Vander Zwaag family

Luisa's first "walk" in the snow...

2012-01-24T23:33:00.000-05:00

Meet Quincy!

2012-01-16T22:15:00.000-05:00

Quincy is our new 8 week old female golden retriever puppy. We promised the kids that we would get a new dog after Max died, but with the house, move, the holidays and Mexico, we hadn't gotten around to it. So we decided we had better start getting serious about our quest for a new dog! This past weekend, we had a snow day Friday and we were all home together so we upped our search efforts and made several phone calls and were able to go pick her up on Saturday!

We had not settled on a name just yet, I had several picked out, but they didn't like them, so I told the kids that by the time we got back home,{about and hour drive}we all had to agree on a name for her. So we all rattled off various names that we liked, I was on a website and read off a few names, I mentioned Quincy. At first the kids said "No!" But, finally about half way home, everyone had agreed to naming her Quincy! We used to live on Quincy street, when we lived in Zeeland, but had I not found that name on that website, It may not have crossed my mind. And that is how Quincy got her name.

We stopped to let her out and go potty, and this is what she did. Laid down and stayed there! We ran into a nearby Tractor Supply store and got some food and a collar, then proceeded to drive a bit further. Soon, she got a tad 'antsy,' so we stopped and let her out. Thank goodness we did, because that time she did her business, AND PUKED! When we were bringing Max home he puked all over the car and kids so we were a tad cautious this time!

Introducing her to her new yard.

look at that face...too cute!

we tuckered her right out!

she'll never lack for love and attention here!

So far she has been doing very well with the whole crate/potty training thing. You should hear her whine at first when we put her in her crate, it is pretty pathetic. But, she has been calming down fast and seems quite content in her little space. I think she will be a blessing....{For the kids for sure, hopefully for me as well, I'm not a huge animal lover, especially not when they are in my house...so we shall see....oh the things I do for my children!}

A few before and after pictures...

2012-01-11T22:48:00.000-05:00

Ryan is sick, so instead of him sharing stories tonight,....I thought you may enjoy a few house before and after photos.

Dining room before...

This is the view when you walk in the front door, you enter into our dining room. Our bedroom is behind the black door, the red door is just for fun! To the left is the kitchen, to the right is the living room.

Dining Room...After

This is looking toward the living and dining room before...

and after...

This is now the home school area which is to the back side of our living room area. It used to be just one huge room (picture above,) but now it is sectioned off a bit by a wall of bookshelves, which are not quite finished so I don't have a picture of that yet...

left side of the home school area...

and the right side...

Here is my niece and nephew trellis! {*I am missing pictures of my 2 youngest family members...will fix this soon, sorry Jen!}

Here is the living room area before...

And after...

the kitchen before...

And after...

a few fun signs that are hanging in this area of the house

main floor bathroom before...

And after...

Kids bath/laundry room (which is upstairs) before...

and after...

The rest of the rooms are not quite finished the way I want just yet so you will have to wait to see them. When we think of how much we still have to do, it helps to look back and see how much we have already done.

yes, we made it back from Mexico...

2012-01-08T20:52:00.000-05:00

Safe and sound, and we had a great trip! We have been trying to catch up on sleep {and laundry} and get over the colds that we all caught. It was a crazy long ride/drive, {34 hours one way to be exact!} but we survived! At one point on the way down, I was sleep deprived and I recall telling Ryan that this was his "stupidest. idea. ever!" (to drive straight through.) I think I only slept about 2 non consecutive hours total on the way down. The trip back went much better though! The kids all did amazing. No one got car sick, we had a few close calls, but between much prayer, sea bands, Dramamine, some oil that you put behind the ears, ginger snaps and peppermints, we were able to avoid the puking!!!! Such a relief.

Once we got there, Ryan took a group of about 14 people and went to another more remote village 6 hours away to hand out food and blankets to the people for 3 days while the rest of us stayed at the orphanage. Both groups had an amazing time. We all got to see God preform miracles! Not. kidding. so. cool! I will post a few pictures today and tell a bit about my days in Mexico, then I have asked Ryan to share his stories at some point too.

Crossing the border went well, our van and trailer got searched, drug dog and all, but of course, we were sent on our way since we had nothing illegal! It was a welcomed sight to see Lily after all those many hours in the van! But, the minute I stepped out of the van I began to cry. It hurt my heart to see how much the kids have grown since the last time I was there, and they were still without a mommy! I know that they are loved and taken care of, and for that I am thankful, but....It still breaks my heart.

I don't think I am supposed to post any pictures of the kids, which is a big bummer, they are so cute!

But since these pictures aren't great, and you can't see their faces very good, I thought I could use them! I just had to share this, as it is one of my favorite times of the day at Lily. Hug line!!

After a day of shopping at the market we went out for lunch.

Josh {friend from church} loved shopping so much he couldn't even keep his eyes open!

riding in the back of the van with all of the food and groceries.

We went to the market and bought food for Lily and then the next day went back and bought food for a church in a very poor neighborhood. We were able to buy all of the staples that were on our list and much more, God just kept the money coming, we could not out spend Him on this trip, it was amazing!

We put food bags together to give away that included corn flour, regular flour, salt, sugar, beans, rice, tomato sauce, oil, peanut butter, tuna, potatoes, onions, oranges and bananas! We made double the bags we had planned on since our money was not running out! We gave them out at the church to all that were in attendance and still had some left for the pastor to hand out to other members of the community! We also took a large amount of donated toys, games, and crafts for the kids. You should have seen the look on their faces. Priceless. Some of our teens put on a skit, 2 shared their testimonies, and we sang songs and prayed for each other. It was a powerful night, after church, they had prepared food and fed us. We went trying to be a blessing, and came back blessed ourselves!

Dylan and his friend Sammy {who used to live at Lily prior to being adopted by a family in our church} talking about their experience in the other village in the mountains. It was such a blessing to do this as a family. The boys did such a great job loving on the kids, it was fun to watch.

Here is another picture where no faces are easily recognizable, and I just had to share. I was attempting to get out a few matchbox cars and tractors for the kids to play with, and instead I was mobbed by the boys all wanting one{I am somewhere in the middle of all those boys!} Some were very sweet and made sure that the little boys each got one, but pretty persistent in getting one for themselves as well. Thankfully I had quite a few and most everyone got something out of the bag!

One of the nights I heard 2 of our ladies who were in charge of the finances trying to figure out the money situation. I heard them say, "well, that just doesn't make sense." "There is no way that adds up right." "How in the world is that even possible." Soon one of them comes in my room and says "Stacy, we have added and figured and we can not believe this, but we still have lots of money left over, even after all that we have spent, there is almost the same amount in this envelope than what we started with!" I rolled over and said, "It's a Lily miracle....now go to sleep!" It's not that I was not astonished by the miracle, but instead, I have seen first hand and heard many more stories of how God works, and I know this for sure, GOD love orphans, and widows, and the poor. I LOVE how he provides for them, I don't like their situations, and don't understand why things have to be the way they are, but I know that when we reach out to help them in the name of Jesus, He will provide abundantly for them! We have seen it time and again, and this trip was no exception! There are so many more great stories, which I will probably share at some point, and hopefully Ryan can share his soon as well.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T22:55:00.000-05:00

From our home to yours!

We've had the Vander Zwaag Christmas party...

Our family party...

and tomorrow we head out for the Tuinstra Christmas party! We've done lots of baking...

Lots of packing...{more on this later}, took down the tree, literally!

I said, "Jayden, don't just yank the lights off the tree, your gonna make it..."

Fall! Nice.

And...now we have lots of nice white stuff falling to the ground! YIPPEE!! But come Monday morning at 4 AM, we are heading to MEXICO!!!! Now, lest you think we are going on some wonderful exotic vacation...think again. We {Ryan, Dylan, Jayden, Spencer, and I} are all heading to Chihuahua Mexico on a mission trip to Lily of the Valley Orphanage with about 30 other people from our church. We are driving in 2-15 passenger vans and one car, non-stop 30 some odd hours! So, um, no glorious warm vacationing, in fact, Chihuahua is the coldest state in Mexico! We're talking 20's at night(just got word it is 18 there tonight!) But it looks like we may be blessed with a warm up coming next week of upper 60's during the day! I really am looking forward to this trip, however...I REALLY don't want to leave Luisa{or Easton and Anaya for that matter} but I've never left Lucy, except for once a couple weeks ago when I went to Chicago for the weekend! I know that I will have plenty of little ones to love on while I am there, and I am sure time will fly. It was a life changing experience the last time I was there, and I am so excited to share that with the 3 older boys! If you think of us, please pray for safe travels and no car sickness!!

Have a wonderful time celebrating the birth of our savior, Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday Luisa Joy!!!

2011-12-18T15:28:00.000-05:00

I can't believe how fast this year has gone! Last year at this time we were anticipating a trip to Colombia to pick up Luisa, and now here she is turning 3! It feels as though she has been in our family forever, I can not imagine life without her, she brings so much JOY into our lives, and we are so SO blessed to be her family! Happy Birthday sweet girl! We love you so very much!!

Chicago...

2011-12-13T23:37:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was our annual girls weekend get away. While we were shopping, this santa grabbed us, {literally} and brought us to his fancy chair so we could have our picture taken! We were kinda taken by surprise, but we were laughing so hard, he was quite the jolly soul, and the real deal, no fake beard or stuffing! I haven't had my picture taken with santa since I was a little girl! We weren't sure what we were getting into, but they took our picture, and gave it to us, no strings attached!

My brother in law Eric also surprised us with tickets to go on a chocolate tour! We met our tour guide,{the one with her arm up, she held a flag saying "Chicago Chocolate Tour" up the entire time we were walking!} and we went to about 5 or so different little shops and bakeries around town and they gave us a chocolate creation to sample and told us about their store, chocolate and how they make different things. It was very fun and we found a few new places to visit when we come back next time! Thank You Eric!!

