April's List

All I can say is 4 more sleeps until the new shared list comes out!!!! Hopefully April is our month:0) Sigh.....at least its only 4 more sleeps until we know if we have a referral this month or not! Have a fab weekend! We plan on enjoying our spectacular weather:0) +20 we are all wearing capris, shorts, and flip flops;) I so love when winter gives way to spring!

Som Finds!

I really don't have much to update on! We had a lovely weekend, Howard was home for 4 days and we even got out on a date (lunch and equipment auction!hahaha!) The lunch was lovely and I actually had fun crawling in and out of all the the travel trailers the auction will be selling this week. The kids are great and we saw some dear friends we haven't seen in a while.

I thought I would share a couple finds. This magazine( Life: beautiful)is awesome its has some tea party ideas, an article on China some yummy recipes, and if you look in the front it has a calender with scripture reading from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs for each day so you can read the Bible in a year. There is also some great articles from Dr James Dobson, Max Lucado, Dr Gary Smalley and Joyce Meyer in each publication. If your in Western Canada I got my magazine at Save On Foods.

My second find is... on Ebay a girl can find some high end bras! Think Freya, Fantasie etc. etc.

for a quarter of the price they sell for in specialty stores most of them New With Tags (NWT) I like to support our local retailers but when the bra I want is $168 and I can by it for $46 it makes it rather hard to shop local! I will continue to shop locally once in a while, but for my favourite bras that I know the size and model# I think Ebay might be the ticket:0)

On a different note.....can that darn waiting child list come out already:0) We're on pins and needles over here! Hope you have a lovely week, I plan to get out and enjoy our spectacular weather they are forecasting with my Riley-girl we might have to do a picnic at the park if it truly reaches the highs they are forecasting!

Not much excitement around here

Well its April which means.......that the new SN list will be out anywhere between 5-19 days (if it is released when expected) I am starting to get some little butterflies in my stomach when I think about it! We may be matched this month, then again maybe not.....I am soooo ready to get on with this! And meet our newest little member of our family. I am shopping around for car seats and a stroller, and loving it:0) When we had our first child Nate, we were so young and had very little so most of what we had for baby gear were hand me downs, don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with second hand items, but it's such a treat to be able to pick exactly what you want this time around:0)
This last week the sun has been shinning and the daylight is lasting so much longer, I think it was 8PM and it wasn't dark out! All of our snow is almost gone! Except the big piles. We even saw a few people wearing sandals and capri pants!!!! It so isn't that warm yet:0) I think our highs have been +5 so its still chilly, but I guess when you live in Northern Alberta as soon as its in the pluses people think its time to pull out the shorts!lol! I have been loving Winners. They have so many cute little sets for Riley this year. I have also really been loving Matilda Jane and Etsy. The boys haven't grown much over the year so I think most of their last year stuff will fit.
We are in the process of shopping for a travel trailer, as Howard will be working away from home most of the summer. The area he is working in is 30 minutes away from our church camp land so we thought if we had a trailer out there it would cut down on hotel expenses and the kids and I could come and go every couple days. The camp land is awesome a slow moving river with sandy banks cuts through the property so we can swim and play. I think we might make a trip to Edmonton next weekend to take a look at a few of the trailers we like, and do some shopping:0)The kids have been bugging us to go to the indoor waterpark at West Edmonton Mall and since we won't be going on a vacation down south this year at least we can do this with them!
I am hoping Howard will have tomorrow off (Easter Sunday) its a possibility even though its his weekend to work. A really nice lady from our church heard that we were "on our own" for Easter and she invited us to join her family for dinner, did I mention she already has 32 people confirmed for dinner!?! I guess when you have that many family members whats 5 more people! I'm not sure if we will go, we have lived here for 8 years and have gotten use to not having family around for all the holidays. Usually I would have some other people over for dinner, but I just wasn't on it this year:0) I think the first couple years I felt homesick, but now I enjoy the holidays and creating our own traditions. Don't get me wrong if my family showed up on our front steps I would be ecstatic!
Well now that I have babbled on about basically nothing, because thats exactly whats been going on here! Busy with the kids but busy with the same old same old and loving it:) I should get ready for the day! Hope you have a Happy Easter!

