Gotcha Day #3!

We Love you Olivia Jee Eun! We're so grateful you've been home for 3 years! This past Friday, the 8th, was Liv's Gotcha Day. I think for adoptive families, at least for our little adoptive family, the Gotcha Day really feels like the "birth" day. It's the day we brought her into our family. I remember the the van ride to the airport, checking in and getting to our gate, the flight, getting home - it's the story of how we finally got her here! And it's already been 3 years, and she's nearly 4 years old! I read on a blog about how they gave their child a cultural gift on each Gotcha Day. I loved the idea, and this year got her this book. I love the pictures in it and hope it'll be something she can enjoy and learn from.

Nonnie Barb and Bompa Tom are our neighbors and attended our court day to officially adopt Liv and have been celebrated each Gotcha Day with us. They treated us to lunch at Culver's (I've got a girl that loves a good cheeseburger and some fries!). Nonnie Barb made her a pillowcase with Tinker Bell on it - a new love of Liv's.

We had a great time. I continue to be so grateful for Liv and our family. And we're so grateful to have Nonnie and Bompa here. It's such a blessing to have some "family" in town. And I'm getting so excited about this next little one - we'll be on the waiting list for a child from Korea this week! Can't wait for the next Gotcha Day!

A Love Story

40 years ago today a young, bright-eyed nurse married a handsome soldier. He had proposed 6 weeks prior. He had a short break allowing them to get married. Could they do it? The wedding was quickly put together but simple and beautiful. With hardly a honeymoon, they began their lives together. In the early years of marriage they endured long stretches of separation as the young soldier fulfilled his commitments with the army in the states and then finally in Vietnam.

They lived in apartments with used furniture. She often worked nights. And eventually they built their own little 3 bedroom house in a small town North of the city. In 1978 they moved in before adding their first child, a girl, a few months later. She stayed home with the baby, and he worked in an office. And nearly 3 years later, a sweet little, chubby-cheeked boy was added to the family.

Family was their priority. She went back to work 2nd shift while he worked days at the office. They drove cars that worked most of the time. Instead of a new car, they put in a pool. Instead of new carpet in the family room, they saved for family vacations. Doing without, they put the children in a private school. And eventually they went back to school as well. While working full-time and giving their all to two kids, she got her Bachelor's degree and then her Master's (and just barely survived statistics). He also earned his Master's.

They worked hard on their marriage and provided a stable, loving home for their children. There were days off spent by the pool and Sunday morning breakfasts made on the grill. They took day trips into the Chicago to see museums and plays. They went to all their kids sporting events.

They helped each other follow their dreams to move into new positions at work and open a new business. Through many ups and downs, highs and lows, they finally becan to see success.

Despite busy schedules, they've supported their kids and grown in their marriage. They're the best parents any child could ask for. They deserve a lavish party, but their kids can't afford it. The money has gone to construction loans and an engagement ring, to administration fees and application costs.

We love you Mom and Dad! Happy Anniversary! We can't honor you with a party, but we want to honor you with generations - a new daughter and a new grandchild. You deserve a wonderful day and congratulations on 40 years!

Adoption Update #2

Drum roll please.... well, that may be too dramatic. We still don't have a kid. I don't want to get anyone too excited. But we do have some new steps forward. We are moving forward to dual-listing with Korea again! Yay! This means we'll continue to stay on the list for Ethiopia just in case (though it seems little or nothing is happening at the moment. But still I'd hate totally pull out as things still shake down.) But we'll also be on the waiting list for a child from Korea. It seems VERY likely that as soon as we're on the list we could quickly get a referral from there, most likely for a little boy. So we'll see what happens. We have a few forms to get in to update our homestudy for Korea (always paperwork), and once those are in we'll officially be on the list. I'm hoping we'll be able to send them towards the end of next week. So there's where we're at. It's been a big adjustment in thinking becuase for years almost we've been planning for this little boy from Africa. I'm still trying to get my head around the possibility of a child from Korea, but I have to say I'm pretty excited about it. I love the thought of Liv having a sibling from there. This adoption has definitely been full of many more surprises, but the Lord continues to guide and provide. We can't wait to see what happens next!

