Thoughts about Christmas

I know I haven't been good at writing lately, I guess just nothing exciting to write about. However, I thought I would share a new website that our pastor used in her sermon today. Go here and just watch the video, it's eye opening. Then browse the website for more ideas.

Adoption Update

As of today we have been waiting 10 months for a referral. It seems like such a long time especially when you add how long we have been planning. To think we visited our first adoption agency information session before Liam was even conceived. So, I guess that makes our wait more like 8 plus years since we started the research phase, so ten months to wait for them to find the right children for our family isn't so long.


We are trying to stay positive and busy during the wait. We are using the time to get ready financially. We have the next "payment" that we give our agency when we accept the referral in savings now. We are going to start saving for travel money next. We could use the time to get the house ready, but we still haven't painted or rearranged like we want to. I guess if we keep putting it off it makes the wait shorter in a way. We will get our referral and have to get into action right away.


We are just taking life one day at a time and enjoying them all. We are thankful for all that we have been given and enjoy our boys everyday. It is a little difficult to know that somewhere halfway around the world our children are waiting for us. I think the holidays make it harder also. We keep all our boys (the ones that live with us and the ones we are waiting to go get) in our prayers. Please keep them in your prayers also.

The Season of the Eternal Birthday

If you haven't heard yet, Liam turned 7 this year. The official kick off of his birthday party started in late October and it seemed to never end. I do recall the birthing experience of this child and it lasted a while, but it was hours not weeks. However, now at age 7 we had a month of birthday fun including 3 parties and many gifts. (Sorry if he is behind on your thank you card, he is catching up). Thanks to all that made his birthday month a joy. It was fun, but I'm kind of glad it is all over. Here are some highlights:

Blowing out candles at the 2nd family birthday party.

Showing off one of his great gifts. He wants his name included to this poster some day.

Oh yes, the friend party!The reason I'm probably tired is that we saved the best (most work) for last. We invited 8 little first grade boys over for 3 hours of fun. It was just cold enough with just a dusting of snow, so that would equal cold, muddy boys. So we kept it inside. We started the party with Liam's requests of "board games" and Madlibs. Pictionary went okay, but we lost them at Outburst. No one liked the Madlibs but Liam. I ended up going upstairs and dragging down every bin of Lego's I could find. This entertained them for a half hour. I chose to have them decorate cupcakes (check off another half hour) and then they played a rousing game of hide and seek for the last half hour or so. I really wanted to count, but they wouldn't let me. I was thinking 1,000,000 was a good round number to count up to. The important things were that Liam was happy and they all left with a sugar rush. I guess it was a successful party.

Thanks again for anyone that helped make the the month of the birthday fun!!

Brag Time

I just have to brag about my husband and how great he is. Yesterday he took the day off just to burn some vacation time. I had to go to a teaching conference for most of the day. He had told me that he was just going to play video games all day and have a me day. He would try to get to the honey do list. However, while I was gone he ran a bunch of errands and picked up the house. And to make my day brighter he bought me a rose and left it in my car. So when I was done with my training I had a nice rose and beautiful card waiting for me for no reason. That's why I married him :)

Happy Birthday Liam

Happy 7th Birthday Liam!!

Today is Liam's birthday! We celebrated by making it a birthday day for the family. It started with homemade caramel rolls for breakfast. Then Ryan and Liam got to open the cards they had gotten (thanks to everyone that sent one) and Liam got to open a family gift. We bought a Wii Fit game for the entire family's birthdays. We have been looking for one for a while because that is what we were buying for our June birthday people. So we got it and gave it for 2008 birthdays. So the rest of the day was spent in p.j.'s playing video games, watching football and eating. I made Stromboli for Ryan's birthday dinner also. Overall a great stay at home birthday kind of day.

Don't worry Liam is still going to have a "family" party next week and a friend party the following week. We'll do the big hoopla then, but it was nice to have a quiet day.

Happy Birthday Ryan

Happy Birthday Ryan!!

Ryan's birthday was yesterday and we had a fun day! First we went to a potluck for people adopting/adopted from the Philippines. We ate some good food, met new people, and watched some Filipino folk dancing. Ryan and Lance also played a game of basketball with some guys. It took up the first part of our day.

Then in the evening we went to dinner and a show with a bunch of friends. We were going to meet at a local chain restaurant, but the wait was at 80 minutes already when we got there. So, we ended up at a kind of fast food restaurant. But hey we had quick service and it was quieter. Then we raced downtown (we talked too much at the restaurant and left late) to go to the theater to see Wicked. It was packed, the tickets were impossible to get (unless your my resourceful friend Ann!) The show was amazing! I loved the storyline, the costumes and the singing was wonderful. Ryan (the birthday boy) enjoyed it also, but liked Spamalot better. Wicked ranks way up there in my favorite shows.

So, Ryan's birthday was filled with cultural events. Probably not the day he would choose, but he had a great time anyway.

We do live in a winter wonderland

This is what we woke up to this morning.

I knew the post that I put up on Wed. was too good to be true. It started with a big wind/rain storm yesterday. The wind was so strong that it blew our yard waste container about 50 ft. and then flipped it over. This is why we need weather people in MN, we never know what is going to happen here.