23 Months and still counting...

I literally have spent most of the day trying to come up with something truly unique to post for our 23rd month LID anniversary and honestly I've come up with... blank!

I tried to write the 23 months of Log in - to the tune of 12 days of Christmas - and only made it to month 10 with complete writers block. Then I thought I'd write something along the lines of "Twas the night before Christmas" only "Twas the 23rd month logged in & all through our house," but that's as far as I got with that one. I even tried to come up with an acronym for
TWENTY-THIRD MONTH
and there's only so many things you can come up with for the letter T.

So...without further delay, the best I could come up with is ~
Yes, we are still waiting for our daughter from China.
Yes, we are still excited about it even though the initial giddiness has worn off.
Yes, we still wait expectantly each month for word about the next matches of referrals. And YES, we would do it all over again, even if we had to wait 23 months!

Happy 23 months to us!!!

Merry Christmas to all...

To all our family and friends, have a wonderful blessed Christmas!

Praise the Lord we were all well and able to celebrate with one another the birth of Jesus our Savior and Lord!!!

Will it ever stop???

Today after church we celebrated Christmas with my hubby's side of the family! What a fun time we all had with one another relaxing and enjoying the day. Of course oldest came home from church and announced he wasn't feeling so well; said his stomach was a little upset. We chalked it up to one of the soup's I had on the stove (as he's not all that thrilled with this particular soup and we just figured it was the smell). Just a simple reminder, last Monday morning we all woke to "oldest" child having the stomach flu. Now one week later, he dismissed himself and went into his room to rest. I find out that while someone was occupying our one and only bathroom, oldest was throwing up outside his bedroom window, as he figured that would be the best place to do something like that. UUgggghhhhhhh! We unfortunately didn't alert family members as we assumed that it was due to a really late night last night (4 am to be exact - I guess he couldn't sleep) and not eating the best during this season. Assumption incorrect! It's 10:24pm and he's still making runs to the bathroom.

I am so sick and tired of having this nasty bug in my home (talk about depressing). I thought when we finished last week with youngest son we were out of the woods. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and not only do we have more family celebrations to attend but 2 services which we are a part of. Please God have pity on our poor family!

In the event I don't get back to this blog for reasons I don't care to list - to each and every one of you I wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Blues!

Well so far I haven't been subject to the flu bug, but I have definitely been bit by the Christmas blues; being housebound with sick children tends to do that to you.


I have Christmas gift lists that haven't been shopped for yet , not to mention children who can't tell you what to get them for Christmas because they "just don't know" what to ask for, holiday goodies that need to be baked for our family Christmas celebration in 3 days - baring sick children are well, blah, blah, blah - need I go on.

Thus...feeling a little blue!

STUCK...in the land of the ill

It's true, the flu bug has hit 2 of my boys. UGGgggghhhh. My oldest woke up Monday morning early worshiping the white throne. After doing his business, he returned to bed and slept for 7.5 hours.

"Phew" we all thought as it appeared to have just barely left evidence of being worthy of being called anything at all.

Well, we didn't escape it that easily. My youngest woke this morning at 7:00am and began bowing down to again said 'White Throne' and didn't let up until early afternoon ~ poor fellow. I have literally spent more time sanitizing everything in, near or around the bathroom and his bedroom that my fingers have pruned to the point of un-recognizable (good thing we have already been finger-printed for the 2nd time as I think I have burnt all my prints off with chemicals).

I'm tired, worn out and don't care to see another bottle of Lysol in the near or far future. Pray that N recovers quickly and for protection for the rest of the clan.

Caution...

Blog re-design and editing in process.

Please stand by...

It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to...

and why would I cry??? My blog seems to be going through a mid-life crisis! No matter how much I tweek it, custom it, decorate it there always seems to be parts of it that some can see and others can't ~ and vice versa. And the sad part is that I think I have lost visitors because of it :-(

So...I am going to go and enjoy the rest of what is left of my big 40th and leave the blog design for another day!

