Our World

I thought I would take a minute to just write about what's going on in our world.  Partly because I want to look back on what we did while we were waiting and partly because there is a sense of self satisfaction in recording the humdrum of our daily lives.  I hope one day my kids will be appreciative, ha! delusional I know (at some point I WILL also get caught up on their scrapbooks...hmmmm).  

We have spent September and October just getting into the flow of things.  You know school, work, church, REPEAT  school, work, church, REPEAT, well you get the picture.  Although it seems like an endless cycle I know you understand how much happens in between the lines.  I was thinking the other night that I wish I had a way to bottle up some of the precious moments of every day life.  For instance, Ian's bed time hugs, when he squeezes me sooo tight I can't breathe and then insists, seconds later, I haven't hugged him yet just so he can do it again.  Or, the quiet moments with Peyton when I realize we are both being so quiet because we have been dragged into the lines of a good book and my heart swells that we share such a thirst for reading and knowledge.  And, the flip my heart still does when my husband grins at me (mush I know!)  Then those other moments, the ones I would like to pretend never happen and sometimes think I might need a padded room just to make it through.  The impossibility of ever having a smooth morning, one where everybody gets up when asked (not after time 252, blankets stripped off, and threats of 530 bedtimes being proclaimed), that I have the right shirt clean (because if the one Ian wants to wear isn't in his closet, well it may go into the dryer for a second with a little bounce cuz sometimes it's just not worth the battle), that I actually checked book bags the night before and home work is done (not hastily scribbled in between bites of Lucky Charms), that the fruit I set out actually gets eaten (and my guilt over cold cereal for breakfast is assuaged), that I actually have enough gas in my car to make it to work after successfully maneuvering through school time morning traffic and drop off (why does it always seem to be on E?).  The secret desire that my sons suddenly have nothing to fight about ever and are suddenly helpful and eat every vegetable I put on their plate, while saying "please" and "thank you". The moment I open my laundry door and then close it again because it might possibly have grown legs and I need back up.  Oh those glorious moments of living, of trudging through every day life together and still managing to love one another, the perfectness of being a family. 

We decided to let the boys play hooky last week and skipped town for a much needed camping trip, interrupting our routine.  We only went about an hour away but so well worth it.  Camping has become our favorite family activity.  At no other time do we have breakfast, lunch, and dinner in one anothers company for 4 days straight.  Or play board game after board game (our current favorites are Blockus and Spotcha but we threw in a round of Sorry and UNO just because they are always fun).  Our legs are a little sore after a 4 mile mountain bike/hike experience (thank goodness they talked me out of the 12 mile one, it is highly probable I would have needed to be carried out on a stretcher!)  We sat around the campfire, roasted smores, and just had a good time.  I'm so appreciative that we have the flexibility to do these things and I hope, just by simply writing it, that I never take these moments for granted. 

And so Our World continues on and we return to what makes us the Strand's.  It's not perfect but there is nothing I would trade it for.

 

EEEk Fundraisers!!!

FUNDRAISERS!!!  And now comes that blood curling scream from horror movies!!  Oh the very word makes your skin crawl and makes you want to hide under your bed!

I confess, I copied the above from another families blog (with permission;).  She made some great points I completely agreed with.  As I read it I chuckled, but by the end of the post I felt I should share my heart with my readers as well.

You have seen fundraisers from Christmas Wreaths, to our Adoption Yard Sale, to our Pampered Chef Benefit...and most recently a way to give a tax deductible donation through Village to Village.  This is in NO way meant to be any kind of pressure from us on to you.  We cherish our friends and family and would NEVER want to stress anyone.  We have not sat and counted our friends, ticking off dollar signs in our heads, and won't we promise:)

The point of fundraisers is two-fold.  First, with a fundraiser, you can have a lot of people do a little and accomplish much (many hands make light work!).  Example:  You may think it pointless to give $10 on our Village to Village donation goal, when we need $9,890.  It's just a drop in the bucket.  HOWEVER, if you give $10 knowing you are one of 100 people giving $10 than you have helped raise $1000 for your friends.  EVERY penny counts!

Second, our time for receiving a referral is drawing near (hopefully in the  next 6 months) when we will have only 2 weeks to come up with the $9,890.  We have some of this, but as you can see we are not there yet, and we are chiseling away at that number a little at a time!

As I tell my children, when their "I wants" get too many to number,  Guys, as much as I would like it we are not independently wealthy.  And the very real honest fact of the matter is we do not have thousands sitting in the bank. As ridiculous as it seems, it costs over $20,000 to adopt one little girl. There are thousands of orphans around the world because of the very real financial wall that stands between them and their would be families.  These kids deserve homes and how many more families would be willing if they didn't question how on earth they could ever afford it.

