We're Going to Get a Christmas Tree!!!

Every year on December 21st we go and get our Christmas tree... which means today we are going to get our Christmas tree!!! This year is going to be bitter sweet as Aiden will be with us but this is our first year getting a tree without Krista. Actually this is the first year any of our family members are missing.

Back to Aiden, he has been asking us for the past week where our Christmas tree is. Every time we go out and he sees a christmas tree he points and makes sure we all see it! And 2 or 3 nights ago at supper he told us all that even in Bulgaria they have a Christmas tree (so we better get one soon!). Needless to say he was very excited when we told him we are going to be getting one today!

Looking for the perfct tree...

Then it got too cold so we let dad pick out any tree... as you can see from the tree in this picture it wasn't the "perfect" tree... but we did have a Christmas tree!

trip update

So I've made it to Vancouver and am waiting for my bus now. Can't wait to get home and go to bed!

Home!

I'm home tomorrow!!!! But I have so much to do before then! Here's my schedule from now til I get home:

8:15pm-9:00pm Finish packing
9:00pm-9:30pm clean my room
9:3pm-10:00pm get ready for bed
10:00pm go to sleep
6:00am get up
6:00am-6:30am get ready for the day
6:30am Leave for work
7:00am-10:00am Work
10:30am get home from work
10:32am go and pick up some things from a lady who heather took classes with (she's moving and is going to give us some of the things she doesn't want any more! So far we've got a cell phone and a water cooler!)
10:45am clean out the car
10:50am pack up the car
11:00am clean up the house, empty garbage's etc.
11:10am Leave for our work lunch
11:30am-12:15pm eat lunch with work people
12:15pm leave for Regina
1:15pm get to Regina and pick up Linden (our wonderful friend who baby-sits out car)
1:30pm get to the airport
3:00pm Heather flies out
4:15pm Andrea flies out to Edmonton

NOTE: it is now going to be confusing becuase of time changes

4:36pm Arrive in Edmonton
5:20pm fly out of Edmonton to Vancouver
5:57pm get to Vancouver
6:00pm figure out how I'm going to get from the airport to the ferry (my two options are a) take a taxi (not my first choice) or b) take the chartered bus that is supposed to run at 7:40pm)
8:15 or 10:45 I will get on the ferry to Nanaimo and 2 hours later I will see my parents and Heather (who us flying into Comox)
So I will be home sometime between 11:30pm and 2:00am

ANOTHER NOTE: This time is with the time change meaning it will feel like 1:30am-4am

Moral of the story

1. Book your plane tickets early when using airmiles or you have to add a ferry to your trip
2. don't book work the day you're leaving on a trip

To travel or to Save?

I've been spending some time over the past few days looking at my pictures and I have realized how lucky I am! I have got to do so much traveling in the past few years. Even this past year I realized that I have ridden on at least 15 planes and had a couple of road trips across western Canada and the North Western States. In the past 4 years (since I graduated from high school) I have been to the states, Mexico, Guatemala, Bulgaria, Germany, Honduras and of course I've got to see more of Canada. I have been so blessed to be able to take all of these trips!

The bad thing about traveling is once you start it's really hard to stop. So for the past month I have been thinking about what traveling next year will look like for me. I have thought about just going on a trip for the fun of it or should I be going on a mission trip? Or would it just be best for me to stay here and save my money? I was praying about it and looking into different opportunities. During this time I came back to what do I want to do for a living once I have my student loans and car payed off? This is something I have been struggling with for a while and while I was thinking and praying it came to me! Ok actually it came back to me becuase it was a dream I had a couple of years ago, I would LOVE to lead groups on short term mission trips. When I went to Mexico with the youth group in '07 I loved it. Sure it got stressful and wasn't always enjoyable but I had a joy while there! I have decided to pursue this endeavor and see if I still have peace about it. So I have decided that this summer I would like to go on a short term missions trip as a leader, that is if it's God's plan and he allows it to all be put into place.

