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Adoption Blog

Following the Call #15 – Placement

September 2nd was the move in date for our daughters! Finally, after almost two months from finding out about them, they were home. Our social worker came over, and we filled out mounds of paperwork making it all official and legal.

The most important papers I remember signing were the actual placement papers. Each child had a set, and I carried it around with me practically everywhere. Those papers told the world, doctors, dentist, schools, and everyone else that these were our girls!

Less than two weeks after the girls arrived, their birth parents’ rights were terminated. This can vary in every foster/adoption situation from days to years. Since we only signed up for children ready or close to ready for adoption, the wait was much shorter than a child coming newly into the foster care system. Yet even in foster/adoption placements that doesn

Our oldest turned five a few days later, so we got to throw our first birthday party as parents. Let’s just say, I was a BASKET CASE.  She loved her Elsa party.

The next day, we drove the girls back up north to have their final visits with their birth family. Two grandparents showed up to the visit. It was a frightening ordeal for everyone involved. I was terrified, not knowing what to expect and not knowing how everyone would react. It was the most difficult thing ever for the grandparents, not knowing if they would ever see their grandchildren again. I took pictures of the girls for the grandparents to have, just in case. At that time we didn’t know what our relationship.

The girls’ reactions were shocking. It was like I had three completely different children. It was not a positive change. Throw in a round-trip 7-8 hours in the car… it was a very rough day, to say the least.

We were also blessed with another amazing adoption shower! It was so sweet to have a shower with everyone able to see the adorable faces of our girls. The women in the Black family spoiled us!

      

Placement and those first few months are full of the highest highs and some low lows. It is hard on everyone: the girls, Luke and I, and our families. One of the hardest things for us was navigating how to become our own family, while including our closest friends and family.

Everyone was so happy for us and excited to meet and love on the girls. The girls, however, didn’t react well to meeting new people because they, of course, needed time to get to know us and adjust. We jumped in too quickly and had to back pedal a lot. Our families were confused and a little hurt. Finally, we did what we should have done from the beginning, we wrote a letter explaining what was happening, why it was happening, and what they could do to help the girls transition. It really helped!

Anyone navigating foster care or adoption for the first time, I would strongly suggest writing a letter to help friends and family understand what is happening. Take as much time as your new family needs to bond with each other alone. It is super important and only YOU can know how much time you need to accumulate and when your new kiddos will be ready.

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Adoption Blog

Following the Call #14 – Transitioning Home

I HATE rollercoasters. They make me nauseous, super dizzy, and I feel sick for the rest of the day. I don’t fear them, and I’ve never been afraid of heights. But I don’t understand why people like that… “my stomach is falling out of my body” feeling.

To me, emotional rollercoasters are pretty much the same as an actual roller coaster. I’m nauseous, dizzy, sick for the duration and a while after, and I don’t particularly like the falling feeling my stomach keeps performing. BUT that is precisely what we were on for the next three weeks.

It was intense and insane. I lived half of the time up north, getting to know the girls, and the other half of the time I was at school getting my classroom ready for the teacher that was taking my place. “Surreal” is the best way I can describe how I felt. On the weekends I was a mom (and a brand NEW mom at that) and during the week I was living my same-old regular life. Every night we FaceTimed the girls to talk to them and countdown the days until we would see them again.

The transitioning stage varies depending on how far away the child(ren) is/are. Since we were so far away we traveled a lot. Luke had to work, and I really wanted to set up my classroom, because I had given the incoming teacher so little time to get ready. For some families that are in the same town or close by it can occur more quickly. It can also be more gradual in learning to become a family.

The Friday night after we met the girls, we headed back up north, in two cars, for our second visit with the girls. The social workers wanted us to spend increasingly more time with the girls, but Luke needed to keep working. (Isn’t it fun, being an adult?) We wanted him to have some time-off leftover when the girls permanently moved home with us. So the plan was for me to stay with the girls longer while he went back home to work.

I was scared. On top of the fact that I was staying by myself on like my fifth day being a mom to three toddlers, we were also doing overnight visits. Saturday morning, we went and picked up the girls from their foster family and took them back with us to Luke’s aunt and uncle’s apartment. It was a rough night. Luke and I didn’t sleep at all because we could hear every breath and movement each child made.

