Downward Spiral

Topics I've been contemplating writing about:

1. Every time we change Angel she pees on us. I thought only the boys did that?
2. Given my ankle injury and sickness and Hubby getting sick Princess offered, well was bribed, to pick up the doggies poop in the backyard.
3. One of the most exciting events of the past week was using the diaper genie.
4. Although Angel isn't the world's meanest trucker she burbs like she is.
5. Princess got sick too so sorry neighbors, the stock pile of fertilizer will continue in the backyard.

Doesn't get much better than that folks!

Just a lot of lovin' going on!

It's been a great week loving on Angel and helping her get to know her forever family. She's doing well, each day getting a little more familiar with us.

Yesterday our God-child came and spent the day and night with us. He's 3 1/2 and he is so amazing (he and his family live in FL). My family was also here for our Christmas. Grandma and Grandpa got to hold Angel for the first time and she did pretty well. She's still pretty fussy unless mommy, daddy or sister are holding her so we're taking it slow with other family and friends. We had quite the house full with all my family, the kids, our God-child, his brother and grandparents. It was so awesome. Even though it was exhausting I love having people over.

Today is me and Hubby's five-year anniversary. By the grace of God our marriage has grown stronger and every year has been better than the last. Even though he doesn't read this very often (where's the love?) I'll send this out into blog land: I LOVE YOU HUBBY! YOU ARE AMAZING AND I'M SO BLESSED TO BE MARRIED TO YOU! We were able to sneak away and go to a movie although it wasn't very romantic. We fed Angel and then she fell asleep. Princess was with her. We rushed to the theatre to catch a matinee (Alvin and the Chipmunks!) and rushed home, the whole while checking our phones and worrying about both our girls! Welcome to reality!

Here's a few pictures of the kids to enjoy. We pray you made great memories in 2007 and that 2008 brings you closer to the Lord and the ones you love.

Not very happy on her tummy

Hubby and God-child

God-child opening Christmas presents

Kind of a smile. I think I took about 40 pictures trying to capture her smiling. She really is smiling, it just goes away really quick!

Grama Susie and Angel

Mommy and Angel

Princess, Prince and Angel

Angel loves to sit up. She also loves her Christmas present from her foster family!

Big stretch!

Princess and our Allie dog

A Different Kind of Day

Crying, burping, poopy baby - what else could we ask for! It's been a good day loving on Angel, helping her get to know us. She's already a mama's girl so I've been trying my hardest not to hog her so Hubby can get some good bonding time.

We'll be taking a bloggy break to have some much needed time with Angel. Thanks again for your prayers. We know it was a miracle that Angel is home with us already.

Have a very blessed Christmas.

Angel sleeping with Daddy

Princess meeting her little sister

Our three amazing kids! Prince, Angel and Princess

Angel meeting the doggies. They are doing very well, although Ed doesn't like it when Angel cries - he cries too. :-)

Celebrating

Today we had a party with family to celebrate Princess's birthday. Yes, I know the cake is lame. It would have been even lamer if it was up to me.

Princess wanted a "funfetti" cake - no problem! I was even planning on making a cake from scratch but if she wants funfetti, she gets funfetti. So the party's at 3:00 and I finally get around to making the cake at 1:30.

It's sitting there cooling and my sister sees the chocolate frosting on the counter.

She says, "so that's what Princess wants for her cake?"

"Yep! She wants funfetti."

"With chocolate frosting?"

"Well, that's all I have and I don't think I have what I need to make frosting from scratch."

Sister gives me a weird look.

So I call Princess (Yes, she is just downstairs but that's a long way to walk!). Low and behold she wants funfetti cake with white frosting (DUH!). My wonderful sister offers to run to the store to save the day!

It's still a lame cake but at least it's a lame cake with white frosting!

Roller Coaster of Emotions

(Can you even see this picture? It's Hubby, Prince, Me and Princess on a roller coaster at Disney World. Check out Princess making a funny face - what a goof! Anyway...)

Up, down, all around. Feeling excited, nervous, queasy, laughing, crying and sometimes screaming at the top of our lungs. No, it's not the world's scariest roller coaster - it's adoption!

