Weekend Update with Jess

Looking forward in my planner earlier last week, I knew this weekend was going to be busy. Full. The kind I like and still have to take a deep breath to get through.

So while I should be writing a letter today, I think I'll wait. Today I'll share my weekend.

f.r.i.d.a.y.

So Friday was work as usual but at the end of the day, I headed south a few miles to hang out with high school students. High school students? Yup. There's a retreat called Happening that really impacted my teenage years and helped me form a love for Jesus. When I was asked if I could help, I heartily agreed. I didn't realize at the time how packed my weekend already was. So what was meant to be a full weekend of assistance turned into an evening instead. I helped arrange things, purchased supplies, and got to know, and pray with, the staff.  As I was wrapping up my time with them, I was headed to chat with a friend before leaving.

Here's the thing about this retreat: there are some things they keep "secret" throughout the weekend until they are unpacked. In order to keep them a secret, they hang sheets in certain places in the host church to hide things going on on the other side. Harmless, right? Fun? Yes.

Unless, on the other side of that sheet, a 17 year old boy has decided to run, full speed, into the sheet without knowing what's on the other side.

And what, exactly, was on the other side?   You guessed it.

Me.

Before I knew what had happened, this kid smashed smack dab into me.  I spun, my glasses went flying, and both of us landed in sorry heaps on the floor across from each other.

When the retreat coordinator heard the smack and the groaning she came through the sheet to see what had happened and found us both in the fetal position.  She asked me how I was and all I could say (and think) was, "I can't tell you until I know where my glasses are. Where are my glasses?"  She led me to them and I placed them on my watering eyes.  We assessed the damage. Poor teenager had a bloody nose and a bruise that looked like a black eye. I had (and have) a very sore chin, along with a bruised foot and some back pain. The best I can explain it, it felt like my body was in a car crash. Only there was no car.  I iced my chin, made sure the kid (who "just so happened to be wearing a kU shirt--I am convinced he knew there was a Mizzou fan on the other side) was ok, and wrapped up my work to head home.

So that was Friday:).

s.a.t.u.r.d.a.y.

On Saturday, my one and only goal was to run 20 miles. I mean, I had other goals but I knew (because of an unsuccessful attempt three weeks ago) this 20 mile thing was going to be quite the task.  What I didn't account for was the super warm weather. So Hubs and I popped out of bed at 7:30, grabbed some breakfast, and were on the run by a little before 9. Yes, it was late. But we never sleep in so we were thankful to have a chance to do so.

I wish I could tell you I rocked that run, that all was awesome, that we finished in record time, and I went on to finish my to-do list that day. Alas, it was a little less awesome and a little more, "wow I am still alive."  See, we took in so much water that I became a little wonky. There's an official word for it, I hear. It's called hyponatremia.  Basically, my body had enough water, per se, but it for sure did not have enough electrolytes. Or food. So, while I finished 20 miles successfully (after some walking and a lot of praying and positive self talk), shortly after that finishing, I had to ask another dear friend, who happens to date my brother, to come pick us up off the trail.  That would be fine. It would have been a story but not too crazy.

No, the crazy part happened when I got home. I went to drink water and, well, there's no dainty way to say it didn't stay down. No, in fact, it stayed on the floor (I didn't tell the hubs fast enough I might need a trash can). Yeah, four hours later, I still couldn't keep anything down. So I did what any good 29 year old woman would do.  I asked my husband to get me noodle soup and gatorade and I called my mommy.  It does help that mommy is a nurse:).

Mom said this was the last try. If this didn't work I would have to get an IV to fix my fluids. This did not sound like a good plan, for so many reasons. Lucky for me, when Hubs got home with the gatorade and soup, it did the trick.  Hooray!  It worked so well, I was able to make it to Old Navy's outwear sale. Can we say Mizzou Gold trench coat? We can.

So yes, I am fine. But it was rough. And we are re-working the idea of race-day nutrition. I am 3 weeks out.  If you have any suggestions, I am all ears. Seriously. The big plan right now is real food. Not beans or gel or stingers but food. Pretzels, potatoes, beef jerky, PBJ. I am going to try a snack pack and hopefully less sugar and more salt and carbs will help me finish. Because, darn it, I so badly want to finish.