Sunday, we had a visit with the foster family and the girls’ adoption specialist. I thought it would go terribly and the girls would want to go home with them, but God had it under control. Everyone was fine. Then, at dinnertime Luke headed back home. For two nights I was on my own, and it was a little terrifying, but it went really well. Considering I was a new mom, had three toddlers, was in a town I didn’t know at all, and I had to find ways to entertain and contain them, I was doing well.

I also had my first experience with rude judgmental people. I had no idea that people would assume negative things about my children, and me simply because they didn’t look like each other or me. Or that they would announce these rude things so loudly and in front of my children. By the grace of God, I stayed calm (and I really don’t say that lightly). I could’ve easily ripped someone’s head off in that angry mama bear moment. But instead, I icily responded and diffused the situation.

Tuesday, I dropped my sweet girls off at their foster family and promised to be back very soon. My littlest one was quite upset at me. It broke my heart. She wouldn’t even say bye to me or look at me.

On the following Friday, I drove to the halfway point between our house and the foster family’s to pick up the girls. This time they got to come home with me and spend a four-day weekend with us. We had wonderful time. For the first time, our home life met with our new life. We went to the zoo and explored what it meant to be a family of five. Along with the fun and joy we got to experience the trauma our girls had been through.

Although the foster family, Luke, and I agreed the back and forth was getting to be too much and too hard on the girls, the adoption specialist did not. We were required to send them back to the foster family one last time. The girls went back on Tuesday, and that Friday morning we picked them up with all of their belongings (they had a ton, which isn’t always the case) and FINALLY headed home to stay.

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Adoption Blog

Following the Call #13 – Meeting our Girls

Pictures from our that first meeting.

“I’m gonna puke. I’m gonna puke,” chanted over and over in my head. I also said it out loud over and over to Luke and may have even texted it several times to a few friends and family members.

We were in the car on the way to meet them–our children–our daughters. How does one prepare for something so monumental? Apparently, in my case, by chanting about how nauseous I was and insisting that Luke continue to pray. “No no, babe, stop talking, just pray…I can’t talk to you right now, I’m trying not to barf,” was something along the lines of the dialog in the truck that day.

After our 45 minute drive to the town they lived, we continued to drive. We drove by the house one time and then drove all over the tiny town, because, we were, of course, ridiculously early. Luke and I thought it was a good idea to orient ourselves to the town we would be spending lots of time in, and we didn’t think we were allowed to show up early. However, the first thing the social worker said to us as we pulled up right behind her right at 10:00AM on the dot was, “Oh you all are just getting here? Usually the adoptive parents can’t handle the wait and are already inside playing with the kids when I show up”. In my head I screamed, “We could have done that?!

“Mommy!”

Walking into the house, everything happened in slow-motion. Two of our girls ran to us, excited to meet us, and ready to play. They had already seen a video and pictures of Luke and me. We made a video of our home, their future rooms, and our dogs so they would know what to expect. They recognized us immediately. The social worker had introduced us, in the video, as their new mommy and daddy. So that is what they shouted at us as we walked in the door. It was shocking, overwhelming, and amazing all at the same time. I remember so vividly, Luke and I looking at each other in ecstatic amazement at being called those named we’d longed to hear. We picked them up and hugged them, letting them then drag us wherever they wanted.

Sitting quietly on the couch, sat the child I was so afraid wouldn’t like me. I slowly walked over and asked if I could sit next to her. Surprisingly she said yes. I carefully sat next to her, not wanting to scare her away. In next moment, time stopped, and that tiny little girl scooted right beside me, cuddling up against me.

This was the same little girl that didn’t even look at people she’d known for a long time and absolutely didn’t let people touch her. I very clearly felt all the tension and anxiety ooze right out of the bottom of my feet, and I heard God say in the most gentle and loving way, He planned this so please stop worrying. Hours flew by as we played with the girls. The social worker was shocked and amazed. Right then and there our 4 week plan turned into a 3 week plan.

Pictures from our that first meeting.

