ONE WEEK HOME WITH TWINS

Our life has taken a trip on the crazy, sleep-deprived train.  Tomorrow, the twins will have been home a full week, and it already feels like forever.  Here's how it's been.

My sis Ellen and nephew True came to help.  Ellen was a ton of help, and True was slightly less help but really cute and fun to have around.



(That is dirt around his mouth, not Oreo.  Yum yum.)

John and I have the night-time routine down.  It includes lots of diaper changes.



And lots of little bottles.



It includes bleary-eyed feedings in our bed.



We feed them at 10 p.m., and then John sets his phone alarm for 1, 4, and 7 a.m.  It is really great to do it as a team, and I must say that I don't miss the nursing that I did with the girls.  Knowing how much they are eating each time brings a lot of peace of mind.

We went to their first pediatrician appointment and got great reports on them both.  They have both gained a lot since discharge and are doing so well.  Amazing to see the health the Lord has provided for them - we are so thankful.

Lily and Bella absolutely love having the babies home and are constantly doting on them.  I have actually caught Bella singing, "I love you so much.  I love you so much." to them, which did make me cry tears of joy.  Lily loves to call William "Little Man" and Violet "Miss Violet."  So, she will say, "What is wrong with Little Man?  I think he is telling us he is hungry."  They really like to help feed the babies - with adult supervision of course.

We are also trying to be intentional with the girls - here's John playing with them last night before bed.  He is super-dad.



And now my mom is here.  Currently she is folding laundry while I blog.  If only this were always the way the world worked.  I can see that laundry will become more my nemesis than ever with four little people who are virtually no help.

We ventured to the mall to do some clothes exchanging since William is growing so quickly.  That meant we had two double strollers and got asked constantly if I had two sets of twins.  That is my new world.  And then people look at me slightly askance and tell me how brave I am or how full my hands are and better me than them.  I smile and nod.

It's been a good week.  We are adjusting to the new normal of it taking twenty five years to get out the door and spending my life on a three hour schedule.

But it is so good, and though we are tired, we are so thankful.  Seeing what the Lord has done does not get old, and I continue to marvel at the gifts he has given us.

NO MORE WAITING CHILDREN

These past several months have been unreal - truly.  I have written a lot about adoption, and I imagine I will write much more as time goes on.  We are learning so much.  We honestly felt like God led us to international adoption as his plan for our family, and we walked that path until God made a way for something else, clearly.  I can see now that we needed to walk that road to get to the point where we were open to two children at the same time who could possibly be special needs.  I don't know that we could have gotten to the point where we would have been able to say "YES" so quickly when the opportunity for the twins presented itself.

I have been helping to chair the Walk for the Waiting committee since its inception in early January (I blogged about it here).  I knew it was exactly the work I was supposed to be doing, but I must say, it was a bit strange to be pursuing an international adoption while simultaneously working for the waiting children in Arkansas.  As I mentioned before, we believe 100 percent that we have walked the path that God had for our family, and that included pursuing international adoption.  And, if that had been his plan for us, we would have been thrilled to welcome home Ethiopian children.  I believe that God calls and equips families differently to work in orphan care, and it is amazing to see the stories that he writes for each family.

All of that said, I know it is not a coincidence that our adoption of local children came about while I was working on Walk for the Waiting.  We were a waiting family.  We were waiting for God to show us which children he wanted us to care for and how best to do that.  We were trying to be as open as possible to whatever God had for us, and he made a way for these precious children to be entrusted into our care.

Their birth mom was not at a place where she could care for them, and she made the loving choice to place them with us, and we are forever grateful for that.  Without that choice, our children would have gone into custody of the state, who would have decided their fate.  However, through God's people and the twins' extended birth family, we were found to be their parents.  We were waiting, and they needed parents.

To me, it was an amazing picture of what could be if all God's people were invested in finding solutions for children and families.  There are so many issues that put children in precarious situations, and God has charged us, as his people, with being a part of mending families and providing care for orphans.  In so many parts of the world and here in the US, there are cycles of poverty, lack of education and systematic abuse that tear apart families and leave children vulnerable.  Now, more than ever before, we are committed to being a part of the solution and hope that you will join us.

Walk for the Waiting will help to fund three organizations locally that focus on different aspects of orphan and family care (The CALL, Project Zero, and Immerse AR).  It is our hope that we will have no more waiting children who must bear the stress of abuse or abandonment and instead we have families waiting to care for them.

We are looking forward to the Walk for the Waiting this coming Saturday, and we are also looking forward to whatever other work God calls us to in this area.  Would love to have you join us!

(for more info on the Walk - go to Walk for the Waiting.org)
(to sponsor our family in the walk, click this link and sponsor away!)

