The Best

It was, quite simply, the best birthday and Christmas ever.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened.

(Except that none of us got sick!)

The days were filled with laughter,

and snuggles,

and Lego,

and playing,

and movies.

It was fabulous and I am so thankful!

The boys playing the great Canadian game, Crokinole.

Hannah has been asking for new sunglasses for about four months

ever since our dog chewed hers up.

Every. Single. Day.

Who was happier about this present - her or me?  Hard to say!

A birthday spent with family and dear friends.  What a gift!

I treasure these moments!

On the Move! {Adoption Progress}

I've been waiting to share about some happening around here until they actually were happening...

...and now is that time!

A couple of weeks ago, I started to really feel convicted about how little I have been praying for Olivia to be home quickly.  The truth is, I was scared to pray for that because I knew that God could do it!  And I was feeling pretty overwhelmed with the idea of four.  Total selfishness, I know.  So I let things float along at whatever pace they went, not being too pushy, just kind of going with the flow.

Anyway, I was listening to a message from a women's conference and in it the speaker, Leslie Ludy, shared about their adoption and how they prayed it would go so quickly and then it did.  I was reminded of our own stories, of times when I know that God stepped in and allowed our process to go more quickly than it would have otherwise.  I knew I had not been doing all I could to get Olivia home.  So I prayed that day and asked God to step in, speed things up, and bring her home.  She needs to be home - she has been diagnosed with a serious medical condition and even though we hope it is not what has been diagnosed, we need to have her evaluated so that we can treat whatever is going on.

Not three hours later, my phone rang.  It was our adoption agency calling.  I had sent in our home study the day before so I expected that it was confirmation about that.  Instead, it was a conversation about the possibility of expediting Olivia's adoption because of her serious medical diagnosis.

Wow.

Ok then.  I was not prepared for that!  We learned about what we needed to do next, and we started to work on getting a letter from a doctor supporting our request to expedite.  We had filed our I800a with US immigration and thankfully when I called and explained that we were hoping to expedite, they bumped up our fingerprint date and we had that done earlier this week.  Finally, just yesterday, everything came together and I sent off all our documentation to USCIS along with a request to expedite in an email.

Less than two hours later, I had a reply: our expedite request has been APPROVED!

Wow again.

USCIS quotes I800a approval time as 90 days, so we have significantly reduced the time we will need to wait to bring Olivia home.  It has taken me a couple of weeks to get my head around the fact that it won't be next summer like I thought.  There have been a lot of sleepless nights - I find myself waking up at 3am and not being able to get back to sleep for hours.  There are just so many unknowns ahead and so many changes.  YES we chose this and YES I very much want her home!!!  But now that I have experience with this a little bit I know that it may or may not be an easy transition, and there could very well be challenges ahead.  I'm okay with that but if I am honest I still struggle with fear.  I know this to be true: whatever lies ahead, whatever medical challenges or attachment issues or sibling rivalry or lack of sleep may come, we will be okay because we are held safe in the hands of Almighty God.  We will not walk this journey alone.  I cling to that in the middle of the night when waves of fear wash over me and threaten to overwhelm me.  We will not walk this journey alone.

There is one other aspect to this change that could cause us to fear or freak out: money.  When we started this journey we made a plan for how to pay for the adoption.  That plan included having time to get our taxes back and many more months to save.  Its now looking like we will have a different timeline (although I still don't know how much longer we really have).  It is tempting to fear and worry about where we will get the money.  I am choosing instead to trust that God's hands are all over this, and He can and will provide what we need, when we need it.  I am excited to see how He works.  We have applied for several adoption grants but have yet to hear back.  We have set up a fundraiser website as family and friends had inquired about donating to our adoption fund.  We are so grateful for every donation that will help bring Olivia home!!  If you are interested in donating, here is the link:

Bring Olivia Home - Hunt Family Adoption

We are hoping our dossier will go to China very soon so that things keep on progressing with the adoption.  I'll keep you posted!  We thank the Lord for this special little girl who is soon going to be OURS!

Keep On Keepin' On

Last week I had the pleasure of spending some one-on-one time with Matthew.  I hate that a lot of my one-on-one time with the kids comes because of doctors appointments, but...what are you going to do?!?!  We take what we can get in these busy times and try to make the most of it!

