Happy 7 Months To Us!!

Today marks 7 months since we were approved by ICAB in the Philippines as Prospective Adoptive Parents. We celebrated tonight with our friends, Aaron and Nikki by making Pancit, which I also discovered are called Celebration Noodles!! An apt title for tonight's meal, as we were celebrating having 7 months of waiting behind us. They were delicious, and Dave has decided that Pancit is his new favorite Philippine meal. We also made avocado juice for dessert, which has crushed ice, sugar water, mashed avocados and condensed milk all mixed together. It was pretty good, but super rich! None of us could finish our drink.

Last week on one of the blogs I read, I saw this poem. I was so moved by the poem that I wanted to share it with everyone. I read it aloud to Dave, and began crying as I got toward the end. It still makes me cry as I read over it again, there are so many emotions that come out by reading it. This poem isn't saying that I am going to be better than anyone else at being a mom, but I will definitely be a better mom than I would have been had we gotten our wish 5 years ago, and had I become a mother on my terms.

"Thoughts on Becoming a Mother
There are women that become mothers without effort, without thought, without patience or loss and though they are good mothers and love their children, I know that I will be better.
I will be better not because of genetics, or money or that I have read more books, but because I have struggled and toiled for this child. I have longed and waited. I have cried and prayed. I have endured and planned over and over again. Like most things in life, the people who truly have appreciation are those who have struggled to attain their dreams.
I will notice everything about my child. I will take time to watch my child sleep, explore and discover. I will marvel at this miracle every day for the rest of my life. I will be happy when I wake in the middle of the night to the sound of my child, knowing that I can comfort, hold and feed him and that I am not waking to take another temperature, pop another pill, take another shot or cry tears of a broken dream. My dream will be crying for me.
I count myself lucky in this sense; that God has given me this insight, this special vision with which I will look upon my child that my friends will not see. Whether I parent a child I actually give birth to or a child that God leads me to, I will not be careless with my love. I will be a better mother for all that I have endured. I am a better wife, a better aunt, a better daughter, neighbor, friend and sister because I have known pain. I know disillusionment as I have been betrayed by my own body, I have been tried by fire and hell many never face, yet given time, I stood tall. I have prevailed. I have succeeded. I have won.
So now, when others hurt around me, I do not run from their pain in order to save myself discomfort. I see it, mourn it, and join them in theirs. I listen. And even though I cannot make it better, I can make it less lonely. I have learned the immense power of another hand holding tight to mine, of other eyes that moisten as they learn to accept the harsh truth and when life is beyond hard. I have learned a compassion that only comes with walking in those shoes.I have learned to appreciate life.Yes I will be a wonderful mother."
-Unknown

Gus Gus (part 2)

Renee commented about her dog's misdeeds, and so I felt compelled to share with you Gus's antics... In the 9 months of Gus's life, here are some of the incidents we've witnessed:

- Gus opened the Christmas present that I bought for Dave. He just started attacking the paper, and got it all opened. Dave was excited to experience an early Christmas. I videotaped it here.

- Gus has eaten the corner off of our coffee table, and still will chew on it sometimes with his molars (maybe he's still teething?). Nikki and my mom can attest to this.

- Gus has eaten 1/2 of the rugs in our entryways. We used to leave him out when we were gone, and we would come home to the rug yarn strewn all over the entryway.

- Gus looooooves to have something in his mouth when he is excited. When we get home and let him out of his kennel, he runs around frantically looking for anything that he can carry around in his mouth. Usually this is one of the pillows from our couch, or a sock, slipper, bra, underwear or some other item he has carried out of our closet. Because of this, we have found holes in many of these items. Drives me crazy. One day he carried my underwear out on the deck. My sister Carissa said, "I guess he just likes to air the family's dirty laundry". ha ha

-Gus really loves teddy bears, or any plush item like that. He carries it around in his mouth and loves when people tell him what a nice bear he has. He wags his whole body when we say that. But the animals don't stay whole for long. He rips a hole in it and proceeds to eat the stuffing out of it (yes, actually eat and swallow the white stuffing, unless we can catch him to pull it out of his mouth). Then he carries the limp outer layer around in his mouth for days. Weirdo.

