Sudsy Frustrations!

After painting on Sunday, I decided to steam clean the carpet before we put the furniture in the room. I borrowed it from my sister and they forgot the manual. I wasn't worried though, I've used one many times before. I bought some shampoo at the store and followed the directions on the bottle. After an hour and a half of frustrations of trying to figure out why this or that wasn't working, I finally had it down....BUT I found a special compartment for the shampoo. I unfortunately had added it to the water like my bottle told me to, but instead I should have put it in the compartment! So, to say the least, I've water rinsed it 4 times so far with LOTS and LOTS of suds still coming up! Also, the soap was 2x concentrated...of coarse! I've been working on getting out the soap since Monday, and I'm FRUSTRATED!!! I just finished rinsing it out again today, which took me 2 hours! Last night after I rinsed it, I was seriously contemplating measuring and going over to Men.ards and looking for new carpet! We can not afford it, but it would make my life sooo much easier!

It sounds stupid, but please pray that I got enough out of the carpet so it can dry and we can put up the crib tomorrow!!!

On top of that, our home study lady hasn't gotten back to my email from 3 weeks ago plus I left a message early this week...nothing...we've even gotten a cold shoulder from her at church!! I feel so frustrated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Deep breaths...

The Year of the Packer

Quick note: I'm not one who looks into "signs", I just thought this was a cute coincidence.

I'm not sure if any of you care (I'm also not a big football fan), but the Packers are going to the Superbowl. (Dave, can you believe I'm actually blogging about football!!) The last time the Packers went to the Superbowl was 1998. 1998 was the year I first met my hubby. We were in a cultural geography class in college together and I can say that I REALLY enjoyed that class (not the educational part, but just lookin at him!)

This Sunday after the game, I told Dave it was the year of the Packer. Last time they went, you met me, this time we get to meet our baby!

Funny thing, I finished painting the nursery on Sunday. My mom and I picked out the colors last week and I wanted to make sure Dave liked them. He said, how could I not like them, they're Packer colors! Ha, I didn't even notice!

So, I guess I have only one thing left to say:

GO PACK GO!!

Living with the thorn

The other day I was reading out of 2 Corinthians 12. It's on Paul's vision and his thorn. I always feel I can identify with Paul and this thorn that he had. Starting with verse 7 "To keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.""

I feel a thorn I have is Infertilty. I still feel the sting and the pain sometimes. We just had a brunch with some church ladies and our pastor's wives. The entire two hours was on babies, children, having more, etc. I was like, really, is there NOTHING else we can talk about. I was quickly reminded of my thorn, even though my desires have changed.

Three times Paul pleaded...through three rounds of ivf I pleaded. Neither of us had our thorn removed.

BUT, I love the last part..."My grace is sufficient for you, for MY power is made perfect in weakness.". God spoke to me in a new way after reading this. My focus was always on the thorn and the pain and MY control of trying to remove it. I came to realize, I don't see Paul throwing a fit that the thorn is still there, and may never leave...no, he states "Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weakness (Lord, I can't take this anymore), in insults (who's their REAL parents??), in hardships (we can't afford this), in persecutions (I don't believe in ivf, I can't believe you did that), in difficulties (another bfn). For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Note: I added some comments in ()!

Less of Amber, more of Christ. That is how I can delight in my weakness and live with my thorn, because I am made strong in Him.

Yesterday's Dreams

Yesterday was one of those days that was a reality checker for me, a 7 year IF veteran. I remember when we first started trying. We'd talk about where we'd have to move items in the guest room in order to make room for the nursery. I wanted to get started right away, hubby said, why don't we wait till we're pg. I guess that made sense. Since then, we've moved and I've never thought "lets move things now to prepare ourselves". IF took over which brought hopelessness.

Many years I've secretly looked at travel systems, cribs, bedding, and baby names feeling guilty the whole time...like I might get caught and be called a fraud.

