A little bit of provenance...

Two years ago Landon and I took a weekend and went to Wimberly, Texas. There we went through junk shops and prayed we would find a special owl piece. After looking through some shops we slowly walked into the very last shop just minutes before closing time. We looked downstairs and then scowered the upstairs and started to give up on our quest for an owl and then suddenly I looked up and saw this:



(To see some back story on why we were looking for an owl piece click here

We loved it, took it off the wall and left the shop. As we stood on the steps leading to the parking lot Landon felt we should ask the owner if there was a story behind this piece and there was a beautiful story of a boy's fear of owls and a mother's desire to free him from that fear. She also informed us that the story behind any artistic piece is called its "provenance." So, in celebration of the pieces I have for sale to support our adoption I'll be featuring some stories behind the images.

So, let's start with Colorado...The Bells, Reflection and Intimidating






The Maroon Bells are the most photographed mountains of the Colorado Rockies and that is the main reason we found them at all. We basically went on the internet, Googled "Colorado Camping" and there they were - The Maroon Bells - craggy giants of beauty.

I was so excited to see these things that literally when we turned a corner on the street and saw them I ghasped and got a little teary-eyed (can't explain that).

We parked our car, said good bye to modern comfort, got our huge packs and hiked to the first scenic point at the beginning of the park which is where these pictures were taken. A somewhat shallow pond lies just beyond the parking lot and the sky opens up to the mountains. The Aspens were right in the midst of their transition to fall. We took lots of pictures and we asked someone to take a picture of us and luckily the person we asked was a photographer who then changed out my lens for his wide angle lens and we got this shot of us:



It's weird when you are looking at something so big - I felt like people talked more quietly. The stately beauty of the mountains was breathtaking and to see their perfect reflection in the water was just as impressive. It's good sometimes to feel small before such mountains and at that point I felt miniscule.

We hiked all the way to the base of those bells - 7 horizontal miles, 10,000 (yes, ten thousand) verticle miles. I've never been so physically challenged in all my life. I hit a wall and gave up before we even met the halfway point of our original goal but I was proud of myself.




We made a great home in this alpine valley just below that first, intimidating bell and every morning watched pink sunlight ignite those mountain faces and every night watched the shadow cover them.



Beautiful (overwhelmingly beautiful) and intimidating all at the same time. Meeting God will probably be like that, magnified of course but those mountains gave me a taste of the glory of a heavenly kingdom prepared for us.

Enjoy the pictures! Again, available on my website at www.lschottartistry.com, under "Clients" and the password "schottadoption". Thanks everyone!

~L&L

All prints are on sale now!

Alright everyone the prints are available online now!

Go to: www.lschottartistry.com

Click on the "Clients" tab and enter the password "schottadoption"

From there you can add images to your shopping cart, pick the size and pay via PayPal!

If you want to use cash or check use the shopping cart like normal and submit your order, just skip the PayPal step. If you want a size or have a question about a size not listed just shoot me an email at lindsay.schott@gmail.com and I will answer it for you.

Thanks everyone! I hope you like them!

~L&L

Prints for Sale Preview

Hi Everyone!

Thanks for all the support in response to my last post! So, I am still working on some prep to get pictures up for purchase so you can use PayPal through my website. So, while I still get the kinks worked out I thought I would give a preview of a lot of the pictures so maybe you can start thinking about what you want to buy!

Prices will probably start around $20 for an 8x10 and will range in size and price all the way up to large canvas prints that are about as big as you want and those run in the $200 - $300 range.

The pictures featured are from my trip to Puebla, Mexico; The Maroon Bells Park in Colorado and a few from Austin. There are also 3 special prints that I designed with Bible verses. So, enjoy! And if you already know what you want go ahead and message me but more info about ordering coming tomorrow!

Mexico:






Colorado:








Austin:






Adoption Designs:





Again, stay tunned for details about prices and ordering online!

~L&L

Important Update, Please read and pray with us!

Wow! It feels like things are moving and changing and this is going from imaginary to real!

Like I said in an earlier post we are attending the Gladney orientation on February 17th (that's just about 2 weeks!!) where we'll get a complete view of their program. They've already sent us a pretty extensive information packet about the steps to their program and the cost.

I will get down to the nitty, gritty financial details:

Sometime within the first 90 days of our orientation we will need to turn in our full application and 25% of the program fee which is $3,625. As soon as we get that funding our application is turned in and we start the Home Study (which is already funded, thank you Jesus!)

Once the Home Study is complete and all the paper work is in (probably about 4-6 weeks) we will need to turn in another 25% (another $3,625).

So, to sum up we will need to turn in about $7,250 in fees in the next 5-6 months. (Maybe even sooner if possible).

The rest of the balance is due 30 days before the placement of the child or if you have less than 30 days of notice (sooo fun!) the rest is due at your acceptance of the placement.

