I am on a diet.

BA hum bug.

never have i felt so lonely.

Leaving you behind late night snacks will be a tearful and sorry goodbye.

Sitting in front of the TV the house finally quiet, millionaire matchmaker doing her job and me loving you chocolate bar melted slightly in the microwave, and popcorn with butter.

Of course I can't and won't forget you diet Pepsi. I may still partake of your bubbly almost guilty free pleasure but, you make me want more, more of the bad sweet stuff that is causing me to be more than I want to be.

Oh, goodbye left over birthday cake and smuggled kids candy, sweet tarts and gold chocolate coins dipped in peanut butter. Goodbye Oreo cookies, special edition strawberry milkshake, kind. I will miss you. Goodbye all things fried and salty I really don't know what I will do without you when I am suffering with the incurable PMS.

I am really lonely at the thought of saying goodbye to my good Ole friends. But you have to know you are not good for me and I want to stick around to raise my kids, to go hiking and bike riding, to actually smile for a picture and not worry how many chins will show.

Friends pray for me as I try ......

My poor dog

Ignore the dirty grout on my tile, but you can obviously see why. This is the kids idea of what is fun. At lunch while they were eating mac and cheese the dog got the brunt end of this game. They were literally laughing as they threw mac and cheese on the little dog begging. How sad. The really sad part is our big dog is gone now so there is noone to eat it off of his back. In the past this is what the routine was when this game was played.

The upside down world of Abby

My four year old.

Says she wants to marry a cat, but it is a secret. Not surprisingly she actually reminds me of a cat. Today she was absolutely fascinated with a golf ball, bouncing it on the tile she watched and chased it for about 15 minutes. Then later outside I realized she was consumed with a bush, her eyes caught site of a tiny bug and she zeroed in on it and chased it. Humm.

My daughter lost her cookies and milk because of certain behaviors, then she told Judah that she would let her have her chores, and with that she got him to share his portion of cookies for her. Like she did him a huge favor and made a great trade off. She gave him her chores for some of his cookies.

The upside down world of Abby. Poor boys they don't know what they are in for.

Check out my new hair do!

Jen did my hair, and she is truly and aritist!!! I knew it was time to do it when my eldest son said, "please don't color you hair red mom i like the two colors it is already, black and yellow" Okay ......... ya.

I feel so good and refreshed for once I have been so consumed with adoption stuff I can't see straight and didn't realize how bad my hair had got. I really don't look in the mirror to often. Thank you Jen I feel so good.

http://beboldjen.blogspot.com/2008/04/hair-fun.html


also the family that was there to give Nettie her package and get her profile left early today, I have no idea if Nettie got her package or what she thought or if she even knows she has a family. The family was supposed to spend saturday with the kids at Hope but they left today. So I have no clue. I hope she got her package and they were able to make her smile.

more later.

God is Good

I have been thinking about doing this journey alone and my final conclusion would be that I don't want to. I spoke with a friend today and she said I should just pray God will bring the right person if it His will and if not then he will provide while I am there. So I just said a short little prayer of sorts and just a few hours later a friend of almost 10 years calls. Our families are close and we share much of the same values and vision for the future as well as our faith. Her husband is a pilot at the same company as mine and she is a world traveler and a pro at non rev travel! She and I wouldn't pay next to nothing to get to Ethiopia! It is perfect and because we don't keep in touch on a regular weekly basis I hadn't even thought of it. God did and that was cool. Neither of us have been away from our kids for that long but I think it will be good for both of us. She and I plan to visit an orphanage in need of supplies and will be able to minister as we go. This will be a mission trip just like I had envisioned. We have gone to Mexico with their family years ago and she knew Gary and I before we were married or had kids!! She has 4 kids and homeschools too! She has always had an amazing heart from missions, adoption and fundraising, and of all days to call, just when I said that little prayer, it was like a light bulb went off and I knew she was the one!! Her husband has the flexibility and they are in the same travel boat as myself. I have been racking my brain for the perfect person to ask and God had her call me. I am blessed.

Adoption news

http://livingloveoutloud.blogspot.com/2008/04/wow-i-could-travel-soon.html

My kids What can I say?

Our church meets in a school building and after church the church members hang out talking in the gymnasium. My kids were running wild, I called Mason over and I asked him to please do something constructive. I walked away to continue chatting and I looked over to see Mason push Abigail down to the ground, laugh and run to climb on the nearest thing to climb on. I excused myself and marched over to him, I got close to his hear and said "What are you doing?" with my teeth clenched. "Nothing mom you told me to do something destructive. " yes, what can I say?

Later that day I heard Abby talking to another four year old girl about heart attacks. I corrected her and told her to change the subject, so gladly she went on to talk platypus's. That night I told her over dinner that heart attacks are not good sugjects for four year old girls to be talking about. She replied "Mother heart attacks are very dangerous and we need to talk about them" again what can I say?

IKEA-AFRICA sounds alike

So my littlest dear Judah was loaded into the car and ready for a big trip to Ikea. He met the trip with much anticipation in fact as I think about it he kept trying to get me off the phone and out of the house. I was wandering why he was so excited. Anyway after the hour long drive to IKEA we pull into the parking lot and he exclaims "I be first to hold sissy!!" I laughed so hard, I said "Do you think we are going to pick sissy up?" he shook his head with his finger in his mouth not really sure, he looked bewildered and I am sure he was thinking weren't we going to Africa? "Kinda baby, Ikea" they got some african looking things, non of which we purchased cause of the below blog post, I won't repeat the whole sorrid thing.

We got a court date!!!!!!!

MAY 15,

That is it!! May 15, we expect to travel four weeks after that so like June 15th. I am so excited. This makes waiting so much easier because I have so much to do like learn some Amarhic, decorate the kids rooms, that means going back to IKEA. This time Judah will stay with me. Okay much to do!