 

 

At naptime it was time to part with the girls, but their amazing foster family invited us back over after the girls woke up. They were so welcoming and helpful. The next day, we got to pick up the girls and take them on our first unsupervised outing to breakfast, the park, and lunch. Then, we sadly packed up the car and headed back home leaving our sweet girls behind. Our hearts were so filled with joy, but now three little pieces were missing.

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Adoption Blog

Following the Call #7 – Finally, the Home Study!

God is really serious about teaching me about waiting for His timing. Like, really serious. I was again waiting, waiting, and waiting for our last step, the home study. As I mentioned in my last post,  literally waiting in the waiting room at my doctor’s office. If that doesn’t say WAIT, I don’t know what does.

Once that last piece of paper was turned in, we were told we would have to finish those last three classes before we could begin that last step. But we had an unexpected blessing and the agency allowed us to start the home study process while taking the classes because we had turned everything else in! I was so pumped (particularly about NOT having to wait) and it made getting that last piece of paper even more pressing.

Our agency assigned us a social worker, Jessica, and we could not be more blessed to have her! We scheduled our first home study session as soon as she had a free moment. The home study process consisted of three visits including interviews and the inspection of our home. Remember all of that paperwork we had to do way back at the beginning? Well that came back to haunt us (wink, wink).

In our first session, Luke and I had an interview with Jessica at our home. We talked through the first packet and went over general life information together. It wasn’t invasive or uncomfortable. That interview lasted about an hour to an hour and half. I would say it was a nice time (at least for us) of Jessica getting to know us and who we are as a couple.

In my head I was planning out when we would have each session and I wanted it to be every other week. I probably bugged Jessica a bit during this process, trying to schedule these meetings, but she is so nice I doubt she’d say if I did! I was racing a clock in my head all the time! It was crazyville. Very shortly after our first interview we had our second. This one was a LOT more awkward and my overshare-r came right on out. In that meeting, we had individual interviews with Jessica and went over the dreaded Packet Two. Jessica made it as painless as possible. She was very easy to talk to. My individual interview was almost twice as long as Luke’s, as expected, at least by me!

The last session of the homestudy includes the social worker confirming she has all the information she needs and checking the house to make sure it meets all of the laws and requirements. This includes things like: having a fire extinguisher, locking up all cleaning supplies, hazardous materials, and medications, having a first aid kit, baby/toddler proofing (if you are taking this age group), working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and having rooms prepped for children (more info on this later). If you have a pool or two story there are added requirements. This isn’t an exhaustive list…I’m sure I am missing things.

Side note: Don’t stress by thinking, “what if something is missed or forgotten!?” Not to worry! While we were still in the paperwork and classes stage, our agency sent out Barb, an amazing helpful woman, who went through our home with fine tooth comb. She told us all the things we needed to do. So we had a much, much smaller list of things to accomplish, and we knew exactly what we needed to do before the home study.

We prepared the room with a twin and a crib because we imagined we would probably be getting siblings. We were open to a sibling set. P.S. if you are willing to take children ages two and under you are required to have a crib ready to go.

Once Jessica went through our house and checked off all of the things on her list, we were DONE! Our part was complete. We turned in every paper, checked off every box, completed every class and interview.

All we had to do was… you guessed it WAIT.

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America the Afraid

I spent a lot of the last few weeks crying. Crying because I cry a lot, I’m really emotional, hate violence, and frankly nothing else seemed right, there aren’t any easy fixes. Heck there are very few difficult fixes, actually only one, His name is Jesus.  I cry out to God to understand, to hear His heart on these matters. All I hear is pain, hurt, sadness and I sit here confused. Why? Why does this keep happening? Why so much pain, so much violence. I know we live in a fallen world and sin will always be here until Jesus comes. BUT we are called, all of us who claim to love Christ, to make disciples.

My heart is sick. Sick for the families and friends of the men shot by police, the police shot, the terrorist attacks, and for all of the outright meanness and complete lack of empathy and love that I have seen on social media and heard people speak. It makes me so sad and frankly nervous. Can we really have our heads buried so far in the sand that we actually believe that only our own feelings have value? That only our experiences speak of reality? That if it doesn’t happen to us or in front of us it doesn’t exist? I won’t pretend that I haven’t been guilty of those thoughts. I think if we are all honest with ourselves it is most difficult to step outside of ourselves and try to understand someone that has experienced things that we never can, because our worldview is colored by the experiences we have and the experiences of those closest to us. Our worldview then frequently dictates our feelings.

