May I suggest NOT going on a mission trip the week just prior to the return of a husband from a two year deployment!!! I leave tomorrow with ten teenagers for a week of evangelism in the City of Lights, Las Vegas. My male chaperone left a message for me yesterday indicating that he was unable to go with us due to a family emergency. That means that I will be the only chaperone with our ten teens until we arrive in Las Vegas and meet up with the YWAM team. I'm not too worried about any of it but I sure have been swamped with things to do. Nathan will be arriving in Kansas sometime very close to our return from Las Vegas. That means that I had to have everything in Nathan ready condition before I leave tomorrow. It took the help of some very loyal teens, but we got it all done. The car is detailed, the lawn is beautiful, the house is spotless, there isn't an ounce of laundry left or a single dirty dish. I am content at this moment. Nathan will walk into his home for the first time and it will be clean. All is right with the world.
I'll be on blogging vacation for the next week but I'll see you all when we return! Be blessed this week!
Friday, July 13, 2007
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
HE IS ON HIS WAY HOME!!!
Nathan is en route to the United States as I type this post!!!
I couldn't be more excited or more stressed right now. I leave for Las Vegas on Saturday so I've got 3 days left to get our house, car and yard in tip top shape for Nathan's arrival. I don't know yet what day he will arrive here in Kansas but it appears to be the 20th or the 21st. I return to Kansas on the 20th so I will not have any time after Las Vegas to prepare anything. I'm so wound up right now!!!
Also, today I got a call to interview for a job at Carmax as a sales associate. I interview on Thursday at 3 pm (CST). Please be praying for this interview to go well. Not only did our basement flood but our roof is now leaking so we are most definitely in need of employment! :)
And last but not least, news on the adoption front. Last week we had some issues that I won't go into here with our choice of home study agency. Those issues led us to make the decision to choose an adoption agency with the ability to do our homestudy in the state of Kansas. We headed back into the world of agency choice and I just happened to look on the Holt International website. We sponsor six children though Holt and I have loved this agency for some time. I love their history and their faithful practices. Originally we weren't able to go with Holt because they did not have a program in Africa. We knew we were called to Africa so we had to look elsewhere. So, when I stopped into their site the other day, I found the greatest news! They expect to begin their Ethiopia program in the fall!!! They have completed the process to become an authorized agency and expect their approval to come through sometime in the next few months. All of this means that we have decided to use Holt International as our agency.
We have also made a decision to wait several months to pursue our adoption. We are feeling like we need a few months together after this deployment without the stress of paperwork and without having our focus be on the adoption. I tend to obsess about one thing at a time! We thought it might be good all the way around just to take a few months to focus on our relationship. All of that means that we'll give Holt some time to get their program up and running as well. We feel good about the decisions made in the past week. It does mean a slight change in this blog for a bit. It is still certainly meant to be our adoption blog but for the next few months it will be more of the Kelly and Nathan update blog. We've found that several of our friends and family members have enjoyed the blog and the ability to keep up with us. We'll keep updating about how Nathan is doing at home and how the job searches are going. We'll add pics of life here in Kansas and once we head back into the world of adoption paperwork, we'll certainly let you know!!
Thanks for your prayers and for keeping up with our blog. I'll probably post again at the end of the week before we head to Las Vegas and then you won't hear from me for a week. Keep praying for Nathan and for our job situation!
I couldn't be more excited or more stressed right now. I leave for Las Vegas on Saturday so I've got 3 days left to get our house, car and yard in tip top shape for Nathan's arrival. I don't know yet what day he will arrive here in Kansas but it appears to be the 20th or the 21st. I return to Kansas on the 20th so I will not have any time after Las Vegas to prepare anything. I'm so wound up right now!!!
