Happy Birthday Greg!

First, Happy Birthday Greg! I love you! Thanks for putting up with me for almost 8 years!

We got back Sunday night from Disney. We had an absolute blast. I think I came back more tired than when I left. I am not sure how that is even possible, but apparently it is when you spend 5 days straight in theme parks. We spent time at all four Disney parks and spent two days at Sea World as well. We did so many fun things! I will post some pictures when I get them uploaded to my computer.

The two highlights of the trip for me were realizing that Connor and my niece were tall enough to ride "Soarin'' which is absolutely my very favorite ride at Disney (they loved it as much as me) and getting to feed and pet the dolphins at Sea World (one step closer to my dream to swim with dolphins!) The worst part of the trip was when Connor threw up while we were waiting in line to ride Peter Pan at the Halloween party, all over his precious Peter Pan costume I might add. He felt terrible all night and we ended up having to leave early. Our big vacation finale didn't go exactly as planned, but we still had a wonderful time.

Now to get back into the groove of work after being off for 10 days! I am a little behind...okay, I'm ALOT behind. I had to call Greg to come get me from work yesterday around noon because the migraine that I had since Sunday got out of control. I ended up in the ER and finally got home about 9:30 last night. The doctor asked me if maybe the migraine could be caused by stress. I couldn't help but laugh. Me...stressed? What do you mean? I was out again today because I had a meeting, but tomorrow I will finally get back to the classroom! I am hoping things return to normal soon!

Now for some good stuff....one of my best friends is in Vietnam right now and as we speak she and her husband are probably getting ready to go pick up their little girl from the orphanage. I cannot wait to meet little Elly! Check out their links on my page to see how they're doing and to hopefully see pictures of Elly really soon! Say a prayer for their safety while they are in Vietnam.

Stay tuned for Disney pictures!

Wish you were here!

It's About Time!

We're off to Disney World tomorrow morning. I am so ready!!!! It truly is the happiest place on Earth and I need some happiness.

So, we're packing up two three year olds and two adults (I have no idea how we're getting all that stuff in our car......why did I trade in my SUV?)

We are all so excited that my niece Marion is coming with us. It will be her first time to Disney, and we are so happy to share that with her! Connor is so excited to have his best friend come to Mickey's House with him.

My mother-in-law is meeting us down there tomorrow night! We love having Mimi around too!

I AM SO READY TO LEAVE KNOXVILLE! NO PAPERWORK! NO MEETINGS! NO STRESS! JUST FUN, FUN, FUN!

As Connor would say, "Peace out sucka!"

Not much to say... Feeling Blah!

I haven't posted in two weeks....nothing much to say.

Things have been busy. Work is killing me.

All three of us have been sick (better now than on vacation).

Connor now says "No Comprehendo" when he wants to ignore what we say. Yes, he's only three. Thanks Veggie Tales!

Spent all night setting up for a stupid garage sale and like two people came.

READY FOR SOME HAPPINESS.....READY FOR DISNEY WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!

8 DAYS!

Elly is Coming!

Our good friends, the Haney's finally got their referral and Elly will be coming home from Vietnam in a few weeks! I am so excited for them....so excited that we had to celebrate at McDonald's tonight when they were passing through town. We're so lame...it's the only place that we could think of that could keep the kids entertained (i.e. awesome playground), so the parents could talk. Check out their link on my page to read their story. Say a prayer for them as they begin preparing for this part of their journey. They are an awesome family and Elly is so blessed to have them as her parents. We love you guys!

Snagalooga

We spent Saturday in Chattanooga, or as Connor calls it, "Snagalooga" and had so much fun! Knoxville needs a downtown like Chattanooga!

We rode the carousel, visited the "Culturefest", ate at Cheeburger-Cheeburger, played at the Children's Museum, visited the Chatanooga Choo-Choo, went to the model train museum, then had some ice cream and headed home.

Yes, we were tired, but we had a blast. Enjoy the pics! I could only post a few, but the whole album is on my facebook page, so you can check it out!

My Son the Comedian

This was a real conversation between Connor and Greg during bath time tonight.

CONNOR: Are there monsters in the sink?
GREG: No, why?
CONNOR: You know, Monsters, Inc.? Get it dad?
GREG: (laughs very loudly and for a long time here)

I love my Connor!

