5 Years!

If you would have asked me six years ago if I was getting married... the answer was a definitive 'no'.  I was pretty confidant in where I thought God's plan was heading but of course that's when He has the most fun throwing some twists and turns into the mix.  Ohhh, am I thankful He did!!

Its been an adventure ever since :)  

Here's a quick snap shot of the last 5.5 years of what has become our life.... 

Started dating in January-

and knew in our hearts by February- this is the one...

 Over Easter weekend in Laramie...

(oh, my look how little our sweet Miss. Sarabeth was back then) 

We got engaged!!  

 We thought the Moms were crazy to think we could get married by June 6th. 

But.... they were right.  Eight weeks.  Craziness.  Pure Craziness. 

 In 8 weeks we...

 Found a dress...

planned & completed a full do-it-all-yourself wedding

(kudos to Wes & Betty...and frenzied email divide, conquer & confirm craziness!)

 Found a House we liked...

Bought & Closed on said house...

(complete with old nasty wallpaper)

I think I'll run for President someday on the platform of banning all wallpaper.  

Seriously, people- don't do this!!!  

 Got Married! 

Life was good :) 

We went out to dinner one night at Applebees...

and, pretty soon- we were filling out adoption paperwork :) 

 Which landed us in beautiful Ethiopia- 

 to meet this guy...

 and bring him home!!!!!!

Filled life up with cuddles & snuggles...

and sneakin' 'matos from the garden!

 Lots of other memories too- camping, San Diego, first steps,

 driving around constantly and hundreds of gallons of Common Cents coffee. 

 And, now...we're working on bringing home 'little sister' :)  

 Its been a blessed adventure and I'm so thankful that God sent me you!

Between all the craziness, we've had our share of times when God said 'no', detours, dead-ends and pot holes along the way too.  But, God provides and continues to bless us.  Sometimes the parts and pieces of life seem crazy (like the amount of gas/tires bought & breakfasts eaten in the car) but no matter what, I know this is exactly where God wants and needs us.  In the middle of it all but right where we need to be- our little sprouts of ministry at church, cows across the street for me the displaced country kid 

and watching thunderstorms on the covered porch.  

Praise the Lord for all HE has done!!! 

Thanks for being an incredible man, great husband and my bff :) 

I love you!

I absolutely can't wait to see what God has in store next!!

We're DTC!

Oh, happy day.  We learned this morning that our entire stack of adoption paperwork was shipped off to China today :)  Dossier To China.  I posted the picture above and literally let out a huge sigh of relief- we have done our part now we simply wait on the Lord to reveal our daughter to us.  We are on the list to be matched!  Which means that I guess that makes us officially 'expecting'.  Expecting a blessing to be revealed most likely within the next year sometime.  In God's timing- technically, we could be matched at any time.  Imagine pregnancy without a due date and the unknown variable of age- anywhere between 6 months old and 18 months old.  As the paperwork phase is over we now enter the super anxiously awaiting phase.  Typical symptoms include obsessive cell phone and email vigilance as that is how we'll get 'the call' learning about our daughter.  Praying for her very, very much and that we learn of her soon!  Oh, we can't wait!

One of Those Days

If you're a busy, planning, working, human/mom/wife/daughter/sister/crazy person with lots on your plate then perhaps you can relate to the lovely appeal of that once annual event of buying a new planner.  Yay!  Forget New Year's Eve with all the late night partying, resolutions, etc., etc.  The real 'new year' starts when you crack open and start filling up that new planner :)  Yesterday while on a last minute trip to RC (the printer ink died and of course the Kids Bible Time kids needed their puzzle pages!)- I picked up my planner.
And, as I stood in the aisle at Target I flipped through my favorite one when suddenly I couldn't help but smile... the yearly overview always gets me.  One of those days. One of those days on that sheet of paper- we will likely learn of our daughter.  Maybe we'll meet her one of those days.  God knows :)  Oh, my I can't wait!!!  So far- the journey this time around has been sailing along with grace, provision and a sense of calm.  So smooth that it has almost seemed surreal.  I remember when we were waiting to be matched with Kaleb thinking that in there- God knew what day we'd meet our child.  Time will tell and God truly does already know.  I'm so excited for this next year ahead.  Again- thank you, thank you, thank you for keeping our process upheld in prayer!  We hope to hear by the end of this week that our paperwork has returned from being sealed at the Chinese consulate.  Once that is done, we will be totally 100% "on the list".  Yay, can't wait!! 

