Where Is Abby?

I had just hit the snooze and rolled over, hoping for at least 9 more minutes of blissful sleep, when Randy came in and said "Where is Abby?" He always goes in and checks on her and gives her a good-bye kiss before he leaves for work, but when he went in to say goodbye, he couldn't find her! Of course, I got out of bed and prepared to help him search, but he had located her by the time I got out of our bedroom. Here is where he found her:

Do you see her? Neither do I! But she's UNDER her crib behind the blanket screen, scrunched in somewhere around the suitcases that are stored under there. She was stirring when I took this picture, so I know she's there. I don't know how Randy figured out she was under there. It was very dark when I took this picture. I just aimed my camera toward the bed and hoped I would get it in the picture.

She has been sleeping "in" the big bed for the last 2 days. I guess she decided she didn't need to sleep in her crib anymore. And actually, she was settling in and sleeping in the big bed very well during her nap and nighttime...or so we thought. Altho last night I got up to go to the restroom at 2:30, and noticed that her door was wide open. I looked and thought I saw her in bed, so I went back to bed. Randy also got up and noticed the door open, but he determined she WASN'T in the bed. He found her in the living room sleeping in/on the throw blankets we have by our cushy rocker/swivel chair. He put her back in bed, but I guess she decided to get out again.

She obviously was very active last night. I'm guessing this is going to be a challenging day dealing with an almost 2-1/2 year old who didn't get a good night's sleep.

Another "Adventure in Abbyland"!....

More Silliness

She figured this out all by herself! :)


And this too... (turned the garbage can upside down and stood on it to reach the drinking fountain at church)


So VERY proud of herself!


All ready to go on a walk with Daddy. Daddy put the hat on, but I'm guessing she put the sunglasses on....do you agree? :)

She really wanted to go outside during one of the really hot days, so I let her go out and play in the shade right outside the deck door. I was inside staying cool(er). She made mud out of dirt and water from her spray bottle, and then spread it on her arms and legs and the deck. Seems like I read that mud helps cool you down...she must've read the same book! :) I took a couple pictures before she noticed I was there.

She earned herself a cool-water bath for this act. It was all worth it!!

#1 Husband Award

And the winner this week (and for the rest of my life) is....RANDY SMALL!!!!!

During my lunchtime on Friday, I wrote a list of the things I wanted/needed to get accomplished on Saturday. It included picking beans, canning beans, making apple pie and freezing apple pie filling, picking plums, making plum-bluberry jam, preparing my Sunday School lesson, cutting up the watermelon, and making lunch for Sunday. Some may look at that list and think "so what?". When I looked at it, I knew how much work was involved in those things and knew I was going to be exhausted by the time it was over. And I expected that much of it would get delayed until a later date (which isn't a very good option since much of it HAD to be done by Sunday, and other parts of it HAD to be done due to fruit/veggie readiness and lack of good storage options).

In steps my wonderful, self-sacrificing husband Randy. He looked over my list and said "how can I help you get this all done?" He chose to put aside his own to-do list and was a GREAT helper all day! His help included taking Abby on a walk and bike ride so I had the house to myself (and the associated peace and quiet which allowed me to think clearly), picked plums, snapped, washed, and put beans in the jars, cut up the watermelon, washed dishes, and determined that we could take left-over pizza from Friday night to church on Sunday so I didn't need to prepare another meal.

When all was said and done, I had canned 5 quarts of apple pie filling, 4-1/2 pints of plum-blueberry jam, had 3 quarts of beans in the fridge ready to be canned once I got more beans to make it worth it, and my Sunday School lesson was ready to go. The only thing that didn't get done was the apple pie, which was fine because it didn't have to happen.

THANK YOU, HONEY!!! I LOVE YOU!!

It's Official!

I just wanted to let you all know that we received our Foster Care License in the mail last week. It took us about 10 months from start to finish to complete all the classes and paperwork, and I think we'd both agree that it wasn't nearly as bad as we thought it would be. Bethany Christian Services, the private agency that we're using as a mediator between us and the state, has been a huge help in this process.

We are currently receiving profiles of available kids via email almost weekly, and we are prayerfully reviewing these profiles and seeking God's wisdom as we try to determine which kid(s) He has chosen for us. This process is much different than the Domestic Infant adoption program we went thru to get Abby. With Abby, we submitted our information to Bethany, along with a multi-paged photo album of ourselves and our lives, and it was basically up to the Lord to move in the heart of a birthmom and dad to select us to be the parents of their child. Bethany did a lot of work on our behalf behind the scenes to advocate for us as they met with birthparents, and a lot of the time we didn't know what, if anything, was going on.

This time, we are much more in the driver's seat. Some may think that this way more desirable because you have the opportunity to pick your kids, but really, it's a lot harder because there are so many kids needing a home (8-12 new kids available for adoption every week). Part of you wants to take every one of them home, but you have to determine what is in the best interest of the child, and what will be the best fit for your own family. No kid is perfect, and each has its own set of abilities and challenges, and it's really difficult to read thru each of the profiles and say "is this the one(s) for us?"

Even when we find one that is of interest to us, we can't just say "I want that one" and bring them home the next day. If we're interested in a child, we let Bethany know, and they send our homestudy to the child's caseworker, and that caseworker will evaluate our homestudy, along with other homestudies they receive from other interested parents, and it's their job to determine who will be the best fit for that child. And then the whole learn-everything-about-the-child, meet/greet, interview process will begin. We haven't gotten near that part yet, so I don't know exactly how it will go.