Wedding gown, Candles, Pictures, Bouquets...

I was at church one sunny August afternoon talking with the bride-to-be about her wedding and she found herself teary-eyed and quite frustrated as they'd chosen to move their "planned wedding" from June '08 to December '07 ~ and she had no idea what to do, nor where to start planning this monumental life event just 4 shorts months away.
My heart went out to her and I told her that I would love to help her coordinate her wedding to make it as spectacular as possible. You must know, I am no wedding coordinator, however I have gone through my own wedding as well as attending many in my lifetime.

Well spectacular it was I must say! Saturday, December 8, 2007 @ 2:30pm, Gloria and Edward pledged their love to one another together, forever. The ceremony went so smoothly with no goofs or hiccups, the reception flowed with food, fun, dancing and fellowship. Their exit was classic in a Stutz Blackhawk.
A humongous thank you to everyone who joined the process and pitched in to help out. There were a lot of long hours (11-13 hour days) Wednesday (having to re-paint the reception hall as the paint we used for touching up dried a shade darker and not the same original sheen), Thursday (moving all the equipment out of rooms for the event) & Friday (decorating the sanctuary and reception hall). And to think, all that work was completely cleaned up and ready for Sunday morning church today in just about an hour!

And yet, all the work was so worth it to see them glowing with happiness and joy!

And now, I think I will collapse for a day or two and enjoy what little time I have left to be 39 (26 hours to be exact)!

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

Truly I think that is about the only thought I have right now floating through my head that describes how I feel about the most recent referral report:

The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before December 14, 2005.

Waiting for word about the next referral matches is very much like swimming around with jellyfish. One has to be careful not to get "stung" by the disappointment of number of days referred.

In spite of that, a big huge Congratulations to all those families who are celebrating the arrival of their referrals. Only 44 more LID's to go.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

I'm off to build an Ark

I copied these pictures were taken from a fellow blogger friend's site (thanks K1) to show how wet it really is. These are of downtown Woodinville - just 11 miles from my home.

I guess I am off to make my lumber list...

My Season of Chaos

It's time again for wrestling season in our house. #1 son began practices with the high school team well over a month ago~ 5 days a week for 2.5 hours each day. And all 3 of the boys are a part of the Greater Gold Seattle Wrestling Club every Monday and Tuesday evening as well. So, basically I have no social life to think of (come to think of it, I'm not sure I really ever had one).

So to give you just a glimpse, today was the first day of tournaments for all three boys, and to make things really interesting their tournaments were in different parts of the state.

Here is how it began:
4:50am ~ Beep, beep, beep~alarm clock. Hit snooze once since it really can't be morning already
5:00am ~Realize it is true and crawl out of bed
5:00-5:30am ~ pack coolers with breakfast, lunch & snacks for day
5:35am ~ take son #1 to school to catch bus for tournament down South 1.5 hrs from home
5:45am ~ Hubby takes sons #2 & #3 to meet Coach to carpool for tournament up North 1.5 hrs from home
7:30am ~ After shower and packed cooler, I head to #1 son's tournament down South
7:30-8:00am ~ Regulation weigh-in's for both tournaments
8:00-10:00am ~ boys eat breakfast and warm-up for competition
10:00am ~ Competition begins
5:00pm (notice how we are now in the pm hours - where did the day go?) #2 & #3 sons are done with tournament, time to head back home.
8:00pm ~ #1 son is finally done competing, now I get to go home IN THE SNOW!!! I hate driving in the snow, especially when you can only drive 10-15mph.
10:55pm~#1 son calls to say tournament is officially over and their school bus is leaving, they should be home in 1.5 hours -

Did I mention that I had to be up EARLY this morning and that I sat on bleachers in a high school gymnasium for 10 hours?!?!?!?!?!