- Gus steals Sammy's pacifier when he comes over to visit. He carries it around in his mouth just like he's sucking on it. But he spits it out as soon as we see him because he knows he's not supposed to have it.

- Gus has eaten 3 of my toothbrushes (He's tall enough to pull things off of the countertops, so now we have to keep everything in drawers). He seriously ATE them. We found bristles in his poo for the next couple of days after he did that. He has been found with my sisters' toothbrushes twice and was just about to chomp them down before we caught him.

- Just this past Friday, Gus ate the cover off of my Bible when he was left in the car while I was visiting Dave at work (I guess he needed some Jesus in him). He also ate part of a small rubber mat that we have on our dashboard to keep things on so they won't slide off. He was still pooping pieces of that out yesterday (gross visual, I know, but the next one is even grosser)

- If we forget to put the lid down on the toilet, or forget to flush, Gus will EAT the toilet paper out of the toilet. UBER-GROSS... we know. We've learned our lesson after he came over to give us a lick and it smelled like toilet. That one makes me gag.

I'm sure my sisters & brother, mom & dad and Nikki could comment about other Gus stories, but those were the ones I could think of off the top of my head. The crazy thing is, even though his crazy antics make me cry sometimes, I still love him to bits and pieces! Our last dog, Marley, was a professional criminal who turned out to be a good dog. So I know it's all just a phase for Gus, and he'll be a really good dog after he's out of his puppy phase. I guess he's good preparation for kids :)

Gus Gus

Yay!! This is my 100th post. Hooray :) I just had to post this. Gus is:



Johnny Knoxville
Up for Anything

The kind of pet that can leap tall fences in a single bound (or not, but give it a shot anyhow), Gus is the original Jackass, Johnny Knoxville!

Going through the pain so you don't have to, Gus knows that he trots a fine line between funny and stupid, but he doesn't care—he's laughing about it all the way to the pet store. His over-the-top antics make you grimace with fear and you often find it hard to believe that he actually enjoys playing the class clown. But Gus laps it up and continues to defy the odds, despite your warnings and concerns. Other males in the pack tend to be a little jealous of Gus, but the females find him simply dreamy. A die-hard good ol' boy, Gus is more of a General Lee type than a Knight Rider, but give him enough time to think things through and he's sure to find a way to wreck both vehicles at the same time.

So true. So true.

I shake my fist at you, snow

Yesterday when I got in the car to go to work, I noticed that there were some snowflakes mixed in with the rain. Ugh. It was super cold yesterday, and by nighttime it was actually all-out snowing. This morning I woke up to an inch of snow on the ground, and Dave freaking out because he had planted some spring pots for some of his clients last week. There is no way the pansies he planted could endure this. It's a good thing pansies aren't super expensive since we'll have to replace those for our customers. It's funny because he wanted to wait until this next week to pot these spring pots, but his clients didn't want empty pots. It's all good though. Hopefully this will be the last snow!!

You can imagine that I'm grumpy today with the cold and snow. I can't even bring myself to take a picture of the darn weather right now. I mean, come on. It's April 26!! It's almost May. It's not supposed to do this!! One highlight is that we got a new deck door installed 4 weeks ago and there is no more breeze coming through our living room on cold cold days!! Now we just need to replace our basement windows. As I type this I'm sitting on the couch right under the basement windows, and I can feel a breeze. Sad.

Well I'm off to go bridesmaid's dress shopping with Suze!! Yay! I am so excited for their wedding, and looking forward to seeing what dress all of the bridesmaids decide on today. Then tomorrow we are vegging out with Jon and Suze while watching a Freaks and Geeks marathon at their house. It should be a good time :)

Nana and Bampa

3 posts in one day. My goodness. I was home sick today, so that might explain it...
Here is the next page that I tried. Hope you like it, Mom and Dad!! I also made a Gus page that I will attach one of these days.

