Designed this way

I am someone who likes to be prepared.  I don't like to go into things completely blind.  I like to know what to expect and I want to know how to tackle the task at hand the best way possible.

I know that if I was pregnant, I would read everything I could get my hands on.  I would want to learn about having a healthy pregnancy, about childbirth, about infant care, what to expect after the baby is born.  I would want to know it all. 

Similarly, knowing adoption is in our future (hopefully sooner than later), I'm trying to learn all I can.  I recently read this beautiful book:

 

The book is written by an adoption worker with LDS Family Services.  It focuses on the journey a birth mother takes when deciding to place her baby for adoption.  It also discusses the feelings of the birth father, grandparents, and aunts and uncles.  The book left me in awe of the amazing sacrifice the birth mother makes in order to give her baby the best life possible.

The book also gave me a strong impression of how involved God is in adoption. I remember when we first met with our adoption worker he told us to remember that we weren't looking for just a baby--we were looking for our baby.  The baby that is meant to come to our home.  While waiting to be selected by a birth mother can be difficult, I'm realizing that having the right child in our home at the right time is worth the wait.  

I was reading a blog yesterday called the r house.  The r house is a family who has adopted two children and are strong advocates of adoption. The mother, Lindsey, shared how she felt when she and her husband found out that they would not be able to have children.  She was unsure about adoption and asked her husband for a priesthood blessing.  The following is from her blog:

 

with the pain of infertility racking my soul with torment, i was suffocating. i remember asking my husband for a blessing. at this time, i didn’t have a testimony of adoption. i was scared. i was uneducated. i was mourning.

while he gave me a beautiful blessing, Heavenly Father whispered a profound message to me. something that has sustained me on the hard days. something perfect. something that brought such clarity.

He said, “Lindsey, sometimes I create people who cannot have children so that there are good homes for children that need one.”

my favorite word in that message is “create.” we are not broken, rather, we were designed to adopt. it was Heavenly Father’s plan for us, our mission, our privilege. that brought me such peace.

with these words and a lot of prayer and soul searching, my heart softened and the sweetness, the miracle, the joy of adoption filled my heart.

I felt Lindsey's words were so beautiful.  I, too, know that God has a plan for all of us.  And for Kameron and me, adoption is that plan.  We were meant to struggle with infertility.  There is a child who will be born to another mother who is meant to come to our family.  It is so comforting to know that it is in God's hands--a God who loves me, knows me, and wants me to be happy.  Kameron and I were made for adoption.

So You Wanna See My Bathroom?

I call my parents every Sunday.  And every Sunday I tell my mom that  I will post pictures of our home improvements.  And then after every Sunday I forget about it.  Well--not today.

Mom--this one's for you:

Here is the finished product of our bathroom:

 

Our walls are a deep blue and we have white bead board on the bottom half.  I spent a century looking for my shower curtain.  I love it!

  

This is Kameron's fancy tile work.  Not bad for his first tile project, eh?

 This is our laundry chute.  I could write an entire post on how much I love our laundry chute--I'm just afraid it wouldn't be that exciting.  My mother-in-law painted the words on the door when she came to visit us for Thanksgiving.

 Here is a view of our mirror and bath cabinet.

 And here is a lovely shot of our clock that I have been asked if we got at Restoration Hardware.  No, we got it at Shopko for $8.  It makes me love it all the more...

I'm rather proud of ourselves.  Click here for the before pictures.

We are still plugging away at the kitchen.  Fixing up the kitchen is not my favorite-simply because when the kitchen is a disaster--everything else seems so chaotic.  Why is that?  We refinished the windows, put up bead board, and painted the bottom half green....there is still more to go but at least our kitchen is usable again.  I am planning on sewing curtains for the windows--my first real sewing venture--more to come...

 

Please look to the left of this photo and notice the door Kameron refinished.  I love it!  And it took him more hours than he cares to admit.

 

This is the window above our sink.  

Here is another shot of our breakfast nook.

And there you have it!  More to come!