Summer has flown by quickly! It was a very busy and fun summer with lots of family visiting. We enjoyed soccer, swimming and splash pads, fireworks with neighbors, trips to the mountains, the zoo, fishing, and s’mores!

We finished doing our 3rd homestudy update at the beginning of the summer. We are praying for the wonderful birth mothers out there who are making decisions for their little ones, and we are still hoping and praying one day we will have another addition to our family. It has been just over 2 years since we started the process.

We are ready to slow down a bit now, and we are excited for a fun family trip to Alaska soon to finish off the summer and to celebrate our 10-year anniversary.

We enjoyed a fun evening at Bright Nights at Four Mile Park with family and friends. it is so fun to see all the bright light sculptures and enjoy the new displays each year. Liam loved the kids activity area, playing instruments and riding a lighted teeter totter.

Liam has been asking for a playhouse, so Suzy decided to redo one she picked up for free. Suzy really enjoys redoing and making things for Liam. It is a fun thing she has always looked forward to doing as a mother.

Suzy spray-painted all the details onto the plastic Little Tike house she picked up, and then added extra little details like a light, flag, and house number. Terry used a wood burning tool to make a little sign that read, "Liam's House" for above ther door. Liam was so excited when it was finished and has been having lots of fun playing in it.

Liam turned 3! Wow how the time has flown!

For Liam's birthday he had a dinosaur volcano themed party with friends and family. Suzy made him a paper mache volcano to decorate and a volcano birthday cake. We placed dry ice in the top of the volcano and volcano cake to give it a smoke affect and make it look like a real volcano. The kids did a dinosaur egg hunt, since his birthday was the same week as Easter. 

We finally got a dog. Her name is Molly, and she is a Cockalier, a mix between a Cocker Spaniel and Cavalier King. She has a very sweet personality.

What a gift it is too know the hope found in Christ through his death and ressurrection. We were able to enjoy a nice service at our church on Easter morning and then had a good time visiting Suzy's family for lunch. The cousins all had fun doing an Easter egg hunt in their grandparents yard. The day before Easter, we took Liam to a fair/Easter egg hunt at a nearby church. He enjoyed riding a pony, getting his face painted and seeing a fire truch up close. 

We have been enjoying the nice snow days this year. We always make sure to get out and build something fun. Usually we build snowmen, but since we had a lot of snow after this past storm, we built a small bobsled track!

There is a wonderful sledding hill within walking distance from our home, and we were able to meet Liam's cousins at the hill a few weeks ago and enjoy some sledding.

We were thankful to have some extra family time during both Christmas’ and New Year’s week. Throughout the month of December, we would make pretend phone calls to Santa to report whether Liam was being “good” or “bad”. Liam really tried hard to be good the whole month. It was pretty funny. If we found fun little things at the store, we would wrap them up and place them under the tree. Then, we would tell Liam that Santa had dropped something off early. It was fun to watch him excitedly run and check for whatever had been left.

On Christmas Eve, we enjoyed a beautiful service at our church, singing Christmas Carols and remembering the birth of Christ.
In the evening, we were able to spend time with Suzy’s family. It was nice to have all the family together,
and it was fun to watch Liam and his cousins run around excited to open their gifts.

On New Year’s week, we had some extra time to make a trip up to the mountains to go ice fishing with some friends.
Suzy explored the lake with Liam and they found some older bear paw prints in the snow!

On New Year’s Eve we had a fun movie night as a family and enjoyed setting off some fireworks and sparklers.
We are excited for the New Year ahead and what changes it may bring for our family.

Terry recently purchased an e-Bike. We are all able to ride it together with the trailer in the back for Liam. On nicer days, we have been enjoying taking it to different paved bike trails and riding to the park. The first week of December we were able to ride it around a nice lake a few times and then stopped at a coffee shop to enjoy time as a family. I am sure it looks completely dorky all of us riding that bike together haha, but it is fun and we are enjoying making sweet memories together. By the end of our ride, Liam feel asleep in the back with his favorite stuffed animal that he calls "hot" dog.