Feelings are the most complicated pieces of human beings. We all have them and they are all our own. You should NOT under any circumstances to be in control of someone else’s feelings. You can try to manipulate someone’s feelings (but don’t because that would make you a jerk or a politician), but you cannot control them. It is often difficult to be in control of our very own feelings. Yet most of the arguments I have seen on social media are trying to tell people how to feel. Don’t be upset they deserved it, don’t feel angry, don’t feel that because I don’t feel the same way you do, don’t feel that because I don’t like how it makes me feel. Just don’t feel anything I don’t like, understand, or that will make me uncomfortable. That CANNOT be our response as Christians to anyone on any side of this discussion.

Now some people will try to argue “facts”. I have two things to say to that… the “facts” are different depending on who your listening to and are often interpreted by our worldview. And if you have a close relationship with anyone and have been in an argument with them you KNOW that people don’t just feel things because of the “facts”. Frequently the “facts” in an argument, where someone is hurt, are not the most important part. My point here is not to say anything about the facts in these cases, but to say that the people we are arguing with have feelings. They are real people, they have real experiences, and those experiences may be things you can never experience. So let’s stop letting a computer or phone screen make us forget that and let’s not hide behind the so called facts. Could we honestly tell the crying son of Alton Sterling that he really shouldn’t say Black Lives Matter, shouldn’t call this racism, or be worried about cop brutality? Could we really tell this cop he shouldn’t cry over his fallen cop friends because cops deserve it?

I surely hope we wouldn’t be able to. I hope that once we were face-to-face with people we would be able to listen, try to understand, and put aside our own thoughts and feelings and really hear someone else’s heart. The same goes for our “friends” on Facebook that have different opinions than than we do. The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Proverbs 12:18. And healing is what we all really need. 

The anger has to stop. Why are we all so angry? Stop and think about that rant you just went on or that angry post you just shared and really ask yourself, why am I so angry and what is my anger doing to further the Kingdom of God and to help others? The funny thing is anger is a secondary emotion. That means anger stems from something else, most likely fear, hurt, or sadness.

So what are we afraid of and will being angry really help to fix that problem? Let’s stop being angry and get to the core of the matter. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9. We need to figure out where our fear comes from because we have been commanded not to be afraid, but to be strong and courageous. Being strong and courageous in this situation may mean swallowing our fear, trusting God, and hearing someone else’s pain, even when it cases us pain. 

Would we yell at someone that said they were hurt, sad, or afraid? Probably not. Hopefully not. So let’s stop hiding behind the anger and violence and start talking about why we are all so afraid and what we can do to ease each others fear, hurt, and pain. Let’s not only talk, but start listening, let’s stop thinking we’re righteous because the “facts” are on our side (There is no one righteous; not even one. Romans 3:10), please don’t forget whose we are or who makes us righteous…hint hint it isn’t you or me, and please show the love, compassion, and empathy of Christ. Our angry posts and violence are never going to make disciples and neither will demanding our way.

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Let Your Heart Take Courage

Sometimes a verse just kicks you in the teeth. It hits you hard and knocks you to the ground and sometimes it kicks you in the teeth, breaks your heart, and then mends pieces you didn’t know were broken. Psalms 27:14 has made me mad, encouraged me, scared me, and then changed my view of God in a completely different way than I ever expected.

Photo courtesy: oilofjoy4u.com
Photo courtesy: oilofjoy4u.com

I’m reading through the Psalms right now and I guess I just passed right by 27:14 and it just wasn’t the right time for it to stick or be used in my heart. I am currently on Psalms 119, and on a side note let me just say you need to read it! So good! Anyway, I passed Psalms 27 awhile ago and it didn’t hit me then. But a few days ago I was reading a blog over at Sacred Ground, Sticky Floors, which I HIGHLY recommend and Jami used this verse. I don’t even remember the context, but immediately it HIT ME. I opened my bible app on my phone and looked up Psalms 27 and I remembered reading it a couple weeks months ago (I’m on the read your bible in three years plan), thinking how did I miss this verse.

