Snow Days and Slight Delays

Fundraising Update:

We had our first fundraiser! The amazing Stacey of Cute E’s Photography hosted mini sessions and asked her clients to donate their session fees to us. The pictures are beautiful and the financial blessing is incredible and encouraging! The sessions were $75 and 6 people took advantage of it. Because Stacey is such a kind person, she’s continuing to offer the discounted sessions for us and will continue to donate the session fee to our adoption. I am so thankful for Stacey and to God for putting her in our lives. Not only have we gotten amazing pictures but we’ve also gotten to know a wonderful and encouraging woman of God. Not to mention, my boys love her! If you are interested, please contact her and set up your own session! http://www.cuteesphotography.com/contact-me/ I truly cannot give her enough glowing recommendations, so if you have questions just ask!

Our second fundraiser is also underway! I recently met Meredith DeBenedetto who is a Pampered Chef consultant. Not only does she throw a fabulous party, but she also wanted to help support our adoption! Thanks to Meredith we will be having a Pampered Chef fundraiser on February 6 and 30% of the sales will go toward our adoption!! That is amazing and we are thankful to God for putting her in our lives at the perfect moment. If you are interested in the best cooking supplies and helping our cause please order www.pamperedchef.com/go/RobertsonAdoption Most of the Pampered Chef products I own I’ve had for 10 years now and it is all going strong. My favorite mixing bowl, dry/wet measuring cup, and mini spatula are all Pampered Chef and have been heavily used over the past decade, so splurge a little on some quality kitchenware that will last forever and also have a lasting impact on my family too!

Life Update:

Saying that I trust in God’s timing and actually trusting in God’s timing when it does not meet my expectations are two entirely different things. Last month my husband and I were supposed to be out of town doing our required two days of training. This is part of the home study process and you cannot be approved until it is completed. To say I was excited would be an understatement. I felt like we were finally getting to the part of this process that I want; meaning the part where we do more than paperwork and get some helpful education that will assist our decision making. I expected the training to be an encouragement and I was looking forward to the chance to connect with other families pursuing adoption as well as see those who had successfully completed one.

Enter Winter Storm Jonas. Mere days before we were supposed to leave we were informed that the training had been postponed due to the storm. The new date did not work for our family and so we have had to push our training date back to mid April. This is frustrating to me because I was hoping that we would be approved by then and waiting (im)patiently for our child. That is not the case. We will hopefully have our home study completed by the time we attend training.

The silver lining here is that my mom still flew in and spent time with us. The plan was for her to watch the boys while we were in training. Instead she stayed at our home and enjoyed a weekend with us. I love having my mom visit and the boys loved it as well. We spent the weekend doing our favorite things; going to the aquarium and the children’s play area. I even got some appointments fit in, and of course she helped with dishes and laundry (she can’t help it, and I needed it, so God bless her!) After the boys went to bed we spent the evenings with the fireplace roaring, coffee keeping us toasty, and a board game to keep us competitive. Unfortunately, my husband dethroned my Phase 10 reign, but it turns out that I am pretty good at Bananagrams and am quite a fan!

Still, I find myself delayed by God and struggling to reign in my frustration and rest in His peace. I have been constantly praying for our baby and asking for His protection for the baby and her* mother, along with His perfect timing. I shouldn’t be surprised when God answers. This could also be part of the answer to another prayer, that we finish our adoption debt free. That is a very specific request, and one that might receive a ‘no’. I’m prepared for that and am focusing my heart on seeing how God provides in ways that don’t meet my expectations. “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us” Ephesians 3:20. This is a verse I remind myself repeatedly. He knows my child, He created her, and the way He is going to bring us together will be so much better than anything I could attempt or contrive. Still, for a woman who likes to get things done, (excluding dishes and laundry) waiting patiently on God can be difficult. This is only my fourth blog post, I imagine in the future I will look back on these and laugh at myself for struggling to be patient when things haven’t even really gotten started. In my weakness He is made strong, and this is obviously a weakness for me.

On top of the adoption God has us considering options for our future in regards to career and location. There are options and questions I had not ever considered, but we find ourselves pursuing the adoption and making choices that will have a significant impact on the adoption and our family. We had to take a moment and laugh at the absurdity of some of our situations. God is working in ways we did not expect. He has a plan that is obviously at work, but we are standing in the forest looking at the trees directly in front of us. Who knows what is on the other side of those trees, they’re so dense we are struggling to even find the trail. The beauty in this is that it has us seeking God like never before.

This is the first time we’ve made any big career/life decisions since having children and it certainly has changed

our former wants, opinions, and desires. It also gives us a sense of urgency, not in timing, but in understanding that now our decisions impact our boys and the life they will lead. In a frustrated moment I sat down to read the Bible and journal my prayer. This is a new habit for me and one that I absolutely love. But on this day I was frustrated feeling like God wasn’t going to answer me and trying to figure out how to open the Bible and get an answer. God gave me one. As I wrote, I got somewhat angry and my handwriting got sloppy as I questioned God on why He is making us wait and why He is letting us have so many choices that we can’t tell which is right. I kept writing and calmed down and just admitted to God that what I want is His will and asked Him to help take my own out of the picture. I then Googled “Bible verses about seeking God” and began to read through the verses that popped up. It was a beautiful display of a 21st century relationship with God. He gave me my answer in a link titled “Top 10 Bible Verses About Seeking God” the seventh verse listed:**

God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us. ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring’” Acts 17:27-28

So there it is. A long story to tell you that God is at work in this adoption. I believe He is preparing us to be the parents that our child needs. To be the kind of people the expectant mother needs to show her love. To be the kind of people that seek God first and let everything else come second. I do not have the answers for our future right now, I am still struggling against my own nature to maintain patience and not base our decisions purely on feelings and my pro/con list. I look forward to seeking God and discovering the journey that He has us on, and I dream about the moment we get to meet our baby for the first time.

• I have been referring to our future child as a ‘she’. We are not going to request a certain gender, though Superman has consistently said for months now that he wants a baby “grill”. I have chosen a feminine pronoun because I do not like to pray for ‘it’ so I just picked one and stuck with it. We referred to Batman his entire pregnancy as a girl until he was born and we realized we were wrong. We’re 50/50. 

** Here’s the link http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/top-10-bible-verses-about-seeking-god/