One fun Christmas tradition my sister hosts every year is a Christmas tea. She invites family and friends over to her home for a fun lunch with sweets and tea. She always decorates so pretty for this small tea party. It is a nice time to visit and catch up with one another.

We always dress up a little to make it fun. I had fun dressing Liam up as well.
He and his cousin Linnette looked so sweet together and they had a great time playing while we visited.

Liam and I decorated cookies with my mom for a cookie plate we placed out at the tea party.

Thanksgiving week we spent time with both sides of the family. We went to Suzy’s parents home the Sunday before Thanksgiving for a nice meal.
It was a smaller group than normal because some in her family got sick that week.
Later in the week, Terry’s cousins came over for a Thanksgiving meal at our home. It was nice to get to spend time with family. 

Liam moved to a new room with a new twin sized "car" bed. I am still working on setting up his new room, but he has been having fun showing off his "car" bed to everyone. Grandpa came over for a short visit and tried out his new bed to make sure it was comfortable. I am excited to begin working on preparing the nursery for a new baby as well. I want to add some special new things for the next little one. 

We also enjoyed getting our Christmas decorating done on Thanksgiving weekend. We have lots of tinsel animals we decorate with outside our home, including a river scene with sea animals. Most years we add a new tinsel animal to the scene. The little pug tinsel was added this year.

Indoors, we add lots and lots of extra light strands to our tree to make it extra bright. Liam was so excited to see the tree go up this year, but maybe not as excited as our kitty, Zoey. She goes nuts every year when the Christmas tree goes up. She thinks it is the world's most exciting cat tree. 

For Halloween, Terry had purchased Mario themed costumes for our family. Liam was going to be Luigi, Terry-Mario, and Suzy-Princess Peach. The closer we got to Halloween, Liam kept talking about how he wanted to be a ghost! He loves to read the children’s book, “Boo!” by Leslie Patricelli. The little boy in the story goes trick-or-treating as a ghost. The day before Halloween, Suzy made him a ghost costume! He was very happy and also a very warm trick-or-treater.

We had fun carving a large pumpkin the night before Halloween as well.

On Halloween night, we went trick-or-treating, and enjoyed a little pizza party. We were able to have Suzy’s parents come for a short visit. They like to drop off treats for all their grandkids and see their fun costumes.

October has been a busy month of playing in the leaves and snow. We were also very happy to welcome a new baby cousin named Jessa. Liam was very excited and sweet meeting the new baby. He has just recently realized that he is a “big boy” and he is excited for us to have a little one in our family….Our outing to the hospital was made extra fun, because there was lots of construction going on with busy diggers, dump trucks and even a crane working.

Fall is my absolute favorite season! It was fun to watch Liam run, jump and throw leaves. We also took fun bike rides to the park and played with the cattails. It is a good thing we do not have many allergies, because it was messy.

https://youtube.com/shorts/yLofg_KEfGQ?si=jhmregw70TL8DN7f

We had a wonderful snow right before Halloween, and had fun getting out and playing in it. There is a wonderful small sledding hill just a couple-minutes walk from our house. Liam had a great time sledding and playing with all his neighbor friends.

We took fun a road trip in October to visit the International Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, New Mexico. During the daytime we visited the Albuquerque Aquarium and Gardens. It was a very beautiful day and Liam really enjoyed the little train exhibit that is set up in the garden area.

In the evening, we went to the balloon festival park to see the special shaped balloons get inflated for viewing and fireworks. Unfortunately it was very windy and all the events were cancelled that evening. We still had fun visiting the fair grounds and getting to meet some Star Wars characters. Liam enjoyed running around and collecting little cards from many of the balloon pilots that had a picture of their balloon. Liam was thrilled when some one told him their balloon looked like him. He started laughing and saying “Liam Balloon.”

The next morning we woke up before the sun so that we could make it to see the balloon ascension. Thankfully, the wind was gone in the morning! It was an amazing experience walking through as all the enormous balloons were inflated. Liam was thrilled when he saw the, “Liam Balloon” inflated and rising up in the air.