Friends and family please do 2 things for us:

1. Pray! I truly believe if God is leading us to adoption (which I really believe He is) He already has this funded. I have seen God give us money that felt like it came out of thin air but my human heart is a little freaked out by those numbers! So, pray for the money to come in. Pray that in this process we would trust God with all we have and be a light, encouragement and joy to people around us. And pray for the waiting (so much waiting) which can be maddening! And if God leads you - maybe even pray for the child that we're hoping will be ours someday and his or her birth parents.

2. Give! If you've already felt you wanted to help us financially, now's the time to do that. You can send us a check via mail or if you live close just come on by. Also, today and tomorrow I will be unveiling my prints that will be for sale and there will be a place for you to pay via PayPal.

Thank you for reading and thank you for being a part of our journey. I know that when God moves in our lives it's not just for our benefit but for everyone around us to see how incredible God is. So pray for us and stay tunned for any changes!

Much love to everyone,

L&L

New Agency?

Hello there!

There has been little to post because very little has been going on but there's some new things going on here!

Landon and I decided to check out a new agency for adoption! We still love the ministry of Loving Alternative but they only place somewhere between 3 to 10 children in a year. So, we decided to look at an agency who does a little more than that.

We were referred to Gladney Adoption Agency out of Fort Worth.

http://www.gladneyadoption.com/

They have been doing adoptions for over 100 years in Texas (isn't that crazy?!) And they place over 300 children in a year which is better odds for us. They do both domestic and international adoption as well.

We filled out initial information via their website for domestic adoption and they emailed us back in 4 days and we were approved! Now the next step is an orientation on February 17th. After the orientation if we want to move forward we turn in our official application for $150 and then we start the homestudy and we start paying fees...lots of fees!

So, please pray for the orientation in February that we would see the process clearly, that we would see where God is leading and follow and also that whatever path we need to be on and whatever things need to fall in place would fall in place.

As I know more I will post more but it seems as though things will move faster after that orientation if we still go with Gladney so please pray for us and thanks for the love and support!

~Lindsay and Landon

Being a Spectator in Your Own Life

Since this journey has begun, I have lost more and more the feeling of being in control - so much so that at this point I feel like a spectator in my own life.

Not only do you feel in this kind of situation the loss of control, but there is a very frustrating helplessness as well. These feelings can make you feel like you are spinning your internal wheels and not getting anywhere and that is exhausting.

Trial, suffering, hardship (whatever you name it) graces us with the opportunity to be a spectator, instead of a player. Suffering prys our white-knuckle fingers off of our lives and resolutely places it in the hands of God. My life has always been in the care of God but this journey of infertility and miscarriage has made this more obvious to me.

Right now I have no idea how this section of our life will unfold, I have little to no plans, no real clear idea of the future and I honestly have enough "light" in this situation to only what is next. And this is another grace given in trial - dependence.

Yesterday, our pastor had a great sermon about this very thing and said we should be more like the guy in the bleechers eating corn dogs cheering as the most important player, God, orchestrates the game of our life and accomplishes our victories and triumphs - you can listen to it here: http://www.grandparkway.org/sermons/ or search iTunes for Grand Parkway Baptist.

Appropriately for Christmas, we see this in Isaiah 9 when the prophet speaks of what will come 700 years after his death when the Son will be given. He will bring joy, peace, righteousness and even the government will rest on His shoulder. And what is our role in this? What is our take home application for what we should change this week? Nothing- because the zeal of the Lord will accomplish this salvation and bring about what no man could accomplish. The Lord will accomplish this because He is in control and because He is all powerful and no one can do what He does.

So, I am learning to be a grateful spectator in my life. I am excited to see what play God makes next. In the mean time I get to trust that God is the one making things move and shift and checking all the to-do lists at this point.

What a gracious God who would use my life to demonstrate His abilities to do far more beyond what I can even ask or think. What a merciful chance I have been given to let go of the illusion of control and believe that my zealous God will fight for me. And I am finding that hardship has become a friend whose desire is to lead me closer to Jesus who had the ultimate trust in His Father to glorify Him at the right time after His suffering was complete.




Today, I am grateful to be a psychotic, screaming, painted face fan of my own life because I know my Savior always plays His hardest when He's playing in my life. Maybe that's kind of what faith looks like...

~L&L

The Application is in, now more waiting...

YEAH!! So excited, we turned in our "Formal Application" for adoption!



Here's me with the application right before I mailed it.

We just got a letter in return to let us know the next step is Orientation. Those happen usually in February or March. The orientation helps Landon and I figure out what we are really hoping for in this adoption experience and then explains the rest of the process.

It's more waiting which I am struggling with but I do feel relief that the ball is in their court now and I just need to make sure I can get to that class.

I have decided not to set up my print shop until after the orientation. That will give us a clearer idea of a deadline and amount we need to shoot for. So, sometime around February/March check back here for updates on where you can get some fantastic prints by me and Landon.

Sorry this is short, there's a lot more I want to write about waiting, longing, disappointment, joy, eternity and Jesus as my friend but I just don't have the time right this second. I will be back with more of the inner journey after Thanksgiving :)