After making this decision I figured that I should look into different missions groups I could go with and I came across Big World and their Never the Same missions trip. The lady who is organizing and leading this trip is Susie Shellenberger (the old editor of Focus on the Families Brio Magazine). I had always wanted to go on this trip when I was in high school but I could never afford it. So I looked into it some and guess what the are going to ANTIGUA!!! I decided at this point that I would look at my calender and make sure that the dates fit. They didn't :( The trip doesn't end until the 11th but Kassi is getting married on the 1oth and I can't miss Kassi's wedding. That was the end of that... ok if you know me you know if I want to do something I wouldn't give up that easy so I emailed Big World and told them about my dilemma and they informed me that leaving a couple days early would be fine and that I should still apply! So that is where I am right now at the application stage, the 14 page application.

Please pray for me, that if this is what God wants to me do it will all work out and go smoothly and if this is not what God wants me to do that I will feel peace knowing that he has other plans for me, greater plans. Thanks!

23 and counting

Today I went for a walk becuase it's sunny again! The snow is very pretty right now and I'm learning to appriciate it (as long as I can stay home).

Time to clean

I have a confession I HATE cleaning my bedroom. I don't like it when it's messy and I do enjoy having a clean room but I despise cleaning it. I don't mind cleaning the rest of the house but for some reason my room is torture. Take this past week. I have spent hours in my room "cleaning" it's still not done and it wasn't that bad. but I find way more fun stuff like watching wheel of fortune on the internet or hanging stuff on my walls, blogging or petty much anything so I don't have to clean. Why is this such a hard thing for me to do??? Well I better go hang up my laundry so it will dry

my room in dorms, this was actually pretty clean

It's late but it's here/24 days til christmas

What's more Christmasy then snow? We got our second snowfall last night and I'm pretty sure this one is here to stay :(

25 days until Christmas!

Sorry I missed day 26... we were having a Christmas party! Here are a few pictures of our Christmas season so far:

27 days left until Christmas

One things I love about Christmas, as I mentioned before, is the tree. Here are a few trees from Christmas' past:

28 days til Christmas!

Ok so technically this post is late by 53 min. But I haven't gone to bed so so in my mind it's still Friday! I LOVE christmas music! I will admit that I start listening to it in October and once December hits I listen to it all the time! A few days ago I went to the library and found all of their Christmas Cd's one of my favorites was Kenny Chesney's Christmas Cd. Here are a couple of the songs:

29 days until Christmas!

O boy I'm not doing so swell with my Christmas count down... I forgot to post yesterday... which also happened to be the first day... So I decided that I'm just going to start with today!

One thing I really love about Christmas is the traditions! My family has a few, some we developed over the past few years, others we've done forever!

1. We Cut our own tree down. Some years we go to a tree farm, some years we just cut it down in our yard
2. After the Christmas Eve service we drive around part of Port Alberni and find the ugliest Christmas lights! We rate people on the work they put into the lights as well as the over all effect. (this one started cuz one year mom and dad made us drive around looking at lights and we just wanted to get home. So out of spite we picked the ugliest lights... and it's stuck!)
3. We aren't aloud out of our rooms until 8am Christmas morning.
4. We open all of our not santa presents Christmas eve. (this one has just started the last couple years cuz as our faily grows it takes longer and longer to open gifts... this way we get a break in the middle!)
5. My mom makes sticky buns for breakfast! They are SOOOO good!!!!

What is your favorite Christmas tradition?

Work... is that all I do?

Hello blogging world! So I haven't been on really cuz I've been working for the past 11 days, and I have 2 more days then I'm done! Tomorrow I just have to work til 9am then Thursday I only for 1-7... so tomorrow I will have more of a life update for you on my life. But one little thing I GOT A FULL TIME JOB!!!! Starting January 1st, 2010 I will be working 4 days on 4 days off. So for the 4 days on I will work 24 hours 4 days straight. This is such a blessing because not only will I have a solid work schedual but I will also have a whole lot more money!

Christmas is coming!!!

I just bought my plane ticket home tonight!!!! I leave to go home December 17th! Heather and I have different flights to different locations (I have to fly into Vancouver, she's flying into Comox) but they leave within 1 hour of each other! And it just happens that my parents will have just enough time to pick her up from Comox, go our for dinner, then come and pick me up at the ferry! God is so good cuz he works everything out... even when I'm super stressed.

