Mom doing well

Thanks so much for your prayers! The surgery went well, and the doctor also ended up fixing two hernias he found! Mom is pretty worn out as of now, but she is looking much better than she did after the surgery. She will be in the hospital for another day or two, but I am leaving Cleveland late this afternoon.

I just found out this morning that one of my best friends brothers has come down with a bad case of pancreatitis. The family is all down there now, so please pray that he recovers quickly. I think he might be getting married soon...

Damon is in Columbus right now apostilling the last of our documents to update before submission! We will have to update others, but we can do that before traveling. WOW! Hard to believe that it is only about a month until our dossier is submitted! In some ways it seems like forever since we started the adoption process, but in other ways it seems like it has gone fast. (I am sure that sounds a little convoluted)

Thank you so much for those praying - it means a lot to me and my family!
Staci

asking for prayer

I am not sure how many blog readers are there pray, but if you do, I ask you to pray for my mother who is having surgery Thursday morning at Cleveland Clinic. Right now things don't look great, but of course they could always be worse!! My mom is an amazingly strong woman and I am confident she will get through the surgery without complications, but we aren't sure until the surgery what will have to be done afterwards or the extent of the problems.

So please pray for her, my dad, and the whole family. I'll update once the surgery is over.
Thank you!!

random thoughts

I have been meaning to post more often than I have, but somehow I just haven't gotten around to it. I have been trying to read a few Ukrainian adopter blogs and give comments. I always like to get them (hint, hint), so I try and offer a word of encouragement to let them know someone is out there reading their posts.

Has anyone else had this sinus mess going around? I got it the week before Christmas and I am STILL trying to get rid of it. Unfortunately mine is not the head congestion stuff, but rather it has settled in my chest and I just can't get rid of it!! YUCK! I missed three days of work last week, so I hate to think of all I have to do when I get back!!

I don't know if anyone out in cyberspace reading this is near Cincinnati Children's Hospital, but they are offering what I would consider to be a good class coming up. It is called "everything you ever wanted to know about international adoption...now you can ask." At first I thought it sounded like it was about the process of adopting, but it isn't that at all. The classes are on Saturdays from 10a-12p as follows:

02/23/08 - attachment issues

03/01/08 - now that you are home

03/08/08 - expect the unexpected

03/15/08 - mystery history

The woman teaching it is a psychotherapist and an adoptive parent herself. She spoke at the other adoption classes offered at CCHMC, and Damon and I were impressed by her.

We have a few papers that we have to send over to Ukraine before our paperwork is submitted because they expire on March 10th (10 days before our submission date). I am normally not very pleased when we have to redo the paperwork (yet again), but since we have a date to be submitted somehow I don't mind :) Fancy that...

Damon has also decided that now is the time to sell our house. I am not against selling our house at all, but I just think of all the things we have to do before that can happen! And with the housing market being so poor right now, will we have time to sell ours and buy another before traveling to Ukraine? The thought just stresses me out a LITTLE bit...

Since I have been trying to organize our pictures on the computer, I thought I would post a few that make me smile

This is our dog Duke when we had a snowstorm three years ago. How cute is he in his little coat? (Yes, we will dress our dogs in coats or sweaters when it is cold outside, but Duke doesn't usually get one put on because he doesn't get cold like Katie)

This is Damon on our honeymoon in Hawaii. He did not think that he needed suncreen as we drove in a convertible through Volcano National Park for at least three hours. Since he was wrong, he had to use aloe vera gel as hair gel for a day or two.

This was on our trip to Mexico in the spring of 2006. We went to visit our friends Joe and Jenna who are serving as missionairies there. The purple flowers are a bouganvilia plant that has to hundreds of years old. I posted the picture with Damon and Joe in front so you could see just how large the plant really is! Isn't it gorgeous??

I had to change the colors because I am having trouble getting this to look like I want it to. Does anyone else have this trouble? Every paragraph runs together, so I changed the colors to differentiate the paragraphs. I am not usually technically challenged...