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I'm learning all about FeedBurner tonight. I added a link so that you can subscribe to our blog by just typing your e-mail into the box on the right-hand side of our blog. Let me know what you think about it!!

Happy 6 Months To Us!!!!

I love the little ticker at the top of our blog today. It has been 6 months since we were approved by ICAB to adopt from the Philippines. Hooray!! We had a celebratory lunch today with our good good friends Aaron and Nikki (and Sam and Porter). We praised the Lord for being 6 months into the wait. Then Aaron and Nikki sang us a song about how we are going to our referral sooner rather than later because they told ICAB that's how it should be. I heart our goofy friends. They even sing songs about their dental work. Good times.

We also got a book in the mail yesterday called Adopting a Filipino Child the Intercountry Way. I'm excited because it was written by a woman who sat on the Philippines Inter Country Adoption Board (ICAB), and it gets specific about what ICAB is looking for in their approval of Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs), as well as what they do when looking for a referral (or match) for a child. Yay for information!!

Wrastling

You may remember our good friends, Jon and Suze, from this post. Last night they treated us to another new experience. PRO WRESTLING. Jon has been a wrestling fan since I've known him. In fact, one of his first memories of me is from our sixth grade talent show. I told blonde jokes as my talent (I'm still embarassed about it to this day). Jon and a few of his friends put on a pro-wrestling show for the sixth grade class. He said he remembered looking up into the crowd and seeing me with my eyes and mouth wide open giggling and pointing at them. I thought wrestling was scandalous back in the day. I'm sure I looked a little something like this...

Last night we went over to First Ave in Minneapolis for First Wrestling. Jon knows every single one of these wrestlers and their histories, and it was hilarious listening to Jon tell us the background and then yell at the wrestlers. One of Jon's favorites - Jerry Lynn wrestled against Al Snow. There were many other matches going on as well though. We got to see wrestlers like The Prophet (he hates Jon and they yell at each other during every match), Allison Wonderland, Pete Huge, etc. It was hilarious. There were ALL kinds of people there. Suze and I enjoyed people watching. I got stared down by a man with different colored eyes for sitting in his spot on the half-wall, so I huddled a little closer to Dave. ALL kinds of people. Thanks for another fun adventure, Jon and Suze!!!

St Peterites - Where were you 10 years ago?

I grew up in St Peter, MN and graduated from that high school in 1998. Yep, the same St Peter that a tornado tore through 10 years ago today. I didn't really think much about it until this week when it was all over the tv news and newspapers. Then yesterday on the radio, NPR talked about how they were going to be in St Peter today for the 10 year anniversary of the tornado.

Dave and I started reliving our stories about where we were. We've both talked about it before, but it's still something amazing to talk about. My parents live just north of town, and our home wasn't damaged, in fact it was only sprinkling at our house when the tornado was hitting town. Weird, huh? Here's my story:

The day of the tornado was my sister Elyssia's 20th birthday (Happy 30th Birthday today, Leishy!!!!). We had driven up to Minnetonka to take her to Famous Dave's for lunch since she was going to Crown College at the time. We drove back down to St Peter and I went into town to go tanning. I was heading down to Arizona for spring break to hang out with my family down there that next week. So I went tanning at 5:00 pm, and on my way home I considered stopping by my friend Brock's house to see him. I decided against it and headed home. I remember the air being really humid and a little hazy. Weird for March.

About 20 minutes after I got home, my mom and I heard the sirens going off in town. Of course we walked over to their large picture windows facing town to see what in the heck was going on. All we could see was what looked like a large cloud coming down over town. My dad slept through the storm, and my sister was north of town working. We went and woke my dad up and decided to head into town to see if there was any damage from the storm.

As we drove into town, we saw lots of trees down and we wondered if straight line winds had hit. As we drove along we hit a line of traffic as we got close to the McDonalds. We had a view down Main Street and words wouldn't even describe the devastation we saw. We decided to turn up the road next to McDonalds, and as we drove past I saw a boat crashed into the back of my friend Justin's truck. That's when I knew it was something bigger than straight line winds. We drove past our neighbors, my friend's parents, and they mentioned that they were afraid because she had decided to hang out at her boyfriend's house in town that day. They couldn't get to her with all of the damage. We told them that we would try to get over there because we were going to make sure our other friends were okay.

