Whatcha really want............

These are just random shots of our trip and our return. I knew you guys wanted pictures so I thought I would share even if there is no particular order involved.

This is Mercy as we landed in the states. She obviously did AMAZING on the flight, better than we did really.


This is Mercy girl and her Daddy! They are both IN LOVE, can you tell?


This is the boy we sponsor from the dump who is now in boarding school. Proof a few dollars can really change a life. We love him like he is our son and we were so thrilled he got to meet his sister. Pray for this sweet young man; Thomas is a good American name for short. He is an absolute gentlemen of gentle men. Pray he continues to follow hard after Jesus.


Here is Mercy on the day we picked her up, opening her Valentine from her Granny.


This is just a bit of loving while we were there. I still cannot stop kissing her!


This is a shot to show you just how tiny she is and just how big our boy has gotten. He is only 6 months older but towers her in size.


This is her first meeting with her Granny.


and her PopPop


And this picture says it all, precious moments here!


And then finally, our welcoming home.......






Thank you guys so much for your prayers. Every single day is getting easier and more normal. I think we are finally caught up on our sleep. (I am awake so that is proof.) We have several big things this week so two prayers are insurance and readoption. We have to take the paperwork in to apply for her to be on our insurance, obviously pray they say yes. And then we are meeting with a lawyer (possibly a few) to get details about what we need to do to readopt her in the states, change her birth date, etc. Thanks again, this has been a dream and a miracle, all wrapped up into one unbelievable story we get to call life!

A Week (almost) In.......................

Hey gang, my two tots are out for the count and my sweet hubs is at Bible Study so I thought I would get on and say hello while I am sitting in the glorious peace and quiet of my very own home. I think there is nothing I love more than that these days. It is nice to have quiet any way you can get it, but in your very own house it is most glorious. I wouldn't turn on that TV if you paid me a million dollars (ok well I would but you know what I mean). Silence is my greatest commodity these days.

So one week (almost) in, where to start? In the middle of my types I am icing my eye bone where my sweet son clocked me today. The good news is, he was being sweet and we were playing. The bad news is, this is a bit symbolic of how I feel at moments. I'll start with the not so good and we'll end on a high note, how about that. Cross is struggling but it is ONLY a week (almost) in so I am not worried at all, just tired and tired and patient are rarely related. We have also decided that we have two children who span the great extremes on the personality profile. She is calm, smiley, helpful, smiley, and her version of running through the house is like a light prance. CROSS IS A WILD BOY (I wanted to say heathen but he may read this one day). Jeremy's mom encouraged me last night that Jeremy was JUST like him and he obviously turned into a fine young man. And my precious doctor reminded me that Cross will know he needs a Savior, Mercy might think she is perfect without one. Tell me that's not a good word for us all.

It is almost as if this new sister thing has put his boy nature on steroids. Hence the probably black eye on my part and the horrible reality of comparison that I just can't seem to shake already. So pray for Cross, pray for us, pray Mercy doesn't get physically harmed (too bad at least) in all of this. Cross LOVES her most moments, sometimes just a little too much. She thinks it is all hilarious until he pushes too far and then she calls for back-up. This is a good time to mention that Cross had also grown a foot and 10 pounds in the short week that we were gone and he towers over her and frankly me as well. Another problem lies in the fact that I think I have been over compensating. I felt like every time I even glanced her way I needed to pay him a compliment and my dear friend set me free of that by saying that it is NOT a bad thing that he is not the center of the universe anymore. I just needed to hear that it was okay, okay that he had to share basically everything, that in the end it would make him a better man. Honestly the only other bad is our 4-6 a.m. wake up sessions. I feel like I have a newborn for many reasons but this sleep thing is killing me. I wanna have one full night and thus break away from my Diet Dr. Pepper obsession. I hadn't had a "coke" (that one's for you Delilah) in months and now I wake up thinking about my ice cold $1 Diet Dr. Pepper and today I remembered Sonic has $1 drinks in the a.m. Oh sweet Jesus if I go on talking about it I'll never be free again.

