3 things I look forward to doing after I graduate

I thought it might be time for a more fun or random blog, rather than always talking about adoption stuff. Since it is summer time and I have a little bit more free time, I feel like I am getting a little taste of what my life may look like after I graduate with my masters degree. In the last couple weeks I've been thinking about things that I would like to do after I graduate.
So here are some ideas that I have....

- Being a mother.
Depending on when we are able to go pick up the baby, I will hopefully graduate and be able to stay home and focus on raising a baby and being a wife. Matt is a huge help around the house, but I enjoy being able to cook dinner and do things around the house that need to be done. Matt has really stepped up and takes care of a lot of the household chores and he is so understanding when I haven't started dinner because I am working on school stuff.

- Read for fun.
I don't get to read anything for fun because I am so consumed with reading for school and assignments.

- Learn to sew.
I do not know how to sew, so I'm thinking about the possibility of learning to use a sewing machine. I would like to be able to make curtains, or halloween costumes, and even hem pants. I don't know how to do any of it and I would like to at least have a basic understanding of how to sew.

I know that adding a baby to our family is going to be a huge adjustment for our family, but these are just a few ideas that I've had the last few weeks. So depending on when we are able to travel and get the baby that would be my first priority before these other things. Lord willing, one day I will finish my degree and hopefully get to do a few things that I want to do.

A Mother's Day Poem

Mother's Day is a tough holiday for me for many reasons. I know that there are many other women who struggle on mother's day, for many reasons and I always take time to pray for those women on mother's day. For so long mother's day was difficult because of the death of my mother, when I was in college. Then for the years that Matt and I were trying to get pregnant, mother's day was a day of torture. Then this year the one year anniversary of my grandfather's death just happened to fall on May 13th, mother's day.
While mother's day is difficult it is also a time that I get to thank the women in my life that play motherly roles in my life. My grandmothers, my step-mom, my mother in law, and several other friends and family members. This year mother's day a little different. While it was still a tough day, I have hope for future mother's days. For so many years, I didn't have hope that mother's day was ever going to be a day for celebration. But now, I have hope that one day mother's day will be a day of mixed emotions of remembering my mother and all that she meant to me but also thankfulness for the blessings that God has given me.
This year our adoption agency sent me an email to wish me a happy mother's day and they included this poem in the email. I thought I would just share it because I thought it was really sweet.

A Mother's Day Poem Once there were two women who never knew each other One you do not remember, the other you call Mother Two different lives shaped to make you one The first one gave you life, and the second taught you to live it The first gave you a need for love, the second was there to give it One gave you a nationality, the other gave you a name One gave you a talent, the other gave you aim One gave you emotions, the other calmed your fears One saw your first sweet smile, the other dried your tears One made an adoption plan, that was all that she could do The other prayed for a child, and God led her straight to you. Now, which of these two women, are you the product of? Both, my darling, both, just two different types of love. ~ Author Unknown

Dossier has been sent!

Today we sent our dossier to our agency to be reviewed and then to be sent to several other places, including Ethiopia. A dossier is all  of the paperwork that is needed to do an adoption. Every country's requirements are different as to what they require in their dossier. Matt and I have been working several weeks on getting all of the required forms and paperwork. Today it all came together and we were able to send it off.

Here we are at fedex sending it off. The guy behind the counter thought I was totally crazy for asking if I could take a picture with our package, but I just had to explain what was going on and that I needed to document the moment! I'm not going to lie, we were both excited and nervous all at the same time. We were excited because we had worked so hard to get everything that we needed and we had finally completed all of our hard work, but nervous because we wanted to make sure everything was perfect and the realization that this package is really important. We spent some time praying over our dossier in the parking lot and asking God to protect it along the way.

Here are some ways that we are praying now and also ways that you can be praying for us.
- Pray that our dossier will make it safely to all of it's destinations. Our dossier will travel to a couple different states, then on to Washington D.C., and on to Ethiopia.
- Pray that Matt and I will wait patiently as our dossier is being reviewed. We know that God is sovereign.
- Also, continue to pray for our baby in Africa. We don't know who our baby is yet, but we do know that God has a specific child for us.