Satan hates what God loves

Almost a year ago, we brought Samuel home.  We'd been in the adoption process for three awfully long years, and we had completed all of the adoption related training that we were required to do.  Seminars, books, documentaries. We'd bought a few things that we'd need for a child, and we got several things while Samuel was in the hospital right after his birth.  However, there were several aspects of having a newborn that James and I were not at all prepared for. Some of those things were things that most new parents face - like the struggle to treat each other with kindness when we were both sleep deprived. 

I have come to realize that Satan hates the things that God loves. God loves children and he loves the fatherless. Satan hates it when Christian couples add a child to their family. Satan hates it when Christian couples adopt.  The Bible calls Satan the father of lies, a murderer, the deceiver of the whole world, our adversary who seeks someone to devour.  Those are very strong words. Satan is not the cute red character that people dress up as for Halloween. He is evil, cunning, deceitful, and dangerous. When we began the adoption process in 2009, we had no idea what the road would hold for us.  We were hopeful, prayerful, and well, naive.  When we answered the call that God had put on our hearts to adopt, Satan entered our lives in a new way and we were blindsighted. After our first failed referral, I was heart broken and angry that God had not chosen to let the little girl live after we had pleaded for her life.  After our second failed referral I was even more heart broken and began to wish that we'd never considered adopting.  We went to counseling for a little while during that time.  In the midst of all this, there were losses and hardships in other areas of our lives. I lost a job and broke my leg (which is fine now), and we lost three people that we loved. A third referral came and fell apart after we'd met her in Ethiopia. A dear saintly Ethiopian couple read James and I the story of Abraham and Sarah and assured us that our child would come to us.  Our hope was restored. A fourth referral failed and we both knew that it was time to step out of the international adoption program. We had our son in our home about 3 months after we switched to the state side adoption program. Our social worker told us that our adoption story makes little sense outside of the work of God. God gave us a desire to adopt, and he was faithful to give us a son. He also allowed us to walk through a terribly dark valley with Satan quick on our heals, wrecking havoc.

After we brought Samuel home, James and I had some hard times in our relationship. We argued more intensely than I can ever recall.  It has always been important to us that we attended church together as often as possible, and we have always enjoyed it. Sundays suddenly became one of the worst days of the week.  On the days when I had to go to work, I usually managed to get myself and Samuel ready and get our dogs taken care for the morning without an undue amount craziness.  You'd think that Sundays would be simpler since I had James home to help me get Samuel ready. That was not the case. We'd get so angry with each other just trying to get ready to leave for church. There was one Sunday that I asked James why we were even bothering with church if all we did before we left home was argue.  It was then when I saw our Enemy's work.

Here's my advice for couples considering adoption, waiting in the process, and adjusting to having a newly adopted child in your family:
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8 (ESV)
Do not expect for the things God call you to do to be easy and without sacrifice.  There will be hardship, pain, and suffering.  But there will also be blessings, grace, and mercy beyond measure from the God of Peace.

Christmas Recap

This Christmas was so much happier than the past few had been for us. The child that we'd waited for was finally with us.  We spread our celebrations out over three weeks.  The week before Christmas we spent a few days in Arkansas visiting my parents.  One night while we were there, we all went to see the Christmas lights at Garvan Gardens.  It was a very nice display. After we had finished walking through the garden, we went to eat at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. Samuel didn't want to eat the dinner that I had packed for him, which was sweet potatoes. So I decided to try to offer him the only that I'd ordered that he could chew - refried beans.  He thought they were great.

 We spent Christmas at home, and some of our neighbors came over for Christmas dinner. The main gift that James and I gave Samuel was a Fisher Price Nativity set. We didn't have it set up for him. I had just wrapped up the boxes. I'd unwrap one box & he would crawl away with a wise man. Unwrap another box, and he'd crawl away with a sheep and so on. I wasn't sure that all the pieces had been accounted for, so after he was put down for a nap I decided to set it up and see if we had all the pieces.  Well, we had everything except baby Jesus.  James and I both crawled around the living room looking under the furniture looking for it. No luck. I had already bagged up the discarded wrapping paper and taken it to the garage, so I brought it back inside so we could go through it. I was very glad that we found it mixed up with the crumpled paper!

