Weekend Fun

Friday was my last day of work before Spring Break.  I may or may not have done a little happy dance when 2:30 rolled around and I was set free.  I love my job but I was more than a little ready for Spring Break and some me time.  

Friday night was Date Night.

We had reservations at our favorite Italian place.

The meal was delicious as always but we managed to save room for our favorite ice cream shop.

What would Date Night be if dinner wasn't followed by a show?

Mama Mia was one of the best things I've seen in a long time.  It was hilarious and refreshing.  I'm ready to go see it again.

Saturday was St. Patrick's Day and we decided to take in the parade.

It was a fun weekend and the perfect start to Spring Break.

Our Painting & Technology Date

Our three youngest daughters returned from camp this past Thursday.  They were gone for two weeks but it felt more like two months.  I didn't realize just how much I missed them until I saw them Thursday evening.  

We took the two youngest girls out for a date.  I have enjoyed each and every date with them, but I have to admit this was my favorite meal and activity.

We went to Pottery Worx, one of those places where you pick a piece of pottery to paint.  

Our Dancer chose a cat for herself and a dog for dad.  He took his dog painting seriously.

I painted a plate and our other sweet daughter painted an owl.

It was so much fun.  We are looking forward to picking them up soon and seeing our finished products.

We ate at a place called Stoby's afterwards.  Andrew claims it is famous for its cheese dip.  I had never heard of it or their cheese dip, but let me tell you it was GOOD!!

After our date we were able to spend time with seven of the eight kids.

We told them they were going to Skype with family and they could not have been more excited about it.

Most of Andrew's family were together for PB's birthday party so we skyped with them.  They got to "meet" our kids for the first time.  

It was special.

I stood behind the ipad and just cried for a minute.  

I have never been more thankful for technology.

A few of them Face Timed with my parents too.

Our kids are so excited about family - and they don't mean just Andrew and me.  They mean aunts and uncles, grandparents, and cousins.

We start overnight visits soon.

We talk to at least some of the kids every day.  They call us and they call often.

We love it.

They ask every time they call when they can come spend the night.

They are so ready.

We are too.

We are working like crazy to get bedrooms set up for them.

We just keep telling them soon.

Dating Our Children

It's new.

Learning how to meet our children and get to know them.

We've compared it to dating and marriage.

It's the closest thing that we have experience with.

Just like we vowed before God, our family, and friends to love one another no matter what, we vow to love these children no matter what.

It's easy right now.

We are in the dating phase of our relationship.

Everything is new and fun and exciting.

But we know the honeymoon phase will eventually end and real life will settle in.

We will have good days and we will have hard days.

We will have days when the love comes easily.

And we will have days where we have to seek forgiveness from one another.

It's all a dream come true.

Our path to parenthood is different than I ever imagined it to be growing up.

Our path is showing me the truth of Ephesians 3:20.  My God is able to do immeasurably more than I could ever ask or think.

We are treasuring every minute of this path.

We met our middle son yesterday for the first time.  It was strange to be back in this place of first introductions.  We were not as nervous this time, but we were equally as excited.

Our sweet boy seemed nervous at first.  

Who could blame him?

We told him how excited we were to finally meet him and we told him how much his brothers and sisters missed him.

We gave him the cards from his brothers and sisters and that seemed to bring out his true personality.  We gave him the option of waiting to read them in private or reading them right then.  He wanted to read them right then.  

It was precious to watch him read his siblings' words to him.  We could tell that it meant the world to him.

We played basketball for a little while.

Andrew beat him at a game of horse.  :)

We walked a few laps around the track and just talked.

He told us he was excited about being adopted and even more excited that it meant he could be with his brothers and sisters again.

The excitement they all have to be adopted all together...

It's why God laid on our hearts to adopt a sibling group.

Their love for one another is a beautiful thing.

Sure they are siblings and they pick on one another, but oh how they love one another.

Last night we took our two oldest daughters out on a date.

We went out to eat and then took them for manicures.

Such a fun girls night, even with Andrew tagging along. :)

He knows how to show three girls a good time and make them feel special.

The girls had never had manicures before and it was fun watching them experience it for the first time.

Our Shy One wanted our nails to match.

That made a momma feel loved.

The Oldest chose bright neon colors.

They could not have been more proud of their new nails.

The night did not seem nearly long enough.

It gets harder and harder to say goodbye at the end of each visit.

