7 Quick Takes Friday

These are all going to be adoption and foster care themed because that is what is on my mind right now. I'll try to be brief.

1. Some part of the egress window is on backorder until November 10. I don’t even want to talk about it. It is no one’s fault; it just sucks. I’m going to call our licensing worker to see if there is anything we can do in the meantime to keep things rolling. Pray that it does not get delayed anymore, please.

2. Some people are going to need to see our lives as foster parents lived out before they come around to supporting us and I need to be okay with that. Some people may never come around and I need to be okay with that as well.

3. Something to think about: you would not imply to a person who comes to adoption through infertility that they are not a real parent. You probably should not imply or state this to someone who comes to adoption through a calling or by choice. It seems to be a cultural myth that pregnancy and child birth are necessary for bonding and maternal love.

4. Something I find myself praying for the kids and their birth parent(s) lately is: Lord, help me to see them as You do. My guess is all parents would benefit from this prayer at different points in their childrens lives.

5. I just listened to Pastor Joel's sermon on parenting from a few weeks ago. One of his points about parenting was that it is stewardship, not ownership. Your kids belong to God, not you. Sometimes you are going to have to let them fail or get hurt and sometimes you are going to have to let them go.  So whether kids are with us or with birth parents or with a family member, it does not change to whom they belong.

6. On Wednesday, I was lecturing Marcia about letting go of her plans and resting in God's plan, even if she does not like it or know all the details. It's point number six and I'm still thinking about the egress window. Mmm, taste of my own medicine.

7. Isaiah 1:17
Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.

*Seven Quick Takes Friday is hosted at Conversion Diary

This American Life

I've been a huge fan of This American Life for few years and have recently converted Dan into a faithful listener as well. Ira Glass is at the top of my list of people I would love to meet.

We were fascinated by the information in two recent episodes about our health care industry. I think regardless of where you fall on this health care debate, these two shows would be really beneficial to hear.

You can listen to them online here...
Episode 391: More is Less
Episode 392: Someone Else's Money

Style Friday

Having recently discovered Ohdeedoh and Apartment Therapy, I find myself full of inspiration for this little house of ours.  Our bedroom could use just a little bit of work.  Currently, all Dan's clothes are in the guest room (soon to belong to a kiddo or two) and they need to find a new place.

We have a great bed from Pottery Barn that we love because it provides us with extra storage space.

Our bed is centered under a window and, due to the placement of a vent, it isn't quite up against the wall. We have not purchased a headboard.  I love the look of fabric ones but I think this is an interesting idea too.

  

We could also use some better night stands.  The ones we have right now are just big enough for a lamp, alarm clock & cell phone.  We could use some more storage for books. I'd like to get something like this.

These would do but if we have enough space I may give this night stand project a try.  

I am sure our biggest challenge will be our tiny closet.  I have high hopes of getting most of mine and Dan's clothes into it somehow.  I guess people just did not own as much stuff in the 1950s because the closets in this house are small (I even measured it tonight. It is 51 inches long and 22 inches deep).  If I was Betty Draper, where would I put all my dresses?  Those things look like they take up some space. We will probably end up with some type of closet organizer but let me know if you have any great ideas.  I think we both should probably go through our clothes and determine what is really necessary to start.

Did You Want Something to Read?

A few things we've seen on the Internet this week that we wanted to share with you:

• A sweet celebration of adoption at Adoptive Dads (you might cry...I did).
• The frustrating things that are said to adoptive parents and transracial families (makes me want to scream).
• An awesome song by Shaun Groves that he wrote for his friends/family who stood by him through his depression.  I highly recommend you read his series on his experience. 
• A documentary about Rosie Thomas (that I want for Christmas). All you indie music lovers will be interested.
• And, another great post from Sweet Juniper.
  

That's all!

Marathon Weekend

It was a big weekend.  After months of training, Dan completed the Detroit Freepress/Flagstar Marathon.  He finished in 4 hours and 10 minutes!  Yay, Dan!  It sounded like it was pretty rough and he says he is done with marathons.  I was able to see him cross the finish line which was fun until about two seconds after he crossed and I could tell he was not feeling too great.  Due to the barriers there were set up I could not get to him right away.  I don't think he actually needed me but I was annoyed.  We finally met up at the end of the barriers and he was able to sit down and rest.  I'm pretty proud of him but I am fine if he never does this again.

I also participated in the big day by walking the half-marathon with a few friends.  It was a beautiful day for a long walk. We finished in 3 hours and 16 minutes.  I had a great time seeing different parts of the city that we do not normally get to see.

