Mini Shower, Mail for "M", and Menu Monday

I hope you had a great weekend! We sure did. We have been flying high after the joyful news of our upcoming adoption court date. It's hard to believe M could officially be OUR SON THIS THURSDAY!!! My heart is filled with joy and my mind is filled with... details!! So much to do! After my post on Wednesday after we received the news, I posted such deep Mommy-thoughts as, "I haven't even bought him any underwear yet!" Well, the next morning at VBS, my very fun friend rushed over to me with a brightly colored gift sack containing our first-ever gift for M! So, right there in the midst of the VBS hubbub we had a little "mini-shower." Oh, how she blessed my heart!! (Thank you so much, V!!! You are just the best!) Just look at this precious outfit! And..... a package of underwear!


I just nearly lost it, holding that shirt and imagining the precious little person who we pray, by God's grace, will soon wear it. And the flip-flops. I just love them. I have been watching his DVD repeatedly, watching him play, dance, and sing in pink plastic slip-on shoes, imagining how much he might love some comfortable tennis shoes or soft flip flops. SO, when we put together a care package on Friday, the flip flops went in it.

We mailed this off over the weekend. We are praying it gets to him next week. (Or really, at all. :) As I posted in our news about our court date, they will be telling him about us soon. Probably today or tomorrow. I KNOW!!!!! Can you imagine???? So, we made him a DVD of our family, each of us taking an opportunity to talk to him, show him around the house, tell him how much we love him, etc. Let me tell you, that was a challenge. I just wanted to crawl through the camera lense. I also wanted to pack myself in this box! What I did pack was his flip flops, a couple of story books that are written both in his language and in English (I have additional copies here in case something happens to those, and I also have extra copies to take to give to the orphanage). I was thinking it would be helpful to have something familiar here that he remembers reading there. And something we can both understand. :) We also sent him a mini- Magnadoodle with a message on it, some puzzle flash cards, some some candy and stickers to share with the other children, as well as some of those "magic towels" that expand when you soak them in water. We found those at Dollar Tree and thought they could always use more towels at the orphanage, and that would be a space-saving way to send them. Also they are cute African animals. Fun! I included a new t-shirt with a picture of a soccer ball on it (he LOVES soccer). I washed the shirt with our detergent and dried it with our fabric softener sheets, then I sealed it up in a zip-lock bag... so maybe it would "smell like us." I also wrote him a note from me, leaving space for translation in between the sentences so he can read some words and thoughts from his new Mom. Oh, this is such an exciting time! PLEASE be praying with us for Thursday to go smoothly.

We are very prayerful today for another family from our agency whose court date is *today*. We had a support group meeting this weekend at our agency, and it was so meaningful to be with a couple of the other precious families adopting from our same country. God is really knitting our families together in a neat way right now. And it's so exciting (and overwhelming!) for things to be moving so quickly!


In the midst of everything, yes, we will be eating this week! In fact, after our agency called last week with the exciting news, I was desperately trying to reach my dear husband who was on a golf course somewhere in south Texas with no cell signal, so my daughter frantically hit "redial" on her phone for a solid hour and a half. While she did that, I did the only logical thing I could do... I baked a cake. A yellow cake with this chocolate sauce recipe. SO good. And obviously easy, since I did it while my mind was divided between South Texas and Africa. Once I finally did get him on the phone, I was much better. And later we had a lovely dessert. :)

Speaking of desserts, this week I will be making this fruit pizza. It is such a great recipe because it has a yummy glaze that goes over it. We love it!

Okay, here's our week in food:

Monday: Crock Pot Lasagna (from FIFI but similar to this) green beans, caesar salad, garlic bread
Tuesday: Left overs or YO-YO (You're On Your Own)
Wednesday: Orange Glazed Pork Chops, Skillet Lo Mein
Thursday: turkey burgers on the grill
Friday: Crock Pot BBQ chicken, potato salad, peas

For more recipes and some great organizing tips, visit Laura. Have a blessed week!