Since tomorrow is Christmas Day, I'm reserving that day for my family and I'm choosing to end the Christmas Ornament Story Challenge today.
And I saved the best for last.
This one, lone ornament is the reason why I wanted to start this challenge, because it has a GREAT story!
Can you see what this is? It's a glitter painted, wooden clothespin, with curling ribbon and clipped to the bottom is money, real money, a $10 bill.
Back when Jay and I were dating and I was still working in youth ministry at Willow Creek, Jay volunteered his Saturday mornings as a coach for one of our junior high teams. The adult leaders on the team did a gift exchange for Christmas that year. Someone asked Jay what he wanted and he said, "Money. I'm saving up to buy a ring. I need money."
That year, his secret Santa gave him this $10. We have never, ever spent it, and we never will. It is too priceless. My kids know the story, but I want this around for my grandkids to see it.
Of course, from my husband's financial advisor background, we've been stupid not to save it elsewhere rather than a box! After all, invested and left invested, we could see this $10 become more over the years. But I won't do it. It's too cute, too funny, it's the best ornament on our tree.
It tells our story.
Merry Christmas from our family to yours! Praying that all my readers know the love of Jesus this holiday season.
I had hoped to post a new ornament today, but I haven't gotten it in the mail yet. It will probably arrive tonight.
So, which one to post today?
This one also goes back to our days on staff at Willow Creek. This is probably the fanciest ornament we have on our tree. It's large and very fragile and it is stored in it's original box with tons of tissue paper. It was given to Jay or I as a thank you or serving on the Conference Operations Team when a year of church conferences was over.
Conference week was always crazy! Thousands of pastors would flock to our campus for training. We did this multiple times a year. 70-80 hour work weeks were the norm, even more hours for Jay. It was insane.
I miss that insanity.
No, I don't miss working. I definitely don't miss ministry. My life as stay-at-home, homeschooling mom, raising a daughter from a hard place, brings enough insanity for me, thank you very much.
But I do miss the buzz of Conference Weeks and working with such amazing team members.
I love the memories that this ornament brings to mind.
Tune in tomorrow for the very last installment of the Christmas Ornament Story Challenge! I have certainly saved the best ornament for last and you won't want to miss it!
I love that someone at Hallmark or whatever company manufactured this, realized that some families just aren't traditional!
My Secret Santa from my Facebook Adoption Group sent me this the very first year our Quiet Tiger was home for the holiday!
This year, it wasn't in the box with the other ornaments and I panicked because I had absolutely no clue where I would have put it. For some reason, it was in the box with our formal decorations, which we have never put out in this house. Phew! Glad I found it!
Today we have a little Nebraska-football-snowman-thing. That's what I'm calling it. I'm nearly certain Jay's old assistant Anne gave this to us.
We spent 5 1/2 years living in Lincoln, Nebraska. While we never became Husker fans, we certainly did leave behind some amazing friends. We had a great small group at church that actually started as a women's ministry group. All of us women just clicked and we were invited to a couples group. We did everything with those friends: camping, coffee nights, cookouts, Halloween parties, Bible studies, trips to the apple orchard every fall. They were family to me.
We also had the best neighbors ever! Super C had many friends on the street and we should have installed revolving doors on our homes as kids came and went. Steve and Renee had 2 of the cutest kids you've ever met. I miss those kids. I miss walking to the bus stop with Renee (that 1 year the kids were bussed to school) and I miss Steve's John Goodman laugh. He sounds just like him! I shared many a laugh with my friend Suzette across the street as we lamented over another neighbor who loved to call the cops on us. She gave me their old lawn mower which I still use today. I know she shoveled my driveway when we were stuck in California for that awful year. We sat out on the back patio with Brian and Kellie and Todd and Vanessa while the kids would run between yards. Brian and his son B mowed our lawn for weeks on end after our friend Jake moved out of the house and away from Lincoln. Vanessa and I garage-saled (that's a verb, right?) together and Todd made the best Chocolatinis ever and also shared our love of Nerf Gun wars with the kids. I'll never forget running into him at Target with the biggest Nerf gun in his hands. Todd also reviewed Quiet Tiger's medical file and came to visit me in the hospital when I was all alone and had my gall bladder removed.
Gosh, I miss those Nebraska friends. Great, great people!
Nebraska wasn't perfect, no place is, but it really was the good life for a time.
Alright, enough of my slipping into The Office right now. We love that show.
We also love bears. We used see one or two when we'd go to Hayward, Wisconsin to visit Jay's mom. We never saw one in Alaska on our honeymoon, but we know one was behind the brush and the voices of tourists kept it from showing it's face. Jay of course loves his Chicago Bears (even when they have a painful season like this year). And of course, for Jay's line of work, bears also hold significance. We've had this guy on our tree for years and we all love him!
Today we have wedding bells! Jay and I have a couple of ornaments on our tree given to us by friends on our wedding day. I wish I could remember who got them for us, but I love them just the same. This one has our names and our wedding date engraved on it.
Wait. What? That doesn't look like a Baby's 1st Christmas ornament.
Oh, but you're wrong.
I think you know by now that my daughter's Chinese name means Quiet Tiger. She is a tiger, I can assure you that!!! But quiet? Um, no. Not quiet. Not at all. Nope, nope, nope.
Anyway, my mom found this ornament in Chicago and sent it to us for our girl last year. I think she found it at Cost Plus World Market. I love it. If I could find her a tiger every year, I'd be thrilled. So, keep your eyes peeled and if you see a tiger ornament, grab it for me and I'll reimburse you and pay for shipping!
Do you have any ornaments that make you sad? We do.
I bought this ornament last year to commemorate our beloved American Eskimo dog, Kenai. He was just 5 years old and he died in our new home here in San Antonio. We are 99% certain he was bitten by a rattlesnake. It's a long, traumatic story that I'd rather not share right now.
When I found this ornament and learned that proceeds went to the American Eskimo Rescue, I knew I had to order it to have a way to remember our sweet Kenai. I added his name and the year of his death.
Today's ornament has a good story. Let me take you back to the very day that Jay "officially" asked me out on a date.
We had worked together at Willow Creek Church in suburban Chicago for about 5 months, and over that time span, he asked me to do things as friends, like meet for church, take me out to dinner to thank me for taking him to pick up his truck that was in the shop, et cetera. He wanted to be friends and we were friends. I didn't completely get that he was that interested in me. Besides, my parents were divorcing and I was REALLY not interested in bringing home a man to meet my mom and dad who were fighting and battling and splitting up.
