Like a flood, His mercy rains...

And we are covered in His grace!

Y'all, that God, He's a funny one! Don't let anyone ever tell you He doesn't have a sense of humor, and loves to use it to humble us! 

Let me take you back just a few short weeks ago...

It was a Tuesday...just your average summer day, the kids were on day 2 of their swim lessons, which were going amazingly well btw, and Jason was taking advantage of the dry weather and finally getting to hit the trail on his mountain bike during his lunch break. 

My phone rang. I didn't recognized the number, but answered it anyway. It was Michelle from Generations (the gal that did our homestudy). Not thinking anything of it, I very casually said "Hey, what's up". She asked if it was a good time to talk and if Jason was around, still not thinking anything of it (our agency had recently had some people shifting positions, so I just assumed she was needing to update something or discuss our recent foster involvement. Then bam, she says the words we have waited so long to hear...

A birthmom has chosen you guys...

"Shut up, are you kidding me right now? Are you serious" - I vaguely remember those being the first words out of my mouth. Tears immediately well in my eyes and my heart pretty much explodes. I feel like I am having an out of body experience. Like really? Is this really happening on THE DAY we finished everything for Foster?! shaking my head She goes on to tell me how amazing this young woman is and how beautiful and smart she is, and y'all we're talking full blown tears now! Then I ask, "Does she know if it's a boy or a girl?" - and let me just tell you that honestly we didn't/don't care either way, but for some reason, I have always had this vision that it would be a girl, and even the kids when they talk about a future sibling, have always said it would be a girl...

It's a little girl... due in September...

heart explodes again. Still cannot believe this happening. Sidetone, while on the phone, Jason drives by on his way to the trail, sees me on the phone and has NO IDEA! So we hang up and tentatively plan to meet her and the mom for dinner THE NEXT NIGHT - eek! 

Now, I have to tell someone or I'm going to explode, so luckily my sweet friend Liz was there b/c her daughter had just finished her swim lessons and she gets to be the lucky first person to see my ugly cry and hear the amazing news! Sorry Jason. And my other friend Lindsay happened to walk up just as I'm telling her, so wham, 3 grown women hugging and crying at the pool! Now... it occurs to me that I get to think of a fun way to tell Jason, you know like a normal wife would get to do! 

After swim lessons, I tell the kids and Emma is OVER THE MOON excited! Max is too, but Emma was just beside herself to have a little sister. So we hop in the car and head to Carter's to get some big brother and big sister shirts to surprise daddy :)

Here's the video of the big reveal, I don't know why I thought I could keep it together, so please excuse my squeaky, shaky cry voice!

Sorry it got cut off, my finger accidentally pushed the end button

So yeah, we honestly didn't think it was ever going to happen and that maybe God was leading us to foster this whole time, but maybe He just wanted to humble us, tests our faith, and be certain that we were completely surrendered to Him? I don't know, and who knows, maybe our job is to come along side this beautiful mom and pour God's love into her, all I know is... that's what I plan to do, and whatever happens, I will continue to love on her, because I feel very strongly that that is what we are being called to do. In the meantime, we are anticipating that... we are going to have a baby girl in SEPTEMBER!! EEEKKK!!!

Please, please, please be in prayer for this sweet mom and that she would seek after Him and that He would be near her during this time and that He would give her peace and confidence in her decision, and that she would be willing to let us come along side her and love on her :) 

You've got mail...

Received this email today from our agency:

Hi Candice,

We got both results from the FBI checks today.  Looks like we are ready to move forward.  I'll let the caseworker know so she can schedule your home visit.

