Ornaments

Logan has such a sweet, loving, others-centered heart sometimes.  I love that about him!  I can't wait to see what God is going to do with it as he grows and matures.

The other day, Logan came home from school and wanted to make some ornaments out of paper and then set up a stand outside and give them away to people. (kind of like a lemonade stand)  At first I really didn't want to have to sit and watch him, but when I saw how much he wanted to do it, I decided to let him.  He worked hard to make a dozen or so ornaments and then made a sign that said "free ornaments" and set up a table outside.  He would wave at each passing car, but no one ever stopped.  :(  I was so sad for him, he put all that work in. 

He said he had a good time doing it though, and it didn't seem to bother him too much that no one stopped.  The neighbor boy did come over for a little bit and Logan was happy about that!

I am so proud to have a son who thinks about others and who wants to do something nice for someone else even if it means giving up time watching TV and sitting out in the cold to brighten someone's day.

Update:  My sister, Clara, who is very tender-hearted and caring just like Logan, saw this post and felt so bad for him. So she requested he give her some and he was so excited.  He said to me "I didn't think anyone would actually want one!"  So he chose 4 ornaments and he put them in the mail to her today.  Thank you, Clara, for making Logan's day!!!

Choir

Brayden came home one day early in the semester and said that he would like to join the choir.  It is only open to 4th-6th graders and so this was the first year he was eligible.  I was surprised that he wanted to be in choir since I didn't really know that he enjoyed singing so much, but we had no problem with him doing it and thought it would be a good experience, so we let him. 

It meets once a week in the morning before school, so the time committment is minimal.  I am surprised at the things they are learning though, and he really seems to enjoy it.

In November they had their first concert, during the day at an assembly at school.  Brayden worked really hard to learn his songs and his voice part and the choir did really well!

Another reader in the house

Preston is officially reading now!!!  All that worrying that he was behind was for nothing, Preston is reading and learning new words all the time now.  At our parent/teacher conference with his teacher earlier in the semester, she said that he was ahead of most of the other kids in the class and offered to let us borrow some of the early reader books that they use in the classroom but don't lend out because they don't usually come back.  Preston has been working on one or two of those a day and he's doing great!

Way to go Preston, so proud of you!

More of Chris

I can't believe I forgot to blog about this because it's probably been the highlight of my year!  I guess I was so happy living it I forgot to get it down on "paper"!  Chris decided this past summer, after 9 years of coaching at least one sport, to step back from it to be able to focus more time on his family!!  This wasn't an easy decision for him at all.  First of all, he loves coaching, except for the long hours away from home, and he liked the girls he coached and the other coaches he worked with.  Second of all, while it wasn't much, it was some extra money every month that gave us a little extra peace of mind. 

I think what finally made him want to stop coaching was realizing how much more of a committment it had come to be lately and feeling like he was missing more and more family stuff.  (Example: The kids and I went out to NE to visit Chris' sister for a week and Chris came later and was supposed to leave earlier because of basketball committments.  While he was in NE, he got a text from the coach that she had messed up the schedule and he actually could have come with us the whole week.)

You want to know what is so cool, though?  About a week after Chris resigned from coaching, I got an email from a friend asking me if I would watch her son two days a week, and the pay from that more than makes up for what we are missing from coaching!  Isn't God just awesome? 

It has been so great to have Chris home more.  I used to totally dread the whole winter season because I was single-parenting it most of the week and I really missed Chris and the adult interaction.  We barely had time for the things we needed to get done, let alone any extra social activities or anything.  It has been so great to have Chris home before it gets dark out.  We have had more time together as a couple and we get to eat dinner every night as a family.  I've also noticed that Chris is a lot less stressed and has more time to prepare and plan for teaching.  He is always trying to improve and do better as a teacher (I love that about him), and by not coaching he has more time to do that. It's so awesome!

We ran a 5k!

We have been working out hard since the middle of August.  Like 6 days a week we're either lifting weights or doing high-intensity cardio.  Chris has always enjoyed working out, but I've really enjoyed it too.  It's very addicting and so much fun to see results. 

Since we both felt in a lot better shape and wanted to see how that would look out in the "real world" (i.e. not just in our basement doing a DVD workout), we signed up for a 5k.  We decided to do the Clement Park Gobble Wobble on Thanksgiving morning.  My sister came over and watched the kids so we could actually run instead of wrangling kids!  (Thanks, Monica!!)

I definitely wasn't super fast or anything, but I did run the whole time and wasn't even that sweaty or tired afterwards (maybe I need to push myself a littler harder next time?).  I ran it in 31 mins and 26 secs, which isn't great, but my goal was 30, so I got close. 

