St Louis!

We had such a fun weekend celebrating our fifth anniversary together. Isaac stayed in KC with a friend and we got our first night (actually 2 nights) away from him together soon since he was born. Though we missed him, it was really nice to get a break..... And even though there were some unforeseen slightly ridiculous circumstances, we had a great time together.

The non-raining pics are from how are accidental trip over the Mississippi River and into East St. Louis, Illinois. Whoops! Haha.... The raining pictures are from our trip out of St. Louis on our way back to Kansas City on Sunday morning. How refreshing it was to see some water falling from the sky! I'd almost forgotten what rain looked like!

On Friday evening we spent several hours at the city Museum. All I can say is, WOW! That is one incredible place. I played so hard that I was sore for three days afterwards. :-) Saturday morning we spent several hours at a coffee shop just journaling, reading, and talking. It was sooooo refreshing. We grabbed lunch at an amazing Italian restaurant in The Hill, an Italian area in St. Louis....yummmmm.... followed by a relaxing afternoon hanging out at our hotel, swimming, reading, and talking.... and then a fun dinner out at the Boathouse, a restaurant on a lake. A good time was had by all, including Isaac who enjoyed his time at home with Jerusha immensely. He did really well in our absence, and was very excited to see us when we walked in the door.... almost as excited as we were to see him. :)

Mental note: we must go out of town again together before 2 more years go by.

City Museum.... No words to describe the amazingness.

These 2 pics were from the accidental trip over the river.  Haha :)

The arch... it was raining Sunday morning when we had planned to go see it.  Bummer.   Still got a lot of good views of it though since it was right behind our hotel.

surprise....

We had a "small" group of some of Stan's good friends over for a SURPRISE birthday party for him last night.  I told Stan that we were going to put Isaac to bed last night and have a late dinner at home, just the 2 of us.... and that he wasn't allowed to know what I was making... <<wink, wink!>>... which was a great ploy to hide the AMOUNT of food I was making! :)  

Stan later said he never even suspected that I was planning anything other than just a dinner for the 2 of us. :) (Yesss!!)

Check out Stan's expression here:

It was so fun to have all these guys in our home... and Stan was really surprised.... and REALLY blessed.  Success! :)  Happy 34th birthday, babe!

T-Shirt Campaign & Giveaway Results!

Our t-shirt campaign ended tonight and the shirts are going to print!  YAY!  We sold 79 shirts, which was above and beyond our goal of 65.  Praise God! :)  This t-shirt campaign raised over $600 toward our adoption fund.  WOW!!  Thank you so much to all of you!

Annnnnnnd now.... the results of the giveaway... If you helped promote our t-shirts by sharing them on facebook or twitter, or blogging about them, you were entered in a giveaway for a $20 amazon.com gift card.  I used Random.org to generate the winning numbers....and they are.....(drum roll please..........)

#12 - Joanna Pambianco!

& #34 - Mike Fields!

Thank you again so much to ALL of you who have purchased shirts and/or helped us promote the shirts. We know that in your hearts this is so much more about supporting our adoption and helping us bring our baby home than it is about the t-shirts or the giveaway.  We are in awe of how God uses people to show us His faithfulness.  We are so blessed!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

The 51-year-old Me

I've been thinking a lot lately about how and who I want to be when I'm in my 50's.  The first 13 years of adulthood have flown by....and here I sit at age 31 knowing that the next decade, and then 2, then 3, and so on, will fly incrementally faster.  Really, this entire life here on Earth will be just a quick blip from the perspective of eternity.  And maybe I'm having a "midlife crisis"...or "mid-life evaluation moment" (not crisis- I don't feel distressed or anything.)....a few years early...but I've been considering who I want to be in 20 and 30 years and what things I should invest my life in NOW in order to reap the harvest of who I want to be THEN.  So this is what I've come up with so far:

NOW, I need to invest lots of time in the secret place with the Lord, to prioritize intimate friendship with Him above all else, so that THEN my heart will be so much more closely tuned in to His whispers and His leadership.

NOW, I need to invest time in learning and disciplining myself to listen well and really hear people's hearts, so that THEN I will be more able to hear the heart of God for people as they share their hearts with me.

NOW, I want to prioritize time connecting with Stan's heart and being before the Lord with him, so that THEN we will be in such a level of unity that will allow the Lord to use us powerfully together.

