Blanket of Faith...

I have been going to a women's Bible study on Wednesday nights with my mom for a few weeks now. We are going through a book called "Missing Pieces" by Jennifer Rothschild. When my mom first told me about the Bible study, I told her to go ahead and sign me up because, at that time, I was having a really hard time waiting for a placement. I had so many questions for God. What's taking so long? Why don't we have kids yet? Do you even care? In all that, I also started questioning Him again about why I can't just get pregnant. The day before the first night of the Bible study, I got the call about Owen. I felt so guilty for questioning God and not waiting patiently for His perfect timing. Not only that, I was just so overjoyed that after all this time, we were finally getting a child. On that first night, during the opening video that we watched, Jennifer talked about how every time we have painful things happen to us, a piece is cut out of our "blanket" of faith. She would give an example, and then cut a hole out of her blanket. I loved that illustration so much. It really hit home with me. I couldn't even say anything during the discussion time that evening. Every time I started to talk, I just started crying. I was so full of emotions of every kind. Last night, the leader of the group, Liz, asked if anyone had anything exciting that they wanted to share. At first I wasn't going to say anything since I have bronchitis and I lost my voice. But I decided to go ahead and share that we are finally bringing Owen home for good on Friday. I had kind of forgotten about that blanket illustration, but Liz used it as an example. I love what she said! She said that everything we have had to go through to get to this point, all the hoops we have had to jump through and all the pain we have had to endure to get to this point, is another hole in our blanket. But now we are going to use that blanket to wrap Owen in and snuggle with him every day. I just wanted to start crying again. I hadn't thought of it like that, and it just really touched my heart. A little back ground info...Liz was my small group leader in high school. She has always held a special place in my heart! Not only is she awesome, she's one of the only people in my life who takes a stand and calls me out when she sees that I'm doing something that isn't glorifying to God. It takes a real friend to do that! Thanks Liz! I love you!

Anyways, I never wrote about our weekend visit with O this last weekend. I picked him up on Friday morning. He fell asleep and napped for about an hour on the way home. It was a very peaceful drive! For once, I felt like I could take my time during the long drive. We got home and settled in. Then we headed out to the store for dinner and breakfast supplies. We came back home and just hung out in the play room after dinner. It was just a nice, normal evening. When we were ready for bed, we read a few books and said our prayers. I put O in his crib and went to leave the room, but he started crying. I felt bad since it was a new place, so I got to rock my baby to sleep. :) Todd got home around 3:00 am on Saturday morning. Once Owen was awake, we had breakfast and took a bath while daddy was still sleeping. While I was getting him dressed I kept saying, "I love you." Then all of a sudden, he said in his sweet little baby boy voice, "huv hoo." Oh, it just melted my heart! I was so surprised, I didn't know what to do or say. But every time I think about, it makes me tear up! He also said "mommy" for the first time on Friday evening! When O saw daddy come out of the bedroom, he got a big smile. He loves his daddy!!! Todd and I got ready to go and we headed out to the grocery store again. (Todd wanted to help with the grocery shopping while Owen was there!) After that we came back home so Owen could meet his new great-grandma Betty and her friend, grandpa George. Surprisingly, he didn't act shy at all! When they left, he gave them both hugs and kisses. :) Saturday evening we stupidly went to Applebee's for dinner. We forgot it was v-day weekend! The 25 minute wait quickly became the 45 minute wait. However, O was so well behaved! He was such a big flirt with all the ladies! We came home and Todd put him to bed. Sunday morning we went to church. He wasn't so sure about us leaving him in his class, but we slipped out when he wasn't looking. He sat in the same place on the floor the entire hour, but at least he didn't cry! After church we came home and O helped me make lunch. At one point, he realized daddy was in the basement because he heard the vacuum cleaner. That smart little booger figured out that the vent in the living room floor is empty and he can see down to the basement through it. I found him laying over it talking to daddy! Since you can't see his face, here's the picture I took... :)

(FYI...he looks so long in this picture, but he is really kind of short.) After lunch, we had to leave to take him back to his foster parents. While we were at their house, we were able to meet some people that we are going to have a lot of contact with for a long time, probably forever. Good thing we got along so well! Can't give any more info about that until the adoption is finalized. It was so hard to leave my baby there! I got in the car and cried and cried while Todd drove us home. Over-all, it was just a normal weekend for the most part. Owen did so well while he was here. He acted like he has been here from day one. This week has been the longest of my life. I feel like it should already be next Monday, but here we are, stuck on Thursday still. We will be leaving tomorrow morning and meeting O and his foster parents at his doctor's appointment. From there we have to go back to children services for some last minute things. By noon we should leaving there to bring O home forever! Friday, February 21, 2014 will be Owen Grady Fisher's official "Gotcha Day."

I'm so excited about entering into this new role. I've waited so long to be "mommy" and it almost doesn't feel real yet. I'm sure it will feel very real the first time I think, "Argh! This kid is driving me crazy today!!" I feel so blessed that God has given us a son. There are so many stories in the Bible about women who couldn't have children for such a long time, but then God granted them a son. I feel like that's me! I keep thanking God, but I feel like that's not enough. The only other thing I can do to show my gratitude is to raise Owen to love his Heavenly Father. I hope and pray that I do a good job at that!

Thank you to everyone for all your continued prayers and support, as always! It means more to us than you will ever know! Please pray for safe travels tomorrow and that all three of us will continue to adjust well. Please pray that these six months will fly by so we can have full custody of our son and legally change his name to "Fisher!"

Megan