Crazy 8s

Lindsey tagged me... (and since there has been a dearth of activity on this blog this month, here goes)

8 things I'm looking forward to...
1.) seeing what kind of person Ellie grows up to be
2.) our time with family this summer (Nathan's family in June, mine in July, and more family in August!)
3.) our tenth anniversary trip in July!
4.) learning more!
5.) meeting our next child... boy or girl?
6.) observing Ellie as a big sister
7.) redeeming a gift certificate to eat with Nathan at Malones. We've only had it for about 6 months.
8.)

8 Things I Did Yesterday

1.) does housework count?
2.) accidentally invited EVERYONE in my e-mail address book to become my Facebook friend (sorry if you don't have fb and got spammed by me)
3.) took the Kinnell's family photos -- thanks for letting me practice on you guys! I hope Essie gets to feeling better soon!
4.) downloaded 400+ images from an engagement session (why do I take SO MANY photos?)
5.) went to the post office
6.) compensated for long work at the computer by camping out on the deck with Nathan and Ellie (Ellie LOVED it -- she got to sleep on a real mattress)
7.) forgot to give Ellie her allergy medicine
8.) Watched the movie "Enchanted" with Ellie streaming from Netflix on the laptop in our tent on the deck (we were roughin' it, weren't we?)

8 Things I Wish I could do

1.) go back to last night and give Ellie her medicine (she woke up this morning, stuffed up and near tears, pointed to her nose and said, "Fix it?")
2.) teleport to any place in the world so we could visit family and friends more easily (Ellie's been asking on a near daily basis to visit her grandparents)
3.) Sleep better hours
4.) wake up with the skills of a Photoshop jedi master
5.) know how to help Ellie more and not place unrealistic expectations on her growth and development
6.) journal
7.) articulate my thoughts succinctly
8.) think of something special to do for Ellie's birthday in 2 weeks...

8 T.V. shows I watch
1.) Lost
2.) Fox & Friends

We've not really watched much TV in 2009. We don't even record anything to our DVR anymore -- not even the Amazing Race! Nathan's been a saint and watched many an episode of the Inspector Lynley Series as well as Midsomer Murders (thanks for the library loan, Dad).

I'm not tagging anyone, but if you too are in need of blog content, feel free to do this yourself. It's actually thought provoking (e.g. what AM I looking forward to?)

Nathan's Birthday

I got an e-mail from a friend tonight, concerned that she hadn't heard from us in so long. I guess we have gotten rather wrapped up, as of late. Already having enough on our plate I had to go and put our vehicle out of commission on Saturday night. Nothing serious, but a bit of a pain when a family only has one car and it took the better part of a day to get it all fixed again which pushed things back further. Perhaps I'll post photos of that when that CF card gets downloaded.

Meanwhile, enjoy these photos from Nathan's birthday Sunday. Nathan, Els and I love you! Thanks for taking such good care of us as father and husband (and for not getting frustrated at me for 'breaking the car')!

A little update...

There's some adoption news below but first I felt the photo above needed an explanation. Many of you may know that little brings Ellie more joy than playing with a balloon. They make wonderful rewards/incentives for good behavior, not to mention easy, portable entertainment! A while ago I made the 'mistake' (?) of drawing her face on a balloon and now nearly every one she gets will be followed by the words, "Face? Draw face?" In fact, a few weeks ago she thought she would help by finding a Sharpie, removing the cap and bringing it to me!

I can't remember what precipitated the photo above, except that it might have been the first time I was challenged by Nathan to draw myself. I think I will stick to Nathan and Ellie. This is as close as we've gotten to a 'family photo' in several weeks or maybe even months and I needed a photo to accompany this post.

We returned from our three-state tour on Monday afternoon and have been transitioning into summer mode. We've got our project list made up and given ourselves deadlines. We'll see how it goes!

Funny story from our trip: on the way to Marion from Grand Rapids Nathan made a hasty decision to whip off the interstate to grab a St*rbucks. I had been chatting on the cell phone and had no idea what state we were in, much less what city. I wrapped up my call and walk into the store to see Nathan chatting with someone. Maybe they were asking about the enormous kayak on the roof of our van? As I came into the store I took a double take! It was a student (from Alaska, so you can understand by double surprise) who went to Argentina with Nathan in March. Not only that, but he was sitting at a table with two friends who were also equally surprised...because a photo of Nathan was open on Steve's laptop! Steve had been visiting friends (in Ft. Wayne, by the way) and showing them photos of the trip to Argentina. Crazy, eh?

Okay, now to the adoption update:
On Monday we got the news that our dossier has completed the translation stage and been submitted into the AAC registry. It always feels good to pass another milestone. The next thing we'll wait for is our actual referral! We're prepared for a long wait but of course would like for it to come sooner rather than later. Thank you for your continued interest and prayers for us and the next Waggoner!

A few days away...

We are taking a few days away from home. It's nice to get away from the ringing phone and always being 'on' which comes hand in hand with life at the center, even when school is out. Right now Nathan and I are up in Michigan and Ellie is with Nonna and PaPa in Columbus. Last night we had a great dinner with bloggy friends, Melissa and Bob in downtown Grand Rapids where we're staying. I wish we had more time here! There's a lot more to do than I realized and they have a neat downtown! I'm attending a photography workshop and Nathan has been a very supportive husband and found ways to spend his time during the day while I'm honing my photography skills. Today he took the kayak out on the Rogue River, did some shopping and got the brakes repaired on our van. Tomorrow I think he's going to explore the Gerald R Ford Presidential Museum which is across the street from our hotel. I wish I could go too!

