so, somehow it's been a couple wks. since i posted anything, but i just wanted to let everyone know that it will be quiet for another 10 days at least while we are in the promised land....pennsylvania. :) we are very excited to be heading out first thing tomorrow morning - i'm ready for a change -i feel like things have been really busy again lately. but it's all good stuff. like yesterday we went to IN to go to a wedding - it was a really beautiful, outdoor ceremony and the weather was perfect. they are a sweet couple who went to Moody and attended our church. i'll have to try to remember to post some pics later.
anyway, it will be refreshing to get out the city and see our families - we have lots of nieces and nephews who grow a lot while we're gone, so we need to check in once and awhile so that we can still recognize them! and we're also looking forward to meeting two new additions: phil's cousin and his wife had their 2nd little girl a month ago, and some very dear friends who we haven't seen in a year and a half had their 2nd (also a girl, but their first is a boy) back in jan....we can't wait to meet you, sophia and sadie!
so i'm sure we will be having lots of laughs, eating too much, having good conversations (i better practice my "where we are in the adoption process" speech!), and staying up late to star gaze b/c we'll actually be able to see them for a change!! :) oh yeah and i'm looking forward to sitting out on our parent's back porches and just relaxing and watching lightning bugs!
fyi, on the book front i just finished reading "pride and prejudice" by jane austen. it's a good read but you have to be able to get into the old english language. i thought it was great though and now i need to watch the movie again. :) at the library i just found a couple memoirs of people who were adopted and i'm looking foward to getting into one of them on our trip - i'll be sure to let you know how they are!
k, i'm gonna sign off for now, it's getting late-ish and we have to get up at 5:30!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Saturday, June 14, 2008
and now.....we wait
so, in case you don't know this about me (all 6 of you who read this!), i am not a very patient person. which could prove interesting for this stage of our life: we have just completed our adoption home study and now we get to wait. yep, wait. approximately 6-12 months, give or take. i am also a structured, planner, organizer type person. so we'll see if i can keep my sanity. :) i also know that God has a sense of humor and might decide to bless us w/ a child at the last minute - you know the story: the adoption agency calls and says the hospital has to discharge a baby tomorrow, do you want it? yep, pretty sure that will be us. i'm not worried about it, but i just like to know "what's coming down the pike", so to speak. only time will tell!
in the mean time, if any of you don't know, i am training for a women's sprint triathlon (.5 mile swim, 12 mile bike, and 5k run). crazy, i know, but it will be fun b/c i'm doing it w/some of my bible study gals. but i've also decided to use it as forum to raise funds for our adoption, so if anyone out there wants to sponsor me in this endeavor, that would be even more incentive! just drop me an email or make a pledge in a comment and i'll follow up w/ you. thanks!
so, i'm finally learning how to post pics on my blog....pathetic, i know! anyway, it only took me about a month but i finally created new curtains out of this lovely fabric that i purchased. it's kinda hard to tell in the pic, but the design is actually flowers, but they are very wild, stemmy, herb-like looking flowers. :) i really like it. i'll have to try to take another pic and include both sets of windows if i can. instead, you get the pleasure of seeing phil taking a rest on our couch! hope you are having a great weekend!
Thursday, June 5, 2008
summer's here....finally!
so today and several days thereafter it's supposed to get into the high 80's....craziness. when we got back from our WI trip last wk. the lilacs were finally in full bloom here - very strange to smell their heady fragrance magnified by the warmer, humid weather. anyway, i'm not complaining but it's just weird b/c last tues. night we went to the cub's game w/ our awesome friends chris and amy and froze our butts off - seriously, i was wearing long underwear and was still cold! (but the cubbies won, so it's all good)
anyway, our trip to WI was wonderful. a bit chilly for camping, but since it was the wk. before memorial day we had the state parks almost all to ourselves. that's how we like it....yep, we're selfish like that. :) for the first few nights we were at peninsula state park in door county - a place i've wanted to visit for quite some time. for those of you not familiar w/ the cheesehead state, it's the peninsula that juts out into lake michigan and creates green bay. it was really pretty w/ cute little towns. and they had good bike trails, so that makes the hubby happy.
then we went to north-central WI, pretty close to lake superior. we stayed at copper falls state park, which was also really nice. good hiking and several nice falls to check out....we were pleasantly surprised by the rock cliffs and ravines, etc. (even phil was impressed, if you can believe it!) and we did drive up to check out the superior great lake...didn't do anything super exciting but at least now we can say we've been there. :)
our last destination was to camp forest springs, where i did my college internship a few years ago (ok, i'm lying....it's been more than a few years). my very dear friend jenn and her hubby and their beautiful son just joined staff there recently, so it was great to catch up w/ them. the camp is celebrating their 50th anniversary this year so they had a special service over memorial day wknd. we were technically "campers" which was kinda funny, but we had a good time. it was refreshing to be served and on the receiving end and the speaker gave some challenges which led to good conversation for phil and i. mostly it was a "carpe diem" kinda theme and we talked about stuff that we always say we want to do, but never do... like learning how to play guitar.
so, that's what we've been up to. just a quick update on the adoption front...we were supposed to have our final home study interview last night but our case worker was sick. so now it's scheduled for next wed. not a major setback, but i was looking forward to getting it completed! then basically, she told us it would be about a 6-12 mos. wait. however, it could go faster for us b/c we are not being particular - we're open to adopting just about any child under the age of 2.
