Renaissance Festival

I have escaped the Blahs!

As far as "the blahs" go I think I figured out ( with the help of dear hubby and a good friend Wendi) that I just forget to have fun sometimes!! It's so easy to get wrapped up in the routine of life and being a mommy and forget to take a deep breath and play once in awhile. I am guilty of perfectionism which is just ugly pride when you get right down to it. Wanting to appear okay and have the arrogance to think I can "handle" everything. I am determined to relax and smell the roses and soak in every day. I let you know how that goes!! :0)

For now "the blahs" are gone and we had a wonderful weekend. Friday my friend Wendi and I took our sweet little ones to the zoo. It was so much fun! Our little girls wore all of their princess gear to get a jump on the Halloween celebration. I put some pictures of it in the photo album.

Yesterday we went to the Renaissance Festival and had an amazing family day. I got some beautiful shots of my baby girl and had so much fun. The weather was perfect and Kaitlyn loved it.

If you want to check out the pictures click on photos at the top of the page. Scroll down to the album you would like to view. Then put the arrow towards the bottom of the page and and you can scroll through the pictures.

To see more pictures or order some of them go to our family website www.russandangel.com and click on memories.

Enjoy the pics and enjoy your day!! We only have one day llike today.

Soak it in!!!

I have a major case of the blahs

I know you know what I'm talking about. THE BLAHS!!!! Don't know where they come from. Don't know where they go. No reason. Everything is going great but you just feel BLAH!!! Hormones? Who knows. Stress? Maybe. Exhaustion? Possible, I guess. BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!! What do you want to do? Nothin. What do you want for dinner? I don't know. Are you feeling okay? Yeah I guess so. Man, I hope this passes soon. It's weird. Maybe I need some caffeine. Nah. Maybe I should go for a walk. No way. Maybe I should take a nap. I don't wanna. Well you get my drift... Maybe I'm just diificult. BLAH BLAH BLAH :0)

Our Homestudy Is Finished

I did my interview for the homestudy yesterday. It was great. I met with our social worker at Cracker Barrell and had some good food and great conversation. We did the interview and then ended up just talking for a long time . The lady who is handling our case is so nice and is an adoptive mother too. We had a 2 1/2 hour long breakfast. It was wonderful and I felt like I learned so many things about adoption in general. Social workers can be quite a handy information source!!!

She's got us thinking that our next adoption may be a domestic bi-racial adoption. I KNOW! I KNOW! Let's get through this adoption first. I'm just saying that a little blonde princess, a precious guatemalan sweetheart, and an adorable African-American baby boy sound like the perfect American family to me. Don't you think??? I can just see it now!! Go ahead. Tell me I'm crazy! I am WELL AWARE of that fact. I bet a lot of people thought Jesus was a complete nut case. So if I'm trying to be like Him I guess people are just going to have to think I'm a loon sometimes!! I know I have quite a few fellow "loonies" that follow this blog :0)

So now she is putting our homestudy together. She writes out a report that is like 8 pages long about our family and sends it to Dillon.

From this point on we are able to accept a refferral! WOW!!!! It could be any day now. I know this sounds kinda weird but I hope it doesn't happen for a month or two because I would like to have time to get our dossier turned in first. That way we can get her home younger. You can only start your dossier when your about to get a refferral but you have to have it done before you can start the court process to bring your child home. OK. Now I'm just confusing all of you right?? It's all very time sensitve. Just keep praying for God's perfect timing in all of this! WE ARE GETTING SO EXCITED!!!

Homestudy rescheduled

Our social worker called and rescheduled my private interview for Saturday at 8:30 am. Hey it's early but at least we're meeting at Cracker Barrell. Yummy. Yeah! After that it will take her a couple of weeks to put the study together and send it to Dillon. Then we are just waiting for our little girl to be matched with our family. Isn't that wild???? It seems to be getting so close. Wow... I feel very peaceful about the timing. I'll let you know how it goes.

You'll never guess what Kaitlyn said...

Kaitlyn (my 2 year old) was acting really upset and irritable.

I asked her, "Kaitlyn, what's wrong. Tell me what's going on Baby."

She looked at me very seriously and replied, "Mommy, I just have issues."

ISSUES I'm not kidding. I cracked up laughing and then recovered enough to tell her I was so sorry she is having "issues." Exactly how many "issues" can a two year old princess have??? Well I guess she's facing her own life challenges like the rest of us. Potty training, counting and sharing are all hard to do when you a little cutie pie named Kaitlyn. All I can say is if two is this dramatic I am VERY frightened of 13!!!!

And Her Name Is!!!

Drum roll please!! I realized I haven't made an official announcement of our little girl's name!

We have decided that we will name her

Krysta Zoe.

