"If I were to ask God why He lets poverty and injustice exist, why there are so many orphans and why He does nothing about it, I am SURE He would ask me the same ..."

author unknown

Lilypie Waiting to Adopt tickers

About Us

My name is Jessica and my dear sweet hubby is Kelly. We have three beautiful girls, big sis and little sis plus our newest little baby sis :) Welcome to our site where we will blog about our journey to grow our family through adoption in Africa.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

We moved the girls!

Don't worry, they still live with us, but today they have temporarily moved into the playroom. Naturally, the bunk beds needed more disassembly getting them out of the bedroom, around the tight corner in the hallway and into the playroom. Can't we have a simple project? Is there really such thing as a simple project? I don't think so, but whatever!

So, we are effectively emptying out the bedroom so that it can have a makeover. Nothing big, just new carpet padding (thanks to the stray cat we adopted; I won't share just how gross it still smells even after a visit from Stanley Steamer and countless cleaning and freshening by me), and a fresh coat of paint. Yippy, we finally will be testing out just how long paint lasts! You see we bought pink paint for the girls room, oh about 4 years ago when we moved in. Problem was, after I painted the 2 bathrooms, I was a little burnt out on painting, so I took a long break. Then life got away from me, Kelly went to Iraq for a year, I started homeschooling, yada yada, and the children still do not have a pink room.

So, the bunk beds are moved, put back together and the kiddos are doing the nightly routine, snack, jammies, and brushing teeth as we speak. Hubby and I should be pulling up some gross carpet padding within the hour. Pictures to come when the makeover is finished (we may even add some fun purple stripes to the room per the girls' request).

Next up, playroom makeover and transformation to new baby room!

Saturday, February 27, 2010

I'm nesting!

(This is my original adoption post from my other blog, so I thought I'd repost to kick off the adoption blog right!)

I know, it's a little crazy, I'm not pregnant (though I would love it if I was!), but here I am nesting! I am nesting because God has made me a promise, He plans to make me a mother again! Not sure yet, if He plans to do it with a pregnancy (we find out next month if Kelly's reversal was successful), but even before a pregnancy, Kelly and I plan to adopt!!!!

I am so excited and so bursting with joy at just how big my God is! I give Him all the glory for making this happen, and I can't wait to see how it pans out!

You see, about 2 years ago, I had the baby itch bad. First, I took care of it with a cute little puppy named Parker. He is a great dog, a little crazy and hyper, but not so much puppy anymore ;) So, I stated oohhing and aaahhing over any and all babies within a mile radius. I would go googoo eyed over chubby little legs and tiny hands. Then in a the fall, we started talking about reversing Kelly's vasectomy because whenever I would casually talk about adoption, Kelly would simply say he really didn't think he could love a child that was "not his".

So, we jumped in feet first on trying to reverse a poor decision we made as a young couple, sleep deprived and still knee deep in diapers and pull ups. What a wonderful experience that was! A friend loaned us the money, the doctor was a wonderful Christian and I was sure God would give us a child. I was sure I would be pregnant and glowing by the new year, ha! God, in His infinite wisdom, decided to teach me some lessons in patience.....and humility (as, I was not pregnant, and on a bi-weekly basis someone I knew would get pregnant!). You see, He needed to soften my hubby's heart. Kelly first saw my heartbreak month by month as we had no success conceiving, and then a terrible tragedy struck Haiti at the end of January. The first hint that things were changing was when Kelly said something to the effect that we should see if we could adopt a child from Haiti.....what! Who is this man? I'm not sure I believed him until he said something else just like that later in the same week!

Well, I did what an other self-respecting wife would do and got on the internet and started research! I start reading blogs, looking at how to sites and giving him little bits of info. Then, we were at Winter Jam, the preaching time had a bit of info about some of the orphans world wide and specifically in Haiti. Then the guy was about to lead us in prayer and he told us to close our eyes and mentally put a circle around ourselves and ask God what He would have us personally to do for these orphans. I already knew as God had been leading me this way for a few weeks, He had already broken my heart for them, and I had already been laying awake at night thinking about these sweet faces who didn't have a mommy to tuck them in. But something changed in Kelly that night and I confirmed it as we headed home and I simply looked at him and said "You know that we are going to adopt, don't you?" and he replied, "I know". Yikes, how exciting!

Last night we drove to Columbia to an adoption seminar and got our feet wet, I look forward to diving in and figuring out where all the money will come from and starting the "paper pregnancy" soon, stay tooned!

So here we are! I am nesting today, cleaning like a crazy lady this morning, bribing the children to help me with money (the best part is, they want money to help save for church, for the orphans overseas!), I am cleaning because I can't stand to look at some of this mess one more minute, but also, because there is a child that God has promised us coming to my house. (I know, not today) Yes, I would love to get pregnant sometime, but I also know that somewhere in this world, there is a baby, or will be a baby, that is mine!

So today starts with the first of, I hope, many adoption blogs and the first of many prayers for the next member of the Cote family.
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