Not the Captain...

William Ernest Henley wrote “I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.” This past week I’ve decided that I am indeed not the master of my fate but I will leave that into the Lord’s hands instead. As many of you know we are trying to adopt. Since January we have been talking to a young woman about possibly adopting her child. Well we found out this past week that she lost the baby. It was definitely sad for Jason and I to learn the news but we both found ourselves at peace with the situation. We know that the right child will join our family at the right time and we have to be patient. The thing that was especially special through all of this was the amazing outpouring of love we received from so many people. Everyone sent their love and sympathy when we shared what had happened. My parents were so sweet and sent a bouquet of flowers to be delivered to us and told us how much they loved us (that made me cry).

Overall it was a good learning experience and reinforced to both of us that we will one day have a child of our own to raise and love. The mother of the birth mother that we had been talking is a good friend of mine and shared the following quote with me by Woody Allen “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.” I know that I do that  I have no problem with patience in people but struggle with finding patience in my situation. I get so excited about something that I plan it all out in my head and then surprise it doesn’t happen. He knows the big picture and I am learning to trust in that. Thanks everyone for helping us through this experiencing and standing by our side!!!

Visits and Fun!

Visit!
So we had a spring break visit from Jason’s older sister Michelle and her family! It was so much fun!!!!! She has 2 wonderful daughters that we love to death and a great husband. It was such a great time together. They arrived on Saturday March 13 and brought with them some of Jason’s favorite ice cream – Blue Bell - from his mission days. You can only buy this ice cream in the south so we were super excited to have them bring this treat. On Sunday they went to church with us and then on Monday they started touring around the city.
Jason and I took half-days and full days off to spend time with them. We walked A LOT!!! We went to the American Girl Place (holy cow – all of that for a doll????), Navy Pier, Millenium Park, walked all over the city – and I do mean ALL over the city. The weather was unbelievably beautiful with temperatures in the 60’s and 70’s. We walked along the lake and enjoyed the gorgeous weather.
On Tuesday we got another visitor for the night – Diana’s brother Marc stopped over from Delaware. He was driving from Delaware to his new job in St. George, Utah and decided to stay the night with us. Hotel Bowler welcomes all! Since we were going to be having a full house we decided to make it complete and invited Rob and Tiff over and had a little party! Jason made his scrumptious hamburgers and brats and then we threw on some chicken for the healthy eaters. We played Apples to Apples and laughed and laughed all night. When Rob and Tiff left Madison immediately asked if they were going to come back the next night. I guess she loves them as much as we do .
Then on Wednesday my brother Marc took myself and the 2 girls out to breakfast while Jason’s sister and her husband went to the temple. While at Cracker Barrel for breakfast we bought the girls Webkinz animals and made their day. As we were leaving the restaurant Madison (the 9 year old) asked if Mr. Marc was also her uncle. I told her not really but he can be like an adopted uncle. Michelle, Morgan (her 12 year old daughter), and myself hit the stores for some shopping when they returned from the temple. They live in rural Kansas so it was exciting to hit some big stores.
Thursday was pretty quiet Jason’s sister was working on a unit plan and I got to help her. I had forgotten how much I enjoy writing lessons and brainstorming ideas to teach. It was a lot of fun. Then I made chocolates with the girls. We had so much fun. But the highlight of the night came when Jason got home and we finished dinner. We decided to go get some gelato for desert but couldn’t find any place open so instead we went and played with puppies! We played with 5 different dogs. It was great – until we played with with the Boggle and it bit everyone but me. But we all loved playing with.
It was a blast having them come visit. It is always wonderful to see family when you live so far away. We especially loved the time we would spend with the girls each night. They would come into our room and the four of us would pile on the bed and shoot nerf guns, tickle, or just joke around.
The house felt so empty after they all left! Thanks for coming to visit!

Chicago Premiere Night Charity Event

So it time to play catch up on my blogging! I didn't realize how long it had been since I last blogged but WOW! talk about being lazy. Actually it is more like being very busy recently.

I'll start from mid February when Jason, Rob, Tiff and myself went to the Chicago Auto Show Premiere Night First Look For Charity event. This was our third year going and it was as wonderful as ever! It is the night before the Auto Show opens to the public and is a black tie affair. There is catering from the hottests restaurants in Chicago and a spectacular event. Tickets are very expensive but I have an in and get them for free. Although I didn’t dress up as fancily as I have in past years it was still a blast! This year Tiff and I were speedy and got slippers before they started handing them out. Our feet truly appreciated it 



We arrived there before the gala even began so the boys could view all the cars they wanted to – even with that said they still didn’t see everything. The highlights of the night were the Transformer Bumble Bee, the Jeeps, Lambourghni’s, Range Rovers (they have a refrigerator built into the console!!!), and the Jaguars (talk about comfy leather seats). I also loved the Mini Cooper Convertible. Tiff and I had a blast going from food place to food place and sampling all the goodies while the boys drooled over car after car. By the time the night was over our poor feet were sore and the boys were still going strong. We ended up being one of the last people to leave.

It was so much fun to go there and mingle with the elite in Chicago Society and see such cool cars! The end of the night was especially funny when we had to literally pull the boys off the Jeeps to go home. They told us that they wanted to go look at the Porsche's before we left. So we let them go and followed slowly behind. We lost sight of them and asked someone working there where we would find the Porsche's and they said that their weren't any there this year. Immediately Tiff and I both said "Jeeps!" We knew where to find our boys - and sure enough - there they were playing with the Jeeps again. Ahhhh...to be young!