It's Monday and I'm dreaming about the weekend even though it was less than 24 hours ago. You see it was one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. It was just perfect. Here is the short version, since I tend to be long. It feels kind of silly writing about it, b/c I've told lots of people and I really don't have any idea how many people read this blog, I wish I knew. So if you're out there reading this, you could just say hi on the comment page so I know you're out there.

OK on to the weekend. My sister in law took our kids overnight, it was the first time we've ever left them, not b/c we're some over protective parents, just b/c we just never have. Aaron and I had the most fun we've ever had just the two of us. We went out to eat, shopping, and got some wonderful deals! I got $140 boots for 30$ Wahoo! I love the shoppers high, dangerous but exhilarating. The we ran to Target for a belt ( long story) and then went went dancing. It was perfect.

The next morning I was lieing in bed wide awake, b/c I must be old now and I can't sleep in and I thought a quiet house, all to myself, I knew it was my chance. I set up my scrapbooking table and started putting together our family profile for our adoption. In 2.5 hours I had it mostly put together and just had the birth parent letter to write. Aaron helped with that off and on throughout the day and we finished it. So now, we just have to meet with our social worker so show it to her, and I think we're good to go, she should be able to send our paper work out within the next couple of weeks. YEAH!

Anything you can imagine. . .

Tonight before bed Jonah asks me if I wanted to come to his "Nothing Club", I said sure, not exactly knowing what I was getting myself into, in a matter of seconds we were in the living room and he was describing all that was in the nothing club. "You see mom there's the living room, here's the kitchen, the stairs, there's the couch and there "nothing there" but really it's anything you can imagine.

I love the way 6 year old's think. Soon he was getting me tea and cookies in his high tech kitchen making all those cool noises only boys can make and making the most delicious cookies I had ever tasted ( and fast too) Before we knew it Lydie and Daddy were getting involved and there were flys in oatmeal, monsters coming out of pizza, monkey's flying around trying to steal away my cookies and my favorite . . . with the push of a button my very own nothing club warm, private swimming pool. Lydie and I jumped in for a swim and between the monkey and the monster we were all laughing so hard our bellies hurt. What a great way to wind down for the night.

So here's to anything you can imagine . . .

Valerie Jean...

Now many of you know I'm not totally crazy about my middle name. But this is cute. So we are sitting at the table and Lydia says to me "You look like Valerie Jean." I asked her "What do you mean?" She very quickly responded," Well when you wear your hair in a pony tail you look like Valerie Jean and otherwise you look like just Valerie." From the mouths of babes to make you smile. Can't think of anthing else interesting to write so bye for now, I'm going to go back to watching my recorded American Idol.

A Productive Day. . .

I just thought I'd let you all know our computer officially died. It will not turn on, it's been dying a slow death for awhile, but I think it's over, so I"m not sure how long it will take for us to decide what were going to do, point being I don't have the internet whenever I want, so I may not write on here for a little while. Now on to tell you about my productive day. . .

I'm very lucky to have yesterday, today and Monday off from school and I was thinking about what makes a productive day, and really what I done productive for the day. I realized you really have to define "productive." Sometimes, I get stuck and business being productive or "getting a lot of things done" as productive, well today was a different kind of productive and here is why:

*I played play dough and moon sand in the same day.
*I had a french toast carpet picnic with Jonah and Lydia
*I caught up with and old friend.
*I watched a whole movie with the kids
*and my favorite I didn't get out of my pajamas until 3 pm

Sooo even though their are piles of laundry folded on the floor all around the couch, both toilets are still dirty and the fridge doesn't smell so good, I'm goint to chop today up to a productive day.

Oh and for those of you who are praying, please pray that I have the guts to start this silly profile tomorrow, I want it to be so perfect and I just need to do it and stop talking/typing about it. I just keep thinking how do you sum all of who your family is in 8 pages, and from that 8 pages someont must trust you to have, love and raise the most precious gift on earth, a baby. WOW it really is miracle.

Enough for now, hope you all are having a "productive day!"

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
Proverbs 3:5

We had the privaledge of hosting my nephew Baby B and his mommy and daddy this weekend. They made to our house from Rochester around 6pm Friday and then due to the blizzard stayed an extra night. Being around Bjorn this weekend made me think a lot about trust. For the last 9 days anyone who was an adult and not his mommy or daddy caused some sort of discomfort to his life. Those of us who are "big people" he had a really hard time trusting, finally by last night (24 hours after they got here) he could look at me without wailing. The poor kid has trust issues right now in his little life and rightfully so. We did have fun reading books and pushing him around in the stroller, we must have walked mile up and down the hallway.