My Big Weekend

I had big plans this weekend after a busy week. I was going to take it easy on Friday night, but the rest of the weekend consisted of laundry, cleaning, school work, and playing with Connor. I was determined to get caught up this weekend....those were my plans anyways.

None of that happened, but I did spend all of Saturday in the hospital with a ruputred ovarian cyst. Yes...ouch! You have no idea how much ouch!

I love it when you go to the ER and they ask you on a scale of 1 to 10, how bad is your pain? I looked at the nurse and said, "Delivering a ten pound baby with no drugs is my ten." He just looked at me and said, "Oh! Your perspective is a little different, huh?" I said, "I can't sit still or walk, so whatever you think that might be on your scale, write it down."

I am feeling better, a little loopy from painkillers, but better. I have slept for like 23 hours since yesterday, so I have definitely made up for only getting three or four hours every night last week. They said I should start feeling better in the next few days.
Another chapter in my little dramatic life....only me!

Faithfulness

We have six months until we can begin filling out paperwork for China. It kind of stays in the back of my mind most days because quite frankly it scares me to death. I have no doubt it is what we've been called to do, but I'm still terrified. I keep thinking of everything that could go wrong, everything that I have no control over, and when you're a control freak planner like myself, there is no worse feeling. I want Claire to be here now, healthy and happy, but it is such a long road, and lately I just feel like giving up.

I stay off of all the adoption forums. They are full of the worst stories. Parents asking for NSN children (non special needs) and getting all the way over there and their child will have had the first operation for something like a cleft palate or spina bifida, and the parents will explain that they don't have the means to take care of additional operations and they'll be told that they must take the child or lose all of their money. Now, there's rumors circulating that China is getting ready to close or that if you log in now, it could be a four to five year wait, etc., etc. etc. It's so overwhelming that last night, I just broke down and told Greg I didn't want to do this anymore. It was just too much.

God has put on both of our hearts that we are called to do this, but somedays I feel like he has asked the impossible. What if it closes, what then? What if it's a five year wait, do we really have to wait that long before adding to our family? I am so thankful that I had the week I did back in the Spring when God did everything He possibly could to show me this was His plan for us. It was so clear, that I couldn't run from it.

After searching for comfort last night, I was led two verses that brought me such peace. I know they were God's way of laying His hands on my shoulders and telling me that it was going to be okay, that He's taking care of it.

Ecclesiastes 7:8
The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.

Colossians 1: 9-12 (The Message)

Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven't stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that you'll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.

Back in April, Greg was having a few days feeling like I feel now. I was going out of town for a few days, and I was terrified I would come back and he would have changed his mind about adoption. I left him this note that I pulled out of a drawer last night :

"You, Lord, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you. Isaiah 26:3 Our purpose is to bring home a little girl from China named Claire. Trust in that."

I then found a message from a fortune cookie I receieved on the night we went out and celebrated our decision to begin this journey. It read, "The one you love is not as far away as you may think."

All this was just like God standing in front of me with a big smile on his face and saying, "Jessica, you can do this. Don't give up on me now."

I'm used to things coming so easy. My life has been so blessed. This is the biggest growing experience that I've ever had, learning how to remain faithful and not give up, and to most importantly remember that the reward will be worth it.

Recharged

The past two weeks have been beyond awful. Work is killing me. We have new programs this year, and I feel like I am a first year teacher again. I have not left work before 5:30 one night, and my head has not hit the pillow until after 1:30 a.m. It's been exhausting physically and emotionally. I feel like I am grumpy at school and short with the kids due to my lack of sleep and when I come home I am so drained, I feel like I have nothing left to give Greg and Connor. I justify being a working mother because usually teaching is a family friendly job......not so family friendly this year! This weekend I did nothing but lay around, take naps, watch movies, and admire how handsome and funny my little man is. We had great family time, laughed a lot, and cuddled a ton. The long weekend came at the perfect time. I think I'm recharged somewhat. I could use a few extra days! Hmmm....I do have a lot of sick days to take.

Something to look forward to!

Countdown to 30!

Yesterday was my 29th birthday. It was the best birthday I've had in a long time!

