is due? Without a doubt! There are creative ways to save and raise money.)

2. Supportive family and friends make the journey so much easier.

3. There is a relatively large Korean population in Atlanta. There are lots of Korean restaurants and stores. H-Mart is a great grocery store to buy ingredients for Korean cooking.

4. The Dol is a child’s first birthday celebration in Korea. Hopefully our child will be home by his or her first birthday so that we can incorporate this special tradition into his or her birthday party.

5. Going through the adoption process has opened our eyes to the vast needs of orphans all over the world. We are so incredibly blessed that our child will most likely spend time living with a foster family before he or she comes home. However, millions of orphans do not have this opportunity. Please pray for the millions of children that will go to bed tonight without ever being told “I love you” or “goodnight.”

6. Pororo is a cartoon character that is really popular in Korea.

7. Korean meals are served with lots of side dishes, known as banchan. You don’t have to order them, they just come with the meal.

8. Tae kwon do originated in Korea.

9. Holt International and Holt Korea are two different organizations. Isn’t that confusing? Holt International has an “online guidebook” that I tried to gain access to because I knew our agency works with Holt in Korea. However when I called and tried to figure it out, I realized that Holt International is based in the US and is totally separate from Holt Korea. I was totally confused about this for about 9 months.

10. Kimchi is served with almost every meal in Korea and is the ingredient in lots of recipes. It is basically spicy fermented cabbage. I’ve read that Koreans say “kimchi” when posing for pictures, but I’m not sure it there is any truth to that.

11. Korean babies usually sleep on the floor on a mattress. When our child comes home, he or she will most likely be used to sleeping on the floor with his or her foster family.

12. I am so thankful that I am on this journey with my best friend, Raleigh.

Korean Cooking Night 2

Last night we had our second Korean meal for the week - stir fried noodles and vegetables. It made A LOT of stir fry so next time I'll use fewer noodles. It was very good and I think we will try it again sometime. I might change one thing about the recipe....it has you cook the noodles first and then cook all of the vegetables and meat. I found that by the time everything was ready, the noodles were a bit room temperature instead of hot. I would probably cook the noodles last next time so that they would be really hot when served.


Yummy meal! Tonight we are trying sweet pancakes!

Mandu Update

Tonight was our first night of Korean cooking for the week. We made vegetable mandu, otherwise known as dumplings. We served it with Asian sticky rice and Publix sushi. It is a bit time intensive to prepare the filling, but we have a lot leftover that we will freeze and save for next time. In the end, it was worth the time and effort! We even found some Korean music on Grooveshark to enjoy while we cooked.

(Please ignore my disheveled hair and lack of makeup. I've been working in my classroom all day trying to get it ready for the start of school.)

Approaching 12...

12 months of waiting that is! This Friday, July 30, we will celebrate the one year anniversary of our homestudy approval date. In honor of this special day, Raleigh and I decided to cook a Korean dish each night this week. We got prepared today by taking a trip to H-Mart for lunch and groceries. Raleigh ordered bulgogi and I had kimchee fried rice. Yum!



We also found these cute Pororo tables! Pororo the Little Penguin is very popular in Korea! We didn't buy one, but they sure are cute!


So the menu for this week is....
(each menu item links to the recipe in case you are feeling adventurous and want to cook something new)

1. Yakimandu (dumplins)
2. Bee bim bop (mixed up rice with vegetables)
3. Hoddeok (sweet pancakes with brown sugar filling)
4. Japchae (stir fried noodles and vegetables)
5. Beosoeot Sanjeot (skewered pancakes)

I'll keep you posted as we start cooking!

Closet Cleaning Day/Weekend

We put the date on our calendar (just so we would really get it done before I start another school year) and the day is here...Today!

We have only lived in our house for two years, so the closets are not terribly unorganized, but we still need to go through and get rid of things we are no longer using.

Also, the main reason we are doing this is because the closet in the room that will become the nursery is full. Raleigh currently hangs all of his suits in there. We also have odd item in that closet such as extra computer bags, our scanner (that we don't want to get rid of but really only a couple times a year) and extra office supplies such as notebooks, printer paper, and printer ink.

