The Schommer family

Mother's Day

2010-05-11T17:13:00.000-07:00

We have celebrated so many wonderful events in our lives and this Mother's Day was a special and quiet one. The family enjoyed going to church in RF and then went to Perkins, a family favorite because Mom can get her omlette and the kids can get thier Fries and whatever else they want. Of course Schommer eats almost anything so her is the easiest to eat out with in our family. In the afternoon, Gabriel was not feeling well. He has a cold so we snuggled and then went for a family walk. We are so blessed. The school year is coming to an end so we are busy with field trips, summer activities starting and closure to another year. We pray that all of you MOMS had amazing days with your families. May this summer be filled with more special events. Hope to post new pictures next week!

Birthdays and Big Day

2010-04-27T19:37:00.000-07:00

Since it has been a year, we are going to share all of the kids' birthdays and then a few pictures from TODAY. We will be sharing pieces of this past year and current in small parts. We will begin with the birthdays of this 2010 year. Emma celebrated her birthday in January and she is growing up so quickly. She is still our "Girlie Girl" and we are very proud of her. Emma after her birthday donated her hair to "Locks of Love" (hope to show these pictures later). In April we celebrated Mara's birthday in the early part of the month and Gabriel celebrated his birthday just last week. Mara had a small party by taking a friend to Chuck E Cheese. Emma also brought a friend, which made the experience great for everyone. The girls and their friends played games and Gabriel rode the merry-go-round. We have done lots to enjoy family time and being that Gabriel just had his birthday we are still planning to take him swimming this week as being in water is his favorite activity. He turned three years old. Being that he is now three, he no longer is covered under the birth-to-three program in our area (Gabriel was diagnosed with cerebral palsy this past summer therefore he received therapy through his program)so... TODAY Gabriel went to Early Childhood at the elementary school. The morning went well and we received information about his day. Also his wonderful childcare "mom" took pictures and she was so supportive. We are blessed with many celebrations. Here are a few pictures from each birthday and from today. Hope that you enjoy them.

It's been a year?!

2010-04-18T16:05:00.000-07:00

It has been almost a year and I am finally getting back to blogging for our family page. I am sad that it has taken this long, but on a postive note it will be very easy for you to compare our kids from last year to this year. They are all growing up so much and the accomplishments of all of them are wonderful. Our oldest is beginning softball in a few weeks and has been enjoying the outdoors. She has had a great year being at the same grade level, but not in the class, of her dad. Our middle daughter is riding a bigger bike, singing all the time, and she has been running back and forth from the neighbor's yard to our yard daily. Of course she still finds time to stop in and give kisses to her mom (Love it!). Our son is making huge improvements. He is walking with a walker and he will begin school in a few weeks. We are all very excited about this new part of our lives. Everyone, but mom, will be at the same school. Daycare is amazing and we are so blessed by his provider. She loves our kids and words can not express how much she has impacted all of our lives. I wanted to add a few pictures so that you could see the changes. Also I am going to set the goal of writing monthly. I hope that you, readers, enjoy finding out about our lives. We have so many blessings that it is too much to write in just one post. And we have had a good last year. This recap does not give enough details to what has happened throughout the past year, but it is a start. Thanks for coming back to read. Until next month...

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T19:20:00.001-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to every woman who is a mom and who has played the role as a mom. I wanted to write a short entry as I end my Mother's Day. It was special this year for various reasons, and one being that my three kids were all with me. This year my family and I traveled to Fargo, ND to be with my mom and dad, middle brother, my youngest brother and his family, and my sister-in-law's mom. We had a short (got up there at 1 a.m. on Friday), but very nice trip. My mom wanted to participate in the Fargo 5K Walk/Run so my sister-in-law, her mom, my mom and I did it. It was special to have us do this as my sister-in-law and I were able to be with our moms in this event. We were out in below 40 degree weather to experience this amazing gathering on Saturday. Gabriel does not always do well in crowds, but he did fine. The girls were amazed at the number of people and they likes the chocolate milk that we, the runners, got and then gave to them. My brother ran the half marathon so we cheered him on after we completed the 5K. It was a nice way to start the weekend. Then we hung out as a family and left early this afternoon to return home. The girls made me gifts and cards, which I always treasure, and we ended today by reading a chapter from "Little House in the Big Woods". As a woman and especially a mom, I am blessed everyday! Thank you to my husband, who loves me dearly and tries to show me how important I am to him and the kids. Thank you to my kids for loving me through snuggles and kisses, challenges, and precious moments. Finally THANK YOU to my mom, who raised my to be a strong woman, who encourages me to enjoy life, and who got me to drive to Fargo to be in the 5K with her. This mother's day will be cherished! I pray that all of you "MOMS" reading have had a wonderful day and that you know that God places Moms of all kinds in this world to do what we Moms do - love. May you know daily that you are special. Happy Mother's Day!

Celebrations...

