In honor of my four loves, here are some Valentines to them: (These all came from www.yenniper.blogspot.com....please check them all out HERE as well as part two HERE for more awesomeness and hilarity!)
To Flor:
It has been six long years that I have waited to officially call you "mine"! I am so glad that the day has come and past that you are an official part of our family. You make this Valentine's Day extra special for your Mama as you are the most significant gift I could have ever received this day. I hope you know how wanted and loved you are! I am thankful to Heavenly Father every day that he heard my cries and pleas to allow you to "be mine!" Love, Mom
To Hallie:
To Jace:
You are such a keeper, buddy! You sure make this Mama happy. I love your cute little face, your big blue eyes, and your chubby little hands, oh and everything else about you! I miss your crooked grins, your claps, and your cute little voice. I can't wait to come home and hold you again. You are my itty-bittiest piece of heaven and I love you! I am so glad that you are mine too! Love, Mom
I won't get too sappy here since this is a public place, but I just want you and everyone to know how blessed I feel that you are mine! You are the kindest, most generous, and most loving husband. You always put my needs and the kids' needs above your own. You are always willing to jump right into any crazy adventure with me (like this adoption process) without even looking back. You love with all your heart and you make me feel important and special all the time. I am still madly in love with you five years in and I can't wait to spend the rest of eternity with you. Being away from you has been so hard (Someone get me out of here!) but I know it is just a tiny dot in the road in comparison to the rest of forever. So yep, suffice it to say that I am definitely "Siriusly in love with you right now!" XOXO. Love, Me
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Alright, so the day. Yesterday was horrendous; I am not going to lie. These ups and downs and all overs are crazy, but I suppose that comes with the territory. I am feeling better today and more in the mindset that I can handle this. I just hope the time goes by quickly. I have discovered that keeping my mind occupied is really helpful. If I don't, I find myself on the verge of tears all the time, thinking about how much I miss Devin, Hals, and Jace. I have been trying to read more from the Conference issue of the Ensign and have found myself feeling buoyed up as I have done so.
I read a talk yesterday by Elder Robert D. Hales, entitled "Waiting upon the Lord: Thy Will Be Done." (could there be any more perfect talk for me right now? I think not). There were quite a few things there that stuck out to me and helped me, but here are a few of my favorite quotes from the talk:
"What, then, does it mean to wait upon the Lord? In the scriptures, the word wait means to hope, to anticipate, and to trust. To hope and trust the Lord requires faith, patience, humility, meekness, long-suffering, keeping the commandments and enduring to the end."
"Those afflictions will come in all shapes and sizes. Job's experience reminds us what we may be called upon to endure. Job lost all his possessions, including his land, house, and animals; his family members; his reputation; his physical health; and even his mental well-being. Yet he waited upon the Lord and bore a powerful testimony. He said 'For I know that my reedemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though...worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." (Job 19:25-26)
And my favorite:
"Too often we pray to have patience, but we want it right now!" (This is so true of me!)
This talk was a really good reminder for me. Really, this "trial" is such an insignificant thing. Many people are called upon to endure much more. I have no room to complain or grumble because I have seen the blessing of the Lord and have seen His hand throughout this whole process. I admit that I prayed for days that He might intervene on our behalf and get us home in time with our family. Yet, that didn't happen. My automatic response was "Why have you not answered my prayers?" But instead it should have been (and I have tried harder since) to ask "What do I need to learn from this?" Obviously the patience thing is a big one. I am not a patient person and this is something I have always wanted to develop more of. So here we are. I guess I ought not to pray for things that I don't really want to learn the hard way! :)
(By the way, if you want to read the whole talk, it is HERE)
My cousin Sarah babysat the kids yesterday and she sent me a message yesterday with some of the funny things Hallie has been saying. It totally made my night. I found myself laughing through my bouts of crying. Something so simple, yet so meaningful. So, how can I not share these few Hallie-isms with you!?
*(Sarah's words): So last time I watched them we were doing quiet time after lunch and she was having a hard time not wanting to go through her closet so I asked her if she would be obedient and do quiet time. Her response, "YES! ...ill be obedient later."
