Referral-Aversary!

One year ago today I put my sister in a car, kissed her face and watched her head due west to start her new life in Phoenix. I travelled through the morning in a fog of tears. I was sitting at my desk trying to function, when my cell phone rang. I had talked to Kristen a few days earlier and merely shrugged off any idea of a referral and simply assumed she was calling to tell me that she had the answers to my questions. I was wrong. It turned out to be the phone call that changed my life.

It was a good thing one of my law partners took over, because I shut down. Every secretary in my office was trying to find Le. I was trying to keep from hyperventilating. It was going to take Le about 20 minutes to make it to and so I told Kristen that we would call her back. But I had permission from Le to ask one question: was there one or two?

I almost fainted when Kristen giggled: "there's two Lindsey. And they are simply beautiful."
Those "two" have changed everything. In an absolute fabulous way.

The first pic we saw:

Ruta and Alazar~one year ago today I sat at my desk and immediately fell in love with you both. Since the beginning of time the Father of Lights determined that I, a crazy control-freak, woman, would get to spend my life helping you both laugh, heal and learn to love. I am truly honored. Hugs and Love and Happy Referralaversary, Mommy.

No Longer A Joke

Each year as a society, we joke that if you aren't good you'll get coal in your stocking. This year, ALL I want in my stocking is coal. You see, I have some amazing friends who are changing the way we see coal and it's effect on the 3rd world.

An efficient, coal burning stove can save a woman 3-5 hours a DAY by reducing the amount of time it takes her to cook a meal for her family. 3-5 hours! Rachel Ray makes a meal in 30 minutes! This year your purchase of $20 you are sent a beautifully wrapped box of a piece of coal. In return, a family in Haiti receives a coal burning stove and since the stoves are manufactured locally in Haiti, you are helping several families.

Tomorrow as some of you get up early and head out the door for great bargains, log on and give a life changing gift to someone who couldn't be happier to receive coal in their stocking. Go here to read about the project. Spread the word and let's fill a ton of stocking with coal and a bunch of Haitian homes with stoves.

I'm That Brave

Tomorrow is the big day. People to go. Places to go. Yummy things to eat. A time for friends, family, food, football and fun. I should be cooking. Or cleaning. Or packing our car. But I can't. I have a million other things to do and waning time in which to accomplish it all. And yet, I cannot move. I am paralyzed knowing that across my city, only a few miles from my house, sits a mother whose heart is breaking.
You see, my friend Alecia,leaves in 12 for Russia. She is taking her husband and three small children and getting on a plane to bring two angels home, a 13 year old boy and a 6-8 year old girl.
But my friend Alecia may not be able to get on that plane. And only one thing is stopping her. Money. They have 12 days to raise $19,000. In order to save money, they went through a facilitor instead of an agency which saved them a ton of money. But with fees, tickets, travel costs, and immigration paperwork, it still adds up. They have applied for grants and loans only to be denied because they didn't use an agency. Does that infuriate you? It does me and it should you.

Now adoption is tricky and hard and a complete miracle of redemption. But it is expensive. Emotionally, physically and financially draining. Raising a teenager is no easy business but signing up for a teenager, well that's just God at work. I don't think I'm that brave. And I can't imagine sitting across town wondering about my two children across the world and wondering about how tomorrow I am going to be thankful. I know I'm not that brave.Our God is the God of miracles and tonight, while I know we all have a million other things to do, reprinting this post, donating some $, getting on our knees and asking the God of heaven to come down and provide for what He favors and shouting that this Thanksgiving we will celebrate two children finding their forever home, I AM that brave!

Go here to read the Horner's story and donate. Go here to my Etsy shop where a portion of everything bought goes to the Horner adoption fund.

For Fun!

I have so many people who ask me to help them with their adoptions and so many cool products that I come across and have fallen in love with that I wanted to start blogging about them. Le and I also have been praying about how to make our first Christmas with the kids special and not about the chaos and gifts that usually follow this season. So in order to capture all that I recently started blogging here:




I'll continue to blog here about life with the Andrews' clan but if you want a great place to shop, check out Our Different Christmas.

The Best Thing About Cold Weather?

What's the best thing about waking up to a frigid cold snap? An excuse to wear your favorite Toy Story hat outside of the house!

A New Blog

I've been thinking alot about doing a second blog for awhile. I finally jumped off and did it. I wanted a place to just promote people's adoptions fundraising, cool products that give back and sharing ideas for doing Christmas differently. Jump over here http://www.ourdifferentchristmas.blogspot.com/ and follow along.

