My Life

Just a bit about me...

click here to read a bit about my military wife life!

We Are All Adopted

 Please check out my article this week at Christian Military Wives new online magazine "Wives in Bloom".  I love sharing how adoption has made such an amazing impact on my life and my faith!

Wordless Weekend: What Love Looks Like

Rachel's Birthday Video from Kristian Anderson on Vimeo.

The husband has been battling liver and bowel cancer since last October...

Back To School

I have to say that this upcoming school year has not been without trepidation.  I don't know why but I felt like this was a defining year for my kids and their education.  When we were in California and decided to pull G from public school to place him in a private Christian school I felt like I was making a big statement about how he was going to be educated going forward.
Our move to Virginia, before we were able to place him in said private school, gave us two options. Send G to the local public school (which was raved about by friends and strangers alike) or send him to a private Christian school which would cost $10,000 more than what we would have been spending in California. I hate to say it but the bank account won hands down.
There were things I loved about G's new school and things that made me cringe. I loved that they pushed the kids academically and physically. Who knew first graders would have to run a mile-yes that's one full mile- multiple times a week or that they would have to create their own country with a capital, means of leadership (king or president) and country motto. Hey, for first grade I thought it was pretty great!
I cringed at the way the lunch room ladies were nasty to the children they so obviously labeled as "troublemakers" and still think that it's disgraceful that there is a naughty table for kids who are not following the rules-and it seems like these rules include talking above a whisper.  To place kids at a table that is more like being on exhibit skates a fine line between breaking a child's spirit and discipline.  I will NEVER forget the day that we brought cupcakes to the lunch room for G's birthday and one of the little boys who always seemed to be at the naughty table started to cry because he thought he was going to be excluded. My heart broke when I saw a grown woman lash out at him and tell him to knock it off.  Was this where I wanted my child?
My other concern was that after a while I didn't feel like his classroom was a good fit for him and that is when I began to worry about the upcoming second grade year.
This school year Gabe tested into a gifted and talented cluster class. After watching my best friend struggle with her son and his gifted class-or lack thereof-I worried about my G's upcoming experience.  Would he be challenged and encouraged to be his best without expecting perfection?  Would he have a teacher that can look past flaws in handwriting, attention to detail and silly mistakes and see the brilliant and compassionate little boy who can light up a room just by walking through the door?
At this point you may be laughing at me and my expectations for my children. I know that there is never a perfect teacher or perfect school. I'm not a perfect mother so I get it. But my son is going to spend-as he has in the past two years-seven hours a day with a person that is not me! And that's ok in theory but really-I struggle with that.
So back to the trepidation. I started to wonder if this year would be the one that pushed me to home school. To keep the kids at home where I know them inside and out, where I could ultimately look at myself as a mother and say I did the best in every circumstance including their education. My best friend was now doing it and would be completely supportive and after our first grade year considering home school versus private school we had been at this place before.  What was best?
Back to school night was last night and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw.  Even after hearing positive feedback regarding his new teacher I was still hesitant.  I can honestly say that today I am excited for the start of school on Tuesday. I saw a woman that was both nurturing and resourceful, experienced and mature in her teaching style and I like that.
I think the first day of school is going to be difficult for me. Not only because I am watching this little boy whom I used to carry in my arms as a baby walk away towards a new adventure, but because H will not be here to experience it with us. It's just one more memory that we will have without him, one more step towards the future that will include him waving goodbye to the yellow school bus.
I hope that as families, both mom and dad, walk their children to school on their first day that they remember all of the kids who will be without a parent because of their service to our country.  If you have a child in your son or daughter's class who has a parent deployed overseas, consider doing something special for them or their family. You won't believe what a difference you'll make.

New Features at Amazing Grace

I just wanted to point out some new features here that will help you navigate your way around this blog. Please notice that I have added a button for Faith Deployed which will direct you to Jocelyn Green's amazing site offering support and encouragement to military families-especially those going through deployment.  Articles and devotionals can be found under the "blog" header.

You can now subscribe to Amazing Grace! Don't miss out on updates and posts.  I will be linking articles from Faith Deployed and Wives in Bloom to this blog for one stop reading!

Lastly, I have added a search function to make it a bit less time consuming to view posts by topic. If you are a prospective adoptive parent or are in the process of traveling to your child, please use keyword "travel" or "Thailand" for our travel experience to Prim. Any attachment related topics can be found by typing in "adjustment" or "attachment". 

On a more personal note, please keep our men and women in the armed forces in your prayers. Although "combat missions" in Iraq have ended, sailors, soldiers and marines deployed to Iraq still face hostility and danger on a daily basis as violence increases. The Administration's claim that our role is strictly one of support has not deterred terrorists from targeting our military, Iraqi security forces and civilians.
In the past four days 21 US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan. Please pray for God's protection over all of those serving in a country covered in darkness and especially for those families who will never see their loved ones again.

