Saw this poem and just had to share! Hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!

Just the Same

BY DIANA LYNN LACEY

---

Sometimes—

God sends rain

Straight from the sky

To nourish the young flower

and it grows.

Sometimes—

God sends rain from the sky

To the mountaintops,

Then over hills and through valleys

Until it reaches the flower

and it grows, just the same.

Sometimes—

God sends a child

Straight from His realm

Into a mother’s arms

and love grows.

Sometimes—

God sends a child

From heaven to another’s arms,

Then over hills and through valleys

Until he reaches the arms of his mother

and love grows, just the same.

I'm a guest blogger!... again

Yes, yes... I am a guest blogger again! It's fun being able to write for other people's blog. Get a new audience... something new, I guess. Anyway~ this time I guest blogged for my good friend Dawn. She's one incredible woman! I've known here for almost 8 years now (yes, Dawn, it has been that long! Crazy!!! lol). A little about Dawn... she has infertility problems, is a foster parent also (well, she's licensed, but like us doesn't currently have any placements), BUT she has adopted a beautiful little girl from the foster care system. Dawn is the author of an awesome blog that talks about her struggles and all that good stuff. Anyway~ so if you want to read my guest posting ... click here

Love to all!!!

bitter, sweet news

After three years of serving in the cub scouts, I am done! I am no longer working with them. So sad! Going to miss those boys. They're amazing! I've learned and have grown a lot from them. To be honest though, kind of a relief. Now I won't have to worry about anything but school ... in the way of any major responsibilities. Also, three years is a long time. Kind of ready for a change. I think I may go through some withdraws for a bit though :o( Luckily Jared's still scouts... get my "fix" from him lol

boring update

So yeah... not much has been going on. I think that may be a good thing lol

Jared's up against a big deadline. It looks like they will finish today (before like 1:30 p.m.). IF they do, they he will get to be home by like 2 or 3.... and not have to go back to work until Tues.! He could use the break. Other then I think that's about all going on with Jared. Pretty low key type of guy.

With me... on the school front... I successfully finished all nursing school clinicals!!! YAY! One more step towards graduation in 5 1/2 weeks!! Kind of sad though because clinicals is my favorite part. But now I can focus on the theory and pass all 3 of those I have left. To be honest, currently I'm a little behind on two of the classes. By little I mean 2 or 3%... I can easily catch up. But I have to be able to work at catching up. lol Other then that... we had pack meeting this last week. Sad day... I asked Jared to take pictures and the battery on our camera was dead! Hopefully next time.

That's about it for us! Hope everyone else is doing well! Love to all!!!

Adoptive parent retreat

This last weekend was the adoptive parent retreat!!! It was AMAZING!!! Big thanks so JessaLynn for hosting it for us. Before I talk about it though, I have a couple of random pictures that I love!

Buddy staring out the window. This has become one of his favorite pass times. He loves watching everyone out there. He will seriously sit there for hours! It's so funny to me. Buddy turned one yesterday. YAY! Officially not a puppy... yet, we still have the puppy personality. Love this pup!

This one cracks me up! I love Jared. He can always make me smile!

Now on to the retreat... So awesome. I'm so glad I had the chance to go, be apart of the planning committee, and have that how experience. Adoption is just... it's a miracle! I love talking about adoption. So... the pictures aren't the most exciting, but I will include my brief thoughts about what was said. For this section... the comments are under the picture.

Jessa welcoming everyone. She's an incredible advocate for adoption. She's a birth mother, but as mentioned in the retreat... if you talk to her, you'd seriously think she was a adoptive parent/hopeful adoptive parent by how much she supports and loves us adoptive parents/hopeful adoptive parents and all she does for us. You rock Jessa! Love ya!

Mrs. R giving her keynote address! She was amazing to listen too. Her whole address was amazing, but I think the thing I got the most out of it was about having hope! Something you definitely need to remember in the adoption world. Things may seem hopeless, but if you have faith and pray... He will come through. Maybe not in your time, or in the way you expect. But He is aware and knows all. Just got to trust, have faith, and have hope!

Mr. R was so fun to listen too. He's very smart and knows a lot of different points of view from adoption. He's a social workers (until recent, he worked for LDS family services) and being an adoptive dad himself, he has a lot of knowledge from all points of the adoption triad (which kind of leads me... if I EVER use a term associated with adoption or our religion... just ask! Sorry... I don't have a sensor to know when or when not to use terms like that). Adoption triad is the birth parents, the adoptive parents, with the adoptee at the top. Anyway~ the biggest thing I got from Mr. R was honesty! Honesty to ourselves, our family, and expectant parents. If everyone is honest, and knows where everyone else stands... you have a great relationship. Even as things evolve in the relationship and situations arise, just be honest about it all. I think what hit me the most was honest to ourselves. I never thought about not being honest to myself about how I feel about an adoption situation or how I'd feel about things surrounding it. Lots to think about there!

Here's the adoptive parent panel. The man speaking adopted three kids. One spoke at the retreat, but I was getting the baby-sitters lunch, giving them breaks so I unfortunately missed her and most of this panel speaking. But yeah, so there him who did a domestic adoption... the woman next to him is "Mama Lark" who has adopted 2, almost 3, from foster care. I love listening to her and her points of view from a foster parents point of view. Gets me excited for when we open are file! Then the woman at the far right, Ashley Bigler, has done an internation adoption. She's written awesome books on adoption that you can find here.

