JOY!

Today is our oldest son's, Matt, 8th birthday!  We are so blessed by his witty, shy, kind and loving personality.  The Lord used him yesterday to break through to my family about our adoption.  It was unprompted by us and such a blessing to hear him proclaim with joy where our family is going in the future.  He and Eli, our youngest, are both excited.  We worked in their bedroom yesterday trying to get their baseball cases and baseball photos hung.  We are slowly merging them into one bedroom in preparation for our sweet girls homecoming.  They are super pumped about sharing a room (hope that lasts for a long time).

Matt also received a phone call from Coach Jeff Crooks telling him that he had been chosen for Baseball All-Stars!  We were all blown away by Matt's reaction.  He was so happy.  Keith and I never thought he would be interested in All-Stars.  He is very nonchalant about everything in life.  We are very thankful for this opportunity for him and pray that he will give it his all!

Today also marks the day that we hand delivered our Adoption Application to Lifeline!  It was uneventful really...I truly expected more:  like a drum roll in the background, friends at the door to greet us, smiles and hugs...Oh, wait...that's what happens when we return with our little China doll, right?  I prayed this morning that this would be memorable for all 4 of us and I think God granted us that.  Matt had field day today at school and I helped with one of the activities, so we were both smelly and in workout clothes.  Nana did not make Eli brush his teeth today and he had the same play clothes he had on yesterday.  I did manage to change his shirt before we left for carpool.  Keith met us there straight from work in a PetStop T-shirt.  Needless to say, we were looking rough.  We looked like we came straight from the backwoods.  I am certain that for our next visit with a Lifeline associate, we will look and smell better! We are all excited that we have taken one step forward in our journey of obedience to God.  That feels GOOD!