Planning, Preparation & Provision

First let me say … yes I am still having problems with feedburner sending out empty posts or a boatload of archives. UGH!  It looks like if it happens one more time I will be temporarily discontinuing the email subscriptions until I can get this worked out. If you read this blog only through subscription, be sure to check back at www.bethlambdin.net for my latest posts.

It is time for a long overdue update on our adoption and “barn raising” (aka – expanding into the garage to move our makeshift family room out of the 3rd bedroom in order to create a “boys” bedroom)

Ok, the one sentence adoption update – We are waiting. 

We are waiting to be chosen by one of the mother’s who is giving birth this fall to possibly pick us to love, cherish and raise their precious baby.  Last year there were two different baby boys who were awaiting an approved family to be adopted by.  This year there are more families than babies. (and yes that is good news!)  The agency we are working with has told us that there are currently three mothers who will be choosing a family in October & November.  So the wait continues.

Come to find out, I am no good at waiting….at least not waiting patiently.  So what have I been doing for the past three months? – Busying myself with planning, preparations and securing provisions for this much desired precious baby.

Let me start by sharing with you some GREAT news!  The Lord continues to provide the resources we need for this adoption.  We got a letter last month from Shaohannah’s Hope that we will receive a grant of $3,000 to help us pay for a portion of this adoption! (Our domestic adoption expenses look to be running close to $15,000)  With this blessing from Steven Curtis Chapman’s organization, added to the monies we have already raised should come close to covering what we will need to pay the adoption agency when we get the baby.  We will still need to raise the post placement expenses that we have to pay in California (aprox $1,500)…but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

The other GREAT news – with the help of countless friends & family we have finished the majority of the addition in the garage! And it is AMAZING!

I think I left off in July showing you the framed, sheet rocked, taped & textured room. 

The painting was next (completed in large part by Dan’s brother Rick) followed by putting in the tile floor.  Before we tiled however one of my blog subscribers suggested that we write scriptures on the floor so that we would always be “standing on the Word”.  What a great idea!  We had everyone who helped with this project write out their favorite scripture on our floor before Ramsey & Mike Garza and Chris Greene lent us their expertise and hard work to help put in the tile.  The new windows were completed by our friend, Scott Gaston with Dan learning a new skill along the way. We took a little break for a couple weeks while we attended summer camp and went on vacation to Lake Tahoe.  It was perfect timing as Jerry Crutchfield custom made the cabinets to be put in the room to store all our homeschool curriculum, Creative Memories products and other supplies. (a family of nine can never have enough storage space!) The cabinets are spectacular and thankfully Dan was able to get Mike Sherman, Sal Martinez and Dan Smith to help him put these heavy duty cabinets up.  Then came the “little” things – ceiling fans, baseboards, closet shelving as well as the long counter that would serve as the girls school desks, computer center and my office (in addition it is cropping space for my weekend workshops). By September 1st (as my birthday present!) we were able to start moving in the furniture and getting everything off the back porch and out of the living room.  What an incredible adventure and leap of faith this project has been!

I can’t begin to tell you how wonderful the additional living space is to our family.  We have been officially moved in for about two weeks and it is truly where we spend 80% of our time.  The girls each have a space to do their school work, I have my office and storage space, Daniel has lots of room to play and we have plenty of room for our family room area – the sectional couch and TV (that was formerly cramed into the 3rd bedroom).  Even as I type this we are all together in this room, each doing different things but enjoying just being together – it is even better than I could have ever hoped for.  The gratefulness that wells up in my heart for everyone who helped this dream to become a reality is immense.  Saying thank you just doesn’t seem to be enough.

Here are some photos of the completed* room.

* Ok, so as with every project there are a few things still left to be done before we can really say completed (ie: lighting under the cabinets so the girls can actually see their homework, a bit more electrical work and a final corner counter which will be my scrapbooking work area….well then there is the laundry room area on the other side of the wall — but we’ll save that for next summer!)

If you are new to this blog and want to see what it use to look like – you can check out photos here and here and here.

 This past week I spent time getting Daniel’s things moved into the new boys bedroom.

 The “boys” bedroom seems huge (and empty compared to the girls room).  Joy and Daniel are enjoying playing in the room and Daniel is taking naps in there…but we haven’t had him sleep the night in his room (except one night when Rebekah slept on an air mattress in the room with him).  To be honest it just seems so big and lonely for him to be in there by himself, after all the rest of the family gets to sleep with someone else in our room.  We will have to work through that one. 🙂

Here’s hoping that sometime this fall, this crib that sits in the corner of our bedroom will have our new son snuggled up in it.

And we will continue to wait (patiently)…to pray…and to hope.