I share all this so you can know better how to pray for us. Are we heroes for doing this? No. Are we ready for what lies ahead? No. We believe this is part of the plan that God has for us, and we are trusting Him to lead us and provide for what we need emotionally, mentally, and physically as we go along this journey.

It's a new day!

Well, yesterday was a day of some joys and lots of frustrations. Today is a new day tho! I got up early (6:12am) and took a shower and spent some time with the Lord, and then had time to do some work for Blythe before Abby woke up. Actually, Abby woke up and got out of bed at 7:45am, but didn't seem to notice that I was in the office working. She played very quietly and nicely by herself until 8:15, when I decided I should stop my work for the time being and go see what she was up to.

Here is what I found:

She had taken ALL of her clothes off, and was happily reading one book after another. When I peeked around the corner, I saw her in the process of selecting another book, and then she climbed onto the couch and settled in and started reading. That's when I took the picture. The flash alerted her to my presence, and then she looked up with a big smile...so full of joy! And so proud of herself!

She is so full of it this morning! Very silly and happy! I hope the whole day is this way! Part of my devotional thought this morning was "the LORD is Good", based on Psalm 34:8 "Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!" There are many things going on in our lives right now where I can truly say that the Lord IS good.

Semiahmoo

Saturday was a really hot day here, so we made plans to go on a little outing that evening. I wanted it to be a really simple affair with little preparation needed, and we succeeded! We put some water and cherries in the cooler, picked up sandwiches at Subway, and then drove out to Semiahmoo. Abby said she needed to go potty en-route, but we took our chances, told her to hold it, and drove all the way to the Semiahmoo resort (where we spent our wedding night 9 years ago) before stopping. Once we got to the bathroom, she wouldn't go. Argggh! So we drove back up the spit to a public beach area and set ourselves up by the water to eat our sandwiches and enjoy the sunset.


Abby had a good time climbing on the logs, digging in the rocks/sand, and throwing rocks into the bay. It warmed my heart to see Daddy and daughter playing by the water together. I got a few nice pictures before my camera battery died.










After the sun set, we headed back to the Semiahmoo resort for another potty stop (this one was successful), and then worked our way back home. We planned to get ice cream in Blaine, but they don't have a DQ in town anymore, and we didn't see any other ice cream joint on our drive, so we ended up getting all the way back to Lynden before getting our ice cream. Randy and I both got our own item at DQ, and planned to share with Abby, but she wanted to have her own so we went across the parking lot to McD's and got her a kid's sized cone. She ate the whole thing herself! It was a great evening!

Thank you, Lord, for Naptime!

...for without it I would go insane. Do kids' hormones start acting up at age 2? One minute they are a lot of fun, and the next they are saying NO!, crying, and refusing to do what you want them to do. One minute I think I would like to have another child around here, and the next minute I'm glad I only have one!

We've been potty-training Abby for 3-1/2 weeks, and overall she is doing really well. She stays dry most of the day, and does a pretty good job of telling us when she needs to go potty. She's 2-1/4 years old and isn't very verbal, so we have to be very attuned to her hints. I let her play in her exersaucer this morning (she's way too big for it, but I'm open to any creative play things for her, and this is what she chose this morning), but had to leave the room to get my coffee cake out of the oven. When I returned, the "saucer" had a nice puddle of "water" in it. Argggh! So I had a nice cleanup job to do, including removing the fabric seat (which is a PAIN). I know she called to me when I was in the kitchen, but I didn't decipher her hollering as "kai" (potty), so I just continued on with my work. Big mistake!

We went for a walk up town this morning. Randy needs some new work jeans, so we walked to the Salvation Army to see if we could find something for him. I didn't find any jeans, but I found some other things I'd been looking for. And Abby got to play with the for-sale toys for awhile. I let her play with them so she could try them out and help me determine if any of them really caught her fancy. She played with many of them, but wasn't inseparable with any of them, so we went home empty handed in that area.

Randy was home with Abby yesterday while I went to work. He was very excited to have Abby show me her new jumping game when I got home. I was rather aghast with what I witnessed. He had taught her how to stand on the arm of the couch (on the end where the brick fireplace hearth is), jump down onto her big bouncy ball (to enhance the bounce of the landing), and roll onto the couch cushions. In the first demonstration, she jumped and bounced and rolled over her neck awkwardly, and then rolled onto the floor. Mom was not impressed. In the second demonstration, she fell backwards off the arm, hit the torchier lamp and sent it falling, and then landed on the brick hearth. Neither fall hurt her badly (thank you Lord!), but I had seen enough and encouraged Randy to put that "game" to rest. Oh, the things we'll do to entertain our little girl! I know Daddies create rougher games than Mommies do, and I admire Randy for finding ways to play with his little girl. At least they had fun with that game (until Mommy came home), and thankfully Abby didn't split her head or get any broken bones this time around.

My sister and I went cherry picking last Monday. A friend of ours has a sweet cherry tree in their front yard, and it produced an enormous amount of cherries this year. They were generous enough to share with us, and after about 3 hours of picking (mostly all by Laura), we left with approx 60 lbs of cherries. We took 4 kids with us: Laura's sons Kent and Luke, niece Emily, and Abby. It was an adventure trying to pick cherries while also keeping the kids entertained and off the road, and making sure the two girls got to the potty at the right times. Our friends treated the kids to a snack of popsicles and oreo cookies. The two girls ate 4 oreos apiece! Mmmmmm.

There are a few things that Abby definitely has an interest in doing. One is swinging on swings, another is hanging off of things, and a third is playing with water and/or playing in dirt. Here are a couple pictures of her recent exploits: