So, isn’t it amazing how we can justify anything? My husband started it (didn’t Adam blame Eve from the beginning?), you know. He made the justification of buying “Over the Hedge” with money already spent. He returned something from Wal-Mart and felt he really needed to get it. Little did he know I broke down and purchased Cinnamon Bears from Bulk. So, then tonight I was supposed to meet some ladies from church at Starbucks, so I used the “already spent money” to get a coffee. I know, I know, cheating. But I really thought they were going to show up and it is for a good cause – right? NOT! I guess we will have to tack on penalty days to our 30 days of nothing.

This weekend I went to an adoptive mom’s retreat. It was fantastic. I had more free time in those 2 days than the last 3 months! I met a lot of wonderful women and it was great to have someone there who understands me. The best part, aside from the friendships, the food, the late night talks, reading uninterrupted, etc, was coming home to my family who worked hard to do the dishes, clean the basement and do laundry. It was fabulous!

Life is going along great. We are growing the boys hair out to look “big”, as they call it. Sophia is doing wonderful. We just have such a great family. I love the blessings God has given us. I praise him everyday for all that I have.

Hockey season started with George coaching Nick again this year. We decided to hold off on the boys one year until next year when we can focus on teaching them more. They went to practice with George on Saturday and had fun. Dad unfortunately was tripped accidentally and fell onto the ice with a nice bump. Thankfully he doesn’t appear he had a concussion or a cut. Just a headache. I am so excited for hockey to start! I never realize how much I miss it, until it is almost time to start.

Well, since I have a few minutes of free time I am going to read. I hope you are all doing well. Thanks for reading!




Caleb loves to have Reeses in the room with him. On this night he moved away from his pillow to be with him. You can't see his hand resting on Reeses' neck.

We have a new weight lifter in our house! The boys love Superman and will do anything to be like him. Giovanni loves to lift weights, and drink milk, and eat things he doesn't like just because Superman does.

Day 11 (but who is counting?)

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Romans 3:21-26

So this week in bible study we studied this passage. We talked a lot about God's righteousness and our. I still am in awe of the grace he gives to us. How can he forgive me when I curse Him, forget Him, deny Him? But the awesome thing is - He does. I caught a little glimpse of the love He has for us. On Monday, Caleb was messing around in the bathroom sink making a mess. He has been told many times not too. So, he got "talked" to. I didn't yell, I was just very firm. He started crying. My heart broke. Eventhough he was in trouble and I wouldn't back down on that, I knew he needed to understand why. How do you explain to a 5 yr old kid who doesn't speak your language? I realized this is how it is with God. We mess up and feel so bad. We wonder how God can love us because we messed up. Just because Caleb didn't obey does not mean I love him any less. I love him more and more each day. God loves me even though everyday I mess up. How many times have I gone to God crying out of shame and sadness for what I have done. After explaining to Caleb what he did, I held him in my arms and told him how much I loved him, that I wasn't going away, and that he wasn't going anywhere. I realized, God holds me in His arms and comforts me ALL THE TIME. Caleb let me hold him, rock him and wipe the tears away. Do we let God do this? I know most of the time I push Him away saying "I am fine, I will be ok. I don't need you." I am so wrong. Isn't it a shame we push God away so many times when all He wants to do is rock us, pat our backs, and smother us in kisses (ewwwww Mommy! No kissing!). I love God and I love my kids.

I have this great friend who just sent me a CD of Mark Shultz. In one of his songs he talks about being a child and waiting. I cried when I first heard it. It is beautiful. Here is part of the song:
Oh child, precious one
Let your life shine like the sun
But you say “How long ‘til I can come home
‘Til I can rest in your arms again”
And I say “Not long but don’t miss this life and I’ll beWaiting ‘til then”
Live with the wonder of a child
Pray with your arms thrown open wide
Love with a love that has no end
Until I see you again
Oh child, precious one
With each breath know you are loved
But you say “How long ‘til I can come home
‘Til I can rest in your arms again”
And I say “Not long but don’t miss this life and I’ll beWaiting ‘til then”

How true. Everyday I pray for the childlike faith. I know I will see Christ again and then I will truly rest. But for now, live with Spirit, Love, and hope of the Lord.