It is unbelievable how many different types of balloons they have at this one event. It is so fun looking at all the different creative characters.

I love planting a pretty flower garden in our front yard each year. In the fall, I harvest the seeds, and around March, I start all the seeds in little pots in a spare room. I was thankful for a friend who helped care for my baby plants this year while we were away visiting Terry’s grandmother and family in Hong Kong.

Some of my favorite flowers are canna lilies. Once they begin to bloom late in the summer, they continue to send up beautiful flowers all fall. Some years they last until nearly November!

Terry really likes sunflowers, and has been asking me to plant them in the front. I don’t really love sunflowers, but I planted one for him in the front planter. Then a few weeks later I saw a bunch of little sprouts pop up with sunflower shells on their tiny leaves. There were at least six of them planted in a tight bunch right in front of my canna lillies. I asked Terry if he had planted them, but he said he didn’t. The neighbor kids denied planting them as well.

                                 

We finally concluded that a squirrel must have decided to try their hand at gardening. I dug up my canna lilly that was growing behind them and decided to let them grow. They ended up being beautiful and filled our living room with a bright green backdrop as the sunlight passed through their leaves.

I guess my husband and the squirrels do know a little bit about planting a beautiful garden as well. We are waiting for the flower seeds to be ready and we will save some seeds for next years garden. The rest we will give to the squirrels as a snack during the winter months and so they can continue to plant them throughout the neighborhood.

Before Liam joined our family through adoption, Terry and I went through 7 years of hoping to have a baby and grow our family. We lost 4 pregnancies, one each year from 2016 to 2019. It was a very difficult and heavy time emotionally. I had always dreamed of being a mother. Through it, I really clung to the simple verse, in Romans 12:15 “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.”

During those years, many friends and family were celebrating new additions to their family. Even though it was difficult at times, I made the conscious choice not to let the sting of infertility and loss become a barrier to celebrating other women through their joys. I am so glad for the encouragement in this verse. During that time, I was able to truly learn to have joy despite my circumstances and to enjoy building friendships with other women.

Terry and I were fairly open about the struggles we had through those years and that helped me to learn of others who were also facing simmilar struggles more privately. It was good to be able to share those burdens. Infertility really gave me the ability to have more compassion toward others as they faced various hardships.

I am thankful for how this verse helped me to develop good friendships and relationships with others through that time, and I am thankful for the friends who comforted me.

Throughout those years, I often used my talent of cake decorating to make cakes for friends welcoming new little ones. This past month, I was able to throw a shower for a friend who was a comfort and encouragement to me during those years. Another sweet friend and I had fun making decorations and preparing to celebrate. I was able to make a mango cheesecake and a fun baby shower cake.

I know that making the plan to place a baby for adoption is a very difficult and heavy decision. Birth mothers pour an immeasurable amount of love and sacrifice into the little ones they carry. They are their baby’s first mom who loved them during those earliest days of their life. I truly hope the trials I have gone through will help me to show compassion and care toward the birth mother(s) who chooses our family. Although I will never understand what it is like to walk that path, I pray that the hardships I faced will help me to build a loving and compassionate relationship with my child’s birthmother, whatever level of openness she and her loved ones may desires for that relationship. 

The summer has been flying by. After our big trip to Hong Kong in the spring, we have been enjoying more simple things this summer. What a different summer it has been with all the rain. Liam loves water and loves it when I let him play in the rain outside. I enjoyed the rain, but am happy to have the sun return this month and that finally some of my plants are taking off.

The day before Independence Day, we enjoyed a barbeque and a firework show with Suzy’s family. Thankfully, Suzy’s brother lives very close to a great show, so we were able to watch from his porch when the rain started. Liam enjoyed time playing with cousins.

On the 4^th, we pulled out camping chairs and joined many neighbors at the top of our cul-de-sac to shoot off fireworks together. It was a lot of fun since we all joined together there were sooo many fireworks, and the kids had fun being up later with their neighborhood friends.

We have also been enjoying s’mores on our deck, pulling out our inflatable pool, fishing on our mini-pontoon boat,, mini-golf, and gardening.

