Wow, it's been a while since I've posted, but I guess we have had a newborn in the house! He is doing so well and is a very sweet and content baby. His big (15-month-old) sister loves him to pieces and loves giving him lots of kisses on his big chubby cheeks...as do the rest of us! I would be lying if I would say this hasn't been a big adjustment, but having a wonderful family (baby gifts, house cleaning, meals, prayer) and very supportive church family (clothing, meals, and more prayer) has been our lifeline. Now looking back, it'd kind of funny - the day we found out about Wil we were so perplexed as to what to do. But now, only two months later we can't imagine life without him. We love him like crazy and are so thankful that God brought him into our life (we are also thankful that he is sleeping 7 hours at night!).
As for Shana, we have been signing a lot of papers and have a lot more to sign, but we are hopeful that her adoption will be finalized by May or June. It's a little anti-climactic how they finalize it: Her 'file' goes to court, the judge approves it, and they send us something in the mail. Not quite how I would do it, but you can be sure that the day that document comes in the mail this mama will throw a BIG party and celebrate the official addition of this precious babe to our family! Sometimes I think I'm almost as excited for her to be dedicated, though. I have actually sat in church with tears in my eyes as other families have been dedicating their babies to the Lord, praying that one day we would be able to do the same with Shana. I can't wait.
And then there's the Haitian adoption...Our dossier (adoption paperwork) arrived in Haiti in February, was approved by the orphanage director, was sent for legalization, has returned from legalization and we are now impatiently waiting for our proposal!! In the mean time I pray for our little ones every day, I imagine how excited I will be to get the phone call (and the e-mail with photos and information), I imagine how I will tell Kevin and how excited the kids will be, and other than that I try to live my life as normal as possible. Thankfully my life is very full and it keeps me well occupied!
Sorry, no deep thoughts or touching quotes about adoption today, just a quick update to keep everyone in the loop. But if anyone out there is thinking about adoption, it really is not as scary as it seems - it's very beautiful and very exciting. If you are interested there is going to be an adoption information session at West Edmonton Christian Assembly at 7:00 PM on Monday, April 16. And now I'm off to do the midnight feeding!
God bless,
Lee-Ann
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Wednesday, 4 April 2012
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Unexpected Blessing
It was Wednesday and I was baking cupcakes for our daughter's first birthday...and then the phone rang. To my surprise, it was our fostering agency letting us know that Shana had a baby brother, born last Friday, and would we like to take him? This was such a shock to us as we did not even know that Shana's birth mom was pregnant. Kevin and I both had the same first thoughts: What...in...the world...are are we going to do?! This was so out of the blue - this must be what women feel like who go to the hospital because they feel ill and end up giving birth, not having known that they were even pregnant.
We decided that we needed to tell the kids as they help out a lot and this needed to be a whole-family decision. Their reaction was one of pure joy as they jumped around the kitchen asking "when can we get him?!". I must say, we were pretty surprised with their reaction. These are not kids who romanticize what having a baby is like. We have fostered other preemie newborns. They know how tired we get, how fussy the babies can be, and how much extra they need to chip in, but still they were willing. Wow. When I asked them why they wanted to do this they just replied "Mom, we can't let him go to a family who aren't Christians".
Kevin and I still had a lot of hesitations, and needed to pray and talk things out. We dropped the two older ones off at Bible study and the two younger ones off at my brother's house and went for coffee. We prayed together in the van and by the time we got to Second Cup we were both crying and feeling like we knew which way the Lord was pulling us. As we chatted in Second Cup we talked about all of the things we are afraid of, all of our hesitations, and all of the ways this could affect our lives and our other children's lives. But then we talked about Moses. About how he was not expecting to see a burning bush that day. About how he was asked to do something that was beyond himself. About how he had to step out in faith, in spite of his fears and feelings of inadequacy, and about how God used him to do amazing things for the Kingdom of God.
We felt a lot of clarity and decided that there were two obstacles in our way of taking in this little one, but if God could clear those up, we would go for it. Then I told my husband how proud I am of him for being willing to do this, and he said it was a good thing God didn't show us his full plan for us while we were dating or he probably wouldn't have married me! Funny guy.
So today, a little more than 24 hours after finding out about this precious little guy, the two obstacles have been lifted, the shock has diminished and is being replaced with joy and excitement, and we feel a peace far beyond our own understanding. God is good.
Tomorrow we get to go see little Wil and we'll do what we did when we went and visited his "big" sister just barely a year ago in the same NICU: We'll lay hands on him and pray God's healing power over him, that he would grow up to be someone who loves Jesus with his whole being, and that he would fulfill the great plan God has for his life. But first I need to go on Kijiji and find a double stroller and another crib!
God bless! We covet your prayers for our family and our new little boy.
Kevin & Lee-Ann
Carter, Jaelynn, Hunter, Shana & Wil
We decided that we needed to tell the kids as they help out a lot and this needed to be a whole-family decision. Their reaction was one of pure joy as they jumped around the kitchen asking "when can we get him?!". I must say, we were pretty surprised with their reaction. These are not kids who romanticize what having a baby is like. We have fostered other preemie newborns. They know how tired we get, how fussy the babies can be, and how much extra they need to chip in, but still they were willing. Wow. When I asked them why they wanted to do this they just replied "Mom, we can't let him go to a family who aren't Christians".
Kevin and I still had a lot of hesitations, and needed to pray and talk things out. We dropped the two older ones off at Bible study and the two younger ones off at my brother's house and went for coffee. We prayed together in the van and by the time we got to Second Cup we were both crying and feeling like we knew which way the Lord was pulling us. As we chatted in Second Cup we talked about all of the things we are afraid of, all of our hesitations, and all of the ways this could affect our lives and our other children's lives. But then we talked about Moses. About how he was not expecting to see a burning bush that day. About how he was asked to do something that was beyond himself. About how he had to step out in faith, in spite of his fears and feelings of inadequacy, and about how God used him to do amazing things for the Kingdom of God.
We felt a lot of clarity and decided that there were two obstacles in our way of taking in this little one, but if God could clear those up, we would go for it. Then I told my husband how proud I am of him for being willing to do this, and he said it was a good thing God didn't show us his full plan for us while we were dating or he probably wouldn't have married me! Funny guy.
So today, a little more than 24 hours after finding out about this precious little guy, the two obstacles have been lifted, the shock has diminished and is being replaced with joy and excitement, and we feel a peace far beyond our own understanding. God is good.
Tomorrow we get to go see little Wil and we'll do what we did when we went and visited his "big" sister just barely a year ago in the same NICU: We'll lay hands on him and pray God's healing power over him, that he would grow up to be someone who loves Jesus with his whole being, and that he would fulfill the great plan God has for his life. But first I need to go on Kijiji and find a double stroller and another crib!
God bless! We covet your prayers for our family and our new little boy.
Kevin & Lee-Ann
Carter, Jaelynn, Hunter, Shana & Wil
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Is it possible to miss someone you've never met? While I had a wonderful time with my family in Arizona over Christmas, I couldn't help but think of my little ones in Haiti. I thought of them a lot on Christmas Day and was wondering what they did to celebrate. Even though I do not know who they are, my heart was aching for them; wondering if they had a stocking to open or if anyone had told them of Jesus Birth. Imagine my delight when I went on the God's Littlest Angels website and saw that they had decorated cookies, hung stockings, made decorations, decorated a tree, put up the nativity scene, and, most importantly, re-inacted the nativity story. I love it! And I love God's Littlest Angels.
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| Decorating the tree with hand painted pine cones |
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| That's some serious baking! |
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| Can you imagine sewing 110 stockings? |
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| The Nativity Story |
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