The cake was my main contribution to dinner. James baked the ham.  This was my first time to try making fondant, and it was not as hard as I thought it would be.  I used marshmallow cream and confectioner's sugar. I blended them together in my stand mixer, which kept me from getting super sticky marshmallow cream all over my hands.  I flavored it with almond extract, and it tasted much better than boxed fondant.  Here's the instructions I followed: The Farm Girl Recipes

We went to Louisiana for a few days around New Year's to celebrate Christmas and New Year's with our family there.  James' grandparents gave us Sky Miles tickets, so we were able to fly.  Samuel did great on the plane. Not a bit of crying.  He will barely tolerate an hour long drive to downtown in his car seat without having at least a small melt down. He's learned how to crawl, and he doesn't care to be restrained for very long. 

 After having two very active dogs in our house for several years, I'd learned to put only unbreakable ornaments at the bottom of the tree. Samuel was excited to find pretty ornaments at the bottom of his grandmother's tree. We got to the ornaments before he broke anything. 

Samuel got to see his cousin for a little while.  I think these two will love playing together!

Thanksgiving 2012

We had the chance to go to Louisiana this year for Thanksgiving. Most of James' family lives in northern Louisiana. My parents, who live in Arkansas, were also able to join us for a few days. We stayed for about 4 days, and we had a good visit. The car ride was not so good. It is a long trip, and I certainly understand that riding in the car all day is no fun for a baby. Our next road trip is coming up soon, and I am already praying for Samuel to have a fun time in the car. 

 No Black Friday shopping for us. I can't deal with the crowds and insanity, but good for those you who can take advantage of the deals. We spent Black Friday taking family photos.  Here are some of the funny out-takes.  

 Not quite sure what my husband is doing on the tree there.

 I was trying to get some photos of Samuel and his cousin. This was my first attempt at taking photos of two babes at once, and it was hard. 

James and I spent the Saturday after Thanksgiving with his grandmother. We took her to see the new Lincoln movie, and she took us to dinner.  We all really enjoyed the movie. It was the first time James and I had been to see a movie since we brought Samuel home.

Sunday, we tried to keep Samuel in the church service with us, but he got mad when I wouldn't let him crawl around on the floor and go trucking along from pew to pew. I took him to the nursery and played with him in there. We'd made plans to meet James' cousin Stephen and his wife Elizabeth for lunch.  We also ran into one of his other cousins at the same restaurant, and we all ate together.  We had a really fun lunch outside on the patio - especially after one of the kids grabbed some berries from a shrub and stuffed them down James' pants!  James was wearing pants that were way too loose, and all of a sudden he started doing an odd dance. We asked him what he was doing, and he said he had berries in his pants. We all (James included) got a good laugh over that.

 Sunday night we had the chance to catch up with these fine folks:

My sister-in-law is holding Samuel, and next to her is her twin sister and her family. We met for dinner at Johnny's Pizza. It was so good to get the chance to catch up!

Halloween 2012

Halloween is a big event on our street. Most of the neighbors decorate their houses, and some of the adults dress up. Someone grills hot dogs for the kids, and we give those out for free. James' brother and his wife came to visit this year for Halloween, and it was great having them here. We had fun. The weekend before Halloween, I made up 300 little baggies with candy inside. Last year, we just left the candy loose in a bowl, and we had trouble with kids taking two fistfuls of candy.  The baggies prevented that, but we still ran out. We had over three hundred trick-or-treaters. We started giving out punch last year, and we did it again this year. We gave out about 4 gallons last year, so that is what I prepared for this year, thinking we might not have as many trick-or-treaters since Halloween was on a Wednesday.  I was wrong. We ran out. The last batch was lemonade, because that is all we had left in the house to mix up.  We gave out 6 and 1/2 gallons of punch, and had none left. I think we had more trick-or-treaters than we've had before. We had to turn a few kids away.

We stuck with our Alice in Wonderland theme from last Halloween, and we added The White Rabbit to the mix:

 Alice, the King of Hearts, the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit, and the Queen of Hearts.

 Our next door neighbor usually dresses up as Frankenstein, and but he was called out of town for work. I had a number of kids ask where he was. I even had one kid mournfully tell he that he was so sad that Frankenstein was not home. 

 Here's a pic from last year:

 We played Tim Burton's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland on our outdoor screen.

 Our front porch:

A couple of pics from the neighbors' yards:

Summer Recap

Here's our summer in a nutshell:

In June, we celebrated our 11th anniversary and James' first Father's Day.  

We got to meet Matt Holliday at a charity event.

In July, we went to Arkansas to celebrate my mom's birthday. 

Samuel went swimming for the first time while we were there. He enjoyed himself, but he only wanted to stay in the water for about 15 minutes. He's been swimming twice since then, and he's staying in the water longer now. He just started a little swim class at our YMCA that will meet once a week for a month and a half.

