San Juans 2008

Our nightly view - not too shabby, eh?

The Champagne Lady at Reid Harbor

Potty time for Miss Molly!

Victoria, Canada

Dingy ride!

On a walk in Victoria

Sushi birthday lunch


Walking the docks at Friday Harbor

Popeye the Seal

Kai the "Sea Dog"

Gene and Penny at Friday Harbor

The Benningtons at the IMAX theatre

Gene the faithful dog-pooper (taking the doggies to shore)

Holly with the captain

Anchored at Reid Harbor

Kai ready to get back on boat

I made him do it:)

Beautiful San Juan Skies

Our Boat Doggie

Well we have returned home from yet another glorious time aboard the Champagne Lady! We set sail (well, it doesn't actually have sails but you get the drift...) June 19th (Penny's birthday) and travelled through the San Juan Islands and up into Canada spending two nights in Victoria for my 25th birthday. We spent about half the nights anchored in little quiet coves and the other half of the nights at docks (where we could shop and eat out!). We took many rides in the dingy - Kai loves resting his big head on the side and getting the wind in his face:) Although we didn't see any whales this trip, we did see some porpoises and made friends with Popeye the Seal at Friday Harbor (he's a long-time resident and they even have a statue of him there!) The weather was a little brisk the first few days but it continued to get warmer and sunnier throughout the trip and the skies at night were absolutely stunning!

Girl's Night!!!

Catherine enjoying some cheese

Gretchen, Jodi, and baby Tom

The spread:)

A pretty funny picture of Amber and me

Lindsey's "cat page" - and a little bit of chocolate truffles in her teeth:)

"Bob" the Babysitter and Chase

The Girls

On Saturday night, a few of the wonderful ladies from our Bible Study came over for a girl's night at Casa Bennington. Since Trader Joe's just opened here in Bend we decided it would be fun if everyone brought a different type of cheese so we could sample as many as possible. After some nibbling, my wonderful friends helped me make an album for our adoption file (while my sweet husband watched Chase -Amber's baby- and changed his first poopy diaper:)). I was feeling pretty overwhelmed about having to create an album that represents "us", but with help from 5 very creative women, we started and nearly finished the entire thing in just one evening! I cannot believe how beautiful it came out - I feel truly thankful for all of their help. I still have a few more pages to add (once I get the photos I need), but it's about 90% done which is one more step out of the way in the adoption process! We still haven't heard about when we'll be able to start the home-study, but I'm going to give our adoption worker a call tomorrow... and I'll let you know! More photos (of the photo album) to come soon!

Balloons Over Bend

My favorite balloon

Balloons over... OUR HOUSE!


Passing by...


Robert enjoying the event

Every June the city of Bend inaugurates summer by launching hot air balloons from Jewell Elementary School - right around the corner from us! Robert was up early this morning to head off to Bible Study, heard a strange sound, and went outside to find eight balloons directly over our house! He woke me up and we spent the 6:00-hour observing these giant colorful masses floating through the still blue Central Oregon sky. Our street was silent except for the loud "whooshing" sound of the gas burners used to lift the balloons. The crisp, cool weather seemed made for such an event... and it was pretty incredible to see!

Adoption

At the Department of Human Services Building

Turning in our paperwork

Yay! We've officially begun the adoption process!

As some of you already know, Robert and I haved decided to adopt a child (or sibling group) through the State of Oregon. Back in November we started a series of classes on Foster Parenting and Adoption through the Department of Human Services to learn more about children in need in our community. We let a few months go by as we thought and prayed about it, and although we had initially been leaning more towards Foster Parenting, the Lord has really turned our hearts towards adoption. Because we hope to have a few biological children as well, and will be able to experience infants, we are open to adopting older children (0-5 years). These children are not your typical adoptable babies; they are children who have been taken out of their homes due to abuse or neglect (or both) and have been living in foster homes while their parents are given the chance to either change their behavior or lose their rights to the child. We know it will not be easy to raise a child with such emotional needs, but we also know that the Lord will give us the strength we need to carry out His calling to love the "fatherless" for we too have been adopted into the family of God! We have finished all required classes and 90+ pages of paperwork, and hope to begin the home-study process in the next few weeks. Please keep us in your prayers as we go through this process; that it will be timely and that the Lord will lead us and the judge to the right child/children for our family.

Smith Rock

On Friday we hiked Smith Rock with some friends from church and had so much fun! It was a 3.5 mile hike and we ate dinner on the summit. We took Kai and he had a blast with Aspen (black lab) and Sage (yellow lab puppy). It was an absolutely gorgeous day and we had such a great time visiting and fellowshipping with our friends. The group plans to do this hike every Friday this summer and we're going to do it with them as much as we can! And as accident-prone as I am, I'm happy to report that my only "injuries" were four gnarly blisters from my shoes rubbing the wrong way on our descent:) I took our camera hoping to capture the breath-taking views, but realized, uppon arrival at our destination, that the battery was completely drained. So the photos above are "borrowed" - and I'll try to get some of my own next time!