Giving thanks...

Our Happy Thanksgiving is over...sniff, sniff...

I love Thanksgiving. It is a relaxing, slow, holiday with family, friends, lots of talking, laughter, and yummy eating. It is time to reflect on the past year, all that we have been blessed with, and the beginning of the excitement that the start of advent holds.

I just love it...

We spent a wonderful Thanksgiving visit with all the Snells up in Maryland. Mimi and PopPop hosted a wonderful few days of awesome food (despite their new oven not working - yes, turkey can be done on a grill!). We got some shopping done (just the craft store for me - I don't really like shopping!), and lots of cousin time. We even got to visit for a while with John's aunt and uncle from Maine and their son and his wife and their cute little boys (who live on the Maryland coast).

We returned home to find our house...alarming. Smoke alarming, that is. We had received a call, the first day away, from a concerned neighbor (thanks Carol!), who had been walking her dogs by our house and heard our alarms going off. She called our house to check on us and luckily our home phone rings our cell phones if we don't answer. We tried to talk through telling her where the hidden key is located and where the power box is in the house, etc.

Luckily there was no smoke or smells, but nothing turned off the alarms. They are connected to one another electrically but even without power, they all have batteries. We didn't want them to have to deactivate all the batteries on all three floors. So the alarms sounded the entire time we were away. Nothing too loud outside, except if you were walking by (we have a sidewalk that many walkers use - I'm sure it turned a lot of heads. On the bright side, no robbers would have come near...)

Mimi and PopPop's treehouse in the woods for the grandkids - complete with built in bunk beds, ceiling fan/heater, dvd player, front porch with a porch swing, real windows and doors. It was a labor of love and is a family favorite!

John found the problem when we returned and fixed it. Although, just now (as I was typing), I had to run and take down the one defective alarm as they all just went off again. Guess it still needs work. Man, they are loud...

Thankful that there was no fire, among all the provisions that I thanked the Lord for this week.

Reminding myself that being thankful and giving thanks is something to do daily - not just once a year.

Thank you God for all you have given me. I am one lucky girl...

Sandy Sadness...

The second biggy that was going on in our lives and hearts over the last week or so...Hurricane Sandy. I am a Jersey girl...well, actually a NYC girl and Jersey girl all wrapped up into one. I spent the first half of my childhood growing up in NYC and the second half living in the suburbs of the city in Northern NJ.

My summers as a child were spent on Long Island, NY and then later, once we moved to NJ, on the Jersey Shore. Since our oldest was about 3, we have been spending a week each summer at the Shore on Long Beach Island. Beach Haven, our town, is my happy place. Our week there each year is our Christmas gift from my mom to my sisters and our families. All of our children (and us) live for this week. We are all relaxed and my mom is in her element. Others, might be confused - it isn't the most beautiful or glamorous place - but it is our happy place and nothing is like our time there or all the memories we share from our weeks together there.

I have spent so much time over the last two weeks watching youtube videos, googling photos of the hurricane and the damage at the shore. My heart breaks and the tears fall. Long Beach Island, like so many other places along the NJ (and NY) coast was completely underwater. To see the photos of all that has been lost and the damage and destruction - well, it has rocked me. Not sure we will even be able to go back next year. The photo at the top of our blog (at the time of this writing) is taken on the front porch of our rental home. Even that porch is our happy place.

My heart breaks for the families who have lost lives, homes, belongings, security in NJ and NY. My prayers are for their safety, restoration, and strength as they face the cleanup, the rebuilding, and the changes. Lord, please bless the people of the shore.

As we arrive to the island every summer, we all wait to be greeted by the LBI shack. It is a little shack 

(was originally a duck hunting club or something from way back in the 1920's). Over the years it has been many things and has been deserted for quite some time. When we started going to the beach there, it had a roof. Every year it gets more and more run down. Each year, John jokes that it's our beach house...and each year we all cheer when we see it.

