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vividviverrid · 10 months

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the reposing force of the great lakes;

---by kael knoxton martin, a (real) wip intro.

genre - science fiction, superhero fiction.

age range - adult.

status - working on first draft.

content warnings - child abuse, drug use (marijuana), discussions of homophobia and transphobia, unhealthy relationships, gore, suicidal ideation.

summary.

In the fictional city of Knife's Edge, Michigan, home to the headquarters of the Reposing Force of the Great Lakes, a superhero collective is tasked with protecting the Great Lakes region from any supernatural threats or metahumans misusing their powers. The Reposing Force is massive, and its heroes are treated like celebrities, as if they're above reproach. The Great Lakes Reposing Force is largely corrupt, preferring publicity and self-gain over the actual goal of helping citizens that the Force was founded with.

Metahuman Ivy White is on her way to a recruitment appointment, with the goal of becoming a member of the Reposing Force. She lives in her car, struggles with mental health issues, and generally views membership to the Force as a last resort attempt to improve her life. Ivy meets Kingsley Henneth and Rowan James during the interview; both of them have powers almost as unique as her own, and all three of them get embarrassingly rejected for having "useless and embarrassing powers". Kingsley and Rowan invite Ivy to stay with them after her car breaks down. At roughly the same time, the leader of the Reposing Force, Graham Case, is making a deal with the queen of the demonic dimension Xulthea to trap his best friend, Soren's wife in the main city for eternity so she is unable to expose proof of a gay adulterous affair to the public.

After finding out what Graham had done, Soren, secretly an extremely powerful metahuman himself, believes his wife to be suffering in Xulthea, so he kidnaps the entire Reposing Force and tricks the queen of Xulthea into giving him free passage between Earth and the parts of Xulthea that are so unpredictably nightmarish that no one lives there. Trapping the Force in what is essentially endless psychological torture, in a realm that naturally must use their deepest fears against them, Soren tells Graham that he and his friends will remain there until his wife is freed. Meanwhile, his wife, Jessica, is unexpectedly bonding with the queen of Xulthea, perfectly safe, watching her husband destroy the city they both once loved.

Also, it turns out Soren missed one member of the Reposing Force. Kira Ramos, the Force's second-in-command who was out of the country visiting family at the time of the kidnapping, returns to Knife's Edge a day later, and must pick up the pieces and retrieve her friends before any supervillain senses an opportunity and decides to wreak havoc in the city. She recruits Ivy and Ivy's new friends to save the Reposing Force, promising high ranking membership and immense fame if they can complete the task.

characters.

main.

ivy white, 26, she/her, cis + bi. superpower: super strength when a certain amount of thc is in her system.

rowan james, 26, he/him, gay trans man. superpower: think waterbending but with cheese.

kingsley henneth, 27, he/him, cis + bi. superpower: fashion and accessories manifestation.

winter westbloom, 26, she/her, unlabelled. superpower: can see into someone's past when touching an object they owned.

kira ramos, 28, she/her, nonbinary lesbian. superpower: fire manipulation.

zee the bee, ageless-adult, he/him, nonbinary male-aligned heterosexual. superpower: flight, due to being half-bee; can manifest anything from nightmares into reality.

minor.

xorna, around 4000 (or 40 in earth years), she/her, nonbinary lesbian. demon queen of the dimension xulthea.

jessica hollows, 34, she/her, cis bisexual. not a metahuman; soren's wife.

antagonists.

soren, 35, he/him, cis bisexual. superpower: can manifest anything from his daydreams into reality.

domino ferncutter, 32, she/her, cisgender bisexual. creates an ai called oculomancer that becomes sentient; she tries to use ivy as oculomancer's host body.

graham case, 55, he/him, cis gay man (closeted). superpower: invisibility, accelerated speed.

excerpt.

