"And if we win, we praise Him. And if we lose, we praise Him"

"And if we win, we praise Him. And if we lose, we praise Him. Either way we honor Him with our actions and our attitudes. So I'm askin' you... What are you living for? I resolve to give God everything I've got, then I'll leave the results up to Him. I want to know if you'll join me."  -Grant Taylor, Facing the Giants 

This is the motto surrounding our life right now. With that said, last week we received a call from our Adoption Agency. It was our case worker saying she had a birth mother who wants to make an adoption plan for her baby and she thought we may be a good match. She asked if it would be ok to show our adoption profile to the her. Of course we said "yes"! That day She showed our adoption profile and along with 10-12 others to the birth mother. The birth mother narrowed it down to 3 profiles. Ours is one of the three. Now we wait as she spends some time deciding who she would like to be the adoptive parents. The last 9 days have been spent in endless prayer. You know the verse 1 Thessalonians 5:17 "pray without ceasing". It's become a literal reality for me. I don't think I've actually said "amen" yet in the last week. I wake up praying...pray throughout the entire day.....and fall asleep praying. A couple nights ago as Korry and I watched "Facing the Giants", one of the quotes in the movie really stuck with us...."And if we win, we praise him. And if we lose, we praise him." No matter the outcome this week, we know that God has a perfect plan for our lives and family. We pray that this is "the one", but either way, we know we will praise God!

Laughable Moments

When we first completed our homestudy in August, we were super excited. We decided  we couldn't wait any longer to make a baby registry.....After all, we wouldn't want to be unprepared in case we were matched with a family tomorrow!  The first thing we did was drive to Santa Clarita to the nearest Babies 'R' Us. Who knew that just that one visit to Babies 'R' Us would bring so much laughter and so many memories! Here is our story. Let the laughing commence......enjoy!

Our trip to Babies 'R' Us started like any normal trip to the store.....We walked through the door....

 Korry was SO excited to hold the scan gun and did 99.9% of the scanning of items. We added baby furniture, bottles, formula, basic onsies and neutral colored blankets etc. It was a lot of fun! Then it happened. So we were standing in the stroller aisle looking at stroller/car seat combos. We really liked the car seat that came with the Chicco stroller, but liked the Baby Trend stroller better….so we tried to see if car seat was compatible with the stroller (which they weren’t). Next we scanned the Baby Trend stroller and were looking up reviews. One review said the stroller was kind of bulky and hard to fit in a car….so I was like, lets fold it up and see how “clunky” it will be and if it will fit in the trunk of our car……(Can you sense some laughter coming?!) Korry took the stroller and folded it up and it seemed like it would fit ok. After we reopened it Korry noticed that the handle folds down too. So we re-folded up the stroller and put the handle down. When we tried to reopen the stroller it was stuck. It wouldn’t open at all. We looked for a button to press. There was none to be found. We layed it on the floor to see if something was stuck on the bottom...nothing. I was laughing so hard! Then, Korry walked over and hit the “call” button for assistance from a store worker, but no one ever came (and I wouldn’t have either! I am SURE the store workers were in the back surveillance room watching us on the cams – rolling on the floor in laughter!) People were walking by and looking at us funny. I was laughing so hard I was almost crying by this time and Korry was just giving me the “look”, which made me laugh harder. I told him to just put the stroller on the shelf (where we had gotten it) and one of the store workers would fix it later – I mean that is their job and they should know how it goes together. I was positive it was something very simple we were doing wrong. Korry was like “no, what if we purchase it and can’t figure out how to open and close it?” and I was like “yes, but at home there are directions inside the box”. So next Korry decides he is going to “wheel” (more like pull/drag) the stroller down the main aisle to find an assistant to help him open the stroller. After going a short ways down the aisle toward the front of the store he came back (no workers in sight, which of course is because they were hiding behind something completely laughing at our inexperience!!!! J). Anyways, he comes back to the stroller aisle and just when he’d given up, he notices a plastic oblong shaped latch on the side of the stroller. Apparently it latched when he folded it up the second time (but hadn’t latched the first time). He flicked it to the side and the stroller opened up normally! Both of us were almost rolling on the floor in laughter for the next 5 minutes!



I truly wish we had a copy of the surveillance cams from that night. I think it would have easily landed us in the “new parents most funniest moments” show! In any case, we are having a fun & busy time as we continue preparing our home and ourselves to become parents. I am sure there are many more laughable moments to come. Hope we brightened your day! Happy New Year!



A Baby Changes Everything

Christmastime is Here!

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year! I love the cold weather, snow (when we get it here in Cali), making fires in the fireplace, drinking peppermint hot cocoa and all of the festivities and memory making moments such as traveling to visit family & friends, hanging Christmas lights, decorating, baking cookies, cinnamon rolls, yams & pumpkin swirl cheese cake (YUM!), attending musicals and making as many family memories as possible.