2009-04-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

First my sincerest apologies for the length of time that it has been since we have updated our family information. I was embarrassed today when I saw the last post. We are now posting about Mara's and Gabriel's birthdays. The months have flown by. To write a brief recap of the last few months. Life has been great and full of challenges. February was a blur with family events such as our nephew/cousin being baptized and celebrating Valentines day. March held challenges as Gabriel had a fever induces seizure at daycare and was sent to the hospital in an ambulance. Our daycare provider is amazing and did terrific through it. Gabriel has pneumonia at this time. We had planned to head to Alabama, but felt that staying home would be better as the trip was planned for the next week. We enjoyed a break from school and hung out with friends. We went to the Dells for the first time and had a wonderful experience. Easter was wonderful as we celebrated the gift of Jesus as a sacrifice for us as sinners. We spent this holiday at the home of Matt's parents with his family and had a nice time. Now to April, Mara had her birthday at the beginning of this month and she is growing up so fast. She went to the Mall of America with her Auntie Barb and cousin Hannah and loved it. We or I love celebrating birthdays so we had a few get-togethers with friends and family. A few of her birthday pictures are below. Then as the month of April continued, we prepared to celebrate Gabriel's birthday. He ended up in the hospital with pneumonia again and his oxygen level was low, but was out before his special day. At daycare Gabriel was given a special hat and was treated like a "king", which is normally is anyway, but it was extra special(can you tell that we love his daycare "mom") We hung out with some friends on the Friday before his birthday and he enjoyed watching the kids and listening to singing on the Karaoke machine. He loved opening presents and then playing with the paper and bags. Then we as a family spent his birthday at the zoo with my brother Kirk and his family and then we celebrated with the Schommer family on Sunday. We are so blessed with love from family and friends. We have been amazed at Gabriel's changes and his growth and it was so wonderful to celebrate his "first" birthday as a Schommer this past week. Life is great for all of us. Again so sorry that it has been so long. I hope to get better as the summer months approach. We pray that each of you are well and that your lives have many things to be thankful for in them. May you enjoy the end of this month and prepare for fun adventures in the months to come. Love from our home to you!

Celebrating Emma's Birthday

2009-01-25T20:16:00.001-08:00

Life is great. We celebrated Emma's birthday on Wednesday and this weekend. She was good about sharing her special day with her siblings, which can be tough. Emma got a bike for her birthday and being that we live in the freezing cold with snow, we are letting her ride the bike inside until spring comes. Gabriel intensely watches her and giggles when she runs into things. It is fun for everyone. Mara was able to ice skate for a school activity, which she loved. Gabriel is moving his feet more and still moving on the floor so fast that I have improved my reaction time. We are thankful for the cold as we have stayed indoors and had family fun days and nights. Our biggest news that came this month is that we are able to head South to visit wonderful friends. Everyone is so excited! It is amazing how God places people in our lives through all of our adventures and then helps us keep the friendship. Praise the Lord! Hope that any readers, as I am doing a terrible job at posting, are well and our adoption friends are growing in all areas of your lives. Please pray for the Allums as their court date changed and they continue to wait for Nathan to come home.

Christmas letter 2008

2009-01-01T14:48:00.000-08:00

“Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.” Psalms 98:4
THE 2008 year has been an adventure and we have focused on learning and growing as a family through all of our joys and challenges. So what have the SCHOMMERS been doing?

Starting a family of three children as we welcomed Gabriel Francisco Matthew Schommer home forever from Guatemala this June. We are all growing together as a family of five and enjoying family dances in the living room, watching Gabriel slowly develop in his skills as a toddler, seeing the girls both being BIG SISTERS (very protective), and playing inside and outside.
Cheering on our kids in all of their activities. Mara is attending 4H meetings, dancing, attending religious education classes, and participating in sports, such as coach-pitch and basketball. Emma is attending 4H meetings (even though she can not be a member yet), dancing, attending religious education classes, and participating in Tball and basketball. Gabriel is adjusting to the newness of life, working with therapists to improve his motor skills, and taking in all that he sees around him.
Having fun times with families and friends. We are having game nights, attending birthday parties and a birth (Linkoln James Midthun), swimming at the lake, watching fireworks, camping, picnicking, and playing at the park.
Overcoming the thoughts that we are in control as we have watched each of us change throughout this year.
Making new friends, staying connected with “old” ones, and missing ones from our adoption journey. We are meeting new co-workers and church members, having great fun with our local friends, who supported us through our adoption journey, and continuing to stay connected with our new friends through our adoption experiences.
Mastering Education – Matt earned his Masters in Education in May and we attended his graduation along with friends that shared this adventure. We are blessed with them in our lives and we are so proud of Matt’s success.
Enjoying all of life’s moments from Mara teaching her Uncle Tait’s fifth grade class how to make cards, Emma learning to ride a bike without training wheels, and Gabriel showing us how fast he can move by doing the army crawl.
Remembering how much God has blessed our lives through this past year by placing wonderful friends in our lives, special family moments, such as both sides of our families meeting Gabriel in the airport, and Mara and Emma loving him from the moment they could hug him, and quiet “everyone in the bed” nights.
Staying in Baldwin, WI and being thankful to live and work in this community. Matt continues to teach third grade and Jen is teaching only Spanish. Both of them work with amazing people and are so glad to have our two girls in this school district. Mara is in second grade with Ms. Wege and she maturing so quickly into an independent and happy girl. She enjoys reading and being social. Emma began kindergarten this year with Mrs. Ramberg, who she adores, and always has a story to tell when she gets home from school. She is a tired girl when the day is done, but continues to have a peppy attitude. Gabriel is going to daycare at Jen’s home and he is attaching to us and people who love him. We have had so many emotions throughout this past year, but the strongest one has been JOY.

