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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Bloom

I should have done this long ago, but have literally NO excuse for it not appearing until now…

My amazing friends Amy and Elizabeth have embarked on one of the hardest journey’s a woman can take – they are finding the children of their hearts through adoption.

Amy and her husband Mark as well as their three wonderful children opted for a foreign adoption and found beautiful Mina in China. Amy’s story about knowing Mina was the child God intended for her family is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever heard…it still gives me goose bumps.

Elizabeth and her husband Joey opted for domestic adoption in a wonderful program that allows the mother to choose the family she feels is best for the child. E & J have also received confirmation of a child from God and are anxiously awaiting the birth. If you ever met these two people, you would surely agree with me that these two people were MADE for having children in their home! They have a love for children that is truly astounding.

In both cases, these women have exhibited a tremendous amount of courage and faith in God. I believe that both families will be blessed beyond measure for their obedience to God's call on their lives to adopt and for walking what has been a difficult road for both of them.

During their adoption processes, each of them found the same startling fact about adoption – its terribly expensive and can be tremendously prohibitive to potentially loving parents. The startling reality in our world is that children go homeless and hungry every day – in part due to the birth parents lack of ability to provide for their children, the birth parents reluctance to give up their children to adoption, and in part due to the fact that potentially safe and loving homes are not economically positioned to pay thousands of dollars in one lump sum to complete the adoption process.

As each of these families traveled on their journey to their children, they realized that there just are not enough resources to go around to help potential adoptive families meet the financial burden. So, Elizabeth and Joey, along with Amy and some other wonderful friends have launched The Bloom Project .

The Bloom Project seeks to raise awareness and support for adoption. They want to promote a culture where adoption is encouraged and supported. There are just too many children out there in need of loving, supportive, safe and secure homes and not enough willing adoptive parents who are able to afford the expensive process.

The Bloom Project is sponsoring a charity golf tournament on April 21. The tournaments proceeds as well as any donations received will benefit adoptive families by defraying the cost of adoption and will also contribute to specific orphanages for the care of the children.

If you’d like to play, sponsor or donate to this amazing project, click on the link above and check out the site.

Blessings and Peace, everyone!

Monday, March 24, 2008

Easter Fun…

How to Dye an Easter Egg:

Step 1: Receive Egg from Daddy



Step 2: Grip Egg in your best fast-pitch style



Step 3: Throw the Egg in the general direction of the dye…hope your aim is good, that Daddy is a good catcher and that he is holding the dye over the newspapers (seriously…can you see the splash in this picture???)



Step 4: Enjoy your results



WARNING: This is what happens when you miss:



Luckily for us, he managed to hit more times than miss – Atta Boy, Jay!




And next:

How to wear a suit:

1. Wear nice shoes and stand up straight



2. Smile! People love a man who smiles.



3. Don’t forget to be yourself…a suit, after all, is only one more set of clothes…



There was tremendous fun on Easter morning – Jay had new monkey dishes and a new Elmo fuzzy in his basket and Daddy had an Easter Egg/Treasure Hunt to complete…

We had brunch with Grandma and Grandpa Porter…Jay was an angel at brunch.

Alas, no pictures were taken – we were too busy having fun (and mommy forgot to take the camera to brunch).

The boy has been practicing his words with the plastic eggs –

"Egg! Egg! Egg!" Yes, they are eggs!

“Lello!” Yes it IS yellow.

“Open, close, open, close, open, close, open….” Well…you get the idea…

Hope you all had a Joyous Easter!!!

Thursday, March 20, 2008

FINALLY…

Some pictures…

First of all, I’ve been baking…Vanilla and Chocolate with pretty spring-colored cream cheese frosting. Oh, they were SO good!


I had promised pictures earlier of the Barbie Jeep ride…well…here are a couple. She took such good care of him while she was driving – see the arm around his shoulders and the stuffed animal for comfort? But the most priceless thing is his expression…she is obviously talking about something…and its equally obvious that what ever she is talking about thoroughly confuses him. So easy to see that understanding between men and women can be complicated right from the start, no?





