Saturday, June 28, 2008

New Pics!

I put new pics of the girls on the sidebar! Enjoy! :)

Friday, June 27, 2008

The Next Step

Many of you have noticed the little picture and verse on my sidebar with the label "The Next Step" placed above. With others of you, Jamal and I have discussed this new development extensively and in detail. Thank you for your input, your encouragement, and your prayers.

We are happy and proud to announce that next week we begin the adoptive family assessment. Our family will be participating in joint and individual interviews, as well as home visits. After these interviews and visits, we'll be able to begin putting together our family profile. If this is the venue that we ultimately choose, an expectant mother looking for a family for her baby will select us and we'll have probably a semi-open adoption. The other option we are still considering is adopting from foster care, which is how my siblings and I were adopted, of course. We are still in the process of making this decision (between infant adoption and adopting from foster care), but are very excited to at least be starting the process and moving in the right direction with our adoptive family assessment.

For me, it comes down to this old story:

This story tells of a young man who was walking along the seashore. Far ahead of him, he saw a distant figure: someone who like him was walking, but who paused every few steps, stooped down, and seemed to be throwing something into the sea. His curiosity aroused, the young man hurried forward, his feet awkward in the sand, as he tried to catch up with the man.

As he came closer, he saw that it was an old man, and the reason that he would stop every step or two was to pick up a starfish and fling it into the ocean. It was only then that the young man noticed the thousands of starfish that littered the beach for miles, stranded there by the tide.

The young man felt a rising sense of anger. What the old man was doing seemed so pointless, and he couldn't wait to catch up to him to tell him so. By the time the young man came abreast of the older man, he was out of breath.

"Why are you doing this?" he gasped. "You can't save all of these starfish! It's useless! What does it matter?"

The old man paused for a moment, looking down at the crusty starfish he'd just picked up. He turned it over slowly, then answered. "It matters to this one," he said and with a slow, deliberate motion, he tossed it back into the sea, into life.


If God allows, I want to be the one who makes a difference in the life of a child, because it matters to this one.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

For Kimora, Kariah, and Kajanae

This song is written by Mark Harris and is called "Find Your Wings."


It's only for a moment you are mine to hold
The plans that heaven has for you
Will all too soon unfold
So many different prayers I'll pray
For all that you might do
But most of all I'll want to know
You're walking in the truth
And If I never told you
I want you to know
As I watch you grow

I pray that God would fill your heart with dreams
And that faith gives you the courage
To dare to do great things
I'm here for you whatever this life brings
So let my love give you roots
And help you find your wings

May passion be the wind
That leads you through your days
And may conviction keep you strong
Guide you on your way
May there be many moments
That make your life so sweet
Oh, but more than memories

I pray that God would fill your heart with dreams
And that faith gives you the courage
To dare to do great things
I'm here for you whatever this life brings
So let my love give you roots
And help you find your wings

It's not living if you don't reach for the sky
I'll have tears as you take off
But I'll cheer as you fly.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Happy Father's Day

A special shout-out to the love of my life:



Dedicated to the father of my children. I love you.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Summer 2008

The following is a list of “to do” activities that I hope to accomplish with my girls this summer:

-camp out as a family for a night in Aunt Jacinta’s backyard (we’ve already approved this with Jamal’s sister who graciously offered her ample suburban lawn for “camp out” as sleeping outside in our neighborhood would simply not be smart!)

-make fruit smoothies, and maybe even a coffee one for mommy (!)

-jump through the garden sprinkler in bathing suits

-go swimming in a community pool (a many-time event, if last summer was any indication)

-spend a week in Ft. Lauderdale

-begin to potty train Kariah

-spend time with mommy (this is a direct Kimora quote)

-attend Tyrel and Nia’s wedding and celebrate with them

-paint our toenails

-pack a picnic and spend the afternoon at the park

-visit Imagine It! children’s museum

-Daddy and Mommy dates with each individual child

-teach Kajanae to talk (another Kimora quote)

-read (Kariah’s suggestion, except her version sounded more like “weed”)

-celebrate Kariah’s 2nd birthday in August!

-allow girls to pick out pretend dress-up outfits from a vintage thrift shop

-host an English tea party with church mother/daughter friends

-travel to Philly (as time permits)

- ?

What’s fantastic about this list is that the joy will not be in crossing the item of the list, but rather in experiencing each one with my babies! Happy summer!

Sunday, June 1, 2008

A Note of Reassurance to the Correveidiles of the World

Apparently I have people "up in arms" in regards to my last post. I honestly don't mean to be mysterious; many of my faithful blog readers already know our family's plans from conversations that we've had personally. For the rest of you, rest assured that I won't leave you all in the dark forever...we're still in the "pre-game" stages...so you'll have to be patient, too! Allow me to let you in on a little secret: we're going to be in for a tremendous about of WAITING ourselves!! So...take a deep breath, say a prayer for us if you have the chance, and feel free to write me a comment, shoot me an email, or give me a call if you want to talk more. ;-)