On another Christmas note I have decided that I'm going to do a Christmas count down for you all starting November 25th. I will do my best to have 1 christmasy thing for you each day from the 25th to the 25th... However you won't have to wait til the 25th for my first Christmas tidbit becuase I have something to share tonight! This is a song brent and I were singing alot when I was home.

what to do with my life??? O I KNOW!

As you guys know I've been trying to decide what to do with my future for some time now. Well I got another brain wave the other night! This one will be a great investment in my future and it will not be too expensive or time consuming! Ready for it??? I'm going to become a bus driver! I know this may seem odd but just stay with me for a minute while I explain myself. It doesn't take too much time to become a bus driver, you just need to take a couple tests. Then I can start driving teams around. I'm thinking male teams with people ages 20-30 on them. This will not only bring in some extra cash it will also improve my chance of finding a husband! Perfect eh?

Not so puffy

So for Christmas this year I decided to make cream puffs. I have been told that they are actually easy so I goggled how to make them. On the recipe I chose had this quote at the top of it, "An easy and impressive way to make a great dessert. Whip them up and watch them disappear!" and this picture,

So I figured that they would be easy so I made a list of things I had to get for them

• whipped cream


• vanilla pudding


• milk

I had everything else. tonight I decided that I was going to make these things, so I get the recipe and I realize my first mistake you are to use heavy cream not whipped cream, o well they are pretty much the same thing. Next I had to figure out how many ounces my box of pudding was. When I sat down on the computer to do this (mine was in grams) I realized that I had bought cooked pudding, not instant... I don't even like cooked pudding why would I get it??? O well I can still make this work right???? Os so I cooked my pudding up and it turned ok pretty good I thought, then I went to cool it in a sink of cold water and managed to get 1/4 cup of water into it.... now it's on to making the puff part. That went very smoothly until I took them out, they were HUGE! Ok not Huge but now cream puff size either. Then -even though I pocked a hole in it like it said to- they decided that they were going to depuff on me. but me being the good sport I am still put everything together and then I made my friends try them first. After getting the approval from them I tired one myself. Lets just say they got a 6 out of 10 on taste and a 0 out of 10 on looks, well actually they didn't look SOOO bad but they didn't look like cream puffs either. But don't worry I won't give up yet, I'm already trying to figure out how to make them better next time... I will win!

The Murse boy

When Kaila and I were on Nanaimo we saw this guy shopping... Kaila is so stealth at taking creeper pics. Thanks Kaila!

I am back!

Hello blogging world how I have missed you.

I am currently sitting on the floor in the Vancouver International Airport watching the Hannah Montana movie and eatting an apple. I need to start a petition for more plug-ins at better spots here. Because my computer doesn’t last too long while unplugged I am pro at finding these plug-ins but they always stick them in the stupidest spots. They always have them by bathrooms... really who’s going to sit by the bathroom to use their computer... O wait I have... and often then have them by doors that go outside... but they never or at least rarely have them in convent spots... like near seats. Ok so now that I have that off my chest I’m ready to move on.

So you haven’t heard from me in such a long time because I’ve been at home... and don’t get me started on that computer. Lots happened while at home but when I tired to write it all out it was over 1000 words and I was only half done so I decided that I'll do point form top 5 things I got to do.

1. Say goodbye to grandma/go to her memorial
2. Celebrate Aiden's 9th birthday (it really took place while in Bulgaria but we wanted to do a family thing)
3. hung out with my whole family!
4. Spent lots of time hanging out with Kaila shopping, eatting, and holding olympic torches
5. Had a great halloween (carving pumpkins, trick-or-treating with the kids, haunted hay ride with kris and kaila, hot dog roast and watching a movie)

There you have it I had lots of other fun stuff happen but you really don't want to have to read them all... One last thing before I sign out... I took LOTS of family pictures and I will have them for your viewing pleasure soon.

Bye for now

Family photos

Because our whole family will be together this weekend our goal is to get a good family picture for our Christmas cards. Because I am the "photographer" in the family it is my job to take these pictures... it's quite the ordeal but we make it work. Anyways I was looking for some ideas for these pictures and these are some of my favorites.

