A Man Worth Celebrating

Today is Ryan's 36th Birthday!

Obviously there has been a lot going on here in the last little while and the focus has been on Faith but I wanted to make sure that Ryan's birthday did not go by unnoticed.

Ryan got to do some "birthday shopping" for himself when we were in Florida but I was supposed to go out yesterday and get him a card. Unfortunately, I had a little incident that left me unable to drive my vehicle so I am at home and I thought I would do a blog post instead, as I am not one of those creative card makers like some people I could mention. ;)

I am so incredibly grateful to God for this wonderful man who is my husband. We were very young when we got married and I feel very privileged to have "grown up" with Ryan and to see the amazing, godly man he has grown into.

Ryan is a hard-working man who has never once complained about being the bread-winner for our growing family. He has really stretched himself beyond his comfort zone in the last few years, running his own business, and I am so proud of him.

As a Daddy, he is our kids' hero. He is a loving, hands-on Dad who shows his love with his actions, but also isn't afraid to say the words "I love you." He changes diapers, makes bottles, give piggy-backs, wrestles, plays ball, and falls asleep during bedtime stories. :)

Ryan is the most amazing husband! He is supportive of my ideas and patient and understanding with my moods. He corrects me gently and lovingly when necessary, but mostly just encourages me. He expresses his affection openly in word and deed. He washes dishes, folds laundry, takes out the garbage, and vacuums regularly.

Ryan is a sincere Christian man. He does not pretend to be perfect but he does his best to set an example for us. He prays with and for me and our children, and leads us in family devotions. There are so many things I love about Ryan, but one of the most important things is that he is a man of integrity. When he says something, he means it, and I have never wondered if I could trust him. I always know that he will come home to us.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart! I love you more than words can say!!!

Our Journey

We are Home Sweet Home! And wow does it feel good to be here all together.

I made up a slide show of some of our favourite pictures of Faith's first 10 days and I set them to one of my favourite songs. This song is meant to be about a romantic relationship, but it really hits home with me in our journey to Faith because it has been such a long and broken road to having her join our family. But now we know that God led us down that road in order to lead us to her, our precious baby because he knew we needed her and she needed us.

(You will have to scroll down to the bottom of the page and pause the playlist music in order to hear the slideshow song.)

OK, I posted that and realized that it goes way too fast to be able to read what the first slide says, so I'll reprint it here for you:

The past 2 1/2 years have been a long, emotional journey for us, as we have prepared our hearts and home for the child who we knew would one day join our family. All along we have prayed that God would bring us the child who needed us and who we needed. Sometimes we wondered why it was taking so long, and if the obstacles we encountered meant that we should not adopt, but now we know that He had a dear sweet girl who was meant to be our daughter and we just had to wait for her.

Almost Home!!

Thank you all for your prayers. Faith did amazingly on the flights yesterday. The first was only about 2 hours and she slept for all of it, but the second leg of the trip was over 6 hours and I really wasn't sure how she (or I for that matter) was going to do. She only fussed for a few minutes and that was when the plane had already landed and we were just waiting to disembark.


After fighting rush hour traffic in Seattle, we arrived last night in Lynden to the home of a wonderful lady who has moved in with her sister in order to let us have her home for as long as we need it. This lady doesn't even know us, she just heard about us through a mutual friend and offered her home. When we showed up here, Julie, our friend who arranged this for us, had brought some groceries by so we would have kid friendly things to eat for breakfast. Needless to say, we feel incredibly blessed by the generosity of others.

However, we are also glad that we will not have to take advantage of their kindness for much longer. A little while ago, we got the phone call that the last letter we were waiting for from Victoria, arrived at our adoption agency in Abbotsford. Because Florida is 3 hours ahead, it was after office hours there, so first thing in the morning, they will be creating the final document we need in order to cross the border and bring Faith home to Canada tomorrow!!!

We have enjoyed our time here, relaxing and bonding as a family. It's been great to see the way the big kids are with Faith. Ryan drove up to Abbotsford to pick them up last night and when they got here, they were so excited to meet her, hold her, feed her, and gaze at her.

