My Isaac is 7

Despite my best efforts, my children are growing up faster than I can manage. Saturday was Isaac's 7th birthday and it was quite the whirlwind of activity!! First, he surprised me by assuming that I had read his little mind and planned a most wonderful event for him. I ASSUMED that since he never could decide what he wanted to do for his birthday (it was his turn to have a party this year), he would be happy with a family-only celebration. WRONG... Everyday I learn more about my children's personalities and thought processes-- and it is always through the fire of experience gone awry. Oh well. After my head stopped spinning from the realization that he was expecting a party that was never planned (have I mentioned that I have been too consumed with life and especially life that doesn't really matter?), I went into "must save the birthday" mode. It turned out great. Not by my efforts, but by wonderful friends and neighbors who said, "YES! We'd love to help celebrate Isaac's 7th birthday!!" So... Isaac had a day at the beach (not the ocean, the lake beach in our community) with his friends and us, of course :D-- tubing, swimming and building fortresses; eating homemade pizzas the kids all got to create themselves (Isaac LOVES to help me in the kitchen), ice-cream from our own home-town ice cream parlor and homemade cookies. In other words, Isaac's birthday was of the "homemade" variety... and his cup was filled :)

I'll leave the rest of the story to the pictures. Happy Birthday, my little Man!!!! Daddy and I are so VERY proud of you and Praise God for how He has designed you to be!!!!!!!!!!!

Grace and Peace,
Shari

PS... Adoption update-- we are officially DTE on 5/30/08. We now enter the 7-9 month wait for a referral... or longer depending on what happens to the wait times between now and then.

No DTE for Team D this week :(

Well, it happened... I messed up. Can you believe it??? I'm still having a hard time accepting it myself-- ha, ha!! Terra (our "sub" family coordinator while Duni is away) emailed a confirmation on Tuesday morning saying that she got the Dossier. Good... Then she said that if there were any problems, she would call in the afternoon to let me know what needed changed. Okay... Well, we came home from our Tuesday afternoon errands, and sure enough, America World had called. My heart just sank. I called her back and she told me that two of my documents were missing state certification. I can't believe that I missed that. I think I just got confused with what was JAG notarized vs. public notarized (the difference being that the JAG notary does not need the extra step of the state cerfication, where as the public notary does). PLUS, Ethiopia changed their rules on notaries while we were half way through our process, so those two documents just got lost in the shuffle...

Yes, I had my little pity party and barely got off the phone with Terra without getting all choked in my words. And then, while I was crying and moving onto the next thing we had to get to (because lately, I just don't have time to stop everything and have a sob fest-- I have to multi-task even in my emotional outbursts), I prayed, "Lord, this isn't a big deal, right? Help me to let this go and not let it ruin my thoughts..." And, then as soon as I prayed it, He answered... "Have faith, I am more than able to bring back the time lost. Trust me and know that I am in the midst of this adoption... it is My adoption, in which your family is participating... With Me."
It was a quiet thought, that brought about a huge heart shift. Later, on the way to our "next thing", Tony sweetly reminded me, "Honey, maybe this week is the difference between one girl or two, becoming available." I love my man!!!!

I think that so far in life, this is probably one of the most faith-stretching/building experiences I have gone through, yet (I'm sure that may change once Tony leaves for Iraq this December :)). Or, maybe it's just ALL faith-building and stretching-- IF you have the eyes to see it. Every day, multiple times and in multiple ways, I have a choice to make-- live in Faith in God who cares deeply for me and this family and who is "more than able" to move and work to cause "all things to work for the good of those who love Him"... or try to put my confidence in my own abilities, the abilities of "the system" (ha, ha!!), or my money that is supposed to buy me "security", etc... none of which are fool-proof. For anyone reading our blog who does not have a personal relationship with Christ, I'm sure this whole adoption thing as "faith building" and all my "Jesus talk" sounds silly, or incomprehensible. I wish I could express the PEACE that our family feels deep down in our lives--- but I can't... It surpasses all earthly understanding...

So, now I'm waiting for those two documents to come back to me, then back to JAG to have them notarized so we can skip the State Cert process (this is what Terra said to do) and back to America World. THEN... it will go to ET NEXT Friday, AND THEN we will be officially "DTE" (Dossier to Ethiopia)

Grace and Peace,
Shari

PS... by the way, for anyone wondering about Isaac's wrist (Nana!)... he is doing great. He took off the brace last Thursday and has been gaining strength in it every day. In fact, I would venture to say that it is completely healed (baseball in the back yard, is my clue :D)