Chrome Buffalo.... Launched!

A few months ago we heard about Chrome Buffalo and became excited.  It seemed a little too good to be true.  An organization that has good quality, non sweatshop t-shirts that they sell for us? Surely too good to be true.  But it wasn't!  We contacted Chrome Buffalo and waited for the perfect day to launch our drive (Chrome Buffalo terms for starting our fundraiser)

That perfect day was yesterday!  For every t-shirt sale we receive $11 towards our adoption fund!
Just yesterday we sold 20 t-shirts in the first day!   We had set a goal of 50.  It seemed so lofty but we still do have some funds we need to save/raise and this seemed like a good and easy opportunity.  Now though... I'm thinking we can surpass our goal.

Of course, that can only happen with your help!  There's a saying I read recently.. (Thanks Casey!)

"It may take a village to raise a child but  an army to free one."  

We are so thankful for the army that has rallied around us as we have made our way through this crazy thing called adoption.  You have held us up, picked us up when we were down and rallied around us when the worst we could imagine happened.  Twice.

Blessed.  Thankful.  Hopeful.  That's where we are right now.

As well as selling shirts!  We are so grateful to have the opportunity to sell these shirts:

I love these shirts.  The anchor along with Hebrews 6:19 has become such an important part of our
adoption journey.

"We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.  It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain," Hebrews 6:19

Thank you for joining our army and hoping with us while we wait.

XO

Buy shirts here!

28 months

Yesterday marked 28 months waiting.  

28 months hoping.

28 months praying.

28 months loving a face we've yet to see.

28 months. 

Today we are choosing...

 Choosing joy while we wait.

Choosing hope our wait will be over soon.

Choosing peace that we are exactly where we're supposed to be.

Choosing to believe we will see his (or her/their) face soon...

Please, please, please

Sunday we went to "The World's Greatest Hobby Show" at the IX Center.  The world's greatest hobby is obviously model trains and wow, a model train hobby is a pricey pastime!  And we thought Thomas the Train was expensive - ha! 

Gabe was in little boy heaven.  I mean, this child loves trains.  There were at least a dozen  model trains set up and Gabe went from train to train intently watching each engine, caboose and car that went by, memorizing the landscapes, the color of cars and which engines blew steam.  I thought we'd never get him to leave. It took a few hours but eventually we did convince him to leave. 

While I was trying to take pictures (of course I forgot my camera and only had my phone), I couldn't help but feel someone was missing.  My heart is desperate for the picture that holds Gabe's sweet face with the face of his sibling.  As time goes by it becomes more and more apparent that we're missing someone; a second (or third) sweet little face smooshed next to Gabriel's in pictures, another glass of milk at the table, another hand to hold and forehead to kiss goodnight.  

Someone is missing and every day that goes by we miss them a little more. 

How do you love someone you've never seen before?  Ask any of my adoptive mama friends and their answer is the same; it's possible, it's deep and in the recesses of your soul you are fighting to bring them home every second of the day. 

Our prayers are the same every day, some days the prayer is filled with a little more desperation and other days a little more hope. 

But yesterday and today the ache has been the same; my heart brimming with hope and longing, my soul whispering "please, please, please Lord, let us be a family of four before the next model train show"

This is the confidence that we have in Him, 

that if we ask anything according to Your will, You will hear us. 

1 John 5:14

.It's here.

I had been waiting for it, 

longingly thinking about it 

and it finally came.  

2014 is here!  

I'm generally not someone who looks forward to rushing through time.  

Life is precious, Gabe is growing quickly and I want to enjoy every moment of it but 2013, well it was rough.

 It was hard.  

It was ugly.  

Sure there was much beauty seeped into the pain but I was ready...

Ready for last year to be the past...

Ready to leave the many losses we and our friends encountered behind us...

The pain, the lessons, the growth, the love... we'll carry that we with us.

But it was a much needed flip of the calendar this December 31st.

We are moving forward into 2014 with high hopes, full hearts and a spirit of anticipation.

"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; don't you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."  Isaiah 43:18-19

Praying that streams, no rivers of God's goodness pour into the wasteland that last year left behind.  That you my friends who languished in the trials of last year will be overcome with a wellspring of good news.  You are loved.  By us.  By Him.  And we are ready for a year of rejoicing.  

This spoons for you (y'all know who you are!): 

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