We drove back out to our house and grabbed chainsaws and cell phones (this back in the day when cell phones were in briefcases - hee hee). My sister was back from work at that time, so we all headed back into town together. We decided to park up at the high school since it had a view of the entire town from the top of the hill. We were dumbfounded when we saw the football field. The bleachers were mangled into heaps of metal, and strewn about the football field. We met up with a bunch of people we knew at the high school, and I saw my classmate Mark there. I started crying when I saw the devastation of the town below. You never imagine something like this could happen.

We started making our way down to our friends' houses on 169 (Main Street), and were amazed at how different the town looked with the houses gone. I found myself a little lost multiple times on the way down. I found my neighbor/friend and let her know her parents were looking for her. A tree was on her car, so there was no way she was going to get home that way. I gave her the cell phone to try to call her parents, but by then the phone lines were jammed and we couldn't get calls in or out. I kept making my way down, and we got to my parent's friends' house which was extremely damaged. It looked like an abandoned house, there was so much missing from their house.

These people lived 1 block away from my friend Brock's house (remember from the beginning of my story?), so I decided to head over there. By the time I got to his house it was dark, but I could see with my flashlight the extensive damage to their beautiful Victorian home. If you've ever been to St Peter, there is a gorgeous blue Victorian home on the west side of 169. That was their house. I was so glad that I decided against stopping by on my way home from tanning. There was extensive damage to their house as well.

The next few days were strange. I went to my friend Abby's house and found their house missing its front side and roof. It was like looking at a dollhouse. We tried to salvage what we could, and I unloaded their dishwasher for them. Those were the only dishes that they had left. My friend Van drove over from Wisconsin, and we drove up to the cemetary on top of the hill to clean up what we could. I also remember that we went down to Patrick's later in the day for a free lunch. My friend Brock ended up moving into a few different houses, and my best friend Robin and I got to spend lots of time with him because at one point he lived in the apartments across from her house.

I still went to Arizona, and even considered staying a little longer than originally planned because we ended up having 2 weeks off of school while they tried to figure out what in the heck to do with all of us because the high school had damage to it as well. I came home when I was planning to, and spent a lot of time during those weeks off with my friends, and helping with the clean up effort. Sometime during those weeks, we were called to the high school to clean out our lockers, because there would be no more classes in that school for the rest of the school year.

They ended up splitting the high school students into two groups. The 7th-9th graders went to the elementary school, while the 10th-12th graders went to the intermediate school. The little kids went to school from 7:30-11:30, while us high schoolers went to school from 12 noon-4:30. I was taking post-secondary classes at Gustavus, though, so I got out of school around 3:45 every day. I have to say that my senior year was most memorable because of this. My friends and I spent lots of late nights hanging out, and sleeping in wasn't just for the weekends anymore. I helped lead a senior prank that I got in loads of trouble for (but that's a different story for a different day), and even got to be the special "natural disasters" speaker at graduation.

I scanned in some pictures that I had from the scrapbook my mom made me for graduation:

The view of the bandroom from where I sat every day (I played trombone)

Locker Clean Out Day with my friends and some of my sister's classmates

My friend Emily standing at the high school overlooking St Peter (previously there had been trees galore in town. I think that was my saddest memory - looking out over town and there being no more trees)

Saying good-bye to my trashcan and water fountain (my locker was next to them - I'm a geek, I know). And yes, I had a shaved head in high school and this was my hair growing back out.

Jonny would always steal the comfy teacher's chair in English class while the rest of us sat in miniature desks (b/c we were in an elementary/intermediate school)

So now you have to share your stories with us in the comment section. Carissa, Colleen, Robin, Jonny, and any other St Peterites reading this blog, let's hear it! What memories do you have and where were you March 29, 1998??

God's perspective of adoption

My sister sent me a link to a sermon she read about adoption by John Piper (thanks Riss!), and I finally got a chance to read it on Friday. It shares a great perspective about God's view on adoption, and Dave and I talked a lot about it after we finished reading it. One of the points says that adoption is done for God's glory, and His glory only. Wow, I don't know if that is always my thought on the adoption. I think I often feel like the adoption is there for Dave and I to become parents.

