Happy 1st Birthday TJ!

Today is our little guy's first birthday. When we first accepted our referral for our guy we were dreamily hoping we'd have him or at least be with him to celebrate his first birthday. We were still naive to the timelines and challenges of the adoption process then. 

Well, here we are 8 months since our referral acceptance, a year since his birth. It's hard to believe that he isn't the tiny, nearly bald, baby that he was when we first saw him. He is now very tall, has a  head full of hair, and resembles a toddler more than a baby. 

It is hard to believe that he has been on this earth an entire year, and we haven't even met him yet. 

We haven't held him in our arms and rocked him to sleep, cuddled him when he's been sick, kissed his cheeks, played with little blocks or chased him around the house, read books to him at night and tucked him in, felt his hand grip our fingers as he is falling asleep, heard his little breaths while he is dreaming, changed any stinky diapers, bathed him and watch him splash around, or watched him smear his baby food all over his face.

 So. Many. Things. 

So many things, we have yet to do, see, hear, and experience with our guy.  

But, it makes the future that much sweeter. We now have so many things to look forward to. Moments that we will cherish more now knowing what we've missed out on.

We have hope that we will spend the majority of his second year with him than apart, and we will get to make up for all of the things we've missed. 

Barry and I wanted to find a special way to celebrate his first birthday. So, we went to Build-A-Bear and we made this fuzzy friend for our TJ. 

We decided we will take him on his 2nd birthday to pick out an outfit for his bear, and we certainly can't wait to celebrate his 2nd birthday in a BIG way! 

Happy Birthday TJ, we love you very much and we can't wait to meet you! 

An update on where we are in the process:

 There is finally some movement happening (yay!). We were held up for the past month due to a couple of different issues (we can't really go into details on what those issues are right now). But, we heard back from the embassy and they are moving our case forward which means (hopefully) that we will be able to move onto the next stage in a few weeks or so. Our other issue should be sorted out this week, we had to change agencies, so new fees will be required, which is a little stressful. But we are very grateful that after a very long month to have answers and to see things moving! 

In case you missed it, some very talented friends of ours wrote a song about our adoption journey. You can take a listen by clicking on the link below. If you feel inclined you can even purchase the song, all of the money goes to help fund our adoption. 

We can't begin to thank you all enough for your love & support is genuinely amazing! 

https://tjs-song.bandcamp.com

Great is Thy Faithfulness

Anyone who knows me will tell you it is no secret that I am a lover of music. Music, singing, and guitar (off an on), have played a role in every season of my life. The good times, the bad times, and all the times in between. My taste in music varies with my emotions. I will hop from genre to genre depending on my mood/season of life, and most of the time what I am listening to will have an affect on my mood. 

It is also a source I use to connect with God. I often feel Him speak to me through lyrics; this adoption journey has been no exception. As I mentioned in my last post, I am in a season of clinging to hope, and in order to do that I have to listen to music that fills me with hope. As I have been doing that, I have felt God remind me of his faithfulness: "You move mountains, you cause walls to fall" and that he his a fulfiller of promises "If he did it before, he'll do it again".  He has spoken to me about his greatness "My God is Big, so strong, so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do!"

But, today it hit me the hardest when I was listening to "Hope Will Rise" by Warr Acres

We stand here in your presence

Lifting up the name of Jesus 

A strong tower meant to save us

And now nothing will defeat us

We are boldly interceding 

For our children lost and bleeding

We'll see slavery bow to freedom

And the sick restored to healing

So we fight for those who've fallen

And we take back what's been stolen 

From our families shamed and broken

Hope will rise and hearts will open

We'll see joy defeat depression

Liberation from addiction 

For when we are at our weakest 

Then your power is completed! 

Faithful forever are you God, are you God

That line, "For when we are at our weakest, then your power is completed!" hit me SO hard. I definitely feel like I am at my weakest, but that next line, like sunshine after the rain reminded me of how mighty our God is. 

God sees me(us), he sees our hearts, he knows our pain in the waiting, but he hasn't forgotten us. His plan and timing are so, so, perfect. Even when we don't get it. 

So if you are going through the adoption process, or even the process of waiting, I want to encourage you, not only with this post but with a playlist. 

In my adolescent days I used to jokingly say that mixed CDs were my love language. I pretty much had a  mix CD for every mood/occasion. Ask my parents ( I may or may to have forced them to listen to all of them).  Well technology has advanced and Spotify is the new mixed CD lover's paradise.  I made a playlist on Spotify, called Adoption:Encouragement in the Waiting.


If you have Spotify (if you don't, I highly suggest you download it, it is AMAZING!) and are interested in listening to the music that has been encouraging me in this season of life, feel free to search for the playlist. There is a lot of worship music on there because that's where I ultimately find my encouragement, but there are songs from other genres as well. I hope you enjoy it and feel encouraged.



Speaking of music, our wonderful friends collaborated and wrote a song about our adoption journey. You can click here to hear the song, and if you feel led you can purchase and download it. It would mean the world to us if you shared it one your social media accounts. Thank you!