The picture fizzles out, fading slow back into a void-black screen, and she’s gone. The secondhand store employee’s words echo through her mind: fucking Reposing Force, I swear to God… But the gates open, swift and fast like a predator. Ivy looks up into the skies, watches the building as it goes up and up and up, boundless above her. She takes a deep, deep breath, and begins walking again. She’s always walking, always transporting herself between what is real and what is fantasy and what is dreaded. When she isn’t walking literally, her body exhausted from its nomadic nature, she’s walking metaphorically, through the graveyard of her past, her former self an angelic statue fixed above a headstone. Ivy is adept at pushing through obstacles of any kind. She moves forward whether the universe likes it or not. She enters the building, and her boots make a thudding sound on the teal tile beneath her. There’s a mural behind the front desk—scenery of Lake Michigan that is too vibrant, too dreamlike, to be real or accurate. The state of Michigan is never that serene. But regardless, she approaches the desk. It’s a different secretary; how many fucking employees does this place have? She asks for Ivy’s name with a monotone voice, thanks her for it in a monotone voice. Ivy cannot help it. Her mind wanders to situations, to possibilities unknown. Are these employees super=powered too, are they considered lower than the heroic division? If she gets this job, will she be doing boring secretary work for the rest of her life? If she manages to get this job, will she get the opportunity to disrespect others, just as they have done to her? Would she ever get the opportunity to do true good, or will they stick her at a desk for eternity? She wouldn’t be able to handle that.

taglist :

ask to be added/removed.

#wip intro #writeblr #scifi writing #scifi writeblr #wip #work in progress #wtwcommunity #writeblr intro #science fiction wip #scifi wip #writers of tumblr #writers on tumblr #authors of tumblr #authors on tumblr #A REAL ONE. WITH A PLOT SUMMARY!!!!!!!!!#yes graham is under antagonists idc

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withoneheadlight · 3 years

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ok i saw this cap of zoë kravitz in hf and she's got such a dreamy expression, she looks so deeply self-absorbed and infatuated by whatever she's imagining and those lines. and i couldn't stop picturing billy exactly like that for days so,

There’s a pretty unusual sound coming off the house when Max comes back home, that summer afternoon.

Full volume. Walls shaking. And she quietly walks to the source of the sound, holding back her breath right in front of Billy's room because, there's this second sound? Stranger and way more unsettling and Max's not sure-sure at first but then Steve Perry’s voice takes off and Billy’s follows it and then he's like, singing along and. Well. Max did know Billy liked Journey but not like, their 'stuff for pussies' but uhm, he does, apparently. Rasps his voice all the way through ‘Faithfully’. Kind of, sighs. Longingly? When it ends? But pfff, ok, big brothers are weird. Definitely weirder after being possessed and then kind of resurrected. Even if it's in a good-weird way but, whatever. So Max's just about to sneak to her room, dutifully rolling her eyes, steps muffled by the first chords of 'Edge of the blade' when―

Click. Click. Billy stops the tape. Click. Takes it out. Tap. Tap. Click. Puts on― Billy puts. On,

Heaven.

Bryan Adams’ Heaven.

And Max―

Being a younger sister is a meticulous kind of full-time, private detective job. You gotta learn how the person you’ve been watching so carefully for years and years works. Hafta develop some sort of―sense about your target. And Billy’s been—un-Billy-like? These past two months. Smiling more. Telling more jokes. Playing ‘You shook me all night long’ in a loop on their drive to school and back, not complaining at all but even joining when’s Max who can’t help but sing along so.

So. She retraces her steps. Knocks. Takes the distracted grunt she gets as a ‘Yeahyeah, c’mon in c’mon in’ and,

Creak. Creak. ‘―baby you’re all that I want’

“Billy?”

Billy’s sitting cross-legged on the floor. Radio close to his knees. Cassettes scattered everywhere. Piles and piles of breakwater surrounding Billy’s old, rusty beacon of sound. He’s reading through the song-list of one of the tapes, a smoke locked on the corner of his mouth, bouncing up and down with every little, absent suck he takes, and he looks. He looks―

Self-absorbed and even. Relaxed. Happy. Like whatever he’s thinking about right now is actually carrying his thoughts away to fucking heaven.

“Ehh”

“Uh-hu?”

‘When you’re lying here in my arms!’

“Billy are you. What―” ‘I'm findin' it hard to believe. We're in heaven’ “What are you doing?”

But there’s this orbit around the sun and then there’s whatever one Billy's been spinning along with the last couple of months so he completely ignores her question. Shakes the tape on his left hand. Picks another one from the pile on his right. Asks her.

