We Are Approved...

This past week we received the news that we are now certified to become adoptive parents. The approval process itself was an ordeal as we faced a family emergency with our caseworker, a cancelled approval meeting, a message that said that we could not be approved until May, another message that said that we could be approved with a letter from the State Board of Education, us calling everyone and their dog trying to get that letter, finally getting that letter, and then, on Wednesday, us finally getting the approval pending a background check that clears in late Apr/early May. Needless to say Shawn and I are very excited about this news. In fact, we want baby shopping this week in search of a crib, a travel system (car seat/stroller/hand warmer/phone all in one easy fold up package), and even some outfits and home decor. We also were able to watch conference with our family and hang out with our friends.

Happy Easter!

Last week was our Spring Break and we had the opportunity to go to Moab for a few days with my dad. We went to Arches National Park and hiked to Delicate Arch. It was amazingly perfect weather and it was so neat to see the beautiful miracles of nature!

We attended the 42nd Annual Easter Jeep Safari where my dad's new jeep took her "maiden voyage". I went to Moab every year for ten years before I went on my mission and it was so fun to share this tradition with Shawn. I think I love to go so much because my dad's eyes light up and he is in the mecca of things that are "cool" to him. I personally love to be out in nature and see the incredible landscape. This was a fun adventure to experience this year with my husband and my step mom who are both new to "jeeping" and Moab.

One of our dear friends offered to take our picture for our adoption collage, profile, and this blog. Here are some of them.

I am trying to act nonchalante about the fact that I am falling off of the fence!

These would be our oh so matching Lady Mustangs sweatshirts!

I am grateful for friends!

"Devil Books"

My husband affectionately calls any book that I pick up to read a "Devil Book". In the beginning, it made sense. I had started reading Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and it was a page-turner. (Vampires, werewolves, etc. all fall under my "scary" category and are therefore appropriately linked to the Devil who is also "scary") However, in the past few weeks, that title has been given to a series of other books. Perhaps it is due to my intensity. I have a hard time starting a book and then picking at it here and there. I would rather devour the book, even if it meant rereading for full comprehension, thus resulting in a lack of attention towards my husband. I have read five books in the past five weeks and I am embarrassed to say that I have loved every minute of it. I am not ashamed of reading (I am an English teacher :), but I feel extremely guilty for not using my time more wisely doing something else. Emily Dickinson once wrote "There is no frigate like a book to take you lands away, nor any coursers like a page of prancing poetry." I heartily agree with her. I have needed to escape reality or internally combust and, thanks to a few books, I am here, happier, and hopefully more sane. Yes...reading is therapeutic. I had forgotten that fact as a college student.
I am on this young adult lit kick and have read a couple of books by Eva Ibbotsen and a couple by Shannon Hale. The book that I just finished reading was not the best book of the several that I have just read, but it was one of those that made me laugh out loud. It was Austenland by Shannon Hale and it had all of these funny references to Jane Austen stories, characters, and actors who have portrayed Austen characters. Bless Jane Austen's guts for creating such wonderful stories that girls fantacize about, English students analyze in their critical methods courses, and authors allude to or just outright reference. I love it!

Oh YEAH!!!!

So, today, I got up at a resonable time. I got ready for work, ate breakfast, and picked up my stuff to head out the door for work. I saw that I had two voicemails on my phone and deliberated whether or not to listen to them at home or at work. (Work is two minutes away.) I decided to listen to them on my way to work. As I am walking out the door (the door was actually open) I heard the sweet voice of our secretary telling me that our school district has shut down all of the schools for a snow day. YIPPEEEEEE!!! I HAVE NEVER HAD A SNOW DAY!!!! I'VE ALWAYS WANTED A SNOW DAY!!!! Too bad Shawn is in Richfield for the 1A State Tournament for girls' basketball, we would totally go outside and play. (We REALLY love the snow.) Happy Valentines Day to me! I am going to read books and watch movies all day!

Sports Junkies

My first hockey game...go Avs! (Christmas 2006)

BYU Baseball Spring 2007

Phillies Baseball at...

Citizens Bank Park, PA this summer.

Denver University Hockey vs. Sacred Heart over Christmas break

Let's just say that if it has anything to do with a sport, Shawn digs it! Baseball is his weakness though. His goal is to visit every major league baseball park in the U.S. (as well as every state). Here we come!

Adoption Gives Me Hope

We are getting into the intense paperwork required for approval at LDSFS and it has been a week full of a roller coaster of emotion. We have so much to do and I wish that I could just call in sick to work and finish it all in two days, but some things require time. What first seemed like torture, has become an opportunity to really ponder. I am so grateful for adoption! I am grateful for people who have a testimony of adoption.
Before we found out that we were sterile, we had a very difficult two years. Every month we dreamed, longed, and ached, and those feelings intensified with time. When the doctor gave us the news, we were stunned. I was so upset that I cried and cried for days. I was mourning the death of a dream that was so much a part of me, I never considered my life or my role as a mother as anything different. My concept of motherhood only included me bearing our biological children with Shawn's beautiful dark eyes and my stunningly peaked lips. Although I still sometimes mourn the loss of the opportunity to bear biological children, I have a different dream, a different concept of motherhood, and I am so excited. I am not so worried about our children looking like us, as I am for the opportunity to be their mom. I don't dream of positive pregnancy tests or maternity clothes anymore, I dream of phone calls and pray for birth parents who, I know, are making such difficult decisions. Adoption was never the path through which I ever imagined I would become a mother, but now that I know it is my path, I am ecstatic. Adoption gives me hope!