Quotes of the Day.....

Jorie- "Mom, can we please just RENT a dog????"

Caleb- crying - "Mom, I bit Luke and I hurt my teeth!"

Bedside Baptist

Due to the large amounts of snow and ice surrounding our house I decided that this morning we wouldn't venture out to church but instead have our own little church at home. It turned out to be so special and so much fun.

We started out in prayer asking God to speak to us as we worshiped Him and read His Word.

Then the kids each grabbed their guitars and we sang a couple worship songs together.

Then we each opened our own Bibles to Luke chapter one.

The kids decided that they wanted to hear the Christmas story so that's what led us to the beginning of Luke. Silly me thought that's where the Christmas story began and was a little surprised when I saw that Luke actually starts with the birth story of John the Baptist. I had forgotten that but felt like we should start there anyway, thinking that we'd skim over it till we got to the second half of chapter one where we would find Jesus' birth(I wasn't too far off.)

Well, the short of the story is that we ended up only talking about first half of chapter one. Little did I know at the time that God had us right where He wanted us in His word and had much to teach us.

Here are some of the verses that we hung on and discussed this morning:

1:4 "you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught."

1:6"they were upright in the sight of God." -referring to John's parents

1:13"do not be afraid, your prayer has been heard."

1:17"he will go on before the Lord...to make ready a people prepared for the Lord"-referring to John

1:25"the Lord has done this for me"-John's mom giving glory to God

The two points that I emphasized to the kids and I think that God was trying to emphasize with me:
***just as John the Baptist had a role in preparing people for Jesus' first coming, so we have a role in preparing people for His second coming.

***just as John's mom gave glory to God for John's birth, so we must give glory to Him for all things!

We ended our Bible reading with prayer. Our prayer this time included only giving glory to God for the various things we could think of.

Our church service concluded with some loud singing, wild dancing, much laughter and big smiles. God had richly filled each of us with His Spirit.

Tonight as I put the kids to bed they said, "mom, can we have church again tomorrow morning?

Today.....

First, I just want to put you at ease that I am in a little better spot than I was last entry. Phew. Second, I want you to know that I have finally figured out why I blog.....because seriously, I have nothing exciting to say.....and now I finally know: simply, it is a way to avoid housework.

So, with that in mind, I thought I would write down my thoughts from today.


Today is the one year anniversary of my sweet and stubborn grandma going to see Jesus. How lucky is she! On one hand I want to mourn my loss but on another I want to celebrate for her! The kinda weird thing is that I still don't feel like she is gone. I just keep missing her and wanting to go see her.....ohhhhh, I miss her so much. One of my favorite possessions is her wedding ring that I wear most of the time. I have been staring at it all day today.

The greatest moment for me today was tonight during "Bible time". I read to the kids every night from God's word and tonight as I started to read I had the sudden urge to ....ah...ah ...how do I say this nicely.....relieve myself. Get my drift? Anyway, I was in a hurry to get the kids to bed because it was getting late so I tossed the Bible to Jorie and said "Can you read your brothers a story?" I then headed to the bathroom. To my delight I sat there and listened to Jorie read God's Word to her brothers. She reads plenty of other books but she has never done this before because I always do it. She then did like I do and asked them questions about the story. It was the coolest sweetest moment. She has just learned to read and to see her stepping into my role so smoothly in the way of teaching God's word was awesome! Oh yeah, baby! God has great plans for that girl!

Shocking, adoption was also on my mind today. We got an email from our agency saying that they need us to do a bunch more stuff before they can refer us a child. They need more pictures of our family and they need our passport pictures in .jpg format. Who the heck knows what that means???? I mean I guess I know what it means but I don't know how to do this. We heard wind of this when we got our original passport pictures taken and so we said to the lady who took our pictures, "can you please put this in .jpg format?" She looked at us like we were nuts and said she had never heard of that before so we thought we were nuts and dropped that issue and just got the good ol' fashioned nasty passport pictures taken. Sooooooooo, now we hear from our agency, "send us your .jpg pictures ASAP". Eiy eiy eiy. Marc comes home in the morning from work....I've already warned him that this is our priority...we've gotta figure this thing out.