In early December we had our Staff Christmas Party. My department was part of the planning crew so we were busy most of the day getting ready. I had lunch with my fellow teammate Teresa and during lunch she had asked me if she could give my number to a friend of ours from the Singles Ministry. I knew the guy and he had always been super nice to me, but my parents divorce was just looming over me and I really, REALLY, REALLY didn't want to bring a guy into that mess. I told Teresa, "no" and asked her to explain to our friend why I had to say no at that time.
Later that night during the Christmas party, it was my job to take photos of the evening, so I was running around. I sat with Jay during the sleepy Fernando Ortega concert in the auditorium and I had bumped into him a few times that night. As the party ended a few hours later I went back to my desk to gather my things and head home. I took a lap around the building to see where Jay was so I could say, "See you later, it was fun hanging out with you," but I couldn't find him. I just walked out in the snow to my car.
When I got into the parking lot, I noticed someone walking back into the building. It was freezing out and I wondered why the guy didn't have a coat on. It was Jay. He had been looking for me too and went out to the lot to catch me. He walked me the rest of the way to my car and he officially, formally asked me out to dinner and Christmas shopping in downtown Chicago.
I said yes, but as soon as I did, I did a double-take. In my head I said, "Who said that?" I had just turned down a request from a friend that afternoon and here I was saying yes to a friend I worked with. What the heck? Who said yes?
Well, the rest is history.
So, why this ornament? It was given to me the night of the party. Honestly, I can't remember if it was a staff-wide gift or if one of my teammates gave it to me that night. Nonetheless, this ornament reminds me of the night when Jay first asked me out.
Hello, Week 3! What ornaments will you be showing off this week?
For today's installment I am sharing with you an ornament that I know my friend Jami and her husband Jed will love. Here we have a cowboy from Wyoming!
With Jay's new career in the world of finance, he gets the opportunity to earn Diversification Trips. He has earned 2 trips in his 2 years with the company. That is astounding!
This summer we took the family to Jackson Hole, Wyoming on our first div trip. The company pays for the financial advisor and spouse, and we had to pay for the kids. We also took my mom and stepdad along to thank them for all their help over the insane adoption years.
As we walked around the sweet small town of Jackson Hole, we knew we wanted to do something unique to commemorate these earned trips. Jay got some artwork for his office. I got a beaded bracelet. My mom bought the kids shirts and baseball hats. For the family, we decided that an ornament on our tree for each earned trip would be a fun way to remember our travels. So, this is our first Div Trip ornament. I still need to get a black paint pen and write the date of our trip on the back.
We are grateful that God brought us to Edward Jones and for the opportunities we have had through the company.
We absolutely loved Jackson Hole! I highly recommend it as a vacation destination!
We wrap up our second week of the Christmas Ornament Challenge with an ornament that Super C made in 2009. He was in 2nd grade. Seems like he had to be smaller than that, because his handprint that made the snowmen on this ornament looks so small. But the teacher dated it '09, so that has to be right. I love how he drew fedoras on each of the snowmen -- he was so into Perry the Platypus back then.
True confession: I'm not a crafty mom. I don't have many ornaments that any kids have made. I suppose I should have Super E make one of these this year since he's in 2nd grade. That would be cute.
Tonight is Jay's big Regional Christmas Party for work. It should be nice as always, albeit a bit awkward since I don't know these people very well. I hope your holiday parties have been fun and enjoyable!
Today's ornament is for my old dog, Kodi (short for Kodak), the first American Eskimo dog of my very own (we had one growing up but that was a "family dog"). I got Kodi from a breeder in Blaine, Minnesota when my mom and I were up visiting my brother and other family in the Twin Cities. I was going into my senior year of college and I knew I'd be leaving the dorms and finding my first apartment. I had the dog before I found a pet-friendly apartment in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois where I went to school.
I found a cute place and decorated it with garage sale finds that my mom fixed up. I know my mom felt a bit better that I had a dog if I was going to live alone. American Eskimos are great watch dogs! My mom had this ornament made for me and I love it.
Kodi was a great dog and he loved Jay when he met him years later. I had Kodi for 13 years before we had to put him down for health issues in Lincoln, Nebraska. I still have his collar and tags hanging in the laundry room.
Things are getting busy on our December calendar! How about yours? Personally, I'm wiped out. We've already had 3 different Christmas celebrations and have one more tomorrow night. After this week, things should calm down. Phew!
Here is Super E's first ornament. Again, I cannot recall who got this for us, but I love that we do have these types of ornaments. He has another "first" ornament too that we received when he was born as well.
Oh, we have fun with this little guy! As you can see by my hand, this ornament is tiny and it's pewter and glass or crystal or something. It's so small that it gets lost on the tree every year. I have honestly found this ornament on the tree as the tree is brought out of the box when we decorate on Thanksgiving weekend, having clearly missed it when we took the tree down the previous year! So, we now have this tradition of "Find the Penguin" every year.
Jay's favorite animal is the penguin, so we have quite a few penguins on the tree and he gets to place them all. This little guy is quite sneaky. Come to think of it, I took this photo on Thanksgiving weekend when I thought of this photo challenge and right now, I have no clue where this guy is on the tree.
You thought I'd post Super E's first Christmas ornament, didn't you? Nah, I had to switch things up a little to keep you guessing.
This is a newer ornament and I love it! All 3 of my kids made these last year at our homeschool group's Christmas party. I thought they were super cute and so very easy! Just one of those funky paperclips, a ribbon and 1 bead. That's it. You can make a bunch of these and attach them to Christmas gifts this year. So simple and creative.
Luke 1: 30-33
""Don't be afraid, Mary," the angel told her, "for you have found favor with God!
You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.
He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High.
The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David.
And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!""
Everyone has to have a Baby's 1st Christmas ornament, right? This is one of Super C's ornaments. He has a couple of Baby's 1st Christmas ornaments that he received when he was born.
Baby's First Christmas - 2003. Certainly a Christmas I will never forget.
Here we start week 2 of our Christmas Ornament Challenge. What do we have today?
A mirror ball! Every tree needs a disco ball, right?
When we were first married and had our first house, we had THE COOLEST Christmas tree ever. We got it from Tree Classics in nearby Barrington and in addition to the regular mini lights, it had (wait for it....) fiber optic lights too! Gosh, that tree was cool! We thought highly reflective ornaments like this mirror ball would really glitter in those tiny lights. It did!
