Cleaning the Storage Room

So, since I had another snow day this week, I decided that I should use my extra time to clean out my storage room. It had kind of become our "dump and run" room and it was high time that I sort through the stuff in there. I spread out everything from the storage room on the floor of the family room in our basement before I sorted through it and put it all back. As I did this I took pictures of it so I could brag about my accomplishment to you all :)
Below are a few random pictures of Mark and Tiger and then my niece Arabella.

Before:

After:

A Verse Stuck in My Head

Ps. 25:4-5

"Show my YOUR ways O Lord, teacher my your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me for You are God my Savior and my hope is in You all day long."

Reflections on the Week

Friday afternoon has arrived... :)

It's been a good week, here are a few reflections:

Snow Day- Tuesday I had a snow day and it was great. I had worked really hard at school on Monday to get caught up, so when Tuesday rolled around I felt like I could take a little time off. I read for awhile, slept for a few hours, shoveled the driveway for another few hours :), cleaned, did laundry, made dinner... it was a nice little blessing.

School- School is going really well. I did have a few crazy busy days this week because we had to plan a chapel for Thursday, grades were due for report cards and play is in full swing (I'm one of the directors of the 8th grade play). Even though it is busy, I really love what I do. It is going to be very hard for me to give that up next year.

Weekend Plans- Tonight Mark and I are getting together with some friends for an ice cream and game night; we are all supposed to bring our favorite ice cream toppings... I am bringing oreos. Even in the winter that sounds so good :) Tomorrow we are going on a retreat to the Double J Ranch with our youth group kids from church and then we have our adult small group on Sunday night. Looks like Monday morning will come around quickly.

Adoption- There is not a lot to talk about on the adoption front. We are just waiting to hear more from Ethiopia. I think it is possible that we could get a referral anytime between April and October (this is just a guess). I hope it is sooner rather than later; our papers have been there for about a month and a half. We keep praying for our little baby; it is very possible that she is born already and it is crazy to think that our child is alive halfway across the world!
I have a blogging buddy who is adopting from Ethiopia through Bethany and her papers just got sent to Ethiopia so that is exciting to know there are other families joining us in Ethiopia!
Lately the wait has gone better; God has given me a peace about everything and I know things will happen when God allows.

That's all for now. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Joy

This is Paul talking to the church in Philippi, from Phil. 1:

"Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through being with you again, your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me."

Paul's prayer was that the people in Philippi would have joy that was overflowing because of his influence. I was thinking about this today....

Do I have joy that is contagious?
Who has joy that is overflowing because of my influence?
Who am I impacting with my joy?

It was a good challenge for me; I have so much to be joyful about.

Little Blessings

Happy Snow Day!! All you teachers and students out there- enjoy your day off!

Mondays

I have to admit that it was hard to get out of bed this morning :) Cold weather like this makes me just want to curl back under my down comforter and sleep for several more hours. Eventually, I did make it out of bed and to school where I had another great and busy Monday. I decided last year that since 1/7 of my life is spent on Mondays, I was going to try to appreciate them more. That still didn't make it easy to get out of bed on mornings as cold as this.....

Feeling Accomplished

We have an office in our house that eventually will be the baby's room. Today, we organized all the junk in there and then moved it all downstairs. So, now we have an nice organized office space downstairs and an empty room upstairs. I am not making a nursery yet, but it does feel good to at least have that space cleaned up. One more thing to check off my list of things to do before we bring a baby home :)

I hope you all have a good Saturday. It feels like a perfect weekend for hot chocolate, a fuzzy blanket and a good book or movie. Enjoy!

