Too Wonderful

"You hem me in- behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is TOO WONDERFUL for me, too lofty for me to attain." Psalm 139:5-6

I don't think I ever knew what it meant for something to truly be TOO wonderful. Not until I experienced such OVERWHELMING generosity recently did I know that it was possible to feel that God's goodness was simply TOO MUCH to handle. I know that feeling now. I cannot articulate it. The knowledge that God has laid his hand upon me and my family ... it truly is too wonderful for my mind to process. In some ways I feel like I am in shock- like I am outside of everything watching it happen in a state of disbelief. In other ways I feel more alive and connected than I ever have before in my life.

More details to come later. Right now I'm just still soaking it all in.

I ((heart)) CRAIG'S LIST!

Why have I not been taking advantage of this amazing site before now??? A fellow Eisenhower mom donated a BUNCH of Little Tykes and Step2 outdoor items to our garage sale (next Fri and Sat) but another good friend told me that I would probably get more for items like that on Craig's List. (thanks Melanie!!!) WOW was she right! (seriously, thanks Melanie!!!) I listed the items on the site this afternoon, a process that was extremely quick and easy as pie. Within 10 MINUTES of listing them all I had emails from people who wanted to come pick them up and pay cash immediately! Who is this guy Craig, and can I give him a giant HUG??? So awesome. I think I'm going to do all my shopping on there from now on. Do they sell groceries???

Catch Up...

Okay... I know it's been way too long since I last posted. And now I have waaaaaay too many things to talk about all in one post! Right now it's Saturday morning and in less than an hour I need to have my family out the door and on our way to one last soccer game, so this probably isn't the ideal time to sit and blog. But oh well. Here's a quick catch up:

1. I got a great job offer for next school year! I mean- providential-straight-from-the-hand-of-God-to-my-family job offer! I am going to be working 2.5 days per week at Glenpool Elementary. It's going to help soooooo much- both with paying for the adoption and with allowing us to get the things the "new" children will need. You know: beds, sheets, shoes, clothes, possibly diapers??? It's going to make for a busy, busy family year, but it is such a total "fell in my lap" blessing... I can't even begin to be grateful enough.

2. Our homestudy had to be re-written b/c when I glanced through it upon receiving it, I noticed that one line read; "Mick Gower is a US citizen... blah blah blah..." and of course he is not. So..... that caused a 3 week delay for that one line to be rewritten. Seriously.

3. Good news: we got notification from CIS to be fingerprinted for the last time!!! Bad news: it is scheduled for the one week this summer we were going to take a vacation. So... vacation has to be planned around this one little probably 1/2 hour trip to the CIS office in OKC. Oh, well.

4. School is out! Check out these happy faces:


5. We had an awesome fund raiser at the "farm" last weekend. Everyone had lots of fun! I'll end this post w/ a few pix of the great day...

My awesome cousin, LaDonna, has graciously volunteered to donate all her sales this month to our adoption fund! She has a home based business with a company called Scentsy, specializing in wickless candles that smell soooooooooooooo good! I have one burning in my house right now, and it smells like LILACS in here, people!!! NOT like smelly little boys! For real. So if you are interested, just click on her link to the right and check out the catalog. They ship right to your door and the burners come in tons of shapes- from cute to elegant and everything in between! So you will be getting a great product and we will reap the benefits! LaDonna... you are the BEST!!!



Click away and see what you think!

APPROVED!!!

I just received this letter in my email inbox 2 minutes ago:


Dear Michael and Gayla,

Congratulations, you are now Gladney approved and ready to begin the dossier and ultimately the referral phase of your adoption process. I am mailing you both an approval packet with your approval certificate and quarterly training information for your “approved and waiting” period. (etc...)

WooHoo!!! That is a HUGE step in the right direction. It means our homestudy is complete and on it's way to CIS for final approval! It means we are very close to being on the "wait" list! It means this thing is REALLY going to happen!!! AAAAAAAUGH!!! I know we are nowhere close to the end, but I kind of got butterflies in my stomach when that email arrived. Wow. This is really going to happen. Am I up to this??? Am I up to this challenge??? AAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So exciting and encouraging and terrifying all at once.

Frustrated.

I just realized today that CIS (Citizenship and Immigration Services- formerly INS) is waiting on our home study documents before they will call for us to go be fingerprinted (again) and that after that their approval will take approximately 60 days. What that translates to is that although I was hoping to have ALL paperwork in by the end of May, which after everything is approved puts us on the official "waiting" list to be matched w/ children, now that's at least one month off the timeline I've had stuck in my head. So that sends me off on a tailspin in my mind. "Are we behind? Have I not been diligent enough? Could I have been more organized and efficient and put us where we need to be???" See? Tailspin. But when I calmed myself down I realized that truly all of this is out of my control. As far as I know our homestudy docs are at the agency and they are doing whatever they are supposed to do with them before they send them on to me for me to copy and then send to my dossier service and to the CIS office. And at that point the CIS office will start whatever it is that takes them 60 days, tell us to get fingerprinted again, etc... So really, there's nothing I can do about it. But be patient and wait. And trust that the timing is all working out the way it is supposed to work out.

I have tried not to get dates stuck in my head, but it is very hard not to. When I read the country updates each month that give the new approximate time frames for everything it's impossible not to start adding up the time and landing on a month in 2010 when we might be able to travel to Ethiopia to get our children... but I know that is foolish. All I can control is my part of the paperwork, which I do feel I have been diligent about, and then just relax and have faith that there is a perfect timing that is working it's way out for the best possible outcome. And even for me to think that all of the paperwork would be finished by the end of May was assuming that I was in charge of all of it, which I obviously am not.

SO! A lesson learned. Deep breath being taken right now. Tension being released... trying to release tension... trying... I think I need a massage.

So Hard.

Go here. Watch this.

Our lives are so easy and so blessed.