Hi everybody!  My deepest apologies for not having written sooner.  If you noticed on my Home Page, we have had a major change to our household!  This is not an EXCUSE for not writing at all, but an excuse for not having written sooner!  Very soon, I will update my photo album with photos of our new addition and will also include the testimony of his arrival.  Our son, Christian, was born September 14, 2004 and came home to us at the end of June 2005.  Now I know I'm his Mom, but he is THE most precious little boy in the world...(I know all us moms feel that way about ours).  He is a such a joy and a delight and so much fun!  Of course, after 10 years of infertility and nearly 13 years of marriage, adding a third member to the family was a shock - especially since we had only FOUR DAYS to prepare!  Yes, I said FOUR DAYS!  After waiting for 10 years, God didn't give us nine months to prepare, as is typical, He gave us FOUR DAYS!  I will share more on that later, as it was an absolute miraculous series of events that lead to his arrival.  He is a GIFT OF GOD to us....we know that and thank God for this gift every day and we thank his birth mother for entrusting him to us as his parents.  While I'll never fully understand the 10 years of crying out to the Lord and wondering "why" He wasn't giving us a child, I know now why we had to wait.  God knew Christian was on the way and that he would be ours.  One of my FAVORITE quotes of all time was spoken by Susannah Spurgeon and it is this:

        "It is a mercy that our lives are not left for us to plan, but that our Father chooses for us; else we might sometimes turn away from our best blessings and put from us the choicest and loveliest gifts of His providence."

A-h-h-h-h-h....I love that!  Our Father knows the plans He has for us and they are the VERY BEST things that could EVER happen to us, if we will just sit back, trust in Him and watch them unfold.  The pain, the sorrow, the waiting, the questions, the hopelessness, the despair....He sees it all and is moved with great compassion.  In fact, I can just imagine Him thinking throughout those 10 long years..."Oh, if she only knew the package I have waiting for her....just hang on, Shannon. It's under the tree...I just can't give it to you quite yet.  This journey is for a reason..."  I am eternally grateful that he saved our choicest blessing for "such a time as this." 

OK, I can't see the screen now...the tears are flowing, so I better close.  I will try to do better at updating my website so that you can enjoy this journey with us.  : )