Updates

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  1. I got word yesterday that our agency got our official proposal for Sofie and it is in the mail! We should get it tomorrow!!! This is a huge step forward and it actually came earlier than expected! I was told that it would that the MOJ and Hague Convention 2-3 months to get the proposal to us… we got it within a month of Bulgaria receiving our request! Just two months after we mailed it off! We should receive the original documents in the mail before the end of the week too sign and officially accept Sofie. The next step is waiting for our court date!
  2. Last weekend my sisters, bro-in-law, Jon and I did some much needed yard work in our/our mom’s yard. It isn’t completely done yet but we got all the big stuff done. We cut a bunch of over grown branches off our blue spruce in the front yard, trimmed back some juniper bushes that hadn’t been touched in years, and pulled out four overgrown junipers from the front yard. We got all this done in the rain too! It looks like a big mud pit right now but there is now some potential! It is a great start for me to get it looking nice this spring and summer with Livi (and Sofie!) running around and exploring our huge yard!
  3. Jon let his bosses know that he is interested in a advanced position. A position hasn’t been posted yet but there was a notice sent out wondering who would be interested. This would mean a raise and the opportunity to do some teaching in the field of community living! It would be pretty perfect and is the next logical step up the ladder! Governments never move quickly but we are hoping that something comes of this!
  4. We got to enjoy some good friends that we haven’t seen in almost two years over for supper last night! We got to reminisce over our college years which was a lot of fun but made me feel really old!
  5. My best friend in Winnipeg had a little baby boy on Sunday. I am so excited for her! Little Toby came in to the world almost 7 weeks early but he is doing so well! He is going to be such a little blessing. I really wish I could go out there to meet him… one day I will, if we ever have money again 🙂
  6. My Lent has been going really well. I started reading my Henri Nouwen book and am allowing myself to start speak more freely about prayer… something I am not comfortable with. I have been doing really well on the self-denial part. To be honest, I didn’t think I’d make it this far without sugar but it has been easier than I thought. I thought the beginning would be the most difficult part but I think I was wrong. I haven’t had any sugary foods except for eating what I thought was a healthy nutty, berry granola bar on day 1, only to realize later that sugar was the number 4 ingredient. I haven’t made that same mistake and have been fine with out it! I definitely have had my evening cravings but I just think of Sofie and what she is all going without! I’ve also been focusing, this week, on what God has done for me in my life. I am so blessed. No red meat and poultry has been a little more difficult than I thought. Funny how I thought the sugar would be harder than the meat. I just really need to plan all my meals better so I have all the protein I need and don’t get shaky and eat something crappy. That seems to be when I crave the sugar most too. 8 days in to Lent so far! I’ll expand on this more further in to lent I think. 
  7. Livi used the big toilet tonight without having to use a stool to step up on. I haven’t measured her in a few months but she must have grown! She is taking pride in how big she is too, saying things like “I’m growing up so big like Mommy!” or “I am big, just like Daddy! Right?” I love my little weirdo 🙂

Lovely Livi

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Livi has been taking off lately! We are just amazed by how fast she is accomplishing different things. The most amazing feat has been her writing. She began with Daddy’s Valentine’s card. I put dots for her to trace, helped her hold the pen properly and held her wrist steady. She did really well. I was quite proud…

A week and a half later she wrote a birthday card for her Daddy. I again made the dots, but only outlined the letter with my finger before she did it all by herself! I was SERIOUSLY proud!…

This is what she has been doing lately! She tells me the words she wants me to write and just goes at it 🙂 It is her “work” while I am doing my work on the computer. I love it!…

It is not new information that Livi is talkative. She speaks clearly and pointedly about everything. It has its pros and cons! Lately though, she has been coming up with some pretty hilarious sayings…
-After stubbing her toe, and walking over to me, she cried “I CAN’T WALK!”
-She fell down and scraped her knee, crying she said “A prune will help me!” She loves prunes and thinks they are basically candy.
-“Excuse me! I farted!”… a few seconds later “Oh! I farted again! Mommy I fart A LOT!”
-Me: “Livi you are getting so big!”
Livi: “I know! I’m growing up big… Just like Mommy!”
-“What’s a penis for?” … She asked this to her Daddy and he epically failed in his response! I think he was caught off guard 🙂 He started laughing!… Then told her that that was adult talk but did manage to explain it was for peeing. Not convinced that was the most holistic response he could have given :S
Okay, I just typed those out and realized how dramatic she sounds. She is dramatic… and quite the little performer. She puts on dance shows for me daily and frequently sings too. I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up being a comedian either because she is always joking and pretending with us. She also has a bit of a quirky sense of humor. She makes funny faces at us, even though she knows the answer to something she’ll say the wrong thing and double over laughing, and she’ll do funny walks and moves just to make us laugh. Such a goof-ball!

She also has the makings of an imaginary friend. She calls it ‘Giant’. I love it! Jon is a little unsure of it’s appearance but I think it is a good sign of a creative imagination! I think Giant was born from the furnace room which opens in to our hallway. The furnace makes a noise when it comes on and startles Livi and somehow that became a Giant in the hallway. I didn’t want her to be afraid of anything so I encouraged her to talk to the Giant and invite it to play with her…. Now they run around the house together, jump on the bed together, she tries to give him her food and I get her to eat things she is unsure of by saying something like “Eat you dinner quick before Giant gets it!”