Good Friday

Today is Good Friday and I have spent this Passion Week reflecting on what it is that God did for us through Jesus. Usually we see these "pretty" pictures of a beautiful Jesus on a cross. Well it wasn't pretty what he went through for us..... I think we forget or take for granted that what Jesus went through for us was the ultimate act of love. He was betrayed by one of his best friends, and then was beaten so badly that by all accounts his organs should have been visible (the beating probably should have killed him) the Romans tried to humiliate him with his crown of thorns, and then finally after all these atrocities he had spikes driven through his wrists and feet on a cross. And then he took all of our sins past, present and future on himself.... Jesus the man who when he walked this earth never ever sinned. God forsook his one and only son so that we the imperfect people of this world could never feel what its like to be truly forsaken by God, have a choice of a relationship with him and a chance of eternal life with him in heaven! Even those of us who don't believe have never known what its like to be truly and wholly forsaken by God. Every good and wonderful gift we have received is from him, the fact we are breathing right now is a gift from him. So I reflect on what Jesus did and the pain he felt for me, and I am humbled and amazed and Thank you hardly seems adequate. This week I have learned through quiet time, prayer,and a couple amazing messages that God is GOOD! Like crazy good. I knew that, but did I truly believe it? Even in the "dark times" We have all had those dark times. But in this time of reflection I think for me I truly believed that God is good and that he is truly for me! That now when I am in the dark that instead of asking why? I will choose to ask what? What, God do you want me to do with this? How can I use this pain for your glory? What is your plan for me? I think for me that is the only way for me to "carry my cross" to show my gratitude for Jesus sacrifice for me.... I know I can never earn what he did for me, but I know I can choose for my pain and sorrow to stunt me and my growth and affect others negatively in my life; or I can choose to allow God to use it for good. So I hope that the latter is what I will choose each morning when I wake up. I know I am not very eloquent in my writing but I am truly passionate that people get this! I watched an amazing message on Life Church's website and would encourage anyone who needs some encouragement to check out their site Pastor Craig Groeschel is an amazing speaker. www.lifechurch.tv The message I am talking about is called Red Letter Day and it is message number 1 in the series. Anyways I hope you and your family's have a wonderful Easter weekend!

Home from Montreal & Birthday Celebrations!

Well Nathan and I arrived home last night from a 4 day trip to Montreal. It was a bit of a whirlwind! We had 2 days of doctors appointments and then 2 days of travel! So unfortunately it left very little time for shopping and enjoying the city. We had all good news! (That doesn't happen very often) Nathan's bone density has increased an icredible 9.5% in the last year, which is huge! His strength is increasing significantly and he does not need hip surgery this year! Hooray! We met some lovely families this trip to the hospital all with children with brittle bone disease. One family in paticular really encouraged me this trip and I hope to keep in touch with them as they were a wealth of knowledge and seem to be living for the Lord!

We are waiting for a refferal from the special needs list, we are still holding out that Xue Ying (Addison) will show up on the list but we haven't been given much hope that she will show up. We have been told we are near the top of the list for refferal, hopefully next month will be our month to see who God has wanted to place in our home! I trust him and his will, wherever that leads us.

Today is Nate's birthday! He is our oldest and he turns 11 today! I feel like I blinked and now he is in Grade 5! He has been such a blessing in our lives. We have seen him through many health issues and somehow he still seems to keep a positive attitude and sense of humor. Had someone told me before Nate was born that he would have brittle bone disease, I would have said I could never do it......but we don't know what we are truly capable of. I am so thankful that God blessed Howard and I with Nathan, he has changed our lives for the better! I am a better Mother, Wife, Friend and Person because of Nathan. I don't know if we would have accepted Jesus as our personal saviour if we hadn't had Nate. He changed the course of our lives, and for that I will forever be grateful. So Happy 11th Birthday my beautiful, funny, stuborn, strong, music loving son!

