We are Hoping to Adopt

It's been a few months since I posted the last time about our hopes to adopt.  We are still on the journey to add our next child to our family; a child we are very excited to meet.  We know that Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us and that he is directing the miraculous work of adoption.  If you are interested in learning more about adoption, have any questions about us or adoption in general, or just need someone to connect with please, feel free to email us at markandsarah13@gmail.com.  You can visit our profiles at https://www.itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/27073241/ourMessage.jsf or http://www.hopingtoadopt.org/index.php/family/letters/450, and learn a little about us by reading the posts on this blog.  You can also contact our Social Worker, Kimberly Toronto, through LDS Family Services at torontokw@ldsfamilyservice.org or 614-836-2466.  She is amazing and incredibly helpful.  One of the things we love about our agency is that they provide couseling and other services to expectant parents free of charge and without pressure to place the child for adoption.  We recognize that a parenting or adoption plan is personal and there is not one right plan for all people or situations.  That's why it's important to have someone to help find the right choice for you.  Kimberly does an amazing job doing just that.

Thank you for considering our family.  Thank you for considering adoption.  Thank you for giving us hope.

Gone Fishing...again!

Earlier this week, Mark decided that he wanted to go camping (something we love to do).  The only weekend we have available for at least a month is this weekend, so he checked to see if he could get Friday off work and he could.  Unfortunately, the weather in Ohio did not like those plans of ours (big shocker, it got down to 38 degrees and rained ), so we chose not to got camping.  However, yesterday after we had gone swimming at a local indoor pool and the boys were taking naps, Mark decided that he wanted the four of us to go fishing that afternoon despite the fact that we did not have any fishing equipment.  I will spare you most of the rediculous details, but it was a huge fiasko.  We spent an exorbatant amount of time in Walmart and Gander Mountain trying to decide on which equipment to buy, forgot to get the fishing licenses and had to go back, went back home to retrieve water bottles and chairs, and went to the grocery store to buy chicken liver (yes, eww) for bait.  By then it was time for dinner so we got some fast food and headed to Buckeye Lake.  Once we were finally there we started to unpack and realized that the hooks and fishing line had been removed from the van when we stopped by home and had not been put back in, so we could not do any fishing.  We let the boys spend a little time throwing rocks into the lake then went to my mom's house to roast marshmallows instead.

Early this morning it rained and there was threat that it would rain off and on all day.  However, Mark again decided that he wanted to try to go fishing.  Being the agreable wife I am :) we packed up everything as quickly as we could, bundled up ourselves and the boys and headed back to the lake.  My sister, Erin, and her husband, Rony, were also with us.  It was cold and windy, but we had fun.  We had bought Spiderman and Lightning McQueen fishing poles for the boys, and they had a great time carrying them around and "fishing".

Rony and Erin each caught a small fish, but I was able to hook the largest fish of the day.  When I say large I really mean little, probably about 12 or 13 inches, but it was big enough that we took it home and got two small fillets off of it.  We looked it up when we got home and found that it was a Walleye.  It was small enough that we probably would have released it, but without grossing people out, I'll just say that the hook would have caused it to die anyway. 

One thing I realized about myself, and the kind of mother I am and will be as my children grow up, is I am someone who is not afraid to do things like catch a fish and cut it up for food.  I am not afraid to hold a fish, touch a worm (or chicken liver as the case may be), bait a hook, or cut into the dead fish I caught.  In fact, I enjoy most of these things.  I was definately a tom boy when I was younger and those traits are still a big part of me.  Granted, I am much more girly then I used to be.  But, I love doing things like camping, hiking, fishing, and generally enjoying nature, and I love to see my children enjoying these things too.  I not only don't mind it when they get dirty doing these things, I love it!

Tonight after we had cut the fillets off of the fish, I witnessed a trait of my husband's that those who know him will not be surprised by.  Once the meat was off of the fish, I was done, but not Mark.  He wanted to see the other parts of the fish.  He found the heart, a human organ he works with most days, and he watched facinated as it beat involuntarily when he put slight pressure on surrounding tissue.  He speculated about why this happened and what the parts of the heart and around the heart might be ("That would be it's right ventricle and I wonder if this is the aorta").  I have to admit, it was kind of cool, but not something I would have gone looking for.  I love that it is something that he goes looking for.  That's just who he is and I love him.

In the end, we all were glad we went and we hope to be able to do it again soon.

Happy Easter!

And it has been a happy one.  We had candy, we had cinnamon rolls, we had hard boiled eggs, and we went to church.  We have spent time as a family, which is the best part of all.  Today when we came home from church I asked Gabriel, as I do every Sunday, "what did you do in primary today?".  He ran off for a second and came back with the cutouts of a "cave", "rock", and "Jesus" and proceded to tell us the story of how "Jesus died and was put in the cave and the rock was put in front of the cave to keep him in, but after three days he came back alive and when they looked for him in the cave he was gone, but then he came back and there were angles and he was alive".  The whole while he was moving the cut outs around to go with the story he was telling.  We could tell that he had closely watched as his wonderful and patient primary teacher had taught him this lesson.  We are so grateful to her for all she teaches him and how lovingly she gives of her time to be with these very young children of our Father in Heaven.  And I am grateful for our son who came home and shared what he had learned about his Savior.

I am so blessed to have such amazing, beautiful spirits placed in my care.  How have I been so blessed?  I know that my Savior and my Father in Heaven love me.  I felt today, as I sat in Church, a need to make my relationship with them so much stronger.  I begin the only place I can and that is the present.  I want my children to learn every day about who they are, why they are here, and where they come from.  I want them to FEEL of their Savior's love for them through me.  I am so glad though that I'm not the only one teaching them.  They have their Dad, who loves us all very much.  They have their grandparents, who have paved the way by sticking to the gospel even when it was hard.  They have Aunts and Uncles and Cousins, who we are blessed to be very close to.  And they have amazing friends and teachers, who are always willing to love my children. 

Yes, it's been a good day.  I know my Savior lives.  I know that he suffered for me and that he died for me.  I know that he lives again and that he is MY advocate to the Father.  I know that he has done this for each one of us and in my small, insufficient way, I am grateful.  I wish you a Happy Easter as well.