First day in Calgary

Besides the man who sat in front of Silas on the airplane who not so politely told us that Silas was kicking his seat (within the first five minuted and I swear Silas was NOT!!!), the lovely lady at customs who thought we were out of ear shot when she commented to her co- worker something about "stupid Americans", the fact that we apparently did not have the correct paper work in order to aquire work permits, and the gentleman who got upset at us in the very crowded grocery store when we apparently did not form the check out line properly, things are wonderful.

Really, they are. The Lord hads given us much peace and the kids seem oblivious. We have seen and toured the new house and it is as lovely as we remembered.

I've never been known for my intelligence, so I am relying on my personality to win over these Canadians and perhaps even become one.....and also convince them that Americans aren't so bad after all.
(Please excuse the typos.....I'm on Jeff's blackberry.)

Saying Goodbye

Our time in Houston is coming to a close. As I reminisce about our days here, these are some of the people that are most special to me. Each have taught me much about friendship and life and kindness and patience and well......they've been "Jesus" to me.
Last year, a group of my sweet friends decided to start getting together weekly to pray. Over the year, we became close. We prayed for our husbands, our children, our relationships, the church....it was a blessing. The "original" group decided to break off into pairs and sprout new groups. These are some of the girls that have blessed me through our "prayer groups."

My sweet friend, Erin H. Love love love this girl and her sweet family.
Tracy- how do I even describe how precious a friend this woman is to me? Our children are all the same ages and have been "best buds" for a while now. God knew I needed this level headed wise woman!

My sweet Jill. Of all the people I have to leave here, she will be the hardest. Jill has shown me what it means to be a faithful friend. We have gone through "a little bit of heaven and a little bit of hell" together. Even if we don't see eachother for a while (which I'm sure won't happen since she and her husband will come to see us in Calgary), we will pick up where we left off. Jill, I hope you know how much I love you.

How can I even describe Grandma Hop? Since the day our family met her, she has adopted all of us and treated us as family. She is the most generous person I have ever known and I want to be just like her.

Ninh Thuan Mamas

Thanks to my sister, Amanda, for making our "Ninh Thuan Mommy" t-shirts- we ALL loved them!!!

Last weekend, I had the blessing of meeting three other mommies in Dallas for a "girls weekend." They were not just any mommies, however. All four of us adopted through the same agency and from the same province and the same orphanage! All of us have daughters that resided together and were cared for by the same wonderful care givers in the province of Ninh Thuan.

Our relationships started through our Dillon forum and progressed to phone chats that progressed to wanting to meet in person. All of our families have met, including our girls. But, we decided to take it one step further and with the blessings of our sweet husbands, the four mommies invaded Mandy's house on Friday evening. We had a fabulous Italian dinner and then did a little shopping. Saturday morning, Mandy's amazing husband, Arnaud, made us his famous crepes for breakfast and then we were off to the Galleria.

We enjoyed being together so much! I can not tell you how refreshing this weekend was for me. There is something about the bond we share as adoptive mothers that is amazing. We had deep talks, we had silly talks, we poked fun at each other.......it was wonderful! Thank you Kim-Lan, Mandy, and Casey! I love you girls!

Sweet Sam

After a routine physical exam last Tuesday, it was discovered that our Sam will need to have surgery before we move. We are hoping to get in early next week so that he will have several days to recover before we leave. If not, we will postpone our move a few days.

We feel so blessed that it was discovered before we leave. (not that they don't have great medical care in Canada) Please pray for our sweet boy next week- I won't go into detail, but they say it's pretty painful.

Our New Home

About a 30 minute drive from our new house in Calgary are views like this: This is our new house in Calgary:

Apart from the fact that there are two grocery stores about two blocks away, numerous parks, abundant bike paths, farmer's markets, libraries, shops, and restaurants near by, Jeff's office building is a little more than a mile's walk. Yes, WALK!!! Jeff will get to walk or ride his bike to work!!! (Unless it is 30 below 0, in which case I will probably drive him.)

The big move takes place in less than three weeks. Craziness. Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement as we embark on this new adventure!

Just in case anyone is still checking in......

We are back from an amazing vacation where we spent five days in the California wine country (just Jeff and me), several days in New Mexico with my parents, and a few days in Kerrville, TX for a wonderful wedding turned family reunion.

So, we're back. I'm doing laundry- a lot of it. The kids are getting used to being at home again. And we're enjoying our last few weeks in Texas before we move to Canada.

It's a little crazy right now. I imagine blogs will be few and far between but thanks for sticking with me.

BTW- Melissa B from Los Alamos- Can I just say how incredibly bad and stupid I feel about that comment I made about your sweet (and very handsome) son?!?!?! Argh. I'm such a dope sometimes.

Oh- and in case you were wondering- yes, there was much "rolling to the middle" and I'd say we had the best vacation we have EVER had.