The shack is the subject of many photographs and paintings found on the island. It is sort of a symbol. A symbol that you have arrived...that you can let out a long relaxing breath - that the long drive to the beach is over (it's quite a trip from Virginia with 6 noisy kids, just sayin'). It symbolizes vacation and family time and all the hopes the start of vacation holds. This summer as we passed it I took the picture above. I think it's the first time I ever took a picture of it. It is along the highway road that takes you onto the island. It sits in a field by the bay - alone, next to a billboard (which sits to the right, but not in the photo).

When the news starting coming out about the flooding, of course we worried for the wonderful beach houses, the amusement park that we visit each year on the island, our beach house and all our regular haunts. But my thoughts turned to the shack as well. Would it make it. There were actually people tweeting about the chances of the shack's ability to survive. There were reports throughout the weeks that it was still standing, that it was battered but still there.

By the end of last week, the final word on the shack's condition surfaced. It broke my heart.

It is gone.

 Rest in peace little shack. I'm gonna miss you...

I am grateful that my parents are doing well after the storm. Tho' they don't live at the Jersey shore, they still live in Northern NJ - they have only just today (nearly 2 weeks later) gotten their power back. They describe my hometown as a disaster zone - trees and power lines down everywhere. Streets undriveable, no heat, no power, no phone, no internet.  They stuck it out - they are very strong, independent, spunky 80 year olds (sorry mom, just trying to make a point here). They slept by their gas fireplace, wore gloves and sweaters, and got by for the first week. By the second week, they relented to staying in a hotel. They are glad to be back in their home, with power and heat. But their town will be cleaning up for a long time to come (and they live about an hour inland from the shore). Lord, please bless the people of New Jersey.

How to help :   Donate to the Red Cross   http://www.redcross.org/hurricane-sandy

Website about the LBI Shack including a short documentary link  http://www.savetheshack.com/

Pumpkin patchin'...

Somehow, the Fall, and Halloween, and pumpkins, just don't feel right without a visit with the cousins. My sister Jill and I have lived within 3 hours of each other since I started having babies (wait, actually even before babies). She has always lived in Maryland, I in Virginia. Because we both have children with Fall birthdays, we have often had a visit with one another sometime in October - either for birthday partying, trick or treating, or pumpkin patching.

This year, we made the trip to them with my four younger - who, conveniently, are nearly the exact ages of her four kids (yes, I know I have probably mentioned that fact once or ten times before on this blog) - and the best of buds. Anyway, it was a wonderful long weekend. Just us moms, as John was home with my teens, and Marc was at a dental convention. We went to a fabulous pumpkin patch just over the border in West Virginia - and it was sooooo fun! Animals, hayrides, trampolines, huge playground, campfire, corn maze and a sky that looked like something from a movie...yep...we had some fun...

**rare appearance of yours truly...

The girls went one way through the maze and the boys another - we ended up running into them midway through the huge maze.

At the lookout point (aka the place to go when you don't know where the heck you are in the maze).

The sun shone right over the farm but beyond was an ominous sky.

When I was a little girl growing up in NYC, my favorite animal was a goat. Why, you ask? Well, I have no earthly idea except that I once visited a farm and got to play with the baby goats. I was such a city kid and that was such an amazing experience for me. I have always had a soft spot for them ever since...even tho' they are sorta dirty things...This guy was so funny sleeping up on the feeding tray.

Another rare appearance of the camera lady...

My beautiful baby sister Jill...she'll probably kill me for putting this on here...with her adorable little  "D"

Back at Jill's the kids played a wonderful game of soccer (all 8 of them), in Jill's front yard. This photo was taken just seconds before the game came to an abrupt halt when Jemila allowed several goals to go in. Everyone sorta turned on her...poor thing. Found out later that she had spent the game whining about not being able to be goalie and telling all of them that she is the best goalie for the job...this kinda thing always happens when I finally find my camera...

Of course, no visit to Jill's is ever complete without a visit or two to Rita's Italian Ice...thinking about it makes me want to drive there right now....hold me back....

