December 12----a day to remember!

Friday was a FANTASTIC day in our family... December 12 was the day our family officially became "paper pregnant" with our next child!

Solomon continues to call future babe a baby sister but we have no clue! I just wanted to share this exciting part of our journey! 

From here the paperwork trail continues like this--> Paperwork to Government of Saskatchewan --> our agency (Mission of Tears) --> overseas to South Africa and into the hands of the amazing social worker who will match us with our child. And this is where we wait....we wait for the call that will again forever change our lives. 

We have no time frame really but the fact that our paperwork is on its way is quite exciting! 
As we continue into this journey if you pray could you please cover these requests in your prayers:
... for our future babe--wherever he or she may be that she is loved, fed and kept safe!
... prayer for Solomon that he will be ready to welcome home a sibling when it is time. 
... prayer for all the details to work out smoothly (finances, paperwork....)


God goes before us every step of the way. We completely feel at peace (most of the time) about this whole process and trust that God will take care of us. This isn't always easy but its the truth. 

  So do not be afraid. I am with you. Do not be terrified
    I am your God. I will make you strong and help you.
     I will hold you safe in my hands. Isaiah 41:10

Doors and Windows

When one door closes, look for a window to climb through.

Well, today we got an answer to prayer. Not necessarily the answer we were hoping for but the door was closed and now its time to move on and pray, trust and believe that God has this all under control. I always want to try and be optimistic and positive but this post may end up not being so.

Today was a long day.... work, pick up son (with insane traffic), take him to gymnastics, meet at Costco, head to a party with friends and finally home... Not only was today seeing that door close but I was exhausted! These are hard days and I try so hard to stay positive but sometimes you have to be allowed to feel sad, exhausted, disappointed etc. God doesn't expect us to be perfect and happy and optimistic all the time. We are human. We are allowed to feel emotion. But what I always hope to do is trust and rely on God during those moments of doors being closed, moments of feeling exhausted, moments of fear or questioning. 

He is with us all. the. time. 

On a more positive exciting note--our dossier will be ready to send by Monday!!! Meeting our social worker to sign off on all documents, I photocopied like crazy today to get them all ready and we will put them in the big yellow envelope to send off. This is an exciting time with many questions, wonderings, fears, stress and anticipation. If you are a praying person please consider praying for a few parts of our process:

1. For our child-- wherever he or she may be that they are safe and loved. Pray that during this part of their lives there will be people who can build into them and that they will know the love of Christ.

2. For the officials all involved-- that our paperwork would go through smoothly without any hiccups.

3. For finances-- as many of you know international adoption is a worthwhile investment. We couldn't imagine building our family any other way so as we begin the process of fees pray that finances will come together one way or another. (Stay tuned for some fundraisers)

4. For our family-- prayer for Josh and myself as well as Solomon to prepare ourselves to welcome another little one into our family whom we love so much already! Solomon keeps saying little sister when we talk about it but pray that he will have an understanding when it is really time to meet our little babe.  

Thank you for listening, praying and caring! 

Be Blessed--- when doors close always be ready for something more than you expect. God works in amazing ways!

~shaeline

who will love the least of these?

I struggle on and off with handing over my fears, worries and questions to my God. He tells us over and over to trust Him, let Him take care of us because His plan is good. It is better than good-- it's amazing! And so when I forget to hand over my life, every aspect of it, to my God I experience this doubt and that is exactly what the enemy wants. I need to stand strong and I need to pray daily to let God take control of my life. I don't get to ask once and let it be... this is a piece of me that I need to continue to strive towards day in and day out.

 I know we are walking God's plan for our life and I know that the plan for our family is to grow through adoption which we are so excited about, but that doesn't take away the fears, worries and questions that I have. I just need to remember to completely let go, trust God and jump in with two feet. He has got it handled and He has called us to love the least of these. My son, Solomon, is so loved not only by us but by our God. He was not forgotten and we are so thankful for that! 

I have listened to this song, Kings and Queens by Audio Adrenaline, over and over and experience different emotions every time. I have joy, sadness, love, excitement, doubt and it all happens over again. But I hold on to the reminder that we were those orphans until we were adopted into God's family. He loves us no matter what and He clothes us in His majesty. What could be better than that?

be blessed
~shaeline

Moving Forward...

In the past year we have been so blessed by our son, Solomon Owami. He is such a delight to us and to many others! God has truly given us an amazing gift of becoming parents. I could go on about this topic and I will in another post at a later date but until then...

As we continue to learn more about parenting the son we have been blessed with we also continue to follow Gods leading into moving forward. In the past little while we have been feeling and experiencing God preparing us to continue expanding our family. He doesn't promise that it's going to be an easy decision, an easy journey or an easy experience but He does promise to be with us through the entire thing. God has been leading us down a path that we are excited to share!

Solomon is gonna be a big brother!!

We are ADOPTING....again!

We are excited to begin this journey again to meet our next little addition into the Stromberg Family!

          Little one-- we love you already!

Celebrations

Celebrations

It has been another long "break" since I last wrote on my blog and I apologize for that! I do plan on creating certain times per week to take a break, slow down and share about what God has been laying on my heart. I hope to share on a variety of topics that have grown in my heart or have been there all along. 

