The Stockings Were Hung by the Chimney with Care...

The decorations are up at our house and we excited about the beginning of the Christmas season. As you can see, 5 stockings are hanging this year in anticipation of the newest family member. 

We spoke to the adoption agency today and were told that it will probably be several more months before we travel to Russia.  This was not music to this waiting mama's ears.  I've been hoping for a referral before Christmas, dreaming of filling a stocking for our child this year.  It looks like that dream isn't going to be a reality for 2011. 

In spite of this disappointment, I must hold on in faith that God's timing is perfect.  Having battled with God over my desire to control timing throughout our infertility struggles, I realize that this is something I must surrender to God, knowing He knows what is best more than I can even imagine.  Still my heart aches for a child who lives right now on the other side of the world, waiting for a family. We are waiting with open arms.  Tonight, 4 year old Dylan prayed, "God, please bring our orphan here so we can be with him forever!"   This is my prayer too.  I pray that God "parts the sea" of bureaucratic red tape and brings our child home sooner than expected.  Please pray that our child is brought home soon. 

The race is over!

The Chosen Marathon for Adoption was yesterday!  As an adoptive family, the experience of being part of this race was amazing.  When we learned of this months ago, we debated and prayed about participating...on the one hand, we are runners and running in a race to both raise adoption awareness and to raise money for our adoption made sense.  On the other hand, as someone who sometimes struggles with accepting help from others, we debated getting others involved in the adoption in this way.  In the end, we decided this was a great way to use a hobby (and passion, in my case) of ours to educate and get others involved in an even bigger passion... our passion for the children in the world without a family! 

Now that the race is over, I think I can honestly say that this race was an amazing experience!  As a runner, I usually walk away from races with a runner's "high" but yesterday's experience was different.  My high was not about what I accomplished (although I will proudly tell you that I came in 1st place in my age 30-39 age group for the full marathon) or about being proud of Brent for completing his 2nd half marathon, which is no small feat.  My high is about everything else this race was about.  The race raised $150,000 to help adoptive families afford the high costs of completing an adoption.  The race gave me a chance to see other adoptive families and hear about the passions of others who are adopting.  I saw many volunteers very sacrificially give their time to support the race as a whole and our family personally in our adoption journey.  And, Brent and I experienced the support of our friends and family in an amazing way.  I know that many special people in our lives love the child who will soon be a part of our family, even though none of us know who he or she is yet.  The generous donations of our friends and family have raised more than $3500 so far toward our adoption.  Also, five of our friends: Joel Verinder, Allison Parker, Gene Wilkes, Mark Housewright, and David Morales, took the time and energy to train and then travel to run with us on this special day.  We feel very loved and supported.

As I ran toward the finish line after running 26.2 miles, the street was lined with large posters with photos of adopted children, reminding all of us of why we were running.  Seeing the faces of those children and receieving a unique finisher's medal (a bracelet made by children in a Haitian orphanage) gave new meaning to why I was running.  This race was not about me or Brent, it was about all of the children in the world who need a family and about the chance to be a part of something that is taking a small step toward helping give a family to some of those children. 

 People wrote messages about why they were running on these posters, which were

 displayed at the race!

 Dinner out with Allison and Clay Parker and Baby Deacon the night before the race. 

We stayed with Mark Houswright.  David Morales, a friend we havent seen in a few years, travelled from Corpus to run with us!  It was great to see him.  

 Getting ready to run the morning of the race.  Our pastor, Gene Wilkes, travelled to run with us. We appreciate the sacrifice of his time and energy on a busy weekend! 

 Team Bowen! Ready to run at 7:00 am.  Left to right:Brent Bowen, Mark Housewright, Gene Wilkes, Ann-Marie Bowen, Allison Parker, Joel Verinder.  David Morales was there, but we couldnt find him in time for the picture!

 After the race: Gene and Mark waited with Brent for me to finish the full marathon after they ran the half. 

 Getting my trophy for winning 1st place in my division.  I can't wait to tell the story of this race to our child one day!

Ramblings about Life, Running, Adoption, and other Deep Thoughts

Hebrews 12:1-3 "...let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith... so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."

I did a 22 mile training run this morning as part of my training for the marathon for adoption (http://www.chosenmarathonforadoption.com/) that we are running at the end of the month.  For me, long runs, alone tend to lend themselves to deep thoughts. This morning, while running for 3 hours and 22 minutes, I spend a lot of time thinking about why I'm running, what it has to do with the adoption adventure we are experiencing, and how that relates to life in general.

