Santa Barbara Zoo and California Adventure

Children of the World

Matt and I had the opportunity to house 2 orphan girls, ages 10 and 11yrs. One was from the Phillipines and one was from India. It was an amazing experience. They travel with a singing group that tours the US. They were at Master's and Hollie called to ask if we would house them. How can we say no to orphans? They were the most polite girls! They called me Auntie and would thank me for everything and always hug me. They were a big blessing. Ivy and I went to hear them sing at Master's and I cried through the whole thing. They had such a pure worship of the Lord. They have lost their parents (most of the kids, through HIV )and they still talk about their love for Jesus and how thankful they are to Him for what they have. It sure puts things into perspective to listen to them. It was a wonderful experience.

Here We Go Again......

I have kind of been at a loss as to what to write since I am done with Ivy's adoption story. (By the way...I made her story into a hard bound book on Blurb.com and it came out beautiful!)
So, I decided to let you in on what we have been doing for our next adoption and let's just say that lately it has been alot!
Let me back up. When Ivy was a year old, we called Tim Blied and started another homestudy. We got all done with everything and have been waiting for a baby. Then around Christmas time, I watched a show on TV about kids who were older and being adopted out of the Foster Care system. I looked up some kids online and I found a 3 year old boy that I loved named Everett. I told Matt to come and look at him. Matt was like, "Kelli, you are not going to find a cute kid on the internet and adopt him because of his looks." I was like," I am a little smarter than that. But what if we didn't adopt a newborn? Let's just think and pray about it."
Matt is so good for me. He gets me off my horse before I jump into something so many times. I wasn't sure if this was one of those times so I just prayed about it. It turns out that Everett was a little boy that we couldn't adopt (too many things about his situation that we wouldn't bring into our family. They say that the kids on the internet are the hardest to find homes for. It is really sad.) Matt came to me a couple of days later and said that he had prayed about it and the fost to adopt program was worth checking out. We both knew people who had gone through the same agency and so we decided to do an informational meeting with them. (The whole reason for doing it this way was because you adopt your children for free and there is a bigger pool of kids.)
Matt and I decided to continue to pray about it and just take "baby steps", that way we could stop at any time we didn't feel good about something. I also prayed that Matt and I would agree on what we were doing. Just like it had been with Ivy's situation.
We couldn't go to the Santa Clarita informational meeting because Matt was going away on business so we went to the Thousand Oaks meeting. That is where we met B. Sugar. Yes, Sugar is her last name and she is a riot! She can't talk to you without listing all of her credentials and she wears ALOT of jewelry and lipstick. (She reminds me of Estelle, Joey's agent on "Friends".) I'll describe the meeting in my next post.

My New Look

After 10 years, I finally asked Matt his opinion on my hair. He said that he would like it a little shorter. Then Hollie and Wendy were like..."Oh yeah, we've been waiting for you to cut it." It was getting pretty damaged so I agreed and went in for the snip. She took 6 inches off. Here is the finished product.

Girl's Day at Disneyland

Last Friday Wendy and I took the girls to Disneyland. It was so much fun! Almost every ride we went on, I had never been on before. Ivy and Kate loved everything. Ivy wanted to go on higher rides than I wanted to go on. Wendy kept pressuring me to go. I was scared. I gave into the peer pressure of Wendy and a couple of 2 year olds. It was a fun day to be with our girls. (Wendy has much better pics. than me...look at her blog...Penberthy family at the bootom of mine.)
After one of the rides, Ivy said, "That was so fun!" I about died! She has never said a sentence like that before. I was at their house today. Kate is still talking about Disneyland. They both got Minnie Mouse Balloons and Ivy has slept with hers every night since she got it. Oh...the simple things of life!

A Life Goal

Ivy ready to help me bake.
My apple creation

When I turned 30, I started to think of some life goals for myself. One goal was to learn the guitar...so for my 30th birthday Matt bought me a beautiful acoustic guitar. (I'm 35 and still don't know how to play the guitar.) Another goal was to bake a pie from scratch. I love to cook but I am not a baker (shout out to Rachel Ray!...neither is she.) also....fat mommy does not need to be leaving baked goods around the house! This weekend I bought a cookbook that had an easy reciepe for a homemade pie. I made it from scratch and it turned out great. Yes I even made the dough! I only had to call my mom once to ask a question!

One life goal realized.....a million more to go!

Easter 2008