now i will conclude w/ the actual "book" portion of my blog. :) i read "prince caspian" before going to see the movie - i thought both of them were great. they added a couple things to the movie of course, but i didn't think it was a big deal. i keep telling phil it makes me sad that peter and susan will not get to return to narnia.
i also read "three cups of tea", almost in it's entirety, on our trip. it was incredible. a real life story of a man (greg mortenson) on a mission to bring education to the children of afghanistan and pakistan. it is unbelievable what this guy goes thru....and it all starts off w/ him getting lost after trying to summit K2. i have a high respect for those who go out on the foreign mission field, and let me tell you, even though this guy is not a "christian missionary" (although he did grow up as an MK in africa) he has the determination of one! he is so committed to these people, i really wanted to cry at times. if only all of us could have half the compassion of this man. it was another reality check for me, to once again be reminded of how blessed and privileged i am just to be born in this country and have basic things like clean water, clothes and education. PLEASE read this book...and then tell your friends to read it. i mean, who needs to read a novel when this guy's life is way more interesting and uplifting than any fiction??
sorry, i probably should have made two separate posts out of all this stuff....but you know me, it might be another few wks. until i write again! one final thing, a PRAYER REQUEST: of late there have been a lot of child and infant deaths. i'm sure many of you heard about steven curtis chapman's 5 yr. old daughter's accidental death. then, an acquaintance of our's lost their 2 month old baby boy to SIDS last wk. (if you know of the christian music group selah, it was the woman who used to be their lead singer - her hubby went to moody and there's also a connection thru our old ministry, sunshine). finally, just the other day one of phil's cousins and his wife, jason and janelle, lost their 10 month old baby girl. she was born with an extremely rare set of genetic conditions, so they were never sure what her future would hold, but that doesn't make it any easier. so please join me in praying for these families as they attempt to make sense of out everything and to find their way to continue moving forward w/o their loved ones. thanks so much!
anyway, our trip to WI was wonderful. a bit chilly for camping, but since it was the wk. before memorial day we had the state parks almost all to ourselves. that's how we like it....yep, we're selfish like that. :) for the first few nights we were at peninsula state park in door county - a place i've wanted to visit for quite some time. for those of you not familiar w/ the cheesehead state, it's the peninsula that juts out into lake michigan and creates green bay. it was really pretty w/ cute little towns. and they had good bike trails, so that makes the hubby happy.
then we went to north-central WI, pretty close to lake superior. we stayed at copper falls state park, which was also really nice. good hiking and several nice falls to check out....we were pleasantly surprised by the rock cliffs and ravines, etc. (even phil was impressed, if you can believe it!) and we did drive up to check out the superior great lake...didn't do anything super exciting but at least now we can say we've been there. :)
our last destination was to camp forest springs, where i did my college internship a few years ago (ok, i'm lying....it's been more than a few years). my very dear friend jenn and her hubby and their beautiful son just joined staff there recently, so it was great to catch up w/ them. the camp is celebrating their 50th anniversary this year so they had a special service over memorial day wknd. we were technically "campers" which was kinda funny, but we had a good time. it was refreshing to be served and on the receiving end and the speaker gave some challenges which led to good conversation for phil and i. mostly it was a "carpe diem" kinda theme and we talked about stuff that we always say we want to do, but never do... like learning how to play guitar.
so, that's what we've been up to. just a quick update on the adoption front...we were supposed to have our final home study interview last night but our case worker was sick. so now it's scheduled for next wed. not a major setback, but i was looking forward to getting it completed! then basically, she told us it would be about a 6-12 mos. wait. however, it could go faster for us b/c we are not being particular - we're open to adopting just about any child under the age of 2.
now i will conclude w/ the actual "book" portion of my blog. :) i read "prince caspian" before going to see the movie - i thought both of them were great. they added a couple things to the movie of course, but i didn't think it was a big deal. i keep telling phil it makes me sad that peter and susan will not get to return to narnia.
i also read "three cups of tea", almost in it's entirety, on our trip. it was incredible. a real life story of a man (greg mortenson) on a mission to bring education to the children of afghanistan and pakistan. it is unbelievable what this guy goes thru....and it all starts off w/ him getting lost after trying to summit K2. i have a high respect for those who go out on the foreign mission field, and let me tell you, even though this guy is not a "christian missionary" (although he did grow up as an MK in africa) he has the determination of one! he is so committed to these people, i really wanted to cry at times. if only all of us could have half the compassion of this man. it was another reality check for me, to once again be reminded of how blessed and privileged i am just to be born in this country and have basic things like clean water, clothes and education. PLEASE read this book...and then tell your friends to read it. i mean, who needs to read a novel when this guy's life is way more interesting and uplifting than any fiction??
sorry, i probably should have made two separate posts out of all this stuff....but you know me, it might be another few wks. until i write again! one final thing, a PRAYER REQUEST: of late there have been a lot of child and infant deaths. i'm sure many of you heard about steven curtis chapman's 5 yr. old daughter's accidental death. then, an acquaintance of our's lost their 2 month old baby boy to SIDS last wk. (if you know of the christian music group selah, it was the woman who used to be their lead singer - her hubby went to moody and there's also a connection thru our old ministry, sunshine). finally, just the other day one of phil's cousins and his wife, jason and janelle, lost their 10 month old baby girl. she was born with an extremely rare set of genetic conditions, so they were never sure what her future would hold, but that doesn't make it any easier. so please join me in praying for these families as they attempt to make sense of out everything and to find their way to continue moving forward w/o their loved ones. thanks so much!
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