thanksgiving weekend traditions

thanksgiving weekend.... lighting ceremony.... party and aly and darens.... such a fun weekend year after year!!!!! love this time of year!!!

wow. discovered this bread this year.... this will become something we buy every year... so yummy warm with butter, and a cup of coffee.... bought it at the Franz Outlet. love that we have that bread outlet store. we go weekly for all of our bread. delicious high quality taste for cheap!

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Frames!

Our frames are in a shop!!!! Go check out home Eco:nomics in Anaheim California!!! There are 12 of our frames being sold there!

thanksgiving 2014

thanksgiving.

i was still in quite a bit of pain, but the meds are working, so thats is a praise!!!! the girls and i picked up my mom from the airport at noonish... headed to our house, for a HUGE thanksgiving lunch... eric and i go all out for thanksgiving.... we made a turkey and a ham!!!! mashed potatoes. salad. cranberry sauce.... the list goes on and on..... my mom hadn't been to our house yet!!! so that was exciting for her to finally see our home!!!! we had erics sister and family join us..... aunt susie and uncle mike came for pie and ice cream on their way home from a trip to canada. it was a great time of yummy food!!!! great weather. conversation....

busy days!

world adoption day...... the world gathered on social media and hash tagged world adoption day.... to celebrate adoption and the beauty found with choosing LIFE! everyone put happy faces on their hands to show on social media.... it was such a HUGE event... so thankful to be a part and to add our hashtag on instgram for yisak! 

papa was here for veterans weekend... saw caelan sing in her choir concert.... a quick weekend trip ;) 

caelan reading to dylan.

kicking off the cold snap we had.... hot cocoa and a cookie.... :)

 happy birthday, papa! we texted him this... he got a good chuckle out of it!

before thanksgiving, our church did a project "give thanks".... we all took something we were thankful for and strung our "thanks" on string and the string wrapped around the building from women and kids of UGM (union gospel mission) along with our church Compel..... tears fell down my cheeks in seeing Riley hold hers up..... i cannot begin to describe how much the girls have embraced Yisak.... how god has orchestrated such a beautiful bond between us and Yisak.... a boy we have never met, yet, love fiercely. cannot describe the depth of our love and devotion to this boy.... all of us feel this connection.... only God could work in the heart what the mind can't comprehend... it seems wild and complicated, but to us, seems normal, natural, and all together, just feels right.... to fly half way across the world and bring this boy home.. he is a part of us. our family. we pray each day and night for him. his high chair sits at the table, waiting to hold his precious body in it.... his bed is made. toys laid out. books in the shelf..... he is a part of us. our daily routines already, in so many ways.... each holiday that has come and gone, he was included in..... presents bought. photos taken to share..... 

dylans 5th birthday

dylans birthday at our house..... cake and ice cream.

ER trip

 all of the sudden i was in extreme pain....pain like I've never ever experienced..... it started in the afternoon and got increasingly worse...  i found myself in the fetal position crying in agony around midnight.... Eric and the girls were asleep, and i didn't know how to make it work going to the ER with everyone in tow.... so i drove myself.... don't know how i was able to get myself there...... in all honesty, by the miracle of God i got there. i literally crawled into the ER! they ushered me back and began pain meds through the IV..... i was in so much pain. i can't emphasize enough how awful it was..... they did a CT..... CT showed nothing abnormal in my stomach.... they thought maybe kidney stone, or appendix..... they thought so many things..... i spent the night there.... test and blood tests showed a high white blood cell count, which means infection, they just couldn't figure it out. Eric came at 6am to the ER to pick me up. we left his truck there at the ER.....
all weekend i was in pain. doc gave me high pain meds but it got increasingly worse again. i went to my doctor Monday morn. 1st thing..... my doc is off Mondays, i didn't know that...... she said hey had an on call doc, she would see if he would see me..... long story short, the doc i was just who i needed to see!!!! Dr Duke, new to the office, just moved to the area... he did his fellowship on pelvic pain in women..... his mom suffered years with it and that's why he became a doctor..... anyhow within 5 minutes he "guessed" everything i might have been diagnosed with over the years.... he said, "I'm gonna guess you have......." and filled in the blanks.... i began sobbing uncontrollably..... couldn't believe he would guess all that in 5 minutes....he ran some new tests then and there..... did a bladder installation.... yes, its as awful as it sounds!!!!! liticain injected in the bladder to relax it.... anyhow, i had an IC (interstitial cystitis) flair up.... the pelvic floor was falling apart and crushing the nerves all around. swelling. etc.... i have cracking all along the walls of the bladder..... anyhow, long story short, he gave me the procedure to help with pain and restoring all of it.... he also gave me 2 new prescriptions to try..... long road ahead, but so thankful..... all of it, random acts of things aligning for me to meet with this doc.... to provide years and years of answers!!!!! he re-diagnosed 4 of my diagnosis but gave new ideas of treatment.... so thankful.... and hoping for good things to come...

celebrating. Gods goodness.

.....so amazing having people celebrate Gods goodness with us! God is good. He brings total strangers to light the way..... just beautiful. I often ask why it needs to be so expensive, and why we certain things didn't line up like they were "supposed" to for us to fund this adoption on our own.... then things like this happen and i know it is because God will be given the glory.... it will be a testimony of how HE did it.... we cannot do this alone, that is clear. 35,000 is a lot for anyone.... but ya know, to Jesus, thats nothing..... HE WILL make a way when there seems to be no way... he will use the lady on shop and swap to cover our passports.... each day i say, Lord how are you gonna blow us away today? its been a wild journey.... i wouldn't trade it for anything..... to see God work in unexplainable ways..... it has re-defined so much of my faith, and my ability to trust in Him..... He is our rock, and been our strength. adopting is hard. adopting a special needs child is scary. but you know, with God on our side, we have nothing to fear because His promises are true, He will be with us each step. Guiding us. and I can't wait to wrap my arms around Yisak and tell him all about jesus and how he lead us to him..... it will be glorious when we finally meet Yisak. I can't wait. I wish i could share his photos.... he is the most beautiful boy!

first snow.

this last summer, we held a yard sale.... a sweet old lady, Miss Pat, came to me and handed me this old truck... she said, "do you wanna sell this old thing and see if you can get money for it, or keep it for your boy...." so touching... my heart melted.... those 2 days of the yard sale i carried it in my apron pocket.... as you can see we kept it..... sweet lady. our friends neighbor, who is widowed recently.... poured her heart and soul into our yard sale, baking for us all day, made us all lunch, brought items out of her home to sell.... the heart of this woman, is precious.... anyhow, as christmas time approaches, i set the truck on our island, and riley stuck this tree in the truck. such a sweet surprise one morning while getting ready for the day..... such a cute reminder for the season..... he'll be home one day, playing with this truck, until then we see it every day, think on him. pray. and smile.

his highchair in our dining room. i had found it at a yard sale this past summer. for 5 bucks. and it was painted yellow. as it is in this photo. fits just perfectly in our home.