Today's run was rough on me... not just because it was 22 miles long, but because the weather was less than ideal (38 mph winds, 88% humidity, 73 degrees...any runner will tell you this is not ideal running weather).  So, today's run was a test of endurance and perseverance for me.  As I ran, I thought about how life really is an endurance race.  Sometimes the race of life means working hard over time, other times the race means waiting patiently over time.  I've never been great at either.  I want what I want when I want it.  While I think this is true of most of us, growth means working through this.  And, for me, joy and peace come as I surrender this desire. 

This is one of the biggest things running has taught me.  God has used long distance running to help me learn endurance, perseverance, and taking life "one step at a time."  I can't start a marathon focusing on mile 26 or I wont take the 1st step... it will be too overwhelming.  And, this same attitude is the one that I must have as I approach anything big in life. 

So, how does adoption fit into this? Its a long road. Right now, I am having to persevere in waiting patiently for the news that we can travel to meet a child who I feel bonded to, despite the fact that I know nothing about this child.   Waiting is hard.  It is hard on the whole family.  Dylan asks regularly, "Can we go meet the orphan today?"  Maddie had a bad dream the other night that someone else took her brother or sister in Russia.  My human nature that wants things in my time wants to know when the next step is so I can plan accordingly.  But, just as I must approach a long distance run one step at a time, I must face this journey toward our child in Russia one day at a time.  Its a hard lesson to learn but one worth challenging myself with.  God's promise is that I fix my eyes on Jesus and His plan each step of the way, I will not grow weary or lose heart.

...and I raise you 13.1

(Brent here...) As many of you know, Ann-Marie and I are running in the Chosen Marathon For Adoption (www.chosenmarthonforadoption.com) in New Braunfels, Texas at the end of October.  This race is a means we decided to use to involve our friends and family in our preparation for the adoption,  by  raising emotional, prayer, and financial support.  Ann-Marie and I both signed up for the 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles) and will be connecting with several friends who have signed up to run with 'Team Bowen'.  We are really looking forward to the race and spending some time with friends.

So race training has been underway for a while, and I am ahead of schedule for where I was hoping to be at six weeks out from the 1/2 marathon.  I did a 1/2 marathon a couple of years ago and took the training a bit lightly and paid dearly for it on race day (and for a couple of days after race day for that matter!).  In contrast, Ann-Marie, an avid runner, is perpetually trained for a 1/2 marathon as she typically runs about 22 miles during the week and caps it off with a 12 mile run on the weekend.  I know...it's crazy.  Well, she stepped up the craziness a couple of weeks ago by casually throwing out the idea of adding the extra 13.1 miles to make her run a full 26.2 mile marathon.  Sure...why not...and why not just go ahead and solve cold fusion and the Rubik's Cube while your at it.  Although for an experienced runner like Ann-Marie it is certainly possible to do an accelerated training program, it is still pretty daunting (the typical marathon training schedule is about 4 months).  Daunting enough that she could use a little extra incentive to pull it off.  I was thinking that it would be a great motivator if some of you donated $26.20 to the adoption to give her some extra encouragement.  Here is the best way to do that.  Browse to http://www.bethesdafund.org/ and follow the instructions to donate.  Make sure and put "Team Bowen" in the special instructions.  There is about a month delay before we are notified of donations, so you might want to send Ann-Marie a note (bowens99@verizon.net) and let her know that you are enabling her addiction to running.  By the way, if you are a runner and want to get in on the race, it is not to late.  We'd love to see you in New Braunfels. 

Let the waiting begin...

We receieved an email from our adoption agency that the last of our paperwork arrived in their office. Our representative told us there is nothing else for us to do at this point! So, we offically begin the wait for the Russian governement to match us with a child! 

Psalm 38:15  "LORD, I wait for you; you will answer..."

Want to Run?

As many of you have heard, Brent and
 I are participating in the Chosen Marathon for Adoption at the end of October. We are very excited to have the opportunity to take one of our (my) passions (actually, Brent would disagree that running is a passion for him and would probably label it as an obsession for me...) and use it as an opportunity to promote and support orphans and adoptions!  Brent and I are both running the half marathon and have a few friends signed up to particpate in Team Bowen too.  Its not too late to sign up! Let us know if you would like to partipate or if you would like help getting trained.  The proceeds from the race will go directly to help with the cost of our adoption.  www.chosenmarathonforadoption.com

Picturing in my Head...

Thanks to another family who has adopted from Russia twice, we found out this weekend that there is a Russian website that has photos and descriptions of all the Russian children who are eligible for adoption.  Last night, Brent and I poured over the photos of children in Kaliningrad, realizing that one of the photos we were looking at is a picture of our child! It amazes me to think that God knows who will be in our family in the near future, calling me "mommy".

I recently took the kids to have their pictures made. As I selected pictures to purchase, I realized that the next time we do pictures, we will likely be taking pictures of 3 kids, not 2!  So, I sit here, trying to imagine whose face will be in this picture this time next year...