May you make joyful noises for all of your blessings and May you grow as you journey through 2009. Love, the Schommers

So long ago...

2008-12-02T18:39:00.000-08:00

Please forgive me for not posting sooner. Thank you for checking as it has been some time since I last updated you on our lives. Of course I have excuses, but none that are ones that I should stand behind so I will post what I can as the kids except our oldest are sleeping. I will add some photos, but not too many as our camera is not working. I need to wait and get some from my family. Our oldest is doing well and adapting to being the "big sister" of two siblings. We are so proud of her and how she has matured. At times I am sad that she is so grown up already, but then I remember that we have been given her as gift to enjoy through all of her changes and honestly most are wonderful. Our "used-to-be baby" girl is enjoying her Kindergarten year in school. She has a wonderful teacher and she is sad when she can not go. We notice her growing up as well, but still needing the special time as the past 6 months have been a HUGE adjustment for her. Gabriel is continuing to have therapy twice a week and moving around the house in a faster arm crawl. Now we have a gate for our stairs, which is great as it shows that he is working. He is happy and love daycare as he plays with the kids. He does not like the cold and it is COLD up north here. Gabriel has fit into our family like He planned. We even traveled to Fargo for Thanksgiving and had a good trip up and back, which is great as Gabriel is not a big fan of the car. As I read other blogs, I struggled to know what to write so I am trying to recap as it has been awhile and also include some main ideas that are in my thoughts. First Gabriel being with us for Thanksgiving as last year we were with him without the girls is amazing. We have been given so many blessings that I can not write all of them nor include everyone's names but here are a few to share:
1. God's continual love and patience with us as we journey through our adoption experience
2. our family being together this fall and experiencing new and cold adventures with Gabriel (like I wrote above, poor little guy does NOT like the cold)
3. our extended families welcoming Gabriel into their lives with so much love
4. our friends that we have found along this journey (Brad and Deidre, and Ken and Amy, and others) and our friends, who supported us through it (the Bensens, Stitts, Benoys, and more)
5. the pure excitement that our kids have when dancing in the living room, wrestling on the floor, and throwing the ball in the house as a family
6. the strength to know that we can work with any challenge that Gabriel might have as he continues to develop motor skills and strive to improve
7. the many friends/co-workers who ask how we are doing and want to know the true answers
8. the students that we have as they help us to improve who we are not only as teachers, but as people
9. the busyness in our lives as it reminds us how blessed we are with many activities
10. the love that we have been given from God and so many people - I wish that I could express in my words how amazing I feel to be where I am in life and the impact that people have placed in our families' lives through families, friends, and blogger friends. Thank you so much! May you recall that many blessings that you have in your lives even if they are challenges, you become a wonderful person and realize the treasures in your life.
These pictures are from our visit trip to Guatemala to meet Gabriel last November. WOW!

It's official!

2008-10-15T06:54:00.000-07:00

It is official in the United States! Yesterday we had our day in court to finalize Gabriel's adoption. The whole family went to officially (only legally, not in our hearts) welcome Gabriel into our family. Now in all of our information, he is Gabriel Francisco Matthew Schommer. We were a bit nervous and the whole stack (about a foot high it seemed) of papers were with us just in case we needed something. Thankfully we had added humor before the court hearing started because when we were called in to the court room by "Francisco Ronaldo" our youngest daughter gave us the funny and yet sassy look, like "that's not his name". We had a wonderful three person group in the court room and Judge Cameron was terrific. He talked to both of the girls and asked us only a few questions. He did ask with a smile if we were nervous, which actually relaxed us as later it was said that they wish that they could have adoption hearings all the time. What an amazing experience we have grown through and continue to keep growing through as a family as well as individually. After our morning court, we headed to Perkins for brunch. One of our girls was not feeling well, but everyone enjoyed the morning together as the Schommer family. Although Gabriel has been our son/brother since May of last year, it is very nice to have it stated in the US that he is our family member! We are so thankful to the many family members and friends who have supported us in this journey as well as read through our experiences. We will continue with this page in order to keep sharing our family's growth and about Gabriel's growth. As you can tell, Gabriel is LOVED and we are so thankful for him in our lives!

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not see." Hebrews 11:1

October and medical news

2008-10-07T19:34:00.000-07:00

We are doing well and like everyone, it seems, staying busy! Gabriel is doing terrific at his day care and the following pictures are from his wonderful childcare provider. This post will be a short one and I will add more pictures later this month(maybe), but I wanted to share how Gabriel is doing in regards to his health. He had a MRI last month and this month we were given the report. He is diagnosed with PVL (Periventricular leukomalacia) which means that he lacked oxygen at his birth or possibly in the prenatal care. He is being helped in gaining muscular developments through therapy. We will not know his future outcome as it hard to tell at this point in his life. We continue to pray and know that if we continue to love him that he will have a great life. We are hopeful for his future! Thanks for checking in on our blog. We keep checking others as well and continue to pray for families.