And it saddened us that we didn't get to see the other children last night.

We miss them.

We cannot wait for our next visit.

Date Night

Friday night was date night. 

 It was a new kind of date night.  

Friday night I shared my husband with two other beautiful young ladies.

Our daughters.

We picked up The Oldest first.  Another girl in her cottage had fixed her hair in a french braid that ended with beautiful blonde curls falling over her shoulder.  It was a sign to us of the excitement she had for the evening.  

The three of us walked across the street to pick up The Cheerleader.  In true girly girl fashion, she didn't want us to see her until she was completely ready.

It was in those moments that Our Dancer realized she was not going to dinner with us.  The tears came.  They came hard and fast.  Her house mom tried to comfort her.  We tried to help but it was one of those moments when it was best for us to just walk away.  We told her we would be back soon and would visit with her and then we slipped back into the hallway.

In the hallway we saw The Cheerleader all dressed up and ready for our date.  She had picked out a new dress to wear and had one of the other girls curl her hair.  She looked absolutely beautiful.

I smile every time I picture her in my mind.

We realized very quickly that night what a big deal this first date with us was to all them.  To be chosen to go first or to be staying behind...

We want them all to feel special.  We want to get to know all of them.  And they realize we need these small group dates to get to know them, but they each desire for their turn to be now.

There were so many times during the night when I wanted to pull out my phone and snap a picture or record the sound of their laughter and banter with one another.  But at the same time I didn't want anything to get in the way of me soaking up these moments.

We talked to The Oldest about soccer opportunities and watched as she beamed with excitement.

We watched The Cheerleader struggle with her feelings, being torn between what she currently has and what she could have.

Oh The Cheerleader.  She's a fun one.  It was raining when we left the restaurant.  Andrew and I, along with The Oldest, walked in the rain  sprinkle to the car.  The Cheerleader stayed under the awning of the restaurant until Andrew drove the car over to pick her up, which he happily did.  Then she took off her blue jean jacket and held it over head.  

We couldn't let the rain mess up those beautiful curls.  :)

After dinner we took them to get froyo.  As we enjoyed our froyo we showed them pictures of our house and their bedrooms.

Questions started to come out.

"If you adopt us..."

We looked them in the eye and told them we were in this.  We weren't going anywhere.

They've heard those words before and it breaks our hearts that they've been through a placement that didn't work out.

They have walls up that only time and love will bring down.

We are doing everything we can to assure them that we aren't going anywhere and that it is okay for them to feel both sadness and excitement at the same time.

We understand.

When we got back to the campus we were able to see all of the children.  We all met in the dining hall, the place that has become our private place to meet, and gave them supplies to make cards for their brother.  We will meet him on Tuesday and plan to give him these cards.  I think it meant a lot to them to be able to do this and I think it showed them that we care about him too.  Some of the kids were private about their cards and some asked us to read them before they sealed them.

It was a sweet time.

We then gave them each a small gift, a framed copy of our first family portrait from Tuesday along with a card with a note from Andrew and a note from myself.

The tears flowed.

Theirs as they soaked in the photo and read our words, and ours as we watched their tender hearts overflow.

One told us she had never had a family portrait before.

One asked, "When you adopt us can we have family nights where we do stuff together like on Friday nights?"

When she finished reading her card, Our Dancer looked at Andrew and asked if she could call him dad.  He told her she could call him whatever she wanted.

"Ok, Dad" she said.

And then she called him Dad a thousand times.

As we were walking to the dining hall, The Oldest was behind me and called out to me saying "Mom, I picked you a flower."

I heard her, but didn't even realize she was talking to me.

I'm mom?

I am mom.

I laughed throughout the night when different ones would say mom or dad and Andrew and I didn't answer immediately.

We are not used to those names.

But oh how we cherish hearing those names.

It's something we dreamed about for years.

It's something we never dreamed would happen so quickly in this process.

What we thought would be a thirty minute visit with all of the children quickly turned into a couple of hours.  It was late and we were all exhausted and ready for bed.

Yet it was hard to say goodbye and walk away.

As Andrew and I plan our next date it seems to far away.

We miss them the moment we leave.

A Date Night in Boots

Last Friday evening Andrew and I got all dressed up in our boots. 

Because that's what you do when you are going to see Garth Brooks.  

It was such a fun date night.

Garth puts on a great show!

