Few Thoughts - Seems Like That's All I Have Today

Hello All,

Just wanted to say hello and recommend a movie. Last night I went to the movie store to rent Wall-E (at Samuel's request) and ended up renting ''The Bucket List'' also. Now renting a movie is always a toss up for me because I can look at the picture on the front, but since the text is in Swedish I am never really sure what the movie is about. I do try to read it and can make out a few things, but I am very careful as to what the front picture looks like (there is no back room in the Swedish video stores, it's all out for everyone to see). However, I figured since the picture was Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman we would be okay. It was a really good movie, sad though (ladies have a few kleenex around, but good). I recommend it. It has some great views of the Himalaya mountains (top of the world) and the top of Everest/Sargamatha.

I also recommend a movie called ''Blindsight''. It is more like a documentary. It is about a group of blind teenagers/adults from Tibet that go up into the mountains with a professional climbing team. It is interesting to hear about the beliefs of that region. Some of those same beliefs exsist in Nepal because there is a large Tibetan population.

We have had a Spring-like day here and Samuel and I have enjoyed it. He took his first ride on the scooter that Uncle Johan and Aunt Emma gave him for Christmas. A few wipe outs, but over all he did really well. Right now he is unhappy because he was told to clean up the disaster that is call a room. Have a feeling this may deteriorate because he is tired. I think early bedtime will come tonight.

Blessings,
Laurie

First Thoughts of a 35 Year Old

Darcy will be sooooooo proud of me I made two posts today. My birthday was a nice one. I went to Scootis din bootis with Sam (otherwise known as gymnastics, hoppis o skootis in Swedish). Then I relaxed until my party. My poor husband was a little stressed, thank you love. He had downloaded some country music to make me feel like I was back in Kentucky and made a slide show and a quiz about me. It was fun. We had about 20 people come, there were a lot of people that were sick and couldn't come also (for all those people you can come and get some cake so I don't eat it all). Sam had several friends here, including Naomi (look at older posts). She played with Sam as much as she could. When it was time to leave Samuel gave her a big hug and then a kiss on the cheek, well she hugged and kissed him back - too cute. Her dad wasn't so happy about it so we will have to keep our eyes on those two.

Thank you for all of you that did come to the party and for those who called or emailed me to say happy birthday. It was very appreciated. My birthdays have always been hard here in Sweden. In Kentucky it was always Spring by my birthday and here it is still dark and cold, but the past two years have been pretty good. So thank you all for helping me make it special. Especially my wonderful husband.

There are a few pics below of the party. Enjoy.

Åsa, Naomi's mom, at the buffet. The pink roses were from mom and dad (beautiful).

This is our tough Polish/Swedish friend Mats (I like to call him by his Polish name,but I can't spell it) The sleeping one is Zoe, his daughter.

Samuel playing with Nikhil (friend) and Hannes (second cousin).

Around the table, I have no ideo what I am doing.

I think I may be playing with a balloon here. Or maybe that is my son, trying to get it in the picture. Samuel struggled a little bit with the fact that he was not getting the presents. But overall did really well. It is funny to listen to the kids play and to see which ones are bossy and which follow. Samuel stood up for himself quite well and in Swedish also! Andreas said he was really proud of him.

Again thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes. I have to go a pick Samuel up now.

God Bless,

Laurie

Little Pick Ups

Okay, there are days that I still stuggle with the length of this adoption. Yes, even me when I can sit here and look at the amazing child that I do have from Nepal. Even me, the international adoption social worker, that helped other couples through these times. Yes, even me that knows and trusts the Lord that all will come to pass. So let me tell you what picked me up a little, or at least made me laugh.

This morning I received a message from my good friend Cydil Waggoner in Wilmore, Kentucky. Cydil is an amazing photographer (she took the really good ones of our family this past September). She had been to a photography seminar with a teacher named Vicki Taufer. Vicki and her husband Jed are waiting for a referral (otherwise known as a beautiful child) from Nepal (small world). Cydil told them about my blog and Vicki stated that they had been reading it (hey there Vicki and Jed). Then Cydil gave me links to there Vlog, as they call it. So I checked it out. Thank you Cydil, Jed and Vicki! The video of the bat capture made me roll! (clic on the title of this post to go to the vlog) I had a similar experience in Jamaica, but it ended with the bat coming straight at my face.

So in the big scheme of things, thank you for the laughter. It helps not to take things quite so seriously. Whether any of you see it or not I thank God for the little ''earnest'' that He put there for me. I needed it. So now, I will continue with the paperchase that we are working on.

