A couple projects and a smile

Believe it or not, in the middle of the time of waiting for Justin to come home, we had some time that we had to fill - and we thought we might as well make it productive time! Martin had a few days off at that time because of the Christmas/New Years holidays, so he took the opportunity to make our coffee table. It is almost finished being sanded, and then is ready for staining. We were pretty excited about how that turned out!

I used some of those evenings to make a diaper bag with some of the extra fabric I had from Justin's crib quilt... and was pretty excited about how that turned out too! (I used this pattern.)

And, just cause now that our life isn't the same without our little guy, a blog post without a new picture of him wouldn't be the same either, right? I think this is the best ever smile caught on camera. He gives them to us lots... just not usually for the camera... enjoy! :)

Meet our little boy!

Here he is... I know, we're biased, but you have to admit, he's cute :) What an incredible couple of weeks we have had! The transition time went very well - we praise God for answered prayer in this! Justin took to us very easily, and his foster family is wonderful! They were so helpful in making this transition as easy on both us and Justin as they could. We are so grateful for their time and help through this.

The first couple of days, we just spent some time at Justin's foster home... we would feed him and play with him...

On the second day, we got to take him for a walk... it was cold, so we bundled him all up. :)

On Friday, we had our first "family outing". The Mission White Spot will always be a great memory for us! We wondered how many people could tell we were new at this, but we didn't mind... we enjoyed every minute! Justin was really intrigued by his dad drinking his milkshake:Tuesday was the big day!!! He came home!!! We had a wonderful evening together - and that night, we peeked into his room quite a few times... he is really ours! We're still trying to wrap our minds around that.

Since then, we've had many fun moments here. He's a very happy little boy, who loves to sit on a blanket on the floor with his toys, or just roll around on the carpet... he "bobbles" and flails his arms and legs when he gets excited... we could go on and on! We are so much enjoying all his little antics and giggles. One of my favorites is what happens when we turn on music. I know, he's not the first to do this, but he's ours, so in our minds, it's extra cute :)

Anyways, I won't go on anymore. We praise God for how things have gone, and look to Him to help us as we take on this role of raising our son. We thank you all for the wonderful support we have received - it has been truly overwhelming.

"The Call"

A phone call can change your life. 2 months ago our family went through an experience with my (Martin) mom and her brain tumour which significantly impacted our lives. Last week another phone call took place that will again significantly impact our lives. As of today, we are beginning the process of bringing a little son into our home and into our lives. The last week was full of expectation, excitement, lack of sleep, and much joyful anticipation. Today we met him for the first time and immediately he won his way into our hearts. The day was full of visiting and phoning as we shared the news with those close to us and we look forward to some good sleep tonight. If all goes well, we hope to have him with us by the middle of next week.

As we enjoy this time of excitement, we also eagerly anticipate the joy and challenge of parenting. We read earlier this week something from John Piper and we agree with him in this that our greatest desire as we bring up this little boy is that he becomes someone who makes much of God in all the joys and challenges in life.

I won't continue on tonight - our heads and hearts are full right now.

Snowshoeing... and stuff :)

Martin has found a new sport to add to his list of favorites! Lucky for him (and me) I enjoy it too :)

A couple of weeks ago, we went up to Falls Lake with one of Martin's co-workers and his wife. We had a really great time with them! Definitely something we plan to do again sometime. If you ask Martin why this made it into his list of favorites, here's what he says: "This way, I can summit mountains in the winter too!!"

A couple of other things:

*The coffee table is under construction... and almost complete!! By tonight it should be ready for sanding and staining!!

*And... most important of all...

We get to be an aunt and uncle again!!! This time on my side of the family!! We are thrilled :) Praying that the pregnancy goes well, and looking forward to meeting this baby in September!

It's time...

...to set the record straight. I have to say, it was fun reading all the comments my last post caused :). But I should let you all know that my impatience was more with all the legitimate things that prevent us from getting that coffee table made, than with Martin not doing his part. I have a list of projects too that are waiting to be worked on, and that's just life. Slowly but surely, we'll get things done... only to create another list of projects to work on!
This last week, Martin has been busy installing a laundry tub and fixing the dryer venting. I'm so glad for all the work he does around our place!

Next

Isn't this a lovely piece of pine?

I think so. Mostly, because I'm picturing the nice new coffee table it will some day be transformed into. Some day!!

We've got mail!

In our new mailbox on our new fence!

This fence is something we've been talking about for a while now... We've had trouble on occasion with the neighbors horses coming on our yard. Their heavy footprints leave some ugly marks, and so we wanted to find a way to prevent that. A split rail fence sounded like a great idea - I didn't want anything that made our cute little house look like a jail. And then when I was visiting a sweet older lady from our church, I found out that she had some split rail sitting in her barn that she wasn't planning on using. A free pre-aged split rail fence! How great is that? So, Martin & his dad spent a bit of time the last few weeks digging holes and putting in the fence. Our ugly, old, green, covered in moss mailbox was in the way, so it got pulled out - yay!!! Another thing we'd been talking about doing for a while. Our new mailbox is nothing really exciting (except for the red flag - something our old mailbox didn't have) - but it's a big improvement from the last one we had!!