So...the goal for the weekend is to reorganize the closets so that the nursery closet is empty and the other closets are simplified. Once we are finished, we'll see if we have enough stuff to have a yard sale, or if we need to just take a trip to Goodwill.
Happy Friday!

New Games for School

I've been making a few new games for school that I thought I would share. If you have a school-aged child and are looking for fun ways to practice sight words and basic reading skills, I recommend visiting Kelly's Kindergarten. I like her site because most games are in Microsoft Word format so you can easily change the letters/words to make the skill appropriate for any child. Even though the games are designed to be played a certain way (example: Memory) they can all be played in a variety of ways to keep things interesting!

Here are a few of the things I've made...

Sight Word Go Fish or Memory- Finding Nemo style

Raking Leaves Rhyming Game

Princess Color Word Memory

Monster's Inc. Color Word Memory

This game can be used with virtually any math or reading skill. Each child gets a puzzle base. All of the puzzle pieces are face down on the table. You also need an additional set of skill cards, or the teacher can orally ask questions. If the child answers correctly he or she gets a puzzle piece. If the child needs the piece to complete his puzzle, he keeps it. If not, he gives the piece to another player who needs it. The first player to complete the puzzle wins.

What's for Dinner?

When my parents came to visit us in April, my mom helped me plant a few pots of flowers and a pot of basil. Well, the basil is so yummy and has resulted in several batches of homemade pesto. Who knew making pesto in the food processor was so easy?

Well as I was making my menu/grocery list for the week I realized I had several tubs of homemade pesto with a little bit left in each tub. I'm not sure how that happened, but anyhow I decided to find a recipe to use all of the leftover pesto before it went bad.

Then I remembered the Hope's Gardens website. When Raleigh and I first moved to Atlanta, we rented a cozy little guesthouse in Buckhead. Our neighbors started making homemade pesto and selling it at the local farmer's market. The pesto was delicious and they now have a business called Hope's Gardens. You should go check it out for other yummy recipes. This is what I found....

Pesto Lasagna

Oven Ready Lasagna (this is such a time saver)
15 oz. container Ricotta Cheese
Shredded Cheese (select desired cheese) (use whatever you have in the fridge)
1 egg (I forget to put this in and it still turned out great)
Tomato Sauce (I used a jar of spaghetti sauce because that is what I had)
Hope’s Gardens Pesto
Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper
Drizzle Olive Oil in deep baking dish. In separate bowl blend ricotta cheese, 1 egg, 2 cups shredded cheese, 2 oz. of Hope’s Gardens Pesto, salt and pepper. Spread one cup of tomato sauce in baking dish, top with lasagna sheets. Spread 1/3 of blended cheese and pesto mix on top, repeat layering (tomato sauce, lasagna sheets, blended cheese mix) until you have three layers. Top with 1 cup shredded cheese and spoonfuls of Hope’s Gardens Pesto. Cover with silver foil and place in 375 degree oven for 45 to 60 minutes. Remove foil and cook for another 5 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before cutting.

I think it turned out yummy and it was SOO easy and inexpensive!

Better Late Than Never....pictures from the beach

Raleigh and I went to the beach the first week of June with my parents. Thanks mom and dad for a great trip! I have been going to the same beach since I was 6 weeks old and the daily routine is still the same....get up and eat a quick breakfast, go down to the beach and read, listen to the waves and take walks, go back up to the room and make a sandwich for lunch, enjoy the beach until you start to get hungry for dinner, go in and clean up and go out to dinner. What a perfect vacation.
(more pictures to come...the internet is not cooperating)

First Care Package Item

While we were out tonight we decided to go ahead and purchase a photo album for our care package. I know it might be a little early, but it will be fun picking out pictures.

Thankful Thursday

I know that God is the God of the Big things….healing cancer, sustaining families through tragedy, caring for orphans, restoring broken relationships. I know because I have experienced God’s faithfulness in my life. God is the God of Big miracles and He delights in these things.