Our favorite place was Hendrickx. Oh my, it is on Walton street, I believe, and both the waffles and croissants were AMAZING!

Another place we went, {but I don't think we need to go there again,} is a cupcake shop that sold some really good sounding cupcakes, and some really nasty sounding ones too. Like, for instance...good= salted caramel, chocolate caramel, the bad= bacon cupcakes! Say what? So, of course, we had to try one, I took a small bite, and really it was sweet and salty, but I just got too grossed out to try any more, we all agreed bacon should only be used for breakfast! Definitely not cupcakes!

Always fun hanging with my mom and sisters! {and baby Josiah too!} I didn't get a picture of him this weekend, but here he is in all of his chubby cuteness, he is such a good little guy, and loves to be kissed, which is good since he got lots of lovin this weekend!

Happy Birthday Spencer!!!

2011-12-06T21:48:00.000-05:00

More cake... Good thing we love it!

Yesterday we celebrated Spencer's Birthday, I can't believe he is 9!

We love you Spencer!

It's BIRTHDAY season at our house!

2011-12-02T22:52:00.000-05:00

First up is Ryan AND Jayden...

Yes, these 2 share the same birthday!

Not one, but 2 knives for Jayden...yikes. He was thrilled! Ryan got 2 pairs of much needed shoes, he was not all that thrilled.

Happy Birthday boys! I love you both so very much!
Next up is Spencer on the 5th...Luisa on the 18th...and then of course JESUS on the 25th!

World Aids day...

2011-12-01T23:06:00.000-05:00

Today is World Aids Day, and we are praising God for the advances in meds that are keeping Luisa alive and healthy! I just heard today that a recent survey showed that one in four people still think you can "catch" HIV from sharing a cup. UGH! Please, take a few minutes, if you haven't already, to watch the Truth Pandemic {click on the icon on the top left of my blog.} And share it with your friends. Thank You!

O Christmas tree...

2011-11-27T23:39:00.000-05:00

On the hunt for the perfect tree...which took longer than usual this year, not sure why, there were tons of really nice trees, I was just being indecisive, {I have that problem from time to time!}

The kids in front of our tree.

Thankful for the boys, they now do all of the dirty work!

We brought the tree in and decorated it while Lucy was sleeping, when she woke up and came downstairs she looked at the tree and said "hey!" Like, what in the world is that? We all had a good laugh at that.

Lights on the house, tree and village up...

and yes, even a few gifts under the tree, thanks to a crazy ~~"Black Friday"~~ I mean all night Thursday into the morning on Friday shopping adventure. Oh the things we do to save a buck! Actually, it was a good time spent with friends, and very productive too.

Our goal for this week is to finish emptying out the pole barn so we can get rid of the lovely dumpster turned lawn ornament in front of the house!

Jaydens first deer, and other firsts...

2011-11-20T21:40:00.000-05:00

First and foremost, hunting season is upon us and we now have 3 hunters in the family. Ryan took the boys hunting this past week on opening day and Jayden shot this nice 3 point buck. The next day he got a button buck! He loves being able to actually shoot something!

Dylan shot his first deer with a bow this year as well.

Another first is for Luisa, she has stayed dry for 2 days now! She is really getting the hang of this potty training thing, it makes her momma very happy, and she is enjoying the candy. Found out she loves Tootsie Rolls, she picks them over all the other candy, every single time. Anaya loves to help Luisa, and she takes her in with her when she has to go, just to show her how it's done, too funny!

I was able to park my vehicle in the garage for the first time! This was a momentous event, one of my favorite things about this house is that we finally have a garage, and now it is cleaned out enough that I can park in it! We were giddy with excitement last night as we were taking the groceries in and could hear the rain and wind out side!

We also were able to hang clothes in the closets for the first time since we moved in. Ryan finished up all of the kids closets this week and it is so wonderful to not have the huge mess of clothes on the floor. Ours should be finished this coming week and we will be done living out of suitcases! We still have to get closet doors, but, for now...

We are looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving this week, we sure have a lot to be thankful for!

a great week...

2011-11-09T23:08:00.000-05:00

Remember this eye sore?

well, it is no more!!

our horses are getting bigger and fuzzier!

Painting the floor of the mudroom and putting up the bench.

So, I have been taking pictures on my new phone of all of the projects we have gotten done over this week, I just sat down to blog about it, and I realized that the cord that came with my phone, doesn't work with my computer. So,...hopefully I will figure that out soon, for now there are a few pictures to keep things interesting. But, we made some great progress this week, including my mud room is done, my island has laminate, they replaced all but one of the windows we were replacing, finally got our dining room table put up and ate sitting down as a family for the first time in weeks! Closets are starting to take shape, we fixed the siding on the house, Ryan got more of the trim up and I 'frosted' the glass on the bathroom door{Yay for some privacy}...still no doorhandles on yet though, I am sure that will be done soon. Getting back into a good school routine and settling in. I took a break last night and watched a movie with the kids, feels like life is getting back to 'normal!' So incredibly thankful for a nice warm house with all this windy rainy weather!

pumpkin carving...

2011-11-02T23:09:00.000-04:00

Oh so many choices...look at them contemplate!

Luisa walked up to one and grabbed it! Plenty good...let's go!

Eww! Pumpkin guts! I was shocked Anaya stuck her hand in it, but very soon, she was asking to wash her hands.

Lucy was loving it...Anaya...{big shocker} not so much! Yes, she got pumpkin guts in her hair, they were flinging it everywhere, seemingly non intentionally, however, one can never be sure, she was not impressed!

Easton doing a happy dance because he likes the way his pumpkin looks! That kid is too funny!

I was thinking pumpkin carving would not happen this year as I had not yet located any sharp knives..."they are in the barn somewhere..." is the notorious answer for everything that we can't find. But, my children would not let that happen, instead of looking in the barn for our knives, they went to the garage and found sharp objects. Power tools gave new life to our pumpkin carving adventure! They used a drywall saw and a sawzall and they had a blast! I doubt we will ever use those puny little pumpkin carving knives again!

FINALLY!!

2011-10-28T23:28:00.000-04:00

Back on the world wide web! Oh my goodness, it has been a long time! But, we finally figured out how to get internet. We have been busy getting the house ready, we passed all of our final inspections and are moving things in. We still have a ton of work left to do, things like trim, fixing the siding outside, replacing windows, my island needs the counter top on it...lots of little things, but...we have a fully functioning kitchen, lights, electricity and we are starting to get furniture in place. We are so excited to start getting things back to 'normal' again! Here are a few pictures of how we have been living...it ain't pretty, but it's getting better!

My favorite part of the house...my new huge fridge! I think I hear the angels singing when I open it up!! And yes, it just eeked into that space...it's 2x the size of our old fridge, {which drove me nuts because we couldn't even hold enough milk for the week!} We can fit all the milk and juice we want in this one!

Thankfully the gaps were fixed before we got any of the cold weather!

Doing home work!

Ready or not...

2011-10-05T22:17:00.000-04:00

Here we come! We will be with out internet (and t.v., a kitchen, most lights, as well as many other things) for the next little bit as we are going to be moving into our new home{a tad prematurely!} I hope to get internet up and running sometime soon, however...we have been too busy to deal with that just yet, so it will have to wait! I'd like to do a little "reveal" of each room when it is finished, so it's probably good that I won't be able post any pictures before the room is actually done! Although, I'm not sure that they will ever be done, seems like there's always some work in progress, so goes home ownership! We will miss the view from up here on the hill, we have great memories of our time spent here, but look forward to the next chapter of our life in our farm house! A huge thanks to Gary and Linda for allowing us to stay here, we feel so blessed, it made a difficult move 4 years ago much less painful to know we had a great place to land. And now that we have fallen in love with everyone up here and found a home of our own to settle into, we are excited for you to move back into your amazing home! God is good. His timing is perfect. We are blessed.

renovation realities...

2011-10-03T21:18:00.000-04:00

Have you ever watched the show, Renovation Realities on the DIY Network? I love that show. Anyhow, if you have never seen it, it's pretty much a reality show of ordinary non skilled people renovating their homes{much like we are doing.} Well, mostly people have disasters or crazy things that happen to them or their house during the process. We had one of those moments Saturday, when I was putting the second coat of polyurethane on the floor.

We were almost finished, when I ran out of poly. So I asked Ryan to get the other gallon, the only problem was that I had left it in the bedroom which was surrounded by...wet polyurethane! Oops!

So Ryan went up the ladder through the window and back down the steps and did a maneuver spiderman himself would have been proud of! {I wish I would have gotten that on camera.} He made it safely into our bedroom, but couldn't figure out how to get the poly and himself back out of the room. So, he proceeded to ~~set~~ drop the poly into the uncovered vent hole...but the poly proceeded right on down to the basement! I was standing near the basement door and ran down as fast as I could, hoping I would find it still in the container and not on the basement floor! I ran into a few spider webs which was not cool, but found the smashed container, still full and unopened! It was good comic relief after my stupid mistake!

On Sunday, I was able to finish the final coat of poly, I love these weird floors. Some of the wood looks like zebra, each piece is so different, I wasn't sure if I would like it or not, but they turned out great in my opinion!
Ryan finished carpet upstairs tonight, and we moved the majority of our stuff over to the barn...we should be sleeping there soon, although it is far from being done, it will be nice not to have 2 houses to deal with! One is plenty enough for me. We are getting ready to be done. We would like to have some normalcy again.

oh my have we been busy!

2011-09-30T23:53:00.000-04:00

Trim

flooring...

remember those old yuck covered wood floors?

well, we worked on them almost non stop this week, we fell in bed late at night exhausted, but our hard work has paid off! Thanks to all who help us this week, you were a blessing!

