My Attempt at Blogging

So, Jeremy thinks I need to step it up and put something on the blog, so here it goes.

When I was younger I actually enjoyed writing.  I was maybe even good at it.  When I was in elementary school I was chosen to go to a writer's conference at Central College with other kids around the state of Iowa.  I couldn't even tell you what my writing was about, but I'm sure the book that it got "published" in is in a tub in my basement.  :)

My problem now is I have so many thoughts scattered in my brain that it's hard to concentrate and pick just one thing to write about.  So, this post may be ramblings of mine.

What first led me to look into adoption was miscarriages.  I always thought I'd be content with just two children.  But, once I had two, my heart longed for another.  We struggled with infertility and a miscarriage between Taylor and Jake.  That was one of the hardest times in my life and our marriage.  We got pregnant so easily with Taylor (umm, weren't even trying!) that it was hard to believe it wouldn't be so easy the second time around.  But, it was.  And, then we had our sweet Jake.  He filled my heart with so much joy.  Jeremy and I both thought we should have another baby.  But, the third time around proved to be more difficult than the second.  We ended up having two more miscarriages and I was crushed.  I found it hard at times to get out of bed and live for Jeremy and our two kids.  I became depressed.  And, I became determined.  I saw specialist after specialist to figure out why my body kept letting me down.

I can remember a comment after having our first two children (who were both almost 10 pounds) from my doctor.  He told me my body was made to birth babies (I had easy labors and deliveries).  But, if it was meant for having babies, why was I struggling to carry them?  One specialist that I met with asked why I was so determined to have another baby right away (she delivered the famous septuplets in Iowa).  I told her I wanted to experience having our kids close in age.  After all, that is how it is done in the town I live in.  Every two years you're supposed to have babies.  She just looked at me and told me I was young and had time.  She also told me I needed to heal from the losses before moving forward.  And, she was right.  Jeremy told me I needed to start living for the two children we already had instead of living in the past or the future.  He was right.  So, I did just that.  Our last miscarriages happened in May 2004 and I decided to take the summer off from trying to have another baby.  It was the best thing I could have done.

In the midst of all of those appointments with specialists I called a local adoption agency and asked about adoption.  When they told me the price associated with adoption I said thank you and hung up.  There was no way we could afford to adopt.

We ended up getting pregnant in September of 2004 and carrying a baby to term.  We named her Hope.  I had been at a Women of Faith Conference after my miscarriages and remembered clearly sitting in my chair and hearing a voice tell me we would have another child and her name would be Hope.  We had no idea that the baby I was carrying was a girl.  Jeremy liked the element of surprise when it came to giving birth.  And, I know Hope was meant to be in our family.  Our lives would not be complete without her.  She certainly has a lot of me in her (and my parents will remind me of that frequently).

What I realize now is I was not ready to adopt because my heart was not right, not because the money wasn't there.  God grew me in so many ways from that first thought in my head about adoption.  And, I'm so thankful for what He has done in my life.  I needed time to grow spiritually.  I needed to understand the gift of adoption that God gave each of us to join His family.  It's still a work in progress for me.  I don't have it all figured out.

God didn't let the thought of adoption leave my heart.  I knew there was another body that was meant to join our family.  It just took more years to lead Jeremy down that path.  I love that God doesn't give up on us.  We just need to make sure we're listening to Him.

I think I'll sign off for now.  You're all probably tired of my ramblings because I didn't include any pictures nor music videos to keep you interested.  And, I could try and sign off like Jeremy, but I'm just not cool like he is.  :)

Sarah

Reminiscing part duex

A big thank-you to those who donated this past couple weeks.

This past week we received a package in the mail that contained a card.  Sarah held it up to me, I looked at it, and started laughing.  This card we received was a blank card that you get your finger prints put on.  Yep. You guessed it, Sarah had to get her finger prints done again, just like last time.  I think she is starting to get a complex.  After this week's last home study visit, we will need to start working on our 30 hrs. of education.  Online classes, books, movies, etc.

Jeremy - Love German Shorthairs, and pheasant hunting with them and Jake.

Sarah - watches the same movies over and over and over when she exercises.

Taylor - "Hi, welcome to Culvers, my name is Taylor, what can I get for you?"

Jake - loves to create things with legos.

Hope - Hope believes she loves eggplant,  but we all know she doesn't.

