Photo Friday

Not much to blog about so thought I'd share this fun picture of us. Our friend Joyce took it after church one Sunday afternoon before Christmas. You can tell it's from a couple months ago since there is no snow on the ground yet! Hope all is well with you as we all anxiously await Spring. Bring it on!


Enjoy these pix of our two sweet pups...

Superbowl Champs!

Sunday night we went to our friends - Gary & Mary's - house for a Superbowl party. We were, of course, rooting for the Green Bay Packers! Earlier that afternoon Gary & Mary's daughter Molly picked out cupcakes for the festivities. They were Harry Potter cupcakes each with a kid ring on top. As the night went on, we decided those plastic rings must be good luck so soon we all were wearing them! And the Green Bay Packers won the Superbowl! Here's a picture of our fabulous Superbowl rings:

Great job picking out the winning cupcakes Molly! The Packers have those magical rings to thank for their win! Ha! Ha! Here's Miss Molly (v-neck jersey) and her siblings in their Packer gear!

The moment captured in time... Superbowl Champs!!!

And a great night with friends!

Kitchen Remodel

My parents came up to visit the week between Christmas and New Year. I can't believe I was able to sweet talk them into coming to the snowy North before they returned home to sunny Florida -- but I did! Here are some photos from our driveway with our house in the background.

 Still lots of snow after the big blizzard in December!

When my Dad is here I always seem to have a honey-do list for him. He jokes when he walks in the door, "Well where is my list?" This time was no different and so I handed him my list! We needed help with the last finishing details of our kitchen remodel and Dad was our chief handyman and we were the apprentices! Here's how it turned out. Not bad, huh?

Well it's a new year now and I'm looking forward with hope to what 2011 will bring. Maybe this is the year we'll meet our baby?!

Happy New Year to you!

Family Celebrations

Dave and I met up with the rest of my family in Illinois last week. It was an early Christmas get-together and a chance to celebrate my Dad's 70th birthday! Everyone was there - my brother and sister and their families, and my parents, of course. We had a great time!

Here's the birthday boy with me, my brother and my sister . . .

The cake was beautiful! It turned out really great!

We made it back home before Christmas where we celebrated with Dave's side of the family. We even got together with all of his cousins and their families.

This week my parents drove up to stay with us for a few days. I'll have more photos of their visit later. I think they were REALLY good sports to spend time in the snow when they are used to being in Florida all winter!

I hope your Christmas was wonderful also!

Dave's Turn to Blog

dave here,,,, michelle always wants to start decorating in mid november,,, i feel that is WAY too early,,, we were dairy farmers when i was growing up,, so time off was precious and far between,,, i always like decorating later in december and then leaving things up for a while in january,,, that was my mothers idea,, and i kind of got attached to it. I did give in this year and let michelle put it up early,,, it is fun to take a lifetimes worth of family heirloom ornaments and see if you can pack them all on one tree..  but we always do have a lot of fun getting the house all decked out for the holiday!!!

I guess Christmas for me is a time of memories of family members that are no longer with us,,, my dad,.,, my uncles that are no longer here on this earth,, but have the joy of spending Christmas in heaven.

I think of the less fortunate than me that don't have the things that i do,, of the members of the military that are protecting my freedom,, so that i can celebrate.

dave

Snowed In Today

Yep. We are snowed in! So far today we got 14 inches of snow and it's still coming down. The wind is whipping it around and the driveway keeps drifting shut even though Dave keeps plowing it. He was supposed to go to work today but the plows never came through on our road so we are most definitely snowed in!

Today we watched A Christmas Story and Rudolph. Made cookies. Wrapped gifts. And tried to walk the dogs up the driveway! Turned out to be a fun day stuck at home. Now let's see if we can venture out tomorrow or not. Welcome Blizzard of 2010!

Pale Blue or Soft Yellow?

(This is an article I wrote for our adoption agency's newsletter in October.)

Sometimes I think about painting our future nursery and wonder if I’ll jinx the whole process.

Pale blue? Soft yellow? I know. It’s weird. But I have thoughts like that all the time. Last spring though, we did buy a beautiful nursery bedding set. I love it! It’s gender-neutral with cartoon safari animals in soft pastel colors. For now, it is sitting in the closet of what we hope will be our baby’s room.

Waiting is an interesting thing. It’s a tightrope walk between hope and disappointment. A part of me overflows with excitement thinking about getting ready for baby, and the other part doesn’t want to look foolish for registering at Babies-R-Us when there is no baby in sight. Most days I want the world to know that we are trusting God to bring this little miracle into our life, and on the other days I wish I hadn’t said anything because I can’t answer the questions one more time -- “How is the adoption going? Have you heard anything? How long have you been waiting? How long does it usually take?” 

Every time my cell phone rings and I dig in my purse to get it, I pray it’s J. (our adoption counselor) calling to say a birth mother wants to meet us. So far, no call like that. Then I wonder why birth parents haven’t chosen us yet. Should we update our portfolio? Add new photos? Lose weight? Are we too old? Too spiritual? Not spiritual enough?

Our five year wedding anniversary is next April, and we’d love to go on a vacation. Maybe Hawaii. But is it a good idea to spend that kind of money when we’re saving for our adoption? But maybe a vacation is the best thing. We can be waiting adoptive parents and still live our lives. It’s not a good idea to live a life “on hold,” is it? It’s all enough to drive me crazy!

But in the end, I do know that I will be a mother someday. I have no idea yet of the details, but I do have hope. It is what I cling to. I know that having a relationship with our child’s birth family will be a gift to our child, to us and to them. I know that my husband will be the most amazing father. I know God has control of the situation, and I will be amazed when I see it unfolding at the right time. At His right time.

In the meantime, I wait. And today maybe I’ll decide on a nursery paint color AND plan our trip to Hawaii…