Launch Day!!!!!!

It's finally here! 

I am so humbled to share my heart again on the pages of my second book. It's been a long, long journey--through the entire adoption experience and then through the publishing process to get our full story out there. 

If I had my way, the introvert in me would have quietly published this story completely on my own through Create Space and made it available to friends and family and a few blog readers. I see now that God had a much bigger plan for this book and this story, after leading me to a conference on self-publishing and sitting me right beside a couple with plans to start their own company to help new authors like me get their story out there as a form of ministry.

This entire experience is completely out of my comfort zone, and it's pretty exhausting for an introvert to self-market and build a platform. It's just as emotionally and psychologically exhausting to pour your heart out in such a public way. But now it's all poured out, and God is filling it back up with blessing after blessing.

Here are most of the quotes we shared via Pinterest and Canva from Painful Waiting. Some have the  ABH website on them, some don't. Feel free to save and share any of them on whatever social media you use, but please make sure you add a link to http://www.amazon.com/Painful-Waiting-Leaning-Adoption-Surviving-ebook/dp/B01E49V65A/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1. If you share them on Twitter or Instagram, use the hashtag #painfulwaitingbook. Slowly, but surely, I'm building my platform on Pinterest, Facebook, Google+,Twitter, and through guest blogging. I'm a bit slow in getting started with Instagram, mostly due to issues I had with my phone. I'll get there, though. :)

Not sure I did the greatest job with this one, but it's one of my favorite poems about starting each morning out right. It's the poem written on the side margin of this blog. 

Get your copy today at www.abhbooks.com/books!

A picture worth a thousand words

Sharing this as a Pinterest post just seemed a bit impersonal to me. These three boys have me wrapped around their fingers and carry my heart around wherever they go. They remind me every day just how big God is and how small I am.

Tomorrow my story, their story, or better yet, our story releases. You don't want to miss it.

April 14th, Julian's birthday.  I hope everyone who reads the books sees him for the amazing young man he is, the tenderhearted brother who so selflessly loved his siblings. 

Surviving the Valley Book series trailer

Just four more days until we launch. Feel free to share this post anywhere on social media. 

(I noticed that this opens fine on my computer, but not on my phone. In case you are unable to open it from your device, try this link instead: https://www.facebook.com/rachelle.alspaugh/videos/10208472778239316/?l=1134058672268862791)

Austin bound!

These boys won District Champs this year, and they've already won three rounds of the playoffs! Friday they head to Austin to represent their school and district to see if they can advance through the next three games to play at the State Finals!

So excited for Juan to be able to experience this. He's been on the JV team all year, but he's one of four JV guys that have played as a reserve player for the Varsity team, so they get to participate in all the fun now, plus their names are on the District Champs shirts. :)

Love seeing them start their games with their heads bowed. :) What a touching picture.

House of tears

Missing one of my beautiful fur babies today, and hurting for the one that's still here with us. Besides being sick himself, now he's super sad and depressed. 

So, so sad. Loved this pair of snow-white beauties.

What a week!

We've had quite the week here at the Alspaugh house. I'm thankful for a small break this morning to actually write a quick blog post.

A week ago today, we took our precious kitties (almost nine years old) to the vet for a second time in two weeks. Two weeks prior, I'd noticed they suddenly stopped eating or using their litter box (which usually stunk up the whole house). They were acting lethargic, and one of them had also been throwing up. The vet noticed one cat was jaundiced and took a blood sample. We went home with two cats on antibiotics and liver medication for one of them. We got them some special food to help take the medicine with, but after a day, they wouldn't eat anymore, and giving them their meds turned into an all-out war with their sharp claws. We have a lot of cuts, scrapes, and scratches to prove it.

I had a gut feeling things weren't getting better, so Mike, David, and I all three took them back to the vet last week, only to receive heart-breaking news, $600 later, that both cats are severely ill and have a very slim chance of survival. He was stumped as to how both cats got so sick at once. It could be a hereditary liver issue, they could have gotten into something we don't know about, or they could have gotten a deadly virus somehow. We are heart-broken. They have been our most beautiful, faithful, furry companions ever. Mike and David are quite attached to the extrovert, Snowflake, and I'm just as attached and in love with the introvert, Snowball. We spent several days in tears and grieving, though we haven't lost them yet, and we've just been loving on them all week long.

In the midst of all that, we survived the first round of STAAR testing. David had a Reading test, Juan took an English test, and I had to find a way to keep a room full of four-year-olds as quiet as possible for two days.

Monday afternoon Juan and I attended an informational meeting about his second opportunity to attend a Kiwanis Leadership Camp with other ELL students throughout the district later this month, yesterday I talked to Juan's counselor to get all of his classes figured out for his senior year next year, and last night Juan's soccer team played their second game in the play-offs and won! If they win the next round of play-offs on Tuesday, then they advance to play in Austin on Friday. I sure would love for him to have that opportunity.

(Love seeing my son's name on the back of that shirt!)

We found a random (and rare) opportunity to skype with Julian this week, too. What a treasured phone call. I love being able to keep him involved in Juan David's life, and I love giving him the opportunity to see how much his brother is thriving here. If it weren't for him, Juan David's future would look so different right now, and he definitely wouldn't be here.

Today Juan is working all day as a referee at the soccer fields, David will be doing yard work for a church family in order to raise funds for their youth mission trip to Los Angeles this summer, and then we'll end the afternoon with David's soccer game and then church.

Busy times. but I cherish them. I look forward to all that April holds. Stay tuned for lots of blog posts leading up to the launch of Painful Waiting in just 12 days!

Resurrection

This Easter as I reflect on Christ's resurrection, I can't help but reflect on my own resurrection story. It's kind-of hard not to when I'm less than three weeks away from launching the book that recounts that whole story. 

Here's an excerpt from a poem from Painful Waiting that keeps replaying in my head:

It’s as if you’ve always been here,

Or at least were always meant to be.

Yet sometimes I still look your way

And can’t believe it’s you I see.

I still remember grieving

As if I’d experienced your death.

Now that you’re actually here,

It’s like you’ve risen from the dead.

I treasure every moment spent with this boy. His smile and joy truly light up my life.

Check out this excerpt from another review I found on Goodreads by someone from my launch team.  I am extra thankful for this review because it's not someone I have known for very long, so she wasn't part of the journey in any way.

"In this book Rachelle shares the story of her family's five year adoption story. The journey that she embarked upon with God to be able to bring this child into her home is not a story for the faint of heart. It's a story of sorry, heavy tears, heart-wrenching cries out to God, and ultimately the ability to see God's redeeming hand throughout the entire journey." 

A resurrection story, indeed.