Harvest

Oh beautiful, for spacious skies,

for amber waves of grain.

For purple mountain's majesties,

Above the fruited plain.

America, America,

God shed his grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood,

from sea to shining sea!

- by Katharine Lee Bates

Wheat harvest is in full swing in our part of the country.  It looks like it's going to be a good crop!  We went over to see my Grandpa's field getting harvested yesterday afternoon, and to get some wheat.  A couple years ago we got a wheat grinder to make our own whole wheat flour so every year we get some wheat from Grandpa's field during harvest.  My grandpa's great-grandpa started this farm back in 1876.  Andy planted the wheat this year so it's been fun watching it grow all winter and spring.  A ripe field of wheat blowing in the wind is definitely a beautiful sight!



Apricots

I have good memories of eating apricots from our fruit trees when I was a kid, so I was so happy to find out we had 2 apricot trees when we moved here last year!  Our neighbor said he used to come and pick apricots from these trees when he was a kid, but he thought they didn't bear fruit anymore since they were so old.  But this spring they bloomed.  Often apricot blossoms will freeze where we live, I've heard before that they only bear every seven years here.  But this was a good year for apricots I guess, because we have apricots now!  They taste just as good as I remember.

The trees are right next to an old stone house that is on our property, so it makes me wonder how old the trees are.

The kids think it's fun to go eat some apricots whenever they want-

Our little filly, Trigger, likes to eat them too. (:  She has been so much fun to have around this spring!  It's so funny to see such a little horse go tearing across the yard. 







Aaah, Colorado!

We decided a couple weeks ago to spend Memorial Day weekend in Colorado, visiting Andy's parents- wasn't that a great idea?  (:  We had such a nice time.  The guys got in some fishing, catching a few trout and some perch, we saw lots of pretty scenery, had nice visits with Andy's family, and just enjoyed being together.  Andy's parents live near a mountain called the Mesa, and Andy has many memories of going up there as a kid- hiking, fishing, and camping, so he loves getting back up there every so often and we love coming along!

On our way home we stopped in Glenwood Canyon on I-70 and did the Hanging Lake trail.  If you have never tried this trail, it's not for the faint of heart.  It's a little over a mile of nothing but climbing up rocks.  But when you get to the top there is this beautiful lake-

It's so clear and beautiful, it makes the pain of getting there worth it!  Whenever we're in the mountains it reminds me of Psalm 121:1-2.

I lift up my eyes to the hills-

where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

Our path to adoption - part 4

This is the last post about our path to adopt our children, I hope it has been an encouragement to you.  It has been good for me to look back and see God's faithfulness over and over in each situation.  He has truly blessed us with five wonderful children, and this post is about how he gave us our youngest.

Andy and I always wanted five or six children, so when our fourth son was three we had our homestudy updated and got ready to adopt again.  We had moved to another state again, so we had to find a new agency.  This time we decided to go with Lifetime Adoption.  They are a national adoption facilitator, and they are very helpful and supportive. 

While we waited to be matched I constantly felt like someone was missing from our family and we needed to find them- and I felt a strong need to pray for him or her, more than I had with the others.  We had opened up our preferences and said that we would adopt a child up through age 3, so I knew that our child could be alive out there somewhere.  I felt such an ache inside from missing someone who I hadn't even met yet.

This adoption wait turned out to be our longest yet.  After waiting 1 1/2 years I told the family that it seemed hopeless.  One of the boys said, "Don't give up Mom, because if you give up then we have to give up."  Then a few days later one of the other boys said, "We just have to keep praying about the adoption, Mom."  We couldn't quit with support like that! (:

A couple months later we were on a trip driving through Colorado when our cell phone rang.  It was Lifetime, letting us know that a lady had chosen us to be the family for her three year old son!  She lived in Hawaii and had been through a lot in the past couple years.  We emailed back and forth with her for a few weeks and learned about her history and our new son's story.  She is an amazingly strong lady who has been through so much.  She helped our new son with the transition, teaching him to call Andy, Daddy, and me, Mommy Carmen.  I can't imagine how hard it must have been for her.  Adoption is not all happiness and excitement, it's tears and sorrow too.

We never would have dreamed that we would be adopting from Hawaii- what a nice place to have to stay for 2 weeks waiting for the inter-state compact paperwork to go through!  As soon as our plane landed and we had our rental car we drove right to our new son's house and met him, his birthmom, and his birth sister.  Adopting a three year old is a little different than adopting a newborn, you have to take things a little slower.  We walked to the park and played for a little while, and then when it was time to go we took him with us back to our hotel and he was quite willing to go!  I remember that trip in the car to the hotel we would ask him questions and every answer was "yes."  I wonder what he was thinking.

