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Father’s Day and Puzzle Update

We had a great Father’s Day today!  Among other things, we celebrated with Frosty’s at Wendy’s because they were donating $0.50 to the Dave Thomas Foundation for every Frosty purchased this Father’s Day weekend!  Dave Thomas started Wendy’s and has a great organization that helps find permanent loving homes for children in foster care.

Here’s Michael’s new adoption/Africa t-shirt purchased through Ryan and Ashlie Fulmer‘s adoption fundraiser. (Pic taken with iphone :))  Ashlie is in Ethiopia right now with her baby boy Easton!

And here is our weekly puzzle update!  Every piece of the puzzle represents $10 that has been donated toward our adoption since we sent letters out in May.  Getting closer to Africa…..!!  (Click on the puzzle button at top right of the blog to see past updates.)

6-20-10

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Puzzle Updates

For those of you searching to see how our puzzle fundraiser is going, I apologize for taking so long to update our blog.  I have begun work on my thesis for my MA that I started 15 years ago, which has taken a bit of my time the last couple weeks.  I will blog more about the thesis at a later date, but please pray for inspiration and perseverance as I write.  I am researching and writing an exegetical study on God’s heart for the fatherless.  It will be a long process, but one that I feel God has convicted me to do, and one that I am excited about!  If it is truly His idea, then I believe He will see me through for His glory!

I am checking in with Lifesong weekly to get updates on the fundraising, and here are the first 2 weeks’ puzzle pictures (Each puzzle piece represents a $10 gift toward adoption expenses — Michael):

6-6-10

6-13-10

It may be hard to see but we have Ethiopia done!  🙂  The kids are really enjoying being involved in this as well.  Thanks so much for those of you who have donated!

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Fundraising–the first pieces to our puzzle!

We are in the fundraising portion of our adoption.  There are several ways to help us out–something for everyone!  We are selling coffee, naming puzzle pieces, and working with Lifesong for Orphans to meet their match offer of $2000!  Click here to read more details on our fundraising options.  If you did not receive a letter from us in the mail, you may view our letter here as well as the official Lifesong letter that goes with it.

I wanted to highlight here our first puzzle pieces that you can see on the right of our site.  For every $10 donated towards our adoption, we will write your name on the back of a puzzle piece.  Our kids were eager to get started on the puzzle and eager to help with our adoption, so they each donated half of their birthday money to help bring their siblings home.

Our “bio kids,” as they are called in adoption world, are ages 6, 8, and 10.  They have been so excited all along the way about our adoption!  Liam talks about when “my boy” will be here.  Maura, the youngest, often suggests that she has “outgrown” a certain toy or clothing item, but that we should save it for “our baby” coming.  And of course our firstborn, Erin, has offered multiple times to “help take care of the kids”!  There has never been a moment where we sensed that they were hesitant or concerned about our changing family structure.  Now, granted, they are young and don’t truly realize what all will change–none of us do, for that matter!  And we have tried to be honest and explain that when the kids come, there will need to be extra attention paid to our new children to assimilate them into our family and our culture and even our language.  But we have promised to make an effort to spend some special times with each of our children individually.  In fact, we are going to an adventure camp this summer called New Life Ranch down in OK for some extra family bonding time before our family as we know it changes forever!

We are so proud of our kids!  It is obvious that God has put adoption on their hearts as much as on ours!  God is weaving our family into a beautiful multi-colored tapestry and we can’t wait to experience “even more than we can ask or imagine”!

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DTE today!! (“Dossier to Ethiopia”)

The long awaited important DTE date has come: 4-9-10!  Usually our agency, AWAA, sends the dossiers over to Ethiopia via FedEx, but in the email we received this morning they informed us that our paperwork will be hand delivered by some of their staff who are traveling there this weekend.  I love the idea that it will be handed over to the orphanage staff by loving, praying hands!