Come Join Me!

So writing is my thing. I love it and it's taken a long time to get to a place where I feel like I'm "good enough" to do it professionally.  Freelancing, especially online, has been such an amazing opportunity to expand my horizons and write about what is near and dear to my heart. 

Right now I have the pleasure and honor of writing for Faith Deployed and will be a regular contributor to the new online magazine Wives in Bloom (debuting September 1 and is a part of Christian Military Wives). This is new for me and will take time away from this blog but God is prodding me to do more outside of my safety net, which is all of you who love me and my yammering!  So if you only see a post or two a week here, know that I'm working hard on new endeavors but still want to advocate and write about adoption and our family.

A while back I did a marriage series on this blog and it is being posted at Faith Deployed. You can check it out here and part 2 will follow shortly!
If you are a military spouse or have a loved one serving in the armed forces than both of these online sites are not only encouraging but supportive!

Wordless Weekend

A Repost: Resistence is Futile

As this months marks the three year anniversary of Prim's homecoming, I have been reflecting on all that we have endured. One thing that I love about my husband is that he always manages to make me smile-even when we feel like we are in the depths of despair (to quote Anne Shirley).  
On one particular night in Thailand, shortly after Prim came into our care full time, our little one collapsed from exhuastion on my chest and any attempt to move her was met with angry tears. Thankfully, H took over my writing duties and posted this from our hotel in Bangkok:

I am Prim and I am being oppressed by an international triad. An Asian man whom I believe to be the leader, though I have doubts because the Puerto-Rican looking lady gives him a lot of orders and a little boy, who's pretty easy on the eyes. I am not sure what country they are from because the man and woman speak to each other in English, but the man and the boy speak to each other in French, and the man speaks under his breath about the lady in what I think is Vietnamese. When the little boy watches a show about a girl and her monkey friend, I thought I heard him say something in Spanish...I am soooo confused.
But I digress... I was able to steal a minute alone by making cute faces. Now they are scurrying for their precious cameras to take ransom photos of me. I am typing on this white machine that belongs to the woman which the man doesn't like because it's not a PC but something called a Mac. Today they took me to their embassy to get my legal documents so they could take me to their basecamp. After that, we went to the river and went on a boat ride. Apparently the man chose poorly, because he picked the slowest boat in the canal. I tried to flag down everyone I saw, but they just thought I was being cute and waved back. After what seemed like a eternity, we hit land and stopped at this hole in the wall where they tried to shove food down my throat. I was so excited when we got to the King's Palace because surely he would stop these people from showering me with love, but he wasn't home. Then it started thundering and lightning so we jumped in a taxi and sat in traffic for an hour and a half. The man left the taxi at the embassy and sent us to their hotel, but somehow when we finally got there, he was already there waiting. He must have teleporting abilities like the guy on the television show "Heroes".
They didn't want to risk having me escape like last night so they had food brought to the room. I tried to gross the woman out by dipping my french fries into her ketchup, licking it clean and putting the french fries back into the pile. But again I failed because they just thought I was simply adorable (which I am). Tonight, I'll fall asleep on the woman again, because she has nice built-in pillows, whereas the man is uncomfortable because his chest is like finely chiseled stone and his arms are like twisted steel. I am starting to warm up to him though, because he's pretty nice and he makes me laugh. Tomorrow, they are taking me to this place called Hua Hin. Wish me luck.

This Almost Gave Me a Hernia

วันแม่แห่งชาติ

 

Happy Mother's Day to a girl far away from here.  I am watching our daughter play with her new Barbie right now, deep in concentration as she combs the long blond hair just so.  She is growing into such a big girl, you wouldn't believe how much she resembles you.  Especially those feet. 

Oh those feet! Every time I look at them, tickle them, marvel at their stomping power I think of you.  I remember when we received the first picture of our little girl, I took one look at those long feet that ended in longer toes and I thought to myself surely they are the biggest and ugliest feet on a child I had ever seen.  And sure enough, the shoes that I had so carefully chosen, packed and carried thousands of miles across the ocean did not fit those toddler feet. 

We are blessed to have two pictures of you holding our baby.  She was only a month old, you a child yourself, and what struck me first was your somber face.  What you must have been thinking while you stood there in front of a camera to document the day you let her go.  After looking at your face and trying to discern the expression in your eyes I quickly moved to the bottom of the picture and gasped as I thought, "My gosh! Those feet!!".   I remember that it made me smile.  I love that she will one day look at this picture of you two together and think that she has feet just like yours.  That she shares something so pronounced with her mother.

Our daughter is beautiful.  She had the biggest brown eyes, the sweetest smile and this little athletic body all carried by my favorite part of her.  Her feet.  I pray one day these feet will carry her toward her dream.  I pray that the feet that mirror yours will direct her towards a peace and faith in God and eventually a family of her own.

And maybe one day, those feet will carry her back to you....