CHRISTMAS 2009

It has been a long time since I have updated, so I will cover some things that are going on in our family. We had a great Thanksgiving spending it with my Mom and Mike's family. We worked at packing meals for the less fortunate in the morning and spent lunch with Mike's famliy. My Mom and I temporarily lost our minds and went out shopping at Midnight. I am not a night owl at all, but I was a trooper and made it until 3:00 pm the next afternoon!!!! We won't do that again, but we did have a good time.

We haven't had anymore contacts about adoption. We are trying to be patient and know that God's timing is the best. I have become a little anxious over the last few weeks about no one contacting us, but God has gotten my attention and put things back into focus for me. Mike is forever patient and a good example for me to follow!

December was very busy with the holidays approaching, but I love this time of year. We are forever grateful for Daniel and Katie Beth and our Christmas card talked about the unspeakable joy that they bring us everyday! God showed me that even if our family only includes these two children, that we couldn't be more blessed. I hope and pray for another child, but life is good for the blessings He has already bestowed.

Christmas came and brought a major snowstorm to our Midwest town. My Mom, my brother and his family were all staying with us. We had a great time being snowed in and having a very relaxing Christmas. Daniel and Katie Beth had a wonderful time and were so excited about every aspect of the Christmas season. It is fabulous to watch them overjoyed when they open gifts and see their presents! Since we had a white Christmas, we also had fun playing in the snow. It snowed for four days in a row! This was the first time that we had spent Christmas with my nieces and they added a lot of excitement for Christmas morning. All four of the children had a great time playing in the snow on Christmas Day! The only disappointment was that church was cancelled on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve morning we did a scavenger hunt that a friend had given me for the children to find their Christmas presents from Grandma. It was a big hit with the kids as they found their presents in the freezer, the bathtub, and the garage! This will probably become a yearly tradition!

2009 has been a great year for our family! We have gotten to travel, spend time with family, and watch the children be involved in many activities. We are very excited to see what 2010 holds for our family. We pray that a baby will be a part of 2010 and we pray that daniel and Katie Beth will continue to grow in their walk with God and be happy and healthy children. We hope 2010 is a wonderful year for all of you!

The pictures are from Christmas or the couple of weeks before Christmas!

UPDATES SINCE AUSTRIA

Things have been busy at our house since we got home from Austria. The flight home was a little long. After we flew from Vienna to Amsterdam, we got on our flight back to the US and sat for 3 hours before taking off. Needless to say, after spending 12.5 hours on the plane we were ready to get off! The children were troopers and we were so proud of them!

Once we got home it was back to the routine. Football has ended and basketball has started for Daniel. He loves them both! Katie Beth is loving dive team. She has practice 2 nights a week, but she would like to go more often! She has learned a ton already.

We had a 3rd contact right after we got back from Austria. We would have loved to adopt the child, but we are pretty sure that it was a scam. We are praying that people will only contact us if they are truly placing a child for adoption and not trying to scam us. There are some days that I feel anxious about all of this and just wish that we would hurry up and be matched. Most days I feel at peace about the whole thing. I do know from the adoption of our two precious children that we have at home, that God's timing is perfect. I don't want to do this on my time schedule, but rather God's time schedule! So, when I am feeling anxious I pray for patience and peace. Thankfully, God meets me right where I am and provides the peace that I so desperately need at that moment!

Update form Austria

It is Thursday morning here in Vienna nad it is SNOWING!!! Daniel & Katie Beth are very excited. Let me tell you, we don't have appropriate clothing for this weather! According to the 10 day forecast before we left it was suppose to be 50's & 60's. We have to walk to get anywhere. Yesterday was very cold and it looks that way for today as well! We are headed home in the morning! Even though we have had a great time, home is always the best place to be! We have all been in amazement at the beauty of God's great big world!

