I don't have time to post but the situation with adoptions in Guatemala are beginning to swirl yet again. This time it seems to be much more serious. Please pray for the families who are in process and especially the many Guatemalan children who could be affected by this. The bottom line is that those families who are in process right now might not finish their adoptions. Something like this happened back in 2003 and the results were horrible for the children who were left behind. Things are probably be fast moving for a little bit so I will post sooner than later.
Please take time to read about this if you could. Thanks.
http://www.guatadopt.com/
http://www.adaguatemala.org/English/news/
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
As the rain moves in...
I sit in the comfort of my home putzin' around getting little things done here and there. We are beginning to prepare for Emma's 1st birthday party which will be the first weekend in October. Though this will be a relatively small affair but we have small projects that need to get done before then. My mom will be flying in from North Carolina for that weekend which will be really nice. Not a whole ton is really happening other than that stuff. Getting ready for the party and continuing to get ready for the fall season as well. Before you know it...snow. But before then I hope to get some fishing in. I love to fish this time of the year. Mainly for Northern Pike and hopefully the unexpected Muskie. It's a tad bit late so I will wait to blog again soon. By the way, Happy Birthday to my Grandma Freda who turns 95 today! I love you!
J
J
Friday, September 14, 2007
Emma is very....
cute.
It has been cooling down here in Minnesota so Tera put this hat on Emma's head before we all headed out for some errands yesterday.
That's all for now.
J
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Hey there...
so how's it going? Things are going pretty well here. Work, sleep, Emma, Tera, house, work, sleep, work. The fall season is on it's on it's way. Soon I'll be putting the patio furniture away and getting the snowblower ready and the shovels out. We are preparing for Emma's first birthday which is coming up at the beginning on October. We are very excited for that.
Nothing too new on the plate these days. I'll update again when my brain is working better and there is more to update about.
Goodnight.
j
Nothing too new on the plate these days. I'll update again when my brain is working better and there is more to update about.
Goodnight.
j
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Excalibur! Thanks to the Swedes I am triumphant once again!
When Tera was in Guatemala with Emma back in May my laptop crashed taking with it about 20 gigs of music. Since then I have not once updated my iPod or my iTunes. My iPod has pretty much acted as my storage hard drive/back up till I could figure out how to get the content on my iPod to another laptop. After much internal deliberation and constant questioning of the resident geeks at my work (don't worry, these guys wear the "geek" title like a giant shiny Marshal's badge at the OK Corral) I have finally placed all the content onto a different laptop via a software program made by a Swedish firm that is not named IKEA. Now I can update my podcasts and get caught up with the 3 months of episodes that I have missed. What podcasts do I listen to? James Macdonald, Jan Markell and David Wheaton just to name a few.
So here I sit in the dead of morning watching Iron Chef and listening to Fernando Ortega. The iPod thing took about 2 hours to complete so now that it's so late I decided to blog for a little while and see what happens. What is new? For those who don't visit Tera's blog the big news of the week is that Emma has not one but two teeth coming in. One of them has come through her gum and the other just emerged yesterday. She is a bit "off" with the teeth coming in but her demeanor is still sweet as sugar, even if she doesn't want to take her naps...aarrgh! We are excited for her and on top of that she is starting to pick up some words like "bye bye" accompanied with a cute little wave of her right hand. But still no "mama" or "papa". That will come in time. She is standing more on her own and I am sure she will be making her walking debut in the near future. We are so enthralled to have her in our lives. Parenting is not easy but by far the best thing ever. Tera loves being her mom and I love being her dad.
On Monday the three of us went looking at a local mercado in search of some ideas for Emma's up and coming first birthday party in October but we came up with nothing. We did have the pleasure of getting dinner at our favorite Arabic restaurant which is always a treat. They did have their rockin' buffet going on but we ordered our meals to go instead. There are quite a few latino stores and bazaars in the Minneapolis/ St. Paul area so it shouldn't be too hard to find what we are looking for.