YAY!!! So excited! #onestepcloser

Adoption Training... Check

 So... we had our training last Saturday (the 23rd). I've made no secret of my displeasure with the lack of communication that we have received from a certain individual ("Bob") at our agency, and I am fully aware that when you are a "waiting family" nothing can possibly go fast enough, and I probably need to work on my patience, but y'all, what happened on Saturday, I just... I just have no words! The day started early at 5:30am. We got up and got ready to go, and woke the babies up and threw them in the car with their jammies on, and for some reason they were WIDE AWAKE and chatting up a storm the whole way to Memi's house! We got them all settled with a movie and some snacks and hit the road around 6:45, northbound 35. About an hour later we were pulling into a Whataburger for some breakfast, then we headed over to the agency for our training. We had plenty of time and pulled up about 10 minutes before the training was supposed to start... the parking lot was empty... the doors were locked. Awesome. I KNEW for fact that the training was that day, but clearly it was not at the agency. I did not have a cell number for "Bob", only his email, and we all know how good he is a respond to my emails in a timely manner, so naturally, I was freaking out on the verge of tears thinking about how totally screwed we were! By the grace of God, "Bob" called me mere seconds after I pushed the send button, praise the Lord! He was all, "The location was in the email I sent", and I was freaking out frantically trying to find said email and coming up empty, cursing myself for letting something so important slip past me, while also feeling pretty confident that he never sent it. He gives us the location, and after a slight detour thanks to google maps sending us to some random person's house, we finally made it there 5 minutes late. I was disgusted with myself for having to walk into a room of couples all sitting there waiting for us and in we walk, late, like a couple of inconsiderate a-holes, which only fueled my anger more. We got settled in and "Bob" went through the round of introductions and pleasantries, etc and then had us all "open our training manuals to page blah blah blah"... uh, yeah we didn't have one of those. Half the couples in our training printed theirs out and put them in binders, and the other half had their laptops are ready to go in front of them, and again, we look like the unprepared a-holes sitting their twiddling our thumbs. Anger continues to build as I continue to search for the mysterious "email" that was sent a month ago. About an hour into the training, we were given a break. I told Jason I was going to get my sweater from the car and he needed to talk to "Bob" about this whole email situation and have him re-send the manual. I came back in, and sure enough, Jason tells me that "Bob" scrolled through his emails and realized that we were the ONLY ONES left off the group email with details of the training, the training manual, and a few other paperwork items. Can someone please tell me how the hell that happens?!?! We have been signed up for this training since DECEMBER! I was so furious! I seriously think "Bob" hates me, and I can't for the life of me figure out what I have done or said to offend him. So, he apologized to Jason, and resent, or rather SENT me the email so we could follow along the rest of the training. And can I just tell you, nothing irritates me more than assigning something to read, and then proceeding to read said assignment to class - I mean it worked out for us since we hadn't read it - but seriously come on - BORING! and such a waste of time, right?! Anyway, we also discussed the two books that were required, and then heard from a doctor, which was also pretty pointless, as he really didn't tell us anything. Then, just before lunch, we heard from a panel of adoptive families, which was cool, because you got to hear a little bit of their story, although I would have liked more details of their own journey, but whatever, Next was lunch. We were looking forward to eating at Schmaltz's for lunch since every time we go through Waco they are closed! But, instead we got to pay $10 A PERSON for a chic-fil-a sandwich and a bag of chips with a cookie. Seriously? Do they not realize that you can get 2 meals at CFA for about $10 total?! So frustrating but whatever. During this break, "Bob" had plenty of opportunities to come over and apologize to me for not sending the email, but do you think he said a word to me?? NOPE! After a quick lunch, we watched a video and then heard from some birthmothers about their experiences. We watched another video about trans-racial adoptions, talked about the manual some more and were all done around 3:00. Before we left, we shook hands with "Bob" and I told him that we were so sorry for being late, basically setting him up to be able to apologize to me, and I GOT NOTHIN'! Really? Really Bob?! I was floored, and hurt, and pissed! I just could NOT believe that he didn't apologize to me for such a big mistake on his part. Unbelievable. The whole day, I had to chant the phrase, "extend grace" in my head, and even now I am trying hard to think of a sincere way to return an insult with a blessing but am coming up short. We made it back to Memi's house just in time to catch the end of the party and hang out for a little while. We were exhausted. The kids were exhausted. And we all crashed after some much needed baths. 

So, we checked it off the list. We have been officially "trained".

