Training and Books

Not much to update! Things have slowed down and we are at our first of many waiting periods. We are waiting for our homestudy interviews! We have two scheduled and I guess the last ones will happen after those are complete! We have finished a little over half of our online Hague Training. I have almost finished my third adoption book!

Update on Seminary:
When we started *this* journey back in July we had no idea what we were getting into! We both went to his advisement in Houston and asked his advisor if he should take six or nine hours. I was all game for him taking nine hours because taking six is a slooooow rate to get finished. His advisor was very ambivalent about it and didn't really give us an answer.  Ryan ultimately decided to start slow with six hours. That has turned out to be one of the best decisions! The amount of reading involved in these classes is intense. Ryan is constantly having work to do. I feel bad for him because he is working a full time job, leading the Cellar, school, and being a husband to me :) He has a lot on his plate, but still has a happy face :)  I can only imagine how awesome of a Pastor he will be one day!

Teacher...

I actually don't know if I have ever mentioned this on my blog before, but I am a teacher. I saw this video and at first was really offended. Then by the end I wanted almost wished I was in class right now. I seriously love that I get to be a teacher. I don't always love the job of teaching, but I love my position. This is why....

Good Reminder...

She & Him...and me...

Ohhhh How I desperately wish it was cold outside. Sadly, it is not. She & Him released their much anticipated Christmas album! Yes I bought it, and yes, I am listening to it. Cold or not, Christmas or not!

Stick with baking....

I decided to be more housewifeish and cook (really cook) dinner tonight. So I picked my top three pinterest dinner choices. I wrote down the recipes and quickly realized this was not looking promising. Still I was determined and moved on to WalMart to get my supplies. I strolled down the aisles I have never paid any attention to and collected my ingredients. Then I came home to realize my preferred dish took a day to prepare. Literally a day to "set" or cool or whatever. So on to #2... I noticed it wasn't exactly a main dish it was an appetizer. So I thought well how about #3. So I decided to do a zucchini based pizza. Literally all I had to do was cut up a zucchini and grill it then throw on some sauce, pepperoni, and cheese. Easy enough right? Well I couldn't find any zucchini except like cucumber looking things, and I have no idea how to grill. So I googled baked zucchini and followed the recipe. It smelled gross. But I persevered. I added the pepperonis and sauce. I ate all of it, but more of an eat it because I made it, than a man this is good. However, Ryan came home and actually asked for some more. (I didn't because I tossed it thinking he wouldn't like it) So I guess if you like zucchini you would like this dish.

I also figured out why I enjoy baking. It smells delicious the whole prep time and it tastes yummy even if you mess up!

Give Back for Christmas!

 

I am so excited to introduce Busen Niyonshuti to you!!

He is The Cellar's Hello-Somebody  sponsor child! We need 70 people to buy a watch for this sweet little boy to get a years worth of school and 2 meals a day.

"Hello Somebody has partnered with Africa New Life based in Kigali,
Rwanda and is sponsoring 100 street boys to go to school and receive a
first-class education and 2 meals per day"

Read more about Busen here:
http://hello-somebody.com/children/child/busen-niyonshuti/

If you do decide to partner with #teambusen you must buy a watch (or any other piece of merchandise) and put Busen Niyonshuti in the "note" section.  It’s a small and easy to miss line that says “Note to seller” in which you click on and it opens the note field.

I have already ordered some watches for Christmas presents. They are super cute.

Spread the word!! We have 30 days to get 70 watches sold, if not Busen will be given to another group to finish his sponsorship.

http://hellosomebody.bigcartel.com/product/watches

Palooza!

So me and a few friends from work (and a wife) are starting a Bunco group! I am so excited because I feel like this is the start of a lifelong tradition! We played tonight with one of the girls' mom's group and it was so fun. They have been playing together for over 10 years. I hope our Paloozas last that long! We start next month with a Pajama Palooza theme and then I will host in December! Yahh for Christmas themes!!

I get to be the one...

Tomorrow J.J. Heller's new cd drops. I am so excited because I recently found a song she wrote to her unborn child. It has like one part that is obviously a mom singing to her newborn baby, but the vast majority could definitely be an adoption anthem. Yes, and adoption anthem. The song isn't even on youtube yet, but I found it on some random radio links. You can check it out here OR wait until tomorrow and download it. I know I will be!

http://www.klove.com/blog/ScottandKelli/post/2011/05/24/JJ-Heller-is-on-the-show-today!.aspx
^ It is the first song on the site.

