True Life Story

I love to sit back and just take life in sometimes.....I get overwhelmed with me, me, me....my job, my finances, my family, keeping up with the Jones's so to speak.....and then WHAM!!!!  I am face to face with real life people who are doing some super extraordinary things.....and that is what life is about....it is not about all the junk that I like to throw myself in......

Picture it...6:00 my neighbor comes to the door.  (She is quiet - is single) I think 'what's wrong?' She nicely asks if Eric and I would mind to wheel out her trash cause she just DONATED A KIDNEY!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, donated a kidney.....let that sink in....Has it?  No, really has it......?

We talked - it was a friend of hers from work.....not a pal that she grew up with...not a boyfriend or someone that she was romantically linked with....a friend...........

I look out my front window and my neighbor is a hero.....

Then in my back yard I have neighbors that just returned from their first visit meeting their new son from Ethiopia....yeah Ethiopia.  I told you God is hilarious........

This life is so much more than us....

My front door neighbor - has a friend that would have either been sentenced to a life of  transfusions and other things that I don't know about or even worse death if it had not been for my neighbor's act of complete and total kindness....

Then again, my back door neighbor is adopting a child that in all respect at the mere age of five is considered in most cases too old to adopt......yes, a five year old boy is considered in most families too old to adopt.....I look at my baby and seriously say.....are you kidding me?  If not for my backyard neighbors this boy may very well grow up in an orphanage and then be released into the world...void of love.......what would that mean for him....I won't write it, I am sure that you can figure it all out.

I am so stinkin' selfish!  I hate that about me........I don't mean this in any way other than the plain truth.....We had to write off big checks today....I was so consumed with what it was costing me....nevermind the fact that God honestly made the money multiply and I still don't know how in the world it happened....Eric says miscalculations....but seriously......

Then in the midst of my temper tantrum (not because I don't want to adopt but merely my selfishness) I talk to my neighbor who I rarely talk to - in order to find out that SHE DONATED A KIDNEY!!!!!
If you happen to read this and think circumstances are funny.....YOU ARE INSANE.....God is real and he has an uncanny sense of humor..............

Enough said

Today we went to Adoption Assistance (the organization that we are partnering with for our homestudy).  They had a picnic and according to everyone it is an annual event where all adoptive parents and prospective adopting parents go to well.....just mingle.  I had my camera with me but it was raining and I just don't chance gettin' my ol' camera wet....she is my pride and joy. So, no pictures...sorry!

Nonetheless, they had flags up from every country that was represented there....39 to be exact!!!!  I hate to sound like a dummy but they had countries I had never even heard of. 

What an amazing tribute to lil' ole Kentucky and the outreach that we can have.  The kids were beautiful....

The thing that made me laugh is we were the minority.....we were all just a white family....how boring!!!! Yep....I felt like the minority - HOW AWESOME IS THAT!

We met a family.....they are from Bowling Green and to top it they are Hilltopper alumni (it always does my heart good to meet a fellow Hilltopper) They have four children and are looking to adopt two children....yep I said two. Sometimes God just makes me giggle....I am having a nervous breakdown with one and this mom seemed so confident in that she wanted to add two more to her house...the kicker was that she was simply flippant and merely 'why not' in her reasoning.....

On that note I checked out that mom's blog and found this video....thought it pretty much summed things up...

http://vimeo.com/21014886

Order yours Today!!!!

I really like them! (and it has almost nothing to do with the fact that I designed them)  :)

We will be selling them for $10.00 a piece. All shirts have design on the front and the back as you see below.  Size range from youth to adult (please allow for a charge of $2 more for 2xl and up).  If interested in purchasing one please send me an email at fran1runner@gmail.com with size and color.  It may take up to two weeks for arrival. 

Thanks for looking!

Homestudy was a success!

Okay, Okay truth be told I had a near panic attack right before it happened....but hooray! Ms. Meredith came and it was a great time.  We laughed and talked and she even got a tour of my sparkling clean house.....Good day.  Now hopefully onto the next step.....what's that?  Completing the dossier paperwork, submit and wait on a few govermental forms and then wait for our referral....I think. 

Just gettin' ready

Tomorrow is the day....yep, we have our homestudy.  Who's nervous?  Okay, WE ARE!  So in an effort to impress our social worker with our mad cleaning skills......we are wrapping up a few things.  And well....our lil' Cinderella got into it too.  She cracks me up. She has mono, a tutu, and rainboots....(and yes, I said our girl has mono) yet she wanted to help.  As she said, 'She will do anything for her baby sister.' 

Love this girl!

Remember those crazy TN folks I mentioned.....

If you read the post, 'So Why Are  You Adopting...?' (and if you haven't and you are interested look below).  These are the friends of mine that had the blog that I secretly stalked for about a year before reaching out to them.......well..........darn if they didn't post a video.....click below....

(the video is not blurry - I don't know why the picture that links it is - I can't seem to get it to be clear)

What if....

Today a song was sung at church that is heart wrenching. Two beautiful friends had sent me this song to hear as I was dealing with hurtful things that were said about Eric and I adopting, on top of my dad being in ICU, on top of my sister's hurt in dealing with a husband that has left.............

Here it is...

In my prayers tonight for our baby girl in a far away land....I heard this song and prayed for the birth mother of our baby......my heart aches for her. I can't imagine what she is going through.....I think about her often. I wonder if she is alive.  I wonder how she is dealing with it....

Truth be told in the past I have prayed for our child that is out there.....the birth mother hasn't been front and foremost in my mind (and yes, in case you are wondering -  I do pray that I could be a better person.) :)

I have a special friend that told me the other day that she prays for the birth momma everyday.........tonight, I am reminded that she is out there....she has to either give her baby up (who she loves just as much as I love my  babies....) because she cannot feed her or because she is suffering with an illness where she has no option but to let her baby go......I hope (and now, will pray) that she will feel blessed from this experience.  When we go to Ethiopia for our first visit - we must meet her.  Yep, face to face.....momma ey momma...I can't even wrap my brain around that.  I am fully aware of how critical this meeting is and I have to be prepared to love her child as my own......I am not worried or concerned about that - but I have to make her fully aware and convince her of that........I want her to know that this child will be a Runner.....How in God's green earth do you do that?  I have to relay that to this woman who speaks another language and who loves this lil' being, that I can take her place.....

I hope that her sleepless nights of worry and fear are comforted in knowing that Eric and I love her daughter just as much as she does and above all that He loves her baby....then finally, that the trials in this life are His mercies in disguise...no pressure....