Hiking Adventure

Today we went on another hike and it was definitely an adventure, we saw lots of exciting things.  We saw a black bear (from the car), a woman along the trail painting, a person walking around with a puppet, and a wedding ceremony taking place right on the trail.

random wedding

rock climbing

looking for fish

Money Saving Tip

I find it one of my personal goals in life to find ways to save money.  Mostly because I get visions in my head of all these starving, sick people around the world and so I figure I need to be a good steward of what God has given us so someday I can use the extra money saved for those in need.

So here's my tip of the day.  Stop buying wrapping paper.  For gifts at our house we like to personal our own wrapping paper by using free paper bags from the grocery store.  Here is the gift my kids decorated for their cousins birthday this week.

And to be honest, my 3 year old nephew was WAY more excited about the pretty package on the outside than what was on the inside.  He admired it for quite a while.

If you aren't into personalizing things, you could also use the comic pages from your newspaper.

Our New Pet

Meet Rocko, the newest member of our family.  He is Kade's pet rock (found lost week when hiking with family).  He is very easy to take care of.  Kade likes to give him lots of baths in the sink.    He gets lost easily since Kade takes him everywhere.  Good thing there are 3 of them.  They turn up in the most random places.  This one turned up under his carseat today (I think the other 2 are in his pockets in the laundry).  Kade was so excited to find him.  I would definitely recommend a pet rock, they are so much easier to maintain than real animals.

Must Read

So I've got another really good kids book that I totally recommend you read.  We've all grown up with the 3 Little Pigs, but to be fair you should read this book and hear the wolf's side of the story.  Check out The True Story Of The 3 Little Pigs.

Special Delivery

Yesterday my children received a special package in the mail.  They were super excited to have presents to open.  The note said they wanted to make sure the kids were prepared for football season with cool gear. =) We are definitely blessed with great family.

Kade now insists that he wear this jersey all the time.

Getting Our Hike On

I love hiking in the mountains, and I love the fact that we live so close to a beautiful national park.  This month we are planning to get our hike on and embark on many outdoor adventures.  This week we met up with some family visiting and went hiking with them.  It was SO much fun. =)

2 Weeks

We have 2 weeks left to be matched... still trusting God to move mountains!!!

Mommy-cation

This weekend I took a break and had some much needed time away with a good friend.  We took a trip to the mountains and stayed in a condo that was super cheap (gotta love good connections).  Our condo also happened to be right on the slopes.  Of course that part doesn't really matter much since it's summer and it's not really fun to snowboard on a grassy mountain.  Anyways, we had so much fun, it was definitely a weekend filled with great adventures.  You also know that you've had a good relaxing time when the 2 days spent there really feels like a week.  I definitely came home SO refreshed.

our hike to a waterfall

now you see me..... now you don't

the views from our condo

yum-o

Psalm 23

¹ The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
 ² He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
 ³ he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
   for his name’s sake.
⁴ Even though I walk
   through the valley of the shadow of death,^[a]
I will fear no evil,
   for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
   they comfort me.
 ⁵ You prepare a table before me
   in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
   my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely goodness and love will follow me
   all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
   forever.

Best Summer Ever

This summer we have been super busy but we have loved every minute of it.  We've had fun camping, visiting family, swimming, etc.  Most importantly I have just loved spending time with my kids.  They bring such joy to our lives and we are so blessed to be their parents.  Well, our fun has continued and this week we visited with more family.  Which was probably one of my kid's favorite parts of this summer because they love spending time with their cousins.  They keep asking me when we get to see them again.

In Awe

20 days left and I'm feeling completely blessed.  No, we have not heard anything new about our adoption but the peace I have is only something that can come from God.  Since last Friday God has showered us in love beyond what I can imagine.  It's amazing how during tough times God places people in your life to help you remember that you are not alone.  The encouragement and scripture from those God has placed in my life have all come at just the right time.  What should be one of the toughest waits of this adoption has become one of the most rewarding as God carries us through.   This last 5 days my time with God has been breath-taking and I look forward to seeing where He takes us next.