Thank goodness for smart phones, so we can look up answers to our questions! Our general contractors wife had a stroke on Sunday,{that is why we were googling stuff rather than ask the G.C.} she has something called Patent Foramen Ovale, she is doing well, although she will need some physical therapy, and she has to have open heart surgery next month. Please keep the Cook family in your prayers!

20 grit sand paper! ouch!

We found oak floors in the kitchen,

and douglas fir in the living and dining rooms...

Dust, lots and lots of dust!

Finally, we were able to start staining!

and I spent all day today putting on the first coat of polyurethane! Only 2 more to go...ugh..
We were also able to get the vanities and linen closet in the upstairs bath. Hopefully we will have a fully functioning bath by next week! Our washer and dryer were delivered today too!

Ryan is working on carpet right now, oh, and in all of our "free time" we are packing up the house getting ready to move!

paint!!!

2011-09-22T23:54:00.000-04:00

We have nice new drywall everywhere on the main floor!!!

We had a mishap in the bathroom so it needed to be skim coated. I was the lucky one who got to do the job! Amazing how many skills I am gaining during this remodel, not really good at any of them, but oh well!

Once we had the walls smoothed out, we still had to prime. Lots of white! Christi came to help, and she was good at cutting in. I do not have a steady hand for doing that. Barb, Kendra and my sister Steph also came to help. Thank you ladies!

The living room with primer...

the kitchen without!

Ryan and I covered with primer after spraying the entire first floor!

That is the way to go, it went so fast!

Finally it was time for some color! The girls light pink room.

Dylan and Jayden's khaki room...

Spencer and Easton's greenish room...

our gray hallway...

Steph painting my door!

The girls entertaining the girls!

I love color!!!

Ryan has been busy putting up the trim that my mother in law painted! It's coming around!!! Tomorrow we are laying linoleum, and finishing up the trim upstairs!

Jaydens first duck...

2011-09-17T23:32:00.000-04:00

He was pretty excited!

Successful hunters and their proud daddy!

This picture cracked me up, Ryan took this with his phone while hunting, look at Easton's face mask, {they're all looking kind of funny,} but Easton...crazy kid!

Ryan took the boys hunting this morning for the youth duck season and Jayden shot his first duck! Dylan shot 2. I had said no hunting until we were in the house, however, I couldn't deprive my boys of this day, and besides, they were back by 9 AM! And then we were off to work on the house.

school and more...

2011-09-11T23:55:00.000-04:00

I sent my firstborn off to school last week for the very first time! I thought I was gonna cry...he is 13!!! I don't know how y'all do that with a 5 year old! But, it was time, he was ready, and is having a great time thus far! Things are going well at home even with out him being there, we miss him, but know he is where he needs to be. He is in the 8th grade at a small Christian school at our church.

Anaya started pre-school (home school) this week, and it was pretty funny because she just didn't get the concept of home school. I read her book, worked on her letters with her, did some art, etc... and when we were done, she asked when she was going to pre-school! Since she is getting to be such a big girl, I let her skip her nap. She was so excited, but it didn't take long and she curled up and fell asleep in the chair! All that learning tuckered her right out!

Jayden is in 5th grade, Spencer is in 3rd and Easton is doing 1st grade all at home! So, we do school in the morning, and when we are done, we head over to the house and work.

We had a very generous couple decide to buy drywall for the rest of the walls in our house! So, it was delivered and we hauled it all in and hung it. That stuff is HEAVY! But, now we have beautiful drywall on every wall of our house! We are hoping to get that drywall mud started and finish up the rest of the mudding this week, then we can start to paint inside!!!

even the girls were 'helping'

While I was busy painting the garage, Anaya came running to me saying there was an "ammamal"{animal} crawling by the barn. She was very excited and I asked her if it was big or small and she said "its big!" So I stopped painting and went to check it out. This is her animal. A caterpillar! Not really what I was expecting to see, after all, I don't think I would classify that as an animal nor would I call it big, but then again, I am not 4!

hauling in more drywall...

drywall going up!

kitty

My dad has been working on our porch, here are the posts he had made, aren't they beautiful! Now I wish they were all getting replaced! But, that too is expensive, and we are trying to stick to the budget, so only the rotten ones are being replaced.

here is one of the rotten posts.

Doesn't that drywall make it look so much better! I LOVE it!

Our garage is primed and painted and looks SO MUCH BETTER!

Pastor Mark made all of my cabinets. Dylan helped him for a few days and they cranked out some beautiful work! He has amazing woodworking talent, and this weekend he started painting them. So exciting!!

Tonight we had the senior high youth group at our new house and the focus was on prayer. We prayed over each student, and we did a prayer walk in and around our home and property. Such a huge blessing! Thank you Lord for this place and these people we are privileged to work with.

the porch...

2011-09-05T22:18:00.000-04:00

Before...

during...

Due to the rain this weekend, we are still stuck in the during...grrr! However, we have gotten everything but the floors primed, including the windows. Several friends came out on Friday night and helped us finish scraping and priming them.

Today we were able to get a coat of primer on the front and side of the garage. Wow! It looks so much better! It's looking a tad plain though, can't wait to add a little color!

Thanks for helping us today Barb! You are such a blessing!

I need to find a matching garage door,{I don't even care which one!} it drives me nuts that they are mismatched, but alas, it's not in the budget for this round. I also need to fix the weather vein. I was near the roof top today, but I am afraid of heights, and I don't think it is just a simple fix to yank on it to get it straight. I will try to talk Ryan into fixing it, but he says he likes it all crooked like that, "character," he says.

Here is Lucy saying "cheeeeese!" with one of our kittens.

And, here is the cat man. He is taking 2 kittens and 2 cats to the barn.

crazy kid.

And these pictures are for my niece Alexis. She asked to see pictures of our horses! This is what they do all day long..

heads to the ground eating!

You guys will have to come up to see them soon!

And, last, but not least, I did some exciting shopping today...here is a sneak peek.

Drywall...

2011-08-31T22:44:00.000-04:00

Ryan putting up one more pipe in our bedroom before the drywall went up, and Dylan making sure it comes out at the right place.

Drywall is all up and being mudded!! {My computer is telling me that is not a word, however, I am still using it!}

No more creepy walls!! It looks so good already, we can't wait to get in there and paint!!

We passed our first plumbing inspection and were able to finish drywall on all the walls and set our shower! A HUGE Thank You to Mike and all who helped with plumbing!

Since we can't do too much inside we are focusing on the porch this weekend.

We scraped, sanded and are now priming, and painting. Pastor Mark came over and started the job and has graciously loaned us his sprayer so we can finish!

It is looking so much better already...

What a week....

2011-08-25T23:02:00.000-04:00

We found out Monday that the drywall guys were able to work at the house this week and NOT next week as we had thought, SO...That began a flurry of events which included ripping out the messed up drywall in Dylan and Jayden's room, and Ryan and Aaron finishing up the electrical Monday ~~night~~ I should say early Tuesday morning!! But, the good news? The electrical passed inspection, and now Aaron can return to his family! There is an added benefit to having your perfectionist friend do your electrical, he ended up going above and way beyond what we were planning because of his perfectionism and we now have all new electrical wires throughout our house! Thank You Aaron!

Tuesday brought a day of more framing, installing insulation and clearing everything out of the house; another late night! Look who got stuck doing the demo and insulation...unskilled labor, it's the only thing I am capable of!

Speaking of unskilled labor...*funny story*

Ryan let the little boys help him frame, they pounded the nails in all by themselves, and were pretty proud of their work. When we put the frame in it's place, the 2x6's were a tad bit...off, ok, so it looked like the leaning tower of Pisa! The bottoms were right, but the tops were about 2 inches off! And the funny thing is, my husband was going to leave it! Christian, our contractor came in and said, "Oh my, I am not seeing this, turn the lights off!" {That is what Ryan said ("turn the lights off") the last time he framed and Christian came to inspect his work!(let's just say...Ryan is not a perfectionist:)} His excuse was that drywall would cover it, it was sturdy, and the boys built it. But when the next guy came in and said "Oh my, what happened here?" and explained to Ryan that someday, someone may want to find the stud at one point and try to follow that up and...find no stud up there! Thankfully, he decided to fix it!

Ryan's parents have been busy helping out as well! Notice Jayden peeking through the hole!

Ryan is still finishing up framing and we need to finish the plumbing this week as well.

Drywall was delivered on Wednesday and they started hanging it today!
It is starting to turn the corner, things are really taking shape!

We have a tub!

2011-08-20T22:24:00.000-04:00

I have been doing lots and lots of patching and sanding of walls, I think I could continue doing this for like...forever. They are so bad! I will have to stop at some point, but for now I am trying to even out the waves, and patch the dents and scratches.

We have heat runs to the second level, and some framing done as well.

My friend Laurie called me this week and said "I have always had a fantasy of knowing what it is like to parent 12 children, could I borrow your 6 to add to my 6?" Umm, sure, but you are crazy! She ended up with like 18 at one point, and even made them cookies and took them swimming! Thanks Laurie, they had a blast, and I enjoyed working without checking on kids every few minutes!

2 tiny horses in my yard!

The lunch room, {aka our garage}

This is my next project, {besides the walls} the porch! Scrape, sand paint...it's a beast, but it is fun when friends stop by to help! Thanks to all who have spent time with me on the porch, feel free to visit with me there when the work is done too!

We are seeing progress each day, and it has been fun to see who God brings to help us. I was telling Ryan that it would be helpful to have more orbital sanders, and what did our friend bring over today? 2 orbital sanders! Thanks Eric, but really Thanks God, because Eric had no idea I needed it, just had extras and thought maybe we could use them!! So cool.

house update...

2011-08-15T23:51:00.000-04:00

closets framed in...

My big project was this floor. It had several layers of linoleum that were put down with tar like gunk that had to come off!

I had several devoted friends that came out to help me with this nasty job! We tried my iron, which worked well...

but we found that the wall paper steamer and the heat gun were our best tools for the job!

