package of love 2

we put together another care package to send to h and her foster family. we picked up one of those recordable books because we thought it would be cool for h to hear our voices. i thought it may be possible for beniah to memorize one page, but instead we had him say the last phrase on each page, while alternating who was reading the page. it was a little more time consuming having him read with us, but i think it was well worth the effort.

take one

take two

one day b was carrying around the bear, which i had warned him was for h. so i asked him about it.

vitamins, via, & candy for the family and a couple books for h. the bear was a gift for her from a family friend and the monkey hat was from her aunt tyler. its a little on the small side so we thought we should send it instead of waiting till she got home. its finally at the post office, waiting to be flown around the world. (don't ask how long i've had it put together..)

jojo

why every little boy needs a jojo.

beniah is very blessed to have so many people in his life who love him. jojo, our manny, has won the heart of b while wrestling and running around the house with him.

learning how to long board

adventures in arizona: bisbee

dave and i took advantage of the mlk holiday to head down to bisbee, arizona. we dropped beniah off at my dad's in sierra vista and continued down to the historic mining town for what dave calls "marriage weekend". while we are always working on our marriage (date nights, watching sermons together, reading scripture, reading marriage books, and praying together) in the past we've taken mlk day to ourselves. the past couple years we haven't truly "gotten away" because of beniah, but this year my dad offered to take him for the night so we ventured to bisbee.

as soon as we got in sunday night i saw the bisbee B lit up and wanted to take a picture for beniah. he loves pointing out every B he sees. he says, "look mama, B like me!"

 it is such a cool town with rich history. we got there pretty late on sunday night, but spent all day monday watching a sermon series on song of solomon, discussing our marriage, and of couse, talking and praying for the kids. we stayed at the historic grand hotel in old bisbee. dave loved that we checked in downstairs in the saloon with an older man with a long grey beard. our room was very cool and the morning was complete with a delicious home cooked breakfast in the cute, cute lobby area. we talked with some other couples from tucson and the headed out for the day.

i stole this pic of the internet-the downtown was so cute. i don't know why i forgot to snap a photo. 

the famous 1000 steps. every year they have a race up these steps. we made it to step 89 and decided to call it quits. :) who needs a workout on vacation?

after our steps we headed to the old bisbee brewing company and sampled some of their in home brews. i personally loved the free popcorn and homemade root beer. yum.

after our stop in the brewery we head over to the queen anne mine tour. a must see in bisbee since mining is what put this town on the map. the sign said that in the late 1800s bisbee was one of the largest and most cultured cities between st. louis and san fransico! didn't realize arizona was so cool.

 i tried to get a picture was we trekked by on the train, but didn't angle the camera down enough. this shaft looked like a 45 degree angle down with tracks for the carts. i could not image trying to push heavy copper up that.

 a cute little boy asked where the miners went potty. the tour guide was happy to show this off. he asked who wanted the job of pushing the potty cart our of the mine every night..

 we were pretty deep in the mine, the website says 1,500 feet deep. our tour guide, a former miner, told stories of life working in the mines. it was definitely worth the expedition.

i loved that we parked the car in front of our hotel and didn't get back in it until we left bisbee the night after. maybe when b gets older we will take him back. i know he would want to see that big B on the mountain.

my soul waits.

received word yesterday that submissions for eps (exit permits) have again been pushed back. and realized that we are probably farther down the list than i wanted to believe. so i of course scrolled through all the korean adoption blogs i follow and we all lamented together.

we long to bring our baby girl home and know that with each passing day we loose moments with her. i know she is being loved and cared for-that itself has gotten me through most of this waiting. but i still long to hold her in my arms and kiss her cheeks.

my soul waits on the Lord, more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.

holiday wrap up: thanksgiving

as always, november and december flew by. and since we were waiting for the new year to ring in (because emmigration permits in korea begin processing again) i was okay with the whirlwind. so. here is thanksgiving in denver, christmas in sierra vista and then again in tucson.

beniah did great driving through the night to denver for thanksgiving. while on our way to the butterfly pavilion he began navigating for us.

b had fun outside playing catch with dada. he's slowly understanding what catch means-before if we tossed him a (usually) volleyball he would throw out his arms and then turn around so he wouldn't get hit by it. haha. so this is an improvement!

our family outing was to the butterfly pavilion. they had a room full of anachnids (spiders)..and cochroachs and..lets just say things i wasn't totally excited about. but the bees there were pretty amazing to watch-behind glass, because i'm afraid of bees.

aunt kristen holding rosie the tarantula. b took a turn after he saw aunt kristen do it. :)

phyllis LOVES finding nemo..so they watched the clownfish for awhile.

and then b got to touch one.

watching the releasing of new butterflys into the greenhouse.

brand new butterflys!

the butterfly pavilion was a lot of fun. they had a big greenhouse filled with butterflys just milling around and an area where cocoons hatched while you watched. pretty amazing stuff. they also had a short zipline and b took full advantage.

beniah had a ton of fun in denver. he talks about going back all the time. :)