In 2021, Terry decided to try ice fishing. Initially, I was not very eager to go. I imagined sitting in the cold waiting for an occasional bite, but after going for the first time, I was hooked! It actually stays very warm in the tent and we found a great little lake near Buena Vista, Colorado to go to. The fish are very active there and we were able to catch many rainbow trout.

This year Terry bought a larger ice fishing tent. It is perfect to accommodate our growing family.
In March, we all went together. It was Liam’s first time. I think he is hooked to!
We are excited to continue this fun “outdoor” adventure as our family grows and changes through the years.

Birthdays are special days especially for children! As a mother, I love to make it an exciting day. I plan to have the tradition of making a special cake for my children’s birthdays each year. For Liam’s first birthday, I made a train cake. This year, I tried my hand at a “carved” cake for the first time by making a “Bluey” cake. Liam loves the show “Bluey”, so I knew I had to make it happen! 

We had a fun day celebrating Liam’s 2^nd birthday with his grandparents, Aunt Kelley and a few of his favorite neighborhood friends. His favorite gift was a t-ball set from his grandma and grandpa, I think we have a baseball boy.

Although Terry has some family in Colorado, he still has many family members that live in Hong Kong. One of those special family members is his grandmother who just turned 95 this year. She really wanted to meet her new grandchild,
so we made it a priority to make the trek across the globe to see her.

We had a really special time visiting with aunts, uncles and cousins on Terry’s side of the family. One of our favorite days there was having a barbeque with all the family together.

We enjoyed lots of delicious foods in Hong Kong and amazingly Liam adjusted quite well to the different culture.
After a few days, he was sleeping on the trains as we went across town.

Terry and I were able to visit an old fishing village together one day, and we also enjoyed many family days walking along Victoria Harbor, visiting a children’s science museum and going to Ocean Park (an amusement park with animals and an aquarium).

It was such a joy to see how loved we all are even from such a distance. Family knows no distance.

Liam’s 10 tips for surviving an extra snowy winter!
(Here are some of the ways we have been enjoying life as a family the last few months.)

1. Play in the snow and build a snowman, of course!
   
   
   
2. Go to the Stock Show with Mommy! Pet a Goat!
   
   
   
3. Perfect your foosball game while visiting friends!
   
   
   
   
4. Invite Cousins over and play "keepy uppy" with balloons.
   
   
   
   
5. Visit the aquarium on a cold night when no one else is there.
   
   
   
   
6. Get ready for summer by practicing your swimming indoors.
   
   
   
   
7. Bake banana bread with Mommy, always lick the spoon!
   
   
   
8. Enjoy the mud and jump! Live life to the fullest!
   
   
   
9. Race Daddy at the Arcade!
   
   
   
   
10. Play in an indoor sandbox.
    

….and keep wearing your sunglasses! Have faith that it will be summer again soon!

We were thankful to be able to spend Christmas Eve with Suzy’s family this year, and enjoy Christmas Eve traditions. (Last year we were sick and couldn’t get together.) Every Christmas Eve, Suzy’s family has yummy steak tacos for dinner, Terry has officially become in charge of the meat since he makes it the best! After we eat, we enjoy time as a family exchanging gifts.

Liam loved having time with cousins and really got into the gift opening this year. We always remember not to leave out my parent’s dog Ollie. She loves receiving gifts every year and it is hilarious to watch how protective she immediately becomes of her new toy!

Christmas day we enjoyed a Christmas service and then time as a family. Liam enjoyed making his first Ginger Bread House! Mainly we raced to put it together while he grabbed all the candy and stuffed it in his mouth. It was a fun time.

When Terry gets together with family, there is always a few evenings of Mahjong. Mahjong is a traditional Chinese game using tiles and numbers sets. It is actually a gambling game, but it is fun to play with family for few dollars and build fun memories. Terry’s mom learned to play Mahjong from her dad when she was young and taught Terry and his brother to play. Liam loved watching everyone play and ran around the house with an extra blank tile he had been handed.