If you don't have suggestions, will you just say a quick prayer that God will sustain my body through 26.2 miles on December 1? I want to finish this time. Then maybe next time we can work on the mechanics of it all.

s.u.n.d.a.y.

So Sunday. Well, Sunday is a work day. It was a beautiful work day. Lots of kids. A sermon that reminded me of the goodness of our God.  And then, my very favorite thing that happens in a church (I really think).  We had a baptism service. Sweet friends from 7 weeks to friends in their twenties were washed symbolically with the water. We celebrated God's covenant promise.  We celebrated Jesus.  And we celebrated family and community. I cried for the entire service.  Grace. Water. Overflowing. Mingled. Beautiful redemption.  It's moving, each and every time I watch it.

This time in particular, one of our dear friends who adopted from Ethiopia baptized their sweet one.  We celebrated with her family after the service and it was one of those moments where beauty and celebration and pain and longing all sit and impregnate a room.  All mixed.  I mean, a year ago, our sweet friend wasn't here in this country. And here she is, gold sparkly bows in her hair. A room full of family and friends who are celebrating her dedication to the Lord.

And yet, it made me acutely aware of the hole I try to avoid. The little man. The one I talk so much about but rarely feel with all his force, for the pain it causes.  I want him here. I wanted him to be in the room. Or at least next year. I want it to be his baptism. And still, it's very unlikely he'll be around next year, or the year after that. Maybe even the next. It's a long, hard road.

How timely that at small group that night, friends who love us well in Jesus arrived with a celebration of one year of our waiting. What a surprise as they arrived with cake and Ethiopian side dishes and a card filled with the most beautiful words about our family and our adoption. Delicious. Satisfaction for the body and the soul. I cried. And smiled. And was so thankful for friends who carry us when this journey seems like it's unending.

Here's the cake:

(it says "Congratulations Eric and Jess! Waiting for our little Man. One year DTE")

Ethiopian Sambusas

Not pictured: crepes that were a stand-in for injera, the most difficult Ethiopian food to replicate (in my opinion). The crepes were amazing!!

It was a great night. We finished off with Bible study and prayer and thankfulness for our friends.

So yes, see why I needed a weekend update? 

Bottom line: we long for that little man but our life is so full and so blessed by the Lord.

I hope your weekend was beautiful.  Off to make dinner...

1 Month DTE

 Today marks one month of officially "waiting" for our son. It's funny. We've been waiting, in our eyes, for years. Yet, today marks the official one month on the waiting list.  In some ways this month has gone fast--we've kept super busy. We've gotten tons done. Thanksgiving took a week in and of itself. In other ways, it makes me understand how 20-30 more of these waiting segments could really grate on a family. We don't know how long we have. But we do know a month is in the books and we give thanks to the Lord for giving us patience and faith in this time.

Ever since we started, I knew I wanted to do a paper chain to count off the months of our wait. I've actually been waiting for the past week or so, excitedly wanting to make the first link in our chain. And today I got the chance.  Here it is, friends:

Front side: date and how many months it commemorates (this one is in the Christmas tree to reflect the season)

Inside layer: I decided to place a Bible verse on the inside to remind us of the promises in God's word on our wait. So here's our first one, a super favorite of mine.

Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight."

Yes, we will need to call upon this many times in our wait. I can already tell.

I made it into a chain (kind of lousy chain at this point with only one ring) and put it in Little IC's** room, to commemorate the first month we waited for him.

As God would have it, we "just so happened" to get a gift from some friends today. You can call it a Christmas gift, if you want, but I shall call it our one-month DTE gift. Our awesome small group friend Jenna had been plotting to surprise me with this for a while. The suspense got to her and she told me about it a few weeks ago at a crafting party. To see it was something totally different, though, and at our Christmas dinner tonight, she and her husband presented it to us.

What is it? It is a word cloud, made of all the most-used words on my blog. The bigger the word, the more prominent of a theme it is in my blog writings. How cool!! Jenna also happened to know I needed one more piece of art for the IC's room. Sneaky, Jenna. Very sneaky. E and I couldn't love it more. Here it is in the room:

We may or may not have purchased our own one month DTE/ Christmas gift for the IC this weekend. I'm actually going to save it for tomorrow's post so it can be a surprise for the letter. You know, it is his present. He should get to hear about it first. And yes, I know the IC can't read these letters yet. But it's the principle of the matter.