Where We Are At in the Process

We are learning more and more about the Ethiopian adoption process as we go through this journey and we have a few updates to share. We found out that Bethany is working on forming relationships with two orphanages in Ethiopia, one has only older children, but the other one has some babies. The Bethany staff in Ethiopia has talked to this orphanage about our referral, which is great news, although we don't know if this orphanage has any babies available right now or even, if they do, if they are ready to adopt those babies to Bethany families. While this is worked out, we are also in line with the Ethiopian government to be referred a baby from a government run orphanage. Basically, I think our baby will come from whatever orphanage has babies and/or is willing to adopt them to Bethany families first. So, it sounds like the Bethany staff in Ethiopia is working hard to get us a referral, but it still could be awhile yet, we just really don't know. None of this guarantees us less of a wait, but it is exciting to know that things continue to move along. I hope that all makes sense!

MI Primary

I hope all of you Michiganders voted in the primary today! I am trying to become more educated about the campaign this year. One website that helped me to decide who to vote for in the primary was glassbooth.org. Here you can rate which issues are important to you, take a little quiz sharing how you feel about these issues and then the website tells you which candidates match up with your views. It was interesting and it helped me to get a feel for where the candidates stand. Check it out.

1 Timothy 6

These verses from 1 Timothy 6:17-19 hit me this week:

17Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

I think if I read this a couple of years ago I would have dismissed it thinking that I am not "rich" so this verse doesn't apply to me. Only in this past year have I started to realize how truly rich I am. I drive a car which is more than more than 90% of the rest of the world can say. By the world's standards, I am rich becuase I live on way more than $2 a day.

It just got me thinking again.... What am I doing to be rich in good deeds? What am I doing to be generous and willing to share?

2 hour delay

I love being a teacher, especially on days like this where I get to crawl back in bed for 2 extra hours!
Happy Friday! :)

Babies

My cousin/college room mate/great friend Melissa DeHaan and her husband Matt just had a baby! His name is Cayden Matthew and I am dying to see him; unfortunately he lives in CA. But congrats to Matt and Melissa! Their blog is linked in my list to the right- hopefully they will post pictures soon.

Also, my sister is pregnant and last Friday she found out she will be having another girl...that will be two girls under a year and a half for her! Should be lots of fun.

A random adoption note- my blogging buddy Denise and her husband just got back safely from Ethiopia with the little girl they adopted. It is good to see everything went smoothly for them while they were in Addis Ababa. It makes us feel better watching other families go through the process without too many glitches.

That's all for now....

Progress

Today we heard that our papers in Ethiopia have made it through several steps already, which is great news! So far our dossier has been authenticated at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Verified at the Ministry of Justice and translated! Then they were brought to Addis Ababa (the capital) to the City Government Social Affairs Bureau to ask for a referral. The Bethany representative in Ethiopia has also talked to two orphanages about a referral for us.

I don't really know what this all means, because I don't know how long this stuff was supposed to take, but it seems to have gone really quickly through all of those organizations. I emailed my social worker with a few questions and she was going to look into them and then get back to me. When I know more I will keep you all posted! For now, we will just be excited that things are moving along!!

Pictures From the Week

Here are some pictures from our Christmas vacation. We a good relaxing time with family and friends. Tomorrow morning it's back to work...

My sister Kari and her husband, Kyle.


My brother Kyle and his girlfriend Annika. (Kyle actually just got a haircut :)
My mom and dad and my niece Arabella.
My brother Kris and my husband Mark are missing from these pictures. I had a picture of Kris but it wasn't digital, so I couldn't post it.This is how our dog Tiger felt about Christmas :) He was exhausted all week.
Mark and I went up north to Crystal for his work's ski trip. It was a great time!

Mark's family at church in MN.
Mark's brother Paul and his wife Jill and their daughter Jade ( the little one).
Mark and I with Mark's niece Bethany and nephew Zach.
My niece Arabella.

Home

After a great week of visiting family and friends in MN, SD and IA, we are home. It always feels good to sleep in our own bed after being away for awhile.

Now I have a day and a half to catch up on laundry, house cleaning and school work and then we leave Friday afternoon on a paid ski weekend with Mark's work! I am excited to ski but it has been awhile so hopefully I come back in one piece :)
Monday school starts again; the next couple of days are going to fly by.

On another note- I have a blogging buddy who is in Ethiopia right now with her husband picking up their new daughter! Click here to check it out.