The tree lasted a couple of years and then the fan that ran the fiber optics burned out. I think we replaced it and when that second motor burned out, we just replaced the tree, but I haven't found a fiber optic tree like it ever since. It was amazing!
Today we have a martini glass. I have a handful of different martini ornaments on my tree. My maiden name is Martini. No joke. I used to hate that name, growing up. When Jay and I were engaged, he insisted on changing his name to mine. Jay Martini does have a nice ring to it! But I was ready to be rid of it and I changed my name to his.
I have collected martini paraphernalia for a long time. The funniest thing about that is working for churches because some churches have rules about their staff members drinking alcohol. We would receive looks when church people came over to my house and they saw my martini towels, candles, signs, ornaments, et cetera. I sometimes had to explain the reason we had so many martinis around the house. They could ask us not to drink, but they certainly could not take my name away and I still displayed them proudly!
Sometimes now, I do wish I had kept my name and had Jay change his last name. It's a great, unique name. I still proudly display martinis all around my house. If I ever publish the book I have been writing, it will definitely be under the name Brooke Martini.
In Chicago, I worked for 5 years in the catering department at Willow Creek Church. Part of that ministry included the beloved decorating team, led by my boss Lore. She had a great team of volunteers, but sometimes tasks were too large and we had to step up to help complete projects. This ornament was one of those projects.
I have a couple of these cute wooden gingerbread men because Jay received one too. These were attached to the staff Christmas party invitations one year. I wonder how many former staff still have their gingerbread men hanging on their trees today in 2014.
Neither Jay nor I remember where we got this one or when, yet it is so fitting for us now that Jay works in the financial field. He'd like to have a whole tree in his office filled with piggy bank ornaments.
So, if you see any while you're out and about shopping, let us know!
Following yesterday's wooden elf made by Jay on one of our first trips to Hayward, I'm sharing the one that I made on that same trip.
This is my wooden goose.
Canada Geese are some of my favorite animals. As a kid, I grew up in Suburban Chicago on a beautiful lake complete with a covered bridge. The geese that lived on the lake were awful and they chased me. They left messes all over our yard and we trained our dog to chase them away. But in my 20's right around the time I met Jay, this family of 4 geese adopted me. It was the strangest thing to witness. Two tennis ball-sized, yellow, fuzzball goslings jumped into my lap while their large adult parents just stood calmly next to me, their beaks right in line with my eyeballs. One sudden move and I was surely going to get it from mama and papa goose!
I gave them names. I could carry them around the yard, they would eat out of my hand, they would walk up the hill to the house, jump up on the deck and peck at the sliding glass door of the house, they would fly to me if I called them all the way from the other end of the lake. Quite remarkable! And you've ever seen the movie Fly Away Home, my interactions with my 4 geese were so very similar. I just never flew with them! I did jump in and swim with them and that kind of freaked them out. They didn't know what to do with that and they stayed further back and watched me swim. They stayed with us for a good couple of years, even in the winter months.
My mom always used to say that the geese on our lake should be required to wear red bows at Christmastime.
Jay got to meet my geese before my parents sold the home. He got to pet them and hand-feed them.
So when it came down to choosing which wooden ornament to paint, I had to do this one. This is one of my favorite ornaments ever and I get to hang it on the tree.
When Jay and I started dating, about 15 years ago, he took me up to his mom's in Hayward, Wisconsin after the holiday. I think it was my first visit to meet his mom. During our time there, we painted these wooden ornaments. This was Jay's. His mom laughed at it and said it looked just like his Uncle Jack.
Every year, we take this out of the box and Jay gets to hang Uncle Jack on the tree. We laugh.
We would like more wooden ornaments but have a hard time finding some like this. If you happen to know of any, let me know. It would be a fun family activity.
If I try to go in order from oldest to newest, I'm going to mess up. So today's ornament is.... joy.
I have no idea when we got this or where it came from, but this year I made Jay laugh with this one. I was taking the ornaments out of the box, carefully, one by one. Then we'd reminisce about where it came from and hand it to one person to hang on the tree. I gave this one to our 4-year-old daughter, with one instruction:
"Take this to daddy and ask him for help to hang it the right way. I don't want it to say "yoj."
Jay laughed.
I love it when I can make him laugh! Hopefully it made you laugh too.
Spread some joy this December (and please don't spread any yoj because nobody wants that)!
Welcome to the Christmas Ornament Challenge! Here is my first installment.
I wasn't sure where to start: with an old ornament or a new one, or somewhere in between. Dilemma.
I chose one of the oldest ornaments we have on the tree. This is a felt drum that my mom and her friend Sue made back in the 70's in our old neighborhood in Burnsville, Minnesota. My mom and Sue made a ton of felt ornaments, not just drums. But all sorts of felt ornaments hung on our Christmas tree when I was a kid. Only when I was a teenager, did my mom upgrade to a more formal tree and the felt ornaments have been in boxes ever since. This is the only one that I have. My brother Darin has his favorite black and white whale. I'm not sure if Todd has any. Maybe he has a drum or two as well.
If my mom digs out her old felt ornaments, oh, the stories those tell! We have Mr. & Mrs. Claus who were so tattered that we laughed until tears ran down our faces because they were such a wreck. The couple Claus looked quite strung out or drunk off their a$$es or something! Hysterical! Sue's daughters Kendra and Heather speak of the Christmas Hooker ornaments. These I don't recall quite as well. If they make a photo appearance, I'll be sure to forward.
But this drum is probably as old as I am -- 40 years old. It makes me think of my childhood Christmases. Good times.
I love setting up our Christmas tree. Every year we smile over the ornaments as we bring them out of the box. We laugh at some of the stories. We may even be saddened by some of them. They all tell a story.
The stories are worth sharing! So, I created the Christmas Tree Ornament Photo Challenge.
Tomorrow starts 24 days of photos and stories behind some of the ornaments on our Christmas tree. Join in the fun!
Simply take a photo of a meaningful ornament.
If you can tell the story behind it within the limits of Twitter, go ahead and tweet. If your story is too long, like many of mine will be, feel free to blog about it and then tweet the link to your blog. Now, I'm not on Instagram after all the security scares from a while back, but feel free to upload there too! Of course, we always have Facebook! Use Facebook to upload your photo and tell us the story in the photo description.
I shopped on Thanksgiving. [Insert gasps of horror and finger wags from naysayers.]
