HAPPY GOTCHA DAY! WELCOME BABY MILO MORRISON PALMER!!!!!!!

Wow! Oh my goodness what a day!  I just got home from loving on the sweetest, most precious beautiful baby boy (no I am not partial at ALL!) in the world! The past two days have been a whirlwind of blessings and two of the best ever!

This time last year we were starting the adoption process within just a few weeks of our best friends Clay and Lauren Palmer. We were so excited when we realized that God had placed us on this journey at the same time and that we would be able to raise our firstborn's together. We spent hours talking about adoption and all things baby. We were even more amazed when we realized that God had laid on their hearts to be open to all races (they particularly had a soft spot for AA babies) during the same time He was speaking to our hearts about adopting from Ethiopia! So not only do we get to raise our children together, but we get to experience the beauty and the challenges of trans-racial adoption together as well. It has been and incredible blessing to grow closer together as friends and to be able to be on this journey together. Even though we started the process around the same time, Clay and Lauren have been officially waiting for their little nugget since January and we knew that "the call" could happen at any moment, but nothing could prepare me for what God had so beautifully designed.

Yesterday evening, I saw Lauren calling my phone while I was at work so I almost didn't answer it, but I thought, she knows I'm at work so something must be wrong. It didn't even cross my mind that I was getting " THE CALL". So I picked up and Lauren said, "So are you ready to be a god-parent.  I asked her when and she told me TOMORROW! I'm pretty sure I yelled shut-up so loudly they heard me all over the office. Then the official glorious freak out began. I'm still so excited I can hardly stand it! I really have no idea what I will do when we get "the call" for ourselves...lol!  I couldn't sleep last night and even when I did I dreamed about meeting Milo!

Today has been one of those days that you never forget. We got to see the miracle of adoption is first-hand and this incredible work that God has and is doing in all of our lives. I've been on this crazy emotional high all day and I've been crying tears of joy just overwhelmed and the goodness of our Lord. All is well and my heart is full.

Milo is so precious and Lauren and Clay are already AMAZING parents! They are doing great and getting settled in as a new family of three. 

There is so much more that I need to catch you guys up on but I will save that super long update post for another day ( hopefully this weekend). ;).

Please join us in prayer for Clay, Lauren, and Milo and their family as they start this wonderful new chapter in their lives. Also, please pray for Milo's birth mother. I can't imagine the grief and pain she must be experiencing but I am forever grateful for her courage to choose life and to choose adoption.

Much Love,

Christen

Ready to Run!

The ONE:27 Summer Run 5k Adoption Fundraiser is quickly approaching (ummmm it's SATURDAY!!! EEEEEEK!!!!). I would be lying if I didn't say I wasn't freaking out a little (or a lot) on the inside. Thanks be to Jesus that he provided us with the most amazing couple, Blaine and Stephanie Minyard to be partner's in crime with. They have both been amazing to work with we have been incredibly blessed to get to know them more in this time of planning or should I say, madness!!

Soooooo, we need EVERYONE to help make this fundraiser a success! Please pass along the 5K info along to everyone you know :). The race starts at 7:30am with Registration beginning at 6:15am at the Gateway at the Longleaf Trace in Hattiesburg. Even if you don't run, you can come show your support by eating pancakes, listening to some live music, letting you kids play and get their faces painted and most of all, hanging out with the most awesome people EVER!

I have just been amazed at how everything has come together so well. This is definitely a God sized task and He is totally making it happen. I can't wait to see how he is going to use this not only to help bring our babies home, but to carry His name to the nations!

God is Providing!

So most of you guys know that we are basically raising money to get to the point in the process to send our Dossier off to Ethiopia.  After we send the Dossier off, we expect a 6-9 month wait before we have a referral (information on the child we have been matched with).  At this point, we are trying to raise about $5000 to be able to send our Dossier off.

How do we plan on raising the funds?  First, we did the McAllister's Fundraiser last week.  To those of you who came out to support the effort...THANK YOU!  We were truly blessed to spend the evening with you guys.  We had no intention of staying the whole time but we had so much fun fellowshipping with everyone that we lost track of time and hung out longer than we planned. Secondly we are doing our ONE:27 Summer Run on July 28 at Longlead Trace in Hattiesburg.  You can sponsor the 5K, run in the event or just come hang out. For more information holler at Shorty Bean (Christen) by emailing her: Christenbean@gmail.com. If you are considering adoption this would be awesome for you because there will be tons of information on adoption for you to check out.  Lastly we are taking preorders for our Tshirts.  The first shirt is our "Ethiopia" shirt and the second is our "Love the Orphan" shirt. 

You can purchase a shirt via the link on the right of the page.  Make sure you select the right shirt and select the right size.  Both of these designs are for full front and will have our blog address on the back just below the collar in small text. Once you order and pay for your shirt, we will let you know when they will ship.  We need to get a significant preorder before we do our first batch. 

Again, we are humbled and blessed by you guys.  You can also support our adoption by donating via the donate link, buying Mary Kay Cosmetics from Christen or getting me to come speak at your church or event (any honorariums go toward the adoption).  Thank you guys again for being a blessing.

