Ryan and I took a trip. Alone. Just the two of us. We spent a week on the beach in Cancun Mexico. We discovered that God gave us a new beginning to our marriage. Not that things were bad but marriage is not always easy - or at least ours has not always been easy. It was an amazing week and I love Ryan more today than ever. I know that as we started this adoption journey God told me that I needed to let Him build our house. This journey so far has involved a lot of "letting go" of control of things. God showed me clearly that I need to die to myself and live for Him. God has renewed my love for and has drawn me closer to Ryan in this journey. I have to admit, I reluctantly like to spend money or take time to go away with Ryan. Not because I don't have fun and enjoy that time, but because my focus seems to be on the kids. I'm discovering that all too often I put being a mom before being a wife. This week away was exactly what God had planed for us, and I'm thankful that Ryan pursues that time together with me and even sometimes has to "push" me out of the house. Let this be an encouragement to all of you married people out there... take time to spend with your spouse. Dream together, pray together, have fun together ... I do understand that better today that I ever have.
And who wouldn't love things like these beautiful flowers to take in during the month of January
Or these awesome views in the Caribbean ...
Or stopping to smile at these children that wanted their picture taken the day we were on the island of Isla Mujeres...
...or gathering shells off the amazing ocean beach
We landed in Cancun on Jan7th. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, Jan 7th is Christmas Day in Ethiopia. It was as we were checking in to our hotel that I was interrupted by a phone call from our agency letting us know that we were "matched" with two precious little boys. Twins. Perfect timing. God always does have perfect timing!
Ryan was pondering the thought of having 7 kids. We have 5 in our home now, and with twins that makes 7. We were then took the 7th floor, where our room was number 2707. We spent the week thinking about the 17 years of marriage we have enjoyed. We are both 37 years old. We started seeing the number 7 everywhere. Kind of funny how things speak to you differently as you are walking through different seasons in your life. We are so excited to have 7 children and can not wait until we have a court date set so these little boys will be legally ours. As I am trusting in the Lord's timing on a court date, we are praying that it will be soon and that these boys will be legally ours as soon as possible. Please join us in that prayer.
After our week in Cancun, we were so excited to go home and tell the kids about the twins. We planned a family breakfast, making sure everyone was home and shared the news. Each one of them was so excited to see the faces of their new brothers. It has been such a blessing to watch them go through all the different emotions on this journey of adoption, but that morning was shear joy. They were all happy.
We had the weekend together and had an appointment to notarize paperwork and get it sent off. As I was walking out the door to the notary my dad called letting me know that my mom had a heart attack. I spent last week next to my dad and brother taking care of my mom in the hospital. God is doing amazing work in my whole family. My mom had 5 stents put in her heart and is now home and doing great. She is such a blessing and despite the pain of watching as she was so sick, it always amazes me how God gives us such strength as a family. I love my family and am so thankful for them.
And, in God's timing, our paperwork was notarized and sent off this last Friday, Jan 21st. We are now awaiting a conference call from our agency to find out what to expect next. They are telling us that court dates are about 1-5 months out right now. We'll wait and see what God's timing in that is.