Now we are just awaiting clearance from our FBI background checks (including the fingerprinting which I have yet to hear back from yet on whether mine were acceptable or not, 2-7 days my arse!). Once that goes through, we can schedule our homestudy, so we are really hoping to get that scheduled early next week, so we'll see. Last night we had our Noonday Trunk Show, but I'll have to post about that tomorrow, as I have 3 miles and some strength training to do :) #teammiksovsky #chosenmarathonforadoption

Update on #teammiksovsky & T-SHIRTS!!!

Things have been pretty crazy around here lately! It's wild how we have gone from everything being slow and taking forever to everything moving so fast! I'm sure we will be back to everything be slow and taking forever again as soon as we complete our homestudy! Oh the roller coaster that is adoption!

Sooooo... exciting stuff is happening! My "0.0 I don't run" hubby has completed the first 10 days of half marathon training with me! Woo Hoo! Way to go Jason! And of course, he's faster than I am! You seriously rock my face off! We currently have 4 people officially registered for the race:

But, we have about 13 that have all expressed interest and/or are dedicated to running and just haven't paid yet! So, shout out to Jenn, Michelle, Charlotte, David, George (my father-in-law), Jennie, Tammy, and random guy from my RunJunkees Club on Facebook! And then, my parents are supposed to sign up as "sleepwalkers", meaning they will pay the registration fee and then sleep! Ha! As long as they are there with the kiddos when we cross the finish, they can sleep all they want! Although, if it's up to Max and Emma, they will be up at 7am on the dot! Y'all that's over $1400 going toward our adoption if everyone registers! And often ABBA will award more than what was raised! Still, I would LOVE to see more peeps added to our #teammiksovsky! I just started running with a women's running group hoping to maybe get some sole sistas to join us ;) But for reals, if you or someone you know is a runner and looking for an awesome race to do this fall, please share our team info! I will love you forever!!! 

In other news.... we have started pre-orders for this totally rad adoption shirts!

ORDER YOURS TODAY!!!! Here's the link! Buy one for your friends and even your kids! They're awesome, right?! BIG thank you to Keight Duke from Put Up Your Dukes for the design idea and for letting us use it! And to Blake over at Big Frog Custom T-Shirts for bringing our vision to life! We have two styles to choose from, either a standard crew-neck tee or a ladies v-neck, and both are made of super soft, tri-blend cotton from Bella/Canvas! Super pumped about these shirts y'all and can't wait to order them so I can wear mine all the time! Every person who buys a shirt or registers for the race will also be a "piece" in our adoption puzzle, literally and figuratively! I haven't ordered the puzzle yet because I am crazy indecisive and can't decide on the photo to use. I have these two options:

Which I LOVE both of them, but then I was also thinking of taking a photo in front of the "I love you so much" sign on the side of Jo's Coffee shop on SoCo, 

with something like this:

or this

maybe with all of us, or just the kids in the chairs... I don't know, like I said, I am crazy indecisive! I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions on which one we should do!   

We are 10 days away from our training!!! Eek! I'm so excited! I am praying that we are able to schedule our homestudy for sometime that last week of August or early September - so my prayer warriors, please help us in that! It's difficult to pray for things like this because I KNOW God's timing is perfect, but at the same time, we have to have our homestudy completed and turned into the people at the Chosen Marathon for Adoption by September 25th, so it's a pretty tight timeline and it's making me a little anxious! 

So, that's pretty much where we are with things right now, but I am looking forward to updating you soon with news of an ever growing team for the Chosen Marathon, and massive amounts of t-shirt sales ;) Thank you all so much for your continued support! 

-Candice 

I will RUN to you...

"...let us RUN with endurance THE RACE that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus..." - Hebrews 12:1-2

We ask you to prayerfully consider joining our team as we run the race that is set before us! All registration fees for the Chosen Marathon for Adoption support our team and our adoption; just be sure to sign up under Team Miksovsky. We hope to have tons of people running and walking with us as a team for morale and encouragement. Can’t run? Please consider being a "sleepwalker" or making a contribution to help us add the 5th Miksovsky to our family. Above all else, please pray for us and encourage us through this process. Please also be in prayer for the precious birthmother and child that the Lord has chosen for us. We believe the Chosen Marathon will bless us immensely as we both physically train for the race and financially to help with the expenses, as adoption is expensive and demands patience through potentially long waiting times. We believe and trust God to provide the funds, the patience, and the child, all in His perfect timing.