I have never done this before. Heck, I'm not even a Black Friday shopper, you guys. Why would I go out into the crazy crowds and fight people and fight traffic, get stressed out, et cetera, et cetera? I prefer to have my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving, if at all possible. I just prefer to enjoy my Thanksgiving weekend, the peace of it, the smells, the food, the parade, the relaxation, the start of the holiday season. I love to put up our tree and deck the halls. That's my typical Thanksgiving weekend.
I'm not against Thanksgiving or Black Friday shopping at all. The debate annoys me. I mean, to each his own, right? If companies want to open their stores, let them. You can choose to shop or not. What good does it do to argue such an inane topic?
I should just stop there. But...
So, why did I shop on Thanksgiving?
I shopped on Thanksgiving because the store of my choosing (Walmart) offered tremendous sales and guarantees on things we needed. GASP!!! Yes, I bought things for ourselves and not gifts for others. Shame on me?
No.
You see, we are cheap! I'm sure there are people in this country who are cheaper than I am. I'm sure there are people who wash out ziplock bags in order to reuse them and save a dime here and there. I'm not that cheap. But when it comes to bigger ticket items, we simply don't buy them if they aren't necessities and I would never buy something big unless it was on sale or I had a coupon or gift card.
The week before Thanksgiving the hard drive on our 1 and only computer crashed. I lost some data. The important stuff was recoverable (we think). Having a second computer in our home, with 2 kids who happen to use the laptop for multiple homeschool subjects, plus a mom who has a house to manage, a book in process, bills to pay, is something we quickly realized as a big benefit to our family. Paying half price for a PC laptop seemed to be better than waiting until after the craziness of the Thanksgiving weekend and paying hundreds more. Despite the fact that I have a rebuilt hard drive on the older laptop, it still seems on the fritz. I don't and can't trust it one bit. I was willing to brave the craziness to save hundreds of dollars and a new, reliable laptop.
Sure, I get the opinion that stores shouldn't even be open on a holiday. I get that. I may even agree with that. Everyone deserves a holiday to be with family. But think about it, do pastors ever get a holiday off? No, my husband has had to work every Easter, every Christmas, year after year until we left ministry. We never had a family holiday completely, solely together, without work. And what about our military? They never get a holiday off. They go years without celebrating the day with family! But I digress. If I agree that stores shouldn't even be open, then maybe I shouldn't have participated in Thanksgiving Day shopping. I get that line of thinking, but the stores were open and we had a big-ticket need.
I do not appreciate it when people say that shopping on Thanksgiving isn't what the holiday is about.
Um, I disagree with you there. You see, I am very thankful that God has brought us out of our financial hole. I am so thankful for how He has provided for our every need when we were in the midst of adoption and 2 job losses. God asks us to be wise with our money and shopping on Thanksgiving was a wise decision for our bank account. I was thankful that my mother-in-law could watch the kids for a couple of hours. I was thankful that I could get a break without them and have some fun with my husband - a rare treat. I was thankful for the smiles and laughs and conversations I had with other holiday shoppers. That kind of interaction doesn't happen on a regular old Thursday when I run to Walmart. And I am thankful that we'll have a new, reliable laptop that should be free from crashes for a number of years, Lord willing.
I was impressed by Walmart's organization. Sure, they moved things around that didn't jive with their store map that I printed out at home. But their staff all knew where things were and I found the line for the laptop fairly easily. From an operational standpoint, it was quite impressive! Only 1 shopper was rude to me. Another was a jerk to everyone by just cutting in line while the rest of us patiently waited for the tickets for a sale item. Other than that, shoppers were all very nice, polite, offering smiles, and good conversation while we waited. We made the most of it and tried to spread some holiday joy.
We picked up a couple of deals for the boys' Christmas gifts too and I'm excited to see them open them on Christmas morning.
No, I'm not trying to be defensive. Understand that is not my heart at all. I don't care what you think about me, because my worth isn't found in what my readers think.
I simply write to ask you to realize that not everyone shopping on a holiday weekend is a greedy, self absorbed, unthankful, ungrateful, anti-family, credit card loving, he-who-has-the-most-toys-wins, American Consumer.
I don't know if I'll ever shop on Thanksgiving or Black Friday again. The deals might be too good to pass up and it might be worth the trip if we are in need of a big ticket item again. In the meantime, I can say that I did it once and it wasn't awful at all. I think we got a great bargain and we had a positive experience.
If you're staying in today, then have a great day with your family. If you're going out shopping, I hope you get great bargains! If you're working today, I hope your workday is great!
My 6th grader and I started a new book in homeschool today: Daughter of the Mountains by Louise Rankin. So far, all I know from chapter 1, is that it's about a girl growing up in Tibet, in the Himalayas.
I couldn't get through the first chapter without tears falling. The image of the main character makes me miss the daughter we never met.
If you've followed our adoption story over the years, you know what we limped through: a country shutdown. There are more recent developments to the story to add, though, and I think this update will be worth the read.
We worked on our paperwork for 9 months, then got stuck in a holding pattern for 4 months while the Nepal government was in flux, and then our dossier went off to Kathmandu and we were finally, officially waiting for our daughter… in Nepal. We were family number 74 to be matched to a child -- only 73 families ahead of us. It could have happened any day, literally! Instead, while visiting family in Chicago, we got the call that knocked the wind out of us.
The US State Department, in all it's wisdom, shut down the Nepal adoption program on allegations, taken from dated UNICEF reports, that the Nepal adoption program was corrupt. Our adoption agency called to tell us that our dream of a Nepali daughter was over.
We lost a year of paperwork, blood (yes, literally - we had physicals and lots of blood work), sweat, tears and prayers, not to mention $12,000.
We were never to know a brown skinned, brown eyed, dark haired Nepali girl in our home.
Devastation. Suffocating grief.
We waited for a month or two, per our agency's suggestion, with hopes that Nepal would re-open. It did not. We nervously, prayerfully, picked ourselves up, brushed ourselves off, cleaned our wounds and started over again with China Special Needs.
Fast forward to last year. We had our China girl home, our lives were settling into Texas. I received word through an organization called Both Ends Burning that investigations led them to believe the USDOS made a known, horrible mistake and that the organization was going to do something about the Nepal shutdown. I was invited to a series of conference calls with the organization and other Nepal families. What I learned reopened old scars.
