oh christmas tree

We finished decorating Monday morning.  In our pajamas of course :)  It was actually one of our first 'typical' days off for Matt in months.  And we loved every minute of it.

Notice that the tree is green and has a bit of a triangle shape. 

Smaller than we were hoping for, and the branches didn't hold all the ornaments, but we're big fans regardless. 

As usual when Matt is away traveling, I seem to think that I'm going to jump into hyper-productive mode and get tons of things done.  In the late evening hours, no less :)  My to-do list is impressive.  Very impressive. 

Tonight for sure I'll be up late making phone calls to CST dealing with adoption paperwork issues.  The theme of our journey seems to be: if there is trouble to be had, we will find it.  UGH. 

Although I am delighted to be an official resident of North Dakota ("the few, the proud......") I haven't had a lot of warm fuzzy feelings towards Bismarck lately as we have spent weeks getting the run around about document authentication. 

Hopefully we're soon to put this most recent set of potholes behind us and get on down the road towards receiving a referral!!! 

quick recap - the rest of the weekend

I knew Friday would be a long day with Matt gone til way late and the kids in post-holiday let down so I planned a little dinner outing with side entertainment: buying Christmas wrapping paper and some candles to create an advent wreath for the kitchen table.  

Which was a great plan, if only 7 tri-zillion other people hadn't been out shopping with us :)  No Black Friday here, but it's just a crowded country and I guess I'm not often out on a Friday night so I don't get to experience the madness.  We braved the crowds, had a lot of fun, and many of our fellow shoppers left with a photo of my kids on their cell phone.  Yep, we are the victims of a lot of impromptu photo shoots and the kids rarely miss a step, just keep right on playing despite the flashing cameras :)  For the most part they totally ignore the photo-takers, and only get annoyed when someone gets right up in their face.  Which is when their momma starts to get annoyed too :)

Saturday the kids and I started pulling out some of the Christmas decor and then Sunday afternoon Matt fearlessly lead us on our Christmas tree buying expedition. 

Each year we attempt to buy a real live Christmas tree in a country that does not sell real live Christmas trees.  We just like to have fun that way :) 

And every year my standard of what might qualify as our family's tree drops dramatically.  This year my basic qualifications were: something green and remotely triangular-shaped with enough branches to hang some ornaments.

With standards like that it was difficult to disappoint.  We left happy :) 

Luckily the kids don't have any idea that life should look any different and Isaac said (more than once) "look at ALL THESE Christmas trees" as he scanned the plant market.  In reality, there were zero "Christmas trees" but I wasn't about to break the news to my favorite two year old. 

Checking out the options - many trees, very few of the right size and shape.  But lots of grins from the kiddos.

We eventually found four that we thought were possibilities and selected one to do the honors in our living room this year.

Loaded it in the van and brought it home.... after the kids were in bed Matt moved it indoors.  Excitement levels are pretty high and I'm guessing we'll be stringing lights before 9 am tomorrow :) 

I LOVE this season and am so grateful that Matt made sure we'll have this tree set and ready before he leaves for a week of travel!  We lit the first candle on our advent wreath this morning, the advent calendar count-down begins Thursday December 1st and the kids are quickly memorizing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing". 

Tis the season :)  

wrestling thank-full-ness

It's always the weirdest feeling... our household busy prepping for the holiday and exactly ZERO other people in our neighborhood who have a clue that tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day.

Regardless of the holiday-ignorance our neighborhood claims, we'll be celebrating with friends and a feast and thank-full hearts. 

A few "day before prep" photos....

Our pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese icing and imported-straight-from-America candy corn decor :)  [otherwise known as "kids' dessert"]

Julianna working on yet another pumpkin - at the rate we consume these things I should seriously consider pumpkin farming.  

And one of the best parts of the day - oh how sorely my heart needed this post-dinner crazed tickle wrestle match.

Yesterday was a brutal motherhood day, the kind that makes you want to curl into a ball and hide in the bathtub. 

All this crazy hubbub left me laughing so hard my sides hurt. 

So tonight, in the midst of a long hard season that leaves me struggling to hope in God's goodness, I'm especially thankful for wrestling matches.  And dreaming of next year when there will be two more kiddos to add to the pile of twisting, wriggling arms and legs. 


My last baking of the day (pumpkin pie) coming out of the oven within minutes.  Tomorrow morning I cook the ham (and scalloped corn and yeast rolls) and we'll be celebrating all day long :) 

Thankful. 

catching up

I got in last night after a super fun, encouraging weekend with my friend.  We talked and shopped and ate and slept and it was just what my heart needed :)

I can tell today is going to be full of catching up (piles of laundry, GOBS of cooking for Thursday, etc) and I was up early to take a quick glance at the unread emails and scan through my google reader. 

And there it was on my screen:  the funniest article I have read in a long time (linked from a friend's blog - I have no idea who wrote it).  If you live in China, you will think this is hilarious.  If you live AND drive in China you might laugh so hard you cry. 