Now that I'm looking at it, I guess I needed to center the picture on the page better! Oops, I'll try harder next time :)

Street Chicken recipe

A few people wanted the recipe for the Street Chicken from this post, so here you go! This is a recipe that needs to marinate, so make sure you plan for that...

6-8 chicken pieces, such as breast, thighs or wings
3-4 shallots, grated
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed
3/4 pint, or just under 2 cups of beer (we used James Page)
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
juice of 2-3 limes
oil for deep-frying
salt and ground black pepper

1. Put the chicken pieces in a shallow dish or wide bowl. In a small bowl, add the grated shallots and garlic, season with salt and pepper and mix together. Rub the mixture all over the chicken pieces.
2. In another bowl or jug, combine the beer, soy sauce and lime juice and pour the marinade over the chicken. Cover the dish with clear film (plastic wrap) and put in the refrigerator to marinate for at least 6 hours or overnight.
3. In a wok or deep pan, heat enough oil for deep-frying. Fry the chicken in batches until it is rich brown in color and crispy on the outside**. Drain on kitchen paper and serve with cooked rice and salad.

**We found that we had to bake the chicken after we deep fried it. So we baked it for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees in the oven to ensure it was done.

Let me know if you make it, and what you think! We found that the meat was super tender, and even think we may make wingies with this recipe in the future for parties and stuff. Enjoy!!

Why I blog

Good times!! I got tagged by Julie to answer these questions...

1. Why did you start your blog? I started our blog when we officially started our adoption adventure. I wanted a place to be able to journal my thoughts and feelings, as well as keeping family and friends in the loop.

2. How did you come up with your blog name? Well, it's not super inventive. It's our last name and adoption is an adventure, so what better name could I choose?

3. Do your friends and family know about your blog and what do they think? Yes, my family and friends know about my blog, I share it with almost everyone I know. My younger sister has told me she giggles when she reads my posts, and I get e-mails from my dad and/or mom after almost every post lately. I like that :)

4. How do you write posts? Um, by typing on my computer. I come up with posts by thinking about what's been going on in our lives and just writing whatever comes to mind. I decided I wanted to blog more when I realized this could be a journal for me.

5. Have you ever had a troll or had to delete unkind comments? I've never had any unkind comments. I had a spammer once, so I turned on word verification.

6. Do you check your stats or care how many people read your blog. If you care how do you increase traffic? I love checking the stats to see how many people are reading my blog. I don't really care if I have a ton of people reading my blog, I just like sharing my thoughts with people who care.

Now I get to tag people! I choose Nikki, JoAnne, Renee, Emilie, Kim and Nicole & Isaac. I can't wait to read your answers!

Street Chicken

The baddest chicken this side of the Mississippi... hee hee, just kidding, Street Chicken is the newest Philippine food we made and ate. My friend Colleen gave us a Philippine receipe book (thanks Colleen!!), and we made the Street Chicken, the Peanut Chips, fried rice, and Banana Fritters. Pretty much everything was deep-fried - not the healthiest, but definitely an awesome meal! We brought it all over to Dave's brother's house and ate all of these goodies with them.


I would describe the Street Chicken as KFC (Philippine-style). Yum! I was supposed to use rice flour to make the Peanut Chips (like potato chips, but made with peanuts, garlic, coconut milk, and other deliciousness), and the Banana Fritters (bananas covered in a batter made of coconut milk, ginger, and other good stuff). However, I didn't have rice flour, so I made it with whole-wheat flour instead. Um... I think next time I'll go find rice flour. It will make the food much better!