And...here is how they did:
#2 son took 3rd place in his tournament.
#3 son took 4th place in his tournament.
#1 son lost 3 matches at his tournament

Now of course, don't get me wrong ~ I love to watch my boys wrestle. Well...really it is more like a love/hate relationship. I love to see them excel at their sport, yet it is the most gut-wrenching 4-6 minutes of a mother's life during each match. And thus, the season has begun. Between the 3 of them, we manage to have Saturday tournaments throughout the months of Dec, Jan, Feb, not to mention during the week league matches at high school's all over the place. If I get the chance to get some good pictures of them, I will post.
Until then, I will hold my eyelids open, waiting for my son to call and say he's ready to be picked up so we can all go to bed.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

It's the 27th again?!

Indeed it is that time of the month again (and no I don't mean the pms kind either) but the LID anniversary kind, 22 months to be exact.

And for all of you (myself included) "holiday challenged" individuals who wait until the last moment to get organized and get everything done before Christmas Eve, I was reminded by one of my comment post-er's that only 27 more days to go until Christmas - YIKES! I better get used to long lines, crowded stores, parking spaces 1 mile away from front door, empty shelves, grumpy sales people, sore feet, shall I go on...

Fa La La La Laaaa

'Tis the season to be festive right?

Each year I tell myself that 'this is the year I am going to get the house all spiffed up for Christmas EARLY' and yet I find myself sitting here thinking about All the work that it takes to get out the boxes from the attic, plug in the tree (before decorating) to be sure all the lights are still working on it, etc and I am already exhausted before I've begun. I think I'm becoming a 'bah-humbug' type of person. YIKES!

I remember when I was a little girl, each year (around my bday since it's two weeks before Christmas) we would pick a day and go up to the mountains to the tree farm to cut down our tree. It was always quite comical since we would all pile out of the station wagon and my brothers would begin to head off into different directions, leaving my mom, dad and me to follow - yet which direction? We would soon hear one of them shout "Hey mom, I found one over here - it's brown but I found one" and then another would shout from the opposite direction, "No pick mine over here, it's sort of a Charlie Brown looking one." It would take us a short while to find just the right tree before heading home to have hot chocolate and fresh baked christmas cookies, while Dad got the tree aired out and put into the stand for decorating. We'd then listen to christmas music while stringing the lights, delicately putting each ornament on the tree, while reminiscing about the year "that" ornament was hand made by one of us. Sort of has a 'Norman Rockwell' feel to it!

So, I guess I will sit here and 'think about how nice and fun' it would be right now to be listening to Christmas music, sipping hot cocoa, smelling the fresh evergreen fragrance of my newly lit candle (since our tree is a fake one), trimming the tree and on it goes.

I think for now I will put the tree on hold, I'm off to manage my schoolhouse!

Happy Thanksgiving to ALL!

A very Happy Thanksgiving to all our family & friends.

{I hope my bird turns out this good! :0)}

Jury is IN!

Well, the jury is in. I have asked several people about the condition of this blog and I have some who can see the background, but not the header. Some who can see the header but not the background. And then those who can see both. I have figured and re-figured the html code to see if there is some error there and I cannot seem to find the issue.

So...for those who cannot see one or both parts, I am so sorry but I cannot see to figure out why. It's actually quite beautiful with a rosy brocade background and custom header with old parchment paper and gerbera daisies.

Hopefully my next custom look you will be able to see.

Gone Retreating

Not quite "gone fishing" but close!

Hubby and I are off to Leavenworth for the weekend for a Youth Staff leadership retreat for our church and of course the craziest thing, we can't get a single cell line for our cell phones, but get full internet access - crazy.

The scenery here is just beautiful during the fall, and for those of you who enjoy the snow, it's coming. Pretty soon this magical bavarian village will become a winter wonderland! Thankfully though we did not have to worry about any snow coming over the pass.

For those of you still have trouble viewing any part of my blog, I am so sorry. I have many who say they can see everything and some that say they can see parts of it. If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments. Otherwise I will take a look at it when I get home.

