Nephews & Nieces, Gardening & Birthdays!

First, I wanted to introduce you to our new nephew, Dalton Parker!! Zac's oldest sister, Amy, gave birth to Dalton on Friday. He was a big guy and weighed in at 9lbs. 5 oz.!! Several of Zac's family have commented on how they thinks that he looks like Zac did as a baby. Dalton joins big brother, Bennett (3) and big sister, Maddie (21 months). We just adore our sweet nephews and nieces and are very excited to have yet another one. Here he is - so sweet:

And just because we are proud, here are pictures of Bennett and Maddie from Easter:

Bennett and Kevin (dad)

Maddie

Second, Zac and I have decided to try our hand at a little vegetable gardening this summer. Last year we had a few friends and family that did this and we realized how much money they got to save on groceries! So, Zac built us two planters, and last week we planted three green bell pepper plants, one red bell pepper plant, two squash plants, and six tomato plants. With grocery prices going up, hopefully we'll be able to enjoy some free (essentially) food! I'll be taking some pictures along the way to document. Here's where they are today - nothing yet, but maybe soon:


Last night we celebrated Zac's 29th birthday!!!! Zac wanted to eat wings at our favorite wing place, Buffalo Connection. It was very good! We also invited Zac's sister's family (Natalie & crew) and our friends Heath and Martha to join us. We had a very fun time. Below are a few pictures from the night.

Zac's birthday cake. At the top of the cake is my attempt to make a barbell.

Zac with Georgia. She is very artistic and drew him a beautiful picture for his birthday. The big black circle is a picture of one of Zac's strongman tires that he likes to flip. You might also notice that she included Gracie in the picture. So cute!

Our group! From L to R: Georgia, Natalie, Allison, Jason, Zac, Jack, Martha and Heath.

Last, if you think about it, please pray for us this week. We have an important decision to make and would appreciate any prayers for wisdom. Thanks so much! I hope that you all have a great week.

God is not Slow

"I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord." Psalm 27:13-14

Today is Mother's Day. It's not the easiest day for me. It's not easy for me to share that either. But, I hope that in sharing our story that God might use it as an encouragement to others.

Church can be one of the hardest places for us to be on days like this. We especially avoid the church service. Having to endure a sermon on the "joys of being a mother" for example, can be quite torturous. However, we have a sweet (and sometimes way too rambunctious) group of second graders that we have the great responsibility of teaching every Sunday. So with tears in my eyes driving to church this morning, I prayed for the Lord to give me the strength to teach them the truths that I am currently having to live out.

Yes - the Lord timed today's lesson to align perfectly so that I could be encouraged, too. He has a funny way of doing that. As a matter of fact, this entire curriculum has ministered to me over the past year. It is on the promises of God. Almost every week we have learned about a promise of God and how to apply that to our lives. The most interesting thing is that at the beginning of the curriculum* the authors' dedication reads, "to Amy Jo Michael, whose fourteen month adoption process taught us to treasure and to trust in the promises of God. You are a promise fulfilled." God knew what He was doing in choosing us to "teach" this curriculum - He knew that we needed to learn these truths just as much as the children in our class.

Of all things, today's promise was: "God is not slow in keeping His promise". We were to explain that "when God takes a long time to fulfill His promise, it is not because He is slow, but because He is doing some other work in us or through us that requires us to wait". Also, that "waiting for the fulfillment of God's promise means waiting confidently; it means to know God will fulfill His promise and that His way is best; to know that God is wise and His timing is right; to wait with the confidence that God is working for (our) good and for the good of His kingdom."

We ended the lesson with Psalm 27: 13-14: "I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD." I also like the first part of the verse in the NASV version stated above, "I would have despaired if I had not believed..." I guess both versions apply at different times as we wait.

We truly believe that God desires for us to adopt and that in the end there will be a child for us - our sweet promise fulfilled. It is hard to wait. It is hard on days like today when my empty arms ache and the desires in my heart to be a mother have yet to be fulfilled. However, I can cling to the promise in God's word that says that He "is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness..." 2 Peter 3:9

I am impatient - we are all impatient by nature. But, we don't understand God's slowness. Even though it seems to us that He is slow - He is not. His timing is perfect. It's hard at times to let these truths settle into my heart, but I'm thankful today to know those things. May God help us all to "be strong and take heart" as we wait for Him.

- Allison

* ("Faithful to All His Promises" by Sally Michael)

Cheboksary

This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I have hope in Him." Lamentations 3:21-24

As things have progressed through our adoption, we have been in a good place. People have asked how we are doing and for the most part we've been doing great. But ever since our paperwork was sent to Russia, things have greatly quieted down in the adoption department. All the paperwork, trips to Montgomery, home study documents to compile, countless emails and phone calls, dealings with the government, etc., are all finished (for the moment). So, that gives our minds more opportunities to wander and to focus on the long wait ahead, as well as our current childless state. Sometimes, it feels like this adoption will never happen. Everything is so out of our hands, and we have no way of really knowing what is truly going on with our adoption. Is anything really happening? What if our paperwork is collecting dust in the corner of some random office in Russia - Russia, everybody! It's not like we can just call over there and check on things. Yes, our agency communicates with the Moscow office, but our minds can sense the distance that is a reality in this process.

So, yesterday I was struggling with all of this. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself, asking all of the above questions and then some, and just feeling generally sad. I had not spoken to CHI in over a month, so I decided to email my consultant and see if she had any news about our case. I wasn't expecting to hear back from her (it was late in the day) and just went about doing other things. Not ten minutes later, Marti called. She said that she had gotten an email from Moscow about our case that day! She mentioned that I must have had a sixth sense or something, but I know that it was the Lord's perfect timing at work.

Marti went on to inform me that the Moscow office was in the process of assigning us a region!! They were wanting her to talk to us about considering the region of Cheboksary (also referred to as Chubasia). Cheboksary is a new region for CHI to work in, but their experience so far has been very positive. She shared a few other things that she knew and just asked us to think about everything and let her know if we wanted to go ahead with this region. After talking things over last night and searching for more information on-line, we have decided that there is really no reason why we shouldn't choose this region. So, I called Marti today and let her know that we would like to go ahead with the region of Cheboksary!

So, we now have a region!! This is great news - especially because we were able to be assigned to a region after only having our paperwork in Russia about seven weeks. We were truly hoping that we would hear news about a region within this time-frame, as Marti had mentioned that this had been the trend with other couples. We are one more step closer to our son, and we now have an idea of where he may be.

The best part of yesterday, though, was being reminded that God is going to give us the grace and the strength to get through this waiting. It may not always come in the form of good news like yesterday, but it will be there. Not old grace and strength, but grace and strength that is new every morning. He is and will continue to be so faithful.

It was also wonderful to once again be reminded that this journey is exactly where He wants us to be. I don't know why He has chosen this very different path for us, but this is His plan and we must continue to trust Him. He has not forgotten us. He is not far away. He is near and He is good.

More on the Cheboksary region to come, but check out this link to view a map of the area.