2012 Year in Review

As we reflect on this past year, we have been clinging to God's truths - 

2 Peter 1:3-8

3 Jesus has the power of God, by which he has given us everything we need to live and to serve God. We have these things because we know him. Jesus called us by his glory and goodness. 4 Through these he gave us the very great and precious promises. With these gifts you can share in God’s nature, and the world will not ruin you with its evil desires. 5 Because you have these blessings, do your best to add these things to your lives: to your faith, add goodness; and to your goodness, add knowledge; 6 and to your knowledge, add self-control; and to your self-control, add patience; and to your patience, add service for God; 7 and to your service for God, add kindness for your brothers and sisters in Christ; and to this kindness, add love. 8 If all these things are in you and are growing, they will help you to be useful and productive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ellie (age 10) is breezing through her last year in elementary school. She is having a great time starting gymnastics again (just 1 day a week now). She loves music - it’s her second year in Singing Eagles (her school’s choir for 4th and 5th graders). She also started taking piano lessons and loves practicing daily.  

Kasia (age 9) is thriving in 4th grade. She hit a growth spurt and is now almost 5 feet tall! She has continued her music love by joining the Singing Eagles with her sister and decided to take piano lessons after graduating Children’s Music Academy in the Spring.

Mathea (age 7) graduated kindergarten and is now loving first grade, although she does think she'd have more time with mom if she was homeschooled. Can you tell she's a mama's girl? She’s continuing her music education at Children’s Music Academy. She’s loving gymnastics and most days we can find her doing handstands against the wall or couch! 

All 3 of the girls are thriving in their winter skiing adventures! Mom gets quiet time  when they’re in the mountains and they get dad time. They are all enjoying Awana on Wednesday nights, giving mom and dad weekly date nights. They really enjoyed our 2 1/2 weeks road trip of the MidWest that we affectionately termed "Our American Girl Tour" visiting 4 American Girl Stores along the way (and passing on store #5 in Kansas City even though we were there). 

Christopher (age 4) is trusting us more each time we visit. He got to meet the entire family in May when we all travelled to Haiti. God blessed us with the opportunity to spend quality time with him at the orphanage in August and then Christy got another chance to see him in November. He’s strong-willed and sweet wrapped up in all-boy antics. We love seeing more of personality each time we're there. 

Amelia (2 months) is the newest member of the Hires’ team. While Christy was in Haiti in November, God put in on her heart that this precious miracle would be our 5th baby. When she returned home, the entire family confirmed that God was making our family complete. We were able to finish our part of the dossier in 2 weeks (that's uber-fast) but there is a long road ahead of us as we wait for our dossier to be translated, legalized and for her paperwork to be complete before we enter the Haitian system. We trust God’s hand will be with her through this wait time.

Tracy continues to work for teknovare with a steady contract in Seattle for now. It’s nice that he gets to see his brother’s family on a regular basis. He continued running in 2012 by finishing 3 half marathons. Even with all that running, he still prefers his mountain bike. He’s skiing with the girls this winter season. 

Christy is coming up on her 10 year anniversary with I^st Security Escrow Company. She'll be there until Christopher comes home. It's a blessing to stay busy during our wait. She was able to accomplish 6 half marathons this year, with one race in Oregon! She said good-bye to co-leading Women to Women at church in the spring but found a great Monday night Bible study this fall. She’s involved with the adoption group at our church and is really treasuring her trips to Haiti to visit our Haitian babies.

We covet your prayers that our faith will not be shaken and are looking forward to many changes in 2013! 

Next in Line, Please

Some wonder how in the world I can get all my Christmas cards in the mail and my Christmas shopping done before the turkey is barely cold on our Thanksgiving table. While I will credit my type A organized brain that gets the tasks done, I do have other motives. I hate crowds. I have only ever been to a handful of concerts, I dread professional game arenas, I don't believe it's just nerves at the start line of any running race and it's one of the major reasons why I don't ski with my family each winter. I've been thinking about the why in an attempt to say "Yes" to more events where there will be a lot of people.

At the root of it all, I believe it's that I need to feel a sense of fairness in my life. Although I hate long lines, I appreciate the Post Office's system of 1 line serves all. "Next in line" is called out and you know who is next by virtue of your placement. There's no fairness in picking a line at a store because it looks efficient only to see 2 rows down another line opens and someone else walks up and takes the chance to be next.

I only speak of my weakness as it has been brought to my attention with our adoption. We started our paperwork, our dossier, with Christopher July 2011. We had high hopes and big dreams that we could be the exception and be done faster than any other family who had gone before. We were matched with him August 2011 and our dossier was off to translation and out of our control by October 2011. 3 1/2 months of preparing, gathering and praying and then we got in line, so we thought. Our dossier arrived in Haiti right around Thanksgiving 2011 and we had hopes that we could be in the system, IBESR, by February. That time came and went. Suffice it to say, our "Next in line, please" didn't come as planned. The circumstances were/are in God's hands and when Christopher's paperwork finally came into order May 2012, it was a day after IBESR closed their doors to new dossiers. ONE DAY! What a difference a day makes took on a whole new meaning. There was nothing to be done. August 16, 2012, IBESR reopened and we still didn't get called. We had to painfully wait until August 31, 2012 to take our place in line. 9 months after our dossier arrived. A whole pregnancy term, we waited.

That's where we stand. We are in the infamous black whole of IBESR awaiting Presidential dispensation. It isn't fair and the waiting is downright cruel when I think about it so I don't. Not very often. It's too painful. How I long to hear it's our turn to bring our little man home. It's time. At least that's my opinion. God's plans are far greater than mine and so we continue to wait.

I avoid crowds. I apologize if you happen to be in that crowd. I'm trying not to have a pity party over the unfairness of the system I feel our children are trapped in. Know that our family appreciates each of your prayers and well wishes. We do appreciate each of your lives that have played an encouraging role in this journey. As we wait, I am reminded that I am surrounded by others who wait, too. With bated breath, we all long to hear, "Next in line, please," that phone call telling us to make final arrangements to bring our children into their forever home. I do envy those who seem to have it easier and get through quicker than we have but I hold nothing against them. I rejoice with those who rejoice. I just long for it to be us rejoicing this Christmas season. I long for fairness in an unfair world and I cling to God's promises.

Isaiah 30:18-19
¹⁸ So the Lord wants to show you kindness. He waits on high to have loving-pity on you. For the Lord is a God of what is right and fair. And good will come to all those who hope in Him. ¹⁹ O people in Zion who live in Jerusalem, you will cry no more. For sure He will show loving-kindness to you at the sound of your cry. When He hears it, He will answer you.