All in all it was a wonderful weekend with more memories made and cousin bonding. Always great to hang out with my little sister and all her fun kids.  Thanks guys for having us!

Thank you...

THANK YOU - THANK YOU! 

Within one week, we have met our goal to receive our matching gift!

Within one week, you rallied around us and donated over $500 toward our puzzle, toward our matching gift - and toward bringing T home. Bless you and thank you!

With our matching gift, we now have 335 of our 500 puzzle pieces sponsored. Please take a minute to check out all the wonderful puzzle sponsors listed at the bottom of the blog.

We still have work to do. We are still selling puzzle pieces ($10 a piece). We want to finish that puzzle!

We are still selling yummy coffee - Just Love Coffee - lots of yummy free-trade choices. They would make wonderful office/teacher gifts for Christmas!

We are close to choosing a t-shirt design that we will be selling soon here on the blog.

In a couple of weeks, we will have info for our local friends, inviting you to our open-house Holiday Market. We'll have an afternoon of Christmas shopping here at our house with lots of vendors, door-prizes, and holiday cheer!

In the meantime, we are applying for adoption grants and filling out more paperwork!

Yes, more paperwork - OUR REFERRAL PAPERS!! Yes, T's actual referral arrived yesterday along with tons of other papers, immigration applications, etc. So we are sending those all back to the agency in a day along with the final agency fee! The other cool news we got this past week is that our dossier is now listed (on the China Affairs adoption website) as being "in process." Apparently our agency said this was very quick for them to already have it translated and to be working on. It seems like things are currently moving a bit faster than usual. YAY!

You may have noticed that we are now referring to our new daughter as "T." Last week we received a new form from our homestudy agency, stating that we are not allowed to put info or pictures on the internet until our adoption is final (soooo bummed about this as our placement agency had said we could post pictures as soon as we received our next China approval). This is apparently a new Virginia policy but we will be investigating it as the wording it vague and it contradicts what we were told by our placement agency. So for now, I will be going back through the blog to change any reference to our new daughter to "T."

I am so sad if it is actually true that all photos of waiting children will ultimately not be allowed on the internet. I am particularly sad for adoption advocacy sites that post info about children who are waiting or are in the process of being adopted. What a shame if waiting children can no longer be shown in pictures on the web. This is how we found T and our Ethiopian daughters. More to come on this new development.

My pictures didn't download in time right now, but be looking for a photo-full post coming soon, of our Fall fun weekend with the cousins!

Days of Summer...

Ah...summer has been fabulous this year! We are enjoying each other more, doing more, and I am loving having all my kids here while life is carefree and fairly schedule-free. Personally, I am dreading the school schedule and daily grind that is fast approaching...

All four of the older kids were blessed to be able to attend youth conferences. The younger boys attended CIY-MIX in Knoxville TN, and the older two attended CIY-MOVE in Cleveland, TN. They traveled with our youth group, spent a week away from home, learned and worshiped lots, and had tons of fun. They were blessed to be able to do these trips through financial gifts the church received. All four spent their Thursday mornings this summer, serving at the church - cleaning, fixing, gardening, babysitting, etc in exchange for being able to attend the conferences. All around a win - they really learned to appreciate the gift of getting to attend (during a year when we are really trying to save), as well as felt real pride in the hard work they provided to God and our church each Thursday.

The little girls attended several VBS programs around town, took swimming lessons, and Kulate attended a few weeks of summer school. We hung out at the pool and the playground, and did crafts and lots of reading. We also had a great start to summer with a much needed trip to the Snell family and cousins up in Maryland. We always celebrate the July 4th with them in style with the best fireworks ever in PopPop's driveway!