Happy Birthday!

2008-09-23T16:24:00.000-07:00

Hope that everyone is enjoying the month of September. It has flown by. We have kept busy with starting school, going to appointments (Gabriel had his MRI and we should get results soon), getting new daycare, which is excellent, and trying to enjoy family time in this terrific weather that we have had the past couple of days. Today it is raining, but it is still nice weather. Now we are getting ready to celebrate Matt's 35th birthday. He is a wonderful hubby, amazing dad, kind friend, and great teacher in my opinion. Here are a few pictures to show how special we think he is. May each of you cherish your loved ones and enjoy the many celebrations that we have in our lives!

An Adventure in August

2008-09-08T19:23:00.001-07:00

First bus ride

the "Dads" in the group (Matt and Papa)

Wonderful place to go to with Gramm and Papa

First taste of Martha's Cookies - YUMMY

Experiencing "the farm"

More pictures from August

2008-09-08T19:10:00.000-07:00

A true fair experience

Our first "okay" family photo

Always the ending of our Fair day - Mara coming first and Emma with Papa behind Mara

We made it!

2008-09-05T18:09:00.000-07:00

This week was the first week of school for everyone except Gabriel. He was fortunate enough to spend the week with Grandma and next week will be starting a new daycare. Please keep him in your prayers especially with his attachment and feeling safe. The woman is a wonderful and kind person and we pray that this works! Matt has a good third grade group and my high school students are good as well. Mara is enjoying her class and she is having better mornings, which is a blessing. Emma started this year and loves school. She enjoys meeting new people and has already connected with a special friend. Last week was a bit tough, but we praise the Lord for this past week being better. Also Praises as our good friends in Alabama are finally home with their daughter. Other blogger friends have brought their children home or are almost done with the process. Please pray for Nathan and his family as they journey into a new part of the Guatemalan Adoption Process. You may see events from August tomorrow if time allows?! so please keep checking. We had a busy month!May you enjoy your weekend and find blessings in it!

2008-08-11T15:33:00.001-07:00

We are still having adventures in our home. Gabriel is doing great in regards to his head strength and we are hoping to reduce traveling to therapy soon. We visited a Neurologist on Friday and will be planning to go for a MRI in September. I believe that we were hoping since the other reports were incorrect that the brain development would be incorrect as well, but we will see?! We continue to pray and be hopeful. Gabriel is improving in our eyes dramatically as he plays "peek-a-boo" and claps. These are big accomplishments for him and we are proud. We are getting ready for school to start and to have some routine in our lives. We have enjoyed the summer. We have hung out with friends, went on walks, eaten great food (which I will be waiting to enjoy again as my wisdom teeth were taken out today), been showered with visits and gifts, visited family (we have a new little one, Linkoln, on my side of the family), played and watched much softball, and bonded as a family. We are excited to read that more children are going home to their families WOOHOO and we ask that you continue to pray for those waiting. We hope that our families and friends have enjoyed the summer! Love from our home to yours.

July

2008-07-24T19:02:00.001-07:00

To begin we have a few pictures of our July activities. We hope that everyone has enjoyed the month of July. We have been busy, like normal, and currently waiting for a new little one in my brother's family so we can have our mini family vacation. In July we have been hanging out with family and friends, traveling to appointments, watching many softball/Tball/coach-pitch games, and enjoying the weather with walks, swimming or the slip-n-slide in our backyard, and campfires. We attended our county fair and had fun! We are blessed with wonderful friends through this experience! Gabriel did well with all of these activities. He is improving in his motor skills and we anxiously await for him to crawl. Friends tell me that I will want the snuggling back as soon as he figures out how to move, but it is tough carrying around a 23 pound boy when you are not normally doing that. This blog post is a short one, but I wanted to get something written sharing that our lives are blessed. We are so happy to be reading about EN families bringing home their children PTL! We continue to pray for all in the adoption process. To end this post, we have a picture with some humor of our July adventures with our travels. Thank you for those that keep commenting, we do enjoy seeing who is reading. Have a great end to this month.

Finishing June and beginning July...

2008-07-11T21:36:00.000-07:00

Gabriel is doing great! He has visited both sides of the family so has traveled to Grandpa and Grandma's on the lake, and Papa and Gramm's in the woods. He is growing in his abilities by rolling and babbling. He watches his sisters constantly and has morning walks with one parent, depending on who gets up with him at 5 am, ever day. With how busy our lives are, he is doing terrific. He has therapy every other week, and we are working on getting his strength better. As you can see by his picture, he loves to eat and has already gained a pound since he arrived home. We are so thankful for how life is moving along and the support that so many have shared with us. We continue to be busy and praying for the EN families to bring their children home!
Mara has taken on the "oldest" sibling roll so well. She is showing a calf at the fair, which has been an adventure. She has been such a big helper and even though is prefers to be home, she is working so well with our busy lives. She is playing coach-pitch and trying to get her fair projects done as well as traveling for doctor appointments for Gabriel. We are so proud of her!
Emma is her high-spirited self and we know that we need to cherish this personality. She is playing Tball, attending family gatherings, and being a snuggly sister to her younger brother. We were concerned with her changing her role int he family, but she is taking it in stride. We are proud of her and her love for our family. She gives hugs and kisses to all of us daily. We are blessed with our children. My apologies for mot writing sooner. I don't know when I will be back. Please keep checking in. I hope to have fun fair pictures that next time that I blog! Hope that everyone enjoyed their 4th of July celebrations. We did and remember all the men and women who served and are serving our country-thanks! Enjoy your weekend.

