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Saturday, November 13, 2010

It IS a Wonderful Life.


About 9 years ago, I saw the Jimmy Stewart film, "It's a Wonderful Life" for the first time. It is a favorite of my husband's. We had been married a couple years and were having dinner and a movie at a friend's house. For most of the film, I was trying to suppress a massive anxiety attack as I had realized, I was indeed married to George Bailey. My husband constantly put others' dreams and needs before his own and struggled with fear that no matter how hard he worked at at it, he just wasn't enough to make my world and the world around us a better place. He was (and still is) George Bailey.

Now please remember, I hadn't seen the film before, so I didn't know the happy ending that was coming, so I was terrified. But the ending came and I had to try to hold back the sobs. There have been multiple occasions where we were in need and our community of friends came forward with unbelievable support. And we have felt like the Bailey's do in the end: massively rich, because we have amazing friends.

Right now, I am living in that moment at the end of the film when people come to the Baileys with money in their hands cause they heard George needed it.

Last December when we submitted our adoption application to our agency, we thought we might get matched with a birthmother by summer at the earliest. I mean, we had funds to raise and I was teaching full-time; we thought summer was taking an optimistic view of how long it would take to be matched. On our application, we said we were open to any race, but we were praying for a Haitian-American child because my younger brother is Haitian. The agency would tell us later that they laughed when they read that detail because they never served a Haitian birthmother before and they thought it was oddly specific. A few weeks later, a Haitian-American woman at 33 weeks pregnant walked in the door!

Our agency called us and asked if we would like to expedite our adoption and get a profile ready immediately to show this birthmother. We expressed our concerns about how we were not financially ready to pay for an adoption and they said they would work out a payment plan. So we rushed and got our profile ready and the agency began our home-study. They showed the birthmother our profile along with a few other couples and she picked us not knowing we were praying for a Haitian child. Talk about meant to be!

Usually in most domestic adoptions, you finalize 90 days after the child is placed. He was placed in our home March 12th. Well, after long delays, we finally received our finalization date for early December...right before our son turns 9 months old. About a week and a half ago, our agency informed us that they had just learned from our lawyer that the agreed-upon payment plan that we're due to complete in April will not be approved by the judge and if we want the judge to finalize our adoption, then we have to have to pay-off the remaining $5,000 by November 23rd. Our budget is tight as it is with our payment plan. So, we began to pray. God has brought us this far, this quickly, right?

Then a wonderful thing happened. Our friends began to spread the news and money began to come in. This was not expected or requested, but their generosity has humbled us greatly. As of this moment, we still have $3,916 to raise. We continue placing things up on eBay and I am finishing a new collection of handmade Christmas ornaments this week on Etsy. I know, we don't have much time. But, we are keeping faith that God will provide all our needs.

I want to say a big thank you to all of you who have supported us and to all who have been praying for us!

with much gratitude and love,
--Libby

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Please Help


On Tuesday, October 26th, tragedy struck our church family and the world lost an amazing person. Larsen Hunt, was brutally murdered by her exboyfriend. Its hard to talk about with turning into a crying mess, so I am going to post a link.
Larson leaves behind a 5 yr old son named Aidric--who has autism. We are all trying to carrry on her dream of finding a cure and getting Aidric all the therapy and help he needs. If you have an extra buck to give, please do so.
Thank you.

Autumn Fun

This picture above is from Election Day. We made it a family affair and dressed up.

The streets were safe on Halloween with this Super group!!

Our Incredible Hulk!!


Well, the weather has finally cooled and it finally feels like Fall....too bad we had to sweat through our Fall festivities. It's been a life changing couple of weeks.

We had a packed calendar full of Fall festivities, weddings, and family fun.....but life had other plans. We did get to go to our local Pumpkin Festival, which is where some of the above pics are from. We went with friends who are adoptive parents as well and my two sister-in-laws and mother-in-law came too. The Festival was huge and we only covered a third of it---due to the heat and the realities of having a 7 month old. But I look forward to making this a family tradition and going through the corn maze and hay maze with J and his siblings. J got to go to his first circus that was there and he seemed to really enjoy it. After the festival, the family went to Cracker Barrel and basked in the air conditioning and comfort food.

We had a Trunk or Treat and a kids Halloween party also on the calendar but due to sickness and a tragedy (that I will get into in my next blog) we had to miss both of those things. We did get to go Trick or Treating. We met in a park with friends and had a picnic and then went trick or treating to the nearby houses. It was so much fun and J was wonderful. He's such a great kid. He was the Incredible Hulk and you will see him pictured with Batman, Ironman, and Supergirl. It was a Superhero Halloween.

With each "kid event" that we get to be a part of as parents, it starts to sink in that we are finally parents. I still can't believe it at times. But I am so grateful that we are no longer that "childless couple" at family events making sure everyone else's child is having a good time. My heart breaks for those who are still waiting desperately to have a child of there own and as the Holiday season bulldozes ahead, I pray you will find joy and peace.....and embrace sleeping in.