We have been super, crazy busy over the last month. We've been to many holiday parties, school events, have been working on adoption paperwork, and enjoying Christmas fun.
O with his soccer medal.
S at the Cub Scout Rain Gutter Regata.
Enjoying Thanksgiving dinner with the boys at school.
I woke up this morning with a heavy heart and a nervous stomach and for a second I couldn't remember why. And then I remembered what is going on in Eastern Congo and how scary it must be there right now. I thought of how our soon-to-be child could be fleeing for his or his life and the fear they must feel. It breaks my heart.
I have to admit if we weren't adopting from DRC, I might not even know this was going on and that makes me sad. But I do know, and I pray because our future child is from this country and that means I care for these people. I cry out to God for their health and safety, and for peace. Please join me.
I've been busy making hair clips to sell at some upcoming events for Congo fundraising. Some are made of felt and some of rick rack. It is a lot of fun, but our house is suffering a bit!
The adoption tax credit is possibly going to be cut this year unless Congress votes to continue sponsoring it. If this bill doesn't go through it will making adopting a lot harder financially for many people. Please take a minute, go to this link, and sign the petition. Thank you!
Last weekend we went camping near Ithaca, New York, and it was cold! Especially at night. E and I sort of have an agreement that I'll go camping as long as I get to pick where we camp. Which usually means I pick somewhere beautiful and/or with a fun town nearby. I was looking at the area near Ithaca because it's supposed to be extremely beautiful and there are quite a few waterfalls to hike to. And then...I found out that the Moosewood Restaurant is in Ithaca. I have been using/reading Moosewood cookbooks for probably ten years. I love these cookbooks. They're mostly vegetarian, but it's interesting, eclectic food. So when I found out that the restaurant that started the cookbooks was in Ithaca, I knew our camping destination. Almost as soon as we rolled into to town we went to Moosewood for lunch. It did not disappoint. We all had a healthy, vegetarian lunch and it was all delicious. Including the brownie for dessert. Yum! If you're ever in Ithaca stop there and eat!
The second day we were there we went on a fairly difficult 3 mile hike and the boys did great. I was sore the next day and they barely complained. So proud of my little hikers.
If anyone is interested in doing some early Christmas shopping that will help the children of the Congo and women in Uganda, go to this website and order jewelry, bags, or scarves. Don't forget to write Heart for Congo in the comments section when you check out! https://www.outreachuganda.org/zencart/
A couple of weeks ago, I posted a picture of this Africa painting that I made, but if you look at it now, you'll see that there are 2 hearts instead of just one. And that's because we're starting another adoption! I'll try to make this explaination short and to the point, although more than likely it will end up being long.
For the last few months we'd been hearing that adoptions from Ethiopia were slowing down a lot and we finally heard officially about a month ago that our timeline would be doubling. Of course this frustrated and saddened us, but we know it's all happening for a good reason. Meanwhile our pastor had just come back from adopting 2 girls from the Ukraine and gave a sermon about their adoption that wrecked E and I. I left the service feeling like we needed to do something to help orphans now.
Enter my friend M who is adopting 2 little boys from DRC with an amazing non-profit that helps people through the DRC adoption process and does a ton of fund-raising for DRC orphans. For several months after M told me they were doing this, I had been thinking about the Congo orphans, then finally after hearing our pastor's sermon, it clicked with me. Maybe we could do this too.
Except that I was scared to death to talk to E about it. He had just told me a few weeks ago that he was so glad to be done with all our paperwork for Ethiopia. I just knew he was going to think I'd lost my mind. Well, after receiving several more signs from God that we should be doing this I got up my nerve and talked to him. I told him my plan to adopt from the Congo while still pursuing our Ethiopian adoption. He listened, asked a couple of questions, and then said we should go for it. I was, and still am giddy! The last few weeks have been filled with phone calls, paperwork, e-mails, etc. getting everything started.
We are so, so excited to be going on this adventure that God is leading us through. We are excited to be starting an adoption that will probably move fairly quickly and we are excited to be able to help the DRC orphans through fundraising. I am continually amazed at how perfectly God is leading us through all of this!
This past weekend was the annual Scout Day for Army football. We got up bright and early to get down to the plain in time to watch the parade, then we went on a tour of the cadet area. After the tour we headed up to the stadium to Black Knight Alley where the kids had their faces painted, shot baskets, played in a bounce house, etc. And then we watched the game. It was a loooong day and we were all pretty worn out by the time we came home. But all my boys had a blast!
Stay tuned for our big, exciting news that I will try to get posted on here later today.
We have a lot of big things happening around here that I will be sharing over the next week, but first a little catch up. I had some of our 7 group over to celebrate the end of month 1 and talk about month 2. (On a side note, why in the world can't I ever just stand normally in a photo?!?!)
I am happy and relieved that month 1 has come to an end. It was hard, but I'm so glad I did it. I feel like I have come out of this so much more thankful and filled with gratitude for all that I have. I have a new appreciation for what it feels like to be hungry. Not that this month compares in any way to what the millions starving around the world feel, but I can understand a little bit better. And after eating whatever I wanted Saturday and Sunday, I've come to realize that no matter how healthy I thought I was eating before, it still wasn't healthy enough. Sugar is bad for me! So now I'm actually still eating 7 for breakfast and lunch (except I'm not limiting fruits and vegis) and then eating a non-7 dinner.