This is the one of the verses that John Piper is talking about in his sermon:

(Ephesians 1:4b-6) In love 5he predestined usfor adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

I think one of the main ideas that I gathered from this is that we are adopted by God through Jesus in order to glorify God. I used to think that idea was a pretty selfish idea of God's. But reading through this sermon, Piper made a good point. We humans were created to appreciate God's glory, his beauty. Anything less would leave us feeling like we have something missing in our lives. Adoption is one of the most beautiful things that God has done for us, and I am excited to experience this, and get an even better idea of how much God loves us.

Dave's favorite part of the sermon was:

"Our aim is not to take a child’s low views of self and replace them with high views of self. Rather our aim is to take a child’s low views of God and replace them with high views of God. Our aim is not take a child with little sense of worth and fill him with a great sense of worth. Rather our aim is to take a child who by nature makes himself the center of the universe and show him that he was made to put God at the center of the universe and get joy not from seeing his own tiny worth, but from knowing Christ who is of infinite worth. We adopt to lead a child to the everlasting joy of making much of the glory of the grace of God."

Wow, what eye opening words from Piper. It really got us thinking about removing ourselves from the center of the adoption and returning God to the middle of building our family.

So that's where we are at now. What a difference from last week. I'm going to have to remind myself of this often, not only throughout the adoption but while parenting, and in every day life.

Happy Easter

I got pictures from my family's Easter celebration, but forgot to get my camera out for Dave's family's celebration. Here are some of the highlights (and a video at the bottom if I can get it in there)...

Madelyn, Rich, Carissa and Grace dying Easter eggs Gracie showing everyone her eggGracie's crazy blue hand (she had a smart mama who put her in a tie dye shirt. Note the blue spot on her belly - that would be from her blue hand)
Dave has a green thumb (literally)
Mom, Carissa, Maria and Rich showing off their rival school spirit
Gracie hanging out with cousins Lucia and Zach (after spilling grape juice all over herself at lunch, thus the naked baby)

Madelyn showing her pretty dress and basket

Uncle Dave with the basket-turned-Easter hat on - doesn't he look pretty?

Gracie and Madelyn with their goofy mama

The Injury of Easter 2008 - Madelyn crawled over a piece of broken glass while playing, and got a cut on her knee. She is showing us the bandaid on her knee and her sad face.

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter!!

Hello old fiend

The day after spring began...

When all was said and done we had 9.5 inches of snow. You who have read my blog throughout the winter know how I feel about winter. I'm hoping for some miracle that will suddenly bring 60 degree weather for the rest of March, and get warmer through April into summer :)

Forgot the 2nd half

Oops, I forgot to post the second part of the e-mail. This portion is from Vickie, who is the Philippines Director for our adoption agency (Hand in Hand) as further explanation:

This email did not come as any surprise to us, and let me tell you why. As other countries’ adoption programs have either closed or lengthened or become more costly, an increasing number of families have turned to the Philippine program. Because the Philippines is so much smaller in size and population, there are not nearly as many children available for adoption as there is, for example, in China. So it is understandable that wait times might increase. In no way do we want families to give up on a Philippine adoption, but rather adjust the timeline you might have had in your head, just as families in the China adoption program have had to do.

Let me also expand on Mrs. Abejo’s mention of a new law they are trying to pass. Most children available for adoption in the Philippines have either been legally relinquished by a birthmother or declared abandoned in the court system. When a birthparent legally relinquishes a child, the clock starts and six months later the child is determined to be legally free for adoption. However, when a child has been abandoned, the process to declare the child abandoned in the Philippine court system will often take three or more years. Obviously, that child is that much older by the time he can be adopted and his opportunity to be adopted has dramatically decreased, since most adoptive applicants are asking for the match of a child under two years of age. (This is why they want this law to pass that would change the process so that the abandoned child can be legally free for adoption at a much faster pace.)

Considering all this, you might want to think about whether you want to stay firm to the age and health parameters you originally noted in your application or dossier. You might decide that you are willing to expand the age limit, or be open to more special needs or background conditions than you previously were, or even consider a sibling group of three or more children. If you want to do this, just let me know and I’ll give you a new Type of Child form to complete.

For families who already have dossiers in the Philippines , we can submit amended information at any time. As some of you have already experienced, the Inter-Country Adoption Board already has a practice of asking for an update after a family’s dossier has been there for over a year, with the update including a new Type of Child form, some new photos, a new Motivation to Adopt letter, and a home study update.