Guys, I find myself in an extremely slow and also very fast time of waiting. I don’t know how else to say that, besides that I feel I am constantly in a state of waiting, yet what I am waiting for is right around the corner. It’s a strange feeling, a feeling of deep deep longing and at the same time an anxiety for what is to come. And in this paradox of emotions, God inserts Psalms 27:14. It just stuck, without any effort and played on repeat in my brain. My first-ish thought was GREAT, I’m not getting an answer anytime soon. Perfect. Thanks a lot. (I know… my thoughts are SUPER godly). God clearly wants me to trust Him and wait, which let’s be honest I wasn’t thrilled about. Then it encouraged me, built me up, and empowered me! Yes, Lord I will trust you! You’ve got this! Your way is better than mine and you know what is best. I WILL be strong and courageous. Next came the fear…my kryptonite. Fear rips through my mind, like nothing else. It twists my thoughts and brings doubt and the worst of the worst case scenarios into my heart. It changes a loving God who cares personally for me into an omnipotent deity that will do the worst TO me in order to accomplish His will. Clearly not a good place to be, especially in this state of waiting.

In true Psalms fashion, I did not stay in that horrible state of fear. The Lord swiftly used Psalms 116:7 to remind me of His true nature and my propensity to sway towards that which is terribly negative. I love the gentle rebukes He sends us to bring our hearts back to Him.

Photo Credit: http://zombiemmanuelle.tumblr.com/?og=1
Photo Credit: http://zombiemmanuelle.tumblr.com/?og=1

Today, Psalms 27:14 changed my view of God, in a much more positive way and hopefully much more permanent way. I started thinking less about the call to wait and more about the “be strong and let your heart take courage” part. God believes that I need to be strong and that my heart needs courage to get through this difficult waiting period. I realized at that moment that I believe God to be up in Heaven shaking His head at me and muttering, “Why can’t she get this right?!!?! I’m God, HELLO BaCall, trust me already!” The God in my head is irritated with my lack of trust, with my inability to get it together already. He’s grumpy with me. BUT does a grumpy, irritated God encourage you with, be strong, take courage? No, the answer is no! I have this personal loving God, who gently tells me it’s really hard, BaCall, I understand more than you can ever imagine. I just need you to be strong right now, let your heart have the courage to trust me and wait. Believe me, it takes courage to do that, but rely on me and I will give you the strength to do it.

That’s the God we have! The loving, encouraging, and slow to anger God that sent His son to save me, not the God grumpy, irritable god that lives in my head when fear and doubt take over.

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Stress, Sadness, Celebration, and Blessing

A quarter of a year has past since I sat down to write to you. That seems so weird to say, a fourth of a year has come and gone. I didn’t intend to go so long without writing about the journey of trusting the Lord that I have been on, but the writing just did not come. The end of September, October, November, and December brought about many joys and many sadnesses and now I am ready to share it with you.

Five days after my last post, Allison, the friend fighting cancer whom I asked many of you to pray for, passed on to be with the Lord. My heart broke. While I had not been close to Allison in life, I felt an intense call from the Lord at the beginning of her journey to be a prayer warrior for her, her husband, and their sweet baby Judah. God called me to pray at all hours, while I ran I prayed, while I worked I prayed, in the middle of the night I would wake up and pray, and I begged many others to pray with me. Only one other time in my life have I ever felt so desperately compelled to pray unceasingly (some may know her as a sweet little miracle named Maybre). I was sure that the Lord would save Judah and heal Allison. I believed so strongly that He had an amazing tale for Allison to tell and would draw so many to Himself with her story.

I was right in believing those things. They just didn’t unfold the way that I thought they should…the Lord calling me to trust Him more.  Judah is full of life and healthy, a sweet little baby boy. Allison is healed of all that ever ailed her on earth and now lives with her Heavenly Father. On October 17th, 2015 at Allison’s Celebration of Life, I watched in tears and in awe at what the Lord is doing with her story and how He continues to use her to draw people to Himself. I felt personally stirred by Allison’s young life to seek the Lord more deeply and to more strongly pursue the things He has placed on my heart. The Lord whispered to my heart that Allison was much more needed with Him and He would use her life to bring so much glory to Himself and to Allison. It was a gift to watch how many people were and are touched by Allison’s faithfulness, see some of it here.

