Pardon me a little childhood reflection, please.  My Aunt PK took me with her to a lot of cool places when I was younger.  We went to late movies, to the mall, and on road trips together.  I loved being with her.  We would often roll down the windows and crank up the music and sing at the top of our lungs as we drove from place to place.  One of the musicians she exposed me to was Bon Jovi.  She even had a large poster of him (can you still buy those?) hanging on her door.  I thought he wasn’t much to look at, but I could belt out “Livin’ on a Prayer” like there was no tomorrow…

Well, I don’t really indulge myself too much in music like that anymore, but I did have a recent thought:  “Ohhhh, we’re halfway there…ohhhhh, livin’ on a prayer.”  Sometimes we live in moments, or challenges, or experiences that feel like they are going to last forever.  They aren’t.  I promise.  They are but a blink.  But they feel like forever.  Believe me.  I know.  I have felt those feelings.  But, my recent thought gave me a glimmer of hope.  What if I’m halfway there?  What if I’m over the hump?  What if the end of the trial is just around the corner?  I’ve made it halfway…probably the uphill halfway.  Maybe the next half will be fairly smooth sailing.  I’m halfway there!  I can do this!  I can finish this experience!  I am going to make it!!

So, live on a prayer.  Eat a little chocolate.  Talk to good friends who love you.  Listen to your favorite inspiring music.  And live Mpowered!  You’ll be glad you hung on…you really are halfway there!

Shanna is a loving mother, caring wife and works at one of our favorite doctor’s offices.  She brings color to the lives of others and uplifts and builds wherever she goes.  We’re so glad to have a guest blog from her today and hope you enjoy it!

Monday, January 4th was my son’s first day of preschool. I had a lot of mixed emotions, as I have always been a firm believer in staying home with your kids and raising them the way you want (with my beliefs and not someone else’s). Yet, there comes a time in their life when you have to start letting go and teaching them how to survive in this world and not hold them back from growing and learning, and playing with kids their own age. This last year, due to the economy, I had to go back to work. Even though I am very excited by my new journey, I still am a wife and mother trying to balance all that. My son wants to go to school, so I found a program that he will go three days a week. We prepared him for about 2 weeks before, but I think we were preparing ourselves more than him.

When we took him the first day, he was so excited–he even got out of bed on the first call–which is huge for him. We got up, ate breakfast, dressed him, read a Bible story, said our prayers and off we went. We took a few first day pictures. We were so proud of how big he was being. He said bye to us with no problem. It made us both kind of sad, but when you look at the big picture, we must have done something right for him to be so strong and confident in himself.

Parenting is not always easy, but if you just try your best and always put your family first, you can’t go wrong.

My name is Jill. My husband, Tyler, & I have three beautiful children (Anna – age 8; Keith – age 5; Kristina – age 5). We adopted the younger two children in November 2008 from Ukraine.

I want to share with you our story of this amazing adoption process. First of all – we’ve always wanted a big family. Both Tyler & I come from large families. Anna was born one year after we were married and she is a delight. From the time that she turned one year old, we struggled with infertility issues and were not able to have another child. For about two years Anna prayed every night for a brother and a sister. Then we discussed the idea of adoption. Shortly afterwards, I had a dream where I saw the outline of a little girl. She had blonde hair and was about 3 or 4 years old. We determined that we would probably adopt from Russia, since the girl was caucasion in my dream. I discussed the idea with my brother-in-law, Yury, who is from Belarus. He did some research and said that Ukraine would be a better country to adopt from than Russia. My husband & I prayed about Ukraine and felt overwhelmingly that it was where our children were. We decided that we wanted to adopt two children – a boy and a girl: one older girl who could play with Anna and a younger boy.

So, in a leap of faith we started the adoption process and chose our home study agency (Cherub International) and our placement agency (About A Child). Then I was talking with my friend, Valerie, who has adopted two special needs children herself – one from Uzbekistan and the other from Ukraine. She introduced me to the Reece’s Rainbow website – which has pictures of special needs children up for adoption in foreign countries. It was there in the siblings category that I first saw Nastya – and she fit the image that I had seen in my dream. I was floored! I couldn’t believe it. And when I saw that she & Nick were twins – I realized that God had answered my prayers. I had been praying for twins for 4 years! It was an incredible experience. I called Tyler, who was driving home. When I described what I had found, he felt God’s Spirit very strong and began crying. This confirmation united us in our commitment to making these children part of our family.

Tyler & I had discussed the idea of adopting a child with special needs, and we felt really good about it. So, when we saw that Nick has CP (cerebral palsy) and mental retardation – we were at ease concerning it. I have always been comfortable with those who have special needs – I’ve worked in nursing homes and became friends with those who had handicaps and truly enjoyed those wonderful people. Additionally, I want to share with you a promise that I made to God concerning special needs. When I was pregnant with Anna, the first ultrasound that I had showed some abnormalities in her head to body ratio. The doctor was concerned and scheduled another ultrasound for the following week after at a different facility. That whole week I was in distress, thinking something might be wrong with our baby. I finally prayed to Heavenly Father and told him that if it was his will for me to raise a child with special needs – that I would do it and that I would do my very best to raise him or her. The following week the ultrasound was completely normal, so I didn’t think about my promise that I’d made to God – until I saw Nick. And then I knew that I was being blessed with the opportunity to raise this boy and do my very best to help him have the best experience that he could possibly have.

And so, this was our goal: to adopt these precious twins and bring them home as soon as possible.