Thursday, January 28, 2010

sponsor a child

My friend Karen is organizing sponsors for a care center in Ethiopia. She only needs 5 more children sponsored!

We are sponsoring a 4-year-old boy named Zerubabel. He's the sweetest thing! He is in the back row of the picture on Karen's blog.

Be sure to read previous posts on her blog for more information on Kind Hearts, the care center.

Could God want to use you to care for orphans?

house hunting

Our house has officially been on the market for 8 days. We've had 9 showings, and we hear 5 people are VERY interested. We have an open house planned for Saturday morning.

We totally feel like we're back waiting for a referral!! Every time the phone rings my heart leaps, hoping it's our realtor saying she has 1 or more offers for us. She and I even chatted multiple times today. But we still wait.

Meanwhile, we have 3 houses we are very interested in. We could see ourselves happy in any of the three. And 2 others, just in case. We've listed all the pros and cons for each and have gone round and round about an order for them. But we can't move forward until we get an offer, and we are trying to wait until we make an offer to do our taxes (because of the $6500 tax credit we can get).

Did I mention 9 showings in 8 days? Our vacuum died at the beginning of the week. We do have a backup, but it's just a canister vacuum, the kind with the long hose. We need a new one. We've priced the one we want out, but we are trying to wait to see what kind of floors we'll have in the new place. Oh, and the area rugs we bought? They have black borders. That show all the dirt. No matter how long it's been since you've vacuumed.

So tonight, as we are preparing to leave the house for another showing, I hit the button on the garage door and then promptly backed into it. CRUNCH. After we finally left the house, we called our realtor so she could let the realtor coming tonight know we planned to fix it in case his client asked. We got home from our errands and I called our insurance agent and a local garage repair person, who just "happened" to be coming near our house tomorrow anyway. It makes me sick to think we might have to replace the whole door before we move, but we'll see.

We're trying to move a little faster in homeschooling so we can prepare to take 2-3 weeks off for the move. Aidan's having no problem with the change in pace...he's actually doing better in math and seems to enjoy learning to read a bit more. I've been putting off the science experiments having to do with bread rising because of the mess while we are trying to sell, but since we need to stick around tomorrow for the garage repairman, we just might attempt it. And he can zip his coat by himself now!! All that occupational therapy is paying off!!

I finally bought winter running gear tonight so I can start training for the half marathon. I think this means I actually need to get outside and run now. I plan to start next week. Pete is already running 4 miles. Makes me sick.

We had a little issue a few weeks ago of Iona taking off her clothes in bed and throwing everything, diaper and contents included, out of the crib. Thanks to suggestions made, the onesies are working! Iona is looking more and more like a little girl and is really trying to converse with us. Aidan and Iona seem to be getting along even better. He just loves to make her laugh and comfort her and hug her. She has been trying to delay bedtime by continuing to ask for another hug from Aidan. Tonight she asked, "Ina give Aida a hug?" So cute!!

I'll let you know what happens with the house!!