Time to Represent

                                       

     (Yes, I totally took a mirror pic of myself....don't judge...it's for the sake of the shirts people. And yes, I realize that the words are backwards, but seeing as how you are all so smart, I have faith that you can read backwards:)

We got our custom adoption shirts delivered this week and I must say, I am THRILLED with how they turned out!  Mad props to our designer, Scott and our printing company Sonny & Cille. We are getting them out to everyone who ordered them a little at a time. If you needed yours shipped, it should be there soon, as we sent them out yesterday.

Seeing everyone wear their shirts with pride, fills me with so much excitement. People have already said that they like them better in person. The shirts are super soft and comfy and sport a great message, while supporting our adoption. We did order extras, but as more people order, we will run out of sizes until our next order. So if you haven't ordered yours yet, don't worry, YOU STILL CAN. Just e-mail me at angiemcginty@gmail.com to see if we still have your size in stock. Remember, you won't find these shirts anywhere else but here, so get yours while they last.

If you ordered one of our shirts, please don't forget to take a picture of yourself/ family in your shirt and send it in to me via e-mail so I can feature your awesomeness on our blog.

Life on paper

Sometimes I feel like we are a lifetime away from meeting our son, and bringing him home. Some days I am ok with that, as it gives my bio littles time to become more independent and sometimes, I just want him here NOW doing all of our family activities with us. I know this journey is all in God's timing. We are only 4 months into the process and still probably have over 2 1/2 years to go. It is hard sometimes as we talk about him all the time, pray for him, envision him in the grocery basket as we do our shopping, think about he and Knox sharing a room and so on.

One thing that helps me tremendously is journaling. I have always been a journaler. I love writing down my emotions, my fear, my joys, my prayers. There is something about putting the words of my life on paper. I keep a journal to each one of my kids. I write about their stages of life, my love for them, my struggles with them, etc. I always think about if something were to happen to me one day, how they will have a piece of me to look back on time and time again.

I started a journal to our adopted son before God had even changed Evan's heart about adoption, because I just KNEW he would. I wanted to be able to let him know what I am thinking through the process, how much I already love him and that even though he is not here with us physically, he is here with us in our hearts and prayers. Not knowing how old he will be, there will be some time that I will not be with him to document about his life. His baby book will not be as filled as my bio kids books are, with every detail about their first coo, smile, etc. But, I look forward to one day handing him his journal and letting him know that even while we were apart, we were together in some ways. That before he even thought about me, I was thinking about and loving him.

It reminds me of how God felt about me before I even knew him. He knew my name and everything about me before I ever acknowledged that he was my father. Even when I tried to deny him, he displayed his love in the most sacrificing way possible, death. He left me a story/journal too, the most amazing love story ever written. The story of how he came to rescue me from a fallen world and that once I accepted what he had done and called him daddy, that I was in his forever family. My journaling and my love will never compare to that of God's for me, but I hope that it shows my son a glimpse of the kind of love we have for him.

1 John 4:19 "We love him because he first loved us."

Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

 Jeremiah 1:5 "I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb. Before you were born, I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations."

Ephesians 1: 4-5 "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will."

Thank you Windom Family!

A BIG thank you to the Windom family for supporting our adoption, by hiring Evan out for balloon making. He had fun making balloons for all of the kids and we added to our fundraising amount. Happy 2nd birthday to Kaden!

A different kind of adoption

So, this post is not about our son's adoption, but an adoption indeed. This post is about my brother. My brother, Daniel, is 17 and a recent high school graduate. He is my half brother through my dad, but I have always just considered him a full brother since I have been around his whole life. There is a 14 year age gap between us (okay...feeling really old now), so he was always my dear little brother and I loved him to death, but we were never really on the same page. I enjoyed watching him grow, babysitting him, dressing him up, playing with him, keeping him over the summer and having him participate in "Camp Dangie" (Oh yea..I am that cool..made us t-shirts and everything). If only I could find those pictures:) We always had fun together.

