Oxytocin.

Stella and I took a visit to Dover Women's Health to say "hi" to our midwife, Cindy.  It was wonderful to see her and to reconnect (and, no, there was no other reason I went to see her besides saying "hi!").  It is a fact that women who experience a natural childbirth also experience a surge of oxytocin, AKA: The Hormone of Love.  I was told of this before I gave birth...that you go from extreme pain to total love of everyone!  Obviously, this is God's way of helping women to connect with their just-born child - to feel a surge of love and acceptance for this little person that is about to totally change their life.  But oxytocin isn't blind, it also helps a women to connect with her husband, her midwife, her nurses and other folks who happen to be in the birthing room.  That was true of my experience.  I think it's probably especially powerful during a natural childbirth, which is all I've personally known.  I went from begging Cindy to "help me!" and to "get her out of me!" to absolute adoration of her for all HER hard work during Stella's birth.  I love how she helped me through and also got serious with me.  At one point I can clearly remember he saying, "Jenny, shut up and push!"  She spoke into the deepest places of my heart and knew just when to comfort, encourage and exhort.  Thank God for good midwives!  Thank God for Cindy.

A Day in the life of The Carpenters

Tim and I MC'ed our church's marriage retreat this weekend. We made this funny video as an icebreaker for the first night to show couples two extremes of married life.

Waiting is Hard.

Waiting is hard.  I could stop writing now and most people would agree with me.  

I think it's especially difficult to wait for something you feel God has called you to do.  Tim and I are both passionate about adoption but we have some decisions to make first and a few things to accomplish before we can move forward.  I'm thankful for this financial study we are doing right now and for all I'm learning - especially in regards to the topic of debt.  We have been so blessed to see God provide for us by eliminating Tim's student loan debt thanks to the incredible generosity of friends.  In one day our biggest debt was gone.  Now, we are trying to be faithful to pay off some very small debts before we feel it is wise to move forward with saving for adoption.  We have been selling possessions, putting all extra money towards our remaining debts, and we hope to be 100% debt free in the coming months.  It might not seem like a long time to wait, but when you're waiting on a child...and that child is waiting somewhere on you...it's an eternity.  I am praying God will provide the means to pay our debts so that we can start the process of saving for this adoption.  We are so excited for this adventure as a family and want to be faithful to live according to God's Word each step of the way...that starts NOW with this:

"Just as the rich rule over the poor, so the borrower is a servant to the lender."  Proverbs 22:7

We want to serve Christ and Him alone, that means we are committed to being fully debt free so that we can fully serve Him.

Halloween.

Halloween this year was amazing.  Trick-or-treating was rescheduled for today because of the big snow storm last weekend.  Stella isn't old enough to even understand the whole trick-or-treating part of things, so she was perfectly content to stay at home with me and hand out candy while Tim worked.  At the beginning, when there were only a few trick-or-treaters, she got really upset every time I would shut the door in between visits from neighborhood kids.  It took her a bit to figure out that I wasn't ending the evening by shutting the door!  She happily said, "Hi guys!" to each kid who came for candy, and she handed out the candy directly into their bags.  We went through our entire stock quickly because she gave so much extra to each person.  She would wave at them and say, "Bye!" as they walked away.  As we were nearing the end of our big bowl of treats, one of our neighbors, Cliff, came over to give Stella her very first lollipop.  She was amazed.  I'm glad it was toward the end because I think she would have quickly realized what she was handing out to every kid and she would have stopped being so generous!  

Stella feeds the dogs

Stella has a new chore around the house - feeding the dogs.
And as you can see, she's enjoying it...a lot!