Beginning Our Adoption Journey

This is what Jim and I have been staring at for the past few weeks. This is the paperwork for our adoption applications--just the applications!

For those of you who had no idea that Jim and I were considering adoption, well, we are :)
For some time now, we have felt God's calling on our lives to adopt. I think we both thought it would be a little later in life after we were done having children of our own. However, our plans are certainly not God's plans and we both feel that he is urging us to pursue adoption at this time. We have decided to adopt internationally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa. After prayerfully considering other countries, we both feel a calling to this country. It is a country with very few resources and the children are living in very poor conditions. Many of them have malaria and parasites because of the lack of medical treatment. Jim and I feel that God has provided us with so much, that we need to help a child who has very little.

We have started our home study process. For those of you who don't know much about the adoption process, the home study is the first part that needs to be completed in the adoption process. We have to meet with the social worker 3 times and she asks a lot of questions about us. We also have to have physicals done, fingerprints taken, and give them all our financial information for the past few years. It seems daunting, but I am just trying to stay focused on why we are doing this.

I'll try and post when I can to keep everyone informed. Right now, Jim and I just ask for prayers as we step out on this journey. We know that God is in control of this and guiding us as we go along.

Here's our current family...it will be exciting to see what it looks like a year or two from now :)

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 1:27

Life

I'm not even going to begin trying to catch up for the past 6-7 months! I have been a horrible blogger for all of our friends and family. So instead of trying to play "catch up", I'm just going to start with what's going on in the Warne household now...

Jade turned 11 months old last week! I can't believe she's almost a year old. That means I have to get serious about planning her first birthday.

I have had so much fun being a mom. It is the most exhausting, exhilirating, emotional roller coaster that one will ever be on, but one that I would never give up. Jade is crawling and pulling herself up, which means she's getting into EVERYTHING and she's not happy when mommy takes stuff away. She is talking a little and can say 'dada' and 'uh-oh' and she "roars" when we point to a green dinosaur in one of her books. She loves to be with mommy and likes to help in the kitchen. She enjoys jogging in her BOB jogging stroller and likes to be outside anytime. It's so much fun watching her learn new things everyday.

In other news, for those of you who may not know...Jim and I are in the process of adopting. I will post more on this later this week.

Catching Up

Well, a lot of time has passed since my last posting. Jade has turned 3 months old, went on her first major trip, started daycare, and turned 4 months old! We have been having so much fun with her! She is getting so big and she is interacting with us more and more every day.

Jade turned 3 months old on Jan. 6th.

In the middle of Jan. we headed south to visit our amazing friends in Arizona! Of course it nice to go to AZ in Jan and the weather was wonderful, but we really just wanted to see all of our friends. They made us feel so welcome. It was as if we hadn't left. Two of my best friends in AZ had little girls around the same time Jade was born. It was nice to meet their little girls.

Jade did great on the plane!!

                                           

Here's Jade and Kinley. Kinley is 1 week younger than Jade and she was born 4 weeks early, but she has more than made up for it :)

Here is JoAnne and Lucy--Beautiful girls! Lucy is about 3 weeks older than Jade.

Mike and Diane...they were our neighbors. It was so nice to see them!

Here are Chris and Jim with the girls: Kinley, Harper, and Jade

This is Dana and I. Dana and her husband Brian allowed us to crash with them for a week.

And here's the Holohan family: Harper, Rachel, Kinley, and Chris. This picture pretty much sums them up. And we love them!

Our time in AZ was great and Jim and I both have hopes of maybe moving back someday...

Jade turned 4 months old on Feb. 6th. Taking pictures was a lot more challenging because she wouldn't sit still.
Here stats were:
14 lb 5oz
24 1/4 in

So that has been the past few months in a nutshell.
Now for today...Jim and I have been busy in the kitchen. Here's what we made today.

Honey Oatmeal Bread

Homemade Almond Butter

Granola

And Caramelized Onion and Italian Sausage Pizza (our own recipe)

Needless to say, we are eating very good today:)

Hope everyone is having a blessed day.

