NYC wedding

  Jeremiah's youngest brother got married in New York City a few weekends ago. We had a blast with the Cox family in NYC.  The wedding was extremely fancy and it was like we were in a movie! It was incredibly nice to hear that some of the inheritance from Jeremiah's G-ma Cox paid for our way out there. We were able to hang out with Jeremiah's extended family and it was just what G-ma Cox would have wanted!
  Olivia was the flower girl in the wedding and she was just precious. She ran down the aisle and forgot to throw the petals. Then I motioned for her to throw the petals and she threw a bunch right at the end of the aisle.
  We had an awesome time dancing, hanging out, and being goofy with Jeremiah's family. It is a memory that we will never forget.
Here are some pictures:

         *Olivia enjoyed doing goofy moves and "striking a pose" while we waited for the bridal party to change. 

          

                 *The Cox family at the wedding.

             *The amazing ceremony/reception!

Family Prayer Time

Jeremiah, Olivia, and I have started a nightly family prayer time before Olivia goes to bed. It's one of the highlights of my day. We always say something we are thankful for and then say someone we want to pray for that night. After we are all done praying we read a few Bible stories together. Here is Olivia's sweet prayer tonight...
 
   "God please wrap your arms around my baby brother and keep him safe and healthy."

I'm just so thankful for this family God has blessed me with. And..to think that one more will be added soon just makes me want to squeal with delight. :)

10:00 on the dot

    Every day my class goes to recess at 10:00a.m. and every day at that time I check my phone just to make sure that my sitter doesn't need me. At this time every single day I think about our little boy because I know it's 8:00a.m. in Washington where our case worker resides. I know she's about to start her day and I think that maybe I will hear something from her about our little boy.
    Ya'll I am tired of waiting. There..I said it. We started this journey 19-20 months ago and I am just ready to see my little boy's face. I was explaining to my friend that I have a knot in my stomach every day. I check my e-mail frequently and every time my phone rings I check to see if it's our agency's number. We are so close to the end and it really could be any day that we receive a referral (or it could be months).
    When you are pregnant you have a due date and I have no idea when I will be able to hold my little boy. I never thought it would be this hard to wait. I know that I'm not even in the extremely hard waiting part yet which occurs after I actually meet my son (and have to leave him in Ethiopia for a few months).
     I was reading Jen Hatmaker's story about how one day she felt that she needed to pray intensely for the children she was adopting from Africa. She remembered that date and then was surprised to see that something amazing happened with her two kids (the children she adopted) on that very date. I had this experience back on September 26, 2012. I was praying in the morning and I had an overwhelming feeling that my son needed my prayers. I'm really interested to see how this date plays into his story or if it means anything at all. All I know is that on that day I was having my morning quiet time and just dropped to my knees in prayer (and many tears).
    I promise you that I realize it will be worth it. I know God has this perfect kid for us. But..at times it just stinks. I feel like every morning I wake up and it's Christmas Eve. You know the feeling that you got when you were a little kid and woke up knowing that Santa was coming that night or that you were going to get surprises that next day? Well..I feel like that every day. I'm not complaining because I picked this route. I have an amazing life and I'm incredibly blessed by my hubs and sweet little Olivia. However, I am a little grumpy sometimes because I just want to hear something positive about our adoption.

 On a higher note, I'm praising God today for the multiple blessings he has blessed me with this week. Here are just a few:
 1. My amazing husband who just makes me happy. I'm so thankful that I get to be married to him.
 2. Olivia-dancing, singing, making goofy voices, asking deep questions about God, and just her overall delightful personality.
3. I'm thankful for our health.
4. Fabulous family members who make our life wonderful.
5. My students are collecting money for a local charity. One parent told her son that she would match however much he wanted to put in to the collection. He got out his wallet and emptied it for our collection. What a sweet boy!
6. Encouraging e-mails from parents.
7. Hearing Olivia pray
8. Kind words from numerous students
9. A lazy evening at home
10. Receiving Christmas cards and thanking God for each family/friend.

