On our way to the beach

It's that time again...the 4th of July beach vacation at the WA coast. except this year we are going after the 4th. This year on the way down we have quite a car full! Maxed out really. Henry, Jules, and Hudson in the far back. Liv and Cody in the front. We decided to not take the dog this year...to much going on.  We will still have a full car on the way home because we are bringing Serenity home for a week:)
I am so ready for a beach break! Is it as relaxing as when you have no kids...no, but I find different things relaxing now. Watching the kids play in the sand. Chatting with the family, playing games, seeing the men be goofy. I love it all.
I think Uncle Cody is probably ready to be out of the long car ride, but it does him some good. After all, despite what teenagers think, the world does not revolve around their cute faces:)
Ohemgee, just took the pics notice my brother...oh my.

Philippians 4:13

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Let's just think about that sentence for one second and how profound that is. I can do ALL things, and trust me folks, right now there is a lot of "things" going on in my life. But God promises that I can do all of it through Him. That is amazing. Amazing. Can I handle everything all on my own, um no. Would I want to, ya, no. But with my God, He can handle it and He promises He will. I am counting on God's strength for me to help with a setback concerning my epilepsy. I believe that He has plans for our lives, do I love the fact that I had a seizure, knocked my head on the counter and got a concussion. Ya, I don't think so. But do I think that God can be glorified through my situation, sure. I am counting on God's strength for my family and for my brother specifically. I love that boy and he needs to wisen up. I believe that God has a plan for us and that He is giving us the strength that we need to get His plan done on a daily basis. I am looking forward to every day that God has for us and our family, and I love to be in His will. I know that He is going to bring us the right little girl. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength... and people I have needed a ton, a TON of strength in the past 2 months. I am amazed daily about what God continues to do in my family, in my marriage, and in my life. Amazed.

Dear Edmonds, WA

So I can see in the ticker feed who visits the blog and while there are a whopping 4 people following, baahahaha I keep seeing Edmonds, WA pop up there so my curiousity has got me...who are you Mrs. or Mr. Edmonds comma WA? I'm not running a hot blog or anything it is really just like a family journal, writing down the funny stuff kids do, and now it will appear to be our adoption journey as well! So let's see who you are? Sincerely, Momma L

Riding in a car...

You know that song, by..uh...Barney ....riding in a car riding in a car we go riding in a car...well as in riding in a car it's stuck in my head, so enjoy suckers! Hey I never said this big was all informational, or motivational, or spiritual, or any other of those -Al kinds of words. So where are we riding you ask? Right now  it's over the river and through the Woods to grandmother's house we go... No really I'm serious, but I just couldn't help myself either:)  tomorrow it's Kianna's graduation. She it's such a wonderful young woman, I just can't wait to see what God had in store for her life!

This is the middle....

This is the middle, the in between, the peanut butter and jelly that gets us to obedience. I have become a firm believer that sometimes God uses steps to reach us. Sometimes even when he says leap, you sit on your butt and wail "no I'm scared." So God must chuckle and say "oh you stubborn little children, don't you know that what I have is better that what you are doing, now do what Daddy says, here I will make it easier for you little turkeys. We will take baby steps."
That is what we did, baby steps...at first. We slowly filled out paperwork. A little here and a little there. After that verse I waited a week or two and then I basically verbally vomitted all over Nash. I just rushed out with everything and totally overwhelmed it, needless to say it shut him down, at first. Then we randomly got an email about a family matter concerning some kids who were currently not placed with their mom. This was a step. Would we be willing to have them come to our house? We prayed about it and decided that yes, if the courts and family decided that is what they wanted we would. We thought well man, that was easy! Forget the paperwork and homestudy God just dropped this in our laps. I mean I jokingly prayed that it sure would be nice to have kids just fall into our laps but I didn't really think it would happen! This situation, however, did not pan out. And when I realized I was ok with that, I realized that was not the situation God had for us. That sometimes he places things in our life to make us ready. It has been neat to talk with Nash about all the things that have gone on over the past year and see what He has done.

"He who heeds the word wisely will find good, And whoever trusts in the Lord, happy is he."
Prov 16:20
Bible study- I actually followed through with bible study this year. yes applaud, it's ok. I usually go a few times and then stuff comes up and I drop off. But this year I went every week unless we were sick or out of town. It was awesome. We were in Esther. All year. What I found interesting was the main message seemed to be obedience. I noticed that the gals talked a lot about this and listening to God.
"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. "
Philippians 1:6
"being confident of the very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ."

