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!