  

Two (a very belated post:))

   After talking to people over the holiday week I realized that I never posted about us being moved to number 2 on the list. In my last post I wrote that our case worker told us we would be number 1 within a week. Obviously, that didn't happen. One family accepted their referral, but the other family did not accept the second referral. The second child was too old for us to accept. Therefore, we are now number 2 and not number 1.We moved to number 2 in September.

  We hear news that there could be a few little ones at the orphanage but that it could take up to 3 months for their paperwork to be ready. This makes me think that our son is at an orphanage and I just pray that his nannies are loving on him. I would really like to pray that God reveals our son to us by Christmas, but I know I can't do this. As tough as it is to wait, I know that God is in control. But..wouldn't it be just wonderful for us to hear this news by Christmas!?:) Ha! I am really not getting my hopes up (okay..just a little bit!:)).

 Please keep praying for our journey. We appreciate your support prayers!

THREE!

Two weeks ago we talked with our case worker and she said that we were number 5 on the list. The two referrals that were supposed to go out in July fell through. Today we got news that we are finally the glorious number 3!:) That wasn't even the best news we heard. She went on to tell us that she hopes to send out two more referrals within the week which means we will be number 1!!!!! We know that it may take awhile to move to number 1, but we are still thrilled with the idea that it could be very soon.

Please pray for...
-Our little boy wherever he is right now.
-Pray for his birth mother. Pray that she feels peace when she hands our baby over to the nannies. I've been crying tonight just thinking about his birth mom and the sacrifice she is making to give our baby a better life.

Team Jeremiah (King)

  We have met some pretty awesome people throughout our adoption journey. Last summer I had the pleasure of meeting Mike and Brandy King. They were going through the process of bringing home their daughter, Abi and finally brought her home from Ethiopia last November. Brandy, Mike, and their 3 older kids welcomed Olivia and I into their home multiple times last summer so that we could chat about our adoption plans. We also were able to help them celebrate little Abi's birthday in June.
  Brandy has been VERY helpful, supportive, and encouraging to me during our adoption journey. Now, I need your help to support her family. Brandy and Mike's youngest son, Jeremiah, was hit by a car on Friday evening. He is still under sedation in the ICU. Please pray for this wonderful family. I can't imagine what they are going through, but I do know that they have given this situation up to God. Our God is an amazing God and can work miracles. Please pray for little Jeremiah and his family. Thank you!

7...an experimental mutiny against excess=must read

  After reading this book I said to Jeremiah, "I want to be best friends with Jen." I'm sure she would feel the same way after reading my blog, right? Ha! She is sarcastic, motivating, challenging, and hilarious. I think anyone who reads this book will feel the exact same way. She's real. From the first moment I picked up her book I couldn't put it down. I was constantly thinking about how she simplified her life to get rid of the excess and to glorify God's Kingdom.
  It was so sweet of Jeremiah to listen to me talk about every chapter of the book. Every day he would come home and say, "What did she do today?" I think he understood that I was energized and motivated after reading her words...this book has definitely changed me. I can't wait to share with you some very real and great changes that I have made. However, I'm not going to do that now.:)
 Let me know if you are reading this book. I would love to get together and talk with you about it.
 Jen's blog-jenhatmaker.com. If you want to be best friends with her, just let me know..maybe you live closer to me and we can become best friends. That would be the next best thing, right?:)

God Found Us You

Before Olivia was born we were given the book called God Gave Us You and since then I have given this book as a gift to other people. I cry every time I read it for two reasons-1. I'm a dork and cry all the time and 2. I just like the author's word choice.

 I was reading a blog and come across a book I've never seen before today. It's called God Found Us You. We are definitely going to get this book for our little boy. I can't wait to read it to him!


This morning we took Olivia to the store to do something special. I know it may sound silly to you, but we were excited to take Olivia to the store to pick out a blanket for her baby brother. When we receive our referral (match) we want to send a care package to him immediately. We are going to include his blanket and a picture album of our family. Olivia has been talking about picking out a blanket for her brother, so we decided to go as a family today. On the way home she was snuggling with it and then asked to sleep with "my baby brother's blanket." We also had a great conversation on the way home which started with Olivia asking us, "Is God in Ethiopia?" I've mentioned numerous times before that we tell Olivia that God is going to bring baby brother to us. So, of course it makes sense for her to ask us if God is there right now. My sweet little girl can't stop talking about her brother. She keeps asking us where he is right now and why he isn't with us. I can't help but to wonder those things too!:)

Fantastic 4

4 seems to be the magic number this week.  Jeremiah, Olivia, and I spent the 4th of July in St. Louis with my family. We had an amazing time hanging out with everyone for almost 4 days.

