Adoption

Some of you may know that Luke and I have been prayerfully considering adoption. We both feel that our family is not yet complete; at the same time, it is very clear that we are not to have any more biological children. Between my cardiac history and the girls' kidney history, we made the decision to not grow our family the "traditional" way.

Now that we are almost at the finish line of school for me and Luke (Luke should be done with his MBA in August), we have started to have some more serious conversations about adoption. We know that we want to adopt a boy, and we know that we want an international adoption. We are leaning toward adopting from Ethiopia.

The question is, when? We were talking last night about how we want to be ready to adopt. we want to pay off bills, pay off our student loans, etc.

But, if you think about it, are you ever truly ready??

If we'd waited until we were ready to have our biological children, we'd still be waiting!

So, we're thinking that "ready" for us might look very different than we had originally planned. We have some bills we have to pay off, and we are guessing that we'll be able to do that within a year of me graduating from nursing school. At that point, I'll be able to probably only work 1 (or maybe 2) days a week, Kayla will be in kindergarten, and that would probably be a really good time for our family.

I love this precious child already, and he's not even born yet. I've already started praying for his birth mom, for the people at the orphanage who will care for him, and for HIM. I really hope and pray that this child will know, from the moment we have him, the depth of our love and want for him.

It's funny how this adoption journey (that we have yet to even embark on!) is showing me more of Who God is. God is passionate about the widows and the orphans and wants us, as a Church, to also be concerned with them.

As much as I long for the day I can hold this new member of our family in my arms, so Christ is also longing for the day He can return for His bride, the Church. Just as I don't know yet when we'll be able to go and pick this child up, neither does Jesus know when He can return for us. Just as I love this child that has yet to be born (or even conceived!), so too did Christ love me before I was born and He showed it by His death on the cross.

Please pray for me and Luke as we start looking ahead to the future of our family and what that future looks like!

The feeling of productivity

My parents knew what they were doing when they named me Melissa. My name literally means "honey bee," and that's sure what I have been the past few days.

I pretty much finished up clinical rotations for this semester. Other than a half day on Wednesday (where I get to work in the ER. Make sure that, if you live near me, you don't end up at the ER because *I* will be doing your IV start!), I am DONE! It's so hard to believe that this semester is almost done, and that leaves ONE SEMESTER before I am Melissa, BSN, RN. I had the "privilege" of working with an absolutely awful nurse on Wednesday and then two wonderful nurses the next day. I already know how I am going to treat any students that I'll work with (and it won't be the way I was treated on Wednesday!)

Today, which is also known as my day "off," found me at a piano teacher's meeting, the library for story time, and cleaning my house. I went through the girls' dresser, two drawers in the kitchen, ALL of their books, all the toys on the main floor, and all the coloring books/playdough/etc.

It. Feels. WONDERFUL!

And then, I cleaned my upstairs. I even took the wonderful Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and scrubbed my tub down (it works great!)

Luke and I are going to watch a movie tonight and relax. I can hardly wait.

Let's see....as many of you know, Luke and I are health coaches with Take Shape for Life, using Medifast products. It is amazing to witness people lose weight and get healthy. We had an amazing opportunity last weekend to have some training and really learn how to be a better coach to our clients. Luke also added up the weight loss of all the people in the room...out of 16 people, there had been over 800 POUNDS of weight loss! It was incredible!! We are continuing to pray that the Lord would grow this business and that we would be able to minister to people in both their physical AND spiritual needs. If any of you want more information about Medifast, please look at our website: www.lukeandmel.tsfl.com What I love about this program is that it's legitimate. Johns Hopkins University Hospital started this program, and it has some solid scientic backing (published in REAL journals!) Being a nursing student with a pyschology degree, I'm pretty picky about what I consider quality research, and this program has had quality research show that it works!

As we find ourselves closer and closer to Thanksgiving, I just want to remind everyone to pause and thank the One who has given us so much. He has blessed me beyond measure, and I am so thankful to Him for it!

Sorry, guys!

For the two of you who actually read this (haha!), I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in forever.

Isn't my family adorable?!

Life has been CRAZY.

Beyond crazy!

But, life is still good!

I ran my first official half marathon (13.1 miles) in October, finishing in 2:04:04. I was hoping to finish in less than 2:10:00, so I was pretty happy (actually, I was just hoping to FINISH!)

Nursing school is going well. I'm extremely busy (this the reason for not posting!), but I'm having fun. I've actually done a successful IV start, and that felt pretty good (I'm sure my patient was relieved, too!)

Luke is plugging away at his MBA, and Mandy and Kayla are still loving school as well.

I promise I'll post more when I have time!!