We visited with my family in DC for Christmas and were so happy that there was still over a foot of snow on the ground! We had a great time smashing each other with snowballs...but I was glad I had a camera to hide behind!
Sunday, December 27, 2009
SNOW!
Being able to go to the beach 8 months out of the year is amazing, but there is just something about snow....
We visited with my family in DC for Christmas and were so happy that there was still over a foot of snow on the ground! We had a great time smashing each other with snowballs...but I was glad I had a camera to hide behind!
We visited with my family in DC for Christmas and were so happy that there was still over a foot of snow on the ground! We had a great time smashing each other with snowballs...but I was glad I had a camera to hide behind!
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Christmas Thoughts
Christmas was interesting this year. While I was sitting with family I realized a feeling of incompleteness washing over me. I tried to put my finger on what was missing and was not able to answer the question until this morning. Like most waiting parents I miss my child, you know the child that has not come to their forever home. I am very blessed with my son and thank God for him yet I still feel like a piece of me is missing. God has already started attaching my heart to our unknown child and my heart breaks with the thought that they probably had a less than special Christmas. Their Christmas was not full of gifts, food and family. We are praying for our next child and that God watches over and keeps them safe.
We are praying the Dr.’s find the missing medical records and the rest of the paperwork gets completed soon. Bureaucracy drives me insane. Don’t they know my child; our child is in an orphanage ready to come to their forever home.
I really believe in God’s timing and plan, yet I am impatient. I am praying daily that God gives me an extra portion of grace to make it through this process.
We are praying the Dr.’s find the missing medical records and the rest of the paperwork gets completed soon. Bureaucracy drives me insane. Don’t they know my child; our child is in an orphanage ready to come to their forever home.
I really believe in God’s timing and plan, yet I am impatient. I am praying daily that God gives me an extra portion of grace to make it through this process.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Little Red Dots
I have a confession to make. I am obsessed with little red dots. There are lots of great reasons that I am getting into blogging - writing down my thoughts, keeping our friends and family updated on our adoption and family life, and documenting our journey to the next Brogdon kid - but that's not what I like the best. I'm not proud to admit it, but right now it's all about seeing how many little red dots I get! For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, there is a little map down at the bottom of our blog and it marks (with a little red dot) each time someone visits our page. Here's the sad part...I can't wait to check it in the morning. Don't get me wrong, comments are awesome, but just so I don't appear greedy...I just want your dot!! My husband was asking me what I wanted for Christmas...and I actually said I wanted a little red dot from a far away country - someplace in Europe or Africa or Asia!! He just smiled and shook his head and said "That's one of the things I love about you. You're not quite right!" :)
Fellow bloggers, am I the only one???
Fellow bloggers, am I the only one???
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Who knew??
Good news - our social worker is going ahead with the home study report while we wait for Matt's vaccination records to be found! Once the draft is done it needs to go to the home study agency's main office and to our adoption program coordinator for approval...what can be a lengthy process as they make sure all of our info is just right for Kazakhstan. That they could proceed with the report drafts and multiple approvals needed before every last bit of paperwork was done was a happy surprise for us!
The consulate in Kazakhstan won't be looking at any dossiers until mid-January at the earliest anyway, so we're really not wasting too much time. Besides, I am confident that these pesky records will show up when (and only when) God wants them to!
The consulate in Kazakhstan won't be looking at any dossiers until mid-January at the earliest anyway, so we're really not wasting too much time. Besides, I am confident that these pesky records will show up when (and only when) God wants them to!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
A New Friend
We don't have another child yet, but we do have a new stuffed friend for him or her.
Meet 'Cordy Roy'! What little boy or girl won't love a blue elephant of their own?
Thanks Nano for this great gift...the first one for the soon-to-be little Brogdon!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
God's Perfect Timing
I've been thinking about God's timing a lot recently.
Our homestudy, which was done in record time, has been held up for a month because of lost medical records. Who has ever even heard of a doctor "losing" a patients vaccination records?? Anyway, I'm trying not to become frustrated by this delay, but the more I think about it the more upset I become because I know that this delay is so minor compared to the other ones we will face as we move forward.
Then I realized that Christmas is the perfect season to think about God's timing. I hope you'll read what I came across on this great website called Nehemiah Notes....
It's clear now that God knew exactly what he was doing in bringing Christ to earth when he did. We can take comfort in knowing that the same power of timing which affected the events of Christ's birth also operates in the circumstances of our individual lives. God's ways with Christ were meant, in part, to show his ways with us (Rom 8:11, 32).
