Race Day

Yesterday was the highly anticipated Pinewood Derby! Kaleb and Chad, well mostly Chad, have been designing, carving, sanding, and creating their Pinewood Derby cars for the past month. Chad put his heart and soul into these two cars. They had a non-Cub Scout race that the Dad's could enter in. Papa, Chad and Kaleb were convinced that they would take 1st place or at least Best in Show. Luckily, Kaleb wasn't disappointed when he took 4th (out of 6 cars) in his Den. He didn't place very high in overall either. He received a pretty blue "participation" ribbon, in which he was thrilled about. It was our first year, and we learned alot. They are already planning for next years race. It was a great day and Kaleb is so happy to be a Tiger Cub.

I couldn't help but thinking that next year, all five of us will be there to watch the Derby. I can't WAIT!!! Our Social Worker called Chad last week and gave us a "heads up" on our Training. It will take place this coming Friday and Saturday. We still need to do our individual interviews for our Homestudy, and so we have to come an hour early to Training and stay an hour later. This should complete our Homestudy. All of our paperwork is in, and we have covered everything but our individual interviews, so we'll see!

I am excited to start Training. I've heard that there is alot of useful information covered and it will be great to actually meet other couples. I guess there is only us and two other couples. It will be fun, though. The boys will be with Grandma, so it will be nice weekend getaway.

Here are some pictures from the Derby.

Here's the whole "Pack" with their cars.

This is Chad's car.

Kaleb's Car

You could win . . .

a brand new camera and all of the goodies that go with it! A fellow blogger friend is raffling off a Camera on her blog for $5 per ticket. What a steal, huh?! The raffle package is worth about $600! So click here, donate $ to her adoption fund, and get entered to win! What have you got to lose? I know . . . I sound just a little like the infomercials, but the money goes to a great cause, it helps with the expenses to bring home precious Claire! Hurry though, it all ends February 2nd. Visit her blog for the full details.

One Year Ago

Many bloggers have shared their touching stories about how they have came to adoption. Many have experienced the painful loss of infertility. Others have always talked about and knew that they would adopt someday. I tell this story because I get healing through talking about it and I want my daughter to know the path that let her to us.

In July of 2007 we found out that we were expecting our third child. We were extatic about having another little one, the boys were getting older and I was ready for another baby. Three months into the pregnancy I started having complications. I was bleeding pretty bad and knew that something was not right. I had totally different symtoms and was convinced it was a girl. This went on for the next four months. Instead of having a growing belly, my tummy was actually getting smaller. In an ultrasound, my Dr. couldn't tell if the baby was a boy or a girl and was having trouble seeing the heart. This was right before Christmas last year. So I had a follow-up ultrasound scheduled for 1/9/08. I went in and the devastating news was revealed to me, my baby had went to be with Jesus. They think that the baby had died that day, because all of the tissue was still intact. His/her heart had never developed properly. The next day I had to go through 8 hours of labor to deliver our baby. Instead of hearing the joy of a baby crying, all we heard was silence. As you can imagine this was a very hard time for all of us. But through this hard time, we understood God's timing and direction for our lives.

Months later, God layed the thought of adopting on Chad's heart. After talking it over for a few months I began to understand and see that this is what God had planned all along. All of us have changed for the better and realize that the love for our little girl, waiting for us in Korea, will be overflowing and supernatural. Our faith has become stronger and we see things differently than we used to. I am so thankful for the path that God has set out for us, and we can't wait to meet the beautiful daughter that He has hand-picked for our family.

They say time will heal all wounds, and I can attest that this is true. Each day got better and better and once we started the adoption process, it gave us hope. We don't know if we will have any more biological children or not, but we do know that there are so many children in the world that need loving, stable homes. There will always be a child waiting for us in heaven, and it will be a great day when we can all be together.

Fundraiser

Well we have moved three spots on the list since 2008. I just called our agency today to ask them a couple of questions about our paperwork and then asked them what number we are and he said #14! Things are looking up for the New Year! Praise the LORD!!

I have been looking all over for a fundraiser that I could do while we are waiting for our little girl. I really didn't want to depend and deplete all of our friends and family. So Chad and I came up with the idea of having a huge Yard Sale in the spring. All of our family and friends can then contribute stuff that they don't use anymore, if they feel led to. I am doing some early spring cleaning and making some baby rag quilts. My father-in-law made some really nice birdhouses and Crosses for Christmas gifts this year and I asked him to make some for the sale. We're throwing around the idea of having lunch for sale too. We rent a building on a major Highway that we use for our business and were thinking that would draw many more people by having it there. We are so excited to see God move in miraculous ways with this sale.

Here is a couple pictures of one of the baby Rag Quilts I already made. I hoping to make 2-3 more before Spring! I usually procrastinate, so I'm really glad to have at least one done!