HAPPY

2008-06-23T20:52:00.000-07:00

Keeping up with the blog is going to be tougher than I thought so I am going to attempt to write once a week. The reasons to continue to share our journey are that our families and friends check it to find out how things are going as life has gotten busier with blessings and we have found wonderful friends in Christ that are adopting like us. So many of the people in our lives whether high school friends, friends that we spend time with or work with, or our EN friends have touched our lives and given us support through reading this blog. Since it is late, I am going to find a regular night to write so this one will be short. We have been busy the past days with visitors welcoming Gabriel home (THANK YOU we love sharing this with you), traveling to meet all of the Midthuns (almost as we are awaiting a new member soon), doctor appointments (Gabriel and mine), T-ball and softball Monday through Thursday, and finalizing the papers for Gabriel in the adoption process. I do laugh as I write "papers" as they continue to come. Today we met with our social worker/adoption counselor to share with her about how life is with three kids. It was wonderful to see her and share Gabriel with her. So as this write-up ends we decided to state what makes us HAPPY now that we are together: giggling on the floor, snuggling at night, watching changes, eating together, splashing in the water, playing outside, meeting with friends, and praying together as God has blessed us and helped us grow in so many ways. May you r week be full of happiness.

Home Forever

2008-06-13T19:22:00.000-07:00

We are home! Here are some pictures to show the progression of our welcome home. The first picture is the group waiting. The following pictures are first meeting Gabriel and the last one is of the whole group. We have so many blessings that have happened during the past week that we can't even express them all. Praises: for family and friends that have supported us in this adventure; for bringing Gabriel home forever; for connecting our family with Nathan's family (Ken and Amy-we so enjoyed our time with you); for EN and the caretakers as well as the Boggs; for getting more outs of PGN (WOOHOO to Kendall, Braxton, and Sarah) and we continue to pray for more; and for our families and friends that helped Gramm and Papa with our girls while we were in Guatemala. We can't even begin to write each of you as there were so many, but we do appreciate each of you! THANK YOU. We praise God for the welcome home group of family members that greeted us. They had a great time as they waited while we were late. We are so thankful for our friends that supported us and asked us regularly how we were doing as we waited and then how we were doing as we got ready to bring Gabriel home. We are blessed in so many ways! As we praise God, we continue to pray for the families waiting to bring their children home. We plan (haha) to try and keep up with the blog, but we'll see how it goes. Last praise before I attempt to get our home organized, Gabriel had his first doctor appointment today and you know that you have a wonderful doctor when she hugs you to say "congrats". She is very positive and direct so we are thankful to be with her on this next part of our journey. Gabriel is 20 pounds and 14 ounces (a big boy to hold all day during our airport time) and he is babbling, rolling, and being a kid. To each of you that hugged us, stopped to quickly say CONGRATS, took time to meet Gabriel, called to check in with us, brought us meals, gave Gabriel gifts, and who supported us as true friends we can not express in words how much you mean to us. May you have a wonderful weekend and THANK YOU!

BIG BOY

2008-06-06T08:32:00.001-07:00

Look at our big boy! We can not believe how much he has grown. We can't wait until we can squeeze his cheeks and give "zuerberts" to his belly. Thank you to everyone who has been so supportive. We are overwhelmed with love and kindness from our families, friends, and our community. The joyful hugs and tears that were shared this past week were incredible. Also I was blessed with a "surprise baby shower" during my fourth hour at school. We continue to pray for all families waiting to bring their children home and we praise God for the people that He has placed in our lives.
Love to all of you!

GUATEMALA...

2008-06-03T18:49:00.000-07:00

We got our PINK and my husband and I are headed for Guatemala. We are excited and nervous. We are continuing to pray for all families in this adventure. May you have trust in the Lord and for all good things to come.

Waiting...

2008-05-27T18:17:00.000-07:00

"My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth." Psalm 121:2
Hope that everyone in this waiting process is taking time to recognize the growth and the learning that is happening whether it is a faith learning experience or a growth in a relationship or a growth in one's self as we wait for the next adventure. As a family we are anxiously awaiting many things this time of the year. First we are waiting to get the PINK for Gabriel to come home forever. We are waiting to attend some graduation parties for high school graduates. We are waiting for the end of this school year. We are waiting to plan to meet with friends and families this summer. We are waiting to see what God is teaching us today and through every day. As we wait we continue to pray! We pray for the families waiting to get PINK. We pray that those of you waiting to find out how the birthmom interviews go or went, will hear soon. We pray that readers of these blogs will learn more about themselves and how God wants to use them in this world. We pray for all! Actually what a terrific thing to do, PRAY, while we wait. May your lives be filled with prayer and trust in whatever adventure you are taking.
Thanks Stephanie for sending the pictures of Gabriel while we wait to have him with us!

