The Wall Bloggers

This morning, I set out to read a Psalm, as I usually do, to start the day. But this morning's Psalm kept stopping me and speaking to me of God's heart for adoption. Here are some of the verses that struck me from Psalm 68 (I have named it the Adoption Psalm): 68:4-5 Sing to God, sing praises to His name... A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy habitation. 68:6 God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity. 68:10 You, O God, provided from Your goodness for the poor. 68:20 Our God is the God of salvation; and to God the Lord belong escapes from death. I was deeply blessed at the reminder that even though I cannot take care of our child right now, our child is not forgotten or alone. Our God, the Father to the fatherless, is with our child. He waits for His timing, when He will set the solitary (or child!) in his or her family (ours!). As if that were not enough of an encouragement to continue trusting Him

Ashley and I have known each other since we were in Kindergarten, in 1985. Several months ago, she let me know that she and her husband, Kevin, were driving through NM on their way to CO for a family get-together. And a few weeks ago, she set the date of their arrival. I used the momentum of her first visit to our house to motivate myself to get done all the yearly cleaning stuff I do not enjoy doing. After two weeks of carpet cleaning, deep dusting, furniture rearranging (we brought in the piano and loft bed just in time to cause ruckus), leather conditioning, and so on, and so forth, I finished my final task about five minutes before they arrived. With a sigh of relief, I set out to enjoy the time we had together. The first night, Thursday, I walked Ashley, Kevin, their dog Murphy, and Rusty out to our Overlook. I figured it would be a good way for Rusty to meet Murphy, since the former is not a good friend to small dogs. The walk helped to breed some familiarity in the dogs,

I feel so blessed. One of my dear friends knew how I have longed for a piano since I left home 11 years ago. And when she moved out of her house, she offered her piano to me. I understand offering someone something you might not want to move -- a toaster, an old chair. A piano?? I find that extremely generous. Scott and Steve (with the help of several other men) managed to bring that piano to our house last night. I run the risk of overflowing my house with furniture. But I'm willing to take that chance to get music into my house. My fingers ached to touch the keys last night, as the piano found its new home. But alas, Adrianna was asleep. I stole a few notes, and then waited until she was eating breakfast this morning to pull out the long-awaiting piano books that I have been hoarding all these years. I do not sound marvelous, and the piano needs a little tune-up, but my heart has been soaring with the notes that have been filling this house. Adrianna, too, has been long

So I might have a strange thing going about beds in Adrianna's room. Over a year ago, we let Adrianna "earn" a twin bed. She worked towards it by breaking her bad habits of making mom and dad come back to her room three and four times in the evening to take her to potty breaks, get her water, etc. She broke those habits, and earned a trundle bed (an extra that my in-laws had). Now, it was just a metal trundle frame, with no headboard, and no extra cuteness... Therefore, when a hand-me-down picket fence twin bed came along a few months ago, we jumped at it. It is quite a cute bed, and even has three drawers underneath. I am sure Scott and Steve were getting a little annoyed with the bed swapping, but they kept their comments to themselves. That probably would be enough beds for most people. But I think I have a thing for furniture. Our tiny local newspaper has little to make me look forward to reading most days. Sunday mornings are one of the few times I'm willi

It happened again. Early this morning, I dreamed that we were notified that we had our referral for our new child. In the dream, we went to Ethiopia to pick our new daughter up. We were welcomed by our little girl, whose name was Clara. She had misshaped hands, but a beautiful spirit. She was even old enough to talk, and told us what some words were in Amharic. She told us the word for scarf was "tic". Boy, am I going to be surprised if we get a boy!

Our week with Samuel Monday: Mud puddles with play group Tuesday: Bible Study and neighbor play Tuesday morning, we had about an hour before my Bible study, when we saw our neighbors Jack (8) and Jenny (5) playing outside. We invited them over to play in our backyard, and within minutes, Jack and Samuel were climbing one of our trees to jump onto our shed's roof. (A little different than Jenny's and Adrianna's usual baby and dress up play!) After rest time, we took Samuel over to see my mother-in-law's goats. He also enjoyed the swing set there. Wednesday: Hike to Valles Caldera Wednesday morning, beautiful weather lent itself to a wonderful hike in the mountains. We discovered dozens of teeny wild strawberries, and at the bottom of the caldera, butterflies abounded like flies. Samuel and Adrianna particularly enjoyed rock climbing. Thursday: Farmer's Market by bus Taking the bus and trolley to town, Samuel turned to me, with the wind blowing in his hair, exclai

For the Fourth of July weekend, we went up to the Frisco condo (my dad and Debbie's). We got to relax in the cool mountain air, take advantage of special Fourth sales at the outlet mall, take our dog on grassy walks, and do a little swimming. We even picked up an extra child for our trip home. My sister and her family came up for Saturday, to visit, and to bring us my nephew. Samuel gets to stay with us for the week. After his family went back home, he and Adrianna quickly got along. Samuel is used to having two sisters and a little brother around, so sharing with Adrianna was no big deal for him. And Adrianna appreciated having a kid to play with, since Mom and Dad don't quite play like a kid does. We made the round trip (6 hours each way) by leaving Friday and coming back Sunday. Obviously, this time frame is not ideal with a child! Adrianna had to miss two naps in three days, and we allowed her to stay up late watch fireworks on the Fourth. The last two hours of our

As you know, I am a person who likes to get things done. Leaving things undone is excruciating to me. I don't start a project unless I know I can finish it. Sometimes that means I just won't start things that need to be started, because of the fear of leaving them unfinished. Well, I have started something. And no matter how I try, I cannot bring myself to finish it. It has been on my "to do" list for weeks, and I cannot motivate myself to make any progress on it. If you have been following my blog, you might have guessed what it is. A few months ago, I was updating the blog with the progress of our new kid's room. There are pictures of Scott and my father-in-law wainscoting the room beautifully. You may have noticed that I have never put up the "before" and "after" pictures. That is because there is no "after" yet. The room is still waiting for paint retouching, and pictures on the walls, and finished bedding, and junk remo