what.when.where

Clearing out old drafted posts that never made the blog. What a great reminder of where you've been. We've now built our dream home, Mark went back to school and is now in a career he loves (with a couple more layoffs after the one spoken of in this email) and we have a full house of 4 kiddos...God is funny but He's good. Now enjoy this early 2011 post.....



I feel like I've let my blog slack a bit. We've been busy and, honestly, there hasn't been too much to really write about. That's a good thing I think?! 2010 was a hard year for us between layoffs, renting our house and buying another to have it fall through (after packing), a slow season for my job and the financial stress that followed, etc etc.

So it's not surprising that 2011 was welcomed in happily. So far, it truly has been a new breath in our world and we've been having a great time as a family. Declan is getting more hilarious by the day. He's such a negotiator right now. "Decs, do you want some milk?" D: "Ummm...how about juice?". We're finally adjusting to his new wake up time around 8am (after many months of 9-10am). I feel like an idiot whining about how early 8 feels but it really does.

Our house is finally on the market. Yes, in all my realtor experienced goodness we did indeed listing in January. Pretty much the worse time of the year in Nebraska. I accidently stumbled upon [what I still believe to be] our dream house. We competed with 3 other offers and lost the battle. So now we're listed and have zero prospects if our house would magically sell. I'm learning a lesson in empathy to my clients because I'm a bitter woman after cleaning for 2 hours for a showing yesterday to only have the buyers not like it. We are trusting God knows our buyer and, more importantly, our next home. (That sounded good typed out but I have to remind myself of this daily since I'm impatient as heck).

Mark just celebrated 90 days at his new job. He is finally feeling settled back in with a work family. Praise the Lord! We have a whole new view of "job security" and often have conversations about the lessons the last year taught us. More than anything, he likes what he's doing, likes who he's doing it with and they like him. What a trifecta of goodness! This past weekend we attended a 10 year anniversary for his company. It was fun to make some bonds with his new co-workers and some memories too. I'll leave those off my blog. ;)

On the adoption front, we're moving at turtle pace completing our 2nd home study. Papers were submitted last May and we have to complete classes before any further steps are made. Classes are not until March. Hopefully things will pick up after we take the classes. In the mean time if we win the lottery we'll be adopting internationally. This is another area where God is in control but it's hard to not be impatient. Hopefully Declan's not 8 before he gets a sibling. He'll be such a fabulous big brother!