Looking forward to seeing the faces of our beautiful babies!!!

The Only Thing To Do

When Kade was born, he had a few problems.  He was born 3 weeks early and actually spent the first 3 weeks of his life in the NICU because he had trouble eating.  At the time I was SO annoyed with the strict NICU eating regulations because I felt he would have come home long before this.  Well, after getting him home God made it SO clear to us why he needed to be in the NICU.  After only being home for 2 days, Kade turned blue and stopped breathing.  If the NICU staff hadn't taught me CPR we would have lost him.  To make a long story short, Kade spent another 2 weeks in the NICU and had test after test after test (and saw multiple doctors) to try to figure out why he continued to randomly stop breathing.  During this time we learned that there was nothing we could do but trust God.  We had no clue if Kade would be okay or not, but we had to trust that God had a plan for this.

I feel like we are in the same situation now.  We have no clue what the outcome will be.  Even though our agency thinks we will be matched by August 23rd, no one really knows.  I would love to jump on a plane to Rwanda right now and plead our case, but that would definitely be frowned upon.  So at this point all we can do is trust God.  Trust that He has a plan for this.  God has a purpose for all our suffering.  God desires for us to grow from these tough situations.  So right now we are doing the only thing we can do, trust God.

Praying for God to move mountains in the next 23 days.

Thank you for all your prayers and support.  God has definitely given me a much needed peace and we truly can feel all your prayers.  God really reminded me this weekend what amazing support we have from those around us, especially our adoption community.  We wouldn't be able to do this without you!!!

COMPLETE SHOCK

I'm in a state of shock right now and not sure how to respond.  I totally thought we had at least 2 more months before we hit our 6 month rejection deadline.  I was totally wrong, we actually have less than a month.  I found out today that our approval is dated 2/23/11.  This means we have been approved and waiting for our referral now for 5 months.  This also means we have less than 1 month (25 days to be exact) to be matched/referred, if we aren't we will receive a rejection letter.

Not sure how to feel about this.  Check back next week and I'll let you know. =)

Praying for God to move mountains!!!

Stayin' Cool

The weather here has continued to be rather toasty, but that's okay because these warm days are great for swimming.  We've done lots of swimming at home, at friend's houses, at the lake, at the splash park, and yesterday we even went to a water park.

Farm in Town

Here's a bird's eye view of my garden.  Our backyard has turned into quite the farm.  In addition to my garden we have a strawberry patch, peach trees, apple trees, and raspberry bushes.

No News

I was so hoping by now to have some good adoption news for you, but I guess this week isn't what God had planned.  There has been some referrals (for older children) and approvals in the last month.  So the movement is always a good sign, it's just a bit slow right now since they are still adjusting to a new minister.

To catch some of you up, I never officially shared this, but the ministry has decided to start sending rejection notices.  Each family has 6 months from the time of approval to get a referral, if they aren't able to be matched their case will be closed and they will receive a rejection letter.  What does this mean for our family, well, I guess we have until early fall to get a referral.

We truly believe that our children are in Rwanda and are trusting God and His timing (some days this is harder to do than others).  But we know this is where God has called us and that He can move big mountains. Looking forward to sharing good news with you soon. =)

Yum-O

After many, many, many failed attempts...   I finally mastered my rotisserie chicken.  Of course I have the internet to thank for this.  It tasted delicious!!!

Welcome Back

Sorry for the long stretch of silence, we have been super busy and out of town for the last 2 weeks.  Below are some pictures of our fun adventures.

4th of July

fun at the parade

prepping some fireworks

Visiting Family In California

the kids were super excited to see Bob the Builder

we got a world tour...in Lego form

Camping With Some Good Friends

Luke's fishing lounge set-up

Welcoming our New Nephew into the World