Austria Day 5

We went swimming agai this morning while Mike was a his conference. We ordered Katie Beth a boiled egg this morning for breakfast, but here they bring them with runny yolks. My picky eater would have nothing to do with that egg! We went to the Hofburg Palace this afternoon. It was not as impressive as the royal family's summer home. The Lippizaner Stallions had already quit practicing for the day. It was sort of a maze and hard to get around at this palace. The children weren't that impressed! It was freezing outside today and the wind was blowing. It snowed in the mountains last night! After wandering through the palace grounds, we decided to go on a city tour by carriage. Daniel & Katie Beth both loved this!
Tomorrow we are going to try the European railways and go to the little town of Krems to explore. It is only an hour ride and we can spend the day in the town before returning home in the evening. We have decided not to go to Prague or Budapest because they are so far away and the children aren't really up to another long bus ride. Actually, neither are we!! The pictures are from the carriage ride this afternoon!
Flat iron update! The front desk manager brought me her flat iron on Sunday evening and is letting me keep it until I check out Friday morning. She has gone above and beyond the call of duty and we plan on letting the Marriott know what a great job she has done! It may seem odd that I am using hair appliances from someone that I don't know, but I was desperate and she seemed very clean!

Austria Day 4

Today was a lazy day! Mike had to leave for his conference by 7:30am, so the children and I slept until 10:30, missed breakfast and went straight to the pool. After Mike came back, we went back to St. Stephen's Cathedral, did the tour and then climbed the South Tower. 343 steps later, we were at the top and about to have a heart attck from all of the steps!!! We thought the way down would be easier, but it is a dark, narrow spiral staircase and it made all of us a little nervous going down with no handrails! Daniel even shared that his armpits were sweaty and it was very cold and rainy here today! We made it to the bottom where we immeadiately needed a snack and a Coke Zero! Afterwards, we took the subway to Prater Park, which is an amusement park. The children rode some rides and had a great time. We probably walked 2 miles in search of a place for dinner. I thought Daniel & Katie Beth may revolt if we wouldn't have found a spot after all of that walking. The picture today is from the South Tower about 3/4th's of the way up.

Austria Day 3 - Salzburg

We went to Salzburg today on a tour bus. It was a beautiful trip. On the way there the bus stopped at the lake district of Salzburg, and we were blown away at how beautiful it was. The Alps were the background to these fabulous lakes! Salzburg was charming. We saw Mozart's birthplace and some of his original musical pieces. The children had their pictures taken at several sites where The Sound of Music was filmed. The bus ride was very long and I don't think we are going to do anymore tours. We are going to try the train on Wednesday!

Day 2 in Austria

We were late sleepers this morning. We finally got Daniel & Katie Beth up about 10:00am. We only made it to Schonbrunn Palace today. It was huge! We spent hours touring the palace and the grounds. The children couldn't imagine that being their home. It was the summer home of the Austrian royalty for many years. We didn't get back to the hotel until almost 6:00pm. We took our 1st subway ride today and didn't get lost! We are off to Salzburg at 7:00am. We can't wait to see the home of Mozart!

I still have been unable to replace my flat iron. I bought one today for $75, but it has the wrong plug on it, so I can't use it at home. I returned it once I realized this. The concerige is going to bring hers from home tomorrow afternoon and let me borrow it because there is nothing open here on Sunday!!!! She is my favorite person right now! All of the pictures are from today at Schonbrunn.

We are Here!

Dinner in our cute little booth!



Daniel, Katie Beth, & Myself in Vienna



Mike, Daniel, & Katie Beth @ St. Stephan's Cathedral

After about 18 hours of traveling we finally made it to Vienna! The children were wonderful. Katie Beth got a little restless about the last 2 hours of our flight across the ocean, but other than that the trip was very easy! We arrived at 2:00 am our time in the States, so we went to the hotel and slept for 3 hours and then everyone seemed ready to go exploring. We walked all over, saw St. Stephan's Cathedral and had some dinner. The cathedral was amazing! The restaurant that we had dinner at was very charming and the chocolate cake and apple strudel were fabulous! I am going to post more pictures, but I have no idea where they are going to show up on this page. Kellie has promised some lessons when I return home!