Adoption timeline......this weekend I got to go to another adoption meeting for "waiting families". It was nice. Our agency puts these meetings on occassionally because it helps those of us who are "waiting" for our babies to feel like something is actually happening and we just may end up getting a baby one of these days. You see, for pregnant people there are many signs that you are pregnant. When adopting it is easy to have a day when you say, "is this really real or has this all been a dream?" Anyway, I have a bunch more thoughts that I gathered from that meeting but I will share those another time (when I have more housework to avoid) but my whole point of this was to share what Marc and I know at this point of a GENERAL timeline of what to expect. We submitted our big USA immigration form this week (along with 830$ mind you) and that form is expected to take our wonderful gov't 90+ days to complete and send back to us. Then we'll need another month from that point to have that form authenticated down in San Francisco and our agency to look over the whole deal and ship it to China. This puts us on April 1st at best. Once China receives our dossier then they approximate another 3 months for them to process us (the good ol' Skipper family) and send us a date to travel. That puts us to July 1st. Our date to travel will be about a month from then. That puts us traveling to China on August 1st at the earliest. (And all of this is assuming that we receive a referral of a baby sometime before July 1st which may or may not happen that quickly.) Many people have been asking me a timeline so that's why I share this. I have learned in my old age that God's timelines are often MUCH different than ours. I trust His plan and timing. We'll see................................

this is how i feel right now

my house is a mess.
my Christmas letter sucks. I have to change it.
I'm exhausted but I don't want to go to bed.
I have 3 loads of laundry to fold on my bed.
I wish my husband was home so I could smooch him.
I wish I could write on my blog like my friend Desha writes.
I love my life but I am just in a weird mood.
I'm not complaining, I'm just sayin.

November Adoption Update

When people ask how the process is going I say, "it's moving along." I hate to bore people with the details if they don't REALLY want to know. And I struggle with making any story concise, which I have found to be especially true when talking about my sweet little Chinese daughter.

The LONG and tedious home study will hopefully be complete this week when we receive in the mail the notarized copy of the official 9 page report. Once we receive that, hopefully within the same day, we will send off that same notarized copy along with a 16 page form called the I-800A to the US dept. of Immigration. This is the form that will probably take 3-4 months till we receive it back. Don't ask me why it takes so long. I don't know. This will be the last form we need to have in our hands to complete the dossier. In the meantime we are working on gathering the rest of our dossier paperwork, most of which we will be WALKING into the Secretary of State's office next week to be certified. This is a HUGE bonus that we live in the capitol city where most of our paperwork needs to be certified. (Many people need their paperwork certified in other states so they have to wait and worry about the mail to take it both ways). Once it is certified we will have to mail it down to the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco where it will be authenticated. This is all a part of "working on our dossier". It's a process. Woe.

With all of that said, we recently found out that once our home study is notarized, which will hopefully happen this week, we could possibly receive a referral; basically that means a picture and name of a baby that will be ours. Woe, wild. We won't be able to travel until China receives our dossier and issues us a date to travel (which is required for our visas). But still, we could have a picture of our daughter soon. This is somewhat mind boggling as we try to not get our hopes up knowing that it could be a year or so still....but yet it COULD be in December. I am so thankful for God's peace that He has filled us both with concerning this......His timing is perfect. However I think I am going to FREAK OUT when I receive her picture. Wonder when it will be??????????????????????

Currently, as we work on the paperwork ,we are also trying to figure out a name....which I think we know but not telling the world yet.....and discussing who will travel with us. I'd LOVE to bring all the kids....but I just don't think it would be wise to bring Caleb. The older two are up for debate. We go back and forth on it.

Well, that's the adoption scoop as of today. It's a wild ride. God is so good.

Our Adoption Process

Okay, I realize that many of you probably know more about this process then I do......I feel like such a rookie. But I will attempt to let you know what I know and then where we're at.