Both of us had a great time and we really wanted to do another 5k again soon.  Now we have a time to beat too, which is good for us self-motivated types!  This was such a fun way to start out our Thanksgiving day, I think it will become a tradition for us.

We got a grant!

Praise God!!  He has provided all the money we need to pay the rest of our agency fees, this most recent time through a grant!  We had always planned on applying for grants (plural, we figured we'd apply for many before receiving one) when the time was right, but we are so blessed to receive the first one we applied for!!

It's so hard to believe that this time last year was about when Chris and I first started talking about adoption.  We were unsure if we were hearing God correctly and very nervous about the cost of the whole thing.  Now we are not only done with our homestudy and dossier and on the waitlist, we now have all the money we need to pay our fees to accept a referral.  (Correction: it turns out we still have a $1400 fee that is due to our local agency when we travel for our second trip. I don't know how i missed that one.  I'm kicking myself!) Only God could do that, I guarantee it!

At this point, we are now focused on fundraising for our travel expenses (and the $1400 due to our local agency). These expenses will include:

• 4 round-trip airplane tickets to Ethiopia (we have to take two trips to Ethiopia)
• 1 one-way ticket for our daughter to come home from Ethiopia
• 10-14 days of hotel stay (each trip is about 5-7 days)
• 10-14 days of food (some is provided I think, but I'm not really sure on this)
• any in-country legal fees (court, embassy)
• in-country transportation (we will have to hire a driver)

I'm sure there are more expenses associated with travel, we just haven't really gotten to that point in our research, so we aren't aware of all the little things that could come up.  (If you are an adoptive family and have traveled, maybe you know of more we should be planning for?)  Based on the expenses above, we estimate our travel expenses to be around $10,000.  Unfortunately, we will not know when we are supposed to travel until about 1-2 weeks before, so we don't have the luxury of buying tickets way ahead of time to get a better price.

We trust that God will faithfully provide for these expenses, just as He has all the rest.  If you would like to help with our travel expenses, you may donate online at Ordinary Hero and 100% of your donation will be tax-deductible and be made available for us to use.

Operation Christmas Child

This year Chris and I wanted the boys to make their own box for Operation Christmas Child.  We tried to enforce the idea that for many children, this is only gift they get, and how it is one small way our family can bless a child in another country.  I'm not sure if they totally got it because even while we were at the store picking out things for their boxes, they were begging to get stuff for themselves.

But once we were home and got all the stuff put into the boxes and they wrote the child who would be getting the box a letter and enclosed a picture, they were very excited. There is a way, now, where you can print a label online and track your box to see where it ends up, I can't wait to show them that part!

 

Boo at the Zoo

Boo at the Zoo was COLD this year! Freezing! I actually wasn't much in the mood to bundle up and go, but I knew the kids were really excited about it. Chris encouraged me that we should still go, despite the cold, and I'm so glad he did. We had a really good time and it wasn't as cold as I thought it was afterall. 

Brayden was a ninja

Logan was a ninja

Preston was a ninja

Ashten was a ladybug

3 ninjas and a ladybug

Daddy, 3 ninjas and a ladybug

Mommy, 3 ninjas and a ladybug

Towards the end, at the ampitheater at the zoo, there was a guy doing a magic show. It was cute and the boys LOVED it. They talked about it for days, wondering how he did some of his tricks and stuff. I'm glad we took that time to slow down and do something fun that we normally wouldn't stop and do!

We didn't have a zoo membership last year, so we didn't go to Boo at the Zoo, so I'm glad we made it a point to go this year.  And one positive aspect of the cold weather was that there were less people there!

November adoption update

I haven't blogged about our adoption in awhile, and that's honestly because there's just not much to blog about right now.  It stinks waiting!  Especially when I know there are more kids than families who are willing to take them.  Our waitlist # only moved one spot last month, so we are at #128 for a girl, 0-2 years old. 

People ask me all the time how our adoption is going and I don't really know what to say.  It's going, there is just nothing to show for it right now.  It was easy when they would ask me about it this summer and I could tell them how our homestudy was complete or we were almost ready to send in our paperwork, but not I just say that we are just waiting at this point.  I'm not a good waiter.  I need something to do, some way to feel like I am in control.  Unfortunately that's not what God has for me at this point, so I need to wait patiently for His timing.

Posing

The other day I was  taking some new pictures for my blog profile photo.  I don't know why, I guess I was just bored of my last picture, in which my hair was curly and lighter brown and I wanted a picture with my new, fun, fall hair color! 

 

 

Ashten wanted in on the picture-taking action as well!  What a cutie!  I seriously cannot believe how big she is getting!