What a Weekend!!

Whew...what a weekend!! We had some exciting stuff take place this weekend!  A couple months ago we had some friends from church approach us about a fundraiser they were doing.  Last year they started this event that they named "The Benefit Ball."  It's a pretty awesome concept, they have a 3 on 3 basketball tournament during the morning, then a prom like "ball" in the evening for everyone who participated in the tournament and more!!  They sell tickets for both parts and all proceeds go to benefit a cause.  Last year it was a couple raising money to be missionaries in Spain, and this year, the benefit was our ADOPTION!!  We were so excited, honored, humbled that they would choose us to be a part of this.  This weekend was it! Saturday we got all dressed up and danced the night away with lots of people, most of whom we didn't know, which was even more awesome!  We got to have lots of conversations with people about adoption, hopefully many seeds were planted!  We had so much fun!! Here's some pictures and a little video from the evening(make sure you pause the music at the bottom to watch the video.) 

The Location of The Benefit Ball 2011!

Me and my handsome hubby :)

This room was set up to take prom pictures :)

Table set up with our adoption information

They even had a picture mat for people to write messages to baby Coalson :)

Towards the end of the night, tired, hot, sweaty, curls long gone

We took more pictures, but they're on the camera that was set up for the awkward prom picutres, so hopefully we'll get those soon!!



It was such a great evening! That night we raised $1000!! That, combined with a few other random donations we received  from the weekend we were able to raise about $2000 this weekend! Praise God! We were so blessed to be a part of this event and are forever grateful to our friends having a part in our child's story.  God's hand just continues to be evident in our life and we are thankful!

Another great thing from this weekend, we were privileged to have Dr. Russell Moore preach at our church!!  He is the author of this book:

Such a great, great book on adoption and the Gospel! This book played a huge role in us adopting sooner rather than later.  He preached an awesome sermon on adoption, that you can find here.  We were blessed to be able to meet Dr. Moore and have him pray over us and our sweet baby.  Such a great end to an awesome weekend!  God is so good and we are continuing to revel in His blessings over us.

Thankfulness

This is one of those posts I've been meaning to get around to for a while.  Might get a little wordy and long, but stick with it, it might be good :)

  One of my friends and I have been going through the book One Thousand Gifts this summer, and WOW!!  I don't know if I've ever read a book where I've taken so much away from it.  Most of the time I just want to underline every sentence.  There's SO much goodness and wisdom in this book.  I have learned a great deal about being thankful, and how thankfulness is an essential part of my salvation.  In the very beginning Voskamp talks of Adam and Eve's sin of ungratefulness, that they just weren't grateful for all God had given them, leading them into Satan's trap.  This idea seems so simple, so easy to see, yet I have grown up in church and never really heard it put this way.  That my sin ultimately is caused by my ungratefulness.  Such a realization for me!


She talks of longing to live the life of "eucharisteo", which broken down in the greek means grace, thanksgiving, joy.  That this is how we should always be living.  She gives example after example from scripture that eucharisteo always comes before a miracle. Our salvation is a miracle.  So eloquently she says "our very saving is associated with our gratitude........We only enter into the full life if our faith gives thanks. Because how else do we accept His free gift of salvation if not with thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is the evidence of our acceptance of whatever He gives.  Thanksgiving is the manifestion of our Yes! to his grace."  I know this is a lot of her words for one post, but it is just so beautiful the way she puts it.  Here is more on this idea: "At the Eucharist, Christ breaks His heart to heal ours--Christ, the complete accomplishment of our salvation.  And the miracle of eucharisteo never ends: thanksgiving is what precedes the miracle of that salvation being fully worked out in our lives.  Thanksgiving--giving thanks in everything--is what prepares the way for salvation's whole restoration.  Our salvation in Christ is real, yet the completeness of that salvation is not fully realized in a life until the life realizes the need to give thanks. In everything." 

