One Step At a Time

In case you're wondering, this is NOT our child.  But, I AM a proud new auntie to my little niece Rylie Spruill Ellis (born April 10)!  Since the day she was born, Talen & I have only missed seeing her for 2 days.  Yep.  This auntie/cousin duo gets to love all over this little sweet pea almost every day...one of the many benefits of my sister living just a smidge off the 'headin' home from work' path.  Since I'm so proud, & I think there is no cuter baby alive on this earth, I felt the need to share her awesomeness with you all! :)

On to the topic at hand today...

I had the privilege of speaking with a lady from our church that has walked the same path that I've already walked (infertility) & am now embarking on (adoption).  If I ever questioned whether it was necessary to find a 'journey friend' to walk beside you through either of these ordeals, last night answered that question.  I know that Jesus is enough for all things, but I also believe that He gives the gift of earthly friendships to give us that extra boost of energy we need to finish out a particular task.  I NEEDED last night in order to give me the boost I needed to get over the initial overwhelming feeling about what tasks are before me in order to expand our family by means of adoption.  It was SO helpful having a person to identify with me about all the mountains & valleys of our life the past 4 years, as well as paint a picture of what my next several months or years may look like as we wait for the right baby.  The best piece of advice she gave last night: take one step at a time.  What a simple piece of advice, & yet it was just the piece of truth I needed to hear.  Anybody reading this that is struggling under the weight of a heavy burden, my advice to you is to share your story.  This person approached me after hearing the cliff notes version of my story in an e-mail.  Boy am I glad I wrote that e-mail to ask her a question!!!

Jonathan has been a SUPER partner to share the journey with, but for anybody that knows my husband (or most guys for that matter), after about 3 minutes of listening to me talk non-stop about new tips, opportunities, discoveries, completed paperwork, research, etc regarding our upcoming adoption, he's checked-out to some tropical happy place.  After dishing to him last night about all the goodies I had learned that day, I finally had to ask the question "Are you hearing me?"  It's good to ask this question occasionally in order to help me evaluate whether I've communicated to him in HIS conversation style.  The answer is almost always 'no' since I'm the "gotta tell the WHOLE story without leaving out ANY of the details" kinda girl, & he's the "get to the point" kinda guy.  After his affirmation that he DOES want to hear everything, just in a different style, I've decided on a new way to share with him my daily discoveries:  Sticky Note conversations - make a bullet-point list of all the learnings, write only what I can fit on a standard sticky note, share those things with him, then ask he'd like to hear any more detail about any of those learnings.  Do you think he'll ask for more detail from me, the queen of long stories? ;)