There is the everyone jump in the air which is over used and rarely looks good because of course everyone jumps at different times... and then there's the small problem that heather Krista and I all have a problem jumping (we're lucky if we can get 1 inch off the ground)...
And of course you can't forget the thinking pose. This is always a good one if you want your family to look smart...

And of course the pile up. The pile up can be done in so many different ways. Below was a way I liked it says "we're close but we don't want to squish each other. Perfect for that sister picture... just hope no one has lice!

I bet you can't wait to see how our family pictures turn out! I can't either but I guess we'll both have to wait!

Saskatchewan

A couple of days ago I heard this song on the radio and my first thought was that would be perfect for my blog!

O boy

O boy... will my life ever slow down??? I got back from Bulgaria on Thursday, Started working on Saturday. Worked 4 days straight... that's right 96 hours straight. I got off this morning and tomorrow morning at like 5am Heather and I fly out home. I feel like I just want to go to bed but that is not an option becasue I have to pack, do laundry, bake, get winter tires put onto my car, pick some things up in town, clean my room, clean out the car... and that is just the beginning of the list. Well I better get going or I'm not going to get anything done. Talk to you all from home!

The Murse

Definition Murse: a man's purse; a male nurse.

I'm talking here about the first part of the definition, the man's purse. When I was in Bulgaria I saw one to may murses. During a 30 min lunch at McDonalds I saw over 10 murses. I just have to say that I don't think that murses are attractive in any way. Guys if you need to carry a bag do just that. There are really masculine bags out there... murses are not masculine!

I'm home with pictures galore

I'm home! The trip home went fairly well. Aiden is a great traveler... when he is on the plane... he doesn't so do well in Airports. Well here are the pictures for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Time to go home

We're onto our last night here in Bulgaria! I have really enjoyed this trip but I am ready to get back home to my bed, my car, my computer, you know the normal can't wait to get back to stuff.

Let's see where did I leave off??? I think it was our last trip to the zoo. Boy do I have lots to share, but I will try to keep it short tonight cuz I need to shower and get a few hours sleep.

Tuesday: We went shopping at the City Center mall. This mall has 6 floors and lots to see! However after lunch at the food court Aiden decided shopping wasn't really his thing. He was taking all the clothes off the racks and putting them on different racks. Then he decided that he was going to sweep the floor. Lets just say he didn't really enjoy standing there with us looking at the clothes. We did end up getting a couple things but then we decided it was best to leave and we went for a walk and found a park. Then we went back to some of the old buildings we had been to the day before to finish buying our souviners. Aiden found a puddle there and played in it while I shopped.

Today: We decided that we were done with shopping and old places becasue Aiden clearly doesn't like them so we decided to go back to the zoo! I love the zoo, not sure why but I find it so fun! So we spent 3 hours there, took a bus (we weren't really sure where we were going) to a McDonalds for a late lunch/early dinner and then went to the groacery store 1 last time to pick up some more chocolate! After that we got a taxi back to the hotel here and we met with Alex and Nelly, they are the adoption people here in Bulgaria, and we got all of Aiden's papers we need so that we can go home tomorrow!

So there it is the small version of our last 2 days. Now I am off to get ready for bed so I can be up at 4:00am. We're flying out at 6:20am Thurdsday and we'll be back home at 4:30pm (or atleast I will mom and Aiden will be back at 3:30) still on friday. Nice short flight eh? See you all back in Canada! and I promise pictures will be coming soon (I have about 500 now).

Pictures!

ok so there are only two pictures because I can't put pictures off my camera onto this computer. These pictures are from when we poicked Aiden up from the orphanage, one of the staff took them and emailed them to us.

A tiger tried to eat me

But because I love you all I am more than happy to share with you my adventures from today!

This morning I managed to sleep in until 9am! I was so proud of myself... this might not seem that great of an accomplishment but yesterday am I was up at 3:05am. And we all got ready and headed up for breakfast. I got cheese on toast with tomatos again, it is very good! Then we came back to our room, finished getting ready and headed out for our adventure! We started the day by going to the zoo. The zoo is awesome! and cheep! It cost mom, aiden and I all about $3cnd in total to get in! So you're probably thinking what a dumpy zoo it much have been but nope it had everything zoo's should have (except for giraffes). I have to say it was the best zoo experience I ever had! You could get within 3 feet of a tiger! Lets just say canada takes lawsuites more seriously than bulgaria becasue I could have easily got into any of the animal pens! Aiden seemed to enjoy it he especially loved the tiger and the llamas.

