Our Family: November 2007

We Got to go to the Mall

Those of you who know me well know that I hate going to the mall. I don’t like shopping, except with my mom in cute little towns with cute little stores. But Sunday we went to the mall, and it was a wonderful experience, one which I had never really expected. We just happened to be at JC Penney getting our Christmas pictures taken and decided to walk through the mall.

We have spent a number of years watching families: watching our best friends have children; watching our siblings have children and get very busy; going places and watching kids with their parents. Several years ago I made a decision to spend less time where I would run into families with small children, as sometimes it was just too painful. Infertility has its own special brand of torture…And even when the raw ache seemed to be lessening, it was only being slowly replaced by dark emptiness. But this Sunday, we walked through the mall, proud as you please, with our own little child. I didn't expect to feel anything special, we were just on an errand. But it was an unexpected experience, to feel like a normal family, to do a normal thing. The raw ache was magically replaced with inexpressible bliss. There is my strong husband, and there is my adorable child.

Perhaps you don't think much of shopping with your children. Or perhaps you are like we were, wandering the hallways, watching little children run up to their parents, and asking yourself, “Can I ever have this?” and sometimes thinking "I will never have this," or wonder….what would that feel like? What would it possibly be like if *we* had a little one who refused to hold our hand in a crowd, or begged for ice cream? Well, now we know, and it is amazing.

A preteen walked by with an ice cream cone. I hardly noticed her, but Josie began to bounce excitedly (she's been bouncing for 3 weeks straight) and say, through the bounces so it took me a minute to understand: “ICE CREAM! ICE cream!” I said, “Ask your daddy.” So she RAN as fast as her little legs could go into the store to find daddy, wrapped herself around him and said, “ICE CREAM!” Of course you can have ice cream, doll! Anything you want. Don’t be surprised if we have a pony in our yard someday. We get to take this little one home with us. And she calls us “Daddy and Mommy.”

Our sleepy angel.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had lots of fun at Ammi and Poppa's house for Thanksgiving. It snowed the night before Thanksgiving. Josie loves to "walk in da snow!" It was melted by Monday and she keeps looking for it every time she goes outside.

Starting the Holidays in Minnesota

We went to Minnesota last weekend to visit mommy's two brothers and three sisters. Josie had so much fun. She hated to leave one house, so I told her that there would be more cousins at the next house. When we got to the driveway, she yelled, "MORE cousins!!!!" Some of them are actually second cousins (Colleen's niece's kids.) Josie didn't do much decorating of gingerbread houses: it was too tempting to just eat the decorations. Her older cousins made some beautiful gingerbread houses. Next year we will have to make more intricate houses, maybe a little town!

Reading with Auntie Debbie and her grandkids.

Cousin Issac loves his Uncle Jim!

I had lots of fun with cousin Ava!

Getting Ready to make gingerbread houses.

Busted!

Sometimes you need to take a break from the hustle and bustle.

Bye-bye Uncle Matti.

Yunnan Kids International

Josie was born in the Yunnan Province of China. One of our adoption support groups is made up of parents who have adopted children from this province. Last year we formed a 501(c)3 non-profit organization to help the children in this province. Projects have included sponsoring surgeries for children in foster care and sending clothing to those in the orphanages. Tuesday November 6 is the start of a one week fundraising auction. A lot of the donated items are Yunnan or China related, but some are just nice gifts (like a football autographed by Peyton Manning and a book on appreciating wine.) If you'd like to check it out and possibly help raise money for the orphans in an area of the world that is very important to us, check it out at http://www.missionfish.org/NPMMF/nphomepage.jsp?NP_ID=15967.