We really enjoyed the Christmas season this year, starting with putting up our decorations embarrassingly early. Our Christmas tree and outdoor decorations went up the weekend after Halloween so we could allow Terry’s parents to enjoy the decorations during their visit. They went up so early that a neighbor a few doors down went out and bought a giant inflatable turkey for their front yard to make a statement against pre-Thanksgiving Christmas décor.

We added on to our Christmas light display this year, by stringing blue lights to make a river scene down the side of our yard. Suzy made some miniature trees using tomato cages, lights, Christmas bulbs and bows. They looked really nice along the river scene.

We had fun visiting Santa and getting a picture at Bass Pro Shops,
Liam enjoyed exploring the store and especially seeing all the fish.

Before Terry’s parents left in early December we had fun visiting Charlie Brown Ice, an amazing ice sculpture display all carved to look like Charlie Brown Christmas. The sculptures were amazing!
Liam loved going down the ice slide, and He looked just like a little penguin walking around in his oversized parka.

Fall is my favorite season, and this year the autumn colors have been especially beautiful and long-lasting.
We have been enjoying lots of time outdoors this season.

One of the best things this season has been a visit from Terry’s parents. It has been so fun having them close by and enjoying activities with them this fall. We were able to spend a fun evening at Anderson Farms together, and both sets of grandparents visited on Halloween night to see Liam dressed up. Terry went as the Kool Aid man and Liam went as his little cherry Kool Aid packet (a costume made by Suzy).
Their costumes even won the costume contest at Terry’s office! Oh Yeah!


                 

We also have enjoyed craft fairs with cousins, a trunk-or-treat evening, and pumpkin carving.
We are thankful for the blessing of family and the beauty God gives in the fall. 

Terry LOVES to spoil Liam!
There is often a package at the door, and I find out Terry has ordered more clothes or toys for Liam while he was at work.
He has so much fun being a daddy.

Recently, Terry informed me that he ordered Liam a bright red Lamborghini! He couldn’t stop there though.
He ordered him a license plate with his name on it and then purchased LED light strips to make underbody lights for Liam’s new car.

Liam loves his new car and is getting lots of attention from the neighbor kids with it.

I am the frugal parent. I find Liam free toys listed on Nextdoor.
I recently found him a fun large slide for FREE. He and the neighbor girls also love to play on the slide.

Terry loves being the “cool” parent.
One day he told me we are like a team in our parenting,
“I am the guy who dunks the ball, and you’re like the referee.” Haha thanks.

We are looking forward to adding more fun to our home with the next little one
and continuing many more years of “cool” packages arriving from Terry and me searching for good deals.

 
Summer 2022!

This is our first blog post since getting back on the list of waiting adoptive families!
We are so excited to share a bit of our life with you as we wait...

Our son, Liam, turned one this past April. He is growing every day and it has been so fun watching him learn and explore the world this summer. He is an extremely social kid, which has been a wonderful contrast to our more quiet personalities. He helps us get out more and we have been able to get to know many of our neighbors better this summer.

Liam loves to play with our next-door neighbors’ daughters. Every night it is hard to get him to eat dinner, because he thinks it is time to play outside. They have had so much fun together this summer: running around the yards, playing in our inflatable pool (Terry spoils Liam!), and visiting the Englewood farm and train.

As a family, we had fun taking a trip to Colorado Springs for a few nights. We visited the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and took Liam to his first movie, “The Bad Guys”. We have enjoyed way too many family s’more nights, arcade visits, gardening, and fun evenings with the cousins tackling grandpa.

In February, we enjoyed celebrating Valentines Day and Chinese New Years. We both worked Valentines Day so we kept it simple and exchanged little gifts and candies in the evening. Later in the week, we took a small weekend trip to
Mount Princeton Hot Springs. It was snowing, but the hot springs were amazingly warm.
You had to run through the snow though to get in and out of the warm water.

For Chinese New Years, we went out to dinner at a local Hot Pot Restaurant. Hot Pot is a delicious broth that you boil different vegetables and meats in to cook. We were able to send red envelopes with cash in them to our nieces and nephews. This is a traditional gift that the older generation gives to the younger generation on Chinese New Years.