I learned that those families who had been matched with Nepali children at the time of the shutdown were able to bring them home. It cost them thousands of dollars more and an agonizing amount of time. I can't remember the number of families, but it was somewhere in the 80's. Hang onto your hat for this next sentence, the one that makes me want to move out of this country of ours:
In all cases, international attorneys were able to prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the Nepal adoption program was above reproach, that the children were indeed true orphans, that no bribery existed, that the entire program was on the up and up, completely legal. In… every... case! And the USDOS knew it! Our government is to blame for our loss, for our heartache, for our lost dream. Our government is responsible for removing hope from a child crying out for love of a forever family.
It still makes me sick to my stomach.
You can say that it just wasn't God's plan. You can say that we weren't supposed to have a Nepali daughter. You can say that we now have the daughter we are supposed to have. But those words aren't helpful, friends… ever. God sets the lonely in families. The Nepal shutdown was the work of evil, the work of an evil force that will stop at nothing to keep the lonely living without love and care, without family.
How can I possibly miss a daughter I never knew?
Don't question it. I miss her. I have a bracelet from Nepal that I bought for her through Tiny Hands International, an organization that serves and brings love and hope and the Gospel to the street children and trafficked children of Nepal. I intended to give that bracelet to our Quiet Tiger once she came home, but I couldn't. It simply doesn't belong to her. It belongs to my lost Nepali daughter.
This post is going to be controversial, and as much as I hate confrontation, I'm going to post.
I think it's safe to say that most adoptive parents hate it when people say, "Oh, that child is so lucky to be adopted and home now."
I understand the debate and I agree with it… but only in part.
Adoption is loss. Period.
My daughter lost her birth family. She will never know who she looks like, her mom or her dad. She will never know if she has a biological brother or sister in China. She will never know her birth country, her dialect (yes, we can teach her Mandarin, but those Yulin folks have a unique dialect, I'm told). Even today we deal with the brokenness of her past. I would be remiss if I didn't even mention how unlucky it is to be tied down in an orphanage crib for 23 hours a day and horribly malnourished for nearly 2 years. There is absolutely nothing lucky about that. Nothing, nothing, nothing!!! Some days I exhaustedly wonder if we'll ever be free of that brokenness and trauma. It's a mess raising a child with a broken past!
She will have questions to which I will not have answers.
Loss.
Adoption is loss. And that loss is… not... lucky.
I agree with that.
And while I don't particularly like the word "luck" and prefer the word "blessing," I'm going to stick with the former for the sake of the original statement that causes debate.
My daughter was adopted.
She was given a second chance.
Regardless of whether it was my family or another family that adopted her, Quiet Tiger is lucky to have a second chance at a happy, healthy life. She is lucky to have a mom and a dad who fought for her and to have siblings to play with and pets to chase. She is lucky to have food, shelter, medicine, care and love. She is lucky to live in a free country. Those are good things that she didn't have before!
And with that short paragraph, I just made many adoptive families very mad at me. How can I possibly think that my daughter is "lucky?" The fact of the matter is...
Some children don't get that chance.
Our lost Nepali daughter never got that chance. Some kids in China are labeled "un-adoptable" and aren't getting that chance. Children who age out of adoption programs lose the chance. Children in Russia aren't getting that chance. Children in Guatemala aren't getting that chance. Children in Kyrgyzstan aren't getting that chance. Children in our own country are confined to a broken system and aren't getting that chance. Those kids are living in worlds where they don't have a chance at family, at hope. Those kids aren't lucky.
Will I tell my daughter she's "lucky?" Yes (again, I'll choose the word "blessed"), but that yes comes after talking about her past and her hurts and acknowledging all the grief, all her unknowns,all the pain that I cannot possibly fix.
What's more, we can introduce her to Jesus. Only our Merciful God, our Healer and Comforter, can repair that brokenness and give her a hope and a future.
Wow! My husband has knocked it out of the park again and earned his second Diversification Trip! That's 2 trips in less than 2 years with the company. That's huge, people! He is awesome at what he does.
It's always a good story worth sharing though. You see, with each trip come more qualifiers. He has to qualify on many different levels and he made this one by $22. On a Wednesday afternoon, 2 days before the qualification period was over, he called corporate to see if a client's policy went through in time. They confirmed that it would post the very next morning. Jay asked what the commission was on it, because he needed $50 in this one final category to earn this trip. They said it was $72. That was more than enough! They congratulated Jay over the phone and he called me to talk through details.
When he came home we decided that to go away on our next trip would be best over the Christmas holiday because we'd already be on break from school. Yes, even though I homeschool, I still do not like to take unnecessary time off during the school year. Academics come first and I'm pretty strict about that.
So, it looked like end December, right after Christmas, would be our trip.
Then to figure out where we could go. The trips book up quickly! The more veteran financial advisors earn these trips fairly easily and book them first. The young ones like Jay have to work a bit harder for them and qualify at the last minute. Because Jay earned this trip on the very last qualifying day, most trips were booked.
London or Rome? Those were both options for us. We had a little fun on Facebook and took a couple of polls. It was pretty even among the two. Yet from friends who had been to both locales, it seemed that Rome was the winner.
We are not taking the kids with us. The company and it's product partners pay for the financial advisor and spouse (we have to pay for food and incidentals/extras). They do not pay for the kids or family members. For our trip to Jackson Hole this summer, we paid for the kids and my mom and stepdad. It wasn't cheap! But we wanted to celebrate as a family and the memories were well worth the expenses!
My mother-in-law will come to watch the kids and Jay and I will be enjoying New Year's in Rome. It will be the first time we've been gone so long from any of our kids as a couple (remember, I traveled to China alone). But we're excited and the time away from the kids will surely be good for us as a couple.
Time to renew our passports! Lookout Rome, here we come!
After 4 short weeks, Jay and I have been forced to make the decision to pull Quiet Tiger from pre-school.
You remember that first day when she wouldn't connect, when the life was sucked from her from the moment we got up, got dressed, ate breakfast and walked into the classroom?
Well, things got better very quickly, or so I had thought.
I picked her up and she was happy, content, even pleased but she still wouldn't connect with me. No eye contact, eyes and brain still in that "far away place." The teacher may have reported that she was a delight, a little leader, good, sweet and attentive and very smart. He was happy with her performance. It was exactly that.
It was an act.
You see, kids with attachment disorders go into survival mode and they can put on a good show, to go through the motions, to seemingly behave and do what people want them to do and even seem content in new, different situations. They are good little actors, believe me! But it's not real. It's a falsehood. It's merely coping and not connecting like you and I do. It's how they lived in an orphanage, tied down to cribs, not held, not fed enough, not making eye contact and personal connections with fellow human beings, child or adult. And it's a problem.