Steps to adopting a baby from China:
1. The application- to an agency of our choosing
2. The home study- gathering loads of paperwork including medical exams, background checks, passports, birth certificates, marriage license, collecting letter of references, etc. Two meetings with a social worker who decides if we are capable of parenting, I guess.
3. The dossier- includes getting all of the above paperwork plus much more notarized, certified, and then authenticated. One big piece of paperwork needed takes up to 4 months to finalize.
4. The referral- once the dossier is complete we wait for our agency and China to match us with a baby girl.
5. Receiving our date to travel
6. Travel to China to have a baby :)

We are currently in step 2. We have finished all of the paperwork part and are waiting for Monday which is when we'll schedule our appts. with the social worker for hopefully within the next couple of weeks. Our agency said they hope to have our home study complete by the end of November. In the meantime we have begun the paperwork part of our dossier....which is the HUGE file of ourselves that we will submit to the Chinese gov't.

I think that perhaps for the first time in my life I have been experiencing anxiety. I know that a lot of people have anxieties over many things but thankfully it hasn't been one of my struggles...until now. This is how I have been feeling: I am pregnant and my baby is in China...I need to get to her NOW to take care of her. She is my baby and she needs her momma. Before I can get to her I must jump through a million hoops and I have no idea and no control over how long it will take to jump through those hoops. When will I be able to take care of my baby?

Once I realized I had an anxiety problem this week this verse came to mind: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition present your requests to God. So, that's what I did. I have to admit that I doubted at first. I didn't know how He could take away those intense "maternal" anxiety feelings I was having. But then He started teaching me through a variety of different ways some important lessons. One- He is God, He controls the timetable, and He is always at work working for the good of His people. What may seem like delays to me are actually just a part of His perfect plan. I should be thankful for the delays. yikes. Two- the more impossible the situation, the greater the victory and glory to God. I am currently studying the book of Exodus in the Bible and as the Israelites struggle to persevere in their hardships and God keeps doing amazing miracles to rescue them from their dire straits, God keeps saying, "so that they will know that I am LORD." Perhaps some of these situations and delays are God's way of reminding us that we are not in control and to remind us and everyone around us that HE IS LORD. Already there has been some impossible situations in our adoption process where God has received the glory for meeting our needs in amazing ways. I am thankful that I can already see a glimpse of His glory shining through everything in this process......this makes me just want to chill......and to give the controls back over to Him. Three- contentment is something that is learned, not something that He gives us....read Philippians 4:11-20...."for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances...." . In order to learn contentment we must experience discontentment....interesting. Four- either we believe in Romans 8:28 or we don't. "In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called accourding to his purpose." EVERYTHING in my past leads me to believe in this verse. Why should I let anxieties about the future discredit this promise of God? He has totally proven his faithfulness in my life and I choose to believe that He will continue to work for my good, even through this wild adoption process. Praise you Jesus!

Okay, I am sorry for my rambling. I am just so amazed at how God has given me such peace and has taken away my anxiety; how these anxieties were escalating and then God pointed out my problem with it and then was so faithful to communicate these truths to me and then comfort me when I didn't think I would be comforted until I put my arms around my baby girl.

I will try to update as our process progresses.

To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever.
Amen.

Why adoption? Why now?

So many of you have asked us why we are adopting and my answer is usually, "it's a really long story". I have to say though that it is an amazing story that I never want to forget. I never want to forget how God has brought us to this place. So, I sat down to write out all of the details of our adoption journey thus far, starting 13 years ago. I started writing it on a Word document and let's just say that so far I am on page 4 and I am not done yet. I had planned to cut and paste it on here but I am not sure that any of you really want to know that many details. I will attempt to give you the story briefly...........

Let me start by saying that the bottom line to why we are adopting is because we want to be obedient to God. We know that He is telling us to go this direction and to do it now. To quote Jim Elliot, "How do I know it is His counsel? No vision, no voices, but the counsel of a heart which desires God. I am as sure of His direction as I am of His salvation."

