Happy Anniversary...

to us! Bart and I have been marrried 6 years today. This guy is my rock. When I was freaking out yesterday becasue YET MORE paperwork problems presented themselves he stayed cool. He fixed it, and drove the papers in to the agency personally so that they could be there on time to hopefully help for court Tuesday. Getting time off from the ARMY dudes isn't easy but he did it, and he did it for me and for our son. Is is any wonder I love this man!?!

Some other things I totally dig about my muchacho:

He dressed as close to Prince Charming as could be for our wedding. Cheesily I wanted the whole Cinderella feel and he tried to give it to me.

He loves to travel as much as I do (this is our trip to Sedona and the Grand Canyon)

He dislikes hockey as much as I do (so unCanadian I know)...but I loved watching him play rugby!


Bart adores children and is a favourite "uncle" to many!


He never complains about my HUGE burpy, smelly, farty, drooly love bucket-Kyah.



Oh yeah, and he's ALLLLLL mine! Happy Anniversary Bear.

Court Date-Must maintain hope.

Found out that some of our paperwork from the socialworker still isn't in to the agency. Court is on Tuesday people-what are the chances of it all coming together in time? Struggling to keep positive....help!

Bellydancing Babyshower

Ok, so maybe I went over the top a bit decorating for the baby shower, ya think? But well, I am a glamour girl and if you ask me to throw a party I CANT DO IT HALFWAY!!!

A Song For My Little Man

Because I can't wait to hear my Little Bear say "Mama" and "Dada"-(hopefully in Animal's voice-wouldn't that be cool!) I thought this song would be appropriate for today, and its just plain fun to watch this video! I mean, who doesn't love Queen, or the Muppets? Put then together and wellllll.....

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Woohoo a Court Date!

Mark it on your calendar June 8th is the big day! Rationally I know that most folks don't make it through on their first court date...sometimes not even second, third, fourth etc. I can't allow myself to be negative about it though. I am trying to ride that fine line of cautious optimism and we JUST MIGHT get that lucky. At the same time trying to be realistic so that we don't have the tremendous letdown if things go awry.

It looks as though we slipped in just under the deadline and will not be having to attend court in Ethiopia. I am of two minds about this. Initially the extra cost caused a minor panic in our household...but we came up with solutions and have tremendous support in our community so we knew that we could handle it. Then I started to get excited about the idea of getting to see Little Bear sooner, the chance to hold him and love on him would be worth anything to me. So now I don't get to...kinda sad about that.

But, holy smokes people that court date is only 17 days away!!!!!! I was anticipating a July or August court date initially so I feel like I have won the lottery in that respect.

Great Day!

So what makes a great day in my world? Well, lately I feel more like myself, all the weight I've lost is bringing back the face I recognize! See photos 1 and 2! Second thing that makes a great day is receiving official papers to sign accepting our referral-hooray for paperwork!!! One step closer Little Bear....we're coming for ya! (It gets rating in #2 slot because it is after all paperwork which is yucky in general but awesome today!)




The third great part to my day is this wonderful gift from my dear friend, and former university roomate, Jen. She sent me this sweet Memory book for adoptive families. It has a beautiful layout and focuses on our first year together as a family, his story- a built in lifebook essentially with bonus space for continuing his Canadian journey.



Finally, as if my life wasn't blessed enough today, I get to come home to beautiful weather and walk my dog here:



Life is GREAT!!!

Before/After Remodeling

When we purchased our house in October it was ... in rough shape cosmetically. So after a lot of hard work here are some of the before and afters. You might notice i tend toward bright colours-hey, after years of living in apartments and military housing with nothing but white-I WANTED COLOUR!!! Caveat-not everything is complete so you might notice missing baseboard etc. but you will get the sense of our style. So, without further ado....(click to enlarge)
Dining Room Before:

Dining Room After:



Guest Room Before:


Guest Room After:


Master Bedroom Befores:




Master Bedroom after: