My Ebenezer

• Why Ebenezer
• Category 2
• Category 3
• Category 4
• Category 5
• Category 6
• Category 7

Still no date set for the four-way on Goldilocks.

Spiderman’s four-way has been officially rescheduled. I know the date and time but I’m not sure if I want to post it. I’m terrible, aren’t I?

Thanks to my darling sister, I now have something else to occupy my time while I wait for our baby(ies). Somewhere in this game is an explanation (eggsplanation) of patience and God’s timing verses ours, etc….

If you’re waiting for a child or just looking for something to do, check it out and let me know if you can beat my high score of 290. That level gets really exciting. ha ha ha

Smiley, also known as Brigitte, just started her own blog (after a little prompting from me) so be sure to check our her site and leave her lots of comments. Whatever you do, don’t refer to her adorable son as Barrett – she calls him this in her first post but it’s really not his name. His name is Bull. You’d have to know her last name in order to understand how funny this is so you’ll just have to take my word for it. (Just like Karen’s unborn child is not really called Avery, but Cletus.)

Anyway, these are real life friends and not just “virtual” friends.

Have a great weekend.

In honor of Thanksgiving, I’m going to try and reinstate “Thankful Thursdays”. Also, JettyBetty has been doing it lately and she’s inspired me to start again. I say start “again” like I was on a roll or something. I think I did it for two or three weeks and then forgot.

Well, here’s my list of what I’m thankful for today. Add yours in the comments section.

1. Today was Dad’s last chemo treatment! Woo Hoo Praise God that He got all of them on schedule and never postponed any because of low blood count or being sick.
2. Our homestudy was chosen for another four-way. (Goldilocks)
3. Karen heard a good, strong heartbeat for Cletus today (sorry k, i can’t stop calling HER that)
4. God’s gentle reminders each day.
5. I’m thankful I have a friend who says stuff like “I went to Hobby Lobby the other day and looked for a Hobby but I couldn’t find one!”
6. The little toe on my right foot appears to be broken but it doesn’t hurt as much as you would expect a broken toe to hurt. It feels more numb than painful…unless I put too much weight on it. Anyway, I’m digressing…..
7. I’m especially thankful these days for all of the wonderful women God has put in my life who are also going through this adoption process! Misery loves company.

….on this crazy roller coaster called adoption? It looks like we need to buckle up and hold on tight because here we go again.

We’ve been selected to go to the four-way on Goldilocks. (The 9 month old baby GIRL)! Girl is accentuated because the stripes are already pink! Woo Hoo.

I have to admit our enthusiasm is not what it was when we first found out about going to the four-way on Spiderman. We learned our lesson and we’re not going to go nuts. Probably. Maybe. I don’t know. Let’s just say we are thrilled to have been chosen for a second four-way and are hopeful that eventually we’ll get a child.

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord. ‘They are for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.’”

M does not yet know when the four-way will be held, she’s trying to find that information out now. I told her on the phone that we didn’t want to know when it was scheduled – we’d rather her call us the day before or the day of the meeting and let us know so we aren’t too anxious about it. Then I emailed her and told her that I did want to know. I’m sure she thinks I’m neurotic. O well, I guess I am. ha ha ha I don’t know if she’ll tell us or not. We were submitted on this child about a month ago so they aren’t moving quickly with her – in other words, don’t hold your breath! (but pray for a Christmas baby!)

Also, there is another possibility out there that I’m not ready to blog about just yet. Be in prayer for a child we’ll call Plastic Man in honor of Smiley.

And if you can’t keep up with my pseudo names, don’t worry. I can’t either, i always have to go back and look them up.

God’s love for us goes so far beyond our own understanding. We simply can not fathom how much our Father loves His children. Today, I was reminded of how much God loves me in very tangible ways.

First, I have to tell you that my Love Language is gifts. For those of you who have read Gary Chapman’s book, that will make sense to you. For others, read the book or wait for the post.

Today, my cousin stopped with a gift for me. For me? A gift? Woo Hoo! It’s not a usual thing for her to stop by (we really need to change that), much less to bring me a gift. The gift was a book titled A Treasury of Adoption Miracles by author Karen Kingsbury. You should really order a copy or buy one for someone else and bless them with this book today! I read the whole thing this afternoon and can’t wait to read it again. It’s full of promise and hope and God’s richest blessings.

Anyway, so she stops by with this book and a card. The inside of the card said, “I hope your day is filled with gentle reminders of how deeply God loves you.” And it was. The book, more gifts from Smiley and Bull, cookies from Granny and a phone call from a friend I haven’t talked to in ages. The best gift was realizing that all of these little things were God’s gentle reminders that He loves me.

Our disappointment from last week seemed so big at the time. Looking back, I can see God carrying us through each day, knowing we’d need encouragement and love from friends and families. I was overwhelmed by the number of people who called, emailed or commented to let us know they were thinking of us and praying for us as we awaited news on Spiderman. God’s arms were wrapped tightly around us as He braced us for the disappointment that was to come.

The best news of all is in Jeremiah 29:11, where God has made a promise to us. “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord. ‘They are for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.’” This is all part of God’s plan. God still knows where our children are and He is busy working to bring them to us. I know you’re probably tired of hearing me quote Jeremiah 29:11, but I just can’t stop myself. God is soooo good.

I can’t help but wonder how many times I’ve missed His gentle reminders because I was too focused on myself. His faithfulness has NEVER waivered, even when mine has. “Great is His love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.” Psalm 117:2 NIV

I’ve been meaning to post and show you all a picture of my friend Melony’s baby! Melony, aka shorthorns…..This is their beautiful boy, Canaan. Isn’t he the cutest ever? He’s joining their family the same way our kids will join ours. Holding him is holding and answer to prayer. And did I mention he’s cute?

There are 10 days until Thanksgiving.

There are 11 days until our 5 year anniversary.

There are 41 days until Christmas. YIKES! FORTY-ONE days!

There are 47 days left in 2005.

I’ve been real busy today, huh?

Daddy-O was gone all week – he was out trying to slay Bambi as it was opening week for hunting season in Texas. Note I said “trying” because the “Bambi” in this story managed to elude the mighty hunter this week.

Because I had the house to myself, I was able to watch a lot of old movies and had quite a bit of “me time”. One of my all time favorites is, “When Harry Met Sally.” I watched it the other day and my most favorite part of the whole movie is when Harry runs through Manhatten to get to the New Year’s Eve party so he can tell Sally he loves her. Sally isn’t satisfied with his declaration of love on New Year’s Eve because she thinks he’s just lonely….until he says the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard. Well, almost.

He says, “blah blah blah blah blah blah ….. it’s just that when you realize who you want to spend the rest of your life with, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

When I heard that line for the thousandth time (i’ve seen this movie a lot), it suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks. That’s it. That’s EXACTLY how I feel about this whole adoption thing. When we realize that we want this child(ren) to become part of our family forever, we want forever to start right away. It was an epiphany of sorts; it suddenly made sense:

We’ve been living life “on hold.”

Daddy-O and I had this conversation this afternoon. He said if there is one thing that he learned from the recent “four-way tease” it’s that we have to live our lives now. We can’t keep waiting for THE CALL or making plans with disclaimers in case we have our baby. We talk about doing this or that and say, well, we can’t because we’ll probably have a baby by then……… and that has to stop.

We’re going to make plans and if we happen to get our baby between now and then, we’ll just have to change them. We hereby reserve the right to back out of vacation plans, holiday plans, dinner with friends plans or any other type of plans at the last minute without the slightest bit of guilt.

There is so much more to this than just planning but it’s all I’ve got the heart for tonight. I’ll save the rest for another post.

PS I think we’re going to tell our case worker that the next time we are chosen for a four-way we don’t want to know about it until the day before or the morning of.

PSS Does anyone know what “PS” actually stands for?

Ya, you read that correctly. It says “Crap Wand” in the title. How many of you have ever wished for a “Crap Wand”? Hmmmm…..I bet you’re wondering where I’m going with this, aren’t you? This could get pretty gross so timid readers beware. I need a “Crap Wand!”

Sometimes I just need a little help getting rid of stuff I don’t need. It’s a very natural part of life and it should happen easily but let’s face it: Sometimes, stuff just gets stuck. Now that I’ve got your attention, I should clarify what kind of crap I’m talking about.

The stuff that’s been lying around your house for years and never been used. Stuff you “may use one day” or stuff you’ll “get around to sorting through later.” I fall into the second category. Procrastination is my middle name and really, it should be my first. Here’s an example, I have 10, yes TEN phone books lying around my house. Well, three of them are on the front porch (they were delivered last week) so technically they aren’t “in” the house. Two were stacked on a rack in my kitchen and SIX were in a cabinet. The irony here is that I haven’t used a phone book in 5 years – that’s what the internet is for.

So back to my Crap Wand. I wish I had a wand that I could wave over various piles of crap in my house and it would magically remove it forever. Here’s an example of what I mean:

This is the baker’s rack in my kitchen. If you look closely, you can see the phone books in the lower right hand corner. There is silverware, place mats, a wedding bouquet, table cloths, cook books, a picture frame, a few books for work, a bag of books given as a birthday gift in JUNE, dried (dead and ugly) flowers…….the list goes on. I even found some vacation pictures from February!

I’ve tried rearranging and cleaning this rack. I’ve cleared it off a few different times but it always ends up looking this way again after just a few weeks. It’s a shame, too, because it is perfect for this space in my kitchen.

I’ve tried to change my ways. Really, I have. It’s just no use, I will forever be a stuffaholic. A hoarder. A packrat. It makes me crazy because I do not want to see clutter in my house – I HATE it. So I’ve come up with a perfect solution.

This is it.

If only I could find that “Crap Wand” to get all of this stuff into that cabinet. Daddy-O will be home from hunting in about 3 more hours so I guess I better get started. By the way, I built that cabinet. And what I mean by “built” is put it together.

"Samuel took a single rock and set it upright between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer (Rock of Help), saying, This marks the place where GOD helped us."

1 Samuel 7:12 The Message

Adoption

• Our adoption story from beginning to end

Search

Search for: