Alarm went off at 5:55am

6:45am: Tea and lemon curd sandwiches for two. (yes, i made Adam watch it with me)

8:18am: watching recap highlights with my fellow princess-lover

::squeal:: "Da princess and da prince! Dey are riding in a carriage!"



we heart wil and kate

Easterrrific!

Happy Easter!

Off to celebrate with the church... yep, she wore the gloves and hat nearly all day. "I'm a beautiful, lady."

Then Grandma H, Uncle George, and Aunt Sue came for feasting and the necessary egg hunt.

"One, two, thwee, fawer..."

 

The babies of the family.

During the egg hunt Grandma paid a visit to our neighbor's bird, Angel. They're old friends, I guess.

Found 'em all!

...and more of the dress... because it's Easter.

April Showers and Playing for Hours

Adoption Update: Two Thirds Done with Home Study

Start the song player on the right if you want to cry as you read. : )

Adam goes this week to his personal interview with our social worker, I went to mine last week. These weeks meetings establish who we each are and what makes up "us." If Eva was older she would have an interview too. To prep for the meetings, we each had to get background checks for the past three states we've lived in and write our "autobiographies."  I'm a hobby writer for sure, so it was a fun assignment for me. We had a list of questions to answer to guide the "story." In answering "describe your parents and family growing up," here is a small section of what I wrote:

"Mom set an infectious tone of hospitality, fun, and creativity which brought much joy to those who lived in and visited our home. Her joyful selflessness was a powerful example - I love to remember her singing loudly of her Savior over many a spaghetti pot. My dad was Mom’s perfect complement. He kept the fun orderly and the creativity from destroying the furniture. He was our dinnertime conversation referee, an excellent counselor, and ever-gentle leader.


The boys, my brothers, were affectionate and protective of my sister and I, and we girls enjoyed a world only sisters know.

Late March, 1990, I held little Elissa for the first time, and from that day on she would occupy a very special place in my heart. She and I were always together growing up, and most of the time we liked that. Sisters are treasures.

Each of my brothers also occupies a special place in my heart. Evan, being my only older sibling, was the one I so wanted to please. He was a lot of fun and easy to talk to growing up. My first little bro, Adam, and I fought for years, but now are very close. He’s fiercely protective, very loyal, and will never completely grow up. Joe and I always agreed on everything and we adored each other. He was the softy, a dreamer, and very affectionate with everyone. My little bro, Taylor, was the loudest, like I said, and so he was picked on a lot growing up by me and the others. Then God changed my heart, I became more of his defender, and ever since he’s trusted me deeply and we’re best friends. Patch was always full of joy and complements, had a kind heart, and was cute, so he got along with his sisters well. Each of the boys uniquely brought my life sweetness and fullness and learning to relate to them has helped me learn to relate to my own husband today."

oh boy. that family-missing ache just doesn't go away, does it?

After this week, we will be two thirds of the way done with home study. The last meeting will be in our home as our social worker makes sure we don't have open sewage running through the back yard. (that reminds me... we need to rent that porta-john)

I can't wait to see the "unknown path" unfold as we go from 3 to 4 Campbells. (and then from 4 to 5?) I pray that our little ones will have something like the sweet childhoods that Adam and I each had growing up.

Us crazies with our buddies Diana, Sheree, and Caleb Jacob in maybe 1996?

Adoption Update: First Home Study Meeting Today

Today we went to our first home study meeting at the agency and met our social worker (who we likey). We found out that if we've ever participated in a drive-by shooting, or plan to keep our new kid in a closet or weren't born with fingerprints we can't adopt. Thankfully, it looks like we're gonna make it thru alright. It was mostly mounds of paperwork and discussion of more paperwork and plans for additional forthcoming... paperwork. We handed over our financial records, IDs, marriage licence, and all that good stuff, plus she wanted to see that we have a family fire escape plan (ya mean somethin' more than 'RUN KIDS!' ?), look at our driving records, and sign us up for background checks. Good thing we're fine upstandin' folk.

Now I'm workin' on more stuff to hand over for my personal meeting with her in a little more than a week. Most of it is fun stuff tho, like specifics about how we plan on caring for Baby. I'm looking forward making our family profile book, composing our letter to the birthparents, and writing my autobiography. (seriously, it's required.) So there's lots of busy work to do. We'll have separate interviews, Adam and I, coming up, so we're comparing notes and even practiced interviewing each other today. Poor Huz, he's got all the detailed financial planning to do... tho he has a head for it. (Thank God.)

