We're leavin' on a jet plane....

Well, not exactly. But we are headed out today on a little family vacation. Our good friends, the Prouty's, invited us along on an RV road trip to the Wisconsin Dells. Between the 2 of us we have 7 children, all under the age of 7. Hunter is the oldest and then we both have girls that are 5 and they have twin boys Gage's age and little Eliana is barely 2. Once we add Ruby to the bunch we will have ourselves a real party! After much discussion we decided their RV would be a fun and practical way to travel with the children. We won't be staying in the RV, just using it for travel. Once we reach our destination we are staying at an amazing resort with the most fun amenities, water parks, an ice cream parlor, inflatable jungle gyms, spas (for kids and adults), story times for the kids and so much more. We always enjoy being with these great friends and our kids have so much fun together. Now that the crops are all planted and our referral has been given, we can go and relax and enjoy some wonderful family time. We are going to take in the Twins/Yankee game in Minneapolis on our way back this weekend. It should be a fun-filled, adventurous week!

Thanks Weelborgs!

The Weelborgs stopped over last night to drop off these adorable things for Ruby. I just love little girl things. It has been quite awhile since I have been able to get baby girl items, so this is just too fun! I plan on packing all of these things in our suitcase to take to Ethiopia. I think everything should fit her right away. Yay!

Funny Stuff

Hunter came up to the house after being in his 'secret hide-out' and showed me this piece of wood that he had found. He told me he thought it would make a great weapon to fight off bad guys. I nodded my head, appreciating his larger-than-life imagination. A little while later he came to me and said, "I wonder if this wood is syrup wood?" "Syrup wood, I questioned?" "Yes, you know the kind of wood we have in our new kitchen?" He said. After a good laugh, I explained to him that the wood in our kitchen was called MAPLE wood. He thought his mistake was pretty funny too! :)

Done with travel shots!

Six shots, 3 doctor visits, numerous arm aches, not-so-fun side affects, and lots of dollars later....we are finally done with all of our travel shots! Woohoo! Today we went to Sioux Falls to get our final shot, the yellow fever shot. This one was the most painful yet. OUCH! The pain was pretty short lived though and so far I have not experienced any side affects. The doctor told us we could expect flu like symptoms for the next couple of days and may have a reaction to the shot up to 30 days after having it. Yeah, this one is the doozy of all shots. It is very potent and not the greatest for your body, but since we have a baby girl waiting for us in Ethiopia, where yellow fever can be easily transmitted, we have no choice. Yellow fever is transmitted through mosquitoes, so it is a little hard to completely prevent being bitten by a mosquito, although you can bet we will be well armed! Yesterday we received our packet of referral information and quickly filled out our acceptance letter and mailed back our referral fee and it arrived in the CHI office today. Ethiopia got the official word that we have accepted our referral and they are now busy working on getting a court date to make our little girl officially ours. We will hopefully get word of the court date in a couple weeks. We are still on top of the world and carry her photo with us everywhere. Robb even has one in his tractor! :) He is a proud papa. Her little face makes all of the craziness of the whole process seem more than worth it. I have held this baby girl in my heart for over a year and in 2 short months I will be holding her in my arms. Wow! I have goose bumps just thinking about it. What a blessing!

REFERRAL!!!!

The day has finally come! We got the call at about 12:30 this afternoon giving us a referral for a baby girl. She is absolutely perfect in EVERY way! The referral story is below.

Referral Story

'I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him.' 1 Samuel 1:27 At 12:25 the phone rang. My heart about came out of my chest when I saw the caller ID said "Children's Hope", the name of our agency. It took 3 rings for me to calm down enough to answer it. Toni said she had some good news for us and asked if she could reach Robb at work. I told her YES so she put me on hold while she got him on the line and we were both able to hear the news at the same time. Of course I started crying and by the time she got done telling the story of our little girl, I had no idea what she had just said. I started asking questions and obviously was still in shock, because Robb said, "Honey, you need to focus, you are asking the same things over and over." Toni laughed and said that is why she has the dad on the phone too. She described it as "Mummy mush" and said it happens to all the moms. :) While we were on the phone her email came through with Ruby's pictures. Then I started bawling, slightly uncontrollably. She is absolutely perfect, more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. Robb then drove in the yard with his tractor and quickly came in to see the pictures of our baby girl. She is 2 1/2 months old and very healthy. Because of Ethiopia's requirements, I can't post any more information or photos of her until our court case goes through, which will be in approximately 5 weeks. You will just have to believe me when I say she is 100% ADORABLE. It is such a blessing that she is so young, she is just what we prayed for. We are keeping her name Ruby Katheryn. I really wish I could share more with you, but you will have to be patient and pray that our court case goes through quickly so I can share her pictures with all of you.

Kindergarten Graduation

Hunter graduated from Kindergarten last week. The class sang songs, did sign language and received a certificate for their achievements. It was a cute program and Hunter was quite proud to be a graduate. The night before his graduation Robb was tucking him into bed and said, "Wow Hunter you are going to graduate tomorrow. What do you think you'll do after that?" Without skipping a beat, Hunter replied, "go to National American University."

