All about the love!

Valentine's Day is such a fun time to celebrate love! Here are a few traditions we have:

Cupid Coupons
For many years (maybe since we got married...I will have to check) I have been giving Russ "cupid coupons". I got the idea from Family Fun (a website and magazine that I LOVE). They are just cute little cards that I give him each day of February with a coupon for 1 candlelit dinner, 2 backrubs, etc. I hide them in different places for him to find. It is a fun tradition and helps to spread out the magic and joy of the holiday.
I also hide a valentine for Caden each day with a treat. I write something that I love about him on each card. He is learning to read, so I wrote them in a way that he could read them himself. He loved finding them! After Valentine's Day, he told me that I should give him more valentines. :) I think that means he liked it!
HUGE heart sugar cookie/See's chocolate
This tradition came from my family. There are 5 girls and 1 boy in my family. Every year, all the girls would make one huge sugar cookie for my Dad and one for my brother. They, in turn, would give us a carnation flower and See's chocolate. If you haven't ever tried See's...it is heaven in chocolate form. I LOVE it! As we grew, so did the amount of See's we got! My dad will still send a gift certificate for a pound of See's chocolate to all the girls in the family (including my talented sister-in-law) with a note telling us what he appreciates about us. It is always a highlight.

Ever since we got married, I have been making a big sugar cookie for Russ (and Caden too when he came into the family). This year, I decorated it with sprinkles...because both my boys LOVE sprinkles!

Printable Valentine games
Last year, I had made a Heart bingo game. Caden was excited to play it again this year. I also made my own version of "Don't eat Pete" that we called "Don't eat Val". Caden and his friends LOVED it and are still playing it. So cute!

This year we celebrated Valentine's Day with a candlelit dinner of a heart shaped pizza. Caden had seen a commercial for one and wanted to do it. He loved watching me make the pizza into a heart and putting on the pepperoni.

I made Russ a nicer dinner of chicken broccoli crepes another night. We also went on our date another night to go see the movie Tangled. We loved it!

Media Monday: Brandon Davies

We LOVE BYU! So clearly with all the Jimmermania going on with BYU basketball, we watched the game on Saturday against SDSU. Before the game came on, Russ mentioned to me that he had read an article that Charles Abuou was adopted. All game long, I was cheering Abuou on (and he played great, by the way!). After the game, Russ looked up the article to show me. After looking for awhile, he realized he had remembered the wrong person. So, no...Charles Abuou was not adopted. However, Brandon Davies was!

Here is his story.

Here is what I like/dislike about it:
- I LOVE that it says his family is what got him to this point in life. That is so true for all of us, isn't it!
- It says that "adopting a baby, to Kathy (adoptive mom) was every bit the same as giving birth to one...Ethnic makeup was never a factor in his home.". We are going to treat the child we adopt the exact same as we do with Caden. They will be loved equally!
- I love that even though the adoptive mom wanted her son to succeed in school more than sports, she was still willing to let him explore what he liked. We can't mold our kids into who they are going to be, but we can teach them and then let them explore their interests.

Russ's brosephs

One of Russ's younger brothers, Brad, entered the Missionary Training Center today to serve a 2 year mission for The Church or Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Roseville, CA! He is SO excited and will do a great job teaching people about Jesus Christ. Russ has another brother that is currently serving a mission in the Dominican Republic, but will be finishing his 2 years soon. We look forward to seeing him in a few months. Caden is especially excited that his uncle will be able to speak Spanish with him when he comes home.

Caden is proud of his uncles that are serving (and have served) missions. He asked us "when can I be a missionary?"

Side note: Russ's youngest brother, Matt, (on the right) was just diagnosed with type I (juvenile) diabetes. He has had an amazing outlook, and has really learned a lot already. He is such a positive, happy young man. We are proud of his example and happy that we get to learn more about diabetes and help out when we can. Russ's other brother (there are 6 boys and 1 girl in his family) has had diabetes for about 18 years, so he was a huge help to Matt. He even drove his family out to Denver for a few days to help Matt with everything. What a great family!

Media Monday: Glenn Beck

Russ' brother and his family were in town last weekend, and it was fun to spend time with them. While we were over at his parents house, Mom mentioned that she and Dad heard Glenn Beck talking about how he adopted his son. I am steering clear of talking about politics on this blog. However, I did like that Glenn pointed out that a 14 year old girl was able to be selfless enough to deliver a child and then to place that baby in the care of two parents (Glenn and his wife) that could care for him.

I love that both sides of our family are very supportive of adoption and are willing to help out with anything, even by sharing things that they hear about adoption from friends, tv, etc.

I couldn't find a good clip/story of the tv show they watched. But here is a link for Glenn and Tania's adoption story (from the 2007 National FSA conference).

I love how open they were about their desire to adopt. Everyone we talk to knows that we are trying to adopt, because either Russ or I will mention it...or my favorite is when Caden says it!

Here is a quote from their adoption story that just warms my heart: "[The birth mom] was a hero. She was a remarkable superhero. Raphe doesn’t need Spiderman or Superman; he’s got his natural mother as an example of what real superheroes do. Real superheroes don’t think about themselves. Real superheroes don’t make their life all about them."

Media Monday

This Media Monday is going to be a little different. We just checked out a book at the library today called "I love you, stinky face" by Lisa McCourt. I wasn't sure what to think about it, but as soon as I started to read it....I loved it!

