Friday Gratitude

Just a few things that I am so thankful for this Friday.  As Spring approaches, it seems to be easier to find things.  Find myself smiling more and more as the weather warms. 

Lilac Buds!!



Daffodil Sprouts

My sparkles are back!  The river sparkles like this when the light is
just right in the afternoon.  Sometimes it even reflects on the dining room wall.

My reading nook on the screened porch is finally warm enough to enjoy again,
and enjoying it I am!

We have gone for several family walks this week.  The girls are actually old enough and strong enough to walk a longer distance with us at a nice pace so it actually feels like exercise.  We played at the park for about an hour this afternoon and Zion was so excited to be able to do so many more things than he could in the fall.  Hubby and I discussed last night whether it is better to watch the news daily and everything that is happening (what I tend to do) and get kind of stressed out and fearful, or to live in a bubble and not know or think about all the crazy stuff going on.  I think I need to be informed, but at the park this afternoon, decided that it is definitely essential to my sanity to completely enjoy the moments of beauty even if surrounded by ugly, nasty and crazy. 

Friday

A few moments of lovely from yesterday and today:

 Daddy was in Texas since Saturday and we got to pick him up from the airport and take him out to lunch and to Mitchell Park Domes.



Lunch at Red Lobster



I need a big bowl of rocks and moss.  Pretty sure...



In the Desert Dome with my amazing kiddos who impressed the heck out of the employee that we were chatting with.  They Rock! 

Mexican Redbud in the Desert Dome.  Just starting to bloom. 

Thanks to the super nice lady who snapped a family pic for us. 

Powder Puff tree and yes, this is the flower!

Abi in her new dress from Aunt Mandy.  I think she looks like she stepped out of  a Dick and Jane book.

90% of my Zion pictures look like this...

Birthing Kits all ready to send to Haiti through Craft Hope

A new spring wall hanging in the works.

I'm Back!!

I had decided, last year, that something had to give and the blog was not a necessity.  Thus why I haven't updated in a year again.  Very recently, I have wanted to get back at it. I have been reading an amazing book, A Thousand Gifts, by Ann VosKamp. The entire book is about the power of gratitude and I have been keeping a gratitude journal and just feel like it is time to get back to blogging about lovely things again.  That is one reason why there is finally another post here...

My second motivation for starting back up is to introduce myself to the lovely ladies that I will be traveling to Uganda with in April! (UGANDA IN APRIL!!!). I am going with Linny and Emma Saunders and a group of ladies to Kampala, Uganda in April to basically love on some orphans and share Jesus in that way and I can not wait! So to all of you who came to my poor, neglected little blog who will be joining us on this amazing trip... Hello!!  I am Kelly and I can't wait to get to know all of you! I am going to try to post more, but feel free to look around and see what we have been up to in the past. The last year has included more being a wife, being a mom, homeschooling and creating. That is just who I am :)  A couple of pics...

Our family at Curt's Brother's wedding in June.

Our Christmas picture from this past year... Abi in pink, Emma in purple and our boy is Zion  :)

Hi... I am still alive and kicking!

I know it has been over a year! Please don't hate me. Life has been super full and active. We have all adjusted very well to having Zion in our family and can't remember what it was like before him. I am hoping to get back at posting lovely things. For now, will some photos of the last year appease you???

Abigail's 6th birthday (Jan. 2009). Zion had been home 2 weeks at this point.

Daddy proving he can hold all 3 kids.

Zion's personality starts to shine through...

Mother's Day 2009

Door County June 2009

Girls' Only Camping Trip Sept. 2009

Partners in crime...

Fall 2009

At one of Daddy's team's cross country meets

One of the last nice days of fall.

This face... oh my!

First time playing in the snow!

Christmas Picture 2009

More to come I promise!

Home

We are finally home and getting settled in. We ended up renting a car and driving from New York to Chicago and a friend picked us up in Chicago for the rest of the journey home. We arrived home at 4:30 am on Monday. Yesterday was long and hard, but we all had a good night sleep last night and are taking it easy today. The girls LOVE their brother and are being very helpful. I will post more later, but wanted to let everyone know we are home and safe. Thank you all for your prayers. We felt them!

Still Stuck

Standby flight for tonight didn't work. Did get a hotel, but there are no other forms of transportation available either. Hopefully tomorrow brings better news.

Getting Home

All day today we watched their flight numbers, hopeful whenever we saw they were still on. Dismayed when watching national news and seeing video of Detroit with ice and snow. Got the text from the previous post, and prayed. This afternoon Curt sent a message saying they were on standby for an 8:30 flight tonight, and confirmed for an 8:30 flight Saturday. We prayed they could make the earlier flight. Curt called and spoke with the girls on speaker phone to let them know. We had not told them about the chance of the delay so as not to worry them too much without need. They took it well, though with some more behavior issues this evening, most likely not just from the change in plans, but from not having an entirely consistent life the last 10 days, and from being snowed in for most of that! Emma changed her journal for today from "Mom and Dad coming home with Zion" to "NOT" to "MAYBEE!" after the phone call. Abi is "monkey mad" at the weather, Emma just wants to slam a door maybe to make her feel better.

