Moving along!

We had one of our meetings Saturday. We traveled two hours there and back and we scheduled our last meeting of the home study. Everyone that adopts/fosters children has to do a home study it's the law. It's all the paperwork, training and visits at the adoption agency and then the "inspection" of your home. Once we get the home study approved and pay for it then we can apply for grants, loans etc. At the same time our photo book and online profile are shown to birth moms looking for a family for their child or children. We scheduled Rhonda to come check out our house February 27th at 6pm. Now we need to finish our online classes and keep reading. So here are some books we have read and what we are currently reading.

Well, until next week. I'm going to get back to my reading. I'm sure I'll have a longer blog post next week with all the reading I'm doing. So get ready.

 

 

Tim and Greta

Week 8: No puzzle pieces funded this week.

212 puzzle pieces funded 788 more to go!

Week 7 Update: 212 puzzle pieces funded 788 more to go!

Thank you!!! Thank you!!! This is the biggest week yet. Thanks to The Bowmans, The Lambs (Elliot and Emilee), Jane Edwards, Cory Duffing, The Goltras, Jamie Sims for your donation this week.

LOVE

We are so grateful for all the love and support we have received since we started this adoption process. It means the world to us and I think you all know this but I just want to know we are amazed at the generosity and love we have experienced so far. We are starting to feel like soon to be parents. It’s exciting but terrifying at the same time.

This last week my kindergarten class studied Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We studied his life and his beliefs for the world during the Civil Rights Movement in America. They proceeded to write each of their dreams for the world and write how the world would change if their dream came true. Being new to teaching 5 and brand new 6 year olds I was unsure if this writing assignment would be over their heads. We started this assignment on the carpet with a marker and chart paper. I didn’t share my dream I wanted to hear their thoughts and dreams without tainting their visions for a better world. Students shared and shared and I wrote and wrote each students dream as a bullet point on the chart paper.  Then one student raised their hand and said something so profound that it stopped me in my tracks and left me speechless. “What if everyone just really just cared about everyone they knew? That’s my dream Mrs. Greta. If everyone knew that Jesus cares for them and knew that they had a friend like you then they wouldn’t be mad and mean. The less mean and sad people then the world would be better. A lot better with love in it. “

I swallowed because I thought about all the shootings in our country that have occurred in the last couple of years that killed countless of innocent people including children learning at school. Like most I don’t know the ends and out of all the shooters but I do know they were all unhappy people. I kept my composer and said thank you for sharing I didn’t want to dismiss any of the other children’s dreams. But this one stopped me dead in my tracks.

Thinking about being a parent I think about the world that our children will grow up in. It’s crazy with a capital C!  Gandhi’s quote, “Be the change you want to see in the world,"gives me comfort. I try to live true to this in my life. It’s difficult. It’s a struggle every day. Some days are easier than others.

But I often wonder how the world would change if…

·         We thought before we spoke or acted.

• We all understood that parents play such a vital part in raising a well rounded happy healthy kiddo. 

·         We apologized when we made a mistake

·         We learned from our mistakes instead of beating our self up over it

·         We use our words instead of our fists

·         We did things to help others in our communities instead of thinking of our selves only.

·         We said thank you when we were grateful

·         We looked at struggles as opportunities

·         We spoke honestly to our self and others to help not hurt

·          We cared for others and helped them recognize their potential

·         We worked together to solve problems instead of profiting from them

·         We truly listen

·         We loved the person we hide from others

·         We become the best person we can be

·         We were kind and empathic

We are finishing up all the paperwork for the adoption. Really it’s almost done. Insert smiley face here. We are reading a lot about parenting and parenting adopted children. We are analyzing ourselves, our marriage, and our faith and deciding what kind of parents we want to be. Like any new parent we can prepare and prepare but we won’t know until we are parents. Thinking about being a parent takes my favorite quote to the next level. I could be anxious but I’m choosing to embrace all the unknowns of adoption and live in the moment and trust that God’s got this. I hope my children will see me as a person of faith that does not cower during hard unknown times but leans on my faith. I really want them to see me as a faithful and loving individual that cares for others and wants a better world for all. My dream of a better world  might be unrealistic and idealistic but it’s my dream.  My dream starts with me but hopefully doesn’t end here.

 I am not a great famous leader like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  I am an ordinary “adoptive” parent to be that sees that the world is still in need a little more FAITH and a lot more LOVE. So Lord, our shepherd and savior help us hear and follow your voice in all we do so that we may never go astray. Give us strength to spread your love to others because small acts of faith can create big waves of love. Amen!

