SNOW WHAT!

It snowed here today...

and not just a little snow...

for us....

it was a whole lotta snow...

the kind of snow we just never see...

ever!

The kids loved it...

The dogs loved it...

The cats hated it...

*haha*

 

I took lots of pics, cause...

 

we just never see snow like this...

ever!

*grin*

So life just stopped for a while today...

kind of...

while we enjoyed a rare glimpse into winter...

and you snow what???

as beautiful as it was...

and as fun as it was...

I am thankful I live in the South...

Brrrrrrr.....

Christmas 2017

"but Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart"...  

This verse from Luke is one of my favorites and speaks to this Momma's heart, especially this time of year...

and especially because this Momma is a treasurer and a ponderer, living in a world with very little time for treasuring and pondering.

I am convinced that in this world of desires and answers, just a click away..

treasuring and pondering are a lost art.

I think about Mary, her quiet strength and unwavering trust, in a world that didn't yet know Jesus.

 I have always been fascinated by Mary.

As a child,I thought she was beautiful.

As a believer, I think her faith was beautiful.

I think about her Momma's heart as she lovingly gazed into the eyes of her little boy.

How much did she know?

I know the Lord is so gentle and patient with us as He leads us down His chosen path for our lives, not revealing too much too soon.

How much had He revealed to this young mother?

As she treasured up those first moments with her new precious baby, what was she pondering?

I know how I treasured up precious, fleeting moments with each of my children and pondered the gift that we had been given...  even at 2:00 a.m. feedings...

sometimes, especially at 2:00 a.m. feedings...

How much did she know?

Was she pondering the future of our Lord and Savior, the One who had been born to die?

Or was she simply treasuring up and pondering the beautiful face of her first born son?

It is difficult to wrap my heart around what she may have been feeling as she gazed into our Lord's eyes.

How much did she know?

This time of year, my heart often turns to Mary and that beautiful night when love was born...

and as we step back into this path of unknowns

I pray that I can be more like Mary...

her quiet strength and devoted faith...

saying yes to the Lord's plan for her life without hesitation, trusting in His ability to equip His "humble, servant girl". 

Facing what the world would regard as burdensome, with unwavering assurance, calling herself "blessed" and trusting in the One who had "done great things" for her.

So, I treasure and I ponder as another Christmas comes and goes...

as kids get bigger...

and our lives just a bit crazier.

I consider myself blessed...

not burdened...

as I step into our future with (mostly) unwavering assurance...

and trust in the One who has done great things for me.

This Christmas my heart lingered on moments past and memories made...

while anticipating those approaching moments and memories known only to the Lord as He gently and patiently guides us down this path He has chosen for us.

Who knows... 

maybe that path will include a pain free Christmas picture next year...

yeah...

I feel your pain buddy...

*grin*

Surely it will embrace another pair of candy coated, reindeer food making hands...

another Christmas tree designer...

another place at Christmas dinner...

another Christmas morning Cinnamon Roll..

another Christmas gift giver...

and recipient...

Next year, the decorations will remain the same...

as well as the craziness.

The traditions will not change...

and more than likely...

neither will the painful picture process...

*grin*

We will just add one more cooperative, smiling face to the pain...

I mean process!

*haha*

Next Christmas I will be treasuring up a year's worth of memories with our newest son and pondering how a year could have gone by so swiftly and yet seem so laden with dewy new moments and  experiences long overdue...

and I return to Mary and I pray that as I treasure and ponder, that I will also have the faith of one so full of quiet strength and unwavering trust.

Mary said, “I am the servant of the Lord. Let this happen to me as you say!” Then the angel went away.  Luke 1:38

Sometimes the things we are called to are scary and hard and are condemned by the world as foolish or burdensome as they completely change our "normal"...

but the Lord never changes...

and His "normal" is unlike anything this fallen world embraces.

Next year, that space in our Christmas picture that always seems lacking...

the one that every year, since the girls came home, someone always comments on...

will . be . filled.

Merry Christmas!

DTC

One month from today, if not sooner... 

 we will be leaving for China... 

 and my head is spinning...

 

Today, I found out that we are DTC (Dossier To China)... and last night I found out that we were awarded a grant and I experienced yet again, the Lord's faithfulness...

This morning as I was praying and thanking the Lord for all He had done, I opened my Bible and what did it fall too but Psalm 146... 

8 "the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous.

9 The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin." 

and this morning the Lord led me straight to a video. I had no idea what the video was about but felt led to watch, something I don't normally do, as most moments of my day are used up, but this morning I watched and what was this video about???

Well, it was all about an advocates journey as she followed a sweet family to adopt their son, an older boy from China who was blind!!

As I wept through that video, I could feel the Lord's arms wrapped tightly around my heart, preparing and confirming and reassuring.

One month from today y'all!! EEK!!!!