I am headed to sleep. There are plenty of things to catch up on, but we happen to have a foster puppy (ahh yes, one thing that needs a post) that keeps things lively at night here so I am going to try and get sleep while I can.

Happy one month DTE to us! Here's to many, many (maybe one more many) more.

What Happened Last Week?

  When we sent our paperwork off last week, we knew we would have most likely get the official "our paperwork is on a plane to Ethiopia" email on Friday. We could have sat all week pondering whether or not we would get the "all clear" email from our agency. But instead, we stayed super busy.  In these ways (yes this is a lame way of giving you a weekend recap):

Monday/ Tuesday were spent chillaxin (yes, I said that) at home. I have been perfecting the art of pressure cooker meals and we had some good ones this week.  If you haven't been on the Crockin Girls site, you are missing out. And if you have a good recipe for your slow cooker, tell me or I'm missing out. So far, we've tried sausage soups, bloody mary chicken, barbecue chicken sandwiches, beef stew and a delicious taco soup. Can you tell I've been in a soup mood? Tomorrow it's buffalo chicken soup. Mmmm. But seriously, got a good pressure cooker recipe? Send it my way or we're not friends.

Wednesday concluded our semester with the 4th graders.  It was bittersweet for sure. I've loved spending time with them, but God made sure they were all kinds of wound up so I would also remember that rest is good.  I have learned so much in this semester and I hope the kids have learned a little, too.  We trekked through the book of Mark, sure, but I also learned about how to keep things sane in a room of nine and ten year olds. I learned that letting them do popcorn prayer blesses me in a way I never imagined.  And I learned (or re-remembered) that being in fourth grade is hard, too.  All those things we deal with as adults? They deal with them, too. But they don't have our "seasoning" to make them calloused.  Cancer, war, divorce? We tackled all those subjects. I am not a pro on any of them but seeing their hearts impassioned for the kind of justice I, too, crave really made me remember how much we all have in common.

Thursday was all kinds of awesome. If you don't have yourself some good girl friends that can share life with you and make you laugh, sister, get on that STAT. Unless you are a boy. In which case, well, thanks for reading my blog. And find some guy friends, will ya? I digress. Anyway, I am blessed to have several groups of women who bless me in different ways. And on Thursday, I faked several of them out by convincing them I am crafty. Yes, I started two different crafts. Please do not ask me how many I completed. I am not able to share that privileged information. I will show you one in action though. Behold:

Yup, that's a wreath. And I started it. You are welcome for that knowledge. But really, the crafting was fun and inspiring but the conversation was about more than this weepy girl can handle. I laughed. I cried. I laughed til I cried. And when I think I had officially tired out the women (but not finished a single craft--whoops! I let it slip!) I headed back home to the adorbs hubs.

We were on pins and needles Friday because we were told this could be our "date." You know, the date that will define the rest of our adoption.  Our DTE date (dossier to Ethiopia).  I figured we would have to know around noon. So at one, I called to see if something was wrong with our dossier they just hadn't told us about.  The voice on the other end told me not to worry.  But then 4 came (that's 5 agency time--they are east coast) and we heard nothing.  I assumed the worst. Something was wrong and we weren't DTE like I thought we'd be.  Five passed. I was resigned it would be a week or two, depending on their Thanksgiving plans.  Then, at 6:30 we officially got the email: we are DTE. Our package will technically ship Tuesday because of the holiday, but our date is 11/18/11.  Fun times.  We then got to move forward with the fun we had planned for that evening: we went to the Missouri Contemporary Ballet! It was delightful and fascinating and for one second, I felt kind of grown up and proper. If you haven't been to a contemporary ballet production, take thyself. Or thy neighbor. It made me thankful for all the artistic talent in this smallish town.

I know this is getting long. This is what happens when I don't blog for a week.  I will do my best to give you pictures of the rest.  Final game at home. Sad game with no coach. I don't want to talk about it. It's over. And we won!!  Here is my brother, being one part cowboy, one part fan.

And then there's this guy.  He's growing a beard. Again, ladies, he's all mine. You are welcome for the reminder.

I will post about our Sunday adventure at another juncture. It's Christmas related so I may postpone it.

Happy Monday! I hope you are as excited as I am for this short week:).

Weekend Past, Weekend Present

  I planned to post a recap of last weekend but I ended up having a ton of great, adoption-related stuff to post about instead.  So, you're getting a twofer. First up...the weekend of celebrations.

