Baby-Proofing Our House

One of the things I'm most terrified about in becoming a parent is baby-proofing our house. For 8 years, our home has looked exactly how we've wanted it to look. I'm afraid those days are almost over.

I'm guessing - because I'm a smart one - that I'll need to remove the wine bottles from our rack, put latches on certain doors, secure our cleaning supplies, do something about our fireplace grate, and make sure certain bookshelves & DVD stands are secure so they don't fall on our child. I'm gonna need some mommies to help me out with this one, because I'm sure I've forgotten a hundred things besides the above.

I remember at one of my bridal showers 8 years ago opening some gifts and going "that's so cool! What is it?" I fear I'm in the same boat with imminent mommyhood. I laugh at myself. It's not like I'm clueless about this stuff, but I've just never had a child living in my home 24/7 for more than, like, a few hours. You can laugh at me, too, just not too hard.

I'm pretty committed to not having "stuff" take over our house, though. In Brian's words, "it's just a baby...how much stuff do they really need?" I know moms in Africa do it on far less than their American counterparts. I hope to be like an African momma in this respect. But I do want cool baby stuff. :)

This is only the beginning of having our life rocked, but I'm not looking forward to the baby-proofing part. Other parts, absolutely. This part, not so much.

Sometimes the Best Things are Unseen

I was having lunch at The Cheesecake Factory with my best friend, Melissa, on Friday [BTW: never look at their nutritional information...it's enough to send you into an eating disorder], and she said something so profound: Sometimes the best work that God is doing isn't something you can see at first.

Think about pregnancy. Some of my best girls are preggers right now: Melissa, Cassidy, Sarah Beth, Betsy. You can't totally see what's changing inside of them, but you know something is being birthed in them that's life-changing. Life is being created within them.

Think about your greatest seasons of growth. Could you see the transformation at first? Could you articulate what was happening inside of you? Did your life at first fully reflect the change occurring beyond the naked eye? I doubt it.

Such has been my journey. The best things that have happened to my soul's growth and my character's formation have been unseen at first. It's part of the mystery of God that I so adore now. It's part of the cocooning of a caterpillar into a butterfly [see one of my first posts]. It's part of that connection to the Creator of the Universe that shapes me more into his likeness. It's part of the healing and humbling process that allows me to be more of me and less of an imposter.

I have to agree with Mel - sometimes the best things are unseen.

Financial Reality and Blessings

We've always said, "it takes a village to raise a child", but in adoption it takes it to a whole new level - FINANCIALLY. The average international adoption for 1 child costs $20,000-30,000! Obviously, this non-profit couple doesn't have that money sitting in a bank account, so we've known a part of the faith journey includes how God will provide the resources to bring home Baby Ethiopia.

People have started asking us more about the financial part of it, so here's the skinny in the dollars and cents...

• Approx. $25,000 for us to adopt 1 child
• Approx. $5000 to adopt a sibling
• Over $7000 is how much we've personally spent on the adoption thus far
• $3750 has been donated already to our process!!! This number brought me to tears today, realizing how loved our baby girl will be by family and friends from coast to coast.
• Approx. $7700 due by the time we send our dossier to Ethiopia. This includes the remainder of $45o for post-adoption process with Ethiopia and $7250 for Ethiopia's international adoption fees.
  
• Approx. $3000 for travel expenses

That's the low down. Please continue to pray that God will provide for that $7700 by the end of the summer. God owns everything, so I know he can do it. And if you want to be a part of the financial "village", we'd be truly honored.

What a journey this is...we are blessed.