FOREVER FAMILY

This morning we loaded ourselves and our four children into our Swagger Wagon and headed to the Conway Courthouse for a hearing that would make our adoption legal, final and binding.  We did a private, attorney-assisted adoption.  There was an agency involved that our lawyer had contracted with to take legal custody of the twins once their birth-mother signed the paperwork.  That agency passed off guardianship to us immediately, which allowed us to visit them at the hospital and have them be discharged from the hospital to us.

Today, they officially became William Joshua Spenst and Violet Ann Spenst.  Forever.

The hearing took all of 14 minutes.  John and I both testified about the facts of who we are, as well as the understanding we have that adoption is permanent and legally binding.  Then, the judge took some time to tell us that adoptions are the most rewarding thing he does as a judge.  He also said some really kind things about the kind of people that we are (very overstated, honestly), and I had tears pouring down my cheeks.

And then it was done.  We took this picture with the judge.  Instead of the airport pictures I thought we would have, we have a Conway Courtroom picture.



To see what God has worked here is truly life-changing and amazing.  He has entrusted these precious lives into our care, and we are all forever changed.

As we were getting paper-work filed with the clerk, one of the women asked if I had gone to Crestwood Elementary School.  Yes, yes I did.  It was a woman that had worked there and recognized me.  She said, "You were an over-achiever in elementary school, and it looks as if you have kept that up."  I had to laugh.  I was also really amazed that she recognized me, but she pointed out that I "look the exact same."  It is a small, funny world, and today it was filled with warm people that were truly thrilled for our family and rejoicing with us.  What a blessing.

Thanks for reading along and praying for our children and cheering us on.  I am continuing to tear up as I think about the ways that God has surrounded us by his people that have all helped make this possible through their prayers.  Violet and William are living proof that God is mightily at work in our midst.  He has a plan for all of us, and I am in awe of what he has already done.  I hope and pray that we continue to cling to the Lord as a family, and I know we will always be able to mark this experience as an ebenezer in our lives - a place where we could clearly see God's faithfulness.

We are now and forever family for William and Violet, and we could not be more thankful.

FIRST WEEKEND HOME

Our babies have been home for almost 33 hours.  In that time, we have changed about 20 of their diapers, fed them each 9 times, cuddled them, burped them, checked their temperature and swaddled them.  All the stuff that parents normally do for their newborns.  It feels really good and really tiring.  It's funny, because one of the things that was appealing about our Ethiopian adoption track is that we would miss out on the newborn stage, since it is not a collective favorite in our house.

God is laughing right now, since we are getting the newborn blessing times two.  Thankfully, we do have the perspective that this is for a relatively short time span of their lives, and that before we blink, it will be over.  But I would be lying if I said that the bleary-eyed feeling is welcomed by us.  Sleep deprivation is nobody's favorite thing, but I think we are especially bad at it.  Things are just not real rosy and fun in the middle of the night, and we have already had to apologize to one another for the shortness we have displayed.

But - it is still so good to be a family of six, and we would not change it one little bit.  I would much rather be living out God's story for us rather than the one we thought we wanted.  He knows better than we do, and I am sure we have a lot more patience, grace and love to learn during this time.

Yesterday evening, we enjoyed the gorgeous weather and took a family walk, which was heartily enjoyed by everyone.

After a short, choppy night last night, we got up and headed to church.  People (even our closest friends) seem to think that we are sort of over-achievers for behavior like this.  But, here's the deal, peeps: we would be up and awake no matter what, because we have Lily and Bella.  For us, it is better to get out of the house and do normal life.  It's a preference thing, really.  Also, I have got to say that though adoption has many hard aspects, one thing I have loved about adopting is the fact that my body is not post-partum in all of what we are doing.  I am not trying to breast-feed.  That makes this phase a bit more manageable, because I am functioning fairly normally instead of trying to recover from pregnancy, labor and delivery.

John had a friend make shirts for the kids that read "Happy Mother's Day," so this is what greeted me when I came out of the shower.

The picture is hard to read, because everyone is super squirmy (except for John, and surprisingly, Bella).  I started crying almost instantly.  Thanks, John and crew.  I am so blessed to be family to you all.

After church, we took our circus out to lunch, which included my sis, Ellen and nephew, True.  She captured this picture, which is the only "Mother's Day" picture we took.

Having Ellen here has been an amazing blessing.  As I type and cuddle babies, she is currently organizing all the baby clothes.  Since that task is so life-sucking for me, I am so incredibly grateful, and at this exact moment, I am experiencing pangs of guilt, since I have done nothing at all to help.  Tomorrow morning, she is going to start painting the nursery.  

The girls have loved having the twins home.  They both like cuddling the babies.

So, let the adventure continue.  Here's hoping there is sleep in our future.  Either way, we are grateful for our new children and are honored to be their parents.  Thank you, Lord.