But don’t forget that as His followers, God also desires to know us intimately and provide for our seemingly small needs. So…for my first Thankful Thursday I’d like to share an example of how God knows me personally and provides for even my smallest needs.

I’ve been going to the same hair salon since we moved to Atlanta 3 years ago. I did like my stylist, but he was not cheap. Recently Raleigh and I have been really trying to look at our finances and make sure we are being good stewards of our money. So I’ve been praying about ways to save money on my hair cuts. Raleigh and I actually went to the mall and I almost went to one of the salons in the mall (it would have been a huge savings) but I just couldn’t do it. I guess I am that prideful.

Anyway, at the beginning of May my stylist left the salon to start his own shop. I checked it out online but he was still charging the same amount for a regular hair cut so that didn’t really solve my problem. So I’ve just been waiting to get a hair cut. I figured I could at least wait until the start of school.

Well, one day when I opened the mail I noticed an envelope from my hair salon. They are trying to keep the clients that used to go to my old stylist by offering an incentive. The letter was basically a coupon to be used on my next three visits. I would get 30%, 40%, and then 50% off my next three visits. Also, my stylist used to have an apprentice, but now the apprentice has her own booth and her prices are almost half of what I was paying before. Yippee Jesus!!!

As if this wasn’t enough, a couple of weeks later I got another letter in the mail from my salon. This time it was a gift card for $150.00!!! WOW!!! See, God does care about us in ways that we cannot even fathom and He wants to bless us in ways that we cannot even imagine.

What are you thankful for today?

Spontaneity

I have never been one to be very spontaneous....well if I'm being honest, I'm really the opposite of spontaneous. I prefer to have a plan, but I am learning the joy of being more spontaneous.

Here is an example...the other day I bought a box of chocolate cake mix because it was on sale. Then, I got home and thought about when I should make the cake. I decided I should probably wait until next week because we are going to visit my parents in Nashville this weekend and so we wouldn't have time to eat the whole cake before Friday and the leftover peices might get old while we are away. When Raleigh got home he thought we should go ahead and make the cake. Why not? Why save everything for the "perfect" time. Just enjoy it now. I decided why not! So at 9:00 I baked the cake. We will enjoy a yummy bite when it gets out of the oven and it was fun being a bit spontaneous!

100th Post

I can't believe this is my 100th post. I had planned on some sort of fabulous topic (not quite sure what that would be), but as it turns out my 100th post will be about.....

school supplies.

That's right, school supplies. A teacher's heart just goes pitter patter when she sees the aisles of W*lmart filled with boxes of pointy new crayons, glue sticks galore, and folders in every color of the rainbow. We were at W*lmart looking for primary colored index cards. I'm making a few new games for the first month of school and index cards are the perfect size for mounting the game pieces I've made. Unfortunately, there were no primary index cards to be found...and we went to three different stores. Oh well...the pastels that I bought instead will do just fine. After all, the kids will never even notice.

Anyway, we came into W*lmart through the garden section, so we didn't see the school supplies until we were leaving. All you teachers out there know what I mean, when you see Crayola crayons on sale for 25¢, you just can't resist picking up a few boxes. At home In a kindergarten class, you can never have too many crayons!

Soft Baby Photo Albums

Once we recieve our referral, we will be able to send our child a care package. One item that we know we will include is a soft baby photo album. I've been looking for ideas and this is what I have found so far.

Vote For Katherine!

VOTE HERE

If you have been reading this blog, you know that the Lord used the miraculous story of Katherine Wolf to begin leading us to adoption. She has submitted a video to Oprah and she needs our votes. You can go to Katherine's website here to read more.

OR you can read below. (Taken from http://www.katherinewolf.info/)

After much back and forth and many strange confirmations, we decided to enter me in the Oprah “Host Your Own Show” contest on the very last day to enter. Jay shot this little video of me on our video camera at home in two takes. Oprah Winfrey is developing a new network, and this contest is to pitch your show idea and why you should host it. The finalists will be chosen based on the top 5 highest votes, as well as several others picked by the producers.