“Is Billy Ocean too much? ‘Cause I think it’s too much. But it kind of fits into what I'm trying to say so” he says, shrugs, looking up at Max and waiting for the answer of what she realizes was not really a question. Not at all. So she does her little sister job and just, nods “Right. That’s good. I think it’ll slide just nicely into Bruce Springsteen and―”

“Billy” Max insists, waiting for the charm of the third time to work. It doesn’t. Not really. But keeps Billy's eyes on her long enough to squeeze an “A mixtape?” And, uh. That’s what gets it on. The charm “Are you making a mixtape?”

“Uh?”

And it’s like Max just shook Billy out of a daydream. Ash plopping down from his cigarette as his lips try but can’t purse and Max― she’s good. She’s stellar at this detective thing. Recognizes an opening the moment she sees it, right there in front of her, frozen in the middle of shaking Billy Ocean and Bruce Springsteen in the air right before cocktailing them together. Shaken, not stirred, please. Max’s upgraded to James Bond-level just right now.

“You’re making a mixtape for someone”

“Oh-nonoMaxi―”

“But you didn’t have those tapes before. Not even in your secret stash”

“How do yo―?”

“Holy. ShIT. You’ve been listening to somebody else’s music” This is. Oh, God. This. Is. GOLD. Max gotta take a moment. Blink. Breathe. Process. Her hands move by themselves, palms spread toward Billy in a wait-a-minute kind of gesture except. Max’s gonna need way more than a minute for this “You’ve accepted a music recommendation”

“Maaaaax”

“Gosh, you’ve even listened to the tapes enough to. Make―”

“Max!”

“I just can’t believe it”

And Max was glad. Well. As glad as one can be. Bunch weeks ago. Her mom and Neil out for the day. Coming back home a little earlier than she usually does to hear those ugh. Those other noises. Happy screams. Again. After months and months of Billy being basically alone except for her and the party and Steve. And Max’s so glad, of course she is. But she’s also a little sister. And all this investigation work has a high, rightful purpose.

Make her big brother’s life a living. Hell.

“Oh my god, you must be so gone!” Max brings her hands to her mouth. Takes a deep, deep breath that’s more a poorly restrained giggle. Shoots her index at him “Is it Bon Jovi? What I’m seeing right there? Goddam, Billy are you in lo―”

Bam.

Bam. Bam!

The front door.

What a way to spoil the fun. Max doesn’t have time for this. She’s working.

“BILLY?” comes a voice from the other side “Billy are you in there?”

Steve.

Oh.

What a way to make the fun a hundred times better.

Bam.Bam.Bam!

She’s starting to move to get to the door, sinsonging “Well, I guess Steve’s gonna find out you’re so stupid in love you’re willingly listening to―” when she realizes Billy’s eyes have widened and he’s jerkingly trying to unfreeze, he’s mumbling something in around his already extinguished cigarette in the ways of “Can’t” and “Find out” and “Surprise” and “Fucking help me!” While literally trying to shove the huge mass of tapes under his bed, his tone like hurryhurryhurry!, like he would start gagging and throwing his lungs out at any given minute, so nervous he looks.

So Max doesn’t go for the door. Yet. She basks in the enjoyment.

“Oh, is it a secret romance or something?” She sighs happily, leaning against the doorframe instead. “‘Cause you look pretty worried”

Steve’s banging the door now, voice wavering a little as he asks-shouts “Billy? Billy answer me! Hey, bab―Are you ok?”

“Max, please” Billy begs. Begs. Crawling over to where a Madonna’s Like a virgin is laying with the tape looping slightly out “He really can’t find out”

“What? That you’re in lo-o-oh-oh-OH―”

Billy stops at the tone, right there on his knees. Spits his forgotten cig to the side. And in the instant it seems to take him to make up his mind they both can hear Steve shout “Ok. I know you’re in there!. I’m coming in now!!”

“Fuck! Yeah. I am. Ok?” he looks like he just realized he’s tripped. Blushes. “Making it, I mean”

BAM!

And Ohhhhhhh.

Zero-fucking-zero-fucking-seven.

“Steve,” Max gasps. Because. Hear it makes it like. Easier. To process “You. And Steve”

B A M!

“Yeah, Max, Yeah. And this is a fucking surprise and he’s gonna―”

‘I've been waitin' for so long. For somethin' to arrive. For love to come along’

Ok. Oh. Okok.

“Door!” Max hastens him.

“What?”