We all went out to dinner tonight - both sets of Grandparents, the girls, and me (Mandy!) Curt called while we were eating and said they had found a hotel and would be staying the night and next day for the 8:30 flight Saturday. They should arrive in Chicago around 10:30, where Curt's brother will pick them up and deliver them to us. Please pray that no more weather disrupts their travels, and that their spirits will be lifted. Pray that Emma and Abi remain the angels they have been in the face of missing mom and dad. Thank you for your support of this wonderful family - they can feel your prayers and most certainly covet more for the future - in their immediate travel needs, and in their transition to a family of five.

Stuck

Curt's Text reads:
...flights cancelled everywhere. Mean people. Please pray.

We received about a foot of snow last night here in Southern Wisconsin, and it is moving through, messing up travel in Chicago and Detroit, meaning that while Curt, Kelly and Zion are safely in the country, they can't really go anywhere right now. Will update more when I hear what the next plan is.

Coming Home Soon...

It has been a wonderful adventure, but we can't wait to be home now. Yesterday we went shopping at local shops. That was fun. We also went to the leprosy and TB hospital and Kelly bought a lot of hand made items (1,590 birr worth). The money goes to support the hospital. Amazingly it was very difficult to find my traditional soccer jerseys I get on trips. We had to drive to a special shop to get them. Pray for our flights and that Zion Degamo does well. He is very happy today and smiling a lot. He is a super fun baby and he feels like ours, which we were worried about. But why worry when God is in control? Silly us. OK, see you all soon. Miss you all tons.

Love,
Curtiss...

To the Embassy and Beyond

We had our visa appointment today and we are all official now! It was very intimidating (the place) but the process itself was quite easy. We had Degamo in our room over night last night. He took a bottle for us and slept well and we were quite encouraged. He did very well during the Visa hearing today and even slept in his sling. After the visa hearing, we went to a Golf Club for lunch and relaxing, he was not loving the fact that we have thrown off his whole schedule. When we returned to the Hotel this afternoon, he spent most of an hour screaming and then finally took a nap. He woke up from his nap and took a bottle, but was still fussy. We think he may be teething and his tummy is having a hard time adjusting to different formula. We are just relaxing in our rooms for the rest of the night and taking turns listening to him fuss and holding him (it is Curt's turn right now). Hopefully he returns to his happy self soon. All of the nannies are always telling us how happy he is, so I feel like we ruined him already! Keep praying for us, all are tired, but happy and excited to be heading home in just over 48 hours. Tomorrow (Wednesday) they are having a going away party for the kids (I am bringing lots of kleenex) and in the afternoon, we are going shopping. We fly out at 11 pm (here) on Thursday.

We will be in contact as soon as we are back in the states, which is suppossed to be 10 am in New york on Friday.

love you all
Kelly

Sunday

Last night we spent at the traditional restaurant. The food was good, a little spicy, but good. The dancing and music was amazing. We have some video we will have to show you all. Today we did not get to see Degamo because they wanted to give the nannies a break on Sunday. We went to an Ethiopian church that Dr. Fikru goes to this morning. It was very similar in style and order of service to Living Word, but we didn't understand a word, yet our spirits still connected with the service and the people. We were the only white people there. After church we went to a resort southwest of Addis. Kelly took a lot of pictures and I rode in the "yak yak" (kayak) around the lake all afternoon. It was a very beautiful place and we got to see some of the more rural areas on the drive there and took some pictures. The food at the resort was also very good. I ate Nile perch that was huge and amazing. We are looking forward to tomorrow when we can play with Degamo again and he get to come back to the hotel and spend the night with us.

Love you and miss you all. If you are caring for the girls give them extra hugs and tell them how much we miss them.

see you all soon.
Curt

Saturday Update

Spent more time with Degamo today. The babies were out on the balcony when we got there, they were all naked and getting rubbed down with vaseline and sunning themselves. They were so happy and we said we are going to have to get a sun lamp cuz there is not nice warm sun in Wisconsin right now. He smiled when he saw us this morning and let Curt hold him for quite a while. We went to the National Museum this afternoon, very interesting. Tonight is a traditional meal and show. We are really feeling the time change today. Keep praying for us.

Meeting the Baby

Newest update from Curt & Kelly:
We met Degamo this morning. He is so sweet and wonderful and perfect (of course). We got to snuggle and play for about 2 hours this morning and then went back this afternoon for another hour or so. The nannies love him so much and made it abundantly clear that he is a favorite. Everyone is very friendly and accomodating. We will hang out with him tomorrow morning and then we are doing some touring in the afternoon. It is sunny and mid 80's but not humid. Feels so good. The other family that is here adopting as well is very nice and we have enjoyed getting to know them. So far so good on food, I had spaghetti for lunch (real daring, I know, but it was some of the best spaghetti ever). We are done for the day, and are going to crash in our room. Love you all and miss you. We are waiting for the phone to be delivered, so we will try to call once it is here.