Today we have a lot of phone calls to make (which means Andreas has a lot of phone calls to make, the phone is still very hard to deal with for me) and on Wednesday we have another meeting with our social worker to finalize the second version of our homestudy. Our homestudy will go back through the social work committee on March 31 and then go to translation. Funny that everything is done in Swedish and then has to be translated to English, yes my world does seem a little upside down now and again. Hopefully all paperwork will be done by the time translation is finished and all will be sent to Nepal at that time. Still hoping that we get a picture this year and can pick her up next year. Realistic, but far.

God bless and hold you in his grace and laughter,
laurie

p.s. I have had some comments about my () marks that I do. Think of it like this, when you are having conversations with people, there are things that you say and then things that you think, but don't say. The words in the () are the words that I am thinking, so you get a little of the world inside my head. Yes folks, I have extra conversational pieces going on inside my head (don't ask, but I think it's a social worker thing).

Last Thoughts of a 34 Year Old

Yes, it has finally happened. Today is the last of my younger 30's and tomorrow I have officially reached mid'30's. I have to laugh becasue I think it makes my mom feel older than it makes me feel. Have I really grown up? Can this be true? I sure don't feel like I am mid-30's or at least I don't feel like I thought I would when I was a teenager or in my 20's. It is amazing what seems old when you are a child compared to what seems old as an adult. I am sure to Sam I will be ancient when he realizes what age is. Andreas is throwing me a birthday party with a lot of friends and family. I will post pictures of that as soon as possble (just for you Darcy).

This past week has been an interesting one. Sam and I have been cooped up in the house most of the week because he didn't feel good. Anyone that has been around Samuel understands that he is not the cooped up sort of kid. Needless to say we were starting to drive each other crazy (that is not an exaggeration). Finally by Thursday he was better and today he went back to pre-school. That did a lot of good for the both of us.

During our time of sickness Samuel was watching a Veggie Tales video and asked me to sit with him on his bean bag. The pictures below show the result of that. This is how Andreas found us and I woke up as he was taking the pictures. It was quite sweet. When he woke up he looked at me and the first thing he said was, "I'm better". This is the child that fights a nap with all that he has. I gladly go into the nap with no problem what so ever (funny, huh?).

For those of you paying close attention, yes I have cut my hair. I have fringe again (otherwise known as banges). I haven't had those since I was in high school. Andreas wasn't sure what to think of me at first, but I think he will keep me afterall.

Please continue to pray for my mother in law. She is healing from her finger accident, but it is still painful and has more things to go through before it is all over.

Quick adoption update. We are working on paperwork and and hope to get all of it sometime in April. Still trusting the Lord that Nepal will work and this will happen. I actually bought a few girl clothes at the second hand store the other day. I couldn't help myself, they were brand new and very cheap. It made me realize how much I look forward to having a little girl (even though I am a bit scared of girls). We appreciate all of your prayers as we continue on this long journey.

God Bless you all,

Laurie

Quick update

I have a friend that told me I needed to post more often, so here is today's post.... Everyone is sick (for the most part). We could use your prayers and a whole lot of patience with each other. Also please pray for Andreas's mamma. She almost severed the tip of her left pointer finger the other day. It has been sewn back on, but she is in a lot of pain and we are praying that she will not get an infection.

And pray for my mom, with the financial situation in the States, my mother has lost about half of her income and next week will find out if she losses the other half. A lot of people are being hit hard right now, so I guess the title of this post is pray. The Father knows better than all of us what each one needs.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you all.

love,
laurie

Great Resource for Adoptive Families....

For all International adoptive families, homeschoolers, etc. I have a great resource for you. This is a new company that specializes in teaching guides, webinars and other materials that are country specific. It is specialized for different age groups, from children to adults. http://www.mybigblueplanet.org/ is the website. There is also http://www.mybigblueplanet.info/ for international companies that could use training services.

These sites were started by Kim Haney. She is a mother of 6, 3 of which have been adopted from Russia. She is also an accomplished lawyer, child advocate, home schooling mom, great friend, and a women seeking God's purpose in her life.

I am thrilled to see how this site has come into being. It is a new site so she would like to hear from adoptive parents, homeschooling parents and others about what countries they would really like the information on. She can always learn about and add countries to her educational materials. She is also doing webinars that are country specific and can be used for 2 hours *I think* of the educational hours that adoptive parents need to meet Hague requirements. I highly recommend this site, the material and the webinars. I am thrilled because she has a lot on Nepal, which is hard to find at this time.

So check it out and tell all of your friends, put links on your blogs. Then give her some feedback as to what you would like to see developed for other countries, etc. (I don't often endourse anything, so this is really good stuff in my opinion).

I have also added links on the right side of my blog that are helpful resources in international adoption.

