Samuel's Friends

Here are a few pictures of Samuel with his Seattle friends taken over the last year.

Being Appreciated

October was Pastor Appreciation Month. Our church gave us a night away, complete with a relay team to take care of Samuel. We went this past Friday night- it was wonderful!!

We checked into the Sheraton downtown Seattle around 4pm. And as we checked in we were told we had a message "you have dinner reservations at the Purple Cafe at 7:30pm". We were so excited! We headed up to our room on the 31st floor where we had an amazing view of Seattle.

We then did one of my favorite pastimes that is more difficult to do with Samuel- we went to Barnes and Noble. But we then had to pry ourselves away from the Thomas the Train section- after spending 5 min there discussing the different trains, we laughed and thought we have a night without Samuel and we think about him and look at trains for him. Right as we were leaving the bookstore we had a text saying "not to intrude, but Samuel went to bed easily, no crying". That was just what I needed to not worry and completely enjoy the evening!

We walked around Seattle and then showed up at the Purple Cafe for our dinner reservation. Nothing like being seated at a table with a great view and then being handed a gift card for the meal. We had a wonderful dinner.

We both slept in until 9am on Saturday! And then got Top Pot donuts and headed home. Samuel greeted us at the door with a huge jump in the air and ran towards us.

Rob and I both said we felt so cared for...not having to think of any details and having surprises along the way.

Thank you for planning this, contributing towards it and taking care of Samuel so that we could experience a relaxing and fun night!

Rob and Melanie

HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY BRENNAN!!!

Love
Uncle Rob, Aunt Melanie and Samuel

Friday Family Fun Days

As a pastor, Sundays are usually really full. Many friends have been intentional in making sure we have a day off. Not easy for my husband with self admitted work aholic tendencies. I have been so proud of Rob's commitment to making that happen. Every Friday we have declared Family Fun Days. We have all kinds of fun adventures. From the museum of flight to driving over the mountains to setting up a tent in our house and having a pajama day.

Here are some pictures from our Fridays the last few months.

Day at Carkeek Park

Zoo-masium

Petting Farm

Air Force One as the Museum of Flight

Ferry Ride

Park


Zoo again

Caption??

What's your caption for this photo taken this past spring?

Old as dirt

Here is an excerpt of an email I received from my sister in law Karen yesterday.

"Brennan wanted to know whose birthday is the closest to Christmas. I said Aunt Melanie and then he said, "That's right. Do you want to know why?" Always a loaded question, but I went for it and asked why. "Because the earth was made and and Aunt Melanie was born and then right away she had a birthday and was two months old." I'm sorry that you just became as old as the earth."

Karen did go on to interpret that probably Brennan was thinking Jesus was born at Christmas and then my birthday is a week later....not necessarily thinking of the years separating, but of the order of the year.

So there you have it- the earth was created and then Aunt Melanie was born.

Going off birth control

Now there's a title that will get your attention.
Rob and I submitted our preliminary application for a second adoption. I told Rob, it is like when friends tell us they "going off birth control". Submitting our prelim application is our same stage of trying for number two.

We have a few concerns as we start the process- finances, timing, age (do you know that I am 23 years older than my mom was when she had me!). But none of those feel like obstacles to our decision to proceed.

The biggest "concern" is that our heart is still with Guatemala and we would love for Samuel to have a sibling from the same culture as him. As many of you know Guatemala is currently closed to international adoptions. There is talk of it reopening, but no known date.

So we currently sit at a place of wondering how long to we wait to see? What other countries are we drawn to?

We received back the "results" of our prelim application and there are four countries that are good matches (based on their criteria as well as our desire for a child to be younger than Samuel). Rob and I were drawn to the same two countries, so that was encouraging.

For now, we can proceed with our home study and the initial stages of the adoption process. Our social worker knows are desire for Guatemala and has said that we would have at least 3 months before we would have to declare a country.

If you pray, would you pray for us as we begin this process of trying for our second child through adoption? Pray that we will have wisdom and discernment. Pray for the work being done in Guatemala as the overhaul their process. Pray for the son or daughter of ours who may already be conceived or even born. Pray that I don't overanalyze the situation and read every resource out there. Pray that if it is not Guatemala that we will have excitment and peace grow for another country.

Thanks so much for always journeying with us.

Love
melanie

Joy Joy Joy

Joy, Samuel and I went for a walk around Green Lake last week (or the week before). Earlier this summer Rob and I were with Samuel and he kept pointing to someone saying Ja Ja Ja. When we finally paid attention, we noticed him pointing to a woman who from the back looked a lot like Joy- he was confused why we weren't going to say hi to her.

When he says her name it is always in threes. It's getting closer to sounding like Joy Joy Joy instead of Ja Ja Ja.

21 Months

Samuel is 21 months today!!