“You. Door. Run!” She commands, and Billy― sometimes Max can’t honestly understand how he's got the grades he's got, because Billy blinks, looks clueless “C’mon slow ass. Hurry! I’ll hide all this shit”

And Billy finally gets it. Nods. Slow. Then fast. Stumbles up. Literally runs, to get to the door.

Max still gets to hear his labored “Fuck, pretty boy. “That was really hardcore of you. That's how bad you wanted to see me?” And Steve's own breathless “Really?” Before pushing Billy's room door close with her back, and kneeling on the floor to check for stray, incriminating cassettes.

Pretty boy. Maybe Max isn't as clever as she thought she is. Or hasn’t been doing her job right, clearly.

It's when she’s making ‘It’s a kind of magic’ disappear into the rest of the pile that she lays eyes on it. The case. The J-card written almost all the way down to the B-side already. A mixture of songs Billy's heard so many times there are parts where his tapes screech, and others she'd bet her life he wouldn’t have deigned to listen to. Not ever. Definitely not because―no, for, somebody. Bowie and Cher and Cindy Lauper and Bob Seger right next to Metallica and Guns n' Roses and Meatloaf and― there. There. Almost hidden in the back of the spine. A note. A tiny, thin-lettered thing Max really, really shouldn't be reading but―

‘Thanks for driving me back.

Love. Billy’

But. That's what little sisters do too, she guesses. Intrude. Annoy. Snoop. Feel this sudden rush of relief. Of happiness. When Billy laughs softly, on the other side of the door. When Steve laughs back. Maybe a tear. Or two. But just maybe. She’s really good at this little sister thing, after all.

Hopes for stellar.

or: that post s3 where steve lets a camaro-less billy drive him around in his own car "really? again, hargrove?" almost every single day, for months, after he comes back, because "you’re gonna perpetually stick yourself to my ass at least let me do the one thing that frikin’ calms me down" which results in steve resigning himself to deejaying in the shotgun even if "jesus, what's that shit, harrington?" "my car, my rules, sweetheart" which results in billy developing a ‘songs steve harrington is in love with’ mental playlist, realizing he’s probably a little bit in love with the way he loves them and, possibly, a little much love with steve and then stealing steve's tapes one day and,

making a mixtape about it.

(the first of a whole lot, of love letters)

#harringrove #d+mb sh+t i write #but #i had fun!#writing max bc she's my fav <3<3<#and also #dumbstrucklovestruck billy? MY FAV TKVM #also #mixtaping IS an art #xharringrove

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older-brother-kit · 4 years

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The Sibling Matchmakers Club

Welcome everyone to my new TSC fic, and multichapter one this time! A huge thank you to all of you who supported me, I really love you guys <3

Here’s the link on AO3 :)

James, Lucie, and Mina meet at a summer camp and discover they're siblings. They each live in a different place with a different parent, but they don't want to stay separated any longer and become determined to get their parents back together. Soon enough Kit, Mina's adopted brother, gets in on it, but there's a major complication: Zara Dearborn with an engagement ring. A Parent Trap AU for Herongraystairs!

Chapter 1: What Could Happen?

“Mom, do I really have to go?” James asked, fiddling with his short sleeves. His backpack was big for an eleven year old, but James was too stubborn to bring a suitcase after insisting he could fit everything into one bag.

His mother gave him a look. “James,” she scolded gently, “We’re already at the airport.”

James Gray really did not want to go to summer camp. His mom thought that it would be good for him, but to him it was pointless. A summer camp was a place for outdoor activities and meeting new people, while James would much rather curl up with a book than be forced to do “bonding games” with a bunch of strangers.

James sighed and turned the corner as they continued to walk to his gate. “I still don’t know why you signed me up for this. Don’t you want me to be home for the summer?”

He saw his gate and was about to elbow his mom and point to it, but she stopped in her tracks and turned around to face him. “Jamie,” Tessa Gray said, her hand soft on his shoulder. She was looking him in the eyes, and James was surprised to see the concern in them. She was the only one that he ever allowed to call him Jamie. “Of course I’d love to spend all summer with you.” She paused, as if trying to find the right words. “But I’m worried about you. There’s Cordelia of course, but aside from her you don’t have many friends. I know summer camps can be good for that, and when I looked into Camp Clover a lot of people said it was perfect for meeting new people and finding new interests. Can’t you try it out, just this once?”

