Primland

I love my family:) I love all being under one roof and spending every waking moment together. My parents took all of us to Primland mountain resort for 3 nights. It was wonderful! The views were breathtaking, the time spent together was priceless, and the fun we had made many memories! 

The first day the "kids" (Brian, Parker, Lindsay, and I) took ATVs all through the mountains and had such a great time being "kids" again:) The second day, Lindsay and I enjoyed the spa for 3 glorious hours and the boys played golf while mom took care of all 3 kiddos. Pretty sure mom got the raw end of that deal, but she would say otherwise! The house we stayed in had a huge back deck with one of the most amazing views I've ever seen. And the Lodge was amazing in itself! We spent nights in the pool and by the fire pit...and eating s'mores:). 

We went geocaching on our second day and Brody 

thought it was one big treasure hunt! He loved it! It was quite a hike with 3 littles but we all made it and were glad we did it!

Thank You, Mom and Dad for such a wonderful vacation! 

Provision

The Lord has continuously provided in every way for us in the adoption of our daughter. We have been blown away at how friends and family have given sacrificially to help in the cost of bringing our daughter home.  My sister-in-law sent out letters asking those closest to us to save their change and send it to us at the end of 3 months, and challenging 100 people to try to save/give $100. Each time we received a check in the mail from a dear friend or family member, it was truly humbling. God was providing for us in huge ways. From this letter alone,  $6,605 was given to us.

Then, one night my mom called and said that a lifelong friend of hers wanted to call me. I was very curious, as to why she would want my number. When she called, she asked about our adoption, told me that she and her husband are always looking for ways to give, shared that her husband had just returned from Ethiopia on a medical missions trip, and then asked me how much money we were lacking in funds for our adoption. I told her that at this point everything but our final travel costs were paid for and it would be somewhere around $5,000.  Then she left me speechless......"We would like to give you the remaining $5,000 that you need." What?! Thankful does not even describe it! God has provided every. single. penny for this adoption. He has shown Himself to us in ways we never imagined!

Little Levi

My Sweet Levi,

You turned 18 months yesterday. Wasnt it just a few months ago that I held you in my arms for the first time? You are so big now. You want to be just like your big brother. Its a good thing hes pretty amazing:) You are talking so much now. You are starting to put 2-3 words together. Like "Where's Mama?" or "Here Dada" or "Bye Bye, Bubba" or "I want that". Some other words you love to say are snack, ball, Ry-Ry (Riley), door, bubble, bear, buzz, choo choo,Nonna, PopPop, Nala, Buck, yes, no, juice, bath, cheese. You love to sing, and crow like the rooster:)  We affectionately call you "Wee". Brody's Ls sound like Ws...so Wee-vi you became to all of us:)

You are without a doubt one of the sweetest things in my life. You love to snuggle and give kisses. But you do have quite the temper! Good thing all of that sweetness makes up for it! You are one of the cutest things I have EVER seen in my life. Your curly blonde hair and bright blue eyes melt my heart. You make friends with just about anyone you meet. When we are out in a restaurant you always find somebody that you can make laugh and will talk to you the whole meal. Everyone you meet falls in love with you....its pretty impossible not to do!  

You are going to be a big brother, hopefully by the end of the year. Our baby girl is so lucky to have such amazing big brothers to watch out for her! You are going to be close in age...I am sure you will have your share of arguments but I know you will shower her with all of your sweetness and she will know that you will always watch out for her. 

I am so thankful that the Lord allowed me to be your mommy...it is a privilege and an honor! I love you, sweet boy!

Love, Your Mommy

Paper Pregnancy

Everyone loves to compare adoption to pregnancy....although they are NOTHING alike. The wait is longer, more nerve-wracking, your baby is being cared for by another country (not a nice comfy womb), oh I could go on and on. Right now, however, i do feel like i am waiting to go into labor:) Except I am sitting by the phone, anxiously waiting for it to ring as opposed to waiting for contractions or my water to break. When that phone rings, my adoption coordinator will say "we have a baby girl for you!" And i will rush to my computer to see a picture of my daughter! I will find out how old she is, what she looks like, what her given name is, and part of her story that brought her to me. OH. I. CAN. NOT. WAIT.
SO, be nice and dont call me from any unknown numbers on my phone for the next month or so:) I am liable to get pretty upset when I answer the phone and its not someone inviting me to see my daughter for the first time:)

Our God is Gracious

When my Papa was in the hospital the week before he passed away, my mom did not leave his side. She took care of him that entire week and spent every night at the hospital. Since she is usually the one that keeps the boys while I am work, so we sent them to Richmond to stay with Brian's parents for a few days (which turned into 5 days). On Friday, I had no kids, no work, and nothing to do but go spend time with my Papa at the hospital. It was such a blessing from the Lord! Papa had not really been responsive for the 2 days prior to that, so I was not expecting any reaction from him. When I came in and said his name, his bright blue eyes popped wide open and he said "HI!!!" He was so excited to see me:) Each time I would say his name that day, he would open his eyes and smile his sweet smile. We even had a few short conversations and I showed him some new videos and pictures of the boys which he loved.  I held his hand for a few hours and any time I would get up to leave, his eyes would open and he'd ask where my hand went:) God was SO GRACIOUS in giving me that time with him. I will forever remember that sweet sweet day with him....the day before he met his Savior.