We are so blessed!!  I even got to do the DTE Dance with our friend and mom-in-the-adoptive-process, Deanne Mott, since she happened to be here when I got the email!  Woo Hoo!  Now to work on fundraising…… 🙂

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Milestones and Anniversaries

As with most families, it’s been a big week for us. Besides the usual Easter activities and traveling to visit family, we have had a few other milestones. Since we have been so busy, I am cramming it all into this blog entry. ☺

Last Monday, Mar. 29, was our 14th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by going out for dinner at Jack & Jo’s in Mason City. We cannot recommend it enough! It is well worth the short 20-minute drive from Lincoln. John Means, the owner and Donald Trump of Mason City, showed us around his newest project—a building space across from the restaurant in which a chiropractor’s office and art studio will be located.

We also celebrated the long anticipated day of mailing off our “dossier” (9 months worth of paperwork, background checks, notarizations, autobiographies, medical forms, and a chunk of money!) to America World Adoption Association. They will double check it all, bring it to the US Embassy in DC to be certified, and then mail it off to Ethiopia! After it gets there, we will be put on a waiting list for a sibling group (boy 3-6 years and girl 0-18 months) and will wait on God’s timing to bring us together with them. We are officially in the 2nd trimester our paper pregnancy! We will be doing some fund raising and a lot of reading during this stage, but it will be a little more relaxing than the other 2 trimesters.

The Sunday before we mailed the dossier, we brought those important papers to church. Our elders prayed for us and for our paperwork, for the mother of these children, and for God to bring them to us to raise in His perfect timing. We are so thankful to be able to share this with our congregation so that they can be on this journey with us. They will have a big part in helping us to raise them in the Lord, and we can’t wait to share with our children how may people have been praying for THEM!  In fact, when we got home yesterday, we had a card in the mail from a home care group that has been praying for us, many of whom we don’t even know personally!  I love the community of God!

That Sunday was also memorable to me because it was Palm Sunday. It reminded me of the Easter Sunday just before our firstborn Erin was born. We had a very scary previous week in the hospital during my 29th week of pregnancy, being told Erin was going to be born and all the dangers that come with premature births. The doctors then ended up sending me home, very surprised that I had gotten better, thinking they may have even misdiagnosed my condition. They told me I could go home on bed rest and that I could attend church on the following Easter Sunday. I will never forget the overwhelming emotions I had as that service began with a rousing, organ-led “Christ the Lord Has Risen Today!” I knew I had come home from the hospital because of the prayers of the saints and I knew, to my very core, that Christ was indeed ALIVE! Incidentally, the doctors had not misdiagnosed me, and Erin was born by emergency c-section (along with a surprise emergency liver surgery for me) the following Sunday at 32 weeks. I know that because of the prayers of my brothers and sisters in several states, Erin was given a couple extra weeks for her lungs to develop, and He sustained and saved both of us from other possible devastating complications.

The song gift that God gave me this monumental Palm Sunday 2010 was “Hosanna” by Brook Frasier. I have always loved her spirit for the poor and lonely. The line in the song that has always grabbed hold of me is “Break my heart for what breaks yours.” I know it breaks God’s heart for there to be hurting and lonely people in this world, especially the vulnerable orphans and the oppressed, and I know it is our job as Christians to do whatever part God has called us to care for them in His Name. Lord, “give me your eyes” and “break my heart for what breaks yours.”

So 14 years ago I married my best friend, 10 years ago we had our first child, and this week we sent off the paperwork for our little Ethiopian blessings. This is a good month for anniversaries.

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Breaking Lent to reflect on purpose….

I’m breaking my fast from “social networking” in the evenings for just a moment to reflect on what flooded my emotions tonight.

Just by chance, on two separate occasions today, I was asked to recount the circumstances of my firstborn’s birth. A very long story short, Erin was born, by emergency c-section, over two months early weighing 2# 14oz because I had HELLP Syndrome. The nurses told me a few days later that I almost died from complications including the rupture of my liver. As I reflect, there were SO MANY details of the story that I KNOW God stepped in and changed the trajectory of where I was headed. (Those amazing details will be saved for a later, much longer post.)

Also tonight, I was taking care of updating some billing information for a mission we give to–New Missions Systems International. On their front page they tell of a mom of four in their organization that died recently from brain bleeding complications from eclampsia (most likely the same as the HELLP Syndrome that I had). My heart hurts for her family. I was overwhelmed by the fact that my family’s life would be totally different (and basically non-existent) if God had not stepped in during those couple weeks previous to Erin’s birth.

