New Leaves, new season

As I was sitting on the deck yesterday, looking up at the blue sky with the occasional cloud passing by, I admired the new green leaves. New leaves, new life, new season…

I wish I could say that this new life holds some great theological or

personal meaning for me. But it doesn’t. I’ve been through too many “hopeful springs” to know better. Hoping that nature holds some great meaning for us and the adoption/infertility process just brings disappointment. Hoping that God is giving me some “signs” to cling to, glimmers of hope… yeah, that doesn’t work anymore either. It’s a nice concept, but practically speaking it stinks. It’s easier to not hope, and just enjoy new leaves and the new season for what they are: new leaves and a new season.

As for adoption, children, and the “seasons” of our lives… yeah, we’re stuck in the same place. (note: this does not mean we aren’t enjoying life!) Same season, nothing new… just more paperwork and more money flying out of our checkbook…

But, I do love spring, so I’ll just keep enjoying it.

Farmer’s Market

It’s Spring. Yeah. Spring means the Dane County Farmer’s Market! Yesterday morning Michelle and I met Jen and Roy there at 7:00-ish.. Very early.

But also the best time to go to the market. Much later, and the crowds show up, and with crowds come strollers, wagons, etc.. It was a gorgeous day for the

market! Though it was expensive (and I didn’t buy any), I enjoyed seeing asparagus, potatoes, spring garlic, ramps, spinach, herbs, all sorts of flowers… so fun.

And, my jam guy. I don’t even know his name, but I love seeing him, talking to him, listening to him. He alphabetizes his jams, and told us one year that at Yom Kippur he reverses them. I don’t know if he’s serious or joking.

I’m so happy it’s market time!

the latest

Life’s been a bit crazy.

First, we seriously considered adopting a baby…a daughter of a friend.. after many phone calls to insurance, doctors, birth family, adoption agency, social workers…we decided we couldn’t adopt this baby. It was hard, it was an emotional week.. but in the end, the birth mother kept the baby, and we are thrilled about that. I look forward to keeping in touch and seeing how this little girl grows up.

China adoption continues to plod along. At least we hope it does. We’re re-doing some paperwork that has expired, thanks to China’s slow-down… the I-600A, doctor’s letters, assets and liabilities, police record letter, background checks, and homestudy update… woo hoo.. not fun, actually. Pretty darn frustrating.

Dave H. was at our house fixing our downstairs shower (yeah) and putting two closets upstairs (double yeah). It’s so nice. Can’t wait to start using them. One of them is a closet for kids clothes. I especially can’t wait to use that one.

I’ve been a home-wrecker. In the past few days, wrens tried to build a nest–several times–on our deck light. Several times because I kept taking their nest down. Carefully. Then robins built two nests over our side door. Two, because I took the first one down, then the second one. I’m not against birds. In fact I was quite sad to be a home-wrecker, and am hoping that these pairs of birds found safer places to build.

The dogs are wonderful. We love them. They continue to bring us

infinite amounts of joy and laughter. I love this picture of Jim and the dogs. Aww…

This weekend we’re in Glen Ellyn, IL, for the Central Conference Ministerium. Tonight during worship we heard testimonies from ordination candidates. That’s my favorite part of the weekend, hearing the stories. Well, I also love hanging out with friends, and meeting new friends. Before worship I went to dinner with “Blue Man Group and Woman”. Steve, Andy, Lyle, and I (all from the Badger District) went to the Olive Garden… and we were all wearing blue! Check out Steve’s blog for a picture. (We could have been slide girls, for you Lost & Found fans!)

It seems as though every night these past two weeks we have been doing all sorts of work…I’m looking forward to a dull week… someday. Certainly not this next week!

Lost and Found… finally

Yay. On Sunday, we finally saw Lost and Found again. 16 of us went to the concert–pictured above, with Michael and George, the band–and I think most liked it. A bit loud for some, a bit quirky, not everyone’s style. But my style! And I needed a Lost and Found fix.

On Saturday Jim and I made Lost and Found fans. Yes, we are Lost and Found fans. But we also made some. (for the whole group) We wanted to do something creative for the concert, something memorable…. so we made the fans, and I think Michael and George were impressed. At least they pretended to be, which was nice of them.

Michael and George have a unique way of making me laugh, and cheering me up, even when things are not so cheery all the time. So thanks, Michael and George… for reminding me of God’s grace, love, humor, and faithfulness.