James' parents came to visit for a few days. While they were here, James and I went out for dinner and a show at The Muny. We saw the musical "Dreamgirls."  James, his dad, and I went to two Cardinal's games - and it was hot! I left my seat towards the end of the second game and watched the rest of it on the TV in the air conditioned game shop.  The temperature stayed in the 90's for the duration of both games. About a week shy of turning six months old, Samuel started eating solid foods. He is doing great with them. I've been making some of his food, but I have used some store bought baby food - particularly for things like pears and apples that are more time consuming to prepare yourself.  I've prepared yellow squash, zucchini, bananas, avocado, sweet potatoes, peaches and carrots for him.

In August, we took Samuel to play at our local park for the first time. He is sitting up well enough now to use the little swings. He fell asleep swinging.

My parents come to visit, and we took Samuel to the St. Louis Zoo. Samuel slept for a while at the zoo. 

We had a fabulous lunch that day at Pappy's. One of the waitresses gave Samuel the little blue T-shirt that James is holding in the photo. It says "Who's your Pappy?"  While my parents were here, we also went to Skyview Drive-In just across the river in Illinois. We saw the new Borne film.

It was a fun summer, and we are thankful for the time we had with our families!

Legally our Son!

Today was a day that we had waited a long time for. We began looking into adoption in January 2009.  We had no idea back then that it would be three and a half years before we finally legally became parents.What a ride. Today we went to family court for Samuel's finalization hearing.  James testified first, answering questions like "What date were you married?", "When is Samuel's birthdate?" and "What date was Samuel initially transferred to your custody?" I just had to say that I heard his testimony and agreed with it. He got all the dates right. We swore before the judge that we'd care for, provide for and educate Samuel just as if he were our flesh and blood.

The person holding Samuel is the judge. She is part of a large family - most of her siblings were adopted.

Us with the attorney above and in the picture below is our social worker, Kelly.

James and I had the day off, and our parents are coming to celebrate with us this weekend.  We had a great day. We drove out to Montelle Winery in Augusta, MO. They have a cafe that serves lunch, and the food is delicious. The scenery is beautiful, too. We love this place, but we rarely go because it is packed on the weekends.  I'm glad James was able to get off work today so we could do when it was not so crowded.  We had a free wine tasting before we ordered lunch.

 On our way home, we dropped by our financial adviser's office to see this lady.  Gaye is a sweet Christian woman and she has prayed for us for a long time. She kept up with all the disappointments and heartbreak that we faced trying to adopt from Ethiopia. One day in March, James had something that he needed to take to her office, so he took Samuel with him. Gaye was shocked and delighted to see him coming in with an infant carrier! She thought she'd been praying for a brown skinned little girl, but God had other plans. She always loves getting to see Samuel.

 Thank you to all of you who have prayed for us the past three years. There are so many of you who shared our pain and prayed for us faithfully. It is time to rejoice now!

You turned my wailing into dancing;
    you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent.
    Lord my God, I will praise you forever. Ps. 30:11-12

Ten Years with Our Daisy

On August 18, 2002 we brought our first dog home.  She was about a year old at the time. She came to us from a humane society, and she's proof that you can get a beautiful, well tempered dog from the shelters. Daisy is 11 years old now, and she still chases the younger dog around the house.  We celebrate her addition to the family every year on August 18th. 
 

I took both of the dogs to Three Dog Bakery, where the clerk was nice enough to let them taste some some treat before we bought them. They also both got a free "pupcake" - a cupcake for doggies and a little present.

What's in the bag?

Doggie Cardinal's jerseys.  The clerk let me try these on the dogs before I bought them. Which was great, because I would have bought the wrong size for Lily if I'd had to guess on the size. 

Daisy has always been a fun dog. She's given us a few scares - seizures and mysterious blood work. Last year we had diagnostic test after test done on her. Early this year, her vet called late one night with lab results following yet another test. Much was the same - liver enzymes still high, except for one thing. Newly found anemia. My first thought was cancer, particularly something like leukemia that originates in the bone marrow. I asked the vet if there was any chance that it was a solid tumor that could be surgically removed. She said it was unlikely. At that point, we decided that we were not going to put her thru anymore tests. We aren't going to give her chemo. Chemotherapy is rough on your body - killing healthy cells along with unhealthy cells. She doesn't act sick. She acts like an 11 year old dog with arthritis. She can still keep up with me and Lily for a 2 mile walk when it's not too hot.

She's adjusted well to having Samuel around. In fact, she's adjusted to him better that she adjusted to Lily when we first brought her home. I was sitting in the floor playing with Samuel a few days ago, and she was interested in what we were doing. I called her over and laid her down in between me and Samuel and she let him pet her belly.