Last weekend everyone we knew was celebrating a baby or a wedding. I am learning to set boundaries in life (thank you Drs. Cloud and Townsend) so instead of trying to attend four events, Hubs and I decided to go for two out of four.  

But first, because we are both crazy and the St. Jude half marathon is coming up and we're raising money for the second year, we went for an 8.5 mile run.  By the time we got to my BFF's engagement announcement brunch, the day had already been in full force for several hours. I also thought it might be possible for me to eat ALL EDIBLE THINGS at the brunch. Still, it was lovely and kicked off what is sure to be an exciting and busy engagement time for my friend.  We're already scheming all things bachelorette and I am looking forward to being the co MOH for the first time in my life.  I would love to show you pictures of this blessed event but I was too busy chatting it up and eating, eating, and more eating to take pics.

Just as things were slowing down, Hubs and I headed off to the next event...I actually did take pictures of this one.  Hubs' coworker and our neighbors wed.  Here, the ceremony.

And then, the reception. It was incredibly beautiful but a little cold.  Thus, I had to put on my stocking cap. And then, as ladies know, I couldn't take it off the rest of the evening. I mean, the hair had officially been ruined.  Here is the evidence that I wore a stocking cap for the entirety of the wedding and reception.

Hubs didn't have a hat but he did look quite dashing in his coat. 

We were thoroughly exhausted when we decided to stop by Miss M's (the engagement chica, remember her from two paragraphs ago) to watch the Mizzou game. We quickly gave up on that when we realized we were losing to the Baylor Bears. Yes, sic em indeed. Ugh.

Sunday was officially Orphan Sunday, celebrated around the world.  We celebrated at church, wearing our 147 Million Orphan shirts, beads (just me, not Hubs), and attending the Orphan Sunday Simulcast at church.  Here are some photos of Orphan Sunday, where we prayed for orphans around the world and  was focused on the importance of the church seeking to help orphans around the world and in our own community.

When the simulcast was complete, we ate the most delicious cake EVER (no really! and beautiful!

Then while I cleaned up the cake, Hubs became the jungle gym for all children at the event. I apologize for the blurriness of the photos but the children and the man child were just too fast for me to get good shots of them.  But look at my cute hubs. Isn't he going to be a great dad? Also, I am going to need to get rid of all things breakable in our home.

Yes, I have a feeling in a couple of years, there will never be a calm moment in our home.  Also, I think we will sleep soundly at night. The sleep of exhausted parents.  When we get to sleep, that is.

So moving on to this weekend.  First, it was 11.11.11 on Friday (you probably knew that). The University Bookstore decided to drop 11,111 ping pong balls from the roof of their building. And some of them had prizes on them. It resulted in thousands of people watching and about six people actually getting to touch any ping pong balls. It happened quickly.  And it was kind of anticlimactic.  Here, the best shot:

Friday night we went to trivia night with E's work. We got 4th out of 24 teams.  Hubs proved his knowledge of science fiction and James Bond (although his boss is the true Bond pro. She owns every book). I, in turn, proved my knowledge in musical movies and historical period movies. I am clearly the fun one here. OK maybe not.  We both had the 90s TV in the bag.

Saturday, we went to what may have been the best game of the season. Mizzou had never beat Texas (the #16 team) under our current coach, Coach Pinkel. That all ended Saturday. Good thing, too, because it was our last time to play them. We announced last Sunday we're moving to the SEC.  Lots of opinions on that one but I will say, it will be really fun to play the teams of some of my favorite bloggers. Yeah, it's all about the blogs, baby. But seriously. The SEC contains BooMama, Big Mama, Kelly from Kelly's Korner, and Amanda from Baby Bangs. What more could a girl want? OK that's really odd, I know, since they don't know I am a person. But still. I think it's fun!

The game made me sick at my stomach and it is truly a tragedy that Poor Henry Josey hurt himself so detrimentally. Side note--Mack Brown, you are a class act. What an impressive thing to come pat our hurt hero on the back before the Gator took him off to the training facililty. Anyway, we had to capture the win. So here we are...

