Our journey ...

to adoption. Some of you know, but many of you do not that Jeff and I have begun the process to become verified to adopt a child out of the foster care system. This post is dedicated to telling our story of how we came to this decision and the process we will under go in the next few months.

I've been working with foster and adoptive families for a little over 2 years, but it wasn't until recently that I began considering and talking to Jeff about bringing one of these children into our home. At one of the many points in which I attempted to change jobs over the last two years the opportunity presented itself to move to the Fort Bend office location and continue in the same role with different families. I agonized over whether I should accept the position since the position was really what I didn't like, not the families. However, gas prices were astronomically high at the time and I decided serving families closer to our home was worth the change. This is all vital information because had I not moved to the other office, I wouldn't have met Prince Harry, a sweet red haired eight year old boy waiting to be adopted.

Upon one of my first visits to the home, Prince Harry asked me when he was going to get to go home with his family. He didn't mean his biological family as their parental rights had been terminated some time ago, he meant his adoptive family. You see, his caseworker from CPS had come to his foster home, taken his picture, and told him she was going to use it to find him an adoptive family. It had been months and his foster mother said at one time he was asking every day, but this was the first time in a while that he had asked. This broke my heart!! In the days and weeks to come I became angry, not with the worker, but with a system that is over burdened to the point where Prince Harry's picture was sitting on some one's desk who was too busy to write up a narrative and broadcast it. This was the next step for Prince Harry and then each agency in the area would submit home studies of families they believed would be a great new family for Harry. Four families would then be selected to be presented by their agencies adoption specialist for consideration. During this very important meeting, called a RAS, a family would be selected for Prince Harry. I began thinking a lot about Harry and talking to Jeff about the thought that perhaps we were supposed to adopt him. Jeff did not have a peace about it and this caused some strife because I thought for sure we were meant to be this child's parents. During this time Jeff and I attended the first meeting of a new ministry at HFBC, the Adoption and Orphan Care ministry. We met other families considering adoption of various types, including international, domestic private adoption, and foster care adoption. We continue to be encouraged by these families who are all at different points on their adoption journey.

Several months after I first began working with Prince Harry I attended a meeting and was told that Prince Harry would be broadcast in the next couple of days and that several families had expressed interest in Harry at a waiting families meeting the night before. I had a rush of intense, conflicted emotion as I was SO happy that Harry had a lot of wonderful options for an adoptive family, but I was devastated that it wouldn't be us. As time has passed, I have realized that though Prince Harry wasn't meant to be a member of our family, God brought him into our lives to open our hearts to the idea of adopting and to prepare the way for the child God has ordained to join our family. Prince Harry is still waiting for a family to be selected and we pray for him often.

This brings me to our current situation. After researching countless agencies in our area and attending some informational meetings, we have finally selected the agency that will assist us with our adoption. Arrow Child & Family Ministries was founded by a godly man that grew up in the foster care system. He has focused his agency on the heart of God for foster care and adoption and used his experience to build a child-centered program that promotes Christian values. We have to drive all the way to the Woodlands for training, but it is totally worth the drive!! Jeff and I began training in child development and communication this past Saturday. So far we are very impressed with the biblical based training filled with scripture, unheard of in the non-profit world! As Jeff is entering year end at work we will be unable to continue training until March. We will then under go the home study process which will include hours of interrogation by a well meaning, but necessarily nosy social worker. Hopefully our home study will be approved and then we will wait for our child to be matched with us. This brings me to the end of this very long post, but this is only the beginning of our adoption journey. Please join us in prayer for our future child that they would be safe, well nurtured, and their heart would be beginning to be prepared to be adopted into our family and more importantly God's family. Also please pray for Prince Harry as he waits.

"For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the Spirit of Adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." - Romans 8:15

Bye Bye Blue

While on vacation from work, we undertook another home decorating project that I have been looking forward to for a while. We painted one of our guest bedrooms. After closer examination it appears that the previous owners not only let their kid pick the color, but the painting looks like it was done by a child too! This is what the room looked like before. Now that is a lot of bright Tiffany Blue for one room!

We decided to paint three of the walls a lighter color and make the wall with the window on it an accent wall. I choose Gobi desert as the lighter color and Wild Manzanita for the accent wall. We really enjoyed saying "Bye Bye" to the blue.

Here is the final product. I personally think the room looks bigger. What do ya'll think? I am quite sure the gobi desert will be the primary color of our home when it is time to repaint the hall ways, etc. I love that it is dark enough to add warmth, but not so dark that it makes the space appear smaller than it is.

S-P-E-C-T-A-C-U-L-A-R

Truly Magical.........I think I had more fun than the kids sitting next to us!!!
We were told not to take pictures or video and it made me mad when other people did, but we are rule followers at our house so we waited and took a picture at home with the program!

Out with the old, in with the New

Jeff and I got back yesterday afternoon from 2 1/2 fabulous days in San Antonio celebrating the New Year! This has become a tradition for us and I look forward to it all year. This was our third year to go. We left Houston on 12/30/08 and told the cat we'd see her next year. We stopped at my fav' Buccees and still made it to San Antonio just in time for Six Flags to open for Holiday in the Park. We walked, enjoyed the scenery, a few rides, and some shows. Wednesday morning we slept in and enjoyed our hotel before going to the Tower of the Americas. We had New Year's Eve lunch at the Chart House restaurant located in the Tower of the Americas. It is similar to the ball in Dallas because it rotates and you get to see a 360 degree aerial view of San Antonio. I like this picture because you can see our hotel in the window behind us. We stayed in a brand new hotel called the Grand Hyatt. It was really pretty and a short walk from the tower and festival. It also was the hotel where all the activities were occurring for the upcoming US Army bowl game this weekendJeff actually wanted his picture taken in front of the towerSan Antonio has a really neat New Year's tradition of placing the date of the outgoing year on the tower on New Year's Eve and turning it to the incoming year date at the strike of midnight. You can also see the elevator on the side of the tower go up and when it arrives at the top the countdown is over and the fireworks begin. After lunch we walked around the park surrounding the tower and the little shops before going back to the hotel to rest up for the festival. The festival that occurs in San Antonio in honor of New Year's Eve is always packed so I can't imagine what NYC time square is like. This is me trying to capture the feel of the festival. You can almost smell the corn dogs and funnel cakes!
Just before midnightFireworks signal the beginning of 2009!On New Year's Day we walked on the river walk, and ate lunch before heading home. I enjoyed taking pictures of the river walk with my new cameraWe ate New Year's Day lunch at Michelangio's on the River walk. I recommend it for yummy Italian food. Jeff boycotted having his picture taken AGAIN, but agreed to snap this one of me solo.The drive home is always kind of sad because the "holiday season" is officially over, but this time we had more fun to look forward to. We are going to see this tonight, SO exciting