Monday, February 21, 2005

BIG NEWS!!!

Hey, ya'll! Many of you guys already know this, but for those of you who don't...Kerrie and I are adopting!

We are going to be adopting a little boy who will be born in early April. We even get to bring him home from the hospital! We've been praying about it and talking it over since late October, but we decided not to tell anyone until recently, just because we santed to be sure. This has been a really big decision, but it's been a huge blessing to see God's hand in it every step of the way.

The past few weeks have been spent filling out adoption forms. For anyone who hasn't ever done this, it involves a ton of paperwork. Almost a bigger workload than I had when I was an outdoor recreation major. We also spent a few days registering for baby stuff. We had no idea what we were doing, but thankfully Abel and Sarah Schafer and Hollie Voth went with us to help. We're registered at Target, Toys R' Us, and The Baby's Room in Rogers. Kerrie already has a couple of showers coming up, and we're planning on having some "meet the baby" showers in April, too.

Which brings me to my question...what do you think we should call him? I've been calling him Pedro for the last few months, but Kerrie's not really voting for that. We have some thoughts, and I think we've got one that we've pretty much decided on, but we're welcoming any new suggestions. Thanks for sharing in this with us!

Thursday, February 17, 2005

You can stop holding your breath...we're back!

Break time's over!

OK, I know it's been awhile...but I have to tell you--Kauai is awesome! Kerrie and I had a great time. Here's an ultra-abbreviated summary of our 2-week trip

We got there at 6 in the morning after a horrendous 5 hour flight delay in Los Angeles. Definitely, the worst part about Hawaii is the trip to get there. We stayed at the Radisson and it was pretty nice. Kind of a moderately up-scale hotel. We didn't really get bored with it, so that's nice. Most of our days consisted of sleeping in for a bit and the lounging around the pool or the beach. The hardest thing to decide all day was where to eat. We saw a TON of humpback whales, seals, and dolphin. I got to go deep sea fishing for yellowfin tuna, which rocked. I tried surfing, which didn't rock. And, we got to go on a really fun tubing ride up with a company called Kauai Backcountry in these irrigation ditches that were dug in the mountains in the 1800's. That was really cool, because most of it was underground in these crazy tunnels. (By the way, that is the first hyperlink that I have ever done...I'm really proud.)

It's crazy that Hawaii is part of the U.S. Think about it--you're in a total tropical paradise that's almost equal distance from California, Alaska, Japan, and Australia. So, it's literally in the middle of nowhere. Every native Hawaiian looks exotic, but then they come up and say, "How's it going, bro?" But, I think the most wild thing about Hawaii is that everyday we could jump in our sweet Chevy Cavalier and within 10 minutes be at the nearest McDonald's, Starbucks, or Pizza Hut.

Friday, February 11, 2005

donde esta mi hermano

mateo???????? remember when you used to write as a kid a lot? at least i think you did, i always thought of you as a very literary person. always reading something or rather. from calvin and hobbes to choose your own adventure. readers make great writers too. escribe por favor. :)

remember knocking on the wall between our bedrooms as we read? i am happy that our parents made us readers. i can't go to sleep without reading, how about you, mi hermano?