It's been kind of a bizarre season of life for me. In May, I quit my job at a nonprofit that served kids in care to stay home with Brighten and to start my own consulting business. In June, we found out that we were not going to be able to continue to pursue international adoption in Ethiopia after almost four years in process. Now, I'm learning contentment, which, if I'm honest, is uncomfortable and completely unfamiliar.
Read moreUntil They Say We Can't
When Jason and I began our Ethiopia adoption process in December of 2013, we had no clue what the next several years would bring. We were, admittedly, blindly optimistic. We thought it'd only take a few months to do our home study (try 7.5), be on the waiting list by summer (it was the end of September), and be booking flights to Ethiopia by Christmas 2015. Thankfully, even basking in our optimism, we'd heard that adoption is not for the faint of heart, so we had the foresight to set some "guidelines" - rules for ourselves if the going got tough.
Read moreA Charles Dickens Kind of Year
Originally written on December 31, 2016. Held for contemplation and revisited on January 7, 2017.
These days my Goodreads list looks more like celebrity memoirs and less like a high school summer reading list, however, I'm thankful for having read some Charles Dickens in my day. Sometimes, authors give us words that make so much sense when we don't really know how to describe something in our own words. As much as I love Lauren Graham and her latest book is a such a delight, she just doesn't quite paint the picture of 2016. Charles Dickens on the other hand...
Read moreLast November
Around this time last year, things looked a lot different in our lives. We experienced a pretty big setback in our adoption process. Our hearts were broken as we had been rejoicing and dreaming of days that we thought were soon to come, but in the matter of an instant, everything changed. You can read the post I wrote about that here.
Read morePsalm 63
Source
Six summers ago I traveled to a camp in Alabama as a 'leader' for youth group camp. I was in college and thought I was going to be teaching middle schoolers and high schoolers about the bible. I don't know what kind of impact I had on them, but God surly used that week to grow me and prepare me for the life that lay ahead of me.
Read moreAdoption Update: Christmas 2015
A Hole of Hope
Merry Christmas! We must admit, this is one of the more difficult updates that we've written for our adoption. Today marks the two year anniversary of beginning the process of adopting from Ethiopia. We had high hopes that this would be the year we were able to announce that we're bringing our son home, or that we have a referral, or something. But this is not that update, and this is not that year.
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