We Broke the Record!

Well, we did it! We broke the traveling record for us. It took us 13.5 hours to get home from Colorado. Whoo-Hoo! It was a much shorter trip this time. ;)

I do have to say that the children did an amazing job traveling there and back. They didn't argue or complain. They were really great! Jarett and I were ready for it to be a much longer trip with the children, but they actually were the best part of it. :)

Well, 2008 is coming to an end! I sure am excited for the next year. I have plans and a new moto for 2009. I am not going to share my moto just yet. It will come on January 1. I am still in the planning mode. What I usually do is create a moto for that year and make a plan for it to happen. I usually can keep to my goal throughout the year, but this year is a little different. Anyway, more to come in a couple of days.

I hope everyone has a FUN New Years Eve! Stay safe and enjoy your family at this time!

Chalene

Christmas in Colorado

It ONLY took us 22 hours to get to Colorado Springs. :) I bet there are a lot of places you could get to in 22 hours?! I know it only takes about 18 hours to get to Texas. So why did a 13 hour trip take us 22 hours. Well there is a story behind this journey and it all began Dec. 23.......

I am naturally a procrastinator! So on Dec. 23 I started laundry around 4:30 in the afternoon. I was actually thinking I could get everything washed and packed by 10:00. What was I thinking????? Not to much on that day!

So, by the time I got everything washed and put out, it was 1:00 am. We were planning on getting up at 4:00 to do our own family Christmas morning things. We called TT to call Santa and ask if he could come to our house a day early and he was more than excited to do that for us. So after our 3 hour nap, we woke the kids up and had our family Christmas. We cleaned up and I finished packing.

Around 7 am, we left to go take our new puppy to my parent's house to be babysat while we were gone. (puppy is a whole new different story for later). Anyway, We got onto the road around 8:00 am and 10 minutes later, Karleigh began to throw up. She didn't have a fever, so we kept going. We thought it was began she was tired and the motion of the car just got to her. About an hour later, she threw up again. I checked for a fever and still nothing, so we kept going.

and going....and going....and going.....and going.....and going.....

We went all the way to a little city that was almost on the boarder of New Mexico. We thought the city looked very different, so we got out our handing map and found us very south! If you don't know, we needed to be very NORTH, not SOUTH! :)

We laughed and found a highway that looked like we would go straight up to the 60, again using our handy map. Well, on this highway was no straight road. It was climbing up, down and around snowy mountains. Even though, the scenery was beautiful, it was a very slow drive. It took us 4 hours just to drive 90 miles to the next major town. I did forget to mention that on the drive of this beautiful trip of the mountains, one by one, the children let us know how they were not feeling so well. The windy road was giving them all motion sickness.

We did finally make it out of there and stopped at McDonald's in Springerville. We are not McDonald's people, but it was food and we were hungry. We ate and were feeling good, so we got back in the car and about 25 minutes later, we entered New Mexico. Boy, did we cheer about seeing the sign "Welcome to New Mexico". We felt like we were finally on the road to success of this trip, when all of about 10 minutes into this state, a police officer pulled us over. Yep, that's right we got a speeding ticket and a ticket for having 1 brake light out. The road we were on was a highway and the speed limit was 65. We thought for some reason the speed limit was 75. It must have been that nap we took! :) I do have to say that the police officer was not my friend. I got so frustrated at his attitude with us. Not to even mention this was Christmas Eve and he must have been upset that he was working or he was just a rookie! Oh Well! He was kind enough to let us know that we still had 150 miles to go to get to the Interstate 25, for which we were looking for.

To make this part of the story shorter, this highway went right through four different towns, at which the speed limit went all the way down to 35. It was a stretch of a drive that I thought would never end. I was at my wits-end. We wanted to turn around so badly, but we decided to keep going!

The rest of the way into Colorado was much better. We made it to my mother-in-laws house at 3:30 on Christmas morning!

We made it and safely too!

The children have had such a great time playing with their cousins in the snow. It has been a really fun and relaxing trip.

Tomorrow we leave for home and we are pretty sure this trip home will only take us 13 hours! We feel a little more experienced and we are ready (no procrastinating here)! :)

I hope everyone had a Blessed Christmas with family and friends!

Chalene :)

Oh My Gosh!

It is so cute to listen to Rita say her new words. This is her favorite saying now. She says this at least 2 times during a very small conversation. :)

I looked back at the last time I posted and I can't believe it has been three weeks. Like Rita would say, "Oh my gosh!".

The last couple of weeks have been extremely busy! My dad got out of the hospital. He had double phenomena. He is still on oxygen, but at least he is out of the hospital. Every day is a small improvement and he is getting better.

All the kiddos started their basketball season last week. This means once a week practices until January, then we add Saturday games until the end of February. It is so great to see them get involved. They love it. I have Rita and Karson on one team and Racheal and Kaiden on another. Karleigh is my assistant coach, but did express interest in being on her own team. :)

So far everyone is healthy. We have been very lucky that we have only had minor colds come and go. "Oh my Gosh!"

Yesterday I was thinking about how time has gone by really fast. I do have to say that it has been challenging, but now that I look at where our family is and what we are doing, is so incredible! The girls have come into our home and accepted it as their home and their family. Attachments have gone really good. Racheal seemed to attached really easy, while Rita needed more time. Rita is definitely completely and clearly attached now. Our bio children are attached to Rita and Racheal. It's funny to think about our bio needing time to attach also. You can look back and see the times when they weren't attached and now how they are.

Someone asked me the other day if I would do this again or knowing what I know now, would I do this again. That is a pretty tough question to answer. As I thought about it for a while. The thought came to mind, "Would God allow us to do this again?". I am all for it, but I am at the point of my faith with God that I pray more before making decisions. So I can't say I would do this again, because it is completely up to God and His plan. Is it in His plan for us? Are Rita and Racheal the only ones we would adopt? Such tough questions! I really don't think about it much. I assume that if God wants it to happen again, then He will let us know.

I do have to say that I love the experience of adopting older children. I have had such a good experience with it. Yes, times can be tough, but manageable. Jarett and I have become much closer as a couple and more towards God. I would have to say that I would never regret adopting older children. If I had a bigger house, more money and God's "yes" to it, then I would adopt more. I have my eyes and heart on one sibling set at Eban House. I pray that God finds them a home. This little girl and boy were new when I went to take custody of Rita and Racheal. They stole my heart then and I pray they find a forever family.

Chalene