Our First Adoption Shower!

The Mullet Festival was fantastic! It was like a county fair, so I felt like we fit right in. I ended up being the only one from my family to go, so I didn't have to spend very much money. If David had gone, I'd be broke from the carnival rides and games! By the way, Alligator-on-a-stick -- tastes like chicken! :) Evidently this is kind of a big deal. Kenny Rogers was the headliner for Sunday night!

We got our passports back from the visa place, so now there's a visa granting us multiple entry into India for the next 6 months glued onto one page of our passports. Hopefully that will be long enough. I'm just glad to have my passport back in my own hands. Still no word on our background check.

The following is an email that I sent a friend I haven't communicated with in a while. Some of the info I've already posted, but most of it is new. I just thought I'd save some time typing all of it again.

"Our lives are so FULL right now! I'm still working at the mental hospital as a teacher's aide, running a computer lab. They wanted me to start teaching Microsoft Office stuff, so I called Lynn and got her recommendations for a textbook. (We have none.) I like the girls, but there is no Spanish involved, and the pay isn't great. So, God's been busy making up the difference in one way or another. For example, Byron got rear-ended while in a drive through, and the insurance company settled with us for $500! For a SCRATCH! How often does that happen? We knew it had to be God! And I've been able to teach a Spanish class at night that will pay me over $700 in November. Stuff like that has been happening so that we haven't gone further into debt. Back to my job... it's kind of funny because I don't think the director is used to having qualified people working for him. He'll tell me something to do, and then act surprised when I've done it the way he wanted it done. He told me he needed a letter justifying our request for software for the computers. His instructions to me were to make it very hard to say no to us, and when I had written it, he'd tweak it and send it on to the guy who is approving the request. When he said that, my pride was pricked because I thought, "Buddy! If you ask ME to write something, you WON'T have to tweak it!" i wrote this one page justification just full of buzzwords and flowers and it was beautiful, if I do say so myself. I printed it out for him and stood there while he read it, and his reaction was "Outstanding!" In my head, I said "Told you!" but "Thank you" came out my mouth!:) I can't really witness to the patients, but I can bring a positive Spirit to the place, if you know what I mean. And the staff, too. There's a woman (Susan) whose daughters are having to testify soon against their father for sexual abuse. Keep them in your pryares, if you would. Susan is a preacher's daughter, but this has turned her against God, sort of. Like "How could He let this happen to my little girls?" kind of a thing. I can't blame her, but I don't know how to best minister to her. David is doing really well! He's just David, no matter where he is! He LOVES his school and is handling the change, taking it all in stride. They dismissed him from speech therapy, so that's cool. He has 20 in his class here, but only had 8 in his class in Savoy, so the change is pretty drastic. His teacher is working on her national certification this year, so she's doing some pretty cool things with the kids. Our next door neighbor is a 3rd grade teacher there (and a strong Christian) and she has nothing but good things to say about David's teacher. He is also getting involved in AWANA at our church. This is the first time I've actually participated in it, and I love it! He's learning so much scripture! He does that on Sunday nights, has RAs on Wednesday nights, TeamKid and Sunday School on Sunday mornings, and children's choir on Sunday afternoon! This church is great to be a kid in! The choir teacher even gave him a solo in their upcoming production because it's about the shepherd David and she thought he might want to sing his name! William is in his element. He said the other day that it feels like he's been here forever! He loves the middle school, as much as any 8th grader can love school. Once we got down here and toured the school and found all of his classes, he realized that it wasn't as intimidating as he thought it would be. He has gotten involved with the FCA on campus and is the teacher's aide for the sponsor of it! He's also taking Spanish and making an A! Honestly, though, he's doing that all by himself because he brings home NO homework. There is a push here for little to no homework. They are of the opinion that it's all busy work anyway, so why bother? Hmmm. I don't know about that.... Anyway, William has really connected with the youth minister, Tom. He's been here 10 years and really knows what he is doing. He doesn't go for fluff -- he wants to grow these kids deep, if you know what I mean. They have a group of middle schoolers that get together once a week after school and read stuff like the Chronicles of Narnia and discuss it. Isn't that awesome? William has also plugged in with the media ministry helping to run the projector and video camera during the services. I think they were surprised at first that a kid wanted to help, but he's proving himself capable. He's the one we worried about and prayed about the most, and he's the one handling everything the best! (Is there a sermon in there somewhere?) That's my boy! Byron is flourishing. He's blooming like I've never seen him do before! The people here really seem to love him and his preaching. I know this church has its flaws like every other church, but compared to what we were living with, they seem so miniscule that they are inconsequential. They are SO supportive, and it's just really nice to hear a majority of the people say nice things to Byron about how they appreciated his sermons, you know? The senior pastor announced his retirement, effective February, and now some people are looking to Byron to fill that position. They