Krysta = anointed, divinely chosen

Zoe= life

So her name means Divinely Chosen Life

It is very important to us that her name reminds her everyday that God chose her for us. She is ours even now.

My Dearest Krysta,

I am praying for you every day little one. One day you will know how much I love you. You will know that although I didn't carry you in my body I have been carrying you in my heart for many years. I knew a long time ago that you would be my baby girl and so did God. You are chosen for your daddy, me and your sister Kaitlyn. I am praying for you to be safe and warm and loved. It is hard on my heart not to know where you are but I know that God will hold you until we can.

With All Of My Heart,

Mommy

I thought this was fascinating!

Can you read it?- I know it looks wrong but try anyway!!!

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt Tihs is the bolg I sotle it form... http://spaces.msn.com/members/roomofonesown/

The Adoption Is Payed For!

We prayed for money to rain from heaven and it has!!!!!!

We took the leap of faith and God caught us!!!!!!

This afternoon someone (who wishes to remain anonymous for the present) let us know that God has put in their heart to pay for all the adoption expenses that are not yet covered. WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW!!! I'm stunned! Overwhelmed! Thrilled! RELIEVED!!

Let me back up a bit......

This weekend I had a bit of a "stress out." More like a "mini stress out." See, we looked at the budget in depth to figure out exactly how we could afford the extra expense of the Guatemalan adoption. After looking at the numbers I had to fight these doubts. Did we make a mistake? Are we doing the right thing? We talked about it and both felt we are on the right path. We realized that we were going to have to tighten our belts quite a bit.

We had already seen God work through some very dear friends of ours to provide a good chunk of the funds by committing the proceeds of a car sale to our adoption! Our faith was built and we prayed. We felt that God was going to provide more money somehow but we knew we needed to be prepared.

So we went through our budget and SLASHED! SLASHED! SLASHED! It was a little hard for me to let go of some of the stuff but I realized that those things shouldn't be an idol to me. They shouldn't be so important that I won't let them go at any given moment. So in my heart I did let them go..... We decided we would cut gym membership, vacation savings for next year, 1 of the cell phones, and much much more!!

I was totally at peace with our decision and was planning to start all the cuts this month.

This morning was my women's bible study. I love going! We are studying the Proverbs 31 woman. I have gotten so much out of it! So anyway for some reason I kept thinking I shouldn't go this morning. I just felt weird like I wanted to stay home. Which is strange because I haven't missed all semester! I called my leader and she said I had to be there!!! Then the co-leader called and said she thought maybe I should come too. Then Wendi (co bible studier) said maybe I should drive that way and see how I felt. I was thinking, "Okay FINE I'll go!"

Well long story short, we were talking about generosity and having faith that God will provide for our needs. I ended up pouring out a story I remembered about my mother's faith in giving generously when she had almost NOTHING to give and how God provided abundantly for her. I bawled my eyes out and shared with them our struggle to walk in that same faith that God would provide for us. Right there that whole group of amazing women stopped and prayed for us! Prayed for God's provision!!! Prayed for our faith to be strong. Prayed for our baby girl in Guatemala.

2 hours later I recieved a call saying the adoption is PAID IN FULL!!!! Hmmmmm...... I wonder if God answers prayer????

Philippians 4

⁴Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Have to reschedule homestudy

My social worker is sick.... That means we don't get to finish the homestudy tommorrow. Poor lady has been sick since Thursday. Bummer! We'll have to reschedule. I was REALLY looking forward to having that part done but I feel OK about it. I know God is in control of the timing. More later! I'm wiped....

Time To Myself? How do I handle this?

MY BABY IS AT NONNY'S HOUSE

Kaitlyn went to her Pop and Nonny's house. They drove off yesterday. I will go pick her up Sunday night. Kaitlyn was waving happily and saying, "Bye mommy!!" As they drove off I felt like one of my arms had just gone on vacation. My baby has only been away from me for more than one night two times. Once when my friend Wendi's baby was in the hospital with RSV and I needed to go be with her she was at grandmas 2 nights. This summer I went to Seattle to help my other friend Holly with a new baby while Kaitlyn was at Kamp Polka Dot for 3 nights. Both times were REALLY tough for me but I was busy. This time it was just ME!!! I"M SUPPOSED TO RELAX NOW!!! I KNOW I'M PATHETIC! I used to think it was SO BIZZARE when I would hear women say that they don't know what to do when their kids are gone. Now I can sympathize a bit.

It is starting to grow on me more though. I stayed up until 2:30 am just because I could. Not because Kaitlyn was teething or having bad dreams or stomach flu.... JUST BECAUSE! Then I slept until 10:30!!!! I know. I know. I am wild and unpredictable. WHO KNOWS WHAT I MAY DO TOMMORROW!