Here are the lyrics...

Well hello
Llittle baby
Your eyes have never seen the sun
You should know, Little baby
That I am the lucky one

I get to be the one to hold your hand
I get to be the one
Through birthdays and broken bones
Ill be there to watch you grow
I get to be the one

Don’t feel alone now, Little baby
Do you hear me singing you a song
I can't wait to show you Little baby
How to crawl, how to walk, and how to run
I get to be the one to hold your hand
I get to be the one
Through birthdays and broken bones
Ill be there to watch you grow
I get to be the one

How does someone so small
 Hold my heart so tightly
I don’t know even know you
 I love you completely

I get to be the one to hold your hand
I get to be the one
Through birthdays and broken bones
Ill be there to watch you grow
I get to be the one to hold your hand
I get to be the  one
Through birthdays and broken bones
 I'll be there to watch you grow
I get to be the one

Home Study Packet

We mailed off our Home Study Packet today!!!

Guest...

I read lots of blogs. In fact I would say reading blogs is my favorite past time. I love coming across new blogs and I can spend hours reading old posts. I came across John Piper's wife's blog today. OOOH Boy! I am excited to have stumbled across this. You can check it out Here. I'm sure I could get lost in her blog, but I already came across another blog and I thought it was really worth sharing. She apologizes for people that look like me that treated people that look like my son badly because of skin color. Very beautifully written in my opinion. And I'm sorry too.
"Dear Class,
We watched a documentary a few days ago about the 1921 Tulsa Race Riots. Just miles away, an area Booker T. Washington called “Black Wall Street” was destroyed overnight.
People who looked like me shot people who looked like you. People who looked like me burned the homes and stole the property of people who looked like you. People who look like me must look a lot like the enemy to you.
I’m so sorry.
I feel no connection to whites who looted and killed during the riot. I wish my skin were a different color so you wouldn’t see a connection either.
We’re learning together about the painful history of race relations in this country, and an ugly pattern has emerged: people whose skin looks like mine mistreating people whose skin looks like yours.
I try to show you the source of racial tension is not whites and blacks coexisting. I point out racism globally because I want you to see beyond the black-white struggle in America and recognize the problem of racism begins in the human heart.
We studied Rwanda’s genocide so you’d know it is possible for humans to slaughter humans whose skin is the same as their own. When we let hate take hold in our hearts, no one is safe. You need to understand that.
I point out to you the good and bad men and women on both sides. I show you civil rights champions of different races. Not every white accepted slavery. Not every black understood love of neighbor. I want the way you choose your heroes to go deeper than skin color.
Nate and I are adopting children from Africa, first generation African-Americans. I talk about them in class; you laugh at the thought of your white teacher braiding black hair. I look like the enemy to you. You look like my children.
I cried in the back of the class during the documentary. You stiffened, uncomfortable with our history. Rightly so. This is not comfortable. It will not be comfortable for my children.
What saddened me most was how familiar it felt. “It’s still like that where we live,” you said.
You know two responses: fight or flight. I want to teach you a third: faith. Faith in a God whose multi-racial family will one day live united, glorying in Jesus whose greatness swallows our distinctions in collective worship."

I found this on Noel's page. I am not sure where it came from on the other girls blog, but here it is.
http://noelpiper.com/category/adoption/page/2/

Hiccup!

We had a small hiccup this week with our bloodwork/tests. This added some extra steps to get our paperwork ready,but I definitely don’t think it will cause any problems in the long run. We are going on Thursday afternoon to get our physical to hopefully finally finish the medical paperwork. I knew we should have done this part earlier, but for some reason it kept getting pushed back. Now this is all we have left to do! I am looking at early next week to mail off our Home Study packet! Yahh!!!
Here is a sweet picture from Venezuela. Now just imagine the baby a little darker and dressed in blue……

Blog-versary

115 posts later...Today marks one year that I have been updating this little blog. When I started this blog I wanted to because I wanted to be crafty and I wanted to be an adoptive parent. I still not very crafty, but I am an adoptive parent! Yahhh!! Here are the top five of my most read posts, incase you missed them throughout the year...
147 Million
Baby Thompson
It. Is. Official!!!
All About Arin...
Are you ready for this??

I would probably say Baby Thompson would be my favorite blog post :)




Here is to another year!! Can't wait to see what God has in store for us this year!