I'm hoping that even for the vast majority of you who have never set foot on Chinese soil, this will still prove to be mildly entertaining.  And give you a little glimpse into "life on the road" here. 

http://soimgoingtochina.blogspot.com/2007/06/beijing-traffic-lesson-left-turn.html

Off to my crazy busy day.....  

getting started in the kitchen

I am traveling again this weekend.  I know - I can hardly believe it myself.  It feels odd, all these nights away from home.  But I've had my heart set on this particular weekend retreat for months.....

Transition to this new city has not been pretty.  Ten months here, and I still feel really disconnected.  The holidays are just a grim reminder: I have no memories here.  No history here.  No "remember last year when I shattered the glass pie plate on the kitchen floor" or "let's try to get a tree at that same tree farm". 

Nope.  Here all is new.  Where to put the tree?  Never had one in this apartment before.  Where to spend Thanksgiving?  Never done a holiday with these new friends.  Christmas Eve?  Wonder what we'll do to celebrate? 

It seems like the answer to most of these questions always echoes with the same refrain: new - new - new - new - new - new. 

And I don't like it.  Sure, there are parts of "new" that are fun.  We need a new spot to shop for Christmas trees! 

And some things are less "new".  I'm sure our manger scene will go on top of our glass-topped dish cabinet, just like always.  It's just that the dish cabinet is sitting in a new apartment :) 

Anyways, all that to say - this weekend away with a delightfully OLD friend (not old in years, old in "friendship years"!!) is a treat!  I have a two hour bullet train ride to meet her (at the end of her five hour bus ride).  It's the closest to "a halfway spot" for both of us.

And because I don't get back til Monday evening (thank you to my gracious husband, for this wonderful personal time away)..... I have some serious holiday baking and cooking to think about.  So Isaac and I got a head start today :) 

Introducing my fake kitchen aid.  I dream of the day I will live in a country where I can easily own a real one.  But in the meantime this little machine does a somewhat decent job, and I must confess that it saves GOBS of time kneading bread dough! 

Notice how in each shot Isaac's right arm is stretched out towards the control panel.  He is dying to crank the speed dial and the words "can I make it go faster?" are on the tip of his tongue! 

Oh yeah, and he's done a bit of preliminary taste testing too, can you tell? 

rock hard mountains

We are home.  And the trip was really hard.  Really REALLY hard.

But we are back now.  And tomorrow is a new day :)

In keeping with his character Matt was Rock Steady through the high points (few) and the low points (many).

And we did take a few pictures at the end of today (once I realized survival was well within reach and felt capable of pulling out the camera to capture a moment or two!)

If Isaac looks a tad heftier than normal it's all the clothes he's wearing - two pairs of pants, two long sleeved shirts, three jackets.  Did I mention that it was chilly? 

My amigos three.  The stories these precious ones will be able to tell about "the time that Mommy and Daddy took us to ________" will fill at least one very interesting book - and this particular trip, this particular chapter will be easier for them to tell than it was for me to live! 

holiday prep

We spent Sunday afternoon getting ready for the holidays.

Not a moment too soon  :) 

Our finger-sucking, runny-nosed Pilgrim.  Sweet boy is the victim of our first cold this season.  I figure we'll have dripping noses off and on through mid-March.  

The girls providing the evening entertainment.  Lydia is a unique Native American/fairy combo.  In this shot the girls are discussing the next act - the doorway is 'backstage' and they are moments from announcing in (attempted) unison "Act three is over.  Now we are starting act four." or something along those lines. 


And in the spirit of "it's never too early to start getting excited" we're prepping for two more big occasions in the next six weeks.


A 6 year old birthday....

and Christmas  :) 

Matt and I officially disagree on when to start the Christmas celebrating..... I'm an "earlier is better" kind of girl, he refuses to even consider a Christmas tree before Thanksgiving is behind us.  With these wrapped gifts in our possession the Christmas tree can't be too far away!!!  [He was gone for the afternoon and evening and hasn't seen the goodies yet!]


I'm off to more packing - we planned a fairly early morning start and I've got quite a bit of work to do before we're ready to hit the road. 

finally home

I landed about 8 o'clock last night - Matt surprised me and brought the pajama-clad kiddos to the airport to meet me.  Oh my was I DELIGHTED to see those little faces and snuggle up to Matt!

The first two days of my trip were jam-packed with work related stuff.... gave me a whole new appreciation for life on the road.  And a lot more respect for what Matt does when he travels!  By evening of day two I was exhausted and missing my family so much it hurt.

But I was glad I stayed another night - day three I spent hanging out with good friends, which was certainly a treat :) 

It's a quick turn around for me - packing bags this afternoon for the whole family ...... a two day trip into the mountains with some local friends.   Our weather has been super pleasant and warmer than typical, but I'm prepared for the mountain trip to be pretty chilly. 


Off to do a bit more laundry and then taking the kids for a walk before supper :)

guess what we got?

Anybody know what this is????











Now this sweet little document is on it's way to be notarized and authenticated and obtain whatever official kind of stamps you might imagine a single sheet of paper could possibly need.  Then it begins it's journey across the Pacific (along with a inch-thick pile of paperwork, aka our "dossier").

