8 Blissfull Years and Counting

Okay maybe not everything has been bliss in the last eight years. We've had our share of trials and challenges (hello, 4 kids in 5 years!) but at least the marriage part has been pretty close to blissfull. I'm so grateful to have married the best man I know. I'm not just saying that for the blog. Kent really is an amazing man, father and husband. I lucked out. Here's to many more years of traveling life's road together and beyond.

The Adoption Rollercoaster

In the short time we've been in the adoption process we've learned what an emotional rollercoaster it is for everyone involved. One day you think things are one way and then the next they seem to completely change. Last week we had some serious ups and downs starting the week thinking that we'd be certified to adopt in 2 weeks, then on Wednesday being told "Oh no, it'll take more like 2 months!" and then 2 days later finding out that a miracle had happened, and we were certified in 3 days! Then we heard from the agency that there may be a baby available next week!!!

So... we're on pins and needles waiting to hear whether we will be placed with a baby this week or not. We should hear in a couple of days, but it is gut wrenching not knowing. Do you prepare things or not? Do you hope for it or not? It reminds me so much of my single days hoping to find "the one" (which I don't really believe there is one right person, but that's another story) and thinking that I had found him, but then it wouldn't work out. I tried to live by a mantra during those lonely years, "Nothing is happening until it's happening." In other words, no matter how much I thought I'd marry a guy, it wasn't real until we were actually getting married. Of course, it did finally happen one time, one marvelous happy time. I love my husband and am so glad I waited for him.

Now I'm reminding myself again that "nothing is happening until it's happening" and it won't be the right baby for us until it we are actually placed with a baby. Now if I could only tell my heart that that's how it works...

We're Ready to Adopt!

For the last few months we have been working on several projects. The first was to get Kent to graduation in December. He finally finished his thesis, his classes and was in the middle of managing his company's transition, when he got his masters degree. The second project was working on our paperwork and home study to be able to adopt. Most of January and into February I was spending most of my time taking care of our girls, taking care of Relief Society, and trying to get our adoption home study finished.

We are now finished with our home study and are now starting the matching process. Once it's all said and done I'll get into more of the details here in our blog of how it went. For now I'll just say that we are very excited to adopt a baby, and even though the whole process is a little overwhelming, I know it'll all be worth it. As soon as that baby is home with us, I'll be blogging all about it.

As far as the everyday stuff goes, the girls are growing up so quickly. Maija and Rebekah both had birthdays and it's amazing to see them developing their own sister relationship. Kent is doing great at his new job, and we are loving the new house. Here are some before and after pics of the house:

HOUSE BEFORE



HOUSE AFTER

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FAMILY RM BEFORE



FAMILY RM AFTER

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MASTER BED RM BEFORE



MASTER BED RM AFTER

New House, New Job (sort of)

I've avoided blogging in the last few weeks because of the uncertainty in our lives. We were trying to decide whether to stay in Arizona or to move, whether to buy a house now or keep renting, and basically just wanting to figure out what our future looks like. I felt like it wasn't a great idea to blog publicly about all of this until things were decided and somewhat settled. So, now they are!

Kent will be staying at his current job, sort of. There is actually a merger/take-over underway which will change his employer and his position at work. This is a good and exciting change, which led us to commit to staying in Arizona for several years at least. That led us to decide to buy a house, which we are in the process of doing. So, in the end we are staying in the same neighborhood, same ward, same job, except that once Kent graduates in December everything will be different. We'll be in our own home; we won't have to live off student loans anymore; and I can finally feel free to plant roots where we're at.

What's interesting is how during this time some other changes have been in the works which will bring my sister closer to us; she'll be living about 2 minutes away. The other surprise for me was how much I really did want to stay. Anyone who has known me for a while knows that I am a nomad, and I'm not used to staying in one place. I've lived in Arizona for 7 consecutive years now, which is a record for me. The whole time Kent has been in school, I just couldn't imagine that we would stay here in Arizona. Although Arizona is by far my favorite place to live in the U.S., I always just assumed we'd be leaving. But when decision time came, we both knew and had very strong feelings that we needed to stay where we are.

