Beads & Braids

I know it's been too long since I last wrote on here. Things got a little crazy around here and we also had the awesome privilege of having a dear college friend and her fiance come visit us from the east coast. We had way too much fun and their presence was such an encouragement to me personally. Just so all my friends back home know...I miss you tremendously!

So, I thought I'd do a little mommy bragging this post. I have a few more meaningful posts waiting in the wings, but this one's just pure bragging.

Pvt Boo's hair has really thinned from losing alot of her baby hair, but it is starting to grow out again. I was really struggling with what to do on the back of her head because although it was thin...parts of it were really long. So I decided to try my hand at beading. My first try looked ok and Boo actually did really well with sitting mostly still for me.
Now, that I had figured out how easy it really was to do, I thought I'd try again and focus a bit more on what I was doing. After several rounds of Sesame Street, we ended up with an awesome set. I LOVE LOVE LOVE how this one came out. She looked so cheerful and I got alot of comments from people when we'd go out in public. Here it is:
I also found a wrap for her hair at night. I wasn't sure how she would do with it, but she kept it on really well and it has made a huge difference in the softness of her hair. It has also done a great job of keeping the styling from coming out. My African Queen:

I just redid her braids and beads in Camo colors for the Major's big opening weekend at the University ROTC program. I'll post those pics later. Suffice it to say, she is the star of the show in her camo braids and ACU jumper.

Pearls of Africa

Many of you have asked about the latest adoption adventure we're involved in now. Since we have made it official as of yesterday, I thought I would jot a quick note today about how God brought us to this point.

The Major and I have begun the process to adopt a sibling group of 3 children under the age of 7yrs from Uganda, Africa. I know, I know...you probably think we're crazy. That's the usual response we get from people. Or we hear "Are you sure you can handle that?" To be honest, no, I don't know if I can handle it and we probably are crazy, but Love makes you act that way sometimes.

Even while we were courting, the Major and I discussed our desire for a big family and how adoption would be a part of that equation. When God closed my womb we realized that we had been given an incredible opportunity to impact children's lives from around the world who may never know what the word "family" means. As the time approached to finalized Shiloh's adoption we began to discuss our next addition to the family. We both wanted to go international this time. The Major wanted to focus on war orphans and I wanted to bring home a sibling group since they usually had a harder time being adopted. As we began to pray for God to guide us to where...Rwanda was placed on hearts. After doing a ton of research and making connections, the door to Rwanda shut. We were confused and not sure where to go from there. We had felt pretty sure that we were supposed to focus on that area of the world. We went back to God and asked again.

Within a few weeks, we had 3 totally different people mention Uganda to us. I did some research and was horrified at the situation going on in that country. I found myself angry that our media was so blatantly ignoring this country and grieved at the suffering of my brothers and sisters there. If you want more information check out: http://www.invisiblechildren.com/ & http://www.wardancethemovie.com/ And you can read the book: Girl Soldier by McDonnell & Akallo

The Major and I became really excited about this possibility, but were once again confused and frustrated when we found out that the government requires you to live in Uganda for 3 years before you can adopt. Then God stepped in and put us in touch with an organization here in our area that is working with an NGO group in Uganda to facilitate adoptions. As we emailed back and forth, we began to realize that God was throwing open this door and it was an amazing opportunity to adopt from a country with real needs where very few people were willing to go.

Yesterday, we met face to face with the head of the agency we are working with and handed in our first round of paperwork officially starting the process. It will take some time, but we are excited and trust that God will provide everything we need emotionally, physically, spiritually, and financially for this adventure.

I will keep you all posted on each step of the journey. Hopefully, I'll get some time in a later post to explain exactly how the process will go, so you can be praying with us through each step. Thank you all again for your love and support of us through this. We look forward to meeting the African children God has chosen for our family!

Live Brave & Love Crazy!! =)

A Sweeter Song

Last night I was reading through my blog list and came across a post that had me in tears and I'd thought I'd share some of my thoughts here.

First, here's a portion of the post from her blog:
I recalled a quote I read years ago in a Max Lucado book (ironically, I think the title has something to do with a storm...). It told the story of a very young girl who was playing her violin at a concert and there was no question she was a prodigy, gifted well beyond her years. But while her fingers danced on the strings, a man in the audience leaned over to his friend and said, "Can you imagine how beautiful it will be once she's had her heart broken?"

I don't know why, but after reading that last quote my mind turned to my infertility. It isn't something I think about alot, but for some reason this specific quote really hit me hard... "Can you imagine how beautiful it will be once she's had her heart broken?"

It's true...so true. I think about my life and specifically my desire to have children and it would have been beautiful and amazing to have been able to give birth to our children. BUT it has been even more beautiful wallking through the adoption journey that brought us to Pvt Boo and will eventually lead us to our other recruits. It hasn't been easy and there have been many tears shed in the process. In fact, I had to be broken first in order to be able to receive this gift.

Sorrow is not something we run after. It's not something we purposefully pray for, but when it does come into our lives, we need to trust that the Lord is doing something in us that only brokenness can bring about. A pitcher that has been broken and put back together again will have cracks that leak water...and so our lives when broken and put back together by the Lord leak His presence and blessings all over those we come in contact with.

And just like the man observed...I hope that my song, the song the Lord is playing through me, is a sweeter song because of the brokenness I have experienced.