Missing them

Tomorrow we have off school AGAIN. Today, we completed our laundry room/kids and guest bathroom makeover. I don't love the color (it's yellow - Tessa picked it. I wanted a green) but it does look nice. I'm just not a huge fan of yellow, never have been for a paint color, but it really does look good. We're going with a beach theme for the room. Not a flip flop, surf board beach theme, but a seashell, beach colors theme. I got a new shower curtain, a great picture and two shell hooks for the walls. Still working on more decorations but I just LOVE makeovers for rooms!! I love shopping for the room, I love the feeling of pride when it turns out nice. I like showing it off when people come over. Now, obviously people are not going to flock over to see our new bathroom. But it will get mentioned when friends are over. I'm pathetic. I know :) Plus, we've been in this house for 2 1/2 years and we never did ANYTHING to the room. Well, I lie; we added shelves above the laundry part. But everything else is exactly the same as when we moved in. So it was time to add our personal touch.

Tomorrow, we start the master bedroom. I'm so excited!!!! It is currently raining. Should rain and sleet all night and then sometime tomorrow morning, turn to snow and continue ALL DAY. We are in the 6-12 inches range. HOLY COW. Is it okay that even though I'm tired of shoveling out, I LOVE SNOW!!!!!!!

With all this snow falling, I miss the kids. I can't wait until we can get them home and bundle them up to build a snowman, a snow fort, snow angels, sledding, all the kid stuff. I can't wait!

Cold

Friday night our power went out around 11. No biggie, we'd be sleeping and I'm sure it would come on before we woke up! Nope. Woke up around.... I don't know because our power was out! But when I went to use the bathroom, I thought my cheeks were going to freeze to the seat :) Hurried back to bed to the only warm place in the house. Around 9:30 we decided to figure out what in the world were we going to do. We didn't have power or water since our well pump runs on electricity. We were wishing we had acted sooner on our desire to install a pellet stove insert in the fire place! But we started calling around to see what was open, where we could hang out for a while to warm up and wait for our power to come back on.

We should have known it was going to be bad when the power company's automated message couldn't even estimate when our power MIGHT get turned on. KAJ called all over town to see what was open. Panera? They have hot food, hot drinks, heat, and wi-fi! Nope. YMCA? Hot showers, hot tub, indoor pool, heck, we could work out! Nope. (well, they were closing in 15 minutes when we called.) Denny's? hot food, hot coffee, heat, free wi-fi! Nope. IHOP? Nope. Applebees? Nope. Getting desperate (and more and more cold as the minutes ticked by), I suggested McDonald's. KAJ looked at me like I had 2 heads. Hey! I'm cold and getting hungry and want something warm! So he called and YES they were open!!

So at 11:45 we started layering our clothes to dig out his car (it has 4WD) and head to McD's. We packed books to read and our toothbrushes (I was more worried about the fact that I couldn't brush my teeth than most people probably should be when their power's off but I HATE the morning breath thing!!!), dug out the car enough and by noon off we trekked to MickeyD's. We drove slowly down our street, did well, turned onto Civic Ave and stopped at the light to turn onto 50. We were laughing at this one guy in a little sporty looking car. Why in the world would you choose THAT car to drive around in a blizzard?? The other cars out were trucks, vans, SUVs. Well, needless to say, when the light turned green, his tires spun and he didn't move. I felt bad but we weren't gonna stop. We needed heat!

We got to McD's and were astonished that there were other people there! We heard some of them talking and they all didn't have power either. And since apparently this was the only place open, it was the hot spot! We hung out, charged our cells phones, had lunch, read, drank coffee (well, I did) and finally realized that it was getting even more nasty outside and they were waiting for us to leave to close.

We got safely back onto 50 only to find that it was REALLY difficult to see anything more than 20 feet in front of you and the windshield kept freezing up in spots making it more difficult to see. We passed a truck that had slid into a ditch making me even more anxious than I already was (if that's even possible - I was pretty anxious!!!!). I just prayed the whole way home. Once we turned off of 50 and onto our road, I was much calmer.

Well, then we walked in the door. It was SO COLD in our house. By now it was 3:30 and the power had been off for 16 hours. I had created an arrangement of candles (14 to be exact) on our table to try to created a warm place but it didn't matter. You could literally see your breath in the house. KAJ was getting crankier by the minute. He wanted to go to his mom's to stay (she was at his sister's house) but I didn't want to drive anymore and he wouldn't walk over. So then we were fighting because he thought I was ridiculous for wanting to walk and I thought he was insane for wanting to go back out on the roads. The cold won me over and I disheartenly agreed. We packed our bags with computers, clothes, socks, books, and food and packed the car and left.