In the summer of 1995 I spent 3 weeks working in an orphanage in China. It was during those long hot AMAZING days that God made a place in my heart for a Chinese baby girl.

Marc and I discussed the possibility of adoption before we were even engaged as I knew it would likely be an adventure I would want to pursue. After much thought he decided it was indeed something that he'd also like to do someday if the Lord led us that way.

It took almost a year to get pregnant with Jorie. During that time ,as we became more and more convinced we wouldn't have a biological baby, adoption was on the forefront of our thoughts, we thought it was about to become reality and we realized we were indeed ready to jump at the chance to adopt an international baby.

Throughout the next several years as we popped out three blondies (three kids we love more than life itself) our desire to adopt continued. We never stopped talking about it. Our only hangup was that we couldn't agree on the timing. Either Marc was ready and I wasn't or vice versa.

Our two Chinese exchange students (which came our way seemingly very randomly.....now I see God's hand in it) the last couple of summers impacted our family in ways that we could have never imagined. Amongst many other things we realized that family has less to do with what you look like on the outside or where you come from and has much more to do with the connecting of hearts, shared experiences, and sharing a special kind of love.

The beginning of this summer Marc announced to me that he was ready! I quickly replied to him that I was not! That brief discussion began a summer of praying daily on my knees seeking the Lord on this matter. My words with God were many including, "why would this still be such a passion on both of our hearts after all this time and yet why hasn't it yet happened?", "why are Marc and I never ready at the same time?"..."God, I just don't know where this is going and frankly I am kinda sick of having it on my heart for so long and going nowhere..", "God, please bring unity to us, please show us your will....God we just want to do what you want us to do." God is so faithful to hear our cry and speak to us in His timing. These were some of His words to me from Psalm 27, "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. My heart says of you, 'Seek his face!' Your face , Lord, I will seek.'"

The next biggest piece of the story was on our Anniversary trip the end of August. On the 5 hour drive to our destination Marc started playing a podcast of the most recent Focus on the Family programs. It happened to be the 3 day discussion James Dobson had with Steven Curtis Chapman who had recently lost his youngest daughter who had been adopted from China. How wise and amazing the Lord is to use these seemingly random things to work in our hearts and point us in the direction of His will. As it turned out that car ride was the beginning of a 4 day deep and powerful and intense discussion of our own adoption journey.

The fears, doubts, insecurities, and trials of adopting abounded. But throughout it all God kept reminding us that the safest place to be is in His will. That His plan is greater than anything we could ever imagine or create for ourselves. He was teaching us a lesson on what pure faith looks like. Hebrews: "By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.... By faith Abraham, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Faith is not leaning on your own understanding, your own seen circumstances, or even on what others say.....BUT instead faith is clinging to God's most powerful word, His promises, and that sweet quiet voice He whispers in your ear in your moments alone with Him.

For the first time in late August Marc and I both at the same time heard God say to our hearts, GO. Now is the time.

The moment He brought unity to us was the moment that all fears and doubts vanished. They are no more. Instead we are overflowing with excitement of what this adventure of following Him will bring. His plan is ALWAYS the best and no matter what the outcome, we give all glory and honor and praise to our Mighty King.

Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.

Psalm 82:3

Gotta love Fall !!!!!!!!!!!

Gabriella, Batman, and a little Fireman

It's never too early to get ready for Halloween. I think my kids have as much fun throughout the entire month of October dressing up and playing together as they do on the actual night of Halloween.

The kids always get to choose to be whatever they want. It was no surprise to anyone that Jorie wanted to be Gabriella from High School Musical.....she is obsessed.

Luke really has no passions except soccer and sports in general so I'm always curious to see what he chooses. This year is Batman. In all his seriousness he said he needed to be a super-hero to protect Gabriella. I have a strong suspicion that his buddies at school are really into Batman.

Frankly, Caleb doesn't even know what Halloween is. When asked what he wanted to be, with a big smile he yelled with passion, "A FIREFIGHTER LIKE DADDY!!!!!!"

