Feeling Blessed

We've had a nice weekend. We've had time with friends and family, and you know that always gives me such joy.

I joined the Yahoo! group for Evan's province to try and find other families who have adopted from the same orphanage.  I just joined the group yesterday, and today I've connected with another mom. Her family adopted a  child from the same orphanage.  She had really good things to tell me.  She was able to visit the orphanage after her adoption and meet some of the staff.  She assured me over and over that the children there are so loved.  This certainly made my day.  She shared other things too and it's good.  At the end of the phone call, she told me they would be praying for Evan.  How sweet!

I've been praying for Evan to be loved at his orphanage and have at least one caretaker who loves him.  Now I have confirmation on it.  God is good!

Here is a photo we received 2 weeks ago.  It's Evan when he was 3 years old.  Sweet boy.

Thursday's Random Thoughts

Hello, and Happy Thursday to all!

Life here at our house just keeps rocking along.  All is well.  I'm enjoying having some time this morning to just enjoy the quiet and do what I want to do. With all of life's responsibilities and the daily to do list, one doesn't always have true quiet and leisure time.  Sure, there are things I could be doing or should be doing....but I'M NOT!

This post will just be random bits and pieces, as my posts will tend to be from time to time.  One thing that has many of us a little irked around here is Our Snow.  Just when most of our snow had melted, we got this yesterday.  How lovely.

Oh dear!  That's just wrong, isn't it??  The sun is out today, and hopefully it won't take long for this to melt.  I heard all of the birds outside this morning, just chattering away.  I doubt they were singing.  I'm sure they must have been expressing confusion and disgust.

I went to visit a friend early this week and as I was on my way out of her neighborhood I saw this.  I had to use my handy dandy phone to snap a photo.  Can anyone tell me what's wrong with this picture?

If you have guessed that the color of the house in the middle is A Little Wild, you are right.  :)  Who paints their house this shade of green?  If this is your house or you've painted yours this color.  I'm sorry.  I hope I haven't offended you.  All I have to say is, "What were they thinking?"  This really makes me scratch my head.

We're checking a few things off of our list with more things for Evan's adoption.  We have quite a list of things to do and complete.  Oh my.  I know it will all be done, one thing at a time.  I needed to get a form notarized one day this week, so that it could be mailed off to Texas.  We went to our city offices to have this done.  Jadyn has a piece of her artwork on display there right now, in the school district's art show.  So we were able to see that while we were there.  Here she is with her little snow-woman.  The snow-woman is wearing a tutu.  Gotta love it.

Jealousy and Other Things

My parents have adopted a new kitty.  I haven't heard all of the details yet.  It's a boy, he's 6 months old and he's yellow.  He's going to be an indoor kitty. This is really different for them.  They live in the country and have always had outdoor kitties.  My mom posted on Facebook that she slept in the guest room last night, my dad was sleeping with that cat.  Hilarious!  I'm a bit jealous.  I want a kitten.

Yesterday was Bryan's birthday.  His girlfriend came to visit for the day. She lives out of town.  She brought him a tied fleece blanket she had made.  Those things are so toasty warm for winter.  She also brought him a giant chocolate chip cookie with icing.  I'm jealous.  It's not that he wouldn't share with me.  It's just that I'm older, and sedentary.  :)  This would not be good for me.  I do have to weigh in tomorrow.

It's high time that I leave my sedentary ways behind, don't you think?  Thank goodness I will soon be going for lots of walks.  The weather is getting mild.

We're doing paperwork and other things for Evan's adoption.  Filling out forms, sending things here and there.  It's definitely exciting to think that we're doing all of this again.  It's the funniest thing that once or twice a day I suddenly realize again that He Will Come Home.  Glory be!  Jadyn is excited and it's fun to see it in her.  She asks where he will sleep, and asks again to see his photo.  She says she will comfort him if he cries or gets scared.

Doing paperwork. Yay!  There's lots to do, but it feels good to be making some progress.

Jadyn's teacher at church shared the sweetest thing with me.  Jadyn told her that we were praying at home for Evan to be her brother.  They had also prayed in class for him.  Recently, she told her teacher that Jesus had not answered her prayer yet, and looked sad.  Last Sunday, she was able to excitedly tell her teacher, "Miss Karen, Jesus answered our prayers!"  What a wonderful faith-builder for a little girl!

Jadyn is a sweet child, and hardly a day goes by when she doesn't color something for us or make something. Here are 2 hearts she made for us.  The smaller one is what she made us for Valentine's Day.  Don't you love the randomness of the one on the left?  

Here's Jadyn with her little sundae she had after dinner tonight.  I was only a little jealous. Ha ha.  All of this denying myself desserts better pay off.  

Have a great weekend!

Random Bits

Here are some random bits from our weekend.

• Spent lots of time...not doing much.  My fav!  There was just enough time for relaxation and time with family and friends.
• I got a much needed haircut. It's a little different shape than I had, because I wanted something different.  I'm not sure if I am I'm happy with it.  We were almost late to church this morning, because I was in a mini-panic about my hair.  Funny thing is, no one even noticed it's different.   :)
• A birthday party that Jadyn was invited to was postponed due to illness. I was running later than I'd prefer for getting a gift, so I wasn't sorry the party was postponed. How terrible is that?
• I went to my weigh in meeting yesterday.  How is it possible to see a weight loss at home and get to my meeting and see no weight loss?  Hmm.  (I think their scale tells lies.)
• We celebrated Alan's birthday with 2 lunches out. Delish!

A little birthday fun for the Señor

Pretty in Pink

O, how fun.  

Still thinking about how blessed we are to have our PA for Evan.  It's going to be many moons before we can go get him.  Right now, I'm just super happy he's going to be our son.  How very blessed we are!  

