Great Opportunity

So, I'm way excited to share that KC and I are one of the 6 families that have been chosen to receive proceeds from a few purchases as an adoption fundraiser! Worthy of the Prize is a blog dedicated to "help you reach your full potential in Christ, no matter where you are on your journey!" They have a few different bloggers/ministries that they help out with fundraising and they're posts are always so encouraging. (My lovely Joy in the Journey print I have? I got it from their site.) We have been blessed to take part in one of their fundraisers. During the month of April, you can go to their site and purchase the Adoption Band (key chain) and we will receive the entire proceeds to help us bring Effie home! How amazing is that?!

{For every adoption band sold, we donate the entire proceeds to adopting families!}

You can read more about it here:

 http://worthyoftheprize.blogspot.com/2010/05/chosen-child-adoption-band.html

And if that wasn't enough, we are also receiving a profit of the Chosen Necklaces purchased from Cap Creations during April! 

http://www.capscreations.com/item_61/Chosen-Adoption-Necklace.htm

Just be sure to select {The Collins Family} during checkout so that we receive credit for the items purchased.

God has been so faithful throughout this entire process. Even if we don't receive a lot from any of our fundraisers, it's just so amazing to see the opportunities that have been presented to us. And hey, I'll at least have another cute necklace and key chain!  J  We want to thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for your amazing support. We couldn't do this without your love, prayers, and support. You all rock! They say it takes a village - and that couldn't resound truer than during an adoption.  © 

Home Study Numbero Uno

We finally had our first home study interview on Monday. *crowd cheers*  Our social worker was great. It was nice to be able to finally meet with her face to face. We've had a lot of email correspondence, but that's about it! She toured our home - the boys were incredibly excited to show her their "super clean rooms" and show her where Effie was going to be staying. As soon as she walked in the door the boys were hugging her. Lol. Like I said, they know no strangers. And thankfully - she did not inspect our closets. Haha! For those of you who didn't hear, I was trying to frantically catch up on laundry and make the laundry room presentable. In my rush, I did not get a chance to put my clean clothes away…. soooooo they were sitting in a basket(s) in my closet. haha. God does answer prayers!  ;) 

After looking at our house inside and out, we sat at the kitchen table to go over some basic questions about our family, lifestyle, parenting techniques, etc. Nothing too in-depth. That will come next week.  J  Next Thursday afternoon we'll have our longer individual interviews. This is the one about our childhoods. We'll be together for a short time, then she'll talk to us individually. I'm not worried about it - all of my issues have finally been resolved. Lol. I'm excited about getting these done and over with. Next comes the SUPER fun stuff! Lots and lots of detailed paperwork! Haha. Am I crazy? Because I'm actually really excited about signing, triple signing, initialing, notarizing, state sealing, fingerprinting and all that jazz. I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune in the middle of it all.

Well, that's about all that's been happening regarding the adoption. We took a much needed break last Saturday and took the boys to Branson/Silver Dollar City. HUGE mistake. We forgot that it was Spring Break. They. Were. PACKED. We did get to see our friends Joy and Lenny for a bit! So, that was pretty cool. We were exhausted and just decided to stay the night in Branson. The boys had a lot of fun. We bought some swimming clothes and hung out at the hotel pool most of the afternoon and evening.

Mine and KC's 6th anniversary falls on Easter this year - kinda cool and kinda not. Lol. But we at least get next Friday for just the two of us. So I'm grateful for that. I feel like we're running out of our babysitting tokens.

The Boys

So - the boys seriously need to stop growing. We are going to go broke buying new clothes!! Caedmon was wearing a new pair of 4T and the poor kid looked like Urkel. Oliver - the beast - is wearing Caeds 5T shirts and 4T pants. The kid turned 3 a month ago! I know a lot of you know what I'm talking about. I think it's mostly shocking to see Oliver getting do big considering he was so small those first 9 months. But now... He eats All. The. Time! More than Caedmon in fact. So today, KC and the boys brought me in to work so we can go to The Promenade after work to a. Enjoy this beautiful weather shopping outside and b. to buy a few new items for the boys. They love coming up and hanging out in my office with me. They love digging through my food drawer. Oliver loves my spinny chair and Caed likes playing with my computer. KC loves the coffee shop. Lol.

See Ollie in my chair and Caed reaching for the bag of pretzels? Haha.