Now we can begin the process of moving houses...again!

Some Alicia Moments...
Lest I forget to continue the series on my life as Alicia (the cartoon character from Diego), I have to include a few cute comments from Maija:

Our dog, Remy, was chewing on one of Maija's toys, and she said, "No, Remy! You are a wicked dog!" Maybe she's watched too many Book of Mormon and Bible cartoons.

After asking for a cracker to eat, Maija ran outside with it and proclaimed, "I love crackers on a windy day!" Then she proceeded to sing it over and over, "I love crackers on a windy day! I love crackers on a windy day!"

Bekah continues to be cute and full of personality. She has no fear whatsoever and keeps me on my toes.

And I continue to play the role of Alicia occasionally, although now that Bekah is talking more, Maija tends to make her play the role of either Dora or Alicia.

Who's The Boss?

Continuing on the vein of Maija's need to pretty much run our lives, yesterday she was on one! Rebekah had taken a CD which I needed for work. I told her that she needed to give it back, which she really didn't want to do. Finally, I said, "Rebekah, no, no, no. Mommy needs that CD." I tried to take it out of her hands which led to a short tug-of-war. When I got the CD out of her hands, she immediately collapsed on the floor in a pool of tears. It was just about her nap time; I decided it was time to put her down.

As I picked her up, I heard Maija behind me, "Remember, Mommy, no fighting! OK? No fighting, Mommy." I started chuckling a little to myself and replied, "Maija, I wasn't fighting with Rebekah." "Yes, Mommy, I saw you. You were fighting. Now, no fighting, OK? Remember!" This made me laugh more, but I was trying really hard not to let Maija see. Of course, Rebekah who I was still holding did see me laughing and thought she'd join in, so she started laughing and laughing. Then I hear Maija say, "Now give Rebekah a hug and a kiss and say you're sorry!" All I could get out between laughs was "sorry".

Later in the day, Maija began to reprimand me for something else, and I finally told her, "Maija, I am the mommy. You don't tell me what to do." To which she quickly retorted, "But I want to!" Heaven help me!

My Life as Alicia - Part 2

Although I didn't have to play the roll of Alicia today, I did get a kick out of listening to Rebekah watch Dora. She's only 18 months, but she loves "Dowa" so much she will sit and interact completely with the show. When I hear Dora ask, "Can you help us save the pigmy marmoset?" Rebekah will say, "Yeah!" Or she'll answer "No" if she has seen the episode before and knows the answer is no. It's too funny! The funniest part to me is when she tries to repeat the Spanish phrases, especially since she can hardly speak English! Dora will say, "Can you say 'arriba'? Say 'arriba'!" And here's little Bekah repeating, "Iba".

Also, I have to publicly thank my sister-in-law, Jeannie, who took BOTH of my girls all day today! She was even willing to take them overnight, but I figured having them gone all day would be enough. It was nice to have the day to myself, but when I saw their cute little faces when they came home, I realized I had missed them.

Back Home and Adjusting: My Life As Alicia

Whew! The rush of July is coming to a close, and it was definitely an eventful month. We got back from our North Carolina trip a week ago today, but it really does feel like we were there a month ago. I listed a lot of our plans in a previous post, but just for fun, I made a list of everything that happened in July:

• Week 1 - Went to Pinetop and Snowflake for 4th of July! Girls got to ride a horse for the first time. Bekah loved it!
  
• Week 2 - Visited with my parents who were renting a house in Gilbert - did Swim Class and Dance Class for Maija - my parents left town - I was called into the Primary Presidency as 2nd Counselor (basically, I'm working with the children at church and overseeing Cub Scouts)
  
• Week 3 - Flew to North Carolina to visit my parents - Kent golfed every day - I enjoyed my mother's help with the girls & got a shopping day with my mother and no children!
  
