2020

Randy and I have entered the Home Study phase of the adoption! The first step in the Home Study process is a study of our hearts. We were asked to write a personal statement about our motivation for adoption. This was a powerful exercise, challenging us to look deep into our hearts and our histories, to uncover a story that God has been weaving all along. This is our story. OUR ADOPTION STORY My (Katie) mother was a kindergarten teacher for 25 years. During that time she often shared her concern for the children that she taught, and how her heart made her want to bring many of them home to experience the love and care that every child deserved. This planted a seed in my heart at an early age for the many children in the world whose biological parents can’t take care of them. When I became an adult myself, a few months shy of graduating from college (March 2002), I became pregnant. I always assumed I would have children of my own, and was thrilled at the prospect of becomin...

Lent -- the 40+ days leading up to Easter -- is a big deal to me. God always nudges me toward something that will draw me closer to Him and His will for my life. One year I read through the entire Bible in 40 days. Another year I walked across Spain, meeting and marrying my husband. Last year I donated $40 a day to 40 different organizations. And this year I felt God leading me to prayer. Because the theme is 40, I felt challenged to pray for 40 minutes a day for all 40 days. Confession: in every Lenten season I have fallen short of my goal. I did read the entire Bible, but it took me slightly longer than 40 days. I did walk across Spain, but again, it took more than the alloted 6 1/2 weeks. I did donate to 40 organizations, but I got derailed last year when my grandmother died, so those donations ended up being spread out over the course of several months. And this year? No exception. I started off strong. And so did God. I kept a notebook handy because he was so chatty. But the...

On March 1, while I was driving home from a church meeting, a black cat crossed my path. I wouldn't call myself superstituous, but I noticed the cat. I noted the color. And I wondered if, on some plane, it could be a bad omen. An hour later my dog got run over by a car. While driving to the veterinary hospital I told Randy: "I'm not saying it means anything, but a black cat ran in front of me while I was driving home earlier." Later I told a woman about the cat. "It's only bad luck if he is running from the right to the left." "He was," I said. "Oh," she replied, suddenly serious. We made more trips to the hospital -- both to the veterinary hospital and the human hospital -- in March of 2019 than we have in the entirety of our 5 years together. Cinnamon spent a week in the hospital, undergoing hernia surgery because her insides had more or less been torn in two. The week after she was released we were back at the h...

You may have noticed that I was a little grumpy during our last 2 legs. I certainly did. And Rand seemed a little grumpy too. When I approached him about it he said, "I'm thinking about what we are going to do when we land... where we'll live, what I'll do for work..." We hadn't been having nearly as much fun as we'd had in the beginning, and the biggest reason for that was because we were so much in our heads. Randy was thinking about how he was going to take care of us once we got to Ohio. And I was thinking about the kids we'd left behind in Mexico. We received an email in May letting us know that Mari, one of the dorm moms in Mexico and the daughter of the administrators who we worked closely with, had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. She'd lost her vision and was preparing to start chemotherapy. Our hearts broke, and mine was still broken a month later. I felt so helpless, unable to do anything for my friends, unable to ...

When we crossed the border from Colorado into Arizona, we left mountain life behind and entered into canyon country. We were barely 10 miles into the state when we came across 3 kids (20-somethings) who had gotten their U-haul stuck when attempting a u-turn. They were moving from Denver to Phoenix, but had apparently gotten confused about which way was south (navigating in mountain-free Arizona is very different than navigating in mountain-saturated Colorado!). Randy spent the next 2 hours helping them dig their way out of the soft Arizona sand. But when the U-haul was finally free and back on the road, they discovered they had run out of gas. We wondered if this ominous beginning was a foreshadowing of our time in Arizona, or perhaps about the future of these 3 in Phoenix. Anxious to see something of this beautiful state, we made our way to Canyon de Chelly. Which really was beautiful, yet not quite as beautiful as I expected, what with the way people rave about this place. ...

Neither Randy nor I have spent much time in Colorado, so when we started looking at the map, we were overwhelmed by how much there was to do. From National Parks to state parks to monuments and museums, it seemed like we could spend a month here and not even begin to see all that Colorado has to offer. Not to mention the sheer beauty of just driving down the highway, passing one mountain range after another. And yet, what we really wanted to do was go to church in Parker with a group of people who had come to San Felipe last October on a mission trip. We made so many incredible friends while in Mexico and we were anxious to see some of them. To reminisce about what an amazing place Sonshine Hacienda is, and to pray together about what God is doing next. So we made a beeline from Albuquerque to Denver, stopping southwest of the city to go to Crossroads Community Church on Sunday morning. The church has 4 services—so a ton of people go here—yet while standing in...