What "R" We Up To?

• Rejoicing with Rach and Josh who received their referral for a beautiful baby boy last week!
  
  
• Running again - I somehow managed 3 miles on Sunday!  It is good to be feeling well again.
  
  
• Reorganizing and pricing this:

• Relieved beyond words to not be tackling this garage sale alone!!  Thank you to everyone who is helping with this - we could not do it without you!
  
  
• Rescuing a few items along the way and setting them aside for baby :)

• Ready to see my baby's face and squish my baby's cheeks and hold my baby close
  
  
• Resting in the Lord, learning to not stress about the garage sale, and trusting His timing for our family
  
  
• Rushing back to work after my lunch break!  Good-bye!

Overwhelmed...but in a Good Way!

It has been about 3 weeks now since we put out the word that we are adopting and let everyone know about our upcoming garage sale/bake sale fundraiser. Initially, I must admit that I was a bit nervous about it.  I wondered how people would respond, and I wondered if we would end up having more than just our 10 items to sell.  In fact, I was really worrying about it.  Early on, though, I realized that I had to give this over to the Lord.  He has provided everything we've needed so far, and I know I can trust Him with all of my worries about this sale.  So, I let it go, and have really not been too anxious about it since.

And let me tell you something.  These last few weeks, I have been blessed beyond what I could have ever imagined by our friends and family.  It is so wonderful to have people rejoicing with us about the adoption, excited to meet our baby, and eager to help us with the financial aspect of it as well.  People have been donating items left and right!  In fact, this is what our garage looked like as of yesterday:

We had already gathered quite a bit of stuff and were thinking the sale would be okay.  Then today, we spent about 5 hours driving around with our friend, Chad, who graciously helped us pick up load after load after load from our friends who have donated tons of items - even big things like desks and a grill!

This is what our garage looks like now!  And we're still not done collecting stuff - several people told me they have things for me that they are bringing to our house this week!

I am so humbled and amazed at how everyone has come along side us to help us with this adoption.  It has meant so much to me.  And for the very first time...I kind of feel like I'm "pregnant" :)   

I have a lot to do to get ready for the sale, but thankfully friends and family have offered to help and I know that one way or another, everything will get done.  Now I must go and make some signs for the garage sale...cause it's almost here!

In Today's Headlines...

"Doggie Learns to Open Lazy Susan Cupboard and Helps Herself to Contents while her Unsuspecting Owners are at Work."

Thanks, Daisie - what a nice welcome home present you left for us today!

What you can't see in the picture:

Pots and pans she dragged around the house

A previously half-full bag of ritz crackers - currently empty

A previously full bag of plain potato chips - currently empty

A previously full bag of french onion Sun Chips - still full but in the garbage due to doggie drool (apparently french onion is not her thing)

A very cute little hound dog with quite a guilty look on her face...and a full belly!

Happy Thursdsay :)

Crazy Eights...A Borrowed Idea!

Rachel had a great idea for a post today, and since I was completely blank, I decided to use her idea!  

8 Things I Did Yesterday

1.  Went to an adoption meeting and learned about stress reactions in adopted children.

2.  Took a glorious after work nap :)

3.  Went to the post office. (Hey, it didn't say they had to be 8 exciting things!)

4.  Read 1 Peter chapter 3.

5.  Listened to my new Hillsong CD...many times!

6.  Blogged about a nasty picture of myself...and then wondered why on earth I had put that on the internet.

7.  Hung out with my sister and her husband for a few minutes.

8.  Read a couple of chapters of the book "An Echo in the Darkness" - an all-time favorite book by Francine Rivers that I am re-reading.

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To

1.  Seeing my baby's face for the first time.

2.  Finding out if we will have a son or a daughter.

3.  Going to South Korea.

4.  Coming home a mommy :)

5.  Vacation in June with my family in Tennessee.

6.  Starting to train for the half marathon (mixture of looking forward to it and dreading it...)

7.  Going to bed early tonight.

8.  The garage sale.

8 Things I Wish I Could Do

1.  Go hiking in the mountains right now.

2.  Take a trip to Europe with Brad.

3.  Stop worrying about what everyone thinks of me.

4.  Go kayaking.

5.  Ski every weekend in the winter.

6.  Serve at an orphanage in China (and yes, I have one in mind...so maybe one day!)

7.  Complete a Duathlon or Triathlon.

8.  Finish this list sometime tonight...

8 Shows I Enjoy

1.   Family Ties

2.  The Fall Guy

3.  Everybody Loves Raymond

4.  American Idol

5.  The Biggest Loser

6.  The Mentalist

7.  24

8.  Flashpoint

8 Final Words

This was much harder than I had expected!

Good night!

When "Yikes" is All You Can Say...

This weekend while at camp, I wanted to see the back of my head (to see if my hair was sticking out of course!) but I had not brought a mirror with me.  There was one mirror in the room, so I decided to get creative and take a picture of my head in the mirror.  I didn't notice until much later when Brad was looking through our camp photos that my face was in the picture as well!

Yikes!  Not too flattering, but pretty funny stuff!  And you have to give me credit for my creativity...except for the fact that I still couldn't see my hair.   Oh well, it was almost a good idea!

Deeper '09 Youth Camp

What a weekend! Being away at camp is so interesting - time seems to fly by, but at the same time it seems like you have been away for ages. We had a wonderful weekend and I am so thankful that Brad and I were able to go. I have tons of great pictures...but most of them have students in them and I think I'd better not post them on here :) I do have a few to share, though...

The best part of the weekend (in my opinion) was the teaching.  We are so blessed with a Pastor who loves the Lord, knows the Word, and loves these students so much.  

This was Brad's first time at camp and he admitted on the way home that he was surprised by how much fun he had.  Here is Brad and two of the other leaders...looking like scary biker dudes! 

My second favorite thing of the weekend was a group activity we had called "Go-Kart Wars".  The students had to work together to build and decorate go-karts, and then they got to race them down the hill!  It was so great!  Brad helped to lead this event and he did such a good job.  The kids really got into it and did an amazing job building the go-karts.  

Of course, before we could let the students go down the hill on the go-kart, Brad had to test drive it to make sure it was safe (they all wore helmets too...which turned out to be a very good thing!).  Brad took a tumble out of one and he is still feeling really sore today from it.  I am very glad I told him to tuck and roll should such an incident occur...

Brad and I had been planning to leave camp, drive the hour home, pick up the dog, unpack the car, and drive an hour to the Korean festival.  I think we were a little overly optimistic in our planning and unfortunately we were unable to make it to the festival.  I was pretty disappointed about it but we were both so wiped out from the weekend, and Brad had an early day today, and even though we left camp early we ended up realizing that we were not going to be able to make it.  We do have another adoption meeting tomorrow night, though, so we are looking forward to that very much!  Yesterday was the 8 month mark for the waiting list! Yey!