It was a long and messy process, but, I kept telling myself and those that helped me, that it would be worth it!

Lots of pipes and duct work were brought in and placed throughout the house.

Lots of electrical work went on...

my dad fixed and replaced some of the porch floor boards...

Lucy "helped!"

Cottage Renovators, our wonderful contractor!

So thankful for these guys and a few more that help with entertaining our kids!

The mess that was my floor this morning...

and now, after all of our efforts, this is what we have, beautiful hardwood floors that are ready to be sanded and stained!

So thankful for everyone who has helped us, from food to child care to long hard hours of work, we appreciate you all!

Star and Thunder...

2011-08-14T23:26:00.000-04:00

Say What? I have to go home with them?

Meet Thunder{white and tan}and Star{black}

We couldn't hold off our kids any longer, so we went and picked up our horses!

We received some instruction...

some kids rode the big horse...

practiced leading them around for a bit...

more horse rides...

Lucy liked to look, but not touch!

and then we loaded them up and away we went! Yes, in the front of the truck! OH how we laughed!

Ms. Bev was kind enough to take the other one home for us in her vehicle! Whew, I was not really thinking hauling a horse in my car sounded like a great idea!

By the way, they both 'had an accident' in the vehicles on their way home...so glad that was not in my car!!

So, we now have ourselves 2 mini horses and the kids are thrilled! They have brought us much laughter thus far, we hope they will continue to be a blessing...we shall see about that!

Oh the things we do for our children!

Chicago...

2011-08-13T23:47:00.000-04:00

I was blessed to be able to spend a few days with my girls, my mom, sisters and nieces this week in Chicago!

Oh, and my little nephew Josiah! LOVE this baby! I love almost all babies, but he is so incredibly sweet, and he LOVES it when I kiss him and gnaw on his chubby checks! That's my favorite kind of baby, chubby and happy to be mauled by me!

I LOVE Chicago. I love to see all of the beautiful details on some of the old buildings, I find the city to be so fascinating!

My sister was staying downtown at the Trump, so we crashed at her house and visited with her at the hotel each day.

My mom and oldest niece Taylor, held a cute little tea party for the younger kids!

Complete with fans and fancy napkins.

They had a ball!

I caught Lucy peeking during prayer.

drinking their 'tea' {koolaid}

The girls sword fighting with their fans

Jen finishing off the 'tea,' so lady like!!

See the circular building in the background? That was the parking garage, and we would get nearly dizzy as we whipped around those curves, we had a good laugh every time we went in or out.

We got soaked on the way back from dinner, nice huh? It was fun though, we ran and laughed the whole way!

Me, Steph and Jen

I love my sisters, and I am so glad my girls have each other as well!

While there, I was able to make a trip to IKEA and pick out a few things for the house. It was very exciting!

update on Lisa...

2011-08-13T07:29:00.000-04:00

I know that several people happen upon my blog in an attempt at finding out how my sister in law is doing. So, here is the latest and greatest directly from Lisa herself!

GREAT NEWS!! My scans looked excellent. Hardly anything was lit up....which means hardly any cancer tumors to be found!! So.....this means 3 months of just Herceptin and NO chemo!!! Yeah and PTL!!! This will give me time to recoupe and get all my blood counts back up again. The doc hopes to see the same scan results in 3 months. We talked with him about what to expect in the future and he said there WILL be cancer spots appearing again. At that time we will hit them with the newest and greatest! :-) But for now, we are going to enjoy the new me and maybe grow some hair!!!

We are praising the Lord for these results!

firsts...

2011-08-11T00:22:00.000-04:00

Easton lost his first baby tooth last weekend! My baby boy is growing up! He is pretty proud of his new look, he had been wiggling that poor little tooth for a long time!

Here is another first...

Our first house warming gift! And yes, that is a horse!

Our friend Krista's family donated 2 cute miniature horses for the Rodeo for Ryan benefit auction. Ryan (my husband) told Krista that he was interested in buying one. While at the Rodeo on Saturday night, our friend Barb told us she was going to buy us this cute little miniature horse as a house warming gift.

Well, when the first horse went to Barb, our friend Krista bid on horse #2 because she didn't see Ryan bidding on it and thought he would want it, so she bought horse #2 for us. Afterwards, we found out we were the new owners of horse #1 and horse #2! Too funny, we laughed so hard, we have never owned a horse before, so this is definitely another first!
We paid for the horse Krista bid on for us and she was gracious enough to keep the horses for us until we are ready for them! The kids are super excited, Easton, Anaya and Lucy will be able to ride them in a few months, how funny will that be! Apparently they will only be a little bit bigger than they are now. Can't wait to see horse #2. We have yet to name them...I am sure this isn't the last you will hear about them!

Demolition week 1...

2011-08-06T00:10:00.000-04:00

The boys are LOVING demo!!

removing the drop ceiling tiles...

Look at how much height we gained, so glad we did this!

Jayden found 2 hammers in the ceiling!

My brother in law Matt came up and power washed the garage. Thank you Matt!!

I took these down right away, there was one on every tree out front! Talk about unwelcoming! We figure no trespassing is a given, and those who want to do so, well, they aren't going to stop because of a sign!

taking down the bulkheads...

lots of old wall paper...

Kitchen before the walls came down and after!

wow!

Thanks to all of our hard working helpers!

This paint was supposed to be scrapped and sanded, however, it peeled off like wall paper in large sheets!

We took off the subfloor they had put on upstairs and we are going to paint the floors.

We got a ton done this week and it looks a lot worse, but I guess that's the way it goes in the world of home renovation! Plumbing, heating, and electrical are up next!!

After pulling nails and working so hard on the new house, we went home and Spencer got his finger caught in between his bike chain and sprocket, so we made a trip to the ER! Nothing was broken and he didn't even need stitches, though he will loose his nail and has a couple of nasty cuts, they cleaned it all out and bandaged it up and sent us on our way 2 and a half hours later...! Oh, well, we are thankful he is fine!

The good, bad and the ugly.....

2011-08-02T22:13:00.000-04:00

The good...

this house has potential and lots of character...

Love all of the big trees...

There are 2 barns and 5 acres{the boys have big plans}...

nice open layout...

large wrap around front porch overlooking an orchard...

love, LOVE, LOVE the large windows!

living room{above}dining room {below}...

The bad...this is our bedroom{it's a little small, which is fine, but there is not a master bath, boo!}

the kitchen, it is NASTY, grimy, smelly, yucky, you get the idea...

stairwell wall and ceiling falling apart...

Oh my, the bathroom, if only you could smell the stench, that is all I will say about that...

bad walls...

bad ceilings...

This should be under the good, I am so excited to have a garage again!

The ugly...well, it's just rough...

The green room is Easton and Spencer's, the blue is Dylan and Jayden's bedroom...

this room will be the kids bathroom/laundry room...

nice ceiling huh?...

the other blue room on the right is the girls bedroom...

dining room...

Yuckie!! How/why people lived like this, I will NEVER know!

love these old doors, though they need a little work!

So, there you have it! The good, the bad and the ugly! ~~We,~~ err I should say, Ryan and and the boys have been busy this week, later in the week I will post pictures of the progress thus far...It is amazing!

Rodeo for Ryan...

2011-08-01T09:16:00.000-04:00

{Not MY Ryan} but for our dear friends Ryan and Kendra Prudhomme. Please join us this Saturday, August 6, from 3 to 8 pm at Grace Adventures Paradise Ranch in Mears!

Ryan Prudhomme is 25 years old and is fighting a battle for his life. Diagnosed in April 2011 with Stage 4 liver bile duct cancer, this dynamic young man has received what can only be described as life changing news. Husband to his beautiful bride, Kendra and father to their one year old son, Colton, Ryan has not allowed his diagnosis to steal his hope or rob him of joy.

Ryan and Kendra have blogged this journey for family, friends, and strangers around the world and are proving to be an inspiration for deeper trust in the source of their hope: Jesus Christ. Ryan has described receiving this terminal diagnosis with hope and a new vision he describes as "high definition." Ryan is prioritizing his life around loving his Savior, his family and sharing the hope he has with unabashed enthusiasm and great clarity. Ryan is receiving treatment at Cancer Treatment Center of America in Chicago, IL and the Prudhomme's have been blessed with great care and doctors who are hopeful. Kendra was recently laid off due to the sweeping cuts to Michigan education and while they've received the news with certainty of the Lord's providence it does now create a financial need in the area of medical, travel, and household bills.We are convinced that as a community of family, friends, and faith, we can help meet Ryan and Kendra's needs during this time. Won’t you “Cowboy Up!” with us for the young Prudhomme family? There are a myriad of ways to help!

GIVE! COME! ROCK! PRAY! Or better yet- Do all four!

Click on the link above to find out more!

this old house...

2011-07-29T07:29:00.000-04:00

Is our new our home!!!

It seems as though this has been a long time in coming, but, we finally have a HOME!!!

We had been searching for a home and seeking Gods leading for quite a while, and as we thought about all of the possibilities for our future, a conversation I had with a friend a few months prior to going to Colombia stuck in my head. She adopted a special needs child and made a comment something to the effect of: following God and doing that adoption was such an incredible, exhilarating, and wild ride that when it was all done, it was like...now what? A few years later, they started to take steps to do a second adoption, but soon felt that God did not want them to proceed. They realized that for now, doing the seemingly "mundane", caring for their family, and ministering to others in their community is what they were supposed to do.

Doing what is in front of you, being diligent and obedient in the here and now, is just as important, although it may be much less exhilarating or glamorous at times. It's all about God, and what He wants to do in and through you, and sometimes that may look like selling everything, and moving to a foreign country or, it may 'look' very normal and boring, but I assure you, if you are seeking opportunities to serve Him, He WILL give them to you, and your life WILL NOT be anything BUT normal and boring!

