Fall 2013
Friday, June 7, 2013
First Friday Pizza Night
We had our first pizza/movie night in our new house. The Rescu*rs Down Under was the feature film. :-) Here's a picture to capture the evening and also a pic of the view from our front step. Finally, some sun! I will share more soon.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Thankful Thursday
The blog has been severely neglected lately and I really hope to get back to regular posts again soon. It's way past my bedtime, but just want to mention a couple reasons for gratitude before the day ends.
We got the big stuff moved to our new house last weekend and have been officially inhabiting the house since Saturday. This would not have been possible without the help of wonderful friends! So thankful for Guy, Jo and Tony, Tim and Jon, and Kari. Thanks also to Brad!
Monday was Matthew's birthday and I am thankful for this firecracker who keeps me on my toes! He celebratEd with many of his favorite people and had a great time. I love you kiddo!
We got the big stuff moved to our new house last weekend and have been officially inhabiting the house since Saturday. This would not have been possible without the help of wonderful friends! So thankful for Guy, Jo and Tony, Tim and Jon, and Kari. Thanks also to Brad!
Monday was Matthew's birthday and I am thankful for this firecracker who keeps me on my toes! He celebratEd with many of his favorite people and had a great time. I love you kiddo!
Saturday, May 25, 2013
It's ours!
Closing went without a hitch... Well, except for Mark forgetting his driver's license. ;-) today, we stripped wallpaper in the master bedroom and got one bathroom painted. Goal for tomorrow is to get the master bedroom and bath painted. Then, we can start moving stuff in. So incredibly thankful for the help of Mark's parents and sister Betsy today! Here are a couple of pics. Matthew is loving all the space!
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Thankful Thursday
Tomorrow, we close on our new home. I am thankful that God has blessed us in this way and know that this is going to be a wonderful place for our kiddos!
I will just share a funny story, too. As we were house hunting, we often shared that one of the reasons we wanted to move was so that Matthew had more room to "burn off some of his energy." Well, sometimes I make energy bars as a quick breakfast or snack. On Tuesday, we had our final walk through at the house. The kids were going with us and Matthew asked if he could have an energy bar before we left. Why? "Mom, I need to have lots of energy at our new house so if I eat an energy bar, then I can burn it off." Oh, he made me giggle!
I will just share a funny story, too. As we were house hunting, we often shared that one of the reasons we wanted to move was so that Matthew had more room to "burn off some of his energy." Well, sometimes I make energy bars as a quick breakfast or snack. On Tuesday, we had our final walk through at the house. The kids were going with us and Matthew asked if he could have an energy bar before we left. Why? "Mom, I need to have lots of energy at our new house so if I eat an energy bar, then I can burn it off." Oh, he made me giggle!
Sunday, May 19, 2013
"But you chose this."
Quite a while ago, I posted about how frustrating it was to me when people ask how things are going, but tell me that I "asked for this" when I am honest about some of the challenges we face as parents of children with special needs. I had commented that yes, we did choose to adopt but did so not anticipating the issues that we deal with on a regular basis because of our children's background.
Well, I would like to add to my previous response a little bit and also thank a fellow adoptive mom (Hope Ann) for making a comment recently that helps me to state my perspective much better.
Why am I revisiting the topic? Well, probably more for my sake than anyone else's. But, here goes.
Yes, we did choose adoption. Mark and I talked a lot about whether we should take that path when we came to that "fork in the road." We had a pretty carefree life. We could travel, do what we wanted, when we wanted with little planning. Our responsibilities were few, we were the envy of many of our friends. We knew that having children would change all of that. And we chose to pursue parenthood, expecting it to come easily. But, it didn't.
So then, we talked about adoption vs fertility treatment. What made the most sense and again, how far did we want to go to pursue parenthood. When we started the domestic adoption process, we were confident and hopeful that a birth mother would see our profile and immediately choose us as parents for her child. It quickly became apparent that this would not be the case.
Then, Mark and I began to talk about international adoption, special needs adoption - how that would look, how it would affect our lives. We talked about what we felt we could handle as far as special needs. We had a clear idea of what we wanted, a dream for our family and what it would look like.
Two and a half years later, reality looks far different than we imagined. Harder? Sometimes. Easier? Sometimes. Stressful? More than I could have imagined. Rewarding? Absolutely! The long and short of it is this.
Did we choose this? Yes, the fact is that we chose to adopt two children with special needs. But the truth is also that God chose us to adopt Maia and Matthew, specifically. He could have placed them in other forever families. Yet, He asked us to step out in faith to bring our children home. He allowed us the freedom to say "yes" or "no." We can only claim that we were obedient to His call. We chose this because God chose us.
Well, I would like to add to my previous response a little bit and also thank a fellow adoptive mom (Hope Ann) for making a comment recently that helps me to state my perspective much better.
Why am I revisiting the topic? Well, probably more for my sake than anyone else's. But, here goes.
Yes, we did choose adoption. Mark and I talked a lot about whether we should take that path when we came to that "fork in the road." We had a pretty carefree life. We could travel, do what we wanted, when we wanted with little planning. Our responsibilities were few, we were the envy of many of our friends. We knew that having children would change all of that. And we chose to pursue parenthood, expecting it to come easily. But, it didn't.
So then, we talked about adoption vs fertility treatment. What made the most sense and again, how far did we want to go to pursue parenthood. When we started the domestic adoption process, we were confident and hopeful that a birth mother would see our profile and immediately choose us as parents for her child. It quickly became apparent that this would not be the case.
Then, Mark and I began to talk about international adoption, special needs adoption - how that would look, how it would affect our lives. We talked about what we felt we could handle as far as special needs. We had a clear idea of what we wanted, a dream for our family and what it would look like.
Two and a half years later, reality looks far different than we imagined. Harder? Sometimes. Easier? Sometimes. Stressful? More than I could have imagined. Rewarding? Absolutely! The long and short of it is this.
Did we choose this? Yes, the fact is that we chose to adopt two children with special needs. But the truth is also that God chose us to adopt Maia and Matthew, specifically. He could have placed them in other forever families. Yet, He asked us to step out in faith to bring our children home. He allowed us the freedom to say "yes" or "no." We can only claim that we were obedient to His call. We chose this because God chose us.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Thankful Thursday
I am thankful that our little Maia is doing so well. Last year at this time we didn't know if she would make it. Keep praying for her so that she will start to talk soon. I am also thankful that Matthew is doing well. He has been doing great at school and has some good friends that he talks about often.
Mark
Mark
Sunday, May 12, 2013
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