The winner is....

Congrats to our winner!  And thank you to all of you who entered.  What amazing stories!

Anonymous said...

My husband and I felt God had called us to adopt for several years. At the time we were in graduate school and lived on poverty level salaries. We decided to wait until we finished school and got jobs to begin the adoption process because of our lack of resources. Last winter my father was diagnosed with stage four skin cancer that had manifested as three large brain tumors. My dad died five months and one day after doctors found the cancer. What my husband and I did not know was that twenty years earlier my father had taken out an insurance policy for me and my two siblings. It was a large policy that in the event something ever happened to dad we would have college money etc... The first thing that came to my mind after finding out about the money was that God had planned our adoptions for decades and He knew this money was going to
provide for not one but several adoptions. My husband and I told my dad before he passed away about our plan to adopt a son domestically. My father smiled and asked if we would use his name for our child. Ironically, my husband and I had already chosen our son's name and it was after my dad:) The loss of my father was the most devastaing thing that has ever happened in our lives but God has brought something so beautiful out of our loss which is hope. My husband and I are currently "waiting" to be matched with a birthmom. We are so excited for our precious brown baby boy who will be named Truett Munro Nichols. Munro was my dad's middle name. God does make beautiful things out of the ashes!

Please e-mail your address (whitebrownsugar AT hotmail DOT com) to me so I can mail you your prizes!

Your Adoption Inspiration/Encourager: A Contest!

So, I'm sponsoring my very first contest! :)

Answer the following question in a comment; one comment per reader, please:

Who was your greatest inspiration/encourager when you were considering or waiting to adopt, and why?

Leave a comment between now and Friday, June 1 at noon, Central Time.   I'll choose the most inspirational story, post the name of the winning entrant, and you'll be mailed a few great prizes:   a White Sugar, Brown Sugar tote bag and a copy of Brown Babies, Pink Parents written by my friend Amy Ford. 
 

(If you see your story posted as the winner on June 1, please e-mail me your address:  whitebrownsugar AT hotmail DOT com). 

The more creative and inspirational your story, the more likely you are to win!

Sisterly Love

I am the oldest of three children.  My sister and I, like many, had a love-hate relationship growing up.   But most of it was love.  :) 

I'm not sure what I pictured my family to look like when we started our adoption journey.   We were almost always shown (our profile) to expectant parents who were having white boys.   Go figure.    And now we are the parent of two brown girls who are awesome at being sisterly.

I love when Miss E sings her sister's name---letter by letter.   I love the way they wrestle.    When Baby E gets mad, she slaps her sister across the face, and in response, Miss E holds the baby's chin and says, "No hitting.  Ouch!  Hitting hurts."  She mothers her younger sister, just as I mothered mine.    Miss E will do all sorts of things to Baby E without Baby E's permission---put a dress-up hat on her head, kiss her, hug her, dance with her.   Miss E will take off her sister's shoes when we enter the house.   Miss E will also dump all unwanted veggies onto her sister's high chair tray.  :)

They get jealous of one another.   If I pick one girl up, the other wants to be held.   If I give one girl her food first, the other gets angry.   They want equal (no, more) attention. 

I love when the girls are dressed alike.   It's so sweet to see them in matching dresses.

I know I talk about this often.    Spend a day with me.  You will see that my girls are REAL sisters.

The future is bright.   I think about when someone says something nasty to one of my girls.  Watch out!  Sisters don't tolerate someone hurting the other sister.   I imagine them putting on plays (like my sister and I did many times) in the living room, staying up late at night---giggling, whispering, and talking mean about their parents, prom, weddings.   

I am blessed.

So Much To Do, So Little Time

I have big ideas. 

Always.