Jeremiah and I will celebrate our 8th anniversary on July 17. We have heard people talking about The Melting Pot and wanted to try it out while we were in St. Louis. It was nice because my family watched Olivia so we could go out for a bit. We had the cheese and chocolate fondue there and both were delicious!

On the 4th my parents took us to the Cardinal's Game. It was Olivia's first game and she was pumped! She really watched the game and even got upset when she didn't see "Adam Wainwright on the field."

The best thing about being gone for 4 days was that I didn't really check my e-mail while we were gone. I received an e-mail from our case worker this afternoon stating that we are now number 4 on the waiting list.

BUT.....the most fabulous news is that by next week we will be............

 We are celebrating at the Cox house tonight. I know my last post was about this, but now it seems real. Only three more spots to move on the list and then we will see our sweet little boy's face.

Almost 3...

Our case worker told us that she thinks we will move 2 or 3 spots on the waiting list by the end of this week. This news makes my heart so happy!:) We will most likely be at number 3 on the waiting list!!! It didn't take us too long to jump from number 6 to number 3 on the waiting list. My hope is that the next jump will be from number 3 to number 1. Can you believe how close we are getting to this being a reality!?

We are ready to meet our little boy. Olivia is constantly thinking about her baby brother. Below I have listed a few conversations that I've had with Olivia this summer. -We were talking about one of my friends having a baby the next day and she said, "Mommy..is God bringing her baby to her right now?" I told her yes. Then she said, "Mommy..I really wish God would bring me my baby brother now too." I almost lost it. I told her that God is going to bring her baby brother at the perfect time (we constantly talk about how God is going to bring her brother to us).

We talked about how Olivia grew in my tummy, but her baby brother isn't growing in my tummy. I told her that sometimes a baby grows in his mommy's tummy and then he goes home with his family from the hospital. I went on to tell her that a baby may grow in his mommy's tummy, but then his mommy has to make a plan for someone else to take care of him. I said that sometimes this plan means that a family will adopt this baby and that's what we are going to do. We are so lucky because we get to hug and kiss him forever. He will be so lucky because you will be his big sister. After thinking for a minutes, Olivia's eyes filled up with tears. Then I saw one tear fall onto her cheek and she said, "But...mommy...I don't want another mommy to carry my brother inside her tummy. I want my baby brother to be in your tummy." Another tear jerker people!

-Before we went to church today Olivia said, "Mommy..I really wish I could have a baby brother like Ava has." We weren't talking about her brother when this thought popped into her mind.

 -One day she said, "When baby brother comes I will share my toys with him. I'm going to give him a lot of my toys. I will still have some and then he will have some too."

 -We took a quick trip to Indy to take Olivia to the zoo. While we were waiting for a show to begin I pointed out all of the babies by us. Olivia adores little babies. She had a sad look on her face and said, "I really want a baby." I said, "Oh Liv..I really want our baby too!" She looked up at me with an enormous smile (and full of confidence) and said, "Mommy..you will have a baby soon. God is bringing him to you." I couldn't believe she said that. Oh..to have faith like a child!:)

-Olivia tells me all that time that when she grows up she wants to be a sister. Then she goes on to tell me that she wants to be a mommy and a teacher.

*I will stop with the Olivia stories because I'm sure you can only read so many of them before you are extremely bored.:) Can you please do me a favor? Can you please pray for my little boy's mom? The closer our journey becomes a reality, the more my heart breaks for his real mom. I can't imagine what she is going through (or already went through) and the loss she will feel once she places my boy in an orphanage. I can't imagine being in a position in which I felt I had to make a different plan for my child and not raise him in my home.

Oh yah..I should pray about it.