Happiness and Sadness...

2008-05-06T19:57:00.000-07:00

Today we received information about Gabriel and some pictures. Before posting our news, I chose to check out other EN families' blogs and I have to write that I have a light and heavy heart. I am focusing on Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understandings..." I know that some of you, my EN friends, are struggling so please know that we will continue to pray and hopefully the readers of this blog will do the same that God will make miracles happen so that your children are home soon. One of our daughters came running into the house last week and said "Mom, what a miracle" and I asked what she was talking about, then she said " all the worms on the driveway." I try to keep this comment as a reminder to have the "child like faith" so that we believe in miracles! There was my heavy heart part and now for my light heart part... Gabriel weighs 19.4 pounds and is 27 inches long. He should have our last name now and we are waiting for the rest to fall into place. We are thankful to read that he is attempting to roll over and his therapy is going well. For those of you that don't know, we have had some tough health stuff so we are waiting to get him home so that we can discover what is happening. It is amazing the miracles that we get - rolling over was ours this report. May the Lord bless your lives with miracles and keep you trusting in Him.
Love from finally a warmer part of the USA.

Can't believe it...

2008-04-21T17:27:00.000-07:00

Gabriel appears to be thinking..."I can't believe it". We are getting ready for Gabriel's birthday this week. Birthdays are a big deal in our house so we are preparing for him to turn one year old. We can't believe that he will turn a year old this week. Now as we wait for this special day and after sending a birthday package, we got a call this morning from our social worker - WE ARE OUT OF PGN!!!!!! "We can't believe it!" We are in shock and at times we have a a loss of words. A close friend of ours told us that in adoptions, you have an awful tough time and then great things happen. I think of the statement which says that God only gives you challenges that you can handle with Him. We need you to know that we know that God is in control, but the end of last week brought us so much frustration that we were uncertain of God's plan for us. This morning we found out that He continues to guide us and support us and we can now get ready to bring Gabriel home forever. We ask that you continue to pray for all of our EN families waiting to bring their children home and pray that the next six to eight weeks go by fast for us! We thank God for each of you that ask us how we are doing in this process and give us hugs and listen to our stories and read our adoption story as He has given us so many blessing of amazing people.

Update

2008-04-07T18:34:00.000-07:00

We received basketball pictures and a health update, which was nice! We love basketball in our home so it was great to see our son in basketball clothing. Gabriel is growing and we are pleased with changes. We need to stay encouraged as we continue to wait to bring him home forever. We were told that the earliest that we would get news about PGN is next week so we wait. Some of the fun information that we got is that Gabriel weighs 18.3 pounds and is 27.5 inches tall. He eats well the report stated. No other news to share and we are struggling more with the wait and the concern about our finger prints and 171h form expiring so we will be busy this week. We are thankful for our friends and the prayers that are being said. As we wait for God's timing, we seek His strength as Gabriel will turn one year old this month. We might plan a family trip to Guatemala in June so that is something that we can look forward to trying to do. May your month be merry and for those us up north- WARM. My girls and I drove through a blizzard yesterday and our youngest daughter asked me that if it is spring, why is the weather confused and giving us snow?! You have to cherish the intelligence of a child, which reminds me about having a child-like faith.

Pictures from a friend- THANK YOU!

2008-04-07T17:54:00.001-07:00

These pictures are from our friend, Sara, who was visiting her daughter, Kate, at EN. We were in need of something positive and these pictures were perfect! Thank you so much for taking time to meet Gabriel and giving him love. Words can not express our appreciation. We love the reaching out while he is in the high chair. We believe that he is reaching out for us and encouraging us to be patient as we wait to bring him home.

PGN

2008-03-16T15:02:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick post as some family and friends have been asking about PGN. After a trying week and translating through the medical report about Gabriel's health (all in medical Spanish terms), we know that he is fine. They will have to keep an eye on him, we believe, but he passed the tests that were given to him. We entered PGN on the 25th of February, which means that we have been in it for three weeks. We were praying the Gabriel would be home for his birthday and we continue to pray for this, but we also need to be realistic so we are praying for an early summer surprise! The system will be closed during the Holy Week. We are anxiously awaiting some great news in April and if nothing else, we will get new pictures then! Please pray for all of the families that are waiting for their children and especially the ones at EN. May you praise the Lord for His unconditional love.

Waiting...

2008-03-08T12:56:00.000-08:00

Today we are writing about Gabriel's health. Last week I received a call at work from our social worker and she does not call. I had written earlier in the week to her about a health report since it was not attached to our pictures. We do love the pictures and appreciate the kind comments from our friends! So here is the Health report with my added thoughts: "Has a cold. Taking medicines. Left side of head is sort of flat. The doctor thinks that it’s from laying on his side all day(we commented on this when we were with him in November). He is healthy and happy and very content and doesn’t act like anything is wrong. (great, but how can we know his pain tolerance) Waiting for the report from Neurologist to verify his thoughts. (Our son went to see a Neurologist) Says that since he’s so content, he suggested that he should get out and play. And make him stand up and move him around more. Will get the neuro report" So we are thankful that they checked this out, but of course concerned. He weighs 16 pounds and 1 ounce and is the same in height. We are glad that we got a call about this information before we read the report and we pray that early this week we get great news. Originally I was praying for "good news", which means that we are back in PGN, but I have changed my prayer to "great news" meaning that he is close to coming home. Thanks for reading as this one was longer. We continue to wait like many families to bring our child home forever. Honestly if our son came home now, we would have to bundle him up in ten layers of clothing as we are still hitting the freezing point in our state. Happy weekend and thanks for caring enough to check out our journey.