*Today we were coming home from toys r us where we had picked up a mini rapunzel and rider set. I told her we couldn't open it til we got home. So on the way we were talking about the movie and talking about how she lets down her hair from the tower. So me in a mimic voice say, "rapunzel, let down your hair!" And from the back seat Hals voice, " I can't! I'm in a box with Flynn Rider!"
*She likes to tell me she is sick and needs ice cream or that she is real sick and needs me to probably take her to the doctor. Or I asked her to give jacer his drink and she says. " I can't, I'm just too sick."
*And a random one: "my mom is a good mom and she's Kim." (awwwwww...)
Man, I'm cracking up again just re-reading these. She is a such a funny little thing.
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Okay, so that wasn't so much about the day, either, was it? Okay. Here we go for real.
Today was a really good day, despite the fact that I am missing my other half for V-day. Let's be honest though- we probably wouldn't have done much to celebrate at home anyway, so it's not too big of a deal.
Flor and I went to the Artesian market again this morning. I know, we have been there a hundred times already, but I really do love it and I keep thinking of people we "need" to get gifts for. Perfect excuse to go, right? You can't beat it. Such great stuff for really great prices. So, we spent a few hours there and I think we finished up all shopping, although knowing me I can probably come up with more. We'll see.
We came home, had lunch, and then Flor had her nap. After nap time, we decided to go for a walk to our favorite bakery down the road. That place...oh so good. It is my favorite of all the ones we have been to during out trip here (and that is a lot by now!). Probably a good thing that we didn't move here to the OSSO house any earlier or I would have gained 20 pounds by now. We thought we deserved a Valentine's Day treat at the bakery today, so that's what we did. :)
We came home and had about an hour to burn before heading out again. Tuesday is Pizza Day with the Schinnerers, and this time two new families joined us! Yay! Our numbers are pulling back up again. The families are the Romero's from Minnesota and the Scotto's from Pennsylvania. The Romeros have been here since the end of December too, but are using another agency so it took us a little longer to hear about them being here and to hook up with them. They are adopting their first child, a little 2 year old boy named Geovanny. He is so, so, cute. He was at the same orphanage as Flor, though in Latacunga (a different city). They have been to court already too and it turns out they had the same judge that us and the Schinnerers had. What are the chances! Speaking of the Schinnerers, they went to court today and all went well! Hallelujah for that. Let's just hope that Judge 6 is a bit faster about their decree than she was with ours. Time will tell. The other family, the Scotto's are adopting a little girl named Kearly, who is 4. She was so stinking cute and so entertaining. She took quite the liking to Pablo! They also have a 9 year old daughter that they adopted from China. Linda and Michael (the Scottos) have just been here four or five days, so just starting the process. It was so great to meet these new families and to get to know their little ones too.
The bad news was that Papa John's oven was out when we went in, so we decided to walk down the road to another pizza place we had seen that had 2 for 1 day on Tuesdays too. It was PACKED and took forever to get our food, but we enjoyed the time getting to know the other families. Flor was darn near starved by the time we got our food, but luckily, she survived. We didn't get home until 9 pm ish (good thing I started this post earlier today, huh?) and I got Flor right to bed.
Oh, and in case you were worried that I didn't get anything for Valentine's Day...no need to worry. Behold:
Nope, not Devin. They're from Pablo! Isn't that boy the sweetest? I can honestly say that this is the first time in my life that I have gotten roses from a 14 year old boy (even counting when I was 14. I would have died to have someone give me roses at that age!) Don't worry, I am sure Devin won't be jealous. Such a good boy though, to think of others like that. Jim and Robin are doing something right with him! Made my day.
Alright, that's it from me. Happy Valentines Day to all!
1 comment:
beautiful roses! And so sweet of sarah to email you those quotes from hallie. So cute and funny! So its sounds like you had some good points to yesterday even though you also had some rough points. Keep your chin up -you will get out of there sometime! They can't keep a fighter like you locked up forever!
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