Saturday morning...

I can't believe a whole week has come and gone already. Sometimes the days fly by and other times, the days couldn't go any slower. As I woke up this morning, I just laid in bed for a while, counting my blessings. Thankful for a husband who loves me unconditionally and who makes me laugh, when no one else can. Thankful for the sweet little girl, sleeping in the other room ~ who has brought so much joy, love and peace into our home. Some might think peace is a strange word to use, being that it's been anything but peaceful :) but she has brought a calming to our hearts and spirits.

When I heard her stirring this morning, I slowly opened the door (just in case she wasn't awake yet) and I was greeted with this huge grin, arms opened wide and "maaaaama, maaaaama". Nothing gets better than that. Big kisses exchanged and away we go!

We have been working on our routine ~ everyday is a different day. Sometimes Maggie takes a nap in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon, and you guessed it, sometimes not at all. Her bedtime hour also changes daily. But once she's asleep, she's out for 12 hours :) No complaints there!

It's the simplest things that bring joy to children. For instance, at this very moment, Maggie is playing with one of my socks and one of Michael's ~ putting them on her feet, her hands, her head...pretty much anything....and laughing and jabbering away!

She's a great helper! We've started training early :) She loves to help put the clothes in the dryer, clean her highchair tray off, pick up the toys and books, and throw her own diapers in the trash. I did find out this morning, though, that she is NOT a fan of the vacuum cleaner. We'll work on that :)

Well, it appears that socks are not the only thing she's interested in getting into...so I must sign off for now. Thanks so much for all your calls, emails, blog comments. We are enjoying each and every one of them, and I promise to get to you soon :) Much love to you all on this beautiful Saturday morning.

I know...I know...

I know...I can't believe that I haven't had a chance to update my blog! I know a lot of have called and emailed me personally, and if I haven't had a chance to respond yet, please know it's not intentional.

Our lives completely changed on Friday, July18th, around 3:15pm. I can't even begin to tell you all that went through our minds and hearts as we waited for the doorbell to ring and meet our daughter for the first time. Emotions galore! Oh my...she was a sight to behold. So absolutely beautiful and perfect and I was instantly in love with this sweet little girl. She clung to the arms of her sweet foster mom and we gradually introduced her to things in our house. She wasn't too sure about us at first, but it didn't take long for her to warm up and her little personal shine through. She instantly bonded with Michael, which was so sweet for me to see.

You never know how you're going to react, how you're going to feel, what to expect, etc. Everything changed for us in one moment!

Maggie's foster mom was an answer to our prayers. She and her husband were believers, they have loved and cared for Maggie and were truly sad to see her go. She slowly slipped out, while Michael occupied Maggie with some toys...and that's when our journey took a whole new direction....loving a sweet little innocent girl....who we now knew as our daughter.....

....up next....our first night as Momma & Daddy

No visit today....

....just a homecoming!!!!

Yes, you read right! Maggie Joy came home today at 3pm. We've had an eventful evening and promise to write more tomorrow...but it's 11:12pm and it's actually the earliest that I've been able to get to bed in a week. Life is wonderful. Our daughter is perfect. We are blessed!

All our love,
The Thompsons :)

Bringing Maggie Home....

We received word tonight that we will be bringing Maggie Joy home on Saturday morning! Can you believe it?! We couldn't be more excited.

We can't believe that our daughter will finally be with us in just 3 more days!

Praise the Lord!

Where do I begin?

Ugh! I am so frustrated with myself right now...I can't believe that I haven't updated my blog...I'm sooooo sorry! There is so much to share and I just haven't found the time to do it. But I can bring you up to speed, as of tonight....we are learning that our lives continue to change on an hourly basis these days!

Our caseworker came out tonight to give us our official license. WOW! It has the State seal on it and everything :) Now, here's a shocker....we had to sign some more forms?! I know...like I said, shocking! She then says that they've been discussing the best way and time to bring Maggie home, and she said well, it looks like it will happen this weekend. Ok? Ok. Ok? Um...ok! We should hopefully know tomorrow for sure, but that's the way it typically goes. Once they've found a permanent placement, they want to move fast. Makes sense to me.

So, now, instead of giving my boss 2 weeks notice of my maternity leave, I'm going to give him to the end of the week. Thankfully he's been really supportive and wonderful about everything. I'm just putting a lot of pressure on myself to make sure that I leave everything in order and turn over my duties to co-workers. Needless to say, the next 4 days will be hectic at work, let alone at home.

