Great Expectations

Great Expectations was one of my favorite books when I was younger and actually had time to read (and finish) a book. I liked Dickens. Yes, I was a nerd. I'm not sure why Great Expectations was such a favorite. I guess I loved how Pip (the main character who happens to be an orphan) had no clue how much his life would change. 

Today, Brayden, Asher and I took a trip to the Probate Office at the Government Center to acquire three certified copies of my and Lance's marriage license (after a failed attempt on a Friday... don't go to the Probate Office on a Friday... stu-pid). We were instantly called into the office (because it was a day other than Friday) and seated at the lone clerk's desk. Brayden sat in the wooden chair to my right and Asher sat in my lap kissing me on the cheek. On the desk laid my GA drivers license (boasting the picture of a  younger woman with blonde hair) and $30 cash to pay for the copies. I took all of this in with little thought of it until the moment that the kind clerk laid the original marriage license on the desk in front of us...

As I studied this piece of paper that was creased in the middle from having been folded and tucked away in a filing cabinet for nearly a decade, my mind flashed back to the last time I had sat in that office with my, then, fiance...

What great expectations we had as we sat in those same wooden chairs. I can't really speak for Lance, but that day, as I sat there staring at the clerk who typed up our license, I was excited about what the future held... great expectations indeed. Yet, like Pip, I had no clue how much my life would change. As I sat there holding the hand of the man I was to marry, I had no idea that nine years later I would be sitting in the same office, in the company of our two sons, staring at the clerk typing up copies of our marriage license so that we could add them to a stack of papers that would be sent to [country in Asia] for the adoption of our daughters. Yeah... that would never have crossed my mind as I sat in that chair nine years ago.

As the clerk asked me to check the information on the screen, I snapped back into present day. I was a bit in awe of how much more wonderful God's plans were than my expectations. I realized that, while my expectations had been great, they had really just been the silly fancy of a foolish girl who thought she knew how every fairytale was supposed to end. 

While the clerk applied the seals to the three copies, I guess her curiosity got the best of her, because she asked me why I had requested three certified copies. I smiled and explained that we were adopting and that these copies were some of the many documents we had to gather. She inquired a bit further, and, as I expounded briefly, her eyes got wide and she said, "Wow! You're so brave!" I smiled again weakly, shook my head, lowered my eyes and turned a light shade of red.

No... I'm not brave. I just have great expectations... because I know the author of the book, and no matter what plot twists may lie within the pages, his endings are always perfect.

Until next time! -K

Why The Lock Down?

I've had a few people ask me what this whole lock down thing is about, so I figured I would post a quick explanation. 

I'm pretty sure everyone who has permission to read my post so far knows that we are adopting. If you didn't know that, SURPRISE! :) Anyways, we are finishing up our home study and we will be sending our dossier (a freakishly huge pile of paperwork) to [country in Asia] soon. Yay for progress! 

I decided to lock my blog down because I want to protect our family and our daughters in [country in Asia] once [country in Asia] knows who we are and begins deciding if they will allow us to adopt their orphans. I know this probably sounds a bit paranoid, but I would rather not risk anything. Also, there are people "out there" who DO NOT agree with international adoption and I've heard of some adoptive mom blogs getting flooded with harassment from people who don't even know the authors. I have enough drama in my life, so I'll pass on asking for any extra.

I actually planned to wait until we got registered with the Adoption Resource Authority before I locked things down. I hoped that this would allow more people to get added to the list (I have been impressed that there are, in fact, more than two people who read my blog!), but I felt I needed to go ahead and close the door. Here's why...

Supposedly this is Ind*an folk art. Mmmkay

Remember how I said we had gotten first row seats on a super rocky roller coaster that launched on Valentines Day? Well, things have slowed down a bit, but we got some new riders. Our agency director had told us weeks ago that she was looking into the mechanics of our roller coaster to determine if it will throw us out at some point. After not having heard from her in about a month, she surprised us with an email informing us that an attorney and judge would be hoping aboard our coaster. Umm yeah, was not expecting that, but God keeps reminding me that this is not in our hands. Sooooo, now that our information has made it's way to the other side of the world a bit earlier than we were expecting, I decided to lock up. 

Make sense? Good! Thank you all for caring about our family and praying for us! Please continue to pray!

Until next time! -K

Prepare Yourself!

