2013 in Review & Looking Ahead in 2014

Wow! I haven't blogged in a while! Time to update!

2013 Review

January

 Andrew started his 2nd year of Master's classes. We were both working. Oh and Andrew's car broke down in the middle of a busy intersection in rush hour traffic. Thankfully it was fixed the same weekend and it was something he could do himself with the help of a friend. (Thanks Phil V.!) No picture for January as I lost all my January photo files :-(

February

February was busy with lots of meetings with the social worker for our homestudy.

Valentine's Date

March

We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary, my birthday, and finally got our homestudy back!

Anniversary Roses

April

 Andrew and I applied to USCIS for immigration approval and went to the Empowered to Connect Foster Adoption Parenting Conference. It was AMAZING! I highly recommend it to all adoptive and foster families!

Enjoying a Day at the Zoo with the Kids I Babysit

May

Lots of end of the school term stuff for Andrew (read exams and papers). I made a 3 day missions trip to Haiti for a Sunday school training seminar with one of my college teachers, Mrs. F.

The beautiful people of Haiti. I won't forget their warmth, love, and friendliness. How they worship God. They teach me so much. They have so little, yet have such beautiful spirits.

June

One of June's highlights was the Bulgarian Adoption Reunion. It was wonderful to meet other adoptive families! Andrew also took the few week break before summer classes start to begin remodeling the basement. Dossier mailed to Bulgaria for translation.

Basement Remodel Project

July

July was filled with summer classes for Andrew. We took a vacation with my sister, brother-in-law, and my darling nephew and niece. It rained everyday that week, but we still had fun in between showers and managed to roast marshmallows over a fire while holding and umbrella. We also got in some hiking trips. Andrew and my brother-in-law even hiked in the rain. Dossier submitted to Bulgarian MOJ for approval.

Andrew holding up a huge boulder. (Did we fool you? Maybe the expression on his face needs to look a little less smiley and more like "this is hard to lift".) Actually, it was a natural rock bridge over a creek/river.

August

More work on the basement on the few weeks of school before the fall semester starts.

Andrew tries his hand at for the first time at laying tile (in our basement). Forget easy things like straight rows. Why not do your first tile job as complexly as possibly and try a cool herring bone pattern?

September

Andrew's is in his best friend's wedding and we get to see another best friend and college room mate (who now lives in Northern Ireland at the wedding.)

Reunion of old buddies from college.

October

This fall was especially beautiful. The colors were so vibrant and I enjoyed it. My sister asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding (in 2014).  We got rained out of our Both Hands Project and had to reschedule. Our dossier was accepted by the Bulgarian government and we are officially on the waiting list to be matched with children!

Bulgarian pumpkin recipe I made called Tikvenik. It was so yummy! I wrote a post and gave the recipe on another blog here.

November

Thanks to our great team of volunteers, we had a great work day at Mrs. Tucker's home for our Both Hands Project. For Thanksgiving we went "out west" to see Andrew's family. When I say out west, I mean three different states. I met a lot of his relatives for the first time and saw the family ranch where Andrew's dad grew up. We got to visit with Andrew's maternal grandmother, who was battle cancer, and grandfather. His grandmother passed away a few weeks later. We also stayed with his 94 year old paternal grandmother who made us a pancake breakfast.

Andrew sitting on the floor to talk to his 94 yr. old grandmother.

December 

Christmas business. Need I say more? Highlights of our holiday season include

a candle light Christmas Eve Love Feast (the same one we went to the night we got engaged!) and spending a wonderful Christmas with my family! 

Walk thru the snow with my sweet heart to enjoy the Christmas lights up in our neighborhood!

Looking Ahead in 2014 

I can't see into the future, but we do have some exciting plans as we continue our journey through life hand in hand. I am sure life will bring all kinds of joys and challenges. It is nice to know that our Heavenly Father has it all in His control.

Andrew will being doing two internships and be finished with his Master's in Counseling by August! Then he can take state boards to become a licensed counselor.  

We hope to finish the basement remodel project. (We went this week and picked out paint colors, so it is slowly making progress. But I foresee another stall until June since Andrew's first internship starts Monday!) 

I will be working 40-45 hours a week. Andrew will be working part time too, as his schooling allows. (He has an awesome boss who works around his school schedule!)

As far as the adoption goes, we are in the big unknown period right now. The whole timeline is pretty set, except for this period of waiting to be matched with children. We hope to receive a match in 2014, but also realize we could still be waiting for a match next January. Or we could get a match tomorrow and next January we could have children home. We are preparing for the long wait. Our immigration approval while expire in July. Over the next, we are going to be working on update lots of paperwork to update our immigration approval this summer.

My brother is graduating from high school at the end of May and my sister is getting married in August. So we have two road trips planned.

I will try not to go so long in between blog updates! My goal for 2014 is 1 a month.

Have a blessed 2014.