Everything to Me by Mark Schultz

The Story Behind Everything to Me

LOST and FOUND

Note: This is our story that led us to adoption. Remember everyone's story is different.

The place we are in has not come without loss and sadness. Tim and I always planned on having our own children.  We always wanted to see what a Greta and Tim would make. Probably a chubby cheeked Blondie with blue eyes but who knows. When I was told the chances of convincing were slim because of my condition it hit me like a ton of bricks. I heard loud voices in my head: “WHY?! Why me?” There were thoughts that rolled around in my head that I’m not proud of.

I was talking to a friend that was told the same by her doctor and I asked her about why I was so sad and full of so much despair? She said in a calming voice, “Because you are mourning.” Sounds silly but I was. I was mourning the loss of what I imagined our child to be like, mourning the loss of my fertility that I believed would never fail me ETC. I could go on and on…I had to feel those thoughts and feel that pain. Trust me, I really didn’t want to feel those horrible thoughts and sadness I just wanted to move on and “BE STRONG”. In reality I knew that true strength comes from working through issues and problems not dismissing them. I couldn’t escape; those feelings haunted me in my heart and in my dreams. I had to feel them and sort through them or I’d become a bitter person I just knew it. Bitter people are no fun.

 I should have turned to God sooner but I really thought he had left me. He never answered my prayers of having children or seemed to care. So I started talking with God reluctantly every night asking “Hello GOD are you there it’s me, Greta. Have you forgotten about me? I began reading scripture based readings and watching a lot of Super Soul Sunday on OWN. J Soon I began to hear GOD again whisper in a quiet voice, “I’ve been here all along.” I guess I wasn’t really listening. While sorting through all these feelings we were moving to what seemed like another land.  As soon as we got settled I called a couple of adoption agencies to make appointments but both of them said we lived too far away. Oh I was sad. We just started to feel like adoption was OUR way to become parents and then this. “What too far away, but I want to be a Mama? Too far away!?” I was freaking out. But then I found Bethany and emailed them because I couldn’t bear to hear a voice tell me no again. I thought typed words would take away the sting. Luckily they emailed me back the next morning stating they had an orientation in two weeks and NO we didn’t live too far way. I was so energized! We have never looked back since.  

Just last week I was taking care of more paperwork and crunching the numbers and freaking out about where the money will come from. But thank goodness I didn’t dismiss the tiny voice in the middle of the loud annoying voices that said, “Everything will work out. Will you trust me?” Again, it was my buddy God just bringing me down to earth.  Thank you. He’s got great timing if you just listen and let him in.

I feel God more than ever in my life.  I found him again. Truthfully I feel that God has used this experience to strengthen my faith in him. I mean yesterday we became official members of our new church. We are committed and are involved in a church! I feel that God had led us down this road and has allowed us to continue through this process. You know it’s not a coincidence that we are on this journey, He's got a plan. He’s molding us into the parents that we never thought we would be.

Lift up your eyes. Your heavenly Father waits to bless you in inconceivable ways to make your life what you never dreamt it could be.—Anne Ortlund

 

Weekly update: 104 pieces funded 896 more to go! (week 6)

Thank you Maribel Saia and Steve and Melba Moore!!!

Weekly Update: Week 5

I am updating the blog a day late. Yesterday we rolled into our driveway from our vacation after 14 days on the road. I could write about our road trip but that's for another day. So today was back to work, laundry, grocery store etc. It’s 8:30 and to be quite honest this is my bed time. There is no new puzzle pieces funded this week. That’s okay for now because we are backed up on thank you notes. It’s a great problem to have and hope we continue having this problem. It’s so special and heartwarming to see pieces being funded by friends, family and strangers.

January 25^th is our last visit/training at the Bethany office for the home study. At that meeting we will decide when Rhonda will come visit our home.  After Rhonda’s visit it will take30 days to process all the paperwork. Today we scheduled our fingerprints, updated our will and gathered some more financial paperwork. Basically we are checking things off the list one by one.

Right now I’m just tired and can’t wait until all this paperwork is all done, filed and approved. I have a sense of peace and I’m trying to enjoy my small family because it could be growing here very soon.  It’s crazy how excited I was at the beginning of the process and now I’m taking every step day by day, the paperwork by more paperwork, reading adoption book by adoption book…

…trusting it will lead us to the family we’ve always wanted. Knowing it won’t be perfect but it will be OUR family.

BUT,

all I know for sure is how blessed I am to be married to a wonderful man that I can truly trust with all the emotions that go into the adoption process. I am so pleased to be going through this adoption journey with Tim. He tells me he feels the same. Hopefully he really means it. In the end we are TEAM PITCHER! ;)