Why me, Lord? Why did you save me? What do you want of me? What do you want of our family? We have been given a second chance. I don’t want to miss you in the mundane of life. I want to make everything I do count. I do not want to get so busy with our American, self-sufficient way of life that I forget that you are my Creator, my Redeemer, My Savior (in more ways than one), my Lord. I know I don’t have to do giant things to be worthy of your love and approval, but I do want to please you in the little things and allow you to work through me so that whatever I do, big or small, it is ONLY because of your grace and only for YOUR glory. Whether I am a big toe or a shoulder, an eyelash or an eyeball, I truly want to know that I am following YOUR purposes for me. Lord, “thank you” is not enough, but I don’t know what else to say…..

“Ama-se-ganalo” (thank you in Amharic/Ethiopian).

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Sandra Bullock thanks adoptive moms at Academy Awards

We were excited that Sandra Bullock won the best actress award at the Academy Awards tonight–both because she is my favorite actress and because it was for her role in The Blind Side. Michael and I got a little teary during her acceptance speech:

I would like to thank what this film was about for me, which are the moms who take care of the babies and the children no matter where they come from. Those moms and parents never get thanked.

Then she went on to thank her own mom and all she did to encourage her while she was growing up. Sandra, you could have thanked a lot of people up there during your first Academy Award, but you chose to draw attention to all those important moms who love like Jesus does. Thank YOU.

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Save the Date!

We are officially hosting our Mother/Son fundraiser event on Mar. 20 at Lincoln Christian Church, 6:00. It will include dinner and various games, including playing Wii with your son!! More details to come…..

BTW, we finally got our USCIS appointment to get our fingerprints scanned in St. Louis in March! Immigration needs these so they can send us an I-171 document–the last thing we need for our dossier (international papers) to send to Ethiopia! Baby steps…. 🙂

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Bad choices, good choices

So apparently Liam was a little disobedient during recess yesterday and had to miss both recesses. The story from him varied a little from the story from his teacher. Don’t get me wrong, I totally believe his teacher and stand by her ruling, but most of the time I think Liam is just in a different world. So yes, he disobeyed, but HE thought he was obeying.

At the same time, we are trying a new discipline/rearing technique called Love and Logic. We are giving more choices at appropriate times, and giving directions in a more positive manner. So he and Maura were both having a hard time after school, obviously tired, and needed to go to bed early. I told both of them, “You are tired and you will be going to bed early tonight. Would you like to take your bath now (before dinner) and then have a little time with Dad before bed, or finish your movie now and then bathe and bed right after dinner?” Liam chose Dad, Maura chose movie. 🙂

After dinner, Michael and I discussed Liam’s episode at school. We decided that since it didn’t seem his disobedience was totally out of defiance but mostly just Liam-ness, that he had already paid the penalty at school. Nonetheless, he should write an apology letter. So again the choice, “Do you want to write the letter now before bed and miss time with Dad, or in the morning and miss TV time before getting ready for school?” Again he chose Dad. Good choice, Bud.

Here is what I wrote out for him to say and fill in the blanks on his own. “Dear Mrs. Geary, I’m sorry that I _____________ yesterday. I should not have ____________ and _____________. I did not listen well enough. Thank you for _____________. Please accept my apology. Sincerely, Liam.” He had to write it neatly and show it to us for approval. It took him almost 45 minutes and he did it before we even got up. (He’s an early riser :)) Here is the finished product (click pic for bigger version):

We’re proud of you, Buddy.

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Sent papers to USCIS, bittersweet

Don’t get me wrong, I’m SO excited that we have taken the next step! I wanted to shout it to the lady at the post office desk and wondered why she didn’t ask me about the huge smile I had on my face when I mailed our papers to immigration!

But today is a sad day–the day after the huge earthquake in Haiti, the country that could least afford the devastation and loss that occurred last night. Michael and I have both been to Haiti twice, once before we met and once soon after we were married, and it is near to our hearts. Haiti makes Ethiopia’s economy look middle class. They barely have hospitals and medical personnel, barely even roads and reliable transportation, and now there is no way for the help to even get to the hurting. Please pray. I’m sure you are. Please give. Find an agency you trust and give so that they can help in whatever way possible. We are all in this together and we need to help each other out.