The only catastrophe so far is that my Chi iron stopped working. All of you with frizzy hair know that I may not be able to post pictures of myself after today unless we figure out a solution to this problem!!!

Tomorrow we are off to see a Castle, the largest Ferris Wheel in Austria, and maybe the Lipizzaner Stallions!

On Our Way!!!

We are on on our way! The children are so excited and were great on the first flight. We are in Detroit, waiting on our flight to Amsterdam. The picture below is from this morning at the airport! More updates to come. If there is no picture, then I couldn't figure out how to do it!!

QUICK UPDATE


I know it has been a week since I got home, but things have been very busy. Ecuador was great. We were able to perform 58 surgeries on children with crossed eyes. Even though we loved meeting the people and doing the surgeries it is always wonderful to be home!

On another note: I have a prayer request. A friend of ours, AJ has been deployed to the Middle East, eventually to end up in Iraq. Please pray that AJ comes home safely and that his exposure to combat time is minimal! AJ if you are reading this, we can't wait for you to be home!

We leave for Austria in 4 days, so my blogging time will be nonexistent between now and then. Hopefully, I will be able to post with some pictures from Austria. We are all excited and can't wait to go!

Adoption news: We received a 2nd contact on 10/1. The birthmother is very early in her pregnancy, so we will see how things go. Right now we are committing this birthmother and her family to prayer and praying for God's guiding hand for everyone involved.

THOUGHTS FROM ECUADOR

Things are going great here in Santo Domingo Ecuador! The weather is warm, the patients are adorable, and we are working hard. We have already done surgery on 44 patients with crossed eyes since 2:00 pm on Sunday. The days are long, but we are getting alot accomplished. Tomorrow is our last day to operate and we are planning on doing 15 cases tomorrow. It is wonderful to see how appreciative the families are when the they come back the next day for us to check their eyes.
We are hoping to go to an Orphanage on Friday morning after we have seen our post-op patients. We have extra toys and blankets to hand out at the orphanage.
We start home on Friday night and fly over night. We are about a three hour drive from the airport, so our day will be mostly spent traveling. Please remember our entire medical team in prayer as we travel for a safe journey home. I will hopefully post pictures when I get home!

Ecuador
I am headed to Ecuador tomorrow. I love going and I love the work we do there, but I also hate leaving my family!!! The children that we perform eye surgery on are adorable and their parents are so appreciative. It is amazing to see how far parents will travel and how long parents and children will wait for us to see them. The children don't have tons of electronics or even toys to entertain them, but no one complains or becomes irrate with us that we are making them wait. It is definetely a change from the patients we see here in Missouri!

Daniel and katie Beth have had a great week. They had their yearly check-ups at the doctor's office and he said that they were great! Daniel was is the 80th% for height and the 75th% for weight. Katie Beth came in a little lower, she was in the 10th% for height and the 25th% for weight. For all of you that know Katie Beth this is probably not a big surprise! The funniest thing was that she asked the doctor, "Are you saying that I am short?" I don't know where she has been, but she is by far not tall!!

Please remember us as we travel. I will not have a computer for the next week, so I will try to post some pictures from Ecuador when I get home next week. Have a great week!

THE FIRST FOOTBALL GAME!

