bring it on....

2010 that is.....yep, it's not even midnite on new years eve, and i'm at home with my family, my sweet kids are both fast asleep(yet coughing uncontrollably, and will soon request a drink of h2o or two!!) but i'm so content, and couldn't be happier with my decision to call it a night, i mean, what's better than hanging with the fam?? Anywho, i'm having a hard time concentrating, thanks to fergie's obnoxious boom boom song.... 2009, a year full of love, family, friendships, birthdays, births,....and our decision to adopt. 2010...what an exciting upcoming year, hope to be filled with a little more love, fun family times, new and old friendships, birthday celebrations, and 2 more precious babes!!! Happy New Years!! May 2010 bring you good health, overflowing love, contentment and joy.... xo kristen       

christmas memories....

Merry Christmas a day late!!(better late than never...) What a fun few days we've had, regardless of the wonderful winter weather we have...yep definitely not impressed with this cold...ugh...however, it does make for some fun family time, watching national lampoons over and over, hanging in our pj's, playing with the kiddos and their new toys, basically just being together!!!Christmas eve, we were able to spend time with kasey's parents, siblings, and their kids,  so good to see all of them, and even better to watch the cousins play and love on each other!! Christmas day we spent with my parents and siblings and of course their kids, shared delicious meals, visited, watched christmas movies, and relaxed...oh let's not forget that yesterday morning the kids woke at 5:45,yep a.m.!!! Soooo excited to see what santa delivered, and so thrilled they heard santas bells, how sweet!! We sat in front of the fire, opened their socks, and oh boy was the magic there!!(even though grant said, " mom, santa didn't wrap these, you did!") oh man, he's only 7! I believed in santa till probably 11 or so!!! I know santa isn't the reason for the season, but the magic of santa and his reindeer...the cookies and milk..the reindeer dust....what fun it is to our children, their imaginations run wild, the excitement it brings is contagious... i hope these things live in their imaginations for years to come, and the true reason for the season lives in their hearts forever...Well, a fun christmas season had by all...and by this time next year we hope to be sharing this excitement & love with a couple of more kiddos!!!! enjoy a few pics of our last week...kids' christmas program, family etc...xo kristen

now what??

Well, so very exciting to be on the "waiting list", but now getting impatient( i know, it's only been a week!!!, i'm just so excited!!) anyhow, now we do just that....wait....but how exciting and worthwhile is that long-awaited wait....... with christmas just around the corner, our house has been full of sweet little voices practicing their songs for their program, hot cocoa,wrapping paper galore, and as of tomorrow, some baking going on!!! like i've said before, i just love christmas, the lights, tree( oh, the tree, you see we had to get rid of the real one per dr's orders, mr. g has quite the allergies... but don't feel bad, we now have an artificial tree up, decorated and all, and now we really look like the griswold's with our real, 9 ft. tree on our front step!!) memories, old and new,music, and the best...the reason of the season....jesus! like i said in our christmas card, it is amazing that our kids, ages 5 and 7, know the true meaning of christmas, and already have such a love for our god. But, we still enjoy all of the other fun things that surround this exciting holiday, including mr.C, himself!!! Oh, and i just love holiday break...nothing better than having the kids at home, not rushing off in the am, enjoying each and every minute of togetherness...may you have a fun week ahead, full of hecticness, music, and lots of memories!!   xo kristen 

:)

quick update!!! soooo our agency had a referral today, so that means we are getting closer!!!!! but, just to clarify... we are on all 5 lists, which means we are eager to adopt 2 children under the age of 4, NOT 5!!!(even though, would not object to that!!) so, we are open to siblings, babies or toddlers, so why not be on all of the lists!! getting that much closer to seeing our childrens faces...yay!!!!!wonder who god has planned for our family???? keep warm...xo kristen 

IT'S OFFICIAL.................