These are the moments you never want to go away. It's great to be a mama.

We're expecting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's A Chinese Baby Girl!

due to join our family forever

late 2009

10 year anniversary!!!!!

We just returned home today from celebrating our special 10 year wedding anniversary down on the Rogue River in a very nice little lodge. It was wonderful. Totally wonderful! We ate great food, took a 104 mile jet boat ride, kayaked, swam, read, journaled, hiked to a secluded beach, relaxed by the fire, and got caught up on sleep. It was a great celebration that will never be forgotton. What a treat.

My mom was the angel that watched the kids while we escaped.

I praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Random thoughts

I thought that Facebook was just for college kids. But as it appears, it is for me too. I am having lots of fun finding and discovering long lost friends. If you haven't already, you should get on there.

Everyone around me seems to be mourning the loss of summertime. Yeah, summer is the best, always great. But I am ready to get Fall underway. This Fall I am looking forward to: being a soccer mom (whatever that is), Bible study, visiting Seattle, watching my husband coach, making apple pie, wearing long jeans everyday, cool morning walks with friends, drinking hot chai tea......

This weekend Marc and I are running away from our kids and the real world to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. Four days in a nice lodge on the Rogue river with a real fireplace in our bedroom and our own hot tub on the deck.......need I say more......can't wait.

Today Marc took Jorie and Luke up to a Mariners game. He is the best dad ever. Hands down.

An American Day

Today, for Annie, we had a very all-American day.
* church- we hung out with the high school group
* fire station- she played with the kids on the fire trucks and Marc and his colleagues were so nice to explain every piece of the station and equipment to her. She loved it, especially wearing all of the gear.
* roamed the streets of Chinatown in Portland. She was eager to see the place that Americans called "Chinatown"......frankly, I think we both were a little disappointed.
*Saturday Market- can't get much more culturally diverse than that place....just like America.
*Baseball Game- went to the Keizer Volcanoes Stadium to watch the all-American sport. She had never seen a game before and had no idea about any of it.
*Hot dog- tonight at the game she consumed her first ever hot dog. She devoured it and then exclaimed, "delicious!"

It was a great day!

"Sometimes I'd like to ask God why He allows poverty, famine and injustice in the world when He could do something about it.... But I am afraid God might ask me the same question." ~anonymous

My China Girl

This is our second year hosting an exchange student from China. The girl chosen for our family this year is Anni (in the middle of the backseat in picture above), a sweet 16 year old from Chongqing, a small town of about 30 million. She has been here for almost a week and it has been an adventure. A good adventure.

Overall the adventure so far has been sweet. There is something very special about living with and getting to know someone from a culture totally opposite of and so different from my own. I have been to China. I have seen the sights, smelled the smells, and tasted the food. But this experience is different....my senses aren't on overload....I am in the comfort of my own home and the only piece of China that I get to think about right now is the heart of a 16 year old. A precious girl created by our heavenly Father, just like me. That may be the only thing we have in common.

I have really been enjoying getting to hear about her life in China. Here is a glimpse:

* she goes to school Monday-Saturday. She goes to school from 7:30am-10:30pm with a two hour break for lunch which she goes home for. Dinner is served at school where she eats with her friends.

*The only meals she eats with her family, not to mention the only time she interacts with her family, is on Sundays.

* when asked why she goes to school so much she says, "society puts pressure on us".

* she does not know one person who goes to any kind of church, she thinks she might know where a Buddhist temple is....

* she does not know any teenager who is allowed to date, she says they must all wait for "the university"

* she said she has heard about "God" mentioned in school as "American culture". (oh, my.)

Everyday I learn so much more from her......I am pretty sure I am getting more out of this situation than she is. I do wonder what she is thinking. She is still pretty quiet. I am working on getting her out of her shell......

As for now, I am so thankful for the opportunity to have my mind stretched outside of my little middle-class American brain. She will be with us for 2 1/2 more weeks.

Thank you, Lord, for this adventure.