After ther zoo we took a little walk (really we were trying to find a taxi!) and I thought I was going to die! Not becuase of the area of Sofia we were in... though it was a little sketch. But rather becasue people decided that the sidewalk would be better used to park cars then to walk on. So we had to walk on the road and I'm not sure if I mentioned this before or not but the people here drive CRAZY! Well we decided, finally, that we should just get a bus so we did just that! Turns out here the busses are free! We got off when we saw some taxi's parked on the side of the road and we were driven to St. Alexander Nevski Cathedral. It's a beautiful church that was built in the late 1800's. Aiden was scared of it so mom and I took turns going into it. The right across the road there was a little market so mom and I did some shopping! We got a few things to bring home as gifts and a few things for ourselves. By this time it was 3 and we hadn't eatten so we decided to find a place to eat and we did just that! We found this little pizza shop that you can order pizza from the outside and they serve it to you on a piece of cardboard. After pizza we decided it was time to get some "grocery's" and by "grocery's" I mean, chocolate, cookies etc. All those wonderful things you need to bring back with you when you travel. I have to tell you about this grocery store. In Sophia at busy intersections rather than having cross walks you walk down stairs and under the road, smart eh? Well under the roads there are also stores! So yup that's right we bought our grocerys from an underground grocery store! Ok so after grocerys we got a taxi back to our hotel... There's another story but I will save it for my special taxi blog! Once we got back we relaxed a bit, went to the restarant for dinner and then back to our room to get ready for bed/for computer time. Well that is where you find me now. We're not sure what our plans are for tomorrow or for wednesday... that's my next task, to find fun things to do! talk to you all tomorrow!

blogging is sooooo hard

because blogging is so much work I have decided to give you a connection to what yesterday had in store for us here in Bulgaria. kenofamilyadoption.blogspot.com
Enjoy!

We're here!

Hi! I would say it in Bulgarian but my bulgarian is limited to chow (bye), sock (juice), bravo (good job) and ne (no)... but really cut me some slack I have only been in bulgaria for 20 hours.

CANADA:
So I flew out of Regina at 10:55am on Thursday. Mom and I met up in Toronto at 4:30, she flew in from Nanaimo, and we boarded a plane at 6:00 for Frankfurt. In Frankfurt we would have 2 hours to eat/find our next plane and we would be on our way... well that was the plan. We were about 3 hours into the flight, heading out over the atlantic when I noticed the little plane on the tv screen (you know the one that tells you where you are in the world) was turning around... NOOOOO... a min later the captin came on and informed us that due to a medical emergency we had to turn the plane around and go back to Newfoundland. No biggie right? an hour added to the flight... nice try it was more like 4. needless to say we missed our connection to Sofia and therefore had the opportunity to spend an afternoon in Frankfurt Germany.

GERMANY:
As soon as we got to Germnay they had us booked on another flight to Sofia but becuase of the lack of traffic between Fankfurt and Sofia we weren't able to fly out until after 7pm... so we made the most of that opportunity and took the subway/bus thing to down town and spent a few hours window shopping, buying mom new shoes (she wore heals and was in a bit of pain), siping starbucks and taking pictures. It was really nice but we were definatly ready to get to our hotel...

BULGARIA:
We arrived into Sofia just after 11pm. We cleared customs (of course) and picked up our luggage... or should I say my luggage... mom's took abit longer to get here (it arrived this afternoon). The guy from the hotel was there waiting for us and brought us to the hotel. We are staying at the some hotel as last time mom and dad were here, Hotel Jasmin.

