It has been a few weeks since Brian and I made it to church. Last week we overslept after trying to adjust from Colorado time and spring forward time and so only went to Sunday school, the week before that we were on our ski trip, the week before that was my Cowtown half marathon, the week before that we were at the Empowered to Connect conference on Saturday, so I did my long run Sunday morning instead of church. So all that put together means we had missed church for more than a month.
But God knew what he was doing when He made sure we went this Sunday. We could have continued the garage sale another day or we could have said we were too tired from the garage sale and needed to sleep in. The kids were still asleep when our alarms went off so it would have been easy to take that excuse.
But this last Sunday at our church was amazing and I'm so glad we didn't miss it. I don't think I've shared on here before that Fort Worth has a high population of refugees. There is now a large group of Congolese refugees living in Fort Worth and they happen to attend our church. We became aware of this at the end of last summer, shortly after we had sent in our initial application to adopt from Congo. After attending our church for a while and not understanding what our English speaking pastor was saying somehow they got together and got the ok to start a Swahili service. It is so fun to see the diversity in our church and to know that our kid will have people from their own country here.
Well, this Sunday was what our church calls mission Sunday and we had a great speaker who came from India and gave a great message. But the part I enjoyed even more was a video that they showed before the service started of the Congolese worshiping in our church and about their life here as they are trying to get settled and how we can help them. Then at the end of the service their choir came and sang in Swahili to us, but they had the English words up on the screen for us to read. The song they sang was called, "Our Savior Gives Us Joy."
I could not hold back the tears. As soon as they started singing and walked up on the stage I lost it. I could see our future son or daughter's face in all of their faces and couldn't stop thinking about them and wanting them home and here with us. I also thought about us being in Congo when we go to get them and hoped that we would have the chance to go to a church service in Congo and wondered if the singing would be exactly like what we were seeing in our church. It made me think of how out of place they must feel not understanding English and sitting through our service and how we will feel when we are in Congo.
It was a pretty cool experience and I'm so glad we didn't miss it.
3.19.2012
Our 2nd garage sale fundraiser
We did our 2nd garage sale fundraiser for the adoption this last weekend. We probably had about the same amount of stuff as the first time around, but only made half as much. We learned our lesson. The 1st garage sale was the weekend of our neighborhood-wide sale, and now we understand just how much traffic that sale generated.
But we are just glad to have it behind us and all the work done (although we still have to get rid of the stuff that didn't sell). And we still made a little over $900 which is nothing to be too upset about.
I think that will be our last garage sale fundraiser because the night before the sale we were both pretty stressed out trying to get everything ready. It is a big time commitment to go through everything and sort it and price it, plus then the time working the sale and then what we are dealing with now, cleaning up after the sale is over.
This will probably sound cheesy, but one of my favorite things from doing these garage sales is just being surprised by everyone who has played a part in helping us. People that we don't even know very well have donated stuff for us to sell, friends dropped by and bought stuff and donated extra money, friends brought us lunch on Saturday, random shoppers wish us well with the adoption and give extra money, and it's fun to hear stories from shoppers who have also adopted.
It has definitely made me re-evaluate our level of giving to others. Since we were married we have been tithing to the church and giving to some other organizations we have a heart for, but this has opened my eyes more to helping others within our church whenever we know they have a need.
God has definitely blessed us.
This is our garage the day before the sale. I tried to be organized and proactive, but we only had 3 large folding tables and 1 little one so once they were full of stuff I was still left with a garage full of stuff I didn't know what to do with until the day before the sale when I could start pulling it out onto our driveway.
Savannah helping, and of course the kids loved playing with all the toys that were donated to sell.
The 1st day of the sale looking back to our garage -
And from the garage looking out to the street. Lots and lots of stuff.
Our front porch I set up as the clothing area. This is before I had even had a chance to go through all the clothes. We had so many clothes I didn't even get a chance to display them all. It's a bummer because there was some nice stuff in there I know people would have bought, but it was just too much work for me to keep up with. So now they will go to some other cause.
One funny thing is I have always kept my old running shoes. Once I get 400-500 miles on them I start using them as my walking around town shoes and get new running ones. I had stored up probably 10 pairs of shoes doing this and finally told myself I didn't need to have all those in my closet taking up space. It is hard to part with them though because I get a little sentimentally attached remembering races I ran in certain shoes. But anyways, I put them out to sell and they were one of the first things to go! It must have been one lady's lucky day because she wore my same size and bought every single pair! And my closet now feels much more spacious.
