If You're Happy and You Know It...

WOW! What a whirlwind of a couple of weeks! I was under the weather last week...i still don't know exactly what I had but I think it was laryngitis. Basically I lost my voice for about three days. I am quite the talker so needless to say I really struggled. And on the final day I was up in San Antonio at a conference...talk about weird. I'm typically walking around, meeting fellow OTs, trying to mingle and network. This time not so much. And to top it off, 5 min before the seminar started Pete texted to tell me that he had just checked the mail from the day before, and what was there? Our USCIS approval!!! The final paper we needed for our adoption!!! And could I scream or yell out in excitement? Nope. No voice. Could I call Pete to tell him everything he needed to gather to prep? Nope. BUT I am quite an excellent texter and I think I got a LOT better that day, texting Pete all the things he needed to do before I got home to move the process along. He was probably grateful that I didn't have a voice b/c I was bossy enough via text! LOL

Soooo I drove back home last Friday evening...and from Friday till this past Thursday we worked to get our final forms notarized, certified, etc. And on Thurs we sent all our forms (Dossier) out!!! On Friday we heard from our family coordinator that our dossier looked great and that our DTE (dossier to Ethiopia) date will be 10/1/10!!!!!!! That is the date when our official "wait" begins. Talk about a HUGE weight off of our shoulders. It is no longer in our hands. We've done our part. Now we sit back and wait to see what, or rather WHO, God has in store for our family.

My hope was to get our dossier sent to Ethiopia by my birthday on Oct 16th...but then I thought no way would that happen. But God surprised me and here we are two weeks ahead of "my" schedule. Funny how He works. :)

So I am so extremely excited to be to this point. And I feel ready to "wait." There's lots of reading I want to do, and we've got a lot to do to prepare for our next little one. Of course you can ask me in a few months and I may not be as patient waiting...but I plan to take it a day at a time. And Hannah keeps us so busy that I think this time will fly by.

So whew! There's the adoption update!

And Hannah is sitting in my lap as I type and my legs are starting to tire...so I'm gonna go for now...

As for lyrics, don't laugh....this song is stuck in my head today and it's actually quite appropriate!!!

If You're Happy and You Know It

If you're happy and you know it clap your hands!
If you're happy and you know it clap your hands!
If you're happy and you know it then your face will surely show it!
If you're happy and you know it clap your hands!



Yea so you know the rest... But in all seriousness,  if I am happy, you WILL know it because I show my emotions on my sleeve AND my face....so let's just say, right now I am VERY HAPPY!!!!!!! :) I encourage you to think of something that makes you happy...something that brings a smile to your face, and meditate on that thing. Allow yourself to be happy. I am. :)

Here's a few pics of someone who puts a smile on my face daily... :)

Till next time....
Marcy

Pure and Holy Passion

Well progress is steady with the adoption. We had our USCIS appointment last Monday to get our fingerprints done...now we wait for the I-701 form, which will make our adopted child a US citizen when we land on US soil. It can take anywhere from 2 weeks to several months, so we're hoping for speed!!! Once we have that paper in our hand, our documents get sent to Austin for certification then we send EVERYTHING to our agency...who then sends it on to Ethiopia!!! Thus far I've felt peace and patience about everything. I'm hoping these final two steps go smoothly so that we can just sit back and wait...without worrying about what's left on our adoption to-do list! :)

Our social worker told us that we should have a little girl home by next summer. The adoption process is always unpredictable, though, so we'll see. In the meantime, little Miss Hannah is quite the busy bee! She loves playing outside and her new obsession is rocks. She could play all day with rocks if we let her, pouring them from one container to the other. Yesterday daddy gave her a bunch of jolly ranchers (not to eat, to play with) and she played with those things for hours!!! It was so cute to watch her imagination run wild! She is changing every day, and learning so much!

I wish I had more time (and energy) to get on here to blog all that we've got going on, if anything just to be able to look back myself and say "oh yeah I forgot about that!" Time goes by so fast...I'm hoping we'll feel the same way as next summer approaches and we hopefully are on the verge of recieving our referral!

Lots of songs have been in my head lately, but I think I'll share one that I heard the other day for the first time in a while. It's sort of a "theme song" that I wish I could adhere to every day...the lyrics are below. I also attached a link to the audio version I love from one of my favorite cds...

Pure and Holy Passion

Give me one pure and holy passion

And give me one magnificent obsession

Give me one glorious ambition for my life

To know and follow hard after You


CHORUS:

To know and follow hard after You

To grow as Your disciple in the truth

This world is empty, pale and poor

Compared to knowing You, my Lord

Lead me on and I will run after You

Lead me on and I will run after You





I look around at so many people and see how we're all on this race to accomplish things on our to-do lists, always going going going, never having time to slow down and just breathe and enjoy what's in front of us. I'm very goal oriented and I think it's great to look ahead and dream and make plans. But we've also got to live in the here and now. Yes, partially because we never know if there will be a tomorrow. But more than likely there will be a tomorrow...and someday we're gonna look back and see all the opportunities we missed while "waiting" for other bigger, better things to come. My little Hannah is growing up so fast. I want to look back and know I spent all the time I could nurturing her, loving her, showing her God's love and demonstrating to her what its like to live a fulfilling life...one of loving and serving. If I could wake up every morning and meditate on these lyrics, and revolve my life around what they mean, I think I'd be setting a pretty good example for Hannah and for those around me...