The Little Things

Lately I've been dilligently making an effort at finding comfort and joy in the little things in life. You know, those things that are some of God's greatest gifts but we somehow manage to not notice them or fail to give them any appreciation at all due to the busy-ness of our lives. Well, in my most uncomfortable moments of waiting, I've been searching for distractions, trying to truly "see" all the wonderful things that are going on around me even though my greatest heart's desire and overpowering thoughts are with a little somebody who I'm still many months away from meeting. Simply put, to appreciate life for what it is today, for all that I have, for all that I get the privilege of experiencing -- not to focus on the one thing we don't have (yet). And lucky for me, spring is a fabulous time to enjoy the simple things. Here are a few fun distractions we've had within the last week:

• Our successful garage sale -- $340.00 made that will go toward buying formula for the babies in Ethiopia
• Meeting neighbors we didn't even know we had two doors down who are our exact same age! And who have a 1-year-old little boy!
• Planting two new trees in our backyard, feeling proud after a job well done of planting them, and stepping back to envision them growing tall and beautiful with kids playing in the summertime beneath them.
• Enjoying our pretty pink dogwood tree Roger and I planted last year that has bloomed so beautifully for the first time this spring
• Spending quality time with family, whether for someone's birthday or watching our nephews' baseball games during the weeknights
• Making accent pillows for the nursery with my mother-in-law with leftover material from our nursery curtain. They add the perfect finishing touch and will most likely be very functional in addition to being cute to look at!
• Staying really busy with work! Probably the most efficient way to make time fly by while feeling so thankful in these economic times to even have a job to stay busy at!
• Getting back to running; an opportunity to burn off built up stress and anxiety, quiet my mind, wholly appreciate this God-given body to even be able to run, all while enjoying the beautiful spring weather in the Ozarks (and maybe lose a pound or 2??)
• Feeling blessed beyond words to be hosting our first Springfield Ethiopian Adoption Family Get-Together! So far our estimated number of attendance is up to 44! We are thrilled with the wonderful response and cannot wait to see everyone on May 7th!

For the revelation awaits an appointed time;

it speaks of the end

and will not prove false.

Though it linger, wait for it;

it will certainly come and will not delay.

Habakkuk 2:3

Cuatro

Today marks four months of waiting. (Or at least according to our calculations.) That's the thing with adoption, you never really know when you started and when it's going to end. For some reason four months seems like a big milestone for us. The last 4 months went by relatively fast and now that Spring/Summer weather is here we are hoping to keep busy with fun activities until we get the all-important-referral-call. Speaking of warm weather, yesterday was the first day I went out to my car and it was hot and stuffy. Is it weird that I actually enjoyed that? Bring on the heat. Garage sale starts tomorrow morning @ 6:00. See every one of you there.

Garage Sale Mania!

Yes, it is definitely springtime! My most favoritest season! Hallelujah and Amen! Along with enjoying the warm(er) weather, Roger and I have spent the last couple nights preparing for our garage sale this weekend. It feels so good to clean out the closets and nooks and crannies and get rid of our junk -- I mean valuable treasures that we seem to have no use for anymore but I'm sure someone else would LOVE to have. I've attacked this project with a vengeance....while Roger was an incredible helper who needed just a few encouraging words to hang in there with me and get a sticker put on everything. Did I mention I have the best husband in the world?? Yes, indeed. He actually spent three hours with me last night while I talked out loud (over and over) whether something should be 50 cents or 75 cents -- and actually humored me by responding with things like "yeah, 75 cents sounds good" just so I could turn around and go "no, probably 50." Seriously, it's enough to drive anyone crazy! That seems to be a recurring theme in our conversations, actually, where I'll ask his opinion about something and then decide on the exact opposite of whatever he suggested. He finds this infuriating, but I told him he shouldn't because even if I don't agree with his suggestion, it still helps me make up my mind more quickly. Anyhoo, I've come to the conclusion my ambitious drive I'm experiencing in preparing for this garage sale may also be chalked up to something else: nesting. I have an overwhelming desire to get rid of lots o'stuff and reorganize whatever is left. This is a good, normal thing to experience when expecting a baby soon; right? If nothing else, my house will be much less cluttered after this weekend. There was also a fun silver lining to our garage sale preparations. While we were digging through our closets sorting through clothes, we had a great time reminiscing over the past five years we've known each other. We came across clothing that we remembered we were wearing the night we met, our first date, our engagement pictures which led to a few "remember when" conversations. So either we both have a really great memory or we're a little neurotic. I'm not sure. Or maybe because it was such a wonderful time that there are some details we'll never forget. Yeah, let's go with that.

I feel I must apologize for my lack of blogging lately. I'm thankful Roger is and has been such a huge contributor to this blog and has posted some really great entries when I just couldn't find anything fun or exciting to talk about. I did make a trip up to Iowa last weekend with my mom to see family, and it was so fun and comforting to spend time with relatives whom I love and enjoy but hardly ever get to see. Everyone is so excited for our adoption to happen and see us become parents....finally. Their support and anticipation for us is so awesome.

