Referral

About a week or so ago, a local friend (F1 for clarity) told me about this conversations she was having with another friend (F2). The other friend (F2) had recently had a talk with her mother, who lives out of state, when her mom told her about a few teenage girls in her church who were pregnant and looking for families to adopt their baby. F1 knows that we are in the process and mentioned to F2 that we were looking to adopt. F1 later talked to me about it and got me talking to F2 about it, who then gave me her mom's contact info and I ended up mailing off some adoption profiles to her.

That might sound convoluted (and if I didn't' have back to school mush brain I might even spend more time trying to make it clearer), but the long story short is that networking is okay in the type of adoption process that we are in (domestic infant). We are working with a specific agency (who would offer services like counseling to any birthmom), but it is okay for friends or families who know a birthmom to tell them about us. Kevin and I aren't really into the more personal networking aspect of adoption (one of the reasons we went with an agency that does it all for us), but we also know so many people all across the country that it seems silly not to at least mention it.

The domestic process is very different from the international process, where you are working with one specific agency in one country that will then match you with one specific baby. Traditionally the domestic process involves lots of work on the adoptive families part (or a paid agency) where you do lots of advertising to find women who are unable to parent. Think the movie Juno but instead of a newspaper, it is more often done on the Internet. It also makes me think of the biblical fishermen who would toss out their nets in hopes that they might catch a fish--cover a wide area to attain the prize.

In summary (and this post seems rather scattered to me, but again, school is starting in a few days and after a day in my classroom, I'm spent), if you do hear of anyone who is seeking an adoptive family, it would be fine to mention us and I could even get you a snazzy profile.

CA vacation picture post

My mom with her two favorite girlsHannah trying out a tree fort slide at Sacramento's Fairy Tale LandAbby living the Ol' MacDonald dreamSweet sisters sliding together (Abby usually would do a few times first with Hannah to gain comfort and then would turn fearless)Where's Toto?I can't remember what the Scarecrow is missing....

Kevin and I took a day to ourselves and went to Lake Tahoe--one of my favorite spots.

Later on the fam went to Gerle Creek, a place where we always went camping growing up.

We all enjoyed the water thereKevin and I are trying to get more pictures of the two of us since we made our adoption profiles and realized that we hadn't taken pictures of just the two of us in about 5 years...

Heaven

Tonight, as I was wrestling Abby to bed, I came into their bedroom to find Hannah crying. After our nightly Bible story (the birth of Isaac, as told in The Jesus Storybook Bible), Hannah had crawled into bed and started worrying about dying and Heaven. I'm not sure where she drew the parallel, after all the birth of Isaac doesn't say much (or anything) about death, but somewhere her little mind started worrying. Of course, as fate always has it, tonight is also a session night so the parent I feel is most qualified to field her questions was absent. That seems how it always works around here.

Here are some of Hannah's questions that she sobbed out for me:

"Does it hurt to die?"

"How do you get to Heaven?"

"Will God come get me when I die?"

"Is it scary to go to Heaven?"

As I heard her worries, laced with tears, I saw a bit of my own fear of the unknown, the fear of what I know is good and perfect, but which I know nothing about. I also felt comforted by my own answers, which are really just a mommy's answers to a scared girl.

"If it does hurt, it will only hurt for a moment and then in Heaven you will never hurt again."

"God loves you more then even I love you (and I love you more than anything) so He wouldn't want you to be scared so it won't be scary." (I mean, how many times does the Bible record words of comfort--Fear not, be not afraid?)

Then Hannah just about broke my heart as she started making statements about how she wants it to be:

"I want to go the Heaven at the same time as you so we can go together." (I couldn't hear that with a dry eye. I understand her why, but can't tell her I hope not because I want her to out live me by quite some time.)

"If you get to Heaven first, call me on the telephone so we can talk." (She then asked several questions about keeping the same phone number so that I would know what to call and ended this train of thought with a "when it is almost time for you to go to Heaven, I'll come tell you my phone number so that you can write it down when you get to Heaven. Do they have paper in Heaven?")

"If you find me first [in Heaven] then you can help me find Daddy. Or if he finds me first, he can help me find you."

I'm not sure if our conversation made much head way. Not sure if she really got my answers. Who knows, in the morning it might be a distant memory and she won't pepper Kevin with questions (after she started asking how we would eat in Heaven without grocery stores, I said ask Daddy in the morning.)

Motivation

Kevin has started running again in the morning, and, because in our house during the summer we don't get up till Abby gets up (which is always far too early), he has taken along Abby during these morning runs. Let me state I am shocked that Abby will still go in a stroller for the runs. Hannah at age almost-3 certainly would not have. But Abby is still mostly happy to go in the jogger (ahhh, I could wax poetically all day about why I love my BOB stroller) and seems to like these morning runs.

The first morning they went out (and it had been a long time since their previous run) Kevin came back with a rather funny story. Abby, with early shades of a personal trainer, refused to let Kevin walk. Every time he slowed down she would demand that he start running again. So, to keep the kid happy, he had to run almost the entire time. I guess the subsequent runs have been more quiet, mostly because he's learned not to slow down.

Hannah, who sleeps a good 1 1/2 hours more than Abby in the morning, has heard whispers of these runs and decided she wanted in on the action. So, this morning Kevin decided to take her. I asked her if she would be happy in the jogger and she immediately declared that her and Daddy were going for a RUN -- ie, she wants to run the whole way. So, this morning, Kevin got a nice short run in, accompanied by a girl who wants to be a track star. (On a related note, when at VBS they were talking about stuff that you are good at but maybe not everyone is good at, Hannah said she was a good runner. Guess the Falkenstein lumber gene skipped her, lucky duck.)

All this makes me think that I, if I ever run, will keep it to myself. It is bad enough getting batting tips from my kids at our weekly softball games.

Vacation Pics-Washington leg of it

Warning: A LOT of pictures! (but the reward is great-the kids are cute!)

A reason to love WA--you cannot beat the Puget Sound for beauty!
We headed up from visiting his parents in Vancouver to seeing more of the extended family in the Puget Sound while we celebrated his grandparents' anniversary. We always have a fun time hanging out with the extended Lind crew!

Kevin's grandparents with their 3 great-grandchildren --product of 60 years of hard work, right?
Ferry ride! (not fairy ride, much to Abby's disappointment) At the beach

Hannah and Abby with their favorite (only) cousin (technically 2nd, but who's counting?) Grace

Kevin with his "little" brothers, Karl and Kirk.

Back in Vancouver...

The girls and Aunt Kelly and Lola the puppy

Basketball practice

Hannah was pretty proud of herself

At the Portland Children's Museum--a wonderful place I highly recommend! (and will admit, it is way cooler than the Seattle one)