3 years ago today, WonderGIRL and WonderBOY got to come home with us. The first couple of days were a lovey, chaotic blur. Interested in the whole story? Click here to relive that weekend.

Saying yes to “an short term” emergency weekend stay for the Wonders was preceeded by an activity inspired by a church sermon at Cornwall, encouraging us to surrender our plans and our control to God. These paintings were an artistic outlet for me in processing that message and making it apply to my life. Little did I know that three days later, I would be asked to surrender in a HUGE way and then be rewarded in an even GREATER way than I could have imagined. (Also surrendered in the process – sleep, scrapbooking, my sanity, faith in my abilities to keep a kiddo with trauma safe, time to get ready, and date nights but who’s keeping track). We have created so many fun memories together on our “live-a-versary” celebrations (monthly for the first year and now annually) – the following pictures are from our secret weekend field trip from last year to Seattle. The year before that, we traveled to Friday Harbor, a favorite date spot of Scott and I.This year, we will have a quiet celebration at home followed by a bigger celebration this coming weekend as we get to celebrate our official adoption and welcoming our loved ones to our new home.

Funny story – I’ve been trying to plan our adoption party for quite a few months now…..venues and dates just never seemed to work out for all sorts of silly reasons. In hindsight, I attribute this to another reminder that God is in true control as now we have the perfect “party house” for the perfect “party” reason on the anniversary weekend of what turned out to be the perfect way for us to start our forever family – all which were causing my constant need for control personality quite a bit of anxiety. Perhaps I need to listen to that “I surrender” message a few more times…..