We are on the wait list!!!!!!!!!!!Baby Girl-#22, Baby Boy-#11, Toddler Girl-#5, Toddler Boy-#3, and Siblings-#4!!!!!!!!!!!!! how exciting....even though i know we are still waiting, it feels so great to be on the lists, and it feels so real and so right!!! can't wait to see some sweet faces soon!!!!( i know, im a bit optimistic on the time frame...) so, what a great way to start off our week......lots of smiles at our house:) happy monday xo kristen

hip...hip...hooray!!!

all of our paperwork has officially been sent to IAN, and we should be on the list on monday, or tuesday!! It feels so great knowing all of this paperwork is done and out of our hands!! Can't wait to get our #'s, and then i think i'll be going a little crazy for a bit(ok, i think that's un understatement!!!)...what an exciting process!! Just an fyi... some great friends from our church who are also adopting, are organizing a fundraiser/benefit/dinner/auction,etc. for our family on jan.30th at our church...details coming soon....oh, and i am an aunt again!!! he is so very precious, i could just eat him up!! And since we live in the state of ND, we already have snow, so yesterday we played outside, made snow angels, shoveled, and just enjoyed being together!! Like i've said before, this cold weather stuff does not thrill me, but at the request of my children, i had to act like a kid again, running around, hip-hip-hoorayin!! jumping in the snow, making snow angels, but the best of all, hearing my kids laugh uncontrollably at their kid-like mom!!!You know, at times i wish were a kid again, all of those simple joys, not caring if the temperature is -15, laughing so hard you could cry, etc... i have such great memories from my childhood( i think thats why i wish i could go back at times!!) and i hope that my kids will be saying the same some day...so if that means i have to go out in this freezing cold...i will, just to hear their laughter...how sweet the sound!!! wishing you a fun weekend with family, fun and lots of laughs.....and a good christmas movie or two!!! xo kristen

holiday cheer...

wow, what a fun-filled long weekend we all had! WE had a nice thanksgiving, full of family,friends, good food, good times, and a little shopping too...we headed to old navy for a few sales!!! And, believe it or not, kasey and tom(my brother) awoke VERY early friday morning to do a bit of shopping...i think they were more interested in crazy people watching!! However, he did come home with a few christmas gifts..(a few less for me to buy!) Saturday night came and we went and bought our tree-wow, was that a sight, 4 people in our tiny jetta, windows rolled down, holding on to the strings from the tree(you see, we dont have a roof rack, so we had it just sitting on the top, put string over it, and held the strings inside...AAAh crazy times, but so much fun!!) so in otherwards we kinda looked like the griswolds....and since we have to get a real tree(love the smell!!) but hate the mess, we had to wait for the branches to situate themselves, so we decorated it sunday a.m.(pics to come)complete with sparkling grape juice, christmas music, cheers, and lots of laughter...what fun it is to see the kids put up their ornaments, new and old, and enjoy them over and over!! And just think next year we'll have even more laughter!! So we should have our dossier packed and ready to ship out today or tomorrow, and then on the wait list we will be!!!!! Exciting times!!!! have a splendid monday...xo  kristen

Guess What???

WOW!! You know, when we started this process. i had a few doubts, concerns, fear, questions,etc.... and you know what, I still do, and that's ok...but overall i am sooo excited, and everything is working out, the way it's meant too, slowly, but surely... today our homestudy was officially approved by IAN, and our socialworker will notarize it, and it will be on it's way to us!!!! So, what that means is that by monday we should have it overnighted to IAN, and soon after we should be officially on the WAIT list...yippeeeee!! I feel so grateful to all of you who have donated to our adoption, the whole idea of fundraising was not an easy decision for me...for those of you who know me, i love love to give and help others in any way that i can...but it's not too easy for me to be on the receiving end, it makes me feel guilty and sometimes i wish i just had all of the $$ to pay for the adoption and be done with this fundraising, so i don't feel as if i'm pestering or putting anyone out...but guess what, for me i am learning it is ok to accept help, and that's ok too. And for those of you who ask yourselves or wonder, " if they can't pay for their own adoption in full, can they really afford having two more children? that's ok too, because i used to think the same thing, and guess what, we can't afford $19-20,000, right now, out-of-pocket, but we CAN afford feeding two more, clothing two more and LOVING two more....and we are well on our way, only $12,000 left....yay!!!

food,coffee,family,love....

