Prayer request and the year to come...

On a very sad note one of Tera's uncles unexpectedly passed away over the weekend. Please pray for the family during this very difficult time.

Well this is my last post for 2007. What a year it has been. Our lives have changed drastically in so many ways. Many prayers have been answered and memories have been made. Our dearest blessing Emma came home and we couldn't be more overjoyed. This has been a year of many many firsts. I pray and put my hope in God that 2008 will be just as awesome. Please continue to pray for the children of Guatemala and the adoption process. Please keep in mind that there are many families still in process that may have a little bit of a bumpy road ahead of them. I hope and pray that the process will go better than expected. I pray for Emma's health and that it continues to improve and that our family will be brought together even closer. Have a wonderful New Years celebration!!! God Bless.

Constructing a new kitchen

My sister in law and her husband bought a play kitchen for Emma. It looks good on the box cover. We've been a bit busy with Christmas and all and I admit that I have been procrastinating putting it together. So at 2:45 this morning I decided to assemble the kitchen. "Assemble" is not the word I should use. It should actually be "manufacture". There is not one piece to this kitchen that does not have to be snapped away from its original mold frame. It took me well over an hour just to break away the door pieces and put them together before I could even start attaching them to main frame of the kitchen. Every knob, dish and utensil has to be broken away from its mold and most likely have its sharp edges filed down so Emma doesn't hurt her delicate skin. I did get most of the harder stuff done and the rest should not be too difficult to put together. After all of the filing and snapping it should be pretty nice. So if you are looking to put something together that will make you go crazy I suggest this toy for the little one in your life. In my ideal world it will look like this sometime today:
Pretty nice huh? I thought so. I am beginning to think that this kitchen will take longer to put together than my actual kitchen remodel a few years back. Well, not that bad. Don't get me wrong, I like putting Emma's toys together. Just not ones that are "All Assembly Required" as opposed to "Some Assembly Required".

My Christmas post...finally

Well, here we are. A belated Merry Christmas!!! The days leading up to today have been so busy but very fun. Last Christmas Tera and I frequently talked about what it would be like when Emma would be home with us. And now she is here. The family get togethers have been so great. On Saturday we went out to a really awesome greek restaurant that my dad picked out. Both Tera and I had the leg of lamb which was awesome and Emma had Yo-baby, bread and some banana. On Sunday we had a Christmas party with my mother-in-laws side of the family which I look forward to every year. Tera’s Aunt Bonnie flew in from Seattle to visit for Christmas and this was the first time that she has seen Emma. We had a snow storm accompanied with high winds that day which made driving conditions terrible but it added a new fresh layer of white snow to make it a lock for a white Christmas. Christmas Eve was the annual Christmas party on my father in laws side of the family. This get together is usually the largest of the season. We had a great time and Emma had a ball visiting with all of the cousins and relatives. They have been so kind to us over the past year while Tera and I worked on bringing Emma home. It made for a really nice evening. Emma did get to stay up pretty late and though she was really tired she remained a trooper (good spirits and all). On Christmas day we went to Tera’s parents to get together with them, her brother and her sisters family. The day was pretty relaxing and Emma thoroughly enjoyed her new personalized stuffed chair. She will crawl on top of it and put her dolls onto it but she won’t sit on it yet. Emma and her cousins played while the rest of us relaxed and enjoyed each others company. So here I am today. With Christmas and Thanksgiving behind me I am left with memories which will stay with me forever. Like I mentioned earlier Tera and I spoke of these days and what it would be like to spend them with Emma. We would speak to each other with a distant look in our eyes as if to barely touch what we longed for in our hearts for so many years. On this morning I feel truly grateful and blessed to have the family that I have been given.
The other night while at the Christmas Eve party we were all asked what we were thankful for. Being that I went second I didn’t have a lot of time to reflect so my answer was pretty short. So now that I have time to think about it I will elaborate. I am thankful that God has blessed Tera and I with Emma Grace Esperanza. I cannot in my wildest dreams imagine that this beautiful gift would be in our lives. I am honored to be her daddy. I am thankful for my hot mama bride of almost 12 years. She is my better half and the EVER patient love of my life. I would not be who I am today without her. I am thankful for the family that I married into and the extended family that is attached to them. Through our many years of marriage and recent expansion of our family they have always been very supportive and made me feel at home with their kindness. I am thankful for my parents and sister and their unconditional love and all the fun memories from over the many years. I am thankful for my grandmother in North Carolina who I miss so much, there are childhood memories that I have of her that I will not forget.. And most of all I am thankful that God sent His only Son to walk among men but for a short time. We are an undeserving people but God out of His never ending perfect love, mercy, grace and kindness gave us Jesus Christ so that through His prophesied birth and crucifxion we might be rescued from the law and by accepting His Son and repenting of our sins we would be saved. Without this there would be no hope and all would be in vain. The ultimate and perfect gift. Merry CHRISTmas.

uggh...

Things are a bit rough for me right now. In more ways than one. Work etc. stuff like that. I haven't posted in quite a while because I haven't made the time. It's hard. I have a lot to say but when I sit down all I hear is white noise plus my mouth doesn't translate onto the keyboard very well. I will plan on posting a sometime right before Christmas. Thanks for reading.

Quickie post...

If you read this blog I apologize for not posting. I normally would post on my day off but I either fall asleep or fail to make time. I'm not a very good writer/blogger so when I start a new post my mind goes blank and can't think of anything to write about or I am unable to translate the past weeks going-ons. So this attempt will be a rambling of thoughts without organization and maybe my next post will be an earnest attempt at "getting it together".

December is here. We have had two coatings of snow which will make a nice White Christmas. Tera and I are excited beyond words to have our first Christmas with Emma. This will be a Christmas to remember for sure. We feels so blessed to have her home with us. She gets cuter by the day and she has me wrapped around her finger big time. Emma has her third tooth coming in and another coming right behind it which is affecting the consistency of her sleep patterns.

The myriad of adoption issues in Guatemala continue to churn. So much politics is at play here and it disgusts me to no end that the ones who will be poorly affected by all of this will be the children of Guatemala. Please continue to pray and support those who advocate for the welfare of the children.

I think that's it for now. I will hopefully post some new pics soon and have something cool to write about.

J