After a great much needed sleep we got up had a quick breakfast of cheese on toast with tomatos and we were off to pick up Aiden. The translator and driver we had were the same ones mom and dad had last time and let me tell you I was born into the wrong country. I love the driving here! they go anywhere from 100-140km/hr. They pass whenever they want... even if they are passing a police, they don't really follow the lines you know the normal non north american driving. We got to Aiden's home at 12:30 and he was there all ready to go. He recognized mom right away and he calls her momma mary... then they told him that I was his caca (big sister)... nt sure how I feel about being called caca. All the staff at the home showed him so much love! They showered him with kisses and hugs. I have to admit I don't remember much from the drive to the home or back (8 hours in total) because I slept... but there was one point when we stopped for lunch and Aiden found a hose... turns out he LOVES hoses. The gas station guy even turned it on for him and he watered EVERYTHING he could find. The grass, the garbage can, the sidewalk, the wall, the road... everything. Since the drive we've just been hanging out at the hotel. WE had dinner here and watched some cartons. and Aiden has been melting everyones hearts. He makes friends with everyone and tells them that we are taking him to canada! When we told him we were going to stay in sofia for a little while he told us taht he would rather go right to canada.

Well I should go see what mom and Aiden are up to... talk to you soon...
Andrea

And we're off and running

Tomorrow I am leaving! I fly out of Regina at 10:55am and will land in Sofia at 1:20pm Friday! I was just talking to mom and we're not 100% sure what to expect. Here are the things we know:

1. When our flights are, there and back
2. That we will be coming back with one more suitcase and one more body!

Yup that's about it! We don't know when we're picking up Aiden, we don't know where we are staying, we don't know how long we are going to stay in any location, we don't know what exactly we are doing. But surprisingly this isn't putting a lot of stress on either mom or I. We are both very excited to go and those other minor details aren't a big deal.

Reading this I seem so calm... I am now but 3 hours ago I was feeling anything but calm. We were trying to get our tickets in order, we couldn't find mom, I didn't know how I was going to get to the airport, and I was VERY determined that I was going to be leaving tomorrow as I had to take some time off work and the last thing I wanted to do was to have to take more time off work. This trip works out really well as far as work goes. They are more than happy to let me give my 3 scheduled shifts away and I will be back a day and a half before my 24 hour shifts start! God is Good, his timing is perfect!

O boy I should be going... no time to sit here and type... I'll see you all in a week!

Europe here I come!

In the next two weeks I will be boarding a plane to Bulgaria! My mom got the word today and Aiden's paperwork will be all ready Wednesday! We'll have more details tomorrow!

Thanksgiving (7)

Happy Thanksgiving Monday! Heather and I celebrated thanksgiving with some of our school friends yesterday, it was wonderful! We only had 1 set back... the power went out for just over an hour so our gigantic turckey wasn't cooked when we hoped it would be but whatever it got done and then we ate! So today I am very thankful for my thanksgiving family!

Thanksgiving (6)

Whoops... I got a few days behind on my thanksgiving entries... o well I added a couple extra in there a couple of days so I think I'm ok. But I will give you one for today because today is thanksgiving Sunday. Today is also the day we are celebrating thanksgiving with friends... so today in my blog post I want to honnor my friends.

I have been blessed with so many amazing friends over the years! I absolutly love my friends!

Thanksgiving (5)

I realized today how thankful I am for summer! Today we got our first real snowfall and I am not too impressed... I worked from 6:45am-3pm then I had to go do some arrands and when I got out of superstore it was starting to snow... by the time I got gas and drove home (20 min) it was really coming down and even worse it was sticking. Now we have a white yard :( So though I don't appriciate the snow I appriciate the summer even more now!

One thing I absolutly love about the summer is hanging out with my sibs Mom and dad got to go and meet Aiden this summer I love the beautiful sunsets on the Island RODEOS!

Going to the lake is a great way to spend a summer day...

or evening...But even better than going to the lake is going to the ocean

Thanksgiving (4)

I'm thankful that when God he made us he gave us the ability to laugh. I love to laugh and I couldn't imagine my life without a good laugh every now and then. Well here is something heather showed me that gave me a good laugh...

Thanksgiving (3)

What is thanksgiving all about? Giving thanks for the harvest (and other blessings) and what's more harvesty then wheat? In Sask. nothing!!!

Thanksgiving (2)

Ok so today isn't a why I'm thankful post but it is a thanksgiving one! I LOVE pumpkin pie! I love pumpkin pie blizzards, pumpkin steamed milk... if it tastes like pumpkin pie I love it! So I'm going to give you my favorite cheese cake recipe for a pumpkin pie cheese cake.

