Feeling the love.

It's hard to write about this in a thorough way. Hard to express how profound it's been for us. When I think about this long journey to parenting Michael and I have been on, I begin with the miscarriage I had at eleven weeks, over three years ago. People in our church community came out of the woodwork, bringing meals. Our mothers and grandmothers came over to help around the house as I recovered physically and emotionally. Yes, a few people made dumb, insensitive comments, obviously unintentionally so, but mostly, we got warm gentle love from our friends. Our pastor called us to tell us he loved us. A church elder, a man with grown daughters, told me gently, "You will probably have waves of grief later on that might take you by surprise. Just know it's okay to feel that way." We were so blessed to have friends walk beside us in our sadness. I think, so often, the blessing of community becomes most obvious in our darkest and neediest moments, when we're not so good at pretending like we have it all together.





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Now, to adoption. I continue to be genuinely amazed at the love and concern given to us and now, to the Little One, by our real-life community. Out of our real-life community came miraculous provision for our adoption, and I don't use the term "miraculous" lightly or loosely. Our moms and dads, and our brothers and sisters: Scott, Daniel and Heather, Jimmy and Dawn, have prayed for us. Dear friends like Lisa gave us sweet hand-me-downs from little Mat-Mat. All along, my best friend Roxana kept shipping encouraging little packages down from Boston. Hannah brought adorable dresses and an encouraging card. Martha gave us yummy baby skin care products. Melanie gave us an "Owie" doll. Our parents have gifted us with clothing multiple times. People prayed and rejoiced with us over our referral.

(Hannah, Sarah, and Martha celebrate our referral with us.)

But wait, it gets even better and more profound--we have to back up a little in time. In the midst of our adoption process, we have ADDED a community: one passionate about family, passionate about Ethiopia and her children. We have been blessed ten-fold, and we don't even have our sweet one home yet. Lori kept calling to encourage me as the our wait got longer, Laura and Meredith were my biggest cheerleaders online and at the Blog Union, Amy sent me a darling handmade ragdoll and headband in the mail the other day, and on and on and on it goes.

(Amy, Lori, Abe, me, and Courtney at the Blog Union.)

So, I guess I'm writing this to say, thank you. Thank for loving us so well. I hope you receive blessings back one-hundred fold for the ways you've cared for us.

Now, we can't wait to get that little squirt home and REALLY celebrate.

(here's a terrible picture I took this morning of a few of the material gifts the little one has received.)