The real-life version of the new picture from the top of the blog. :)

Homeward Bound!!

Yahoooooo!

We got word this afternoon that the judge signed off on our adoption and we are free to leave Florida. We wanted to have time to get ourselves organized so we are flying out on Wednesday morning. We are so excited to be reunited with our big kids and to begin our life as a family of SIX Rachs!! A friend of ours has arranged for a 3 bedroom house for us to stay in, in Lynden, which will be perfect for us. We're not sure how long we'll be there for, as we wait again for more paperwork to be signed and sent to us, before we can bring Faith across the border into Canada.

On another note, here's a picture of our sweet little Faith dressed up and ready to go to church yesterday.

Tiny Little Princess

I brought a whole suitcase full of newborn sized sleepers and onesies to Florida with me and was excited to dress our little sweetie in them. However, when I brought them to the hospital and held them up to Faith, we realized that she would be swimming in them. So we went out to Walmart and Babies R Us to find what they had for preemie sized clothes. Here are a few pictures of our tiny little girl in some of her new clothes.

The Name

I hope that most of you who know Ryan and I, will not be surprised at our choice of the name Faith for our new daughter, because you know that our faith defines who we are. Faith is a name that I have liked for a long time, but it has become more meaningful to me over the last two years, as we have walked this adoption journey. The journey to our daughter really has been a journey of faith as we have encountered many difficulties but we have continued on in faith, trusting that we are going where God is leading us. In times of doubt, I have returned often to one of my favourite verses of the Bible,
Hebrews 11:1 - Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Both of Faith's middle names are meaningful to us as well. Erin is Aubree's middle name, and Lee is mine. We chose to give her the middle names of both of her Mommies, as a reminder to Faith that there are two women who love her and are part of God's amazing plan for her life.

Ta - Da!!

Presenting . . .

Faith Erin Lee Rachwalski



Born: Sunday, November 7, 2010
At: 4:47 pm (Eastern Standard Time)
Weight: 5 pounds, 5 ounces
Length: 19 inches

We are so grateful for God's goodness in bringing this little gift of a girl into our lives. And we are also thankful for all of the love, support, encouragement, and prayers of our friends and family. We couldn't have done this without you.


Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
Matthew 19:26

Update

OK, since I have heard a few rumblings that people are anxiously awaiting an update, I will give you a quick one, before I go relax with my hubby for a few minutes. :)

I got into Orlando yesterday at about noon Florida time, got my rental car and made it to the hospital thanks to some great directions from a lady at the gas station (we forgot the gps in the van when Ryan dropped me off at the airport in Seattle.) I was feeling very brave and independent for making it this far without Ryan, as I've never travelled so far alone before. But I was not so confident when I pulled into the hospital parkade in my clothes I'd been wearing for over 24 hours, and having no where to brush my teeth before I met my daughter and her birthmother for the first time. However, I discovered that none of that really matters when I walked in and met Aubree, gave her a hug and we cried together. Then she called the nurse to bring the baby in out of the nursery and I laid eyes on this precious tiny bundle.
I enjoyed holding, feeding, changing and gazing at her for most of the afternoon. I also met Aubree's mom and some of her friends who were there to visit.
Today I picked up Ryan from the airport and was overjoyed to see him gaze at his baby for the first time. We spent a shorter time at the hospital today as Aubree requested some time alone with the baby. We understand that it is difficult for her and though it was hard for us to go, we know that we will have the rest of her life to enjoy our daughter and we respect Aubree's need to have the memories of these moments.
Tomorrow morning we will go back to the hospital, Aubree will sign the consent forms, and say goodbye, and we will do a whole bunch of paperwork before taking our new daughter back to the hotel with us. I hope you can all understand and respect that we have decided not to share pictures or details until after this has happened.
Thanks for your patience and for your continued prayers. We couldn't have made it this far without them!

Oh Boy, (or should I say Oh Girl) here we go!!