James could never say no to his mom. “Okay,” he mumbled, because he still didn’t want to go but he’d tolerate it just for her. “I’ll try to have fun.”

Tessa beamed, and she ruffled his hair before grabbing his hand and leading him to the seats at his exit gate. “Good, I’m glad.”

James was going to be flying independently for the first time in his life, and he was secretly feeling a little anxious about it. His mom had made sure everything was taken care of for his flight to Kansas and that the flight attendants would look out for him, but it was still nerve-wracking.

He and his mom sat down next to each other, and he leaned his head on her shoulder. “I bet nothing exciting will happen,” he mumbled into the fabric of her shirt, and she laughed.

Maybe camp wouldn’t be too bad.

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“Where are my sandals?!”

“By the door!”

“No they’re not, I checked three times-- and now I can’t find my hairbrush!”

Lucie Herondale had never been great at managing her time. There had been many instances of her planning to write for an hour, only to stop and discover it had been three instead. She also tended to wake up late for school, though her papa usually got her to school before she could be counted as late.

Not that her papa was good at managing his time either.

“Lucie, do you have my keys?” Will Herondale yelled from across their apartment, but Lucie was too busy looking through her closet to answer.

“Yes!” she whispered to herself as she spotted her favorite pair of sandals, and she quickly put them on. She was looking for her hairbrush when she heard Will call her again.

“Lucie, we’re going to be late!”

Yeah, obviously. They had talked for a week about how they couldn’t be late to the airport, but then Will slept through his alarm and Lucie forgot to turn hers on. Lucie was going to be flying by herself, but her papa had assured her that everything would go smoothly.

Will tended to be a little over-protective sometimes, and Lucie knew that it was a miracle her papa had finally agreed to send her to summer camp. She’d been begging for the past couple years to go to one after watching a movie about it, but he had been against the idea of spending a month without his daughter. Lucie knew he would miss her, and she would miss him of course, but she was excited for Camp Clover. She’d wanted something exciting and filled with adventure recently, and she couldn’t wait for all the new people she’d meet and all the new activities she’d get to do. Plus, she’d probably come up with a lot of good material for a story about kids at a summer camp.

“I found your hairbrush,” Will said loudly, and Lucie turned around to find him standing there holding up her hairbrush proudly. He had the hairbrush in one hand, and his keys in the other.

“Thank you Papa,” Lucie said, and pulled him down so that she could kiss his cheek. “Can we leave now?”

Will’s eyes widened. “Right,” he said hastily, then started speed-walking to the door. Lucie shoved her hairbrush into her suitcase before doing the same. “Come on, we have to hurry to the airport.”

They both jogged to the car, and Lucie put her suitcase in the backseat before climbing into the passenger seat and putting her seatbelt on. Will was already in, and he started the car the second she buckled up.

“You think we’ll make it?” Lucie asked.

Her papa smiled as he slammed on the gas. “Oh, we’ll make it alright. We always do.”

He wasn’t wrong. Although the two of them tended to get ready last minute, they were rarely ever late to things.

“Are you excited for camp?” Will teased. Lucie had been talking about how much she was looking forward to Camp Clover for weeks, ever since her papa agreed to sign her up for it this summer.

Lucie laughed. “You already know I am.”

Will rested a hand on hers and shot her a quick glance. “I’ll miss you,” he declared, and Lucie felt a pang shoot through her heart.

“I’ll miss you too,” Lucie told him, and she meant it.

She really loved her papa, but she had to go to camp. She told anybody who asked that she wanted the adventure and new experiences, which was true, but there was another reason why Lucie wanted to go to camp that she hadn’t mentioned to anyone.

Lucie didn’t really have any friends. She had a lot of people that she was friendly with, but no one that seemed to consider her an actual friend. It could get lonely, being at school and knowing that none of the people she was talking to would hang out with her if she wasn’t their classmate. Lucie had never told Will about this and didn’t plan to, but she longed to make friends at Camp Clover. Just one friend, she thought. I hope I can at least make one good friend.

As she held her papa’s hand, she daydreamed about the kinds of people she would meet at camp. Who knew, maybe she’d make two good friends.