I can’t believe the little girl I have been caring for as a home care nurse turned 6 this year.
I have been helping care for her in her home since she was 7 months old. We had fun going to her unicorn birthday party.
She is so excited to be 6, but I keep telling her, "You are not allowed to be 6!"

We had fun trying something new this week. We went to Buena Vista and went ice fishing. It was a lot of fun and it stayed really warm in the ice shelter. Best of all we were able to catch some fish! Terry bribed me into going by telling me there would be nachos. Haha. I ended up having fun even though I was a little hesitant at first.

My dad joined us, and it was nice to be able to enjoy some time away in the mountains. -Suzy

(Pictures: Us with our niece Linette, Playing games with my sister and cousin, and Terry with my parent's dog Ollie)

We were so thankful to have a couple of small family gatherings over the holidays. Terry and I had a long weekend for both Thanksgiving and Christmas week. During Thanksgiving week we were able to get up all our Christmas decorations up early. We went to Suzy’s parents' home and enjoyed a nice meal and some games with family.


(Christmas Decorating)

During Christmas week, we celebrated with Suzy's family on Christmas eve. We have steak tacos every Christmas eve as a tradition at Suzy's parents' home. Then we have a gift exchange. Suzy’s brother has 3 babies and it is so much fun watching our neice and nephews light up when they open their gifts.


(Pictures: Terry with my parent's dog again; Suzy's sister, Kelley, nephews, and sister-in-law, Kelli; Suzy's dad, Chris with niece, Linette)

Terry was able to have a nice phone call with his family during the break. His parent’s and brother are living in Hong Kong. We miss them being close, but Terry keeps up with his family every week. We were able to bring some fun gifts to his cousins family and kids that live in town for Christmas.

Suzy was able to finish this baby mobile during the time we took off over Christmas week....The little characters are able to be changed out if needed. Suzy is trying to make the decorating gender-neutral since we do not know if a baby girl or baby boy will be enjoying this room one day, but she may change out some of the decor or blanket depending on if a baby boy or baby girl enjoys the room. We still need to get some pictures up on the wall and curtains up.

Suzy has been working on a few baby room projects recently. She found a kids table someone was giving away for free. The finish was a little messy when she found it, but she had fun sanding it down, staining it, and painting it.

Later she bought some spice rack bookshelves from Ikea and refinished them to match the table!

She is also working on making a baby mobile by crocheting little bumble bees to hang above the crib on a spinning musical mobile.

Terry has always wanted an arcade cabinet and his friend in Minnesota has been making them recently.
He ordered one, but unfortunately during shipping the stickers on the machine bubbled up and started to peel off.

We decided to remove the stickers and paint it instead. I had fun helping Terry by sanding down the cabinet with wood filler,
and then painted it. Terry’s friend sent us new stickers to decorate with,
and we had fun making a big mess in our basement as we cutout and redid the stickers.

                 

It looks really great now that it is done. My dad came by and had fun trying out all the old games with Terry.

   

Happy Fall !

Fall seems to be the most normal part of this year so far. It is so comforting to get out pumpkins and leaves to decorate the house for the changing season. I got out our dancing Halloween mummy, but Zoey didn’t seem to be too “thrilled” about it.

                   

Terry and I enjoyed a day off and took a fall hike at Roxborough State Park. The red rocks were so pretty against the fall colors.

Terry ordered a new costume online this year, a triceratops! It’s a little large for inside, but we are excited to surprise kids with it on Halloween, and take it to show my nephews. He already had the t-rex costume so it was a fun addition to our collection of Halloween costumes.

We celebrated our 10-year anniversary this year! To celebrate we took a family cruise to Alaska. We made lots of fun family memories.

We enjoyed taking boats out to go whale watching, visiting sled dogs, seeing the Salmon run, and enjoying lots of good food. Liam loved coming back to our room every night to find new towel animals that were left in our room by the wonderful housekeeper who cared for our room.