Well, only a few short hours after posting about how we were going to be present at our daughter's birth, we found out that, in fact we were not.
Aubree went into labour early yesterday and we received a call from her counsellor, Terri, as we ate our Sunday morning breakfast, letting us know that our daughter would be delivered by c-section later that day. Thus began the frantic phone calls, asking for prayer and trying to rearrange all our carefully laid plans. My amazing husband changed our flights, hotels and rental car bookings, rescheduled his work appointments, and did everything he could to keep me sane as I ran around the house like a chicken with my head cut off, completely freaking out about all the things on my to-do list that were not going to get done. My amazing sister-in-law came over and made lunch for our family, reminding me to eat, and calmly made plans with me about her coming early to stay with our kids while we are gone.
Ryan has to work today, so we decided that I would travel alone, in order to get to Florida as soon as possible, and Ryan would follow a day behind me. So here I sit in the boarding area of JFK airport, waiting for my connection to Orlando and dreaming of the little face I will get to gaze into in a few short hours.
I got one short report from Terri last night before leaving for the airport that the baby had been born at 4:47 pm Eastern Time and that she is healthy. I promise I will post more details once I know them!

The elephant in the room - what everyone wants to know but most people won't ask us

About a year ago, my friend Kim was telling me about a friend of hers who was in Florida, waiting for her adopted child to be born. Ryan and I were in the process and knew that we would be adopting from Florida so I was interested in how it was going for this family. I remember saying to Kim, "Oh I could never do that - be there to see the baby be born, and fall in love with this child, knowing that the birthmom could still change her mind." In theory, it seemed like a much better idea to wait at home until we didn't have to hold our breath, wondering if everything would go through. Well, guess what we are about to do in a little over a week?! :)

So, in case you were wondering and didn't want to ask us - the answer is yes. A birthmother has the right to change her mind and decide she is going to parent her baby instead of placing them for adoption. Different provinces and states have different laws about how long she has and in Florida, the birthmother cannot sign the consent to waive parental rights for at least 48 hours. So we are traveling to Florida in order to be present for our baby's birth, knowing that her birthmother could very well change her mind and we could leave with empty arms and broken hearts. You may all think we are out of our minds, and you may even be right, but here's the thing. We are already head over heels in love with this baby, whom we have neither seen nor held. (Ryan read through this and reminded me that we have in fact seen the ultrasound picture of her.) She has not been moving around inside of me as our other children did, but that doesn't mean that God has not given us a deep love for her as He did for Evan, Grace and Rachel before they were born. We have been praying for this baby and her birthmother, since before we even knew about her. We have been preparing our home over the last weeks, but we have also been preparing our hearts to welcome this little miracle home. And even if we had decided to stay at home and wait until the consents were signed, we would still be empty armed and broken hearted if Aubree changed her mind. But, we would have missed out on an opportunity to be with our little girl in the first moments of her life. We think that being able to tell our daughter that we were there to hold her and kiss her on the day of her birth is worth every moment of anxiety! So we'll hold our breath and step out in faith, trusting that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord.

Someone is Seven!!

Well there's lots going on here and we're very busy trying to get everything ready for our trip to Florida in 11 days!!

But I would be remiss if I failed to mention that there have been other exciting happenings in our home besides the adoption. :) Our precious little Rachel girl turned 7 years old on October 30th. It was a packed day for her as we did all our celebrating in one day. Most years we have done her friends birthday party the week after her actual birthday so as to avoid the Halloween craziness, but this year we thought we better get it done early, and since her b-day fell on a Saturday we decided to have her party then too.

Here is the birthday girl in the morning, opening her gifts from us. Then we had waffles for breakfast at her request.

The party guests (all 11 of them!) arrived before lunch for Rachel's "Adventure Party." Since it was a little damp for a picnic outside, we did away with the table and had a picnic lunch of sandwiches and chips and veggies on the picnic blankets in the dining room.

After lunch we went to the trails by our house for a scavenger hunt


and some "gold panning" in the creek, led by these two prospectors. :)


Evan had spray-painted some little rocks with gold paint and then planted them, along with some "jewels" in the creek. The girls were thrilled with their riches and even braved the cold water to fish the treasures out with their bare hands when the "gold pans" ended up being too difficult.