2008-03-04T17:48:00.001-08:00

We were so pleased to get these pictures today. To be honest, we were feeling sad that he was not part of the web page and although we understand the effort and the challenge of getting each child on the page, we were feeling a bit left out. Now of course we feel bad that we felt this way, but hope is in our hearts again! He looks so good and the favorite picture of Mara and myself is the peeking through the daisy picture. We giggle each time that we view it! Mara has asked for one gift for her birthday. Can you guess? She said that she will not get any gifts except her brother for her birthday and she will be very happy about this gift. How precious and challenging for us to explain to her. We continue to pray for each family working with EN as well as the loving people at EN. It is getting harder to wait! We hope that our little one brings giggles and smiles to your faces. We are so blessed to have him in our lives and we pray that he comes home soon. We have not gotten any news about our case, but when we do, we will post it. We keep Mason and his family in our prayers as they are going to bring him home forever. Praises to God for the joys that are being brought to people's lives. May your month of March be full of marvels. Happiness from our home to yours.

Registered!

2008-02-15T15:29:00.000-08:00

We found out the beginning of this week that we are registered with CA (Central Authority) which is what we needed. Praise God! Again now we wait. I am not sure what is happening with PGN in terms of accepting more cases now or if the acceptance process is still on-hold. I know that families are bringing home their children so they are getting families out of PGN. We don't have details which is why I have not posted, but we have been asked by friends so I thought that I would say that YES we are registered with CA and now we are praying to get back into PGN and only be let out stating that we are "done" not Kicked Out. We thank God for the families that are bringing home their kids forever! A verse that is special due to this waiting to bring Gabriel home is Psalm 143: 8 " Teach me the way I should go" As we are building our faith in God we continue to pray to accept God's teachings as where do we go from here, such as emailing our agency, waiting for news, reading blogs, or seeking to accept that God will join our family together in His timing. As a teacher I work at including "life lessons" in my classroom so we need to accept that this journey is a "God lesson" and that we do not know the plan or at times the reason, but we know that when we depend on Him, we can make it through each moment of this adventure. May your lives be filled with God's adventures and "ah-ha" moments. Love from our cold state to all of you.

Valentine Pictures

2008-02-06T16:20:00.000-08:00

We received new pictures and an update this week. We are happy to know that he is playing with toys, which means that he is grabbing at them, and that he is content. He weighs 16 pounds and is 26.5 inches. My favorite picture is the first one with the rose as he seems very content. We also enjoy the ones where he is laughing. We can't wait until we have him home to do these things with us! We are thankful for the love that he is getting as we approach Valentine's Day. We are still waiting like many families for PGN and the CA to work together. It is amazing to me that we encourage our children to share and get along with others, yet as adults, we have trouble. Please keep all of the families waiting to bring their children home from Guatemala in your prayers. We focus on Jeremiah 29:11, which was shared with me today from a friend. It states "For I know the plans that I have for you, saith the Lord" We praise God for placing this experience in our lives and for the many brothers and sisters in Christ that have been placed in our lives through this adventure. Happy Valentine's Day! With love from our family to yours.

Antigua, Guatemala

2008-01-28T17:46:00.000-08:00

Almost every year we have headed to our friends' home to celebrate one of the girls' birthdays so this past weekend we went south. Emma celebrated her fifth birthday. She with our help decidedto go to a museum. At the museum was a set-up for Antigua, Guatemala. We were so surprised! It was a nice way to "include" Gabriel in this celebration as we showed the girls this display and talked about their brother. It was a special and quick family moment. We had a wonderful time wtih our friends and then sent Emma to Gramm and Papa's house as we do not have daycare this week. We are enjoying just having Mara, but this time is also reminding us that we are so blessed to have children in our lives. We are still patiently waiting to hear anything about how the process is going in Guatemala. We do not have any news about where we are in this process nor the length of time that we will have to wait. To be honest, we are so excited to read that some EN families are bringing thier children home, but we struggle as we don't have any news. We know that God's timing is much better than what we could think of as being the "perfect timing". Praise God for sending Ellie home this week with her family and also Mason soon. We hope that you enjoy our smaller version of Guatemala in the picture. God has a way of including all of us in our celebrations. May your week be blessed and your praises be many.