Please vote for me as often as possible in the next few days (voting ends July 3, I think). Also, pray that the right producer will see my audition, out of the thousands of entries, and want to do it! I am pitching my show idea, ‘Hope While You Cope’. It would take a miracle for this to happen, but I believe in miracles (I am one!)

VOTE HERE

Go Korea!!

Getting ready for the World Cup game vs. Uruguay....Go Korea!

Organizing Toys for Baby Gresham

We have a new furniture store in Atlanta called The Dump. I went with my friend Shea the first weekend it opened. It is pretty neat, although I don't think their prices are all that great. I spotted this fun basket during my first visit, but I didn't really know what I could do with it.



A few weeks ago when we were arriving back in Atlanta from the beach, we decided to make a quick stop at The Dump to look around. Well...that fun green basket was right there. Only this time, my mom had a great idea for it. It could hold toys in the den. Every few days, I can just trade out a few things so that Baby Gresham will have new things to play with.

When I brought it home, I decided to put a few things in it just to make sure it will work.



I was able to fit several books, a game, and a ball with room to spare.

For now, it is the perfect place to keep blankets. :) Even in this hot Atlanta summer, sometimes you just want to cuddle under a blanket to watch a movie.



Thanks mom for the great idea!

Baby Carriers

One thing that I am looking into for Baby Gresham is a carrier. Some research shows that baby wearing can help with attachment, so I am willing to give it a try. :)

Based on reviews I've read from other adoptive moms, I think we will buy a Beco. Unfortunately, I don't think there are any stores in Georgia that sell Beco carriers. There are LOTS of online retailers, so I may go with this option as long as they have a good return policy. Also, there is a store near Colorado Springs (where Raleigh's parents live) so I could buy one there next time we are in CO for a visit.

Here are a few carriers that I think are fun and stylish. The black one is pretty plain, but I thought it might look good with a monogram on it.

The Giving Pledge

I saw a segment on the news tonight about The Giving Pledge and it seems pretty neat. Basically, Warren Buffett along with Bill and Melinda Gates are pledging to give the majority of their wealth away to philanthropy and they are asking that the wealthiest individuals and families (specifically billionaires) in America do the same.

I read Warren Buffett's pledge and he clearly states that he knows others sacrifice a lot more than he ever will by giving of their wealth and time. He will not have to sacrifice anything by giving away 99% of his wealth.

The Giving Pledge is a good reminder to me that Raleigh and I should constantly look at our spending and find areas where we can cut back on personal pleasures in order to give more away more of our time and money.

Beach Reading Update

We had a great trip to the beach and I am so thankful we were able to go.

I enjoyed reading Parenting Your Internationally Adopted Child by Patty Cogen. There were lots of great nuggets of information that I will keep in mind as we prepare for our child to come home.

One neat idea that I had not heard of before is something the author calls the "Three-Photo Story." The first photo is of your child before the adoption, ideally the earliest one you have. The second picture represents the "handover" showing you recieving your child from the orphanage director or foster family. The third picture is you and your child and represents the child's new family.

The author suggests combining all three pictures onto one sheet and then making multiple color copies and laminating them if possible. The Three-Photo story is a simple way to tell your child his or her story and open the conversation about the child's feelings. Dr. Cogen also mentions that as the child gets older (possibly at age 4 or 5) the child may want to add other special symbols to the photo story, such as his or her birth certificate, passport, flag of birth country, etc.

I finished the book pretty quickly, so I also read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and Parenting with Love and Logic by Foster Cline and Jim Clay.

I highly recommend Three Cups of Tea, especially to other teachers. Sometimes as a teacher it is easy to get bogged down in the "details" of the school year and lose sight of the big picture. The book is about a mountain climber who eventually built schools in Pakistan and Afganistan. There is also a young reader's edition to the book and I am planning to read it next. I'd like to see if it is appropriate to read to my kindergarten class in the Fall. In Atlanta, is is easy for my students to take education for granted but I think it would be good to help give the children a global perspective about education and how not all children in the world are able to go to school.

