It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Yup, the white stuff is falling at our house.  Lots of it.  I took some really cute pictures, but we are having internet issues again, so you'll have to wait to see my sweet girl in her pink snowsuit.

The fact that Lil' Miss is busy making snow angels and snowmen means that it's about time for Mommy to start thinking about Christmas cards.  I have to confess to being a pathological procrastinator when it comes to getting my cards done.  My card is the one that you get on January December 26.

But, this year, Tiny Prints has inspired me to start my cards early.  They're giving away holiday cards to bloggers, and their cards are super cute.  (If you've never tried Tiny Prints, they are awesome.   They have cards for every occasion - my mom loved the Thanksgiving card I just sent - and their quality and selection are fantastic.)

I really like this one.  It's simple but sweet.

Wait.  It gets better.  Here's the back.  

I also really love this idea.

A card and an ornament.  How fun is that?

If you're interested, you can head over here to check out the entire Tiny Prints Christmas card line.

Now if I could just get my photos to upload... ;)

Sacrebleu, Invaders!

Love the movie Beauty and the Beast!  It totally ranks up there as one of my childhood faves.  Lil' Miss is getting a Belle doll with a matching toddler-sized dress for Christmas.  (Shhhh...don't tell! :)

So...when I discovered that a fuzzy creature (or creatures) had taken over my kitchen, the first picture that came to my mind was Lumiere - the candlestick/butler - shouting, "Sacrebleu, invaders!"  (If I'm using a bad word here, I apologize to all my French-speaking readers. My French vocabulary is pretty much limited to bonjour and oui. ;)

I think the tiny invaders have been around for a while, but they made their presence known last week.  (Yup, it's always lovely when small furry creatures show up in your kitchen right before your in-laws come to visit.)

In the middle of the night, they munched through this...

...snacked on this...

...and then tried to take their left-overs down our cold air return.

No joke.  I woke up to a party-chewed Hershey bar stuck in a vent in my kitchen.  Yuck!

SIDE NOTE: If you look really closely at this picture, you can see red nail polish on the vent.  If you don't know what I'm talking about (and you need a laugh), click here.

Thankfully, as I mentioned above, we'd guessed we had a little issue before our fuzzy housemates decided to go on a chocolate bar parade through our kitchen.  So Jeremy went out and - being the big, strong man that he is - bought something big enough to mush the invaders to smithereens.  (No, we don't have rats.  Jeremy just wanted to get the biggest, baddest mousetrap he could find.)

Then he went out-of-town to a conference.  Leaving me alone.  With the furry invaders.  And the half-eaten candy bar.  Double yuck!

I remembered a strategy my dad used while I was growing up.  He swore that melting cheese on a mousetrap was the best way to make it work.  There was no way the mouse could steal the cheese and escape since it was melted to the trap.  And - I really think I'm right on this - he melted the cheese to the trap by putting the whole thing in the microwave. Brilliant, right?

Ummmm....not so much.

I tried it.  There was smoke.  There was fire.  Microwave + fire = bad news.

My superpowered mousetrap-on-steroids ended up looking like this.

Oops!  (I think microwaves were wimpier and mousetraps were stronger in the 80's.)

The piece of plastic that held the springbar in place melted.  So I was back at square one.

Thankfully I have two friends (who will remain anonymous) who've also had some unwanted visitors.  One friend actually caught nine, which really made me feel better.  These two friends (who are now my BFF's) suggested another, much simpler trap.  I didn't take a picture, but it looks like a tiny set of black jaws.

I set my traps (with peanut butter instead of melted cheese) and waited.

They worked.  Jeremy was home from the conference by this time which was a really good thing because I did not want to get as close to a dead mouse as he had to.

We've only caught one mouse so far.  But there haven't been any more wandering Hershey bars or nibbled-on wrappers in our kitchen.  If we really only had one little invader, he was a pretty impressive little guy.  After all, he did eat half a candy bar and then wedge the rest (a piece bigger than his body) in a vent.  

(I'm going to continue to delude myself into thinking that the one dead mouse did this all by himself.)

On a happier note, we're ready for Christmas around here.  Lil' Miss's big wish was for a Christmas tree and ornaments.

Her wish came true.

Can you tell she's just a little excited?

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving, everyone!  I hope your weekend was relaxing, enjoyable, and free from any unexpected houseguests. ;)

My Birthday Wish

There has been a lot going on with our adoption process. I intended to write a detailed update today, but we have no internet. Our internet provider sent us an email on Friday saying they were going out of business, and Friday night our internet stopped working. Not fun.

I'm sitting in my car with our laptop, stealing borrowing our church's internet to post this. So it's going to be a not-so-detailed update. (And, yes, I will be sitting in my car in the church parking lot later this week if we don't get internet in time for Black Friday. Sad thought.)

The situation in Eastern Europe is pretty much the same. Thankfully, it looks like the new adoption entity will begin inviting families to travel soon. This won't affect us because we can't travel until the new special needs list is published. It is great news, though, for families hoping to adopt children five and older or younger children whose special needs are on the current list.