So, yesterday I realized as we were moving out the guest room furniture to make room to paint and set up our nursery, my crib in the other room, and my travel system picked out, that we're really doing this. I spent 7 years looking and dreaming...and in this moment I'm preparing! This is it! I'm trying to slow down and enjoy it instead of stressing about all the options. I just stop and thank God for where He has brought me, and for allowing me to open up this beautiful "gift" of preparing that I've been waiting to unwrap for years. My gift came in a different package than I was expecting, but it is even MORE beautiful than I pictured it! I'm also praying for those who are patiently waiting to open their gift...waiting while God puts the finishing touches on wrapping it up so it's perfect just for you!

40 Years plus 100

Happy 40th Anniversary to my parents!! I am so thankful for the example they have given our family, that a marriage is forever. We celebrated by going out to eat at an amazing local french restaurant followed by coffee at our house.

This is my 100th post! I kept trying to figure out what to write about, and I figured my parents and other positive news fit just perfect. It's amazing to look back at my first post and see where I was at in my journey...I'm so thankful that I can see God's hand in my journey, guiding our steps (even when we may not have felt like he was, he was!)

So on the baby end, we got our crib and dresser on Friday. They are beautiful and I can't wait to put them together! We're going to look at paint tonight and get that taken care of before we set up the nursery furniture. We also went to Tar.get to get a closer look at carseats/travel systems. I was able to compare the 2 brands I was looking at online, and we came to a quick conclusion that we really like the chi.cco in fuego (red! crazy, but we really liked it!) On a funny note, I found the chi.cco in the carseat only area and it was in the base. I wanted to hold it without the base so I could compare weight. Yeah...we were screaming "new parents" as we tried VERY hard to get the car seat out of the base! I've never done this before...plus they had many buttons to push on the base. Hubby and I were reaming on it and turning it sideways and EVERYTHING! We finally looked at the box and hubs said...hmmm, ergonomic release. He put his hand on the back behind the canopy, and pop, it quickly and easily popped out of the base! We had a great laugh, as I'm sure many other passer by'ers plus those who may have been watching on security cams! HA!!

One last thing, our oldest niece brought us a gift and a cute homemade card. She make a giraffe and an elephant out of clay for the baby's room and painted them yellow and green! The nose on the elephant she made long and kinda straight so we could put nukkers on them! LOVED THEM! Crazy enough, those will be colors in the nursery! What a big heart she has!

I can't believe I finally clicked "purchase!"

Dave and I have been researching cribs and car seats lately. WOW, there are SOOOO many options, I can't believe it! My parents a week ago offered to help out, and that took us by surprise, so we figured we better start looking around to see what we wanted! We finally found the one and then it was just reasurching like crazy to find the best deal.

Yesterday, my parents came over and blessed us with a check for their new grandbaby. We were shocked and so thankful. I think I was even more grateful for the support and the acceptance they have for our new baby. Now, it's not like I thought they wouldn't accept him/her, but our family is new to adoption, and I just assumed it would take some time for them to accept it I guess...wrong O! So, anyway, they understand the step in faith we are taking financially, and felt that they could help us with some essentials we'll need.

SO, I happened to google my crib last night (per dh's advise) and I found a place that offered free shipping and no sales tax!!! WOW!!! That right there saved us about $140! They also offered 25% off a crib mattress if you purchased a crib. I added both to my cart, then checked and rechecked it was what we wanted....then I hesitated. Am I really going to click this button called "purchase"?? Is this for real, that I have a reason to be purchasing this item?? I've been waiting sooo long, and now it's almost surreal. This was a major step, a major event in my life, and I didn't want to click "purchase" too fast and have the moment fly by! I finally asked Dave, so, are you sure, should I click it? He said YES, do it...so I did! Then I celebrated! Then I purchased a matching dresser! CRAZY!!!!!

I quickly called my mom to tell her the great news, and she was excited for us. Now we just need to paint the nursery! Wow, I can't believe this is happening! Here's our first major purchase for our baby!

Done!!

It's official, we are done with our paperwork!!!!!!!!!! I just finished my autobiography and am going to hand both of ours in in a couple hours! One more thing to check off our list...now it's just getting on the list for a home visit!