Hope

What a month this has been! I can truly say we are starting to see the sunshine in our lives again!I am not sure what God has in store for us, but I know that my hope is in Him and Him alone, so I will have patience and trust his good a perfect will. This last month has flown by, we were blessed with a visit from my Mom and Dad. I was thankful that my Mom didn't pressure me to be some super hostess:0) I think she knew I wasn't capable! She was such a great help with looking after the kids and helping me keep on top of the house. A couple days before my Mom came to visit our family was in a little fender bender and fortunately the kids and Howard were not hurt, however I hurt my back! Crappy timing but it was nice to not have to leave the house for a few days so that I could recuperate! I am feeling much better! I have been reading like crazy, and forgot how much I LOVE getting lost in a good story! To my astonishment I have read 15 books since the end of December!!! Nothing of substance just some good old suspense/ romance books:0) The weather here has been amazing so much so that when all the kids are at school/preschool I have been able to get out to the walking trails! We have even had many days in a row in the plus numbers! Our snow has turned into rivers of slush and ice and mud. I pray that we won't get another burst of winter, however we are not usually safe from that threat until the 3rd week of May. In the mean time I have been enjoying the sun and fresh air. The kids have been doing well... Howard has been working away ALOT I think he was gone for 20 days in February! This is not our normal, usually he is home every night, but lately he has been working 3+ hours west of our home so its too far for him to drive back a fourth. All this to say that having him away so much is affecting all three of the kids..... not in a positive way! I am trying to be understanding and pour more of myself into them, however I know its not the same;0) Nate and I will be heading to Montreal near the end of March to see his specialists at Shriners hospital, he has been doing water therapy one day a week and dryland physio 2 days a week, in hopes that it will help strengthen the muscles in his legs that have weakened so much in the last 2 yrs we will find out if all his hard work has paid off soon. I have been trying to talk Josh into trying ski lessons so he and I could go up skiing once in a while but the lad is hooked on snowboarding and I do not know how to snowboard! He needs quite a bit more practice on the board before he could even hit a a green run etc. His instructor said he needs to practice steering quite a bit more before he takes more lessons so I will leave that to Howard who use to love snowboarding! Riley is flourishing in preschool, she will be starting speech after Spring break as she has been stuttering quite frequently. I believe its more emotional than anything else because it always gets worse when Howard is working away. My Sister and Mom will arrive for a week visit on Sunday, and then my Dad will arrive on Thursday for 3 days. I am looking forward to see them all now that I am starting to feel like myself again! Its Spring Break here and it started today! Yahoo! Also our community is hosting the Arctic winter games all this coming week. So I would like to take in some of the events with kids like dog sledding and maybe skeleton. It would be neat for the kids to see some events we don't usually see or know too much about.

Howard and I have a few decisions to make about our adoption whether we wait to see if Addison will show up on the shared list before she reaches the age 2 ( as thats what we are approved for) or to allow our agency to start looking at referrals for us? We want God to lead us in this decision. Right now its hard to hear anything from our Father, but I have faith that he knows what he is doing. I want to thank all the wonderful friends and bloggers who have left comments or sent emails with words to inspire and prayers for our little family! I sure am thankful for you all and you each made my day a little brighter with your notes:0) Wow I was nervous to blog with such a large break in between! I thought it was going to be alot harder then it was! I actually found this comforting! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Not Myself....Lately

Hey all! I know I haven't been around lately, no we haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I am just finding it really hard to wait for Addison. More the not knowing if we will ever truly receive her referral. Things seem to be changing at the CCAA. And these new changes will only make it harder for us to get HER referral. That doesn't mean we won't ever get a referral, it just may not be this little girl we have fallen in love with. So I guess I am sort of grieving yet trying to remain hopeful. I would rather not be a "wet blanket" here on my little blog. I know any referral we receive will be a HUGE blessing, but my heart isn't really there right now. So I will be back when I am able to be more joyful and positive! And then I will have a huge amount of catching up to do on my favourite blogs I have been missing in my hiatus:0) XOXO