NOW, I want to prioritize one-on-one time with Isaac and with each of my other children so that they will feel pursued, seen, known, and understood while they're young, and so that THEN they will be sure of their value to their Father and to me.

NOW, I want to invest time and thought and intentionality into making our home a peaceful place to live, so that THEN it will be like second nature to me, and our children will know as adults how to facilitate peace in their own homes.

NOW, I need to prioritize loving and seeking His heart for those He's put before me, so that THEN I will reap the joy of long-time friendships, AND knowing how to share in His heart for people who are so precious to Him.

NOW, I need to read books congruent with my passions, callings, giftings, and who I want to be in 20 years....and I need to seek relationships with those who are more advanced in years and in the Lord than I am, so that I will learn MORE of the things I can do NOW, to facilitate becoming who I want to be THEN.

That's all I've got for now.... What about you?  Any "NOW.....so that THEN" thoughts you'd like to share? :)

(Failing to plan is planning to fail, right?)

Adoption Process Update...We're.... LIVE!!

OKAY!  I will post.  I WILL post.  I WILL POST!  :)

I've been so busy living life that I haven't had time to write about it!  But here I go.... finally.

We are LIVE with our agency (Christian Family Services) as of this past Monday, July 2nd.  This means that at any moment, we could be chosen by a birth mom as adoptive parents for her baby.  The crazy thing was that they SHOWED OUR PROFILE to a set of birth parents THAT NIGHT (who gets presented on the first day that they go live!? It doesn't happen often.)... annnnnd..... the couple chose another family.  We were just SLIGHTLY sad about this, while at the same time completely at peace with it.  I told some friends that we were about 3% sad and 97% peaceful and trusting the Lord.  He has the perfect baby for our family, and we trust Him to connect us to him/her when it's time.  This process could be a pretty wild roller coaster.  But the cool thing is....we get to abide in Him while we ride, trusting that His plan for our family WILL be accomplished in His perfect timing.  Is it always easy to trust Him?  No.... but it's worth it. :)  Righteousness, peace, and joy....We get to walk in all of these while we wait.

In the meantime... since we now have a completed home study, it's super easy to get on the "waiting families" list at almost any adoption agency.  Therefore... we have made initial contact with another local Christian agency here in Kansas City: The Light House.  We know a few people who work in the maternity home that is run by the Light House for teen moms, and it is just generally a very reputable agency here in KC.  We had our initial meeting this past week with their Adoptions Coordinator and are in the process of getting a few paperwork items (including our completed home study) in to them (which will happen this coming week) before we'll go "live" with the Light House also.  They have a little more "traffic" in terms of completed adoptions per year than Christian Family Svcs has and are very comparable to CFS in terms of their fee schedule.  We are excited to work with them in addition to CFS.

ALSO... A quick t-shirt fundraiser update:

We have reached 46 t-shirts reserved, on the way to our goal/"tipping point" of 65.  This is awesome!  Thank you so much to all our friends and family who've reserved shirts!!  We have 19 more to go, and only 9 days to pull it off.  If we don't reach our goal of 65, the shirts won't print!  (which would be SAD.... but we can do this! :) I am so excited to wear my shirt, AND so excited to hopefully see lots of pics of those of you who have reserved shirts wearing them! :)  Assuming we reach our goal, the shirts will arrive between July 25 and 29.  Woohoo!  Here's the link in case you want to reserve a shirt (or 2, or 10! :) https://teespring.com/stanaadoptionshirts

Giveaway Reminder:

Don't forget that if you share the link to the t-shirts on your blog, facebook, twitter, or via email, AND LET ME KNOW ABOUT IT, you will be entered in our amazon.com gift card giveaway!  Don't forget to share the link and help us get the word out about these shirts.  There are lots of people out there who love adoption but can't give a whole lot financially to help fund adoptions....but CAN pay 16 bucks for a cool t-shirt in support of adoption. :)

Annnnd that about wraps it up for me tonight.  Typing up chord charts for a worship song and heading to bed! :)  Hope you all are staying cool during these ridiculously hot days!  My car's "outside temp" thing said 110 today!  (?!?!?!)  Crazy!!  Thanks for your continued prayers for the fires in Colorado.... Lord, please send more rain!

Blessings, friends!