man i love sundays! no rushing off to school in the morning, church, lunch w/family/friends, hanging with kasey and the kids, and finishing off the evening at my parents! tonights wonderful dinner was enchiladas...mmmm...good!! oh, and of course a few sides, gotta love me those sides!! so a quick update on our coffee and shirts.... the coffee...An organization that not only helps us raise funds, but also the farmers..how cool is that?? it's called the 963 coffee project. The purpose of 963 is twofold: to give farmers a fair wage for their coffee beans, and to allow people to use 963 to raise funds for their cause or organization.963 is being used to build clean water wells,care for ORPHANS and the poor, provide medication for those living with hiv/aids, and much more... so we have a few diff. blends...# 1 african morning-light roast #2 south seas-dark roast #3decaf #4 Cinnamon Creme Brulee-flavored coffee, and currently we are out of medium roast-triple tango...but will order soon! so that's that!! ( $13/ for a 1 lb bag.) Just a quick note to share: today at church we prayed while listening to a jewish prayer song, it was quite moving and uplifting, think i might do that again!!!! thanks for checking this out and supporting us, whether it is through coffee, shirts, donations or prayer, we are thankful for YOU... xo kristen
p.s if you would like to order coffee, feel free to leave your info in the comments under my post, if you live in town, i will deliver, if not fedex delivers..ha!!

this & that

eeeeeekkkkk......i'm getting really excited, we had a few small changes on our homestudy,requested from ian, and once those are reviewed we should be on the list!!!! so, you ask, what kind of changes??? well, small ones like, "how were you disciplined as a child?" " how often do you see/talk to your parents/siblings?" "how do you resolve conflict?" etc...I rarely had to be disciplined, but when i did, it was a simple talk, timeout, privilege taken away etc.. (thank goodness my parents weren't the spanking,yelling type!!) and how fortunate i've been to have such a close family, i mean, i see them all on a weekly basis, talk on a daily basis, and am blessed to call them my very own.... anyhow, getting that much closer to some very sweet children...:) so, grant and kate...well, now whenever they see another child of a different race, they assume they're adopted, so we've done a bit of explaining on that one!! they both are really starting to ask alot more?'s, drawing pics of them,and sharing with their classmates that they are going to be big brother/sister, but they quickly remind them that they will not be in their mom's tummy....too cute...thanksgiving is near, be thankful for the good, and the not so good!!! oh, and check out this very inspiring, tear jerker of a blog(i've mentioned it before) www.teamalexander.blogspot.com and check out their homecoming video.....xo kristen

sweetness.....

happy sunday!!! well, we had a fun week here. Wednesday the kids had the day off of school, so tues. night we rented a hotel room, ate pizza,swam, ate some treats, swam some more, watched a movie and crashed!! It is so fun to see the kids get sooo excited about staying the night at the country inn suites, in our hometown, man do i remember the days when i was little, the thought of staying in a hotel was glorious.... now that im mom, i cringe a bit, thinking about bed bugs, "did they REALLY change my sheets?", and trying to enjoy the hot tub(my fave!) even though we all know that theres more pee than h2o....ick...anyhow, a fun night away!!! It's november 15th, and still no snow, can you believe it?? it is so great that it's still warm enough to be riding bike, writing chalk, and just chillin outdoors...oh, and only 12 more days till i'm an aunt again!!! A little bit on the adoption process.... we are waiting for a certified copy of our homestudy,dossier is finished, but waiting on the homestudy to send it all onward!! so basically we are waiting...... the kids have been drawing pics lately of our family, i guess we are a bird family..... but how cute...they are now adding the two we can't wait to get, and naming them Gabe and Celia,(they are obviously hoping for a boy/girl also!!) they are the ones pictured below that have not yet hatched......could it get any sweeter??  xo kristen 

the unknown....

