A Whole Lotta Crazy Part 3

As if the story wasn't enough excitement for the month of February, let's move forward into March. The house I hinted at toward the end of post Crazy 2 turned even crazier. I truly felt like the Lord had led us to our next home. It was PERFECT for ministry. Which is what we love to do in our home. It all seemed perfect. But He had other plans. After we put a contract on the house, things started to fall apart. It seemed every time we turned around, something else wasn't right and we were asking friends to pray about it and for us. Finally after about a week we decided to walk away from the house. I was CRUSHED. But knew God had something else somewhere. And amazingly enough, the day after we decided not to buy the house, 3 different people confirmed to me that they didn't feel that was the right house for us and there was a catch in their spirits about it. THANK YOU JESUS! It made it much easier to transition back into house hunting. But these last 2 weeks haven't been pretty. It's not really about the house so much as CONTINUING to trust God. I found myself everyday saying "God, do you remember we have an adoption to complete? A little girl coming home to us and WE NEED A HOME?!" And of course He knew. Thankfully I have some really great friends to keep me grounded. I knew the house wasn't really the issue. It was all about trusting God to provide our needs. Did I really trust Him? I would learn the lesson by the end of the day and then start right back over each morning. Doesn't He tell us to trust in Him with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding? In all our ways acknowledge Him and HE will make our paths straight?
Now here we are, a few weeks later, with an offer on another house. I'm cautiously optimistic. I'm cautiously excited. And I will keep you posted :)
But dear Lord, I think maybe I've learned this lesson for a season, so please don't make our adoption this CRAZY!

A little update

Our final homestudy is planned for March 17. Yippee! ALL THE READING AND ONLINE CLASSES ARE DONE! Thank you Jesus :)
I'll find out then a better idea on the remaining timeline.

Crazy Part 2: Selling The House

Well I told you a little bit before, but we have been living in the land of crazy since month of prayer ended in January. When it was over, Charles and I officially decided to put our house on the market. But the hard thing is, we LOVE our house. It's just a little snug for 3 kiddos and us. We decided that sometimes you have to leap out in faith and give up something you love for God to bring something better along. So leap we did. We decided to put it on the market in March and if it didn't sell by August, then God was telling us to just stay put. Well we decided officially on a Sunday and on Monday I told a friend about our decision. Who then told her realtor, who then called us by Tuesday with a couple who would really want to see our house! YIKES! So Charles and I spent all week cleaning, giving to Good Will, and giving to Good Will again. So when Sunday rolled around, the couple came to look at our house. While the couple was looking at our house, I got another phone call that someone ELSE heard we were selling and wanted to look. So, since our house had never been cleaner, I said send 'em on over! And the second couple bought our house (pending closing next month)! I know with such a crazy story, God will have a crazy answer. We've looked and looked at houses with nothing really jumping out at us. I've panicked, I've paced, I've lost sleep. I've doubted God and I've trusted God, but at the bottom of my heart, I know God is just going to drop this amazing, perfect house out of the sky, that would be beyond what we could hope for or imagine. So that is where I will leave you friends. I'm pretty sure we have found this house that has been dropped from the sky, but give us a few more days to work out details and I'll let you know! But the one thing I've learned from all of this, is that IT'S ALL ABOUT THE PROCESS. Learning to trust in the Lord and lean not on our own understanding. His yolk is easy and his burden is light. One of my favorite parts of this "process" is that God has used everyone to speak to me. Even Maxwell looked at me out of the clear blue sky (one day when I was having a meltdown) and asked me if I was sick because I was carrying something heavy? Um yes??!!Once I started crying again and told him yes, his response was "Well put it down!". DUH. Thanks God. I think I got it?? (I have a feeling this words are going to come back around closer to bringing our little girl home!) Stay tuned...

2 Weeks of Crazy

So before we adopted, we wanted to take Maxwell to Disney World. Have a fun little family bonding for the oldest and couldn't wait! But going out of town wasn't enough, so the night before we left for Disney World we finalized a contract on our house! We were planning on moving? Um, maybe? probably? But this soon? Nope. But that's a post for another day.
So anyways, back to Disney World- we had a BLAST! And what was Maxwell's favorite you ask? The stunt car show at Hollywood Studios of course! Second to that? The T-Rex Restaurant and the airplane ride. So basically we could have flown to Downtown Disney, eaten dinner, and made it home for the Birmingham car show this past weekend :) So here are some of our highlights of a trip we can't wait to make again as a larger family!

 Got a little teary thinking that this time next year"ish" we would be in "real" china!

 It's really all about the dinosaurs

 This picture doesn't do the crazy of T-Rex restaurant justice!

 The infamous stunt car show!!

 Maxwell LOVED the roller coasters, the faster the better

This look of anger is pretty accurate. Elliott WAS NOT HAPPY that we went without him! The sword and pirate patch didn't pacify him. And did we really buy our 2 year old a sword and eye patch? Yep! Such the second child :)

I Didn't See This Coming

So today is Chinese New Year! That's about all I currently know about that. I began some research today and thought it could even be really fun to cook an authentic meal tonight... until I realized you don't just "whip" one of those up. So maybe we will have a delayed one this weekend? Because after all they celebrate the Chinese New Year for 15 days and end with Lantern Festival. We have plenty of time to figure this thing out! (And see, I did do some research).  Well this research is what got me into trouble. I've been so unemotional about this process since we started our paperwork a few months ago. Just plowing through, a little bit like a job. I was even telling this to a fellow adopting friend the other day. I haven't cried, I've just been pushing through. So back to today's research, which led to just reading, which led to reading several adoption blogs on China, and I fell apart. A messy puddle on the floor. It's my first real desire to bring our child home since we started the process in November. I think I've just protected my heart since I know it will be such a long time away. And not to mention ALL OF THE READING will all but have you running the opposite direction of adoption. But ah ya ya. Today was a kicker. Guess this is all part of the process.