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Kit sighed for the third time in a row. “I can’t believe the flight was delayed,” he said, and her dad shot Kit an amused look.

Mina Carstairs had arrived with her family at the airport an hour early, only for her flight to Kansas to be delayed by an hour.

Her dad always liked to be early for things, and he had woken her and Kit up early in the morning. While Mina was fine with waking up before 10 am, Kit was definitely not a morning person. Her brother had complained, but he had also insisted on going with them to the airport to see Mina off.

Kit wasn’t related to Mina by blood, but he was her brother in every sense of the word. Jem Carstairs had adopted Kit when the boy was ten, and Mina had been four at the time. She could barely remember life without him. Her dad had said that they’d loved each other instantly, and Mina supposed that was true. Kit could be annoying sometimes, but he was the best big brother in the universe.

“It’s not that bad,” Mina said quietly, smiling at her family.

She had been nervous about flying on her own, but Kit had experience in flying alone from when he was younger and had told her what the process would be like. Jem also let her know he would make sure it went well, and that nothing bad would happen.

Mina knew that she was going to miss them, but she also didn’t regret deciding to go to camp. She didn’t feel particularly strong about going to Camp Clover, but she knew that if she didn’t try out a summer camp at least once then she’d regret it. Her good friend Tavvy had gone to one once, and told her all about it. Mina was a very curious person, and her dad had always encouraged her to try new things. Mina’s passion was the violin, but it wouldn’t hurt to try some outdoor activities for a while.

Kit shivered, and Jem gave him another look. “I told you to bring a jacket,” he said, and Mina was glad that she at least listened and brought one. The airport had the air conditioning on full blast, and the place was chilly despite the scorching hot weather outside.

“I forgot how cold airports were,” Kit replied, pouting slightly. “You didn’t happen to bring an extra jacket did you?”

Her dad shook his head as he grabbed at the bag he’d brought with him, but he was clearly smiling. “I had a feeling,” he said, tugging out a bright yellow sweater with the words Prince Charming written on it in hot pink cursive lettering.

Kit’s disgusted look said it all. “Why did you bring that sweater? I thought I threw that away!”

The sweater had been a gag gift from Kit’s best friends Livvy and Ty, and Livvy had laughed until she could barely breathe when Kit first laid his eyes upon it and looked back at them with horrified eyes. Kit told everyone at the birthday party that he was going to donate it the very next day, but he never did. He usually kept it deep in a drawer or his closet, though Mina had the tendency to snoop around and find it. Personally, she thought it was cute, and liked to wear it sometimes when she was lounging around the house. It fit more like a dress on her, considering her ten year old body was much smaller than Kit’s sixteen year old one, but it was soft and came with fond memories.

“You say that every time you see it,” Mina chimed in. “Even though you always keep it in your room.”

Kit narrowed his eyes at her. “Shhh,” he stage-whispered, bringing up a hand to shield his face from Jem. “That’s supposed to be a secret.”

Mina giggled, and Kit looked satisfied before catching sight of the sweater again and cringing.

“I made sure to bring an extra one, just for you,” Jem said, his eyes sparkling. Not many people saw this mischievous side of her dad, but it was one of Mina’s favorite things about him. Kit shivered again, and Jem held the sweater up higher with a teasing smile.

“Fine,” Kit sighed, accepting his fate and taking the sweater from Jem with only his thumb and index finger. He carefully put it on, then pulled at the bright yellow sleeves. “This clashes with my hair,” Kit said, and Mina had to agree. His curly blond hair and the sweater’s blinding shade of yellow did not go well together.

The three of them settled in and relaxed for a bit, Kit scrolling on his phone while Mina and Jem played a few games of tic-tac-toe on a notebook Mina had brought.

“Are you looking forward to camp?” her dad asked after a while, and Mina shrugged.

“I guess so,” she answered, looking down at her legs kicking back and forth. “I wanted to try it out, just once.”

“I’m sure you’ll have fun,” Jem said, his voice encouraging. When Mina turned to look at him, he smiled and gently laid a hand on top of her head. “And make many new friends, because they’d all be crazy not to love you.”

Mina blushed and looked to her hands. “Yeah, yeah.” she mumbled. “I know, I’ll be the coolest ten year old there.”

Her dad laughed, the sound surprisingly loud. “Now you sound like Kit,” he explained. His face was bright, and Mina thought of how much she would miss him when she went to camp.