She is too smart for her own good and rapidly learning how to do everything herself. She can mostly undress herself. She still needs some help with her tops and boots, but shoes are no problem. Once I help her with want foot goes in what hole she can pull her pants up. She goes pee and washes her hands all by herself when we are at home, but I do occasionally find the entire roll of toilet paper unrolled on the floor because she forgets to wipe and instead has fun spinning it. She is a pro and making coffee with Daddy and only serves us coffee from her tea set. She has also become quite tech-savvy. Her fluent ability to use my iPhone, navigate between her games and even buy food for her virtual giraffe once (I was not too happy about that one!) spurred my mom in to buying an iPhone to keep up with the technology! She can also change DVD’s in the Xbox! Jon is super impressed with his little tech gamer… Me? Not so much.

Playing her puzzle app on “her” phone.

Right now Livi is very congested. I think the last time she had a cold that lasted more than 36 hours she was about 6 months old. She never gets sick so I’m not really sure what to do other than keep the steamer on. She missed her nap today because she couldn’t breath through her nose to suck on her soother and actually sleep. She finally did get a late nap but then didn’t fall asleep until almost 10! I think we are in for a long night. 

Lent

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Ash Wednesday is tomorrow. This marks the beginning of Lent. Being Mennonite I have never really observed this season. In college I played at observing it a few times. I gave up soda, but not all sugary drinks, or Bailey’s but not all alcohol, or I chose the practice of having Sunday’s off from the self-denial. It was very one tiered too. I did not participate in the prayer, penitence and alms-giving tiers of the Lent season. Only my pseudo-attempt at self-denial.

Co-Suffering/Self-denial
This year I feel like I need to refocus. I want to do this Lent thing right and I really want to get something out of observing Lent this year. I want to remember and explore what Jesus has done for me. I want to experience some real self-denial and co-suffering. I’m not thinking that giving up some type of food or entertainment is, in any way, going to let me experience the type of suffering that Jesus has endured. But, being as self-gratifying and undisciplined as I am, I think that this will be a really good learning experience for me. In thinking about co-suffering, Sofie is close in my thoughts here too. She does not know how much she really is suffering. She is malnourished. At only 6 inches shorter than Livi, she is nearly half her weight at 18lbs. I am her mother and I think it is quite fitting for some co-suffering to take place.

Prayer
Prayer has been a lost practice in my life. In recent years, I have openly said that I do not pray. I do not think that this is entirely true anymore. I think the prayer has been very bastardized by the church for me and I didn’t know what true prayer was. I believe that I always was praying, just not in the Evangelical sense of the word. I think I was practicing it more in the sense of worship and experiencing God through life in general. Don’t get me wrong, I think that there is more to prayer than this and that is what I am hoping to explore through this Lent. How will prayer take more of a role in my life and how am I going to model that for Livi? I want to explore prayer as spontaneous utterances, not just self-serving as I have been taught. I want to find or develop a creedal statement for myself. I want to explore old hymns that I had once loved so much.

Penitence
I think I’m generally good at acknowledging my sins but find the reconciliation part to be a little difficult, especially in areas where I feel righteous. I think that there is great potential for this part of Lent to really surprise and change me. I’m not sure how exactly I’m going to explore this but I think through the self-denial and prayer my journey may reveal some much needed penance that I was unaware of.

Alms-giving
The last important part of Lent is Alms-giving. Because of the adoption, we don’t really have any “alms” to give but I do have some paper work and creating for Chosen Children that I have greatly been procrastinating. This is my time to get it done. I want to take a few hours each week to sit down and accomplish and create what I feel so passionately about.

What is this Lent going to look like for me?
For self-denial: I’m going to give up red meat and poultry. I going to still allow myself to have seafood since being the cook in the family I think my husband might shoot me if I didn’t at least make that. Just giving up meat would be an “easy” choice for Lent since I’ve been heading that way in recent months anyway. The other thought that kept popping in to my head was to give up sugar. This will be difficult for me. I debated about even telling anyone because then I have to be accountable, but I guess accountability is a good thing, right? I’m not going to be so stringent against sugar that I can’t eat bread if it has a bit of sugar in it, but I’m going to try to not eat any explicatively sugary foods and not add any sugar to my teas or oatmeal. I’m going to still allow myself fruit of course and probably a bit of honey every once in a while too. I’m not sure that I’m going to perfectly succeed in denying myself sugar but I want to give it a shot!

For prayer: I want to do some reading and meditation. I’m not much for reading but there is a Henri Nouwen book I have been wanting to read. I’m also hoping that some of you guys can help me with this part. Are there any prayers, blessings, versus, creeds, songs, etc… that you would like to share with me through out this season? You could email or facebook me them. Let me know some practices that you do! I would really appreciate it!

I already said that I don’t know what to do or expect for the penance part but I’m excited to see what I learn about this aspect through my self-denial and prayer. And as for alms-giving I plan to give my time and get a lot of the Chosen Children stuff done that I’ve been procrastinating. I do not plan too take Sundays off from Lent either. I think I would just binge on those days and it kind of defeats the idea of cleansing too. So, wish me luck!