The New Me

We've been home almost eight months. Just typing the previous sentence makes me nostalgic. So much has changed, but the biggest changes I've noticed are internal. My kids have always been themselves, they've just adapted to be with us in ways that I'm convinced is nothing but pure divine scheduling.
I'm more patient, more scattered and am always running late (which kills me most of the time). I use to be fifteen minutes early. Now if we show up at all and we're all dressed from head to toe we're deserving of an attendance badge. I am slowly but surely learning to let things go, to get lost in the moment and turn off my phone. I've kissed sleep adieu and have learned that the best luxury in life is a babysitter. I've fallen in love with the hubby all over again. I find myself remembering what I used to be doing on Friday nights and I just feel sorry for that poor girl.
Laundry piles in specific places and is found in the most obscure areas. Belly laughing is my favorite past time and sleeping in is now defined as an extra hit to the snooze. I find that I get to be myself the most when I'm dancing, singing, screaming while making dinner and watching R & A challenge each other to a dance off in the kitchen.
Le and I plot and plan and schedule date nights, only to find we spend our time together laughing over whatever ridiculousness occurred in our house that week.
I use to love having people over so I could display my current culinary accomplishments and now having people over is preempted by "is pizza OK?"
I use to love the latest fashions, shoes (still do) and budget my next designer jean purchase. Now, I judge every clothing purchase by how well it can disguise Cheeto stains and I while I longingly drool over my favorite 4 inch heels, the thought of chasing a two year old in them is enough to earn them a spot back in the closet.
And in the middle of this ridiculous, hilarious craziness, I find myself lost in pure bliss. But the highlight moment of the last eight months was last night. I'm always putting on music because we all love to dance and Michael Franti has a song called "Say Hey" that Alazar can groove to like nobody's business. Last night we had the shuffle on my music player going, my mom was over playing with Alazar, dinner was on the table and we were bandaging Ruta's arm when suddenly "Say Hey" started playing. Alazar stopped, looked for me and told my mom "Oh...Allalar down. Me and Mommy's song. We dance."
He ran over to me and asked for me to pick him up and we boogied to our song and I couldn't have been happy to have had on house shoes.

And yes, we did have a tent in our living room for a few days. Just because Ruta convinced her daddy that she didn't want to sleep in it outside but in our house, because the new version of Le is a total pushover.

Orphan Sunday~November 7th, 2010

Tomorrow is Sunday. November 7th, 2010. To those who are plugged in with the adoption community, it's also Orphan Sunday. What is Orphan Sunday you say? Orphan Sunday is a day of awareness, prayer and a call to advocacy for those children around the world who have lost their parent(s).
I've had a lot of people ask if I am only passionate about international adoption. Everytime I get asked that question, I have to fight back the tears. The answer is and always will be NO! I myself have been adopted by Christ and that adoption was bought with His precious blood. Why then could/would/should I ever discriminate over one type of physical adoption over the other? I can't. I won't. EVER. Every child deserves a family. A home. A support system of love, hope and promise.
I've heard a lot of people say that not every one is called to adopt. I believe that to be true, but everyone is called to care for the orphan and the widow and the oppressed. While adoption is not the solution to the world orphan crisis, poverty or oppression, it is a solution. There are many, many ways for one to be involved in making a difference in the life of an orphan. As we enter tomorrow and spend the day reflecting, be open to asking God what He would have from you and then be strong enough to hear the answer.

Today

We missed you today Lala. Alazar asked at breakfast, lunch, dinner and bed time prayers that we pray for you and Papa Chu. While this is not any different from any other day, today it just hurt a little more for me. We cannot wait to see you again and just know that every time we bow our heads, we pray for our two favorite people.

Hugs and Love,

Your big sister and your niece and nephew who are praying you would just pack up and come live at our house. Papa Chu too! :)

Playing!

My mom brought over some old prom dresses from my sister and I's high school days. Ruta reveled in dressing up in each one and Alazar was not to be outdone. He dressed up in his dinosaur costume.
After several months of trying, it seems like my children are slowly but surely re-learning how to play. I hope it as fun for them to do as it is for this mommy to watch.

It's easy for me to tell you what in this life makes me afraid. Even downloading the pic below made me shudder.



If you know me well, you know that the thought of this makes me jittery and panicky:




But if I was truly honest with myself, I wonder if one of my biggest fears is not pulling into the driveway of a big house.

Or looking in our bank account and seeing security for our future:

But then I am reminded that not so long ago, I was afraid of being a mom, and I cannot help but think of all the things I would have missed out on if I would have chosen to be safe, secure and on the road to what we Americans like to call "success".

This road is so much better!

New Friends

It's no secret that I love to talk adoption and I adore meeting new families that are in the process. This past weekend, we had the opportunity to meet the Horner family. They live about 5 miles from us and are currently in the process of adopting a teen age boy (LOVE that an older boy is getting adopted) and younger girl from Russia. They leave in a few short weeks and desperately need to fund raise over $20,000. They have several amazing fundraising opportunities right now (Alecia is quite the cook and she is making flavored popcorn just in time for the holidays) that you should definitely go and check out and help them bring home their precious kiddos.

This month, with every hat that is sold from our Etsy shop, $15 will go to the Horner family adoption.

Go. Check out their blog and spread some hope.