Home Called Grace

We spent Christmas traveling to visit my parents and Zac's family in Vernon. We were in Birmingham the weekend before Christmas and then traveled to Vernon on Sunday night. Zac oldest sister, Amy, and her family came to Vernon for Christmas so we were very glad that we got to visit with them. Sadly, they all came down with the stomach virus which obviously put a damper on all the fun. Natalie and her family also came up Christmas day, so all the siblings were together for a little while, which is much harder these days than it used to be. It was so good to visit with each of our families.

It was exciting this year to receive a few gifts for baby boy :)! My parents and Jennifer picked out a stocking for him. They chose this particular stocking because the Santa looked "old world", which also made him look a little Russian. They also found a very cute Auburn t-shirt, which we of course love! The last gift they gave us for baby boy was a beanie baby, that they call the "prayer bear". This was very special because it was first given to Jennifer when she was diagnosed with cancer by some dear friends of ours that went to church with us at Dawson. The bear had been given to this family after their father was in an accident and had extensive damage done to his hand and lost several fingers. After hearing about Jennifer, they decided to pass along the "prayer bear" and encouraged Jennifer to one day pass along the bear to someone else. They all decided that it was time to do just that and that our sweet boy was very worthy of some prayer! One day we'll pass along the prayer bear to someone else, but I think he'll be parked in our home for a while.

I guess I would be remiss if I didn't mention that amongst all the fun and good time spent with our families we did feel the void of not having our son with us for Christmas. We truly feel that he has been born and so it was sad knowing that he couldn't be with us for his first Christmas. We so hope and pray that next Christmas we'll be together, or that we'll be very close to bringing him home.

We hope that you all enjoyed a great Christmas with your families!

Being home for Christmas in Vernon affords me no gym in which to train. So I am left to my own creative devices. It is hard to be disciplined enough to train when visiting mom and dad amid the endless desserts, warm fireplace, and generally lazy atmosphere that my home at Christmas always lends. However, I was determined not to let the weather and food deter me from at least playing a little with a few heavy toys around the house.


It was a good Christmas eve, but come New Year's it is going to be time to work on that gut.

zb

I Almost Titled this entry "What The Grace of God Looks Like", but I felt, in a way, it trivialized God's marvelous Gift of Grace. However, the Reason for that abandoned title was that I never imagined this Christmas would come.

Four and half years ago I married my wonderful wife. We were unemployed, living in a small trailer, and upon returning from our honeymoon we had a whopping two hundred and fifty dollars to our name.

I remember lying awake at night thinking how on earth would I be able to give my wife a home and family... But through God's mercy and shepherding, gracious parents, and tearful, labor-some, anxiety driven prayer... here we are... Praise God, here we are…

The red barberry in the planter box under the picture window pricks me every time I hang those Christmas lights, but the garland around the front door is always easy to hang. Allison loves to hang the wreaths, and always steps back several times to admire our handiwork. She also never fails to compliment me for how good everything looks. It will be our third Christmas in this house, we've almost got the outside decorating down to a science...

And I still reflect on those sleepless nights in that tiny trailer. How often I would say in my nervous mind "How will we live?", "How will we ever own a house?", "Lord, please help me..."

The Lord heard me. And the words which ring loudly in my ears as I write this are those of our dear Savior, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”(Matt. 7)

How good, and wonderful, and bountiful are His gifts to me.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God”

- Ephesians 2:4-8

Recently we were asked to write an autobiography as part of our adoption home study. It was a joy to write and reflect on some of the precious memories in my life. I wrote these words about our transition to our warm, wonderful home:

“…I began work immediately at East Alabama Medical Center. When I got my first paycheck it felt like we had hit the lottery. The Lord in my dark hour patiently led me out so that I may provide well for my family. Blessed be the Name of The Lord…

That tiny trailer was our home for two years. I sometimes still miss it. Allison and I have always been very close and scarcely argued, and even then it was in a kind way. The small living space made us have to get along even more since there was nowhere to hide. We endured together, and loved each other more for having experienced adversity.

We saved up and bought a house in Opelika, Alabama the neighboring town to Auburn. We still live there today. I love it there, it is older and broken in. The cabinets still don’t close properly, and there is a million things on my “honey do” list, but I love it there. Sometimes when I walk to the front door I can smell the old varnish and wood, and it smells just like my dear grandparents house in Oxford, Alabama. I hope that smell is in Heaven when I get there…”

But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.

- 1 Timothy 6:6

Merry Christmas little Zachary, Merry Christmas Everyone...

zb

As most of you know, Zac loves anything strongman. He has been wanting a "log" for quite some time. One of the events in Strongman competitions is the log press. It is almost impossible to train for this event without an actual log. This became very true to him during his first competition in October. So, he finally decided that he just had to order one. He was extremely excited when it arrived and he's pretty in love! Happy "early" Christmas, Zac!!

Over the weekend, we also got together with Jason, Natalie and the kids and they (really just Georgia) helped me decorate our Christmas tree. Georgia was very pleased to get to put the angel on top of the tree.
We hope that you all enjoy a wonderful Christmas season!

Last Wednesday, Zac and I got up at 4:30am to travel to Atlanta in order to get our CIS fingerprints completed. About six weeks ago, we submitted our I-600A form to the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services), which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. Our application was an "advance processing of orphan petition".

There are many parts to receiving final approval from CIS. First, we had to complete the initial application, then CIS runs background checks and our fingerprints . Last, they will have to read our home study. When all is given the official "stamp of approval", we will receive our I-797 form. We HAVE to have this before we can begin waiting for our referral. This process can be very slow. Processing can take up to 90 days or more. We are praying for a quick turn around.

Getting fingerprinted was very interesting. Most of the people there were getting fingerprinted as well, but it seemed as though they were being fingerprinted in order to receive their U.S. citizenship. I really didn't know how everything would go, but to my surprise everything was very well organized and the employees were extremely friendly. Zac and I both agreed that we were very happy that the people working there were friendly and helpful, especially so that those seeking citizenship were treated well and hopefully given a good impression of our country.

One strange and a little disconcerting fact... I'm pretty sure that our fingerprints were run through and now reside in the national FBI database. Who woulda' thought!