Before I wrap this up I just wanted to comment on a couple of things and make a request as well. Back in March Tera and I were going through some relatively hard issues concerning our adoption of Emma. Most of it had to do with the Guatemalan government and it's current dealings and attitudes toward adoptions. I think that was the hardest time of the process for us because we didn't know if Emma was going to be able to come home to us. Tera and I both handled it differently. She blogged a lot which is something I found impossible at the time. I wound up making a music video collage of Emma and talked it out with Tera and some good friends at work. There were a lot of tears shed during that time. Emotions ran high. I recently ran across that video (which I may post in the future) and I began to think about how I felt during that time. Tera and I wanted to have Emma with us so badly and our hearts cried out for her to be with us. We did not know what the Guatemalan government was going to do and we never knew what the next phone call would bring. But then the Lord in His mercy blessed us and allowed Emma to come home to us and for that we are forever grateful. Unfortunately the story doesn't end there. There are still many children waiting to come home and many families are waiting with hopeful hearts. Many families are going through what we went through and some are going through things much more difficult that what we had to deal with. For those in the know or who have been through or are currently in the process you know what I am talking about. The Hague is coming at the beginning of 2008 and with every passing day the news out of Guatemala is more and more uncertain and volatile. Many people are tirelessly working to make the adoption environment better for everyone involved, especially for the children. Please pray for the lawmakers in both the US and Guatemala. Pray for the families who are waiting for their little ones and especially for the many children waiting for the process to release them to their loving and awaiting families. Pray for their health, safety and protection. Please don't forget about the foster mothers and their families as well. God Bless you all.
J
So here I sit in the dead of morning watching Iron Chef and listening to Fernando Ortega. The iPod thing took about 2 hours to complete so now that it's so late I decided to blog for a little while and see what happens. What is new? For those who don't visit Tera's blog the big news of the week is that Emma has not one but two teeth coming in. One of them has come through her gum and the other just emerged yesterday. She is a bit "off" with the teeth coming in but her demeanor is still sweet as sugar, even if she doesn't want to take her naps...aarrgh! We are excited for her and on top of that she is starting to pick up some words like "bye bye" accompanied with a cute little wave of her right hand. But still no "mama" or "papa". That will come in time. She is standing more on her own and I am sure she will be making her walking debut in the near future. We are so enthralled to have her in our lives. Parenting is not easy but by far the best thing ever. Tera loves being her mom and I love being her dad.
On Monday the three of us went looking at a local mercado in search of some ideas for Emma's up and coming first birthday party in October but we came up with nothing. We did have the pleasure of getting dinner at our favorite Arabic restaurant which is always a treat. They did have their rockin' buffet going on but we ordered our meals to go instead. There are quite a few latino stores and bazaars in the Minneapolis/ St. Paul area so it shouldn't be too hard to find what we are looking for.
Before I wrap this up I just wanted to comment on a couple of things and make a request as well. Back in March Tera and I were going through some relatively hard issues concerning our adoption of Emma. Most of it had to do with the Guatemalan government and it's current dealings and attitudes toward adoptions. I think that was the hardest time of the process for us because we didn't know if Emma was going to be able to come home to us. Tera and I both handled it differently. She blogged a lot which is something I found impossible at the time. I wound up making a music video collage of Emma and talked it out with Tera and some good friends at work. There were a lot of tears shed during that time. Emotions ran high. I recently ran across that video (which I may post in the future) and I began to think about how I felt during that time. Tera and I wanted to have Emma with us so badly and our hearts cried out for her to be with us. We did not know what the Guatemalan government was going to do and we never knew what the next phone call would bring. But then the Lord in His mercy blessed us and allowed Emma to come home to us and for that we are forever grateful. Unfortunately the story doesn't end there. There are still many children waiting to come home and many families are waiting with hopeful hearts. Many families are going through what we went through and some are going through things much more difficult that what we had to deal with. For those in the know or who have been through or are currently in the process you know what I am talking about. The Hague is coming at the beginning of 2008 and with every passing day the news out of Guatemala is more and more uncertain and volatile. Many people are tirelessly working to make the adoption environment better for everyone involved, especially for the children. Please pray for the lawmakers in both the US and Guatemala. Pray for the families who are waiting for their little ones and especially for the many children waiting for the process to release them to their loving and awaiting families. Pray for their health, safety and protection. Please don't forget about the foster mothers and their families as well. God Bless you all.
J
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