Our social worker said if we get our paperwork done quickly and our references (you know who you are) get back to her quickly and we can schedule our meetings then the whole process will go fast and we might be able to be all "studied up" in 6 or so weeks. Then we go on the waiting list (a 3-10mo. wait) to do the preadoption classes and get into the "waiting pool"  as I like to call it (a 1-12mo. wait). So it looks like it'll be hurry up and wait for us and that's just fine. We're SO excited to have and hold Baby, but we know God has that little one headed to us at a good pace and  tho I want to, I don't want to rush it. There's trust in the waiting and trust is something I wanna grow in. So, Lord, I say BRING IT! (in your timing, of course)

Goodbye, My Childhood Home

This weekend I'm in NC helpin' my folks pack-up to move in a few weeks out of the house that I grew up in. It's a bittersweet transition, but God has shown His tenderness and given much encouragement to all involved. I am going to miss this house tho. It's not the biggest house I've ever lived in, or the fanciest or something, but it was home for me for much of my young years and I'll always love it.

It's sad to not be coming back to it for Christmas and vacations. My favorite little pets are all buried in the backyard, my initials are carved in some of those trees too. The walls have dents from my laundry basket and notches where I proved that I was taller than my brothers (that was a long time ago!). The sidewalk displays my initials, the little tree I planted for Mom has grown up like I have, the stairway walls skinned my knuckles multiple times, and I'm still not telling where I hid the time capsule. I've definitely left my mark on this house and it's left it's on me. When I go home to my Virginia today, it will be the last time I close the front door of my childhood home. There's a lot of sweet and silly memories within those walls. From food fights to pillow fights, to composting in the turtle-pen (don't ask), to reading American Girl books on the catwalk with Diana, teaching Tay how to flip play pancakes in the cubby hide-out, sleeping crammed together on the lumpy futon with my Jeni and Liz, trying to be the center of attention at every teen party, family devotions around the breakfast table, the summer of ice cream socials, and the pressure washer shower head. I'm so grateful for the sweet family heritage that this house has been a part of thru the years. In this house I helped teach Patrick to walk, celebrated the "tube-sock Christmas," made best friends, gave my heart fully to Christ, graduated high school, learned to drive my first car, fell in love, got ready for my wedding, and introduced Eva to her great-grandparents. What a special place this has been and will always be.

So, dear old house, I leave my childhood and a little bit of my heart with you. Goodbye.

Adoption Update: Social Worker Assigned

We received a phone call a couple days ago from a social worker from CCDA (the agency we're working with) saying that they were eager to get our home study going and "get us into the system." Apparently they don't get a lot of applicants saying they'd be willing to consider most any baby, and they said we would be a "valuable resource to have on hand" for mothers that come to them. Sounds good to us! So we've been assigned a social worker (got the letter today), so now our home study can begin.



Doughnut Love

oh how he loves me : )

1,2,3... 4? Lord, please send us (soon) one more!

This has been a long time coming, but today is the day we get to take the first big step on our journey towards adoption. Adam and I have been praying, searching, reading, going to meetings, calling, studying, reviewing, praying more, talking, comparing, weighing, and praying again for about five months now about adoption and the who, what, when, and where of it all. This week we settled on our agency and were so excited to fill out their application and put it in the mail today together as a family. Our mail lady was even so kind as to take our picture. : )

In the next few weeks we will be assigned a social worker and begin the heaps of paperwork preparing for the first home study meeting. Please be praying with us for provision, direction, faith, and peace, as well as for God's protection and tender love to be on the birthmother and baby we have yet to meet. We don't know how long it will be before we welcome that next little one into our home (maybe by Christmastime, dear Lord?), but we'll keep everyone informed here on the family blog as we walk this unknown but (we pray) joyful new road.

    my Little Helper signs some paperwork with me yesterday

Adoption is such a beautiful picture of God's heart of love and we're so grateful to be able to pursue this path for growing our family now. For me, it has been a life-long desire, and for us as a family it's always been part of the "picture" we had in mind when we thot about what we'd like "us" to be. We're also so grateful to be walking this road with so many cheerleaders on each side. (That'd be y'all.) That baby, wherever he or she is, I know, is already so loved. Y'allguyses' (southern homeschoolin' there, for ya) love for us is truly amazing and completely faith-building. Already, before we even had a agency picked, the cheering and gift-giving began. How humbling and how sweet. Our dear Church Family stretches across states and even continents. We so often have our breath taken away by God's love thru so many. We love our Savior more because of you.  And we love you back, folks. Thank you. And thank you, Jesus, for giving your life so we all might be adopted by and reconciled with Our Heavenly Father who's love propels our own.

O LORD, you are my God;

I will exalt you; I will praise your name,

for you have done wonderful things,

plans formed of old, faithful and sure.

Isaiah 25:1

"And then the mail truck chugged slowly away, carrying within it's faded blue and white tin frame their postmarked hopes and dreams..."

this week's LOVE-ly busywork