So October 1st our group started month 2 which is wearing only 7 items of clothing for 4 weeks. We modified this a little bit because there are several of us that work out daily. One of us (not me!) is even training for a marathon, which means a lot of sweat. So here is my 7 list:
1. 1 pair of jeans
2. 1 pair of stretchy pants (I just bought these pants a few months ago because I have a pair of bright blue sweatpants that E hates and I wanted to replace them with something. These are soooo comfy and they have a lace pocket and a lace bow on the front, so we have named them my Fancy Pants.)
3. solid grey t-shirt
4. striped t-shirt
5. long-sleeved t-shirt
6. running shoes and brown flats
7. 2 workout outfits (This is what we altered. We said if you want, one of your items can be 2 full (shirt and pants/shorts) workout outfits.)
We also agreed that outerwear will be a freebie, but only if necessary and we can't be excessive about it. I think this is a good call because last October we had a blizzard!
So these are the items I will be wearing for the next month. I feel like this will be a fairly easy month for me especially after last month. Although after having rain here all day yesterday I've realized sometimes it will just be annoying. There were several times I had to pop my shirt in the dryer instead of just putting on a clean one. But then I think to myself that I'm just thankful that I have a shirt and a dryer I can put it in.
I took the boys to Lawrence Farms and Orchard to do a little apple picking this weekend. It was beautiful day and we had a good time. (Although we missed E, he was away for the weekend.)
I celebrated my birthday on Friday by going out to dinner with E and the boys. I hemmed and hawwed forever about where we should eat. It was a forty minute drive on windy roads. I ended up ordering a sandwich with hummus, avacado, sprouts, mushrooms, lettuce, and Havarti cheese. I also shared a fabulous slice of cheesecake, covered in strawberries and whipped cream with E. It was all delicious.
And the reason this meal was such a big deal is because I just started 7 last week. If you have not heard of this book by Jen Hatmaker, you need to look into it. Once you read about it, you need to go out and get it for your very own life-changing experience. Here's the book trailer to explain:
So for my Month 1 fast I am only eating: apples, rice, cheddar cheese, broccoli, tomatoes, potatoes, and eggs. My "council" also agreed that coffee and tea will be allowed, but without sugar, cream, etc. So no fancy coffee drinks. Awww man!
I am on day 11 right now and I'm not going to lie, it's been hard! But it has also been eye-opening and heart- and mind-changing. Now when I feel a pang of hunger (and this happens a lot!), I think about all of the people, especially children in the world that don't have enough to eat and I pray for them. I think about how much food we waste in our house and all the children it could be feeding. My mind is turning away from a constant me, me, me and thinking of others first. I am slowly but surely working my way out of that want to have every luxery. I am growing and it feels so good!
Stay tuned for next month, which will be clothing. And yes in the book Jen only wears 7 items of clothing for a month. I predict there will be a lot discussion with my council friends.
I've been wanting to do this since we decided to adopt from Ethiopia. I wanted something we could have around us that would keep our child we haven't met yet in our thoughts and prayers. I'm not an artist at all, but I think this turned our pretty good. (And what a cute model, I have!)
On Labor Day we hiked. In the first picture you can see a tall trestle bridge. We pass it every Sunday on the way to church and when E heard there were trails under it, we had to hike them. The boys are turning into seasoned hikers. This was a fairly steep, long hike and they did great.
Taking a short rest at a scenic spot.
If you look closely you can see the huge stick bug that O found.
I just realized I hadn't blogged about another big event at our house. The day before school started I took the boys up to school to the teacher meet-and-greet. After we met the teachers, the boys were playing on the playground and O fell, hurting his arm. I knew something was really wrong because he was crying the "serious injury cry," but I wasn't sure how serious. Too make a long story short, we decided to take him to the ER that evening. They did x-rays, but didn't think it was broken. On Thursday, one of the orthopedic docs called and wanted to look at his arm. So, Friday morning I took him in and after the exam, the dr. still wasn't sure if it was broken, but after I started laughing when he asked me if we would be able to keep O from moving a lot, he decided to cast it. O seemed to immediately feel better after the cast, and was back to his old mischievious self. We go back next week, to reevaluate. A very exciting first week of school!
I am a huge Harry Potter fan. Huge. We have all the books and movies, and I've read all the books multiple times. In fact, if I have nothing else to read, I'll just start the series over because they're never boring. So, I've been looking forward to reading the books to the boys for a looong time. Finally at the beginning of this year we read the first one and finished the second about a month ago. I was super excited when S told me he wanted to have a Harry Potter birthday party this year! Yay!
We had wands, sorting hats, flying keys, potions, a snitch cake, balloons, and confetti everywhere!
S turned 7 today. Such a large number, so far up on the number line. I can't believe how big he is and how independent. He's still such a sweet boy, though. And so gung-ho about every new project he begins. (Even if he doesn't always finish them!) Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!
Birthday Party and Back-to-School updates will be up later this week.
After sending in our dossier we found out there was one tiny mistake that we needed to fix, so we scrambled for a couple of days to finish. We decided to go to NYC for the state seal instead of Albany this time. We didn't really have a destination in mind, but just walked around the city.
The boys playing in the Battery Park fountains.
Wall Street Bull
Adoption Update: We just found out that this Friday, the 17th, we will be DTE, which means our dossier will be sent to Ethiopia!
In spite of staying home most of the summer we have still been super busy with lots of family visits and finishing up our dossier. We were able to sneak in a camping trip to the beach, some hiking, and several trips to the Big Apple. The summer has flown by! I can't believe the boys will be going back to school in two weeks. We will have a 2nd Grader and a Kindergartener this year.