Drew got to do some extra fun things this summer. He went "on tour" with his band (Raintree) and went up the East coast playing at house parties, festivals, and a few restaurants. They are a group of 5 extremely talented guys who compose their own music (most of it I like, some, well, not so much). They are wonderful guys and tho' I totally trust them all, this was a tough thing for me - to let Drew go with just a small amount of his own money, in a car with 5 guys and a trailer hitched on back. They had some idea of a plan and some booked shows, but everything else wasn't planned. They spent a few nights with relatives (my parents included), a few at hotels, and a few with new friends they met, and two in sleeping bags in a Wal-Mart parking lot (EE-GADS!!!). They went from VA all the way up to MA. So proud of my boy (and me too for not freaking out too much and letting him "follow his dream"). Thank you Lord for your protection.  He also got to do another fun short trip with his girl friend Zoe and her family - up to visit her relatives and the beach in DE.

We have recently returned from the family's favorite week of the year...the beach...the Jersey shore (THANKFULLY it is NOTHING like the Snooky's Jersey shore). We have gone to Long Beach Island now for 12 years. Having grown up in NJ and going "down-a-shore" for most of my childhood, my memories of our times at the beach are some of my happiest. So it is for my kids.

We go to the beach because my mom is AWESOME! She "gives" us this week each year. She arranges and pays for our house and provides us with towels, sheets, papergoods for the kitchen and always some wonderful foods she has lovingly prepared before. Spending this week with her each year is so special (especially this year - she just turned 80 and is just as energetic as ever). This year there were 17 of us at the house - other years there have been more but we were missing two of the husbands due to their work. The house is huge and the noise and laughter is huge and the memories will last forever!

God gave us glorious warm, sunny, breezy weather and we forgot about phones, and emails, and schedules, and worries, and just played in the ocean like little kids, built castles, rode rides at the Fantasy Island Amusement Park, celebrated Kulate's 6th bday, and enjoyed tea and coffee and long chats on our wonderful front porch. It was heavenly.

This year we ended our vacation with a two day stay at my mom's after the beach along with my sister and her family. Our little girls had never been there and were just as excited about seeing Grandma and Grandpa's house as they were going to the beach! 

**Notice my mom over our shoulders! (that's actually a reflection of her in the mirror behind us!). lol.

We spent one day in NYC (an outing I had long wanted to do) with my brother-in-law Jimmie as our driver (of our big ugly van) and tour guide. Little did we know that he is as good as any taxi driver there and can spout off history and knowledge about everything in the city as he makes his way through the crazy traffic. We could never have seen as much as we did without his help. It was a whirlwind tour of the city - we saw all the highlights without all the walking. We even saw a tv actor walk right by our car (Michael Emerson from Lost).

The most meaningful part of the tour to me was the 9/11 memorial. I haven't been back to the city since the event and it was so emotional to me to be there. Having been born in the city and spending my first nine years living in the city (Greenwich Village), I am a true New Yorker. It made me cry. The place is very peaceful and will be beautiful when all finished. Truly a place of beauty in a place that had seen such devastation. 

Before leaving mom's we went out to breakfast at a local NJ diner. Look who showed up and happily agreed to a picture? Chris Christie, governor of NJ (and keynote speaker at this year's upcoming Republican Convention).

After about a week back home in VA, we were able to journey back up to Maryland again to meet up  with my sister (who had stayed at my mom's for the week after our NYC tour) and her kids, at my other sister's home. The purpose of our trip was to visit DelGrosso Amusement Park in PA for a day. What a cool place - like something from another time. We spent half the day at the amusement rides, and several hours at the water park. Soooooo fun!!

Janie traveled back to VA with us as they were ultimately on route to  FL where they live. We got to have another few days with them (as well as with Jill's two older sons who came back home with us). We spent the days swimming, shopping, playing games, and eating! Jill made the trip down with her two little ones for a night to retrieve the boys. We had one more night all together before everyone had to return home to face the inevitable end of vacations, playing, and summer. Bleh... do I really have to  start to think about fall and plan our school and all this next school year will hold? 

Thank you God for family and summer and vacation and the beach. We are so blessed...