Not Quite According to Plan

As I said in a previous post, we were hoping that our paperwork would be sent over to Ethiopia by the end of March. Well... that's not looking likely. The past few weeks have been a bit challenging and trying when it comes to being patient. (those of you who know me, now that patience is not one of my many virtues.) Drew and I firmly believe that this adoption is the right step for our family, but we want to be responsible, particularly when it comes to our finances. 

As we get deeper into this process, we're realizing that we'll come out of this with more debt that initially thought. (Turns out Ethiopia isn't offering a "recession discount"...just kidding. But, really, they aren't.) After talking it all over with our caseworker, we've made the decision to wait until the summer to send our paperwork over. We realize it's only a few months, but it's still a few more months.

Someone I consider to be very wise told me that it's not about God saying "yes" or "no" to decisions we make in life, rather it's about us honoring Him with the decisions we make. It was a good reminder for me in all of this!

In the meantime, we're absolutely loving hanging out with Graham. Each day brings out a new dimension of his personality... he now tells us that a dog says "woof" and every circular object that exists is excitedly referred to as a ball. He's amazing. 

meanwhile, in Petoskey

So, while we were soaking up the sunshine in FL, Graham was enjoying the freshly fallen 10" of snow in Petoskey. Thanks to a certain father-in-law of mine, Graham's trip was well-documented.  (Each day brought a new "tele-graham" in our inbox.) 

...we're confident this kid will have a full-ride football scholarship. Just look at that belly.

a little get-a-way

Drew and I just came home after a wonderful week in Florida with our friends, Dan and Christina Katt. It was so very nice to wear flip-flops, bathing suits, and have no agenda for the week! Graham headed up to Petoskey to hang out with Nana and Poppa de Jonge, which made for an even more relaxing week (for us anyway...) We had beautiful weather and a wonderful time away.