Although I did not agree with everything in the book, Parenting with Love and Logic was a good read and I'm sure I'll be able to use some of the strategies as a parent and as a teacher.

Beach Reading!

Raleigh and I are so blessed to be heading to the beach for a few days with my family. I absolutely LOVE the beach.

While putting my toes in the sand, I am looking forward to reading Parenting Your Internationally Adopted Child by Patty Cogen. Raleigh and I are trying to prepare as much as we can before our treasure comes home. I know that we could read a million books and would not ever be totally prepared, but I also think it is smart to research attachment strategies, prepare to deal with our child's grief, etc...etc...etc....

If you have read other great books that you would recommend, let me know.:)

Another Update...

I guess I should have waited one more day before posting an adoption update. Our agency released this today via the South Korea blog

"The wait for a referral after your homestudy approval date is currently about 18 months, with 8 families waiting for referral since Nov/Dec 2008."

If this holds true we will receive our referral sometime near January 2011.

On a lighter note, today was the last day of school with my kiddos!!
School's Out For Summer!!!

Brief Adoption Update

Lots of sweet friends have been asking for an adoption update. So...I'll do my best.

The short story - we are just waiting.

The slightly longer story - it seems like most families with our agency are currently waiting between 12 months and 16 months for a referral. On July 30 we will hit the one year mark of waiting. So we could potentially recieve our referral (picture and medical information) as early as August or it may be closer to the end of 2010.

In the meantime, Raleigh and I are enjoying our time as a family of two and praying that God continues to prepare us to become a family of three.

Say a Prayer for the Chapman Family

In April, I posted the story of Katherine Arnold Wolf and how her brain injury on April 21, 2008 led Raleigh and I to pray without ceasing and intercede for others in a fresh, new way. Through this experience, God was beginning to lead us to adoption.

One month later on May 21, 2008 sweet Maria Sue Chapman saw her Heavenly Father face to face. I do not know Steven Curtis Chapman's family personally, but I always felt like I knew them.

I grew up in Nashville and attended Christ Community Church where the Chapman family also attended. So although I did not really know the family, I felt like I did. When I heard the news of the death of their youngest daughter, Maria Sue, my heart broke for this family. Raleigh and I once again found ourselves going to our knees in prayer for this precious family. I feel like when someone is in the depths of darkness and cannot even pray, it is our duty as followers of Christ to stand in the gap and lift up prayers on their behalf.

As we prayed for the Chapmans, the Lord started giving me a curiosity about adoption. Raleigh and I went to the beach in June 2008, and I took the book The Lost Daughters of China by Karin Evans. I read the book in a matter of hours and asked Raleigh to take me to the bookstore so I could look at a few more books. I really had no idea about the "specifics" of adoption so I purchased a variety of books and read them all on our trip.

God revealed a great need to both me a Raleigh....millions of orphans go to bed every night without a mom and dad. Millions of orphans have no place to call home. Millions of orphans waiting to have a family,waiting to hear the words I love you.

During April and May, the Lord brought Raleigh and I to our knees for others (Katherine and the Chapmans) and started teaching us what it means to pray boldly for others. Then the Lord showed us a way we could join His journey to love orphans. We always knew we wanted to be parents one day, we just assumed we would have biological children. God is so cool in the way he can transform our hearts.

When we got back from the beach, I started researching every adoption agency I could find. I requested packets of information that were mailed to our home, I watched online web seminars, and read a lot more about the Chapman's adoption journeys.

At the end of June 2008, Raleigh and I attended an informational meeting at Bethany Christian Services. Over the next few months, the Lord continued to give us clarity that it was His plan for us to pursue adoption. It is such a crazy God thing, because when I think back about it, Raleigh and I never had any huge discussions about why we should not adopt. God gave us each the desire to adopt and the peace to begin the process.

In October of 2008, Raleigh and I submitted our preliminary application to Bethany.

If you have made it this far, thanks for reading. Most importantly please pray for the Chapman family as they long to see sweet Maria Sue.