NO BAKE PUMPKIN PIE CHEESE CAKE

You'll need:

• 1 pkg cream cheese (8 ounces)
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp pumkin spice
• 1 tub cool whip
• 1 graham cracker crust

How to Make it:

• Make a 10" graham cracker crust, set aside
• Beat together softened cream cheese, pumpkin, sugar and pumpkin spice with a blender until smooth.
• Fold in 2 1/2 cups of cool whip.
• Pour filling into the graham cracker crust.
• Top with the rest of the cool whip and
• Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

It is so easy and it is amazing! Enjoy!

Thanksgiving (1)

I have sooo much to be thankful for so I figured rather than having 1 post for thanksgiving I would de a whole weeks worth of posts! Ok, my plan is to post once a day on something I'm thankful for or something about thanksgiving or along those lines. Like I said this is my plan it doesn't mean it will happen but I'll give it a go! Where to start... where too start... O I know!

I know this is a really clique one but I'm thankful for my family. I think I have the best family ever! I know lots of other people think that too but I don't know if you could top my family!

I have two parents who love Jesus more than anything else, love each other and who love all of their kids no matter what! They are suportive and they seem to always know when to let us make our own mistakes and when to step in and give us a hand. Both of my parents have taught me sooo much from how to shoot a gun (thanks dad!) or how to clean an oven (I should use this skill more often) to how to care for people who aren't able to care for themselves. LOVE YOU MOM AND DAD THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!

I have Amazing bialogical sisters who are my best friends. We, or maybe it's just me, often wonder why we are so close. is it because we are almost exaclty 2 years apart? Is it becuase we home schooled? Is it because we had to choice but to get along? Or were we just blessed? Whatever the reason I am so thankful that I have two sisters who will always be there for me whether I need a bit of extra money or if I just need someone to hang out with. I could never ever imagine life without the two people I am closest to. LOVE YOU GUYS!

I guess next in line comes Brent. How could you not be thankful for someone who is so incredibly special? I absolutly love the fact that God choose our family to adopt brent (Jenn, Karl, David and Aiden too)! He is always, well almost always, there to give you a huge smile and a hug. He's a great shopping buddy, and loves just hanging out with his big sisters. He's a constant reminder of what true joy looks like. LOVES BRENTY

Jenn and Karl... Most people thought it was a bit weird that the week I was graduating from high school I was getting a new brother and sister. Whatever it was one of the best gifts I have ever recived! Jenn and Karl are always willing to hang out with their not so cool big sister. They are great campong buddies and if you want to go see a kid movie who better to bring along? I love getting to spend time with them, it's one of the things I look most forward to when I'm home. I've heard people say that when you are adopted into a family rather than born into it you aren't ever going to really be a part of that family. I say that is CRAP! Jenn and Karl are as much a part of my family as any other member and I wouldn't trade them for anything. YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING!

David, Wow! What to say about dave. David is not always the easist child, actaully most often he is the most difficult one. But then there are times when you just can't d it any more and he gives you a big hug or he says your name for the first time and you foget why you were even frusterated with him. David has blessed our family in so many ways he has tought us how to be patcient, he has shown us how the smallest things can give you joy and he has taught us how to love uncondiatianally. David may not always be an angel but he is truly a gift from God. LOVE YOU

Adien. I haven't even met Aiden yet but he has already taught me so much. Maybe not him persay but his adoption. It has taught me that God will provide, we may have to work really hard and go without but God won't leave you high and dry. I have learned that things may not happen in our timing but they sure do happen in Gods. And I have learned that God is never done using his people to do amazing things. AIDEN I LOVE YOU ALREADY AND I CAN'T WAIT TO MEET YOU. COME HOME SOON.

And last but not leas Kaila! Ok I know that Kaila isn't legally or bioloicaly a part of my family but really are those things important? I think not. Kaila has been a gift from God to not just me but my whole family. She has stepped in to the voild Heather, Krista and I left and has become a big sister to our little sibs while we aren't there. But in all honestly Kaila is so great becuase she's herself. She's not always happy when she's around, she's not fake, and she's always ready to have fun! MISS YOU KAILA!