OK, so finally I get to my discussion of "30 days of nothing". We are on day 11. Well, we have done really well with nothing. I admit we did break the rules for two nights. Every year we go to the corn maze. We splurged and went with the whole family. It was by God's grace we were all together (well at least until we entered the maze). It was so fun! For about half the time we pushed the stroller and then I decided to carry Sophia. The boys were hilarious! They didn't know if they should be scared or excited. At one point, Caleb said "Ohhhhh, scary over there. Giovanni you go!" It was so Caleb-style. I think they enjoyed carrying the flashlights more than going in the maze. It was great to have the big boys "scare" them from time to time and hide the corn.

The other thing we did was dinner with 7 other adoptive families that were here for training. It was well worth the "cheating" to meet them all. Other than those two times, we have had no lattees, fountain pops, fast food, restaraunts, ice cream runs, etc. It has been great getting into a schedule of dinners, lunches, and evenings. I miss lattes the most. We have pop at work provided by our boss, so fountain drinks are not that missed. I miss Starbucks on an early Saturday morning or before church. I know the boys miss chicken and french fries, but they are starting to learn we aren't doing that anymore. The sad thing is we still have so much! We act like it is some big sacrifice we are doing, but we really aren't.

We have had a great week. The boys are really starting to pick up everything. They are starting to recognize the sounds of letters and what they are, they almost have their ABC's down, they can partially count till 20, they are slowly getting better at puting lotion on and brushing teeth, and their language is awesome! We communicate so well. They even are starting to tease with us. They eat almost anything and have learned to say "I like ____" I don't like ____". They only really don't like soups, pb&j, and sausage and gravy. They have learned to eat whatever is put in front of them. We haven't had a "throw up" incident with Giovanni for quite awhile.

So, today is the 3month anniversary of returning home with them. Soon I hope to post some then and now items to remind me and everyone else, how far they have come.

With that, I leave you with pictures (did you think I would forget?).

How can you not go "Ohhhh, she is so cute"? This was a gift from my mom.

Dancing babies. They love to dance!

I definitely think the fro is George and blond is Sophia. What do you think?

Day 2/3

Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. James 5:13-16

So, we are well into Day 3. I am doing pretty good. I admit this morning I craved a latte. I think it is because I can't have it. So far we have had sandwiches, chicken and pasta, rolls, pizza, left overs, and pork and potatoes. Tomorrow - lasagna. We did have to break down and go to the store to get some night-time undies for the boys. Still unprepared.

So, Sophia grows more and more each day. She had her check-up yesterday along with 5 shots. She cried for about 10 minutes and then was happy again. She is happy all the time! She also slept through the night last night. I know she has a cold, so that probably helped. I know I slept good!

The boys continue to thrive and learn more and more words each day. George and I get the priveledge of meeting a lot of families who are also adopting from our agency. It will be exciting to meet them and be able to give them insight.

So, what was wonderful about today? As stated in James, prayer goes so far when we earnestly pray. Today we received a donation from my aunt and uncle. We need this money for our readoption. Then we found out we can do our readoption ourselves, thus saving money. So, this money will pay for all the court fees and we won't have to come up with any other money! Then I received a call from one of the pastors at our church to pray over us and our future ministry in Ethiopia. We go to a large church and typically they pray for each prayer request and send a card. This was the first time we have received a phone call. I just know God has something planned for us. I just can't wait to go to Ethiopia again.

Well, I better get back to work. I have some hours to catch up on. I hope life is treating you all well.




I finally found our camera I lost after our trip to Montana in early August. Here are some pictures at Bozeman's Sweat Pea festival. We stood in line for face painting just to find out they were closing, so I attempted Sponge Bob and an Ethiopian Flag.








Grandma Mabel playing with her great-granddaughter Sophia.













Here is Nick, Caleb, Giovanni, Sophia and Mommy at the North Entrance to the park. Pretty cool to have most of my children there for a picture.












This is at Old Faithful. The boys were pretty shocked to see the water "on".

Day 1

So, I made it through the first day. I never realized how many times I stop at the store to buy things. Last night in a 2 hour period I wanted a Sprite from the gas station (we all know fountain pop is better than canned pop). Of course the first day really wasn't bad. I am really curious to see how Day 15 is once a lot of the food is dwindling.

Giovanni, Nick, and Sophia are sick with chest colds. We have the revolving colds in our house. I wonder who will be next? Malcom, George and I just got over it.