Ok, on to the good, let's change the subject. First off, thank you tons for your prayers in regards to sweet Snicker girl. After some glorious wise counsel from another adoptive mom, Snick and Mercy are now almost officially BFF's. She chases Snick and tries to pet her and she feeds her and she tells her bye-bye when we leave. She did let out a blood curdling scream this a.m. when Snick woke her up by jumping in her bed but other than that she has done perfect with the dog. Her behavior has also been very close to perfect after the first 48. I am praying we just had an early testing of the boundaries and now we understand that there are some but I am still trying to stick with zero expectations to be safe. Outings have been good, the few we've done. She is good as long as we are right there. She is a far from being able to play freely with adults though, that is certainly obvious. She just has ZERO stranger anxiety which is not healthy so we are still asking people to please just say hi and then direct her on to mommy and daddy. That will probably have to go on for several months but it is the only way we can actually have a life and still do what is best for her. It is just so hard because she is SO darn cute but that also helps with Cross' behavior because he doesn't feel threatened which good or bad certainly makes for a more pleasant visit.

And then finally, just because my brain is tired and my thoughts are random, I have a few things that people have asked me over this journey (either directly or indirectly) that I think are questions I would ask and want to know the answer to, especially in terms of adoption. So I think while we are all happy and I need to make myself stay up until at LEAST 8:30 I'll just take this moment to share. The first is Jesus, Jesus told us to do this, He told us to name her Mercy, He told us she was "in Ethiopia and to go and get her now". WHAT IF WE HAD NOT OBEYED? That is probably the greatest sobering fact for me right now. The first few days I did feel a bit like I was babysitting, but already I can NOT even fathom life without this sweet girl. Thank you Jesus for giving us the grace and wisdom to obey, Your ways are always best. The second is the topic of infertility. I do not for one second want anyone to think we chose this path because we tried for a few short months to get pregnant again and did not. That topic is so touchy to me because there are somewhere in the vicinity of 163 MILLION ORPHANS out there and if we only adopt because we can not get pregnant then that is a sad day in Christianity if you ask me. We adopted first because God told us to, but secondly because I got to see first hand the need. When I walked into that first orphanage in Ethiopia (which was Mercy's orphanage btw) and I went in a saw that baby room, filled with sick, starving babies, I literally thought I was going to throw up everywhere, sprint out of the building, and find a way back to the airport and back to the United States. It was literally more than my heart could bare. But then I heard these words "oh yes, all of them are adopted already, all of these babies have homes". It was like a ray of Jesus sunshine showered down into that room and God was saying to me, "see, those families are bringing hope to a hopeless situation".

Guys, YES sometimes God does use infertility to nudge people to adoption and even for me, certainly if I had gotten pregnant over those few months I would have never even gone to Africa, but we have got to understand that there are enough children out there that need homes that no one needs to step to the side "because you can have your own". Well my man is almost home so I am going to leave you tonight with a little blurb from my BFF in the adoption world's blog. She put it perfectly so no need to rewrite the written. I love you guys. Thank you again for your prayers. God knew before the foundation of the earth that Mercy was to be ours. It is not a chance, she is a chosen child of ours. We are so honored God entrusted us with her and that He led us through each and every detail of the process and footed the bill to boot.


http://paynefamilyblessings.blogspot.com/
"The numbers are now at 163 Million so our Adoption Memory shirt is just that... a MEMORY of how many Orphans there were. Now there are MORE. And there will be MORE tomorrow. We need MORE families to step out on their faith and say YES!
Did you know that 34% of Christian Families have considered adoption, but only 1% actually do it! Did you know that if we could raise that number to 7% that there would be NO ORPHANS LEFT IN THIS WORLD??? That was a statistic, shared by Katie Davis that SHOOK ME to my core when I was "just reading" her blog. We had no intentions to adopt, I was just reading her blog, but that statistic haunted me.... After I read that, everything began to change and I began to ask WHY NOT US? We had the room, we were capable of loving more, we had plenty to share with someone who had no one and nothing.... There were many tears shared over that quote.. I so didn't want to be a member of that 1%!
I promise you, that if you SAY YES, it will be a blessing beyond blessings. I only wish that ALL of you could experience the JOY and the LOVE that we feel each and everyday with our little guy! We can't imagine LIFE without him!"