 Finally, today was our baptism service at our church. I had never been to a baptism service at our church (aside from baby-sitting during it in college) so it was so fun. Plus, two of my favorite babies (the only two babies in our small group) were dedicated to the Lord through baptism today. I cried at the beauty of so many individuals, families, and children being committed to the Lord. I took a picture of each family. Totally unidentifiable but here are our beauties. We can't wait to watch you grown in the Lord!

 Two weekends both alike in amount of hours but different in every other way.  So fun that each weekend gives us a little different experience. Next weekend is our final home game and we will be sad to see football season go but I'm hoping for a new start next fall.  I mean, it's not been so magical for us this year.

Welp, Kitchen Stadium is calling my name. Y'all have a good day and I'll catch you on the flip side.

Doing Life

This week was busy--in the way that regularly scheduled life happened and other events happened and together it made the week fly by.  If there's any day that exemplified this, it was Wednesday.

Wednesday was rough.  Wednesday, we "did life" in the fullest sense of the word.  My mom was in town the night before and we shared a delightful dinner and crashed. Mom was in town to teach my class. It had been planned for months that she would come in and speak to my students about how to become a nurse and how to get hired as one once you get a degree.  If you believe in coincidence (which I do not) you would say it was quite the coincidence that of all the days I ended up needing to miss class, it was the one my mom "just so happened" to be scheduled to teach my class.  Since June.  So yeah, nice coincidence.  Or divine providence.

Anyway, I found out last weekend a dear friend of mine lost her mom to her battle with cancer.  She's the kind of friend you always feel is on your side and would do anything for you. And friend, she has done so many things for us (including being a huge support in our adoption). So it was an immediate response from both the hubs and myself that we would go to the funeral.  And since the only thing keeping me in town was my class and it was already covered, we solidified the plan: we would take a carload and head south.

For me, doing life is that mix of knowing that one days is never all happy or all sad.  Friends, hear me when I say Wednesday was such a sad day.  We celebrated the life of a wonderful, God-fearing woman. In full disclosure I have only met this woman twice. But I feel fully confident she was who I believe she was because I know the character of her daughter.  You cannot raise a woman with such conviction, such commitment to friendship and family, and such a fun, spirited personality if you don't have a bit of all of it in you.  And so we celebrated the relationship between mother and daughter that day. And grieved the awful disease that is cancer. And prayed for that day when the earth is restored and we can be the beings God intended us to be--without pain, sin, or destruction.  It was a funeral where the gospel was front and center and that was refreshing.

But when we left, we went from sad to remembering the joys of friendship.  We piled (five of us) back in our car at noon and decided we should find some sustenance before we headed back. Our choice: Lamberts: the home of the throwed roll. In fact, as I am trying to link to their site, I feel it is my duty to tell you it is throwedrolls.com.  I had never been there, but it is kind of a staple of the community down south.  They have giant portions and, yes, they throw rolls at your head.  Well, they would probably say at your hands.  But I am not a catcher, so it feels to me like they are being thrown at your head.  I had Hubs catch two but the friends at our table felt it was my duty to try and catch one on my own so they all started pointed at me until the kid at the roll cart started making the throwing motion toward me and I held my hands out and closed my eyes.  And missed.  But it landed on the table.  As he went to the next part of the restaurant, Roll Kid passed by and said "great job." Um, thanks, Roll Kid. I am really good at not catching things. And eating rolls.  We ate and laughed until we really couldn't do either any more. Then we piled back in the car and headed home.

We reached home in time for us to catch the shortest nap in history and head to church.  Funny thing--fourth graders don't care what the rest of your day looked like or how mentally exhausted you are.  They really want you to be fully committed to them.  And you know what? It was the best thing that could have happened to me.  Friends, those fourth graders I was so nervous to teach? They came back!! They not only came back--they came back remembering what we learned last week!!  They told me of the trinity and how John the Baptist baptized Jesus.  And I swelled at knowing that God knew what he was doing after all.  Just kidding. Sort of.  We spent two hours together, playing with sidewalk chalk, reading through Mark 2, and sharing the most honest and heartfelt prayer requests I've ever heard.  Their transparency amazes me.

And then I went home and crashed into the hard sleep of a person who lived a day to its fullest point.  Wednesday was tough. But it was food for my soul.  God reminded me that each stage is what it is.  And as long as we are on this earth, we will have pain.  And death.  And laughter. And friendship. And things to learn. And things to teach.  And life to live.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 "There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven."

I am so blessed to do life with so many beautiful people.