Beautiful Girl

I am so happy to see Vania's beautiful face. I love those big brown eyes ! She looks great ! Maybe a little thinner, but it could be running around the new larger building or that she is just growing up right before our eyes. They almost caught her smile :) What a great way to start the new year. We love you Vania ! Can't wait to see you soon !!!!
Bambi

Wrapping Up 2009

Holiday hangovers ?
No , just two boys exhausted from sledding. It took great effort to sled seeing as we only had about 2in. of snow to sled on. But hey, we'll take what we can get. We had a great Christmas with family & friends. Not a lot of traveling since we live 30 min. from Adam's Mom's house & 20 min in the other direction to myMom's house. This makes it very easy to do the holiday shuffle. I am grateful to have them so close:)

Christmas Eve at my Mom's house
Adam & my brother in law had dualing timers set on their cameras. Amazingly we were able to get a family photo with EVERYONE smiling in only a couple takes. Christmas miracle ?

Choo- Choo

My sister in law, Erin, got engaged over Thanksgiving & my soon to be brother in law took us to visit the train yard he works at. It was super cool ! The kids loved it & so did we. This is the motley crew ... Zane, Zoe, Carson Camden & Cale ( 2 of my nephews ).

The Santa Interview
Carson looks nervous in this picture. Guilty conscience ? :)

"Stocking were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there."
Our Christmas Day started about 1:15 am talking the kids into going back to bed at 2:15 am , 4:00 am then finally at 6:00am they couldn't take it any longer& snuck downstairs & to open the stockings. I woke up at 6:20am to Carson hovering over me saying " MOM you should see what Santa left in our stockings !" Christmas Day had officially started. Hey, I was excited for my presents too, but not willingly to sacrafice sleep over it :)

Brothers !
Determined to sled.We have a local church with a steep hill great for sledding. So with a little might the boys were able to get a few good trips down the hill.

As 2009 comes to an end we plan to hunker down & spend the evening at home to ring in the new year. I am so excited to see what 2010 has in store for us. We are anxiously awaiting updates from Haiti & hope to hear plans of a parent trip in the near future. Can't wait to share Christmas with Vania :)

Merry Christmas !

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. "
John 3:16

I love how God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
Merry Christmas!
Love, Adam Bambi Zane Zoe & Carson

The Invisible Woman

Yes, I admit it. I was the 35 yr. old mom jammin' out in the tan mini -van speeding down the freeway yesterday :) Why ? Because I had just dropped my three kids off at grandmas for a sleepover & I was releasing some of the stress of Christmas break, If you know what I mean :)

I had read a book not too long ago called My Monastery is My Mini -Van and sometimes that is so true. It's usually a place that is relatively somewhat calm and I can squeeze a thought or two in while driving.So I got to thinking of why it was that I felt so stressed during the most wonderful time of the year ? And then it dawned on me. My expectations were a holiday break full of Christmas cheer. Peace & tranquility. The Twelve Days of Christmas.& the last 24hrs had been filled with anything but. I was expecting the holidays to transform my children into Holiday Angels. After all , didn't they know my plan for Holiday bliss? The planning involved for Christmas fun ? The multiple trips to the store to find just the right gift & the relentless wrapping & hiding of presents ?

NO..... How could they ? I was rating my job to provide Christmas bliss to my family based on my children's behavior.If they were Angels I was doing a great job. If not so Angel like , I was doing a poor job.

Then I realized the most important thing of all. There is only one person who CAN meet my needs. Only one who sees all that is in my heart & all that I do for my family. ONLY ONE. And God is a saying to me right now... " I love you. Come To Me . I can meet your needs Perfectly. " After all , he is the reason for the season :)
So I thought I would share this video I was forwarded YESTERDAY. His timing is perfect. ENJOY !
Bambi

Glasses

No new news for awhile on the adoption. I am really getting anxious to hear something,anything :) The offices in Haiti are closed now until January for the holidays, so the wait continues.

For now I decided to post some cute pictures of Vania & her super cool pink Dora shades :) We bought them for the last trip in October & she loved them.The intent was for her to have her own glasses like mama so she wouldn't grab mine & throw them to the ground. Needless to say mine were still more desirable to her, especially when she became upset with me. But after hitting the ground countless times I have learned they are super strong :) Good thing I'm eligible for a new pair every year !& Thank God for good vision coverage. Next trip I'm considering one of those nifty straps to keep then on my head. Ha, Ha ! Just kidding :)I can just see it now ... instead of hurling through the air they would just keep coming back & smacking me in the face. Maybe I should consider contacts !

Wristbands for Hope For Little Angels of Haiti

Hope For Little Angels of Haiti is selling silicone wrist bands to raise money for Vania's orphanage. Our family has been able to sell 100 wristbands at $1.00 ea. and have raised a grand total of $216.00 so far :) Thanks to all our family , neighbors, friends & co-workers for your donations & continued support!

Wristbands are still available . They come in lime green or blue & are $1.00 ea. If you are interested in purchasing a wristband to show your support for Hope For Little Angels of Haiti please send an e-mail with your address & how many you would like to purchase to hopeforlittleangelsofhaiti@gmail.com. They will get them shipped to you. OR for those of you near by Adam & I have made another order and can get them to you.This is a great way to raise money for the orphanage's ongoing needs & raise awareness about Haiti.

One Cent Solution

Interesting ! This is a video from the Miami Herald. Bill Clinton talks about Haiti recycling garbage & using it as energy. To read the full news article go to the news reel above and click on Miami Herald/Haiti turning. The article also has more pictures of the recycling process.
Bambi

Check It Out !