Like my friend, Nikki, mentioned in a comment to the post below, we are open to more special needs, so that may help. Also, our application/dossier was in before they began seeing the increase of applications. That may also help us. There are positive signs in all of this, but sometimes it's hard to see them. Thank you, Nik, for keeping the faith for me when I feel like I have none. I know God is good. I know He's got amazing plans for this. Right now I just feel sad. But I'm glad we've got His arms to hold us.

News

Okay, so I know I've been a bit absent on the blog this week. I've been feeling like a Debby Downer, it feels like we've had lots of bummer news lately, so I wanted to wait until I had something happy to blog about. Then yesterday, I received an e-mail from our agency that topped off the bummer news. This was what I read when I opened my e-mail:

Dear Philippine Family,

Following is the content of an email we received today from the new Executive Director of the Inter-Country Adoption Board of the Philippines .

Dear Partners:

For the 1st quarter of 2008, we have noted the increase in the number of adoption applications. Although we are pleased that many of your families would want to adopt a child from our country, we are also concerned because we currently have very few children available for inter-country adoption. This would mean that there will be a longer waiting period for child placement.

ICAB and DSWD are exerting efforts to lobby for the passage of the law that will make the procedure of abandonment an administrative process which is one way to fast track the movement of children for inter-country adoption. However, until such time, we are concerned that families will have to wait for a longer period of time (perhaps from two years and longer) before they receive a child proposal from our country. Again, we emphasize the need to encourage your adoptive families to be more open in accepting children with some medical conditions and “with no background information” so that the waiting period for a child placement will be shortened. Kindly share this concern with your adoptive families.

For the past few months we've been hearing that the wait times have gone down down down (average wait time for a referral is down to 11 months currently). We were so pleased to hear that, but didn't place all of our hopes on that, as we knew there was potential of having a loooooong wait. So our attitude was always, expect 24 months and consider anything sooner a big bonus. Normally this news wouldn't bother me because I was already expecting a long wait, but with the other bummer news we've had this week it just felt like a blow. I'm confused about what God has in store for us, since we've been trying to become parents for 4.5 years now. It just feels like more and more setbacks. I guess the bright side of this is that Dave and I get more date nights now??

So that's where I'm at today. I'm sorry I don't have more happy news to post. Hopefully next time...

Wow

I was amazed when I opened my e-mail tonight and saw the comments about my post on God's provision. THANK YOU to each of you who sent words of encouragement. I was worried that someone would give my post a horrified look and say, "What??? You are not 100% gung ho about learning this whole other culture?? You don't pray as much as you should???" (Just kidding about that last one). It's so encouraging to know that integrating parts of another culture is difficult for all families, and ALL moms struggle with parenting. Even moms who already have bio children struggle with how to be an adoptive parent. Thank you so much for your words of encouragement and support of my honesty, I truly appreciate it. You ladies rock.

Oh, my favorite term from today "little folks". Julie knows what I'm talking about. Babies and children are all just "little folks".

U of MN International Adoption Clinic

Today Dave and I went to a conference/seminar thingie led by the University of Minnesota International Adoption Clinic. My friend, Julie, had informed us that this was going on, so we signed up and met her there. There was an agenda, so we knew what subjects we would be covering at the seminars. They talked about issues found in institutionalization, infectious diseases by country, gave us tips for parenting internationally adopted children, and explained the process for assessing international adoption referrals, and post placement check ups at the clinic. I am so happy to have this great resource in Minnesota.

The cool part about this clinic is that we can send them our referral along with a payment to get an idea of what kind of risks we would be looking at in adopting that/those child/ren. We send them our pictures, videos and documents that we receive from the orphanage and they will assess all of them for things like FAS (Fetal Alchohol Syndrome), as well as other issues they can find by looking through all of the provided material. They will then counsel the parents on what kinds of challenges they may face in adopting this child. Then post adoption, we will be able to go into their clinic for consults two weeks after we get home, six months after we get home, and then two more times over the next 1.5 years. The research that they are conducting and publishing is an amazing resource for those involved in international adoption!

