Sweet Celebrations

This week we celebrated Valentines Day at school.  My sweet kids showered me with gifts, the SWEETEST notes, and TOO MUCH CHOCOLATE!  We knew that just as we would announce and celebrate with my kids if we became pregnant, we would do the same with our adoption news.  I decided that since my kids were already hyped up on excitement and sugar, why not throw some SUPER exciting news to the mix!!  We played "happy heart" {our Valentines version of hangman} with all 40 kids in one room.  My Ah-Ma-Zing partner teacher and friend captured their excitement.

Check out the video of them finding out that Mrs. Ferraris is adopting a BABY! :)

This was such an incredible sweet moment.  These have been my 40 children over the past 5 months and they were celebrating the new addition to our "family".  A few of the responses I remember hearing over the excitement were "You are going to be a mom?!?!?!  You are going to be the best mommy!  I want to babysit them!  Are they here now?!?!  I hope we get to meet them."  {I am telling you guys, this sweet baby is SO SO loved already and doesn't even know it!}  I wasn't sure how this conversation was going to go, as adoption could easily be a foreign concept for an 8 year old to understand, but the conversation was much like any other pregnancy announcement.

Do you want a boy or a girl?
What are you going to name him or her?
If it is a girl you should name her {fill in any princess, pop singer, TV star name here}
If it is a boy you should name him {fill in any superhero name here}
Do you have a room for them?

Then one sweet boy said: "How do you know you are going to adopt a baby if they are not born yet?"

What I wanted to say was, "We know God loves us and has BIG plans for our future.  We fully believe in our hearts that he will provide this for us and trust in His goodness," but I settled for "An organization helps sweet mommies that want to find someone to take good care of their baby, so they are going to help us find that mommy."  And I am so thankful for both of those answers!!! :)

My prayers have been so surreal lately.  Through infertility, I never felt I had the chance to actually have something or someone to pray for {other than praying for God to make me pregnant}.  Lately I have prayed for our sweet baby.  I have prayed for the courageous birth mom that has a hard road ahead of her.  Although I have NO clue who or where they are, I know that He does, and because of that, I have such a peace.  I thank God for giving me peace during this unknown time in our lives and growing me in my faith.

At church today we had another powerful message where our guest speaker Jonathan Martin spoke on the Surviving the Shipwreck.  His message was this - "There WILL come a shaking to us.  We WILL be shaken up in our lives.  We NEED to be shaken at times in order for the Lord to expose the treasures inside of us."  This is OH. SO. TRUE. Yes, infertility sucked.  It was hard watching everyone else get what I wanted.  It made me question many things.  It broke my heart.  It caused me anger.  It drew tears from my eyes.  I was shaken over and over and over...But, it also opened up this incredible gift.  Since we decided to adopt, I have grown so much in my faith.  I have had to be humbled {multiple times}.  I have learned that His plans are SO much better than we can imagine.  I have opened myself up to be vulnerable and exposed.  I have heard from so many how much our story has inspired others.  I would have never {EVER} thought I would have been telling our story for all to hear and I thank God for exposing these treasures in me.


"6 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. 7 I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty. 8 ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty. 9 ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”