Have you ever been taken by surprise when God shows up in the strangest places??? Today, HE showed up when and where I least expected and I feel overwhelmed by how much HE shows me that HE loves me and is always a part of what is going on in my life......
******WARNING!!!! If you are a MAN probably not a post you will care to read!********
I woke up this morning totally dreading what laid ahead......it was that dreadful time....the time for my "yearly checkup!" You know the one that you wake up and think...I need to start early on getting ready for today because I have a lot of maintenance to do to prepare for the appointment! I told Gene this morning that you would think as many times as I have done this, I would get use to it! Nope, not me! Hate it! Dread it!!! Gene did say he would be concerned if I was looking forward to it!
I got to my appointment. They call me back. I step on the scale.....(we will not talk about this part!) My OBGYN comes in, he is a dear sweet christian man who is the age of my father and he always wants to have small talk while doing the exam.....what else are you suppose to do???? So, any way he asks the usually questions: How are the kids? How is Gene? How was turning 40? Then he always asks: Is there anything new going on with ya'll these days? So, I began to tell him about our adoption.
He was super excited (probably just thankful he is not dealing with another pregnancy with me!)! I told him we were crazy starting over, but how excited we were and he assured me that there were ladies my age that were getting pregnant all the time. He told me to get dressed and he would be back in to talk with me shortly.
Here is the really cool part. You see my OBGYN always prays with me at the end of our appointment. I have been going to him for over 14 years and he has always done this. Today, he came in with my chart and showed me that on one side he has all of my info of when each of my children were born (from the first visit to birth). He went through each one and we talked about their age and different stuff that he remembered about the pregnancy.
He then, asked me about Mailynn. He wanted to know her name. Why we chose the name. Her age and her special need. As he asked me these questions, he began to put her information in the chart with her brothers and sister information. THEN, he said....I would love to pray for Mailynn. We bowed our heads and he prayed the most beautiful prayer that one day she would come to know Christ as her Saviour just like her brothers and sister.
What I didn't tell you is that he came into the hospital room the day we were being discharged to go home and prayed over each one of my kids! He prayed the same beautiful prayer that each one of them would one day come to know Christ as their Savior. Now, Mailynn Joy not only is charted in the chart with her brothers and sister but he also prayed over her just like my other 3 biological children.
I love that God cares about the "little details". All of them! I love that through this whole process He has showed me His hand connecting all the dots, orchestrating every part! Showing me not only His great love for me, but also His great love for Mailynn! Oh, how I love Him! Oh, how He loves me! He is faithful! He is Awesome!
So, I am so glad that I survived the dreaded day! I hope I have not offended or over shared today! I just know that when we least expect it God not only shows up but He shows OUT!
Blessings,
Stacey
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Sunday, April 15, 2012
What's with that Name?
Many people have asked me how we came up with the name Mailynn Joy for our duaghter in China. Gene and I really wanted unique names for our children. He went to school in Florida for Ultrasound when we were engaged and rode back and forth with a lady and her maiden name was Atley. As soon as we heard the name we agreed that if we ever had a little girl, we would name her Atley. This is how Atley got her name.
When I was pregnant with Grason, I taught a class with a lady that metioned that she worked for a lawyer named Grason. We both liked the name because it was different and we had never heard of that name before. I changed the spelling from Greyson to Grason and we had our boys name.
Alden, was a suprise! (And still is!!!) We thought because I had complications with my first two pregnancies, we would stop at two children. Thank goodness God had other plans! The summer before I found out I was pregnant we went to Florida with my family and went to tour a Naval Aviation Museum. I saw a man's name (Aiden) that had been killed in WW11 and thought to myself "IF" I ever had another son I liked that name. I found out later that year that I was pregnant I told Gene about the name. He didn't like Aiden but said what about "Alden". So that is how Alden got his name.
Now, we knew we were adopting. We did not know if it would be a girl or a boy(I felt in my heart it was a girl). A lot of people think if you are adopting from China it is always a girl, but we realized very quickly, that there are more boys waiting right now in China than ever before. Gene and I decided since we didn't check a box when we got pregnant then we needed to let God decide on the gender of the child we adopted also, so we said either. Anyways, I just could not come up with a boys name. I knew if it was a girl that I wanted to use my middle name some how in her name and I also wanted it to include a chinese name.
Funny story....Atley knew what my desire was for a girls name, so one day she was watching "Arthur" on TV (now anyone reading this know that she just "happened" to pause for a moment on this chaannel cause she is way to cool and too old to watch Arthur but it happened to be about Buster's family had adopted from CHINA and they named their baby Mei-lyn. Atley hollered for me to come in there and look...she said Mom that is what we need to name our baby. So, that is how it happened. Mei, is chinese and is a commone chinese name and lynn is my middle name that I wanted to use in our child's name if it was a girl. I changed the spelling a little to Mailynn and I love the name Joy. She has already brought us such joy and I think of all the ladies I have know in my life time that are named Joy and they are amazing, strong women for Christ....so that is how we came up with all four of our childrens names.
