What we did yesterday!

Count yourself lucky because you are reading what we did yesterday, and I am actually posting it only 24 hours later! So here are our adventures at the Science Museum in Des Moines. I must admit, it's not nearly a cool as the Science Center of Arizona, but the kids still had a great time!

Yes, we're still alive!

No, we haven't frozen to death yet! We've just been extremely busy, and I've been really bad about neglecting the blog! So, this is your chance to catch up on our life because I know you have all been itching to know what we have been doing in this winter wonderland. Below is a picture summary of the last two months! (Click on the big picture to go to the next picture, or use the slider at the top to choose a picture to look at.)

Merry Christmas to all!

We hope you all have had as wonderful a Christmas as we have! It's late, and I really should be getting to bed, but I wanted to post pics of our Christmas fun for all to enjoy... I'll tell you more later.

(Click the pic for the album)

12 Years and counting

Today is our twelfth anniversary! Wow, a whole dozen! It's funny because I can remember when we were newlyweds and we attended an elder's quorum activity where the longest married couple there had been married 11 years, and that seemed like SO LONG! We're not newlyweds anymore, are we?! So let's see...

• 12 years of marriage
• 11 years of parenthood
• 10 (and a half) years of schooling married - glad that's done and behind us!
• 9 speeding tickets (ha ha, just kidding!)
• 8 bishops
• 7 addresses we have lived at (not counting 4 summer internships)
• 6 states we have lived in (Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas for summers, Arizona, Indiana, Iowa)
• 5 cars we've owned (Infiniti, Mazda, Jetta, Elantra, and our new to us Toyota Sienna)
• 4 homes we have owned (condo, duplex, Mesa house, Iowa house)
• 3 children
• 2 real jobs since graduation (Purdue and ISU)
• 1 Loving, devoted, and wonderful marriage!

Blizzard '09

My nephew James asked to see our snow, so here it is! Click on the picture to go to the album with snapshots from today.

Too bad I didn't get to do this today...

I was just too busy!

My life will never be the same...

First watch this...

(I am not endorsing the organization or the people shown so much as the general message.)**

My life will never be the same because of this... In fact, my life has been changed for the better because of it... I have experienced a multitude of emotions - happiness, sadness, joy, pain, excitement, sorrow, and many, many others - because of this blessing:

Adoption

There have never been words to fully describe my feelings when I speak of adoption and my daughters and their birthparents. This month is National Adoption Month, and I want to share with you my gratitude to those who made the arrival of our daughters possible, their birthparents. They are the ones who found courage to make this choice of love. We are not talking a simple love of the brotherly kind, but an intense love that directs you do to what might be the hardest thing you have ever done in your life, or will ever do in your life because you know it's right and best. They had a love that was willing to listen to the whisperings of the spirit and follow its promptings even though they knew that they would experience pain. In this act, they followed our Savior's example, he willingly accepted the pain and sorrow of all people that the way might be opened for us to progress. Our birthparents sacrificed much because they wanted to give their daughters more, not only in this life, but eternally.

The most memorable experiences of our both of our girls' adoptions have taken place at their placements. Both of our daughters were placed into our arms by their birthparents, and both times the spirit in the room was overwhelming. There is a bitter-sweet feeling in the room during placement, as mother and mother and father and father look to each other and to these sweet little ones with love and hope for the future. These birthparents look to us with trust that we will do our best to raise their girls in righteousness. I often ask myself, as I love, teach, and guide our girls, am I being the mother that their birthfamilies hoped me to be? I will admit that I am not perfect, but I take this great responsibility very seriously because I love their birthparents dearly. I hope to one day stand before them, mostly likely with tears in my eyes, and thank them for the blessed opportunity to be a mother to their little girl.

Why do I share this with you? I hope that for you who have been touched by adoption in some way will express gratitude for that blessing - that includes all of you since you are my friends. I also hope for those of you who may be considering adoption, or may consider adoption in the future, I want you to know that you are about to embark on one amazing journey, and the highs and lows are all worth it because the blessing at the end is absolutely incredible. To you, I say do not fear the unknowns of adoption because I can testify that it is all in the Lord's hands. He is watching over all involved. My life has been blessed forever.

**I did try to check the validity of all the people cited as being adopted in the video, and to the best of my research all but two are definitely adopted by one or both parents. The remaining two are questions because I founds sources saying it was true and sources saying it was false. The two in question are JRR Tolkien and Tim McGraw.