does the "unknown" ever scare, frustrate, or drive you bonkers?? you might wonder what i'm getting at, and i'm not too sure myself, i'm just writing, because i have a minute!! i'd be lying if i said it didn't scare me, you know though, how silly!! i mean, i do know i love the lord, i have a great family, i have a roof over my head, i eat 3 meals a day(ok, sometimes more!) i am blessed with two healthy children, a car that gets me from point A 2 B, and above all, the lord loves me and will take care of me, my family, and those who seek him....so i guess, instead of worrying about the unknown, we should be thankful for today, and what we do know... you know, i think of this a bit differently now, these children that we are hoping to bring into our family, will be leaving everything they know, the loving people who are caring for them, other children they have become close to, their own country etc. i mean, talk about the fear of the unknown...could it get any harder than this?? so, today i ask you to pray for these children, their parents, caregivers, and their forever families, to give them strength, peace, understanding, patience, abounding love and encouragement as we and they continue on this journey called life... oh, and check out this amazing blog i've been following, www.teamalexander.blogspot, they are in ethiopia as we speak, ready to bring home their boy......how amazing!!!  love and be loved                    xo kristen

stepping out....of my comfort zone...

aaaah... this makes me really uncomfortable, but here it goes! you see, this whole adoption journey we are on, is quite expensive, about $19-$20,000 roughly, (gasp) i know take a minute for a breather... that total does not need to be met at one time, but in increments. at this time, we have currently paid $5,000 towards our adoption.now let me make this clear, we are trying to save $ each mth for this, fundraise what we can, and trust in god that it will happen according to HIS plan. now, you say, "how can i help?" well we are selling ethiopian coffee, our cool t's for children,men,women, and are working on a few more upcoming fundraisers! On the right hand side,you'll see our shirts, and we'll shortly be adding our coffee!! You can also make a donation directly to our agency, IAN, or simply click the donate button and that will go towards bringing our kids home as well. Making this kind of donation will not only be helpful in giving these children a forever family, but it will make your heart smile, knowing that you helped. We are hopeful in raising approx. $4,800 for our upcoming fees, and thank you in advance for helping our family help those in need..love and be loved  xo kristen

?'s

is it just me that ?'s things,decisions,choices? Are we doing what's best? for our family, kids, our future kids etc? And as soon as i ? those things, gods right there saying of course you are! why would'nt we move forward in this journey we are on? We have room in our home, we have plenty of love to go around, and knowing that god is at the center of this, will trust that it will happen at his time and that will be perfect! I know god has it all planned out, but you know, when i think of all those children that are waiting for moms,dads,brothers and sisters to love them unconditionally FOREVER, i become very impatient, not for me, but those sweet kids...so for now, we will keep saving, raising $, praying and believing, knowing that their are two kids that need our love...( and maybe someday more....yay!!, i know, you all think i'm nuts!)
    xo kristen

fun filled days!!!!

wow,what a week!! i love fall! i love the smell in the air,baked goods,carving pumpkins,trick-or-treating,hanging with friends and family, and really enjoy seeing the kids experience all of these fun things!! G was a very cute ninja, and miss K was a very sweet snow princess!! we had a few friends and family over for a very spooky dinner(bat wings,mummy wraps,forest fungus,snail slime,etc...) i think i had as much fun doing all of this as the kiddos did!! then came time to trick-r-treat and next came the sorting of the candy....ick..could you say dentist visit in the very near future??? anyhow, the kids had a blast,so it's totally worth every little cavity they'll get!!!!hopefully at this time next year we will have 2 more little trick-or-treaters:) hope you all had a fun filled wknd...enjoy a few pics!!!  xo kristen

Take-a-peek....you'll never forget it.....

Orphan Sunday from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

I love the fact that our church is starting to take part in things that you would think would have already been the norm. I read this comment on the Show Hope website by Scott Hasenbalq and liked it.  "If we want to be God's hands and feet extended outside of the four walls of the church, it is critical to reach those on the inside of the four walls and make the unaware, aware."

happy monday!!!

oh mondays...not so bad..considering i have brownies baking, pumpkins ready to carve,wonderful hot cocoa to be had,and a very mild day here in bis!All I need now is my sweet children to join me(30 min till pick up time..yay!!) if you didn't already know, i love 3:00 in the afternoon..schools out!!! Oh, a little update on our adoption process...we are just waiting on my physical to be done, and the remainder of our $ to be turned in..slowly,but surely!! It will all happen at the right time,and that is gods timing,so we must be patient. But for today i feel so blessed and thankful... the kids are healthy,happy and enjoying school and their friends,my, how they love play dates!! We have a great family, wonderful friends, and splendid sunday dinners at my mom & dads!! what more could i ask for?? i just feel so blessed that my siblings and i were brought up in such a loving,nurturing,caring,giving when and how we can household. I hope i can pass all of these things down to our kids.And when i say give, i dont mean it monetarily(sp?) what about doing something simple?? Reaching out, loving and helping those who need our help doesn't just benefit the receiver, it will definitely bless your heart also...step out ...love and you too, will be loved... xo

blessings...

