Counting Down My Thoughts

Four days.  In four days my little family will begin on this journey that will change our family dynamic forever.  I'm not a huge fan of change, (surprise surprise)  but as we are right here on the cliff and about to jump off we're not just going to jump off.  We are going to back up and run as fast as we can and THEN we will jump!  It's scary, sure but what else can we do?  My thoughts these days are all over the map.  I'm happy, can't wait to grab her up and kiss all over those little chubby cheeks.  I'm scared.  Being in China is hard.  Super hard.  It's such a lost country.  Not being able to listen to Christian music, not being able to take a Bible, and overall being watched every single place you go eventually takes it's toll on you.  I just remember some parts of our trip with Grace being almost oppressive.  That's been weighing heavily on me.     I'm cautious.  I'm thankful.  I'm unsure.  I'm peaceful.  I'm pretty much diagnosible at this point in the journey.  I cried today over.....I have no idea what I was crying about at 6:15 this morning drinking coffee on my porch.  No idea.

However, we know we have been purposed by God to adopt this little one.  I was worried this morning about the overall cost of this adoption.  And then I let my heart go to feeling guilty.  Guilty because, just for a moment I let Satan in and he was able to say, "Well, if you hadn't of had those miscarriages and had given birth you wouldn't have had to spend close to 60 grand in adopting children."  BAD THOUGHT I know!  But I want to be transparent.  But, on the other hand, if I had not had those miscarriages I wouldn't have her.....

or be ever impatiently waiting on this one.....

So.  Satan.  You're not going to win this one.  These little lives are too important, and just as WORTHY of a family and love.  I'm also reminded of how thankful I am for my adoption into my spiritual family.  My adoption as God's child makes me no less his own than his son Jesus.  How awesome is that?  This video I found is great.  I hope you enjoy it.  Don't forget to mute the music at the bottom of the page.  4 days till China....

Paige

We Have Travel Approval!!!

Well, it's been issued!!!!  Our long awaited for travel approval is on it's way and I am waiting again!  This time we are waiting for our consulate appointment.  We've been waiting for over 24 hours now.  I'm very much NOT good at waiting.  However, this is necessary and at least the wait is not 2 weeks.  Got to find the positive right?  I have a very good feeling that we will hear today about our consulate appointment and that then I can email the travel agent and get her to work on our itinerary.  And then maybe, just maybe, we will have an actual, tangible date.  Something I can put on the calendar that Grace can see and we can start the countdown.

In the meantime, I have been buying the last of the gifts that we need to take.  These are my favorite.

Not only because of what they say but mostly because of who made them.  She's special to me!  Thanks Laura. For being a part of this journey.  You can check out her blog.  She's got lots of cute stuff on there and her prices are really good!  The name of her blog is Cute As A Button.  Hopefully....I will be back later today with a date!  It's a great day people!

Haywire in 3...2...

Well we've reached the part of the adoption process that I call "Haywire".  What I mean by that is things could get potentially crazy today.  Or maybe in the next hour.  Or even quite possibly in the next 30 seconds.  Why might things get haywire in such a seemingly small amount of time you might ask?  Because of the phone.  It could ring.  Any day.  Hour.  Minute.  With the news that we can come to China to get our little one!  It's very hard during this time to not let the possibility of the phone ringing control your daily life.  With Grace it seemed that I checked the phone every single minute just to be sure that I might not have possibly missed a call.  (Even though the phone was right beside me during that time!)  So....to try and combat this control the phone seems to place over me during this stage I've decided to leave it on silent and check it only at lunch and before bed.  So far....this is working pretty good.  But I have struggled with it today. It will be 2 weeks tomorrow that we have been waiting on travel approval.  We could wait another 2 weeks.  Or they could call today.  Ugh!!!  See what I mean?  I've also decided I'm not doing one more blessed thing to get ready to go.  I'm not buying one more thing or getting one more thing on the "China collection wall" in the dining room.  I am busy spending time with Grace since it is the last precious time I will have with her by herself.  We are going to do something fun everyday.  Something to help the time go by.  And something that will help invest in her while she still has my undivided attention.  I am also going to busy myself by having people over.  Tonight my precious friend Julie and her husband will come over with their 5 children and we will fill this house and yard up with noise and fun!  So much so that it may take all day on Tuesday to get over it!  I haven't seen them in years it seems like and I will get to meet that newest little one Sam.  Can't wait to get my hands on him!

