she's waiting

Well, the truth is that I really miss my blog.  My time and energy after coming home from China in 2012 were poured into the exhausting task of Joya's adjustment, attachment, and healing (not to mention parenting five children).

Then, I found my life's passion.  I now fit in about 15 hours per week writing and advocating for China's orphans through Love Without Boundaries.

Want to help orphans?  Sponsor a baby at the Anhui Healing Home, where my hours are devoted.

You won't regret it.

Now I need to let a cat out of a bag, or spill some beans, or burst at the seams....

We've been not so public this time, but we are going back to China this summer.  We could not ignore that adoption has changed our entire family.  Our eyes have been opened to the need, the pain, the opportunity to be used by God to love so tangibly.  And we cannot ignore that we have room for one more.

The kids were the first ones to ask when we were going to adopt again.  Then my husband started asking me about it, which is very interesting seeing that I waited on him for years before we adopted the first time.  Now all the men are leading the charge.

They prayed.  He prayed.  I prayed.  We prayed.

I had this feeling in my heart that Joya needed to stay the baby of our family.  Aside from the fact that I'm turning the big 4-0 very soon, I just felt strongly that we should not adopt another baby.  My man and I both feel broken for the children that have waited for a family for too long and are overlooked because they are no longer cute little babies.

We looked at files and prayed about different older children before we even started one step of the actual adoption paper chase.  Not one worked out.  We clearly had the doors close on us and I thought once or twice that we would stay a family of seven.

Then last fall, a child we already knew about came across our paths again.  Her adoption was disrupted (meaning she was chosen but her adoption was never completed) and we were sure that she would be chosen again in no time.  Five months passed and we found out that she still didn't have a family.

We asked lots of questions and were given loads of information about her.  We communicated with people who have met her as well as people who have adopted children of similar age and situation.  We prayed that God would shut the door if she wasn't to be a Sweeney.  With each new piece of information, we could not find where the door even budged and inch.

So here we are, six months later.  We have completed all the paperwork and received a "pre-approval" from the Chinese government.  As soon as tomorrow morning, we could wake up to the official LOA (Letter of Acceptance), which means we are officially matched to her.

And then you may see her face.  But until then......

if I have any readers left

I have a file full of blog posts started, but not finished.

We have cruised through the Christmas break, not stopping or even slowing down as the new year passed us by like every other moment in time.

My poor blog has been virtually ignored for a few weeks, which is hilarious for two main reasons:

1.  This girl loves to write.
2.  I included my blog address in my Christmas cards this year, so any new readers that checked in here were bored silly.

So, here is my short novel to covered the omitted history:

Chapter One:
We had an awesome visit with my sister Amy and her family, as well as my mom.  It is tradition that we travel to them every summer and they travel to us every winter.  The boys love hanging with their cousins and Aunt Amy makes them laugh so hard.

Plus they give cooler presents than Mom and Dad do.

Not to mention the little ones get to go wild and crazy.

 

 

We did a little skiing, a little tubing, a little eating, gaming, bargain shopping, and a lot of laughing.

 

 

Plus, their family brought so many wi-fi gadgets that they crashed our router about 437 times in five days.

 

 

 

For the second year in a row, their trip coincided with Rufus's holiday preschool program.  Here's a snapshot of his five year old cuteness:

Chapter Two:
Family leaves and I spend seven hours getting intimately acquainted with an 1100+ piece Republic Attack Cruiser.

I would never admit that I had several extra pieces when I was done.  Or the height of my frustration when the boys picked it up the next morning and several miscellaneous pieces popped off.

Chapter Three:
We had a wonderful Christmas.  Presents all around!

Chapter Four:
New Year's Eve poker game until 4:15 a.m.  Ouch.

The silver lining was that the Sweeney's kept all the cash when everyone went home.

Pete was not happy about that:

Neither was Rob:

This crazy hat indicated who was the dealer and it made us all laugh:

Our friends David and Darcy joined our Park City gang and tried their hand at poker. 

They claimed that it was their very first time, but we were all quite suspicious when David won the battle to the death against Christa.

Here is a peek at the action at the table.

David arrived cash-less, so Kenyon and I paid his mighty $5 buy-in at the table.  He then insisted that I keep his winnings.  That's pretty much how generous he and his family are.

I'll still think twice before sitting down at cards with him again!  I think his quick study took everyone by surprise.

The End.

We now return to our regularly scheduled blogging.

p.s. might you leave a comment and let me know you're still out there?

she's the best

I live in the mountains in Utah.  I love it here.

We lack some things here: high taxes, rush hour traffic, crooks obscenely corrupt politicians, city lights, and a congested airport to name just a few.

I don't miss any of those.  I grew up in the Chicago area and thought seeing a handful of stars in the sky was a "wow" clear night.

