Shine Like Stars

Shine like stars in the universe as we hold out the Word of life (Phil. 2:15)
We're not trying to be rock stars but just shed some light on a sad and lonely world. Stay tuned for how God works through weak and tired, sometimes really cranky vessels.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Getting Ready for Baby

The kiddos have been getting ready for their new baby sister. Yesterday Nathan said, "Why it taking so long for our baby to get here?" I didn't have the heart to tell him that we aren't even on the wait list yet (not that he'd know what that means or anything.) The boys have decided to call her Dora. Yeah, I'm not to fond of that hopefully in the next couple of months that'll wear off:)
We moved the boys the boys downstairs so now Addie is in the upstairs bedroom by herself. It took her a couple of nights to get used to sleeping with out her brothers. As you can see, she's ready for her sister.




















The boys are enjoying their new room for the most part. Caleb had a bad dream the first night and it's been hard for him to fall asleep ever since (something crazy about an owl pecking his knee). During the day they love it. Having all of their toys in one place is great. Here's some
pictures:








Saturday, January 24, 2009

25 Random Things

I got tagged a couple times on Facebook for this so I'm going it to do it. Although, everything I think of just seems to be weird so maybe mine is more like 25 weird things about me:

1. 25 seems like a really big number to me right now
2. I still sleep with my blankie from childhood.
3. I really love sugar, I mean really--Mike and Ikes are my current favorite
4. I pronounce bagel incorrectly -- bag-ul. I constantly get mocked for it or have people look very strangely at me. I also have a hard time with the words stalk and vague.
5. I'm super jumpy. Everything scares me. I make a great target for a practical joke. Just ask Aimee.
6. Due to my jumpiness I sometimes make a scene.
7. I'm also flaily--you know, I wave my arms like crazy if I think there's a bug on me. I once gave my self a bruise from it.
8. Which reminds me...I'm really clutzy, I fall all the time.
9. I have an almost outie belly button.
10. I have semi-webbed toes. It's not as bad as it sounds.
11. I'm the 5th child and apparently got all the freaky genetic stuff.
12. I love watching my kids sleep.
13. I have supersonic hearing.
14. I rearrange furniture on a weekly basis.
15. I can move a couch or an armoire by myself.
16. I love to laugh.
17. I once ran away from a job interview and set off the emergency alarm on the way out. I still blush whenever I think about it.
18. I lived in Guatemala for 6 months.
19. I used to speak Spanish fluently.
20. I have lost most of the memory parts of my brain since having kids and I no longer can speak Spanish.
21. I've been working-out regularly....and then coming home and eating a lot of junk food.
22. I have a green belt in taekwondo.
23. I received my first crown this week. I'm offically a princess. Really my teeth are just rotting from all the sugar.
24. I really love my family.
25. I love warm weather and hate winter. I get real crabby right around this time every year. Watch out everyone.

Free and a self confidence boost

I found this website Simply Chic Blog Backgrounds, they have really cute backgrounds for free!
It also made me feel smart because I figured out how to change my blog background. They walk you through the process step by step, so I shouldn't feel to proud but in my technically challenged world, this is a major accomplishment!

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Homestudy Update




So I just finished reviewing our homestudy. It's almost all ready to be sent in. Our children's medical forms need to be filled out again. Gina was mailing them to us to have a date included next to the signature and they were lost in the mail. So I need to go to the dr's and have them fill the form out again. It should be too hard.


My issue now is that the wait time for referral is about 5-6 months. I'm worried that we'll get our referral right before the courts close in Ethiopia and have to twice as long to travel. I know that one way or the other we'll be waiting but I'll be so emotionally unstable waiting months and months knowing who our babe is and not being able to go get her. More than my usual emotional unstableness:) Gina our homestudy social worker wrote that I'm stable and a good parent, so that makes me feel good. Anyway....Trying to figure out do we wait until March to send our dossier in or just send it when everything's ready. We'll probably end up just sending it. I just like to find things to stress about because I don't have enough going on here already.


But really the wait is hard once you have the referral. My sister, Aimee, is in the after referral wait stage and it's rough. Micah is so stinking cute and all of us just want to kiss his cute face....His momma especially, they've received his referral about 2 months ago. Hopefully they'll hear about travel info soon:) Look at those sweets lips....


Wednesday, January 21, 2009


Michael's been reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe to Caleb (and Nathan when he's interested). Today they read about Aslan for the first time: "Aslan? Why, don't you know? He's the King. He's the Lord of the whole wood." After hearing that Caleb said "I think Aslan's like Jesus." We were so impressed that he made this connection so quickly.