Saying Goodbye

We had to say Goodbye to our precious Dakota this weekend. She had a couple of seizures at the beginning of August that led us to believe she probably had a brain tumor. While (thankfully) she never had another one, she continued to decline in other areas and we felt like we wanted to put her down while she still had dignity and before the girls saw her at her worst. And believe me, we wanted to spare the girls the experience of seeing her in the confused state she was in after the seizure. It was very traumatic for her and for us. It was a very difficult decision for us and has been difficult for us and especially for Irish as he is missing Dakota. We've had Dakota since she was just 8 weeks old. She was over 13 years old and lived a long life.

This is Megan's attempt to take a picture of us with Dakota.

Dakota & Megan

Best buds...Dakota & Irish
taken just before we left with Dakota

God in his amazingness assured me that Dakota is in heaven when I was reading the Walking with God by John Eldredge. If you have not read his book, I HIGHLY encourage you do to so. It will literally CHANGE your life! His Golden was also very sick. I read that particular part of the book just days after her seizures. It was confirmation that we were very close to the end for Dakota and that it was going to be okay. It has been a hard few days and I find myself at various times thinking "where's Kota?" to only catch myself. And Irish is a bit depressed, but he has had moments where is more lively. She has a great dog and she was my baby (even though she was supposed to be DH's dog!).

Witnessing Trust

We've taken Rachel to our (fairly new) church the last several weeks. I wanted to get her plugged into the youth group, but really did not know what they did and when. I talked to the youth minister a couple of weeks after we got home about getting Rachel involved. So, about two weeks ago, we took her to the middle school youth service. The church has a "mini" service for the youth where they have a "get to know you" game, sing some songs, then someone leads a lesson or sermon on a topic similar to what the pastor is teaching on then they break into small groups to discuss further. This "service" (called Cultivate) is during the service we typically go to. I've gone with her and will continue to do so until she feels comfortable going by herself. With summer starting, however, they will only have Cultivate every other week. However, they are doing a study on the Proverbs on Wednesday nights. Since she cannot read the questions (yet), we've done the homework together (I as well as her). They do the homework before they come (works in OUR favor!), then we discuss it in age and gender specific small groups (brilliant!). So this week's lesson was on Prov. 1-4. The questions are hard. They are hard for adults, but they are about growing in the Lord and the knowledge of His Word. Its a great study for me, in fact. The group was only 3 middle school girls, 1 newly graduated high school senior and an adult facilitator (well, and me).

Anyways, so we're looking at Proverbs 3:5-6 which are my favorite verses. The Message translation says them best "Trust God from the bottom of your heart, don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track." Awesome, uh? So, the question was asked about what areas do you struggle with fully trusting in God. In my attempt to have her answer the question, she simply said you just do it. Easy. I spent some time thinking about the verses and her answer. It made me realize that whenever it was that she came to know the Lord (I have get to find out when that was), she has had Him to trust in. She trusted He would bring her a family. That her family would love her for her and love the Lord as well. She's had few (if any) adults she could trust in her life since she's never had parents (that she remembers). It made me realize just how amazing she is and even with the incredible losses she's had in her life, how innocent and complete her trust in God truly is. And how amazing our God is. He cares for an orphan, watches over them and keeps them safe then answers her prayers for a family that loves God.

I think of those times while we were waiting to bring Rachel home where I would call or text my friend, Stacey, asking if we were on the right track. I felt like this was just too much. The obstacles kept popping up. The fear of what we were doing to our family, our Megan, our marriage. And she would always encourage me to keep going. That this was an opportunity to share the gospel to special girl. I always knew she would assure me that we were on God's path and to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. And to think she would be such a witness of God's faithful and trust in God. It blows my mind.

Hard to believe...

this was June 2008...boy has she come far in just a little over a year! OH MY

It's been a Year

Last year on March 25th we were getting on the plane to go to China! Wow, have things changed in the last year. You can see our first post from China here.

The clothes I'm buying Megan now days (okay, well, shirts) are toddler size. I thought it would be forever before we started buying that size, since she started out so small (size 3-6 mo). She's just changed and grown up so much. Its hard to believe that she's come so far in such a short period of time.

Just a few more days and Megan will have been with us a year. Wow has time flown!

One year ago today...

We received "the call" at 2:12 pm from our SW, Rachael!!!! I was carrying my cell phone with me everywhere so I wouldn't miss that long awaited call. When it finally came, just hearing Rachael say "Kris?" made me break into tears, get all shaky and make my mind go blank! I couldn't believe it was FINALLY the day! We got so few details...but did find out that she was very little just 24 inches tall and weighed a whopping 12.5 lbs! A few hours later, we opened our email to see these precious photos.



And today she's doubled her weight and grown about 7 inches! Who would have known that her hair would grow in curly...that she's have so much personality...that we could be SO IN LOVE!

She is our "Sweets", our "Meg-alicious", our "Meg-pie". In every way a perfect fit for our family. I am still overwhelmed by the awesomeness of how she joined our family. We are so blessed and eternally grateful.