Blessings,
Laurie

Hodge Podge... The New Look

Samuel loves to take showers and play in the water. So today when we were washing his hair he wanted to make his hair stick straight up. Then he asked me to take pictures. The above pictures are the end result. Pretty funny if you ask me. Enjoy and don't forget to keep going down on the blog, I posted a lot of different pics today that have been building up.

Still no news on the adoption. I am getting a bit frustrated with not knowing if we should proceed or not. Please pray for us. Like everyone that is adopting, we want our girl yesterday!!!

Blessings,

Laurie

Hodge Podge...Samuel and Pappa Ice Skating

Last Saturday we all went out to the house in the woods and enjoyed the winter snow. It has also been cold enough for the lakes to freeze and so we went on the sand quarry lake that is in front of the house to skate. Samuel is really trying hard to learn, but falls quite a bit. However, the layer of snow made everything a little nicer and softer. It snowed the whole time we were playing, but we had a lot of fun. I was the only one not skating because everytime I tried to tie my skate laces they would break (no surprise since the skates have been in the shed for at least 15 years).

Hodge Podge... Laurie's New Creation

This is something that I have been doing on the side (making jewerly). There was a contest at the bead shop in Gothenburg and it was to do an unusual necklace. Well, this was mine, yes those are spoons. This is the first piece I have ever entered in a contest. So we will see what happens.

Hodge Podge...Samuel's Friends

This is Cade Weaver. Samuel is behind him on the sled. I think this pic of Cade is hysterical.
Here is Happy and Cade and Sam ready to go down the hill.

This is Naomi Mukhopadhyay. Try saying that last name. Naomi is a little younger than Sam and is really liking him right now. When we were over there Sam was playing with Nikhil (her older brother) and Naomi just wanted to hug Sam. At one point Samuel let her hug him and she kissed him and then he pushed her away and said, "Okay, that's enough". It was very funny. Sorry I don't have a pic of Nikhil, we will have to try and get one.

An Amazing Creativity

Love the colors of contrast on this cake and in this picture with the background.
This is a post about a friend in my life. Her name is Jennie and she has an incredible talent. She is studying to be a Konditor (I think it is the equivalent of a baker, chocolatier, pastry chef, and cake designer in one). She is married to an American and they have two children (Samuel likes them). She is working part time at a cafe here in Alingsas and she was just given the chance to make cakes for a showing of sorts. A dress company rented a space to show dresses to all the graduating seniors (prom dresses). So there were dresses, jewelry, and cakes that you could order all at one place (the cakes are for the graduating senior, it is done a little differently here). So my friend Jennie worked her tale off to make the cakes that you will see below. There are a few that didn't get on here, not because they weren't incredible, but there were so many cool pics. I love to be creative and love to see others inspirations also.

I especially thought that my Aunt Judy would like to see these cakes because she is really good at doing cakes also (Judy did an incredible cake for my wedding almost twelve years ago).

We still have not heard anything on the adoption. Andreas called today so we may get some answers soon and be able to start on the dossier soon.

Blessings,
Laurie

This one is cool. Jennie was given the dress as an example to follow and she made the cake to match it. The picture doesn't do it justice. On the side of the cake that you can't see there is a weave that matches the back of the dress. So cool. (if you want to see a close up, email me and I will send you one.)
I think this one was my absolute favorite because of the amazing match that she did. (for those who want to see a close up, email me and I will send you one.)

This would make an amazing wedding cake. (roses are real)

Chocolate, amazing how it looks like cloth. This one makes me hungry!

An Amazing Creativity cont.

Simply elegant.
I love how this looks like cloth. Jennie's background is in textiles. This picture doesn't do it justice.

Not only was this an amazing looking cake the lily made it smell incredible. Again looking like cloth.

Talk about tedious work, but looks so cool. Having a background in floral design, I love how the red rose sets it all off.

This is actually one of my favorites because of the shapes and lines that are in it.

What a Winter Should Be

This is the Sweden that I really love. When winter shows up and stays. It has snowed a little, enough to cover the surface of everything (about 2 inches) and it has stayed cold for a while so it all stays. We have had about a week with tempuratures in the 20F or around 0F at night. Which means that all the lakes freeze enough to be on them. Of course we always go out with intrepidation and take some precautions, and have yet to take Sam on the ice. This weekend Samuel spent the weekend with his grandparents at their ocean home (otherwise known as Grebbestad) and Andreas had the weekend off so we headed to the house in the woods (otherwise known as Otto's). We went to our favorite lake, Tinnsjon, and it was frozen solid! So we took several walks all over the lake. It is a wonderful feeling to walk on the lake that you swim in through the summer. A bit surreal also. The sound that a frozen lake makes is a bit eary, so most of the time we stuck to the edges. However, others had drilled towards the middle of the lake to make sure that it was thick enough. We saw lake skaters, lots of animal tracks (including a huge Elk track, Kelty was interested in that one), even dirt bike tracks! It was absolutely amazing. I took the pictures below for all to enjoy just a little piece of what we did. So enjoy and if you would like to come enjoy it with us you are all welcome.