2008-01-20T06:08:00.000-08:00

We have had a busy couple of weeks, but we know that when our lives are busy that we have many blessings. Last weekend, the 12-13 of January, Gramm and Papa (Jen's parents) came up to help finish Gabriel's room. We have had the paint for months so it was decided to get the room done so... that is what we did. Along with painting, we went to a Women's College Basketball game and had many of the players sign the girls' roster sheets. What an amazing group of young women! Their coaches are fantastic too! Mara and Emma were amazed that the "big girls" would take time to sign their names and talk to them. Much Thanks goes out to this great basketball team. On Sunday we ran to get a few things, and then Gramm and Papa headed home. The week was nice as we prepare to end the semster at school. I enjoy change so the "new" classes will be enjoyed and a different schedule. One of challenging parts to this past week was the cold. We are at below zero and that is not counting a windchill. We love it here, but at times would prefer to have the cold in shorter time spands. As a family we love to be outdoors so it has been tough. Although as a mom, I love it because I get more snuggle times. Okay then this past weekend, I headed to meet up with some close high school friends and we have a terrific time. I laughed so much that today my hceeks still hurt. What a blessing to have this kind of ache! My girlfriends and I chatted until an early hour on Saturday, which we continually said that it is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay past our bedtimes. It was fun for me, and Matt and the girls enjoyed good father-daughter bonding moments. Again are you counting the blessings in our lives. Now for the adoption news, we don't have any and it is fine. We are excited to share that another Eagle's Nest family is waiting for a PINK so we are thrilled for them as we feel extra connected because of our names :) We pray that more families waiting to hear from Guatemala, espceially EN families, hear great news in the upcoming weeks. We believe that Gabriel is well and now we wait for the next step in this adventure. Emma is having her birthday so we will post pictures after we celebrate it.She will get a present form Gabriel, which she picked out. She says that it is her favorite...already he is top on her list, no surprise! The verse that will be left for you to enjoy this week is Psalm 95 as we celebrate what God has given us and in our house that means singing and making a noise.

Adoption News

2008-01-11T19:17:00.001-08:00

We are keeping Gabriel in our hearts and prayers as we begin a different part of this process. Thankfully we were informed today about the Guatemalan process as currently it is being changed. We are so thankful for the communication that Special Deliveries provides for us. The news that we read on our email and in our understanding is that adoptions in the process will need to be submitted to a Central Authority before reentering PGN. Guatemala is forming this Central Authority right now so we are in the waiting process again, which is nice because it is nothing new. We are trying to stay positive and as we read other EN families' blogs, we were reminded that God is in control. We appreciate all of the support that we are getting whether through blogs, emails, or hugs from friends. Honestly, we were hoping that once we had entered PGN this past fall that the changes in the year 2008 would not directly affect us as we hoped to be "grandfathered" into the changes. We are receiving information that that will not be the case. God is in control and we must trust Him. This post comes with optimistic attitudes after being sad this morning so we are sharing our thoughts, appreciating the support, and sending our hugs. Enjoy the weekend!

January Health News

2008-01-08T18:31:00.000-08:00

We continue to seek God's guidance as we wait for Gabriel to come home. First, I am excited about this blogspot as people are checking it out and posting messages to us. Thank you for your thoughts. We appreciate reading that we are a part of your lives. The most important piece to this blogspot is that we are hearing that people are praying for us. Words can not express our gratitude for your prayers. In regards to news about our son... Gabriel is 15.12 pounds, which is lower than the last health report that we got, but we also know that he is on medication due to diarrhea, which I am sure that he is glad that his mommy is sharing with the world. It states that he is a happy and content baby. We are especially glad to get the pictures, which are included in this post, because they were taken by our dear friends Brad and Deidre. Also we read a post from another EN's mommy that said that they helped with the beach pictures. When we get this information, it touches our hearts. THANK YOU to all families that have shared your love with our son. He is forever blessed by God's love through the people that he has met and that is the same for us as a family. As we move along and we do not believe that we are in PGN yet, we hold on to God's Word in Jeremiah 29:11" For I know the plans that I have for you, saith the Lord...". We keep this promise as we wait to hear any news about the adoptions in Guatemala. For Elli's family waiting to get your appointment, you are in our prayers and for Kendall's family, we can't wait to hear great news about you! For the other families that are reading our page, please know that you are in our prayers as we ask God to touch the lives of those reading about our journey. May this week bring you joy and patience. Enjoy!

Gabriel

2008-01-05T11:25:00.000-08:00

Gabriel was born in Guatemala in April 2007, which is the first picture at the top of this post. This picture is his referral picture and the first one that we ever saw of him. Currently he is being loved and cared for at Eagle's Nest in Guatemala. Look at the difference from when he was born to at Christmas time. He is a happy and healthy boy and we can't wait until he is home forever. The three pictures after his first baby picture are from our wonderful friends from Alabama. They sent these pictures to us after returning from visiting their daughter in Guatemala. We hope that you enjoy them. As we continue to wait, which is a very normal part of this process, we are trusting in God to guide us and give us patience. Matthew 19:26

New web page

2008-01-05T10:31:00.001-08:00

Good morning to everyone - We have been in the adoption process for over a year and we are thankful for the love and support of friends in our lives. We have a prior web page, but we have decided to have a blogspot as well hoping that we can build more friendships with the people adopting their children through Eagle's Nest. Also we are hoping to be able to add information easier rather than waiting to get home?! We'll see how this works. Who knows, maybe we decide to only post once and then go back to the "old web page"?! We have been through many adventures especially due to adopting and this is just one more. Trusting that God will help our friendships grow as well as giving us more support as we continue this amazing journey. We hope that you enjoy being a part of our adventure!