There were 17,000 people in attendance singing along with EVERY SINGLE SONG!

After the concert we spent the night with Andrew's mom and dad.  

Thanks again for having us, Big Man and Momma.  

We planned to go straight home and do some work around the house, but ended up spending all day in Little Rock shopping.  It was well worth it when at the end of the day we had finished our Christmas shopping.

Overnight dates are the best.

I was soaking up the moments with my husband and trying not to take them for granted.  I love that we have dates from time to time.  Dating each other keeps some fun in our marriage.  I hope that we will still make time for dates when we have a house full of kiddos.  I think it so important.

Our Weekend

I've always wanted to go see Trans Siberian Orchestra.  I've heard it was amazing and the band geek in me just knew I was missing out on something.  I was more than a little excited when Andrew told me he bought us tickets several months ago.  I have been looking forward to it for months.

The day finally came yesterday.  We went to the afternoon show and just made a day out of it.  We had the best day talking about our adoption and dreaming about how many kids God has waiting for us.

Andrew and I have been to a lot of concerts and yesterday was the first time we've ever seen such technical difficulties.  After the first little intro they stopped the show and left us sitting in the dark for a few minutes while they worked on their screens.  They were sending the wrong picture to the wrong screen.  It was pretty comical.

There were more problems toward the end of the show when a light caught on fire and a fire extinguisher had to brought out.

TSO has some very talented musicians but Andrew and I are not going to be those people who go see them every year.

Let's just say it didn't make our TOP TEN list of concerts.

After the show we headed to the mall for a little shopping.  

How festive is this red jacket?

Today we started getting our Christmas decorations out.  I had planned to decorate last week but I spent four days sick so it didn't happen.

I made some Christmas cookies I found on Pinterest.  They were a complete fail.  My pans are old and have seen much better days so I'm going to blame it on that.  The cookies weren't stuck when I first pulled them out of the oven, but by the time I added the kiss to the top they had all cemented themselves to the cookie sheet.   

So I did the only reasonable thing.  I threw away two cookie sheets with cookies still attached, snapped a picture of the five cookies that were made on a different cookie sheet, and posted said picture to social media making me look like a holiday Martha Stewart.

Only two more weeks until Christmas break.

This teacher is ready.

Our Anniversary Date

We had such a great time celebrating ten years yesterday.

As soon I woke up Andrew gave me my gift.  I love that it is hard for him to hang on to a gift when he is excited to give it to me.  

He gave me a beautiful diamond owl necklace.  It is so small & dainty.  I absolutely love it.  The picture doesn't do it justice.

I had planned to wait and give him his gift at dinner, but after opening my gift I couldn't wait anymore.

Andrew isn't exactly the easiest person to buy for.  But I knew exactly what I wanted to give him for our anniversary.  He has been wanting a new watch for quite some time.  I was a little nervous about it because I've never picked out a man's watch before. 

But he loved it!  Turns out I picked out the one he had been looking at for himself.

Andrew worked yesterday so once he was off work we went out for dinner & a movie.

We ate at a local BBQ place that we've been trying to go to forever.  Andrew ate there for lunch a couple of times but every time we tried to go together they seemed to be closed.

It was worth the wait.  So yummy!  I don't really eat ribs, but oh my goodness.  Theirs were sooo good.  I had to still a couple of bites from Andrew. 

After dinner we had about an hour before the movie started.  When we drove by our little theater though there were already a few people standing in line so we decided to join them.

We were easily the oldest people there.  I'm talking twice the age of everyone else in line.

It was pretty comical.  

Our theater is exactly what you would expect to find in a small town.

One show playing at a time.

It's great.  Like stepping back in time.  

That is until there is a movie that you really want to see and our little one show theater doesn't show it until weeks after it has been released.

That's right.  Our little theater just started showing Catching Fire this weekend. 

I finally convinced Andrew months ago to watch Hunger Games in preparation for this very event.  

I was pretty pumped to finally get to see Catching Fire.

And I WAS NOT disappointed.  It was AMAZING!

As in can I please go see it again today? kind of AMAZING.

With the books I seemed to like each one less than the previous one.  

Not the case with the movies.  Catching Fire was sooo much better than Hunger Games in my opinion.

And it totally leaves you hanging.  If I hadn't already read Mockingjay and know how it all turns out I would have been very upset.  

It was a great day!  I'm looking forward to the next ten years and then some.