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| Our engagement Picture |
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| BEST DAY EVER! May 4, 2003 |
3 years later God led us to Kazakhstan to start our family. We had never heard of this country before our adoption. After travelling half way around the world, we met two almost 3 year olds and knew by a significant sign from the Lord that Nick was the one that He had for us. Now, 6 years later, he has gone from a scared and mad little boy to a handsome, funny, creative, lovable 9 year old....who is sometimes still a scared mad little boy. It has been the most rewarding, heart wrenching, joy-filled, character building, God depending journey that we have every been on and continue to be on. I cannot imagine walking this path with anyone else but my husband. He is the best team player I could have asked for and we have worked hard to be Team Kitzman for Nick and we will continue to do what God has us do to help him be successful and fulfill all that God has purposed him to do in this life. Love this boy!
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| Nick at 3 |
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| Nick at almost nine |
And that brings us to the present. If you think God doesn't have a fun sense of humor, just try planning out your life..even if just a little bit. We thought we were being so flexible and generous by giving our DCS workers broad categories for our next children...we were going against the popular choices and stating strongly that we wanted non-Caucasian, older, adoptable children....SO, God provided a Caucasian, foster infant/toddler sibling set for us. ha! ha! ha! We will never doubt that God doesn't know exactly what you need because The Littles have been exactly what we needed. They have brought Joy, aching muscles, sleepless nights, and endless laughter potential. Nick loves them, we love them, with all our hearts. In many ways, they brought healing and hope to all three of us. Nick is adored by these two, he is THE big man on campus to them. Sure, there has been jealousy and concern over being displaced but overall, he has enjoyed their addition to our family. Fostering is not for the faint of heart. We thought adoption was hard til we experienced this last 8 months. Putting your heart out there, risking everything to love children that may never be a part of your forever family is tough. Living Daily has become our couple mantra. God has been faithful to comfort and strengthen us when we have needed it most. Again, no other partner would have walked by my side, wiped my tears, watched me fail, cheered me on and loved me unconditionally like my husband.
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| Always into something together |
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| Little behinds that always make me a little behind! |
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| Always Always Always want to go outside |
I marveled over my blessing of a husband one night a few weeks ago when we were weary from some hard weeks and "Abe" was having a middle of the night absolute fit...over teeth, tummy ache, who knows what, but he was mad, you couldn't hold him, you couldn't put him down....you parents know the kind of fit. I had taken him downstairs so Pat could try and get some sleep. I was sitting on the couch wrestling with the baby and Pat came down and sat next to me to ask what he could do, so we sat there while the screaming continued and something about the fit, the way he was crying just got us giggling, I mean we were laughing uncontrollably at the craziness of our lives, probably a release of lots of stress and angst, there were tears...tears from laughing so hard!......and next thing we knew, Abe had calmed down, looking at us like we were crazy and the sweetest little smile came across his face and he was good and so were we.
We have always joked about having 50 years to go with an option for 50 more. We are at 40 more now, with an option for more. Who knows what God has for us in the next weeks, months, or years. I simply cannot think of doing it with anyone else but Patrick. I had big plans for our tenth anniversary....a trip to some mountain cabin or perhaps a tropical island but instead spent the earlier part of the day with dear friends and then shared a DQ blizzard and watched a dvr'd NCIS LA. It was just as sweet as the days we did this when dating....although we probably are a bit more tired. I figure a nice long trip will come one of these days but for now our family dynamics have us home and we are good. Our partnership was definitely a gift from God. He alone knew that we would work together well and that we could fail often, doubt our abilities daily and still find a way to seek Him and follow Him on this journey...that alone is a triumph ....but you cannot for one second gaze into their rooms where they are sleeping peacefully and doubt that this was what we were meant to do ...together, side by side for as long as God will have us do it. We love watching Him at work, healing, restoring, blossoming these three, each and every day. It is so hard but it is SO amazing and at the end of the day, its what keeps us going. The hope in what God is doing in and thru us keeps us on the path that He has made for us so we walk it, together. We have been greatly blessed in these 10 years and I am so thankful to have the hope of a long life lived with the best husband ever and the funniest cutest trio of miniature people ever!
HAPPY 10th ANNIVERSARY to the best and most wonderful husband this girl could ask for....
