Our homeschool group had a couple representatives from the House of Reptiles come and show our group a number of very cool reptiles. The boys thought this show was very cool and touched everything they were allowed to touch. Some of the reptiles were off limits to touch for the kids. This guy was extremely comfortable with every reptile, spider, snake, etc that he showed.

Scorpion - They have a fluid inside them that makes them glow.
If you shine a light they turn blue so you can find them when it is dark...cool!

I am NOT a fan of spiders. This creeped me out.

He is so casual for having a spider this big crawling up his arm!

Can't remember the name of this one, but the both boys pet it.

Young alligator. Pretty cute at this size.

This alligator sat like this for quite some time. It looks so funny.

Notice he kept the head away from the kids....good idea.

It had been devenomized.

I told the mom sitting next to me that when you see a tool being

held by a handler you know the danger level just went up!

This snake was mean and not in the mood to show off!

CREEPY!

FREAKY!

Can't remember the name of this one, but it was really

mellow and super soft. I even touched this one.

Not something I would wear around my neck!

This snake was really long.

Luke touching the boa constrictor - Martin did too,

I just didn't get it on camera.

Bouldering

A few weeks ago we met some good friends for lunch and then headed over to The Circuit in Portland. It is a great bouldering gym with all kinds of climbing levels to choose from. Martin and Luke had a BLAST! This was their first time and they did fantastic. If they had actual climbing shoes I can only imagine what they could do. Both our boys have been climbing machines since day one! It was fun to see them conquer what they put their minds to. It was a great day and after 3 1/2 hours of bouldering they appeared to actually be a bit tired...this is rare. Thank you Anja and Lia for a fun day.

Younger children's area. Climb up the wall, slide down the slide

Next level up. Climb up wall, walk down ladder.

Luke doing some bouldering on different levels

This was tough!

This next series is of Martin. He wanted SO badly to get

to the top of this boulder. It took him multiple tries, but he

finally nailed it. I was impressed.

Closer

Switching angles.

Almost there

He nailed it! He was SO excited.

Similar? What do you think?

When I first saw Alesha's referral picture I thought I saw a lot of resemblance to our son, Luke. As I was looking through old photos I found this photo of Luke at about 6 months old. I am amazed at how much these two really look alike. Do you see it or is it just me?

Happy Birthday Dad

Today my dad would have turned 62 years old. I can't believe it has nearly been 17 years since he passed away. I miss him so much. There have been countless times that I wished he was still here. So many milestones he has missed. I am so thankful that in the last days of his life he accepted Christ as his Savior. How thankful I am that one day I will see him again.

This is an old photo, but it makes me smile every time I look at it. My dad loved kids and did silly fun stuff kids would do, like swinging. I miss his laugh and just having him around to talk to. Happy Birthday, Dad. You will always be in my heart. I love you!

Hail and Snow mix for March!?

Last night as we were finishing up dinner we heard VERY loud drops pounding on our skylights. We looked outside to see a significant amount of hail and snow mix falling out of the sky. The ground turned white very quickly and then as fast as it came it left. The rain came and washed it all away. Luke, was SO excited he ran outside and managed to make a mini snowman in about 5 minutes flat. Pretty good work for such a short window of resources :-)

Alesha's 1st Birthday Party

Here are a few shots from our family of four celebration of our precious Alesha's first birthday. In our hearts we SO wanted to be in India to celebrate her special day with her. Since we couldn't, I prepared an Indian dinner, the boys baked and decorated a cake (pink frosting with red writing), we bought some balloons, cards, a new pretty pink picture frame to frame one of my favorite pictures of Alesha, and had a mini celebration. I held it together for the most part the day of her birthday, it was the day after that I broke down. I am just happy to say that we will be able to celebrate her 2nd birthday as a family of 5! We are looking forward to a BIG birthday bash :-)

Happy Birthday, Alesha!

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY, ALESHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is our precious baby girl's 1st birthday!!! As I think about not having my daughter with me on her birthday it makes me think of her birth mother. I am so thankful for her birth mother choosing life for her baby. I pray for her today as I am sure her heart is aching along with mine. We are so thankful God has given our family this precious gift. We stand is awe of how God has put all the pieces together and look forward to bringing our daughter home soon.