Back home for some hot chocolate and birthday cake!

and gift opening with her sweet friends.

We had a couple of hours to clean up and rest and then we had a family dinner party with quiche and caesar salad - Rachel's two favourite things. :)

and more cake - thanks Grandma. :)

It was a fun day, to celebrate a fun girl. Rachel is such a little sweetheart. She is shy in public but plenty loud when she is comfortable. She loves to play - barbies, playmobil, polly pockets, dolls. She loves crafting - painting, perler beads, drawing, cutting, gluing. She loves to pretend - costumes galore, building forts, crawling around like an animal, inventing scenarios of "good guys" and "bad guys," imaginary creatures, playing house. She loves to be read to - her favourite author right now is Patricia Polacco, who writes and beautifully illustrates picture books about her family's history. She loves to snuggle - hugs and kisses, back rubs and piggy backs, anything to be in close and cozy. She loves to make up silly rhyming words and right now she insists on calling us all Bob for no reason in particular. :)

Rachel has been the baby in our family for 7 years. She is excited to be a big sister - finally! But I know that it will also be quite a big adjustment for her, not being our baby anymore. She's been quite used to people doing and saying things for her, so she doesn't have to. She doesn't mind in the least, being coddled and cuddled and she plays the cute factor quite well - especially with Daddy! I know that we will have to make sure to give her lots of snuggles and attention once the baby comes home, but also be intentional about encouraging her in her new role. I am sure that she will be a great big sister because she loves to be my helper, and she loves babies.

That's all for now! I may not have time to do the other posts that are floating around in my head before we leave for Florida, but we will have our laptop with us and I will be posting pictures of the baby as soon as I can.

So stay tuned! :)

And the birthday is . . .

We got a surprise today!

We spoke with our baby's birthmom (her name is Aubree) last week and she told us that she was definitely going to be having a cesarean section. She said she would be going to her doctor this Thursday (October 28) and she would probably find out at that time, the date for her c-section. Today we got a message from her counsellor saying that Aubree had some news for us and when we called back and spoke with them, Aubree told us that her doctor had called her today with a date. So we now know that our daughter is going to be born on November 18!

That's a little over 3 weeks from now!!

Now comes the frantic rush to figure out when we can travel and book our flights and accommodations. As well as the travel preparations and packing, we have some last minute paperwork to fill out, and lots of things to arrange for our family while we are away. So we appreciate your prayers as we get ready and we look forward to introducing you to our little sweetheart very soon!!!

At least the nursery is ready to go. :)

A good reminder

I will have plenty of my own happenings to blog about in the next few weeks, but right now we are just plugging along, making plans for different possible departure dates, trying to get some school work done, washing baby clothes, and all the other household things that need done on a daily basis. When I am procrastinating In my spare time, I take a few minutes to read other blogs. I read a post today that I really liked and thought I would share it with you. It encouraged me to remember that I can't do it all and have everything just the way I wish it would be, this side of Heaven and that's ok. Because it creates in me a longing for that day when there will be perfection. :) I hope it encourages you too!!

OLD friends! :)

This weekend I got together with some very special ladies. These three "girls" are people whom I have known since we all really were just girls. I'm actually the latecomer to the group as I didn't meet them until I was about 14 and I think they've all known each other since they were about 11 or 12. Ange and I made each others' acquaintance in grade 8 PE when we discovered a shared passion for Disney's "Little Mermaid" music. :) I met Kim and Cynthia a short while later when I started attending youth group at Vernon Alliance Church, where Ange also went.

Through many years of fun youth group trips to Regina for CBC youth conference, to Edmonton and Seattle for fun, and even a short term missions trip to Thailand and Cambodia, our friendships were formed. And now, many years later, we all live in the Lower Mainland and we get together once every couple of months for a rotic (romantic without the man!) Usually our rotics consist of an evening of chocolate and chatting at one of our homes but this time, Ange suggested going for lunch in Fort Langley and walking along the Fort to Fort trail. We had a lot to celebrate this time as Ange finished her masters thesis in September and Cynthia got married a few days before that.

