So here I am!  It has taken me eight years to get here but I am finally participating in the blog world by contributing instead of just partaking.  I admit I made fun of Blake in his early days of starting his blog.  I asked him why he wanted to write a dairy for the world to read.  I didn’t get it.

Then I was hooked after reading his first few posts.  I would check his blog daily for updates and began critizing him when his posts were infrequent.  Now, I am not one to spend hours roaming and reading blogs.  I have a short window of blog time after my kids have gotten in bed and before I spend some down time with Blake.  But during that time I have gotten to know some folks through the blogosphere I would never have met otherwise.  (Well we still have not met.)

My eyes have been opened to others lives.  I can learn so much about the world and the needs of others outside of my little bubble.  I can keep up with a family in Haiti serving in one of the most desperate places in the world.  I can hear all about the journey of a family of 9 in Nashville living out the call of Jesus on their lives.  I can read about young Katie and all her kids in Uganda Africa. I can keep up with friends and family through reading when we don’t always have opportunity to talk daily.

So why am I blogging now? I guess this is my small way of sharing what God is doing in our family while connecting with others. I’m not making any promises about how often I’ll post, but I’ll admit I have plenty of ideas swirling in my head right now. And if you have any questions along the way, please leave a comment for us below. And hopefully through our family blog you’ll get to know the kids as well.

Right now I’m sitting at Little Dooey’s (Mmmm) in Columbus, MS. Bev and I drove down for our adoption interviews. Earlier today we met with our case worker together for a bit just talking over some information, then I left and Bev started her interview. I’ll go back and then I’ll go next, then we’ll have a short, joint interview to finish things up. And if they don’t think we’re too crazy we’ll have our Home Study scheduled next!

But how did we get here? What made us even consider adoption in the first place? There are usually mixed responses when people find out we’re in the adoption process. It’s usually either “That’s awesome/exciting!” or “Oh. Really??? Can you not have any more the “regular way”?” But rest assured we can (I assume). It worked three times before!

Back in late 2009 we went to a gala in Memphis put on by Bethany Christian Services. And it got me to thinking and chewing on some things that had never really been on my radar. But I didn’t know if it was just all “in the moment” of the event or if God would continue to stir our hearts about this.

Then two months later Aaron Ivey‘s band came to Oxford to play a concert. Both Aaron and his bassist, Steven Bush, have adopted before. I knew Steven through interacting with him on his blog, and I was able to sit down with them after the concert. The conversation I had with them was pretty laid back, but then I had a question or two about adoption and things turned serious too. Still laid back, but quite serious in nature. And some of what Aaron and Steven had to say continues to bounce around in my head even today.

Aaron and his wife Jamie Ivey had a boy, then adopted a child, and then adopted two more from Haiti. So they went from one to two to four pretty quickly. And I asked Aaron about his thought process of taking on more and more children and how to be the best “steward” of his parenting…resources? Mainly meaning time and attention to give to his kids.

He said that when he had two children and was in process of adopting his son Amos from Haiti, he and Jaime got a call from the orphanage in Haiti with the need of a family for a little girl. Her situation was pretty bleak. Aaron said that when orphanage presented her needs to him, he didn’t have to stop and think about whether or not he’d have time to be be his sons’ t-ball coach or not. He knew that this little girl needed a family to love and nurture her and show her Christ. So the Ivey’s said, “Yes.”

That stuck with me for a while. Still does.

And over the last year Bev and I have had conversations with people who have adopted both domestically and internationally. We have people close to us who have adopted. We’ve read blog after blog and story after story of adoption journeys. And we’ve prayed earnestly and sought God’s heart and feel this is where He’s leading us right now. And this verse has stuck in my head an awful lot too.

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. James 1:27

So I’m about to close my laptop, wipe the bbq sauce off of my face, and go back to the agency to do my interview. But that’s a quick glimpse of how we got to where we are. I could ramble on more later about it. And I’m sure Beverly will have her own thoughts as well.

After thinking about it for quite a while we finally did it. We started a family blog.

I, Blake, have been blogging off and on since early 2003. But I’ve talked to Bev now and then about starting a blog where she could share her thoughts and ideas as well. So after tossing the idea back and forth we finally went for it. And here we are.

I expect that this will be peek into what life has been keeping us busy with. It’s likely to be church, or soccer, or Mississippi State, or running, or going to the swimming pool, or visiting grandparents, or whatever else we’re dealing with. Right now a big thing on our family radar is adoption. So as we head to Columbus for our “formal interviews” this week I expect you’ll start getting some background on our journey so far and what’s to come after this.

Rest assured I’ll never refer to my kids as DD or DS. And I’ll shut the blog down if Bev ever calls me “hubby”.

If this is your first time here you might want to read about us here. Rest assured that the look and feel of the place will change a bit as we gain some momentum and traction with blogging. And hopefully you’ll be seeing lots of pics as well.