Friday morning catch-up

Thank you to those who “voted” for a favorite photo. It was fun and interesting to see who liked what! I think the only photo that received two “votes” was Abby and Entropy sticking their heads out the car window…

This Sunday we’re going to a Lost and Found Concert! At least we’re hoping… (see previous post about the concert that wasn’t.) Yay.. I’m so excited. I need some good Lost and Found humor about now. It’s even more fun that we’re once again bringing others from church with us… and add to that the fact that Michael (one of the band members) and Troy (their publicity guy) have been in contact with us… this is the makings of a good weekend. I hope.

Adoption news… still further delays. Nobody knows even how to guess when it will be for those of us with LID’s January 12, 2006. But in this last batch of referrals that came from China (for those whose Dossiers were LID late October, 2005), one couple expected a 0-24 month old, and instead got a referral for a four-and-a-half year old. What to do? Not sure. The couple’s in shock, as we would be, too. This referral sparked much discussion on the online forums about what we would do, how difficult that would be, how frustrating this entire wait is, etc.. Yes, it is. How frustrating, how completely-out-of-our-control, and how tired we are of hearing “don’t worry… God has the perfect child in mind for you, and it will all be worth it.” I hope that’s true, but don’t have much faith in that at this point.

It snowed this week. I love snow, but didn’t want it in April. Regardless, it was beautiful, and made for some fun photographs. And the dogs seemed to be happy. They’re so playful and cute in the snow.

Last night at our Movie Small Group at church, we watched The Station Agent. This movie is now on my list of top movies. (It takes place in New Jersey, which of course we love..) An independent film about lonely people, and how community is needed, though not always welcomed or provided in the necessary manners. I loved the realistic nature of this movie, how people click and sometimes don’t click.. how life is a challenging mixture of laughter, tears, fun and just being.. Sounds cliche, but that mixture is well done in this film. I don’t know that I’ve thought, before, about having a list of “all time favorite movie characters”. But now I do… and Joe, from this movie, is on that list.

Easter Sunday was fun… for photos, look at my flickr site… (or follow the links to the right).

Hasta Luego… time to go catch-up on church stuff…..

photo favorites?

Ok, so my “Lent” photos are over. Lent is over, at least liturgically… it drags on in my life, as it has for many years now. But I digress from the topic of photos. I took a photo everyday during Lent. In fact I obsessively took many photos during Lent. (And I loved it, though I probably drove some of you nuts.) Anyhow, I posted one photo a day on my flickr site, and placed them all in my “Lent” set.

If you have seen these Lent photos–or even if you haven’t–let me know what your favorite photo is. Click here, then click on the little box on the right that says “Lent”. Then click on “detail” to view them a little larger.

Which photo is your favorite? Let me know…..

spilt?

Is “spilt” a word, or is it “spilled”? (see previous post on egg dyeing..)

Product Placement

Last night Jo Ann and I dyed 14 eggs.. Tie dye… cool. Except that when I was pouring the pink/red dye out on the tray, I was also paying attention to something else-probably the dogs. And I spilt a lot of dye on my hands.. thus, the first picture, with the pink hands.. but notice the awesome eggs!

Then, after our egg-dyeing was over, we decided that my fingers/hands were too pink for Easter Sunday at church, though they might match Easter colors, they didn’t match my outfit, at least!

So Jo Ann looked up on the internet how to remove egg dye from hands… and we got the following suggestions… anti-bacterial soap (nope), eye make up remover (nope), dish soap (nope), window cleaner (a little), SHOUT (nope), and I thought I’d try Simple Green (nope), and Krud Kutter (nope)… then finally, the last internet suggestion: a little bleach in water–soaking my hands in it… (yep! finally…).

Was it the bleach? (probably) or the cumulative effect of several products? Hard to tell. But something did the trick, so I was happy! No pink hands for Easter Sunday. Yay. Very happy.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! Christ is risen!

If my name were Angelina, part 2…

I’d be able to start the paperwork on child #5, adopted child #4, even after so recently returning from adoption #3. According to our newspaper this morning, Angelina is adopting again… this time from the Chad… to balance out their family, because they don’t want Zahara, who’s from Ethiopia, to be the only black face in the family.

I’d like to balance out my family too… I’d like a child, of any race, to balance out the two adults (not to mention the two dogs.) Make that two children, as long as we’re dreaming… that way we’d have two adults, and two kids (and don’t forget the two dogs..)

And as long as we’re talking balance, how about equity of resources in the world to adopt those who have no resources. There is no balance, Angelina.. but if you are truly concerned about the plight of needy children in the world, maybe you could begin a foundation to help families waiting for children, all those couples and singles who are desperately wanting children to adopt… but instead have to wade through paperwork, depleting bank accounts and country delays, while reading in the morning paper that you so easily adopt needy children.

But my name is not Angelina… I hope there’s no part 3 to this post.