Happy... Day!

As we all know... today is Mother's Day :)  What you may not know, is that I was born on Mother's Day.  My Mom became a mother- on Mother's Day.  Pretty cool in my opinion.  So, me my birthday may fall on May 11th but it always feels like Mother's Day is my true birthday.  Every handful of years or so, my birthday really does land on Mother's Day making it extra special!  Today, was one of those years...

 Because we really aren't a house that sleeps in... well, ever. 

We were up and out the door for early church by 7:45, grabbed coffee and enjoyed church together as a family.  Then, we headed off to Philip to celebrate.  We had done church, Target and were to the ranch by 11:25am.  Auntie & Justin are done with their year long nomadic like adventure, it was raining so Uncle Ryon had the day off and so we had  a great afternoon together.  Here is a glimpse of our brand of crazy... 

 Kaleb provided great entertainment with his 'exceptional' cupcake frosting abilities...

 They were so awesome, that Kaleb was able to 

get the frosting-hating Uncle RyRy to try one :)

 (Insert Evil Laugh Here).... 

he really should be called the Boy Named Joy! 

Auntie does not share well.... 

 But, Uncle Justin always saves the day...

 Score!!  Kaleb gets the comfy chair! 

 I do not know which is the craziest of this bunch. 

However, this picture pretty much sums up their relationship 'style' ;) 

 Soooo much fun!!!

A blessed day and I am blessed indeed!! 

Happy Anniversary of Being a Mom- Mom!

Thanks for all you do, you love, prayers, support, spoilage of our Mr. Kabub, your fun spirit, crazy willingness to go the extra mile and all the fun memories along the way!  

You Rock- we LOVE YOU!

DONE! Dossier is Done!

It has been a great week in our adoption process.... our paperwork is done.  What a wonderful word :)  Monday feels so long ago that we learned of our miraculously fast USCIS approval.  By Wednesday, we had the last of our paperwork.  Thursday, Wes followed me to Belle so we could get the last of our papers notarized then headed to Pierre for our State Seals.

 Every time I go to our state capital... I just can't help but be in awe of the building's beauty.  

I really think the lovely old building is a snapshot of what South Dakota truly is all about.... graceful, time tested and we're willing to make the things we care about tell a beautiful story.  

And... if you ask anyone who is a legit South Dakotan who knows their capital city- they'll tell you the best part of town is the amazingly, wonderful, super old fashioned ice cream shop.  Zestos is the best and a tradition on any trip- including each trip to get dossier state seals! 

 Wes had to skip work and got Zesto's all in one day :) 

 Big thanks to Wes for driving our papers to Pierre- through lots of rain too!  I think two free books from the used book store, Zesto's AND the satisfaction of knowing our documents were done totally made the day worth it! Friday, we dropped of our entire stack of papers at Office Max for them to copy & staple and get it all organized.  Which means we are officially DONE!!!  This morning... I had the fun of taking it to the post office :)  Yay, so incredibly happy to have this phase done.  It should be in Michigan on Monday morning.

 One of my best birthday presents ever...dossier completed & out of my hands :) 

So, what's next?  All our paperwork will arrive at our agency's office on Monday.  From there, it will head to the Chinese Consulate to receive their official seal of authentication.  This step will probably take about 2-3 weeks... I'm praying for the 2 weeks!  Actually, I'm praying that we'll be 'Dossier to China' by the end of May.  We might not squeak in that quickly but I would definitely love it to happen that quickly!
Then... we simply wait for God to match us with our little girl.  Ohh, my goodness- I haven't really let my brain wrap itself around that concept.  I think now that we're past the paperwork, the reality meeting her will start to sink in.  Thanks for praying for our paperwork- we greatly appreciate it!!  