Also in September, I began a journey at school that has repeatedly broken my heart and my heart continues to bleed for many of the children at my school. I had my first of several encounters with needing the police and CPS to intervene. So many of the children I serve, teach, and love everyday do not live the life you and I plan to or do give our children. My heart has not yet learned to live in the tangle of caring about my students/my children, trying to help and love them, and still giving these cares to the Lord for Him to carry. This has been an on going struggle for the past 4 months. I clearly cannot share much of their stories so please pray for my students and their families, their safety, that the Lord reveals Himself to them, how I can help them, and how my heart should respond to these situations and how my heart should respond to the Lord.

I don’t think I can think of a time where I have felt at the same time so much pain and joy at the same time, which I might add is very uncomfortable. While Allison was going to be with the Lord and school had become a very sorrowful place, the Lambert’s were adopting their beautiful baby girl, they had been awaiting her arrival for years (read more here and here). I was and am ecstatic for them. Another couple, we love dearly was also getting their bundle of joy through adoption. It was so confusing, painful, and beautiful to watch the Lord work in so many different ways.

During all of this, we were preparing for our new home and getting ready to move. We watched prayerfully and joyfully as the Lord and the construction workers built our home. It was a beautiful time, we wrote verses and prayers on the frame and foundation of our house, family came and wrote well wishes, proverbs, verses and prayers for us, as well. We visited frequently praying for the house, the people that worked on it, the ministry we would have in and through it, and we prayed above all else that it would be dedicated to the Lord and His work and that we would not forget that. The Lord planted beautiful things in mine and Luke’s hearts, the seeds of what He has next for us and what He would use our house for.

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My heart constantly was and is skipping from joy to sorrow. At times I felt and still feel overcome by the sadness and grief in my heart and then in an instant joyous over the many amazing gifts that the Lord has brought: babies (adopted and birthed) of friends, marriages, debt reduced by over $40,000, a beautiful new home, a job that gives me my husband back, friends completely giving themselves over to the Lord, engagements, pregnant friends, myself growing so much in trust and faith, and whispers of joys, ministries, and service to the Lord yet to come.

These three months have been amazingly and awfully difficult and yet amazingly beautiful and joyful. I have learned that I cannot save the world, the people and children I love, or even myself, that job is reserved only for the Lord. I feel here and now, I begin to embark on a new journey of trusting even deeper and in new ways our awesome Lord. Won’t you come too?

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August Celebrations

I just wanted to do a quick update on what has happened in August in the land of paying off student loans. Since we paid off a student loan in June, we saved up and made a $5,000 payment and with the government APLE program I am in (teaching at a low-income school) another $3,000 payment was made…such a huge blessing! So overall last month we paid over $8,500, including our monthly payments.

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!

Just to clarify a little, we have two loans left. One is a private student loan that now totals, after our August payments, about $28,000 and then we have a federal student loan totaling about $28,000, as well. We are focusing on paying off the private student loan because the APLE program I am enrolled in and most government loan forgiveness programs only pay on federal loans. So each year that I teach I can receive more loan forgiveness on the federal loan, hence why we are focusing on the private loan.  The $5,000 went to the private loan and the $3,000 went to the federal loan.

Anyway I have to say, since we moved forward with building a house, are preparing to make the down payment, and made the list of things we actually need…kind’ve need…might be necessary… maybe we just really want to buy for the house (a refrigerator is actually necessary right?), I was certainly worried that we would slow down in paying down this debt. But I am so thankful to say that God has kept us on the right track and helped us to stay focused mostly on continuing to pay down the debt. We are using our Apple stock and a couple other investments to make our down payment and we are so grateful that the money we have from these investments almost perfectly covers what we need to make the payment. God has also sent some other jobs for Luke (poor guy…he works hard to provide for us!) that have made it possible to do the couple of things we have deemed necessary to move into our house. So we have had to use very little of our money that would go to paying down student loans for anything house related! 