These are a few of the verses I have bookmarked...just a few, from my time in bible study. God reminding me that what He has started He will complete, we just need to trust, pray, and obey. Mind you this is such a large leap into something we have never done before. But we started thinking that we always tell our kids "listen and obey." That they have to obey us, just like we have to obey God. If we had confirmation that this is what we were supposed to do and we didn't obey our Father what would we teach our children. Sure, they would never know. But we would know. Always. We would always know that we had a chance to live life and show our kids what it means to obey and move when God says and that we didn't. I know that I would always wonder what might have been. We won't have to wonder, we choose to obey what God is saying and what God is promising to our family.

Sept. 2011

Let me start with saying that sometimes people need their pants kicked by our sweet Lord. I am one of those people. I am doubting, I am questioning, I don't get things on the first time, then when I think I get something I question it, I sit on it, I say "is that really you God, or is that my wildly awesome inner monologue saying what I want to say? I mean those 10+ verses are kind of intreguing, and the fact that every time I go to church it has to to with 'obeying', 'listening to God's voice', kinda cool but how do I KNOW?!?!"

Isaiah 61:7
Instead of your shame you shall have double honor, And instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion.Therefore in their land they shall possess double;
Everlasting joy shall be theirs.

This verse might not mean much to many people and to many they might not even see what I see. But this is what God gave me and told me to start seriously praying about adoption. I was satisfied at the moment praying for kids who needed families. I would look at you know like adoptuskids or NWAE and just pray for a specific kiddo. Well one night I went to pray, and there were twin Native girls on there. That I can say is rare. I didn't like feel a pull toward them or anything I just felt like I wanted to pray for them to be adopted and have a good home. I mean how sad is it that kids are listed on sites anyways like we do animals. Kind of a bummer. So I prayed and then went to open my bible app to read the study for the day. Well it wasn't where it was supposed to be, it was on the verse above for some reason. Probably left over from a previous ladies night or something. But as I read the verse I felt this wave of emotion come over me. It was like something I have never felt before and I couldn't explain it. I thought, geewiz. What the heck. This thing sure says double a lot and I don't want those two girls so why the flip and I so emotional!! hmmm maybe I am about to start my period. You see people you see how wretched I am?!? I was totally confused, so I reread the dang thing. And I have realized that each line was for me. I was slightly afraid to tell some people in our family that we were going to adopt for fear of their response and because of that I was ashamed. I confuse things that I know God tells me in my head because I doubt Him when I need to lean on Him and not myself. His ways are perfect and I am learning that when He takes the lead and is in control things work out quite nicely. "therefore in their land they shall possess double." We are looking to adopt another little girl, from our state, a Native American. 1+1=2 (double, right here, in our land) And "everlasting joy will be ours. because HE promised.
Now you will notice I said that I recieved adoption confirmation in Sept. 2011 there was a little ride in between so buckle up buttercup.

2 years in a snapshot

I feel like I need to write everything down because I am going to want to look back one day on all of this. I mean I have a journal in house where I write my inner-most personal feelings...sorry internet-land you are not privy to that, but you get a lot:)
So as you can imagine when we started looking into adoption we thought we would adopt a girl as we had two boys. Then I became pregnant with my beautiful daughter and obviously we ceased all plans on that. The thought crossed my mind that maybe this was God's plan. I desired a daughter and he gave me the desire of my heart. I mean wasn't this my perfect little family or was there another person out there meant to join our family created by God, but birthed by another. I was confused because I was happy, and trying to be content but still had the desire for adoption.

Jump forward a year-ish. You find us in the pride classes because we know that at some point we are going to want to move forward with adoption, but also my cousin's social worker seems to think that being foster parents would be a good idea for having my cousin's come to visit. Then we could be respite. As Nash and I walk into the office to go to class I can't help but notice the large picture of Native kids all dressed in regalia they have hanging right in their entry way. Cute pic, I think to myself, and move on.
30-ish hours of class later we are done. And what did we do with it. We sat on it. We did absolutely nothing with the paperwork, the cert, nothing until just about 2 months ago.