Saturday, September 26, 2009

Faithfulness

I've been struggling with sleep all night. A bad headache and disturbing dreams have kept me awake. So, about an hour ago, I thought I'd come and catch up on some friends' blogs and perhaps get a little time in on Facebook. Mostly, I've been reading about all my friends' adoption struggles, shedding a few tears for them, praying for their strength and provision, and remembering how faithful our God is.

Truly, in this early hour (about 4:35 AM), I am overwhelmed with His faithfulness and His love. If He says that He will do it, you can count on it. Every day I choose to trust Him, and I purpose to rest in Him. It's not always easy (In fact, it's rarely easy.) when I look at my own struggles and the world around me. But I will not give up. And it does get so much easier when I choose to focus on Him and not the storm around me -- a lesson I keep learning over and over and over again from Peter on the water as he walked towards Jesus.

Tonight (this morning), I am praying for the Kecks, the Mayernicks, the Doyles, the Francises, and so many others. I've added a new gadget to the side of my blog, "Stories of Faith." Most of those deal with families who are currently adopting or have adopted. Beautiful and heart wrenching and vibrant examples of God's love for us. It certainly makes me want to do more, to find a way to do more. For now, I am supporting these families with my prayer and any other support I can lend.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Waffle Cones and Hijacked Shopping Carts

Yes, it's Willow Grace Wednesday, but I didn't feel like using that title once again.

And, guess what??? No pictures this week! Just a story.

Willow Grace and I ventured to the local TCBY to meet some friends, Ralanna and her two year old Addy, and to indulge in $.99 Waffle Cone Wednesday. Gotta love that! Of course, I spent the entire time feeding my beloved daughter her chocolate frozen yogurt, so I didn't get to indulge, even those ice cream/frozen yogurt is my favorite treat. Ah, well. Just part of being a mom. Anyway, after we finished feeding a sweet girls their sweet treat, we discovered that hanging out at the yogurt shop with sugared-up toddlers while we finised our chat just wasn't going to work.

On to the Kroger (grocery store) next door!

I love the fact that they have shopping carts with little cars attached to the front, and so does Willow Grace! At first we tried loading both girls into the same car but quickly found out that, even as young as they are, they needed their own personal space. Of course, you know that two women trying to have a decent conversation while pushing two different carts in the grocery store doesn't work very well. Nevertheless, we tried... and then moved on to another plan. Willow Grace and Addy were greatly enjoying "driving" their little cars around, so we decided that they didn't need to give that up. Where can you find enough room to push two large shopping carts with toy cars attached side by side? The parking lot, of course!

Ralanna and I raced, yes, we raced, to the front door (She won!), and we headed out to the parking lot. We choose the less travelled side lot for our rounds and made several laps with our precious cargo and successfully enjoyed some much needed girl talk. Babies happy, mommies happy -- it was all good!

Of course there was the slight chance that some disgruntled employee would come bolting out of the store to reprimand us and tell us to bring back our hijakced carts, but that only made our mini adventure all the more exciting. Really, I was kind of hoping that it would happen! When we did return our borrowed carts to the store, we were met by a very amused and yet silent employee. All in all, a very fun outing for us all.

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Willow Grace Wednesday

Since I haven't done a Willow Grace Wednesday in a while, I have a couple hundred pictures to choose from. Such a difficult job. So I thought I'd focus on a couple with Chris and a couple with me.

The two below were taken at the aquarium in Chattanooga. Such an amazing day for the three of us. Willow Grace LOVED the fish and made sure everyone around us knew it!


Here Willow Grace and I are hanging out in the backyard at my parents' house. I love that she's looking at me in this pic. So sweet! And what a cool couple of girls in their shades, right?


I'll post more pictures soon. Maybe I'll do a separate post with pics from her 2nd birthday. Ah, we'll see.
Happy Wednesday everyone!