I get that! We were sorta at that place, where, the adoption was done, we knew we had to move from our current house, and we wondered if God was going to use that, to send us elsewhere, especially when so many houses just didn't 'work out.' But, we prayed that God would let us know what HE wanted for us, not what we wanted, {although to be honest, staying was my first choice, I find that alone unbelievable, as most of you know I came here kicking and screaming, so to speak.}

We are excited and once again humbled by the outpouring of love from our wonderful church family. We are biting off a ~~bit~~ okay, way more than we can chew with this "fixer-upper" and once again our faithful friends are coming along side us and helping us out. We really look forward to the day that we are NOT the recipients of the blessing, but the givers!!!

Stay tuned, I will certainly be blogging about the before, during and after of our renovation {in reality, this old house could be a forever project, we are just hoping to get some of it done before the snow flies as we have to move in by then!}

We are really excited for it to be done....is that a bad thing?

So, what's the big deal?

2011-07-21T20:25:00.000-04:00

Asks Luisa...

She's sad because all she wants to do is go play outside....

But, she can't figure out why no one wants to join her {for very long,} while she jumps on the trampoline....

hmmm...

wait for it...

Oh, there it is...

The dreaded cry!

She doesn't cry often, but when she does...she really has at it!

What she doesn't understand is that while she may be used to all this heat, we are not! Poor baby!
*She did, by the way, get to jump on the tramp! Her brothers are suckers for her tears, and once they realized what she wanted, they took her back outside, for a little bit ;)

Keeping my eyes on Jesus...

2011-07-17T23:03:00.000-04:00

Okay, so here is the back story on the last post.

First off, the IRS. Funny how they demand your money from you at a certain time or else there is a big penalty, but when they owe you money, they can simply say..."We think there was a miscalculation, here is $5,000. less than what you were supposed to get, have a nice day!" Um, no, you still owe us $5,000. and so, we are fighting with the IRS. Our tax guy assures us we will get it, we just need to bug them for it! Okay tax guy, have at it, and I am so thankful that that is what he is doing!

I was hoping to post this exciting post about our 'new home,' but, we are having some major issues with our FHA, 203k "Specialist" Ha! That is a huge joke. This person is completely inept, you can read about what they are supposed to do here but, unfortunately our experience, has been one of delays, in fact, we were supposed to close on this house on June 29 and this is the 3rd extension we have had to file since our 'specialist' keeps asking for more information and more inspections usually a day before we are supposed to sign on the house! Now, I don't have a problem giving them the info and doing the inspections etc...because we don't have the $$ and we need it from them, but for heavens sake, make a list, check it twice, if certain things need to be done, tell us up front, don't wait till the last possible second!!! So, yes, we are hoping we will have a house soon, but I'm not gonna tell ya all about our new place until it is signed for! Hopefully with in the next 2 weeks...we shall see.

What does all this have to do with keeping my eyes on Jesus? Well, sometimes, especially in situations like this, I take my gaze off of Jesus and fix my eyes on something else. In this case, money or a house. All of a sudden that 'thing' becomes the most important 'thing' and well, that's just not right. I did that with Anaya, when things started going awry with her adoption, I stopped focusing on Jesus and the things God wanted me to do, learn, and cling to at that time, and I became fixated on her, and the things that were going wrong. And that, my friends, is a miserable existence. Easy to do though, isn't it? I don't know about you, but when things go wrong, I get all aflutter and start questioning, "Now, where is God in all of this, what in the world is He doing?" And while I might ask myself that, the answer I am coming up with {this time} is that God has a plan, HE knows, HE cares, and I better believe that this is for my good, and trust HIM. And so, as we wait, we are fixing our eyes on Jesus and trying to live by HIS example, waiting patiently for God to reveal HIS plan and continuing to trust HIM!

Hebrews 12

( The Message)
^1-3Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

IRS, 203K, FHA...

2011-07-11T22:11:00.000-04:00

What do all these things have in common?

They are all giving me one HUGE headache!!

We need to get a few things straightened out SOON, and I know GOD alone can move the mountains ahead.

Thanks, and I plan to expand on this topic soon...but for now, we could use some prayer!

4th of July...

2011-07-06T23:00:00.000-04:00

My sweet friend Lee loaned me her camera so I finally can post a few pictures of our holiday weekend! It was a great weekend, one I would repeat every weekend if possible! We spent time with friends, went to the beach every day, and had fun hanging out with everyone home!! Ryan was gone on a mission trip the week before, so it was wonderful to have him around for an extended time.

playing in our 'big sandbox!'

Silver Lake

Ryan and the boys in the lake below, I stayed on top of the hill this night as they only had a little while to swim, no way I was going to go down and come right back up that ginormous hill!

The kids sliding down the dunes.

girls climbing back up the hill, love the ruffle bottoms!

Campfires + hotdogs + s'mores, = summer fun!

a little target practice...

We even rode our bikes all the way to the dunes! Easton rode on this little tiny bike, the sprocket on that thing is so small, he had to pedal 20x's more than we did, and he never complained!

Lucy loved the sand, she laid in the sand, rolled around in the sand, slid in the sand....

did several face plants in the sand! We would just dunk her under water and she was good to go, she loved being dunked, crazy girl!!

Spencer was digging a big hole with his hands and found a shovel!

the ginormous hill we had to climb

Thank goodness for a strong big brother, Lucy was getting tired, but there was no way I could carry her!

We only have one bike seat so we took turns riding and having the girls ride, this was Luisa's first bike ride{with us, at least!}

a couple of updates...

2011-06-26T21:47:00.000-04:00

After we returned from Disney, my sister in law Lisa had an appointment at Mayo, she was not expecting good news as she had a lump in her side and was overjoyed to learn that it is some sort of radiation related scar tissue! AND the tumors have shrunk some since her last appointment! WOWSERS! We were all thrilled with this news. Please continue to pray for her as she continues to fight on!

Along that same line, our friend Ryan who is also fighting cancer received good news at his appointment as well!

We also had a great report on Luisa, her immune system is almost back up where it should be, and her levels of HIV are coming down! Still waiting for those numbers to be 'normal' and 'undetectable,' but we are seeing progress and she is doing great! We don't have to go back to the lung specialist for about 8 months as her breathing is normal, she is not on any breathing treatments, she is still on medication for reflux, but we think she will be able to go off of that soon as well!

Praising God for these good reports!

Florida part 2...

2011-06-16T23:08:00.000-04:00

We met Ryan's family at the airport and rode the Magical Express to our Disney hotel! Man, do those folks at Disney know how to do it up!!

The gang, all 19 of us waiting for the bus.

Anaya did pretty good with most of the characters.

Lucy did not like the characters...at all!

Epcot

Anaya could hardly eat, she kept looking around for Mickey, she was so excited when he came around!

Lucy, however, did not like him at all!

Lucy learned how to do the "cheese" smile, and now this is the face I get when I haul out my camera!

So, that was our first day at Disney, and...that is all I got! On day 2 Ryan left my camera on the bus, and someone stole it! That is what it is, if you find something, you should turn it in, not keep it if it is not yours, so it was 'technically' stolen. I would have turned in a camera if I found one, unfortunately, a bad apple found it and kept it...anyhow, enough about that....I am not too upset, I hated that camera, it took terrible pictures, just sad that some people are so evil, and that my husband looses things, although if you ask him, he just misplaces them for a while...ok Ryan, whatever! I do love that man though!

Anyhow, we had a fabulous time, actually glutenous is what I should say. We ate way too much, but enjoyed our time together! Here are a few random moments I will never forget...

*Anaya hiding under the table when Goofy came around! Too funny, he was looking under the table for her and she screamed! Then he came near Lucy and she freaked as well! {Of course we were laughing so hard while they were both terrified, I am such a bad mother!}

*While eating at Ohana's, I looked at the shrimp and asked if it needed to be peeled, just as I am asking this I got my answer by the horrific look on Lisa's face as she was crunching through the nasty outer shell that yes, indeed needed to be peeled off! Oh so funny! Sorry Lisa, I am still picturing your face and laughing!

*I took Anaya on the Snow White ride, and forgot about the scary witch...well, in order to make light of the situation I explained that it was just a nasty little witch that someone painted on cardboard, that it was fake and that she would not see her again. Well, she was with my sister in law Sarah and said, "I think I see that nasty little witch!" Umm...what did you say? Oh boy, that doesn't sound good coming from a 4 year old! But sure enough, she was right, the same witch was in the window of a store! oops! Poor baby, she still talks about that thing! I never let her or any of my kids watch those old Disney movies because of the witches, so they were unfamiliar with them, I should have known better than to take her on that ride!

It was an awesome trip, we were busy from sun up to sun down, so now that the laundry is finally done, I am enjoying the slower pace at home! A big "Thank you" to Ryan's parents for an unforgettable family trip, and our trip planner Sarah who had everything planned out just perfectly, we had a great time!!!

When I get more pictures from the rest of the family, I will post them!

Florida part 1...

2011-06-09T23:51:00.000-04:00

It's a good thing we had this vacation scheduled a long time ago, as we have a busy summer ahead, and this will definitely be our last vacation for a while! Last year my father in law retired and decided to take us all to Disney!! So, we decided to go a couple days early and enjoy a relaxing vacation with just our "little" family. We spent Tuesday - Friday at Daytona Beach enjoying a little down time. Tomorrow morning we will meet up with the rest of Ryan's family and begin our Disney adventure!

The girls found this to be an uneventful, relaxing flight, they both zonked out for a while!

Hey, we can take the shuttle home when we're done with Disney!
{We live in Mears, MI!}

Luisa wasn't too sure about all that water at first,

but, it didn't take long and she was running into the waves and got soaked! She got tired and chilled after a while, but she loved the beach!

Look at all those cuties! We are so blessed!

Our ocean front hotel, found on Priceline {name your own price} for $43 a night!

