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