As he got older, I noticed that Daniel was not exactly going on the path that I had hoped. He was always so polite and well mannered to me, but I could tell that as he entered his teen years, he wasn't hanging out with the best crew, he was digging into several religious paths, and trying "things" he shouldn't be trying. About a year ago, I decided to start taking him on brother/sister dates. These were great times where just the two of us got to hang out, eat some delicious food, laugh and talk. Over time, Daniel became more and more open with me as he realized that while I did not agree with what he was doing, I was not going to condemn him, just share a better way.

I have always tried to pour into Daniel and pray for him to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior. I could tell he was searching for something to fill that void and obviously nothing was. Every time we hung out,  we made sure to speak life into him and share the gospel with him. It was tough sometimes as I didn't want to beat him over the head with something he was not ready to hear. It took a long time and a lot of prayer, but FINALLY one day he got it. His mom was also telling him about the forgiveness and love of Christ and one day, God awakened him to his power.

I will never forget the time that we went to dinner on one of our sibling dates and I asked "So how are you doing? What have you been up to?" He replied that he was doing really good and had been reading the Bible and discovering God's truths and accepting them. I almost choked on my P.F Chang's lettuce wraps. I couldn't believe that I was hearing those words. It was one of the BEST feelings in the world to know that my brother was getting it.

From that point on, he dug in, thirsty for the word and coming back refreshed and more alive than he had been in years, and I could see it in him. You see, when you recognize what Christ did on the cross for your sins and not only do you believe it, but you enter into a relationship with him, HE changes you. He won't let you stay where you are and trust me, you won't want to. If you are a believer, it should be evident. Seeing the change in my brother has been evident. He is a different person because of what Christ has done and how his relationship with God, through reading His word, is changing him.

I had the MOST AMAZING privilege of baptizing him a few weeks ago. We believe in a believer's baptism. Basically, there is no magic in the water, you are not saved by being dunked under the water. You are saved when you ask Christ into your heart, accept that he died for your sins, and enter into relationship with him. Baptism is simply a public proclamation to say that you believe this and are wanting others to hold you accountable to a gospel centered life. Because you have been ADOPTED into the family of God through Christ, you want to share it with the world.

Praising God that my little brother (he's actually taller than me), is now ADOPTED by God! There is no greater joy that I can have then knowing that my blood brother is now my Christian brother.

You can watch his awesome testimony on this Youtube link. My dear friend, Kallie also got baptized and she gives a great testimony too. Hers starts at the 2 minute mark and Daniel's starts at the 4:30 mark. 

Daniel's Baptism

Laboring

This past week, Evan and I both had to get physicals and blood work and get forms filled out on the kids for their last well check. Just one more thing checked off of the list. Luckily, we got it done in a timely manner. Unfortunately some of the paperwork that we were waiting to get back for our state background checks got lost by someone somewhere and now we have to go redo our fingerprints and resend them in and wait some more. We were told by our social worker to expect hiccups and delays in the process. Stuff happens. So we moved one step forward by getting our physicals done and one step back by having to redo our fingerprints and background check.

While it's not a big deal, I mean fingerprints are free at the sheriff's office, it is just frustrating. Finding time to run and get it done with 3 littles and Evan's work schedule is kind of a pain, especially since they are only open 2 days a week for a specific few hours. However, I think this is just the beginning of some of the frustration we will go through in this process. I have been following a sweet family on FB who just brought their son home from Uganda. The mom was describing the CRAZY amounts of paperwork they were doing and the insane wait times in Africa. Someone posted on her post something to the effect of "This is like your labor for your little guy." I loved that! Between my pregnancies for my3 bio kids, I experienced: extreme nausea and vomiting, weight gain (some baby...mostly ice-cream), cravings, too many stretch marks to count, back pain, pulling my sciatic nerve, intense contractions, pitosin, a normal delivery, surgery, infection, stitches, hard recovery, needles, tests, exams, etc. Going through all of this paperwork is NOT fun, it is time consuming and sometimes just annoying! But, when I think of it as my labor for my son, it puts it all in perspective.

