Mom, Dad, I think I have finally run out of steam!

Little guy cashed in all his chips and was out for the count Christmas Day at 8:02 pm. (we didn't even make it out of Grandma and Grandpa's subdivision before he was snoring!). He really did squeeze every bit of life out of this Christmas as he could, keeping Grandma and Grandpa M on their toes from Friday afternoon until mid-morning Christmas Day, a quick snooze and then he was off to Grandma and Grandpa W's to chase after the cousins and sing Happy Birthday Jesus! He hit the wall after his sugar buzz started wearing off around 7:30 pm.

We were so excited to give the Faces of Layla book (a book published by our agency with pictures from their home in Ethiopia - the proceeds go to the Grace fund which helps find forever families for older children and children with special needs) to both Grandparents this Christmas. Sometimes it seems like friends and relatives are watching our adoption journey from the sidelines because we are so immersed in the process ourselves, it is hard to bring the paperwork and wait to life for someone else. We hope that this book will be shared by our parents with their friends and that it will help to bring the places and people of Layla House to life for them so they can further share in this exciting journey with us.

On a slightly different topic, I continue to be amazed and impressed by the quality of the Fair Trade gifts I have selected over the past 2 years. In addition to chocolate and coffee, we started, about 2 years ago, to actively seek items we could be confident that the workers who made them were paid a fair wage. In doing so, we have found so many beautiful and unique items for our home and for gifts. This year's favorites where a handmade purse from Guatemala and earrings and the coolest lizard wall hanging from Haiti made from recycled drums (insert plug for 10,000 Villages here). Now I just need to find some baskets for our shelves in the new kitchen!

What a Wonderful Christmas Gift!

Congratulations to all the AAI families that have accepted referrals in the last few days! We love seeing the pictures of your sweet little ones! We pray that you will have a quick court date and the joy of meeting your children soon. We have heard additional referrals will happen after the first of the year after the paperwork and medical information is gathered. We hope these referrals will be for families with June dossiers. We are anxiously waiting to see the dossier dates of the referrals after the first of the year as they creep closer and closer to August.

It has been a tough week around the house, I came down with a terrible cold and the little guy has been exploring the "terrible twos" to the fullest extent. After he threw his cereal and vitamin on the floor this morning and kept screaming, no cereal, no cereal, I could only shake my head when I put on his coat, hat and mittens and he looked at me with tears in his eyes and said "I need cereal". Poor baby, what an emotional roller coaster he is on. I did feel somewhat better when we got to daycare and one of the other kids was screaming and crying because the teacher took away crayons because he would not share. The other kid was so upset he threw up all over the table, so I guess I am thankful little guy didn't throw up on me this morning, its the little things and the knowledge that you aren't in this boat alone. Good thing he is almost 3, then the terrible twos will all be a memory...right?

The Children were snuggled all in the beds..

The children were snuggled all in their beds..
while visions of new kitchens danced in their heads!

1 cabinet down. All but two of them emptied. A temporary mock kitchen (mostly) setup in the basement. Tomorrow Terry (our GC) will come with his sharpie to scroll on all the walls, floors, and ceilings that need to come down. Why bother I say, since the entire kitchen and dinning room are being completely gutted.

T-minus 10 days to demolition day (on the 26th, the walls come down)

Stay tuned

And soon it will begin...

Signed, sealed, and delivered. Our plans for our kitchen (and essentially our entire first floor) remodel are in the hands of our contractor. We have already started to empty the cabinets. In the coming days I will demo the basement drywall ceiling (to allow for easier access for electricians and plumbers as they work on the ground floor). At the same time we will demo our 2nd floor guest bathroom. And lastly, we'll being the big job. Demo work on the dinning room, Kitchen, and bathroom. By New Years Eve our house will be, well ... different.

As I think about the coming weeks of reconstruction, and about the approach of Christmas and birth of our Savior, I can't help being mindful of the stresses and challenges we will be facing. Advent is a time of preparation. Are we doing all that we can? All that we need to? Today's "Reading of the Day" I found from 1 Peter, I think is a good reminder, at least to me.

Reading of the Day...

1 Peter 1:6-7
In this you rejoice, although now for a little while you may have to suffer through various trials,

so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire, may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Peace...

Milk it does a body good..

According to the "wait" banner at the top we are now 3 months, 2 weeks, and 6 days into the wait four our referral for our second son. So how do you pass the time? With potentially another 4+ months of waiting for our newest family member to come into our home,

House projects? Increased time at the office? Catch more flix at the theaters? Well perhaps a little of all the above. But for those of you who know me, running, exercise seems to be my escape. While getting into a winter training or maintenance program has been a challenge, its starting to take root. Additionally, for the first time since probably high school when the forced it upon us, I been getting into doing a little weight/strength training.

I'm sure it will help during the upcoming demolition projects on the house, but there are some more traditional reasons that a friend of mine was happy enough to send along. Check out the "Benefits of Strength Training".

Back to the passing the time front...
I've got a large backlog of blog posts that I'm working on. These posts are a formation of a new "series" for the blog. I've already got the "Inspiration Song of the Day" and the "Prayer of the Day". Once I learn how to better create and upload a video to mytube.com I'll start the "Inspiration Video of the Day". Its really just an enhancement on the Song of the day in which I'll add the lyrics and actually music to the song of the day. Stay tuned.

