Our Family: What's Next (or What We Know is Not Next)

Growing our family has never gone exactly as we thought it would. Many of you have followed our journey through miscarriages, testing, prayer, and finally the adoption of our son, Reed. While it was no fun going through all the pain, unknowns, and what-ifs, we know with all certainty that God blessed us beyond measure with our precious baby boy. Without the journey we have had, Reed would not be with us, and I(Abbey) cannot even imagine life without our gift of Reed. He brings us joy and makes us laugh, just to name a few ways he's blessed us.

Then, you followed along with us as we announced we would adopt again through our same agency, JOH. Then, you read along again(and offered your encouragement) as we made the change to Marshall Islands due to some unforeseen circumstances with our program in Taiwan.

Being honest, the past few weeks have been extremely difficult for me. I'm not asking for sympathy; I just want to be honest. We love the family we have, and we also know God has more planned for our family. We struggle with being content where we are and dying to know what the future holds for us. While we know we will grow our family through adoption, we now know it will not be with a child from the Republic of Marshall Islands.

A lot has been going on in our family behind the scenes of this blog, and we're not ready to share it all yet. We aren't even sure where things are going, only God does. What I do know is we've been focusing on a direction with the mindset of "If this doesn't work out, we have the option of RMI adoption." We are letting go of that "second option". Please understand we are not saying anything negative about adopting from the Marshall Islands; it is just abundantly clear to us (and several of those praying for us) that the RMI adoption is not what we are called to at this time.

Where do we go from here? We are trusting God to guide us. Like I mentioned, we are still waiting to see how things go with a possibility that was shared with us. Until we know for sure that is going to happen, we are going to continue to pray and work very hard at being patient. (We hope it happens fast :))

Are we ready to grow our family? Absolutely! Is it hard to not know exactly how that will happen? No doubt. Do I have lots of questions and no answers? For sure. Here's what I know is not next: an adoption from the Marshall Islands.

We covet your prayers-prayers for peace, strength, patience, and God's guidance as we wait to see how He grows our family. Will you also pray for those who desire to grow their families and are waiting to see how it will happen (biologically or through adoption)? While we go through this new adventure, we are at least sure of how our family will grow, while some are still waiting to see what their next step will be.

Thanks for joining us on our adventure; we'll be sure to update you as we can!

The following passage is one our interim pastor, Bruce Raley, read last night at church. I'm working on the "joy" part, knowing God has great things in store for our family.

James 1:2-5
2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

Crazy Busy-ness!

For all of those out there who think we have completely fallen off the blogging bandwagon, I apologize. We've been working for the best consignment sale, Encores and More North. We help tag things and that has taken up a lot of our time and space in our house! But, we are going to be able to get Reed some great clothes!



The other day, Abbey and Reed met Mrs. Stacy, Cooper, and Hudson at a local church to play.



The church has an incredible indoor playground that is open to the public during the week. It's a great place to take the kids on freezing days.



Coop and Reed played really hard!



Another day, Abbey took Reed for a special treat. "cunkin' donuts."



Reed loves Dunkin' Donuts, but it is not as good as our favorite little hometown donut shop.



To be completely honest, Reed has no idea what the donuts taste like, he just eats the chocolate and sprinkles off.



Yesterday, after Lizzie's birthday party, we went to Chickfila, where Reed and Britton got to spend even more time together. They would be completely inseparable if we would let them.

What You Say Mama?

Sorry for the lack of blogging, but I promise we have an excuse. We are in the midst of consignment central! Insanity has set in! We are working on tagging stuff for people who don't want to tag it themselves. We get credit to shop, so that means that we get to buy Reed's clothes for really cheap. You know we love Dave Ramsey.



The other excuse is that I was out of town this weekend, so Abbey and Reed went Memphis to Pop and Lola's.



Reed had a good time playing with Max, Mollie, and Belle!

And, Pop and Lola!



Pop took Reed for a ride on the carousel at the mall. Reed loves to ride a carousel.



Reed also got to go see his only living great-grandparent, Mimi. She is Pop's Mom. Unfortunately her health has declined a lot over the past several years. She thinks Reed's eyes are beautiful. We agree.



Reed has been enjoying a few days of putting together puzzles and seeing his buddy Britton at Mother's Day Out.



I don't know if we've ever mentioned that Reed HATES PJs! He likes to sleep in his undies! I think it bothers his Mama sometimes, but I don't care. He's got plenty of cover on his bed!

Well, it is late and I have to get up early in the morning to go to work, but I wanted to satisfy our readers!

20,000 Pieces of Playground

So, yesterday it all began. Well, actually it began a while back. Pop and Lola decided that they wanted to get Reed a swingset for Christmas/Birthday, so we began looking.



We decided on one that Wal-Mart had, so we ordered it. We were shocked when it was delivered in 2 VERY small boxes.

Those two very small boxes were JAM PACKED full of pieces.



Lola, Ava, and Abbey labeled EVERY single piece. It was an incredible task.



Reed woke up from his nap completely ready to play on his swingset, but it was no where near ready.



Everyone pitched in to get the pieces together.



Aunt Ava tried convincing Reed that it was going to come together, but he was not convinced.



Today, we worked hard.

Uncle Brookie played ball with Reed while we worked.



Reed was having a blast in the beautiful weather.





Everything was going great until we realized that we put two of the base pieces on wrong. It was not a terribly hard fix.



After ball, Uncle Brookie blew bubbles for Reed.





Pop worked very hard.



It actually got a little warm.



When it started going up, we realized it was going to be much larger than we imagined.



Reed loved playing outside today.



This is about the 10th position that we had the swingset it, but it was the final resting place.



Reed loved the picnic table.



We had a little snafu on the slide, but it was also pretty easily fixed.



Then it was time to swing!



Swing!



Swing!



Notice that Reed's shoes are on the wrong feet. He loves going against the flow.



Reed really loves the slide.



Of course, we would love for him to climb up eat correctly.





I think he had a good time playing!



Lola reminded Reed to be careful.





The final issue was trying to get the very last piece on! It took a few tries.





But it was certainly worth it to see Reed's happy face.



Pop enjoyed getting to push Reed on the swing.





So, it was a long process, but in the end, Reed ended up with a pretty sweet swingset.