As famous as I'll ever get

Dave and I love reading the conversations listed on Overheard in Minneapolis. The quotes are funny, but the titles that the administrator makes up for each post are even funnier. So the website is exactly what it implies - people send in bites of conversations that they've heard from the Minneapolis area. I always thought it would be really fun to send something in, but never thought I would be blessed with hearing a goodie like I did last week. I submitted that cutie-pie quote, and it got published!!!! Just click here and scroll down to the posts for April 19, 2008. Yippee!

I did it!

Here is my first attempt at digital scrapbooking using Photo.shop Elem.ents. It only took me 3 hours to figure this page out. Yikes... Hopefully it will get quicker as I get better at it!! I'm excited to work on this more, and finally start to get an idea of what I want to Lifebook to look like. I think I'm done working on it for the day, but wanted to share my new addiction with everyone.

p.s. Gus is sleeping right now and wagging his tail. Must be making new friends in his dreams... I love that dog!

Things I want to teach our kids...

-How to walk in high heels. I'm awful at walking in them, and usually end up buying the platform kinds of heels so I don't make a complete fool of myself by falling down in them. I still usually twist my ankle in those kind...
-How to communicate with us in sign language. I love signing to Dave around other people who don't know sign language with the limited ASL I know. Plus, I had fun signing with my friend Robin across the bar last Christmas :)
-How to do their hair (if we have girls). My sister Carissa will most likely have to teach this to our girls. I have always had stick-straight hair that won't do anything (even perms would come out of my hair after 2 weeks or so), so gave up on trying to style it years ago. I'm hopeless with a curling iron, barrettes, ponytail holders, curlers, product, etc. I'm always envious of my friend Nik and my sister Carissa who can do such cute things with their hair.

Funny story

On our way home from work today, Dave and I stopped by the grocery store to grab some "good chicken" (Dave is a bit of a chicken snob lately). Since our drive home is so incredibly long (nearly 1.5 hours one way), I had to head to the ladies' room when we got there. I know I only live like 1.5 blocks from the grocery store, but I seriously had to go. Anyway, as I enter the bathroom I see a woman (maybe a nanny?) standing outside of one of the stalls with a small child talking to her from inside the stall. Here was how that conversation went...

Kid: And I locked the door ALL BY MYSELF, neat huh?
Woman: Mmm.. uh huh.
Kid: And I DIDN'T TOUCH the water...... Did you know that I touched the water once when I was 2? But I DIDN'T touch the poop. That would be dangerous!
Woman (obviously not listening): Okay.

Good thing I was already in the stall because I probably would have peed my pants I was laughing so hard (but trying to be quiet) when I heard this!! The kid proceeded to ask the woman why in the world people wash their hands with anything BUT cold water. Then he annoyed her greatly when he tried using the hand dryer instead of the paper towel she had pulled for him. I got such a kick out of my first trip to the grocery store bathroom :)

Digiscrapping

I'm ready to start my next adventure! I had mentioned to my sister that I was pretty overwhelmed at Lifebook day, and that I thought I might like online scrapbooking better. She mentioned that she has a friend who does all of her scrapbooks digitally, and we should talk sometime so she can give me some starting pointers. Well she e-mailed me last night, and I was amazed at how much information she had to share with me!! It doesn't feel so overwhelming anymore after seeing that nearly everything can be done on a computer (yay! I'm a computer nerd), and that you can get TONS of stuff for free. She even gave me links to several different sites dedicated to digiscrapping and free stuff. Woot!


Now I just have to get the Ado.be Photo.shop trial downloaded onto my computer to see if I can actually do some digiscrapping and I'll be set!! I'm thinking I'll start it this weekend because Dave's busy season starts up again (he's a landscaper/gardener). He gets to build planting beds for my brother's mother-in-law this weekend, and Dave's brother has come on board this season, so he's excited that he gets to work with his brother quite a bit. I posted a picture below of what Dave's Christmas pots look like that he makes for people. He's so good! I'll try to post pictures of the work Dave's done in the past and the work they will do this summer. I'm sure some of you garden enthusiasts will appreciate it better than his own wifey does :) I'm not much of a gardener. Thankfully I've married Dave!!