Also, today I got a call to interview for a job at Carmax as a sales associate. I interview on Thursday at 3 pm (CST). Please be praying for this interview to go well. Not only did our basement flood but our roof is now leaking so we are most definitely in need of employment! :)
And last but not least, news on the adoption front. Last week we had some issues that I won't go into here with our choice of home study agency. Those issues led us to make the decision to choose an adoption agency with the ability to do our homestudy in the state of Kansas. We headed back into the world of agency choice and I just happened to look on the Holt International website. We sponsor six children though Holt and I have loved this agency for some time. I love their history and their faithful practices. Originally we weren't able to go with Holt because they did not have a program in Africa. We knew we were called to Africa so we had to look elsewhere. So, when I stopped into their site the other day, I found the greatest news! They expect to begin their Ethiopia program in the fall!!! They have completed the process to become an authorized agency and expect their approval to come through sometime in the next few months. All of this means that we have decided to use Holt International as our agency.
We have also made a decision to wait several months to pursue our adoption. We are feeling like we need a few months together after this deployment without the stress of paperwork and without having our focus be on the adoption. I tend to obsess about one thing at a time! We thought it might be good all the way around just to take a few months to focus on our relationship. All of that means that we'll give Holt some time to get their program up and running as well. We feel good about the decisions made in the past week. It does mean a slight change in this blog for a bit. It is still certainly meant to be our adoption blog but for the next few months it will be more of the Kelly and Nathan update blog. We've found that several of our friends and family members have enjoyed the blog and the ability to keep up with us. We'll keep updating about how Nathan is doing at home and how the job searches are going. We'll add pics of life here in Kansas and once we head back into the world of adoption paperwork, we'll certainly let you know!!
Thanks for your prayers and for keeping up with our blog. I'll probably post again at the end of the week before we head to Las Vegas and then you won't hear from me for a week. Keep praying for Nathan and for our job situation!
Monday, July 2, 2007
Flood Waters, Three Weeks, Home Study, and Baseball
***WARNING - SUPER LONG POST AHEAD***
Nathan has officially gone into no communication mode. As of today, there will be little to no communication with my dear husband as he begins the journey for home. He will spend about another week in Iraq and will then begin the trek home. He should arrive here in about three weeks. I can't even imagine how amazing it will be to finally live with the man I am so in love with. He will get to see his home for the very first time. He will meet Fat Frankie the Bulldog for the first time. He will see my very short haircut for the first time. He will live in the same state with his wife for the first time. It is all very exciting and I know that we are both filled with such anticipation right now.
I was so excited to have this perfect home to share with Nathan when he got here. This weekend, God taught me that perfection is not always what we get. Southeast Kansas had 10 inches of rain in three days. This has been the wettest summer in Kansas in many moons. The water table rose quickly and promtly flooded our beautiful finished basement. We spent the afternoon after church yesterday tearing out carpet and bringing my beautiful family room down to its bare 70s linoleum covered concrete floor. I was soooo sad that my favorite room in our house was now our ugliest room. BUT, after several hours of pouting and tears, God convinced me that life would still be okay and that I should be thankful that I have a home. I also got all excited that Nathan and I will get to remodel a room together this summer. We're both very much looking forward to having a project to work on together. So, it all worked out in the end but it sure made for an emotional weekend. Thankfully, I had my kick off party for my Jockey Person to Person business the night before the flood. The party went very well and I nearly hit my goal for the month. I have my next party this Thursday and I am excited about getting this business going.
As for Baseball, my MN Twins are doing beautifully and I have several very cute items for our boy's room. During our recent trip to OKC, I purchased some great things for the baby's room, which we are planning to decorate in baseball paraphenallia. I am unrealistically obsessed with the Minnesota Twins and Nathan loves them as well. If I hadn't mentioned this before, my dear mom is making a sweet quilt for the baby that has the alphabet in letters that look like baseballs. My mom has always been great with crafty things and so I'm sure it will be a wonderful gift for our son. Here are some pictures of the things I got:
We sort of won this sweet baseball pillow at Frontier City Six Flags. I played this football game and I couldn't get the football through the holes but the kid gave us the baseball anyway! :)
I am so in love with Pottery Barn for Kids. I had no idea this store existed until we saw it in an OKC mall. This baseball bat and the ball are so soft. If you hit the ball with the bat, or throw it against the wall, the ball makes sounds like a crowd cheering on a runner on the field. It is sooo adorable. I also bought a nightlight that looks like a baseball but I forgot to take a picture of it so you'll have to use your imagination.