Another exciting thing has happened....Michael has accepted a new position with a new company today, and will be starting a new job in the coming days. It's a great opportunity for him, and for us, as a family, and I am so very proud of him. Nothing like adding another life change to the mix :)

We have a lot going on, but through it all, we are just so full of joy for our little Maggie Joy. We can't wait to open our home to the little one, who has already filled our hearts.

I promise that I will write more soon...and take you back through the past few days. In the meantime, keep us and Maggie in your prayers. We are so thankful for each and every one of you!

Love,

Can we hear an AMEN?!

I know so many of you are just dying to know what happened yesterday in our meeting. It was a very long day ~ I didn't go to bed until 2:30 this morning. It's a very long story and a good one...and I can't wait to share it with you. I promise to give a more detailed blog entry soon but hopefully this small update will do for now :)

Michael & I will be bringing our 17 month old daughter, Maggie Joy, home within the next 2 weeks. Praise the Lord!!!! Can we hear an AMEN?!

Thank you all so much for your prayers and encouragement as we have traveled this journey. We ask that you continue to pray for us, and for Maggie as we start on building our family. Please be praying for the attachment and bonding between me, Michael and Maggie. Pray for protection for her, for her to feel the love, security and safety that she has never felt or experienced.

Sorry to keep this short...but I wanted to get the word out. I promise to update more.
And for those that know me REALLY well....yes, I've already got my TO DO lists started :)

p.s. Just a side note....we won't be posting any pictures of Maggie on the blog, until the adoption is finalized for a few reasons...but we'll be more than happy to continue to share our journey here!

With much love and joy,
Momma & Daddy,
formerly known as Courtney & Michael

1pm...

As we set out to meet with the agency today at 1pm, a song came on the radio just as I was about to turn it off.

"Trust in God....dare to dream..." and that's what we're doing!

A license and a call!

Michael & I are asking for prayer. We have always laughed saying wouldn't it be funny if after taking 18+ months to get us licensed to adopt, that we'd probably get a call the very next day. Well.....we were officially licensed yesterday....and....yes, we got a call tonight.

We don't have a lot of details, other than this: Our agency has been discussing us all day today and feel so strongly that this case is meant for us. We are meeting with the agency tomorrow afternoon to discuss this little one's case and to find out everything we can about her. Yes, it's a little girl and she's 17 months old. She has already been in 2 foster homes and they are ready to find her a forever family.

They sent us a few pictures of her, and she could definitely be my biological child.

Please pray for guidance, wisdom, discernment and an open heart to what is shared with us tomorrow. They are needing to move quickly (now, they tell us?!?!) :) We're just praying that we will have no doubts of what the Lord would have happen. If she's meant to come home with us, that we have peace about it...and if she's not, that we will still have peace about it. We'll be sure to keep you posted.

We are so thankful to be able to come to all of you, and ask you to join us on our knees. God is good!

Love,
Court & Michael

In the midst of waiting...

Probably the hardest thing to do in the whole adoption process is to wait. I absolutely hate waiting, and I feel that's all I do these days. Forget all the paperwork, required classes, and personal questions. All of that seems like a piece of cake compared to waiting for my children. I actually didn't mind all of those things, because at least then my time was occupied accomplishing things and I had some "say" in making things happen and move along the process.

Whether your wait is 2 weeks or 2 years, waiting is hard and uncomfortable. But I've realized that waiting has a God-designed purpose. God does not always work immediately. Actually, I would say that He hardly ever does. God wants to use this time to grow our faith in Him, to stretch us beyond our comfort zone into a new level of trusting and believing in Him. The waiting time is a growing time to be used to actively pursue the heart of God and His plan and purpose for me and my family. Michael & I have felt every emotion possible on this journey, and the intensity of those emotions have only deepened as we've waited (and continue to wait).

I have to admit that I am tired of waiting. But again, I know that God's timing is perfect. So, I want to be sure that I am not wasting my time complaining about what I do not yet have, but instead make it my goal to ask God, "Lord, what would you have me do during this wait time to draw closer to you, to Michael, and to the people you have placed in my life?"

So, in my waiting.....

• I've been trying to work on things that I've put off, like my Mary Engelbreit cross-stitching project that I worked on for 4 months and couldn't finish in time for Christmas last year. It's just been staring at me and so I finally picked it back up again this weekend.


• I have been reading more books, mostly adoption related, but also trying to add some "fun" reading into my book list.