So, I thought I should at least mention we hit four months of waiting this Thursday! My guess is we are either about halfway to our referral or maybe even a little over halfway, dare I even say that. I don't know, but for some reason four months sounds like we're actually getting somewhere! We still have a while -- maybe even a long while -- but I just continue to tell myself each day, "We're closer than we were yesterday."

Waiver has been signed

Our nephew's Super-Agent finally agreed and signed the release form so we can post the "Hula" video. We're still trying to figure out where he came up with the hands on the head move....

3-3-3

3 months -- 3 weeks -- 3 days

When I originally started this idea I thought it would be pretty neat. Then I realized that there really is no such thing as 4 months --4 weeks -- 4 days. And there is really no such thing as 11 months -- 11 weeks -- 11 days. (That's like a year and a half, right?) So in the future I guess we'll have to be more creative.

Abby and I have been doing very well about "patiently waiting", until about a week ago. For some reason this past week has been very hard. We know that we are just beginning the process and many other families have been waiting months/years longer than us for adoption news....especially those adopting for China. In a way though, Abby and I have been waiting just over three years to become parents. Back in April of 2006 (yes, that was 3 years ago! scary!) we thought we would try to become parents the "easy" way and have biological children. I find it amazing that they neglect to tell you (or I wasn't paying attention in Health class) that women can usually only get prego 2-3 days out of the month. I was close to 30 before I knew that. Was I supposed to know that?!?! The whole idea of people getting pregnant still amazes me. For those of you that "tried" to get pregnant and it "took" three months or less you seriously have no idea.

To me getting pregnant is still the most amazing thing in the world. We have so little control over the whole process. But for those of you that did get pregnant so early/easy please don't take it for granted. OK, enough about all that.

So the last week has been harder than previous weeks but we have come to expect easy and hard weeks. It probably doesn't help that we came across a YAHOO! Group about Ethiopian adoptions. There are so many stories flying around. I finally had to dismiss myself from the group. I figure if I'm supposed to know about something going on with the Ethiopian adoption process then my case worker will let me know. You could drive yourself mad trying to stay on top of every article, issue, concern, opinion, etc....

In the meantime, we are reading positive blogs (to the left of this post) and keeping in close contact with some amazing people this adoption process has brought into our lives. Thanks to the entire Branson Group. It's going to be weird next month without going to Gabby's house. Rob and Julie, we miss you , but understand. Matt & Meredith, thanks for being our best friends through all this. It's so great to have people going through the exact same stuff at the exact same time. And to Ed & Laura, thanks for the laughs.

I continue to be optimistic and hope for a quick referral. We are getting ready to help with a huge Formula Drive in the coming weeks. Until then, I'm signing off for a while. (Don't you think it's time for Abby to post again?!?!?)

(And BLOGGER is really ticking me off!!!)

We have NO IDEA

We complain when we get stuck in traffic, our food is messed up at the restuarant, or our favorite TV show is a re-run. We have NO IDEA. Read more here.

52 seconds

A lot to catch everyone up on. Here's the list:

1. Pussycat Dolls are great live.
2. Britney is a great dancer/performer. (The fat guy playing the CD that she lip-syched to the entire concert did an amazing job as well.)
3. Highlight of Birthday Friday -- Fajitas, margaritas and sunshine on the patio with my lovely wife.
4. Great dinner and fun times with friends in KC.
5. Watching Final 4 and that "game" they called the National Championship. Go HEELS!
6. Homecooked birthday dinners from the best mother-in-law in the world. And lemon cupcakes to boot. (And the birthday present of the year...more below)
7. Mom and Pops making amazing ribs for my birthday dinner. And 4-layer dessert! (And more of the birthday gift of the year.)
8. Monday & Tuesday were pretty normal.

Which brings us to today and the birthday gift. My mother-in-law got me a Hula-Hoop for my birthday. And it's amazing. The source of many, many laughs. Sunday night we got it out and my nephew Ty did a show for us. (We taped it, but we are waiting for his agent and lawyers to give us the OK to post it. Stay tuned.) So tonight when I got home Abby said she had been practicing with the Hoop. After dinner we got out the stopwatch and set the house record. Abby went first and set the bar at 52 seconds. My best attempt is 32 seconds. Stay tuned. And just to let everyone know, anyone coming into our house will have to attempt the Hoop. No exceptions.

We are still waiting for Baby Wasson. Still no update. Sorry.

Happy Birthday, Roger!

Actually, his birthday is tomorrow, April 3rd, but we're headed up to K.C. to see a Britney Spears/Pussycat Dolls concert tonight! Woo-hoo! I think Roger is more excited about the concert than me, but for anyone who really knows him, that should come as no surprise; right? He's going to be the big 3-2 and I can tell he's super pumped about it. I tell him he doesn't look a day over 27 (which is how old he was when I met him), and I think I'm pretty accurate because he still gets carded at restaurants!

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Baby! Love you!