I bought all of these wonderful books as well. Three of the books have something to do with baseball of course. My favorite is the Touch and Feel Baseball book. It has the textures of the baseball leather, the bat, the fabric of a baseball cap, and a piece of astroturf. The two other baseball books have wonderful messages about morals and teamwork and my favorite part is that both of them have children of various races represented. Also in the book pile is a great First Bible with the hard pages and a children's atlas. I also found this great book that takes place in Kenya. It is about a 130 year old Tortise and a baby Rhino who become best friends after the Rhino was stranded during the Tsunami. The greatest book of all in the pile is a book called Chowder. Its a sweet book about an English Bulldog named Chowder. He doesn't fit in at all with the other dogs because he is so different from them. He is sad because he can't be like the "normal" dogs. But, he has parents who love him oh so much and they take him to the petting zoo where he makes all sorts of new friends who don't look like him. It is such a wonderful book and it is sooooo representative of our sweet bulldog. BTW - I adore books!
This is a giant floor puzzle with pieces as big as my head. It has animals from all different regions. I thought it would be a neat way to teach our boy about different areas of the world and show him all the differnt animals that live all over the planet. It seemed like a fun toy. Also from Pottery Barn Kids!
This is our boy's first Twins bobblehead! It's retired hall of famer Bob Allison. I'm sure the boy will have a ton of bobbleheads before he moves out and goes to college!
Okay, well I know this post is incredibly long, but I've got one last bit of news! I talked to a great home study agency today. They were so great! Judy at Gladney suggested that I discuss our unique situation with the home study agency and see if they thought we needed to wait a while before proceeding with the adoption. Judy basically told me that if our home study social worker thought we were prepared, that Gladney would be alright. So, Heather, our new social worker extrodinaire talked to me for a while this afternoon. She told me that she needed to talk to the director of her agency and see what she thought. Heather said she'd call me back in a couple of days but instead she called me in an hour!!! She talked to the director and they decided it would be fine to proceed with the homestudy when Nathan got home!!!! Heather told me it would likely take us 5 weeks to get the paperwork together to send our homestudy packet in and get our visits started. She said she'd go ahead and send out our packet tomorrow!!!! I am sooo excited that we'll have a whole packet of paperwork to do!!! Nathan was hoping we could move forward soon as we'll have the entire month of August together before life gets really hectic. We were thinking that we could get a fair amount of paperwork chasing done together during that period before Nathan begins all his classes at Wichita State University. Anyway, this is just one more piece that indicates that this process is moving forward and I am sooo thrilled!!! I'll post again when we get the packet in the mail. Have a great Fourth everyone!
Nathan has officially gone into no communication mode. As of today, there will be little to no communication with my dear husband as he begins the journey for home. He will spend about another week in Iraq and will then begin the trek home. He should arrive here in about three weeks. I can't even imagine how amazing it will be to finally live with the man I am so in love with. He will get to see his home for the very first time. He will meet Fat Frankie the Bulldog for the first time. He will see my very short haircut for the first time. He will live in the same state with his wife for the first time. It is all very exciting and I know that we are both filled with such anticipation right now.
I was so excited to have this perfect home to share with Nathan when he got here. This weekend, God taught me that perfection is not always what we get. Southeast Kansas had 10 inches of rain in three days. This has been the wettest summer in Kansas in many moons. The water table rose quickly and promtly flooded our beautiful finished basement. We spent the afternoon after church yesterday tearing out carpet and bringing my beautiful family room down to its bare 70s linoleum covered concrete floor. I was soooo sad that my favorite room in our house was now our ugliest room. BUT, after several hours of pouting and tears, God convinced me that life would still be okay and that I should be thankful that I have a home. I also got all excited that Nathan and I will get to remodel a room together this summer. We're both very much looking forward to having a project to work on together. So, it all worked out in the end but it sure made for an emotional weekend. Thankfully, I had my kick off party for my Jockey Person to Person business the night before the flood. The party went very well and I nearly hit my goal for the month. I have my next party this Thursday and I am excited about getting this business going.