It's been a while

It's been a while since I actually posted anything. I hope that everyone had a nice Christmas. We enjoyed Christmas with Jim's mom, sister, and brother-in-law. It was so nice to spend our first Christmas with Jade. We feel so blessed that God has given us such a wonderful little girl--everyday I am amazed at how exciting and challenging being a mother is.

Jade is growing up fast. She has started "talking" a lot and she has discovered her hands. She is also rolling to her side. Yesterday she started hitting a toy with her left hand--purposefully!! It is so amazing to watch her grow up!

                                                    Christmas 2011

                                                    Jade got a lot of nice presents

                                                    Christmas jammies

                        Family Christmas photo--you can see our picture with Abby in the back

2 Months!

Two Years...

Two Years...

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11



It does not seem like it's been 2 years since our little girl, Abby, went to be with the Lord. A lot has happened in those 2 years and I am so thankful that God is so faithful, despite the fact that I doubt Him-a lot.

I know for a fact that God had us go through losing Abby in the right place/time. He provided us with so much love and support from our church and our close friends while we were there. I feel so blessed to have had the support we did. I never felt as though we were alone. I always had a friend to talk to and cry with (thanks JoAnne and Rachel). It also helped knowing that all of our friends were believers and even though they couldn't explain why God would choose us to go through this journey, they could reassure us that Abby would soon be able to meet Jesus and live a wonderful life in the most perfect place there is. And even though I selfishly wish that she was with us today and I could hold her in my arms, I am comforted by the fact that Jesus has been able to hold her for me. She was always His and not mine.

God has challenged us greatly and I have to say, I don't feel as though I have trusted in Him like I should.  The day we found out we would be having another baby was the best and scariest day of my life. I knew that I had to put all of my faith in the Lord and allow him to carry me through.  After what we went through with Abby, it was the only way that I could get through the pregnancy without being terrified. God was faithful, and brought so much peace throughout the pregnancy. I would have moments where I would become overwhelmed and afraid that the same thing was going to happen, but God provided me with a sense that things were going to be different this time. I could honestly hear Him whisper in my ear, "It's going to be ok. Trust me."

We are so blessed to have another little girl. I can't help but look at this picture and wish that we had another little girl in it with us. She will always be in our hearts and we will never forget her. Thanks to all of our friends and family that supported us through that difficult time.

I'm going to end this post with the words from the Selah song "I Will Carry You". It perfectly describes how I felt going through the loss of Abigail. Here is a link if you would like to listen to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLuaGiu73jc&noredirect=1



I Will Carry YouThere were photographs I wanted to take
Things I wanted to show you
Sing sweet lullabies, wipe your teary eyes
Who could love you like this?People say that I am brave but i'm not
Truth is i'm barely hanging on
But there's a greater story
Written long before me
Because He loves you like this
So I will carry you
While your heart beats here
Long beyond the empty cradle
Through the coming years
I will carry you
All my life
And I will praise the One who's chosen me
To carry you

Such a short time
Such a long road
All this madness
But I know
That the silence
Has brought me to His voice
And He says

I've shown her photographs of time beginning
Walked her through the parted seas
Angel lullabies, no more teary eyes
Who could love her like this?

I will carry you
While your heart beats here
Long beyond the empty cradle
Through the coming years
I will carry you
All your life
And I will praise the One who's chosen me
To carry you



One Month

This post is a little late, but I guess "better late than never". On Nov. 6th, Jade turned one month old! I can't believe how fast time flies! We've all been getting use to our new life. Overall Jade is a very good baby. She has been a little fussy lately and we're not sure why. We think it's either just a growth spurt or she has a little bit of reflux which makes her uncomfortable. She loves spending time "sleeping in" with daddy on the weekends and she really enjoys bath time. We feel so blessed to have her in our lives.

We really enjoy spending time together as a family on the weekends. We try to do as much as we did before having a baby...going grocery shopping together, going out to eat. We don't want to feel as though we can't have a "normal" life just because we have a baby.

Here are a few one month pictures of Jade. We got the onesie stickers on Etsy and I absolutely love them. After we take the pictures, we put the sticker in her baby book.