Favorite Things

I have decided that I need to be blogging about my cancer experience for my own therapy, but I didn't want to do it on my "adoption" blog site. I have been trying to decide if I should blog on a cancer site, or just add another blog to this site that people can link to. At least for now I have set up another blog since I am familiar with this process and I am just going to post a link on this site. My blog site where I am going to try to share my journey through breast cancer is going to be candice-favoritethings.blogspot.com. We'll see how it goes.

Two Roads

It's funny, but for some reason this morning, my mind is drawn to the line of a Robert Frost poem...two roads diverged in a wood.

In 2007 we started on our adoption journey. Some close friends and co-workers of ours, got their login date to china that year. We have been on this adoption journey together, although their journey has taken a very different path than ours did. Long story short, they are leaving on Thursday to fly to China to pick up their little 4 year old beauty! I am so excited for them I can hardly stand it. Just 11 months ago, we were headed to India for Micah and I can remember the emotions like it was yesterday.

What a difference a year can make. It seems surreal for me that while our friends are on a plane to pick up their little girl, I will be sitting in a hospital room recovering from my mastectomy. Two close families headed down two very different roads in 2010. My consolation is that the same God is watching over both our journeys. As He is looking down onto the woods and watching our paths diverge, He is guiding us both. He will be with our friends as they land in China and head to the orphanage to meet "Anna" for the first time, and He will be with me after I wake up from surgery and begin making plans for my treatment to follow. So, I will rejoice with my friends and follow this new path for me one step at a time!

Happy New Year!

Well, Christmas is over for another year. Micah enjoyed it to say the least. All it took was 1 gift and he was hooked. It wasn't the gift, but the unwrapping that he loved. He was like the Tazmanian devil whirling around seeing whose present he could swipe off their lap to open next. The tissue paper sticking out of gift bags was free game! So hilarious to watch and so much fun!

And now, it's the last day of 2009! By far, the thing we are the most thankful for this year is the fact that we were able to bring Micah home! It's hard to believe that we traveled in February and that he has already been home for 10 months! Time has passed so quickly. On the other hand, our bond with Micah is so strong, and his adjustment into our family has gone so smoothly, that we feel like he was born into our family. It is awesome how God places the right children into the the right families!

Our 14th wedding anniversary was yesterday and I got the sweetest gift...Micah told me he loved me for the first time! We were lying in bed and he kept leaning over and kissing me on the cheek and forehead. Then, after 1 kiss, he said, "love you!" Of course I was so excited, so he kept repeating it for a while. What an amazing gift. Of course he doesn't realize how he touched my heart! I am going to keep trying to get others to adopt as we move into the new year!

We are anticipating lots of things for 2010, some good things and some difficult things. However, we will continue to give our heavenly Father thanks and praise for His lovingkindness and goodness in our lives! Happy New Year!

Be Still!

Well, it's 1 week away from Christmas and as you can see, Micah is enjoying the season! We are going to have quite the "first Christmas" with him this year...broken ornaments, sticky fingers from candy canes, and all. He has also picked up a new word...coco!

We have decided to postpone everything for me until the holiday is over. We don't want to interrupt the kids Christmas and want to still be able to travel and visit family and see my sister's new baby. I am scheduled to have surgery in January so we will just sit back and wait.

God is speaking to me this morning through others. When I woke up this morning, I had a FB message from a dear lady at church who shared with me that God had gotten her up at 5:00 a.m. this morning to pray for me and she gave me this verse..."Be still and know that I am God." Psalms 46:10. A few minutes later, when I got on my blog to update it, there was 1 new comment and a Dillon mom had left a message for me and included the very same verse! So, like all good children who obey their fathers, I am going to try to "be still" today and rest in my heavenly Father! :)

Mountains and Valleys

My father-in-law said to me this week..."It seems like every mountain top experience that the Lord leads us through, He then walks us through a valley." Well, I know that our adoption of Micah was our mountain top experience this year, and now we are heading into our valley. This week I was diagnosed with breast cancer. We are still trying to absorb this information and all that it means. As we head into the holiday season with our family, I do have one certainty.

Two years ago, I might have questioned, "Does God really care about the intimate details of my life?" Today, I cannot question. I look at Micah and I know for sure that God does. I believe that God allowed us to have a mountain top experience in our adoption with Micah. He showed us that He is not a God who just sits in heaven and is far removed. He wants a relationship with us and to be involved in our lives. He loves us so deeply...ALL of us. Even the smallest of these, like a little orphan boy in a small orphanage in the middle of India. He also showed us that He will get intimately involved in our lives and will provide for every need in ways we cannot fathom.

Now as I sit here on the brink, I believe that God is going to walk through this valley with us in the same way. If I begin to doubt or question, all I have to do is to look at Micah and I have the reassurance of God's hand of love, design, and provision on my family's life. I don't understand why this is happening, but I will try to walk with the assurance that I am God's, that He loves me dearly, and that as I go through the storm, I am safe in the palm of His hand.

Naughty List!

By now, I'm sure that Micah's name is clearly on Santa's "Naughty" List. It looks like I will be spending all of Micah's Christmas $ to fix the things he has broken in the last couple of weeks. Not that I am keeping my own list, but here is a short break down from least expensive fix to the costliest...

• 2 New Christmas balls ($2) - This year I bought a new 4 pack of pretty balls to add to the ones I had purchased last year. So far Micah has broken 2 of my new ones. Of course he knows he is not supposed to touch them. He brings them to me, points his little finger at my face and tells me, "No, no!"
• 1 Pack Foam Darts ($10) - For some reason, Micah seems to like chewing on his brother's foam darts that shoot out of a little gun and stick to the wall. He will actually climb the bookcase to pull them out of Nathan's box (which is supposed to be out of his reach) and all day long I will find him chewing on half pieces of dart that he has chewed in two.
• 1 Bathroom Cabinet door ($60) - Micah has pulled on, slammed, and yanked on our bathroom cabinet door, till last week it came apart in 3 pieces and cannot be glued back together.
• 1 Portable DVD player ($150) - Last week Micah got mad at Nathan in the car and so he kicked his legs at the DVD player on the back of my headrest. This snapped the little plastic hinges that hold the door on and so, of course, the front cover fell off. Now we cannot watch movies in the car.
• 1 Car Stereo system ($170) - Last week, I tried to play our choir cd in the car so that I could practice for our choir program. It would not take the cd. Upon further inspection, I saw that Micah had slipped several quarters and nickels into the slot meant only for cds. I will have to either pay for someone to take the whole thing apart and put it back together, or just get a whole new one.

Micah has also mastered the "pouty face." It used to work, but we have quickly figured out his system. He is too cute for his own good. :) I guess all I need to really remember is, "Having Micah home for his first Christmas...Priceless!"

BlindSide

Just saw an awesome movie tonight called "BlindSide." I will sing it's praises from the housetop and hope that it can somehow counter balance the damage that may have been done by the horror flick, "Orphan." What a great true story about taking in an orphan and how it changes US! My husband and I laughed and cried through the whole movie. So many times we thought of Micah and our other children. We are truly a family blessed by adoption!