Through Christ’s death & resurrection, we believe He invited each of us to be adopted into His family. He adopted us, bringing wholeness and unconditional love into our lives; and we feel called to demonstrate His love in this way. We have been adopted by God as His own and want to do the same for a precious child that needs a family.

We are also working on some pretty awesome shirts that runners, walkers, encouragers, friends and family can wear to show their support! I can't wait! Here's the inspiration...

Eek! They are going to be so awesome! Are you getting pumped yet?! You should be!! Race day is in T minus 87 days!! Official training starts on Monday! 

Top 10 reasons to join us for the Chosen Marathon!

Top 10 reasons to join us for the Chosen Marathon!

It's hard to believe that we are finally *almost* "OFFICIALLY" a waiting adoptive family! This will be our first year participating in this incredible fundraising event and we pray many many of our friends will join us on Team Miksovsky.

While we may still have a bit of a wait ahead of us, and we have no idea who our precious birth mother will be or the sweet baby the Lord has chosen for us, they are both in our hearts and we will be running for them.

So here are 10 reasons to run the Chosen Marathon on Team Miksovsky

10. Joining over 2,000 runners from around the country for one purpose – running for orphans around the globe

The atmosphere at the Chosen Marathon is heart warming and beautiful. You can truly feel and see the purpose of the event. As you near the finish line, huge banners line the street with the faces of children that have come home thanks to funds raised through the Chosen Marathon. You realize that by simply running you truly are making a difference in children’s lives.

9. Marking “Run a half (or full) marathon” off your “bucket list”
I never ever thought I would run a half-marathon, let alone a FULL marathon, but the satisfaction of completing my first half-marathon in 2012 was amazing. Bettering my time in early 2014 was even better (almost a sub 2), and completing my marathon in February was an accomplishment I never dreamed I could do!

8. Preparing for the Chosen Marathon will get your body in amazing shape
Training for a half-marathon is hard work, no doubt, but it is exciting and rewarding to see your level of physical fitness improve week by week.

7. Enjoying the scenic route in New Braunfels, TX along the Guadalupe River
It is a beautiful course which makes the run so much more enjoyable. But be prepared, it is slightly hilly in a couple spots. And bonus, you can float the river and/or hit up the Gristmill & catch a show at Gruene Hall when you're done!

6. Friends and complete strangers handing you water and cheering you on as you run
It IS possible to complete 13.1 (or 26.2) miles when you are being constantly encouraged. The environment at the Chosen Marathon is so exhilarating and full of love. My kids LOVE making fun signs for my races and cheering me on.

5. For those super serious and slightly crazy runners, the Chosen Marathon is a Boston Qualifier, thanks to U Run the course is USATF certified.

4. Receiving a super cool Chosen Marathon t-shirt in your runner’s packet
You know you feel like a stud wearing your marathon t-shirt around town and to the gym. And the Chosen team always designs a super cool and incredibly comfortable shirt!

3. Seeing a child on the side of the course cheering you on by holding a sign that reads, “Thank you for running. I was Chosen”
You see a child that was once an orphan and is now home with their forever family and you are reminded of the fact that you’re involved in something way bigger than just a race.

2. Free food and drinks at the finish line
If you are afraid you will be starving (or rungry as I like to refer to it) after completing the half marathon (which you probably will be), don’t worry, you will be well taken care of. And there is usually a free beer involved, if that is of interest to you ;)

1. And in my opinion, the most rewarding reason – the joy of one day seeing our child's face and knowing that you helped to bring them home!
If you register under Running on Faith: Team Miksovsky, 100% of your registration fee will go directly to our adoption fund. God has continued providing for us in this process and we are only $15,000 away from our financial goal. We can’t wait to one day show our future son or daughter pictures from the Chosen Marathon and show them the friends that ran out of love, a love that helped bring them home to us

Please register under Running on Faith: Team Miksovsky and help us recruit other runners to join our team!

click the banner for more info on how to get registered!

