Happy Un-Birthday to Me!

Happy Un-Birthday to me!

Sabbath was super busy with non-birthday events. Our entire church volunteered at a local nonprofit for two hours in the morning. Then we had lunch and a wonderful social time at a friend’s house. Power nap in the afternoon. And then my daughter had her first Homecoming dance in the evening. There was no time to celebrate my birthday!

Instead, I made plans ahead of time to celebrate on Sunday. It was a day full of my favorite things!

Coffee at my favorite coffee shop

Three different kinds of cheesecake!

A favorite movie

First fire of autumn

Thai food from a new-to-us restaurant. The green curry was amazing!

Even though I celebrated a day late, I made sure to do many of my favorite things. It was totally worth the wait!

Psalm 128

This was my Bible reading this morning. I wanted to read something from Psalms so flipped through until I found the correct book and started reading at the top of the page. Oh, I do so hope that this is a promise that my daughter will come home.

How blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,
Who walks in His ways.
When you shall eat of the fruit of your hands,
You will be happy and it will be well with you.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
Within your house,
Your children like olive plants
Around your table.
Behold, for thus shall the man be blessed
Who fears the Lord.
The Lord bless you from Zion,
And may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life.
Indeed, may you see your children’s children.
Peace be upon Israel!
Psalm 128

Whirlwind!

It has been a roller coaster week. I’m so glad that the Sabbath is almost here!

1 – We flew down to Phoenix for my husband’s annual company holiday party. It was great to see some of the coworkers and to see the boss face to face. Hubby is very blessed to have his boss. He’s a great boss but he has also provided a personal reference letter for our adoption and has been fully supportive of the adoption, giving time off as needed for extra doctor appointments, seeing the notary, etc.

2 – While in Phoenix, I was able to spend two days with my mom. We had fun playing games and hanging out. My mom and I keep in contact frequently via text and phone but it was nice to see her in person! This trip is probably our last before we travel to Taiwan sometime in 2014.

3 – I visited an eye specialist this week, as my optometrist found a concerning growth on my eye. She referred me to the specialist, who diagnosed it as a Salzman’s nodule. He said that surgery might be an option in the future but for now we have nothing to worry about and can just monitor it. I need to make sure to visit my optometrist regularly so that she can keep an eye on it, no pun intended.

4 – We had a flurry of emails and phone calls between our social worker, our agency, and USCIS. Apparently, even though we read it twice, we missed a typo on the first page of our home study. According to our home study, my husband is actually two years older than his real age! Oops. We’re grateful the mistake was caught now instead of by a Taiwan judge, but it held up our USCIS application. According to the last update call, we should be receiving the final decision in the mail sometime next week.

5 – In addition to the eye specialist, we also visited a regular M.D. this week to fill out our medical clearances. After a long doctor’s visit and two blood draws, we were deemed healthy enough to adopt. The doctor asked that I type up the form for him so that it wouldn’t be rejected due to illegible handwriting. I dropped off the forms this afternoon and he’s going to sign and notarize them this weekend.

6 – Phew. No wonder my husband ended up sick. It was a stressful week! Not all bad stress, but stressful. Now he’s out with a cold and fever and I’m praying that I don’t get sick as well. I hope he feels better soon!

Next week is Christmas and I pray we receive our completed medical clearances and USCIS approval before Tuesday afternoon. That would be a great Christmas present!

Blessings in disguise

We have been finding a LOT of spiders in our house lately. I had the unfortunate experience of sorting laundry on two separate occasions and seeing a spider scurry out from our laundry pile. Yup, we are definitely in need of a closed hamper. At that moment, it was confirmed that I scream like a girl.

Yesterday, Jeff called our pest control company and told them we’re starting to see an influx of spiders. Our normally scheduled visit is in about three weeks. They said they would come out today and spray for us. Yay!

When they got here, our bug guy sprayed really well and said that we might be seeing a few more spiders since it is prime spider season here. On the way out the door, he said this visit counted as a return visit instead of a normally scheduled one. Our pest control company has a policy that if they have to return and spray a second time, the visit is free. I assumed we’d be paying in full since we have a visit coming up next month. Nope!

What a blessing. Today we started the paperchasing process of the home study and the free pest control visit freed up $80 for other things. Like passport photos. And certified birth certificates. Yup, we’re definitely chasing that paper now!

Slowly but surely!

