oh what up Spring?

Spring is here.  

I decided it was time to get my hands dirty...

(and go on another Instagram binge)

and plant some new flowers for my hanging baskets, 

some new basil for my kitchen window...

and a plump Ranunculus for my desk.  

I look forward to watching it bloom while I plug away on more paperwork for Ren boy.

Tee-tee had a good time while we were outside planting this weekend.

The girls and I stayed home from church yesterday morning because Tess is bit a sick.  Chris went to teach Sunday school, and I set the girls up to watch Tangled--a gift from Uncle Sean--for about the 14th time in three days.  I get suckered into watching it with them every time...especially the scene with the floating lights...it makes me cry every time.  (Dude, how do these Disney movies un-glue me?) That scene is such a vivid display of how we hope and dream for things...and how we fear what will happen if those things don't end up being all that we'd hoped for.  I love Rapunzel's innocence in this scene.

The first time I saw Tangled was over Christmas when we took Tess to see it in the movie theatre.  I blubbered like a baby.  It was right around the time that Chris and I had decided we were gonna file our adoption paperwork.  I was a mixture of scared, excited, hopeful, joyful, and massively emotional.  I felt like I was seeing the world in a new light for the first time in a long time...like God wanted to use us in a significant way to shine His light in the world.  The lyrics...and at last I see the light...and it's like the fog has lifted...and it's like the sky is new...those words felt true in my heart, and it felt really good.  

Anyhow, yesterday afternoon we all hung out here and let the girls play outside. It was one of those April days when "the sun was warm but the wind was chill," like Robert Frost says. I made afternoon coffee for Chris and I. I love making coffee for two.  It's one of my favorite things about weekends.

I was flipping through an Anne Lamott book yesterday and she writes, "Spring is sweet, the baby season; summer is the teenage season--too much energy, too much growth and beauty and heat and late nights, none of them what they are cracked up to be."

I have loved the past few weeks here...digging in the dirt, planting, watching how my flower buds change each day.  I'm enjoying the warm, wet days, mindful that all too soon the dry summer heat will set in.

On Friday afternoon I received our official, final, edited, revised, approved copy of our home study.  It's been a long time coming.  This morning I will take it, along with our completed I800A-form, and go to the post office to mail it off to immigration!  I'm thankful to have this next step finally in process...and praying that immigration doesn't take too long.

I talked with our China case manager on the phone last week and she said she can start looking for referrals for us. I am excited...hopeful...trying to be patient.

What is being birthed in you this spring?  What is growing?  What do you want to plant?