This is so, so good! The fulness of my salvation is being worked out according to my gratitude??  Why had I not heard this before?  Sure I am thankful for what God has blessed me with, thankful for this journey we are on to our sweet baby, but am I really thankful? Do I cry out to God daily, just thankful for all that He's given me?  Do I appreciate the little things in life?  The premise of the book is to figure out how to practically live a life of eucharisteo.  So Voskamp makes a list, of 1000 gifts that God has given her .  I've quoted this on here before, she is learning "how to be grateful and happy, whether hands full or hands empty."  When you think about it, what other way is there to live, really?  "I discover that slapping a sloppy brush of thanksgiving over everything in my life leaves me deeply thankful for very few things in my life."  I for one am SO guilty of this.  Just going about each day, saying that I'm thankful, but what am I thankful for?  So I have started my own list, in an attempt to work all this out in my own life, to be thankful in every little moment I am given.  Because these are all the ways that God is telling me He loves me.  This is the way that I will fully experience the presence of God and bring Him glory with my life.  To recognize His gifts and truly be thankful for them. 

Sweet baby,
You are one of these precious gifts, and I am going to be thankful for every little thing on our journey to you.  I do not want to miss any of these moments, and I can only imagine how many moments there will be when you are finally here. We can't wait to experience them with you! 


If you don't read any other book this summer, you can not go wrong with this one.  Seriously, you won't regret it!! I have lots more to share, and I'm only half-way through the book.  More to come!

Quick Update

I have totally gotten behind in my blogging.  I figured since summer was here I'd have the time to do it, so far, not the case!  We had my parents come into town last weekend to celebrate my brother's birthday, and tomorrow Aaron's parents will be here for the weekend!  We are excited to see both of our parents within a week, a rare treat, especially for them to come here!  So we have been a bit busy lately, but a good busy!  I am definitely not complaining since I've got things to do to keep my mind off this wait!  I'm also keeping myself busy with a long reading list and projects to do around the house.  Anyway, just wanted to update that we did get our FDL in the mail last Monday, woo hoo!!! We got it notarized and mailed it of to AGCI and our dossier is now COMPLETE!! Now there really is no more paperwork for a while. YES!!  We're sittin' pretty on the bottom of the list right now, enjoying this time of preparation.  I promise I do have some posts in the works of things I'm working through, I've been saying that for like a month, but they're coming.  Maybe next week?  Also, if y'all wouldn't mind praying for my brother and sister in law, they're leaving to go on a mission trip to Haiti this weekend and I know they would love your prayers!! They actually going to be visiting an orphanage while there so they'll get to love on the kiddos!  Happy Weekend y'all!

June Numbers!

We are excited to get a change in numbers so quickly.  Normally it won't be like this, but since we got our first numbers on the last day of May, we didn't have to wait long to get the June numbers.  We didn't see much movement this time, but we are thankful for the little amount we did move.  Little movement is better than staying still! And there are lots of families picking up kiddos in the next week, so we're hoping for lots of movement this month!!  Without further ado, here are our official numbers for the month of June:

For a girl

For a boy

From last month we moved 1 spot on the girl list and 3 spots on the boy list.  Hope you all have a great weekend! My parents are in town visiting this weekend so we're going to enjoy time with them!

Beach Getaway!

After 7 long months of paperwork, my hubby planned a getaway for us to celebrate getting on the waitlist.  He surprised me with a 2 day trip to the Outer Banks here in NC.  The Outer Banks are quickly becoming one of our favorite places to go, and it's only 3 hours from us!  Love that we can now get to the beach so quickly!  So we got up super early Thursday morning and set out for the beach.  We got there around 9 and spent the rest of the day on the beach, enjoying the sunshine and the ocean.  We even got to see some dolphins swim by!! There is just something about the beach that does my heart good, it's so calming and relaxing and I think it's one of God's most beautiful creations.  We definitely enjoyed ourselves and celebrated finally getting on the waitlist!  We kept asking each other, "can you believe we actually on the list? We're closer now than we've ever been!"  Such a great feeling!  Here's some pictures from our little getaway.

Sporting my awesome new  Got Love? beach bag from Minus 1 Project!

Our amazing view for the day!

Beautiful Currituck Lighthouse





This is the 2nd oldest working lighthouse in the country, and the oldest working in NC

so beautiful!!

Bodie Island Lighthouse

(this was my fav!)

Such a beautiful place!  So nice to get away with my sweet hubby for a few days and relax without thinking about paperwork :)  Ready to enjoy the rest of the wait!