Today was one of those days. I praise God for our social worker. She is so amazing and quick to remind us of God's timing. It's official, I've memorized this verse:

"Let not your heart be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me." John 14:1

1. Plans were made yesterday for us to go see the baby. We'll get to go see her on Friday at noon, take her with us to a hotel and stay with her overnight. We'd bring her back to the foster family at noon on Saturday.

2. That won't work for the foster family. We have to go for the entire weekend (Friday-Sunday).

3. That won't work for us. We're having a dinner party birthday bash for Princess on Saturday night and we need to be back by 4:00 or 5:00.

4. Ok, we'll try to schedule something for next weekend. NEXT weekend? Like in 9 days which really translates into a millennium? Wow, that makes me really sad.

5. How about this week. Wednesday or Thursday?

6. Ok, that will work. Thursday from noon-5:00. We'll have to be at the foster home, no big deal. It's not as much time with her, we'll take what we can get.

7. Wait, God has heard our cries! We're back to the original plan. Friday noon - Saturday noon. Yippee!!

Hold on to your hats. Lord willing on Friday evening we'll email a picture of our Angel!

Please keep praying for the finances we need to come in. Still about $2000-3000 short.

Just a few more days!

That's right, in just a few more days we get to see and hold and hug and kiss our Angel. We've heard lots of news today from our social worker - here's an update:

1. Everything is right on track. Just waiting on Holly's fingerprints and we realized today our TB tests. Our agency is doing what they can to expedite everything.

2. We get to see her on Friday! We'll meet her at noon, spend time time at the foster home and then get to take her with us! And we get to stay over night with her. Oh the joy! Unfortunately we then will have to leave her and come back home without her.

3. Best case scenario we'll be able to take her home for final final final on Monday, Dec 17th. We are hoping and praying for that but being realistic too that it could be later.

4. I shared earlier how family had given us $8000 towards the adoption. Well $4000 of that was some jewelry someone gave us that we thought we could easily sell. The jewelry is appraised at $7000 approximately so we figure we could easily get $4k. But now we're being told it's not likely we can get that much, and in this short of time it will be difficult too. So we are still hoping this will work out. If we can get some funds by selling the jewelry we're just a few thousand short. If we can't get the funds for the jewelry we're more like $5-6 thousand short.

This week we'll be busy getting the nursery ready. Right now it's a disastrous storage room. I guess I shouldn't say disastrous - I worked on it this weekend and made some progress but we have a long ways to go. I have no idea how we get so much junk. We have a crib, 2 packs of newborn diapers and that's it. I just can't let myself buy too much until we have all the funds raised for the fee so for now we're going to just hold off on any major shopping.

Thank you so much for your prayers. I'm still in shock, not really believing that this dream will be coming true. In fact, papers aren't signed yet, there's always a chance, although slight, that something would happen. We do feel at peace though and are trusting God for each decision and each step we take.

Please continue to pray for me, Hubby, Princess, our Angel, her foster family, our two social workers, Kim and Deanne, who are amazing and for all the paperwork and funds we are still waiting.

10 Things You'll Find In Iowa

1. Mike Huckabee taking the state by storm!

2. Postcard arrives 39 years later

3. Thieves targeting Christmas trees

4. Oprah

5. Acts of courage

6. Mourning

7. Bad burgers

8. Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins

9. Freezing fog

10. Our Angel

Allie, Princess, Charlie, Me and Edward...with our tall, skinny, very naked Christmas tree. It actually looks better in person. We have a tradition in our family that every year for Princess's birthday (coming up soon!) we get her a tree ornament. Hubby has been doing this since she was 4 years old so she has a pretty cool collection. Usually it's an ornament that has to do with what she's into or what sport she's in or what she likes. And then when we were married almost 5 years ago we started the tradition for ourselves too, that we get an ornament every year.

No news is just no news, right? We haven't heard a word from our social worker. Hubby won't let me call. Yes, she did say she'd call as soon as she made contact with the foster family but arrgghh! I was so hoping to hear more today. And then my crazy brain starts going wacko. If you're wondering what I'm talking about read here.

