Midwest Winter

After my last post I thought maybe I should say something nice about the midwest winter. If only I could find one. J/K My mom grew up in the Midwest. She even went to high school in Omaha. I remember her telling us stories about ice storms when I was growing up. She told us how it would rain but as soon as the water touch ANYTHING it immediately froze and became ice. She told us how there would be icicles on everything, and how dangerous it was, how it would often cause power outages, how they would always close school and shut everything down during and an ice storm. But then I would say wow icicles on EVERYTHING, I bet that was really pretty. And she would say yes it was. I was always fascinated by her stories, and wished I could see an 'ice-storm', the way you want to see a tornado, or an avalanche.

Soon after moving here we experienced our first ice storm. It was a small one as ice-storms go, but it was just like my mom told me when I was a kid. Rain that turned to ice as soon as it touched anything. It was really dangerous, and you did not want to drive in it, or after it. They closed schools and everything that could shut down did. It caused power outages, and it was kind of scary. And there were icicles on everything, it was really pretty.

We (use to) love winter

I have a door hanging. Its really cute. It says We Love Winter. When we lived in Utah I proudly displayed it after the winter holidays. I have a good friend who use to come over and when she did she would make funny sarcastic comments about my door hanging. Something along the lines of what is there about winter to love. But I liked the snow and I didn't mind the cold. Then I moved to Nebraska. And now I just don't know if I can display my door hanging. Now I dread the winter. I dread the cold, REAL cold, 5 degrees should never be the HIGH for the day. And snow is not as much fun without skiing. What is there to love about winter? We used to love winter when we lived in state where there was something about winter to love other than it being over.

First Smiles

Mia started to smile for real this week. I love it when babies learn to smile. As soon as she come home from the hospital I was counting down the days until she could smile. (But at the same time didn't want to wish her big, they grow up too fast on their own). As someone once said; once your baby starts smiling you become the worlds biggest fool and will do the dumbest, craziest things to cox more smiles out. But the reward is always worth it.

Halloween

Quite a crew

Different Trip to the Same Place

This was so good I had to share it. It was copied from www.adoption.com Thank you to Kris and her friend for letting me know about it. It says everything I can't.

Deciding to have a baby is like planning a trip to Australia. You've heard it's a wonderful place. You've read many guidebooks and feel certain you're ready to go. Everyone you know has traveled there by plane. They say it can be a turbulent flight with occasional rough landings, but you can look forward to being pampered on the trip.

So you go to the airport and ask the ticket agent for a ticket to Australia. All around you, excited people are boarding planes for Australia. It seems there is no seat for you: You'll have to wait for the next flight. Impatient, but anticipating a wonderful trip, you wait - and wait - and wait.
Flights to Australia continue to come and go. People say silly things like, "Relax, you'll get on a flight soon." Other people actually get on a plane and then cancel their trip, to which you cry, "It's not fair!"

After a long time the ticket agent tells you, "I'm sorry, we're not going to be able to get you on a plane to Australia. Perhaps you should think about going by boat."

"By boat!" you say, "going by boat will take a very long time and it costs a great deal of money, I really had my heart set on going by plane." So you go home and think about not going to Australia at all. You wonder if Australia will be as beautiful if you approach it by sea rather than air. But you have long dreamed of this wonderful place, and finally you decide to travel by boat.

It's a long trip, many months over many rough seas. No one pampers you. You wonder if you will ever see Australia. Meanwhile, your friends have flown back and forth to Australia two or three more times, marveling about each trip.

Then one glorious day, the boat docks in Australia. It is more exquisite than you ever imagined, and the beauty is magnified by your long days at sea. You have made many fiends during your voyage, and you find yourself comparing stories with others who also traveled by sea rather than air.

People continue to fly to Australia as often as they like, but you are able to travel only once, perhaps twice. Some say things like, "Oh, be glad you didn't fly. My flight was horrible: traveling by sea is so easy."

You will always wonder what it would have been like to fly to Australia. Still, you know God blessed you with a special appreciation of Australia, and the beauty of Australia is not in the way you got there, but in the place itself.
Credits: Lynn