"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life." ~Proverbs 13:12

For those of you who do not know, I work for the YMCA of Greater Charlotte. The "C" in YMCA actually stands for Christian which means that I get to freely live out my faith on a daily basis at work. Having worked in non-Christian environments before, I cannot even begin to express how meaningful it is to work at a place where we have devotions and prayer at the beginning of most meetings. This verse about hope came from the devotion in a meeting I had this morning. Needless to say, it bowled me over.

In all of these of years of waiting and longing for parenthood, I had not heard this verse before. I am not sure I can accurately describe the instant rush of emotion that I felt when I first read it. It is just truly beautiful. I think that the best way to describe it is that I felt like God was saying "I understand what you feel." I know on the most basic level of my faith that He, of course, knows what we feel--after all we are created in His image. But this verse felt personal. I can't remember a time when I have ever waited for something for so long, and for there to be a verse in the Bible that describes what long periods of waiting does to your heart is just...so comforting. I don't know why I am so surprised that such comfort and empathy exists in the Word, but I am glad I was reminded of it today.

On a side note, and going back meetings and the Y, the joke at our branch is that the "M" stands for "Meetings" since all we seem to do is go from meeting to meeting.

Hope you all are doing well!

The Year of the Bebes?

I woke up this morning feeling extremely hopeful and optimistic. I cannot tell you how long it has been since I started a new year on a high note. Honestly, I think it is the first January 1 that I can remember in which I feel more focused on what I have to be thankful for and look forward to than what I have to be disappointed about. My new outlook is mostly due to this being what we have dubbed "The Year of the Bebés".

There is no guarantee that we will travel to pick up our kids this year, but there is also no reason to think that we won't. Right now we are trying to figure out how to prepare (the best we can) for the addition of three Eisenbergers. We know there is no real way to mentally and emotionally prepare for such a huge life-change, so we are focusing on the things we can do. For starters, we are organizing the attic and garage to give us more storage space with hopes of turning the "Room of Doom" into a nursery. We need to paint and fix some of the things that need fixed in our house. It is also time to unpack the boxes that have sat for over two years (remember my elephant collection?). In short, it is time to turn our house into a real home.

The biggest challenge facing us as we prepare is coming up with the rest of the money we need to complete the adoption. We have spent nearly $14,000 just on the first half of the adoption. This is aside from the approximately $10,000+ we spent on infertility treatments. The second half of the adoption is going to cost us around $18,000 for a grand total of $32,000 when it is all said and done. In addition to working overtime and second jobs to help save, we will be starting our fundraising campaign this month. If you would like to help us, please let us know. We are working on putting a packet together that breaks down the adotpion expenses and offers options on how anyone who feels led can help us reach our goal. We are aiming to raise $12,000 which is a large sum, but I am confident that God will provide what we need. He has made sure that we got this far, I know He will see this through to completion.

I hope this post finds you enjoying the first day of the new year. I also hope that you woke up with the same hope and optimism as me. 2008 is going to be GREAT!!!

Happy New Year!
-Andrea

Troy is 30 today!!! Happy birthday to Troy!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Today we found out that we have been approved to adopt 3 children under the age of 6. We sent our request to Colombia in early October and were not certain when we would hear if we were apporved or not. If you all remember, we had tried to pursue 3 siblings over the summer, and that was what led us to request this change. We are still on the wait list, but the most exciting part of this news is that we are at the TOP of the "3 under 7" list. There are no other families looking for a sibling group of this age and size. The next referral of this sort that comes through ICBF will be offered to us!!!! We don't know when this will happen. It is our understanding that the courts in Colombia shut down in December, so even if we were to receive a referral now, we would not travel until next year.

This news could not have come at a better time. I have been feeling really anxious and frustrated about waiting. We have been waiting for a very long time to become parents, and this was just a beautiful reminder that God has not forgotten us. On the contrary, he has heard our prayers! Thank you to all of you who have been praying for us!

We will keep you posted as things unfold. In the meantime, I think we will try to get our house in order to make room for 3 more Eisenbergers.

Have you met Baxter?

The little guy on the right is our latest addition to the Eisenberger clan. He is cute and getting bigger every day. He is sweet and always has this air of wonder and curiosity. He loves his "big sister" and she loves him--they play, fight, sleep and repeat all day long. It is neat to see how well Sylvia takes care of him and the amount of patience she has for him, even when he is yanking on her ears. They make our house feel fuller.

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We long for an affection altogether ignorant of our faults. Heaven has accorded this to us in the uncritical canine attachment. ~George Eliot

I have been realizing as I get older I become more forgetful, not just names/dates/etc..., but I quickly forget God's goodness. For those of you who are familiar with Troy and I's struggle to expand our family, you may not be surprised that we have been on quite the roller coaster where faith is concerned. We have seen pregnancy and children come so easily into the lives of many of our friends. The wait has been excrutiating. It is almost second nature now to believe that God has forsaken us. We both have had to really fight against feeling abandonned, and we have had to cling to what little hope we have left that God is good.

And He really is good. He is better than good, He is almighty and He has a plan. That plan may not be what we envisioned when we first set out on this journey toward parenthood. The plan may be the hardest thing we have ever gone through (and hopefully ever will go through). Some days I think it has been a blessing because it has refined our marriage in ways that nothing else could. And it has led to a place of great expectation.

We continue to wait, but this is the fun part. There is no paperwork to be done (at least temporarily). Instead we get to brush up on our Spanish, figure out how to raise the remaining funds we need, watch as much TV as our DVR can hold, and (as a friend recently pointed out) go out to dinner.

Stay tuned!
Andrea

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"In this [God's great mercy] you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."
I Peter 1:6-7