For Karilyn...

“For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.” Habakkuk 2:3

On this journey we have begun, I wanted you to know that I love you and can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store for you and I. The other night you spoke about how blessed we have been. What I was wrong in doing is leaving out how blessed I am to have you.

This morning while going to work, the Lord spoke to me and I felt such a peace about the direction of our new journey. So many times we have both tried to make things work, but after our meeting with the lawyer we both made a  decision to wait upon the Lord's guidance and direction. In my opinion, that was the best decision we’ve made. 

I appreciate everything you are doing and continue to do for our soon to be family. I love you!

Derek

Moving Forward

Our paperwork has been sent in and we will soon start our second home study. The adoption agency that we are going to use does not accept an outside home study, which is why we will be doing a second home study! We are VERY excited by all that is about to happen in the future!

A sweet group of friends have really rallied around us this week to start fundraisers for our adoption! They are seriously some fabulous people and I'm so glad to call them friends!!! Stay tuned for more information about all of the fundraisers! 

Right now, you can mark your calendars for Thursday, November 21st at Pizza Inn on Highway 290 in Duncan!!! I'm so humbled by all of the friends who are giving of their time to help serve at Pizza Inn! The love that is surrounding us has truly blown our minds and we are completely in shock over the people who are coming together to support us!

God is truly blessing us and I can't wait to bring home Baby Parker!

Love y'all!
Karilyn

PS - These awesome items will be available soon to help with our adoption! I wanted to sell these because they not only help our adoption, but they also help a mother in Haiti support her children. This is a wonderful organization that I'm so pumped about helping as well!

Bracelets $8

Ornaments $10

Meeting with the Lawyer

We finally have a date set to meet with our adoption lawyer! We meet with him on January 2nd. We are very excited and we can't wait to see what happens for us in 2013!!!

Love y'all!
Karilyn

Beyond Surprised & Most Definitely Beyond Blessed!

Have you ever had a moment where you felt like you were in a dream?  Tonight, I had that feeling...

My sister is in town for Christmas. She said earlier that we should go to Cribbs' Kitchen tonight for dinner between 6:00 and 6:15. She started getting ready & I was taking my sweet time getting ready for dinner. I began cleaning up the house thinking that I had plenty of time, because we were just going for dinner - no rush!

My sister began asking me to hurry and get ready, so we could leave. I was still taking my sweet time. We arrived at Cribbs' Kitchen and of course it was SUPER busy! Kandace began to walk towards the back of the restaurant. I was completely confused as to why she didn't stop at the hostesses. I followed her trying to get her attention to let her know that she had completely missed the hostesses and that we had to be seated by the hostess.

When.... SURPRISE!!!!!

I was completely blown away! My family and best friends were there to celebrate sweet Baby Parker! There were sweet smiles, balloons, precious poem, books, good food, and cupcakes! I was so overwhelmed and still am completely overwhelmed! We had dinner, talked, hugged and talked some more! I am so honored to have such precious family and friends who love me and sweet Baby Parker enough to be so thoughtful and just plain wonderful!

I can't say THANK YOU enough!!!!!

I love each of you who were able to be there and who weren't able to be there! No matter what I know that you love us so much! Thank you for being my best family/ friends and for loving me no matter what! I am so glad that tonight was not a dream, because it was absolutely wonderful to get all of the women that are so precious to me in one place!

Here is just a sampling of the sweet books that Baby Parker has to look forward to when he or she arrives!

Love y'all!
Karilyn

We Passed!!!!

Our homestudy is finished!!! We passed!!! We now will meet with the lawyer and we wait for little Parker baby!!!
Thank you for the prayers!!!

Love y'all!
Karilyn

Home Visit Coming Soon...

We found out today that our home study visit will be this Sunday. I'm so excited, because we are making progress!

Although, I'm nervous about my home being inspected... EEK! Let me preface, my house is not disgusting, but most certainly lived in. I'm going to have to do some incredible organizing of closets and cabinets. Yes, they will look in my closets and cabinets!!! I feel this incredible need to make my home EXTREMELY organized before Sunday.

Friends who have been through a home visit I need some pointers! :) and prayers!!!!

Love y'all!
Karilyn

Adoption Christmas Card

Adoption News...

We have finally completed our Christmas Card! A big thank you to my sweet friend, Sheryl Elliott, for taking these wonderful pictures for this special Christmas card! :) You will never know how much it means to us that you took time out of your busy day to do this for us! We love you!

So, we will soon be purchasing 5-6 adoption books to be sent to prospective birth moms and I have made a super precious one on Shutterfly! FYI - that will be a good bit of money! When I purchased our Christmas cards,  I also received a $10 off offer if I post our Christmas card on my blog. Well, of course, I can't pass that up!!!

Here is an early preview of our Christmas card to help benefit our adoption!

Also, we are currently awaiting our home study date. It should be this month and then we will meet with a lawyer to be placed on their list to await our precious child!

Love y'all!
Karilyn