So Matthew and I headed out of town to his annual allergist appointment.  After several years of these appointments I've learned to keep my expectations in check and to take a "wait and see" approach.  The first year I thought his allergies would all be gone and I was so upset when it turned out they hadn't. The doctor suggested that Matthew may have outgrown his egg or milk allergy enough to try a food challenge (where they feed him tiny amounts of the allergen to see if he reacts).  But he had the skin testing done and sure enough, all the bumps appeared.  And they were all still huge.  Still allergic to eggs, dairy, peanuts and tree nuts.  Nothing has changed, and we will just keep being vigilant to keep him safe.  We will keep on keepin' on, and we will pray that next year we will finally see change!

I was really glad we were going to see the allergist actually because he is also the doctor that manages Matthew's asthma.  For the last couple of years, his asthma has steadily been improving and hasn't been much of a concern.  But in the last month we have noticed him struggling more, coughing a ton at night, and in the week before the appointment he had woken up in the night four times coughing so hard.  One time he coughed so hard that he threw up :(  And two days before his appointment, we had a very scary episode.  I heard him cough a couple of times, then he started to kind of yell.  I thought he was going to be sick so I grabbed a bowl from the bathroom and ran into his room.  He was making a funny noise and I tried to put the bowl in front of him, but he smacked it out of my hand and started trying to say something.  He was shouting, "I need....I need...." but he couldn't get any more words out.  I realized with a start that he could not breathe.  He could not breathe even enough to get the words out.  I ran and got his inhaler and after I gave it to him he started breathing normally again.  It was so very scary and I made him sleep on the couch with me for two nights just so I could be close to him.

Thankfully seeing the allergist helped.  We now do a breathing treatment in the morning and at night (and will for a while) and he is much better.  Phew!  Breathing issues are scary.  I'm so glad that we have access to good medical care and medicine that can help him.  I'm so thankful to be the one waking up at night to take care of him.

December

December has been pretty awesome so far!

Hardly any sickness.

This little (big) guy turned 6.  Unbelievable!

These two have been playing a lot together 

and love to snuggle up on the couch :)

These two are still the best of friends

and have loved playing with new Lego and Star Wars toys.

We had a great (but cold!) time

picking out a Christmas tree

to cut down.

Things with the adoption are moving right along...

potentially at a quicker pace than we anticipated!

Our days are spent doing paperwork,

applying for adoption grants,

making canvases and necklaces for my Etsy shop,

and praying for our little girl.

It's hard to wrap my head around the fact

that NEXT December

will look MUCH different!

I can hardly wait!

Personalized Adoption Canvas

It's true - I have adoption on the brain :)  It's hard to think about much else these days!  I find myself daydreaming and imagining another little one running around here.  I long for that day!

I've been working on some new canvases for the Etsy store and here is the first: a personalized adoption canvas!  It can be made in any color scheme, for any country!  At the bottom of the canvas I can add your child's name and "Home Forever" date.  For me, this verse sums it all up: I prayed for each of my precious children, and He answered!

Check out the link below the picture if you are interested in more info :)

One Little Canvas

She Turned Two

Our littlest had a birthday this week.  Across the world, she turned two.  We talked about her all day long, wondering what she was doing, if her foster family celebrated with her, hoping she is happy.  We look forward to the birthdays to come when we will celebrate with hugs and kisses and smiles.  But this one...it went by quietly.  I'm not going to lie - it was a hard one.  I've never missed a second birthday before.  The last couple of weeks, I've been feeling that ache so much more.  I'm ready to have her here with me.  I'm ready to get started on the adventure of four.  I want her home.

But we're not there yet.  We have been at a standstill with getting our home study finished.  It has been beyond frustrating for me and I think has been the most difficult time of all four adoptions.  I actually feel pretty blessed to have made it to our fourth international adoption before experiencing any real difficulties!  Everything is getting worked out and we hope that our home study will be finished by the end of this week or early next week.  I will breathe a sigh of relief when that is done!

My heart feels heavy tonight.  It's hard to write about this.  Sometimes adoption just feels heavy.  I realize that out of everyone, I get the easy part.  I get to be mom to these amazing kids.  But there is so much more to adoption.  There are birth parents who don't get to celebrate these birthdays with their kids.  There are foster families who know this is the last birthday they will celebrate with a child they love.  There are kids who have questions that cannot be answered, who have hurts inside of them that cannot always be seen.  There are birth parents who have had to face situations and decisions I literally cannot imagine having to make.  Adoption is a beautiful, amazing thing.  But I cannot forget that it is born out of loss.  As my little ones grow, I am more and more aware of this truth.

I'm blabbering.  But these are the thoughts on my heart this week, as we celebrate Olivia and look forward to having her with us as our very own.  There are others thinking about this precious little girl, too.  She is such a treasure!