Judah - Can make his stomach wave like the ocean.  Maybe I'll post videos of him doing his stomach wave with his eyelids flipped.

These three are of the Ethiopian Orthodox church that was up in the mountain.  The last one is of  tombs where they buried the very special people. 

These next five are of the first orphanage Judah was in.

  This one is of the third and last orphanage Judah was in when we went to pick him up.

This is Birtukan, one of our awesome hosts.

 Here we are on the plane waiting to leave.  I will never forget those eyes when he was looking out the window on take off.

 This was the second orphanage Judah was at.  This is how it was everyday we went there.  The kids always gathered around to look at the camera and video camera.  They loved to play anything with you, and share their suckers with you.:)

This is the church we went to on Sunday.  It was just like many churches here in America.  Sarah took a picture of the Ethiopian cross on the ceiling.

 This was another awesome day.  We were able to spend a few hours with our sponsored compassion child.

This was the first time the other kids were able to meet Judah at the Des Moines airport.

Rock on

J

Reminiscing about Ethiopia

In the last two weeks we have had two more home study visits.  These last two were just asking us questions about each other's family history and then some other pretty personal questions.  One meeting our social worker met individually with Sarah and I to ask questions.  Our home study process has been a little different this time around, but I think we'll survive!  We will have one more visit next Monday. This one is with the kids.  That always makes Sarah a little nervous.  The last time around Hope said some things we can now laugh about, but at the time it about gave Sarah a heart attack.  After this they put all the info together for our home study to send off to the Home office to get approved. Then we get the pleasure of working on more paperwork.

As I said last time I am going to try and let you get to know us a little better.

Jeremy - favorite food is Ethiopian.  Most amazing food ever.
Sarah - worries about everything.  You name it, she has definitely worried about it.
Taylor - wants to go to college to be a doctor or a writer.
Jacob - He has a mole in the middle of his belly button.
Hope - loves to sing.
Judah - can flip his upper eye lids inside out.  This is pretty freaky.  First time I ever saw it was the first night we had him in Ethiopia.  We were sitting eating spaghetti and I look over at him, and he has his eye lids flipped just sitting there eating like nothing was going on.  I took a triple take and said "uh. Sarah. Look."

With this post I thought I would leave some videos and pics of our trips to Ethiopia.  This has to be one of my favorite places on earth, even though I haven't been very many places.  The land is beautiful and the people of Ethiopia are so kind and gracious.  The family we stayed with feels like our family and I know they always will.  I cannot wait to go back to see them.  Birtukan and Nesibu know how to show Jesus' love to others.  I really think Sarah and I could retire there someday.

This video is of the Nile river at 40,000 ft.  When we were flying over, the first thoughts that went through my head were, did God turn that whole thing into blood?, and I wonder what part of the river Moses was in as an infant.

The next four were from an authentic Ethiopian restaurant, with live music and dancing.

Look at that food. I LOVE it.  Plus there is no silverware to clean up. Your utensils are the rolled up flat bread(injera) on the side.

This was a common scene throughout the city. These were people's tin roofed houses packed in tight.

I'm not sure what this was that we drove by every morning and afternoon in the city, but there was a guy there everyday.  It looked like he was crushing rock.

These were very common throughout the beautiful countryside of Ethiopia.

This is a view of the city from a restaurant we ate at. 

This is from up on the mountain.  Nothing to exciting from the pic but the story behind it.  First they said that the Olympians from Ethiopia train up in these mountains, and you can hear them running through the timber in the early morning.  I suppose training where the air is thinner is better, cause then it's probably like doping to the body when they get down in the lower elevation and have a lot of oxygen.  Second when we were up there we heard all this loud cracking.  Come to find out that the kids take the bark off the trees and make these whips out of the bark, and up in the timber in the mountains these babies are loud. 

These two were from an Ethiopian coffee ceremony we had.  The coffee starts out really rich and dark, and by the end it is a lot lighter.

 Here is Judah's first experience with the best baseball team around, american rock n' roll, and angry birds.

I'll stop here and load some more later in another post, otherwise I'll be here forever and you won't be able to see any of these.:)

I'll leave you with a song that our family has been singing lately.  Jake and Hope have been role playing "Phil and Marcy", two local rock stars that I have the privilege of being friends with.  They just sang this song this past Sunday so Hope and Jake had it stuck in their head.

Rock on
J