Also, last week Grace got to spend the entire week with her Aunt Lauren, and Uncle Steve and towards the end of the week she went to my parents.  Two lessons learned from this.....1)  This is entirely TOO long to spend away from her parents who absolutely adore her.  and 2)  It is absolutely a good thing that she got to spend this much time away from her parents who absolutely adore her.  She actually missed us and was ready to come home!!!  This is huge for her!  After almost 5 years of being adopted she has actually acted like she could take us or leave us.  Yesterday when we pulled down the drive and our house came into view she said, "Yea!  I'm home!  This is the place I love most!"  That totally made my heart smile! :)  While she was gone she lost another tooth.  Another growth opportunity for her mommy who likes to be apart of everything!  Her Uncle Steve was the lucky one who got to pull it although I'm not sure that he considers it lucky.  Grace said she thought he was going to throw up.  Ha!  Here is the picture of the moment.  Enjoy......and when we get our travel approval I will let you know!

A Princess Worth Waiting For...

I get very emotional over kids and their birthdays. After all.....it is the day God ordained them to bless this world with their entrance. They are his tenderness and mercy in tiny human form. I especially get super emotional about their histories and how they get here. Especially because Amy (Reynolds' mom) and I share some of the same "pre child" issues. This child was prayed for and yearned for a longtime. Her daddy said it best today in the blessing when he prayed that God would have his hand on Reynolds and bless her life. As he said, "This princess was worth waiting for..."

Thank you Jason for bringing me to tears. I appreciate it. I'm especially thankful I chose to wear my waterproof mascara today. You helped test it out and I can now inform the lady at the Clinique counter that it works.

But seriously.....isn't that so true? We are all worth waiting for to God. Now matter how we come into our earthly families or how we come to be adopted into God's family, we are all worth waiting for. Princess', Princes', Kings, and Queens alike. Every last one of us is a member of a Royal Family. How it filled my heart today with Joy to celebrate this little one. How it felt to hug her and her mom and know that this was so worth the wait. Happy Birthday sweet girl! Today you were truly a princess!!!!! Enjoy the pictures!

Queen Ali, Princess Reynolds, Princess Mary-Peyton, and Princess Lauren Grace.

Queen Amy with Prince Carter, Princess Karoline, Princess Grace, and Princess Kate. And yes, for those of you who don't know my friends Ali and Amy they are identical twins so don't think you are seeing things. They do look just alike.

Reynolds and half of Grace. I was trying to get Reynolds and Grace jumped in at the last minute!

The Royal Carriage...

The Royals with their Royal Mommies...

The tiny Royals....

Princess' Reynolds and Grace having a very grown up conversation about their dresses.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!!!!

Beach pics!

I knew it would come. Our last day at the beach that is. I could live here. But then I would miss everyone I can't bring with me so I guess we have to go home. :) No beach trip would be complete without taking beach pictures of Grace. Next year, there will be 2 Chinese beauties in this picture. They are liable to be pushing each other, one might be crying. In my perfect world, they will both be looking at the camera and smiling lovingly. Yea right! My goal is to atleast have them both looking at the camera. Here's hoping! Until then....here's Grace!

This is my all time, absolute favorite.

And we can't forget....we got to meet our cousin Anne Rains.....she is fortunate enough to live down here. :) I haven't seen her in forever and Grace just met her for the first time. It took them awhile to warm up to each other, but after about an hour there were all kinds of little girl giggles coming from the shallow end of the pool.

As we wrap up our last vacation as a family of 3, I have come to realize that I truly am blessed. In every sense of the word. Blessed. Now....we gotta get home. We've got to get ready for China!

What the Fruit Loop?

This is what adoption makes you feel like sometimes. :)

Sorry it's been awhile. A lot of "stuff" has been going on at our house and because you wouldn't believe it if I told you I'm just not going to tell you. :) There is one little unbelievable story though that I want to share with you.....

When you adopt anything and everything WILL happen to try and keep that adoption from taking place. Satan attacks you if you will. Things will tear up around your house that have worked perfectly. They will work perfectly the day before you start your adoption and then they will tear up the day after. Even physically things will happen. With Grace's adoption I lost an organ. Why should it be any different with Lyla's? But that's another blog installment. :) This story takes the prize of the all time wierdest things that has EVER happened to me. Literally.