Well said Gina, I t-totally agree!

Mercy's Home Update!

Dear Friends and Family, I am typing a blog because I am literally dying to call each and every one of you (that I know personally at least but even still I would wanna chat) and talk for about 3 hours and tell you each and every detail of our journey and hear any detail, even the smallest, that I may have missed about your week, even just the short one I was away. I am way too social for this shut-in lifestyle I am about to have to lead but I know it is what must be done so I will just have to suck it up and know that we will get lots of time in Heaven, please be there, I really do wanna hear and share EVERYTHING.

Ok, so our week, let me try to go quickly, Jesus rocked our world in Ethiopia. It was like His grace fell and never lifted. Two highlights (other than princess, she is a duh) getting to see the boy we sponsor at his boarding school who was living in a dump when I went in July. And two - seeing the look in my man’s eyes right now, he is plotting on how to get back and I am loving every second of seeing him sold out for Jesus and the lost and hurting. He now knows why I was a bit crazy after my return in July. See I did good, short and sweet. Now just think how many more details we could share in 3 hours, ok, moving along…..

*I have to add sharing Jesus with Mercy’s birth mom, I mean is there a high on earth that is better………….NO!

The airport party, sweet Jesus, for the ones of you who could come please know that your love, support, and the sound of those sweet kiddos singing “Jesus Loves Me” was just about more than we could bare. Someone asked me on facebook how I wasn’t crying and the truth is because I think if I had ever started I would have never stopped. And for the ones of you who could not come please know again we totally understand. We know you love us and are praying for us and we are THANKFUL more than you will ever know. I felt HORRIBLE there too not being able to chat with some of you. Some literally I am not even sure that I got to hug your neck and that is not how I like things done. But again, soon, very soon we will catch up, “worst” case in Heaven.

So for the here and now, we are almost 24 hours in, in the U.S. at least and I know everyone wants to know how we are going and after much debate I thought it really would be best that I told you. In the last 24 hours we have had some of the sweetest moments in our lives. Mercy L-O-V-E-S Cross (roll your “r” when you say it and it will sound just like her “Closs). And Cross likewise loves her. He has been the kindest gentleman of a brother and I have had moments where I wanted to just sit in awe of how Jesus has rocked our world. But because we live on this side of Heaven, I knew, somewhere deep down even, that the “fun and games” would probably have to come to a screeching halt. And they did, when we got home last night. Our daughter was sound asleep from the car ride home, I think she was still smiling even from laughing at her brother and then she saw her not-so-bff, Snicker girl. Snick was thrilled to see Mercy but Mercy was not so thrilled to see Snick. We knew that was a possibility because in Ethiopia dogs and pets are not really in the same sentence, especially not INDOOR. We had tried to prepare her with pictures but it was a disaster. An all night disaster, the kind where you think to yourself I am so exhausted that I am beyond the point of making rational decisions and you are praying for Jesus to get you through the night alive. So today, thanks to Jesus and my sweet man, we are alive, we have the house somewhat pulled back together, Mercy will now at least walk on the floor sometimes without even holding your hand but not often and everyone (but me and even Snick) napped. I had that same struggle when Cross was a newborn. I am so tired but I am listening to every single peep to make sure she isn’t crying so I am praying tonight I will get a nice 12 or so hours in and be a new woman tomorrow. This is real life, Mercy is a real orphan, she is from a third world country and she is experiencing joy like none other, but also fear and pain for certain. She is beautiful but she is also a sinner and a two year old one at that.