In other words, we are now officially in a position to apply to the Chinese government for permission to adopt an orphan.  If that doesn't sound like much to you, think again.  We re-started the adoption process in early July, and it's taken four months just to get to this step :)

At this point we've spent over half of those four months just waiting on this ONE piece of paper!  So we are THRILLED to have it and move on to the next step... which involves (drum roll please.......)




MORE WAITING!

But at least we're waiting for something different now, right? 

I head out of town on a rare business-type trip tomorrow (Wednesday) evening.  When this opportunity popped up a month or so ago Matt called one afternoon to find out if I was willing to do it (in an odd twist he is actually responsible for this, and several similar trips).  My name was on the list of potential invites so he called and said "can you do it?" and I said "well, I think that depends a lot on your answer to the same question!"

Matt is often looking for chances to let me get my feet back in the game for a bit.  So he encouraged me to go.  I spent a lot of today prepping to be gone for three days :)  Turns out it's a lot of work for me to get out the door.

Matt will be doing some double-time, home with the kids and working as much as he can (his schedule is pretty ambitious, as you might imagine!)  If my return flight is on time I just might be back to see the kids before they fall asleep on Saturday night.

Joosy Bery

This afternoon the kids opened a store, Juicy Berry.

Otherwise known as Joosy Bery.  Phonetic spelling will get ya every time, huh?

So fun to watch them work together on a project like this.  And it kept them busy most of a slow Sunday afternoon. 

The store sells baby dolls, books and fruit.

You can even get your fruit cut for you before leaving the store.  Pretty handy.  (Those are my mango and watermelon slices, getting ready to head to the register.)

  

Lydia ran the cash register and let me tell you, the prices were pretty steep.  No worries though, the bills came in large denominations :)

I'm not sure where Julianna learned to write the dollar sign.  It kind of surprised me to see how she did this, since it's certainly not anything she sees around here, but I'm guessing she saw it in a book or something? 

Love love love to watch their minds spin and create.  And if anyone has a spare $110 dollar bill laying around, I know where you can spend it :) 

roommate anniversary 2011

A few years ago I created a holiday.  (Hallmark can do it, so can I!)

We started celebrating the "anniversary" of the first night the girls shared a bedroom.  Lydia moved in with big sister Julianna when she was ten weeks old (a month or two after I first started blogging) and the following year (2008) I decided to create a little celebration.  It was a success and now we repeat it every November 3rd.  

Simple is the name of the game, but EXCITED ANTICIPATION describes our home in the days prior.  The girls love this (little) big night - and it's a blast for us to watch them enjoy it.

Each year we do a little something special for breakfast (this year was pumpkin muffins, complete with lit candles).

And I add a page to the "roommate anniversary journal" I started years ago - with pictures of the girls in their bedroom and a few tidbits from the day.  Isaac is an inconsistent roommate - this year he's currently out of their bedroom, but we plan to move him back in when the temperatures really drop.  It'll be that much easier to keep only one bedroom toasty warm, and the body heat of three is better than one!

Here are the pictures from this year's celebration ....

And two more views of their bedroom for the 99.9% of you who have never visited us!!!!

(The streamers hanging from the door and light fixture are roommate anniversary decorations, the butterflies are crafts from earlier this week)

And guess who wanted me to take a picture of him sitting on his bed?  (I asked him to please sit still for the picture, which explains the slightly nervous look behind his smile.  Sweet boy, he was eager to please but he also knows sitting still is not really his specialty!)

Yay for sweet little celebrations and sweet little roommates, snoozing in their beds tonight!

oh i am not so good at waiting

We are trying to adopt a baby.  We've been trying for a long long long time.  The road has been longer and more painful than I ever dreamed.  
 
And right now, all I have to show for it is a big stack of paper :(

This is just a partial sneak look at the piles of paper.  The actual stack is even more impressive, and also realize that there is a separate accordion file of paperwork that went towards a failed US domestic adoption.  It's a lot of paper.  And no child. 








Right now we are on this silly sounding little step called "US immigration approval".  The US government must approve our petition to adopt a baby from a different country and "immigrate" him or her to the US (even though we don't plan to move to the States, our adopted baby will move to a US passport and become a US citizen). 
 




We've been waiting on this step for over two months.  When we submitted our petition the average wait was 40 days.  Apparently we are above average.... in a way that you would NEVER want to be above average!! 

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, can move forward til we get this approval and send it along to our agency. 

So we wait.   and I have (some) moments where I am so full of hope in the Lord.  Not hope that my circumstances will change, not hope that approval will come tomorrow, not hope that the process will get quicker and less painful.  But HOPE because Jesus is who He says He is, because He sits on His throne, because His plans are perfect and because He chooses to work mightily through suffering and because I am guaranteed an eternal inheritance in Heaven. 

Sure, I'd love to have that approval this week.  I'd love to have a referral (match with a specific child) by the holidays.  

But who am I to tell God what to do and when to do it?  Even when it's clear to me (or to you) what the "good" outcome of any given hardship would be, I'm realizing more every day that I don't have the first clue how to be the Lord of my own life, much less the Lord of the Universe. 

Food for thought while I wait.....