Here is a brief summary from goodreads.com: The imaginative boy turns himself into a meat-eating dinosaur, a swamp creature, and much more before being satisfied with the fact that no matter how stinky or slimy of a creature he could be, he is loved and nothing will change that.

Since today is Valentine's Day and we are all thinking about love, this book shows exactly what love is. Love doesn't change. It is a constant, always there. It doesn't come by looking exactly like someone, or by having the same genetics. Anyone that has experienced a marriage of their siblings, or their own marriage, knows that love comes out of a commitment to serve and help each other, and a deep concern for ones well-being. That is exactly the case in adoption as well. We will love the child we adopt as much as the our adorable son and that is one constant they can count on. It will never change, no matter what.

We loved this book and hope you will too!

Media Monday!

Monday is my laundry, grocery shopping, errand day. I know I should divide it out better among the days, and on a good week I do! However, Monday is ALWAYS laundry day. I have been wanting more focus on this blog, so I came up with.....Media Monday! Each Monday (hopefully) I am going to post some recent media (TV, newspaper, magazine, etc) or books that talk about adoption and what I like or dislike about them. I have a few to share today, so hang on... :)

1. This coverage about Oprah's half sister finding her family (and Oprah)

• I love that Patricia was really seeking to find her birth mom (and family). Everyone has that desire to know who their parents are, where their traits come from, who they look like, etc. We are hoping for an open adoption so that the child we adopt never has to wonder about what their birth mother and birth father are like, or where their green/blue/brown eyes come from, etc. They will hopefully be able to interact and continue the special relationship they have with each other.
  
• I love that Oprah was willing to talk about adoption, and about how her mother (or any birth mother) should not feel ashamed for placing a baby for adoption. It isn't something to be ashamed of, but rather it should be thought of as a selfless act, done with GREAT love.
• I do NOT like that Oprah said that her mom "gave up a baby" for adoption. No birth mother gives a baby up, she gives the baby more by PLACING him/her for adoption.

2. This article in The Friend (a church magazine for the kids)

• I loved how excited the little girl was to hear about her adoption, and how the parents talked about the birth mom.
• I love that they kept a "treasure box" that had all pictures of the birth mom, pictures of the family with the baby at the temple, etc. I am definitely going to find a way to keep everything all together (maybe through a photo book, scrapbook, etc.) so that the child we adopt will be able to access all the info he/she wants when he/she wants it.
• I LOVE this quote from the story “When your birth mother handed you to me, it was the most special moment of my life. I could see her love for you in her eyes, and I immediately loved you too."
• “We have wanted to welcome another child into our family for a long time,” Malia said. “Today we got a special phone call from the social worker. I’m going to have a sister! It’s more exciting than Christmas Eve." That is exactly how Caden feels. He frequently tells me that he doesn't have "anyone" to play with (meaning a sibling). He is excited to adopt a baby and asks about it often.
• At the end, it talks about how the big sister was going to soon make a treasure box for her sister too. Caden has already talked about how he is going to share his stuffed animals with the child we adopt. We have read many kids books abut adoption, and we talk about it often. He is ready to celebrate the process of adoption and also give gifts to the baby that we adopt. (He has even already drawn a picture of our family with the baby we adopt!)

3. A Mother for Choco, by Keiko Kasza

• I have read this kids book many times, and it always warms my heart. I love that the baby bird (Choco) that is looking for a mom has an idea of what his mom would look like and what she would do. He finds many different animals that don't look like him, and he keeps looking. Finally, he sees Mrs. Bear and KNOWS she can't be his mother. However, Mother Bear sees his sadness and wants to help. She asks "if you had a mommy, what would she do?" Choco points out a few things such as a mother would: hold him, kiss him, sing and dance with him to cheer him up, etc. Mother Bear does all of those things with Choco and then invites him home for apple pie.
• At the end, Choco realizes it doesn't matter if we look like our parents or not, because that isn't what makes a family. A family is made out of love, service and having fun together. Whether or not the child that we adopt looks like us, we will still love and kiss and play with them just the same! (side note: we LOVE celebrating cultures and we look forward to celebrating any culture that is brought into our family through the miracle of adoption).
  

New Year, New goals

What do you do on New Year's Eve? Have a fondue party with all the fun family that was still in town! Russ's Mom and Dad put on this AMAZING fondue party...my first one ever. It was delicious! Russ's favorite part was the meat (of course). It was so tender! My favorite part was the chocolate! I think I ate half the bowl of rice krispy treats and a ton of strawberries, dipped in chocolate goodness.
After the fondue party, Russ and I left Caden sleeping in the care of Mom and Dad and we went to chaperone the youth new year's eve dance. We had a blast dancing (or chaperoning) with the youth from our ward (congregation) and with Russ's younger brothers that were there. What a blast!

Also, it is a time to think about goals for the next year. I am a planner. I LOVE planning. One of my goals is to run a 5k this year. I have never run a race and really want to build up to a lot more, but you got to start somewhere. Lucky for me, we had our yearly planning meeting with Families Supporting Adoption and we are going to put on a 5k race for adoption! It is perfect! So, stay tuned for pictures and stories of how our family does in our adoption race! They are even going to have a kid's race after the 5k, and Caden is already practicing for it now. So fun!

We are excited for the other adventures that 2011 has in store for us!