(can you hear me chuckle?)

I didn't pay the bills when I lived by the windy city, but now that I do pay my own way, I compare our property and sales taxes to Illinois residents' and think, "ouch."

We do lack one thing here that I miss, well two things.

Bears and Cubs.

OK, well we have the real thing out here in the Rockies, but I'm talking NFL and MLB.

The other thing I really miss?  Family.

I got an unexpected package in the mail yesterday.  It wasn't for my kids or my hubby - just me.  I saw it was from my sister Amy - I had no idea what she could be sending me.

My birthday was two months ago and Christmas is still almost two months away (thank God, I'm not ready!).

This little gem was folded up tightly in a padded envelope with a post-it note on the tag:

Aren't sisters the best?

I was having a moment of joyful appreciation of my relationship with Amy and went to show my Beloved what she had sent me.  He misunderstood me a bit (what? a man, misunderstanding a woman??) when I was exclaiming how great sisterhood is.

"So, you wish you had a daughter, is that what you're telling me?" he interjected.

"No, but if you're offering, I'll take you up on it," I replied with a smile and
a wink.

He quickly exited the room quietly laughing and shaking his head.

I'll take that as a firm NO.

a little time on the hill

Living in a ski town has some perks.

We can be weather snobs and only ski on the best weather days.

We can hoard the powder and get first tracks after a storm.

We can avoid the crowds and lift lines by skiing when it isn't busy.

Not to sound snobby, but I have to remind myself of these things when it is snowing on September 11th.

And June 11th.

I'm not lying, or joking, or hallucinating either.

Anyhoo, here are a few highlights from the last couple of weeks.

Hunter is in a locals' "Learn to Race" ski program and the level of instruction is amazing.  At almost eight years old, he can ski anything - and ski it well.

He gets to participate in a few races this season and just finished his first one this past weekend.  He has a highly competitive coach.  All the other teams did their best skiing down the course, but Kathleen wanted the competitive edge for her team, so he made all the boys take off their coats and race with just their shirts on top!

They raced against their age group, not each other - but he won a gold medal for this race.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

 

We also typically have a lot of visitors during this time of the year.  Our dear friends Gary and Christine came from South Dakota to ski for a few days.

Although our house is a 90 second drive from here, they convinced me to drive an hour to ski here.

I brought my big six year-old Sauce with me (because he is still free to ski).  We skied some tough stuff and he did so well.

Here we are on the gondola.

Snowbasin has a lot of gondolas and one tram, affectionately referred to as "the beer can."  It goes up to the top of a run called "The Olympic Men's Downhill."  It is the run just to the right of the tram in the picture below.

Note:  I didn't take this picture and when we were there, the rocked up part of the run was covered with tall moguls.

Because it is a tram, you are able to take a ride to the top and if you chicken out decide not to ski it, you can take the tram back down again.

When we got off, there was a line of adults waiting to get back on.  A woman watched Sauce throw his skis on and get ready to take off.

She nudged her husband.  He looked up and said, "HE'S gonna ski this?  Holy Sh**!"

A proud moment as a mother, I must say.

Here's a view from inside the beer can tram.

That's sauce in the bottom of this picture.

At the end of the day, Sauce begged to go to the terrain park.   I see more broken bones in our future.

 

Lastly, my sister was here visiting this weekend and we went skiing Sunday afternoon in a storm full of fresh snow.

girl time

Boo hoo.  My sister Amy and her family and my mom just left after a five day visit from the suburbs of Chicago.  Time definitely flies when you're having fun.

We had some good girl time though.  Our first full day was spent at my hair dresser getting some new do's.  Vivian tagged along with us and we left the rest of the crew at home.

Me and Vivi chilling and waiting for Amy to make a decision.  (I was sucking my thumb too, but decided to take it out for the picture.)

She made a decision!  I talked her into it - Mom was trying to talk her out of it... Locks of Love is getting a package and Amy's husband Terry is about to be surprised!

Girls with fresh haircuts.

in her shadow

Looking solely at my recent posts, you would think that this blog was about the relationship between two sisters.

But it just so happens that that today is my sister's 37th birthday...

And I didn't get her a gift, so this will have to do for today.

Coming fresh off a visit with her, I have a renewed perspective and appreciation for who my sister is and my relationship with her.

Amy and I have always been quite different. She was born with a full head of dark monkey hair, I entered the world with the tiniest bit of white peach fuzz on my noggin.

She was always tall and turned out to be 5'8" and I was always short and am a whopping 5'3". She has always excelled academically, where I have struggled to make the grades. Amy always had good taste in clothing and makeup, and I always needed a little help in that area (usually by stealing borrowing her clothes!).

We had different interests growing up and though I tried very hard to walk in her shadow and repeat her footsteps, we took two different paths and wound up growing apart for several years of our young adulthood.