Blessings,
Laurie

Andreas enjoying the sun, the boat oar was a precaution just in case someone fell it. I love his shadow it makes him look very long.



This was a fun ice sculpture in the little creek.

Life in Slow Motion

You know how when you are waiting for things to happen, everything seems to move in slow motion? Well that is how I feel right now. We are waiting to hear if we make enough money to adopt a girl from Nepal, we are waiting for money to our account to proceed with the paperwork, I am waiting for Samuel's ear infection to get better so we can do more things outside, I am waiting for my husband to get home for some grown up conversation... It all seems to take much longer than it really does. Why is that? Guess it is time to play with more legos and train tracks to pass the day with!!!

Thank you for everyones encouraging notes on my last post. I appreciated hearing from some of you. Right now it is just Sam and me hanging out in the house. I am a bit bored. I think both Sam and I would like to be outside playing in the snow, but he has an ear infection so inside it is. We went to the doctor yesterday and were able to get some penecillin for him, but he hates it. Grant you they tried to make it tutti fruiti, but this child is not fooled. This morning I literally had to hold him down to give him the medicine. He spit it out on me twice!!! I finally got it down on the third try but by that time neither of us were happy (to say the least). I know he is four, but I really want logic to sink in with this. So after the medicine episode we sat in the floor of the kitchen and held each other, he made requests and I sang to him (not oldies or pop, just songs aobut tigers and cows). Hopefully tonights medicine moment will be much better. We have to do this twice a day until Saturday!!!

Samuel is growing up so much. Andreas and I are trying to make decisions about his schooling and his future. Where has all the time gone? He talks about adopting Jane (his sister) all the time. He tells us what he is going to teach her and what toys she is allowed to borrow and what toys she cannot touch. He talks about her like she is a real flesh and blood person (to him she is), to us she is still that dream of another child. Today he asked me what she looks like. All I could say is that she will probably have dark hair and dark eyes like him (he has actually been making comments on how he has dark hair, it is the first thing that he has noticed that is different from us). It is so amazing to hear him talk about her in such tangible terms. I am sure this will help me through the whole adoption process.

Samuel has his first field trip tomorrow with his pre-school class. The are only going about 15 minutes away, but they get to ride the big bus!!! This is exciting stuff. I will try to get pictures of him getting on the big bus tomorrow and post them. Then FarMor is coming to play with him, always a good time since he has decided she is his best friend. Then this weekend Sam is going with his grandparents to their ocean house. Fun for him and for his parents, I will actually get to sit down and have a conversation with my husband uniterupted, or go to the bathroom without someone bardging in... a novelty to be sure, but good for all. Samuel adores his grandparents and really enjoys the time with them. It also gives him a break from me, which I think he needs at times. He has been telling me that he is frustrated with me lately (usually it is because he doesn't get exactly what he wants, but it is good for him to express it).

Hope all of you are well. We miss you and would love to hear from you if you get a chance.
Blessings,
Laurie

Learning how to use the computer! Growing up toooooooo quick

The Winter Blues

Yes, it has hit with full force, the normal yet awful Swedish winter blues. The grey days have officially gotten to me. Please pray. Today was an especially rough day for me.

We talked with our adoption agency and they are unsure as to whether or not we make enough money to adopt from Nepal. Now logically I can look at our last adoption and know that we made less money then and still were able to adopt, but emotionally I am struggling. Hearing that we may not make enough brings on emotions of guilt that I stay home while my husband works three jobs. Andreas and I both agreed that staying home would be the best for Samuel (and I can't lie that it is nice not to have to work at times). But when you hear things like you don't make enough to adopt it gets you thinking.

I have been reminding myself all day that God is in control and I have a beautiful little boy to prove it, this is when having the Swedish winter blues doesn't help (not that it ever does). However, tonight God sent me an "earnest" (ask Prof. Lauter what that is), it snowed. So late tonight, Kelty, my trusty golden retreiver, and I took a long walk. I love it when it snows and all is quiet (except for the occasional yahoo that has to drive like a manic down the road). It helps me think and remember the sermon that my husband preached last Sunday. "Fix your eyes on Jesus" , "Throw of the sin that so easily entangles", "I will make you as white as snow". The last one wasn't in the sermon, but come on it is a given when you are walking through the snow. So tonight as I struggle not to have the blues and to trust without worry these are the verses that I cling to. Hope in some way they help you too.

Please pray with me! It helps to know that I still have friends out there beyond the internet.

blessings,
Laurie