It really was much easier of a drive over. Not going on the highway kept me calmer. But the adventure was just beginning. At this point it was 5pm. We got there, left the car in the street (b/c the snow plow had made quite the icy pile at the end of the driveway) and hauled our stuff to the door. And then it happened. Well, didn't happen. The lock was full of ice and the key wouldn't go in the lock. We were locked out. Of course she keeps all her windows locked so we couldn't even "break" in (although you better believe we tried!!). After an HOUR of trying everything we could think of (including breaking in through a window and using the car's lighter to heat the key) I talked him into going to a neighbor. He was so kind as to drag himself out of his warm house, grab an extension cord and heat gun, and we melted that darn ice and got it. Now, it's 6pm and we freezing and hungry. I start dinner, we enjoy our chili, sit down to read and warm up. And at 9pm, it happens. The power goes out. ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME?!?!?!

Thankfully it came back on about 45 minutes later but you better believe KAJ WAS PISSED. Can you blame him?? After a cold day, having to hang out at McD's, sit in our cold house, walk around in knee deep snow for an hour to get INTO the house, ugh.

But now we're home. Our power is back on. Our house is finally warm again. And we are ready to rate the superbowl commercials. But boy, we will certainly remember this blizzard for MANY years to come!!

And so it falls

The snow, that is. We got out of school early today (12:45 to be exact) in anticipation of the "major winter storm" as the local news is calling it. It was, in fact, flurrying by the time I left and now it is falls. It is not totally sticking to the roads yet, just slush. But it is sticking to the trees. It is BEAUTIFUL outside. God's creativity and beauty never ceases to amaze me.

Letters

KAJ and I are going to sit down and write letters to our congressmen (and woman) pleading our case for adoption. We are not sure what, if anything, they can do but we don't like sitting around doing nothing. Honestly, only a miracle from God can open things up and get them moving so we are doing lots of praying. But, we also know that God doesn't always want us to just sit around. He will open doors but we have to find the doors first. So, we're going to write letters and send pictures. Asking them to consider fighting for us to open adoptions. Or seeing if they can get us in on this pilot program we keep hearing about. Or, can they just fight to let us be an exception. Anything. We just want to get our voices heard because if we don't speak up for our kids, who else will?

We are also going to write a basic letter for any family or friends who would be willing to send one to their congressmen. If you are willing to do that, can you please contact me (comment or email) and I'll be more than happy to send one to you. You can either email it or print it off and send it. We just want to start flooding the offices of congress about international adoption. Please continue to pray that these letters will land on the desks of the right people, people who will care and who will try to help. Thank you so much for your ongoing support and prayers!

No School

We have no school tomorrow for a snow day - the first snow day in a long time that actually has earned the name "snow day". We got real snow yesterday. It wasn't snowing as of 8am BUT once it started, it didn't stop until well into the wee hours this morning. It was real snow - not wimpy Eastern Shore snow, not the snow that makes me laugh when people drive 10 mph but real, nobody left their house, snow. We got probably... um.... 8-12 inches, depending on where you measure. They even plowed our road. OUR ROAD. It nevers get plowed, just left to melt on it's own. But it got plowed. And we had to dig out this morning. Of course, because we never get REAL snow, we don't own a snow shovel... So we used the good ol' broom and pulled out 2 regular shovels, just enough to push the snow from out behind the cars. We have two tunnels for our cars in the driveway. Thank goodness it's extremely fluffy so it wasn't difficult or heavy to move. Just tricky without a snow shovel. So, now we're going to buy one. Of course, we probably won't need it for another 5-7 years but, hey, we'll be ready! I'll post pictures once I get them on my computer. You won't believe your eyes!! :)

Frustrating

Just found this article about UNICEF and it just frustrates me to no end. I learned that UNICEF isn't as great as people think after talking with Lucy, the adoption agent we've been in touch with, and this article just confirms it. It's kind of long but I would encourage you to read it and maybe do something about it. Write an email to your congressman, something, anything. If you feel led to support us, that's the biggest thing you can do right now along with praying.

Check it out!

Team Guatemala from Soul Discovery Church was in Guatemala last week (you probably remember me complaining and lonely all week...) Well, they did not have internet service while they were there but wanted to make sure that their week was documented so they still blogged every day. So we are now posting their blogs one day at a time this week. Please check it out on the link over there on the right. They had some amazing experiences and I'm excited to read more!!