• Week 4 - Flew back to Phoenix on a 6am flight (we left my parents' house @ 3am...not fun!) - Maija & Bekah rode their 1st train at the Atlanta airport - I jumped right into Primary work - Maija finished Swim Class for the summer and started another session of dance classes - Kent took his final exam in his summer class - On the weekend, we rested & caught up on housework
  
• Week 5 - Celebrated Kent's mother's birthday with the inlaws - got my hair colored for the 1st time in years (that was today, so that's where I'll end.)
  

Click on this link to see pictures of our fun and crazy month - http://picasaweb.google.com/farnies4/July2008

My Life as Alicia - Episode 1

As a final note, I often find myself being assigned the part of Alicia, as in Diego's sister Alicia. Maija will tell me at the beginning of the day, "You are pretending to be Alicia, and I am pretending to be Diego. OK?" That "OK?" is not really to secure my approval because this is really more of an order than a negotiation. For the rest of the day she will refer to me as Alicia: "Alicia, I want juice!" "Alicia, I'm hungry." "I hurt myself, Alicia." And if I don't refer to her as Diego, she often will not respond. Today was one of my Alicia days, and at one point after I helped Diego, oh, I mean Maija, put on her pants, she hugged me and said, "That's my girl, Alicia!" So funny!

Tuesday Is The Day

Maija has become particularly attached to Tuesdays this summer because that's the day she has her swim class. The best part of swim class for her is not the class itself. It's getting to go to her cousin's house where we have the swim lessons. Amazingly, she often knows first thing in the morning if it's Tuesday and will tell me excitedly, "Mommy! Today is Tuesday! What do I get to do today? Go to K's house?" Her cousin, K (I'll just use the initial here), is her favorite person in the whole world, which is really sweet, especially since they were born close together. Maija was actually blessed in church right as K was being born.

This Tuesday is another special day for her, and all of us, because we're headed to North Carolina to visit Mummi and Grandpa. Maija keeps asking me, "What day is it today? Is it Tuesday? Can we go on an airplane?" I'm excited for our trip once we get to NC, but not so much for the actual trip there and back. We usually get to fly direct, but this time we've got layovers both ways, and Rebekah is also MUCH more difficult than she used to be. It should be interesting. We'll be bringing plenty of books and toys and blankies and sippy cups and snacks...whatever we gotta do to keep the girls from wigging out on the plane. That's got to be a parent's worst nightmare. There's no escape when you're on a plane. Everyone has to suffer with you regardless. So, avoiding a meltdown is paramount.

I'll post pics of our trip, plus a few video clips I've been meaning to upload.

Our Crazy July

I haven't blogged in a few weeks. There's been a lot going on, mostly revolving around family events. My parents flew in in mid-June to stay in the area for nearly a month. This has meant that on top of living our normal lives, we've been doing a lot of visiting between their rental place and our house. Frankly, I'm exhausted. It's great to have them close by, but the running around is tiring. Although the girls are in seventh heaven having so much attention and a great pool to swim at whenever they want.

In the midst of all of this, we've also been trying to get to swim class and a summer dance class for Maija. Both classes are almost over, and I think I'll give a sigh of relief when we can just "be" again, whatever that means. We also drove up to Pinetop to be with some of Kent's family for the 4th of July. It was so much fun to be with everyone, and the girls played and played and played! After 3 days, we were all worn out by the time we got home. We have 1 week at home, and then next week we head to North Carolina to ... visit my parents. Originally, my parents were not going to be coming here to see us this summer, so we had booked airline tickets for the four of us to go see them. Then all the plans changed, but we were still locked into the airline tickets...so we'll be heading out that way for a week.

By the time we get back from our trip, it'll be nearly the end of July!!! Kent's night class (he's had a class until 10:30pm on Mondays and Wednesdays) will be over, Maija's classes will be over, the summer will be almost over. Then the next big event for our little family will be when Maija starts preschool in early August. Whew! It's like an endurance race sometimes.

I hope everyone else's summer is filled with fun, too.