Hi All! Hope you guys had a wonderful weekend despite losing an hour. I know that always rocks my world as a mom... kids just don't get it. But hey it's not pitch black at 6pm anymore!

I wanted to give you guys a heads up that I will soon be making this blog private and it will remain private until we bring our daughters home. I know adding this step will decrease our readers, but I think it's important that I do it.

If you would like access to our blog during this time, please FB message me or email me (krisogden@hotmail.com) your email address and I will add you to the blog reader list so that you can access my posts. Thanks for understanding!

Until next time! -K

Saturday Randomness

Today I thought I would do a “random thoughts” post because I have LOTS of random thoughts and because it makes for a super easy post. I ain’t gonna lie... I’ve got a lot to do today, so I gotta knock this out while I drink my coffee. Normally I drink Spark, but this morning I was craving a nice, big, dark, delicious cup of French pressed coffee. 

See my favorite handmade mug? And my hotplate? 

Since this a “random thoughts” post I feel I have the freedom to now share my thoughts on French pressed coffee. I love it! It took me a while to find the magic mixture of coffee, water and time, but now that I have that down, I seriously do love my French press! I know this sounds weird, but I like how it makes the coffee “dirty”. It’s like it’s more earthy or something. Am I just a strange bird or do other people like this too? I don’t, however, enjoy cleaning my French press. That sucks.

Speaking of cleaning that sucks... The day that my boys learn to get ALL of their pee inside the toilet will be one of the happiest days of my life! I walked in the bathroom the other day while Asher was doing his thing and noticed that doing his thing meant painting the walls with urine. Want to see Mommy snap? Paint the walls with urine. *Sighs* Yeah, I hope that day comes in this decade. 

Moving on... I’ve lost almost 15 lbs in the two weeks since our “roller coaster” started. While I am all for losing 15 lbs, I don’t really recommend doing it the stress and anxiety route. Some people eat when they are stressed or depressed, but not me. I stop eating and start sleeping. Things are better, though. My anxiety level has GREATLY decreased and I’ve started eating again. Lance and I came to a decision on some things, and God has given me a lot of peace about it. I still don’t have all the answers and I know that things may change in the future, but I really am at peace (which feels soooo much better). Thank you to those of you who have been praying for us and supporting us!

This has been helpful!

I’m going to go down a spiritual rabbit trail for a moment... A while back, I read on one of the blogs I stalk about spiritual warfare during adoption. I thought it was an interesting post and something I had not thought of much before we started the adoption process. Just to give you a little background info, I am sort of a spiritual mutt. As a young child I grew up in a very charismatic non-denominational church and then we moved to an Assembly of God Church where I spent all the years leading up to me and Lance getting married. After we got married, we went with a new church plant that started out AG but is now non-denominational and pretty similar to Presbyterian. The pendulum has swung pretty wide for me. While I have seen God grow me tremendously through this shift, I am a fairly strange mix theologically because of the things I have personally experienced. 

I say all of that to say I’ve seen and experienced things in my life that will not allow me to dismiss the truth of spiritual warfare, and boys and girls, let me say this... adoption is indeed spiritual war! When I read that post months ago I just kind of tucked the warnings away in the back of my mind but over the last month I am absolutely, positively convinced that there are spiritual forces that hate adoption and we are officially in their crosshairs. I’m not going to go into all the acts of war against our adoption but whoever our children are, they are hated by the enemy and we best be putting on our armor because we are going into battle. 

Ok, I’m done with that random thought. Here’s a less serious one for you. I want to go to the beach. We didn’t go to the beach at all last year and I N-E-E-D some sand between my toes and the sound of the ocean in my ears. My side of the family is planning a week long trip to somewhere on the gulf coast in June and I cannot wait! Lance, on the other hand, can totally wait. He hates the beach. Sorry babe, but we are going to the beach! Momma needs it!

A shot I took on our last beach trip in 2011.

Since I mentioned Lance, here’s my final random thought; the Lord has blessed me with a totally awesome husband. I know I touched on this a bit in my last post, but he really is wonderful! He may not be the “tool time” guy who has all the handyman skills and can build/fix anything but he’s still got “handyman” skills if you know what I mean. He may not be the sophisticated business man type but he gets down to “business” if you know what I mean. Ok, I will stop embarrassing the poor man. He’s gonna kill me when he reads this. But seriously, I love that God handpicked this amazing man for me. He is an awesome husband and father! He is a blessing... if you know what I mean! :)

Until next time! -K