On the homefront... (aka: I am blessed)

Things have been going pretty well here at home.  Of course, we miss B.J./Daddy a LOT, but God has been so gracious to us.  It has been awesome getting to experience the Church coming together and blessing us.  Our friends and family have overwhelmed me with support - from phone calls to check in on how I am doing, to meals, to outings and activities to keep us busy, to family coming over at just the right time, to prayers and notes of encouragement.  Jeremy even took the girls to play on the pond this afternoon which wore them out enough to go right to sleep tonight.  SCORE!  It has been awesome and humbling all at the same time.  I am naturally someone who does NOT like to admit when I need help and want to do things on my own, but God has been teaching me the joy that comes in accepting help from others and reaching out when I need help.  It has been a good lesson for me :)

We have been able to skype about twice a day with B.J. and that has been nice - though the 13 hour time difference makes that a little tricky.  Our days have been full with life - chores, schoolwork, me nesting.  Oh yes, nesting  happens with adoption too - except there is no 9 month belly to contend with this time (okay, honestly, maybe a couple month belly is still hanging on...).  So far, we have organized the sippy cup cupboard, the main drawer in the kitchen, the drawer in the bathroom, and I have sorted through my dresser clothes.  Oh yeah, and I am s l o w l y catching up on laundry.  Not bad for four days.  Oh yes, and I still have four kiddos that need me....  It can be tough balancing my desire to accomplish much with my need to be with my children - not just there but actually with them.

I have really appreciated everyone's prayers.  I am the type of person that doesn't even like when B.J. goes away for a weekend because I get cranky with my kids and nothing much good comes from it.  However, so far, we are doing well - better than I had hoped and more like what I imagined it would be like.  Which, especially if you are a mom, NEVER happens like you imagine it will (unless you can imagine all the frustrations, interruptions, etc. that come...)  I know that that is all the grace of God.  He has helped me to hold my temper when I was starting to get angry, and He has helped me keep calm when all four kiddos need me at once.  That is not my natural instinct and I have felt God's presence acutely.

In a few short (relatively in comparison to our year of waiting) hours, Liliana will be in B.J.'s arms and I will get to see her with Skype.  It is so surreal.  I am inexpressibly excited about that.  She will finally be ours and the year of paperchasing will be over.  However, the real journey will have only just begun.  Liliana is about to have her entire world turned upside down in a way that few of us can relate to.  She is going to be with complete strangers who don't know her, can't communicate with her, smell different, and even act differently than anything she has known thus far.  While we covet your prayers through this process and through B.J. being in China, that is really just the beginning and the 'realness' of adoption will kick in later.  Please pray for Liliana and all of us as we head into this transition.   Pray for grace and understanding and a sense of His Spirit in our lives.  And please continue to pray for us even after we get home.  Adoption is not really the fairy tale ending like we see in the movies.  It is work.  It is hard.  And it is so worth it.  Anything is when it is what God has called you to do.

And, just because his little dance is so cute and I was so grateful for Daddy, Grampy, and Jeremy coming to help with kiddos on bath night, I figured I would share this video.  And yes, that is Simeon switching to whining at the end...no idea why.