Chloe!

Chloe is coming home today!!! We are on our way to Portland to meet her at the airport. She flew with a friend of the family and we're driving down to meet her plane.

I've been missing that kid like crazy! Cannot wait to see her!

Adoption Woes

For those of you who don't know it, we've been waiting for over a year now for a new baby. The agency we work with has had a lot of turnover and disruption this year, and so apparently, placements have slowed down. Or stopped.

We are trying to decide what comes next for us. A different agency? A foster placement? What we know is that we're not done yet and that God is calling us to adopt again. What we don't know is how and when.

If we had tons of money, we'd adopt internationally and be done. But we don't and it makes me crazy that without tons of money adopting is hard. There are so many US kids waiting for homes and so much bureaucracy that makes it difficult.

So, please pray for us and for what baby God wants to bring us. Pray for the ability to hear His voice and the discernment on part of adoption workers.

Happy Anniversary

To us! 18 years today.

Welcome Baby Ashton!

We just went over and met our newest nephew Ashton Craig. He was 24 hours old when we got there. Such a sweet smell, such an incredibly small little person. Hard to believe how tiny they are, hard to believe how quickly we forget how tiny they are!

New Baby

My sister Amanda and her husband Ben had their first baby yesterday! He was born at 2:33, weight 7 lbs., measuring in at 20 inches. His name is Ashton Craig Langhans and he shares a birthday with his grandfather Craig. Too cool.

Here's the story: His mama and papa were camping in Wenatchee when Amanda went into labor around 2am. Like a smart lady, she went to sleep. At 7am the contractions were about 5 minutes apart and, once again being a smart lady, she decided to head back to Bellevue asap. For those of you not from Washington, Wenactchee and Bellevue are on opposite sides of the state, separated by a mountain range and about4 hours of driving...

Ben and Amanda got to the birthcenter at 1:30 and Ashton was born at 2:30. Cutting it close, to say the least! Amanda called me on her way home at 5:30 that evening to let us know all were doing well and she was starving!

I'm on my way to see them all now:) Yay for new babies! Yay for family!

At Last!

I finally figured out how to get back on my blog! It's been a while, so here's a quick update.

Home-school year 2008-2009 is finished! We completed our first year of Co-Op and had a really good time. The kids learned a lot, and had a ton of fun with crafts, demonstrations, field trips, and generally fun things that I do not do on my own.

Sasha is getting ready for her end of year ballet performance. Chloe is excited about her Irish show, and Mama is excited to be done driving for a few months.

The boys finished their first season of T-Ball. Randi ( my sister) dragged me into it, and I'm so thrilled she did! They had a lot of fun and it was truly adorable to see Chloe, Isaac, and Gabriel on the same team:) The coach told us NOT to leave town or we take half the team with us!

Lily had her piano recital and is trying to convince me she is ready for violin next year. My jury is out. Until she can practice piano without being hassled, I'm not sure I'm ready to add violin.

Chloe just left for CA for two weeks with Grandma! They are going on a cruise to Mexico and spending quality time in Orange County. I'm not sure how fair this is, but I'm so happy for their time together. Hooray for Grandma!

The other update is that we are waiting for another placement. We've been completing our homestudy update and are hopeful that we will bring home a baby this year. It's been a hard wait, with not a lot of movement so far, but we believe we are called to adopt again...and so we hurry up and wait. And wait. Sigh. Prayer would be greatly appreciated!

Computer literate

Being that I am completely incompetent when it comes to computers, here's the situation:
My desktop will allow me access to blogspot.com while my laptop will not.

My laptop is where I do all my daily work, and the desktop is now the "kid" computer for school and such.

Therefore, until I figure out why my laptop will not allow me to blog, I have given up.

Update: got a new job teaching communications 101 at a tech school. Chloe turned 7. Lily turned 10! Was very cold: Got a furnace: Furnace got flooded in basement: End of story still unresolved.

Blogging goodbyes until I figure out my computer issues.

Explain This To Me

Could someone please tell me where the past 11 years have gone? This lovely lady is way too much of a young lady for me to believe that I can possibly be her mother.

Sasha finished up her dance with with a great modern performance and a solo in her ballet this year. On pointe! I was so proud of her hard work and the dedication it took to complete this year of dance. She worked hard. 5 days a week.

And instead of taking the summer off she audtitioned for a theatre company and got a part in Peter Pan. Now she is rehearsing 5 days a week and preparing for 12 performances in September.

She's a great kid. I enjoy most everthing about her, and the things that I don't enjoy, it turns out are the same things about myself I do not relish.

Summer in Seattle

Summer! Yes, such a thing exists in Seattle!

Our friends who have visited us from various places around the US may doubt the verity of this statement, but I have photographic evidence!

Lily and Chloe were playing in the "pool" on this delightfully hot day.

Now granted, we only get these days 10 or 11 times each summer, but you can bet we totally enjoy each and every one of them!

The dog, whom I despise, also loves the water. How can a dog go from 12 pounds to35 pounds in such a short time?

Note to self: What I really wanted was a baby. Do NOT settle for a puppy EVER again.

Horse Camp

Lily went to Camp Berachah for Horse Camp this year: overnight horse camp.

Does this strike any other mothers are terrifying and hard to believe?

Not the horse aspect; I get that 9 year old girls are often horse lovers.

I mean the overnight part of the gig. 5 nights. Alone. Without me. How could she possibly survive?

And yet, survive she did. With gusto! She had a great time, learned a lot about horsemanship, made some sweet friends, and cannot wait to go back. Without me.

Sigh.

I'm proud of my girl. Proud of what she is learning that I never took the time to learn. Proud that she has interests that are most definately not mine. Proud that she is courageous and bold and creative in pursuing her heart. Go for it Lily!

Global Warming- I wish!

Just a quick note to let my friends know that we are in fact, still alive and kickin'!

Home repairs have kept us swamped! We're on a pretty tight time schedule that revolves around warmth: we need a furnace by October at the latest but cannot start to install the new furnace until we get a billion other little things done to get it ready for installation.

I do not want to be cold again this winter! Our ancient oil furnace (gravity fed, meaning not even a blower)barely kept us warm last winter. We lived in layers and under a mound of blankets all the way through April. I, for one, wish global warming would go ahead and speed up.

News:

• We had our 17th Anniversary and booked an October cruise to celebrate!
• Sasha auditioned and got a part in Peter Pan at a local theatre company!
• Lily spent a week at (overnight) Horse Camp! She did not miss me. At all.
• Isaac turns 6 in 3 weeks and just lost his 3rd tooth:)
• All 5 kids start at a homeschool co-op one day a week this September. 6th grade, 4th grade, 1st grade, kindergarten, and pre-k. I'm looking forward to the additional support this offers me, as well as getting to know some of the other families.

That's all for now!