Dave and I learned tons and tons today. Some of it was scary stuff about potential attachment issues, what kinds of behaviors we can expect in the first few weeks/months of being home with our child/ren, and what kinds of illnesses or diseases can be contracted. However, even with the doom and gloom of those topics, the professionals repeated one thing over and over again - all of the hard things that we will experience with our children WILL get easier over time. Plus, we are far from alone in this process. We have the support of their clinic, other adoptive families, our own extended families, our amazing adoption agency (Hand in Hand), and our fabulous social worker, Diane, who has tons of knowledge and experience with attachment issues.

We also got to learn about some interesting facts, like an effective way to deal with temper tantrums if we feel our child is going to hurt themselves or someone around them. We learned about how much progress these children will make just by being placed in a loving, safe and nurturing home. We will have to teach our children how to be in a family because they will have NO idea what it is. We will teach our children so many things, like facial expressions (lots of kids in orphanages don't really have a variety of facial expressions because they don't get the one-on-one, face-to-face contact with adults like biological kids typically do with their parents). We will teach our kids healthy eating habits (instead of hoarding food in their mouths or pockets for fear that their won't be food later when they are hungry). We will also teach our kids healthy sleeping habits. We will teach our children English, and hopefully some sign language. But most importantly, we will teach our children that they can TRUST us. That we are always going to love them, and that we are never ever ever ever going to abandon them.

They said that one of the best ways to create a trusting environment is to have a calm, peaceful home and to stick to a consistent routine. Now we all know from this post that I'm not a huge fan of being tied down to a schedule. HOWEVER, Dave LOVES routine. Dave loves waking up at the same time every morning (most mornings), giving Gus a rub down, going to the bathroom, taking Gus to the bathroom, eating breakfast, watching the morning news, and then getting ready for his day. Sometime in that mix, this growly bear wife of his sleep walks into the bathroom to crawl into the shower. My mornings are never the same. I never wake up at the same time, in fact I set my alarm for a different time every morning (I'm a weirdo, I know). I so appreciate the fact that Dave is the way he is, primarily because I know our children need this. I know that he will lead our family in the routine we have set, and will stick to it. I am grateful for that, because I would be a wreck without him.

Courtesy of Yahoo.com

God's provision

Dave and I have had a strange weekend/week. We had a good time at the Philippine Day, but there were parts of it that overwhelmed us. On Sunday night I was in tears with the thought of all that I DON'T know about the Philippines, and its culture, and how to incorporate it into our life. I also cried thinking that not only do I not know anything about parenting, I also don't know anything about ADOPTIVE parenting. I began having lots of "it's not fair" feelings about it all. My angry thought was that birth parents don't have to go through the stress of learning a new culture. I wanted to be honest in my blogs, so here's my ugly side for you.

I'll admit, even though I love God with all of my heart, I don't go to Him in prayer very often. I tend to (try to) control my life and situations, and not give Him much credit. Well that night I finally decided that I couldn't do this by myself anymore. I needed God's strength and peace. I prayed that night that He would carry me through these kinds of times that are inevitably going to come through the adoption process and parenting. The prayer was more than that, but that was the gist of it.

The next morning I was still pretty on edge. I was frustrated with the fact that I need to get started on a "life book" for our child/ren, because there is no baby book out there that can encompass our unique adoption story. It's kind of like a scrapbook (and those who know me know that I'm far from being a "cropper"). I was frustrated with Dave because I felt like I was the only one of us putting myself out there to find other adoptive families that we could connect with (being an introvert, this is another hard one for me - it's exhausting because I cherish my alone time).

After we got to work and got set up for the day, my dad (and boss) suggested that we go grab some breakfast and talk about what our week looks like. We sat down and he told me he had seen my great aunt Jo that previous weekend and she wanted him to pass a message along to us. She said, "You tell those kids that they are doing a great thing by adopting, and I'm excited for them! You tell them this story: I met a family who had adopted multiple children from the Philippines. Their kids are now teenagers, and I asked them what their favorite thing was that their parents had incorporated into their lives about the Philippines. They told me that incorporating the Philippine culture wasn't what was the best part about their parents. It was that through them they became a family. They loved that their parents tried hard to incorporate the culture into their lives, but they loved being a family even more than all of that".

