THE NEW SHIRTS ARE IN!!

Yesterday I came home to find a big box of Love it Waiting shirts! They look great! If you ordered one, they are on their way! Unfortunately there is a bit of a delay on the JAMBO tees, but hopefully the store will be stocked up again soon! Stay tuned for another exciting update on the store! (hint: there might be some new designs added to support other families)

REFERRAL PICTURES

These are the very first pictures we got of Arthur! I think he was about 4 months old here. It's kind of sad for me to think about how much time we've missed with him. You know the mom conversation where the soon to be mom is almost scolded for sleeping in? You know the comments like

"You just wait!"

"You better get your sleep now because..."

Yeah, I'm sort of tired of these comments. For a lot of reasons, but mainly because I would have LOVED to be the one to get up in the middle of the night with Arthur during those tender, newborn weeks. Don't get me wrong, I am all about people telling it like it is! I'm not into sugar-coating life struggles. I just feel like sometimes the way mothers give advice feels like a threat! For a mom-to-be filled with insecurity, the last thing I want to feel is threatened. I want you to tell me the truth, but I also want to be encouraged that I can do this.

Please know that I love you all, little mommy friends! I just thought I would share a little bit about what it feels like to be a mom who has missed the first 8 months of Arthur's little life.

Wow! I did not see this post going here when I started writing today, but there you have it!

TEXT MESSAGE FROM A DEAR FRIEND

"I have had you on my heart so much lately *tears* - I just want you

to know that you are going to be such a radiant and amazing mama.

And Aaron is like a dream dad! In these weeks that you wait

to get Arthur, know that I am praying over him every day

and that I am praying for you and Aaron also - that God would help

this time to go so quickly, that He would surround you with

legions of Angels on your trip there and back and that your transition

to parenthood would be the most precious time you've ever experienced.

Arthur is amazingly adorable, and I can't wait to meet him!!"

Just feeling so lucky to be surrounded by such great friends! Thank you, Shanda!

HALLMARK BABY SHOWER

Last week my sweet friends at work threw me a baby shower! Wow!!!! It really blew me away! These people are so thoughtful and talented. It was just perfect! And of course... no diaper cake in sight! ;)

The spread... so cute!!

The invite!

Onesies and table decorations! See... so thoughtful! If you look close you

can see how each onesie has a special connection to our story.

#1 Carry me Home Art Print

#2 Cowboy boot because we are from Texas

#3 Our dogs!

#4 Manbear

#5 Little Bumblebee

The humor! Thanks, Sam!

The handmade! Love the simplicity of this :)

Handmade by Sandi

And finally the quiz. All the questions came from the blog! So fun!

A MILLION thank you's to all my fellow Hallmarkers!

ROCKER REFINISHED

Remember this post? Well, the dang thing is finally finished! I picked it up this week! It is absolutely perfect! Paseo Upholstery did a great job fixing it up! The nursery feels a little more complete. More pics of his room coming soon!

MY "BIRTH" STORY

I've been so excited to share this, but couldn't until we passed court. It starts on the morning of December 1st... about 7 months ago. I woke up and felt my insides aching and remembered a dream I had that night. I woke Aaron up and told him all about how I dreamt Arthur was born. It was honestly kind of strange... the way dreams usually are, but I couldn't help but wonder if Arthur actually was born that day all the way across the world!

When I got to work I told our social worker all about it on gchat. She said "Oh my gosh, Heather! It's totally possible that he was born today! I've heard of that happening a lot! You should write it down!" So, I did. I wrote it down right here on this blog.

A couple months later things got kind of crazy with the news that Ethiopia would cut inter-country adoptions by 90 percent! This news was heartbreaking! I pushed through and tried to stay positive, and really made myself crazy trying to figure out what God was doing through all of this. It just didn't make sense to me. I remembered the dream I had and decided to look on the Waiting Child List. (a list of mostly healthy children who are a little older and are waiting to be adopted). I thought... I wonder if there's a boy on the list with the December 1st birthday. I mean... what are the chances? There were only about 20 kids on the list at the time. As I scrolled down I felt the chills run across my skin as I saw a boy, born on December 1st! He was so beautiful, he seemed to have such a sweet spirit... he was TEN!

"Ten?! Hmm... I just don't know about that. Aaron's going to think that I'm nuts!" I felt nuts, but when I told Aaron about it, I was kind of surprised by his response. He, too felt that the birthday was significant and thought it was something we needed to pay attention to. He said "I just don't feel right saying, 'Yes, Lord we want to care for orphans, but not a ten-year-old,' Let's pray about it." So, we prayed about it. We asked our family to pray about it. I kept remembering things I had learned from an adoption conference I had attended a few months before. Learning more about orphan care actually created a lot of doubt in my mind about our decision to adopt a baby internationally. And the news of the slow down made me fear we were just adding to the "baby business".

We eventually decided that this little ten-year-old was not our child. Which was kind of tough for me. I had been staring at his photo and daydreaming about our family. I just felt connected to him because of that birthday! Pretty soon after that, things started picking up and referrals started pouring in! I started to get excited again about a baby. The baby God had for us.

Within a couple weeks we had moved all the way up on the wait list and Ashley (our consultant) called us with the news of our son! She had both of us on the line...

ASHLEY: "Ok guys, are you ready to hear about your son?"

AARON: "Yes!"

ME: "I think so..."

ASHLEY: "Ok, I'm probably going to mess up his name. I haven't heard this name before. His name is Fuad Amina"

AARON: "ok..."

ME: an echoing, "ok..."

ASHLEY: "He was born on December 1st... Heather, are you still breathing?" (She knew about the dream too)

ME: "OH MY GOSH!"

AARON: an echoing, "OH MY GOSH!"

The rest of the conversation was such a blur! I just felt paralyzed by the power of what the Lord had done. So overwhelmed by how big He is!! I mean, I felt my son being born all the way across the world! What a beautiful gift for us. For me. For Arthur. All of my doubts and insecurities vanished that day. This is our son!

WE WOULD LIKE TO INTRODUCE YOU TO OUR SON!

Our consultant called this morning with the news that the letter came and we passed court! He is officially ours! 4-6 weeks from now we will be going to get him!!