Curt, Kelly and Degamo.

Travel Update

Sister Mandy here! The ice/snow Tuesday did not delay any travel plans - original flight from Chicago to Minneapolis was cancelled, so they flew to Detroit and waited 4 hours. I texted Curt all day while they were waiting (I was bored too...)

When the girls and I got back from piano lessons today, I had an email from Kelly:
We are here, alive and well and tired. It is just after 11 pm, so hopefully we will sleep. We get to meet Degamo around 10 am tomorrow. All of our luggage arrived fine and we did not miss any flights. Love you all. Miss you tons.

I will update more when I hear anything.

It is Official!

This quilt will be traveling to Ethiopia Dec. 10th-19th... we will be with it and and we will be wrapping our little Zion Degamo up in it and bringing him home to stay! Our case passed the Ethiopian courts yesterday and he is officially ours. :) We will post details of our trip and pictures of him when we get home. We appreciate and covet your prayers through out this adventure. Happy Thanksgiving!

Fall Adventure

Adoption updates first: We received a Court Date yesterday of November 26th. That is a lot later than we had hoped and may mean that we do not get to travel until January. Super dissapointed, but not much we can do about it. Keep praying for us! We have been super blessed with gifts for Zion Degamo, also, our finances seem to be falling into place so that is good.

This past Monday was suppossed to be one of the last warm days for a while, so we took off and went to a local lake. So wonderful. The kids (including Curt) played in the sand, we ate a picnic lunch, went for a hike that included many discoveries, and did some fishing. The fish were biting so much that before the bobber had landed completely, it went under. We caught around 8 bluegills in a 45 minute period. Enjoy some shots from the day.


Bucket of Snails (catch and release of course):


Daddy, I am coming up your mountain!

Daddy is soooo King of the Mountain~!
Click on the pictures to make them bigger, you have to see Curt's face!

More pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/gratzmom/

Referral!!!

We received the referral of a 3 month old baby boy today! He is beautiful and we are so excited. We cannot post photos or much personal info until he is officially ours, but I had to share my news here. We will not have a court date until the Ethiopian courts reopen after their rainy season, so as of right now it looks like late October/Early November before court and then 3 or so weeks after we pass court, we will travel to Addis to get our little guy. If all goes well, we will be home before the end of the year. Keep our family in your prayers please. There are other families in our program who leave tomorrow to pick up their children, so we are praying for them too.

Remember me?

Yes, I am still alive.

No, we don't have a referral yet.

We are surviving and trying our best to find happy distractions.

I will post here occasionally, but after the adoption is all over and done with, I will probably shut this blog down... working on priorities. Would much rather be sewing than blogging, sorry. Not that I don't love you all.

My sister, who loves me, bought me an early birthday present of a Flickr Pro account (that so does not mean I am any sort of "pro.") So check me out there. http://www.flickr.com/photos/gratzmom/

Love to you all!
Kelly

Think about something else...

What isn't lovely= The adoption waiting game... We are currently #4 on the list I believe. One of the families in this area received their referral (the call from the agency that basically says, hey, we have a child that we think matches your family) a week or so ago and I was really hoping that meant we would be coming up soon too. There were 2 more referrals this week, but not us. We are getting closer, but the wait is tough. I keep telling myself how good we have it, because our wait is most likely only going to be 3-5 months (we are almost at 3 months right now since our dossier was approved). China is currently a 2-3 YEAR wait from application to bringing a child home. Haiti is around 2 years, so I will not complain. We will most likely have our little one home before the end of the year and we didn't start the process until Feb. of 2007. Every time the phone rings during the week, my heart stops a little. I am very excited and the anticipation can get intense at times. So I am trying to think about different things.

What IS lovely: 4th of July with family and friends (and no pictures because my batteries died as the parade started and I didn't have time to put new ones in for the rest of the day). Our house is right on the parade route, so we have decided to have an annual open house sort of party. The front lawn is open for parade watchers and then we do a potluck style lunch after the parade and hang out in the back yard by the river. Canoe rides included for free. Everyone usually goes home late afternoon for some rest before fireworks. Then we head to Curt's office parking lot to watch the fireworks. I am sure I have said it before, but I LOVE our small town.

Flowers:

Black Poppy (from my lovely sister) Bee Balm ( I like to call it the Bad Hair Day Plant)
More Black Poppy


Queen Anne's Lace (a weed to some people, but not me)

My Crazy Family :



If you click on the pictures to make them bigger, you will see that Curt is breaking a water balloon over poor, little Abi's head. Too which she responded "that's cheating Dad!"


Perfect weather and time to do what I love. So far today I was able to laze around in bed reading a good book, fertilize all of my plants, watch the fishing and water balloon fights that Curt and the kids were enjoying, take pics of my beloved flowers, and type this post. It is only 10:30. We still have blackberry picking, some baking, HGTV watching, and grilling out at Curt's parents. All in all a great day. Hope for some sewing tomorrow and we will call it a perfect weekend.