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