I Heart Adoption

I just want to give a huge shout out to Mrs. R (therhouse.blogspot.com) for coming all the way out here to give a presentation on adoption. Our students had nothing but really positive things to say about the presentation and I know (as per a few conversations) that Mrs. R brought up some issues that our students had never thought about.

Thank you for being such an amazing adoption advocate!

I'm Letting Go...

I'm letting go of my fear of people's thoughts and opinions concerning me.

I can't take the worry anymore and I really can't change what they think of me -positive or negative. I'm letting go of the selfishness that leads to such contemplations. Why has it taken this long?

I'm letting go of things that don't inspire, uplift, and edify me.

It is so easy to allow for mediocrity. It is so easy to not fight against the junk that the adversary is throwing at us to destroy our families, our standards, and our happiness. It is so easy to be apathetic when the world is teaching us that darkness is just easier to gather than holding on to the light of things that are just, good, and true.

I'm holding on to my love of Heavenly Father and my faith in Jesus Christ.

I'm holding on to the hope that comes through faith in those who love me more than I will ever know and the knowledge that they, undoubtedly, know everything about me and about what is to come. I'm letting go of the doubt and holding on to the promise that if I do what I have been asked to do, He will take care of the desires that are so dear to my heart. I'm holding on to the very real knowledge that I can change-I can be better-more loving-more kind-more compassionate-more pure-because Christ has made it so.

I'm holding on to my marriage- my best friend, my companion, my example, my love, my husband.

Too many marriages are falling apart and I am committed to not let that happen. I'm holding on to better communication and more positive encouragement and support. I'm holding on to compromise and fireworks. I'm holding on to the achiness I feel when we are only apart for a night- I love him so much.

I'm holding on to love.

I want the excess space that has just opened up (by letting go) to be filled with more love and service for people in my circle of influence. I want to be more compassionate to those whose opinion I once feared-to love those who I too often criticize. I'm holding on to showing more love and working harder at maintaining relationships with my family. I'm holding on to being the kind of person who others can feel safe and loved around.

I'm letting go so that I can open my life more fully to the things that are worth holding on to.

School Days...

Well, summer is officially over. The last week we spent Monday-Wednesday preparing our classrooms and lesson plans, and on Thursday school began. Even though I have been doing this for a couple of years, I still get nervous on the first day. I wasn't sure how I would feel but I am rejuvenated seeing how the students have matured and are ready for this new change. We have very capable teachers on our staff so we will be a nicely functioning group. Our principal is a great example for the students and she is present- she is always in our classrooms, in the hall, etc. Knowing that, the students behave much better than they would normally.
During the summer I asked to be released from my responsibility as cheerleading advisor and asked to be the student council advisor. I have been stressed about how I would be able to be a mom (since we have no idea when that will happen) and take care of my school responsibilities. As much as I enjoy the whole idea of cheerleading building school spirit, I struggle with the fight of keeping the program growing with girls who have a desire to be the representatives that they need to be. I am sad to let the program go, but I can see how it is a good decision for us and our family that we will hopefully become.
I love being the student council advisor and it won't take so much time outside of school. I have great SBOs with great ideas and I think that they will be really great at building school spirit as they are super examples and well liked by the student body. I am excited for this new year. I feel that everything is falling into place-I hope that it is because we will be parents soon, but maybe it is because of the church responsibility that I have just accepted. We will see. God will take care of us- we have seen how He already has and have faith that He always will.

Delaware

Who knew such a tiny state would be so important to this Utah girl? We had the opportunity to visit with Shawn's family during the first week of August. We started off in Bethany where Grandma and Grandpa rented a beach house. We were able to spend time with all of Shawn's mom's family. It was so nice to be together and to get to know his aunts and grandparents better.

We had perfect weather at the beach and we swam and played all day long. We also took grandpa on a pontoon boat ride on the Little Assawoman bay. He drove for half of the trip and had a constant smile on his face. It was so nice to see him happy.


This picture is the whole crew. We had so much fun together!












Shawn took me to the Rehoboth boardwalk where he spent many summers playing boardwalk games, eating boardwalk fries, and funnel cake. His favorite game is the horse racey game (he likes it so much that I already knew all about it before we ever went to Delaware) and -let's just say -we blew a few dollars in that little space!
When we left the beach house, we were able to go and visit some aunts, uncles and cousins on Shawn's dad's side. We went out for Maryland Blue Crabs with Shawn's other grandparents. I hope they have crab in heaven. I sure love it! We had a good long discussion about Shawn's geneology and hopefully we can find more of his ancestors as we take advantage of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. I also saw some of Shawn's baby pictures for the first time. Boy he was cute-still is-but he was really cute as a baby.
The last day of our trip we visited our great grandma who has recently moved to a masonic home in Pennsylvania. She is 99 years old and you would never guess it! She showed us all of the neat features of her new home and she seems very happy. She is an amazing woman who has experienced so much in her life but still is very optimistic and full of faith. We will go back to Delaware in May for her 100th birthday-can't wait!

Thanks to everyone for such a great vacation!

Summer Sleepover

Oh...I wish I had the pictures! While I was in high school I did annual tea parties and sleepovers with my nieces and nephews. We had a great time! Since we've gotten married, we have been taking school or teaching school during the summer. We decided we didn't want to let another summer pass without our party, so we had a sleepover. We started off with some take-n-bake pizza, we projected Penelope on the side of the house (a true theater experience;) and ate candy until we were sick. We all slept on the floor at my brother's house-slept? I don't know that we all slept that well-but we had a wonderful time laughing and giggling. In the morning we woke up to a yummy breakfast and then went home. I cherish the times when I can be a kid with my nieces and nephews- except when I get them in trouble for some misbehavior that I started. Shawn just rolls his eyes and shakes his head, but, secretly, I think he likes that about me!

Denver

I have been super slacking as a blogger but I will try and redeem myself! We spent ten days in Denver with Shawn's parents over the 4th of July holiday (see -16 post). It was so nice to be with his parents and just have those moments to listen to their wisdom and advice- as well as play with them!

Shawn and I went to the Air Force Academy and Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. There is a beautiful chapel on post with stained glass windows that cast their beautiful colors inside the room. We were also able to see some of the academy students march by us- we were hoping that one of our seniors from last year would pass us but it was impossible to pick her out because they all look the same. Hopefully she could feel our support from the sidelines :)



I am trying to learn how to golf, but I am finding that the bigger challenge is to learn to be patient and love to golf. I don't know if I can do it. We golfed at a par 3 which was much better than our par 9 million on base, but I'm not sure that the fire has been sparked within. I will give it another shot before I completely cast it off.





We, of course, went to a Rockies game and had a wonderful time. Shawn's parents bought season tickets and have some super sweet seats. Shawn was in heaven! Shawn also went to a game just with his dad and I got to go shopping with his mom. It was lovely.

We had a great time in Denver. Thanks Mom and Dad!

We are on Adoption.com!

We have listed our adoption profile on a site called parentprofiles.com that is affiliated with adoption.com. If you want to visit our profile, go to www.parentprofiles.com and type in our ID# which is 22974.