We spent the first few days with his birthmom, which helped with the transition.  It was so good to get to know her and his sister.  We spent a lot of time swimming in the ocean, hiking and enjoying touring Kauai, but our son's favorite place to go was the park!

I love this picture, it shows how well our son adjusted to us, it was really amazing.  He is a little sweetheart.  Just yesterday he brought me a bindweed flower. (:  He is all boy too though- just watch him wrestle with his brothers!  He fit right in in our family and he was definitely worth the long wait- we love him to pieces! 

A verse I have underlined in my Bible from when we were waiting so long to adopt our son is
Psalm 42:11-

Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

My Savior and my God.

Our path to adoption - part 3

A year and a half after our third son was born we decided we were ready to adopt again!  After having three boys we thought it would be fun to have a girl, so we told our adoption agency "girl only".  We started waiting and waiting and after six months of hearing nothing we were getting a little discouraged.  So I sent out an email asking people to pray for a miracle and we were chosen for a baby born 10 days later!  Isn't it amazing how God works?  Let me back up a little though-

Remember we had said we only wanted a girl- we had her room all decorated, I had been sewing clothes and a pink quilt and we were ready.  But then our social worker called and said that they had "accidentally" shown our profile to a birthmom who had a baby boy, and did we want to leave our profile in or take it out?  We prayed about it and decided to leave it up to God.  He doesn't do anything accidentally.

We lived in the desert at the time and that winter we had set the record for the number of days without rain.  Everything was so dry and dusty, and I felt dry on the inside too.  Nothing was happening with our adoption, we hadn't heard anything about who the birthmom had chosen for her baby boy and it had been a week and a half already.  I was outside walking on a little trail we had made around our yard and praying, asking God to send that baby boy to the family that would be best for him, asking God for rain, and telling him how I felt so dry inside, and you know what God did?  He sent a little sprinkle, just for me!  It rained for about 30 seconds and then stopped.  I was so amazed.  Then I walked around the yard a little farther and our oldest son came running out of the house yelling that the adoption agency had called and when I called them back they said we were the family the birthmom chose for her baby boy!  We were so excited! 

Our new son was born 11 weeks premature and just weighed 2 lb. 13 oz. when he was born.  We first met him when he was 5 weeks old, however, we couldn't hold him yet because he had just contracted RSV, a very dangerous respiratory virus for preemies, and had to be on the ventilator.  The day after we met him the doctor wasn't sure if he would make it but we are so very glad that he did.  He is our ray of sunshine and we wouldn't trade him for any girl! (: 

We spent a couple weeks taking turns going to the hospital, spending as much time holding him as we could.  I would go during the day and Andy would go in the evening.  It was fun to watch him slowly get better and get more and more of the tubes and wires taken out until he was finally free!  He weighed 4 lb. 12 oz. when we brought him home.  His older brothers were very happy to meet him too!  There were lots of possible side effects from being premature that the doctor warned us about but we have not noticed any of them.  Our son is completely healthy and a blessing from God!

For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.  Psalm 139:14

Our path to adoption - part 2

Well, after the adoption of our second son went so smoothly we were ready to adopt again very soon!  We had moved to Arizona though so we needed to find a new homestudy provider and attorneys to work with.  We started the process about a year after our first adoption and once again began the "adoption wait".  One thing you learn as an adoptive parent is that you have basically no control.  You can't control when you will get chosen, who will choose you, or anything.  So it becomes all about trust- trust in God and his perfect plan for you and your family.  That's easier said than done though! 

We hadn't waited too long when we were matched with a birthmother in California.  She was due with a baby boy the end of February.  We were so excited and named the baby Clay David.  Andy had to go out to California the middle of February on business so we all went along and met the birthmother.  Everything went well at the meeting, and since she was due at any time we decided to stay in California and wait for the baby to be born.  We had a good place to stay at guest housing so it wasn't too expensive.  We would talk to the birthmother every few days by phone and things were looking good. 

After two weeks of waiting and still no baby we decided to make a quick trip home for the weekend to catch up on business at home, and while we were driving back to California that Monday the attorney called and said the birthmother was changing her mind.  We were in shock.  We pulled off the interstate and stopped at a Wendy's and just sat in the booth.  We didn't know what to think.  I kept hoping she'd change her mind back but she didn't.  It was so hard.  I still think about Clay and wonder how he's doing.  He ended up being born on my birthday.  I cried for him just the other day.

