Mr. and Mrs. Ballard

This past Saturday, I had the pleasure of standing beside one of my dearest friends as she said "I do" to her prince charming.  Kara and I met on bid night of our Freshman year at Samford and became fast friends.  A couple of years after college, she moved to Khon Khan, Thailand to work with college students and minister to the people of Thailand.  It was a leap of faith and God has blessed her abundantly for her obedience.  She was able to see many friends come to Christ and grow in their faith during her five and a half years in Thailand.  While she was in Thailand, Kara met Mark (a youth minister in Macon, GA) through mutual friends.  Their relationship began over Skyppe, Facebook and email and grew over brief visits to each other's current home.  It has been so neat to watch God grow this chance meeting from a friendship to a courtship to a marriage over the last year.  They are the perfect couple and I cannot wait to see what God has in store for their marriage.  Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Ballard!

The happy couple

The beautiful bride

Hank, me and Adair

Tricia, Ashley, Katie, Loren and me

Hadley and Adair

They loved dancing together!

Like I said, loved it!

Samford girls: Loren, Mary Ellen, Tricia, Lora, Blair,

Ashley, me, Kara, Katie, Meg, and Kimber

Our Little Musician

I'm sure I have shared this before, but Adair is obsessed with music and instruments.  Her first love is the violin.  Everything she touches becomes a pretend violin...straws, drum sticks, mallets, rhythm sticks, spoons, etc.  A couple of weekends ago, she had the opportunity to play a real violin at my family reunion.  The sweet violinist noticed her obsession and offered to let her explore her violin.  She actually said she had the "touch".  Ha!  Perhaps we have a future violinist on our hands...

or perhaps a mandolin player.  She is beginning to be equally interested in all string instruments.  She loves her Joe-pa's guitar from his "band days" in high school and enjoyed playing this mandolin at the reunion.  I think it's time for me to start looking into lessons of some sort to try to capitalize on her interest and potential musical talent.

She also loves to sing.  Much to my surprise, she wanted to sing with the band at the reunion.  She was shy at first, but once she warmed up she sang "Jesus Loves Me", "This Little Light of Mine" and "Rocky Top".  (One of these things is not like the other, huh?)

Powers, Party of Five

On Saturday, August 20, Hank and I got the shock of a lifetime...we discovered we are expecting our third child on April 22, 2012!  From that very second, we knew that the baby I am carrying was our third child.  We never desired to change directions or deviate from the path we were on to our Emalyn! 

I'll back up a little and give you the full story.  That Saturday was two days before my 30th birthday and I had already received the best gift when we found out we were DTC and would soon be matched with our daughter.  (If it's possible to receive two best gifts, this was definitely my year.)

That day Hank and I had joked about getting pregnant during this process and the idea got into my head.  I started trying to count days and was reminded of two quick bouts with nausea the week before.  With margaritas on the menu for my birthday dinner that night, I decided I should take a quick test, just to settle my mind.  Much to my surprise it was positive...immediately!  When I showed it to Hank, he sat down on the floor, speechless.  Soon after, we both looked at each other and burst into laughter.  Of course, this is how God would write our story!

The next day, I began starting to gather information.  For those of you who know me well, you know I am a doer and a controller, so had to start figuring out time lines, bedrooms, etc.  I emailed our agency and requested a meeting, called my doctor and insisted they squeeze me in on Monday and thus began the planning. 

On Monday my doctor settled my nerves by confirming that I could travel to China through 32 weeks (the end of February), assuming this pregnancy is as "vanilla" (his word) as my pregnancy with Adair. 

On Tuesday, I met with our social workers.  We knew there was a possibility that they would want us to put the adoption on hold just given the potential close arrival of Emalyn and our newborn into our home.  They brought up some valid points for us to think through, asked us to pray over our decision for the next week and let them know where we stood on Sunday.  At that point, they, along with the Director of International Adoption (who was out of town for the week and needed to be a part of the decision), would make a decision.  We knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we wanted to proceed and we believed with all of our hearts that that was God's command for us, but we took time to pray and seek Him over that week.  It was SO hard to wait, but God used that week to confirm our decision.

That Sunday night, August 28, we sent a long email to our social workers and expressed our desire to proceed, our belief that God was commanding us to proceed and practical reasons why we could make it work.  The very next day, Amy called and let me know we could proceed.  We were thrilled with the news and then she followed up with more good news...we were logged in and the shared list was coming out that very night.  She was careful to manage our expectations that we would be low on the list having just gotten logged in, so we may not get a referral, but there was a chance our daughter could be on that list.

The next morning, she called and the first words out of her mouth were, "are you sitting down?".  I knew immediately she had a file for us.  Within in five minutes of hanging up the phone, Hank and I saw the face of our second child...our sweet Emalyn.

We have experienced God in so many amazing ways throughout this process.  It has been so hard to keep this pregnancy a secret, because this baby's story is so interwoven with Emalyn's story.  We believe with all of our hearts that God has an amazing plan for our family and we are thankful that He is revealing it little by little. 

We covet your prayers as we prepare for our family to expand from three to five in a short 3-4 months time span.  Please pray that LOA comes quickly and we are able to travel as soon as possible.  Not only are we anxious to bring our Emalyn home, but we would love to have as much time as possible with her before the baby comes.  In addition to that, it is my heart's desire to be able to travel to China, to her homeland, to love on her from the very second she's in our arms.  To have to wait at home for Hank to bring her back to me, just might "do me in" emotionally.  I do know that God has a plan, though.  I know that He ordained this and it will play out just as He has plans and I can rest in that.