Happy Mother's Day!!!!!!

Happy Mother's Day to all you beautiful Mother's out there!


Yesterday Eric and I had the pleasure of getting to spend the ENTIRE day with both our sweet Mom's!! We had lunch with both my parent's and dinner at Eric's Moms house. I always feel like Mother's Day is generally an  EPIC fail on my part b/c our Mom's are so awesome that no gift is really adequate and a card certainly doesn't do it justice. Both of our Mom's have been incredibly supportive throughout our adoption process and we could never thank them enough for everything they for us! We love you both so much!!

Mom and I at Lunch!

Even though Eric and I had an awesome day with our family and friends, Mother's Day really took on a new meaning for me this year. I think about our child's birth mother often but yesterday I couldn't get her out of my mind. Does she even know she's pregnant yet? Is she scared? Is she grieving from giving her child up? Is she still a child herself? Was she raped or in love? Is she stricken in poverty or will she die giving birth? I will have a connection with this person for the rest of my life and I have to say that it may be one of the craziest things about our adoption. This is a woman whom I will likely never meet, but she will or has already given birth to my child and she will always have a piece of my heart. I love her already and if choosing life is a choice she is making I am forever in debt to her. I hope that I can raise our child in a way that is worthy of the sacrifice she is making. I pray for her often. I pray for her salvation and I pray that there is someone in her life to show her the love of Christ and that no matter what the situation is that leads to this adoption that she will know that she is loved by her Father. I will probably always's wonder about her, wonder where she is and how she is doing. I will always pray and trust God for her salvation, for her health and her safety. I know that these question's in my head about my child's birth mother are never really going to go away and I'm totally ok with that. To be honest I'm not even sure I would want them to. Adoption is real, and it's hard, and it always, always comes from loss. We should never pretend that it doesn't. I always want to honor her and she will always be apart of our lives. In all my questions and wondering I do know this for sure, "That ALL Things Work Together for the Good of Those who Love God and are Called According to His Purpose."- Romans 8:28. I know that adoption parenting is going to be tough, but I know without a doubt that this is God's plan for our lives and I am sooooooo incredibly excited to get to experience it!

Toes in the Sand!

This weekend I was so very blessed to spend some much needed time at the beach! My super awesome cousin Kim put a pic up on facebook of her wonderful condo for the week and when I commented on it she invited me to come. The best part is that it is her friend's condo so we were able to stay for FREE : ). This was such an awesome blessing especially after all the maddness of getting our homestudy completed. I really needed a break! Lol!

My sweet friend Ondrea Robbins (she really needed a break too!) was also able join Kim and I for the weekend. It was a fun reunion for all three of us because we all worked together at Camp Garaway during summer 2001! We slept, laid out on the beach, got ice cream,slept and took a walk on the beach. Such a sweet time of fellowship with some really special ladies!

Today I am especially thankful for that time of rest because I received a list of the documents we will need for our dossier. Let's just say that we are gonna bereally busy bees for the next couple of weeks.

Thank's to everyone was praying for Eric this weekend as he was in Haiti meeting with Pastor Jean, Missionaries and preparing for this summer. His weekend was very successful!Please be praying us as we plan for this summer for those special people who will be going down to share God's love and bring the light to the people of Haiti! I would love to share more about but that's gonna have to be a whole other post! Maybe I can get Eric to fill you guys in soon :)

Please continue to pray for our adoption process, our sweet baby in Ethiopia, and for their family, who is without a doubt going through an incredibly difficult time no matter what the circumstances leading to our adoption of their precious little one are.

Much Love to You All,
Christen

The Minyard Adoption

Hey guys! Check out this awesome video of our sweet friends who are adopoting from Columbia! Blaine and Stephanie share our thoughts on adoption and we couldn't have said it better ourselves. You can find out more about their journey by clicking on the Finding Hope in Waiting link under blogs we follow!
 

One Step Closer

Tonight we had our final homestudy meeting with our sweet social worker! It worked out so well that she was coming through Hattiesburg today so we were able to meet up with her and her husband for dinner.  We met up at Tabella and it was AMAZING.... as always. She gave us each a copy of our homestudy to review so that we can make any additional information or make any corrections. We are ready to get this show on the road so we made our revisions tonight and have already sent her our corrections.  Once Andrea makes the revisions to our homestudy it will be sent to our agency for approval.  That usually takes about 2 weeks. Then we will send a couple of forms to the Feds for approval and begin gathering the document's we need to complete our dossier and get it in the mail to Ethiopia!!

One of the great things about having our homestudy approved is that we will be able to apply for adoption grant's and loans. So to all our praying peeps out there, please pray for favor in the money department.

On that note, my sweet friend Lindsey Kinamon is helping me host a Mary Kay Party Fundraiser for Adoption at The Twin Oaks Apartment Complex Clubhouse on May 19th from 10-2. Its a come and go party with facials, door prizes and adoption information.  The party was originally scheduled for April 17th but we had to cancel due to the crazy weather last week.