This is the birth parent panel. Unfortunately I was still working with the baby-sitters so I missed some of the speaking here, so I don't lots about them. I do know the woman on the left is Amanda and she placed about 6 years ago. The woman in the middle placed about a year or 2 ago. The man on the right is the birth father of the adoptee that spoke. YES! We had all 3 points of the adoption triad there. It was awesome! They were so great. I thought it was really cool how they all pretty much said they have an aunt/uncle relationship with their adoptive couples and the child. That's exactly what we're hoping for too!

So while we were in there, doing all this awesomeness reatreat stuff... here's what Jared was up too...

yes... he is tied up... literally. Leave it to Jared to save the day with baby-sitting and being wonderful with the kids. They just love him (What kid doesn't?). So that was the awesomeness adoptive couple retreat! It was fabulous. Makes me so excited for next years retreat!!!

This last weekend

Yeah, I'm a little behind on this post. Sorry! Better late then never, right? Anyway~ this last weekend we took the opportunity to go see one of Jared's sisters and her family. She lives about an hour and a half away from us. We had a blast just visiting and playing with the kids. We brought Buddy along. He loved playing with the kids. The kids had a blast with him, especially our little 2 yr old niece. Here are some pictures of the fun weekend

two of the cutest girls!

our nephew kicking the ball with Buddy. Both of them love balls so I thought it was fun

funny kid!! love this little man

Thanks again Jeni and Bart for letting us invade!!! Love to all!

Birth fathers

On facebook, a friend of mine shared this blog. LOVE IT!!! It's from a birth father's point of view. Something you don't hear a lot of now a days.

I'll take this opportunity to express our views on adoption openness. Kind of nothing to do with the birth father blog, but I just feel like it's been a while since I've expressed it. We want an open adoption! We want our birth families to be part of our lives, and become part of our family. The best way to describe the type of relationship we want is aunt/uncle. We want our birth family to come to holidays, birthday parties, dance recitals, etc. We want them to stop by for visits, or if they're from out of town come to stay with us for visits. Hopefully you guys get the idea... if not PLEASE ask!! Anyway~ We feel this is healthiest for EVERYONE! It's healthy for the child because they can know where they biologically come from, ask any questions of why they were placed, and any other things they may want to know. It's healthiest for birth family, because... from what we can tell... it gives closure. I have an aunt who placed just over 30 years ago. It's a closed adoption. She's expressed to us numerous times that all she wants is to know how he is doing, what type of man is he, ... things like that. As far as the adoptive parent end, as far as we can tell an open adoption is healthiest because it doesn't leave a fear in us. Fear of the birth family and unresolved issues.

Hope this finds all well! Love to all!

Winning the race

Nothing new and exciting is going on. The company Jared works for has had some rearrangement. Not to worry though, his job is secure! YAY!! I don't exactly 100% understand the change, so if you want to know, ask him. hehe... Other then that, he's same ol', ol' wonderful, incredible, amazing, smart, fun-loving, etc. Jared. Yesterday I did my second (out of 3) clinicals at an instacare. LOVE IT!! If it weren't for the long hours, I would totally go for working there. I know I use to work the 12 hour shifts, but I'm a whimp any more for them. Plus,... nothing is in the works... BUT when a baby comes along, there's no way I'm working those hours. Anyway~ that's about it for us, as far as that goes...

I have something else I want to talk a little bit about. The other day I was driving to meet up with a friend for some much needed woman time and yummy cupcakes (thanks again Emily!!! You rock!) when I heard a song that... I've listened to it many times before... but it hit me that night. The song is called "Win the Race". It's sung by Kenneth Cope. Such a good song! Anyway~ I wish I could post a link, the lyrics, or something... but I can't find them. Sad day! The song is about how it's the endurance you have, and your will, that matters the most. It doesn't matter if you're the fastest... just that you make it to the end of the race (meaning life). Hope all this is making sense so far. A couple of things hit me that night. First, school. School has been probably THE biggest challenge in my life. BUT I'm almost there... I'm almost to the "end of the race". And I'll win... I'll get the diploma. It has not been a fast, or easy, road for me... but I've hung in there and soon will "win the race". SCORE!! Second is adoption. Adoption has definitely been a roller coaster, and we haven't even been placed. But I know if we hang in there, stay close to the Lord, and endure to the end... we'll "win the race" there too!! DOUBLE SCORE!! Anyway~ things I knew before, but really struck home that night. Just thought I'd share! Love to all!!

Swimming in Feb.?

So I decided that I couldn't talk Jared into writing about this... so I am :o) For his scouting activities in Feb. he took his scouts swimming! So fun... Weird time of year to go swimming... I know, especially in UT... but it's all good! We were at Jared's uncle's pool. Uncle Toby has an indoor heated pool. LOVE IT! So fun to go visit and swim. Anyway~ here's some pictures I took while they were doing their activity. Sorry... I know I'm not the greatest photographer. Plus... I probably should have had the flash on. Oppsies! hehe... I think, and hope, you'll still enjoy the pics.

Handsome man Jared... you knew there was bound to be at least one of just him :o)

I think all of the boys are on the raft. Gotta have some fun... not all work, right?

All of them swimming

beautiful looking pineapple that Toby's growing by the pool! So cute and tiny I think

Jared showing the boys one of their requirements... you get fully dressed...

jump in the pool, take the pants off, and use it for a float like Jared is here....

and that's the end of the requirement!

It was so fun going and being a part of it. The boys want to go again! I think they just like the idea of swimming in the winter. ;o) Love to all!!!

I'm a guest blogger!

Yay! I had a chance to do a guest blog post on my friend Sharon's blog. She's so awesome to allow me to do that! I really appreciate it Sharon! If you guys want to read it, go here!!