   Before we started our adoption I didn't think I was a control freak (although some of you may disagree:)). I don't like confrontation and I like to kind of go with the flow of things. However, our adoption journey has made me realize that I like to be in control of certain areas of my life...the biggest thing being our plans for our growing family. I had it all mapped out last summer. I just knew that we were going to have our little guy home now and that we would have the entire summer to hang out.
   Last October, I kind of had a melt down at work one day (although no one knew because I went off in my car at lunch and just cried). I was trying to control our adoption plans. I was trying to find a way to bring our little guy home in a more timely manner, and I was just trying to do everything I could to keep "my plan" in place. I realized on that Tuesday afternoon that I couldn't do it by myself. I had to give it up to God. I felt a peace come over me like nothing I've experienced before. I've learned throughout this process that God is in control. Obviously, I have days when I feel discouraged and I want to look at other possibilities or agencies to help us bring our baby home.
    The other day I saw a blog that said, "Important Information for Ethiopia Adoptive Parents...our agency has received MANY new referrals. Please let us know if you are interested." I was...I couldn't believe it. I read (and then had a chat with a friend about this blog)and even told Jeremiah about it. The next day I realized that I didn't even pray about it. How could I do this to my God? After all we have been through during the past year and after realizing that I can not control the outcome of our adoption, I still tried to control it.
    As I sat down to read my devotional today, I looked at our computer. I thought I would just check to make sure I didn't have an e-mail from our case worker about any news before I started my devotion. Like every other day, I opened up my e-mail and did not have an e-mail from our case worker. Then I sat down to get started on my devotion. In my devotional today, there was a story in it about a King who hired workers. I won't tell you the entire story, but just a summary. Basically, some of the workers were first in line and demanded work. They didn't really listen to the owner and ended up not being satisfied. Other workers were patient and trusted the owner to give them what was right for them. They ended up being satisfied and were rewarded for their patience. Another part of my devotional stated "To wait in the biblical sense means to gather, to watch, or to expect. It is never passive; it is active. Such waiting is never wasted, but productive." David tells us to "Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord! (Ps. 27:14)" I started laughing because I knew I needed to read this today.
     One of my favorite bible verses comes from 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. It says,"Be full of joy all the time. Never stop praying. In everything give thanks. This is what God wants you to do because of Christ Jesus." I sat down to think about this verse. I looked it up in many different translations and I realized that every single one said, "Never stop praying." As a Christian I know to pray about things always. I am constantly praying for others and their needs. I am constantly praying for Olivia. That she grows up to be a woman of God..that she marries a Christian man who loves her like Jeremiah loves us. I am constantly praying for our little guy. That he would remain safe and feel loved until we can wrap our arms around his little body. But...I'll be honest, I have not been great at praying about our adoption journey. I haven't been great at praising God for all the amazing things that he has done through our adoption thus far. I needed this devotional today. I needed to put myself in the workers shoes who waited all day and trusted that God would give them what was "right for them." I do believe with every ounce of my soul that God is going to give us the perfect child for our family. The one who is "right for us." Why am I still getting frustrated when we haven't moved on the referral wait list? Why am I still checking my e-mail a million times a day thinking that we will receive news? Why am I not "praying without ceasing" over our adoption journey?
    When I felt that peace back in October, I knew that God was in control so I kind of stopped praying about our journey (I do pray for our journey, but just probably not as much as I should). While reading my devotional today, I felt convicted because I definitely need to be praying constantly for our adoption journey. I think this will alleviate my frustrations, concerns, and worries. Just like the bible verse above says, I know it will "strengthen my heart" as I wait upon God's plan for our family. Another thing my devotional said was "God is never late; He is always right on time. The difficulty is that we try to force Him onto our earthy timetable instead of adjusting to His heavenly schedule. Only through faith and patience do we obtain God's promises."
    As I stated above, I was trying to force God's plan into my timetable. I wanted so badly to believe that our baby would be home this summer and that I would be loving on my two kids like crazy. God is teaching me through this journey..teaching me that His plans are way better than mine. I've already started to see that and I hope to continue to trust and pray (pray without ceasing!) that just like my own father, He has only the best intentions for our family. Before our baby was born, God knew that the little guy would be a "Cox" one day and God is just waiting for the perfect time to bring him to our family. It's pretty neat to read the words "God is never late." I know that I will look back on this waiting period and praise God for it. I know that God is using this time to transform my heart...to dig deeper and fall more in love with Him during this journey. Since you made it this far and read the entire book I just wrote...here are a few pictures of our family hanging out.