God has shown us from the get go that he would provide opportunities for us to climb that wall.  We have prayed for provision and don't believe He waves a magic wand giving us thousands, but rather gives us chances to work in ways he can move.  So, even though we don't have thousands, we are willing to fight, to save, to raise the money, to sell our stuff, to have faith that the money will continue to be there, and to know it will not be because of us.  It will be because of MANY that we are blessed with the life of one little girl.

Please, as you see the fundraisers, or the reminders, do not feel like you should look away, or run and hide or hope that we don't think badly of you for not giving.  We want everyone to do what their heart tells them to do.  If that means giving, we humbly receive it.  If that means sending us a word of encouragement or a prayer our way, by all means PLEASE do!.  We could have not made it this far without what you have already done, and we know we can't make it the rest of the way without you. 

We are so blessed for each and everyone of you.  Thank you for your support as we continue our journey to bring Isabel home.  God Bless.

NUMBER EIGHT!!!!!!!

Confession: I have known for almost a week that we have moved up to number eight on the Thailand Wait List (SINGLE digits baby)!!!!  However, life and all that entails has kept me from announcing it, well blogging it, as everyone within 10 feet of me all week definitely heard about it.  The Program Director and Assistant emailed the update on the matches from the September referrals (yay for all the families finding out about their kiddos!!), and other details about the program.  As always I emailed the assistant (also a Laura:) and said, "Sooooooo, where does that place us?"  I could almost feel her patient smile through the email as she congratulated us on moving to number 8, and then reminded us that matches are not always made in chronological order.  I just know we are closer than ever before...and have the possibility of being matched in March 2013 ( I mean given that matches aren't chronilogical it could be December 2012 but whose thinking that????)  The right child at the right time, says Program Assistant Laura.  Sigh.  And so we continue to play the waiting game.  (We hate you waiting game!)

 

The other big eight in our life is our little man Ian.  Our baby turned eight on the 19th!  He is so big. He loves football and so his birthday bash included: a football shaped brownie, new Vikings jersey, a card collectors folder with football cards, a football figurine, and an MP3 player(because he wants an ipod and really I won't even buy myself one and I would have a heart attack when I found it in his jeans in the dryer after being washed...a few more years buddy, a few more years!)  Love him to pieces!

 

 

In other news we raised over $300 to deposit in our little account from spending an evening with Pampered Chef and all our friends!  So much fun, good food, and stuff everybody wants anyway.  So thank you Friends/Family, Carol Nunnery, and Pampered Chef.  We were accepted onto a website called Village to Village International.  Our family's profile and adoption story will be listed and people can donate and the monies will be tax deductible, and channeled through Village to Village who directly pays for our expenses (we do not recieve money direct.)  They are an awesome, new program that is trying to get 1000 people to donate $10 a month which they can bless families with to help offset these crazy expenses. We will definitely join that 'village' after we bring Isabel home. More to come on that later.  We have also applied with JSC for another grant, so please pray God's will in that.  Our church has lovinginly blessed up with pledges of $2100 by the end of the year.  All in all we are watching in awe as God continues to move mountains. 

 

We are staying busy of course.  The boys are finally settling into the school routine, and after the last two months filled with events on our calender I'm hoping to set back for a while and get some things done.  Ha!  Who am I kidding...the holidays are just around the corner.  Ah well, such is life. 



Lazy Days of Summer...What?

     Oh I have a blog...right, maybe I should write something to indicate that we are still alive and well!  As I reflect back over the last 2 months, where did they go?  I thought summer time was supposed to be full of days with no schedule, pool parties, mornings sipping coffee while the children slept snugly in their beds...ha!  We have been sooo busy if I have time to pour my coffee in my to go cup as I head out the door, I consider myself lucky.  Just for the record here is a run down of our summer.  ( I will try to insert photos...sometime)
     June:  Our boys took summer school classes, which in Jackson from K-6 are enrichment theme programs rather than the tutorial class type.  Peyton has always loved them, he took two classes in prep for starting Middle School ( I must pause and say, "yes, I'm freaking out about starting middle school, I think my jitters may even be worse than first day of Kindergarten.  I mean please Lord protect him, let him find friends who are character building and not destructive.  Amen")  He took an art class that allowed him to work with different mediums and some sort of computer programming class where he worked with Microsoft Publisher (another comment insert here, "Yes, my kid officially knows how to work the computer...and anything else technological...better than I do).  Ian, well, let's just say we probably won't do summer school again.  I see long nights of studying ahead.  Rocky will have to be involved, because if we can somehow relate everything to sports we won't have any problems.  He has already anounced that the only good things about starting school are his Viking back pack and P.E.  It never ceases to amaze me how different, and how brilliant, they both are.  I for one am slightly ready for our good old routine, and think some space between them might just ease up the constant sibiling rivalry we endure...daily...no hourly!