I'll share my first attempts with you after I've started it this weekend!

For Kim

Hey Kim, I noticed that you turned off your comments b/c you had weird comments on your blog. I got those too about a month ago, and found that when I enabled "word verification", it helped those go away. They must be spam. The word verification is in your settings under the Comments tab. I drove by your church on the way to the CSC banquet the other day and thought of you! I hope you're doing well!!

CSC Banquet

We had a great time at the CSC banquet on Saturday night. They had a lot of different speakers and they even had a live feed to the Children's Shelter in Cebu where some of the children played/sang music for us, and said hello!! There were nearly 900 people there, and it was held at Bethel University. We sat at the Hand in Hand table with Karin and her 2 kids, Robbie and Alyona, Gary and Jill and their son Louie (3 1/2 year old), and a new couple who just began their adoption with the Philippines through Hand in Hand.

The emcee of the evening was Will Healy, pastor of Emmaus Baptist Church in Northfield, Minnesota. This is the church that my aunt and uncle go to, so I remembered him from times we'd visit them and also from my cousin's wedding there. He was just as funny as ever, and Dave especially liked his dry sense of humor. Will is the brother of Paul, the man who started the children's shelter years ago.

Another speaker we enjoyed immensely was Eddie, who was the first baby at CSC. He is now 28 years old!! He was adopted at 4 months old, and was candid about the struggles he has experienced as an adopted child, but also about the immense love and appreciation he has for his family. He's a very successful man living in Colorado, and it was so encouraging to hear his story!

We were in the back corner of the gym, so my distracted little mind didn't pay attention to parts of the program (I'll admit it!!! Sometimes I get distracted and don't pay attention). Jill and I sat next to each other and kept finding things to laugh about. Louie was great entertainment for us at supper. He has a prayer that he likes to say at home, and at one point he begged his dad to let him go up on the stage to say it. This boy has no fear!! So his dad took him up and I guess he stood on the edge of the stage looking around at the crowds saying his prayer. So cute!!!

During supper the children from the shelter played music for us and sang over a live feed - there was a little lag time, but not too shabby. Ah, the wonders of technology. It was about 7:30 in the morning over there while they were doing this, and they looked so excited and happy to be playing for us. It looked so nice and warm and sunny over there too. I can't wait to be over there!!

Here you can see how far we were. This is the emcee:

I did not take any other pictures, maybe next year I'll get there earlier and take more!

Practice?

I have not been sleeping well lately. It all started last weekend when I had a slumber party with my friend Nicole. We stayed up super late, but then I had to wake up early for Lifebook day. I didn't take a nap afterward, and had a heck of a time falling asleep that night. This whole week I have had a hard time falling asleep, but having to wake up at my normal early time for week, and it makes me so tired!! I figure I'm just getting practice for future sleepless nights as a mom. Moms - how do you do it and function the next day? I worry that I'm going to be such a bad mom b/c I feel like I can barely function when I'm so tired. Dave says that once I have something to actually stay awake for (i.e. the kids), I'll have more energy to get things done during the day. I hope he's right!! I'm no spring chicken anymore, and I feel it as I inch closer and closer to 30!!

Lately we've been hearing from lots of people (4 in one week) asking us if we got our referral. I e-mailed my grandma the other day to see how she was doing and mentioned that the wait for our referral was going well, we are more than 6 months into it. I also wrote that we don't expect to hear anything until 2009 about a referral. She then e-mailed me back with this, "I'm coming up in May (next month) for an appointment. Hopefully you'll have your babies by then!!" Ugh. I love her to bits and pieces, but for some reason that put me in a bad mood that day. What do I say to the people who continually ask us, "Have you gotten your referral yet??" Dave has been patiently educating them on just how long the referral will be, but my patience is wearing thin. It starts to remind me of just how much longer we have to wait. Believe me, the entire world will know when we've gotten our referral. No one needs to fear being left out of that news :)

On Saturday we are going to the CSC banquet (Children's Shelter of Cebu in the Philippines). I'm so excited for this!! There are lots of fun things planned for the banquet, like a guy who was one of the first children at CSC, and also the brother of the man who started CSC (who is very funny). There will be a slideshow of the children at CSC, and and introduction of the families at the banquet who have adopted from that children's home.