So as if you have not prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed, I am going to ask for some more. Pray that I know which battles to pick. That tern is almost always used for ones that you don’t pick but those are the “easy” ones. Pray for me on the ones I do have to fight and pray that I “win” in terms of her feeling more safe and secure. Pray for me that I have NO expectations, none, it just works better that way. Pray we lavish Cross with love during this time as well. That is a very hard balance but so far God is nudging us often in that area and I am so thankful for the Holy Spirit speaking, man am I thankful. And finally, pray for Mercy girl. Pray her mama isn’t selfish and stays home until she feels at ease. Pray she sleeps good, at night and at naps. She HAS GOT to be exhausted, especially considering she has been on a different time zone for her entire life. And pray she feels Jesus, even more than mommy and daddy, He is really the only one that can truly comfort.

We love you guys and we promise, if time allows and I am not neglecting my two, very small disciples, I will write as often as I can because there will be no shortage of stories that I am certain!

K

Mercy Girl is Coming Home............

Hey Friends and Family-

We have received the most wonderful news that we are going to be free to fly and go get our girl in the next few weeks. With that I so desperately wanted to sit down and say hello and begin to tell about 200 God stories in one short post if humanly possible. I know once we begin to travel and come home to what I have been jokingly calling “the commotion” (which may be my new nick name for Cross and Mercy girl) it could be a while before I post, at least with any depth. I promise to post pictures and such as soon as possible but for now know that we are beyond honored and humbled to share this journey with you. You have made it so exciting and God has used so many of you in a million ways to push us along even when we couldn’t believe it was all really going to happen for ourselves. So………let’s get to praisin!

PAID IN FULL………That’s where we will begin. I don’t care what you are talking about, “paid in full” just has a nice ring to it. But when it is in regards to an adoption, it is a MIRACLE. I really don’t even know where to begin with this God story but basically, in a nut shell, we owed the agency $7,000 and we were utterly exhausted of fundraising. Even though we had come so far, that last mountain just seemed way too big to climb. Then my man got a phone call from some our dearest friends on earth, and with that…………PAID IN FULL!!!!!!! It brought us to our knees, to tears, and to total speechlessness. HE DID IT! He answered our prayer! He has done exceedingly, abundantly, more than all we could have asked, thought, or imagined. We are still having one last local fundraiser at an awesome place called Swirls Art Studio to raise the final funds for her readoption here in the states https://swirlzart.com/classes/hold/paisley-cross-0312/index.php but there are still no words to say how we feel knowing that God has used HIS PEOPLE to pay for our girl's way home! We are humbled and we thank you all, whether you bought one set of beads or a t-shirt, a plane ticket, or if you gave a gigantic chunk of change, you have paved the way for an orphan to have a chance at life!

Once we get home………That is probably our greatest area of unknowns so I guess basically we are asking for lots of grace and lots of prayers. Our first goal is to try to stay pretty low key and withdrawn for the first two weeks. We are dealing with a very delicate situation because we are adopting a toddler and we know our daughter does something called “mommy shop”. This means that her precious heart will cling to anyone that will put her on their hip and we know there will be a very large line of people that would hip her with the blink of an eye. With that we are asking that once we do reemerge from hiding that people love her, hug her, but that they try to not meet any of her needs and not pick her up, even when her precious arms are open and her big brown eyes melt your heart into an oblivion. This will have to apply even to our closest family members as well so know it is breaking our hearts to even ask. Jeremy and I are going to attempt to be her sole need meeters, at least for the first 6 months or so, or until we see some great progress or have to make some changes to keep sanity. We really pray that if we sow this time into her that she will know that she knows that mommy and daddy aren’t going anywhere and that she can rest assured that her needs will from now on be met. Thank you ahead of time for your understanding and your grace for when we say one thing but end up doing another. We are going to take it one simple day and one simple week at a time. We have no expectations. We are just going to try to pray through this, seek God’s wisdom, and fall forward because we know at times we are certainly going to fall.