 

     July:  July began with our annual trek to Minnesota, to the Strand Arabian Horse Farm.  Rocky's grandparents trained and breed Arabians for many years on their farm near Red Wing, MN.  The farm is now ran by his Uncle and family, and some of the family lives close (within walking distance) to the farm.  Every year all the families bombard the farm for a week or so where we eat, laugh, shop, float the river, talk, play, golf, fish, and just basically have a week long reunion.  It is a great time, and my boys already treasure it as much as their daddy does, who I am pretty sure feels Minnesota is the promise land.  We had a great time, but were happy to be home, where we immediately went into preparations for Vacation Bible School and Kids Praise.  The boys and I also squeezed in a quick trip to St. Louis to see my parents.  We went to a muesem downtown, and an aracade, swam in their rooftop pool, and I enjoyed some Korean drama (which my sister officially has us all hooked on, with the exception of my husband who definitely makes fun of me:)  Back to Jackson and VBS...We do not direct either program but along with many other church volunteers we worked hard to decorate, teach, sing...basically whatever was needed to corral over 60 kiddos and teach them that No matter what God is always with You!.  It is a BIG DEAL around The Turning Point, FPC.  We were once again blessed to be a part, and blessed to have survived another year!!

August...til present...:  We started off by attending a Youth Ministers Conference in St. Louis, which was very inspirational and has our minds turning over how to implement exciting things into our 180 Youth Program.  This weekend we traveled to Sam A. Baker State Park, and camped for 3 nights, as a last hurrah before the boys start school this upcoming week.  The weather was gorgeous, we had a break in the heat and enjoyed 80 degree weather.  We went hiking and swimming, my husband, let me emphasize, my husband let the boys jump off THE ROCK out at the shut ins... It is about 6-8 foot high and the water is way over my hubby's 6'2" head.  I was one nervous momma, but they did it 3 times each until I called them back to more shallow waters, to still my nervously beating heart.  We floated the river, which ended up being more of a walk due to this year's drought, back to the camper fried fish and made s'mores.  A very good time.  Now we are home and on the schedule is Sunday School, hair cuts, school supplies and shoes...

 

     The "Lazy" Days are at an end.  Insert me working part-time, Rocky's crazy summer construction schedule and well it's been a whirlwind.  It has also moved slow at the same time.  We are still in the hurry up and wait phase of the adoption.  We don't anticipate any change until September...ugh...and so I live vicariously through other blogs and look at our Thailand adoption Facebook page daily.  So to all who are like me and are saddended by nothing new to read on the blogs I follow, I hope this will suffice, for now.

A shout out for the Dad's

Happy (belated) Father's Day to all the blog readers.  We have had a whirl of activity around here and just haven't had a chance to sit down and blog.  Father's Day was fabulous as we were blessed to spend both Saturday and Sunday with both our Fathers.  Below I wrote a little something special about the Dad's in my life.

First, my husband.  You are such a good Father.  I am proud of you and love you for so many reasons, but I have to say seeing you with our boys is pretty close to the top of that list.  I love that you play with them, wether it is video games, or baseball, or golf, or UNO and even read to them on occassion (definitely not on his list of favorite things to do:)  I love that you pray with them and for them.  I love that you already love Isabel and that I am with you on this journey.  I found this poem, and although it's a little cheesy, it sums up how I feel.  The day the you were born, I'm sure God already knew That one day we would meet and I would fall in love with you.  For I have seen his blessings and I've felt his guiding hand Leading me to share my life exactly as He'd planned.  With a good husband who has shown me how loving God can be...My husband, friend, and soulmate, who means all the world to me.

To Rocky's Dad.  You are one of my favorite people, ever.  When I was fairly young, 12 or so I would ride out to with him so I could stay at the Strand's with Shawnda (my now sister-in-law) he would talk and make conversation just like I was a grown up the whole way (which was about 45 min!)  These days he loviningly reminds me I am his favorite daughter in law (I'm his only daughter in law!) and tells me it does his heart good to see me working (he therefore has the best heart in the tristate area:)  Words that come to mind:  Loyal, Committed, Hard Working, Faithful, Honest...He is leaving a very rich heritage and example for his sons, and aren't they handsome!!!