My Husband is a Rock Star

I married a wonderful and gifted man. He has really grown a lot in the last few years as a communicator (in my opinion, not denying there's some bias there). This year in ministry he's taken on speaking at our weekly meeting more frequently. We've begun live streaming the meetings which are linked to Here. If you'd like to watch/listen to one of his talks you can click on the meetings dated (the 2 most recent) tonight, March 31st, along with March 3rd. I was able to watch him speak tonight, and I have to say he knocked it out of the park. He did awesome. So I wanted to share the love :). If you decide to watch you'll want to start viewing 45 minutes in or so to see Aaron as there's quite a few other things they do at the meeting. The talks are only 20-25 minutes. Wash the dished while you listen... or clean the kitchen or fold laundry. I listen to a LOT of sermons this way :).

Adoption Update

So here's the deal - Ethiopia has cut the processing of adoptions by 90%! Yes, that's a 9-0. So the people that already have a referral for a child (meaning there's a child they've already committed to adopting) are getting back-logged to go pick that child up because they're waiting for the department in Ethiopia to approve their match. So those people could potentially wait a year longer than the estimated 5-8 months to bring their child home (at least as much as they can guess now). For those of us that haven't committed to adopting a child yet, we're in limbo. In some ways I'm grateful we haven't committed to a child from there because it would be a really long wait, but it's also a disappointment because we've been planning this for going on a few years now. All this just happened a few weeks ago. So we've just been sitting tight and waiting to hear from our agency as to what our options are. There's an online seminar mid-week that will hopefully give us a feel for what our options are. At this point it seems likely that we'll switch to adopt from a different country, but I obviously can't say for certain. If you could pray for wisdom amidst all this we'd be so grateful. The 2 things I've continued to try to remember is that (1) This is totally out of my control, and (2) God is totally in control. He knows where our child is and will help us in the midst of everything. I'll keep you posted on what happens!

The Alps

As we flew home, we flew over the Alps. Ah-mazing. I was just awstruck because as high as you are up in the air, the mountains still looked so big. I hope someday I can go to Austria or Switzerland for a closer look. I just had to share a couple pictures :).

All over and back again

We've had a few adventures here at the Jones home, but we're all finally home and settled again. On Feb. 24th, Liv flew to Florida with my parents to see as much of Walt Disney World as possible in a week. On Feb. 25th, I flew back to our frequently traveled to location in the Middle East for a week long vision trip with 2 other moms. Aaron got to stay home and work :(.


Liv had a GREAT time with Grandma and Grandpa. Some of her favorites were riding the tea cups, seeing the characters, and meeting Cinderella. I was so grateful she was in good hands while I was gone.


My trip went really well. Travel was smooth for the most part. We stayed healthy. I got to spend time with one of my dearest friends, pray for a country I car so much about, encourage and serve the staff women there, and connect a little with some of the students there. I was so grateful. We actually spent 5 days in the city Aaron and I served in our second year of marriage. It was so surreal to be back there and remember what that year was like.


This is banana milk - doesn't look like much, but it's really, really good! This is Sue, Donna, Krista, and Clare. Sue and Krista live and work there - awesome women, so enjoyed getting to spend time with them. Donna and Clare are my fearles traveling companions!

The apartment building we used to live in.
Me and my sweet friend Sarah - love her dearly.

Our mighty traveling team of 3. This is one of the views of the campus we worked at and that the current team works at.

Me and Sarah :). Starbucks really is global!

Lasts and Firsts

The thing about parenting is it's easy to celebrate the firsts of things, but a little harder to celebrate the lasts. Because most of the time you don't know when the lasts are. I think this past Monday was Liv's last nap. I know, I know - she's 3 1/2, we had a good run. Most kids give up their afternoon nap well before now. She had a cold, took a nap Monday afternoon, then slept 'til 7:45 Tuesday morning - an hour and a half past her usual wake-up time. And I think that did it. I knew she wouldn't nap that afternoon. I put her down to bed early that night, and the new schedule has taken over.

