A look at love...

I have seen "love" come to our home in so many forms...

This is what love looks like from a dear "giggle sister" in

New Jersey...

This is what love looks like from a women's bible study group in

Portland, OR...

This is what loves looks like from childhood friends now in

Arizona...


This is what love looks like from a preschool in
Verboort, Oregon

This is what loves looks like from a couple with a heart for God's kids in

Sherwood, Oregon

This is what loves looks like from a 1st and 3rd grade class in

Enumclaw, Washington

Here is LOVE all bundled up and ready for delivery...

Blessed by 150 pounds of LOVE...

Thank you to everyone!

You have touched our hearts deeply!

Your impact will cross the nations!

And God... I am sure He is smiling... as His children have taken care of "the least of these"!

Are we still collecting?... You bet!

That's the beauty of 2 trips!!!

Leavin' on a jet plane!

Ok... not yet! (How about in 46 days????) God has blessed us with a court date of December 3rd! We are so excited to be traveling with another local family and 5 other families from our agency! We plan to have a party in Frankfurt where we all seem to be landing before our last leg to Addis.


What a journey we are on. Even having "been there/done that", I still can't imagine what it will be like to meet our sweet daughter, to hold her in our arms, to stand before a judge and say "Yes!!!", and then leave our sweet love behind as the paperwork is completed. God has made my heart so "soft" and yet... He is making it "strong" through these adoption journeys. A strong, soft heart... but still not a patient one!... tee... hee...


It's been an incredible week on the adoption front! Friends from across the nation have received referrals, court dates, updates on court decrees. And, so tender to our heart was a referral to our very good friends who live in our same small town. We've determined our baby girls will be BFF and we may just have to dress them as twins! tee... hee... Thank you God for blessing us with families to process this journey together.


It's also been a heart-warming week. We were lovingly surprised by a beautiful couple who donated a huge box of donations for the children of Ethiopia! I posted our thankfulness on Facebook and friends across the nation have responded wanting to help as well... friends I haven't seen since highschool, friends in New York, Arizona... local friends! What a sweet blessing to see His children stand up to take care of His children! We are so thankful for the generous hearts and kindness we have witnessed this week!


And now... for a touch of lightheartedness...

This is a "classic" Reece family shot... you simply couldn't capture us any more "real" than this!

Beautiful 2-year-old princess!

Crazy hair night at AWANA's... my bug boy went all out with a super cool "do"! :)

Finally! The Referral Post... Labor Emotions Involved!!!

Every adoptive family has their own story re: "the call". Here is ours!

August 2nd, 2010 -"The Call!" came at just before 3:00 pm!

We were given the referral of a 5-month baby girl!

Hubby receives the next call... it's time to come home... we're in labor!!!

And indeed it was!!!....

Here I am... laptop in hand... ready to see the pictures of our baby girl!

Time picture taken: 4:23 PM (Time elapsed: 1 hour 23 minutes)

(I had already exercised GREAT patience waiting for hubby to come home!)...

Ok... we are hidden away in the nursery...

Kiddos are watching Dora downstairs... here we go!

Time picture taken: 4:24 PM (Time elapsed: 1 hour 24 minutes)




Hmm... no e-mail... WHAT! It's been an hour and a half since the call...

Hit REFRESH a thousand times... (my poor laptop)...

and call our sweet social worker a hundred times...

Her outbox shows the e-mail is on it's way.... Cyberspace show me my baby!!!!

Time picture taken: 4:32 pm (Time elapsed... 1 hour 32 minutes)

At this point, I thought I may very well lose my mind!

The reality is... something is not working right...

We later find out that the files were HUGE and our sweet social worker, once she had commuted home, broke down the HUGE file into many small e-mails...

In the mean-time, Dora is done, the kiddos need food and I still haven't seen my baby!!!

Time picture taken: 4:55 PM (Time Elapsed... 1 hour 55 minutes)

Dinner is done, hit REFRESH one more time... FINALLY, the e-mails start showing up!!!

We retreat back to the nursery while leaving our kiddos in the capable hands of Veggie Tales this time...

Time picture taken: 6:56 PM (Time Elapsed... 3 hours 56 minutes)

Our sweet girl!

We see your big, beautiful eyes!!!

Your pouty lips and kissable cheeks!

We are in love!

You were so worth the wait!

A new perspective on "The Call"...

The internet has definitely been an awesome tool that God has used in my life! First and foremost, He used it to help me meet my Prince Charming! Indeed! Amen! Secondly, He has used it to connect me to people all over the United States with hearts for adoption and His precious children... even connecting us with a wonderful new family living just down the street that, honestly, we may never have met otherwise! What a sweet answer to prayer!

Today our adoption Yahoo! group was buzzing with activity! Travel dates being assigned, people passing court, and referrals! There was so much wonderful joy being shared. But the green bug of envy caught me AGAIN! Where was "our call"? "Oh my, we've been skipped over!" (Simply due to the fact that God has called all of our families to different genders/age ranges/medical conditions, etc.) "But... STILL!" (can you hear the sad whining going on.... oh dear...)

Then I recalled a sweet conversation we had with our new friends... and was reminded that we said "yes" to His calling... openly and with all our hearts... yet, nothing is absolute. His plans are His plans. His timing is His timing. I suddenly realized, the call we are waiting for is HIS!

I have found such relief in that! Yes, oh, yes, I'm still excited to hear from our awesome social worker... but now, when she calls... in reality it is God using her as an instrument of His voice and plan for our family! Sweet!

So, green bug of envy... you aren't welcome anymore! Let the joyful waiting continue...

And in the meantime.. Thank you God for this incredibly beautiful sunshine, for the amazing family you've given me, for an incredible week of Kidfest VBS (and the energy to withstand monitoring 100 or so preschoolers during recreation time!), for awesome giggle times with my kids and for new friends who love You and gently remind me of Your love!... I am so very blessed indeed!