On September 24, we bought a bed. Since then, we’ve been saving our money and waiting.

Finally…

Today…

At 11:30am…

Our very empty living room

At noon…

Bruno wonders what has changed

“Is that for me?”

Our Aries cat claims it for his very own

We are very blessed! We finally have a couch and it was paid for with cash. I have to admit, it is hard to not be tempted to finance our furniture purchases. So far we’ve been able to purchase a bed, a folding table, folding chairs, an executive office chair for my husband’s work at home job, and a couch. Not bad for six month of saving and shopping around. We’re slowly furnishing our house and are avoiding debt.

God is so good!

Pity Party – Want to Come?

Earlier this afternoon, I threw myself a pity party and invited my mother. She was sympathetic and let me cry for awhile. Then we started talking about listing our blessings. I told her I would write a blog post tonight and list some of mine…

  • My husband, who brought home a pizza tonight so that I wouldn’t have to cook
  • The freedom to worship God
  • Chocolate Ice Cream
  • Pay Day!
  • A cat who hasn’t sprayed since his neuter last week
  • Peppermint Mochas
  • A well-stocked library
  • Thirty years of life

I do have a lot to be thankful for. I suppose my pity party should be turned into a thanksgiving prayer meeting instead. Thank you, Mom, for reminding me to be more aware of the blessings God has bestowed!

A hallmark day!

Our bedroom at 11:25am

Our bedroom at 11:55am

Praise the Lord! We have a bed!

It’s a queen sized organic EcoMemory Foam mattress, covered in bamboo fabric, made in California, and is produced with zero emissions.

Best of all?

We paid cash!!

It was a very long eleven week fight with multiple air mattresses but worth the sacrifice to avoid debt. We finally saved up enough money to order the bed on Friday. Thankfully, the mattress store had one in stock and could deliver this morning.

I am in desperate need of a good night of sleep. Thank you, Lord, for a new bed!!

First Preparation Day of the new year

Today is the first Friday of 2011, thus the first Preparation Day of the year. I really enjoyed beginning 2011 with the Sabbath last week. It was a great start to a new year, a chance to spend the day with God.

I like to peacefully enter the Sabbath rather than breathlessly sliding into it. Most weeks, I am not prepared for the Sabbath in advance and spend the last half hour before sundown rushing around. That is something I am trying very hard to change.

This morning, I woke up at 6:30 and had Bible study. Then I got to work. Before breakfast, I had already scrubbed down the bathroom, cleaned the kitchen, and vacuumed the apartment. Then I exercised, ate breakfast, and wondered what to do with the rest of my day! I spent a lot of time studying Japanese, working on a menu for next week, and a few other things.

But now sundown is in 40 minutes, dinner is in progress, and the house is clean! It’s a great feeling to realize that I don’t have to rush to be ready for the Sabbath. Having an entire day to rest and spend with God is such a blessing! I know I’ve said it before, but it’s true. If anyone reading this is interested, try setting aside the entire day to go to church, rest, and spend with God. He will bless you for the time you spend with Him!

Disappearance

I didn’t mean to disappear for over a week. Last Tuesday, we were notified of a family emergency. With less than two hours notice, I was on my way to Texas. After a harrowing 22 hour drive (a good portion in a snowstorm with almost 0 visibility) we arrived in Dallas.

Christmas did not go as planned. I find this especially ironic because I was struggling just over a week ago with plans with my hubby that had fallen through. Hubby and I had guests visit over Christmas, an old college friend and also my sister-in-law. We were eagerly anticipating their visit but I had to leave 12 hours after our first guest had arrived. I never even saw my SIL. Oops.

I arrived home late yesterday afternoon. Our friend left early this morning. At least I got to see him before he left. Hopefully we’ll be visiting my SIL this spring to make up for my missing her visit.

Now I feel like I’ve fallen so far behind. I missed a week of cleaning. I have tons of laundry to wash. I was planning a couple of blog posts for the holiday season but never wrote them. Hubby and I haven’t finalized plans for New Years. Because of the emergency, I missed my weekly call with my grandparents (it totally slipped my mind).

God protected myself, my brother, and his wife on our long drive to and from Dallas. My father is doing better and hopefully will not have another trip to the ER. Hubby had a good visit with his friend and sister while I was gone. I have much to be thankful for, even though things did not go according to my plan. Funny how that works.