Tricia would be proud...

I have eaten 3 chocolate cupcakes today and I won't say how many I have had this week. All thanks to Tera's brother who has been on a baking kick the last couple of weeks. I need to go on a diet.

Today is February 7th...

I'm at Panera waiting for my vehicle to get it's oil changed. It's a balmy 25 degrees outside but it does look like we will be heading into another deep freeze this weekend with our low somewhere in the -15 degree range. Lovely Minnesota.
It has been mighty busy on the Emma front this week. She has begun to stack her blocks which is a joy to watch. Her speech has excelled as well. For example, when we say "Ready, Set...." she says "GO!" or actually more like "GDAHH!!!" but she does say "GDAHH" right on time. Also she says "Hi Daddy/ Papa". Aaand...when I ask where my ear is she finds it and then yanks on it till I say ouch. Oh Emma, that's my girl.
Changing gears, Recently our friends Tricia and family http://ourguatemalanbaby.blogspot.com have sponsored a child in Panajachel, Guatemala. This sponsorship enables her to have the needed supplies to attend school. Tera, Emma and I have also chosen to sponsor Caterina Debora. This is her picture:
Since adopting Emma we have an obvious heartfelt connection with the people and culture of Guatemala. We hope that organizations like Mayan Families http://mayanfamilies.org/ will be able to continue programs like these so that the people of Guatemala will have a better quality of life. Please consider sponsoring a child through Mayan Families. The resources that we provide on our end will provide so much for them in the long run. Visit their website at http://mayanfamilies.org/ and take a look at the work they are doing in Guatemala and consider donating or sponsoring a child.

Goodbye Nemo...

This is a picture of my clownfish hanging out in his Long Tentacle Anemone. He "moved on" this week. His name wasn't actually Nemo. It didn't have a name. I have a hard time naming fish. Dogs and cats I get but fish, no. Fish have cool scientific names which are way more fun to say. This clownfish was an Amphiprion Percula or "False Percula". Isn't that way more fun than saying Kent or Leon? I know there are those out there who don't like the idea of "harvesting the ocean" for a hobbies sake. Don't fret he was tank raised and did not come from the wild as many of the corals and other fish that we owned over the years. The industry is getting much better about the preservation of the world's reefs. Off hand I can't tell you how long I had him but I know it was more than 5 years. He was part of a more elaborate reef tank before we moved into our house.
I have to geek out for a second. Saltwater aquariums rule. I love to maintain them and they are a ton of fun once you know what you are doing. But they can be really expensive too. Tera and I loved this hobby but it takes time and money. Since moving to our house things like home improvements and the adoption of sweet little Emma we decided put out interest in reef tanks aside. No biggie, when time allows I will get back into it again. So this week we say "So long little guy".

A reluctant post

I have recently struggled with maintaining this blog. It seems like a good idea most of the time but when sit down to begin typing I begin to breath through my mouth while staring off into a far away place made of marshmallow creme and fruit flavored candy. I need some sort of structure or means of deciding "this is what I will talk about this week". Maybe I'll just talk about what's going on lately.

This week we had our basement ceiling sprayed so it's pretty much ready for the flooring and paint. Tera hasn't picked out the carpet color quite yet so I can't say what color it'll be. We started to work on our basement refinish a while ago and Tera's uncle John has been nice enough to help with the drywall mudding and sanding as well as spraying our ceiling. I owe him big time. He's been a huge help.
I finally finished a video project that I have been working on for two weeks. I must admit that this thing drove me nuts. I knew what I was doing but I constantly ran into Windows Vista issues. Either we need to go back to XP or I need to start selling plasma or something so we can get a Mac. Either way, it's done and I am thankful.
This week was the coldest it has gotten so far this winter. I like it. It's what makes Minnesota Minnesota. Now if we could get some more snow. I think the lows here in Minneapolis were around -15 and Saturday's high was -5. Nice.
Emma continues to be the cutest baby girl ever. This includes earlier this week when she pulled the laptop to the floor thus causing the keyboard to permanently malfunction. Hello, Geek Squad? She now as her two bottom teeth and her two top ones in now. It is weird to see her with teeth after seeing her without them for so long. It just adds to the cuteness. Also, she is beginning to pick up on new words and her verbal communication seems to have more organization.
I have been thinking about Guatemala every day now. It's pretty ridiculous. Plus, as I am typing this the Discovery Channel is showing an Adoption Stories episode that features Guatemala and showed the Westin inside and out. Mmmmm...Breakfast buffet at the El Cafetal. This week on Dateline NBC they featured an expose' on Guatemala and it's adoption system. I have yet to watch it but much has been said about the show many of the adoption sites. Head to www.guatadopt.com for more info on that. Hopefully I will see it this week.
Well, I think that'll be it for now. Thanks for reading. Drop me a line or shoot me an idea of something you think I should talk about.

J

The long and winding road

Today is special for a couple of reasons. First and foremost our friend Cheri and her daughter Eliana hve finally gotten OUT of PGN!!! Now for those who don't know who these people are I will ask that you go to www.sunflowersandladybugs.com and start from the beginning. It is well worth the read. They have been in PGN for over a year with the ever present uncertainty of the current state of the Guatemalan adoption system. Emma was in PGN for maybe a couple of months and that seemed like a mini eternity. I cannot imagine what it would be like to be in PGN for over a year. Her blog is one of the few sites that I visit on a daily basis. Second, PGN in Guatemala announced the establishment of the Central Authority in Guatemala City. This is a huge step for the way adoptions will be handled in the past and more importantly it will be where in process families will be registered so that they may continue on through the process. That's all for now. See you.

Breaking new ground!

Woo-Hoo!!! I have had (technically) over 1000 visitors. I think that I constitute 1/3 of those visits. It's silly I know since it took me pass up this landmark in how many months? Anyhoo, I hope that all my tens of readers have a great day!
Later,
Jason

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.