Hope For Little Angels of Haiti Orphanage is moving into a new building ! This is so great for the children & staff. It looks really nice & much more spacious. For pics of the old building go to my June blog archives & scroll down to the June 27th entry. This is a huge answer to prayer !Can't wait to visit on the next parent trip:)
Bambi

W W V D ?

What Would Vania Do with this turkey feast ? Her all time favorite food on each trip has been beef jerky. This last trip the jerky only lasted until day 3 and it only lasted that long because we tried to slowly ration it out . Once it ran out she could not get enough chicken, picking all the meat off the bone and sucking the marrow off the ends. I cannot wait to see her face when Grandma pulls a huge turkey out of the oven on her first Thanksgiving at home:) Missing her !Bambi

From The Mouth Of Babes ( Part 2 )

JUNE 2007

Well, as I had said before we kept the fact that we were looking into adoption a secret for awhile. About 6mo. But, if you know me than you know I was bursting inside wanting to announce the news. Adam is a thinker. So we tend to balance each other out nicely. We sent in an application for the first agency we worked with on May 18,2007 ( the only reason I remember is because this is my birthday :) & then waited for approval. For those of you who don't know this is just a sorta pre approval to work with the agency. They look at a little bit of back round info., finances etc. to see if they think you would qualify for the adoption program you are inquiring about.

About a week later they called with good news & a list of documents to start gathering before the paperwork started arriving at our door. They were trying to prepare us for what we now know is a very intimidating, long & sometimes stressful job of compiling a dossier for a country. That is where they really get to know you up close & personal:) So, at this point we needed to tell the kiddos. If we were going to be going crazy running around to different offices & having social workers visit our house, they needed to know.

I had it all planned out how we were going to announce the BIG news. We would tell them the great news , everyone was going the cheer with excitement & then we were going for ice cream. So , after Adam got home from work & we lined the kids up all on the sofa. We reminded them of the conversation (6mo earlier ) of sponsoring a child and how we had decided to go one step further and bring a baby sister home.

SILENCE....... SOBBING.........Not the cheering I expected. They were in deep thought about the situation. My heart was broken. Did we make the wrong decision for our family ?

Zane was upset saying " Christmas will never be the same ! ". What he really meant was adding another sibling was sure to lower the odds of getting EVERYTHING on his Christmas list. Zoe cried because she wanted an older sister not a younger sister. Again , the IMAGE of what she wanted & the REALITY of what was to come did not match up. Then Carson, too young to invest such deep thought clapped his little hands.

Looking back at their reactions, I had had some of the same thoughts initially just not out loud to the whole world. Can we AFFORD to bring another child into our home? Can we AFFORD international adoption ? Do we want to go back to the baby years ? And then of course the excitement of the unknown possibility that we could. That is why we kept it a secret at first . WE needed time to wrestle with the same questions ourselves. And that's all the kids needed too & of course a little ice cream never hurts either :)

Bambi

From The Mouth Of Babes

December 2006, our journey to our sister begins

December 2009, still waiting for our sister

Can you believe it is December 1st ? I was sitting & thinking back to this time last year and remembering all the chaos trying to put our dossier together for Haiti in the middle of the holiday season. CRAZINESS ! I remember the sweet satisfaction of fedexing the masterpiece we had compiled to Wasatch ( our adoption agency ) for the final time. Something even Crazier is that 3 years have gone by since our initial conversations on the possibility of adoption.

In December 2006 Adam & I decided we would look into sponsoring a child from India through an organization supported by our church. I would pull up available children for sponsorship on the computer & read the bio's and loom over their pictures. Thus, mom's computer obsession begins :) The kids would be peaking over my shoulders, asking lots of questions just as curious & fascinated about the children as we were.

Of course, one of the decisions we had to make when selecting a child to sponsor was boy/ girl, age etc. Zoe had piped up that she wanted to sponsor a girl since she didn't have a sister. Well, of course the boys found this unfair & chimed in that we should sponsor 2 children, a boy & a girl to make it fair. I remember telling them we could only afford to sponsor one & that it would be Adam's & I decision as to who.

Then we moved to the question of what it meant to sponsor a child. After going through the details of that , which I must not of conveyed well the first time, Zoe was very upset. All this time she had thought we meant we would be bringing this child home , possibly a sister , to live with us . " We can barely afford to sponsor a child for $30.00 a mo. much less bring them home & take care of them ", I retorted. " You & dad just need to spend your money more wisely", she answered. OUCH ! Sometimes I think kids have a way of seeing the bottom line. Their minds aren't all mucked up with all the stress & what ifs of adulthood. I had my whole list of reasons why we could NOT adopt. None of them too sound, mostly from fear of the unknown. But the idea was planted in my heart & continued to grow.

After scanning the internet , attending webinars & informational sessions, requesting info packets from different agencies so on & so on I could just feel God growing my desire to adopt. A secret that we kept from friends and family ( even the kids ) for a while, afraid of the response that could be true. "ARE YOU CRAZY ? "And we may very well be:) But couldn't be happier with our decision to move forward. Not a decision out of guilt from a 6 yr old but an informed decision and a desire that continues to grow in our hearts.I have learned that all it takes is a willingness. And as I erase the lines I have drawn in the sand God is able to work out the details:)

"For I know the plans I have for you", declares theLord. " To prosper & not to harm you. To give you hope & a future." Jeremiah 29:11