Kit’s head perked up. “What about me?”

“Nothing at all,” Jem said, shaking his head with a smile. Kit looked suspiciously at him.

“We were talking about your sweater,” Mina interjected. “And how we should take a picture to show Ty and Livvy later.”

Kit’s eyes widened. “You better not. I swear if you took a picture-” Kit frantically started to take the sweater off, and Jem jumped forward in his seat to reassure Kit that they hadn’t done anything and he should keep the sweater on before he got cold again.

Mina would miss her family, but she was curious about having a summer camp experience. We’ll see, she thought, before joining her dad in convincing her brother to keep his sweater on. Maybe something really interesting will happen.

-----

Thank you for reading, please reblog and let me know what you thought!

Tag list: @idontgetit-whydoihavetosaymyname @zafirafox4636 @lily-chen-deserves-better @girlwhohatesstuff @ineedadrinkorsleep @ghostjessesgirl @lucieblckthorn @anxiousbookenthusiast @themostawesomehuman @hands-dripping-ink @panicatwallmaria @cordeliacarstairs1903 @banesbitch

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moxieebuzz · 7 years

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Nick and I have some very exciting news – we have officially taken the leap of faith to start an adoption! It’s a very scary process, but we both are ready for us to start this long process that will help ups grow in our faith ... we know it will all be worth it!

It’s funny how we now realize that God has been planting adoption in our hearts for a long time. I have always dreamed of adopting a girl, I remember watching Matilda when I was younger and daydreaming about adopting a girl and having that same relationship that the teacher had with Matilda. I had made a promise back then that if I wasn’t married when I turned 30, I would adopt a daughter. Well ironically, I turned 30 this year but I was married and had two boys. I started considering adoption in January of this year. I’m not sure what the initial seed was at that point, but I think it came out of longing for a daughter and having that bond. At that same time, I came across a couple stories of international adoption that really impacted me. Our Pastor Ron Williams gave me some great advice when we were preparing for our wedding and I told him my mother had passed away when I was younger, he said that for him after losing his parents, there are up’s and down’s. You will think you have it all together and then bam the memories hit you and you go back through the mourning process for a few months. Although we have now been without my mom for almost 12 years now, I had that mourning process come back up for me and I missed my mom more than usual. That experience taught me what a good mom looks like and how loved a child can feel – and I believe that also impacted me in that there is a little girl out there with no parents – I can give her what I have experienced with a loving mom. I can help alleviate the mourning that child is going through without parents. I have continued to pray to God for the many concerns I have – is international adoption right for us? How will we financially do this without having the guilt of the financial impact this will have on my current family for the next few years? I love my family just the way we are – should I change anything? This past Friday, Nick and I prayed again asking if this is right for us before we officially started the paperwork. I’ve never gotten a response quite like this one from God before, but he made it beyond obvious to me. Saturday night I was alone with the boys in bed and Nick was out for the evening. I was on Pinterest and had a recommended “pin” to see the top Netflix movies on adoption. I thought, why not? I watched the movie “Stuck” and immediately knew that I had to adopt. The movie is actually about the bureaucracy of the international adoption process as it follows 4 families in the adoption process, but seeing the orphanages themselves, the lack of medical care available to these children, and the statistics of those children who are not adopted; I knew this was what we needed to do. I cried sad tears of what these children go through and happy tears when the parents were united with the new children. That was it for me – at that point I knew this is where our journey is taking us.

For Nick, the story is less dramatic. Our church, Pathway Community Church, promotes adoption regularly through sermons, fundraisers, and general awareness. Nick has a few times over the years mentioned adopting to me. As Nick went through a personal spiritual journey a few years back, someone who really helped us was the Small Group Pastor, Brian. Brian’s family adopted a little girl a couple years ago and Nick was really inspired by him. He has also wanted a little girl for me before I even knew I wanted it. As soon as I brought it up to him early this year, he was always on board. He had the same questions/concerns as I did before diving into this process. This weekend after I showed him the movie from Netflix “Stuck”, he sat there in silence for a minute and then said “Ok, how do we start this?” We both knew God had answered our prayers and that this is the journey for our family.