We are going to cook Indian food for dinner tonight and have a little party just the four of us. The boys have already baked her cake and will decorate it this afternoon. We will take pictures and I will post them in the next couple of days.

I am so thankful that we have moved on to the guardianship phase of the process. Hopefully it won't be too many more months before we have our daughter home. There will be lots of other birthdays and other special days to celebrate with her.

Alesha, we love you so much and look forward to the day when we can fly to India, hold you in our arms, tell you how much we love you, give you tons of hugs and kisses, and then bring you back home with us as a family of 5.

Love always,
Mommy, Daddy, Martin and Luke

Yellow Belt

Our youngest son, Luke, tested for his yellow belt in taekwondo this week. He had a list of skills and terminology he had to demonstrate and then he needed to break a board with a front kick. He did a great job!!! The board broke on the first try. We are so proud of him. He is now an official yellow belt. His old white-striped belt was tied in a knot and presented to him to keep. They tie the previous belt into a knot as a symbol not to forget the knowledge and techniques associated with that belt.


A practice kick before the board break.


I snapped the photo too quick. He broke the board I just missed the actual break!


Luke, with his instructor.


Proud to have broken the board.


Thickness of board


Working on another kick.

NEWS!!!!!

What does that spell - NO OBJECTION CERTIFICATE!!!!!!!
(in short, India doesn't object to us being Alesha's parents )

These letters are SO important to our family. This means we are one step closer to our precious baby girl, Alesha! We will move on to the Kolkata courts hopefully by the end of this week or beginning of next. This step tends to take quite a while to accomplish, but we we are trusting in God's timing. We have all been doing the happy dance around our house and rejoicing in answered prayer. We want to thank all of our friends and family who have been praying for us and continue to pray for us through this long journey. You are appreciated and we can't wait to introduce you to our little girl when she finally arrives home.

Hang on baby girl we are coming! We LOVE you with all our hearts!!

My FIRST EVER massage

Tonight I experienced my very FIRST professional full-body massage. It was AMAZING! I felt very relaxed when it was finished. I was a bit nervous going into this, because I didn't know what to expect. I am VERY modest and wasn't sure how that part was going to work out. My fears were unwarranted as I felt very comfortable and relaxed. It is apparent that I have a LOT of VERY tight spots in my shoulder/neck area. She had to work that area for quite a while. The massage lasted 1hour 30 minutes. and was just lovely. The best part was that my mom gave me this massage as a gift. I love you mom. Now I know what to tell my hubby to get me when he asks me what I want.

Celebrating 60 years of life!

My mom's 60th birthday was February 6th, and my brother and I hosted a huge birthday party for her at my house. My brother and family came down from Spokane for the weekend. It was fun to watch my mom's reactions as she answered the door to see who the next guest was going to be. We didn't make it a surprise party, but who would be attending the party was a surprise. With all the family and friends who made it we had appox. 40 people celebrate her life. The next day, she said "That was the BEST party I have ever had. I have never felt SO loved!" Mission accomplished :-)

My mom is SO deserving of a great big fun party. She is such a fun person. My mom is so special to me. She is my best friend, a follower of Jesus, she is giving, compassionate, loving, passionate, encouraging, dedicated, hard working, has a servant's heart and the list goes on and on. Anyone who has had the privilege of having my mom be a part of their life is very blessed. Thank you mom for ALWAYS being there for me. I love you so much!! I am looking forward to many more years of making memories with you. Love, Sis

Our baby is 11 months old today

Today our precious Alesha turned 11 months old. I am sad when I think about the fact that another 30 days has passed and she still is not in my arms. Everyday that passes she is getting older and I am missing her change, because she is not here. It occurred to me today as I was more irritable and just not myself that subconsciously my frustration with the fact that she is not home really gets to me.....even when I try to deny it.

On the brighter side of things, here is another photo I received. This photo makes me laugh when I look at it. This is quite the outfit and I like how she is holding her fingers. This photo is a visual answer to prayer for me. I had been praying from last month that Alesha would be able to sit up. This is a huge step for her. I was happy to hear and see that she is doing well and looks like she has gained some weight from the last photos I received....always a good sign :-). It will be fun to see how quickly she will develop once she gets home and gets lots of one-on-one attention. I am also looking forward to watching her try to keep up with her brothers.

