I Love Links!

Don't you love blogging? I think it gives us a chance to connect with other people who share similar journeys (adoption, motherhood, Christianity, whatever...) and it gives a chance to "peek in someone else's windows" to see what goes on in there home. My dear friend, Melissa, pointed out to me that we also don't spend time talking over the back fence like we used to and this is a way for us to know what is going on with our "neighbors." Anyway, I love to write my blog and read other's blogs.

I saw this idea on another blog and I thought it was a great one. If you are out "there" let me know. Send a reply with your name, a little bit about you and your blog address. Feel free to link my blog to yours if you want and I will assume it is ok to do the same.

Hope you all are enjoying the extra day of your weekend!

Dreams!

In an attempt to "enjoy the journey" I am taking advantage of things I know I won't be able to do much of once the baby is here (sleep, watch t.v., surf the net).

In my attempt to enjoy sleep for last time in several years, the strangest thing has been happening to me. I have been having the strangest dreams lately! It has been several years since I have even been able to remember any of my dreams, but here lately, I can even remember dreams from a short nap.

In most of my dreams, there are very familiar people to me (family and close friends) and the situations don't seem terribly odd - they kind of fit with what is going on with that person. I am not one who believes that dreams have a hidden meaning, but I wonder if I just happen to have a lot on my mind. I have heard of pregnant women having weird dreams and I wondered if something similar was happening to me. Any other adoptive or waiting to adopt parents out there had this happen to them?

Hey! If nothing else I did get a great gift idea for two of my friends who are retiring. Seriously, it is a cute idea and I may go with it! Isn't that weird?

Amazed!

Sunday nights we eat dinner after church with our friends from church. For the most part the group is mainly couples/families from our small group at church. In my opinion, regular fellowship time is something that keeps our group close. Whether it is dinner after church, girls' night out or guys' night, it all plays a big role in group cohesion. We love our Sunday night dinner with friends and look forward to it every week. This Sunday night was our last regular date until after the summer. We will have a couple of fellowships over the summer, but as for "go to church then eat" - this is finished until August when our regular schedule resumes.

Back to the whole point of this post, before I launched into the "How much I love spending time with my friends" ramble.

Here is the scene:
1 Small Pizza Parlour
12 Adults
9 Children under the age of 5
Toddlers with the guys, babies with the girls

Favorite quote of the night, "Dad I want a plate of..." the Dad "I want a big plate of SHHHHH!"

Last night as we sat waiting for our pizzas to be served, I watched my friends in amazement. How do they know to feed their kids noodles? How do they always have a packet of crackers ready to pull out in an instant? How do they manage to eat a single bite of food while wrestling a 15 month old who moves with the agility and speed of a helicopter? How do they manage to have a complete sentence of adult conversation? At one point, one of the Moms looked at me and said "You look deep in thought, what are you thinking about?" Well, now she knows. It was a combination of amazement and fear. Amazement that they all seemed to handle the situation with ease and fear that I have no idea what I am getting myself into.

To all my friends who are moms, you amaze me! I hope to handle the situations we will have with half as much grace as you do.

We will miss our Sunday night dinners until August, but we will look forward to times of good fellowship over the summer. After all our small group won $50 in our game of "Are You Smarter Than the Pastor?" last night. I think I have a just the plan on how to spend that!

Waiting

As of now, we have been officially waiting since February 25, 2008. In a few short days it will be that we have been officially waiting for three months. Time does fly...some days that is. Other days waiting three to six more months seems like when we were kids and we waited for our birthday, the end of school or for Christmas. My birthday is in March and I can remember as a kid starting to ask my Mom in January what kind of birthday party I would have. "Please Mom, can it be a slumber party? I will only invite a few people!" I couldn't wait! I remember how long long the days between Spring break and Summer break seemed. Sitting in that hot, un-air conditioned class room seemed like torture as I sat there with visions of swimming pools and family vacations floating in my head. Don't even mention the wait until Christmas!

As an adult, I have found myself waiting time and time again. What is it that God is trying to teach me with all this waiting? There must be a point to all the "in between times" in life where I am waiting for this or that big event.

So here we are today, waiting again. This time we wait for our baby. We also have the realization that right now, this baby maybe waiting on us too. God will be faithful in our journey to each other and He will make us a family.

This adoption, for me, will be the realization of a life long dream but this tiny bundle of joy will not be in my arms for probably six months. The other day as I was thinking about that wait, I realized that I have a lot of life to live in the mean time. Next month Amy and kids will come for a visit, I have three friends expecting babies of their own, countless friends whom I wish to celebrate will turn another year older and much more of life will occur. Wouldn't it be a shame for me to miss all that in between stuff? So for now I struggle with the balance of preparing for this baby and celebrating the life that is happening all around me.

As we wait for this baby we pray "Please Lord, let someone love our baby right now while we can't be with him/her. Please protect our precious little one. You know the plans you have for us and we will wait on You."

Making A Difference!

Lately I have been thinking about people who make a difference. We all know them! People who have a vision on how to make the world around them a better place and then (this is key) they actually follow through with their plans. It is not just a vision, a wish or a dream, but they find a way to make it a reality.

Some of the people I know that come to mind are Dr. Don R. of Chattanooga, TN, Betty K. of Fort Smith and David and Lydia M. of Honduras. These people inspire me.

Dr. R. went with his church on a mission trip to Honduras in the 80's and discovered an orphanage being run by David and Lydia M. When he arrived, the children were almost at the point of starvation and David and Lydia had been praying for days that a dentist would come to help them because the kids were in desperate need of dental work. Dr. R. took on the orphanage as his personal mission and he spends countless hours working to make the orphanage a better place for the children who live there. David and Lydia's story is similar as they gave up everything they owned to make a home for children who were cast aside in Honduras.

I am also inspired by Betty. She is an ordinary woman who through her own personal tragedy saw a need for pediatric physical, occupational and speech therapy in our area. Because of her efforts and the efforts of her family, our area has an outstanding clinic where any child in need of therapy can come and receive treatment at no out of pocket cost.

Last night I heard of Dr. Farmer. A doctor who has moved to Haiti to set up a hospital in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Because of his efforts, people in Haiti receive medical care free of charge.

All of these people have set up something that will make a difference well past their lifetime. It got me to thinking about my life, what am I doing that will make a difference past my lifetime? As Christians, we are called to help those who are helpless (widows, orphans and the poor). I was reminded of one of my favorite poems. Maybe you have heard it before, but I think it is worth reading and thinking about what we do in life and if we are making a difference.


Once upon a time there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his

writing.

He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.

One day he was walking along the shore.

As he looked down the beach, he saw a human figure moving like a dancer.

He smiled to himself to think of someone who would dance to the day.

So he began to walk faster to catch up.

As he got closer, he saw that it was a young man and the young man wasn't

dancing, but instead he was reaching down to the shore, picking up something

and very gently throwing it into the ocean.

As he got closer he called out, "Good morning! What are you doing?"

The young man paused, looked up and replied, "Throwing starfish in the ocean."

"I guess I should have asked, why are you throwing starfish in the ocean?"

"The sun is up and the tide is going out. And if I don't throw them in they'll die."

"But, young man, don't you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it. You can't possibly make a difference!"

The young man listened politely. Then bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it

into the ocean, past the breaking waves and said - "It made a difference for that one."

So what does that mean for you? How can you make a difference?