Lifebook Day

Here it is Emilie!! My entry about Lifebooks. I went to a class on Saturday about Lifebooks - a scrapbook that details everything about your child's journey through adoption and life in general. There really isn't a place to go buy an adoption baby book that entails everything an adoptive family wants to include in their book, so a Lifebook is a great way to make it your own. Karin (from Hand in Hand) taught the Lifebook portion. I wish Karin taught all of the classes I took in life. She makes everything so easy to understand, and exciting to learn - I feel like I can take on anything! She had great examples of Lifebooks, and the one she has for her daughter is absolutely amazing.

I am in awe (and a little jealous) at what Karin and the other ladies who are regulars at this class have done. Their scrapbook skills are to be envied. They have such patience, and such an eye for these things. I decided that I am definitely more of an online scrapbook kind of girl. A new online soon-to-be adoptive mom friend of mine, Emilie, made a super cool book that she is going to send to her child after they get their referral while they are waiting to go pick him/her up. I LOVED what she made.

So here are some of the things that I learned about Lifebooks this weekend:
-Our children will want to look at their Lifebook over and over and over again.
-We need to include information about their birth (even if we don't know anything about it!) - what was the world like when they were born? What were we doing at the time they were born?
-Information and/or pictures about both the birth family and the adoptive family.
-Cultural heritage - Karin even had these cool pouches that could hold coins or currency from their birth country. I thought that was such a cool idea!!
-A section about why they were adopted (very cool ideas for this very important section) - the loss and grief needs to be acknowledged and addressed.
-Planning - what did we do to plan for bringing our child/ren home? I loved the idea of writing up the prayers that we have been praying for our child/ren into this book.
-Placement - delivery day!!
-Coming home, and their life

I got to spend time with an adoptive mom named Jill (who I met on this day of training last year with her husband and son Louie). We really clicked and we are both more of online-book making people than scrapbookers. We tried hard at making our first pages, and you can see my results below. This took me 2 HOURS to make!! I don't have the patience for that :)

Page one:

Page two:

Next weekend we'll be going to a banquet for the Children's Shelter of Cebu (it's in the Philippines) at Bethel University. We'll be sitting with Karin and her kids, and Jill, her husband and Louie (their cutie pie). I guess Louie is very excited about wearing his barong, and I'm excited to see it!! We'll also meet a new couple who just began their adoption journey with Hand in Hand. It should be a fun time, and I'm really looking forward to it!

Yay for warm weather!!

Today the weather here is beautiful!! Here are the things I love about spring:


-Not having to bundle up when I go outside
-Walking around the house barefoot
-Being able to put on shoes without socks to go somewhere
-Seeing the buds pop on the trees (I have yet to see that this year)
-Being willing to take Gus outside (when it's unbearably cold Dave is delegated to that duty)
-Keeping the deck door open so Gus can go in and out whenever he wants (and no mosquitos until summer!)
-Turning the heat off (although we're wusses and don't turn ours off until later in the spring)
-Hearing about all the plants Dave is getting in for his landscaping clients, and watching his new greenhouse go up
-Seeing my neighbors again (and their dogs)
-Barbecuing in our driveway
-Driving with my window open and a good song on the radio
-And last, but certainly not least, I LOVE seeing the tulips and daylilies popping up out of the ground (although I have yet to see them this spring!)


What a difference 4 days makes!! On Monday we got 6+ inches of snow, and by Thursday it was melted and nearly 60 degrees...