We are continually amazed, surprised, and ultimately grateful at what God is doing in our lives and how faithful He has been in paying off this debt, providing a house, a new job for Luke, and more importantly growing my faith and trust in Him. My heart has started to turn from a constant need to be reminded that God is faithful, to a slow steady thought process that speaks of His faithfulness. It has been a beautiful melody to my soul and a soothing salve over the anxiety, fear, and doubt that can cloud my heart. I looked forward to what He will do next in my heart and with this debt.

On a totally separate note, please let me encourage you to be a prayer warrior for yourself,  your family and friends, and anyone around you. In my life I have noticed more and more lately that there are so many people around me that are struggling, hurting, and just in need of prayer. Please look for those people in your life and lift them up. My heart is so heavy seeing the illnesses, hurt, and pain of all those around me, so let’s be a community that lifts each other up in prayer to the One who can bring healing, peace, and joy.

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Bursting with Thankfulness Part 2

Luke got a new job!!!!

Now most of you know Luke LOVES Apple and he has LOVED working for them for the last 5 1/2 years, but it is extremely difficult to never know your schedule more than 3 weeks in advance and not have nights or weekends off. I know there are tons of people that have to do just that and let’s just take a second to recognize their struggle………………………… IT IS SO HARD! We haven’t ever gotten to spend weekends together, go on trips, been in a bible study together, gone to church regularly, had a regular date night, Luke has missed so many celebrations for people we love, and the list just goes on and on. It has been hard on us as a couple, on me, our family and friends, and it has been especially hard on Luke. SO this is HUGE news for us!!!

The funny thing is, we weren’t looking… in the past Luke has looked and just not found where God was leading him and he recently went back to school and I thought okay, well I am going to have to deal with this for the next few years, but God (I love those two words!) had other plans. I saw a friend posted a job opening at his company and sent it to Luke. It was maybe a week to two week process and I didn’t realize this until a couple days ago, but I was praying a week or so before the job posting that God would find a way for us to go to church together consistently, be in a bible study, have date nights, and that Luke would be able to engage with godly men (he is often cut off from serving and such activities at church because of his schedule). And God just straight up answered that prayer!!!! Luke is now working for Kotman Technology as a Network Engineer, 8am-5pm, Monday-Friday! So if you or your business need tech support give them a call! I am so proud of Luke and so amazed at how awesome God is!

I have felt like we were in a season of waiting for so long…years…and God has just been so faithful in that waiting and now He is showing us some of what we have been waiting for!

And let me just tell you, it has been SO worth the wait!!!! In the last two weeks of Luke working at Kotman Technology, our lives have been drastically different…we have gone to church together, gone out of town together, spent evenings together, hung out with family and friends at NORMAL hours, had many date nights, and Luke has just been so ridiculously sweet to me!!! He has had time and energy to help me prepare for starting school, lovingly dealt with crazy going back-to-school BaCall, and just been sweet and nice. It has been such a blessing!!! I am just beyond thankful and every time I think about it I just get all teary, oh yeah he’s been sweetly dealing with super emotional me too!

That concludes this episode of WOW GOD WOW! Thanks for tuning in and I am sure we will be back proclaiming His faithfulness soon, whether in more exciting news or come what may He is good!

 

PS Update on my friend Allison, she had her baby 10 weeks early. His name is Judah and he is doing very well! Thank you for all your prayers! Please keep praying as she is now doing the more extreme chemo and Judah is still growing and developing.

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Bursting with Thankfulness Part 1

For at least a month or two now I have been bubbling over with gratitude and just really wanting to share what God has been doing in Luke’s and my lives, but we just weren’t ready to share and to be honest the story was still unfolding. Well the time has finally arrived!!!