Korean Wedding Ducks

Our sweet friends Tara and Zeb visited South Korea in 2007. While there, they purchased a set of Korean Wedding Ducks. We feel so honored that Tara and Zeb recently decided to give us the ducks. We have them sitting on a bookcase in our den and love having a small bit of Korean culture in our home! Raleigh and I plan to one day give the ducks to our son or daughter on his or her wedding day.

These ducks are a traditional wedding gift in Korea, usually passed down from mother to daughter for many generations. The ducks represent a couple's marital status and are to be placed in a prominant location in the couple's home. One duck represents the bride and one duck represents the groom. If the ducks are facing nose to nose, then the couple is happy. If the ducks are tail to tail, the couple is having a tiff.

Luckily, the ducks in our house are nose to nose!:)

Worth the read....

"If you have your Bible and I hope you do, I invite you to turn to..."

This is how David Platt begins many of his sermons at The Church at Brook Hills. One of the things that Raleigh and I miss the most about Birmingham is church. God is using David in mighty ways for his glory. I encourage you to visit the church's website and enjoy a message or two. A powerful teaching series is the Radical series.

Over the weekend, I discovered that David has also written a book, Radical, Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream. I read the book and there are so many great things to consider and I encourage you to read the book!! It will be worth your time. Basically, David invites us to consider in the teaching series and the book, that as followers of Christ and in lite of the dire spiritual and physical needs around the world, we are to live in a radically different way. Our life should be spent in radical abandonment to Jesus.

p. 93 Jesus simply, intentionally, systematically, patiently walked alongside 12 men. Disciples are not mass-produced. Making disciples is not an easy process. It is trying. It is messy. It is slow, tedious, even painful at times. It is all these things because it is relational. Jesus has not given us an effortless step-by-step formula for impacting nations for his glory. He has given us people, and he has said, "Live for them. Love them, serve them, and lead them. Lead them to follow me, and lead them to lead others to follow me. In the process you will multiply the gospel to the ends of the earth."

This makes me think of my own life. Who am I investing my life into so that they will one day go out and lead more people to Christ?

Happy Mother's Day to the 2 Best Moms in the World!

To Mom Gill from Bridgette…

Thanks for the countless Friday nights of watching TGIF and ordering a pizza.

Thanks for always letting me get a coke and popcorn at Target.

Thanks for teaching me that sometimes you just have to put your big girl panties on and deal with life.

Thanks for always letting me pick out paint colors for my toy room and bed room.

Thanks for inspiring me to dream big and then set practical goals to make the dreams come true.

Thanks for paying for my first car, my college education, and an awesome wedding!

Thanks for countless beach vacations that are the source of so many great memories.


To Mom Gresham from Raleigh…

Thanks for teaching me how to read.

Thanks for always letting me have Sobe drinks in my lunch even though now that I’m an adult I know they are really expensive.

Thanks for teaching me the value of Christmas traditions.

Thanks for all the years you drove in a third world country.

Thanks for letting me quit taking guitar lessons and learn on my own.

Thanks for setting the example that it is always better to laugh than mope.

Thanks for supporting my decision to "play with kids in the hospital."

We love you both so much! Happy Mother's Day!
Love,
Raleigh and Bridgette

Plan A

God writes each family's story differently and His plan is always Plan A. For those who believe, He is sovereign over every aspect of our lives.

Families are lead to adoption in many different ways and each story is different and special.

As more people learn about our adoption process, I am often met with sympathies that Raleigh and I cannot have biological children.

I'm not sure why people assume that we have tried to have biological children, but we have not. Adoption is our Plan A. Will we one day decide to have biological children? I really have no idea. Will we adopt again? Again, I do not know. I do know that over the past 24 months God has burdened our heart for the orphan. Now that we know of the need, we cannot turn back.

Please know that apart from God, Raleigh and I would have never opened our hearts to adoption. He is writing this journey...from beginning to end. To Him be all the glory. Each day He renews our faith and we continue to rest in Him knowing that He will provide....the wisdom to be parents, the patience to wait on His timing, the finances to see this adoption to completion, the words to speak when our child asks about his or her birth family, etc.