The Fun in Between

This past month has been crazy.  April has been intense to say the least.  In true 'April Style'... we closed out the month by teaching/working all day long last Wednesday.  Then, I picked up Wes only to drive for 6 hours until finally arriving at Wes' brother's place.  Which means we finally crashed at 11:30pm, leaving about 30 minutes 'on the table' in the month of April.  Come morning, it was May...what we had been working towards for a lot of weeks!  Our weekend of family & fun was indeed packed- loaded with goodness, rest and fun adventures for all of us :)  We are so full of blessings.  Here's a peak at our weekend adventure...while Wes and Ryan checked out a plethora of used bookstores, the rest of us headed to the zoo!

 Discovering the rain forest...

That evening...a slumber party with Auntie & Justin :) 

New pj's, cake balls with candles, popcorn and Auntie- perfection by Kaleb's standards! 

The next morning, Wes headed back to his brother's with Kaleb.  Which means, that Ashley & I had an afternoon all to ourselves.  We found some antique shops, World Market (where I bought my first 'thing' for Little Sister :) and my first trip to IKEA.  Oh, my....good thing I have no money and my house really isn't falling apart.  Oh, did we see some fun things though.  We rounded out a great afternoon by picking up Justin we headed out for a special treat...dinner at a true Ethiopian restaurant.  It meant so much that Justin and Ashley went so out of their way, tried something new and really treated me to something I just don't have access to.  It was wonderful... injera, my favorite cabbage dish and all sorts of yummy Ethiopia food.  

In case we hadn't already had enough fun... the next morning Ashley & I headed to a farmer's market.  It was great!  Samples of fresh peach pie- always good!  I can't wait to see what my new raspberry, strawberry and super sweet cherry tomato produces this summer :) 

Ahhh, and that was only part 1 of our weekend adventure. 

Saturday, we met up with Kaleb, Wes and the Roth gang- more fun indeed!!

The pictures pretty much tell it all, we're blessed.  Very, very blessed!

 Sooooooo much fun playing with the cousins!

 Hide & Seek & Attack

 Followed by a marshmallow coma... he downed three in about 3 minutes.  

Kaleb even cooked them himself! 

 In between it all... a surprise birthday party for me!  

Very thoughtful and very much appreciated!

My favorite....angel food cake & strawberries :)  Thanks so much!

 And, the grand finale- smores, love me some smores!

Immeasurably More....To God be the Glory!

Oh, my heart is so happy today- I could about burst :)  Today, God answered exceedingly and abundantly.  Today, we received our USCIS immigration approval in the mail.  A simple letter but a HUGE answer to prayer and I think I'm callin' it a miracle.  You see, when we mailed our USCIS paperwork on April 9th, approvals were arriving right at 40 days.  40 days would put us at May 19th and school gets out on May 22nd. So, I have been praying that our letter would be here for me to drive it to Pierre on May 23rd- the perfect way to start off summer.  The perfect way to kick-off a fun anniversary weekend Wes and I have been planning.  Praying, praying, praying lately... and, many of you praying as well.  Praying for no RFE.  We've done this three times.  Two RFE's.  

Not fun :(  

This past month has been insanely busy- my busiest of my busy weeks out of the entire school year.  In the past 9 days before today, I've taught only 1.  Yesterday, I uploaded a big chunk of our dossier documents onto our 'portal' with our agency.  This morning, our dossier specialist responded that I had everything correct AND.............that they had received their copy of our USCIS Approval today!!

What?  Had to read it three times to make sure I hadn't lost my mind in all this craziness.  

Approved- May 2nd.  Approved in only 23 days.  

WOW.WOW.WOW. 

For the first time in 4 years of the adoption process, the process has went faster than expected, in nearly half the time estimated.  Only God can do that.  Only piles of prayers and petitions for no RFE and a quick turn around.  

But 23 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Praise the LORD!  

I prayed for May 23rd as a sweet way to kick off our anniversary weekend. 

I didn't even think about praying it would be here by my birthday which happens to be this coming Sunday.  

At this rate, we may just have our state seals by my birthday :)  

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all who have been praying on our behalf.  God heard our prayers and He answered with favor.  We are incredibly grateful, you have know idea how much of an encouragement this is.  God's got this- yes, He does! 

To God be the Glory, this really is ALL Him :)