Auf Wiedersehen

Technical Difficulties

This is the part where you would be hearing that really long and annoying beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

In the event you are experiencing difficulties reading or seeing anything on my blog, "Please Stand By"! I am in the process of getting help to work out the trouble. Thank you for continuing to visit my site and for your patience.

New Referrals

Survey says:

8 Days!!!


Referrals have been posted and the CCAA has matched Nov. 30, 2005 ~ Dec. 8th, 2005.

Happy FALL!

Fall is here!


There is evidence of it in my front yard.


The taste of pumpkin pie and turkey is just a few short weeks off.


The evening sun sets earlier each night as the morning dawns while its still dark.


The air is cool and crisp,
enough to keep one locked up inside by the fire
with a warm cup of cider and a great book!

Huh! Who would have thunk?

Do you realize that in the last 12 months (well technically 11 to be exact, since we are still in October with no news of referrals) the CCAA has only managed to get through 3 months worth of referrals for families logged in?

I didn't! I decided that since we are getting close to the beginning of a new month and the possibility of referrals being released, I wanted to know some history and this is what I found:

So to give you perspective, we must go back a little bit to early 2005. From 3-17-05 to 10-3-05 the CCAA referred LID's from 9-16-04 to 3-15-05 which broken down means it took them 7 months to match 6 months worth of LID's. So then from 11-10-05 to 11-02-06 CCAA referred LID's from 3-31-05 to 8-25-05, which broken down means it took them 12 months to match 5 1/2 months worth of LID's. Oh it gets better. Then from 11-2-06 to 10-2-07 (11 months) CCAA referred LID's from 8-25-05 to 11-30-05, which broken down means it took them 11 months to match a little over 3 months worth of LID's. AND if you look at it overall over the past 2 years 11-10-05 to 10-02-07 , it took them 23 months to match a little over 8 1/2 months worth of LID's.

Kinda spooky huh? Who would have thunk we were REALLY on the slow boat to China!

What's Behind Door No. 21?

21 long months of waiting for our referral of course.
I was a little dis-enchanted with what I could find in reference with the number 21. From legal drinking age, legal gambling & selling of one's self to another in certain states to the ability to buy a handgun, I thought I would come up with 21 things I look forward to experiencing with my daughter

1. Fountain ponytails on top of her head ~ now as teenager's my boys think this is fun, but it's just not the same
   
2. snuggles early morning in bed ~ doesn't quite seem like 'snuggles' when your kids are bigger than you are and manage to snuggle you right out of bed
   
3. wet slobbery kisses~ I guess I need to specify 'baby' wet slobbery kisses
   
4. big beautiful brown eyes ~ I was blessed to have 2 of my boys with these. What can I say, I can't get enough
   
5. many "I wuv you's" ~ though heard on occasion from the teens, you can't beat it when it comes from a bright-eyed little cutie-pie
   
6. tipsy turvy of a toddler's walk ~ my boys do this as teenager's but it's not the same when their BIG feet step on yours in the path
   
7. cuddling in my rocking chair ~ 5 ft. 7in, 138 lbs (my oldest), need I say more
   
8. watching her with her Daddy ~ this one stands on its own
   
9. sitting on my lap eating Cheerios while I type my blog ~ re-read # 7
   
10. watching her be loved on by her big brothers ~ there are so many little children that my boys love on and what a joy it is to watch
    
11. grippy-tight hugs around my neck ~ and I don't mean head locks, neck locks, choke hold (wrestling moves done by my boys)
    
12. PINK ~ I just need more
    
13. singing lullaby's to sleep~ I don't think Reliant K, Switchfoot, Thousand Foot Krutch count
    
14. stroller rides in the park ~ as opposed to stroller races
    
15. clean smell of freshly washed baby hair ~when they spend so much time on your lap, it's right at nose level, as opposed to them being taller than you, you hope your own hair is the one that smells freshly clean
16. walking, holding their little fingers ~ their fingers aren't so little anymore
17. 8:00pm bedtimes ~ it's been a long time
    
18. Holding her in my arms ~ verses being 'hung' on by the boys
19. Naps ~ just because
20. Arthur, Dora the Explorer, Blues Clues ~ any reason to watch something other than sports
    
21. Gotcha DAY! That moment in which I am standing there, holding my breath waiting, watching, wanting to be the first to see her, knowing in that moment that our lives will be changed forever!
    