Airport Party…Once we get an exact date for travel we are planning on having a “welcoming party” at the airport. Please email me if you would like to get on this detail list for sure. We are praying that this will not traumatize our sweet girl and we are saying ahead of time that we will have been flying for two solid days by that point so we may look and act like we have been hit by a train so please give us lots of grace in that as well. Maybe don’t “rush us” or chant Mercy-Mercy as we walk down the terminal. (That’s what I would do if I were in your shoes.) Also, hugs and holding will certainly be welcomed there as she meets her new family and friends but please give her lots of grace if she “shuns you”. That will actually be a good sign for attachment but maybe a sad moment for those of you who have prayed that baby girl all the way home.

And finally……..Jesus! There are not enough words for me to tell you about the grace Jesus has given us over this past month but specifically over this past week. Sometimes He calls you to hard stuff, way out of your comfort zone, and way out of your experienced realm of faith. But with those callings, He give you a WHOLE lot-a grace and a WHOLE lot of His presence, like to the point where it is t-totally worth it. I have never “felt” God like I have this week. I have never had Him answer SO many prayers, even sometimes before I knew to pray them. I have never seen His hand in EACH AND EVERY detail like I have this week/month and finally I have never ever been so madly in love with my Savior as I am this day. Three years of a wilderness will certainly make you know the taste of living water when it comes rushing in and I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. He was working through those years, molding two crazy, prideful, naive, Christians, in an attempt to get them to look more like Christ. I have no idea if we really do look more like Him, but what I do know is that He is faithful, trustworthy and working, even when it appears He has left the building. So follow Him gang, follow Him radically until the day you cross over into eternity. He is beyond worthy!!! We love you all!

J, K, C and soon to be in person, M

One last shot......................

Hey guys, I have a few minutes on the REAL internet so I wanted to say a quick hello. My son is playing Wii and striking everyone out which is so darn cute and also buying me some quick typing time. Ok.............fundraising.........let's just say that after next month that is a word that I really NEVER want to hear again for possibly the rest of my life. I say that but we all know if I see a need (and I really already have one in mind regarding my girl's orphanage but we won't go there right now) I will be back on the train. BUT as for now, after many many months of fundraising both for Hope and for Mercy girl, I am ready for God to just go ahead and do a miracle and let's be done already............that will actually be called Heaven but you guys know what I mean. We are too far in to apply for any more grants and we have ONE MONTH and ONE WEEK to pay our girl OFF.........so.......fundraising it is! Our last and hopefully not least fundraiser will be held March 12th at the Swirlz Art Studio in Clarkville at 10:00 a.m. This place never did much for me just to be totally honest because I am NOT ARTSY, but a group went a few weeks ago and I had the best time and then a great friend reminded me that you can do private parties as fundraisers and I knew God was smiling big saying "come on, you can do ONE MORE". So here I am, telling you about ONE MORE! Possibly begging you to come if you are in remote driving distance and praying that we will have the best girl's brunch ever and that we will all come out with a beautiful Canvas Cross to boot. Please take a look at this link with details and please please invite your friends. Grab some gals, tell them it is time to do something fun for a change and come support our girl!

https://swirlzart.com/classes/hold/paisley-cross-0312/index.php

This is great for gals of all ages and there will be food worth having and door prizes worth getting!! Please pray for houses to sell, God to lead people to give, and for 35 fun ladies to come get their swirl on March 12th so that we can knock this thing out and move on with life!!!!!!! Ok, now he is bowling and that is even more cute. I think I better get off while I am ahead! Love you guys!!!!!

K

t-shirts and other misc.....

