"firsts"

my birthday was fantastic this year.  really, the best yet. it's the last of my 20s...and i'm facing it excitedly.  the whole day was awesome...full of phone calls, texts, drop bys, and celebrations.  it also brought the first of several kinds of gifts that were such a blessing to me....

 my first taiwan gift...taiwan flag key chain...my new prayer reminder when i get in the car :) such a sweet thought.

 

 our sweet potato(es) first gift-ish...their fund...complete with some starter money. i have some incredibly encouraging, thoughtful friends...been adding all our spare change and art sales to it...it's growing!! :)

my first mommy gift...and mommy card!! eeks!! still setting in that it's me! a journal to write or draw in about our little bit...perfect for creatives like us :)

and our first "family" gift...this one's from my sister! she said the devotional starts december first and includes readings from genesis and on through the bible that proclaim christ's coming and arrival as well as some family activities if interested.  she said she and her family (of 5 kids) read it together each year and go through it.  the thought of a new family tradition like this melts my heart.  we'll read it this christmas in preparation and try to image how it could possibly look next year this time.

jacob and i are trying to think of something small/inexpensive we can purchase to help it feel more real...like a onesie or something...gender neutral and at least a one year size (in case their hefty sweet potatoes ;) ). but still thinking on that...will probably just end up waiting til we have a referral and ca be more specific. but the whole day was a blessing and i was overwhelmed by friends and family.  truly. our child(ren) are going to have such an amazing community to be apart of.  thank you ALL so much!!

WAITING LIST!!!!!!!

;kaslasfljasifjdk!!!! my friends know when i text jarble like that with exclamations that it's my way of squealing via text lol.  we. are. so. excited and hopeful.  i wrote in my one line a day journal last night that i was feeling really hopeful last night and i woke up this morning to an email from taiwan saying we had been added to the waiting list. HUGE shocker because we had been told it could be 4+ weeks before we heard anything from them. so.....yea....that's pretty fantastic!!!

so what does this mean? nothing. and everything. lol.  it could still be 9 months before we know our child.  we have met people a step ahead of us that have been on the waiting list 3ish months so far and not heard anything...but that doesn't mean it'll be the same for us.  the heads of THOGL pray over all the applicants and all the babies and place them as they feel best...and we are also very much open to twins and should that come up, we don't know who else is open to that and may get different place in line then too....crazy amounts of variables in play.  we are also waiting for our I600a forms to come back with fingerprinting assignments from homeland security...allowing us to bring an "immigrant"...our child...over from taiwan.  and there a few other forms we have to fill out...but not sure if those are pre-post referral.

but we are on the list.
the list.
we are in line.
WAITING.
anytime....and yet maybe months. oh me!!!

are we ready? no one ever is...but seriously. holy cow. lol.  had a hard time being focused this morning. been editing and sending out emails and such...then get distracted thinking about the possilibities...and how we've seriously gotta get going on our tshirts and fundraiser lol.

i really struggle with that part...fundraising. always have, it's not a new thing.  we are working on shirts for hopefully a pre-christmas order option.  and....mark your calendars...we are looking to throw a chinese new year dance party!!! woot wooot!! chinese new year is january 31 and it's a friday...so either that day or february 1st on that saturday....more details on that as it gets closer but looking to have that as our big fundraiser...and i know i've got lots of photographer friends who get bummed shooting receptions every weekend and never really being a part of the dance party...so here's your chance!!! :)

so yes! big update and are so thankful and hopeful and exciting...and expectant!! :)

absence...

hi! sorry for the absence...my blog account decided to lock me out for a couple weeks and honestly, I hadn't had the chance to figure out the problem until this past week.  so the latest adoption update is that as of last week all our home study was officially finalized and sent off to taiwan.  once there it'll be translated to mandarin as well as "okayed" officially by the heads of THOGL.  when that is done we will be added to the waiting list.  the whole finalization process and send off of the home study was a longer process than i realized...but just because something is done on our end and finished from what we can do with it, does NOT mean that it is finished. :) i should know that by now.

many other God randomness and teaching have come into play, but again it's very busy at the moment and so i will have to catch up later.  wanted that bit of info to be on here, though!  so we will be waiting for a final word from taiwan that we are on the waiting list, which could take several weeks....but waiting is something we are very familiar with. 

found this song recently and i really like it (shocker, it's not a rend collective song, calm down)...this song is actually not much like the style of music i usually listen to, other than it's christian.  so, don't judge my taste in music by it...it's a song that keeps coming up from other pandora stations i've been listening too....and after hearing it several times on there now, i had to buy it on itunes because i can't get the chorus out of my head "you can do more in my waiting, than in my doing i can do"...so if you don't mind a bit of country dixie chick-ish twang give it a listen. :)