Anyway, Bjorn got me thinking about trust, and how it plays in my life, do I trust as much as I should. I relate it to God and the trust we need to live everyday in him. When I think of things I need to get done, or tough decisions ahead ( anyone who knows me, knows that most decisions are tough for me ) I think my first reaction is to worry. Trusting feels much better than worrying, and even the Bible says we're suppose to trust, so why is it so hard? I guess this week, thanks to Bjorn I"m going to try and trust God, just like he trusts his mommy, and try having that picture in my head all week instead of the worry I tend to resort to. There's my insight for the weekend.

I started writing the info for our adoption profile last night, sometimes I put off starting big important things, because I want it to be sooo perfect. I need to get over that and just get it done. So if any of you out there have an profile writing advice or just plain wise advise I'll take it. Bye for now.

Feeling Crafty!

These are the bulletin boards I made for the kid's rooms, I like the way they turned out. Some people I told them about were interested in seeing them.

Happy Friday everyone, thanks for all your prayers for Baby B, they are making their way home today and staying here tonight.

Random thoughts. . .

Adoption: I started thinking that if this is going to be an account of our adoption process I should write down the details. On Saturday I sent our social worker the first packet of stuff including our finger print cards and other odds and ends she needs for the the homestudy update. Next, we need to put together our profile (it's kind of mini-scrapbook of us).

Bjorn: My sweet 6 month old nephew who had open hear surgery is doing very well. (Praise Jesus!) He got off the ventilator on Sunday and yesterday he drank 9oz. by bottle, today they took lots more tubes out and my sister got to hold him lots today!! I just pray he continues to make progress and get stronger every day. They were really pleased with how he was eating, and peeing and pooping. You know the high priorities after surgery! I just thank God for his little life, and what and example my sister and brother-in-law have been. So strong and faith-filled!

And last this blog: it make me ponder things greatly. I started thinking, so if i start writing my heart on here literally for the world to see, I really need to live what I write. It's kind of an accountability thing. Not really sure how I feel about this, but I've decided I"m just going to go with it and wait and see what happens.

Thank God for Saturdays!

Warning---I'm in a sappy cheezy mood! Today my heart is overflowing with joy. There are many things about this day that have been grand; below is just a quick list:

- I got to sleep in until 8:30
- I got to stay in my PJ's until noon
-I got to wander around Michael's all by myself and found a few good deals
- I got to listen to my nephew Leighton giggle and giggle
- I talked to my sister tonight and it sounds like my other nephew Bjorn is going to be taken off the ventilator tomorrow ( Dear Jesus, please let him have a good night so that this can happen, continue to heal him!)
-I got to listen to my 3 year old make up stories about Ariel and Prince Eric while she took a bath
-I got to dance with my super hero husband and kids in the kitchen while listening to Jack Johnson and doing the dishes!

"Life is Better When Were Together. . ." Thank you Jesus for the little moments in life when we feel truly blessed.

Bringing You Up To Speed

For those of you who talk to us often, much of this won't be new news. However, for those of you who want to know a little about our adoption journey so far and where we are currently, here it is. hmmmm. . . how far back to do I start. Let's just say adoption has always been something close to my heart. There are some very special people in my life who are adopted. My super hero husband and I talked about adoption even before we were married, however I wasn't sure if i would continue to have the desire to adopt after I birthed children. When my youngest was about 18 months I had the baby bug again, but this time it was different and God was leading me toward adoption. I shared my thoughts with my husband and before long he shared my desire as much as I did. About one year ago we started the adoption process through a local agency. We were pursuing an adoption from Guatemala and we were very excited. The agency warned us Guatemala may be a risky choice because there was lots of political turmoil over adoption at the time. We continued on anyway. I dreamed about what our family would look like with a little Hispanic baby. We started our home study process, and NOTHING seemed to go as we planned. We had bump in the road after bump in the road. Although God kept confirming through His word, prayer and others that we were suppose to grow our family through adoption, it just felt like we weren't on the right road yet. We know now, that God was using those "bumps" to mold and shape us and truly trust him. In September (07) our home study was finally completed, YEAH one hurdle down. We chose a placement agency with a Guatemala program in July and then in October found out that Guatemala was not giving out new referrals any longer and that the country would be closed for international adoptions as of Jan 08. We were disappointed but not devastated. We took a couple months, talked about our options, prayed through it and sought wise counsel. In November, we switched local agencies and decided to pursue a domestic minority adoption. We are very excited to be on this road, and feel like we are finally in the right place. We have completed our homestudy update and are working on the remaining paperwork before sending out our profile and information to some agencies in the southern US.

Although it's been crazy, I know the day is coming when I see the baby God had planned for our family all along. I thank God for his ultimate plan and trust that just as he's carried us through to this point, he will continue to carry us. I have hope for the future and for today.