Our boy has become QUITE the helper around the house…he’ll load the dishwasher if you hand him things (strictly spoons and plastic bowls at this point, but we have to build these habits early!!!) AND he will Swiffer…of course there is no guarantee he will get the corners…


Oh, and how is THIS for a hammy face – the wrinkle nose smile...it seems as though he is thinking, “Mommy – you are SO silly!”


The next few shots are especially for Grandma Barb and Grandpa Steve and “On Ellie,” because he’s playing with some of the things they have gifted him with…

First, the ginormous Leggos…when I’m in the kitchen, he drags the wagon full of them into the kitchen, dumps them out and goes to town…I’ve got QUITE the little builder…after Daddy took this shot, my comment was, “I kind of dread the day that he plays with SMALL leggos!”


When Jay was born, “On Ellie” gave him these two little LeapFrog toys. One sings the ABC’s and the other sings the 123’s. He has developed a HUGE love of turning them both on at the same time, holding one up to each ear and doing a little dance…its kind of the toddler version of headphones…


They are apparently WIRELESS toddler headphones, because they go everywhere – including on his new trike.


And one more for the road…Happy Easter – from Jay…


And the rest of us, too!

He is Risen!
He is Risen indeed!!

Monday, March 10, 2008

Isnt' it Ironic?????

That I changed my blog format to showcase photos but haven't posted a single photo since?

hmmmmmmm....

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Bugs, the Bug and a Bucket List

Ok…I’ve been a bad blogger!!!

Its not that I wasn’t thinking about all of you…its just that I’ve been really sick…still…


I suppose stating that we were on the mend two posts ago was premature, as Scott is the only person among us who has no lingering effects of this crazy cold/virus/plague that we have had.

The entire month of February was devoted to evicting the bugs from our bodies...its been brutal. And just so you know, ALL of us had a flu shot this year...I normally don't get a flu shot. But I figured Jay is high risk due to his age and so I didn't want to bring anything home to him. Little did I know that I would be more sick this year than I have been in 15 years! I'm still avoiding anti-biotics (more on that rant some other time!) but we HAD to give Jay something for his ears. Poor little guy had repeat ear infections.

The Bug has been doing so much so fast that I almost cannot keep up. Even sick, he’s a whirlwind. How do kids do that? I’m not sure, but I wish I could bottle his energy.

His vocabulary has been expanding daily. I think what amazes me the most is not that he learns new words, but the gets the ENTIRE concept all at once…a word, the context, the relationship of that new thing to his world…its all rather amazing.

The insight I get into his little mind…and into my relationship with God…is astounding. I long to learn and absorb and see things as though they were fresh and new like he does. I long to want to just sit next to somebody for the company and play with blocks because today what I build will be different than what I built yesterday. It’s a really refreshing way to look at life!

I have the cutest pictures of him sitting at his desk, driving in the Barbie jeep with Rebecca and just generally being the ham that he is…alas, I have not removed the pictures from the card in the camera.

I guess the pictures, like my blog, are another victim of “the crud.”

In honor of the movie The Bucket List - which I hear is fabulous, by the way – and a series of sermons at Forest Hill, I’ve been thinking about the idea of a Bucket List.

Just so we are all on the same page, a Bucket List is defined as the list of things you want to do before you kick the bucket! (clever, no?)

I’ve started a Bucket List of my own…Here are the things I’ve come up with so far:

Celebrate a 50th wedding anniversary (in case anyone is counting, that means I have to live to be at least 82.
See my son graduate from college…and graduate school.
See my grandchildren graduate from high school…and college…and graduate school.
Take care of my parents.
Make time for family vacations.
Make time for family game night.
Grow my own veggies.
Learn to really cook like a Food Network star.
Learn to take fabulous photos.
Share my love of Jesus with others.
Visit China and see the Great Wall.
Visit Egypt and see the Pyramids.
Visit Israel and see the Temple Mount and all the other sites.
Teach Jay to ride a bike.
Teach Jay to fish.
Teach Jay about our heritage - our family heritage, our Christian heritage.
Endow a music scholarship for children in elementary and middle school.

This is by no means a complete list…

But I did find that my bucket list is about relationships and experiences…When I really began to consider what I wanted to do before I die, being “comfortable” or “well-off” were not among my considerations. My desire is to make connections and to build understanding.

Just that last sentence along could take a lifetime.

So…what’s on YOUR Bucket List?