My 1st Post - Exciting News!

It happens to me all the time.  I will be talking to a friend or my sister and they will point out something funny that one of my kids did a few years earlier.  I have a terrible feeling thinking that I would never even have remembered that if they hadn't brought it up.  I want to write down all of the things that are going on in our lives so we can look back and remember!
So, what's going on in our lives?  ALOT!  I'm so excited that I haven't even been able to sleep for the past week or so!  We have decided to add one more player to the Redding Team!  Jody and I (with the kids approval too) have decided to pursue adoption.  God has really amazed me lately!  Most people who know me have heard me say that I want to adopt.  I always said it thinking that it would never happen because Jody never wanted to do it.  Jody is so compassionate that I knew if he actually saw an orphan and a chance to change their life he would want to do it, but I really felt like it would never happen for our family.  Ellie and I always joke about her needing a sister and there being too many boys around this house.  We need to even things up a bit.  Several years ago, I was buying Christmas stockings and I wanted to buy 7 instead of 6, just in case.  Jody looked at me like I was crazy.  Now I'm wishing I would have bought it anyway.  So, a couple of weeks ago Jody was out of town and he watched a special on Fox about adoption.  It was the girl from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding."  He came home talking about it and was even checking out some websites about it.  While he was out of town I watched several episodes of "16 and Pregant" on MTV and I found myself being more interested in adopting also.  I even wished I could adopt one of the 16 year olds whose mom kicked her out of the house when she found out she was pregnant and refused to have an abortion.  I thought Jody's interest would go away in a couple of days.  Well it didn't.  He looked and looked and looked and looked.  Then he found this website with a precious little girl from Ukraine (I'm not sure if you say someone is from "The Ukraine or just Ukraine").  He emailed the agency who specializes in children with special needs and older children.  She is around 8.  Anyway, her picture just spoke to our hearts.  Now we realize that the chances of us adopting that little girl are VERY slim, maybe even impossible.  But God has drawn us to her for some reason.  Who knows??  Only Him!  We feel certain that God has already used that sweet little face to help us make the decision that we are ready to do this and we are mostly thinking of Ukraine.  Isn't our God amazing?  Psalm 37:4 says "Take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart."  He has certainly given Jody some new desires!  We are so excited to see what God has in store for us.  We know there will be many challenges and it will test our faith, but we can't wait!  We are praying that our hearts will be unified in every decision throughout this process.  There are so many decisions.  Right now, we are planning to pursue Ukraine but we are also open to Domestic adoption.  I'm so excited that I feel like I just found out I'm pregnant!  There are so many things to think about that I feel like I am constantly having to remind myself that God has called us to do this and He is going to take care of all of those details.  I just want to keep my focus on Him!