Last day of May to publish a new post

I thought it was about time to post something new. Sitting here munching my baby carrots didn't give me much inspiration so I just decided to post some pics:

Our little Chloe recently received her orange belt in TaeKwonDo! We were all so proud and celebrated with an orange poke cake.

Here's Aidan receiving his 3rd grade awards for being a smarty pants and good citizen. Although they didn't use the actual term "smarty pants". In my opinion they should have.

Cupcakes!

We took this pic for Chris for his birthday. There were water moccasins swimming in the water behind us. So we threw dirt clods in the water to scare them to the other side while we raced down to snap the pic. None of us have a great love for snakes. And while Aidan has a normal boys' fascination with reptiles, he still prefers to his distance from the poisonous ones!

Not much new on the adoption front. Some days I feel so close. Like a coffee pot percolating and I'm just sure that something amazing is going to bubble up soon. Then on other days I feel so far from knowing which way to go that I'm sure I wouldn't be able to find my way out of a wet paper bag. In the meantime, I am trying to not focus too much on the big picture that I miss the little amazing moments all around me.

A few years ago we had one of those big life altering events when Chris was laid off from work. And so we were thrown into the loop of trying to figure out what the next, and right, step was for us to take. At the time we were living in Stillwater. And since the job market for mechanical engineers in Stillwater is quite small, the options there were nonexistent. But just knowing that we were not going to stay didn't exactly illuminate the path to take. I remember doing everything I could to speed up the process. Gathering friends and family for prayer meetings. Researching, praying, fasting, analyzing and (I confess, pestering my sweet, patient husband). As if I searched for The Answer hard enough, we would find it sooner. One night just after our friends were leaving from another prayer time, Chris suddenly started laughing. God had given him a picture of me. He said that he saw me sitting in the passenger seat of a car, with my legs sticking out over the seat because they weren't long enough to reach the floor. And I was furiously and intently working over one of those toy, plastic steering wheels. (You know, the ones that fit over your legs and you can turn the wheel and pull on the gearshift and turn the plastic yellow key?). There I was yanking on the steering wheel and plastic controls, pushing buttons...and there is God sitting next to me in the driver's seat. And my dear husband is laughing because he said that God had given me the toy to occupy myself so that I would just shut up and let Him drive. (And yet, He is smiling because that is the way He made me) Our departure from Stillwater did happen, and in a beautiful way that was completely out of our hands and orchestrated the entire way by Someone much larger than us.

Here I am again with several events going on right now that I want to demand to fit into my time frame. And for some reason the memory of that story has been coming to my mind. Hmm. I'm doing a bit better this time. Keeping my mouth shut when I want to make circumstances come about, trying for patience and trusting in a time frame that is not my own. Well, okay, so I may be yanking on the steering wheel a wee bit. What was it that the wise little green dude said? "Patience, young one."