I love these boys. They have all of our best qualities and a few of our less-desirable ones. My 2 favorites? They're compassionate and protective. This morning I whacked my knee on the side of our metal bed frame. Hard. Like huge scratch that hurt when fabric touched it. Oliver came in while I was getting ready and the first thing he saw was the bandaid on my knee. "Mommy, why yous got dat boo-boo?" me: "oh, I hit my knee on the bed". Ollie proceeds to bend over and kiss it.

About ten minutes later, Caed comes in. What's the first thing he notices? Yep, the bandaid. "whoa, what happened to your leg mom?" me: "I hit it on the bed this morning. It's okay though". As if he doesn't believe me, Caed comes over, bends down and carefully inspects it. "Does it hurt?" me:"eh, a little bit." Caed: "but yur okay to walk?". See? Compassion.

My other favorite? They're Protective. Anytime KC and I are goofing off and teasing each other, all I have to do is yell to the boys that daddy is being mean to me. Caedmon yells at KC to be nice to me and Oliver yells "Hulk smash!" and attacks, soon after followed by Caedmon. KC doesn't stand a chance. ;)

Yeah the boys are ornery and they seem to find themselves in timeout or asked to change their feelings more often than not. But they're 3 and almost 5 and are already displaying amazing traits. It's our job as their parents to nurture that. Because, while compassion and protectiveness are admirable traits, the enemy would love to twist those and use them for his benefit.

Parenting isn't easy. KC and I are constantly trying to figure out a balance to all this. With Gods help, our kids will grow up to do amazing things in His name. And with His help, we won't screw them up too bad. ;-)

I know this wasn't "adoption related", but I wanted to give you guys a little break. Haha.

Joy in the Journey

Okay - I'm not normally a negative Nancy and I'm trying super hard to remain positive and upbeat. But boy let me tell you, Sometimes. It's. Hard….. at the beginning. Once you start to realize what's unfolding and how something you originally thought was "negative" is actually a "positive" from God. For example: Life has been pretty ding dang dong stressful and emotional this year - yep, since January oh-1 of 2012. Between work, family, the adoption, and finances - my emotions/stress level is on overload. 'Oh mish-mash!' You say. 'Who doesn't have stress in 3 out of 4 of those areas?' Well, the family aspect has been the most stressful. Without getting into all the gory details, I have not seen my dad in almost 3 years. I've probably only talked to him on the phone 3 times in those 3 years. My sweet boys: Caedmon has only met his grandfather only 2 or 3 times and dear Oliver has never laid eyes on his grandfather….

In January we found out a few things that are hard to deal with concerning him. My father is back in the States from Mexico. My still kinda-angry-little-girl-heart i wants him to suffer this out on his own. My broken-little-girl-inside-heart naively wants him to become the dad we always wanted him to be and wants everything to be butterflies and rainbows. And my almost-healed-Christ-follower-heart knows that it's all in His hands; that' there's nothing on earth I can do to change him.

I will be seeing my dad for the first time in almost 3 years on Friday. And boy am I nervous.

I've subconsciously asked God to relieve some of my stress and emotions that are all battling inside (through the wailing "stress induced" prayers). And He's done that - not by taking away the situation regarding my dad - but by putting the adoption process on hold until I can fully deal with this family situation. It's not what I wanted - not at all - but I wasn't specific in what I asked. AND I think He knows that this thing with my dad is pivotal in allowing God to completely heal my broken heart - that wound inflicted by my father. Because, how can I go into our home study interviews with all of this weighing on my mind - especially when she begins to ask questions about my dad. Yeah - we had to fill out family questionnaires' - let's just say my dad didn't get high marks.

Our home study has been pushed back another month. And after the initial wallowing in anger/self-pity, I breathed a sigh of relief. I didn't feel like I could add any more to this toppling plate of issues and responsibilities. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a bit irked, but I know that right now, that's what I need. One less thing to worry about. Now, I'm not telling you all this to feel sorry for me - but to remind you that God can make something great out of something bad. Whether or not my relationship with my dad ever becomes what I've dreamed it would, God is helping to heal my broken issues. Issues I've been in denial about for a long while… To quote Austin Powers: " Nothing could be my father from the truth….. No I dadn't…. Daddy didn't love me!!!" lol. (hey, I gotta lighten this post up somehow right?)

The best thing I can do right now is continue to choose JOY. Not always easy, but worth it in the end.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

{James 1:2-4}