Anaya loving on Daddy.

Luisa took Easton's football away, and ran for her life! She thought it was so much fun as he was chasing after her!

Panorama of the beach with our hotel in the center. I am glad they aren't allowed to drive on the beaches at home, it just adds another danger to the mix!

Jayden searching for shells. Every time we take a beach vacation, {like all of 3 times now!} we collect shells and make a picture frame out of them with a family photo of us on the beach. This wasn't the best shelling beach, but we found plenty.

Anaya loved the kiddie pool, and tolerated the beach.

Luisa is a water rat! She loved it when the boys would splash her, the more the better, Anaya, on the other hand, got out when the boys got in! {I would have too!}

YAY! Everyone is looking for our beach vacation photo!

playing in the sand

Lucy loving on Daddy, she really bonded with him these last few days!

Lucy loving on Easton!

It was so nice to just relax together as a family. We are excited for part 2, beginning tomorrow!!!

Happy Birthday Easton!!

2011-06-06T22:30:00.000-04:00

I can't believe my baby boy is 6 years old already!

We love you Easton Daniel, you are such a fun little guy, and you bring us so much joy!!

We are heading out bright and early tomorrow morning to do our first post placement report.
{I can't believe it has been 3 months since Luisa was officially our daughter!}
Then we are heading to FLORIDA!!!

finally done with school....

2011-06-03T22:27:00.000-04:00


I'm gonna miss this! Dylan reading the history book to Jayden. I love how close they are, I pray that will continue.

Hebrews 13

¹Let brotherly love continue.

We are usually done in early spring, but because of our trip to Colombia, we were a tad behind! It's bitter-sweet though, as this was Dylan's last day of home school! {We think...} He will be going to school next year, and I am going to miss having him around! But, it's time, he is ready, and wants to attend school so he can play sports, and let's face it, he needs to learn math from someone other than me! I bottom out around 5th grade math, so for the last 2 years we have muddled through, and I am DONE!
Jayden thinks he is going to graduate from home school...um, we may have to hire math out if that is the case!! We shall see. Each kid is different and we take it one day at a time.
I love the time I get to spend with the kids while we do school {most of the time,} but I look forward to keeping up with the house work. YAY for summer!!

Jayden's turn...

2011-05-28T23:40:00.000-04:00

Jayden joined the ranks of the stitches club today when playing with sticks {aka swords} in the woods.

In case you lost count, this makes 3 Vander Zwaag children to have stitches in the past 7 weeks! Before this, Dylan had stitches when he was about 5 or 6, and Easton's head had to be glued before he was a year old. They have all been in almost the same place too {with the exception of Dylan, his was on his finger.} Weird. But, like I always say, "If we can keep it to stitches and broken bones, I will be a happy camper."

Max...

2011-05-28T23:11:00.000-04:00

Saying good bye to Max.

We had to put our dear sweet Golden Retriever, Max, to "sleep." He was only 3&1/2 years old, but he had cancer. We had the first lump removed while I was in Colombia, but when the 2nd lump came so quickly, and on one of his nerves in his hip, there was nothing we could do. He was in pain, and it was heartbreaking to see him suffer. I have never really liked a dog before, but I REALLY liked Max, {or Maxey boy as I affectionately called him.} We are sad, but we know and love a few HUMANS who have cancer, and are fighting for their lives right now, so it helps to keep things in perspective. He was the best dog, and will be missed!!

Here are a couple of links to blogs of some families we know who are dealing with cancer, I know they would appreciate your prayers.
Kristi
Ryan

umm, okay, so I have a little problem...

2011-05-24T22:18:00.000-04:00

I'm mean! (at least one of my kids thinks so!) I can not help it, but I have the tendency {like, as in most of the time}to laugh when someone falls or gets slightly injured.{Now, if it is something major, I usually am able to hold it in, but...} My poor kids, they trip and fall and scrape up their face, and I, the loving mother that I am, I laugh! I really feel bad for them and run to their rescue, however the laughter is always my first reaction. Well, it dawned on me recently that my behavior is all the result of watching America's Funniest Videos. We love that show and I have watched it since I was a kid. The whole premise of the show is based on people falling, tripping or otherwise injuring themselves and what do we do? We sit around and laugh at it! Yep, it's not my fault, so next time something unfortunate happens to you, and I burst out laughing, please don't be mad at me, blame it on AFV!!

getting A decent picture of my kids...

2011-05-19T22:29:00.000-04:00

Well, lets just say, it is NOT an easy task...
"Okay Guys, Mom just wants one good picture, stand still and look over here please!"
"Jayden, drop that stick..."

"Come on guys, look at mom!"

"Spencer, leave your sister alone!"

"NOW!"

"Jayden, get your hands off Lucy's head!"

"Dylan!"

"Come on Jayden!"

{we're getting close}

"Anaya!"

"Lucy!"

{Oh so close...}

{almost...}

{not there yet...}

"YES!"

"Good job!"

"I think..."

"We may..."

"have a good one in there somewhere.."{whew!}

the great outdoors...

2011-05-17T22:52:00.000-04:00

In another post, I will show you how many pictures it took to get this one with all of them smiling AND looking my way!

Nothing clears the heart and mind as well as a leisurely walk through the woods with the family. Today we were waiting to hear about a bid we put on yet another house{still have not heard about that,} and our dear sweet dog Max is not doing well at all. He had a tumor removed while I was in Colombia, and he now has another tumor, and we are afraid it may be cancer. He is in a ton of pain so we took him back to the vet today and he gave us some stronger pain meds to make him comfortable. So sad! I have never really cared all that much for an animal before, but I absolutely adore Max!

We thought we may be a tad late looking for morels, but Spencer was the first to spot one, and the next and the next...all together he found 35!!!

I found a few, Lucy kept watching me stare at the ground, and bend over and pick up a morel so she would bend over and grab a few leaves and hand them to me. I think she was totally confused as to what we were looking for! Sweet girl.

Jayden found a few too!

Anaya kept saying "I found one!", but then she would say..."nope!" Funny girl.

The boys were sucessful in turkey hunting this year, not the daddy though!! He had his chance, but he just can't shoot straight!=)

Jayden and his huge tom with a 9 and 3/4 inch beard!

And Dylan shot this jake earlier in the season.

The boys went out fishing and we had our first fish fry a few weeks ago!

Psalm 104:24 {The Message}

What a wildly wonderful world, God!
You made it all, with Wisdom at your side,
made earth overflow with your wonderful creations.

2011-05-14T23:07:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, Anaya asked for doughnuts, so...

We started out the morning with home made doughnuts!

{check out my table cloth...yep, that's life at our house, nice.}

Easton and his sweet powdered sugar face

Then for dinner, we had hot dogs and s'mores outside over the fire, I love this weather!

Boys!

Lucy loves the trampoline and her big brother Dylan...

and I think he is pretty fond of her too!

history lesson...

2011-05-10T14:10:00.001-04:00

The boys keep asking if I remember when____________happened and if I was alive back then when__________, etc...I have to keep reminding them that what they are learning in their history books is, of course, RECENT history!
{Uh, excuse me boys, I AM NOT OLD!!!}

But, um yes, when I was younger, I do remember...

Ugh, yes, I guess I am getting old!

Happy Birthday Anaya!!!

2011-05-05T23:36:00.000-04:00

4 years old already, how can this be!

We love you so much Anaya!

more stitches...

2011-05-03T17:37:00.000-04:00

It's been a crazy couple of weeks around here! Last week Sunday, Easton needed 3 stitches. On Thursday, I took Anaya in to the doctor for strep throat. While there, the doctor also took out Easton's stitches. Friday Luisa was at DeVos for some more bloodwork. And, yesterday Anaya fell off of her scooter and needed 2 stitches! Thank goodness for insurance!

She was so excited to get stitches, look at her grin! Crazy kid!

Who woulda thunk Anaya would get stitches before Spencer!?! Certainly not me.

Notice her fat lip as well, that happened earlier in the day when she fell off her bike! She also started to get a tad nervous, as you can tell, the smile left her face after they put the numbing gel on. But she never even cried or flinched when they did the shot and the stitches!

Luisa kicking back and relaxing, happy she is not the one getting all of the attention this time!

She was such a brave girl, and she is happy to tell everyone that... "I am such a brave girl!" She did just as well as Easton did, and had to let him know that too!

She kept asking for the doctor to come back in, and I told her she had to be patient and wait. A few minutes later the nurse came and gave her a sticker that said VIP Very Important Patient. She said, "Yes, that is because I am being so patient!"

Happy Gotcha day Anaya!!!

2011-04-28T00:01:00.000-04:00

This is the cute little baby that I picked up 3 years ago today!!!

And this is the beautiful little girl she has turned into!

ANAYA

You fill our lives with your personality plus, plus, and can I just say, we love you so much!

We love your giant brown eyes and serious expressions, you're just a little pipsqueak, but have taught us many lessons.

You are highly animated and full of energy and most of the time, you are as happy as can be.

You are super smart and a tad sassy too, but we just can't imagine our lives without you!

Today we celebrate 3 years of Anaya being in our family!!

Psalm 118:23&24 (NASB)

²³This isthe LORD'S doing;
         It is marvelous in our eyes.
    ²⁴This is the day which the LORD has made;
         Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Easter weekend...

2011-04-25T22:33:00.000-04:00

Friday night we enjoyed a Good Friday service at church and then Ryan had a youth activity that night which the boys all stayed for. Just as they were leaving the church, Easton fell and cracked his head open! So, off we went to the ER at 10:30pm! 3 stitches and almost 2 hours later we were back home and in bed!


My brave little man! The ER Dr. asked if I was his wife and he said yes! So cute.

Saturday morning we had 3 soccer games at the same time! {Wish we could do that every week.} Then Ryan's family came over and we celebrated a few birthdays, Mothers Day, and Easter. This is the first time some of the cousins ever met Luisa.