I have been humbled a lot lately thinking about what "the perfect family" should be. I grew up thinking I would have a boy and a girl - only. They would be the perfect children, getting along with no fights. Then I married George with teenage boys. I have actually become immune to boy antics. For example (I LOVE YOU MOM!) this weekend Nick farted in on of the little boys' faces. This is a reality in our house. There are 2 females there - me and Sophia. According to the boys, I don't count and really Sophia doesn't either because she is a baby. Boys rule our house. My mom was appalled that those things occur in our house. I reminded her that they are just boys and that my brother did it to me and she was more appalled. It was quite cute to see her face. It was then that I realized nasty boy stuff really doesn't bother me anymore. They smell just as bad as the dogs and Sophia's diapers, so who cares. Bless my mom for having never knowing the full impact of my brother and I. I stress a lot about having our house clean, quite, perfect. Why? Really, does it matter? No, these kids are having fun. So what if I don't get to putting things away? We are dancing, or singing, or laughing, or playing. My kids rock - all of them.

So with that, a lady I know mentioned once to put down the simple pleasures of life. Here are mine today. What are yours?

Baby smiles
Baby laughs
Baby feet
Caleb's copying
Giovanni's eyes
Fresh caramel apples
hugs from the hubby
little boys dancing to German music
Sophia crawling over and putting her hands on my legs
Brutus slobber (one more day that he is here!)
Reese's kisses
Kevin's smile
Nick's screams
Malcoms stories
Quiet moments with God
The Spirit in me
Caleb singing, singing, singing



Giovanni at Greenbluff in the hay maze.












Our little guy, always smiling.



















The boys all pickin' apples. They are delicious! Washington home grown apples - now that is definitely a simple pleasure!











Even Sophia picked an apple. She definitely likes the taste of them.

30 days of nothing

So, we are starting something new. A couple of weeks ago I read about a group of people for 30 days going down to living on nothing. Cutting out fast food, lattes, electricity, creamer, butter, extras, movies, etc. So, I thought, why not? Why not try to understand what it would be like for our children on one day and go without electricity or eat just rice for a day. Even doing this I will never fully understand how difficult it must be to watch your parents die of measles or AIDS, or TB, or fire, or infection. Or what it really must feel like to every day eat potatoes and injera ONLY. To not have diet pepsi or 4 parts to dinner - meat, bread, veggies, drink. To actually have clean water that a city can vote whether or not to add flouride. Or to have a toothbrush and toothpaste. How sad for my boys to find out they never brushed their teeth until they met us. Caleb told me "No soccer mom, Caleb shoes all gone". How can I ever fathom this?

I told George someday we are going to have to get the big 13 passenger van because we are NOT done with adoption. Whenever God is ready, so are we. My heart yearns to return. To feel like I can do something more for them. Why am I so blessed to be here? Why did God put me here in this house 50 times bigger than their homes? Why did God see that we are worthy of His love and to show others of this love. I sat in church today trying to grasp how much He loves me. I realized that eventhough there is so much sin in my life now, before and later, God sees me as clean, pure and childlike. I thought of Darth Vadar (OK, so I grew up on Star Wars). Anakin was good once, he was drawn to evil. That good never really left him. He did a lot of bad things in his life. His son believed in him that there was just enough good. In the end (sorry if I spoil this for anyone), he too saw there was more to being good than bad. He saved himself. We are to be like this and know that the good in this world is worth so much more. Why be shadowed in the darkness of hatred, lust, envy, evil when we can be in the light of Jesus. God has given us so much, it is the least we can do for him.

So, with that, I will be journaling about our journey of 30 days of nothing over the next month. I must fully admit we stocked up before starting tomorrow. I know a lot of the other families really cut out the "extras". Maybe next month we will try something different. I saw this on http://intent.squarespace.com/ in case any of you decide you would like to try. So, we will see if we bought enough meats, veggies, fruits, etc. Hopefully we don't end up with Top Ramen or Mac'n'Cheese for the last week!

Hope God is blessing you all just as He continues to bless us. May His grace find you always! Thanks for reading.




A parting picture of our weekend picking pumpkins, rasperries and apples. More too come on our Greenbluff trip. Nick, Giovanni and Caleb had a great time bonding together.

Even Sophia had fun with the pumpkins!