But we are just glad to have it behind us and all the work done (although we still have to get rid of the stuff that didn't sell). And we still made a little over $900 which is nothing to be too upset about.
I think that will be our last garage sale fundraiser because the night before the sale we were both pretty stressed out trying to get everything ready. It is a big time commitment to go through everything and sort it and price it, plus then the time working the sale and then what we are dealing with now, cleaning up after the sale is over.
This will probably sound cheesy, but one of my favorite things from doing these garage sales is just being surprised by everyone who has played a part in helping us. People that we don't even know very well have donated stuff for us to sell, friends dropped by and bought stuff and donated extra money, friends brought us lunch on Saturday, random shoppers wish us well with the adoption and give extra money, and it's fun to hear stories from shoppers who have also adopted.
It has definitely made me re-evaluate our level of giving to others. Since we were married we have been tithing to the church and giving to some other organizations we have a heart for, but this has opened my eyes more to helping others within our church whenever we know they have a need.
God has definitely blessed us.
This is our garage the day before the sale. I tried to be organized and proactive, but we only had 3 large folding tables and 1 little one so once they were full of stuff I was still left with a garage full of stuff I didn't know what to do with until the day before the sale when I could start pulling it out onto our driveway.
Savannah helping, and of course the kids loved playing with all the toys that were donated to sell.
The 1st day of the sale looking back to our garage -
And from the garage looking out to the street. Lots and lots of stuff.
Our front porch I set up as the clothing area. This is before I had even had a chance to go through all the clothes. We had so many clothes I didn't even get a chance to display them all. It's a bummer because there was some nice stuff in there I know people would have bought, but it was just too much work for me to keep up with. So now they will go to some other cause.
One funny thing is I have always kept my old running shoes. Once I get 400-500 miles on them I start using them as my walking around town shoes and get new running ones. I had stored up probably 10 pairs of shoes doing this and finally told myself I didn't need to have all those in my closet taking up space. It is hard to part with them though because I get a little sentimentally attached remembering races I ran in certain shoes. But anyways, I put them out to sell and they were one of the first things to go! It must have been one lady's lucky day because she wore my same size and bought every single pair! And my closet now feels much more spacious.
3.02.2012
Cowtown half marathon race recap
Sunday was the Cowtown half marathon. I'd been training for this race since my marathon last fall. I was really hoping since coming off marathon training I would have the endurance to break 2 hours in the half, which has been my goal for more than a year. My previous personal best was 2:08 at last year's Cowtown half.
A few weeks ago I ran the Hot Chocolate 15K in Dallas and set an equivalent time there showing that I had a shot at breaking 2 hours in a half marathon. If you're a runner and want to know how you can convert race times, this is a really cool website.
To break 2 hours I had to hold a 9:10 pace. So my race plan on Sunday was to go out slightly slower than 9:10 pace the first mile, then lock into 9:10 pace and hold that the rest of the race, and sprint in as much as I could at the end. I just really wanted to make sure I didn't go out too fast because that was my huge mistake last year. The plan was going pretty well and when I saw Brian and the kids at mile 10 I was at an average of 9:13 pace so I really thought it was still within reach if I could pick it up some the last 5K. But unfortunately once I made it to mile 11, fatigue was really hitting me and not only could I not speed up, but I slowed down some.
I still managed to pull out a 2:03, so it was still a huge PR with 5 minutes off my time, but that sub 2 hour half is still calling my name. One day I am going to break that barrier!
Another fun thing about the half is that I ran the whole thing in my Nike Frees which are like barefoot shoes. Not as extreme as the Vibram Five Fingers, but just the next step up from there. I was a little nervous about it because I just swap them in and out in my training. Sometimes I run in regular running shoes (Brooks), sometimes Newtons (which help you to run on your forefoot so are also kinda like barefoot shoes), and sometimes my Nike Frees.
But I am a very superstitious runner and I had worn my Nike Frees for my 15K and had such a great race, that I figured part of it had to have been because of the shoes. And they are super lightweight so it makes sense they'd help you run faster. So even though my longest run in them had been the 15K which is 9.3 miles, I decided to wear them for my half marathon (13.1 miles). And I'm so glad I did! My feet felt great! I feel like I can wear those shoes all the time now.
This time last year I was struggling with achilles tendinitis and had to take lots of time off from running to recover from it. It is so depressing to take time off from running when you are injured and you want to be out there training. But after my achilles was feeling better I won this pair of Nike Frees, and ever since I've been wearing them I haven't had another injury! That was through marathon training, so that is really saying something. I am a barefoot running believer!
