Make Me Move!

Well, it seems as though God is writing a new story in our lives! Not the kind some of you might be thinking, but one He has faithfully laid on our hearts for over 15 years now. The story begins back in high school for me. When I began taking missions trips with our SOS (Students Organized to Serve) club at school. We worked many places, but the one place that change my life, my perspective on life was Agua Viva orphanage in Guatemala. I think I took a total of 3 trips to this orphanage and because of my time there, I have always known that I wanted to adopts - some day.

Well, God very graciously gave me a husband with the same desire to adopt. It was really a pre-requisite for marriage for me and when in pre-marital counseling, it fit in our "long term goal" list. 11 1/2 years later, we are ready to begin the journey, the new story book in our family life! I don't know that that's really the right words to use. Neither of us feel "ready". We feel a lot of other things like excited, scared, unprepared, nervous, anxious, joyful. But, God is preparing us for "ready''! Here's the scoop!

Just a few short months ago, Robbie gave me the go ahead to begin researching adoption. Things have been so busy with the end of the school year that I really didn't have time to spend on research and just put it on the back burner until this month. With our schedule just a little calmer in the summer, I have taken to making phone calls, reading on websites, talking to friends and strangers in all out attempt to begin my formal research on adoption. In my mind, all adoptions seem to take at least 2 years, so we might as well get the ball rolling now and surely by 2 years we will feel "ready" to welcome home a new child!

Robbie started to get a little nervous when he saw information packets arriving in the mail and as I probed him for family information to help me fill out online applications! It was time for a heart to heart so that we could move forward together and walk on the same page of this new story. I laid out my concerns about finance and travel times and concerns over domestic adoption while Robbie gave me just 2 concerns he had. The first was our children. He really wants their training in godliness and righteousness to take root in their hearts before adding more children to train who will need lots of attention. That one seemed easy for me - I'll just focus more energy on training time. The second and biggest concern he had was our house. He felt that we are busting at the seems, not because of our bedrooms, but because of our small bathroom for the kids and our lack or attic or storage space. He thought we really needed to sell our house before should seriously move forward in the adoption process.

I was a little bummed because I was already filling our paperwork and starting to get excited about adoption and this put a little damper on my excitement. But, my response to him was, "well, I'm just going to pray that God sells our house, then." And that is exactly what I did. When I would start looking at agencies and countries, I would just have to stop and pray, "Lord, if you want us to adopt, please sell our house for us."

This takes me to Monday, June 13. On Monday, I decided to list our house as a "Make Me Move" option on zillow.com. I didn't really know what this was, but thought it might let people know that we would be willing to sell our house even though it wasn't listed. We eventually wanted to list it, but still needed to get it "show ready" before we could that. On Tuesday the 14th, we received an email from a couple in CA asking if they could get some pictures of the house. It turns out that they were planning to make a trip that weekend to come look at house in TN. My first thought was no way! We are no where near ready and it would take me longer than 4-5 days to get this house in order. But, Robbie and I both agreed that we needed to make this work and agreed to show the house on Friday.

Fast forward through the long week of yard work, cleaning, organizing, throwing out and so forth. An agent showed the couple our home and called us after 2 1/2 hours of viewing to say that they had written up a formal offer and wanted to close in 2 weeks! It's funny how we weren't really shocked. I mean, we were, but we knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was God speaking to us. He was making us move! He was answering our prayer (or at least mine!) and saying very loudly, "It's time!"

Oh, now the emotions are running rampant! It's time?! Really, right now? I thought You would do this in like a year from now? But, I hear You, Lord! And I'm crazy excited and anxious to see where you move us. So eager to see where You want us to raise and nurture these little arrows You have given us and the ones You have yet to place in our care.

To be continued . . . I feel sure of it!

Summer has arrived!

***WARNING**** MANY VIDEOS TO FOLLOW*****
This is my favorite season and it is off to a fast start with baseball still in season, swim team starting up, long days swimming at the pool and fun weekends spent on the river! We are so busy, but this is just the way I like it! So much fun to be had in the sun!


Today was our first swim meet and I just have to say how incredibly proud I am of all my little swimmers! They have improved SO MUCH since starting for the first time that I just have to share their stats with you!! In reverse order this time . . .


1. Little E (4) - I decided to let him swim this year and have had to push him a little, but he is already off the kickboard and trying his hardest to swim like the big kids!! Here he is in his first ever swim meet with a freestyle time of 3:06

2. CR has blown me away with the time he has taken off in 1 year! Last year, he started on the kickboard and then swam a 1:16 for his first freestyle off the kickboard. His best time during the summer was 52.42 and he improved that to 43.30 when we swam in the fall. And todays freestyle was . . . 31.63!! That's 11.67 seconds off his best time! Whoo Hoo!!

3. Hambone has made HUGE improvements as well!! I mean HUGE!! Last year she was so wobbly in the water that I thought she was doomed as a swimmer, but this year she was determined to straighten her stroke and it is looking beautiful!!

Last summer she started off with :Freestyle: 49.70 Backstroke: 46.39 Breaststroke: 43:07

And ended in the fall with: Freestyle: 30.09 Backstroke: 43.30 Breastroke: 35.67

And Today: Freestyle: 26.14 Breastroke: 32.50

Plus she swam a 100 meter IM in 2:56 and 2 relays! Way to go, girl!!!!

4. MVM was slow and steady last summer. Her breathing was all wrong, but she worked it out and now she is looking very graceful in the water!

Last Summer started with: Freestyle: 44.51 Backstroke: 40:08 Breastroke: 35.52

And ended in the fall with: Freestyle: 30.33 Backstroke: 33.87 Breaststroke: 30.80

And today: Freestyle: 21:30 Breaststroke: 25:14

Plus, she swam on 2 relay teams!! Way to swim, MV!!