I sat there and cried as my dad finished telling us about this, and he kind of looked at me questioningly. Dave went on to explain that we had really been struggling with bringing the Philippine culture into our lives, and feeling like failures because we will never know enough. He told my dad that I had prayed specifically about all of this last night, and we were amazed at how God answered that prayer. In fact, God answered that prayer BEFORE I even prayed it. Wow. He's so good to us, when we don't even deserve it!!!!

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Last October our furnace totally went kaput, and we had to get it replaced. Fast forward 5 months to this week...
This week we thought either our water softener or water heater were leaking. Last week the water softener guy came out and replaced a(n expensive) part on the softener. He said that he thought the leak was the water heater. Then on Wednesday of this week, we had a plumber come out to check out our utility room. Sure enough, the water heater was leaking and we had to replace it. POOP. He had planned ahead for just this problem, so he had a water heater in his truck. Later that morning, we had a guy come out to do an estimate on our deck door - we discovered that the temperature next to the door was 50 degrees and we can hear the traffic outside the door like we are sitting outside on the deck. There is no question that this had to be replaced (three years ago, but my nagging didn't have much of an effect on Dave!).

I added up the costs of all of these expenses and discovered something. The expense of all of this equaled the expenses that we have yet to pay if we would adopt 1 child. Nearly exactly the same amount - $5800. Yowsers. Want to hear something funny? I've had this little voice telling me for the past six months or so, "Hey Rachel, depend on Me to get the money for this adoption. Stop fretting about it, and obsessing over it". Well, this forces me to do exactly that. So here we go, God. I'm giving it over to You! I need Your provision, and I truly have faith that You will make this happen. I'm excited to see what kinds of surprises are in store as we practice giving it over to God every minute of every day.

To be more frugal (and perhaps learn to actually cook before we become parents), we have a goal of only eating the food that is in our cupboards for the next 2 weeks. I had to grocery shop last night to pick up 4 necessities, but otherwise I am able to create 9+ recipes out of what we already have. Woot! So you're saying - um, Rachel, 9 meals does not equal 2 weeks. Okay okay, you got me. Some of those evenings are cereal suppers. I just can't get away stop them cold turkey! I love Honey Nut Chee.rios!!!

This picture has nothing at all to do with the post, it's just an old pic of my niece, Grace, that makes me laugh...

Congratulations Todd and Lara!!!

I read this post last night, and was so excited to hear that Todd and Lara are in Guatemala to bring their baby Victor home on Saturday!!! We went through a couple of our adoption training classes with Todd and Lara at Hand in Hand (our adoption agency). We are so happy for you guys, and can't wait to meet Victor at a HIH get-together!! Hooray!!!!!

Philippines Day

Dave and I had a good time at Philippines Day in St Paul this past Sunday. We met my bloggy/adoption friend, Julie, and her family to carpool up to the celebration, and we finally got to meet in person! She was right, the day was filled with excited chaos, people, singing, people, dancing, people, and awesome food (and more people).

The day began with everyone singing the American national anthem, and then the Philippines national anthem. It was so fun to hear both of the anthems sung! We ate a combo plate with Chicken Adobo, rice noodles (I can't remember the name), and rice. We also ate some egg rolls that were probably the best egg rolls I have ever eaten. There was a kind of talent show going on that we were able to watch while milling around. We met some of the adoptive families in person who I had met on my Ya.hoo adoption group, and it was fun to see their families and hear how their children are adjusting.

Here are some pictures from our day:

The stage where the "talent show" took place

The cutey kids from CSFA (Cultural Society of Filipino Americans) singing a Philippine song, as well as an American songSome dancers The view of the event from the second floor (do you see what I mean by people, people and more people?!?)
There was a debutante presentation, we missed out on that one, as it was toward the end of the event, but the girls looked beautiful. The festival was definitely conducted on "Philippine time"!!

New addiction

So I subscribe to the multiple blogs I read on Google Reader. That way I can keep track of who has new posts and all that good stuff. Every once in a while Google will give me recommendations on other blogs I might like to subscribe to. I came across this blog last week, and have been addicted to it ever since. This family is amazing. They are Nate, Tricia, and Gwyneth Rose. Tricia has Cystic Fibrosis, and is awaiting a double lung transplant. She got pregnant right before she was put on the list, and trusting God's will for their lives, they went ahead with the pregnancy and she gave birth to precious Gwyneth Rose 15+ weeks early. Nate is the husband/dad, and is a worship leader at their church. They are an amazing family with a great outlook on life. I love reading their blog. It helps remind me of the blessings God pours out on us every single day. Click here to read their story. If you think about it, lift them up in prayer and also consider becoming an organ donor!!