It started out VERY ROUGH! For the first time in my entire teaching career, I completely overslept....by over an hour! I didn't even wake up until 7:15, fifteen minutes past the latest time I ever walk out the door! I was thinking it was going to be a rotten birthday, but I got to school and my good friend had a Starbucks Caramel Macchiato (my very favorite) waiting on me. My desk was covered in presents, my kids had written the sweetest cards, and I kept getting text messages (thanks Greg) wishing me a happy birthday. Greg and Connor brought lunch and 29 roses that afternoon, and my intern surprised me with the cutest pink cake that I've ever seen. She made it herself! My team dropped by for cake and serenaded me in the loudest rendition of "Happy Birthday" that I've ever heard, so loud that my friend came from next door to see what was going on in my classroom! We had dinner at my favorite Knoxville restaurant, Puleo's and headed to Mom's for homemade cheesecake. It was such a great day.
Honestly, it has been a long time since that many people actually seemed to care about my birthday. It's nice to feel special every now and again!

Now we count down six months until February when we can start our adoption paperwork! I'm so ready to get Claire home and we haven't even started yet! Who ever thought someone would look forward to 30?

School's Back in Session

Take away the paperwork. Take away the stress of trying to meet No Child Left Behind standards. Take away the meetings. Take away the fact they expect me to teach in one day, what to really be taught well, should be taught in two. Take away all the.....well, let's just say it, CRAP, and I really, honestly LOVE my job.

I love my kids. I love being creative. I love making them laugh. I love it when I can see their minds growing. I love, love, love teaching. I just need to remember all those things I love this time of year, when there is just too much going on, and the mound on my desk keeps growing!

These pictures are from a lesson I did, trying to teach students sequencing and steps in a process. We were learning how to tell someone how to do something, using good details. I blindfolded students and had them tell me how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Sounds easy, right? Well, not if you forget to tell the teacher to take the bread out of the bag and the peanut butter and jelly end up all over the plastic! Not if you forget to tell the teacher to open the peanut butter and jelly and spread it on the bread, and the jars just end up laying on top of the bread. Students got a great lesson in using rich details, especially since they couldn't see what I was doing...and I did exactly as they said! I wish I could post the pictures of the students. They all had big smiles on their faces. It was a fun day, and I forgot about the mound of papers on my desk, if only for a moment!

Tired... so tired.

I've been back at work for a week now. Today my students came back, and it seems like I will have a pretty good class this year. It seems like almost all of my kids have a terrible story this year. As an inner city school teacher for the past seven years, I'm used to it, but this year, they just seem a little more extreme. Only a half day with the kids today, and I'm already exhausted. This first full week back has been so long! Monday seems like a lifetime ago!

I am hoping that this is a good year. There will be so much going on! Greg will be on the road now and then when his new album is finished, I'll be volunteering at a Parenting Center for Junior League on Thursday nights beginning in September, in February, we'll finally get to start paperwork for Claire,and somehow I've gotten myself into teaching a dance class two afternoons a week, which will be a lot of fun, and extra money for the adoption. It is a much better option than my original plan to wait tables two nights a week, so I could make a lot of extra money. We're desperately trying to avoid taking out an adoption loan. This year, if there is extra money to be made, we'll try to find it!

Off to bed.....5 a.m. comes way too soon! I miss summer!

2008 Elections

I am definitely not one to discuss politics, although I have VERY STRONG OPINIONS! I think your political affiliation is your own business and only leads to nasty discussions, especially among Christians, because it seems to be assumed we're all supposed to be voting for the same candidate. So, I will keep my opinions to myself. My car will not be bearing any bumper stickers next year, although there is one candidate I am completely pulling for, and if another certain candidate wins the election, I will beg Greg to move to Canada!

Last time I really watched the debates was back in 2000, because it was a requirement for my Political Rhetoric class at UT. But, the other night Greg and I watched the Democratic debates, just to see who was out there and what was being said, and for once in my life, I actually enjoyed it! All questions for the candidates were off of You Tube (real people asking real questions). It was extremely cool! Here's the link to CNN's website, if you'd like to take a look. They have divided the debate into four parts.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/07/24/youtube.debate.video/index.html?eref=rss_topstories