We are no different than any other young couple. We knew that we wanted to one day be parents. When the time was right, we had planned to have children. However in a matter of two months (April and May 2008) the Lord transformed our desires.

Do you have to adopt to care for the orphan? Absolutely not. There are so many ways to share God's heart...pray for the millions of children's without homes, pray for the children in the US foster care system, find ways to mentor children in your local town, sponsor a child through Compassion, go on a trip with your local church to be the hands and feet of Christ to a child that has no home..... The Lord equips his beleivers with different gifts and consequently asks us each to share in His mission differently.

God's heart is for the orphan. Raleigh and I know that God clearly asked us to adopt a child and through the journey, He is revealing Himself to us daily. Could we do this on our own? No way, but luckily we are not alone. God is with us as well as countless friends and family members that pray for us daily and support us along the way.

For our family, for now, adoption is our Plan A.

South Korea Crocs

Crocs has come out with a line of Crockband Nation shoes to support the countries competing in the 2010 World Cup. Raleigh and I think these South Korea crocs are so cute. Even though our child will not be able to wear them for a little while, we may order a pair since they will probably only be available for a limited time!

It has been 2 years....since Katherine lived!!

If you are new to my blog, you may or may not know the story of Katherine Arnold Wolf. It all started April 21, 2008...and on April 22, 2008 she lived and her road to recovery began. The miracle of Katherine is one event that the Lord used in BIG ways to begin leading me and Raleigh to adoption.

Katherine is beautiful. She attended Samford University where Raleigh and I also attended. I'm not sure if I every really had a conversation with her during college, but I definitely knew who she was. She has one of those personalities that lights up a room. She shines for the Lord.

In April 2008, she and her husband were living in Malibu with their 6 month old son. Katherine was pursuing a modeling career and her husband Jay was finishing Law School.

On April 21st she suffered an AVM (arterial veinous malformation) and was rushed to UCLA Hospital. According to her neurosurgeon, Katherine’s AVM was the largest he had ever seen, in the worst possible location, and with the worst possible blood drainage. All of those factors, coupled with the massive pressure which was literally squeezing her brain down into her spine, placed the surgeon in quite a predicament.

Once of the first miracles is that the surgeon decided to procede with surgery. Katherine survived the 16 hour surgery. 24 hours later she was able to follow a nurse's command to wiggle her toes and lift her fingers.

When Raleigh and I first heard of Katherine's situation 2 years ago, we were moved to prayer in a way we had not been before. God called us to intercede on her behalf. We were encouraged to memorize more scripture. We were challenged to discuss what it means to truly pray without ceasing.

The Lord taught us a lot about what it means to pray for others in radical ways.

The Lord taught us even more in May 2008....more on that coming later.

For today, praise God for the life of Katherine and the miraculous recovery she continues to make.

First Birthday/Dol

Koreans celebrate a child's first birthday, or Dol, by throwing a big party! One part of the party is called the Doljabi. During this special Korean tradition, the baby is propped up at a table of various foods and an assortment of objects and urged to pick up one of the items. It is believed the item the baby picks up symbolically foretells his or her own future or would influence his or her fate. There are also beautiful dol towers that can be made of rice, candy, cookies, etc. Raleigh and I are prayerful that our child will be home by his or her first birthday so that we can celebrate with our friends and family and honor our child's Korean heritage.

I came across this blog through an adoption forum I belong to and I just had to share the pictures of the Dol party. The food and decorations are simply beautiful.

http://www.mrsjennyl.blogspot.com/ (go to the post from April 13th and scroll down to see the pictures)

Thanks!

This is just a quick thank you to everyone for making my birthday so special!! I had a great day at school and received lots of sweet gifts! My mom and dad came to Atlanta to celebrate and we enjoyed a delicious meal at Benihana. Raleigh, thanks for making everyday special. I know that my 27th year is going to be the best yet! Who knows....I might even become a mom this year! :)