One day these little shoes will be filled!

Running For A Purpose

On October 25th, over 3,000 people will come together for a common purpose. Together we will be encouraging one another, sweating, cheering and RUNNING for a common cause, to bring awareness to and raise money for adoptive families and orphans around the world. The 5th annual Chosen Marathon (ful, 1/2, and kids fun run) will be October 25th in New Braunfels, TX.

An Amazing part of the Chosen Marathon is that 100% of registration fees go directly to adoptive families, everything needed to put on the marathon is sponsor donated! So, Jason and I are thrilled to form a team for this year’s marathon and invite you to run with us to help bring our baby home and support other adoptive families and orphans around the world. If you are not a runner, you can walk or run/walk, volunteer, or make a financial contribution. If you would like to join us, you can register here. Please be sure to register under Running on faith: Team Miksovsky so your fees will go towards our fund.

We know 13.1 miles can be a bit overwhelming (and 26.2 miles sounds insane!), therefore it is wise to begin training to have a successful and pleasant marathon experience. You've got about 15 weeks, which is MORE than enough time to prepare! Hal Higdon has never steered me wrong in all my race training, please check out his website for almost 20 different training guides to help you get half or full marathon ready! There's even one for walkers! hint hint Mom & Dad I will personally be using his Intermediate Half Marathon training schedule and Jason will be using the Novice 1 plan.

We would GREATLY appreciate if you would invite friends, coworkers, neighbors, family members, anyone that might be interested in joining our team! This is guaranteed to be an amazing day and we can’t wait to share the experience with others! (I haven't figured out how to put a Facebook "like" button on here, but if you could share this post and our team info on FB, Twitter, Instagram, or any other form of social media, we would be forever grateful!)

For information on the marathon, visit www.chosenmarathon.com

Please email Candice with any questions, candice.miksovsky@gmail.com

click on the banner for more information

Register today and start training!

Love,

The Miksovskys

"...for this child we have prayed" 1 Samuel 1:27

Dear Birth Parents Letter

So I have been going H.A.M.lately getting our adoption paperwork and profile finished and organized, including on of the most difficult items... the "Dear Birth Mother/Parents" letter. Trying to come up with something to say in just a few sentences that will somehow put this mother at ease, this mother who is making the MOST difficult decision of her life, all without sounding generic or fake or pretentious or just like every other profile they've read, uh yeah, it's not easy my friends. So, without further adieu, here's what we (let's be honest, I) came up with. We'd love your feedback, so please let me know what you think, if there something else I should add, reword, etc??? Your advice, comments, and editorial prowess is greatly appreciated!

Let me set the scene - imagine a really cute pic of us, maybe something like this

or this

and a little talking balloon/bubble popping out the top that says...Hello!

and then off the right side, a long text box with the following letter written inside in an awesome font that perfectly captures who we are (whatever that's supposed to mean)...

We’re Jason & Candice, and let us start by saying THANK YOU, thank you for making the courageous decision to give this child life and also for considering us as your adoptive family to love and nurture such a remarkable gift.

We don’t pretend to understand how difficult this chosen path is for you, but please know that we acknowledge the weight of your decision, and although we don’t yet know one another, we have been praying for you, and our hearts go out to you, and we admire your love, strength and courage for considering the path of adoption.

We know that it is not by chance that you have chosen our profile and our hearts desire is that you feel a connection with us as you look through these pages and get a glimpse into our lives.

Our hearts, home, families, and friends are all waiting with open arms for a little one to arrive into this world and into our lives. We pray that whatever decision you make that your heart would be filled with peace and that you will be blessed with love, strength, and courage each and every day. 

Thanks for reading!

Jason, Candice, Max & Emma

So yeah, that's it, what do you think????