As for Baseball, my MN Twins are doing beautifully and I have several very cute items for our boy's room. During our recent trip to OKC, I purchased some great things for the baby's room, which we are planning to decorate in baseball paraphenallia. I am unrealistically obsessed with the Minnesota Twins and Nathan loves them as well. If I hadn't mentioned this before, my dear mom is making a sweet quilt for the baby that has the alphabet in letters that look like baseballs. My mom has always been great with crafty things and so I'm sure it will be a wonderful gift for our son. Here are some pictures of the things I got:
We sort of won this sweet baseball pillow at Frontier City Six Flags. I played this football game and I couldn't get the football through the holes but the kid gave us the baseball anyway! :)
I am so in love with Pottery Barn for Kids. I had no idea this store existed until we saw it in an OKC mall. This baseball bat and the ball are so soft. If you hit the ball with the bat, or throw it against the wall, the ball makes sounds like a crowd cheering on a runner on the field. It is sooo adorable. I also bought a nightlight that looks like a baseball but I forgot to take a picture of it so you'll have to use your imagination.
I bought all of these wonderful books as well. Three of the books have something to do with baseball of course. My favorite is the Touch and Feel Baseball book. It has the textures of the baseball leather, the bat, the fabric of a baseball cap, and a piece of astroturf. The two other baseball books have wonderful messages about morals and teamwork and my favorite part is that both of them have children of various races represented. Also in the book pile is a great First Bible with the hard pages and a children's atlas. I also found this great book that takes place in Kenya. It is about a 130 year old Tortise and a baby Rhino who become best friends after the Rhino was stranded during the Tsunami. The greatest book of all in the pile is a book called Chowder. Its a sweet book about an English Bulldog named Chowder. He doesn't fit in at all with the other dogs because he is so different from them. He is sad because he can't be like the "normal" dogs. But, he has parents who love him oh so much and they take him to the petting zoo where he makes all sorts of new friends who don't look like him. It is such a wonderful book and it is sooooo representative of our sweet bulldog. BTW - I adore books!
This is a giant floor puzzle with pieces as big as my head. It has animals from all different regions. I thought it would be a neat way to teach our boy about different areas of the world and show him all the differnt animals that live all over the planet. It seemed like a fun toy. Also from Pottery Barn Kids!
This is our boy's first Twins bobblehead! It's retired hall of famer Bob Allison. I'm sure the boy will have a ton of bobbleheads before he moves out and goes to college!
Okay, well I know this post is incredibly long, but I've got one last bit of news! I talked to a great home study agency today. They were so great! Judy at Gladney suggested that I discuss our unique situation with the home study agency and see if they thought we needed to wait a while before proceeding with the adoption. Judy basically told me that if our home study social worker thought we were prepared, that Gladney would be alright. So, Heather, our new social worker extrodinaire talked to me for a while this afternoon. She told me that she needed to talk to the director of her agency and see what she thought. Heather said she'd call me back in a couple of days but instead she called me in an hour!!! She talked to the director and they decided it would be fine to proceed with the homestudy when Nathan got home!!!! Heather told me it would likely take us 5 weeks to get the paperwork together to send our homestudy packet in and get our visits started. She said she'd go ahead and send out our packet tomorrow!!!! I am sooo excited that we'll have a whole packet of paperwork to do!!! Nathan was hoping we could move forward soon as we'll have the entire month of August together before life gets really hectic. We were thinking that we could get a fair amount of paperwork chasing done together during that period before Nathan begins all his classes at Wichita State University. Anyway, this is just one more piece that indicates that this process is moving forward and I am sooo thrilled!!! I'll post again when we get the packet in the mail. Have a great Fourth everyone!
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