My Papa

Ive been wanting to write this post for a couple of weeks now...but i haven't been able to do it.  My Papa met his Savior face to face on February 11th. AND he also got to meet his twin boys who he never got to know here on this earth. He lived a long, full life for 93 years and was married to my Mema for 70 of those years. I struggle to write this post because there is nothing i can say that will truly portray what an amazing man he was. Unless you knew him personally....there is no way to put into words the husband he was to my grandmother, the dad he was to my mom, and grandfather he was me. He was incredibly patient, the definition of kind, a servant of the Lord, and a brilliant engineer. He served our country in WWII, and quickly married my grandmother when Pearl Harbor was attacked because he knew he would be going off to war.  This statement that is what describes him best....

"A Faithful Servant of God, Family and Country"

Levi and especially Brody had the privilege of getting to know their great grandfather. My mom took them over to spend time with him almost once a week. They loved spending time with him! Brody has formed such an amazing relationship with his great grandparents....it is such a blessing! Brody has not had to deal with death in his short little life, so Brian and I prayed for weeks about how to tell him when the time came. When we finally had to share the news of Papa's death with Brody, we told him that we needed to tell him something that was both sad and happy. We explained to him that Jesus had decided to take Papa to heaven with him where he now would have a new body, no pain or sickness, and mostly importantly would get to be with Jesus forever! We told Brody that it was ok to be sad and that we would miss Papa, but He this was also something we should rejoice over. I am sure we were mostly preaching this to ourselves:) Brody took all of this like such a grown up....actually better than the grown ups. His innocence and true joy over Papa being with Jesus has shown us all the way we should view death. This earth and our lives are temporary....our eternity is what matters. 

Brody has said some of the most precious things during this time. Most of what he says brings tears to the eyes of those listening. Here are a few of our conversations.....

When we told Brody about Papa no longer being with us, he immediately said, "Mema, is still here though, right?!"

Brody was sitting in the car having a conversation with my dad about nothing really...then out of the blue he says "POP POP!! Did you know that Papa is in HEAVEN with JESUS!!!" With so much excitement....

When visiting my grandma one day, she was searching for her cane....

Brody says, "Mema, Papa doesn't need a cane in heaven!"

He randomly told Brian and I that "Mema is still old, but Papa is young now!"

He was drawing a picture this week of Jesus and his disciples, He asked if Jesus has a dog. I told Brody that there are probably dogs in heaven but I wasn't sure if Jesus personally had his own dog:) Brody says "Well Papa knows that now, right?!"

Whenever we have conversations about heaven, and I tell him I'm not sure about something, he loves saying that Papa now knows the answers to his questions:)

Thank you, Papa, for the legacy you left our family.  I am so thankful for the Godly example you set as a husband, father, and grandfather. 

Our Father LOVES adoption!

If there was ever any doubt in your mind, whether or not the Lord loves adoption...just take a look at our story.  The Lord is providing for this adoption in ways we never could have imagined! If you go over to our "How you can help" Page (link is at the top), you will see that our fundraising thermometer has made quite a jump overnight:)

Yesterday, I was on my lunch break from work with a friend. We were driving back to work, and I almost caused her to wreck with the SCREAM that erupted from my mouth! I recieved an email from the JSC Foundation informing me that we had been chosen for an adoption grant of $11, 600! We applied for 2 different grants and were not expecting to hear anything back until the middle of February. I called Brian (who had not seen the email yet) and my mom, both of them not quite sure what I was screaming about at first.  I was literally shaking for about 3 hours after that.....which is not great if you were one of my dental hygiene patients:) We were not expecting anywhere close to that amount. We were hoping to get SOMETHING.....in my mind I was hoping for maybe $5,000....but I was still just hoping for ANYTHING.

I had started to fill out an application a couple of weeks ago for an interest-free adoption loan. But then,  Brian and I had a conversation last week about how we both just felt that we were not going to need a loan. The Lord has continuously provided for us EVERY time we have needed money in this process and we were confident he would continue to do that again! Brian told me that he felt by applying for a loan, we were saying WE could do this. WE can eventually pay off the loan. In the back of my mind, Satan kept telling me that we needed to have that loan ready on the back burner, IF the Lord did not provide. But Brian and I did not feel a peace about applying for the loan. Thank you, Lord for providing!

When we receive our referral (get matched with a baby girl) we will write a check for $10,000.  That check has been looming in front of us. That is a huge chunk of money! Donations have been coming in left and right from our dear family and friends who have chosen to take part in Brian's sister's fundraiser. She sent out bags for people to collect change in for the next few months to go towards this part of our journey. She challenged 100 people to give $100. Alot of people have not been taking the 3 months to save up the money though....every few days we get a check in the mail for $100. Its been amazing to see the Lord work in this!

Through all of our fundraisers, our family and friends have donated $6,927!! And donations are still coming in....PRAISE THE LORD! We are ALMOST THERE! All of our funds add up to $23, 527 and we will need close to $30,000. That seemed so far out of reach even just yesterday morning, but we are close! God is using our family and friends to bless us like crazy!