Post comments on cool or funny stories of how you came up with your children's names. I think this will be fun!
Blessings,
Stacey
When I was pregnant with Grason, I taught a class with a lady that metioned that she worked for a lawyer named Grason. We both liked the name because it was different and we had never heard of that name before. I changed the spelling from Greyson to Grason and we had our boys name.
Alden, was a suprise! (And still is!!!) We thought because I had complications with my first two pregnancies, we would stop at two children. Thank goodness God had other plans! The summer before I found out I was pregnant we went to Florida with my family and went to tour a Naval Aviation Museum. I saw a man's name (Aiden) that had been killed in WW11 and thought to myself "IF" I ever had another son I liked that name. I found out later that year that I was pregnant I told Gene about the name. He didn't like Aiden but said what about "Alden". So that is how Alden got his name.
Now, we knew we were adopting. We did not know if it would be a girl or a boy(I felt in my heart it was a girl). A lot of people think if you are adopting from China it is always a girl, but we realized very quickly, that there are more boys waiting right now in China than ever before. Gene and I decided since we didn't check a box when we got pregnant then we needed to let God decide on the gender of the child we adopted also, so we said either. Anyways, I just could not come up with a boys name. I knew if it was a girl that I wanted to use my middle name some how in her name and I also wanted it to include a chinese name.
Funny story....Atley knew what my desire was for a girls name, so one day she was watching "Arthur" on TV (now anyone reading this know that she just "happened" to pause for a moment on this chaannel cause she is way to cool and too old to watch Arthur but it happened to be about Buster's family had adopted from CHINA and they named their baby Mei-lyn. Atley hollered for me to come in there and look...she said Mom that is what we need to name our baby. So, that is how it happened. Mei, is chinese and is a commone chinese name and lynn is my middle name that I wanted to use in our child's name if it was a girl. I changed the spelling a little to Mailynn and I love the name Joy. She has already brought us such joy and I think of all the ladies I have know in my life time that are named Joy and they are amazing, strong women for Christ....so that is how we came up with all four of our childrens names.
Post comments on cool or funny stories of how you came up with your children's names. I think this will be fun!
Blessings,
Stacey
Saturday, April 14, 2012
THE Call that changed our lives forever!
I wanted to tell you about the day we found out about our daughter. I had played this out in my head of how this would all go down but once again it was not at all like I had planned it, it was even better!
Gene was suppose to work that day and at the last minute he found out he was off. A friend of mine had suggested since Gene's schedule is so crazy why didn't i go down early to see if we could get our fingerprints done early. So we were headed downtown and we were right in front of Skyline Medical when my phone rang. I looked down and saw it was our agency. It never crossed my mind that this could be "the call". I answered the phone and it was "the lady" that makes "the call"....my heart began to race and then I thought...calm down I am sure this is just a general call. Then she said "Stacey, is this a good time? I have a possible referral to talk to you about!"
I thought my heart would beat out of my chest (you know the way it does in church when the Holy Spirit is upon you). She said "it's a 7 month old little girl." (I began to cry...I knew it was our daughter!) Poor Gene, he was driving and said "what's wrong? what is she saying? what's going on?" She began to explain her story and the medical condition that she had. Gene and I knew that our child would have some type of medical condition beause we had filled out all of the conditions that we felt we could handle. She asked me if I would like to talk to Gene and decide if we wanted to see her file and call her back. I said, you can go ahead and send the file over...we are interested in learning more about her.
I got off the phone and told Gene all about her. We talked about her medical condition while we waited (for what seemed like forever) for her file to be emailed over to us. Thank goodness we had our ipad with us! I was crying the whole time. Gene kept asking me why I was crying. I told him I just knew it was our daughter. THEN the email came across.....OH my goodness....LOVE at first sight!!! I have heard people say that when they got their referral that they knew it was their child and others have said that it took time even after the child came home...but I can honestly say...when I saw my baby girl...it was like I already knew her! She is a doll. I wish I could post her picture all over this blog!
Gene and I did go to get our fingerprints and they did let us in early! I was so excited! I wanted to call and tell everyone. My sister even called while we were looking at her file and Gene said I could not tell her or anyone until we officially sent in letter to our agency. We went to lunch and I couldn't even eat, Gene said you are not going to be worth anything the rest of the day. He was right!
