Best husband and best chicken in TN

Every day I wake up and realize that I am married to my best friend and my soul mate. And over the last seven years, I have also realized that Rob is an amazing father. He was, after all, the first person to change Julia's diapers, and he has completely shared the parenting responsibilities with me ever since...as it should be.

Yesterday, he amazed me many times over. In the morning, we attended Bible study as we normally do on Sundays. Before Bible study, Rob asked if he could address our class with some things that were on his heart. A few minutes later, he stood before our class of men and women ranging in age between their 20s and 40s, and described how God had led us to begin the process of adoption and how we were then led to our beautiful little boy in Bulgaria. At times, his voice seemed to quiver, and to someone who did not know him as well, it would have seemed this happened from all the excitement in his voice. Yes, that was part of it, but I also realized it was in part from the deep love and affection my husband has for our little boy.

Rob told the class about a fundraiser that we are having on Thursday to raise money to help with the adoption, and he handed out a flyer for the fundraiser to every person in our class, In all, I believe he helped pass out more than 200 flyers yesterday to our class and elsewhere. He was a man with a purpose. Rob even drove across town to our old neighborhood and left flyers on the doors of our former neighbors. He then came home and posted the flyer on his Facebook page so that all of his friends and family would attend the event.

In our little one's lifebook, I will be writing about the tenacity and spirit of his father as Rob continues to do everything humanly possible to bring our son home. I will also tell our little one how his father lights up with love and happiness at the mere mention of his name. I will take pictures of Rob on Thursday night greeting our guests at Chick-fil-A, and I will show our son how hard his father worked to bring him home.

If you would like to join us for this event, please print out the flyer found within this post. Chick-fil-A really does have some of the best chicken in Tennessee, and the biggest hearts for allowing us to do this fundraiser. And in the midst of it all will be one very happy husband, father and friend. We hope to see you there!

Mother's Day

Tomorrow is Mother's Day, and I will be celebrating this time with my own mom, my beautiful daughter and my wonderful husband. Becoming a mother seemed so impossible to me until God blessed us with our daughter a little over seven years ago, and for all of those years, motherhood has been the most wonderful experience for me. I have enjoyed seeing Julia grow from a small infant to a very smart, confident little girl who marches to the beat of her own drum. I have become infinitely aware of the strong bond between a mother and a child, and I have a love for my daughter that grows daily by leaps and bounds.

On Friday, I went to Julia's elementary school for "Muffins with Mommy," which is a Mother's Day celebration where the kids serve their moms muffins and present them with handmade items as gifts for Mother's Day. Julia gave me some beautiful purple petunias that were planted in a small pot, which she had decorated with sweet messages for me. She and her class also sang three songs for the audience of mothers which spoke of how much they loved the treats that their mommies made and the many kisses that their mommies gave. I was proud of Julia for singing out loud and smiling through the whole performance. She is definitely not a wallflower!

At the end of the celebration, Julia's teacher read to us a book that I wish now that I could remember the title. The book was about how time moves so quickly for parents as their children grow, and each day seems to be filled with "lasts"...the last time you change her diaper, the last time you give her a bottle, the last time you are able to pick her up and hold her, the last time she will sat in your lap, or the last time you walked her to class at school. I have already seen several lasts with my little girl. Those moments are beautiful and bitter sweet. They are gone before you even realize that they have left because you have been so into the business of living from day to day. But, I cherish every single last with my daughter, and I look forward to what the next day brings. I only wish that my son were here this Mother's Day so that we could begin the same journey.

As much as I will enjoy being with my family on this holiday, I cannot help but think about my little boy who will be missing from this celebration. Somehow, Mother's Day does not feel exactly the same knowing that my little one is so far away from me. However, with each ticking of the clock and each calendar day that passes, we are brought that much closer to the time we will be together. Your daddy and I think and talk of you often my little one. We can't wait to meet you!

Happy Mother's Day to everyone!

Water, water everywhere

Rob, his parents, and his sister have been trapped in his parents' home in Franklin for three days now as Tennessee has experienced what the news media is calling flooding of an epic nature. I have missed my sweet hubby dearly, but I am very happy that he and his family are safe. We are hoping that the Harpeth River behind their house will recede enough that Rob may be able to come home sometime tomorrow. But, do not think that Rob has been languishing idle at his parents house all of this time. He finished the last five modules of his Hague online adoption training while waiting for the flood waters to recede and received his certificate via our e-mail today.

Rob and I were also supposed to begin our second cycle of our international adoption training tomorrow at our agency's offices, but our adoption agency is located in an area of Nashville that has been evacuated due to the continuing rise of the Cumberland River. The training has therefore been postponed until next week.

Now that Rob has received his completion certificate for the online adoption training, we are very close to finishing our home study paperwork. Actually, all we have left to do is turn in our tax returns from last year, some additional financial info, and our medical paperwork, which our physician finished last week. It is hard to believe that we will be finished with this portion by the end of the week, but we are very excited at the prospect. We were also excited to receive my passport a few days ago with our last name spelled correctly!

With these things completed, we are one step closer to meeting our son. I gazed up at the stars tonight and again wondered what our little boy was doing at that moment. I hoped that he was happy and that somehow he could feel my love from so far away.