I was at work and about to go in session with a client when my cell phone rang. I almost didn't answer it because it said, "816". But alas, I answered it anyway. The lovely lady on the other end said, "Mam, this is agent (insert name) with the Department of Homeland Security and I'm looking for someone who goes by the name of Paige Betterton." Um. Come again? Agent? Someone who GOES by the name of? I assured her I was the person she was looking for and gave her the correct email address. She assured me that in 5 minutes I would recieve an email and that I needed to respond accordingly. By this point I am LATE going in to session with my client so the blasted email just had to wait. Thankfully, it was my last client of the day so when all was said and done and I opened up the email I was confronted with the realization that my country was accusing me of using an alias. Apparently, my name was not legally changed when I got married. 10 YEARS AGO!!!!! Tons of questions started going through my mind and I called her back and asked her how this wasn't caught when we left the country 4 years ago when we went to adopt Grace. She didn't have a clue!!!!! HA! Well, after I assured her that every piece of legal documentation that I possessed had my now known alias on it, including my passport, she changed my name in the computer. (She didn't believe that I had a passport in this name. I actually had to email her a color copy of it.) I wasn't really comfortable with the fact my Department of Homeland Security didn't catch that I had an alias 4 years ago. And I'm kind of aggravated that I didn't know it! I might could have gotten away with something! There was no way I was leaving American soil with this up in the air. SO......you will ALL be pleased to know (as well as I was after my slight identity crisis) that my name has now been legally changed thanks to $22 bucks and Doug Bachuss of Nowlin and Associates. Always good to be friends with a lawyer. It helps that he's adopted 2 kids. For some reason.....he wasn't surprised at all that I was going by an alias....hmm.....stay tuned for the next and hopefully last crazy adoption story!

Meet Lyla Joy....

Well...the last time I posted I believe was in August. I'm surprised I even have any readers left! There is so much that has happened since then. So many of them of noteworthy, but God has been at work in our family and the noteworthiness of our daily lives will simply have to wait. For now. Her news is more important. Many of you know we were adopting again and just as many of you were surprised when we got a referral so early! Brandon and I, for a long time, felt God calling us to adopt another special needs child. Grace is also a special needs child, diagnosed with seizure disorder. There is something special about these children. Every child is special, but special needs children are just, well, extra special. They seem to know what really matters in life (at an exceptionally young age) and let's face it. They can't help the way they are born. They are less than "perfect" in the world's eyes, but they are perfect to their heavenly father. And if they're perfect enough for him they're just right for us! So we came across our Lyla's file. Lyla is missing her right ear. That's it! Just born without it! The people God has blest us in giving their friendship, specialists in their field, gave their input and with the confirmation of the adoption clinic at Children's Hospital confirmed that Lyla's ear is strictly a comestic issue. It is the second leading birth defect right behind cleft lip, cleft palate. I will tell you at some point she will more than likely have a prosthetic ear. That should be an experience! She is healthy and normal otherwise. She has her left ear and normal hearing in that ear. So...it was then we decided that this little girl's file simply go back to China. WE WANTED HER!!!!! Isn't that amazing? She is now CHOSEN. She has a family. One that can't wait to bring her home to join our family. And here she is...



She looks a little mischecious doesn't she? Grace's referral photo looked the same way. Don't know what we'll do with 2 mischievious ones!

Now...we covet your prayers. Specifically, pray that God will go ahead and begin to prepare this little one for the transition into our family. Pray that she will find favor with the orphanage workers. Pray for NO EAR INFECTIONS in her left hear. We need that hearing to be the best that it can be!!!! And pray for Grace. That she will adjust to having a sister and having to share me and her daddy. And a room. And toys. And her house in general! She sleeps with Lyla's picture on the pillow beside her at night and doesn't understand why we can't just go get her! Also pray our paperwork will move quickly and that we will be able to travel mid summer to go and bring her home. We covet all the prayers we can get.



There are so many other things I want to tell you, but I will wait. Lyla deserves her own post. I'll be back later (but quicker this time) to tell you of the other miracles that have happened since August!!! Blessings.



Paige

P.S. I have no idea why my blogs and archives are so out of place on my blog! Got some blog organizing to do it seems!!!