Lori Florida

Some news is just too juicy to keep to yourself.  Like a grade-school girl with a secret, almost before the news has time to settle in your own mind, you're imagining how fun it will be to tell someone else.  Know that feeling??  I've got it right now.... God's Word was juicy today.  My devotions need to go public.  It was so good I had a hard time forcing myself to finish and hear everything God wanted to say to me before I jumped up to tell you!  I need to share God's amazing-ness before the awe wears off!  I hope you're familiar with the concept of a mental train because I'm gonna take you for a ride on mine!  I apologize in advance for the jerks and jolts along the way and warn you that when you're on my train, in my brain you need to be ready for unanticipated jumps of the tracks and flights of fancy, so buckle up! If you've been watching my blog for long, or spending time with me in person during the last year, you'...

I've been in a perpetual state of "on the verge of tears" for the past year.  It's my new normal...and I really like it.  Well, I don't like the "cotton behind my eyes swollen headache" feeling that always comes with it.  But I do like the "I am so in love with and in awe of this God who's doing stuff that my heart might burst" feeling that gets left behind with the headache.  Here's some of the moments over the last week that have made my girls ask me if I'm ok... One afternoon I got a text on the way to pick up my girls from school.  It was a friend asking me if I was there yet....  I wasn't and wondered what reason for meeting up with her I was forgetting.  As I parked, she ran up to my window with a paper envelope and a fabric envelope, one from her son and one from her.  She gave me a smooch on the cheek, ran back to her car and pulled out of the lot before I got the envelopes open. ...

I sent a $5,787.76 check to Bethany Christian Services today with "Florida Family Adoption" in the memo line.  Sent chills down my arms!!  This thing is real!  All these papers, checks, prayers and checklists WILL turn into a sweet little person in my arms someday....ok, just added a lump in my throat to the chills on my arms! Sorry it's been so long without an adoption update....it hasn't been because God's stopped working, He's like the energizer bunny!  It's because I keep waiting for the perfect creative, stress-free moment to craft an update that's all packaged up pretty with a ribbon on top.  Not waiting anymore...you're gonna have to be happy with whatever I can slap together in the next 20 minutes while trying to keep "messy house ignoring" blinders on!! The update can be summarized like this...."It's pointless to keep wearing mascara because God keeps doing stuff that makes me cry!"  Today Ginger saw me tearing ...

Today's the day my baby girls no longer have enough fingers to show their age.  And it's unlikely that such refined, grown-up ladies will whip off their shoes to throw a toe into the mix! Izzie & Chloe's birth story is so much more than the incredible story of their birth.....it's the story of a really sweet Heavenly Father who heard the secret longings of my heart and gave me the cake with the fancy icing and the cherry on top. I recently found a letter that I had written to a friend a few years ago who was worried about a pregnancy she thought was in trouble.  I told her my story.  Listen in.... I have to tell you that I really know how crazy and awful your heart felt this weekend... I've got some stories to tell you about my life!  One of the points our pastor made in the sermon this Sunday was that when we are going through troubles, God comforts us, not just to make us comfortable, but so that we can comfort others.  I thought right away of th...

I've found myself breaking out into tears over a lot of simple things today.  The more everyday and normal a thing, the more golden it seems and teary it's making me. Our church family lost a good man today....a good man who was a good husband, a good father.  I'm married to a good man.  I'm feeling how every simple action I'm taking would have been totally different if my good man had been the one to take his last breath today.  The tears that came without warning as I pulled toast out the toaster today were because everything, ev-er-y-THING, would be wrong, off-kilter, horrifying if I were doing it with the ugly knowledge that I was making one piece of toast less than I made yesterday. I find myself imagining the pain his wife and girls are feeling tonight as they're faced with the sun going down on the day their good man died...and it stops me in my tracks taking my breath away.  How do you sleep in a bed alone with the worst pain you've...

Can I just say that I love potlucks??  I really love them.  I love the anticipation and day-dreaming about lovelys I'll get to put on my Styrofoam plate.  The old friends are routinely there, like warm flannel pj pants..... cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, baked beans...  But it's the new loves cuddled up in their Tupperware that draw me like a hummingbird.  I love trying new foods.  I love trying at least one bite of things, just for the bragging rights....toad stir-fry, chicken hearts.  I think this side of me was born when my Dad dared his 10 year old Lori to eat a frog leg and 14 year old Lori to order Wild Boar off the menu.  It's especially fun if I'm not quite sure what it is!  (The only time this didn't work out so well was in Thailand....found out into the second bite that the sweet little dumplings in my soup weren't dumplings, but blood clots. My apologies, if you're snacking while reading...)  Th...

Got the email this past week....not THE email, the one with a picture of the cutest baby in Ethiopia attached....but the email with another attachment called 'The Completed HomeStudy.'  This is a big deal!  The giant first step. It was a strange feeling to read a boiled down 10 page version of my life.  I felt like I was on a ladder peeking into my own windows.  If there ever was a "long story short," this is it.   Our social worker did a really good job pulling the marrow out of our interviews and leaving the rest alone.  At one point, social worker Kim asked Scott what originally attracted him to me.  The HomeStudy reads , "   Scott was attracted to Loretta’s love for God, her family, and her willingness to pursue fulltime ministry. "   I like that, sounds good for Pastor Scott to be attracted to his future wife by such things.  The whole story's just un-necessary....I mean really, who in Ethiopia needs to know...