We have officially decided on a country, agency and made the first payment! I am very excited to work with the adoption agency, their staff genuinely cares about the well being of the child and to help make the process for the families as easy as possible. They have recommended we not publicly post the country we are adopting from, because this has caused issues for others in the past and we do not want to jeopardize our adoption.

For the process, it is very overwhelming! I will do my best to explain it as I understand it. We will first start now our homestudy taking 3-4 months (we hope to push hard and get this done in 2). Then we will wait for immigration approval for 2-3 months. During this same time we will also be completing the paperwork for the dossier, which is what we will send to the country with all of our information and approvals. This usually takes 1-4 months, including 2-3 weeks for translation. Then once approved, we are officially waiting for a referral. The agency is currently anticipating we will wait approximately 24 months for this. Once we accept a match, we will travel to the country twice and on the second time take our child home. We will also have an extensive post-adoption process requiring us to send updates back to the country for a few years once we are home.

Here is the other big obstacle in considering adoption – the cost. We were blown away to find out this will cost us approximately $30,000 - $34,000. I originally decided against adoption after hearing that amount – this will take a lot of sacrifice for my family for the next few years and I wasn’t sure I was ready to sign up for that. We were talking to our TrueVine Orphan Care Pastor at Pathway Community Church (which is amazing if I haven’t said it enough!) and he recommended we read a book “Adopting Without Debt”. This was phenomenal for helping to find practical ways to save money and raise funds. The author did a great job of helping provide resources, but also the expectation that this need to adopt is beyond us. We must have faith that God will provide. She pointed out that Dave Ramsey once said on a TV show “there is not one example in the Bible of God calling someone to do something and then using debt as a tool to accomplish it.” God will provide. In my research, the other quote that has stuck home with me is “God does not call the equipped, He equips the called”. So we are taking a leap of faith through our financial concerns.

Because I am sure you are curious, the $30,000-$34,000 consists of $3500 agency fee for the homestudy assistance and immigration paperwork assistance, $1200 for the actual home study, another $5100 agency fee for the dossier assistance and translation, and then $2000 for the foreign country program expense (we will be working with the country adoption agency where the child is). Then we wait until we are matched and will have approximately $2800 fee for the foreign country program expense and $3200 for the US adoption agency and reports post-adoption. Then when we pick-up the child, we will also pay the court expenses of around $4500. The last of the cost is travel, hotel, translator fees in country, etc. that will estimate at around $10,000 for both trips. This all comes to about $32,000.

We believe through savings and sacrifice, we will be able to pay for $17,000. The next $15,000 we hope to raise the funds for. We have officially made the first payment $4,745, but am hoping to raise the next payment of $5,100 in the next 8 weeks when we hope to be done with the home study. This also took a big leap of faith for me, I am very nervous to commit right before Christmas to saving this amount of money and am afraid of the impact it would have on my boys. I am trusting that God will provide.

We plan to do fundraisers and extra work over the next couple years to help raise our adoption fund. We plan to do t-shirt sales, trying to work with a local restaurant to have a portion of proceeds donated, garage sales, I want to use my photography and sewing skills to use and try to sell things on Etsy, and Nick plans on sending out letters for IT support he can provide to smaller local businesses that we would put into our adoption fund and look to sell his arcade machine he made. We will also be applying for every grant we can find available to us. I am also in love with an organization I read about “Both Hands” where friends and family will reach out for fundraising towards our adoption, and then all of us would go to a widow’s house and help her around the house for the day (think raking leaves, trimming bushes, fixing light bulbs, painting a deck, cleaning out her car, etc.) This directly comes from James 1:27 “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” We may also look for family and friends to do a soup night or a bowling night.

I am the last person who ever asks someone to give money, so this makes me incredibly uncomfortable, but I also know being on the other side and wanting to help those I love with big life events such as this and to help this little girl come home to a good family, I’m hoping by making some of the fundraising fun and things you would want to do anyways – it won’t be so painful. I’ve also been reminded a lot that it’s OK to accept people’s help – as my father-in-law put it so nicely on vacation when offering to help Nick watch both boys in the pool “it takes a village”.

So everybody hold on tight, because this is going to be a very difficult, frustrating, full of paperwork but ultimately the most rewarding ride of our lives. God is the Great Provider and we are much honored he has chosen us for this responsibility.

#adoption #newbeginnings #GodsJourney #internationaladoption

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