By Faith......

Thought we would start off with a really cute boy picture from our evening at Southern Lights!

And, then, an homage to a really great Packer season....even if it did end too quickly!

AND next, well, only in Wisconsin can you get pulled on the iced over lake in a sled with a bike!

WHAT IN THE WORLD HAVE THE Ky KITZMANS BEEN UP TO? you ask expectantly.........

Ummm, well, there is a long version and a short version, and I'll TRY to give you something in between. We have been on quite a faith journey over the holidays......really over the last 2 years.

As I glanced back thru the posts from when we started our Ecuador journey, I got a little teary thinking about how this particular journey began. Expectantly, a bit fearfully perhaps, and very sure of where God was leading. Honestly, it was kind of hard to read again.

By Faith, we jumped onto the adoption train to Ecuador almost 2 years ago, and now, By Faith, we are jumping off the train. That's kind of hard to swallow, definitely hard to type. Everyone loves a good adoption story and I was excited to take everyone on one to Ecuador, it was new territory, and a sure adventure. 20 plus months is along time, not THAT long in adoption terms but long, nonetheless ......life changes, it ebbs and it flows, finances change, jobs change and God can even direct our hearts to change. Did we miss the signs at the beginning, did we not hear Him clearly, are we not trusting the journey, are we giving up too soon......all questions we have gone over and over and over. Sleepless nights, countless prayers, counsel, tears, you name it, we've felt it or thought about it.

In so many ways, the wait was productive and beneficial for our family unit. We gained invaluable time to go to conferences on parenting kids from hard places, continued with attachment therapy, and made great memories and bonds as a family of 3. Nick is doing so well and for that we are so thankful. We have continued to believe that God is completely in charge of this journey but our lives came to a point where we needed to decide if Ecuador was the best fit for our family or if perhaps another path would lead us further into God's plan. Ecuador has been basically at a standstill from the day we sent our Dossier. Of course, we were hopeful that this would change but it has not. We began to feel very strongly that God was urging us to seek out other options because the door was closing.

Now, I'll be quite honest, if there had been a big ol' banner in the sky, another child plopped in our laps, etc, it would have been an easy sell for both of us; But, losing such a large amount of money was really hard for me. God was so good to walk me thru a circumstance with a friend who was at risk of losing money over something that she did that required faith. Her adamant declaration that their money was God's anyway and if they truly believed that they were called to do this project then the loss was in God's hand and He would provide and take care.....and you know what, He did. God is so good to give you just what you need to take one more step of faith. Not to mention, this whole last two months, Pat and I were walking thru the book of Hebrews with Paul in BSF, um, yeah, that's the faith book....especially chapters 11,12, and 13. Every week, we would get built up and encouraged to live by faith, to just take the next step and know that God may be leading us from something good to something better. It's not easy and we have absolutely no idea where this particular faith journey will end but like Paul did when he was blocked from going to Asia to preach, he took the next logical step and trusted God's leading to Macedonia and God was faithful to walk with him even though it was another hard journey. "The one who calls you is faithful, and HE will do it"

We are anxious and hopeful to see what God is going to do, we are taking the next logical step and have started the state required adoption classes to be able to adopt from the foster system. Again, the faith it requires to walk thru another homestudy, another set of classes and mounds of paperwork is more than I can take some days but He walks with me and I would say that we have found a peace that I would call an uncomfortable, risky feeling, out of our comfort (my control) zone peace. And, that for now, is a very good place for us. We are still praying for the sibling or siblings that God has for us whoever they might be and we take comfort in our son's simplistic view of the whole situation...."this means they are going to speak English right, because I really want them to be English speakers". Yes, Nick, we can now say they are probably going to speak English. :)

And, now, lets take a big deep breath and move on to less heavy subjects and see some big fun and joy during Christmas in Wisconsin.

Our Christmas eve tradition with Ata Bob, the Christmas story from Luke with all the Grandkids. PRECIOUS!

Christmas morning downstairs waiting on everyone else to wake up so we could go upstairs to the tree goodies. yes, we had a long wait! Early bird he continues to be......

We got to meet sweet cousin Edrie for the first time. She is one precious 6 month old. Nick loved hugging on her and patting her head. I caught this sweet picture mid-hug.

I'm sure Nick is telling her some story or lecturing her about good behavior. He is great at "do as I say, not as I do" :)

Nick and his cousins Colin and Edrie. They had a great Christmas together but getting a picture together turned out to be quite the daunting task but they were so cute in their matching pj's.

Grandma and Ata Bob's present had to be found with a scavenger hunt including the boys. They had a great time running around in the snow and their pajamas collecting clues.

Auntie Tracey had great gifting ideas this year although she was spacially challenged and unaware at how big final products would be....This very cool rocket could even hold Uncle Brian who is in the 6'6'' - 6'7'' range. See him looking out the window. Great fun though!

State Foster/Adoption classes have been a trip and I'm sure to blog here and there on the journey and will most likely take the blog private once the classes are over as the state does not allow lots of things related to child privacy prior to the finalization of the adoption. So while our lives are crazy busy right now with 3 hour classes every week, I hope to at least log a few hours of the journey on the blog. Happy New Year.....a little late!