First Snow

We had our first snow of the season this week. It moved in on Tuesday night and we woke up to a couple of inches on Wednesday and nearly a foot on Thursday. With it came very chilly temps (high's in the 30's and low's in the teens)! Here are a few pics from our October snowstorm:


Poor Lance had to trudge through the snow to the Shed because we weren't expecting so much snow and hadn't moved the shovel to its winter home-right by the front door ;)


I will be sick of the snow in no time, but it sure was pretty to look at.



The Rover was covered!

Some of My Favorites

This year for my mother-in-law, we decided to give her a year long Birthday present. So every month, each family sends her a themed scrapbook page. Her birthday was September 9th and we'll continue until next September. November's theme is "Favorite Bible Verse". Obviously, every part of the bible is equally important, but there are certain verses that touch our hearts at different times in our lives. I want to share some of the verses that I thought of when trying to decide on my November scrapbook page:

Matt 5:3-12
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Mark 9:23
Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

Psalm 118:24
This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Phil 4:13
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Heb 13:2
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Psalm 10:14
Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.

James 1:27
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

John 15:13
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Eph 4:32
And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

If you really listen to what the bible says, it's amazing how powerful the words can be.

I. Love. Him.

I have to share a cute little story from this week that is the reason why my husband is the best!! We went to the movies this past weekend and whenever we go to the movies, we like to buy Sour Patch Kids to share. He asked me which ones are my favorite, and I told him, "the yellow ones of course." We enjoyed the movie and as usual, had Sour Patch Kids left over to take home with us.
On Monday night, I had a ton of math homework and I was at the table working away trying to get it all done. At one point, I heard Lance come into the kitchen to get a snack and then he headed back to the living room where he had been relaxing. After a little while, he came into the dining room and proudly set the mostly empty bag of Sour Patch Kids in front of me. At first I just thought he was bringing me some sweets to make me feel better since I was feeling a bit overwhelmed at the time; but when I looked in the bag, I realized he had eaten all of the Sour Patch Kids...except for the yellow ones. I could tell he was so thrilled with himself that he had saved me the trouble of having to pick through the whole bag to find my favorites.
It's these little things that mean so much to me. Flowers and jewelry are great, but this came straight from the heart and reminded me why I love him!!

Adoption Update- Our first visit with the social worker is officially scheduled for next Wednesday. Lance will be out of town, so it will just be me meeting with her; but we each have to meet with her individually anyways, so it works out fine. Other than that, I'm still trying to finish up the last few little things that I wanted to have done and we are taking it as it comes.

Relieved...

I am relieved today because I mailed off our ENTIRE application packet to the agency in Colorado. This may not seem like a big deal, but you have to understand that this may have been the most complex and time consuming application I've ever filled out. We had to do everything from getting fingerprints and ordering extra copies of birth certificates, to filling out a financial statement and getting employment verifications signed by employers. In total, the application was 35 + pages!!
On Saturday, Lance finished building our new steps and they look so nice! He still has to add rails and then I have to paint them, but we are really close. It's a good thing too, because it is cooling off and I know our time for outdoor projects is almost up for this year.
Now, we wait until we hear from the Colorado agency and then we should be able to actually start our home-study.
I know we still have a lot of paperwork and red-tape to get through, but it will be more than worth it when we bring our baby home :)

Besides applying to adopt, we have been super busy trying to get caught up from our vacation. I worked extra before I left and after I got back so I didn't have my usual amount of time at home to get things taken care of. I got most of the "Mound-O-Laundry" washed on Saturday, but I will have to keep going with it on Friday (since I'll be at home all day) and I should be completely caught up then. We are also having Thanksgiving at our house this year so I have started thinking about that. I want to decorate and send out crafty invitations when it gets closer. Since we are doing the Dave Ramsey Budget, I have to do all of this without spending too much money. Luckily, I have quite a bit of scrap-booking supplies so I should be able to use that for a lot of the decorations.
I better get back to it since I still have A LOT to do today. I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

East Coast Trip

Last week we got to take a trip to Maryland to see my sister and her family and we made a little vacation out of it too. We spent a few nights in a condo in Ocean City, MD and spent the rest of the time at my sister's in Baltimore. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the trip:



Roqaya and I getting ready to head to Ocean City.



We had a birthday party for Karim and Roqaya. Karim is old enough now that he really gets it, which makes it so fun!



Getting ready for the 4-D show, nice glasses!!



Touring Washington, D.C.




Here we are in front of the condos we stayed in while we were in Ocean City.



She is such a doll!



He's just too cute for words!!





Karim thought it was so much fun for Uncle L to push him on his trike!!


We had a blast while we were there; now I just have to get caught up at home. I plan on tackling the giant laundry pile this weekend. I've been working hard all week to get caught up, but as usual, it takes a little while after being gone for a week. It was a lot warmer in Maryland, so when we came home, we had to adjust to the very fall-like weather. I guess summer is officially over.


As far as the adoption, we are waiting to hear if we are accepted and we should be starting our home-study soon. It seems like we have accomplished so much...but there is still a long way to go. I am still feeling surprisingly patient about the whole thing. I guess God really was teaching me patience with the infertility struggle. Sometimes we don't understand why we go through trials, but I know there is always a purpose.