Photo Album, Forward Motion & the Death of a Dear Friend

During the first months of our homestudy preparation and referral wait, out motto was "forward motion". Even though we were waiting for one thing or another (i.e. a form to be signed, an appointment to occur, etc....), each time something was completed, we said 'forward motion'! Then we got stuck in referral wait land! Nothing felt like forward motion for a long time. Well, now we are back to forward motion, people!! Our next step is waiting to 'pass court'. But there are things we are doing in the waiting!!

I've gone on a pink-girls-clothes-buying frenzy. Of course, most of what I've bought is on winter-clearance and we don't even need winter clothes where I live! ha!! We did do some fun outlet shopping last weekend - just me & Mark - and had a great time imagining our Ghanaian beauty in these little jeans or that little sweater. Seriously. Can. Not. Wait.

Found a perfect duvet cover, curtains, etc... for her new room. Will be ordering that next month. Have already moved around the furniture to her room - bought pink, green, and brown tins for 'stuff' and painted my favorite 'life verse' on a large (PINK!) canvas to go in her room. Zephaniah 3:17 was painted on the wall over our boys' crib in Atlanta so I wanted to have the same scripture in her room, too. Girl-style, or course.

So...who thought it would be so difficult to put together a photo album for a 20-month old?! Should we include this picture? How bout this one? Should this one go first? or that one? Honestly. You would think I was preparing a project for grad school. Well, in case you are wondering, I think it's pretty darn cute and most importantly...finished!!

The other thing I've gotten to do is put together a 'Welcome Bag' for our baby girl. We have officially added the name Zoe to her current name. We will decide what to actually call her once we meet her and spend time with her. We want to be mindful of her transition to our family and people can have pretty strong opinions about the name change thing. I digress.

The Welcome bag! We have to put everything we send her into a 1-gallon size ziploc bag. Yes. A 1-gallon bag. The pressure!! We have an adorable doll that I bought last year for her. Several outfits - 2 dresses and a capri/shirt. And her New Family Photo Album. So far, it all fits. We also get to include a letter introducing ourselves to her and telling her who we are. Again, I'm a little paralyzed by the whole letter thing. It seems like a mighty daunting task to introduce yourself to a little girl whose whole world is changing in that moment. I'm going to refrain from rambling and getting a little too theological on this note. But there is a sermon in there. I'm sure of it.

I have loved dreaming of her and praying for her during our room preparation in anticipation of her arrival. I have loved listening to God woo me while I do it.

We had a major tragedy happen the same day that we received our adoption referral. Several hours after our coordinator's call, we also received a phone call that one of our beloved college summer interns had been killed a couple of hours prior in a car wreck. We spent that weekend, grieving, caring for college students as they descended upon our little island to mourn and celebrate the life of Michael. My hubby helped officiate the funeral and we had lots of time to contemplate his loss and grieve with a significant number of people in Michael's life. As I have pondered Michael's arrival to his eternal home in heaven...I have considered how much the Lord enjoyed preparing his place. How He loved him. He knew him so well that he prepared his new home specifically with Michael in mind. In Hebrews 11:10, it says that Abraham was 'looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.' Not only does God build the city of heaven for which we are headed, he is the architect. He designed it. He lovingly designed and prepared a place for Michael to come home. How comforting. It makes me long for the place that we were ultimately created for!

I would try and tie all my randomness together tonight in a nice, neat bow but I don't think I'm going to be able to do it.

Just know...
*I finished my photo album.
*We are making forward motion in our adoption process.
*We love our dear friend, Michael Warren and can't wait to reunite with him again one day!