I want to have the most amazing house that looks like it came from a magazine called Better Homes and Gardens Pottery Barn Pinterest.   I want my girls to be able to recite Bible verses and Beyonce lyrics and quotes from Civil Rights leaders.   I want to write a book that BLOWS YOUR MIND and makes you have one of those Oprah ah-ha moments.   I want to walk into a room with my husband and everyone looks at us and thinks, "They are so in love.  What a beautiful couple!"  I want to walk into any public place---a park, a restaurant, a store---and people don't ask me if my girls are real sisters, but instead, they smile, say we have a beautiful family, and treat us like we are normal (we really are normal).   I want to exercise with passion and energy, eat healthy foods 99% of the time, and stop thinking about what I don't like about my body but instead appreciate the fact that diabetes is a BEAST and I'm kicking it's rear every day with my uber-amazing woman powers.   I want to read my Bible every day, be the hands and feet of Jesus, and do so with grace, maturity, and down-to-earthness that doesn't make anyone call me Bible Girl.  

It dawned on me the other day that all the things I want, work toward, and strive for, constantly, are probably not the things God has in mind for me.   

Sigh.

Back to the drawing board?

I'm a control freak.  I'm passionate.  I'm always thinking about the next. big. thing.   I'm sharp-tongued too often.    I love sugar.   Love it.  I don't spend enough time with my husband.   I get too caught up in keeping up with chores.  I spend too much time watching Dr. Phil and not enough time talking to Jesus.  I hate my thighs.  Hate them.  I really want to write a book, but I'm not sure I'm good enough, experienced enough, or smart enough.

I'm a mess.

Aren't we all? 

This Casting Crown's lyric is on my mind:

"Nobody knows what we're for Only what we're against when we judge the wounded.  What if we put down our sings Crossed over the lines And loved like You did." 

It's so easy to judge others, but even more than others, ourselves.  We have this idea of who we should be, how the world should see us, and how awesome tomorrow could be if we just dropped 10 pounds, read the book of Proverbs to our kids, and became a superstar wife.   But big plans are just that---big plans.   And nothing, I believe, nothing will come to fruition with any sort of lasting and eternal success without the hand of God.

When In Doubt...Type It Out!

An article I wrote last year for MyBrownBaby.com is blowing up the website once again.   Apparently a few people (with many friends?) have been posting a link to the article on their Facebook pages, getting posters riled up about transracial adoption.

I hope you'll visit the article and leave a comment there, letting readers know what you think.


Oh, and while you're reading (instead of sleeping, working, or doing chores), check out this awesome post by a fellow adoption blogger on the whole idea of Mommy Wars and we should really be fighting for. 

Lastily, are you going to enter the Adoptive Families photo contest?   We sure are!  Good luck! 

Great Article on Lack of Diversity on TV Shows

Got my free issue of Entertainment Weekly and discovered this article.   Happy reading!

Mothers

I'm an Open Adoption Blogger, and we've been asked to write about Mother's Day.   You can read other blogger's posts here.

What I want to say to you today, dear reader, is this:

Birth mothers are REAL mothers.   They deserve to be honored and treated with respect and remembered on Mother's Day.    People often dismiss them because their children aren't physically with them, but I assure you that the children these women placed for adoption are in the hearts of birth mothers EVERY SINGLE MOMENT of every single day.  

Adoptive mothers are REAL mothers, too.   I'm not a fake mommy.  :)  

A child can have two mothers---one by birth, and one by adoption---and that's ok.  If it makes you uncomfortable, too bad.  ;)

Mother's Day is hard for a lot of women---birth mothers, women who have lost their fertility, women who have lost children, women who want to be mothers so badly but cannot at this time, and many, many more women.   Mother's Day is hard for someone who has lost a mother, a wife, a sister, a friend.

Mother's Day isn't all roses and candy and jewelry.   Mother's Day is so much more and so much less.  

God, Thank you for the women who surround me---physically and virtually.  I pray a special blessing upon them today.  Please meet them in this moment and give them what they need.   Thank you for the mothers who gave birth to my children.  Thank you for my own mother who has, despite all the odds and bad cards she was dealt in life, prevailed and continues to prevail, being the woman I can only hope to be.   Love, Rachel