Coping. Not connecting.
The problem reared it's ugly head with crazy hyper activity when L would be back in our presence, away from the school building and back in familiar surroundings (even familiar surroundings such as Walmart, believe it or not). You have never seen a child this hyper! She was out of control. Unable to control her body, her arms, her legs, her head, her mouth, anything. Later in the afternoon she would find control and put that control in a bad place -- she would poop in her pants. Daily. Every afternoon. Deliberately. In front of me. Or in secret. She also destroyed items in our home, eating paper from her school backpack, destroying carpet, unraveling afghans, etc. Total destruction. Items thrown in the trash. She was exerting her control in bad ways. In the world of adoption, the world of raising a child from a hard place:
Control = Fear
Thankfully, the pooping in her underpants stopped in just 1 week with much "potty training revisited" at home; however, that fear she had quickly turned into "naughty" behavior. When I'd pick her up from school she would be uncontrollable, off the wall bonkers, still refusing to connect, speaking baby talk, bouncing around, refusing to sit with me or listen to me. Her teacher would be shocked by her behavior in the office when I'd pick her up. He'd try to help by talking to her, but she wouldn't connect with him or with me. He noticed that she could hold it in long enough in the classroom but once with me and her brothers, with her safe people, she would act out. Temper tantrums at home and rage were a daily event. Even on weekends our girl would just be a terror. What on earth was going on with this child?
Coping. Not connecting.
The problem started right away when school began and continued to get worse the deeper we got into school. We looked for help from the teacher who is an adoptive dad of 7 and knows well the stresses of adopted children, from fellow Adoptive Parents, our new pediatrician, my church adoption group and ETC trained leader, and our social worker whose own older China daughter has been having similar issues as of late. We gave it as long as we possibly could. Everyone agreed it best to get her out of there. Today was her last day of school.
So she's back home. And hopefully soon we will see…
As promised, here is a quick post about Quiet Tiger's first day of school. Today public school opened and she is a preschooler at a local elementary school.
Not going to smile.
Not going to do it.
You're leaving me here?
My Quiet Tiger with one of her Teacher's Assistants.
Of course, I've already had my issues with the public school and their registration rigamarole and absolutely ZERO communication. Good gosh. Filling out countless pieces of paper that all say the same thing, just in different ways. Name, address, phone numbers, emergency contacts, allergies, demographics, etc. One staff person told me one thing, that gal's supervisor told me something completely different. I much prefer to work with the supervisor! And today we just showed up because no one told me when to be there, where to be and the school's website and corresponding calendar were BLANK!
Really?
[They were updated on Meet the Teacher Night, which I was never informed of and clearly missed thanks to their lack of communication. Sheesh.]
But she made it! She walked into school with her empty backpack and we said our goodbyes. While my daughter was distant and wouldn't make any kind of connection with me, this wasn't a hard morning for me. I truly think this is the best place for her this year. She needs to learn some key things and I think the teacher we have been assigned to is perfect for her (he's an adoptive dad).
Miss Quiet Tiger will probably be the highest functioning student in the PPCD/LifeSkills Pre-School class and the supervisor is strongly suggesting L go to a different, non Special Ed pre-school class also within the school. But that suggested class is 5 full days a week with no option of going half-days. And her teacher would obviously not be the same adoptive dad who sees the behaviors that I see in my girl. If the class she starts today is indeed not the right fit, we will pull her out at the end of the semester in December and then determine if we should attempt the school's preschool if there is space for her. But we are trying what seems like the ideal fit for her right now.
I will not send my 4 year old to 5-day, ALL-day preschool!
That is way too much for a young child, in my opinion,
especially MY child who came from life in an institution.
You can keep your opinions on that to yourself, please.
Today, I picked her up at lunchtime despite the program being full-day, we ran to Walmart for some school supplies and came home for sandwiches and Cheez-Its (her choice for a treat from the store). I made sure she followed that with a nap/downtime to unwind. I was able to finish up school with the boys while she rested/slept.
She said she enjoyed her day and wants to go back. Here's to a great year for my pre-schooler!
Last week, my husband left on a 3-part business trip. He flew to Chicago to attend a recruiting event for his company. His best friend's brother is interested in Edward Jones and wants to be in Chicago, closer to family. Jay didn't have to attend this event per se, but thought it advantageous not only for himself, but for this new recruit for reasons I won't go into here. From there, Jay went up to his mom's summer home in Hayward, Wisconsin to meet another Wisconsin client and also to see friends in Minneapolis to lead a seminar.
As you know about me, when the husband is gone, I normally have a special, secret house project planned. I think I get it from my Grandma. After all, that fireball of a woman bought a house without talking to my Grandpa about it! [I promise not to buy a house without you, Jaybird!]
Hmmmmm. What to do. What to do.
It has been in my mind forever to paint my kitchen cabinets. Jay and I had talked about it but have never done it. This week I tackled it. So long, dark oak. Hello, crisp, clean white!
I used a Rustoleum kit from Home Depot ($79.00) and I love how it turned out. I worked my butt off each and every day he was gone, managing to get school work done too. We were up early every morning and stayed up VERY late every night to get this done quickly.
The kit we used from Home Depot.
So far, I recommend this kit.
We'll see how the finished product holds up over time.
The BEFORE shot from the day we moved in.
Gosh, I'd love to get rid of the black appliances too!
STEP 1 - DAY 1 (MORNING)
Cleaning surfaces, removing drawers, doors,
adding a little wood filler
& general prepping.
STEP TWO - DAY 1 (AFTERNOON)
Deglossing
Did the cabinet bases, back of cabinet doors and drawers
Did the front of the cabinet doors in the evening
STEP THREE - DAY 1 (EVENING)
Bond Coat
No turning back now!
Loving the look of the white already!
STEP FOUR - DAYS 2 & 3 (MORNING)
Bond Coat - coat #2
Ah, this is it!
Looking amazing, but will it need a 3rd coat?
Note: I didn't deglaze my cabinets, which would be the next step in the process. I wanted them bright white, so I skipped this step in the kit. Did seem silly to buy a kit and not use a portion of it, so there may be another product out there that's not as wasteful.
STEP SIX - DAYS 3 & 4
Protective Top Coat
Cabinet bases & drawers & back of doors on day 3
Front side of doors on day 5
AFTER SHOT! - DAY 6
Very happy with the results.
My biggest challenge was the dog hair - keeping it out of the paint!