Each of Robb's siblings has a boy in Hunter's class. They are best buds and call themselves "The Fantastic Four". Can you see many fun years ahead for these boys?

What a difference a year makes!

First day of school

Last day of school First Day of School Last day of school First Day of School Last day of school

We're getting close

Last Friday our good friends, the Weelborgs, received their referral for a beautiful baby girl. We have been in this process together from the beginning, starting in China, and have weathered the storm together. It has been such a blessing to have them in this journey with us. I was thrilled when Jodi called to tell me that they got their referral. We are right behind them with one person that was in front of them that is requesting a 9-24 month old baby girl. So, since we are requesting a 0-12 month old girl, if the next child available is a 0-9 month old girl, she is ours! Our call could come any day now. We are more than ready to hear all about our sweet Ruby.

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. Robb and the kids made the day extra special for me.

They made me this wonderful breakfast in bed. After a wonderful church service we went to Grandma Corinne's house for good food and good fun! Uncle Bryon and Uncle Wesley organized a football game for all of the kids. Gage got to play too! We went to visit my grandma in the nursing home and Hunter very innocently said to her, "it must be difficult getting old huh, grandma?" After a day of visiting grandmas, we went home and planted flowers. I had some amazing helpers! Gage thought digging in the dirt was a blast! I love having flowers all summer long. I'm hoping the frost is gone for good! And since it was Mother's Day, Robb even helped plant the flowers with a SMILE on his face. :)

We finished off the day by having my mom and Harlan out for supper. Mom brought the food and we relaxed and had a great time visiting.

Oh, and I got this wonderful adoption necklace from Robb and the kids that I have been wanting for so long. Of course mine says Ruby. The heart says 'I chose You' over and over again. I have a wish list at this wonderful site.

Word Find trouble

As Hunter is working on a word find, from the backseat he asks, "Hey mom, if you were the word FLAG, where would you be?"

70 degrees feels so good!

Just when we thought winter was NEVER going to end....we are finally seeing some beautiful sunshine. Robb is busy in the fields and the kids and I are enjoying lots of outside time!

Mother Daughter Tea

On Saturday our church hosted a lovely Mother Daughter Tea. The decorations were beautiful, the message was inspiring, the food was delicious and the time spent with my mother and daughter was wonderful!

My mom joined us.

Brylie looked beautiful in all of her pink! My sister-in-law, Kristi, gave a wonderful message about the importance of passing on a spiritual heritage to our daughters. Our daughters are facing things that we never had to face. We need to prepare them for the many, important decisions they will be making during their teenage years. It is so important to arm them with the word of God so that they can base their decisions on what it says in the Bible.

My mother-in-law, Corinne, my mom, Pat, myself and Brylie. Brylie is blessed to have two wonderful grandmas that love her so much. My little girl is such a precious gift!

Do ya have an extra dollar?

I found a website of an amazing family adopting a child with many medical needs. William is from Liberia and is in need of many surgeries. The family needs $15,000 to complete his adoption and is asking anyone that feels led to donate $1 to help bring William home. I spent a great deal of time reading about the family and felt so inspired by their courage and faith. You can find their story here.

Friday's Photos

Wanna make a referral guess?

I have seen these contests on other adoption blogs and thought it might be kind of fun. Since we are now in the time frame of getting a referral I thought I would take your guesses for a referral date. Right now we have been waiting for 3 1/2 months and the longest wait time for our agency has currently been 5 1/2 months. As far as I can figure out, I think we are #3 on the wait list right now. So, that being said, when do you think we will get that wonderful call about Ruby? I will post your guesses on my side bar and the winner will get a yummy prize from me! Wanna take a guess?

A day at the salon

Brylie recently got to spend a day at the salon with her very best friends McKenna, Hannah and Ava to celebrate McKenna's 5th birthday. The girls were so cute as they got the full treatment of manicures and pedicures.

Hannah, Brylie, Ava, McKenna

It happened again!

Yes, it is the end of April. Yes, this is what it looked like out my window this weekend. Yes, my husband was planting corn the day before. Yes, I live in South Dakota!

Another fun note from the school....

There have been some concerns about Scabies spreading through the school. Scabies is an infestation of the skin with a microscopic mite. The elementary has had two confirmed cases of Scabies. Both of those students have been treated and had older siblings that were infested earlier. Scabies symptoms include pimple-like irritations, burrows or rash of the skin especially the webbing between the fingers and the skin folds on the wrists, elbows, or knees. It causes intense itching over most of the body. Symptoms may take 4-6 weeks to begin. If you think your child has Scabies contact a health care official for treatment. UGH!

This one's for Amber

Amber has asked for more pictures of the house and I hadn't yet posted the before and after living room pictures, so here they are. As you can see I still don't have any window treatments. I am on the look out for some, but they are so expensive! The wall and ceiling color is called 'Latte'. Again, very neutral. I was hoping to get some color in the window treatments. Also, we are leaving the far end of the living room pretty much empty for now, for running, wrestling, kick ball and such. My kids have barely touched their toys since we moved here. There is so much running space they just enjoy that. Someday we may make that area a sitting area.

BEFORE AFTER