Heart of a Sweet Student

Today started off like any Monday morning. I was moving quickly around my classroom making sure that everything was perfect and ready to start the day with my 20 sweethearts! Little did I know but my heart was about to be blessed in a tremendous way!

A precious mom and her youngest daughter walked into my classroom! This isn't unusual because I taught her two older children, so of course they will periodically stop in to say hey. Today wasn't just to say hey and to give a hug. In fact, the older two siblings weren't with them and the youngest isn't even in fifth grade. The daughter began to say that she had something for me, so I opened this note from her:

GET YOUR TISSUES READY!!!!

Yes, I know! It is the sweetest thing ever! My prayer is that Derek and I can raise our child/ children to show this much compassion at such a young age! 

I absolutely love her words of "I hope this helps you raise the child that God has chosen for you!" This is by far one of the sweetest gifts that I have ever received! 

Thank you to everyone who has supported us through this journey! I was just thinking today that my tears over the past few years have been centered around disappointment, but over the past few weeks my tears have been flowing due to joy!

Love y'all!

Karilyn

Pouring Out His Blessings On Us!

Derek and I have been so blessed to have so many people helping us the past few weeks! I can't thank each of you enough for ALL that you have done for us! You're making our dreams come true a little faster than we ever imagined! Each of you have made God's love so tangible for us and it has truly been a blessing to see Him use each of you in our lives!

I'm astonished at how quickly the first shipment of bracelets have sold and I just found out that a second shipment will be arriving in two weeks! Thank you for not only supporting us but the Haitians! 

We now have shirts available for purchase!!! Thank you to Angela Lancaster for using her incredible skills of design and Sheryl Elliott for using her fabulous organizational skills to get this project going! 

Here are the shirts:

You can email elliott236@att.net if you would like to order one!

The scripture on the back of the tee shirt is Hebrews 6:19 - "We have this HOPE as an anchor for the soul firm and secure." 

Our hope is found in God and we are looking forward to what lies ahead for us! The journey to being parents hasn't been easy. Although, I'm so glad to know where my hope is found! 

Love y'all!

Karilyn

The Bracelets Have Arrived!!!!

The bracelets have arrived and we are beyond excited!!! Let me know if you would like 1,2 or 100! :) 

The money from these bracelets will help our fund our adoption and a sweet Haitian who is trying to make money to help support their family with food and housing! I'm in love with this fundraiser already!!!

The ornaments will be arriving mid-October!

Here are a few examples for your viewing pleasure...

Love y'all!

Karilyn

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