4-0!!

Today my man is 40!  And so, today is all about him.  40 reasons I love Mark Douglas Fish and am so thankful that God gave me such a precious gift.

1. He loves God.
2. He loves me.
3. He's a great dad.
4. He's fun!
5. He makes me laugh.
6. He's a HARD worker.
7. He's smart.
8. He has many interests.
9. He's a techie.
10. He knows what I need.
11. He has a soft heart.
12. He's athletic.
13. He's tall.
14. He can fly a plane!
15. He's has a degree in youth ministry and medicine.
16. He can speak Spanish.
17. He loves his family.
18. We can share medical stories.
19. He has great friends. (like from high school!!)
20. He likes to go out to eat.  :)
21. He will eat anything I cook.  (without complaining.)
22. He loves to teach our kids how to do things.
23. He is really good at what he does.
24. He appreciates little things - like the kids decorations in our house last night.  ;)
25. He lets me be who I am.
26. He is a hunk!
27. He's competitive.
28. He does his own laundry when needed - without saying a word!
29. He can smoke meat like nobodies business.
30. He loves adventure.
31. He's always up for something new.
32. He plays the guitar.
33. He dresses really well.
34. He likes to play games.  (The kids love this one.)
35. He has a motorcycle, and he takes me for rides.
36. He's very loyal.
37. He smells good.  :)
38. He's always happy, well most of the time!
39. He processes by talking to me, and I LOVE that.
40. He told me when we were dating that he wanted 5 kids!!  And I was the one that said noway.  And here we are.  :)

Love you, Baby.  Can't wait to write another list at 80.  :)

Favorite Song...

This Love is my new fav.  If you haven't heard it give a listen!  Be ready with a few kleenexes if you're on the adoption journey.

My advice is to download and put on repeat.  It's a happy cry after all...  :)

We're coming soon girlies!

REFERRAL!!! (long)

I have such good news to share!!  WE GOT A REFERRAL!!  It's such a crazy God story, but I will do my best to write it here...

Last Monday night, March 8th, I was coming home from a school board meeting at 10:15pm.  I called Mark to tell him I was on my way, and he shared that our social worker had called.  We have the absolute best social worker that calls to check up on us every now and then so I didn't think much of it until he said she had a sibling group to talk to us about!  WHAT?!  I was overwhelmed and didn't even know what to say.  Some background...  A lot of you know that we had asked and gone to committee for a sibling group in January/February and were not chosen for them.  At that point we had returned to our original request which was one child from age 0-3 years.  We had both relinquished any idea of siblings and were expecting a referral around May.  So, this phone call blew us out of the water!  God had different plans for us!  I emailed our social worker that night, but at this point we weren't sure if this was a real referral or if this was another waiting child process.  We were told we would get an email on Tuesday.

Tuesday, I was on a kindergarten field trip all day.  I tried to call our social worker about 3pm, but she wasn't available.  We still hadn't received any emails!!  About 4:30 our social worker called to see if we had gotten an email.  I told her no, and she said she would call me back.  She called back shortly to tell me, yes, it was a real referral, and that I would receive an email any minute!!!  Our family was considered for these girls because they knew our interest and because we had gone to committee for the sibling group that was very similar to this one.  Of course Mark was at work until 10pm that night, so our first glimse of our daughters was apart.  :( 

Because of our extreme differences in our expectations and our referral, it took us awhile to process through it all.  But last night 2 little girls became ours!!  They are 2 1/2 and 4 1/2 and so gorgeous!  I can't wait to hold them.  I can't post pictures here, but I can show them to you if I see you, and would share them with you via email.  :)

We're praying they will join our family by Christmas, and would cherish any of your prayers!  (Of course I hope it's sooner, but I'd rather be happily surprised than disappointed.)

So, there you have our crazy referral story!  It's not at all how I expected it to be, but I wouldn't change it for anything either.  Our referral verse is:

Ephesians 3:20-21
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!  AMEN.

New life...

Lately this is the theme - babies!!  Our church is busting with them.  Our great friends had theirs today - a precious little girl.  God is so good.  I also helped host a baby shower for another friend today.  (That's the second in a month, and another still to come this month!)

I love new life, and isn't it great that our God does too?!  We all have the opportunity for new life through Him.  He blesses us with the new life of spring each year.  Each morning is a new start.  Hallelujah, for that!  Because, I don't know about the rest of you, but I desperately need new life every moment!

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  Romans 6:4

On the adoption front there is some news that adoptions may be slowing substantially in Ethiopia.  Would you please pray!  It breaks my heart that children will stay longer in orphanages unnecessarily!

The good news is that referrals have been abundant lately from our agency!  They did away with the numbering system, but by my calculations, we have broken into the 20's!!  I think we are around 26, give or take. 

What a guy...

This is just a brag on my husband, Mark.  I had a wonderful February!  I turned a year older last week, and had the best day.  The weekend started by having our twin family (their kiddos are all the same ages as ours) over for dinner and they so thoughtfully brought a cake and candles!  Nothing better than having 6 kids 9 and under sing Happy Birthday to you.  Then in the morning Mark made pancakes with the kids, we went to see a really bad movie (Gnomeo and Juliet).  So bad that our 6 year old said toward the end, "I can't take one more minute of this!!".  But we did.  :)  Then had a great dinner out with some great friends.  What more could a girl want.  Oh, and he even got me beautiful flowers for Valentine's Day!  Totally unexpected - as we treat this as a Halmark holiday.  :)

What a guy!  Love him...

Flowers and my girl.  She was pretty excited, too!!

Turning 37!