To my Dad.  I told him recently that he was one of the reasons I really started thinking of adoption.  When I was 2 he married my mother, as a child he adopted me, he gave me his name.  He sacrificed for me, probably more times than I even know.  He provided for me.  He took on the responsibility of me.  He loved me as much as he loved his biological daughters.  He is my Dad and I am proud to say so.  I know that love is very often a choice, and he chose to love me, chose to call me his daughter.  In the very same way, partly due to his example, we are choosing to love Isabel. 

 Happy Father's Day! 

June Update



(this entire post is from Laura's perspective as Rocky's emotions never yo-yo lol)

We recieved an update on the Thailand program from Holt yesterday letting us know that the June referrals came out early!  Their were 4 children referred to Holt.  Two were matched with families in the program and two placed on the waiting child list.  My emotions were exactly like a roller coaster.  Early referrals:  UP,   4 referrals this quarter:  DOWN,  2 kiddos matched with their permanent families:  UP,  Do we only move up 2 spaces then?: DOWN....Sigh

Yep, up and down all night.  See even though I told myself not to expect anything major to happen,  their is this little what if glimmer that is impossible to put out.  What if Holt receives a record number of referrals and all the families are matched?  What if a child on the referral list matches only our profile and we recieve a match now?  What if...what if...what if...

I couldn't even attempt to wait a second and immediately emailed the program assistant with my questions of how this impacted our family....today I recieved an email from her that we are #14 on the waiting list.  Okay so are you like me and feeling a little puzzled...I mean the math just isn't there.  I was expecting 17 at best, so 14 seemed like a small miracle:)  Again she reminded me that it is impossible to tell when a family is matched as Holt has no idea what type and make up the referral groups will be each quarter, and they can only make estimates.  At any rate emotions back UP.

To put it mildly, I don't really like not being able to have some control over this waiting part.  I want to get in there and just make it happen, which of course I can't.  I feel like God is looking down shaking his head at me, again, with a small smile on his face of course as he knows me even better than I know myself. GOD: "Patience, my child, patience." ME: "BUTTTTT I want it now."

 I can definitely feel the prayers from all of my friends and family, praying #8 on my prayer list...They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not faint.   Teach me Lord to Wait.

A rose by any other name...

For our family, friends, and blog readers we have a made a very important decision we thought worthy of announcing.  A few weeks ago someone asked us why we decided on the name Cherish, and more importantly if that is a name we would have considered if we were not adopting.  It really made us stop and think and we had to be honest with ourselves, it really wasn't.  We started discussing the pros and the cons, Cherish means to treasure, and while we love that meaning it is not a name you hear, well barely ever.  Realizing she is going to have many challenges ahead of her, we wondered if by giving her a unique name like Cherish it might add to those challenges.  Yet, we were torn, she has been Cherish in our hearts for 8 months.   The phrase, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,"  came to mind (even though in the words of Anne of Green Gables it couldn't possibly smell as sweet if it was called a thistle or a skunk cabbage:), and so we decided to just try out a few different names to see if one stuck.  We have talked of names off and on for two weeks, getting our boys input along the way:  Peyton "how about Mackenzie then I can call her Macky?"  Ian "what about Velma? you know like in Scooby-Doo? that's a really cool name!!"  We added a couple of others and came up with a list of 4 or 5 names we really liked and had partially decided on one, but still weren't sure.  A few nights ago we were on the topic again and decided to google meanings instead of just names.  First we pulled up treasure, which typical of google prompted us to pull up loved, which prompted us to pull up beautiful.  Reading over the long list quickly, we were stopped in the "I" section, Isabel. We both looked at each other and said the name aloud again, more slowly, Isabel.  Rocky said, "That's it"  I said, "I know".  It was exactly that same way when we named our boys, a look and feeling of mutual connection. 

The boys were both a little skeptical still sticking to their above suggestions, but then Ian said, "Mom, I'm calling her Izzy."  Peyton agreed, and they were happy to have found a nickname for their baby sister.  This is really important because if you know anything about the Strand's, well let's just say no one is hardly ever called by their name.  When we named Ian we wondered what in the world they could possibly shorten that to, but it only took about 5 seconds before they simply dropped the "N" and called him "E". Peyton is Peyter baked potater, or simply Peyt.   And who knows what Grandpa Strand will call her!  If you are called anything remotely similar to your name you are lucky!  For example, growing up he called Rocky whatnebager (I'm not even sure how to spell that) lol.  We shall see.

We were worried no other names would sound as sweet, but we have to say we have been using it for several days now and it feels right.  We just can't wait to put a face with the name:)  On a side note we have moved up to #18 because a family on the waiting list above us accepted a referral from the waiting child program moving us all up a space...we should move up again by the end of June and I will keep everyone updated.

Isabel...our beautiful treasure.