I just got back from the baby shower today. It went well, but I forgot to take pictures :( I got to see an old college roommate there who I hadn't seen in years, so it was fun to catch up with her! One thing that cracks me up about the adoption is when people think that I'll forget to announce (to the world) when we get our referral. I assured my friend not to worry, I would probably send out a mass worldwide e-mail when we receive our referral. In fact that will probably be the only thing I can focus on after it happens. I'll be walking around with an even bigger perma-grin on my face than when we got our approval... I can't wait :)

Boo

So Tar.get is one of my fave places to go. We do our grocery shopping there, and I love to walk around and look for good clearance deals. Tonight we went shopping there for some groceries because we are having some of our peeps over this weekend (the Guit.ar Hero A$$ROCK!T reunion weekend, baby!!). I also have a baby shower to go to tomorrow (deep breaths, Rachel, your day will come), so I was shopping for a baby shower card to go with my gift.

I went to the card section and started looking for the perfect card, and as I was looking, I realized that unconsciously I was also looking for adoption cards. I thought it would be so fun to able to pick one up for some of our friends who have received the awesome news that they will soon be meeting their babies. I looked and looked and looked, and eventually called Dave over to look as well. We never found any adoption cards. It made me sad. I'll just have to handmake the cards to send out - it'll make it that much more special anyway.

Not a morning person

I found this quiz on another blog I discovered today and HAD to take it. It was dead on! I hate schedules. I have never 100% enjoyed any job where I HAVE to be there at a certain time and stay until whatever time. Let me know what the quiz says about you if you decide to take it!!!

Keep flying time!!

I realized the other day that we were already past the 5-month mark of waiting. In fact I didn't even think about it until a couple of days after it had passed! I just hope and pray that time continues to move along as we wait for our referral. God's really been using this time to show me what kind of woman and mother I want to be. I remember, when I was a little girl, on days that I would wake up early and come upstairs I would find my mom reading her Bible and praying for the people on her prayer list (written down in a notebook). Sometimes I would cuddle up with her while she finished her Bible study, and looking back on that it makes me realize that I want to be that for my children. I want to be a prayer warrior for my children, and a woman who seeks God's will for my life. I have changes to make in order be this, but thankfully God doesn't ever expect me to have this perfected, He just wants me to desire Him.

This morning Dave and I were talking with each other about a news story I had read about a family who does "Frugal February" every year. In February they don't spend any money on groceries, eating out, clothing or entertainment. Pretty much they just pay bills, and continue their charitable giving. They only eat food that is in their cupboards/fridge, bake all of their bread, and make dry milk to drink (ew). They find activities to do that are free like test driving cars. They did allow themselves one night of ordering pizza with change they found in a change jar sitting around the house. I thought that was such a cool idea! I would love to try that some month. Dave and I run to the grocery store nearly every single day to pick up items for supper. I know that we could save money by planning better. We are thinking that we need to take advantage of the library offers in town of free tickets to different museums in the Twin Cities - especially now before the kids come home!

On Sunday we are going to a Philippines Cultural Event in St Paul. I am so excited to go to this!!! We are going with a gal that I met through my Ya.hoo adoption group and her family. Her son is singing with the kids' choir at the event, and I can't wait to see what all of this entails! I have no idea what to expect, which is a pretty fun way to go into it. I will definitely blog about it when we get back. Then the next weekend, we are going to a U of MN seminar about international adoption issues - risk factors and effects of institutionalization, infectious diseases and known medical conditions, country-specific medical issues, research on children adopted from orphanages, development and attachment issues, and post-adoption parenting strategies. Two weekends in a row of adoption- and/or Philippines-related activities. How exciting!!

I will now leave you with a before and after shot of Gus's most recent spa day (a.k.a. the groomer):

(We believe in extreme close ups in our family)

The end of the cruise

I think Dave and I are finally over our PVD (Post Vacation Depression), it's hard to get back into the swing of things!!! We both got sick last week, and are finally starting to feel better. Yay for feeling better!! Now the warmer weather can kick in any day - this afternoon Dave thought I told him it was going to be 70 degrees tomorrow. Wishful thinking, I guess!!

