Life Is GOOD!

Grammy bought Darby the cutest little "Life is Good" romper. So supercute, and it was warm enough (barely) for her to wear it the other day. The front looks like this. Darby was hamming it up during our little photo shoot here. See? Cute, huh! It says, "Buttercup"!

And, check the back out! In case you can't really see that, it says, "Life is Good"! So, it's supercute, as you can see. But, later in the day, as I was changing a 'Tinky Poo, I wondered, "Was this some sick joke?" Who would put "Life is Good" on the bottom?! Whoever designed this obviously is not in the diaper changing stage of life! Because when you're in the middle of changing a 'Tinky Poo, Life isn't so good! But, when you consider that they wrote "Life IS Good," and not "Life SMELLS Good," I can understand where they're coming from.

And, really, with our fiesty little redhead, Life IS good!

Small Setback

Hi Friends!

We had a minor setback to our adoption process this week. Our Immigration paperwork was all sent back to us because of the letter "A." It took me 20 minutes on the phone with our adoption agency before we figured out that I mistakenly printed out the first page of the I-600 and the 2nd and 3rd pages of the I-600A. Sounds like a minor mistake, AND, for the record, the first two pages are almost identical (except for the letter "A," of course). But to our detail oriented government, and thankfully so, there are no "almost okays"...only perfection! Glad that THEY know what they're doing, because I obviously DO NOT!

SO! I retyped our cover letter explaining my mistake (A very humbling thing to do. Normally, you can call someone, or tell them to their face, but when you have to type out a letter telling someone that you are a dummy, that's a whole 'nother thing!). Then, I had to make copies of the "official notices" of the plethera of mistakes I made in this application. Then, I had to remove all the pages in the document that said, "MISSING PAGE!" and our previous application. Finally, I had to re-print and re-fill out the I-600A. After all that was said and done, then I called USCIS to make sure I was doing everything correctly this time. After I was reassured that I did everything right, I went to the post office and forked out the $18 more dollars to RE-overnight this packet to Immigration.

The good news? We were given this "GREEN PAGE" to put on top of the document. This green page is a notice to process all the dummies with special care and attention! Actually, I think it expedites it slightly, although I don't know WHY they would do that. It was totally my fault, so why would they put mine in front of someone who actually did it right the first time?!

How far did this set us back? Time will tell, but from the time that I overnighted our first attempt to the time I received the packet back from USCIS was 7 days, so I'm hoping the green page will work it's "magic!"

The Big Apple-Leann style!

I was recently blessed to be able to spend two days with my dear friend, Leann. She was one of "my Young Life girls" until she graduated last year, and now I call her "friend." I'm so proud of her! She is a wonderfully amazing dancer, and she's studying dance in New York City now. I miss her friendship and her childlike faith terribly, and I am amazed at how much she's growing as a person and as my sister in Christ now that she's not tucked safely under my wing! I just love this girl to death!

I took Leann and her roommate to my favorite Italian restaurant in Little Italy, La Mela, where we chowed down. Leann and I then mad rushed to The Met and oogled over the famous artwork we saw! The next morning, I was so excited to worship with Leann at her new church home, C3 Manhattan! WHAT AN EXPERIENCE! God's Church was alive in New York City-right in the New York Times building! Listening to their Australian pastor was such a sweet treat for me! He preached from the book of Matthew (Matthew's theme being how Jesus was KING and LORD!). A little peek into the sermon from Matthew 7:21-23 reminds us of how God defines salvation: 1) We must recognize Jesus is LORD! He is KING! And we must, therefore, allow him to be LORD and KING in our lives. That's not all! 2) We must do the WILL of God to enter the Kingdom of Heaven! And, 3) We must have a friendship with Jesus! Check out how, in vs 23, Jesus would say to them, "I never knew you." HE-LORD AND KING-wants to KNOW---US! Team that message up with hearing "BRILLIANT and ELECTRIC" with this oh so Australian accent and some MAGNIFYING worship, and you get where I'm coming from! So, to put the LORD in the place where He belongs, a place HIGH UP, a place where we can ESTEEM HIM and MAGNIFY His name! To put Him in a place where we will bow down in worship and humble ourselves before Him, is His very desire!

After church, Leann and I went to Alice's Teacup! (Big, very serious pause) Next time you are in New York City. DO! NOT! LEAVE! without eating here! Teatime with Leann was so great! And, the scones, cookies, cake and tea were so VERY, VERY delicious! I took a bit of a cookie, and pondered to myself that "This must be a magic cookie straight out of Alice and Wonderland" before I gave Leann "The look." The "I could never eat anything for the rest of my life just to savor this flavor" look. And, just to top off the cookies, when I tasted the cake, I actually got goosebumps! HAHA!

After teatime, we went to The Cathedral of St. John the Apostle. Amazing. The outside of the cathedral was beautiful. No detail was left undone. I was touched when I saw this detail in one of the pillars outside. I can hardly believe it's been almost 10 years. It was a very somber reminder that I was in NYC. After spending some time outside marveling over the details of the cathedral, we entered to the angelic voices of a children's choir preparing for mass. My breath was taken away. The inside of this structure was nothing short of magnificent! I wanted to drop to my knees in worship. I felt SO small inside this building that must have had 50 foot ceilings or better. Every detail was amazing! And, I thought back on the sermon we had just heard...it all came together! God is even bigger than that cathedral, and the power and majestic-ness inside that cathedral was a drop in the BUCKET compared to the power and majesty of MY KING! Here are a few more pictures from inside the cathedral

If you walk around the cathedral to the back, there is a quiet garden (yes---it's quiet! In the middle of the city!) with PEACOCKS! What a fun suprise!

After spending time in the garden, we meandered through Central Park chatting on our way back to pick my stuff up, and the time I had with her was over. I used to see this girl three times a week (or more), so my 24 hours with her were not enough, but it was precious! Thank you, sweet Leann, for hosting me and showing me YOUR New York City! I can't wait to come back for another taste of Wonderland! :)