We had our first flag football game today. Daniel was convinced that we would oversleep and miss the game! He was so excited. Mike had to give a seminar this morning, so he wasn't able to be at the game. Nonnie and Aunt Nancy both came to see Daniel play. He played QB, defensive end, and some other position on the offense, but this Mama doesn't know what it was!! Daniel's team lost, but he still loved it. Katie Beth wasn't nearly as impressed with the football game, but she made it through.
I am leaving for Ecuador on a medical mission next Saturday. We are going to do eye surgery on children with crossed eyes. I will try to post some pictures of our work if I have computer access.
We are patiently waiting for another contact from a birthmother. We believe that this contact will come in God's perfect timing and we are praying for that birthmother everyday. My prayer with Daniel and Katie Beth every morning is that God will send us a birthmother that is committed to placing her baby and that God will protect Daniel and Katie Beth's hearts. It is my fear, that Daniel and Katie Beth will be hurt by a failed match.
Life is moving forward at a fast pace with Daniel playing football, piano lessons for both kids, homework, and dive lessons starting for Katie Beth. This Fall will be busy as I am leaving for Ecuador and all of us are going to Austria with Mike's work in October. We are all very excited, as I am the only one that has been to Europe before. We are reminding the kids that we are so blessed that God is providing us with all of these opportunities!!

Flag Football

Daniel started flag football tonight!! He was so excited that he could hardly stand it! Katie Beth was less thrilled since she was going to 1hour & 15minutes of football practice. She survived and Daniel loved it. He can't wait for Thursday night to practice again. I was able to walk 3 miles around the track while Daniel
practiced which was great!
Today would have been my parents wediing anniversary, if my Dad were still alive. If all of my friends would say a prayer for my Mom tonight that would be wonderful! Today has been a hard day for her. They were the love of each other's life and she still misses him alot!

We survived our first full week back at school!!! Homework has started back up and Daniel is already working on his first book report. It is a 3-4 minute speech. He has to finish reading the book still, but he has a couple of weeks. Katie Beth is loving the 2nd grade. We are having a garage sale tomorrow and Katie Beth is going to sell pop. She can't wait!! We sure hope someone buys some pop. Mike told me that I am going to have to give the neighbors money to make sure they come and buy some pop!!
There is no news concerning a baby, but I want to say how wonderful we think Christian Adoption is and we feel blessed to be a part of the CA family! Have a great weekend!

Grocery Store Conversations!

After school today, Daniel. Katie Beth, and I were at the grocery store to get milk. As we were walking down the frozen food aisle, Katie Beth asks me where she was born? I am not sure what prompted this, but oh well, I'll play along! I tell her that she was born in Missouri. "Oh" she says. I wonder what my birthmother's house looks like? I tell her that I honestly don't know. By now we have made it to the express checkout, but there appears to be nothing express about our conversation. Katie Beth then goes on to ask if she has any brothers or sisters? Once again I tell her I don't know, but that her brother is standing right next to her!! By now, Daniel wants in on the action. He wants to know if they are going to want Katie Beth back? I am not sure if this was out of concern or if it was hopeful thinking? I quickly respond that Katie Beth is our family and here to stay. I think it is funny, because Daniel didn't ask about his birthfamily. I finally say to him, "You do know that you are adopted too?" We have always talked about it, but at this moment in Hy-vee, I wasn't quite sure. You just never know what conversations might be prompted by a trip to the grocery store! I just love how their little minds work!

I have been working on my blog today. I couldn't have done this without my new friend from CA, Kellie. I owe a big thanks to Kellie for helping me create this blog. Daniel and Katie Beth survived their first week of school and so did I. It is always an adjustment for me to be at home by myself. Katie Beth is so excited about getting a sibling and she is convinced that it will be a sister. We keep reminding her that we are praying for the baby God has chosen for us, which might be a boy!! I hope all of you have a fantastic weekend! The weather here in Missouri is beautiful for August!

New to the Blog World

Hi everyone! I am new to the blog world, but I have loved reading all of the adoption blogs that I have come across. We are creating this blog to keep all of our family and friends up to date on our adoption journey and our lives. We have two beautiful children that God blessed us with through adoption and we would like to add to our family again! Our son Daniel is 9 years old and Katie Beth is 8 years old. It has been a long time since we have done the baby thing, but our whole family is ready. Please keep us in your prayers as we wait for God to bring our next blessing into our lives.

Margaret Ann