family blessings…

 

So much has happened since my last post, I'll try to recap it all…

Work is still crazy busy (thankful for that) and takes priority over my blogging these days. I'm working to bring our babies home!

So, first off, I had a nice visit from my mom last week who came in town to babysit my nieces. She folded all the laundry that had swallowed up our queen sized bed, we ate out a few times and watched multiple Shirley Temple movies with my sweet little nieces. (have you seen that Target commercial with her background vocal? - It's my fave!) I felt like a kid again for a moment, which was awesome. It was a nice break from the normal grind.

In the meantime, A LOT was going on behind the scenes with our China home study. Since we are working with Holt who is based in Oregon, we are required to also have a local agency to handle our home study. Once Debi, our amazing social worker, finished her tedious job, our local agency had to approve the study and then send it out to Holt for "pre-approval" (in case any changes needed to be made before the actual approval)…

…of course we had to stop at Spill the Beans

PJ always has to be the center of attention…

The VERY SAME DAY my mom flew back to Florida, my sister and her family (sans niece Ashley in college at PCC) came into town for the weekend. This was another awesome escape from reality and we had a blast as usual even though I had to work. We managed to carve out some free time for an afternoon downtown, some walks around the neighborhood and a Saturday afternoon of sprucing up our front yard which brings me to praise #1 – Brad and I had been putting off doing any landscaping around the house since we had moved in…almost two years ago. All of that waiting and patience paid off because one of Brad's co-worker's and his amazing gardener-of-a-wife generously offered us a plethora of plants from their beautiful land. I was amazed and so grateful. It gets even better, after Kara and I had retrieved the plants and were back home Brad told us that the check out guy at Lowes GAVE him a really nice hose sprayer because the price wasn't marked on it. hello, how often does THAT happen!? Does he not know how to use the intercom system…"price check on isle 3"? Brad also got 3 bags of top soil for FREE because the bags were ripped… again…speechless! I was content to put up with our dull and lifeless front yard. I think God must have been tired of looking at it too and He knew we weren't going to spend money on landscaping any time soon. Thank you Lord! My wonderful sister, the master-gardener was here to help us plan and plant the rest of the afternoon. Love ya, sis, you're the best - it  would not have happened without you!

Matt gets his "tan on"…

I just can't say enough about my family…my bro-in-law, Matt, is a very talented craftsman and also hilarious dude, as you can see in this photo, I glanced out at our patio and he was "getting a tan"... anyway, looks like he needs one. He also helped us out with a house project while he was here Friday. Thank you so much! Now I'm getting weepy…Sunday brunch at our house, my sis presented us with a really sweet encouraging card with some moolah that Matt had raised for our adoptions by "fixing beeper collars"…they told me what that means but all I know is it is something related to hunting and dogs. I feel so blessed that they are so excited and supportive of our adoptions that Matt put the time and energy into doing this for us and our future babies! *Kleenex break* We love you guys!