I've spent alot of today reading the promises of the Psalms. Here's one of my favorites:

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? Ho long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, O Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; my enemy will say, "I have overcome him," and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I will trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me. Psalm 13

It's A Girl!

Ok folks, hope you're sitting down!

We are soon to become the parents of a baby girl. She's 5 weeks old and we'll call her Angel. We are so excited, yet still a little in shock and still a little cautious since it's not final yet.

Things that need to happen before baby Angel comes home:

1. Finalize our home study. Our social worker is finishing it up this weekend so that's no problem.

2. Background check and fingerprints. This is also part of the home study, but it's the part that takes the longest. Ok, so you remember how we were thinking it took 4-8 weeks. Well either we were wrong or God worked an amazing miracle. Me and Hubby's already came back after only 2 weeks. So we're just waiting on Princess's.

3. Adoption Fee. Huge praise here! We originally thought our fee was $11800 and then were told we didn't make it in time before their fees increased so the fees were actually $14800. But now today we were told that they are in fact $11800! YAHOO! We're still keeping our goal at $14000 because we owe $1000 more for the home study and we have yet to buy anything for the nursery plus a $500 post placement fee.

So what does that mean? We have $3-4000 that has been raised or donated. So that leaves us with $10-11000 yet to raise. And we have, we're guessing 2-4 weeks. I'm so excited because we serve an AMAZING God.

SO AMAZING that we have within the last 10 minutes since I've typed the last paragraph we have gotten 2 phone calls from family members that want to give us approximately $8000. I can hardly talk, I'm so overwhelmed by God's blessing. All we can do is sit here and weep.

We love you Jesus. Thank you for this blessing and this new adventure you've called us to. Thank you for our family and friends that are so encouraging and supportive. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

God Knows

Earlier this week I talked to our doctor's nurse about the tests results from last week. She said there was nothing to be concerned about and I should come back in 6 months. Uh, WHAT!! So if everything looks fine, why am I having all this pain? And why am I waiting 6 months to come back? We talked to another nurse we've been working with and she said that was ridiculous, that we should reschedule to go back in 2 months. It still bothers me that if there's nothing of concern why am I having the pain but we meet with her again on Tuesday so we'll ask some more questions.

We were able to get Princess fingerprinted last night. And praise the Lord we got in the mail the letter from our insurance we've been waiting for. Our social worker told us today she is finishing up the last of our home study so now we just have to wait for the background check and fingerprint check to come back. Pray with us that they will come back quickly!

I received this note from one of our Pastors today:

I am praying for you. One thing that is always a blessing for me to remember is this, my Godly heart's desires are always on God's mind, therefore I don't need my mind to always be pre-occupied by them. When they come to my mind I say to myself, "God knows!"

Wow, God's timing is amazing. That was just what I needed to hear. Going back to the doctor has brought up all sort of questions (should we be going to the doctor, how far do we go, do I have surgery if that's what they suggest, etc, etc). I've been worried about the finances for the adoption too. I so long to stay home, at least part time when the baby comes and if we have to take out a loan to cover the rest of the adoption fee I'll have to go back to work outside the home. It was so good to be reminded that God knows my hearts' desire. He knows.

We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you. Psalm 33:20-22

Happy Birthday Jim!

Today is my brother Jim's birthday. He's 29 years young! Here are some things about Jim that make him the coolest little brother in the world...

His nickname was "boo boo" when he was little
He has an amazing girlfriend and she's from South Africa (see picture above)
He has an adventurous spirit!
We've bungie jumped together. Not together together - he went first, then me!
He's a gifted bar and restaurant manager
He can do amazing wake boarding tricks
He's been a dedicated Chicago Bears fan since he was little (not sure how cool that is)

Happy birthday Jim! We love you!

No Fingerprints for Princess!

Hubby and I have already been fingerprinted for our adoption but we still needed to get Princess done. We found out that even though our state doesn't require minors in the home to get fingerprinted at this time, the law could change before we get our baby so our social worker thought it was important.

So we have her fingerprint form, $12.50 in EXACT change (Why? That's all I'd like to know) and get there just before they close. We sign in, get our special pass and head upstairs to the Sheriff's office.