Dearest Father in Heaven,
Bless this child and bless this day
Of new beginnings.
Smile upon this child
And surround this child, Lord,
With the soft mantle of your love.

Here He Is! Meet Evan.

It has been a really great day for our family.  First of all, it's Alan's birthday and we've spent most of the day together.  Alan took the day off from work and also Jadyn and Bryan had no school today.  It was nice to just hang out together as a family.

I checked my e-mail just before lunch and there was a note from our adoption agency.  Hooray!  We got our pre-approval from China.  We can adopt Evan!  Oh, how excited we were that the news finally came.  I was jumping up and down and doing the happy dance.  They said, "Yes"!!  What a joy and relief it was to get this news.  There may have even been happy tears shed by this mom.  :)

I was so excited and Jadyn had this look on her face like, "What has gotten into you?"  I told her I was that excited on the day we found out we would get to adopt her.  She thought that was pretty cool.

I am so happy for Jadyn.  She WILL be getting her little brother!  She's been asking me almost every day lately if I will show her his photo.  Sweet.

Once I finally settled down to a halfway normal level, we went out to lunch to celebrate Alan's birthday.  It was a double celebration for us.

Here are some photos of our little guy.

Evan Joshua

Recently, Alan said he thought it would be so cool if we got our PA on his birthday.  Well what do you know?  That's exactly what happened.  In the China adoption community, that would probably be referred to as a Red Thread.  I think it's also God's timing.  He's like that, you know!

I was doing some reading this morning, and came across this verse in the Bible.  I wrote it down and stuck it on my refrigerator.  ~ Lift up your eyes and look around; all your sons gather and come to you. Isaiah 49:18
It was only a short time later when we got our e-mail about the PA. Too fun for words.

Happiness

Happy Tuesday to you all!  I hope it's a great day wherever you are.  I see a bit of sun peeking out here in MN and I am happy about that.

Seriously, melting snow is a beautiful thing.  It's been a long winter for us here.  I believe I heard them say we'd had 79 inches of snow, when I was watching the news last night.  79 inches! How exciting ridiculous.
As I walked down the street to get Jadyn from the bus at noon time today, I could hear the sound of melting snow.  What is the sound of melting snow?  It's the sound of water running down the rain gutters on homes and down into the street drains as well.  :)  If you live in a really snowy place, you probably love the sound of melting snow too.

Can't wait for SPRING!  Jadyn asks me almost every day when spring is coming.  I tell her that the calendar says March 20th, but it will be awhile before it looks like that around here.  Just knowing it's coming soon is a relief.

We had some good news last week.  Our paperwork has gone to China, to ask for their approval to adopt Evan.  So now we await word. We hope and pray it's a resounding "Yes!"  There's an adorable little boy over there and a family with tons of love for him over here.  We want those 2 to come together.  :)  Thank you again, for your support and prayer, it's super helpful.

I found this on the chalkboard above the computer desk, when I came downstairs a few minutes ago.  My husband wrote it.  Too cute. ;)

~ Happiness is having a home full of the love of family.~   

Cherish every moment!

Death of a Snowman

Can I share something funny, yet a little sad?  This happened yesterday.  I have had a cute ceramic snowman on my front porch for the past 6 winters or so.  I loved this guy but since yesterday was the 1st of March, I decided it was time for him to be put away until next winter.  I brought him into the house and I don't know how it happened, but I dropped him on the tile floor in our entryway.  Ahhhhhh!!  I just stood there screaming and shrieking  in horror.  I killed my snowman!  He is broken beyond repair.  :(  Jadyn wondered why I couldn't just glue him together.  Moms can fix anything, right?  Umm, not this time. There are just too many tiny bits and pieces. Poor little guy.

He still looks so happy, doesn't he? 

Thank you so much for your kind comments and for welcoming me back. Thank you for sharing our joy about our adoption plans.  It's such a good feeling to have the support of family and friends in this.  Some people have been over the top excited about it, and that just makes me smile.  :)  We are very, very blessed to have this opportunity.

My faith and my relationship with God is changing and growing so much right now.  When we follow him and trust him in obedience to what he's asked us to do, Oh My!  He just multiplies his love in our hearts.  This adoption is a leap of faith for us. Any adoption is a leap of faith!  Knowing that God is right here with us every step of the way, means it's going to be a precious journey.

Some of you asked if I would share about our weight loss plan.  I have been going to Weight Watchers since early August I believe.  My weight loss was pretty steady until Christmas happened.  I kind of fell off the wagon completely for a few weeks.  Then I had to lose a few pounds that all of those cookies caused.  :) WW changed their program and that took some getting used to.  Change isn't easy sometimes, but I finally decided to get serious again and more weight is slowly coming off.  You know what?  If I follow the plan and eat within the guidelines, it works!  Imagine that.

Alan joined a program at Midwest Weight Control in July.  It's a medically assisted weight loss program, and could sort of be compared to Medifast.  He was under their doctor's care, and also had visits with their counselor and nutritionist.  For many weeks, he only drank their shakes and ate their protein bars.  Slowly, he has added in more foods, as the nutritionist has allowed and advised.  Now he's only drinking 1 shake a day and eating a bar, I think. All the rest is regular food.  So it's been good that not only has it been about his diet, but has also addressed the mental and emotional part of eating.  Another cool thing, is that at least 2 of Alan's friends have joined and started their weight loss journeys, plus another friend at work was inspired to lose a lot of weight on his own.

We were walking a lot when the weather was warmer.  I have to admit I've been much more sedentary this winter.  I will be so happy when the weather warms and we can be out walking again.  Alan is good to do a lot of walking and jogging on the treadmill and also walks in the skyways downtown on his lunch breaks.

Have a great day!