I remember with my first, Dixie Jean, I went in with a typed birth plan (Did any of first time mom's do that?) Yea, well, I pretty much threw that out of the window as soon as labor started. This process is kind of the same way. Things aren't going to go the way I plan or I think they should. There are going to be bumps in the road, but one day down the road, I will have my little dude in my arms and all the paperwork will be a distant memory. Kind of like after you have a baby and you have just been through the most God awful pain of your life and suddenly in a year you're like, "That wasn't so bad, I think I want to do it again." Thank you God for making us forget the pain, the sickness, the loss of our body (ok, I still haven't forgotten this one). So, we keep pressing on through paperwork, laboring for our son, fighting for him, because if we don't, who will?

I have been thinking about him a lot this week. I dream about him, his dark hand in mine. I think of scooping him up and hugging and hugging and hugging him, praying that he knows how much I love him. Dixie talks about him all the time "I want my brother in Ethiopia. He's crying for me. I'm crying for him." She is so sensitive to her brother already. She has no idea the time frame we are in for, she wouldn't understand. Last night Evan and I had a date night and went back to where we had our first date 10 years ago. We talked about how far we have come, how we would never have dreamed that we would have 3 kids and be in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. Adoption wasn't even a thought in our minds for future plans. I am so thankful that God changes the heart, that he prompts, that he presses, that he pursues, that he challenges.  My love and desire for our son grows more and more everyday.

This week I was sent the most precious gift by a most precious person in my life, my mother in law. When I opened it, my heart dropped (in a good way). It was this gorgeous bracelet with all of our kid's names on it. Yes, there is a name under that tape (But....you can't see that yet. My husband hasn't actually made up his mind on that). The side tag says 8568 (do you recognize that number?) I am in love with this bracelet and what it stands for. It is serving as a constant reminder to me that we are so blessed and the plan that God  has for our family. That we are a family unit because of him. It's a reminder to pray over my kids that he has entrusted me with and to keep laboring. It may sound silly, but having this bracelet on, makes me feel closer to my boy, like he is ALREADY part of the family, and he is.

Don't forget that Monday is the LAST day to pre-order your McGinty adoption shirts!

A balloon filled weekend

Well, I think my husband may be getting arthritis soon, but all for a great cause. His hands and wrists were worked hard this past weekend. He spent a few hours at a company picnic twisting balloons for a line full of anxious kiddos and he made a balloon order of crowns for a kid's soccer party all in the same day so that we can raise money for the adoption. Love my hard working man!

Thank you to Hornbeck Offshore and Cindy Borkessel for supporting our adoption through balloons. He has another birthday party scheduled in May. God is still providing finances, even one balloon at a time.

Puzzle Update #5

Here we are at puzzle update #5. Things are slowing down a little on the puzzle home front, but God is still faithful and still stirring in hearts to give. He likes using the "wow" factor on me and just when I think He's getting quiet and taking a rest, he comes out with a "Boom..in ya face!"

We have sold 44 more pieces!!!!! Which means we have completed the water and now get to start moving into Africa. Oh that is such a good feeling! Does anyone else want to start singing "Africa" by Toto or is that just me? No, ok in that case, let's move on.

So here is the updated picture. Wow...not too much more to go.

We now have 159 pieces to go to complete our son's puzzle. Is your name on it yet? If not, you can donate a puzzle piece for $10. We would love for you to be a "piece" of his adoption story. Just click on the paypal link below to donate as many pieces as you would like.

                                                            

A BIG special thanks this go round to:

The Ortner Family

Monica Millet

The Horst Family

The Bosarges

The Oynes Family

Brooke Norris

Grandpa

You all are rockstars!