Amy said something this weekend that struck me as so ironic.

"...my sister who does everything better than me."

I laughed out loud, because not only had I NEVER heard her say anything like this in my life, but this is exactly how I felt about her for so many years and still in many ways think that now.

It brought to light how, in hindsight, I wish I would have just been myself growing up, and not tried to be who she was, but just loved her despite our differences. I spent so much time feeling insecure because we were different in some ways and I overlooked and almost pushed away the blessing of having a sister.

As we approach middle age, it seems like we have reached a mutual comfort and love for each other.

And it feels great.

Amy would give her shirt off her back for someone she loves. She is loving and compassionate and gives grace to others. She is a great listening ear and a shoulder to lean on when I need her.

She has a great sense of humor. Sarcasm is something BIG that we have in common.

Even though she has her own children, she always seems to find special presents for my boys that fit each of their own personalities and interests.

She is a wonderful mother to her kids and although she works nights as a moms and babies nurse, she balances work and home so well.

Happy Birthday Amy! I love you more than words can express and cherish our sisterhood and friendship!

saying goodbye

Amy and I took a few quiet moments on our last morning to watch the video taped burial service for our sweet Olivia Kate.

I was bummed that I wasn't able to be there to say goodbye to my little namesake and support my sister, but I was so thankful to be able to watch it.

Earlier in the weekend, Amy had shared the precious keepsakes from Olivia's birth. The hospital staff did a phenomenal job creating tangible memories of Olivia.

In addition to making a mold of Olivia Kate's feet, the nurses made perfect hand and foot prints and photographs that were so peaceful and perfect, positioning her just as if she were cuddling her little teddy bear, sound asleep.

I shared the story of the amazing funeral director who proved to us all that there are kind and generous people in the world.

He performed the graveside service and did such a nice job sharing his heart as well as the hope we have despite tragic losses such as Olivia's premature death.

Early in Amy's pregnancy we all referred to Olivia as "Baby B" and my niece Amelia coined the name "Butterfly," which quickly took over how we referred to her.

At the end of the burial service, Amelia noticed that a caterpillar had crawled across the grass of the cemetery and nuzzled itself right against the detailed edge of Olivia's little casket.

"I don't believe in coincidences." the funeral director announced.

Neither do I.

It was if the Lord reached down and spoke to all of us who are hurting so in her absence.

"You have only seen Olivia Kate in her earthly form, a little caterpillar that had yet to finish her journey. I have healed her completely and made her whole. She will not struggle and she will not suffer pain. Her butterfly transformation is complete, as I have removed her earthly cloak for all of eternity."

John 16:33 "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

raindrops and snuggles

I'm here, I'm alive. But I'm VERY busy holding this sweet bundle of yummy.

You would think that Hurricane Ike came to Chicago, because it's been raining the entire time that I've been at my sister Amy's house. But that's o.k. because I don't need nice weather to hold my sweet Vivian!

I'm hogging her completely, only letting others hold her for moments at a time. I can't believe that I have to leave tomorrow already!!!

Vivy and Livy

Well, last week I couldn't blog about anything because my sister was in labor and my heart was with her, not here on the keyboard. I have been savoring every picture that has come to my screen of my new niece, so now I will share them with you!

Vivian Elise was born last Tuesday, August 19th. She weighed in at 8 lb. 11 oz. and 21.5 in. long. Amy had a completely natural labor and delivery in the hospital and is doing great now at home recovering.

I am going to see her in a couple weeks and I can't wait to get my hands on the little munchkin!

Vivian's twin sister, our sweet little Butterfly, arrived shortly after her. Amy and Terry gave her the name Olivia Kate, which is particularly sweet to me and I can't post about it without crying because Kate is my middle name.

Olivia weighed 10 oz. and was 10 in. long.

Although I wasn't there, I was told that everyone got to visit with Olivia and say tender goodbyes to her that day.

On a really sweet sidenote, Amy and Terry went to the funeral home a couple of days ago to arrange the cremation of Olivia's body. The funeral director spoke with them about options for the ashes after the cremation, and mentioned that if they planned to bury them, why not just have a burial to begin with?

Enter suspicions that funeral director is trying to make a few extra bucks.

Wrong.

When they asked how much a burial would cost, he explained that 15 years ago his wife was pregnant with twin boys and lost one twin.

The plot at the cemetery would be $75 and the rest "was taken care of."

They were as shocked as you are. When they tried to respond with some chain of words that might make sense, he simply said, "If I could change things for you, I would, but this is what I can do."

There are truly kind people in this world and it is nice to be reminded.

Olivia Kate will be buried this Thursday, August 28th at 1 p.m. central time. Please keep their family in your thoughts and prayers.

And enjoy the pictures.