Long Overdue Update
This update is a long time coming, firstly because there have been a lot of changes in the past few months, and second, because after so long an absence, I wasn't sure what to say.
We'll start with the month of April.
I was hired on to be a shop-girl for Jellybird Signs to help out during show season and in April, I was offered a permanent position. It has been amazing working with her and being a part of her workshop. Show season was much more intense than I realized, working late and long hours, along with helping Walker+Cole sell at shows on the weekends. I am so blessed to be surrounded by creativity, inspiration and laughter at a job I love.
My Grandma celebrated her 90th birthday. We all gathered in Monterey for the festivities. For the first time in decades, I was able to see the majority of my cousins, most of whom are scattered through the US and Canada. We had so much fun discovering things we had in common - looking at the dessert menu first, needing a lot of sleep to function, a love of photography and travel - and catching up with everyone.
Onto the month of May.
The beginning of May passed by in a blur as my mom had an unexpected hospital stay. Mornings were spent in the hospital with her, then working in the afternoons. My dad was a rock and helped my mom with anything she needed to recover. It was hard seeing someone who was supposed to be invincible look so frail as she fought to get better. She was surrounded by prayer and over the course of 7 weeks or so, has regained her health, spunk and love of chocolate.
For the past few months, Christopher has been pursing a career change. It had become clear to us this needed to happen, not only to financially support our growing family, but also to give him a chance to pursue other passions. He had networked, interviewed and applied with no doors being opened, so we began praying and thinking about alternative ways to accomplish this. Through extensive research, he narrowed down the search to a 3 month data science immersive at General Assembly who reports a 90-95% success rate in helping graduates land jobs in their field. After a long application process, interviews and pre-work, he was accepted into the program and slated to start class early June.
Speaking of June...
Christopher did start classes, five days a week, this month. He's been testing different routes to find the best communing options and spending weekends doing homework. The material moves quickly and is a lot to take in, but he's enjoying it.
So, what does that mean for us, our family and the adoption?
Well, simply put, it means we've placed the adoption on hold while Christopher finishes the program and finds a new job. The stress of switching careers and job hunting proved greater and longer than expected and we've found we need a small break to give him time to do school and me time to fundraise. Our agency has been wonderful through this decision, encouraging us to follow God's plan for our family and more importantly, His timing. Back in April, I felt God was telling us that this process would take longer than we originally thought and that was ok. When we first began, I thought I would rush us through the process as soon as possible, completing paperwork ahead of schedule and and move mountains to have Baby Shoe home. Instead, I've found this process is slow, waiting is an action and patience is necessary. Even the things I could "control" and move at a quicker pace, we didn't. I'm not sure why exactly, but every step of this process is designed as a fail-safe and can be emotionally draining. So after reflecting on my original expectations and the reality of where we are, I knew God was saying to wait. It was such a relief to tell our agency that we needed some additional time and be able to take a breath. I know God has the perfect child out there for us, maybe they need a little more time too.
See you soon, Baby Shoe...all in God's timing.
We'll start with the month of April.
I was hired on to be a shop-girl for Jellybird Signs to help out during show season and in April, I was offered a permanent position. It has been amazing working with her and being a part of her workshop. Show season was much more intense than I realized, working late and long hours, along with helping Walker+Cole sell at shows on the weekends. I am so blessed to be surrounded by creativity, inspiration and laughter at a job I love.
My Grandma celebrated her 90th birthday. We all gathered in Monterey for the festivities. For the first time in decades, I was able to see the majority of my cousins, most of whom are scattered through the US and Canada. We had so much fun discovering things we had in common - looking at the dessert menu first, needing a lot of sleep to function, a love of photography and travel - and catching up with everyone.Onto the month of May.
The beginning of May passed by in a blur as my mom had an unexpected hospital stay. Mornings were spent in the hospital with her, then working in the afternoons. My dad was a rock and helped my mom with anything she needed to recover. It was hard seeing someone who was supposed to be invincible look so frail as she fought to get better. She was surrounded by prayer and over the course of 7 weeks or so, has regained her health, spunk and love of chocolate.
For the past few months, Christopher has been pursing a career change. It had become clear to us this needed to happen, not only to financially support our growing family, but also to give him a chance to pursue other passions. He had networked, interviewed and applied with no doors being opened, so we began praying and thinking about alternative ways to accomplish this. Through extensive research, he narrowed down the search to a 3 month data science immersive at General Assembly who reports a 90-95% success rate in helping graduates land jobs in their field. After a long application process, interviews and pre-work, he was accepted into the program and slated to start class early June.
Speaking of June...
June is also Chris' birthday month, and we celebrated by taking some time to explore Long Beach. We went to the Long Beach Museum of Art for the first time and I fell in love with the piece right in back of us. It was so simple, just dyed strings of yarn hanging from the ceiling, but the colors were so striking. Chris fell in love with Bake N' Broil where we had apple pie and suggests every date night now includes said pie. I am not opposed to that idea...that pie was amazing.
Christopher did start classes, five days a week, this month. He's been testing different routes to find the best communing options and spending weekends doing homework. The material moves quickly and is a lot to take in, but he's enjoying it.
So, what does that mean for us, our family and the adoption?
Well, simply put, it means we've placed the adoption on hold while Christopher finishes the program and finds a new job. The stress of switching careers and job hunting proved greater and longer than expected and we've found we need a small break to give him time to do school and me time to fundraise. Our agency has been wonderful through this decision, encouraging us to follow God's plan for our family and more importantly, His timing. Back in April, I felt God was telling us that this process would take longer than we originally thought and that was ok. When we first began, I thought I would rush us through the process as soon as possible, completing paperwork ahead of schedule and and move mountains to have Baby Shoe home. Instead, I've found this process is slow, waiting is an action and patience is necessary. Even the things I could "control" and move at a quicker pace, we didn't. I'm not sure why exactly, but every step of this process is designed as a fail-safe and can be emotionally draining. So after reflecting on my original expectations and the reality of where we are, I knew God was saying to wait. It was such a relief to tell our agency that we needed some additional time and be able to take a breath. I know God has the perfect child out there for us, maybe they need a little more time too.
See you soon, Baby Shoe...all in God's timing.
Comments
Post a Comment