Sad

Today my heart is sad. I went to a friend from high school, Brian M., dad's funeral. My heart aches for my good friend who has lost his dad so suddenly and so young. The pain and sadness in Brian's face and in his hug will be with me for a while.

Death is bizarre, it hurts, it is inevitable.

I cling to the Lord and his Word at this time. I pray that Brian will too.

Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.
Psalm 25

I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
Psalm 18

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."
Psalm 97

My cousin and Aunt have introduced me to and intrigued me in the author, Joel Rosenberg. The following is a quote from him that my cousin had just posted on his blog. I want to share it too. Here it is:

What if?
From his latest book, "Dead Heat", author Joel Rosenberg asks some important questions."What if the political debates that so obsess and divide us prove one day to be trivial pursuits, distracting us from the most important and pressing issues of our time?

What if in the midst of presidential campaign seasons that invariably consume so much of our nation’s time, talent, and treasure we find our- selves one day blindsided by gathering evils we either do not see or fail to fully appreciate?

What if the great fortunes we are trying to amass do not protect us from the weapons being formed against us? And what if in our never-ending national hunt for power, prosperity, and celebrity we somehow gain the whole world, but forfeit our souls?

A new evil is rising. I feel it. I fear it. Let us awaken, before it’s too late. "Joel C. Rosenberg November 2007 Washington, D.C.

Wildhorse

We just returned home from Wildhorse, a Young Life camp in Eastern Oregon. Marc was the camp paramedic for 614 highschool campers and the rest of us got to tag along. It was, as always, a great week for our entire family. The best part for me this year was breaking away from my normal routines and being able to "process" life a little bit. Ofcourse an added bonus was seeing over 200 kids accept Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. Woohoo! God is so good.

a surprise delight!

I never knew what fun it would be to watch Marc and Jorie together on the soccer field. It is one of my current favorite things to do. Practice or game, it doesn't matter, I have really enjoyed watching their first season together of soccer. They work well together and Jorie gets giddy every time....so giddy, you would think she is going on a date. We put off soccer for as long as we could. It has been well worth the wait.

Disneyland

Today with Heather.....

I have a great friend, Heather, who is always giving me little tidbits that encourage me. Today, she passed along these two websites.....

http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/my-utmost-for-his-highest/04/04/devotion.aspx

http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/my-utmost-for-his-highest/04/29/devotion.aspx

I am passing them along to you too just in case you might need the same kind of encouragement today that I did!

Thanks Heather!

A new niece!!!!

Yesterday, April 2, 2008, my niece,

Kylie Grace Wells

was born at 8:05 am.

7 lb. 12 oz.

19.5 inches

blonde hair

The new happy family of 4 is doing great and we anxiously await their arrival home!

I concur with Jorie in what she said to God last night in her prayers, "...thank you ,God, for giving us the most beautiful girl in the world...."

Easter

Easter was different this year. Marc worked and, because the holiday snuck up on me, I did not take the time to prepare the normal "rituals" that I like to do with my kids at Easter. (don't worry, my mom took care of the basket and hunt later in the day) So, my reflections on the day are different then ever before because my mindset was different, there were no distractions. As I sat by myself in church my mind was totally clear to process all that the day meant and all that was happening around me. The sanctuary was packed. It really boggled my mind to see so many new people there. I am still trying to figure out why so many people who don't normally go to church go on Easter. I just don't get it. Hmmm. I loved the fact that I did not recognize the person in front of me, behind me, or to either side of me. I loved the fact that the guy behind me was in sweat pants and the smell all around me smelled like cigarette smoke. I love that I have no idea what the sermon was about because I felt so compelled to pray for those in attendance. It was an amazing service and an amazing morning. I am so thankful that it was a different Easter.

A few favorite Pics!

Well, it's kinda like the annual Christmas letter. I hate writing it but I love receiving yours so much that I decided to join the club. I am initiating this blog because of my cousin, Barb. She just started one and my kids have insisted on looking at hers everyday and we all enjoy it so much that I decided to be just like her and do one too. I wonder what my husband will think when he realizes what I've done????