Then yesterday we had mom's group. She played all morning and was pooped that afternoon. She wanted to go to bed but didn't sleep. A little later we read some books, and she just zonked out. It's rare that she falls asleep in my lap. So is this another last? Will she fall asleep in my lap again? I don't know. So I'll treasure this one - notice how much she's grown, how she doesn't fit in my lap like she used to. Marvel at her perfect olive skin, her long eyelashes, her straight black hair. My sweet girl. Such a blessing. Glad Aaron was home to capture it.

Christmas Card Recycle

So I saw a great idea for a Valentine's wreath from here. It's a blog I've come to love for numerous reasons - 2 of them being 1. because she's also adopted from Korea, and 2. because she likes to craft! I loved the idea but wanted to use what I had. So what did I have? I did have a 1 1/4 inch square punch and lots of Christmas cards!
Here's the finished product...

Here's the supplies: a foam wreath, Christmas cards and their envelopes (that's right, you get to use both!), my square punch, 3/4 inch stick pins (leftover from a Christmas craft from last year), and a scoring tool - you don't need the cutting edge, you need the scoring edge. ...and a Packer football game on Saturday night or a few episodes of White Collar to keep you company while your husband is working.

Then punch, punch, punch. The scoring tool was used because it was difficult to get a clean fold on cardstock (from which most Christmas cards are made).

I cut the envelopes into strips to wrap around the wreath as the base layer. I used the parts that had stamps or other postmarks on them cause it seemed more fun. The strips don't have to be perfect, just 1-2 inches wide. Then pin them around the wreath and cut off the excess. You could use a glue gun for this as well.

Here's the stamp from a card that came from France :).

Then take your folded squares and pin them in place. I have to say, I don't know if a glue gun would work on this part. The cards are stiff and don't give well. The pins allow you to rotate them a bit as needed and give a pretty secure hold.

And here's the finished product! (not hung because, well, I don't have a ribbon yet to hang it. And it's the middle of January and time to take down the Christmas decor, not put more up. But I'm excited to hang it up next year!)

Hope it inspires you to make use of all the cards you still have left from Christmas in a pile (if you're like me...).

My Story

A dear friend of our family's has a prayer blog, and this week he's written about grief. He's posted our story of Payton there. The post is a talk I wrote for a women's night on summer project in June of '08 where I wanted to share with the women how God heals our hearts. It tells the whole story of Payton as well as what the Lord did in my life through all of it. He's broken the story into 3 parts as it's LONG - just a warning. So if you'd have the time and would like to read it, here's the link:
http://shorterdesigns.com/prayercoach/2011/01
His wife is the mentor I mention in the post. Jan 11th is the first post, the 12th is the second, and today or tomorrow he'll post the third. Enjoy!

22 Inches!?!

22 inches people! Unbelievable. 22 inches of snow, and it's -11 outside right now, without windchill. Craziness.

How do you eat an elephant?

Today, the answer to that question would be one shovel full (of snow) at a time. Sorry to post a 3rd time about this snow storm, but now I just want to chronicle a little of it so I can remember it. I was just amazed at how much snow there was. I can't remember a time when I've experienced a place that's gotten so much! The standing record for the largest one-day snowfall is 14 inches set in March of 1965. They still haven't gotten the official recorded total, but I think we definitely surpassed that. We were totally snowed in. We couldn't have gotten down our street. Most churches were cancelled this morning.

The plow went by at about 12:30 this afternoon. So we went out to take a few pictures of the huge drift it left at the end of our driveway along with what it looked like outside.

Here's Liv in our driveway next to the big piles we shoveled yesterday (and by "we" I mean me a little and Aaron a lot!). They were probably about 4 1/2 - 5 feet high. Then overnight it drifted a bunch so we had to re-shovel quite a bit.