Praying for California

Hitting a little too close to home...my thoughts and prayers are going to all those individuals who are feeling the devastation of the wildfires burning in Southern California.

My mom received a call yesterday from my brother and his wife, informing us that they were subject to mandatory evacuations (they live in San Diego) as the wildfires were too close for comfort to their home. A trail nearby their house that they used to frequent on their bikes, the homes along that trail suffered the ravaging flames of these current fires. It is my understanding that my brother is back at home now, but who knows if they are even out of the clear.


Praying for RAIN!!!

Restore my Joy!

We've all had them. Times in our lives when we receive a word, gift or something at just the right moment to lift our spirits or even cheer us on.
The other day I was talking with another homeschooling mom about the day to day grind and she was telling me how last year she spent a lot of time in frustration, confusion & even anger when a friend of hers said,"you've lost your joy, I will pray you will find it to the fullest."

Wow! I mean I can't really say that I was experiencing that ~ losing my joy~ but I could see that maybe I just wasn't experiencing it to the fullest myself. The very next day I got a letter in the mail from Ransomed Heart Ministries and can you guess what the topic of the letter was??? JOY!
"Okay Lord, you must be wanting to say something to me."

Since it was so good, here is a little excerpt from that letter:
"Anyhow, I begin to realize that what I've done for most of my life is resign myself to this idea: I'm really not going to have any lasting joy. And from that resignation gone on to try and find what I could have. Now to be fair, joy isn't exactly falling from the sky these days. We don't go out to gather it each morning like manna. It's hard to come by. Joy seems more elusive than winning the lottery. We don't like to think about it much, because it hurts to allow ourselves to feel how much we long for joy, and how seldom it drops by.

But joy IS the point. I know it is. God says that joy is our strength: "The joy of the Lord is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10). I think, My strength!? I don't even think of it as my occasional boost. But yes, now that I give it some thouht, I can see that when I have felt joy I have felt more alive than any other time in my life. Pull up a memory of one of your best moments. The day at the beach. You're eighth birthday, Remember what you felt like. Now -- think what life would be like if you felt like that on a regular basis. Maybe that's what being strengthened by joy feels like. It would be good.

I take up a concordance, and begin to read a bit on joy. "My heart leaps with joy" (Psalms 28:7). When was the last time my heart leapt with joy? I don't even remember. "You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound" (Psalms 4:7) I believe him. I believe God does this. I just can't say I really know firsthand what he's talking about. I turn to the Gospels. What does Jesus have to say about joy? "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete" (John 15:11). "Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and your will receive, and your joy will be complete" (John 16:24).

Joy complete? The full measure of his joy? That's what he wants for us?!! I'm almost stunned. I can't believe it's come down to joy. It's so obvious now, and yet, it makes me really uncomfortable. Joy is such a tender thing, I think we resent it. We avoid it, because it feels too vulnerable to allow ourselves to admit the joy we long for but do not have. But I know this -- I know we were meant for joy, and I know I can't continue to live with only occasional sips of it. I found myself praying, Jesus, I have no idea where to go from here. But I invite you in. Bring me all the joy you have for me. Help me to see it when it comes. Help me not resign myself to surviving. Restore my joy.

May this touch your soul in such a way as to spark JOY!

So if I can't have Spring - THINK Spring!

Gerbera daisies are my favorite flower. Just the sheer thought of them makes me happy.

I'm not picky either ~ I love white ones

red ones, peach ones

pink ones

oranges ones (these remind me of sunsets)

pastels

I just love them all.

So, I just thought I would spread a little 'happy' your way.
Enjoy a Happy day!