What a fun week it has been!  I've met up with two friends this past week, celebrated my SIL, my mom's 50th,and my grandmas bdays.  Spent lazy mornings with my kiddos, ate some good breakfast, watched a few kid movies.  Oh, how I love my kids!!  I feel blessed to have each of these girls in my life!  I surely hope that I am doing at least 1/2 as good of a job my mom did (and dad) at raising us 4 kids.  I hope that at 50, I too will be such a great mom/friend, wife, nana, cook, housekeeper, and the list goes on!!  Today I had a little "free" time, so I browsed a few blogs and this is what i found! "The reward for considering the helpless is not just the end result, but the pain, the heart pain, that accompanies it.  It is cleansing to hurt when god himself hurts; it is a good thing."  I know god hurts for all of these children, and so do we.  We are thankful and feel lucky that we are going on this journey, so we can help 2 of these children, and give them a forever family.  This week we also found out that a couple we know through church, and have also become friends with, are beginning their adoption journey!  We are thrilled for them, their kids, and their families.  Check out their blog at findingjoshua.blogspot.com. We are off to celebrate grandma's b-day, and hopefully enjoy some cake!!  Happy weekend xo

craziness...but so much love!!

wow,what a week it's been! My past week has been a whole lotta sick goin on....first it was kate,myself and then oh so little grant.. He did have the dreaded (don't wanna say it)swine stuff,and if that wasnt enough by itself, the dr. called and informed us he also had strep..ugh...poor kid! anyhow, the icky stuff wasnt as bad as we were fearing....then came monday am, and off to school we went, and ended up in the ditch...i mean i know we live in ND, but not expecting this weather yet!! I'm sure their teachers got an ear full!! On a better note,we did have our last homestudy visit, and all went well! So now onto finishing up our dossier,and then the waiting begins!!! So thankful we are all healthy again, 4 day wknd for the kids,and hopefully some warmer days!! love and be loved xo

little bit of everything...

Thank you to everyone who came out to our sale this wknd!! All things considered(rain and cold weather...)the sale couldn't have gone better, well ok, i lied, i still have a very packed garage! That being said, i might try again this next weekend,we'll see!! But, we did raise a tremendous amount, so it feels like were  heading in the right direction..yay!! we are so lucky to have such great neighbors,that have become good friends.. so thank you for all helping me out this wknd!! what a great rainy day it is, kate is home sick( well, that's not good) but we've enjoyed hanging out on the couch,watching the hannah montana movie(we're now watching it for the 3rd time!!) and eating tv dinners...now, off to get grant from school,hoping his day was fun,as well!! love picking the kids up from school..best part of my day!! Happy monday..xo

busy as a bee..

fun,fun,fun... wow, rummage sales are alot of work! yep,that's right, we are getting our garage ready for our sale this wknd,Oct. 2nd-4th! Thank you so very much to those who have donated their belongings and their hearts!! We really appreciate all of the help and the donations that have been dropped off!! Even though the wknd is going to be a bit cold....still venture out,WE HAVE A HEATER,and thanks go out to Blair for that!! ( We all know how much i like this weather...ugh...) We will also be selling our ethiopian coffee,and the oh so cool tees that my creative husband designed!!! So far we have alot of great baby boy clothes,furniture,kitchen gadgets,mens clothes, girl stuff, grills and much more!! hope to see you there!! xo  P.S. can't wait to be on the wait list....

Well, the T-shirts are done!

