A Colorful Update

This blog is overdue an adoption update. I said I would update every month on the 14th and so far I have missed two months. Sigh. Our house sale fell through and along with it the main bulk of our adoption fund. Double sigh.

Now that we are officially in Dallas, I was supposed to update our file with Gladney so that we could get this adoption going. Unfortunately, at the 11th hour our house sale fell through and honestly, I just got a bit discouraged and never followed up with our caseworker. Have I mentioned before that patience is not my strongest virtue? :)

Yesterday, I decided enough of not believing in our plan. I know God wants us to adopt from Ethiopia. I feel it in my heart and He told my husband. What more confirmation do I need, right? I called our caseworker and we now have an updated file and hopefully will be attending our first seminar in the next few weeks. Yay! Where will the money come from? I don't know. We have a few ideas and trust that God will take care of the rest. I can't thank God for our blessings and then doubt His plan in our lives.

In the meantime, Isabella and Lucia decided to clean my room for me yesterday while I was on the phone. By "cleaning" I mean making my bed. If the bed is made, the room is clean (my kind of girls!). Isabella decided my door was too plain and drew this picture for me. Yes, she's drawn 100's of family pics but this is the first one that show's Harold as having a different skin color than mine. Her use of color just makes me smile... that and how she still draws a few random hairs on Harold's head.

Pura Vida

If you are ever in Costa Rica, you are bound to hear someone say, "Pura vida!" It's a little catch phrase that is said over and over, regardless of the situation. The literal translation is "pure life" but it means much more than that to a Costa Rican. I heard it used as a greeting, as a good-bye, when laughing about the local soccer team and when there was just a moment of awkward silence in the taxi.

So with that being said, here are a few of my favorite pics from our trip. I loved hanging out with my little family and love, love, love the memories these pics represent. Pura vida!

Finally Connected

Yay... I am officially back on-line! And also realizing that I may have a semi obsessive relationship with the internet - I use it for everything!! Not sure how good that is. Hmmm.

In the meantime, no more having to run to my sister's house to use my computer, check my email and get a lil work done. I wasn't completely in the dark, I did have my iPhone but just not the same. Now I can check out all my favorite blogs and websites from the comfort of home!

Costa Rican Royalty

We are back from our vacation and it was wonderful! I cannot say enough nice things about Harold's family and of course, the beauty of Costa Rica.

We arrived late Tuesday night and spent Wednesday walking in the city, people watching and feeding the pigeons. We also booked a two night stay at the Royal Corin Resort & Spa, in La Fortuna, right next to Volcano Arenal.

The hotel and volcano views were amazing. Our room's balcony overlooked the pool and volcano. Volcano Arenal is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and we could hear it grumbling and erupting every day that we were there. On our first night, we even saw a neat display of red hot lava rocks - as exciting as this was it was also scary to be so close to an active volcano!

I had never stayed such a luxurious resort and we were treated like royalty... true to it's name! The rest of the trip we stayed with Harold's aunt and uncle who are very poor and their living conditions were not at all what our girls were used to. On the bus ride home I told Harold that our girls were going to throw a fit about having to go back to his aunt and uncle's house... but they never did.

I don't think they paid too much thought to the hole in their uncle's ceiling that let in the rain at times or the big mud pit by the back door due to a cracked up tile kitchen floor. We were constantly showered with attention and love. Any chance they had, all the other aunts, uncles and cousins would come by to say hello - before breakfast, at lunch and after dinner. They would all come by to hug the girls, stroke their hair or just smile at them. Thanks to the fact that our girls are still not fluent in Spanish (grrr!) there was not much that could be discussed but the love they had for our kids was more than evident.

And isn't that what every parent really wants? To know that your kids are welcome and loved. Our girls may not have been showered with gifts but they were given enough hugs, kisses, hair strokes and back rubs to last them a lifetime... and that's the best royal treatment anyone can wish for.

Bon Voyage!

Good-bye... I'm off for a two-week trip to Costa Rica with my family. So excited! Before you start feeling too jealous please know that this trip has been four years in the making and our vacations for the past four years have mainly consisted of weekend trips to Dallas or Houston... not that those weren't any fun! ;)

Hopefully, I'll get to post some pics but until then hope you all are having a wonderful summer.