Christmas Card 2005

Thanksgiving is here. That means I can send our Christmas card out! Thanksgiving means quite a lot more to us, don't worry. But Troy and I have sent "Annual Christmas Greetings" twice (I think). We've been married four times the number of annual letters...so if you did get a card from us this year (and actually followed the blog address to this site), then I'm sure it's been quite a surprise to hear from us. Good surprise or bad surprise? (Notting Hill) Hopefully good surprise. (Tell us privately, please). This picture was a surprise...I thought I was wasting hours sorting and editing photos, but found this picture of Dodger in his Batman PJ's eating cookies as fast as we could make them. Too bad I had to crop out the PJ's. I also wanted to send out a Christmas letter this year, but didn't know how to fit in all the details about Dodger's growing, our graying (yes..gray..) inside a tiny card. Plus, we have wonderful news: "We're having a baby"! She is due to us from China prayerfully next summer or fall. I overheard Dodger to his buddy Sam the other day, "I'll be a big brother soon...or maybe in a long time". We don't know exactly how long it will be. Hopefully not as long as it takes me to get Christmas cards out!

A Step

Why adopt? Because seeds that God planted in my heart for another child had begun to grow. Change didn't occur in my heart until I realized that adoption isn't exclusively for people who can'’t have children naturally. We have wonderful Dodger. After a year of trying for #2, God began to take us down a different road. We started searching our hearts and asking Him a lot of questions. Troy wasn't verbal about his desire to adopt, but it was there. He has always wanted a little girl from China. I thought, maybe someday. In May I began to pray over and over for two things: One, that God would show me how to actively obey Him. And two, that He would give us road signs if we were to adopt. I thought I needed more than just "“Hey, that'’s a great idea, and lots of people we know are doing it"”. So I meditated on these two requests (obedience and signs) to the Lord for a month. God answered both prayers and showed up in a soft whisper that "“You don'’t need signs, Aim. You need a heart completely and 100% on board. When your heart is ready, you'll do it because you WANT to."” I said "Okay, change my heart then". I didn'’t think it would happen, but once my heart was turned upside down, there was no turning back. In fact it was then that I realized that God planned from the beginning to bring us babies from near and far. And even though I didn't need "signs" they kept coming anyway. I realized that adoption is never plan B for anybody- not parent or child. Just two weeks after my heart was being flooded with this new truth, I went to a Family Life adoption conference at our church. I wondered if the teachers at the conference had read my journal first. And better than having all of these signs show up on a map, the intentionality of God to want to show us and love on us in this way is so humbling. Every step of the way, we've been asking Him to help us follow His lead. We know this is just the first step. But it is a step.

Dodger

 

Gearing Up for the First Day

This is my first blog. I'm sitting here staring at a blank page. I so love to journal about the daily-ness of our lives (simple things that trigger great memories- so simple they are quickly forgotten unless I've written them down). But between figuring out this thing, this"blog-whatever" and paying attention to Mr. Mighty Hunter here, I don't know what to write. SO much to write. SO little time. Mr. M.H. is walking around, headlamp on, asking me if we have almonds and eating Rolaids. He's turned off the lights to adjust the hue of his headlamp and is showing me the different colors on the wall. No, it's not Dodger. I guess it would be frightening or weird if Dodger were eating antacids. Tomorrow is opening day of rifle season, did I say that right? And Troy is gearing up. He is warned not to wake me up at 3:00 AM tomorrow morning. I'm going to wrap up this post so I can get to the fun stuff...picture posting. This could be addicting...

A Rare Pic

This rare pic (because the three of us are rarely together in a shot instead of behind the camera) was taken in Atlanta at Matt and Rachel's - Aug. 05. This is us! CuatroChalecos! If you know Spanish then it might seem strange that we three are cuatro chalecos. I thought about Los Cuatros Chalecos but that's too much to remember. The truth is we're expecting a fourth member and are praying like she is already a part of our family! We would love to give more details, but we don't have any...yet. What we know so far: Dodger is going to be a big brother, and we have love in our hearts for a precious baby coming to us from CHINA! More info on future blog.

First Titans Game!

DODGER had a blast with Daddy at the Titans game on October 30th. The first time we asked him, Dodger said he wanted to be a dinosaur when he grew up. More recently he's changed from wanting to be a dinosaur to being a daddy...until the day he saw the Titans play. He informed us both that he wants to be a football player someday. We told him the great news that he can do two out of those three things! If he will just quit saying "throw me the baseball"!