• I have been catching up with old friends and making new friends, through phone calls and old-fashioned letter writing. Oh, how I love to get a letter or card in the mail :)


• I have been working on my crafting skills...and that's all stemmed from me trying to be super creative with our Lifebook (which I'm still working on). In the process of doing this, I have realized that I have sold myself short on my creativity and that I really should do more of it.


• I have been resting more, relaxing more and not feeling pressured to always be doing something. This is a huge thing for me. I'm typically always on the go!


• I have been studying God's Word and meditating on Who He is and Who I am because of Him.


• I have been learning new ways to show my husband how much I love him and appreciate him, as we travel this journey together.


• I am learning to value the time that I do have to do all of these things...as I'm pretty sure that I won't have the time in the near future to do many of these!

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~ Jeremiah 29:11

and it's almost over....

...the long weekend, that is. Wow...another 3 day weekend come and gone! And yet another Monday morning lurking in the forefront of my mind.

To add on to the that I posted yesterday:
1. We enjoyed a visit from our niece and nephew (and sister and brother-in-law) and learned all about these from Cierra. She was even nice enough to share which ones she'd like to have for her birthday coming up in September :)
2. We watched 3 of the 4 movies we rented: The Bucket List was great and a tear jerker to boot...and I absolutely loved this video from the movie. Vantage Point was exciting but also left me feeling a little cheated in the lack of information into the background of the story. Then I watched Definitely, Maybe on my own, as it is most definitely (not maybe) a chick-flick! I thought it was really cute. So, we still have Fool's Gold to watch and those who know me know, that I never miss an opportunity to see my man Matthew McConaughey-hey-hey :).
3. We watched the Wimbledon final today with great stress, anticipation, and excitement. I believe the match will go down in history as one of the most intense matches ever. Although my guy didn't win, it was what you would want to see battled out in a finale.
4. and allowed myself a treat (even though I should stay away from it....)

Now, I'm off to watch one of my summer favorites and get ready for another new week. Here's hoping that you all had a wonderful weekend and a good week to come!

My long weekend....

Ohhh how I love long weekends....I wish every weekend could be 3 days long!

So far I've enjoyed:
1. Sleeping in 2 days in a row! (of course, anything is sleeping in when you get up at 5am each workday morning)
2. Taking Maya & Isabela here and here to celebrate their 4th birthday!
3. Watching him win to move on to the Wimbeldon Finals.
4. Seeing world records broken and history being made at the Olympic Trials.
5. Playing this and breaking some of my own records.
6. Michael played this and was "ranking up" (as he calls it)
7. Hanging up my new M.E. flag
8. Getting caught up on this fantastic medical docu-drama
9. Called to wish Dina a happy 40th birthday!!!...and stayed on the phone chit-chatting about this and that and other stuff for over an hour.
10. Finally caught up with Kie and planned a possible visit in August.
11. Renting these 4 movies....Fool's Gold, The Bucket List, Definitely, Maybe, and Vantage Point...now I just have to watch them!
12. and maybe a few more things before the weekend ends.

Some of the things I haven't enjoyed about the weekend:
1. Laundry, laundry, laundry
2. A stinkin' fly that would not leave us alone, and in turn, made our typically-sweet dog into a demon (as he growled, snarled and chased a fly he could not catch....he transformed into a scared and paranoid pup)
3. Grocery shopping here with the other thousand people.
4. Having to cancel a lunch date with friends due to my hubby's migraine. Sorry guys! We hope to reschedule soon!

What things did you enjoy this long weekend?

Who's Reading?

Jenni, an old friend of mine posted this on her blog. I thought it was a great idea, so I decided to see what kind of results I'd get with my poll.

I have a counter on my blog, and I see that I have a lot more hits each day, than I do comments. Either I have friends who check out my site multiple times a day...which is ok with me...I'm guilty of the same...or I have plenty of bloggers/lurkers checking me out...which is also ok with me.

Sooooo.....check out the poll to the right and let me know who you are! After you answer the poll, if you're willing to reveal yourself, leave me a comment to let me know that you stopped by. Don't be shy or scared...I don't bite :) Like Jenni said...its' quite possible that I check out your blog too!

Missing flowers....

We came home today to find these beauties gone....

I just couldn't believe that someone would steal our potted flowers. But then I thought...well, maybe someone needed these more than me. So, to the one who took the flowers, I hope that you are blessed by them. Enjoy!