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The end is in sight! Or, would it be more correct to say that the beginning is near? I think it’s really both, in a way. First, there will be the end of the waiting for adopted children. I will also be the end of our family as we know it. I’ve heard some people who have adopted say it’s really the death of their first family, something they have to grieve over. But, it will also the beginning of our new family. There will likely be many struggles as we learn along the way how to be parents of adopted children. I’ve read that it’s supposed to be similar to what happens after having biological children….the sleepless nights and all the work it takes to raise a baby. I don’t know if it will really be like that, but hopefully we’ll find out soon enough.

Maybe I’m jumping a little too far ahead. When I say the end is in sight, we need to remember that we’re talking about adoption here. One thing I’ve learned in the last year and a half is that in adoption, nothing is certain. Nothing is as it seems, until it is seen. That may sound somewhat pessimistic, but it’s good to be more pessimistic than optimistic when going through the adoption process. People promise things they can’t or won’t follow through on. There are misunderstandings that cause different expectations among people. We really don’t have that much control on the whole thing. There is comfort in knowing that there is One who is not confused, lost, angry, impatient or frustrated. God works all things together for good for those that love Him. We need to wait and see if God is moving our adoption to it’s final stages.

The kids and I did go to the doctor today. Since our home study expired, we needed to get our paperwork updated. Don’t worry, we’re all OK. The paperwork for our home study was very basic and that’s all we really needed – a doctor’s signature. But since we were there, I had some blood taken for a cholesterol and sugar check.

It’s snowing. Not just on this website, but also outside. We’re supposed to get up to 5 inches by morning. Maybe I’ll get to try our new, used snowblower out today.

It was a busy day yesterday. Besides having to work, we had a Bible Quiz meet and my niece’s 8th birthday to go to. It’s been a tradition to go to the Macy’s animated holiday show (can you say Christmas show?) downtown after Megan’s birthday at the Old Spaghetti Factory.

There may be some adoption news for us this coming week. Until then, we’ve been doing some reading up and learning more about bringing adopted children into the home. Brenda and I have been talking about how we’d handle possible situations and what kinds of things we’d treat as urgent to deal with and what can wait – basically, how we’ll parent our adopted children. We are agreeing on most everything. After waiting a year and a half to adopt and watching friends handle things in their adoptions for a couple years, I think we’ve got an advantage that some of our friends didn’t have. They were the adoption trailblazers in our circle of friends. We’ve learned a lot from them.

I’ve been working on a for sale sign for our house. I bought one of the official looking Real Estate for sale sign frames from someone off of Craig’s List. It was just the frame part and I’m getting the sign part of it ready (painting, block letter stickers, etc.). Hopefully I’ll be able to put it up this week. You can visit the website for our home for sale – though it’s far from finished. We’ll pay $1001 for whoever refers the buyer for our house (unless you’re an official Realtor®, then we’ll only pay the 3% commission). HERE‘s the website http://www.tonkahome.com. Can you see that I’m thinking about renting this domain name and web space for future FSBO’s in Minnetonka?

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. We’re slowly accumulating snow and it’s 4° F outside right now. Do you have your shopping done yet?

I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to put a photo album on this website. Hopefully it’ll be done soon. Until then, see you next week at the same bat time, on the same bat channel.

Batman TV Promos

God is amazing! He is Wonderful! God is in control!

Our adoption plans took a turn from the direction that we thought they would go. Since the door was closed to adopting from Colombia (our first choice over one and a half years ago) to waiting for a match from the Philippines today, it’s obvious that God has been working on our behalf the entire time. He has been doing it in His timing, not ours. I’m not sure I could adequately explain what we now see – it is awesome! It’s as if we were blind and can see clearly now (at least we think that is the case – unless we’re way off base and operating in our own understanding).

I can’t say any more right now, but hopefully soon.