Another fun thing that happened on Sunday is one of my college friends ran his first marathon! It was so fun to see him set a goal, work towards it, and then finish the race. We only had the chance to do one long run together, but I'm hoping there will be many more training runs together in the future. I never would have thought when we were sitting around our dorms in college that one day we would both be running marathons! :)
I've taken this whole week off from running because I was actually feeling a little burned out. It's been one goal race after another for about the last year and a half. But after just 3 days off I was already feeling really lazy and weird not running. So I think this one week off will be good and I'll be ready to get back out there. So now I just have to figure out my next goal. I'm thinking of giving trail running a shot. It would be fun to try something new like that.
A few weeks ago I ran the Hot Chocolate 15K in Dallas and set an equivalent time there showing that I had a shot at breaking 2 hours in a half marathon. If you're a runner and want to know how you can convert race times, this is a really cool website.
To break 2 hours I had to hold a 9:10 pace. So my race plan on Sunday was to go out slightly slower than 9:10 pace the first mile, then lock into 9:10 pace and hold that the rest of the race, and sprint in as much as I could at the end. I just really wanted to make sure I didn't go out too fast because that was my huge mistake last year. The plan was going pretty well and when I saw Brian and the kids at mile 10 I was at an average of 9:13 pace so I really thought it was still within reach if I could pick it up some the last 5K. But unfortunately once I made it to mile 11, fatigue was really hitting me and not only could I not speed up, but I slowed down some.
I still managed to pull out a 2:03, so it was still a huge PR with 5 minutes off my time, but that sub 2 hour half is still calling my name. One day I am going to break that barrier!
Another fun thing about the half is that I ran the whole thing in my Nike Frees which are like barefoot shoes. Not as extreme as the Vibram Five Fingers, but just the next step up from there. I was a little nervous about it because I just swap them in and out in my training. Sometimes I run in regular running shoes (Brooks), sometimes Newtons (which help you to run on your forefoot so are also kinda like barefoot shoes), and sometimes my Nike Frees.
But I am a very superstitious runner and I had worn my Nike Frees for my 15K and had such a great race, that I figured part of it had to have been because of the shoes. And they are super lightweight so it makes sense they'd help you run faster. So even though my longest run in them had been the 15K which is 9.3 miles, I decided to wear them for my half marathon (13.1 miles). And I'm so glad I did! My feet felt great! I feel like I can wear those shoes all the time now.
This time last year I was struggling with achilles tendinitis and had to take lots of time off from running to recover from it. It is so depressing to take time off from running when you are injured and you want to be out there training. But after my achilles was feeling better I won this pair of Nike Frees, and ever since I've been wearing them I haven't had another injury! That was through marathon training, so that is really saying something. I am a barefoot running believer!
Another fun thing that happened on Sunday is one of my college friends ran his first marathon! It was so fun to see him set a goal, work towards it, and then finish the race. We only had the chance to do one long run together, but I'm hoping there will be many more training runs together in the future. I never would have thought when we were sitting around our dorms in college that one day we would both be running marathons! :)
The only picture we got from race day is a picture of me with my friend Dean before the race. I was cold and so nervous!
I've taken this whole week off from running because I was actually feeling a little burned out. It's been one goal race after another for about the last year and a half. But after just 3 days off I was already feeling really lazy and weird not running. So I think this one week off will be good and I'll be ready to get back out there. So now I just have to figure out my next goal. I'm thinking of giving trail running a shot. It would be fun to try something new like that.
2.23.2012
God created the creatures of the sea
This fun little stuff we did would have been perfect to do around the time we went to the aquarium, but it was about a week and a half later.
In Colton's Bible study class they are learning about everything God created and the week they did this he had learned about how God created animals and I guess they talked about fish because he came home with all kinds of fish crafts he had made. He always comes home with a little sheet of extra ideas to reinforce what he's learning at church at home. I've been trying to do those lately.
So this week one of the things was to sort the fish by colors into baskets. I have been trying to work with Colton on his colors so this was perfect.
Another idea was "fishing". I can't remember how much liberty I took with these ideas. I might have read what the thing said and then taken it a totally different direction. But we had all these sea life creatures we had bought in the aquarium gift shop and it was a nice January day outside so we headed out to "fish". I had them rescue the sea life from the tub of water using the kitchen utensils and then they had to carry them to safety on this plastic mat. The kids loved it and it kept them busy for quite a while so that's always nice. :)
In Colton's Bible study class they are learning about everything God created and the week they did this he had learned about how God created animals and I guess they talked about fish because he came home with all kinds of fish crafts he had made. He always comes home with a little sheet of extra ideas to reinforce what he's learning at church at home. I've been trying to do those lately.