And then I remembered. Uh, Princess, do you have your id? Nope!

Since they have the craziest hours we didn't have time to go home to get her id and make it back in time. So tomorrow we'll try again.

The night wasn't all bad though. It was family night and we pigged out at an all you can eat pizza place. Nothing like a pizza induced coma to make you forget all your adoption frustrations!

First Snow Day!

We were blessed to get our first snow fall on Saturday! Hubby and Princess love the snow, snow ball fights, white washing, etc. I have a horrible snow phobia (maybe someday I'll share why) so I was in charge of picture taking. Although at one point Princess was hiding behind me and knocked me in the snow. It was horrible and I barely survived!

Enjoy our pictures as we enjoy the snow and frigid temps!

A good day to cuddle up with a blanket and nap.... or shop!

Today we got our first snow of the season and it was a doozy. We got between 6-10" of snow plus sleet and ice. My sister came to town early Friday to have surgery to remove an abscessed tooth (fun!). She felt good enough today to want to go shopping which is so cool because it's been over a year since we've been able to spend a whole day together!

So Hubby warms up the good 'ol Jeep and we plow our way through town to the mall. Me, Hubby, Princess and Sister found some great deals (Anyone feel guilty for shopping this close to Christmas? I didn't think so!) and a few Christmas gifts.

Emily if you read my blog you will be happy to know I've FINALLY gotten your fleece blanket done. Sister helped me pick out the pattern today and we finished it tonight. Thanks for being so patient, I hope you enjoy it - it'll be in the mail on Monday!

Then we cuddled up in our own fleece blankets and watched a few great movies (Amazing Grace and National Treasure). A good, busy, cold, warm, productive, fun, cozy day!

How amazing are Your blessings, God!

Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Psalm 105:1

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today we shared in two Thanksgiving meals. At noon we had dinner with Hubby's family at our house. Then we loaded up the two vehicles with our bags, Princess and three dogs and drove to my parents house where we had another Thanksgiving meal. They were both amazing and I couldn't help but think about how fortunate and blessed and spoiled we are! Not only to be with family and loved ones but to have a warm home and enough food to feed an army. We are so blessed.

Lord, help us to remember every day, not just once a year, the many many blessings you have bestowed upon us. We thank you and we love you!

One down, five to go!

It's a miracle. It really is. We've finally finished one of our profile books for our adoption. I say "one" because we have to make SIX of them! Yikes! But really the other 5 will be easy because now we have everything set up.

Anyway Hubby is a graphic artist and a perfectionist. I love to scrapbook and am a perfectionist. That is a deadly combination. Needless to say we've been working on this one profile book for about 2 years now. Well, maybe it's been more like 2 months but it's seemed like forever.

It also made it difficult because we know at least one of the expectant moms that will be looking at it. The one that we met last month and is working with our adoption agency. She'll be the first to see it to help her with her decision of what family to choose for her baby. Yikes! That made us question every single picture that we were going to put in the book. And question every single thing we thought we should say. So we finally decided we cannot think about the expectant mom, we have to just be real, be ourselves and not worry about it.

So last night about 10:30 we finished. I've been feeling horrible and was crabby. Hubby was crabby. Honestly it wasn't the funnest project we've worked on together but when it was finally done it felt so good. It felt like we'd climbed Mt Everest.

And then I had the weirdest feeling: I didn't want to mail it. I wanted to keep it. It was so pretty and amazing and made me cry every time I looked at it. Even this morning before work I stopped at the post office and sat in the car and had to look at it two more times wondering, should I mail it? I love it so much!

Wow, that sounds really weirdo now. But I guess it's because I love my family so much. I love how God has blessed us and how I look back over the past 5 years and see how He has changed us and molded us and brought healing and love to our family.

But I did mail it. And I love how God has brought us on this new journey. Even though it's really hard and sometimes I just want to throw in the towel, I love that the mother of my child will look at the pictures and read it one day and say "I want them."

Wow, that's interesting!

You should have heard what we heard! We heard alot of good stuff. It was amazing!