At this point we are still waiting on the NOC "No Objection Certificate" The next step with be the guardianship step, which includes the scrutinizing of our paperwork, a court date, the judge granting us guardianship and then him signing off on the paperwork. After this step we wait for Alesha's passport to be issued and get ICPC clearance. After all this is completed we can book our flights in India!!! Our prayer has been that we would be in India for Alesha's first birthday, March 1st. We realize that this would be a miracle of God for this to happen! As we have prayed for this we believe that God has the power to make this happen. He has the power to supersede paperwork and governmental steps in order to bring Alesha home in HIS timing. We are also aware that God may not want us to be in India March 1st. We can say that if that is the case we know that God has a reason and we are trusting in Him alone.

Happy 11 month birthday baby girl! We love you so much and can't wait to have you home forever. Hang on, we are coming just as soon as we can.

Oh, How I long for my baby girl!

We received these photos the day after I posted my last blog entry. Wow, God is FAITHFUL. I am so thankful for Tami taking these pics for me. They really lifted my spirits. We got a great update, too. Alesha, is doing really well. She is eating and sleeping good. She is able to push up on her arms when on her tummy, and she can sit up on her own with just a little support. Good job baby girl! These pics sure do make the NOC a bit easier in some ways, but harder in the sense that I am not there with her and everyday she is changing without me. I can't wait to have her in my arms forever!!!

HAVE I MENTIONED HOW MUCH I LOVE MY BABY GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1


Her eyes just melt my heart!


Absolutely precious. Look at that face!
"Look at me mommy, I can push up on my arms"


She looks a bit freaked out in this photo.
Looks like she has a built-in pacifier :-)

Change and Fear

After much discussion and prayer we have decided that we will be taking our boys with us to India to bring our precious Alesha home. Our boys have been in this process from the beginning and are just as invested in it as we are. As we weighed all the pros and cons of bringing them with us we concluded that the only reasons we were not going to take them was money (passports, visas, airline tickets, etc) and inconvenience (extra packing, planning, potential sickness, crabbiness, culture shock, logistics,etc) We have decided that these are NOT good enough reasons (for us personally) to not take them. They are old enough to make the trip and we believe that it will be a life-changing trip for them. They are REALLY excited to go to India. I think meeting Alesha for the first time as a family in her birth country will be a very meaningful and powerful experience that we will all cherish forever.

It is funny how you have things planned out in your mind of how things will look and then there is a change, whether it be big or small. Bringing our boys was NOT in my thought process or planning. As we plan and pursue this change I am confronted with the fact that I have a lot of fear. I am not exactly a person that gets jazzed to board a plane, I don't really like the unknown, I fear for my children's safety and health, will my daughter that I have longed for for so long like me?, and the list goes on and on. Change has always been difficult for me. It is funny that as I looked over this post how many times I used the word change (that is why I put it in bold). It seems that along with change comes an element of fear. Change, for me, also brings to light the level of control that I like to have. This entire adoption journey has really tested me in the area of control. There is only so much in this process that you can actually control. WOW, this is SO FRUSTRATING at times. I think that with the lack of control is where my fear comes in. It doesn't make sense. I know that I shouldn't fear, but I do. God is really working on me in these areas. I need to just let go and TRUST God and HIS plan. There have been so many times in my life where I have been fearful and not in control of a situation and God has always been there and seen me through to the other side. I am trying to keep my focus on His faithfulness during those times and REST in HIM during my times of fear. I guess when it comes right down to it I think that when I am in control I can do it better. What a joke! The God of the universe, the one who created me, loves me, gave His life for me, and has a plan for my life.....don't you think HE would know best? The answer is YES! I guess it is human nature to rely on ourselves instead of God. I know in my head that God will help me through this, I think that I need to allow God to penetrate my heart with this truth! I know that He is fully capable of bringing the additional funds we need, protecting us in country, caring for my precious daughter while I am not there, and working out all the details of our upcoming trips, and all the changes that will come as we settle in back at home. Please pray for me that God will flood me with peace and that I will ultimately surrender to HIM and HIS plan for my life.

I wanted to journal these feelings so that I can look back and have yet another record of answered prayer and to see God's faithfulness to me.

I read this poem the other day and it really spoke to me. Words to live by!

You Can, Because He Can

by Roy Lessin

You can ask the Lord

because He will not give you a wrong answer.

You can wait upon the Lord

because His timing is always perfect.