POTTY TRAINING

So the purpose of this wonderful trip to Pop and Nonny's is potty training. Russ' Aunt Carol has been a preschool teacher for 20 years. She is amazing with Kaitlyn and asked me if I would mind if she potty trained her while she visited. WOULD I MIND????? UH LET ME THINK ABOUT IT. You want to potty train my child and I DON'T have to pay you a million bucks??? Ummmm YES! I would like you to do that. PLEEEEEEASE.... THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! So yesterday we went and picked out her favorite panties from the store. She picked Dora, Disney Princess, and Nemo which she declared Shamu Panties! She is OBSESSED with Shamu. She was very excited about all of it.

I DID IT MOMMY!!!!

I recieved a call just a few moments ago that every mother dreams of. At exactly 11:51 am my mother-in-law called me to let me know that Kaitlyn had "gone" in the potty. YEAH!! I could hear Kaitlyn screaming with excitement in the background. Nonny put Kaitlyn on the phone. She said, I DID IT MOMMY!!!!" Then she hung up on me. Aaaahhhhh. The overwhelming joy of having your child potty trained SOMEWHERE ELSE!! Carol and Nonny, if you pull this one off I SO OWE YOU!

I'm feeling stressed

Overwhelmed.... tired.... leaps of faith can get exhausting. It's a funny thing though. It seems that the part right before you leap is the hardest.

So have you seen the Indiana Jones where he has to take the "Leap Of Faith"? Okay I know some of you have heard me talk about this one before but come on I've been at this place quite a bit! Several years back (as we were making the decision about whether we should go to MBA school) our pastor talked about faith. Believing in what you cannot see. He showed that clip of Indiana Jones. He has to cross an invisible bridge over a huge cavern. He "knows" the bridge is there but he can't see it. He has to take that "leap of faith."

It was a light bulb moment for me. I knew at that moment that we were supposed to take a leap of faith and go to MBA school. Here I am again, years later in the same spot again for a different reason.

Okay so here is the deal. Yesterday I talked to our wonderful case worker. She told me to expect a referral in the next month or two. WOW!!! YEAH!!! Amazing! Exciting! Thrilling!! RIGHT?????

Yes, that was my first response too!! I'm SO PUMPED! Our little girl is going to be born soon. Things are flying. It's like a miracle in motion.

Then comes my second response....... (not so impressive and full of faith)

When we get a referral we've got to come up with A LOT of money. A LOT!!! How are we going to do that?? Don't get me wrong. It's not like we haven't been saving, planning, strategizing. If you know my husband you know we have been. It's just scary you know? Passing out big train loads of money. Trusting God to have your back while you drain your savings to bring home your little girl from Guatemala.

I think most things worth doing in life are overwhelming. Don't you think? Kids?? No question! Moving to a new state or country? Yep! Taking a new job? Uh huh! It's all scary. We take a plunge and learn as we go.

I remember how badly Russ and I wanted to have a baby when I got pregnant with Kaitlyn. We were so excited. It happened the first month we tried and we were THRILLED. Then I had this moment of STARK TERROR!! Are we ready for this?? Can we afford a baby? What are we doing? Of course Kaitlyn is the joy of our lives and I thank God daily that we took that scary plunge into parenthood. What would we have missed if we hadn't? I can't even fathom life without my little precious jewel.

I know in my heart that my little Guatemalan Princess is worth that plunge too! I'm just getting so close to the leap!!! I get scared. She will be the next perfect decision, the next scary plunge into something worthwhile.

We are moving right along.

Well, we went Friday morning to immigration. I thought we were going to get fingerprinted Friday but it turns out that you just give them your paperwork and a bunch of money. Then they send you a appointment to come back again. Well at least we've got that part going.

Saturday morning we ended up getting 2 parts of our homestudy process finished. Our social worker was really great. She has adopted and her children are now grown. So she is very helpful.

First she did the home visit. That's where she looks around our house to make sure we don't have unsheathed daggers sticking out of the walls or open wells in the backyard. I think we passed! :0) Then she talks to us about our country choice, our expectations, what medical needs we are open to, etc..

Next she did Russ' private interview. She asked lots of questions. How he grew up, his views on discipline, how we handle finances, how we handle big decisions in our marriage. She is very kind and easy to talk to. Plus anyone who knows Russ knows that he was thrilled to have a captive audience to listen to his theories on budgeting!!! So I don't think it was too bad.

She didn't have time to do my private interview so we scheduled it for October 11th around 4:00 pm. After that we just have to wait for her to submit her write up about our family. After that I believe we can accept a refferal of a baby. That just means we're matched with her. Then we travel to get her as soon as we have clearance.

Meanwhile we start preparing our Dossier. That's a collection of documents that will represent us in court in Guatemala. It's stuff like official copies of birth certificates and marriage license yada yada yada!!

So we're just hopping right along. It's amazing to me. I'm so excited....