As confirmed by 4 year old Colton Burpo in the book called, "Heaven is for Real." Which I would STRONGLY recommend for ANYONE to read! It's cute, uplifting and makes you think! Colton had a life threatening experience and "died" for 3 minutes and over the course of a year or so he describes different events to his parents, who had no idea what happened until they were able to piece his stories together. Precious! Read it! Available at Wal Mart...
Now, I'd much rather picture heaven than real life these days. With so much going on, so much that is NOT in our control...sometimes I just feel like I can't go on. We run 100 steps forward then everything comes to a sudden halt and where we thought God was leading, we start to question. No, don't be alarmed we are still on track for the adoption and foster parent classes, but this house business is getting a little out of hand. Money is getting really tight and without selling our house we can't close on the "new house" and therefore can't pull money out to put in the kitchen or finish the basement...and with the baby coming we've got to get that done. Of course, we knew all this could very well happen and we took the risk willingly...the frustrating part is just that with every single step we were diligent in prayer and waited for God to open a door before going through it. I'm sure there are lessons to learn about trusting God to provide, taking leaps of faith and being patient to the end, etc. But...in the meantime...I just cry a lot and fill my time with crap like the Bachelor to keep my mind occupied. Please, please, please as your begging friend and sister in Christ...PRAY our house sells ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But life goes on and God does provide...sometimes in unbelievable ways. The past few weeks has been a surreal series of events that again prove that there sure is a God and He sure is good! A couple weeks ago we were in MN with our families when we got that call that in fact, Jennifer was going to have...A BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Will we finally get our precious earthly son? Stay tuned to find out :) After talking on the phone several times we went to Mitchellville on Sunday to visit Jennifer. Now that was an experience. As we pulled in the parking lot and approached the security building a panic attacked formed in my throat and then a variety of emotions flooded...from laughing to crying to being scared, etc. And that was before we even met Jennifer. We walked into the visiting building and saw a room filled with tables, each with an inmate, other family members and children EVERYWHERE. And that's when the tears came. all these children...visiting their mother...in prison. Made me sad. Grace immediately scampered off to the toys. She found a bucket of blocks and sat down at a table with an inmate and her family. Which I didn't mind at all...except that maybe she was a little TOO comfortable in prison :) Anyway, we met Jennifer and I can't say enough good things about her. I sit there talking to her and can't help but wonder what happened...why she was here. She seems so down to earth, sarcastic, intelligent, etc. She refers to the baby as ours and calls him by the name we said we'd picked for him (which you will know in June:) She walks around with our picture saying, "This is the baby's parents!" When we ask her what she wants to happen after the baby is born she says, "It's your baby! Whatever you guys want! I"m just carrying him." She talks about mistakes she's made and is very aware that she is where she needs to be. She talks about her relationship with the Lord and just beams from ear to ear talking about how excited she is to be able to give us this gift. She sends us cards a couple times a week and sent Grace a special princess card. Again, it's all very surreal...God's fingerprints are all over this and I, for one, can't wait to see how it all pans out. Cautious optimism is our new motto in life. We are certainly excited about this, but aren't jumping to put a crib up! Of course we ask for continual pray that the pregnancy would remain healthy and everything would go smoothly!
That's about all the energy I can muster up for the day...
God bless you, one and all :)
Grace-isms for the week/weeks:
*I laid in her twin bed, 1/2 covered with stuffed animals 1/2 covered with her and me teetering on the edge. Grace grabs my arm and says, "Don't worry mom. I won't let you fall."
*Since her and Seth went to the father/daughter dance at our church one of her favorite past times is putting on a dress and saying, "Dance with me daddy!"
*(GRAPHIC NATURE) Grace points to her Barbie's chest and says in a whisper, "Mommy, what's these? What's these." I said, "Grace you know what that is and it's inappropriate to talk about. You can talk about it with mommy and that is all." Grace: "They're boobs mommy! (hehe) Girls have boobs! (hehe)"
*I've tried to teach her about seasons and we talk about how it rains a lot in spring. We haven't talked about it in quite sometime but today it was rainning and Grace starts yelling, "It's spring mom! It's spring!"
Also...I am PRETTY sure my life would be much easier if she wasn't soooo darn cute. Right? :)