The Gift

Yeah so, you should probably grab some tissues before watching this. I totally just cried like a big fat baby!

Room On The Plate

Don't you just love it when someone can so eloquently sum up what you've been feeling in song or a poem, or in my case, a blog, in just a few short sentences?! That's exactly what just happened to me as I sat down to catch up on some blog reading, specifically Elizabeth's most recent post on her blog, Finding Mercy.

Here's what she had to say in regards to announcing that she and her husband are planning to adopt another child...

"My lap is full, my plate feels full.  The reality is though, that my plate felt full when I just had Evelyn.  And it was.  Then we added Annie and then we added Abraham, and I realized how much I could actually fit on that plate. 

So it's with that, that I say we've decided that there's room on the plate, and in our family, for more.  Not because we love chaos and are fully rested and feel totally up for this, but because it's what we want for us and our family.  It's what we want for our family long term."

Couldn't have said it better myself. But until that day comes, we will continue to wait and

Hope you all had a fabulous Memorial Weekend!

-Candice

It's Goin' Down!

Yup! This is happening peeps! I decided I needed something to take my mind off the whole baby thang, so what better way than spending hours and hours and hours training and running all by myself... hmmm. Sooooo yeah, this race will line up perfectly with my marathon training (which has pretty much been non-existent since San Antonio). Uhhh, oops. But whatevs, I'm not planning to PR or anything given my recent running hiatus, but I know this is what I need to do. After all, I have had this sign

(literal and figurative) staring me down every single day for the last year! The Austin Livestrong Marathon is schedule for February 16th, although I'll be honest and tell you that I have not registered for it yet :o

In other news, my Christmas wish is that God would open up doors for us to expand our family, be it through a surrogate (willing to carry our baby for little to no financial gain) or adoption. I keep dreaming about what our third child would look like, since Max and Emma look so different from each other, it just really makes me wonder!

Here's a little photo dump for ya of what's been goin' on around here lately...

a little family hayride action

Max & Emma's first trip to the dentist. Max did AWESOME!

Emma was little squirrelly, but did pretty good too :)

The kids had their first fishing experience (didn't catch anything)

We checked out the new Austin Children's Museum

Took a tour of the Krispy Kreme donut store and got to make our own donuts!

Max had eye surgery to correct his strabismus

sweet baby passed out after his post-surgery popsicle

 

 

 

 

Made and sold 5 wreaths and 2 signs and 2 outfits for our baby fund! Woop!

Thank you to stranger in Washington, Memi, Jill & Bobbie for buying my stuff - you guys rock!

First Santa experience where no tears were shed and no one freaked out - woop!

Is it weird that I'm a little sad that they are no longer terrified of the Big Man?

 

Visited Grandma (Jason's Gma) in the hospital after she had her leg amputated.

Christmas with Jason's mom and step-dad!

Emma and daddy having a tea party at Gram and Poppy's

Christmas with Jason's dad and step-mom

Such a girly girl :)

Jammin' out with Papa G. Budding musician in the making?

Emma got to hand deliver the gifts we picked out for Preh (our angel tree child). Max was too busy playing soccer with the other boys and couldn't be bothered. Boys.

Looked at neighborhood Christmas lights, and Max would have sat here staring at the "trains that go by themselves" ALL night if we let him!

Made fun Christmas cookies

Went to Candlelight Christmas Eve service with our friends at our church

It's a wonder Max didn't catch Memi's hair on fire!

What? It doesn't snow inside your church on Christmas Eve?

 

So while we were at Jason's dad's, we ordered in some Chinese food. Before we left, Jason shoved a bunch of fortune cookies in my purse, and I had completely forgotten about them until I was cleaning out the black hole that is my purse the other day. One of the cookies was smashed to bits and I was about to throw it in the trash, but thought I'd open it up to read the fortune first. Upon read the fortune, I realized that it was another one of God's little love notes. It gives me chills every time I read it... "Enjoy what you have, hope for what you lack." Thank you Lord for reminding me of this, I guess we could all stand to be reminded of this every now and again. I hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Christmas!

 

-Candice