Recent Schulz Sightings

Our house is just spinning in plans, supplies, and frantic activity!! We will probably travel to Kigali in about a week and a 1/2!!!

In other news, the Daddy Daughter Dance may be the highlight of Caroline's year. She fell in love with a dress with puffed sleeves and tulle at Costco. YIKES!! So, for $14.99, I indulged her in a dress to make my little "Anne Shirley" just tear up!

Speaking of tears... next year, Luc, next year. They have already discussed how they can both dance with Daddy, or one can dance with him and the other can do "spins" around him...

Andy is SUCH a great dad, coming home with roses for his date :)

not to be left out...

Sunday, I ran the Austin 1/2 marathon. This picture is awesome. I must be just excited about seeing Andy and the kids, but who runs like that? It looks like I overdosed on Prozac!

I ran with David and Grace Jamail who clearly made it entertaining!

Where are my running buddies?? I miss them!!

My rabid fans

More news on Rwanda to come soon!!

Whooo -Hooo, It's On!

February 18th has been a monster day in the Schulz home!

We got our referral for an absolutely adorable 7 month old little guy from Rwanda.
I can't get over how precious he is already.
I'm pretty sure I can post his picture, so her he is:
ok, I was wrong, will post pic when we pass court :)


We go get him a few weeks, after we pass court.

Holy smokes, I was expecting an 18 month old toddler, we've got a BABY coming! Better bust out the little car seat, bumbo and Super Baby Food book. Off to Target!!

I LOVE that his name is Moise, French for "Moses". I was wanting something in his name to be prophetic, and we chose to use daddy's name as his first and his Rwandan name as a middle.

How providential!

What a great day!!

18months that we knew this was in the plan for our family, but, planned from the beginning of time by His maker.

El Roi and my son

This past week the Lord was so good to clearly speak something to me I had not really paid much attention to before, but so crucial in our wait for our little Drew. Tuesday, reading in one of the most beautifully written books ever, A Thousand Gifts, Ann does an amazing job with the sovereignty of God in despair. She spoke of the story from Genesis 16 and 21 as Hagar once flees to the desert and once is sent there by Abraham. Hagar, an Egyptian slave, is in despair, impregnated by another woman's husband, God meets her there, comforts her and tells her to name her son Ishmael "the Lord hears". She names the well there, Beer-lahai-roi " the well of the God who sees", because "Truly, here, I have seen him who looks after me."

Thursday, I do my Precept study on the names of God and I start Chapter 4 "El Roi: the God who sees". Again, I study Hagar and Ishmael, now chapter 21 where Abe sends them to the desert with a bottle of water. Assuming the worst is coming, she puts her 12 year old son under a tree to die, "let me not look on the death of the child". As she wept, God heard Ishmael crying, came to her, and opened her eyes to a well of water, and "God was with the boy, and he grew up".

Friday, I traveled to Atlanta for this soul-filling retreat, Created for Care, with 250 adoptive moms. I was late. Plop down in my seat just in time for the phenomenal speaker, Susan Hillis, who says, "tonight we are going to talk about Hagar/Ishmael/the well..."

I just smiled. OK, Lord, I am listening.

Over the course of the weekend, He confirmed to me that adopting was his path for us, even as I felt at times completely overwhelmed by the information, wondering "what on earth are we doing?"

He gave me such a clear picture of Him, El Roi, seeing our son. God saw him when he was abandoned in a field, or at the orphanage gate, or behind a building. He saw, then protected and provided with a wonderful orphanage.

Even if his mom put him there assuming the worst, God was with him, and has a family for him. As he lays in his crib surrounded by 30 other babies all needing to be held, changed and fed at the same time, El Roi is there, he sees. His hedge of protection is around him now, even when I can't be.

God also broke my heart for the woman who unselfishly carried and delivered him. Chances are good, that, like Hagar, she was the victim of unjust circumstances, mistreatment, or abandonment herself. We will never know what those are, but clearly, despair had set in for her to abandon her son. I pray she, too, would be able to say,

"truly, here, I have seen Him who looks after me".

I pray protection and provision for her. I pray that she would know that,

"The name of the LORD is a strong tower;

the righteous run into it and are safe"

Proverbs 18:10

I hope that somehow, she will know that her son was seen by the Lord, and now has a family with 3 siblings and parents who know the mighty name of the Lord.

I've Met My Match

If I have ever given you any parenting advice,

I'm sorry.

I have no idea what I am doing.

A certain 2 1/2 year old has me running like a water-boy.

Although VERY cute and lovable, he daily does things like:

egg the kitchen (not hard-boiled)

pour cups of water out all over the house

scale the pantry shelves

squeeze out all makeup

take my phone in the bath

throws books at the lights in the library trying to knock them out, after jumping off the tables

pour the fireplace ashes out in the living room

and... last week, slip out of the house, without anyone knowing,

and try to follow me to the gas station on foot.

