Not a Coincidence.

We got some positive adoption news today that things are moving in a positive direction for us in Ethiopia. We've been waiting for some of this news for months and it feels refreshing; my smile is big.

Along with positive has come some negative. Our basement flooded. We're working on drying things out so we can assess the full damage. 

We believe in spiritual warfare. Know what spiritual warfare can mean? That we're getting closer. And we believe that. Despite the fact that one of these was flowing into our basement all night:

And now it looks like this:

With Nick doing a lot of this:

Filling up a lot of these:

We'll be pulling up the carpet once we've sucked as much water out as we can and praying everything can be salvaged.

Either way, I'm saying bring on the storm. It means we're moving in the right direction.

Blog?

Blog? What blog? We have a blog?! OH YES. Hi there. Thanks for joining us :) So here's what happens...I blog with semi-frequency, drop off, come back, apologize. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Here's the plan for the evening. I'm going to update you on two months of our lives in pictures. Then we'll call it good, good?

Aside from working all.the.time. Here's what we've been up to...

We celebrated my birthday!

Nick drove up to Estes to have lunch with me. We sat at the lake and watched the Elk.

We got married! Well, four years ago.

We're still just as excited :)

Love our wedding party

Duke went on a play date to visit his mom, Bella, and his brother, Uller.

Flowers from a tree in our backyard

Late Spring!

Ha.

I painted a flower pot purple

Nick did a LOT of hiking...I joined in when I was off work!

We made a special trip up in RMNP to check out the record 23 foot snow on Trail Ridge Road

RMNP May

More snow

Yes, I still take pictures of the wildlife

I live here! Well, not HERE. Close by.

Ralph came to visit Nick (and me, right?! :) )

Horsetooth Reservoir

Ralph and Nick's hike up to Emerald Lake

Friends for a LONG time

I made it up, too! Nick's dad and Bobbi came to visit

Devil's Backbone hike

Nick's mom came to visit...still need to include pics from our South Dakota trip!

The Clydesdales at Budweiser

Mount Evans above 14,000 feet

View from Mount Evans

Nick and my brother had the chance to check out a drag race in Denver

They were loud...and fast

Our landscaping got an overhaul! My mom came to visit and as a present, she re-did our entire yard

Still working on the edging

Love these flowers

Backyard flowers

Can't believe how much these have all grown!

Vegetable and herb garden

Still waiting on our oranges from the dwarf orange tree

We just finished Dave Ramsey's FPU course

...and now my wallet looks like this!

Nick's mom gave us a Groupon for Green Buffalo...we loved having fresh fruits and veggies delivered!

Delish

Colorful carrots!

AND here it is. Most of the toys we are selling at the Forever Trendy Consignment sale this weekend

Clothing for the consignment sale!

Had enough?! Me too! It's only taken me three days to upload all these pictures in between projects. Hopefully (?) I'll be updating more frequently! The only thing I have left is our trip to South Dakota!

We'll be spending the weekend at the Forever Trendy Kids Consignment Sale in the Greeley Mall. Come stop by our Just Love booth where we'll have t-shirts, Ethiopian scarves, Ethiopian coffee and cake pops by Colie's Cakes! Hope to see some of you!

beautiful things

This has been a hard month for me. We are working incredibly hard to move forward with the adoption, despite receiving bad news on what seems like a regular basis. I am sad, disappointed, angry and more sad. We haven't shared details of our adoption with many people. You should know that we know her. 

I met the child we are hoping to adopt back in 2009. I saw her again on our most recent trip. I have pictures of her. Pictures from 2009 that show a little toddler, happy and sweet but often unsure. I now have pictures from just four months ago. The toddler is now a little person; skinnier, taller. She has beautiful, long eyelashes and a smile that seriously lights up the room. Sitting in the orphanage one day, she was playing within my line of vision although in another room. I see her get pushed by another child and she goes face-first into one of the metal cribs. Aside from the shrill cry, she didn't move. I ran. I picked her up and comforted her. Every day I know a child I hope will be my daughter one day cries and there is likely nobody there to pick her up and tell her it will be okay. She is growing up in an orphanage and I cannot do anything about it. It sometimes feels like I am a mom, knowing my child is in danger and I am helpless. and hopeless. I pray often she feels a peace over her, that she somehow knows how much we love her. I hope she doesn't feel alone. I hope one day, she'll be sitting in my lap and I can tell her how much we cared from so far away.

Perhaps this process would be easier if we didn't know her. Sometimes, I wish we didn't. But she is so worth it.

This is my reality right now. Working hard, knowing that every hour is hopefully one small step closer. Praying hard, that God will move mountains. He can. I just pray it's His will.

I didn't know I could hurt this badly.

There is a song that has played on the radio almost every time I have been in the car recently. I sing it loud, and I mean the words. Everything feels like dust right now and I'm just praying He makes it beautiful.

All this pain
I wonder if I'll ever find my way
I wonder if my life could really change at all
All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found
Could a garden come up from this ground at all
 

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

All around
Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You

You make me new, You are making me new

.Gungor, Beautiful Things.