Hey guys, I am writing on my tiny blackberry screen as we are still internetless. I just wanted to say hello and MAKE SURE that anyone who ordered a Mercy T with that last batch has received their shirt. I am going to start selling all the extras tomorrow if I don't hear of any errors. I think all the extras are sold other than a 4-t and a children's size 8. I still have no real news on our travel other than the U.S. Embassy has called Mercy's mom in for an interview. Although we hate the hold up we desire for the adoption process to be audited per say, we just hate being the ones who got "picked" but we know God's timing is perfect! Regardless I only have one more week left at Hope which is certainly bitter sweet! I love my job and LOVE my coworkers but there is no gal on earth who loves "a new season of life" more than me! I love you guys dearly! I thank you for your prayers, please do pray all goes well with the birth mother and that we get a date to travel sooner than later! We are also still praying that God will do a great miracle and that we will be able to pay the last $7,000 to our agency VERY soon! That is all this tiny keyboard can handle for now! Hoping great news is coming soon!!!!
K

Update.........finally

Good Morning Blog World, I write to you this a.m. after a wonderful weekend of Purity Balling! Working with the Father Daughter Purity Ball is absolutely one of the greatest honors I have had to date and the entire weekend was absolutely wonderful. I only have a few minutes to chat before a certain little 3 year old demands the FULL attention of his mama and that attention he certainly deserves. I just knew everyone was wondering if we had ANY NEWS and the answer is still NO. I promise I will write the second I get some news but as for now I have some prayers while we await some praises.

First in that prayer list is for favor. I cannot handle nor am I capable of going into lots of details about the U.S. Embassy and Ethiopia right now but all I will say is that there are some hold ups. I very selfishly wish these hold ups had not come in the exact month that we await an Embassy date but they did, they are. We have several friends who had the same court date as us and they are having some major concerns so please pray for great favor over our babies to get permission to come home. Satan is the lowest of the low and will use any and all means of trying to keep these children from a loving home, nutrition and medical care, but our God is greater, stronger and certainly higher than any other. Pray that God will “hear our cries” and work supernaturally to make certain we cross this last major hurdle and get our children HOME!

My second prayer is for finances. We found out last week that we did NOT get that other grant so we are kind of back to square one in the sense of the $7,000 remaining balance on our agent account. We also need about $1,000 more for travel, so as of today we are praying for God to provide $8,000 which still honestly seems like a miracle in itself after starting at a $30,000 prayer request. A friend said something recently that has so stuck with me, she said “we have to let the people know of our need so that God can use them to meet it.” So, please know that if any of you feel led to give we would be honored and your gift WILL BE a tax deductible donation if made out to “Lifesong for Orphans”. We had SO hoped this grant would seal the deal, but God has not chosen to use those means. Please pray we know our part and trust Him with His! It has never been our desire to ask anyone for money but it has been so awesome to know that God has used the body of Christ to raise almost $22,000 with only $3,000 coming from a grant. That is miraculous and I am so thankful for every penny that has been donated. I knew when I saw our daughter for the very first time that we could not get her home on our own; it would take a miracle and a team of believers. Please, if there is any way possible you can help us with this last part, it is a real need for a real child. We are doing everything in our power to get our personal finances in order for me to stay home once she arrives, at least for a season, so know we are certainly not sitting with money in the bank, asking for your help. We are being as wise and as frugal as we can possibly be on our end as we try to prepare for her arrival.

So that is that, favor and finances but man has God been gracious with the peace. I actually studied peace this morning in my Beth Moore “Breaking Free” and thought just how supernatural this peace really does feel. I have laundry to do, t-shirts to mail out this week (just waiting on a call that they are in and ready). I have dusting to do and a follow up shot to take for my vaccinations. I have lunches to pack and beds to make. But most of all, I have Jesus on the throne that owns the cattle on a thousand hills and can tell the U.S. Embassy what to do in one gentle whisper. If our God is for us, than what can ever stop us! That is the truth that I am most aware of this a.m. We do our part to follow God and obey this calling, and He will do His part to see it come to pass! I love you all dearly!

Kelly