I did do that extra, 3rd coat of paint. I just felt it needed to look more "solid" white like the rest of our trim work around the house. And after reassembly, I did notice 3 tiny touch ups that needed to be made. Not a big deal, but it does make me wonder how this will hold up in the months to come. I will report back.
Here's a good before-after shot so you can see the difference close up.
I cannot possibly tell you how much I love this.
What a difference a little paint makes!
Kitchen is definitely brighter and feels bigger.
All in all, this is just 1 step of many in hopes of getting this house ready to sell. No, we are not moving soon. Yes, we like this house very much! But Jay's commute is 25 miles 1 way and we'd like to be closer to his office within the next couple of years. We haven't made 1 change to this house since we moved in. We've socked away as much money as we can and we continue to live on a small budget while Jay builds his business. Now it's time to make some improvements to this place with hopes of getting a little more money out of it when it does come time to sell. Further projects include (in random order):
** Painting the bathroom cabinets (I have paint left over from this project, so the boy's bathroom will be soon to follow) ** Flooring (getting rid of carpet and putting in laminate or rubber flooring) ** Deck & Fence (just necessary repairs but also changing the stain color) ** Deck Covering (this one is probably way, way too expensive, but we'd love a covering over the upper portion of our deck, complete with lighting and ceiling fans)
I would be remiss if I didn't mention that this kitchen updating happened over our 13 year wedding anniversary. We debated whether he should go on this business trip over our anniversary, but flights were cheaper. We enjoyed a fun date night at a Wounded Warrior Project fundraiser before his trip and Jay also picked out a couple of suits for work (hard to believe he only had 1 suit as a financial advisor). He was due for a couple new ones. We'll go out to dinner when he gets back.
It's the first day of school for Super C and Super E and we are excited!
The books are unpacked from shipping boxes, school supplies have been purchased. We are ready for another year.
How can I possibly have a junior higher?
Super C is officially a junior high-er, I guess. He's beginning 6th grade. Sixth grade was still elementary school when I was a kid, but around here, 6th grade is junior high. This year is one of the favorite years among Sonlight Curriculum parents. This is our unit all about Asia! Having ties to China and Japan, I am super excited to learn and re-learn right along with Super C, even if I had read most of the Japanese books to him back when were were living in Nebraska years ago! We are sharing math curriculum with a friend, but we surely hope to breeze through 2 years of math in 1 year like we did before. Math is Super C's forte, so if he wants to push, I'll let him push. That's the beauty of homeschool! Super C is excited to start blogging this year! He'll be publishing some kid-friendly blogs under a pseudonym that I'll be sure to share.
All 3 enjoying Super C's interactive CD-ROM Encyclopedia.
Starting the year off with China!
Super E is entering 2nd grade. We were able to borrow curriculum for him from my friend Amy back in Nebraska this year, with a few added pieces from my local friend Jamie, plus a few "readers" ordered from Amazon Prime. Borrowing makes such a huge difference considering Super C's curriculum was over $450 USED! [gulp] He has quite the stack of books on his shelf too. He's looking forward to learning about the Vikings and has promised to work hard on reading and math this year. Today he shocked me with the chapter he read in his reader. Now, if he can gain confidence to read in front of others. He even hates to read for his dad and clams up! We are switching math curriculum this year because a local friend of mine had one for sale that she will be letting me borrow for the year. I'm lending her some handwriting curriculum. Looking forward to trying Saxon math with Super E.
Using the easel in the kitchen for spelling practice.
Tuesday afternoons we'll have our homeschool group. It's not a full fledged co-op, but I use that term nonetheless. I'm on the board this year, so that gives me added responsibilities for sure. Both boys and I are also looking forward to taking tennis lessons on Wednesday morning this year. Even I get to join in. Will be fun to play again. I was the boys' ages when I took lessons every summer and I loved it!
I think it will be a busy year!
As you recall from my previous post, Miss Quiet Tiger will be going to pre-school this fall! The first day for her isn't until August 25. We like our homeschool to be just a couple of weeks ahead of public school, so we start with the boys now and the girl will go when school opens. She is looking forward to it, as am I, although she is plenty miffed that she can't take tennis lessons with us. I'll be sure to post all about her big school day when it arrives.
Here's to a fantastic year of school for all THREE of my kids!
After 2 years in the business of Financial Planning with Edward Jones, my husband earned his first Diversification Trip (aka Div Trip). He has to meet a certain amount of criteria in a certain timeframe and the company rewards him with a gift of time off.
Get ready for the bragging, because I'm going to brag my little head off in this post.
Brag #1
To earn your first trip within the first couple of years with the firm is a BIG DEAL! It shows how hard my husband has been working to earn this. These trips aren't easily won. During the trip, they celebrate the "first timers" both publicly and privately. It's a big deal, folks!
Brag #2
When you meet other "first timers" on the Div Trip, you get to talking and learn about their offices back home. Most have taken over existing offices with more than $30 million dollars or even more in assets. Yes, Jay took over an existing office (and it was less than $10 million), but he earned this trip BEFORE taking over this office. It must be nice to have $30M or $40M just handed to you in 1 office. My husband has built this business up from scratch, from nothing. Earning this trip says A LOT! Is Jay good at what he does? CLEARLY! ABSOLUTELY! NO QUESTION! And I'm one PROUD WIFE!
Back to the trip…
We chose Jackson Hole because we thought it would be nice to leave the CRAZY HOT weather in Texas and head someplace cooler for a week in mid-summer. Jackson Hole offered the "cheapest" add-ons (Jay and I are taken care of by the company but we do have to pay for the kids). I only put "cheapest" in quotes because the extra hotel fees for our family were small, the upgrade to a minivan wasn't bad, but the airfare for the kids was INSANE! Such is life flying into a small ski resort town. Oh well. It all evened out in the end.
We also invited my mom and stepdad on this trip. Edward Jones allows us to bring a set of parents and we offered this to my family as a thanks for all the support they gave to us during our disastrous adoption journey.
This was our Quiet Tiger's first flight since coming home on an airplane from China. We weren't sure how she'd react. I secretly bought her a ladybug backpack from Target and picked up a couple of cheap toys for the plane and filled the bag with snacks. She didn't know about it or see it until the night before we left. She sat with Jay on the plane since he had never flown with her before. She did great! Not a tear. No nerves. No nothing!
In San Antonio, ready for her first flight since China.
If this isn't cute, I don't know what is!
Our plane touched down in Jackson right next to my mom's plane that flew in from Chicago. I watched my mom and stepdad walk off their plane onto the tarmac as I was waiting to disembark from our flight. We met outside the airport, got our rental car and drove to the hotel.