My walking buddies.

You can watch us at the finish line here.  My group is in the video entitled "Detroit Marathon 3:14.30 - 3:39.57".  We finished at 3:37 clock time; I'm wearing a blue hat and I come across with four other women.  Dan's in the video entitled "Detroit Marathon 3:40.26 - 4:40.06" and he finished at 4:15 clock time. You can tell it is him because he checks his watch as soon as he crosses.

Here is the marathoner after we got home and he got a little rest in the car:

Dan's watch the was keeping his time.

In other big news this weekend, my mom and I were able to attend a fashion show at Somerset hosted by Tim Gunn of Project Runway.

Make it work, people.

Who Are You?

I always wonder who is reading our blog. I know there are people from 35+ states and several countries who have visited. Heidi and Molly both gave me the idea to let you have a chance to identify yourselves.

I started following Heidi's blog when her sister-in-law (who is a friend of mine) gave me the link. It turned out that we are neighbors. And I don't know Molly in real life but have gained a lot of insight on grief and being a good friend through her writings. As she says, "You may be a stranger, but you're not a stalker."

So, we would love to know who you are whether you know us in "real life", know someone we know or don't know us at all.

Just leave us a comment with who you are and any other information you want to share.

Our Family's Foster Care/Adoption Timeline

I thought it would be interesting to keep track of foster care and adoption experience through a timeline. Here is the first post but I'll keep a link on the right side as we add to this.

Summer 2000: God puts adoption on Krysta's heart through seeing a family adopt and through a missions trip to Jamaica.
2002/2003: Krysta starts praying for a husband who wants to adopt kids (among other qualities)
June 2003: Dan mentions to Krysta he wants to adopt kids someday in awkward one-on-one basketball game; Krysta makes mental note of this.
July 2003: We start dating.
August 5, 2006: The Mr. Daniel Baughman Family begins.
Late 2007/Early 2008: Krysta starts listening to Foster Parenting Podcast (FPP) and promptly forces Dan to listen as well. He agrees that it is awesome.
Spring 2008: We decide that we definitely want to become foster parents and eventually adopt through foster care system in the future. I (Krysta) start emailing T & W incessantly with questions. They are kind enough to answer.
July 2008: While on vacation in California, we meet T & W of FPP. We decide that we will start the process after our third anniversary.
Fall 2008: We read, pray and continue taking in all the information we can about foster care and adoption. In October, we attend Together for Adoption conference in Greenville, South Carolina.
January 2009: We’re not that patient. We bump up our start date to start the process.
February 2009: Krysta slightly freaks out at the thought of becoming parents and, once again, Dan is the voice of reason.
March 2009: We attend foster parenting orientation.
April thru August 2009: We complete our training with local foster care agency.
September 2009: We have our first home study and find out that we need an egress window in our basement to become licensed.

Adoption Stuff (and a little bit of gloating)

UPDATE (10/6/2009): Estimate is in for the egress window and we are going with it.  God has graciously provided in making the final cost be exactly the amount we have saved up.  Looking forward to getting this done ASAP.

Last week, I went on a long walk with Piper.  I grabbed my iPod and scrolled to the Family Life podcast where I found that the most recent episode was entitled "Embracing Adoption."  Family Life is a great organization who has continually encouraged Christians towards adoption through their Hope for Orphans campaign.  In fact, several years ago I was able to meet Dennis Rainey (President of Family Life) and he said that if Christians really wanted to do something to end abortion, they needed to start adopting.  I was instantly a fan. 

Anyway, back to my walk. The episode featured Dr. Russell Moore (you may remember that Dan started reviewing his book a while back) and he was telling the story of how God provided for them to adopt from Russia.  It is a great story and it did not take long for the tears to come (because that is just how life is for me now).  And then I realized just how crazy I must look to the kids who were getting out of class for the day as I walked by the local high school.  So, I pulled myself together because I did not want anyone to think I was totally nuts.

This weekend also happened to be the Together for Adoption conference.  Last year, we had a great time but we could not make it this year.  However, we did enjoy tweets from the conference while we were watching the Spartans dominate on the football field (I had to work that in here somehow).  One of the tweets, from the conference linked to this video and I thought I would show it here.



I'm looking forward to catching up on the audio from the conference this week and, hopefully, writing a bit about it here.

Two more quick things...

If you are on Twitter, you really should be following Dr. Russell Moore.

And, GO GREEN! GO WHITE!

Birthday Dog

Piper is two years old today.

Happy Birthday, buddy!