Everyone checking her out!

All kids ready for an egg hunt!

Lucy got the hang of it right away!

um, uncle Robb, it's supposed to be for the kids!

Stitches didn't slow him down!

Everyone counting their eggs to be sure we got them all!

Back inside we emptied all the goodies from the eggs. Luisa got bored watching the others open gifts so she decided to check all of the eggs and make sure there wasn't any candy left!

The birthday girls!
On Sunday we headed down to my parents house for lunch and did another egg hunt.

All dressed up on Easter Sunday.

What a blessing to be able to spend time with family, and celebrate the fact that we serve a RISEN savior!

Matthew 28:6

⁶ He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.

Updates...

2011-04-21T22:16:00.000-04:00

First and foremost, I want to let everyone know that God has answered a HUGE prayer request!!

We have been praying for my sister -in -love Lisa and the newest round of chemo she was on, as it was wreaking havoc on her body. Well, they just got wonderful news from her appointment at Mayo, they said... the treatment is working!! And her doctor is also going to switch some of her meds as he thinks that it should be easier on her body and still shrink the tumors! Quality and quantity of life! That is what we have been and will continue praying for!!

Next up is Luisa...

She is doing great, her bronchoscopy went very well, she did awesome, and Mommy did good too {I only teared up a little!}

Some of the tests came back already and some are still out, but so far so good. We are so blessed by this little trooper. She is a sweetheart, very calm and easy going, perfect personality for all of the waiting around at doctor and hospitals!

Finally, we could use some prayer as we are searching for a place to live. Every house we have pursued, has not worked out, which is fine, we want what God wants for us, but we do need something! ....Please pray we are put on the right path!

Proverbs 3:5-6 (New Living Translation)

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
⁶ Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.

First Dr. visit...

2011-04-16T23:43:00.000-04:00

Precious baby girl in her big gown

We had Luisa's first PID (pediatric infectious disease) doctors appointment last week Friday. We started out at DeVos Childrens hospital for chest x-rays and then we went over to the Dr.'s office. The chest x-rays showed some 'abnormalities' so the doctor was going to call the pulmomologist to get his opinion. She sent us down for lunch and told us to check back after we had Luisa's blood drawn to see if he was able to look at the x-ray or not.

While we were at lunch, God arranged a little impromptu get together for us! The pulmonlogist and our doctor met in passing while in the hall right in front of the cafe, the cafe that we were eating in! So there we all were! We were able to talk for a bit and he told us to come up to his office as soon as we were finished. YAY God! We got an appointment with the pulmonologist the same day! Luisa is scheduled for a bronchoscopy on Tuesday afternoon at DeVos. We would appreciate your prayers!

The good news is that her viral load (amount of hiv in a ml of blood) is now 1,347 copies, down from approximately 90,000 copies in January!! This is a lot of medical jargon to say that...we are heading in the right direction! Eventually we want to see this number be below 50, at which, she will be considered 'undetectable'. This is because she is receiving her medications on a regular basis under our care! Thank you Lord for ARV's (antiretroviral drugs) and their life saving capabilities!

I know there are millions of people all over the world who do not have access to these drugs, and are dying. It breaks my heart.

So I'm little niave...

2011-04-11T23:05:00.000-04:00

Even though we have a public blog, and we have told 'everyone' we know about Luisa's HIV, I do enjoy the fact that the vast majority of the people that I pass on a daily basis know nothing about Luisa's health. Imagine my surprise when last week, we were featured on several online news sites including MSNBC, and FOX. I had no idea that was going to happen! Let me explain...

We were asked to do an interview by Bethany Christian Services about families adopting HIV + children. We agreed, and soon we were contacted by David Crary of the AP. Well, I am now embarrassed to admit that I had no idea what the AP exactly was, yes, the Associated Press, but I figured it was A newspaper in New York or something, no big deal. We both did separate phone interviews with David, and he told me it would run the first weekend of April. Okay...

Well, I was curious as to how I was going to get myself a copy of the AP so we could see it, but was too embarrassed to ask him{THANK THE GOOD LORD} so, I asked my brother in law...

He told me that the AP was not, in fact A paper, but rather sold their stories to MANY papers or news organizations! Oh dear. Well, I googled our name and the name of the reporter and came up with nothing, so I forgot about it. Until about 2 days later when I started getting emails about us being on MSNBC...What?

Sure enough, then on Fox news and other sites as well, I thought, "maybe no one else will notice" But....Soon, it was all over facebook! It wouldn't have been so bad, but, I really hate that people can comment on those articles and I knew from my experienced friend Carolyn, that there would be plenty of haters out there! So I decided not to read them. Ryan on the other hand, wanted to read them all...I asked for only a briefing on the percentage of negative vs. positive. It was weird, but then...

When I was shopping at Meijer the next day, the check out lady recognized me, and told me that we were on the front page of the local paper! *Nice*{Not!} Then, the next day, it was in yet another local paper.

Everyone has been asking how this all came about...well, now you know "The rest of the story!"
{I am just super naive, and had no clue! But, it was a decent, well balanced article and I guess it did get the message out there...it was just a little weird, and way out of my comfort zone!}

2 Corinthians 5:19b-20a ~ The Message

God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We're Christ's representatives.

2011-04-08T23:49:00.000-04:00

Heaven gained a great man this week. My friends dad, Larry Hurley died Thursday morning. We are grieving with the Hurley family as they walk this difficult path. But, we do not grieve as those without hope. Larry loved the Lord, and his family is taking comfort in the fact that one day, they will see him again. Please pray for them as they learn how to do life without their beloved dad, husband and grampa! We love you guys and pray that God will heal your broken hearts and give you His peace.

A few prayer requests...

2011-04-05T13:09:00.000-04:00

One of my very best friends Dad had a heart attack on Sunday. Here is what was posted on his care page:

On Sunday morning, April 3, Larry had a heart attack and was pronounced dead after no response for nearly 30 minutes. However, the doctor came out shortly thereafter to inform us that on his own he regained a pulse and was breathing. He was transferred from Zeeland Hospital to Spectrum-Butterworth. There was not too much damage to the heart, one artery was 99% blocked and they put in a stint. As of now, he is in an induced coma and on cooling mats and medication for the next 24 to 36 hours. After that, they will let him regain his temperature and see how he responds. Not sure how he will wake up and respond but we will be praying for a second miracle at that time.

We are praying big today, please join us! We have seen God's hand and know He is in control. Tim already had to tell Mom that Dad was gone once, only for them to get a call 5 minutes later saying there was a pulse. We are praying for another miracle!
Kadie

Would you please join us in praying for him and his precious family.

We have a friend who just found out he has cancer. Please Pray for Ryan and Kendra as they wait to hear the exact details and what options they have. They are young parents to a sweet baby boy and are completely trusting God and praising him during this uncertain time.

And last, but not least, is my sweet sister-in-love who has her next chemo treatment scheduled for tomorrow. The last time she had a treatment they found out she has colitis from the radiation (I believe,) and it caused extreme pain. They know this now, so they have a plan, but we are praying that she will have very few side effects and that this chemo treatment shrinks the tumors that are there.

So many dear friends struggling through rough stuff, we are asking all prayer warriors to join us!

Thanks.

Ephesians 3:20 (The Message)

²⁰God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!

Brand new parents...

2011-04-04T23:12:00.000-04:00

That's what we are right? We certainly did not act like the seasoned vets we are supposed to be! Poor Lucy had an all out, blow out diaper. I yelled for Ryan to come help me. We brought her into the laundry room and I hauled off her shirt, then we both looked at each other and said..."now what?" Yikes! We were both acting as though we had never done this before, after assessing the situation, we came up with a plan and Lucy was clean as a whistle in no time! We all had a good laugh, even Lucy thought it was pretty funny, poor baby, I think we need to start potty training her soon. However, I have no idea how to potty train a child. Seriously, I did it with Dylan many moons ago, but all of the other kids just kinda did it themselves. I have been blessed with quick easy potty trainers. But, I think it would be very helpful if she could just go on the potty so we can avoid these nasty blow outs! We shall see, I have been asking other moms the best way to go about it, and I think we will give it a try in the near future! Oh the joys of parenting...

Are you ready Lucy?

Josiah Nole....

2011-04-01T19:08:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the family!!

My sister Jen gave birth to my newest nephew on March 31, he weighed 8lbs 2oz and he is absolutely perfect!

love him!

Big sister Olivia is in love!

The girls{My mom, sister Steph, Anaya, Lucy} and I headed to Chicago as soon as we found out Jen was going to the hospital. My mom and Steph were able to be in the delivery room, I stayed at Jen's house with the girls, as I didn't want to leave Luisa just yet. I got to meet little Josiah before Jen got to meet Luisa! Poor Jen has been itching to see her, and the hospital does not allow children {except siblings} under 12 to visit. So close, yet so far away! But, both mom and baby are coming home tonight and she will be able to meet her, and I get to snuggle with a newborn, if I can fight off the other members of the family! So much fun!!

what we've been up to lately...

2011-03-29T22:49:00.000-04:00

Just when you think you are done with the adoption paperwork, there is a huge pile at home waiting for you!!! Fun stuff. NOT!
Paperwork and the photo book of our trip that I am working on are keeping me busy lately besides normal family life. But, on Saturday, the girls and I went shopping.

I showed the girls the finer points of shopping, like stopping for a FOOD break! Auntie Anne's pretzels were a big hit!

Anaya was actually dancing around she was having so much fun!

We went shopping because I needed a new pillow, since someone...{Lucy}stole mine! She was waking up at least one time each night, but then I gave her one of my pillows (she had one, but it wasn't a nice down filled one,) and wouldn't you know it, she has been sleeping much better ever since! Poor girl, I can't sleep without the right pillow either, so I completely understand. However, since I gave her one of mine, I needed a new one! I found just the right one at Bed Bath and Beyond and we have both been sleeping great ever since!