These pictures are from Thurs afternoon. The rainy season has started in Seattle- the 10 day forecast says "rain/showers high 52 degrees"...every day. At least Samuel is well equipped. He was splashing in the puddles in his new boots from Abuela and running his new train James from Mamu and Papa, along the driveway. (Thanks Grandparents!)

Age 2 is right around the corner!

Abuela and Tia Sally

Well, I am once again going back in time. Not as far back as the yearbook pictures I posted below.....but as I keep going through pictures of the last year I discover ones that I haven't posted yet. My mom (Abuela) and my Aunt Sally came out to Seattle last March. (Tia Sally lives in Chicago and for those of you who don't know, my mom is one of 13 children. My mom is number 10 and Aunt Sally is number 11)

Here are some pictures from their trip.

We went to Victoria for 2 days. Samuel stayed in the hotel room with my mom and aunt...this is how we found him the next morning. Looks like they partied all night.

Election Day

Samuel and I went to vote this morning.
He sat very patiently in his stroller playing with James (the train) while I voted.
I didn't realize that Washington is going to a completely mail in system in 2009...and that currently 60% of Seattle residents use mail in. I like going to the polls to vote, I'll miss that.

But on a plus side, it did result in voting place not being busy at all this morning.

Here's a couple of pictures of Samuel celebrating voting (with his sticker that says "Farewell to Polls. I voted 2008)

Random Post

I saw this recently on one of my adoption boards....a place you can go, upload a photo of yourself and see what you would look like in any past years.

I went for the year I was born- so here I am in the late 60s.
I have to say I was a little disappointed that it wasn't so different!

So I tried a different year- this is a little better

What do you look like?

Samuel as Thomas

Here at the pictures from Halloween....and more details for those who have patiently been waiting.

Samuel had a fun night. The first couple of houses, he wasn't sure what was going on. But he quickly got the hang of it. He would go up to the door and stand there with his bag out. He even picked up on knocking on the door.

We have such great neighbors. They were all very excited to see Samuel. He even had a few of them take pictures of him.

And he seemed to enjoy being Thomas the Train. He enthusiastically ran around the house saying choo choo. His hat didn't stay on long. We would put it on before each house...and then after receiving candy and leaving the house, he would promptly pull it off.

You can't see too much in this picture...but I included it to see a glimpse of Rob's conductor hat. He wore that and carried a train whistle.

Happy First Trick or Treating Halloween Samuel!!

Trains

Samuel's fascination with trains began this summer.
He and Rob were at a park.
They had walked down to the water, under a railroad track.
Soon a train came by.
Samuel waved and the conductor blew the horn.
He was amazed.

Since then when you ask him what sound a train makes, he says "choo choo" and then waves.
He associates the wave with the train.

His love of trains has grown since.
Loves seeing them as we drive.
Loves playing at the train table at Barnes and Noble.
Loves watching Thomas as a special Sat morning treat with Dada.

And so for Halloween, Samuel is going to be Thomas the Train.
I have to admit, there were such "cute" costumes like lions and monkeys.
I thought, he would look adorable.

But nothing excites him as much as his trains and saying choo choo.

Look tomorrow for pictures.

Bob and Sue's visit

Here are a few pictures from Bob and Sue's trip to Washington.
To survive leaving the sunshine of South Carolina, we headed across the mountains and went to Leavenworth and then on to the Grand Coulee Dam. Bob worked on a Westinghouse generator there in the early 70s. It was so fun to be there with him. And it is impressive!!

Camera Found- here is the last picture taken

Hello

As many of you know, our camera has been missing for a while.

Today I went on a serious hunt for it's location, and it was in......

the diaper bag.

Now I am sure I checked there several times. Today I emptied it's entire contents and there it was, along with some other unmentionable items, that I think were at one time food.

Funny it was with me every day as I am seldom without my diaper bag!!

I was interested in seeing the last picture taken. Here it is- it was from a date night Rob and I had on Sept 18th. Ruthie watched Samuel and we had dinner at the Melting Pot- yum.

Here is Rob post new glasses and pre new haircut.

(oh and I suppose me pre covering my gray:)

At The Park

Yesterday afternoon Kathleen and I went to the park with Samuel.
It was a beautiful sunny fall day. (That doesn't happen too frequently in Seattle falls)
Kathleen took a bunch of pictures...and even put together a collage of some of them.

Rob took the bus from downtown and met us there.

Our plan was to go to the zoo, but Samuel napped longer than usual and didn't get up in time to make it. Imagine that, things not going as planned with a toddler!

Here are some pictures- thanks Kathleen.
Now I'm going to go look for our camera in all of those places the previous post mentioned:)

Having fun on the slide!

An uneven teeter totter.

Laughing with Kathleen.

Heading home....