It was a beautiful day and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with these beautiful ladies!! I feel incredibly blessed to have such dear friends who have known me for over half my life!!

I was planning to post a couple of old pictures but I couldn't find the one I wanted of us all in our grad dresses for the church fashion show. And then I realized that even if I could find it, I would have to figure out how to hook my laptop up to the scanner and I didn't have the time for that today, so you girls are lucky this time! :)

P.S. I'm allowed to call them old because technically I'm older than all of them (even though it's only by a matter of months.)

Chinatown!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I recently had the chance to go along with Evan's class on a field trip to Chinatown. Then, a few days later, I went on the same field trip with Grace and Rachel and a group of other homeschoolers. I was glad to be able to go twice as there is so much to see there and not enough time to really observe everything all in one shot.

So, even though it was an emotion-filled week for me and maybe not the best timing ever, I still really enjoyed walking around Chinatown with my sweet kids and their friends and experiencing another culture in a very hands-on way.

We saw all kinds of interesting meats and vegetables, artifacts, statues, monuments, plants, and animals.

Hopefully no one was offended that our little group of boys thought it necessary to climb on every statue they encountered!

P.S.

In case you hadn't heard yet . . .

It's a Girl!!!!!!!!!!!

I went shopping Saturday for the first time since we got the news and couldn't resist picking up a few things. :) I can't believe how tiny those size 1 diapers are.

Answers for the most common questions we've been asked:

1. The baby is due on November 25 and we will fly to Florida about a week after she is born.

2. We will stay about a week in Florida and then fly back to the Bellingham area where we will have to stay until we get the documents we need which will allow us to travel across the border with the baby.

3. Yes, we do get to name her, but you'll have to wait to find out what name we've chosen. :)

4. We have lots of information about the birthmother (we've even talked to her on skype!), but none about the birthfather.

5. We don't mind you asking any questions you have, but please don't take it personally if we choose not to answer. We are doing our best to protect our daughter from judgement. And we want to give her the opportunity to hear about herself and her birth family from us, not by overhearing it spoken of by someone else. When she is older, she can decide what she wants to share and with whom.

The News!!!!

Funny how I've been longing for over two years, to have this news to share and now I feel at a loss for words of how to share it. Maybe this will be the best way:

I pulled the bassinet out of the closet this week, in preparation for the little one who will be sleeping in it - in about 6 weeks!

Yes, we finally received THE call last week. I say finally because it feels like an eternity that I have been waiting to hear that I will be the mother of another precious child but in reality, we have not waited as long as many adoptive families do. In fact many would consider this to have been a quick adoption because our paperwork only went to Florida in May, so our waiting period will be shorter than the 9 months of pregnancy. However, our adoption process did not begin with that paperwork, but with a decision on June 8, 2008 that we would begin to research our options and prayerfully pursue the dream God had placed on our hearts. It has been a long, difficult journey and it will not be over until our little one is home with us. Then will begin the new journey of living life as a family of SIX!

So, the story of how we found out goes like this. I was on my way home from a field trip with Evan's class to Chinatown (hopefully I will have time to post those pics soon) on Monday September 27 and my cell phone rang. I didn't get to it in time, and I don't have call display or voice mail, so I called Ryan because he is the only person who ever phones me on my cell phone since I don't even know my number so I can't give it out to people. :) I had trouble getting through to him for some reason, but when I did reach him, I asked if he had called me, and he said no, but he had a message on his voicemail from a 407 area code that he hadn't had a chance to check yet. I told him, if it was important news, not to phone me back because I was in a car with 3 women I hardly knew. I promised to call him when I got back to the school in about half an hour and then I waited anxiously and listened distractedly to the moms of Evan's classmates chatting.

