Here we go again!

Well, if you've read the first few posts on this blog, you know that we recently finished our house--a 5 year process. So, any normal person would assume we'd be staying here for quite some time! However, we're getting ready to start all over again! Back in March we stumbled across a beautiful piece of land in Jefferson, Maryland (about 1/2 hour from where we live now). We'd found a different lot on the internet that was in our price range, and went there to see that. But, adjacent to that property was a 5-acre piece of land also for sale. It didn't show up on our internet search, because the price was too high. But the seller came down a significant amount, and (after what seemed like forever) on Friday we bought it!! It's absolutely what we were dreaming of, and the first property we visited that we BOTH really, really loved. The property has a large clear area, surrounded by trees on all sides, with a good amount of woods in the back, and it even has a stream running through it. The boys have loved the stream we have now, and I thought that was one thing we'd have to give up if we found a new place. But the Lord has worked this out beautifully for us...the way we "stumbled" across it, the price reduction, the fact that it's exactly what we've been looking for, the perfect location, and His gorgeous creation that we'll get to enjoy there! It's on a very secluded road that makes you think you're way out in the middle of nowhere. (Let's just say that if you continue past our lot on the mostly-gravel road when it's been raining a lot, you may have some trouble at the ford in the road. Yes, you really have to drive through the water.) However, it's only about 10 minutes from the convenience of the city of Frederick. It's exactly what we've dreamed of, and we are so thankful!

Now, the next step is selling (or renting out) our current house, so that we can afford to build our new home, and not have to enjoy the beautiful piece of property from a tent! We have our house plans already, though we've changed a few things from the plan pictured here. Heath's going to do most of the work himself, so it'll be a very busy year or so while he's doing that. Please pray for his physical strength and safety, and for my mental health having him away so much. And also pray for the financial and stress-level aspects of this. While we're waiting to sell our current house, money will be very tight, especially with the adoption going on, and moving complicates the adoption process a bit. We wouldn't have planned to be adopting and building at the same time, but that's the way it's worked out, and we know the Lord will see us through. But we can definitely use a lot of prayer for wisdom, and for peace during a stressful but exciting time.

Can't wait until we can invite you all to see our new home! We'll keep you posted on the progress. Here we go . . . !!!

The Big 3-0

Yesterday was my 30th birthday! It's hard to believe I'm really 30! Not that that's old . . . it's just older than I've ever been before. =) I had a very special day with my family. The boys and I went to Port Discovery (children's museum) in the morning. And we had a delicious lunch at Panera. When we got home, Heath had come home early from work! So I got to take a nap, and he even let me keep sleeping once the boys got up! When I did finally wake up it was due to the dog barking at the UPS delivery, which was presents from my mom and dad. After opening those, and gifts from Heath and the boys too, we went out to dinner at Cacique. This is a Mexican/Spanish restaurant in down-town Frederick. It's probably the nicest restaurant we've ever taken the boys to . . . no kiddie menus, real glass water goblets without straws, white table cloths. But they did REALLY well. I was very proud of them (though I did try to sneak out before anyone noticed the very UNwhite table cloth we were leaving behind!) Fortunately, by then the rain had stopped, so we walked around the old section of Frederick, stopped at the park for a bit, and then drove home. When the kids went to bed, Heath and I watched "August Rush", (which is my new favorite movie which he had given me for my b-day), while enjoying the Godiva chocolate he had also given me. I also had some nice emails, cards, phone calls, and spending money from other friends and family. So, all in all, it was a very nice birthday and a great start to a new decade!

Jesse's first bee sting

We have swarms of yellow jackets outside our house lately. They seem very attracted to the plants in the flower garden by our front porch. We haven't had any problems with them though. However, a couple weeks ago, a simple little honey bee was in the house, and Jesse managed to step on it. This is a picture of his injured foot. Fortunately, he was totally fine within a couple minutes and didn't even have trouble walking on it later that day. I thought this was his first sting, but when I went to write it in the babybook, I discovered that he was stung last August. Despite my lack of memory power, I guess I can be glad these stings weren't bad enough to be memorable!

The Paper Chase Begins

We have chosen Creative Adoptions, Inc to be the agency to do our homestudy (because Living Hope isn't licensed for Maryland). So, we've begun compiling the documents. Wow. I'm the "administrative assistant" for our family, so I do all the paperwork. And let me just say, when you fill out enough forms the mind starts getting a little numb. It starts to all blur together. Was I born in Maryland, or was that Heath? Who's social security number is this? When were our kids born? How do I spell my name?!!! I spent one afternoon doing all that, plus passport applications. By the end I couldn't think or see straight! And I'm sure there'll be plenty more to come! Monday night we have a meeting with CAI to go over the homestudy process in more detail. We also just requested our driving records, criminal background checks, child abuse clearances and so forth, and soon we get to go be fingerprinted! It's a bit crazy, but at least it's for a very worthwhile purpose!

Here we go!

Well, we successfully finished our adoption training classes. Ethan and Jesse are quite happy that we've finally learned how to be parents! Actually, the training was pretty specific to adoption, and we did manage to learn a few things along the way. Today we received our Parent Workbook from Living Hope, which gives us instructions on compiling our dossier. Wow. We'll be busy. There's a lot to do, and a lot of time and money required. (For anyone trying to get rid of excess in either of these areas, we'd be happy to help you out!) =) They say it takes 4-5 months to compile all this stuff, and then send it off to China. After that the timeframe is much less specific. So we really don't know how long it will take before we actually have our child. I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunity to learn patience along the way!

The boys and I enjoyed a week-long road trip in March. We spent one night with the Spink's (my dad's sister and family) in Ohio on the way out. Then we spent several days in Illinois visiting old friends (Kelly, Carrie) and family (Becky). On the way back we visited Josh & Liz (college friends) in Ohio. We had a great time visiting with everyone, but it's always nice to get home. I couldn't get pictures of everybody on here, but here are a couple of the kids. Thanks for your hospitality, everyone! It was great to see each of you!

Stranger than fiction . . .

OK, I know this isn't earth-shattering news, but I had to share this story. :) Yesterday, the boys and I were looking through a photo album at pictures from the beach. I noticed Jesse was wearing the same shirt in the picture as he was wearing in real life yesterday. Then I saw that Ethan was too! Finally, I turned the page and saw this picture of the three of us, and, you guessed it, I had the same shirt on too. Unbelievable! =)