But it takes spiritual alertness to appreciate the timing of God. And to respond to it.
God graciously allows us to experience the benefits of his timing in countless ways, even when we're not consciously trying to cooperate with him. He works behind the scenes in untold ways to protect us and provide for us. Yet within certain boundaries he also gives us freedom to make decisions which do or do not conform with his timing. Here, though, the challenge comes in understanding his timing. There is no easy formula for doing this, and we should not be too quick to think we grasp his plans. He has radically different clocks for each of us. Consider examples from the Christmas story:
A woman past the childbearing years, Elizabeth, gives birth to a son. How often we give up too early on a personal goal and let failure convince us God has said no, when in reality he has simply said "Wait."
A very young woman, Mary, conceives a child miraculously. Sometimes God is ready for us to move ahead before we think it is logical to do so.
Mary gives birth to Jesus in the humble setting of a stable. We can think we're unprepared to do something because we lack certain material benefits. In fact, these may not be at all necessary to carry out what Christ wants us to do.
When we look closely at those privileged few who participated in the first Christmas, and why God may have chosen them, it seems that they not only had a heart for God but a unique bent for listening to him.
The message, then, is clear: If I am to enjoy the benefits of God's timing in my life, I need to give to him something for which there is no other substitute: time. It is perhaps the greatest irony of the Christmas season that we become so busy at this time of year that we have less time than ever to be still before the Lord. With the Christmas holidays approaching, let me encourage you to set aside some generous time for being alone with Christ and gaining his perspective on your life.
Do you see any of those examples fitting your life? Thinking you are too young, too old, not strong, smart or rich enough, lacking something else? We sure did...with our adoption, and lots of other things.
And did you catch the "slap" -- that it takes our spiritual alertness to appreciate God's timing and plans? Ugh! My prayer for you is that you will take the time this Christmas to make the baby Jesus your number one priority!
Our homestudy, which was done in record time, has been held up for a month because of lost medical records. Who has ever even heard of a doctor "losing" a patients vaccination records?? Anyway, I'm trying not to become frustrated by this delay, but the more I think about it the more upset I become because I know that this delay is so minor compared to the other ones we will face as we move forward.
Then I realized that Christmas is the perfect season to think about God's timing. I hope you'll read what I came across on this great website called Nehemiah Notes....
It's clear now that God knew exactly what he was doing in bringing Christ to earth when he did. We can take comfort in knowing that the same power of timing which affected the events of Christ's birth also operates in the circumstances of our individual lives. God's ways with Christ were meant, in part, to show his ways with us (Rom 8:11, 32).
But it takes spiritual alertness to appreciate the timing of God. And to respond to it.
God graciously allows us to experience the benefits of his timing in countless ways, even when we're not consciously trying to cooperate with him. He works behind the scenes in untold ways to protect us and provide for us. Yet within certain boundaries he also gives us freedom to make decisions which do or do not conform with his timing. Here, though, the challenge comes in understanding his timing. There is no easy formula for doing this, and we should not be too quick to think we grasp his plans. He has radically different clocks for each of us. Consider examples from the Christmas story:
A woman past the childbearing years, Elizabeth, gives birth to a son. How often we give up too early on a personal goal and let failure convince us God has said no, when in reality he has simply said "Wait."
A very young woman, Mary, conceives a child miraculously. Sometimes God is ready for us to move ahead before we think it is logical to do so.
Mary gives birth to Jesus in the humble setting of a stable. We can think we're unprepared to do something because we lack certain material benefits. In fact, these may not be at all necessary to carry out what Christ wants us to do.
When we look closely at those privileged few who participated in the first Christmas, and why God may have chosen them, it seems that they not only had a heart for God but a unique bent for listening to him.
The message, then, is clear: If I am to enjoy the benefits of God's timing in my life, I need to give to him something for which there is no other substitute: time. It is perhaps the greatest irony of the Christmas season that we become so busy at this time of year that we have less time than ever to be still before the Lord. With the Christmas holidays approaching, let me encourage you to set aside some generous time for being alone with Christ and gaining his perspective on your life.
Do you see any of those examples fitting your life? Thinking you are too young, too old, not strong, smart or rich enough, lacking something else? We sure did...with our adoption, and lots of other things.
And did you catch the "slap" -- that it takes our spiritual alertness to appreciate God's timing and plans? Ugh! My prayer for you is that you will take the time this Christmas to make the baby Jesus your number one priority!
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