Ten Years

2015 has been a year of remembering.

Remembering...

10 years ago March, getting the good news that we were expecting. After so many issues with infertility, we felt certain this time would be different.

10 years ago April, seeing the results of the sonogram that told us we would be enduring miscarriage #7.

10 years ago August, when we started praying about adoption.

10 years ago November, when we submitted our adoption profile.

10 years today, at this very moment, when we got the phone call telling us that we had been chosen. That a birth mother had selected us to adopt her baby. That this young women had asked the lawyer to call us on Christmas Eve so it would be a Christmas surprise for us.

10 years ago today when we spoke to her for the first time. We knew very little about her other than her name and where she lived. We would come to know more, but what do you say to the woman who is choosing for her baby to become your baby?

It's one of the most amazing acts of sacrificial love on this earth. I don't know how she did it, but we will be forever grateful. Thankful. Honored. Blessed.

Love comes in all different forms. We love our spouses differently than we love our kids.  We love our friends differently than we love our parents. There is a special kind of love for birth mothers as well. We don't know her well, but we love her for the gift she chose to give.

While not exactly the same, it reminds me of the gift Christ gave to us, starting in a manger and continuing to the cross. Selfless. Sacrificial. Amazing. Loving.

May your joy this season come from the the gifts that cannot be found under the tree, the gifts of family, of friends, and of Christ's love for you.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I love getting Christmas cards and letters in the mail. While social media is a fun way to stay connected with friends, I still love snail mail in the form of family pictures and annual updates about what is going on in friends' lives. Typically, I would jump in on the Christmas card bandwagon, but last year and this year I have failed miserably at making this happen. Instead, we'll use a fallback virtual version:

Here's what the Christmas letter would have said (mostly)...

It's that time again to look back and take a glimpse of the year that is quickly coming to a close. I would say that the year has flown by (which it has), and that life has continued to be crazy busy (which it has), but that seems to be how I begin every Christmas letter ever written. Maybe some day the intro will go something like this..."What an amazing year! This has been the most relaxing and kick back year we have ever experienced..."

Maybe someday. But for now...

The eldest child is in 7th grade this year. Sports have continued to take a high priority in his world. He played summer league basketball and MAYB in June, soccer in the fall, and is now back on the court for a new basketball season at school. Science and math continue to be his favorite subjects of study, but truth be told, he'd just rather hang out with his friends, camp at the lake, or play sports or video games. What teenager wouldn't? New events for him this year included starting junior high, hitting the big 1-3, and learning how to water ski.

The youngest child is in 4th grade this year. Bugs, spiders, snakes,

and all things gross have continued to take a high priority in his world. His mama struggles with this, although he has yet to suffer from a spider or snake bite, or need to be taken to the ER (now it is 99% sure to happen in the next three months). He also plays baseball and basketball, loves to sing and create things, and is a fish when it comes to swimming and tubing. Science and history are his favorite topics to study...once we can actually drag him out of bed and get him to school. He would function much better on a 10:00 am - 4:00 pm schedule. :)

The dear husband continues to be an engineer from 6:00 am 3:00 pm, a junior high basketball coach (and their bus driver) from 3:30-5:15 pm, and a 3rd/4th grade basketball coach from 7:30-8:30 pm. Thankfully that one is only one night a week and on weekends. It sounds crazy, but it is seasonal, so things will return to normal in March. In his spare time, he still serves on the local Fire/EMS crews.

My roles continue on as always - wife, mom, and school administrator; however, I did elect to stick with the "interim" part of last year's title and step back into an administrative role that requires a bit less time and responsibility.  I am blessed to work at the same school where my kids attend, and I am surrounded daily with amazing colleagues and students.

Highlights of our year included summer vacation to Tennessee and Florida, a trip to Illinois, summer weddings of former students, a visit from my brother over Thanksgiving, and a recent wedding celebration of friends. 

May the Lord bless you richly during this Christmas season.  Our prayer is that the focus is on the One who is the true meaning of the season, and that we celebrate the gift of a Savior all throughout the year.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

 

Video Games May Have Been The Better Choice

Many days I struggle with how much to allow my boys to play video games. They love tablets, the Xbox, and time on the computer.  They would play all day every day if no one ever told them to stop.

