Thursday, April 30, 2009

Progress....We're Making Progress
















This side of the house, except for the garage, of course, is now completely done. The contractors are working on the siding the soffits/facia of the front porch, then they can side the front of the house.

In the picture below, you can see the shake siding in the front of the dormers...the entire front of the house under the front porch will be done with the same shake siding!!! We are really getting excited on how it's all coming together.


















We will add a narrow deck on this side of the house, but that probably won't get done until after our trip to Africa.
















This next picture makes me sad. We had to cut down the maple tree because it died. All the backhoe work in adding the retaining wall against the back of the "motorcycle" garage did it's damage, and the tree could not recover. I'm sad because I love my trees...and it provided great shade on the back deck. After David cut the tree down, we realized it had already started to die; the center of the tree had started to rot.





On the adoption front --- we are exactly three weeks from our court date. I'm getting really excited....and nervous that the house won't be finished, or we'll be exhausted by the time we finish and we'll literally stumble off the plane in Addis. We've started looking into airfares...I'm very happy to say that the airfare is a tad bit cheaper than we expected. Still very expensive, considering 5 of us will be travelling, plus my girlfriend from Connecticut.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

House Update

Hot, tired, and sunburned...Who would have thought it would go from 40 degrees to 88 degrees. Anyway, we survived working outside all day, but boy, are we tired and sunburned. I thought there was a tube of sunscreen somewhere, but I couldn't find it. Thankfully, I'm the only one that got a really bad case of sunburn......

Ok...First picture is of the house on Thursday......I hated the way the garage looked from the very first day we looked at the house. That window is just hideous....Well, I'm happy to announce that it is GONE>>>GONE>>>>GONE!!!!! Thursday night after work, David and I worked til about 9:30 framing out and setting the windows (picture 2). We had to put the Masonite board back up where the original window was to keep anyone from ransacking the garage. Not that we thought it would happen, but you just never know!



This morning, David took down all of the Masonite board...you can see Matthew carrying some of it to the "burn pile" in the back yard! And you see that UGLY door....gone!!!!! We did that today too!









And finally......ready to side.......here the front of the garage...doesn't it look pretty?????? We aren't happy with the way the block work came out where the door was -- we plan on fixing it somehow -- probably stutco-ing the entire front of the garage...since it doesn't match the rest of the house.







On the adoption front, nothing new...except we are less than 4 weeks away from our court date and racing against the clock to finish the house. The house project is extemely overbudget -- that's what happens when your house is over 60 years old! So, we are having to finish up a lot of the stuff ourselves........It's that, or we dip into our travel money for Ethiopia and only I travel, and honestly, I just don't want David and Matthew to miss the opportunity to meet Big and Little S as a family!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Passion = Inspiration = Blogging With a Cause: www.kidmia.org

4:18 am isn't my best time.......I thought I'd given up the middle of the night feedings when Pickles started sleeping through the night, and again when we past the teething hurdle. Yet, here I am......my eyes trying to focus on the brightness of my laptop screen in the darkness of the night.

Inspiration has struck me at 4:00 am this morning......I've tossed and turned and finally figured out what God has in store for me, besides being a wife and mother to 4 children under the age of 10! But first a brief synopsis of how I got to where I am today..................

In 2004, at 40 years of age, I graduated from college with a Business Administration/Marketing Degree. I really, really, really wanted to get a degree in women's studies, yet felt the pressure of my mom's urging from a very young age that I needed to have "marketable skills" that would enable me to provide for myself. You see, she was in a very oppressive and controlling marriage to my father. I have since coined my childhood as "Dysfunction Junction." So, against my desire to pursue a "Women's Studies" degree, I, once again, did what I thought I should do and completed my Business Administration Degree with a concentration in Marketing. Ironically, today I work part-time in my husband's business as the bookkeeper. Funny, I never saw myself doing that.

A few years later....a few children later........and along comes the Kidmia Foundation. Not sure how it came about initially, but I believe it is the brain child of an inspiring man named Scott Brown of The Gladney Center for Adoption in Fort Worth, Texas. We had the privilige of meeting him personally in November 2007, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia when we were there picking up our then 8 month old daughter, Pickles.

I don't believe in coincidences -- during a conversation at lunch on our first full day in Ethiopia, Scott told us why he was there and where he was heading to in southern Ethiopia. A little dumbfounded, I then asked him if he knew what my husband did for a living??? Of course he didn't, so we proceeded to tell him: my husband has been in the woodworking industry for YEARS, and has taught thousands of studends how to run grinders and moulders. Hmmmm....the plight of the orphan (my husband's passion) = Ethiopia = Kidmia = my marketing degree. Does God have a sense of humor, because I'm finally figuring out how my life is all fitting together. Finally, some of those puzzle pieces that have been missing for years have surfaced.

Briefly, The Kidmia Foundation is providing a safe, self-sustaining community in rural Ethiopia for orphans with the goal of working with local churches to help facilitate the transition of finding forever Christ-loving families within Ethiopia! Wow...I'm inspired...........I'm excited........but mostly I'm passionate about this cause......because we can make a difference in the life of a child.

I have been up most of the night thinking how to promote this wonderful cause.......and have truly found my vocational passion....after all these years.

Please, watch this video at http://www.kidmia.org/. (If anyone can tell me how to post this video to my blog, I'd much appreciate it!)

Now I'm off to bed in hopes of catching a few winks before Pickles, aka Sassy Pants wakes up! Gotta love 2!!!!!!

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Spiritual Markers, Anniversaries, Birthdays, etc.

There are dates in our lives that we remember forever;, some, like birthdays and wedding anniversaries, are always remembered with a smile. Others anniversaries, like the death of a loved one, almost always results in pain resurfacing. For me, April 8th is the day I dread all year......Four years ago on Wednesday, April 8th, will mark the anniversary of my mom's death. Sounds kind of dreary, doesn't it. For those of you that have not yet experienced this, and are fortunate enough to have you mom and dad still with you hear on Earth, you may not understand the pain that comes with losing your mom or dad.

Today, we embarked on a journey we haven't done in two years......the trip to the cemetary where my mom is buried. I use the word "buried" lightly because my mom chose to be "placed" in a masoleum "slot" rather than be buried in the ground. Actually, she begged and pleaded with me to make sure my father didn't bury her in the ground. Morbid, I know, but once you've experienced it like we have, it does become a part of life you can't avoid, no matter how much you'd like to.

My mom's last resting place is about 2 1/2 hours from our house. During my mom's illness, I would travel weekly to her house/hospital. On the way, I passed this beautiful waterfall park, yet never took the time to stop. Seeing my mother, spending time with her was paramount because I didn't know how much time I had left with her. Ironically, almost 4 years to the day later, we stop to admire the beautiful waterfalls that sit literally on the side of the road.

Enjoy the pictures, even if my post was depressing and gloomy.......