I went and picked the kids up from school. I pulled over to the side and showed them her picture. The first thing Atley wanted to know was if it was girl or not? Everyone was SO excited! We sent over the acceptance letter the next morning. I began to make all the calls!
So that was the day we found out about our baby girl! What a blessing she has been already to me and my family! Adoption is an amazing journey and a beautiful picture of God's love for us!
Blessings,
Stacey
Gene was suppose to work that day and at the last minute he found out he was off. A friend of mine had suggested since Gene's schedule is so crazy why didn't i go down early to see if we could get our fingerprints done early. So we were headed downtown and we were right in front of Skyline Medical when my phone rang. I looked down and saw it was our agency. It never crossed my mind that this could be "the call". I answered the phone and it was "the lady" that makes "the call"....my heart began to race and then I thought...calm down I am sure this is just a general call. Then she said "Stacey, is this a good time? I have a possible referral to talk to you about!"
I thought my heart would beat out of my chest (you know the way it does in church when the Holy Spirit is upon you). She said "it's a 7 month old little girl." (I began to cry...I knew it was our daughter!) Poor Gene, he was driving and said "what's wrong? what is she saying? what's going on?" She began to explain her story and the medical condition that she had. Gene and I knew that our child would have some type of medical condition beause we had filled out all of the conditions that we felt we could handle. She asked me if I would like to talk to Gene and decide if we wanted to see her file and call her back. I said, you can go ahead and send the file over...we are interested in learning more about her.
I got off the phone and told Gene all about her. We talked about her medical condition while we waited (for what seemed like forever) for her file to be emailed over to us. Thank goodness we had our ipad with us! I was crying the whole time. Gene kept asking me why I was crying. I told him I just knew it was our daughter. THEN the email came across.....OH my goodness....LOVE at first sight!!! I have heard people say that when they got their referral that they knew it was their child and others have said that it took time even after the child came home...but I can honestly say...when I saw my baby girl...it was like I already knew her! She is a doll. I wish I could post her picture all over this blog!
Gene and I did go to get our fingerprints and they did let us in early! I was so excited! I wanted to call and tell everyone. My sister even called while we were looking at her file and Gene said I could not tell her or anyone until we officially sent in letter to our agency. We went to lunch and I couldn't even eat, Gene said you are not going to be worth anything the rest of the day. He was right!
I went and picked the kids up from school. I pulled over to the side and showed them her picture. The first thing Atley wanted to know was if it was girl or not? Everyone was SO excited! We sent over the acceptance letter the next morning. I began to make all the calls!
So that was the day we found out about our baby girl! What a blessing she has been already to me and my family! Adoption is an amazing journey and a beautiful picture of God's love for us!
Blessings,
Stacey
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Just Rambling
First, I want to say that I am honored that you took the time to read my blog. I am totally new to this and a little anxious. What you will find on this blog is a mom who is sharing her heart, thoughts and sometimes fears while going through this Adoption Journey. I have been reluctant to blog because it seems weird that people would be interested in what I might have to say.
I have been encouraged to blog during this journey to encourage others but mainly to keep a journal for my baby girl until I hold her in my arms. I am so blessed to have a wonderful husband, and three biological children already in my life and now to think that God is allowing us to parent another child is overwhelming to me at times.
The title of my blog is Mai Joy Be in Our Home. I am not a great speller...I am sure you will see that very quickly...but in this case I meant to spell May that way because our daughter's name is going to be Mailynn Joy. So trying to be creative and use a little play on words there.
We have had a long journey. Our Journey started back in 2008. Long story, many of you already know it and have been a part of it. I will post that later. God is so good and faithful in what He puts in our hearts He is faithful to bring it forth in His timing. Which is sometimes difficult and is usually NEVER on our timeline. His ways are greater and higher than anything we can comprehend and His ways are best...better than I could ever even dream up for myself.
Blessings,
Stacey
I have been encouraged to blog during this journey to encourage others but mainly to keep a journal for my baby girl until I hold her in my arms. I am so blessed to have a wonderful husband, and three biological children already in my life and now to think that God is allowing us to parent another child is overwhelming to me at times.
The title of my blog is Mai Joy Be in Our Home. I am not a great speller...I am sure you will see that very quickly...but in this case I meant to spell May that way because our daughter's name is going to be Mailynn Joy. So trying to be creative and use a little play on words there.
We have had a long journey. Our Journey started back in 2008. Long story, many of you already know it and have been a part of it. I will post that later. God is so good and faithful in what He puts in our hearts He is faithful to bring it forth in His timing. Which is sometimes difficult and is usually NEVER on our timeline. His ways are greater and higher than anything we can comprehend and His ways are best...better than I could ever even dream up for myself.
Blessings,
Stacey
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