So this week one of the things was to sort the fish by colors into baskets. I have been trying to work with Colton on his colors so this was perfect.
Another idea was "fishing". I can't remember how much liberty I took with these ideas. I might have read what the thing said and then taken it a totally different direction. But we had all these sea life creatures we had bought in the aquarium gift shop and it was a nice January day outside so we headed out to "fish". I had them rescue the sea life from the tub of water using the kitchen utensils and then they had to carry them to safety on this plastic mat. The kids loved it and it kept them busy for quite a while so that's always nice. :)
Babysitting, reading, construction
I've been babysitting for some friends of ours since the beginning of January. It's 2 little boys and they only come for 2 hours 1 day a week. One of the boys is close in age to Colton so it's fun for him to have a little playmate. All the money from the babysitting is going towards our adoption fund and I've committed to watch them all semester so it will end up being a decent amount of money towards our adoption.
It's so fun to see how our kids act when they come over. Savannah turns into a little mom even though she is not that much older than all the boys. But I think the fact that she's the only girl and a little older makes her feel like she can be my little helper. Which I actually love. :)
Colton still has to learn about sharing his toys, but this gives him some good practice.
Sometimes while I'm watching the kids Savannah and I will do school stuff and just let all the boys play. And sometimes I will read to her while they play. We recently finished reading Charlotte's Web and got to go see the play too. That was our first chapter book to finish. But we've also started The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and are still working our way through that one. Once we started Charlotte's Web Savannah always wanted to read that one instead of Oz, and since we had plans to see the play I wanted us to finish it before that date. Reading with Savannah is my new favorite activity.
There's also some crazy construction happening on our street. So that's another fun thing to do with all the kids. All the boys love watching the diggers. But it does stress me out having to keep count of all 4 of them. I feel a little safer when we're all inside. Outside it is constant - look around - 1, 2, 3, 4... few seconds go by, look around, 1, 2,3,4 kids...
They are replacing all the sewer and water lines and then repaving the street. It's supposed to be on-going until September. So far it hasn't been too much of a bother and is more fun for the kids than anything. Colton can't get enough of seeing all the trucks/ diggers. And when Brian gets home from work they'll go explore all the rock piles the trucks have left behind. His shoes are permanently dirty from crawling around in the dirty broken up bits of street. And our cars are gonna be dirty for a while too.
It's so fun to see how our kids act when they come over. Savannah turns into a little mom even though she is not that much older than all the boys. But I think the fact that she's the only girl and a little older makes her feel like she can be my little helper. Which I actually love. :)
Colton still has to learn about sharing his toys, but this gives him some good practice.
Sometimes while I'm watching the kids Savannah and I will do school stuff and just let all the boys play. And sometimes I will read to her while they play. We recently finished reading Charlotte's Web and got to go see the play too. That was our first chapter book to finish. But we've also started The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and are still working our way through that one. Once we started Charlotte's Web Savannah always wanted to read that one instead of Oz, and since we had plans to see the play I wanted us to finish it before that date. Reading with Savannah is my new favorite activity.
There's also some crazy construction happening on our street. So that's another fun thing to do with all the kids. All the boys love watching the diggers. But it does stress me out having to keep count of all 4 of them. I feel a little safer when we're all inside. Outside it is constant - look around - 1, 2, 3, 4... few seconds go by, look around, 1, 2,3,4 kids...
They are replacing all the sewer and water lines and then repaving the street. It's supposed to be on-going until September. So far it hasn't been too much of a bother and is more fun for the kids than anything. Colton can't get enough of seeing all the trucks/ diggers. And when Brian gets home from work they'll go explore all the rock piles the trucks have left behind. His shoes are permanently dirty from crawling around in the dirty broken up bits of street. And our cars are gonna be dirty for a while too.
Making penguins
I am so far behind on posting. Lately during the kids' "quiet time" I've been reading because I have been reading books I can't put down. But today I'm in between books and figured it was finally time to download all the pictures off my camera from the last several weeks.
We've been keeping busy with our little homeschool projects. In January we went on a field trip w/ our homeschool group to the Dallas World Aquarium. Brian was able to join us so it was a really fun family trip and it's fun when he can get involved in the homeschooling stuff too. Somehow, I did not take a single picture there. But we all enjoyed it. I really like the way they have it laid out where you walk through the different habitats. It was really more like a zoo than an aquarium. There were so many animals there other than just sea life. My favorite we saw was a sloth. He was right above us on a tree and was moving in slow motion. So cool to see!