A Letter to my Son

I wrote a letter to my son today...

It was unlike any letter I have ever written...

As I fumbled through the keys on my computer and the emotions in my heart...

 I realized the enormity of my words.

What do I say to a 13 year old who has been loved where he is but who has no future where he is?

It is a fallen world.

A flood of emotion overtakes me as I begin to try and wrap my heart around his reality.

This incredibly brave young boy is about to leave everything he has ever known, everything that is familiar and "safe" and my heart just breaks.

It is a fallen world.

In order to start a brand new life, to have "a hope and a future", this young boy will walk away from his past with a family he has never met, a family he cannot see, a family he cannot understand, a family he will have to trust.

In a tragic but beautiful meshing of loss and hope, this young boy will step into a future that will,  prayerfully, offer abundant life as His true father is revealed to him.

I wrote a letter to my son today...

and it was hard and it was wonderful and it was covered in a mother's love, confident in our Father's amazing love and beautiful redemption.

Dear Song,

We are excited and we cannot wait and we are grateful and you...

you will be loved...

forever.

Love Mom and Dad

Please join us in praying for our son and if you feel so led, visit our fundraising page here to see how you can help to bring him home!

Sing a Song of Hope

So there's this kid and he lives on the other side of the world and he doesn't look like me and he doesn't share my genes and he doesn't speak my language and he doesn't even know who I am but miraculously...

HE IS MY SON

Adoption is complicated.

It is beautiful and inspirational and blessed but it begins with such loss.  We hear the stories of abandonment at birth or even later and it is unimaginable to us but it is not our reality, until...

until you have held that child who cries when you leave because she is not sure you will come back...

until you have parented through that loss that sometimes threatens to consume you...

until you have seen the fear in your child's eyes as her past disrupts her present...

until the faces of those left behind call you back...

We are being called back and the journey to our son has taken years.

This child has been on my heart ever since our Maggie came home but it was not time, so I advocated and spent many evenings trying to find out more about this precious little boy who was our Maggie's foster brother.

His file was on and off the shared list.  His file was with even with Lifeline for a while but it was not time so I kept advocating and I kept praying and as time went by my prayers for him began to involve our family, but...

this child is blind - a need we had not parented before...

this child is a teenager already - we have parented those before and yeah...

this child is musical - what - I do like to sing - just ask the kids - hehe...

this child is a million miles away but yet still deeply in my heart.

I began to picture him in our home, at our church (praise band maybe), at soccer and school and JuJu's and and and...

However, it was just not time.

When the Lord finally open the door for us to be able to bring another child home, both Hubby and I felt very strongly that He wanted us to begin the paper work and let Him do the rest, so we did.

I have to say, there was such peace about starting the process and totally turning it all over to Him. He doesn't make mistakes but I sure do!  There have been many times that we thought we had all the answers, that we thought we knew what was best for our family, only to find out later that we were clueless and we didn't want to mess this up!

So, as we followed His lead, months went by...

our home study was done, our fingerprinting was done and our dossier was almost done and this child remained on my heart and as much as I had been praying, so had Hubby.

We prayed over many precious children but this one kept us up a night and it was one night, late, at our neighborhood dock that the Lord spoke loud and clear to Hubby's heart.

That dock has provided a place of respite for Hubby, a place of peace for him to go and pray and think and listen, cause in this house...

 well, you understand

*wink*

So that night, Hubby was listening and what he heard brought him to his knees.

As he watched this child's video and read what was written about him - again...

it was different...

Hubby looked at this child's picture and saw his son!

He then heart the Lord whisper to his heart, "That is your son!  Go and bring him home!"

Wow, right!

So what was my reaction when he tearfully called to tell me??

"What took you so long!  I knew it all along!"

Yeah, I know...

*grin*

So, without further ado, I would like to introduce you to our son!

Song is his name and he will age out very soon!  We have to be in China before his birthday in January!  

Sooooo, we will need some help!

We have self funded up to this point but will need some help to fund the rest in a short amount of time.  I have set up a You Caring Site for donations and fund raising, here

 Our church has also set up an account for adopting families.  You can mail tax refundable donations there with our name in the subject line.  Just contact me for details or...

You can give through the Easy Tithe app on your phone! You don't even need to download the app. 

You can just click here: https://app.easytithe.com/g3/h/ and select 'Adoption Fund' from the dropdown menu and in additional info memo, put in “Hamlin Adoption”

We also currently have a fundraiser going through The Apparent Project in Haiti.  

Just read their mission statement:

"Our focus is to “make the needs of Haiti known,” to support opportunities for Haitians to provide for themselves and their families, empowering them to rise out of poverty… to be able to keep their families together… to avoid relinquishing their children to orphanages… providing educational opportunities for both parents & their children."