Tomorrow evening Nathan and I head to Marion to attend the wedding of one of our students, then travel to Dayton on Sunday for the wedding of another cabinet member. The photos above were shot on our camera phone.

Mother's Day/Graduation Photos

(Above, at Elisabeth's open house) Lizzy led worship for us at WGM for the past three years (and served on the worship team before that). We will miss her God-given gift at leading worship, not to mention her sweet spirit and friendship! We spent two summers with her in Hungary and she was a frequent Ellie sitter. She is going home to upstate New York.

Here we are with Joel. It's hard to believe that when I was in college I watched he and his sisters and now he's graduating from college! Joel served as our cabinet president this past year! We are excited that he's been accepted into the Patterson School at the University of Kentucky!

Jeff & Matt have been involved at WGM since practically their first week on campus as freshmen. They are media nuts and frequently talk "shop" with Nathan discussing the ins and outs of stuff like Avid. The rest is greek to me. These guys have jobs lined up in LA. That's even further away than New York!

Tiana and Teresa round out this bunch of photos (yes, we had TWO sets of twins on our cabinet this year!). We've known of these girls for ages (their older brothers served on Cabinet years ago), but we didn't get to meet them 'til they came to Asbury as freshmen. Seems like we've blinked and they're leaving already! We're excited that Tiana is going to Albania with my mom this summer to apply her business skills in cultivating some retail relationships with store owners in Tirana for the products created by the village girls in Darshen and Vlashaj. Teresa is getting a kiln and pursuing graduate studies in art.

Goodbyes don't get any easier year after year (as someone told me Saturday, it's just a sign that our hearts were designed for heaven!), yet we continue to open our hearts and lives in relationship with a new batch of college friends each fall. We really do have the best "job."

Mother's Day Gift

It's a balmy spring morning here in Kentucky, my eyes are feasting on green outside my window yet if I close my eyes I could be sitting in Dr. Zhivago's snow-filled villa, with winds swirling all around us.

For mother's day Nathan got me a noise machine with 6 different nature sounds. This cool toy (which also serves as an alarm clock) has six prominant buttons, easy for a toddler to manipulate, featuring the sounds of the ocean, a brook, falling rain, white noise, summer nights, and the wind. Ellie likes them all, but the wind in particular. She thinks it sounds like a lion roaring (don't ask me why, it doesn't sound that way to me) so after trying all the sounds, she always goes back to the wind. Then, no doubt with lions on her mind, she's asked to watch Madagascar.

Oh, and don't ask me why the creators thought that sounds designed to help you fall asleep would also work to wake you up?

Little Cabin in the Woods...

There's a neat state park not too far from us called Waveland. They have this adorable little "kid-sized" cabin. Sometime we'll go back and do a 'real' Ellie session there...

We're proud of our girl. She's been really pleasant lately and more patient during times we've asked her for it. One of her new 'fun' things to do (besides alternate the volume of her voice and/or yell "surprise" to make us jump out of our skin -- watch out!) relates to a new nighttime ritual. Our pre-bed routine is to change into jammies, wash hands and brush teeth, then read a Bible story on the couch before making our way to bed. In the last couple of nights Ellie has determined that she will move to the rocking chair for family prayer time.

After prayers from the rocking chair she asks us where she shall sleep at night. It'll go something like this (and yes, she often refers to herself in 3rd person), "Ellie sleep on the chair? No (shaking her head). Ellie sleep on the refridgerator? Noooo [giggling]. That's silly! Ellie sleep on the porch? Nooooo. That's COLD [fake shivering]! Ellie sleep in the [magazine] basket? No, she doesn't fit! Ellie sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed? Yes! [nodding emphatically]".

Tonight she threw in a new one (stalling, I'm pretty sure): "Ellie sleep in timeout chair? NO!"

Ahhh. We love our girl.

Don't Fence Me In

In a recent post I mentioned that we've been enjoying wonderfully warm spring weather (except for today, Derby Day, when it has been cold and rainy). Ellie absolutely LOVES to be outside and is often content to play on the porch where she can enjoy great breezes that sweep over the soccer fields and come our way. When she's playing on the porch, I can keep an eye on her from my kitchen window, or prop the door open and work at the table. Unfortunately, it has been a challenge finding a suitable barrior to keep her on the porch and away from the enticements beyond. We tried blocking the steps with the grill, but it's cumbersome and Reagan can squeeze through the gaps on the sides. We tried the baby gate, but it's not wide enough and I could never figure out Nathan's system for wedging it in securely with the toner cartridge box (yeah, just a step above red neck, I think).

In the end, a combination of fear and desparation led me to put everything else on hold until Nathan could devise a more permanent solution. Less than 24 hours later, he had installed this lovely gate of his own engineering and design, down to spring hinges and a latch that Ellie can't reach.

One problem, we didn't consider... with the gate perpetually closed, Nathan could no longer in his pjs discretely let Reagan out the door to do his business (if you haven't seen where we live, suffice it to say, our road is fairly busy and scores of students and campus tours use the sidewalk across the street). So until we can get back to Lowes, we're back to improvising. This time, improvising a way to keep the stairs open. At least this is better than a cardboard box.

United N*tions

Every other week or so we've gotten together with some of our adoptive family group friends for a little play date. This was taken a week ago yesterday. The Keters from Kenya happened to be staying at the center and we were glad for their three year old twins to join the bunch. We all got a kick out of the two sets of twins evaluating each other and their puzzlement over not being able to understand each other's native languages (Swahili and Gumuz). ;-)