When we reached the school, I called Ryan immediately but he was with a customer and told me to call back in five minutes. So I paced the hallway for a few minutes, then went to a quiet corner and dialed Ryan's number. When he answered, he asked me if I wanted to go to Florida with him in November!!!! So there I was by myself in the stairwell of the middle school with 2 minutes to cry and then gather my wits about me so as not to give anything away when Evan came out of his class.

I managed somehow to gather up my son, drive to my friend's house to pick up the girls and make it home without exploding. Ryan stopped at Dairy Queen on his way home from work and picked up a celebration ice cream cake. When he got home, we called the kids to come have their afterschool snack and told them we were having a special, celebration treat for snack.

When we asked the kids why they thought we would be celebrating, Grace's guess was, "I know, it's because teddy is 4 months old today!" Yes, she loves her puppy. :)

Here are some pictures of the kids' reactions when we told them the news. Evan immediately wanted to send an e-mail to everyone in his contact list, but we convinced him to wait until we told his grandparents and aunts and uncles.

All of the kids are very excited, as are we of course. We will be keeping busy, making to-do lists, checking into flights and accommodations, preparing the baby's room, filling out last minute paperwork, and doing all that is needed to prepare our home and our kids for the time we will be away from them. So I know that these next weeks will fly by and in no time at all I will be posting pictures of our new blessing!

We are overwhelmed and grateful for all of the support and encouragement we have received from our friends and family throughout this whole process but especially in recent days as we have shared our news and we have been surrounded by the arms and the prayers of those who are dear to us. Thank you for sharing in our journey with us and for continuing to pray for us as we wait out these last weeks.

A Big Change!

This is kind of old news now because I've been too busy to blog in the last couple of weeks, but it is important news so I thought I'd post it anyway.

Over the past year, we've spent a lot of time talking, thinking and praying about when would be the right time for Evan to go back to school. We've always said, ever since we started homeschooling, that we would do this for one year at a time. I was beginning to feel that the time was drawing near for Evan to move on, for many reasons. As we talked about it with Evan, we all went back and forth about if he was ready, and where he would go to school. In the end, Ryan, Evan and I all felt a peace about the decision for Evan to go to middle school at the same school where he did Kindergarten and Grade 1.

As the summer drew to a close and the first day approached, Evan was getting quite anxious. Middle school is a big transition for any kid, but even more so for one who hasn't been in formal school for the past 4 years. I was getting nervous too and began questioning our decision. But God is good and He does lead us in the way He wants us to go, as we trust Him. I continued to give my fears and worries to Him and to pray for and with Evan as he waited for school to start.

On the night before the first day of school, we planned a surprise for Evan. Each person in the family wrote a note or drew a picture for him. We told him how proud we are of him and how much we love him. We surprised Evan by going out to dinner and we gave him his letters while we were there.

First day of school Daddy didn't have to leave until 7:45 so he had breakfast with us. I made french toast as a treat (school day breakfast are usually things I can make really quickly.) Evan was up bright and early and ready to go, without any prompting from me (this NEVER happens!)

Off he goes!

I asked Evan if he would be embarrassed if I cried when I took him to his first day of school, and he assured me that if I shed even one tear within sight of his friends, I would be banned from the school grounds. :) So I dropped him off, met his teacher, said goodbye, walked to my van, and wept all the way home! I know this may seem like overkill to many of you, but it was a very emotional moment for me. It was a letting go and acknowledging that my firstborn baby is growing up, becoming independent, becoming his own person. I am immensely proud of the wonderful young man he is growing up to be, and grateful for the great relationship we have with him, but I am also sad at the way the years have flown by.

That being said, we are feeling at peace with our decision. Evan is happy, enjoying school, making new friends, being very responsible about getting his homework done. I am enjoying the lighter work load of planning, marking and teaching at home and thankful for the extra attention I can give to the girls, especially Rachel who is still struggling to read fluently and needs one-on-one attention a lot. I like the intentional time I have with Evan to debrief about his day when he gets home from school. The girls have some relief from Evan's relentless teasing and bugging, and they are happy to see him when he arrives home. All in all, it has been the right decision for our family in this time. I will continue to homeschool the girls until such time as we feel God leading us to put them in school, and I will continue to trust Him for the strength and wisdom I need each day for the responsibilities He has given me.