Here's Liv and I at the end of our driveway in front of the ginormous drift the plow left. It was about as tall as Liv who's 3 feet tall. The pictures don't do it justice cause it was A BEAR to shovel.
Here' the view from our back porch - the snow was about even with the window line.

We took this shot accross the street from us cause there's a guy in that open garage door literally digging himself out. You can see the snow is about as high as the garbage can there in between the 2 garage doors. He eventually finished his side.
Aaron went out to shovel after the Packer game, and I followed about a half hour later. Shoveling the sidewalk again (it had drifted over pretty bad) and then that HUGE drift at the end of our driveway was a daunting task. The drifts on either side of our driveway are over 5 feet now. It took another couple hours. If we get another snow soon, I have no idea where we'll shovel the snow! I'm going to put Liv to bed shortly and sit with the trusty heating pad again :). So there's my "reporting" of the big snow of 12-11-10! But I will say, with the HUGE amount of snow and the temperatures and wind chill tonight, I'm so very grateful for our snug home and warm bed. The Lord has so graciously provided for us!

Big Snow!

We did indeed get pounded with snow today! The forecast was 12-18 inches. At 11 this morning we'd gotten 8, and on the 5 'o clock new we had gotten 14. I'm not sure if it's completely stopped yet to know the final total. The wind has picked up considerably and is blowing and drifting all over the place. It's hard to tell what's coming down and what's getting blown all over. The picture below was taken a little after 4. It was starting to get a little dark, and though it's hard to tell, it was blowing like crazy!



So we're snowed in and definitely enjoyed our snow day! We did a bunch of shoveling this morning. Liv played outside a bit. We had lunch and naps. Some finger painting and supper. Washed dishes and scrubbed Liv in the tub. A snack, Frosty the Snowman on tv, and bedtime! Now Aaron and I are watching the new Karate Kid. Aaron is icing his back (he shoveled 3x today - the last time to dig our car out). I've got a heating pad on my back, and we're both laughing at ourselves. Now time to sign some Christmas cards!

Jones Family Snow Day

As we were eating supper last night, I told Aaron if we really did end up getting pounded with snow, I was calling a Jones Family Snow Day for Saturday. And according to the forecast, we ARE going to get pounded with snow - as I know many of you who are reading this will be as well. We aren't even in the band of weather that'll be getting blizzard conditions! The forecast here is for 12 plus inches of snow and then dropping to nasty wind chills with high winds early Sunday morning. So I've got Christmas cookies to decorate, our Christmas cards just arrived in the mail ready to be signed and sent, we're going to rent a few movies, I'm going to put ham and beans in the crock pot in the morning, and we're going to make a day of it! I hope you all weather the weather with some fun too! I'll keep you posted :).

Happenings

I don't have a specific purpose for this post, just ramblings... I'd post a few pictures, but they're on Aaron's computer (since it's now the newer computer). The dossier for our adoption got sent out the weekend before Thanksgiving. I sent it off with a prayer and primo postage knowing if it got lost I would - literally - cry. So it feels awesome to have that done. Still no new news. We're just on the waiting list. We could get a call for a referral tomorrow or 3 months from now. We have no idea. And even then we pray to see if he's the one God has for us before we say yes.

Liv is just about the greatest. I continue to be so grateful for her presence in our lives and our family. She's definitely growing but still a tiny thing. I still get a kick out of her wee buns as we call them. Everytime we give her a bath or shower, we lotion her after and she becomes a bundle of naked energy singing and dancing in front of the mirror. It's been so much fun to engage with her and hear her thoughts and watch her learn. She loves to color or do crafts - takes after her mom. She loves to play with balls and run around in the basement - takes after her dad. She's showing more interest in cooking with me and likes to stir whatever I put in front of her. It's just been a blessing.

We're winding down the semester, and we're always ready when it comes. It's been a good one, it's nice to not be quite so busy during the weeks for a bit. We have a great group of students, and I so love spending time with them. So that's about all for now!