Getting done with our homestudy is a huge step in the adoption process and we are so excited to finally be at the end. It took longer than we were expecting but everything is in God's time and we just can't wait to see what the rest of this journey has in store for us! 

Love you Much!
Christen

AND THE WINNER IS.......................................

PEARLEE WARNER from Purvis, MS!! Congratulations!! I hope you enjoy this beautiful bag! Thanks to everyone who bought a ticket and helped to support our Adoption! We raised over $700 to help bring our little one from Ethiopia :)

The BIG update!

Well Eric and I are terrible bloggers.....Lol! There is so much to catch you up on so hopefully this post won't be too long. But I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you and if you're in the middle of doing something important you might want to come back later when you have a couple of hours to spare...jk (kinda).

I know I have said this in every blog post thus far, but God is totally rocking our socks off! Every single time I get the least bit worried about money or time or pretty much anything involved in this process, God just completely blows my mind with how incredible He is and how perfect His timing is. The past two months have just been mind boggling (you will see what I mean) and I have a couple of amazing stories from last month that I absolutely just have to share with you guys.

As most of you know, we are still in the homestudy portion of the adoption process (more on that in a bit). During the homestudy process there is a home visit where our wonderful social worker will come out to our house and make sure that everything is cool at our house and so forth and so on. They also take pics of every single room in your house including the front and the back yard. I'm really hoping she doesn't open any closet doors or look under the beds..lol. Anyway,  I'm pretty sure all of you know that our house has been a work in progress and we are constantly doing some sort of project around here.  A few months back we had decided that we should add a deck to the back of our house to help with the appearance of our really old and worn our siding (plus who doesn't want a deck?).  Eric's Dad works at City Building Supply in Laurel and had offered to help get the materials for us and he and Eric were gonna build it one Saturday in January. Here is where the story gets awesome. One day while at work Dan (Eric's Dad) is talking to a contractor named Ray and somehow the subject of our adoption and building the deck came up in conversation. During that conversation Ray says "why don't you just let me build it? I think what they are doing is awesome and I just want to do something to be a blessing to them"??????? WHAAAAT!!!!! So the next week as I am getting ready for work Ray and his partner/helper/idk show up at my house AND BUILT OUR DECK!  God is crazy good isn't he? I had a wonderful conversation with him and am so incredibly blessed by those two men who just wanted to be a blessing to us. And what a blessing they are! When I told them thank you all they said was "thank you for letting us build it" Our deck is beautiful and God used two sweet humble men who we don't even know to do it. It literally changes my mood and puts a smile on my face every time I walk out of our back door!

A couple of weeks after our crazy deck blessing, I was starting to get a little bit stressed about raising all the funds we need to complete the process. I really have no idea why I let this sin creep into my heart when God has been more than faithful. I try to keep it at bay, but sometimes when you think about it too much it just gets a little overwhelming ( I know that's no excuse). I had a Mary Kay party planned for the next day I was hoping and praying that it would go well to help raise the extra money needed to make our homestudy payments. Well let me just tell you, after the party one of the sweetest girls I have ever met came up to me and said y'all have really been on my heart lately and we just wanted to make a donation toward your adoption. She slipped me a check and I didn't look at it until I got home. My heart is about to beat out of my chest right now and tears are rolling down as I tell you that what she and her precious husband gave was MORE than enough to make our payment!  My heart is soooo full and I really don't have adequate words to describe to you what an incredibly awesome and humbling experience that was. Guys if you happen to read this we love you two more than you will know. May Jesus be honored and glorified in your gift. I hope one day that we have the opportunity to be the kind of blessing to someone else that you have been to us. I look forward to the day when we can explain to Ethiopian baby what lengths the body of Christ went to in order to help bring them home!

Wow! Deep Breath--Big Sigh.....

So with that said, I will try to briefly catch you up on where we are which should be pretty easy to do since we're pretty much just hanging out right now. We have had our first two homestudy visits with our sweet social worker Andrea. I think our last visit was the third week in Jan. and we left our mtg to make plans soon for our home visit. Then sometime during the last week in Jan. Andrea sent me an email saying that she was going to have to have surgery and would be out of commission for a couple of weeks but to let her know when we wanted to make our home visit and she would put it on the calender.  As it turns out Andrea's surgery was pretty complicated. She spend over a week in ICU, went home, has had some complications, found out the surgery didn't work, and is now back in the hospital gearing up for surgery number two. PLEASE PRAY FOR ANDREA! We are praying and trusting God for her healing. I know that God is being glorified in her trials right now because I have seen the way she has handled this situation.  She is the most precious social worker we could have asked for and we hope that she will be able and healthy enough to complete our homestudy, however, it is looking like we may have to switch social workers and right now we are in limbo just waiting to see how this next surgery goes. I just want to be clear with you guys, my concern is for Andrea and not for our homestudy. Even though we were hoping to be completely done with it by the end of this month, God is sovereign and I know wholeheartedly that any kink in our process is only God preparing the way and our child for us.

Love you Much!
Christen