This un-photographable moment doesn't have to do with our adoption story, but with someone else's. It is about a father who traveled the same week as my husband and I did to go get our son from Ethiopia. The father was older, and he and his wife already had a good-sized family at home, with children already grown and young children still at home. They were adding to their family a beautiful little three-year old girl, who was living at the same orphanage as our son. When we met J. at the airport, despite the fact that he was an experienced dad, he was nervous (weren’t we all?). He was nervous about how this little African girl was going to react to this white man that she didn’t know coming... more

In this post, Owlhaven at the Ethiopia-adopt blog talks about writing about “unphotographable” moments on her adoption trip to Ethiopia.

Having just been in Ethiopia, it got me thinking about all of the many moments on our trip that I wished I had on film to treasure and share, but didn’t capture on film because it either would have been inappropriate or I just was not prepared.

Then I started thinking about life in general, and how many memorable moments end up captured only... more

Oh, the things we do in the name of being a “parent”. Yes, this is a picture of my son. But before you go calling my social worker and telling her she has us all wrong, let me explain.

Yes, that is my son, and yes he has his head shaved in an odd manner. And yes, I even let him go to school like that this morning. But wait! It’s “crazy hair day” at school. And when you stop and think about it, there is just not a whole lot that a kid with one inch-long hair can do on crazy hair day. So for the sake of being creative, we shaved a strip of his head almost completely bald,... more

This week is National TV Turnoff week, and if you have never participated in TV turnoff week, I thought I would give you some ideas on how to do it, and some of the benefits of doing it.

Now let me say that I am not one of those moms that doesn’t let my kids watch TV. My kids do watch TV, and truth be told, some days they probably watch more than they should. But, all of my kids also do a good amount of reading each day, are extremely physically active and involved in sports and activities. So I feel like my family has a healthy balance when it comes to TV watching.

But... more

Well, here we are! Here is our first family picture since we got Benjamin home from Ethiopia in February. My family from New York is staying with us this week and they volunteered to snap some pictures of all of us while we were dressed up for Easter Sunday. Getting a good picture of all of us is darn near impossible, but every once and a while we get lucky :)

So, since the house is busy with the “post-Easter sugar buzz” and having company, I thought I would share a quote again for today’s post. Here is one from the French novelist Marcel Proust that I really like.

"Let us... more

Happy Easter! I have tried to keep the religious themes low on my blog because I know that there are many families of different faiths out there and I do not want to offend anyone or make anyone feel unwelcome or uncomfortable, but since this is my blog and my thoughts, I just can’t skip Easter.

Easter in our home is a lot of fun. We are Christians and do believe Easter to be the day that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Savior. In the midst of all the fun things we do for Easter we do strive to keep Christ at the center of our holiday. We read scriptures from... more

Yes, it is true. Mom has the suds. If you or anyone in your home watches Sponge Bob Square Pants, then you know that means I am sick. I was trying to explain to one of my four year olds that I didn’t feel well and really didn’t feel like going outside to launch rocket balloons, and she said, “Oh, you have the suds Mom. Like Sponge Bob.”

Well, luckily I don’t have green bubbles shooting out of all parts of my body, but I do have a nasty sore throat and a fever that just won’t go away. I am starting to think that maybe it is strep throat…(which I have had enough times to recognize).

And of course this week we have had spring break, a birthday, a baptism, a blessing in church... more

Thursday was one of those days that I was just really, really proud of my kids. This week they are on Spring Break, and while we didn’t have any exotic trips planned or anything like that, we have been doing lots of little fun things, like going to the park, going to the movies etc. I had promised them that we would go out of town one day to go shopping (we live in a really small town…no Walmart, no Kmart, no mall, no real shopping of any kind).

So on Thursday, (which was also Des’s birthday!) we loaded up and headed to Logan, a town in Utah about two hours away from us. We had a long list of things to accomplish. Everyone needed new shoes and an Easter outfit, Josh was going to buy... more

Ok, this might be a first for me. This might be my first official “rant” of a post. If you know me, I am not much of a “rant-er”. I am a lover, not a fighter. I am a “glass half full” not a “glass half empty”. I avoid conflict when at all possible. I rarely whine (unless I am really tired) and I usually don’t have much to complain about.

But today I do. Two things are making me nuts this week. Day Light Savings Time, and mud. Two big reasons why spring will never by my favorite season. I know I wrote in this post that spring was happy and all that…but that was before the mud started and when we were still safely... more

As I said in this post, I really like quotes. I have a few favorites, and when I need a bit of inspiration, I read through my quotes and they are just really uplifting. I have quotes from movies, quotes from books and quotes from famous people…I think I like them because they are a whole lot of wisdom jam-packed into one or two little sentences. Anyway, my “quote of the day” is from the author/ poet, Robert Frost. "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I...I took the one less traveled by, and... more