I have never had a miscarriage myself, but I have heard from women who have had both miscarriages and failed adoptions, that the emotions you feel are the same. 

After that experience God led us to a wonderful adoption agency called Christian Family Care.  They work in Arizona and were great to work with.  One year after we started the adoption process for our third child, we received the long awaited phone call saying that a young birthmom was interested in our family and would like to meet us.  She had a baby boy who was 2 weeks old.  We were thrilled!  The next day we traveled the two hours to meet her and our new son.  Two week old babies don't usually smile, but as soon as I held him, he looked right at me and smiled!  Then after I had held him for a little bit I handed him to Andy and he smiled at Andy too!  Then he went back to sleep.  I guess he knew that he was finally with his Mom and Dad.  He didn't smile like that again until he was six weeks old, the usual age for babies to smile. 

The process moved a little more slowly than it had with our second son, but after a few days we were finally able to bring him home.  There is nothing quite like that feeling of bringing your new child home- you feel so full of joy!  He was such an easy going baby and so happy all the time.  He was just telling us today how thankful he is to be in our family- and we are sure glad he is here too!  If the adoption of Clay would have worked out we would not have our dear son, so just like in every situation, God is faithful and he can be trusted!

As for God, his way is perfect;

the word of the Lord is flawless.

He is a shield for all

who take refuge in him.  Psalm 18:30



Our path to adoption - part 1

Adoption has played such a big role in forming our family and it is a subject that is very dear to me.  I decided to write about how we came to adopt our children with the hope that it would be an encouragement to others who might be on a similar path.  This is written from our perspective as adoptive parents and doesn't at all take into account the feelings the birthparents are going through- I might write about that another time.

When Andy and I were dating we talked about adopting one day, maybe having 2 or 3 children and then adopting after that.  So when I was unable to get pregnant after our first son was born it was fairly easy for us to make the switch in our minds to adopting.  Saying you want to adopt and actually doing it are two different things though.  Adoption can be very daunting.  There are so many options and it's all so complicated with so much paperwork.  The different types of adoption all have their pros and cons so how do you decide which one is the right path for you?  First we looked into adopting through foster care but decided there were too many regulations for us at that time, then we looked into international but it all seemed so expensive.  Andy was just getting ready to graduate from college so we were by no means wealthy. 

Then through friends we heard of some people who were starting to do adoptions from Romania and it wouldn't be too expensive.  So we contacted them and they matched us up with a baby that would be born soon.  We were very excited!  But then the laws in Romania changed and the whole thing fell through.  It was a very hard time for me, a time of questioning God and his goodness.  Why was he making me go through all this sadness and hardship?  I wrote in my journal, "I know in my head that God has our best interest in mind, but it's hard to believe it with my heart."  The day that I wrote that our second son's birthmother was 2 months pregnant with him.  God does have our best interests in mind, he gets it right every time!  It's so good to be able to look back now and see how God has worked in each of our adoptions.

After the Romania adoption fell through we didn't know what to do.  We still wanted another child so badly but weren't sure where to start.  I was talking with another adoptive mom and she told me who they had used for their homestudy so we decided to call him to see if he had any recommendations for us.  He invited us to come to his office for a visit so we went and he asked us if we had ever considered adopting a biracial or black child.  This was over ten years ago and adopting children of other races was not as common as it is now.  We had not thought of it before but it didn't take us long to realize that a different skin color would not be a problem, we just wanted children! 

So we began our new adoption path, that of private domestic adoption with attorneys.  We had our homestudy done, made up profiles of our family, and sent them out to adoption attorneys and private adoption facilitators all over the country in hopes of finding our child somewhere.  We had several situations where we were the second or third choice of the birthmother but never the first choice.  I was on the phone a lot those days.  After our homestudy was done we only waited two months before getting the call we had been waiting for!

One afternoon I had just put our oldest son down for his nap when the phone rang.  It was our homestudy provider.  He said, "Are you sitting down?"  A baby boy had been born in the city 45 minutes from us the day before and were we interested?  Of course we were!!  So I quickly called Andy and he rushed home from work and we drove to the hospital and met our son.  He was so cute!  It was such a happy day- we were all so very excited!  We had to wait till he was 24 hours old, then we left the hospital with him and were home with him that evening.  So in eight hours we went from not knowing anything about him, to having him home as our son.  Amazing!

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.  Isaiah 55:8-9