 One of my favorite memories growing up was going to my Grandma's house on Christmas morning. While eating Grandma's homemade cinnamon rolls, the whole family would gather around and my Grandpa would open his Bible and read to us from the book of Luke about the birth of our Saviour Jesus. My Grandpa recently passed away and is in Heaven now, so the tradition of reading the Christmas Story has been passed on to another family member. I'm praying someday, hopefully soon, we will be able to share this same tradition with our own children on Christmas morning!

Two weeks ago, my Sister flew in to visit! We had such a good time. We spent a lot of time hanging at the house, but we also drove down to Buena Park to Knotts "Merry" Farm (where they actually say "Merry Christmas" to you!) Then we went to the Pirates Dinner Adventure - that was a ton of fun! We even had the joy of getting a flat tire while on our way to Apollo Park (for those not familiar with our area - the park isn't exactly close to civilization). Memories and more memories!    :)

Saturday we attended our church's Christmas Musical "A Baby Changes Everything" and Korry was able to play his trumpet with the church orchestra in the musical this year (last year he missed out since he had broken ribs). Korry and I were excited to hear that both of our families were able to watch the entire musical online via our church's LiveStream. The turn out at the musical was great and there were lots of visitors this year. Several people came to know Christ as their Saviour as well! Praise God!

As we continue moving through the Christmas season, we are keeping ourselves busy with church, family & friends, Christmas preparations and (always close on our minds) our adoption... As we anticipate celebrating the birth of our Saviour, we continue to pray and wait, dreaming & hoping for the day we receive "The Call" from our adoption case worker, that we've been matched. Until then,

Merry Christmas to all our Family & Friends! And remember that "the reason for the season is Jesus"

Count Your Many Blessings, Name Them One By One

This month I have been thinking about all that I am thankful for. Recently, I have observed some of the many ways family & friends have shared the things they are most thankful for. Some have made lists of things they are thankful for using a different letter of the alphabet each day and some have baked goodies to give to neighbors and local firemen. My memories keep floating back to when I was a kid standing in church with my mom & dad singing. The song leader would lead us in the song "Count your many blessing" and every time we came to the chorus "count your many blessings, name them one by one" my mom and I would count each others fingers. It is really a sweet memory that gently reminds me each time I think of it of all the many wonderful things I have to be thankful for. Then it dawned on me today that when you think of things you're thankful for, the thankfulness just continues to spread and more and more things keep coming to mind. I have in my mind a picture of a flowering vine. It starts out small, but as it grows it continues to branch out with more and more flowering buds. It continues to spread and soon everywhere you look you are surrounded by a beautiful flowering plant. This is the same way I see a heart full of gratitude. The more thankful you are, the more that joy will begin to surround your life, like that beautiful flowering plant. Pretty soon, life's little difficulties will be diminished in comparison to the joy and all that God has blessed you with in your life. Today, I am so very thankful for my salvation (without Jesus shed blood, I would be so completely lost). I am thankful for family, friends, my home, adoption and a wonderful church family. These are the start of my flowering vine - from these everything else grows. Happy Thanksgiving!


Psalm 100:1-5
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.
Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name."
For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generation.

Summer Snapshot

We are asked often how the Adoption process is going. Here is a snapshot of our summer & fall in the world of Adoption!

Garage Sales

JUNE
1st letter sent to family & friends about the adoption

Weekly Garage Sale Fundraisers

Pathways to Parenthood Class

CPR/First Aid Class & Water Saftey Course

Fingerprinting for Background Check

Began Skybox Suite Raffle Fundraiser

Quarter Auction Fundraiser courtesy of my friends Stephanie & Amy

Sold homemade card & held candybar Fundraiser

Skybox Suite Raffle

JULY

Sold more Skybox Suite Raffle Tickets

Candybar Fundraiser

Special night at Cold Stone Creamery to draw winner of Skybox

Home Study visits with our Adoption Social Worker

More Garage Sale Fundraisers

Started Adoption Profile/Dear Birthmother letter

AUGUST

Home Study Completion Letter!

Candybar Fundraiser

Transracial/Transcultural Class

Received  Home Study Completion paperwork

Finished up Adoption Profile/Dear Birthmother Letter

Held another garage sale (against my better judgement - it was 100 degrees outside)

Recycling fundraiser

Started a Baby Registry - because now we "officially" can be matched with a birthmother at anytime! YEA!

Preparing Letters to Mail

SEPTEMBER

Last garage sale fundraiser of the season! (Thank you for all your donations)

Mailed 199 letters to every pro-life group in California

2nd letter to family & friends about the adoption

Waiting for a call saying we've been matched with a birthmother.

OCTOBER

Waiting......waiting.....waiting....

Encouraged by supportive friends and family

Waiting.....waiting....waiting....

Began forming lists of schools, women's shelters, youth shelters etc to send letters to about the adoption
Started an Adoption Blog to give everyone updates on the Adoption.

In-between and behind every line and letter has been much prayer for God's perfect timing in our lives. We know he has a plan and while we try to wait patiently, we cannot wait to see everything unfold over the upcoming months. 

-Korry and Sarah