Before we went to the aquarium we did a little project of making penguins since I knew we'd see some there.
Got this idea from pinterest (where else?!)
Here are the pictures of our penguins -
We've been keeping busy with our little homeschool projects. In January we went on a field trip w/ our homeschool group to the Dallas World Aquarium. Brian was able to join us so it was a really fun family trip and it's fun when he can get involved in the homeschooling stuff too. Somehow, I did not take a single picture there. But we all enjoyed it. I really like the way they have it laid out where you walk through the different habitats. It was really more like a zoo than an aquarium. There were so many animals there other than just sea life. My favorite we saw was a sloth. He was right above us on a tree and was moving in slow motion. So cool to see!
Before we went to the aquarium we did a little project of making penguins since I knew we'd see some there.
Got this idea from pinterest (where else?!)
Here are the pictures of our penguins -
2.05.2012
2nd garage sale fundraiser and current adoption status
We are planning to have another garage sale fundraiser the weekend of March 17. We really made a lot of money from the first one so I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do at this one. I announced by email and facebook last week and we have already gotten lots of donation just in the span of 1 week so I'm excited.
We are still waiting to hear about our grant application. Our pastor told us we should give them 6 weeks to get back to us.
We got our I-600A immigration approval last week! This was big news for us because our agency really had us worried if USCIS was going to request more information. They didn't, and we got the approval, so that was nice.
We have to get new copies of a few things that are in our dossier because the expiration date of the notary stamp on some of our documents is expiring sooner than Congo would like them to be expiring. It's pretty annoying. I wish they could have told us that from the beginning to check those dates and we could have had a different notary do it. Brian is also having to renew his passport which we knew we'd have to do, it expires in April.
But our agency went ahead and sent everything (with the current notary dates) to the Texas Secretary of State to get certified and already got them back last week. Now they are sending our homestudy and power of attorney to the Department of State before everything will go to the Congolese embassy for certification.
So things are happening. We are truly just in waiting mode.
We went to a Parenting Conference at our church yesterday and it was great. It was our 2nd year to go and before hand I was thinking do we really need to go to this again? We are always so busy and it would have been nice to have a Saturday with nothing to do. I had to wake up at 4:50am to run a 12 miler before the conference (our longest run before the Cowtown half marathon coming up in 3 weeks), then didn't have a chance to take a shower but just changed clothes and hurried up to the church after the run. But I am so glad we did go. It was so nice to get encouraged and get new ideas about parenting and just feel refreshed in what we are trying to do as a family and as a parenting team.
Brian and I will be attending another conference in 2 weeks - Empowered to Connect. Since the parenting one this weekend has given me a new view of our parenting, I'm looking forward to that one giving me preparation in a new way for our adoption.
We are still waiting to hear about our grant application. Our pastor told us we should give them 6 weeks to get back to us.
We got our I-600A immigration approval last week! This was big news for us because our agency really had us worried if USCIS was going to request more information. They didn't, and we got the approval, so that was nice.
We have to get new copies of a few things that are in our dossier because the expiration date of the notary stamp on some of our documents is expiring sooner than Congo would like them to be expiring. It's pretty annoying. I wish they could have told us that from the beginning to check those dates and we could have had a different notary do it. Brian is also having to renew his passport which we knew we'd have to do, it expires in April.
But our agency went ahead and sent everything (with the current notary dates) to the Texas Secretary of State to get certified and already got them back last week. Now they are sending our homestudy and power of attorney to the Department of State before everything will go to the Congolese embassy for certification.
So things are happening. We are truly just in waiting mode.
We went to a Parenting Conference at our church yesterday and it was great. It was our 2nd year to go and before hand I was thinking do we really need to go to this again? We are always so busy and it would have been nice to have a Saturday with nothing to do. I had to wake up at 4:50am to run a 12 miler before the conference (our longest run before the Cowtown half marathon coming up in 3 weeks), then didn't have a chance to take a shower but just changed clothes and hurried up to the church after the run. But I am so glad we did go. It was so nice to get encouraged and get new ideas about parenting and just feel refreshed in what we are trying to do as a family and as a parenting team.
Brian and I will be attending another conference in 2 weeks - Empowered to Connect. Since the parenting one this weekend has given me a new view of our parenting, I'm looking forward to that one giving me preparation in a new way for our adoption.
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