Ryan loves being pampered by the girls!

On Friday Lucy got to meet Aunt Sarah, and cousin Taylor. She also got to meet Uncle Robb and Aunt Lisa, however, Lisa was at the hospital so I spared her the picture taking{although she looked great!}
Lisa is home now, but would love your prayers as she is going another round of chemo soon!

Sunday we took Luisa to church for the first time and met many of the people who prayed and helped to bring her home! It is good to be home, {except for the snow! Yuck!}

Ryan and the boys put the trampoline up. The kids have been loving it!

Luisa loves playing "ring around the rosies", especially the "all fall down" part.

We have been going through houses, trying to figure out exactly where God wants us...lots of praying for wisdom, and direction.

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our new niece or nephew, my sister Jen is due any day now!

That is just a bit of what we have been doing over the last few days. Everyone is doing well and we are just enjoying being together.

Thank You!

2011-03-26T21:16:00.000-04:00

We just want to take a moment to say "THANK YOU!" to all of you who helped us in any way, shape or form throughout this whole adoption process. We are so incredibly grateful for the love, and support we have received not only from family and friends, but complete strangers as well. God has been so gracious to us, and we have had the time of our lives watching Him provide for each and every need that we had using so many of you! Thank you for being obedient and carrying out that which God laid on your hearts! We had no idea how we were going to bring this sweet girl home, we only knew God had called us to do so, and it is because of many of you, she is here!

Ephesians 1:15 (The Message)

15-19 That's why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the followers of Jesus, I couldn't stop thanking God for you—every time I prayed, I'd think of you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!

the girls...

2011-03-24T22:48:00.000-04:00

Being goofy...

and reading the paper!

Lucy can't leave her hands off baby Ryan either!

the girls beating up on the boys!

I really had myself psyched up for a rough road, adopting a toddler. But, we have been having so much fun! Luisa just putters around the house and plays so well with the kids. They, of course just adore her, {thus far,} and are having a great time watching her explore.

Thankfully she doesn't dare to go down our twirly stairs, she stands at the top and yells "Mommy!" That is the word for help me get down, anyone can bring her, but she always yells mommy! She can waltz right up the steps though, so that is a tad nerve wracking!

She is saying: Momma and Mommy {of course!}Bye, Agua~(she uses this for any liquid she wants to drink,) no toque(no touch in Spanish) usually with finger wagging, gato(cat,) ball, she says something like zapato's (datos) for shoes, all done while signing{so she actually has 3 languages!} brothers or something similar, she tries to say Anaya and Dylan (it just doesn't come out quite right,) Daddy, and just today she said "Hi Dad," and came running to gave Ryan a hug just like the other kids when he came home from work! So mostly a mix of Spanish and English, but not too many words really, she mostly just points and grunts, screams, or squeals. She totally understands Spanish, so if I need her to do something I say it in Spanish then English.

She has a really long torso, and a big ole' belly so most of the stuff that fit Anaya at this age does not fit miss Lucy! It won't be long and I have the feeling the girls will be in the same size!

She wakes up on average about once each night, however she did wake up about 4 times one night! She did that in Colombia too, but there, she was in my room so I just rolled over and patted her back. Now, I have to go down the twirly stairs in the middle of the night...not fun. But, all I do is tuck her back into bed (usually she is sitting on the floor, or standing by Anaya's bed, sometimes she is still in bed) and kiss her and she calms right down and goes back to sleep. She is such a sweet little thing! I can not fathom what she must be thinking. I would really love to know!

Our first couple of days...

2011-03-21T23:29:00.000-04:00

The girls enjoying their first dress up tea party, with Easton as their servant!

Too cute!

Yes, that is a lot of mac-n-cheese!

sweet sippy sporting sisters!

listening to the piano...it is monkey see, monkey do over here!!

walking around in mommy's heels.

Lucy fell in the dirt, and she did not like it on her hands...

So while mom snapped pictures, big sister came to her rescue!

She didn't know what to think about the deer target in the yard, she was cracking us all up!

Running away from the deer.

Her first feel of snow! She threw it down and wanted to get more just to throw it again.

Still not fond of the deer.

But, she loves the cats!

So far it has been going very well. Luisa just fits so well in our family, she has been a great addition, guess God knows what he is doing! We stand amazed. She loves the kids and seems to be having a great time here. We absolutely love her and could not have asked for a smoother transition, thus far....

Thank you Lord, for the gift of Luisa. She is such an amazing blessing, we are so incredibly grateful for allowing us the opportunity to be her family!

our homeward bound journey....

2011-03-21T13:38:00.001-04:00

Lucy and sweet staff member (forgot his name) outside of Hotel Paris

All ready to go at 5:30 am!

Reynal was our driver the whole time in Bogota.

We left the hotel at 5:30, picked up Helena {our agency rep. here in Colombia} and headed to the airport. We got to the airport by around 6am and Helena came in to make sure we had everything all set. OH. MY. WORD. I had no idea how important she would be. I made it up to the ticket counter successfully but then the Delta lady said something to the effect of..."you need to have today's date on the permission document, this won't work." Um, Helena??? I quickly went and had her come to my side, she was standing back with all of the kids. So started a long conversation in Spanish, that I could tell was not going in my favor. We were directed to go upstairs to the immigration office. Once there, things went about the same way, except the lady at the ticket counter was nice. This man was not. They all spoke only Spanish,(I would have been in big trouble if Helena was not there!) he said we needed to have Ryan hand write a letter stating that Luisa could leave the country this day and scan it and send it to 4 email addresses. I knew right away, this could be a problem since I have the only computer that works with our scanner, and we live in...let's just say a very small town with no office max or kinkos available to run to. So, I asked it it could be faxed. No. Okay, so I call Ryan, no answer.
Tried again, and again, and again, leaving extremely frantic messages at this point.
We went to a place and paid to use a computer to send him an email so that he knew what to write in the letter, and the addresses to send them to.
I sat down with the boys and prayed. I called again, this time he answered his phone. I explained the situation and he hung up and tried to find someone here with a scanner he could use.
I called him back 10 minutes later. He had called 12 people, with no success.
At this point it was about 8am. Flight leaves at 9:30, and we had not gone through security yet. We went and got the kids some doughnuts and I got a coffee. Helena went back to the immigration office and I waited with Reynal and the kids. We waited and waited and waited. I didn't have the phone to call Ryan so I had no idea if he had found a scanner or what, I just stood there and prayed. I knew it wasn't the end of the world, but at that point, I just wanted to go home!
Finally around 9am Reynal said "listo" so we went to the immigration office and Helena gave me the thumbs up! She handed me her phone so I could tell Ryan we were all set.
We quickly headed out and they waited while we went thorough security, and once on the other side, we waved goodbye!
Then we still had to clear immigration, and for whatever reason the lady who knew we were in the office earlier, read EVERY. SINGLE. WORD. of EVERY. SINGLE. PAPER. We could see from the monitor that they were boarding the plane, and there we stood, waiting! Finally she stamped all of our passports and we headed for our gate. There were Delta people standing there and they called ahead to tell them we were coming. We had to then go through the next security check and finally boarded the plane with about 2 minutes to spare. Then we were off, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief, and a big prayer of thanks to God! The kids were great through all of this and did a wonderful job on the plane as well.

*Apparently a new 'law' came into effect on the 15th of March stating that the permission paperwork that is required in order for one parent to leave the country with kids without the other parent, must include the date they are leaving. Well, with adoptions, you don't know the date when the other parent leaves. With the old law, we just needed permission from Ryan to leave, which we had. But now the date must be included, which wouldn't be a problem if you are aware of that before hand, and they could get the document ready. So apparently there is a meeting going on this week with ICBF and Colombia Immigration to try to figure out this 'issue.' Which wouldn't had been an issue, if they would let the agencies know this ahead of time! So goes dealing with the government!!*

Luisa found perros! (Dogs. She seems to really like animals)

They were happy campers to be heading home.

Do you see the lady next to Lucy? She had on a black mask and Lucy sat there and stared at her forever! Luckily she couldn't see her...but I was cracking up! Here she was watching a movie with the headphones, she kept pointing and saying "Mommy, mommy..." to show me everything that was going on. So cute!

We made it through immigration with out any issues. Only waited a little bit and the guy was extremely nice! Whew, blessed relief!

Our first stop after immigration and rechecking our bags in Atlanta was of course CHILIS!!! Welcome to America honey!

We were so hungry, the food on the plane was nasty so none of us had eaten lunch and it was now around 5:30pm.

Luisa has the worst ever dirty diapers, and I am sure it is from the awful meds she is on, so I packed another pair of pants in the bag. I did not however, plan on having to change her shirt! We had to give her a bath in the sink of the family restroom we found! I contemplated dumping the outfit she was wearing, and would have, except I made the shirt, so I decided to try to salvage it {yes it was that bad!} so we double bagged the dirty outfit and stopped at a store in the airport and bought a new one for her, a souvenir to remember the massive mess there. It even says USA on it! She was not thrilled about the whole ordeal.

After all of that, I needed a Starbucks! I used up my last gift card from Christmas. bummer.

We found a quiet corner to give Lucy her meds around 8pm.

I even shared my coffee with the kids. And then we were off...

Crazy kids

Sweet girl slept the entire flight from Atlanta to Grand Rapids.

Arriving in Grand Rapids to a group of waiting friends and family...

Daddy!

Everyone checking her out, and vice versa!

What is going on here?

So thankful for dear friends that came out to welcome us home late at night!

Together at last!

All strapped in the vehicle ready to go!

She did really good on the ride home, we wondered how it would go being strapped into a car seat. She sat and watched a movie and had to show me everything..."Mommy, Mommy..." Then started getting sick of it about 10 minutes from home, but never cried, she just kept arching her back, like...get me out of here!!!

Home sweet home!