Shani with one of our new friends... sweet Eliza!

Joyously waiting...

How's the waiting going? Well, while my intentions were wonderful... to wait peacefully as the Lord reveals His will and timing... however, my heart and mind are struggling every now and then to stay at peace.

The reason is simple... it's the realization that the sweet baby girl God intends to be a part of our family is undoutedly alive! Do we know her name? Have we seen her face? No, but God does and has and has her wrapped in His loving arms and protection even as I write this!

For those who have not been a part of the adoption community, these emotions are so hard to describe and understand. There is an expectant joy, wondering if today will be the day the call comes! With that is an indescribable ache... wondering if today or tomorrow or next week or next month will be when the call comes!

I ordered t-shirts from another adoptive family's fundraiser and received them in the mail today. I cried reading one of the "stamps" on the package... "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." Martin Luther King Jr. That couldn't describe our journey more perfectly. We asked God when we should start our adoption process. We took the first step when we felt His calling. Though, like a spiraling staircase, we can't see the rest of the "steps" ahead of us, He knows.

Until He reveals the next "step", we wait joyously... enjoying the family He has already blessed us so abundantly with...

Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord...

Some of the lyrics from one of my favorite praise songs right now... "Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord... as we wait upon the Lord... as we wait upon the Lord."

A waiting heart. That's what I'm praying the Lord continues to give me... a joy-filled waiting heart. (I've stopped praying for patience as that is WAY too easily tested... tee... hee...). So, I've decided to take a "Daily Waiting Journey" and blog a bit about it!... because we are all waiting for something... right? So here we go!

"Yet those who WAIT for the Lord WILL gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary." Isaiah 40:31 (NASB)

Now I don't have a clue who the Rev Theory is but I've got to say that he has summed up this waiting game pretty well! (And please don't hold me responsible for other articles I haven't read of his!!! tee... hee...) But, this one is worth a looksee... Check it out...

http://therevtheory.com/2009/03/08/strength-will-rise-as-we-wait-upon-the-lord/

At this point, we know God has called us to travel to Ethiopia twice now to be united with our baby girl; a sweet baby we have not yet seen pictures of or even know if she is in existence. But, we know that with new laws put into place as of May 1st, we will travel once to meet our daughter and go through court proceedings to formally adopt her. Then somehow in God's perfect will, He will strengthen our hearts and minds as we say goodbye to our sweet pea and wait until we are told we can return to pick her up and bring her home (a second trip).

Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord for our referral, our court date, our travel dates, meeting our child, our embassy appointment... and as we leave our sweet kiddos here at home not once now, but twice.

See why I like that verse... those who wait on the Lord will gain NEW strength... strength we don't even have yet! Sweet! God is good and so faithful to provide!

A Waiting Mother's Heart...

Ah yes... "waiting"... I've been thinking a lot lately about what that really means and what that has looked life, especially in my adult life. How I've yearned for things, right here, right now. How I've planned for things. And, yet, how God had me wait. Wait. Wait.

My plan: married at 23, first kiddo at 25, and 2nd kiddo... certainly by 30 (I didn't want to be too old when I was having a young family). God's plan... wait! Wait for the one love He had chosen for me. But, it would have been so much easier if he would have just whispered, "Precious child, you'll meet him when you are 28, please don't despair." But, would I have truly found comfort in those precious words or would I have then argued "28? But that means we won't have our first child until I'm (AH! horrors!) 30!" Wait... child... wait.

Our China adoption: it would be just an 18 month wait. 6 months of paperwork... then the wait lengthens and lengthens... and God says "wait"... and then... "I have another plan that you won't even believe I have in store for you." Not China... but Ethiopia!

More paperwork, waiting for a referral of a beautiful baby, waiting for court, waiting for travel... at last we are a family!

God ends our wait for China after 2.89 years... after a lot of waiting... and a lot of praying...

As we begin our 2nd Ethiopian adoption I can't stop thinking about "waiting". And, what is it that we are waiting for?

* We are waiting to see God's plan for our family unfold.

* We are waiting to see the precious girl He alone has picked to join us in this life.

* We are waiting on His timing. Through our first amazing journey of international adoption we learned that all we could really "control" is when we start the journey. Leaving the rest completely in His hands and having us expectantly wait... THAT is His plan.

* We are waiting to see His plan for OUR FAMILY, not comparing our journey to other families, but waiting to see what He has in store for US.

* We are expectantly waiting... a joyous addition... whom we can pour our love and lives into!

And yet... in the beautiful land of Ethiopia, where we witnessed first hand the amazing love of it's people and of God and His Spirit living among them so purely... we know...

* There is extreme famine... there is poverty... there is hardship we could not bear...

And as we wait... at this very moment...
* There may be a beautiful mother waiting for her child to be born, unsure of how to care for her and/or fearful that she may not even survive the birth herself...

* There may be a father looking in the eyes of his baby girl right now; waiting for help, waiting for answers, waiting for hope...

* There may be a mother or father making a long journey... on a long, dusty road... the hardest journey, with the most difficult decision he/she has ever faced... giving up his/her child because they simply can't help her survive.

* There may be a baby girl laying alone, abandoned, only under God's watchful eye... right now...

We are waiting for the God of Heaven and Earth to reach down and make His purpose known.

For us, international adoption is so much more than a "paperwork pregnancy". It is a journey of life: of our lives, of a Ethiopian family's lives, and of God blending the families into one because it is somehow, his good and perfect will... It is heart-breaking and joy-filling all at the same time!

These are the words in my heart. A waiting mother's heart...

Psalm 130:5... "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I put my hope."