Thursday morning we woke up in the Ocho Rios, Jamaica port. It was another beautiful day, and the view outside our ship was gorgeous as well. There were pristine white houses and mansions on the hillside where our ship was docked. We had bought an excursion through Carnival to do a garden tour and the Dunn’s River Falls adventure. We headed over to meet our group and get loaded onto our bus. Our driver was Howard (Howie), and our guide was Marguerita, who was very knowledgeable and gave us an interesting history about Jamaica and its geography. We went to the gardens first, and we both enjoyed the beautiful plants and flowers. Quote of the day: “Rach, can you believe that these are only ANNUALS in Minnesota?? These are PERENNIALS here!!!” (Can you guess who that quote is from? Hint: He is posing like a goon in the doorway picture)

Our view of Ocho Rios from the dock where our ship was

The Cool Cool Runnings boat

Our tour guide at the garden tour (I forgot her name - oops), and some pretty plants. Dave knows the names of each and every one of them.

The namesake of our last puppy...
Dave and I posing in front of the falls at the gardens
Crazy peacock

After finishing at the gardens, we walked around a Jamaican shopping center for about half and hour, then we were off to Dunn’s River Falls. You can’t go to Ocho Rios without visiting this place, there is nothing like it in the US! I don't have any pictures of this printed yet, as we used a water camera to get these pictures. Let's hope they turned out!!

There was a guy leading us up the falls, and another guy videotaping us the entire way up the falls. These guys are amazing because they can just run up the falls at full speed WITHOUT FALLING DOWN. It’s crazy. There were probably 1000 people on the falls that day, it was so crowded, but our guides did a great job guiding us up. At the end of the climb they told us that we could purchase the DVD of us climbing up the falls for $40. We thought that was pretty steep, but our dinner friends mentioned that they would split the cost with us if we would be able to copy it. We jumped on the chance, and purchased the DVD. The company was recommended by the cruise line, so we thought we would get a good quality product – WRONG!! The actual footage of our group climbing up the falls was a whopping 1 minute 48 seconds. Criminey. We are attempting to get our money back, mon.

That evening was the second elegant evening, so we got all dolled up again and ate dinner. We watched a dancing/singing show that night that was a tribute to the Beatles. We had so much fun singing along to the songs, and then we headed off to bed.

On Friday we had another sailing day, and it was great to just relax in the sunshine all day long!! We meant to go play bingo one last time, but decided our tans were more important and stayed out on the deck all afternoon. We ate lunch in the dining room (I discovered that I liked doing this waaaaaay better than eating at the buffet). There we met a couple from New Jersey, and a guy from Central Washington. He explained to us that he lives in the desert part of Washington state. I didn’t even know that there was a part of Washington or Oregon that wasn’t rainy!! It was fun to chat with all of these people. That evening we ate our last dinner with our tablemates. By that evening I was having a hard time eating my supper. We spent so much time eating this week that I felt like I couldn’t eat anymore. However, I was able to fit in one last Chocolate Melting Cake (my absolute favorite dessert on the cruise).

Our favorite place on the boat (during the daytime)

Lucie (our phenomenal waitress) singing a song, I guess she blinked a lot b/c I don't have an open eye picture of her

Our cozy room The tiny tiny (but very efficient) bathroom

After supper there was a show with the “Carnival Stars”, and we watched fellow passengers who had won karaoke contests perform as different stars. Some were hits, and then some were misses. The guy who was Elvis forgot the words, and then spoke them instead of singing them. It was pretty funny. We headed to bed after that so that we could wake up bright and early to debark in the morning. We were feeling ready to be home that night (although not ready to face the cold weather!!), and see our Gus.

On Saturday we ate breakfast at the buffet, and then waited in our room until our floor was called to get off the ship. We headed down to get off, and had to go through customs. We waited in a loooooong line, and the guy scanned our passports. We got through in record time, and the customs guy even WINKED at me J We got a kick out of that. Once out of customs, we waited for a bus to transfer us to the airport. We waited for another long period of time for that bus to come, then waited in a very long line at the airport to get our tickets. We got on the flight with no problem and were happy to get off the plane in an almost warm Minnesota!!

Goodbye CRUISE!! We miss you!!!!