are going to have a pastor search committee, and they will consider Byron's resume. He's told them that he knows God brought him here and that he will be happy to step up if that's what God wants, and he will be equally happy doing what he's doing and help transition in the new guy if that's what God wants. There is one neat thing that this church does that I've not seen before. Every service, sometimes even during the song service, people come up to the altar to pray. That in itself is neat, but then other people come up to pray with them or pray over them. It's beautiful to see and I get emotional every time it happens, which means I cry a lot! :) One guy today was sprawled out on the ground face down before his God and wasn't even concerned about what people might think about it. I love that! I love that people can be free to worship how they feel like they need to worship and the church will support them! The music ministry is FANTASTIC! There is a live band/orchestra, praise teams that rotate Sundays, and a more traditional choir. Right now I'm a member of the choir, but I've also signed up to do one of the praise teams. I just haven't been assigned to one yet. Being a part of a dynamic music ministry is something that I've been starved for since college and now we've found it! I am absolutely loving it! OK -- Elizabeth. We are going to get her soon! Right now the orphanage staff have applied for her passport so that she can travel with us. When they have the passport in their hands, we'll be free to make travel arrangements, assuming our paperwork is in order as well. We had to have our homestudy redone because of our move, and we're still waiting on our Florida background check to clear so our social worker can complete the new homestudy. We actually have to have that in our hands when we are in India. One of my biggest fears is that she'll be ready and we won't be, but I have to believe that God is behind the timeline of our going to get her, just like He's been behind the whole timeline of the 2 year journey so far. Byron even told the church tonight (while pictures of Elizabeth were on the big screens and people oooohed and aaaawed) that we firmly believe that God brought us to this church for this part of the journey, and the congregation agreed with him! They are a very vocal group! :) One lady even said later that this church will do very will with a multi-ethnic family situation, and Byron's response was "Oh! I forgot! This WILL be a multi-ethnic family!!" David made the cutest comment at the shower today about that. The baby figurine they had on top of the cake was a little fair skinned blonde baby girl. He said they couldn't find a brown skinned one, so we just have to use our imaginations! :) We had our first shower today after the morning services. As soon as I get pictures, I'll post them. We had asked for it to be a donation shower for the orphanage, and most people did that, but a whole bunch of people gave Elizabeth something, too! It was a pot luck lunch, family adoption shower, so the place was packed! There were 2 whole tables full of gifts, and 4 tables and a counter full of food, and so many people that some had to eat outside! The whole family got to help open the presents (and William even modeled one outfit that has a hat -- hopefully I'll get that picture on the blog!) so that was neat. We got SO MUCH cool stuff for her and for the orphanage. The lady in charge of the shower also had put these nice cards on the tables for people to write encouraging notes to our family or to her for me to put in her baby book. I haven't brought myself to read those yet. I've cried enough for one day! Oh! And get this! After we had this wonderful shower, got probably $1,000 or more in gift cards, cash, and checks (some for us to buy things for the orphanage and some just for us to use), came home, and crammed it all onto the dining room table, Byron went to the Missions Committee meeting this afternoon. They decided that this is a mission opportunity and a relationship with the orphanage that they'd like to continue over the years, so they approved up to $1,000 for us to get there and to get all of this stuff over there because it's not all going to fit in 2 suitcases! Only God.... That money can be used to buy our plane tickets -- Oh yeah! Our plane tickets! I forgot to tell you this part! The financial secretary at the church has a friend that is going to give us Buddy Passes for our two tickets! That means that instead of paying $5,000 we'll only pay about $500! We'll still have to pay for the tickets from New Delhi to Kolkata and back, and her one-way ticket home from Kolkata through New Delhi, but still, that's a huge savings! We'll be at the mercy of the airline as far as our flight choices, but that's OK with me! That just means we have more of an adventure story to tell when this is all over!"

I've taken all of the stuff from the shower out of the gift bags and placed it on our couch. It's covered! The right side is stuff for Elizabeth, and the left side is for the orphanage. (I'll get a pic soon.) It looks like the Baby's Department exploded on our couch! It's so cool that the church gave that much to the orphanage!! We won't be able to fit all of it into our suitcases, so we may need to talk aout mailing a package or two. We got some beautiful things for Elizabeth. One of the dresses I want to be her "coming home" outfit that people here see her in for the first time. And there's a gorgeous white satin dress that we can use for her dedication. And blankets, homemade and storebought, toys, a tote bag that I can put pictures into the outer shell, a bouncy seat, books, diapers, wipes, more clothes, more toys, a grocery cart "playmat", and a thing where you put the baby's handprints in the clay and bake it! And a guy at church is giving us their high chair, car seat, and stroller! They only have one daughter, so it shouldn't be in that bad of shape1 :) You know I said that Jehovah Jireh was the name of God that I was claiming right now? Well, He has proven Himself faithful.... again!