He got very close. Finding him where he was is my scariest experience as a mother.

So, advice anyone?? (besides a "backpack leash")

He's the one I could hear "who IS that child's mother?" I am always there, but apparently too slow or, heaven forbid, doing something with my 2 other children.

I am really trying hard here, he never stops!

I mean... how could you really be mad when this guy eggs your kitchen??

He really is adorable, I'll even rent him out for a day to entertain you too!

Imago Dei

From Dr. Tim Keller in response to Dr. Peter Singer from Princeton:

"If you don't believe in the image of God, what are you going to ground human rights in? You're going to ground it in capacities. If you can't protect the unborn you can't protect the newly born, you can't protect the mentally handicapped, you can't protect old people. It's a fact. It's logical. If you go back to the beginning of the Christian church, here's what you saw: they came into a Greco-Roman world that also grounded the idea of rights on capacities. Aristotle said that some races are too emotional, they couldn't reason because they didn't have the capacity for higher reason. They deserved to be slaves. And in the Greco-Roman world you had slavery, you had terrible poverty, you had lots of abortion, you had infanticide. It was perfectly legal…girl babies died of exposure. And you took the elderly and sick poor people and just let them die. And that was all legal; and it was done all the time."

Dr. Keller concluded:

"But the Christians came along and they believed in the Imago Dei. And because they believed in the image of God, from the beginning they were champions [of life] … they were totally against abortion, from the beginning. Because if you believe in the image of God you have to be… if human life is good, then nascent human life has got to be good. But they were also against infanticide. They were not one-issue people. They cared for the poor… They were champions of women; they were champions of orphans; they were champions of the weak; they were champions of the poor. And they were against abortion. And they put the rest of the culture to shame because of their belief in the sanctity of life."

"So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them."

Genesis 1:27

This week is Sanctity of Life Sunday. What if we put the "rest of the culture to shame" because of our belief in the Imago Dei?

No Objection!

We're approved!

The Rwanda government apparently feels we are an A-OK family for one of their precious little boys.
We are thrilled! It is really going to happen, we will have 4 little kids running around!
I already took Caroline for her Passport pictures, I can't believe she, at 7, will be going to Africa to bring home a little brother!
Lucy has been telling anyone who will look at her.
Our family is all abuz right now with preparations. Bunk beds and pulling down boy clothes...

By far and away the best prep-work I will have, is going to this retreat, Created for Care, Feb 4-6th. All adoptive moms, some with major experience (zillions of kids). The speakers are going to be wonderful and the breakouts are perfect for preparation. More about that later...

For now, we are just so thankful to be over the MAJOR hurdle!

Thank you Rwanda, I can't wait to know you.

Lift up your eyes all around, and see;

they all gather together, they come to you;

your sons shall come from far,

and your daughters shall be carried on the hip.

Then you shall see and exult,

because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you"

Isaiah 60:4-5

Christmas Wrap-Up

Christmas has come and gone once again.

This year it was different, though. The last few seasons I've landed on Jan 2 only to breathe a sigh of relief that I made it. I was tense and exhausted. Of course with three little kids with no real schedule for 3 weeks, some days were a struggle, but we tried really hard to not focus on the sibling fighting and normal frustrations and have thankful hearts. (I also kept running and taking my Vitamin B :)

This year we slowed down. We bought fewer presents for us and family, and did it all online. The kids got one Santa gift and then they "bought" a gift for everyone else in our family and got a great stocking.

We did an Advent gift for Jesus every week where we gave him a birthday gift via the "least of these". An inner city ministry, Glimmer of Hope water well... The girls started to enjoy this, a tradition I think we are going to love. Like a Secret Santa :)

My favorite part was doing our nightly Jesse Tree time with the girls. I made the Ann Voskamp devotional into a spiral bound book, glued the paper ornaments onto blocks of wood, painted some sticks white and put it in our entryway. Every night we counted down Christ's coming starting in Genesis, working our way to His birth. The girls really loved our time, we were able to be consistent because we put very little on the calendar.

We went to church in December with my parents, sister and brother in law. Felt right for Christmas.

Andy took Preston to the Fire Department-they rode in the engine, sprayed water everywhere.

We cut down our tree in Elgin with family

We went to dinner with good friends

I took the kids ice-skating

Yes, Lucy is scooping up the dirty ice and licking her hands.

You would NOT have believed Preston. He put on skates and marched out so confident. He LOVED it!!!

We went to Duncanville Christmas day to be with the Schulz family. 7 cousins, 2 more coming!

All in all it was a great season.

Now we fly in 2011 renewed and expectant that God is going to do great things!!