Oh my!
Hotel Terra is amazing! I fully expected to run into Jennifer Aniston or Adam Sandler or some other celebrity who frequents Jackson Hole! No celebrity sightings though. We had a 2-bedroom suite which also included a murphy bed for the kids. We had a balcony, a living room, a full kitchen, a dining room, and 3 full bathrooms too. Talk about exquisite! Everything was organic too. Organic soaps, cleaning supplies, robes and towels.
Spoiled rotten!
Dining room and kitchen. Dark doors behind Super C hide the murphy bed.
Photo bomb courtesy of Super C and his Tepig from Pokemon.
Relaxing after travel in the living room.
Our room.
Grammie & Rand's room.
1 of 3 bathrooms!
Loved the double sinks.
Two bathrooms had jetted tubs. The boy's bathroom had 1 sink and a huge glass shower.
The first night we had our welcome dinner for all the Edward Jones guests. I'd say there were probably 100 financial advisors there, plus their spouses and any families that came along as well. Much to our surprise, the only bad thing we could say was that the food was bland that night. That shocked us and we hoped things would be better. We met advisors from all around the country, even from Hawaii! There was a good handful of homeschool families there too, and that made me smile.
The next morning, Jay had an early morning meeting and the rest of us enjoyed a provided breakfast. The kids went to provided daycare after that and all of us adults went to a meeting about what to do in the area and a few general rules and guidelines for the trip. Quiet Tiger, who normally fears the hotel daycares that Jones provides, did great. I brought along a bracelet for her to wear and she had to give it back to me when I picked her up. Although seemingly happy and not too stressed, her eyes wouldn't connect with mine when I dropped her off or picked her up. She still goes to that far away place, wondering if we really mean it when we say, "Mommy & Daddy always come back."
That afternoon we were surprised by an offer for lunch. One of the product partners who worked with Lincoln Mutual who co-sponsored the trip, offered to take all of us out to lunch at the resort. The kids ate buffalo sliders and I had my first Banh Mi (Vietnamese pork sandwich) that is my new favorite sandwich in the whole wide world.
The rest of the time was really ours to enjoy.
We visited downtown Jackson. A great town full of shops, touristy and all, surrounding the town square. The big hit was the candy shop where we loaded up on Salt Water Taffy. Jay found a gallery and bought some artwork for his office back home (I'll probably blog about it later). We searched for shirts and hats for the kids. I bought a bracelet for me and an ornament for our Christmas tree, something I'll do with every Div Trip Jay earns so we can remember our travels. We bought a gift for Jay's assistant who we love! We stopped off at Albertson's for groceries so we could cook in our hotel room and enjoyed looking for moose along the way back to Hotel Terra.
I love a ski town!
The town square.
We hiked Jenny Lake in the Grand Teton National Park. How amazing! I'm a nature girl and I so badly wanted to hike all the way around the lake, but there was no way my kids nor my mom and stepdad would have done it with us, so we hiked about half way and my stepdad offered to buy us boat tickets back across the lake. The boat was one of L's highlights. Water girl.
Hiking!
Oh, the beauty of this place!
The falls at Jenny Lake
The company put on a Wyoming-themed dinner on Wednesday night. We got to take the gondola up the mountain to the restaurant where there was dinner and music and beer and wine. The views were amazing and the kids loved the gondola ride. None of them had been on one before. For the record, my daughter called it a "gondafor." Cute. After the dinner we made a very interesting connection to some possibilities in the adoption world. I hope and pray that I can blog about that in the future. I'll keep in vague for now out of necessity, but you can be praying for something to come of that conversation for sure!
On the mountaintop for dinner.
The only reason L isn't pictured is because of the edge
and no one wanted her to fall down the mountain.
Thursday we just stayed local. The boys did a bungee-trampoline thing at the resort. Thanks, Grammie for the tickets! We went back into town for a few more groceries for a picnic the next day. We cooked some frozen pizza for dinner back in the room.
Friday, we drove all the way up and through Yellowstone National Park. We saw Old Faithful, the calderas, the mud pits. We saw buffalo, 1 black bear cub, a pika and elk. The kids did a quick program at Old Faithful. We didn't hike much. It was a LONG 14 hour day in the car driving from place to place but so worth it! What a HUGE park! America's first National Park!
Old Faithful.
So much more majestic in person than in photos.
A must see!
The colors at the caldera were amazing!
On Saturday, Jay and I took the boys hiking Taggert Lake Trailhead, leaving Quiet Tiger with my mom and stepdad for a few hours. Taggert Lake was by far my favorite hike! I found myself choking back tears over God's awesome creation. I couldn't think of one Bible verse, one line to a worship song, anything to praise Him. Yeah, my spiritual pathway is clearly nature. Once we hit the lake I was able to regain some composure and I can't tell you how many prayers were uttered on the rest of that hike. LOTS of prayers for Lily. Prayers for Lynette. Prayers for Hilary. Prayers for Beth. Prayers for Jeanine. Prayers for Laurie and so many other friends. My boys made the 4 mile (approx.) hike too and were just about to begin fading when we reached the end and gobbled down our picnic lunch.
The falls at Taggert Lake
Our picnic view.
Doesn't get better than that!
That night we had our farewell dinner back at the hotel, complete with cocktails for the adults and face painting for the kids. The food was amazing! Much better than our first night. The adults ate all the ice cream on the kid's buffet. No joke! We were sad to see it all come to an end.
2 Dragons and a Butterfly
Our flights back home were early and we had to leave the hotel at 5am. The airport was INSANE with 4 large, full flights departing at 7am. We were there plenty early but had to rush once we got there. Security had to open up an extra line just for us 7am-ers. We didn't even have time to give a hug goodbye to my mom and stepdad. We just all ran directly onto our flights. Poor Super E cried huge tears begging me that we didn't have to get up early the next day for anything. He was so exhausted! Sweet boy.
We returned home tired but relaxed and happy to see our dogs and our home and our clean pool again! [Editor's Note: Our house sitter Kaylin ROCKS!!!]
What a blessing to work for such an amazing company that honors its employees, the spouses, the children and the families! Thank you, Edward Jones! Jay can earn up to 2 trips a year. Maybe our next one we'll leave the kids with family and enjoy a getaway on our own. Maybe we'll venture out as a family again. Our kids are good travelers and I'd love for them to see as much of the world as possible while we have the opportunity.