We went to the Weekend to Remember marriage conference last weekend and we learned so much. We heard some things we didn't expect to hear (lots of sex talk) and some things we were hoping to hear (Committed to Christ=strong marriage).

We knew we'd probably hear some things about sex. But we had no idea it would be to the extend that we did. But it was good sex talk - for both the guys and ladies. Anyway, does this make you uncomfortable, me talking about this?

Well too bad! If you're married you should be talking about it too so we thought we'd share with you the books we purchased. We highly recommend you attending a Weekend to Remember conference (if you are married) but until then these books would be good purchases for ya!

Enjoy!

Simply Romantic Nights (not really a book but good too)
Intended for Pleasure
Coffee Dates for Couples
Intimate Issues
Rocking the Roles

I Just Can't

I tried. I really tried. Just couldn't do it. Not even a pair of socks or some candy.

I've talked to so many people that say they have already started their Christmas shopping, in fact some that are done with their Christmas shopping. So I told Hubby last night ...

"I'm going to do it. I'm going to start shopping now for Christmas, a little bit each week."

Hubby responds, "ok".

Gee, thanks for the encouragement!

So I went to Wally World tonight bound and determined to purchase some wonderful Christmas treasures. I couldn't do it. This little person or something kept yelling in my brain "IT'S NOT EVEN THANKSGIVING YET! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? ARE YOU CRAZY?"

Yes, I am crazy. But that still doesn't explain why I can't shop until Christmas Eve at 2:00 pm. Laziness? No, I was out there, in the trenches, trying my hardest. Procrastination? Maybe a little of that - but again I tried.

I think I enjoy the challenge. It's Christmas Eve Eve and I've bought nothing. I have about 143 things to buy and I enjoy the thrill of accomplishing that ridiculous task. For some reason my brain hasn't figured it out yet that I'm probably paying twice as much but ya know I'm still young, maybe some day I'll figure it out.

Until then - Happy Thanksgiving folks! There's no shopping going on in this family!

My Amazing Rooster Fleeing Brother

My brother has been running since he was 3 years old. You see, we lived on a farm and we had this psycho rooster. My older sister and I would throw rocks at it and run away before getting pecked to death and then when we couldn't find it we would send our little brother out into the yard to try to find it. He'd come back running, hollering and screaming for his life. It was hilarious!

Every since then he's been running. Running from the rooster. Running from his two older sisters. Running from his younger brother. In high school he put that running to good use and joined cross country and the rest is history!

Today he finished 127th place in the New York City Marathon with a time of 2 hours and 43 minutes. That's just riduculous running for over 2 hours! Anyway he was the 60th American male to finish. We're so proud of him!

We never dreamed that the rooster torture we inflicted on our brother would help him get where he is today. You're welcome bro! It was the least we could do!

I don't have a pic yet of him at today's marathon but here's one after he finished the Seattle marathon last year. He ran in memory of one of his students.



p.s. Lance Armstrong finished with a time of 2 hours and 49 minutes. Hee hee. I love Lance and all but it's sweet to say my brother beat him! :-)

It's A Boy

The little one we've been praying for is a boy! The expectant mom had another ultrasound and everything looks good from what the doctor could see. She will be getting some additional test results back next week. The baby's father also attended the doctor's appointment and she said that he still wants to proceed with adoption.

She met with our agency last Monday and has another appointment scheduled, not sure when though. The agency got our last bit of paperwork and payment last Saturday but we still haven't heard anything. I talked to our social worker this week and she'll call us as soon as she gets our information from the agency headquarters so we're trying to be patient!

The baby's due date is January 11th. Trying not to count the days - sometimes it feels like we're counting the minutes! In the meantime we still have a few things left to do around the house - well one major thing - the nursery's not done yet. Whether we adopt this little one or not we're working to get the nursery done so when the time comes we're all set.

Plus I'm working on Princess's scrapbook. The other night I was able to crop all of her baby pictures. We laughed so hard, she was such a goofy baby (not much has changed :-)) Then last Saturday when Hubby and I cleaned out the garage I found 3 more totes full of pictures! Aaahhh! Oh well, I'll never have to say I'm bored!