New Family Member

OK, so almost everyone knows now that we've got a new puppy, but many don't know the story behind this.

Our kids have been asking for a long time about getting a dog and Ryan and I have been putting them off and putting them off because, honestly we've never really wanted a dog. Ryan loves cats and I love babies :) but neither one of us goes ga-ga over dogs, even though we both grew up owning dogs and almost all of our immediate family members have at least one. However, after watching our kids with the dogs of their cousins and grandparents and friends, we realized that our offspring really do enjoy dogs, and we would like to give them the chance to own a dog.

So, in the spring, when they asked again about a dog, we didn't say no. We told them that if they wanted so badly to have a dog, they would have to look into how much a dog would cost, to purchase, to have fixed and to furnish with all of the necessary supplies - and they would have to pay for it. We also explained that we would not be responsible for cleaning up after, feeding or walking the dog. This worked well as a stalling technique, but also to educate the kids. They realized quite quickly that it was not going to be a simple thing to acquire a pet dog. They found out that even the SPCA charges at least $300 for a small dog, and at first they found this quite discouraging. But they were determined and with some encouragement, they started saving their allowance and paper route money. When Papa came down for a visit, he generously donated to the dog fund, and when they were at Boundary Bay they sold freezies and added that money to the jar. Finally, they felt that they had enough money to start seriously looking for a puppy. We spent many hours looking at ads on craigslist and kijiji and Evan scoured the classifieds in the paper. We phoned one ad and the kids thought they had found the dog they wanted but I had an instant distrust of the guy trying to sell it to us and I was really hesitant. it turns out I was right and he had been lying to us about more than one thing so we didn't get the dog, which was hard for the kids, but also a good lesson in trusting Mom's judgement. A few days later, we found an ad on kijiji for 3 Shih tsu / Lhasa apso puppies that were left and we contacted the owners. It turned out they only had one left and we agreed to meet him. After spending an hour with him, we had a good feeling about the owners and our kids were completely smitten with the puppy. Grace said, "It's a good thing you like the people Mom." And when I replied, "You already love the puppy don't you," her answer was, "Oh Mommy, I adore him!"

And really, how could you not adore this face! :)

Teddy, as he was dubbed, is fitting in quite well with our family. He is an easy going puppy, happy to cuddle and be held by the kids. He's pretty smart too - he learned very quickly what "NO!" means and he hasn't had very many accidents in the house. He's eager to make friends with the cats, though they're still very wary of him. And he has completely won over Ryan and I. Both of us (not dog people) can be overheard talking to our "baby" and he spent his first nights in our home sleeping in our bed!
Evan, Grace and Rachel have been very responsible about caring for Teddy. I haven't heard one complaint about poop cleanup or standing in the rain to make sure Teddy does his business before going in his crate. And, I'm very proud of them for saving up over $500 to pay for their dog and all his supplies. Now they just have to save up to have him neutered in a few months!!

Dino Fun

There is a cheesy little amusement park not far from us, called Dino town. I had never taken my kids there before, and never even felt sorry about that, but we drove by it on our way home from the Okanagan and noticed that they were closing down at the end of the summer and I felt a bit of regret that the kids never had the Dinotown experience. So when a friend of mine arranged for a group of people to go and get the group rate, I agreed to join them. I wasn't sure if it would be a bit too young for our kids, but it turns out I needn't have worried. They all had fun, and so did I. So now we can say we went to Dinotown before it shut down!