Our facilitator is not optimistic about the new special needs list coming out soon. (You know, the list that was supposed to be published by October 11.) This is discouraging, especially because our paperwork will expire in March. We have prayed and prayed about expanding our age range to adopt a child who is five or six, but neither Jeremy nor I feel a peace about that at this point.

Some of you might remember that we still have a dossier in Ghana. We started the process to adopt from Ghana over two years ago, but the program we are part of there has run into roadblock after roadblock. Last week, the agency we are working with in Ghana suggested that we consider moving to one of their other country programs. We've discussed this before, but hadn't been presented with the same options we were this time around.

There is one program that sounds like a great fit for our family. It's in a country that tends to have a very stable and predictable process (at least as stable and predictable as any international adoption process can be). This country is beginning to list children who are HIV+, and they often have children become available who test positive for Hepatitis B (another special need we would consider).

I share all of this to give you a quick update and because I have a special request. This Tuesday is my thirty-second birthday. (I know, I'm old. :) There's one thing that all of you could do to make my birthday extra special. Would you be willing to commit some time to praying for our adoption on Tuesday? We are facing a lot of big choices, and we want to go where God is leading. Not where the path looks easy. Not in the direction that seems logical.

I will be taking time to lift our adoption to the Lord on Tuesday. If you'd be willing to join me, here are some specific prayer requests...

1.) Pray for the situation with the special needs list in Eastern Europe. Pray that God would work through those involved in making decisions about the list. Pray that they would consider the needs of the children waiting for families above anything else – politics, greed, personal agendas, etc. Humanly, there aren't a lot of reasons to be optimistic about the special needs list. But God is in control.  He is bigger than any politician, and he loves each precious child who is waiting for a family.

2.) Pray for wisdom for Jeremy and me as we consider this new country program. Pray that the Lord would give us unity and clarity about whether we should move forward.

3.) Pray that we would follow God's leading even if it's outside of our comfort zone - whether that means considering older children, learning about different special needs, or just taking some time to wait and quiet our hearts before the Lord.

4.) Pray that Jeremy and I would have peace and unity wherever we go from here.

Thanks for taking the time to share this journey with us. I promise to post that update with more details really soon!  

A Whirlwind Month

I have been a bad blogger this month.  I apologize to all of you who wake up every morning eager to hear the details of my crazy life.  (Yup, that's you, Mom & Dad! ;)  

November has been a whirlwind.  Instead of blogging, I've been trying to survive the time change with a three-year-old (why on earth can't she be as excited about an extra hour of sleep as I am?), muddling through the newest twists on our adoption journey (LOTS more on that before the end of the weekend - promise!), and hosting company for 12 of the first 13 days in November (8 people + our tiny house = Fun with more than a touch of craziness).

Here's a little peek into our jam-packed month.  My mom and dad arrived just in time to take this little "Halloweena" around the neighborhood "trickory treating".  (You gotta' love the way three-year-olds see the world!)

The rest of my parents' visit was filled with exciting things like raking leaves...

...tickle wars on the dining room floor...

...and posing on the porch for one of my signature photo shoots.  (No, everything in the Midwest is not tinted light blue - that would be the white balance on my camera on the wrong setting.  Oops!)

I love. love. love. this last picture of Lil' Miss and my parents!  My dad smiles in 1 out of about 350 pictures, so this is really a rare shot! ;)

We also had fun celebrating my mom's birthday with an all-you-can-eat Amish dinner (seriously yum!), hanging out at our local coffee shop, and doing a little shopping.  Two days after my parents left, we got to see some more special people.  The Black family, our good friends from Pennsylvania, came for a few days.  We had a great time catching up with them, and Doug got a buck so that made his vacation. :)

Unfortunately, I did a horrible job taking pictures while the Blacks were here.  BUT...I did squeeze in a photo shoot on the porch (with my camera on the right setting! :).  

Here are Lil' Miss and Miss M (their youngest), modeling the new shirts we got for them at Childr*n's Place.  (No, my daughter really doesn't need any new clothes thanks to my garage sale addiction, but I fell in love with this shirt.  It says "Daddy is my prince".  Is that a refreshing message, or what?  LOVE it!  Way to go Childr*n's Place!)

Here are all the kids on the porch.

And, just for fun, here's a shot taken the first time the Blacks met Lil' Miss.  (Where does time go?!?)

So, there you have it: our whirlwind of a November.

But...I'm back on the wagon.  Check this weekend for an update on our adoption.  I have some big things to share.  (Unfortunately, they don't have anything to do with the long-waited special needs list.) I'm also going to post my adoption-related birthday wish.  My special day is next Tuesday, and there's a something big I would love all of you to do for me that day.

See you this weekend!

A Doubly Special Sunday

Today is a special day in our house for two reasons.


The first one is that today is Orphan Sunday.  Four years ago, I don't think I knew that November is National Adoption Month.  I'm sure I didn't know that the first Sunday in November is Orphan Sunday; but, during the last four years, God has opened my eyes to the plight of the orphan.  He has broken my heart over the hurts of the fatherless.