I will have them up on our site shortly to order.  I have to convince Kristen to model one for me so I can get a picture on the site for people to see what they look like.  We will have kids, unisex, and women's shirts available.  They are American Apparel shirts so they are really soft.  I will post more info later.

Ok, I convinced her and here is the shirt.

Papers, papers, and more papers

Staples is our new favorite store.  Organization is a must at this point I guess.  Today I received another stack of forms that need to get filled out, found out I might as well buy 10 copies of my certified birth certificate and marriage license, and feel like turning my basement into a assembly line for forms and documents to be organized and put together.  Next step is to get everyone that is required to fill stuff out to get it on their own stationary and notarize it. Should be easy right.



On a fun note, our T-shirts for the fundraiser are being made on Wednseday and we are waiting to put them on our blog to buy until you can see a sample on an actual person.  Also we got added to a yahoo group from our agency that is reserved for families working with the agency so that we can share information.  It has been very exciting reading there experiences to get an idea of what to expect.

Beginning an Adoption?

As Kristen and I  looked to adopt in the beginning stages we researched all over the place and it was a little confusing going through everything bouncing around from site to site and blog to blog.  I would find something I liked and then forget which one it came from.  I remember thinking, I need to write down all the resources and sites that we used so that we can help others in the beginning stages or at least work through it together as we learn also.  I want this process to be smooth for my wife and as stress free as it can be, so I figure if I take care of the leg work, she can concentrate on what she does best and that is loving our family and dreaming about our family to be in Ethiopia.  I want to share our information with all you families who are beginning our thinking about adoption.  I have started to compile links to the resources that we have used.  I will update it as we go but also ask that if anyone has other sites that they have used to send a comment to me at the end of the blog.


Ok, I admit my wife is right.  I am a bit of a research nerd and love this stuff!  Take care.

on our way...

1 down,two to go!! we had our first homestudy visit today,and happy to say it went great!!! anyhow, this post doesn't have much to do about the adoption..but with our sweet children!! we went to the pumpkin patch on the opening day,and we all had a blast!(I love the pumpkin patch!!!) they both love all of the animals at the petting zoo,and even got to ride the ponies!!! And come next fall,hopefully we will be taking 2 more kiddos to the patch...yay!! anyhow,enjoy a few pics of the kids at the patch!! happy wednesday!!

Our Adoption Tees coming soon!

We have been working on a design for our T-shirt fundraiser and I drew this the last couple of days.  I am just putting it out there for some feed back before I move forward with making them available.  The back of the shirt will have Ethiopia written in Amharic with the scripture John 14:18 on it.  The front will have the two hearts for each baby on the location of Ethiopia.  Click on the shirts to get a larger image.

We also wanted to thank our family and friends for all the support we have been receiving.  It really means a lot to us.

Look back soon for a link on the blog to order these shirts.  Proceeds from the fundraiser go to help with the adoption fees and who doesn't like a cool tee!

Loving the new blog layout. Thanks Jen!

Well, its almost done and we like it a lot.  We were going to try and create this blog ourselves and would love to claim it as our own design but we have to give props to Jen at http://theartoflivingblogdesigns.blogspot.com/.  She is awesome to work with.


We have so much going on right now with figuring out what next we need done and continuing the home study process that going through the blog community and reading other peoples blogs keeps us calm.  It's nice to watch families who are further down the adoption road than us so that we can see that all the hours being put into this are so worth it.  We have so many links to blogs that are just awesome to read, and we will share them soon.  Going through some of them you just realize how many amazing stories and incredible people are out there.

extreme patience...

well, i think it's fair to say, i am a very patient person.however, in this instance, i am continually having to tell myself to be patient! I am beyond excited for this upcoming year! i love kids and i love helping people,so this feels so right! grant and kate told me yesterday," mom, you're going to be a mother of 4!" HOW EXCITING is that!!but until then, i'll be patient....

Blog is a work in progress!

We are new to this blog stuff so we are working on setting up this site.  It will get better, we are just working out the kinks.

Starting our journey to Ethiopia!

After many years of dreaming about adopting, we are finally on our way and are super excited. Funny how after making the decision to move forward, it just feels right. We have a long journey ahead of us and just ask for your prayers as we move forward.