Boundary Bay

A highlight of this summer was our yearly trip to Boundary Bay, in Point Roberts USA. this place is special to us because I went there in the summers when I was a girl, as did my Mom and my Grandma. Our family no longer owns a cabin at "The Bay" but my Grandma has rented a cabin for the last seven years so that the next generation can also build memories of special times spent there. There's something so completely peaceful about being at Boundary. Point Roberts is a little peninsula of land belonging to the US, but only accessible through Canada. The Boundary bay side of the Point is made up of a bunch of cabins, many of which were built in the 1920's and 30's and most of which are owned by Canadians. There is not a lot to do in the Point but walk the beach so it is a great way to escape the frantic pace of everyday life. We enjoyed just being able to relax and enjoy each other's company while we were there. I took way too many pictures (yeah right, there's no such thing as too many photos is there?!) I won't subject you to them all, but here's a few :), in collage form to make for quicker viewing. If you want to see them better, you can click on a collage to enlarge it.

This picture is a great representation of how we feel about Boundary Bay!

Evan, Colby and Ashley spent time perfecting their performance of "The Wandering Weirdos."

The boys were often found with nets in hand, searching for crabs and fish in the tide pools.

These two girls had lots of fun together. I love that our kids have so many cousins their age and that they have the opportunity to spend so much time with them.

We played lots of cards the first few days we were there because it was cold and rainy.

We introduced the Labrums to Bonanza (we call it the Bean Game) and they were addicted. They all wanted to play it every day.

Mom, Colby, Evan and I entered a sandcastle building contest one day we were there. We had fun making our Ollie the Octopus, even though it was rainy and cold that day. But we were obviously the amateurs there. I wish I had remembered to take some pictures of the other sandcastles that people built. There were some really amazing ones that people had obviously been thinking about for a long time. Next year, we'll be more prepared. :)
After the sandcastle competition we rushed up to the border and went over to Centennial Beach, on the Canadian side of the Bay, where we met Chad and Roberta, who were down from Vernon for a very quick trip to attend a friend's wedding. Here are a few photos of the amazing playground there (which I mentioned in a previous post.)

Being from the Okanagan, Chad and Roberta's kids haven't had much experience with the ocean. It's too bad it was rainy while they were here but they still enjoyed walking the sandbars and searching for shells.

Aaron trying out Evan's skateboard at the park,

while Ryan and Grandma looked on.

Family photo of my brother and his dear family. We are so thankful to have them living close to us and to be able to spend time with them regularly!

One of our yearly traditions at Boundary bay is a walk to the clay cliffs where we carve our names in the cliff.

Finding treasures in the tide pools between the sandbars. Too bad it was 3 days before crabbing season opened - this one might have been dinner.

Auntie Debby found a playdough centre at the thrift store and brought it down to entertain Alexis on the rainy days, but she didn't realize it was going to be such a hit with the big kids too. Many hours were spent during the week, making playdough food and selling it at the playdough restaurant.

Every year, we try to get out to the Boundary marker at least once. There is a marker just like this on the shore that marks the border between Canada and the U.S. and this one is one mile out. Often, the tide doesn't go out far enough for us to make it to the marker, but this year, we had a really low tide day where we were able to walk and wade the whole mile. When you get out that far, there are so many fun things to see, crabs, sand dollars, and starfish being among them.

A highlight of Boundary bay was spending time with Alexis. The innocent joy of a two year old discovering the sand and the sea was so fun to watch.

One morning I walked down to the wall to see where the tide was at and I saw this beautiful sight. The mist rising off the sandbars was so stunning. The beauty of God's creation is so evident out at the Bay and it's one of the reasons I love being there.

There's always lots of fun to be had on the sandbars - wading, catching fish, skimboarding, flying kites.

It has become a tradition for our kids to set up a stand selling candy or something over the last few years at Boundary. this year it was freezies they were selling and they did pretty well because they had made a sign that said "saving money for a puppy" which got them lots of sympathy customers. :) Also, lots of people stopped to talk to them and we met lots of different kinds of dogs which helped us in our information search of what would be the right kind of dog for us.

When business was slow, Evan became a water fountain, I know that kind of crazy behaviour is such a surprise coming from Evan! ;)

My Mom brought her kayak out to the bay and Grace got to try kayaking for the first time. She did well on her own for a bit, then got a free ride, towed behind Grandma, then her brother showed her how it's done!

I know this has been a very long post with way too many pictures, but it gives you a glimpse of why we love this place so much!!