Pretty cool! They help us to bring out 8th child home and we help them by providing jobs for Haitian families to be able to KEEP their precious ones! You can read more about this wonderful organization here

So, right now, we are selling these beautiful cereal box beaded bracelets. Each one comes with a tag that tells you all about the person who made your bracelet and what their hopes for the future are! How cool is that! Keep the tag, put it on your fridge and then you can commit to praying for that family!

We also have Christmas Ornaments that are made from recycled oil drums! They are gorgeous!

Each bracelet and each ornament is only $10 (not including shipping), five to our adoption fundraiser and five to Apparent Project!

Please share and please let me know if you would like to purchase any. You can reply here, message me on FB or email me at 5puppies@comcast.net.

Sing a Song of hope!

Please join us in praying as this precious child prepares to leave all that he has ever known to come home...

a home that will seem foreign and strange but one that the Lord has gently prepared, just for him!

Thanks y'all!  I will post more later but gotta go and get stuff done, cause...

we have a son!

So excited for you...

"How exciting! Are you excited?"

This is typically what we hear from sweet friends...

most of whom truly are excited for us.

We know there are some who proclaim excitement about another adoption, while thinking...

"Are you crazy!"

And while I would much rather the first response than the latter...

I struggle with my reply.

Funny, it is easier to answer the "are you crazy" response because...

ahem...

yep we are just a little crazy!

just a little

*grin*

What's harder is responding to the proclamations of genuine excitement, when my heart, my flesh says, "NO, I am really not all that excited"

*shutter*

Now, stay with me here.

Yes, we are excited about welcoming another precious child into our family...

and 

No, we are not excited about welcoming another precious child into our family...

It's hard y'all.

There is honestly nothing "easy" about adoption.

It is messy.

It is time consuming.

It is uncomfortable.

It is expensive.

It is painfully revealing.

It is brokenness.

It is heart wrenching.

It is life changing.

It is loss.

It is pain.

and it is what we are called to do.

The Lord has called us to once again, step back into messy and broken and uncomfortable and loss and we know the cost....

less time, less sleep, less money, less freedom, less retirement...

less "normal"

Are we excited yet?

Yes, it is hard but while we prepare to venture back into the trenches...

there is an excitement...

not the typical kind of joyful excitement when a baby is welcomed into the world... well loved... because... 

let's be real...

adoption begins with a tragic kind of loss, a hurt that settles in deep, a brokenness that is not repaired this side of heaven.

No, this kind of spiritual excitement flows from obedience because as hard and messy and uncomfortable as adoption is...

It is also grace-filled.

It is refining.

It is inspiring.

It is faith-filled.

It is heart changing.

It is healing.

It is heavenly focused.

It is redemption.

It is God's will...

and being smack dap in the middle of God's will is always exciting...

not always easy...

but always exciting.

Over the years, we have come to understand that it is not as much about adding a child to our family as it is about giving a family to a child.

We don't set our eyes on achieving the comfortable "American Dream" anymore, but rather on Jesus and His dream for our family.  

After all, Jesus left his "comfortable", stepped right into my mess and died for me, so that I could be adopted and live with Him forever...

 yeah, I think I can surrender back into messy and die a little more to self.

How could I not?  

He has revealed things to me that have forever changed me...

images that are eternally etched into my heart...

stories from my own daughters that have shattered the bubble under which I spent most of my life.

My eyes have been opened and can no longer be closed in peace.

So, with our eyes wide open, we step back out of comfortable (7 kids, 4 dogs and 2 crazy cats kind of comfortable - but still...) and with a holy excitement, say "YES" to that precious child who is right now, only known to the Lord.

Stay tuned for a sweet fundraiser...

Exciting!

*grin*
        

Uneasy Street

So things right now are pretty good.

All the kiddos are back at school…

Even the ones “formally homeschooled”

*sniff sniff*

Teachers seem good.

Attitudes are good…

Really they are!

No really!

*wink*

Therapies are done.

WOW

Soccer practices have been rained out…

YES

And afternoons are not too crazy.

Yes, we are still meeting and managing needs and life with 7 is still busy but compared to the last 4 years…

We are sort of chill!

“Chill” in a 7 kid, 4 dog, 2 crazy cat kind of way!

But still…

“chill”

Soooo…

I guess it’s time to shake things up a bit?

Right?

Just when we start to get comfortable…

when life starts to get easy-er…

BAM

It happens and usually, for us, it happens just as we start to exhale, just as we begin to enter into easy…

That still, small voice eases us into back into unease…

I sometimes wonder if our hearts will ever truly be easy again.

After visiting two orphanages and one cerebral palsy rehabilitation hospital…

Unease infuses every inch of our hearts.

We have joy and we have peace cause the Lord enters into this brokenness and into our unease, using it for His good…

helping us to recognize when He says “go”.

So in a timeline attempted to be manipulated by us but only known to Him…

we will go!

More to come…