BUT today is a beyond special day for our family! 1 year ago today we met our son (in the flesh) in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It wasn't our official Gotchya day but we consider today our family day as we celebrate the journey of how we became parents to this beautiful boy. Today in Saskatoon it felt like it was going to snow and my husband and I were reminiscing and remembering how hot it was the day we got to meet our son. We arrived in South Africa a day earlier than expected and so we actually got to meet our son a day early which was an unexpected blessing. 

The day of meeting our Solomon Owami:
We woke up a little bit late as we were adjusting to time change and our gracious host at Heaton Cottage allowed us to have a late breakfast. I was so nervous and excited that I hardly had an appetite. We were then told a bit later what time our social worker was coming to pick us up. 3:00pm could not come soon enough. We wandered the grounds, read (at least tried to), chatted about how we were feeling, had some snacks and finally 3 pm arrived and we were on our way. With our camera in hand we took about a 15 minute drive and arrived at the home our son had been raised in for the first 14 months of his life. We got out of the car, walked up to the gate and this is what happened:

And now a year later he is the light of our lives, he makes us smile and laugh daily, he is so gentle, caring, affectionate, warm-hearted, funny, is quite the character and soaks up information like a sponge. He continues to love playing with balls, trucks, cars, airplanes, trains etc. and loves music (play, sing and dance). We are beyond blessed to have this little man as our son and we thank God for choosing us to be his parents daily. 

A year later this is our beautiful boy:

(Baptism and Birthday Weekend)

He LOVED camping!!

Thanks for sharing in our ups and downs when we started this journey 3 years ago and we are so excited to share our lives as we continue striving to live the life God is calling us to live. 

be blessed.

Shaeline

{summer fun}

Well, I think its time to catch you up on some of our summer activities we did as a family this year! When we looked at our summer in May it sure didn't look very busy, but then low and behold it of course got busy :) The business was all good but still busy. So to recap I will go back to July.

In July we had our camping trip as a family at the end of June, then I had the privilege of shooting a wedding on July 1! It was a beautiful day and a more beautiful couple! July was a bit quieter with doing yard work, getting our grass to turn green :), and enjoying some quiet time as a family. It was a busier month for Josh at work so evenings were often quick. At the end of July we had the RUN143 event of the year. It turned out to be a beautiful day! To see more about this event click here.

Then August hit-- the month of the countdown until I started work, every weekend we enjoyed something but it all started off with a wonderful family trip! We headed to Calgary to see my brother, sister-in-law and adorable niece. We enjoyed a few days with them and then headed off to Waterton for some family time in our favourite place! It was so great to be in the mountains on our son's 2nd birthday!!! We enjoyed every minute together and love seeing how our little man has flourished over the last 10 months!

{a little photo shoot with my adorable niece this summer}

  {They started to learn how to get along :) }

 {He's TWO!!!!}

{first of many family hikes!}

{Celebrated our little boy with pancakes, a family hike, spray park, pizza, ice-cream and throwing rocks.... an amazing "first" birthday with our boy!}

 {helping Daddy}

{Until next time Waterton} 

We continued our August with celebrating our little man's birthday with family and friends as well as his baptism! Such a special weekend to have family surrounding him and us and supporting our parenthood journey. We are so thankful for those who were able to be there and for those who were praying for us from afar! It's such a blessing to be a part of a family and friend circle that care and love us so much!

{Birthday Bash}

{Baptism} 

{Amazing friends, aunties, uncles and God-parents} 

 {Grandparents whom he LOVES}

{An amazing network of friends and family that came to celebrate Solomon}

We then had a weekend of visitors from South Africa and to continue our busy month I was heading to Black Diamond the following thursday to shoot a wedding. I can't wait to share some of those photos as I start to edit them! 

hen when I got back I started work the following tuesday. I can NOT believe how time flies when all you want it to do is slow down! 

Now we are starting to get into a routine with momma, me, being back at work and Solomon going to a few different places on those days. We have also been trying to simplify our lives with not only commitments but also with possessions. So speaking of that this Saturday my mom and I will be hosting a shared Garage Sale at my house, 1403 Korol Mews. If your around come check it out! Items that will be there: women's clothes/shoes (some hardly worn), home decor, useful house items, hide-a-bed couch etc. 

I hope life will slow down now and we can take time to just figure out our new life, routine and enjoy some good amazing family time. With a half marathon thrown in there at the end of the month. But taking intentional time to slow down, read a book, bake some muffins, go for a bike ride etc. These small quiet moments I am learning to appreciate more and more in my life.

What are you doing intentionally to slow down in life? 

~be blessed~

family camping trip

Josh had the last week off of work and its has been a WONDERFUL week! I love having my husband home and Solomon LOVES having his daddy home. He isn't going to know what to do with himself on Wednesday when daddy goes back to work. 

While Josh was home we had some time away as a family, tenting for the first time for Solomon and our first time with a toddler! Besides all the insane mosquitos / black flies we had a great time! Here are a few pictures to sum up our trip! 

Playing in the car while momma and daddy set up camp. 

Favorite past time- throwing sticks, rocks and sand into the "wa-wa" (water)

My little hiker!

Can I just say adorable :)

My family...

Beach day!!!

Such a great time to be together in the amazing creation of our God! Looking forward to many more camping trips and many more memories!

be blessed...
shaeline