3 months, 2 weeks, 6 days down. How many to go? (If our son will end up being close to 12 months, that means he's already been born. What's he doing today? If he will end up being closer to 4 months, he's not
even born yet. I wonder how his birth mother is doing. Is she struggling with her pregnancy? Does she already feel Gods plans yet?)

Peace

Why are your socks wet?

To my list of "Curious Things Toddlers Do" today I can add a new one. Potty training is in full swing. When little guy says I need to go potty now he proceeds to remove his diaper, if you happen to miss him mentioning it, being the neat little guy he is, he makes sure he places his diaper in the garbage can, hence leaving no evidence, before he pulls his pants up again. You might find yourself wondering an hour or so later why his socks are wet? Only to realize the whole time he has been running around commando. Any easy methods to get pee out of tennis shoes?

Dad and I are both booked for chiropractic visits after a weekend at an indoor water park and crawling around in a 4 story jungle gym with openings so small a smurf couldn't have fit through (that's a confined space entry in my book). Besides the scorching 90 degree heat at the top level and the tweens pelting everyone with rubber balls, little guy really seemed to enjoy himself.

Our DCFS foster care licence arrived last week so we are official! Word on the street is that we are in the middle third of families waiting for a referral! Yah! If things continue at the current rate, we hope to see a referral around the March/April timeframe. Time to start thinking about the nursery!

Destination Addis...

Its been awhile since either of us have posted. I've got a logjam of posts I need to hammer out. Those will be coming soon. For the time being, there has been ongoing progress on Destination Addis. We are up to 3760 miles. Almost halfway there.

So the "Holiday" season is upon us. And for those of you Christians out there, you are keenly aware of how our Christmas Season and Christmas has is under attack again. Holiday or "Family" Tree rather than Christmas lights. Holiday specials over Christmas Specials. It goes on and on and on. For those of you tired about this, I think that you might enjoy this.

Peace and Merry Christmas

The Last Tomato

Yesterday, I ate the last garden tomato signifying the true end of summer. Of course it wasn't quite as good at the vine ripened tomatoes of summer, but still worlds better than the tomatoes from the store. Hubby is still munching on the last remaining jalapenos, the last remnants of this years garden. I found myself in the business of fish trading this past weekend as I tried to find a good home for the goldfish that I have carted from the inside pond to the outside pond for the past 5 years. Our renovations to our sunroom sparked a desire to downsize our inside pond to a 15 gallon aquarium meaning the big fish needed a winter home. Along with finding out that all our pets (2 cats and 1 dog) are now beyond elderly and into the geriatric category, I have found myself thinking a lot about the amount of money we, as Americans spend on pets each year. That number is estimated at 41 billion dollars!!! That is a staggering amount of money. When I found out that my cat now needs a special food for her kidney failure, a quick calculation of the yearly expense showed that I could easily sponsor another child through World Vision with the amount of money I will be spending on cat food. I suppose you could easily get carried away with these types of arguments, if I didn't buy that new coat, if I cut back on groceries, etc, etc. In the end, I took on the responsibility of pet ownership 14 years ago and that commitment comes with a cost. I will just have to find another way to find some additional sponsorship dollars!

No news on the adoption front. Please send some prayers for hubby's grandma who was just released from the hospital and will be undergoing rehabilitation, we pray in Jesus' name...Amen.

House repair and pumpkin patches

The rest after the marathon was short lived as we jumped feet first into the final repairs to our house after the tree hit it in August. The chimney is repaired, the roof is repaired and the gutters are back on. While T busied himself mastering the art of drywall taping, I experienced deja vu up on the extension ladder scraping, priming and painting the exterior second floor of our house where the damage was repaired plus the areas I couldn't resist scraping as the paint was peeling. Last time I attempted this, I was about 10 years younger, obviously in a lot better shape and a lot less scared of heights. Perhaps I am wiser in my old age, or just more aware of the consequences of a misstep. Needless to say, I clung so tight to the ladder, I have bruises up and down my legs where each rung was! After the weekend, I am half done and look forward to finishing the other half, yah right! In our spare time, we have had a chance to get to one of the local pumpkin patches and a very nice halloween party.
On the adoption front, we were excited to hear this week that at least 3 families received referrals for baby boys! Congratulations! For those keeping track, the families that received referrals submitted their dossiers to Ethiopia in mid March. Ours was submitted in mid August. If the process continues at this pace, it should be about 5 months before we might see a referral, though we have heard that a lot of dossiers went to Ethiopia over the summer, so that might slow things a bit. 5 month, that should be plenty of time to learn Amharic, right?

On the Road again..

Back in the saddle again. Getting back onto the horse. Hitting the pavement. There are plenty of other similar sayings. The bottom line. Its time to get running again. With no official training plan in place, the idea is to just keep a solid general fitness level.

Both Tim and I plan to run throughout the winter. While not terribly regimented, I plan to loosely follow Hal Higdon's Winter Training program. We hope to stay in good enough shape that we could do a 1/2 marathon without much addition training, and be prepared for a shortened marathon training program as well.

Besides, there is only 352 days until the 2008 Chicago Marathon...

Peace