There are over 18 million orphans in our world.


18 million children who have lost both of their parents.


163 million children who have lost one parent.


On this Orphan Sunday - a day when the news about our little ones in Eastern Europe is not good, a day when we've learned that the delays we've been facing will almost certainly stretch into 2012, a day when I ache at the thought that the children of our hearts may never be children who live in our home - I challenge you to not let the statistics above be just numbers.  


I ask you to open your heart to the possibility that you can make a difference in the life of 1 of those 163 million orphans.  


I beg you to allow God to give you His heart for the fatherless.


Want a glimpse at the heart of our Heavenly Father?  The Bible is clear.  


My God is the Defender of the Fatherless.

Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. (Psalm 82:3)

My God is a father to those who have no earthly father.

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. (Psalm 68:5)

My God has called His children to care for orphans.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress... (James 1:27)

Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. (Isaiah 1:17)


Yes, the statistics are staggering.  The need is overwhelming.  The pain of the orphan is so far removed from our every day middle-class American lifestyle.  So what can you do?


1.) Consider adoption.  I know, adoption isn't for everyone.  But it's not just for a special circle, either.  An orphaned child needs a loving family.  Not a perfect family.  Not a rich family.  Not a got-it-all-together family (or else we should just give up on this whole thing right now!).  


Clearly, God's heart breaks for little ones without parents.  He is the one who "sets the lonely in families" (Psalm 68:6).  Have you prayed about how He might use your family to touch the life of an orphaned child?  Want to meet some of these precious kiddos?  Click here and prepare for your heart to be moved in a big way.


2.) Support an adopting family.  Adoption is a grueling journey.  It is painful, discouraging, and - at times - completely heartbreaking.  Is it worth it? Absolutely! However, there are times when adoptive families (or at least one certain adopting family I happen to know) feel like they are alone on an island.  What they're doing is different.  People sometimes don't know what to say, what to ask, or how to help.  Support from friends and family members is a priceless gift.


Here are a few practical ways to encourage a family who is adopting.
  -Ask them for specific prayer requests and pray for them regularly.  Let them know you are praying.
  -Have a baby (or toddler or big kid) shower for them.  Sometimes things like this that are a regular part of welcoming a biological child get overlooked when a family is adopting.
  -Give lots of hugs.  Avoid giving lots of really great-sounding advice.
  -Help them financially.  Adoption is crazy expensive.  Don't ever think your gift is too small.


3.) Sponsor a child.  This is something you can do through many wonderful organizations like Compassion International, World Vision, and Project Hope and Charite.  I would love to sponsor a child each time we add a child to our family - maybe even a child born in the same month or year.  I think this would be an incredible way to teach our children how big our world really is and how blessed we really are.


I know I've said this before, but I can't thank all of you enough for sharing in our journey.  I am blessed by the family and friends - in real life and in blogland - who have walked this long road with us.  You guys pretty much rock.


Yes, I did say that this day is special for two reasons.  Want to know Reason #2?


November 6 is Emma's adoption day.  Three years ago today we sat in a lawyer's office and officially became Em's forever family.  (She was ours when we brought her home from the hospital, but this is the day we finished all the legal steps.) 

Words cannot describe what a blessing it has been to watch this beautiful baby...

...grow into our spunky, stubborn, precocious, goofy, adorable three-year-old.

Emma Kiersten, God blessed our socks off when He brought you into our family.  Mommy and Daddy love you - F.O.R.E.V.E.R.

Keep On Swimming...

This post is for all of you who read this.  And saw this...

Yup, that's my kid, looking super thrilled to be taking part in her first "big kid" swim lesson.  And that's her teacher in the background, thinking of what a lovely mama I am and how happy she is that I decided to sign Em up for lessons.  

The day of Em's first lesson, I was totally that mom.  The other four kids in the class smiled, waved goodbye to their parents, and gleefully jumped into the pool.  My kid screamed.  And screamed.  And was terrified to go within 17 feet of her teacher. 

So. not. fun.

Thankfully, eight weeks later, Em is still swimming, and her last lesson went much better than her first one.  

The teacher took the kids on a little boat ride.  Em loved it.

Here's my girl swimming.  (FYI, she didn't magically transform into AquaChick; she's wearing a foam floatie on her back in this picture.)

Yes, we survived.  We even ended swim lessons with a smile.

P.S. I've got more good news.  News that's even better than Em's improvement at swim lessons.  The best news is that the adorable little guy I mentioned in the first half of this post found his family!  You can meet them here.  So excited that little Darren is going to have a mama and papa soon!

Dress Up Time!

We're not huge Halloween fans around here.  But costumes?  Yes, please!  My three-year-old loves her some dress up.  And Halloween is one great excuse to go shopping for some bling.

This year Em kind of got the idea that her costume was for a special day.  In a super cute, three-year-old sort of way, she kept mixing up what she was going to be and the name of the holiday.

So, here's my pretty little Halloweena.

And, just for fun, here's Em on her first Halloween.  How do they grow up so fast?