#6

YAY!!! We are number 6 on the waiting list. Yippee!:)

Disregard my last post...

Just disregard my last blog post. As it turns out, we are STILL #9 on the list and not #8. I thought we had moved places, but we have not. I'm not going to lie...it's getting hard. I fully realize that "God is going to give us the perfect child for our family" and "God is in control." It's just hard when we've been number 9 on the wait list since June. Our number has not changed! It would be easier to wait if we were seeing any movement...but we aren't. It's been 6 months since we submitted our dossier to Ethiopia and almost one year since we started this journey.
It's not only hard for us, but for Olivia too. The other day I asked her, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" She quickly replied, "I want to be a big sister." She wants to meet baby brother just as much (or maybe more) as we do!
Please know that I'm aware that people are facing hardships and greater issues then we are. I feel so blessed to have such a healthy little girl and I just can't wait to add another child to our family.

*****Update: It's funny how things happen.:) We just talked to our case worker and she confirmed that we ARE #8 on the wait list. This means we are #8 on the list with people who want either a baby girl or baby boy. We are actually #3 on the wait list of people who want just a baby boy. It really does make me so happy to hear that we have moved 1 spot! Our case worker also said that within a few days she hopes to hand out at least 2 more referrals for baby boys. That means we will be down to #6 and then #1 on the list for a baby boy. The #1 doesn't really mean much because all of the other people are open to a baby girl or boy...but it still helps me feel better knowing that we are going to move on the list! Yippee!!:) So...disregard the post I just wrote today. Ha! Our case worker just told us that we were still #9 a few days ago (and that's why I wrote this post).

Moving on up...

As some of you know, our agency has not handed out referrals since June. I know it's not our agency's fault, but it just seems like such a long time. We've been number 9 on the waiting list since June. On Friday, our caseworker sent out an e-mail saying that they received one referral last week. Unfortunately, that referral wasn't for us...but I believe we are now number 8 on the waiting list! Yippee! Our caseworker said in another e-mail (last week) that she believes she should be getting in referrals over the next few months. She doesn't know how many or the age, sex, etc. but I think that's good news.
Jeremiah has remained calm during this entire process. He tells me that God is in control and there is nothing that we can do. I agree 100%, but I still stress about it. I know..it's a shock. Me..stressing..never. Ha!:) While I have given it up to God and realize that He's in control, I still check my phone and e-mail a million times a day just waiting for some news from our caseworker. My heart is filled with happiness knowing that things are moving now with our agency and that one little child now has a forever family.
I've stated before that our agency told us the waiting period for a referral would be 3-9 months (after sending off our dossier). As of today, we have been waiting 4 months. I know that's not super long, but to me it's long enough. If he is born, he needs his mommy and daddy (and big sister too!).
Thanks for reading this post. I am excited to be moving up the list to #8. Hopefully you will hear good news from us soon! In the meantime...please keep praying for our little boy in Ethiopia. Pray that the nannies or his family is loving on him like we would. Pray that he stays healthy and safe until we can wrap our arms around him and smother him with kisses. Oh gosh..I can not wait for that day!:)

*Baby brother you need to come home soon so your daddy can play "boy stuff" with you. Your sister has been making your daddy dress up like Prince Charming and dance at the ball. While he loves dancing with your sister, I know he will be excited to do more manly things with you. Haha! Enjoy the picture below!


Also, I forgot to post some pictures we took on New Year's Eve. We were thinking about you baby brother! We hope you are with us to celebrate on our next New Year's Eve! Olivia wasn't very excited about taking this picture (as you can tell by the silly look on her face!:)).



Olivia is holding up 3 fingers to show that we've been waiting for 3 months. Your big sister can not wait to meet you!