Who's on Graham's mind?

Graham talks about a few of his favorite people

Not Adoption News...

Nope, nothing new with the adoption. Just a lot of prayers for clarity and patience :) Graham, however, is doing more and more new things every day. It's been great to see him discover new things, especially words! He's getting quite chatty (he comes by that honestly, I suppose.) And while he's not walking, he's pulling himself up on everything and continues to discover new places to play around the house.

... 2 minutes later the rest of my measuring cups were strewn about the kitchen.

yum yum yum

I found this recipe on-line this week for Tortellini Soup, made it last night, and loved it. Thought I'd share:

Ingredients:

1 (10 oz) package of frozen chopped spinach

chopped carrots

2 (14.5 oz) cans chicken broth

1 (9 oz) package of cheese tortellini

1/4 tablespoon dried basil

1/4 tablespoon garlic powder

salt and pepper to taste

Directions: 

In a large pot over high heat, combine chicken broth, spinach and carrots. Heat to boiling, then reduce heat to low. Stir in tortellini and simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until the tortellini is cooked to desired tenderness. Season with basil, garlic powder, and salt & pepper.

Not Quite According to Plan

As I said in a previous post, we were hoping that our paperwork would be sent over to Ethiopia by the end of March. Well... that's not looking likely. The past few weeks have been a bit challenging and trying when it comes to being patient. (those of you who know me, now that patience is not one of my many virtues.) Drew and I firmly believe that this adoption is the right step for our family, but we want to be responsible, particularly when it comes to our finances. 

As we get deeper into this process, we're realizing that we'll come out of this with more debt that initially thought. (Turns out Ethiopia isn't offering a "recession discount"...just kidding. But, really, they aren't.) After talking it all over with our caseworker, we've made the decision to wait until the summer to send our paperwork over. We realize it's only a few months, but it's still a few more months.

Someone I consider to be very wise told me that it's not about God saying "yes" or "no" to decisions we make in life, rather it's about us honoring Him with the decisions we make. It was a good reminder for me in all of this!

In the meantime, we're absolutely loving hanging out with Graham. Each day brings out a new dimension of his personality... he now tells us that a dog says "woof" and every circular object that exists is excitedly referred to as a ball. He's amazing. 

meanwhile, in Petoskey

So, while we were soaking up the sunshine in FL, Graham was enjoying the freshly fallen 10" of snow in Petoskey. Thanks to a certain father-in-law of mine, Graham's trip was well-documented.  (Each day brought a new "tele-graham" in our inbox.) 

...we're confident this kid will have a full-ride football scholarship. Just look at that belly.

a little get-a-way

Drew and I just came home after a wonderful week in Florida with our friends, Dan and Christina Katt. It was so very nice to wear flip-flops, bathing suits, and have no agenda for the week! Graham headed up to Petoskey to hang out with Nana and Poppa de Jonge, which made for an even more relaxing week (for us anyway...) We had beautiful weather and a wonderful time away.

Graham is 1!

Our little man turned one yesterday. Crazy to think about how dramatically our lives have changed in the past 12 months, and we are so thankful for that!