….And now all of you that know me think I am announcing I’m pregnant! LOL well I am NOT prego and I have found that every time I tell anyone that I have good, exciting, or any kind of positive news people assume the answer is pregnant. We aren’t quite there yet folks and won’t be for quite a while. So just assume for now that any news I share is not that news and still be excited…because let’s be real, most people have seemed a little disappointed when it isn’t pregnant and that makes me sad because our news is still so exciting to us and a really big deal to us and speaks of God’s graciousness and really just want you to be excited too because God is just super cool! Now I’m done with my pregnancy rant 😉

Anyway, so in June we paid off our $9,300 student loan (WHOOHHOOO! Still so happy about that!) and God totally came through in the money department on that loan. See the last loan that we paid off, we were so excited to pay it off that we used part of our emergency fund and basically all the money we had to our name and then the next month we paid our emergency fund back. Well this time we didn’t need to do that, God was so awesome… we were short $300 or so we thought, it turned out we were really short a little more, but I’ll come back to that… randomly my mom said she wanted to give us some money. My mom is a super generous person and is always buying people things and clothes and such, but she doesn’t usually say here’s some money randomly. So I asked why and she said I want to give you $300 for student loans and I almost cried. I knew from our bi-monthly budget meeting that we needed that exact amount!!! Knowing it was God using my mom to provide I thanked her and Him and graciously accepted, I’m hoping it was graciously that I accepted :/. That was the first cool thing, then we realized we were actually short a little more than we thought and Luke, who always seems to trust that God has us covered, was like don’t worry it will all work out. That always makes me grumpy… how does he trust so well?!?!?! And he was of course right and randomly his paycheck was bigger than normal and we had the perfect amount to pay off the loan! God just showing His faithfulness to me again and saying come on BaCall you can trust me and I must say my trust is definitely growing!

THEN something even cooler happened! Luke and I have been looking at houses for a LONG time. Not super seriously at first, but we have gone to open houses every chance we got and we also went to look at any model home we got the chance to look at for the last year, just to get an idea of what we really wanted and to watch the housing prices while we were paying off student loans. And to be honest I was nervous, we hadn’t found anything we really liked or that we felt was worth its price and worse yet, we started to see prices rising a little more quickly than we had hoped for. Then in April we saw this model home and from the second I walked in I thought, this is it! This is THE house.

Luke is normally the excitable one and he is usually all in once he is excited and I am very rarely excited and almost never all in. We flipped that day, Luke wasn’t excited or all in, which confused me like never before. I felt peace and knew this house was exactly what we had been looking for and even felt like God might be leading us to buy the house, which is a super big deal because well see above…rarely excited, never all in. But Luke said he thought something wasn’t right. WHY oh why is the man always right?!?!? So we moved on, then last month right before we paid off the student loan, we decided to go look at those models again. The exact house we would have bought was sold and the whole neighborhood was just about sold out, especially the model we loved. We asked about another specific lot…see part of the problem has been lot size, we don’t want a tiny yard and there was only one lot left that was a bigger size and was the model we loved… so when we asked about it we were extremely disappointed to hear that it was already spoken for. We gave our name and number anyway and asked to be called if it should happen to become available again. To which we were told that he didn’t think it would fall through, I believe he said he was 95% or more sure that it wouldn’t fall through, but he would give us a call if anything happened. He then proceed to try to sell us on other models and lots…which drastically failed because like I mentioned before rarely excited, never all in.

Now Luke was on board, so we prayed and gave it to God. We both felt like it was in God’s hands. See the previous house or lot I should say, would have closed in September or October and that was just a little too soon for us and our loan paying selves and apparently just wasn’t right for us, plus we wouldn’t have been able to payoff that $9,300 student loan when we did because we would have had to put down a deposit instead. Also the address had 666 in it, which I didn’t find out until later, and I just thought that was another added bonus to not buying the first house because really no one likes that number. Hence Luke being right… Well to our surprise and delight a week or so later, after we paid off the student loan, we got a call from the agent that the house became available. And even more surprising, there wasn’t a lot premium for the bigger lot and he was taking $5,000 off of the price. What?!?!?!? Yeah, can you say blessing… Trust God He has it all worked out. I really couldn’t believe it, I was in shock and thought seriously God??? It was a WOW moment. All that to say we are buying a house and it will be done at the end of November! God’s timing is just incredible. Plus we had money to pay for the deposit because we didn’t spend our emergency fund on the student loan, since God just a week or two before provided us with the exact amount for that loan. We were a little short on the deposit, but had my in-laws offer to loan us the money for a week or so until we got paid and could pay them back, which we did. We have awesome parents in case you couldn’t tell! Everything worked out so seamlessly and God provided in so many ways, it has been absolutely wonderful and guess what… that’s not even the end.