Long time no post...

Well, it's been a very long time since we have posted on our blog! I can't believe that we haven't posted in about 3 years now.  It's crazy how time flies when you are having fun!  Well, Claire is 3 now and full of personality and spunk!  She is potty trained (except for nap and bedtime) and she sleeps in her big girl bed every night.  I cannot believe how fast she is growing up!  It seems like yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital.  Mike and I also train and compete in triathlons and have recently made a huge change in our eating habits as well.  We really enjoy the healthy lifestyle that comes with this sport and are enjoying competing in races together.  Here are a few pics of our family:

As you can see, a lot has changed in the past three years.  Our adoption has changed as well.  As you know, the plan was for us to adopt from Ethiopia.  We got weekly updates from our adoption agency and it seemed that the wait time for a child from Ethiopia kept getting longer and longer.  We spoke with our case manager from All God's Children International and were informed that the wait time for a child from Ethiopia was 4-6 years.  This was back in January/February of 2014.  We were given the option to transfer to another country or wait and see what happened in Ethiopia.  We prayed about it and decided to transfer to Bulgaria.

We started the paperwork process over and got all of our needed information for our dossier sent in and are officially on the wait list for Bulgaria.  We are currently in the process of updating some of our paperwork for Bulgaria.  We are excited and can't wait to meet the second child God has for our family!

~Tam

Daddy Daughter Day

So this past Friday was my second Daddy Daughter Day! I have a work schedule that allows me to be off every other Friday which allows me to spend the entire day by myself with my lovely daughter Claire.

This day was definitely a special one, a day that moved my heart! To me, the below picture confirms the importance of the role God has blessed me with in my daughter's life. Simply stated, this role is to BE her Dad. To be her protector, to be her knight in shining armor, to be THE example of what she looks for in a boy she dates (30 years from now of course :-).

Holding the mirror on her play mat, my phone, and getting both of us in the picture took bit of work!

As God's timing is always perfect, at church last week I got to hear a great message on parenting. I've heard parenting messages before but had never taken notes as I could not directly apply what I had heard to my life (probably a mistake in hindsight). Well you can bet I was taking notes now and this time many of these concepts I had heard before took on a whole new level of meaning.

I am writing these down now to not only share them with you (and with Claire when she is old enough to read them) but to also hold myself accountable to them.

• Continually tell Claire that I love her because she is mine. Although I will praise her for many things in her life, she needs to know that my love for her is because she is mine.
• Let Claire know often that I love being her Daddy.
• Teach Claire to guard her heart!
• "Don't bail, let her fail". I know this is going to be a hard one but my goal here will be to accept that she will not be successful in everything she does and to let her learn about herself and life through this process.
• Being organic with Claire in the pursuit of loving people and reaching out to those that do not know Jesus Christ.

Welcome Claire Hannah Tisdale!

It has been a long time since our last post but our lives have been a bit busier lately.  That's because two weeks ago on February 21st, Claire Hannah Tisdale was born.  She was 6 lbs. 2 oz. and 19.75 in. long.  She is healthy and growing daily!  Below are some pictures we have taken over the past couple of weeks. Enjoy!

Heading home from the hospital.  The green blanket she is wrapped in was hand made by Mike's mom. 

Bath Time!!!

Tucker wanted to snuggle too!  LOL!!

 

Sweet baby girl!

Well, here we go!

It's that time in this dad's life where I've got that nervous yet excited look. Tam went into labor in the middle of the night last night. So far everything is going well and we are keeping our fingers crossed it remains that way.

We appreciate your prayers as we go through this together and we will update later with pics of our little Claire!

All wrapped into one

     Well, it has been a while since our last update.  Things have been crazy and busy around here with the holidays fast approaching. 
     As far as the adoption goes, we are officially on the waiting list!  Woohoo!  We had our USCIS fingerprints done last week and now we are waiting on our Favorable Determination Letter from them.  Then we will send that last piece of paperwork on to our agency and after that we wait....and wait...and wait.  The picture below wraps up everything that has been happening.  It is officially our last picture as a family of four.  It shows me at 29 weeks and the numbers hanging from the dog's collars (which they are loving as you can see) tell where we are currently on the waiting list for the adoption.  Blue=boy, Pink=girl.  We have a two year wait from now.  Well, it will give us a chance to focus on our little girl coming in February. 

 

     Speaking of our little girl, she is still growing and doing well.  We picked out a name a few weeks ago:  Claire Hannah.  We like Claire because it is a name that you don't hear much these days.  Hannah has special meaning.  We wanted our daughter to have a middle name from Ethiopia so that she would have something in common with the baby we adopt.  Mike found a list of top Ethiopian girl names and Hannah was on the list.  Also, the transition home where our adopted child will be before we go meet him/her is called Hannah's Hope.  We both thought that was a perfect middle name for little Claire.
     In other news, I had my first bump  in the road with the pregnancy in the past couple of weeks.  Two weeks ago, I took glucose test #1 and did not pass.  I was devastated and totally freaked out until my mom reminded me that I am not in control, God is.  She also reminded me to pray about it and just trust Him.  Wise words indeed.  The next morning I was still really worried and upset about the whole thing because I just had a feeling that I probably had gestational diabetes despite the fact that I hadn't taken the second test yet. 
     While sitting at the table that morning eating breakfast, I opened my Bible app on my phone and read the verse of the day.  It is from Jeremiah 31:3 and it says:  "The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying, 'I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.'"  It's amazing the moments that God sweetly reminds us of his love for us and that He is always with us. I decided in that moment that I would trust Him to take care of us because I know He knows what is best for us.
     After taking the second glucose test, I found out that I didn't pass that one either but it wasn't as hard for me to get that news because I had already decided that I am not in control.  I will be attending a class at the Women's Hospital to learn about nutrition that will be good for us and I will also have to test my blood sugar levels 4 times a day.  In short, it is easy to manage.  That is a huge relief for me.
     We have also been busy getting Claire's room ready for her...when I say "we" I really mean Mike.  He has painted her room and is busy working on the trim that will go on the walls.  I plan to order decals in a pink jungle theme to put on the walls.  It is really starting to look like a nursery.  I can't believe that I am already 30 weeks along today.  It has gone by so fast.  Pretty soon, we'll be posting pictures of our beautiful baby on our blog.  Well, this has been a really long update but thanks for hanging in there until the end to read all of our news.  Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!