Happy Easter 2015

This year Easter started off by celebrating our Savior at church.  We couldn't resist getting Ephraim all dressed up :)

 After church, Col's rents came over for a donut breakfast.  We then headed over to my parents' house for the afternoon and enjoyed our traditional Easter dinner and many yummy desserts with my extended fam.  We were able to Skype with Zack and Kristyn, which completed the day.  Thank goodness for technology so he can see his nephew, and EJ his uncle!

It's been such a joy sharing holidays with Ephraim now.  I can't wait for the many years to come as he gets older and can understand them more.  This year, I am forever grateful to have a son to read the Easter story too.  And as I prayed with him, I asked that he may someday know the amazing love of Jesus and His sacrifice for us.  

Hoping your Easter was reflective on how great God's love is for you.

what's been happening lately...

We've had a lot going on lately.  In March we dog sat at a family friends' house again, dog sat our friends' dog at our place, celebrated our niece's 1st birthday, and had a lot of family and friend time.  We had some nice quiet evenings and weekends at home with no plans which were great to relax.  Now we are entering into a crazy busy April with activities almost every night and weekend.  And unfortunately, I've started it out with the stomach bug.  I can't remember the last time I had a stomach bug, but man oh man I forgot how awful they are.  I'm on day 2, able to keep food down, and trying to re-hydrate because my muscles are killing me from dehydration.  I passed out yesterday when in the worst throws of it, so I'm glad to say that now I'm on the up and up!

We also received a call from our agency on Tuesday notifying us that we were not chosen for our most recent profiling opportunity.  We had received a call in early March about a case and have been waiting, somewhat patiently, to hear if we were picked or not.  We had decided after our last failed matches to keep all future calls quiet until we heard one way or another, because it's just too much back and forth to keep everyone informed and then say that it didn't work out.  This was the first call that we were not chosen for, since our earlier calls we were either matched or never heard back from (our very first one we were one of the families that the birthmom had narrowed it down to but we were pulled from the case when we were matched).  This is quite typical, to receive multiple calls and not be chosen, but I think it's especially hard for me because our process has been a little backwards.  Most people experience more of the wait in the beginning, with a few calls here and there where they aren't chosen, and then later get matched.  We had so many calls right away and were matched so quickly, that it's hard to get used to this, especially after losing both our matches.  But alas, we continue on and hope that spring brings a lot more calls because it's been slow and spotty (again, probably my perception after our quick start). 

I decorated the house for Easter Tuesday night.  It's so cheery and colorful, which lifts my mood. :)

I am so looking forward to our upcoming little getaway for our anniversary.  Col's planned the whole thing and it's a surprise.  All I know is that it's drive-able and out of state (which he accidentally let slip when we were talking about what to do if we were matched with this last referral).  He sent me a PowerPoint with his voice speaking the words with clues on what to pack.  I have felt the need to get away for a while now and am looking forward to a refreshing time with him!

That's all for now!  I'm so glad the sun is shining today and the weather is starting to warm up.  This has been the longest winter ever, and I need some warm weather!

Happy Easter 2013

Easter weekend started off Friday with me enjoying a quick, sunny walk down East Avenue toward Col's work as he and Mendon picked me up.  We headed straight from work, stopped in Batavia to see Deanna for a visit (she came home for the weekend!!), picked up Grandpa, and headed down to visit my parents.

(Mendon was excited, but exhausted from her day at daycare with Col.  She slept, snoring, the whole trip down.)

 

We enjoyed eating a ton of great food (mom always feeds us so well!), watching some interesting movies on TV (gpa picked Cowboys and Aliens, Monsters and Aliens, Godzilla, and some version of Cat Woman), taking walks with Mendon (where the three of us got scared by some giant chickens that were just chillin' in a neighbor's driveway), learning a new card game from gpa called 7's, and putting together a puzzle (Col and I finished this 1000 piece in the 2 days we were there...and yes, don't mind the Christmas theme).

We got an Easter basket (I love that I still get one even though I'm 26 and married; they just added stuff for Col too!  And I got him a chocolate dog in honor of our new addition.)

 

One of the best parts was going to church all together.  Honestly, I was a little grumpy that morning due to the dog waking us up early (in her defense, she wasn't used to hearing others in the house) and being the one to get up and take care of her two early mornings in a row.  But when we got to church and started worshipping, a little girl started dancing in the pew in front of us to the music.  This small act grabbed my heart and reminded me of what I should have been doing; wholeheartedly worshipping our Savior for He is alive!  Thank you Lord for moments to re-direct us!

 

Before we left, we even got to all Skype with Zack which was awesome.  It completed a great weekend!