Yesterday morning, the youngest had a bit of an attitude crying fit major meltdown over something ridiculous.  As a consequence, he lost his tech time for the day. This is typically the thing that hits home the hardest with him, but he frequently surprises me at how well he handles it.

What did he choose to do with all of his 'spare time'? Sit quietly and play Legos? Read a book? Play football with his brother?

Nope, nope, and nope.

He built forts.

All over the house.

With trip lines.

All over the house.

He became a sniper.

And I quote, "Sometimes when you are a sniper, you have to lay really still and have a lot of patience in order to get the bad guy."

That lasted for all of four seconds because laying really still would actually require patience. He decided it would be more exciting to shoot - with nerf bullets and a homemade shooter (see it hiding in the blankets?) - anything and everything just for the fun of it. If his brother walked into the room, that was just a bonus.

He had so much fun. So much fun, in fact, I am positive he learned nothing from his consequence.

I learned something, though. Forts and trip lines equal mess and clutter at every turn. BIG messes and lots of clutter.

Late in the evening, another discipline situation began to occur in which my dear husband threatened to take all his technology away for another day.

It took everything in me not to shout, "NOOOoooooooo!!"

Top Ten - Wedding Style

This poor little blog has been severely neglected for the past six months. This neglect seems to occur more frequently than it used to, but I am going to try one more time to resurrect this tiny place of sanity in my world. I have missed documenting our journey, taking time to reflect on life, and finding a little humor in the craziness along the way.

Part of the reason for the lack of posting...I've been assisting for the past several months with trying to get these two married off.

Last weekend we were successful at this venture.

Since this was the first major wedding planning experience in at least 18 years for the mother-of-the bride, the bride, and for me, we were rookies through and through. We learned a few things along the way.

So, if you have a wedding coming up at any time in your future, take note of some very important wedding advice.

1.  Before buying even one item for the wedding, purchase stock in Hobby Lobby...and Sam's Club... and possibly Dollar Tree. Every time we completed our "very last shopping trip", we had to go again.  'Dollar Tree' may have become our new curse word by the end of the shopping sprees.

2. Speaking of money, start saving now. Your daughter is only 2 years old? That's okay. You'll thank us later.  Every.single.thing costs more money than you would expect it to. Don't believe me? Just ask the father-of-the-bride.

3. Buying tablecloths is just as expensive as renting them. Buying them seemed like the logical choice because who knows when you might have another event to plan? However, don't forget that every single tablecloth then needs to be laundered and folded. And folded. And folded. And folded...

4.When ordering invitations, it is best practice to be able to view them in person first. If you order them online, they may not end up being near as glitzy as they appeared on the computer screen...and you may end up glitter spraying 200 invitations and 200 insert cards on your porch.  On a positive note, your porch will be very sparkly.

5. When planning a wedding, knowing a CAD designer is a must. My husband whipped up this little plan, and it made life so much easier. Seriously. It seems crazy, but it was like our second brain.

6. Don't forget the garter. We came very close to doing this. It seems like an obvious item on the wedding list, but it never once appeared on ours.

7. When choosing friends, pick crafty, creative people. :) I like details, plans, spreadsheets, accuracy, and precision. I also like beauty, elegance, and the "wow" factor...unfortunately, the first list comes a bit more naturally to me than the second. Thankfully, we had friends and more friends (some we had never even met) jump in and help!

8. It might be wise to have the mother-of-the-bride purchase her dress more than one week before the wedding. Dress shopping (for her and for me) may have slightly cut into wedding week preparations (okay, I was more at fault than she was). She bought her dress one week before the wedding; I bought mine three days before. The sales people were a bit more panicked than we were. (Full disclosure: The dress I ended up with was actually dress #4. Three others had to be returned. I hate dress shopping.)

9. When picking a reception venue, avoid all choices which involve a basketball game occupying the facility until 10:30 pm the night before the wedding. Transforming a gym between the hours of 10:30 pm and 3:00 am makes for some very tired people...and lots of laughs and great memories. But, did I mention tired??

10. When picking a reception venue, ensure the electrical capacity of the facility will support your lighting visions. Losing panels of lights at 1:30 am during set-up causes a small amount of stress. Good thing we had experts on the scene.

Above all, enjoy every moment! We may have had our fill of glitter, shopping, creating, and planning, but it was all worth it to see the happiness on the bride's face on her wedding day. Celebrating the happy couple and spending time with friends and family is what it is all about!