You can trust in the Lord

because He makes no mistakes.

You can hope in the Lord

because He holds your future.

You can rest in the Lord

because He is in control of your life.

You can lean upon the Lord

because He is completely faithful.

ARTICLE 5 so Glad you Arrived!

Last night I made my first call EVER to a US Embassy. This Embassy would be in India and it was quite the experience. From dialing a very long phone number, to a weird ring tone, to being promptly greeeted by a very friendly heavy accented voice then to be put on hold and then promptly disconnected. At this point my husband and I were beginning to laugh a bit. I then called again and this time the first scenario played out, but I was put on hold for a very long time. During this wait I was able to listen to Christmas music that sounded like it was being played off of one of those wind up old fashioned record players back in the old days.....it was playing fa, la,la, la, la , la (wind up here as it was fading) to a louder FA, LA, LA and this was accompanied by static. We were laughing pretty hard at this point. As I waited on hold I was hoping that the rest of this call would play out okay. I was greeted by a nice man who I could barely understand and he said he could help me and then put his hand over the phone and carried on a conversation that I could faintly hear with another person that must have been sitting next to him. He then came back on and said that our Article 5 was sent to CARA yesterday. I repeated back what I thought I heard him say and he confirmed. I then asked if I would be getting an email regarding the approval and he said yes and I asked if it would be today and then the conversation blurred heavily at that point. Thankfully I received the confirmation letter today and all is well. I can only imagine what our Embassy appointment will be like when we are there in person.

I took the boys shopping yesterday so they could spend some of their Christmas money that was burning a hole in their pocket and found these adorable outfits while we were there. I haven't bought hardly anything for Alesha, because I don't know how big she will be or the exact time she will be home, but I couldn't resist these. I figured that I would just buy an outfit on her monthly birthday until I have her in my arms.

This is my favorite. I held it up to Luke and asked him what he thought.
He said "Oh, Alesha will look so good in that. She will look good in red."
I couldn't agree more. Our little princess already has an outfit with her name on it :-)

I love purple and this was so cute I couldn't pass it up.

Happy New Year brings 10 Months of Life

On the first day of this New Year I am excited about......

our baby girl turning 10 months old.
knowing that our daughter will be home with her forever family this year!
seeing how each of our boys will change in the coming year
what God has planned for our family
continuing forming friendships with our neighbors
and much, much more

I cannot believe that another year has passed. This last year seemed to go by so quickly. Today I am celebrating not only the first day of a New Year, but the 10 month birthday of our precious daughter, Alesha! As the 1st day of every months comes I am filled with lots of emotions. First, I am so thankful that God has blessed us with our beautiful daughter. It sure has been a LONG road, but I am thankful to now see the precious face of my daughter. Second, I am sad that it means I have missed another 30 days of her life. Oh, how I wish she could be home so I could feed her her bottles, get her dressed, change her diaper, sing to her, read her stories, rock her, give her hugs and kisses, tell her how much I love her, watch her brothers hold her and play with her, and start making memories as a family of five. Third, and most important, I know that God has this entire adoption journey planned out and sees that big picture of how the timing will play out. We continue to surrender to His timing, even when it hard and doesn't seem to make sense.

It has been exciting to start talking about our travel plans to India, finish up our adoption eduction, and sharing our adoption experience with others. I am thrilled that the people we share our adoption experience with are so excited and can't wait to have Alesha home. It is refreshing to hear such a positive response. The one question I get right out of the gates is "Why does it take SO long to adopt? It doesn't make sense." My response has been you are right, it doesn't make sense. I simply state that there is a lot of paperwork and lots of government bureaucracy that you need to wade through and I have stopped trying to figure it out. I tell them that God led us to adoption and we are trusting in Him to bring our daughter home in His timing. It is frustrating and it breaks my heart that it is so difficult, because I believe that so many MORE people would adopt locally and internationally if the process didn't take years to complete.

As we bring in the new year we are still waiting for our Article 5 to arrive. It seems that since we accepted our referral the following steps of the process have gotten delayed by Thanksgiving, Christmas and now the New Year. I am excited to receive the email that says our Article 5 has been approved and we can move on to the next step.....the NOC. Until then we will wait and pray for our daughter that she will feel God's love through the wonderful ladies who are caring for her in our absence. We love you Alesha and you will be home soon.