McMuffins, Survival Kits, and God's Love...

I am going to be honest enough to say, "I have had a pity party for myself the past several days."  Seriously.  Last week, we found out that our guardian court date went awesome and that we would be assigned a court date soon.  Our social worker told us to "be ready" because it could come any day and families seem to be traveling fast.  Then on Monday, a friend that I met through a support page had her guardian court date AND got assigned her court date on the same day!  Naturally, my hopes have been high and I am checking my email like every 5 seconds to see if we have been assigned ours and the new is...we haven't yet:(

I was running this afternoon and was reminded of two things.  One...it's not even been a week.  Two...I have a thousand things to be thankful for this week.  So tonight, I thought I would stop the pity party and start reminding myself of all the awesome things I have been blessed by this week.  Here goes...a list of things I am thankful for...

1.  A HUSBAND THAT KNOWS ME WELL..I celebrated my first official Mother's Day with the best gift from my hubby...an Egg White McMuffin from McDonalds.  Some girls want jewelry, others want McMuffins!

2.  A MOM THAT WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR US...My mom baked over 70 dozen cupcakes Mother's Day weekend all so she could earn money to come fly to Ethiopia with us!  She is amazing and every time I talk to her on the phone, she continues to encourage me, she tells me how excited she is about the trip, and she reminds me that God's timing is perfect (although I did tell her this week that God's time is annoying me right now.  She then proceeded to say loudly on the phone, "Hey God...Andrea is annoyed down here with your timing."  Nice.)  I love her.

3.  TEENS THAT CARE...I received several cards and encouraging words on Mother's Day, but one stuck out in particular.  One of our former teens, who is like a brother to us, who is now a young adult, left us the nicest card on Mother's Day.  The words meant more to us than he will realize.

4.  AN OUTSTANDING MOTHER IN LAW...My mother in law has been visiting for almost 3 weeks.  For some, that might sound like a nightmare, but for me, it has been awesome!  She is extremely sweet and ridiculously helpful.  She has cleaned our house (including the blinds...who does that???), taken our dog for a gazillion walks a day (ok, only 2, but they are really long ones!), she bought us our baby crib (awesome!), she came to Target and registered for stuff with us (and let me tell you, when she and I get our heads together, we can get Nate to say yes to anything), and she has just loved on us like crazy.  And I love her lots.

5.  GOOD FOOD...I have to put that one in here.  We started the week with BBQ with our friends that might have been the second best BBQ next to Kansas City, we've gone to Krumpe's, the Pennsylvania Dutch Market, we've had homemade soup, we've had Dunkin Donuts pretty much every day (thanks again to my mother in law) and tonight we are going Sonic...enough said.

6.  MY OLDER SISTER...For starters, my sister Heather wrote the nicest thing for me this week.  She got on Natalie Grant's facebook page and submitted my name as a Mom who deserved to be recognized.  Then she made this awesome "survival kit" for me for Mother's Day (which when I opened it my niece Emma said, I think that means she is going to need a lot of help!).  She listened to me cry when I was worried about the guardian court date.  And...she is just awesome.

7.  MY YOUNGER SISTER...My younger sister called yesterday and said she had a problem.  She thinks she is addicted...to buying things for Baby B!  She can't stop herself, she says.  She is in love with a nephew she hasn't even met.  She is one of my biggest cheerleaders.  She is also...just awesome!

8.  MY YOUTH GROUP...We played kick ball last night.  I was in the outfield and one of my kids threw a ball to second base.  Another one of my kids yelled, "Andrea...heads up!"  I am not sure what I was thinking, but I pretty much stood there and got clocked in the head, hard core.  Why am I thankful for that?  I am not sure, but I love random things and more importantly...I love my youth group!

9.  MY DAD...My Dad made an amazing dinner Sunday (with my Mom's help...).  He made homemade bread and it was to die for.  I have been eating it all week and it's pretty much the best thing.  Besides being awesome at making bread, he has called me almost every day and said, "What's Up?"  While he knows they will be the first ones to hear if we get any news about court, he still cares enough to call.  It reminds me that we aren't alone on this journey.  My Dad is pretty stinking amazing.

10.  GOD MOMENTS...Tonight I went to pick up my prescriptions of what I need when I go to Ethiopia.  The girl who waited on me said, "Wow...you do know this is expensive right?"  I didn't, but it was Malaria pills and I needed them.  I proceeded to tell her I was going to Ethiopia to which she asked me what for.  I told her we were adopting.  After having an awesome conversation, she said to me, "I am going to pray for you."  I thanked her, got in my car, and David Crowder's song, "How He Loves," came on.  I heard this line, "If grace is an ocean, we're all sinking," and I was reminded just how big and awesome God's love really is for us.  All of that overwhelmed me to the point of tears and I was reminded...waiting is ok.  Waiting teaches us a dependency on God that we might not otherwise have.  Waiting shapes us.  But mostly...waiting allows us to be loved to the core by a God who thinks the world of us.  That is something to be thankful for.

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