Fall is Here!

After a long, warm summer, Friday evening brought stormy gray skies and the wonderful smell of damp earth and rain. I absolutely love the fall, so the abrubt change was a delightful surprise. September, October, and November are my favorite months of the year; I love the coziness of the weather, the pumpkins, the way the world becomes a palette of hues of golds and reds, and how homes and stores begin to smell of cinnamon, apples, and spice. I love wearing skirts and tights, finally having a justifiable need for coffee or tea throughout the day, and a good reason to bake seasonal breads... and eat them. Oh, there is so much to love about fall!

Classes begin today. I have several first-year Spanish classes this term, and although I enjoy teaching the advanced grammar and linguistics of second-year Spanish, there are benefits to having trainable, malleable students who are new to foreign-language learning.

In addition to new classes, Robert and I are preparing our home and hearts for a very new life this year! Our caseworker has completed two of our three required homestudies, and we hope to have the final walk-through this week. Then, she has to write a report, have her supervisor authorize it, and we will be officially certified as foster parents. It could all happen as early as the end of September, so we could very likely have a child (or two) in our home by October. We now have two bedrooms prepared for little ones; a nursery for babies, and a bunk-room for older kids. We have decided to be open to taking children 8 and younger, although surprisingly, our caseworker told us they are having a difficult time finding homes for babies and young children right now (most likely due to families being unable to afford child care if both parents are working). So while we may end up with a couple of school-aged kids, it's also very likely we'll end up with a newborn or two. Please pray that we will make the transition into instant parenthood as gracefully as possible, and that whatever children are placed with us will adjust to our home, our schedules, and most importantly to living with a new family.

Ben and Mary

Me and Mary

Mary and Ben

Getting ready to ride the tube

Ben and Mary on the tube

Me and Mary on the boat

A funny picture of Ben, Mary, and my dad

Awww

A whole new meaning to "wind-blown"

Mary enjoying her favorite pale ale on tap at Deschutes Brewery

Ben's excited about beer!

The girls at Nancy P's Bakery

Ben, Mary, and Amber almost to the top of Smith Rock

Uncle Bob and Chase - in matching orange shirts:)

Holly and Jack

Trevor, Bethany and Jack at the summit

Mary on the way down

Monkey Face

Cooling off in the river

Ben and Mary came to visit for a few days and we tried to pack in as much Central Oregon fun as possible! They arrived Thursday evening - after hitting a piece of metal, getting a flat tire, and hanging out in the middle of nowhere for 2 hours waiting for a tow truck. On Friday we went to Lake Billy Chinook with my dad and he took us out on his new boat, Draggin' Flies. Dad pulled us on their "tube" behind the boat and did his best to fling us off. We each took a few rides and the final ride (Mary/me) was pretty intense! Dad pulled us for about 30 minutes (with Ben keeping a careful eye on us in case we flew off), and kept going faster and faster. By the end it was like trying to stay on a bucking bronco, but Mary and I held our own and never came off! Saturday we hiked Smith Rock (about 4.5 miles) with friends from church. It was a gorgeous day, although a little too hot and sunny at the beginning of the hike! I nearly fainted on the way up, but on the way down the backside of the mountain we were mostly in the shade and found a nice river to jump into to cool off. Sunday Ben and Mary joined us at church and Mary and I played a harmonica / violin duet. Our time with the Giudices is never long enough, but we sure enjoy our time with them and look forward to our next visit!

A Weekend with Amber and Chase

Chase and his Mama

Robert enjoying the scenery

Three Creeks Lake

Kai and Sadie playing in the water

Amber and Me

Uncle Bob, Chase, and all the doggies

Chase, pre-lemon face

Chase, post-lemon face

Our dear friend Amber discovered a gorgeous lake just West of Sisters and invited us to spend the day there with her and baby Chase. Amber brought her adorable little pit bull, Sadie, and she was also babysitting Cassy (a very sweet Golden Retreiver), and with Kai we had a car-full of wet, stinky dogs! After our trip to Three Creeks Lake Amber came over to hang out and watch movies. She spent the night and we got to hang out all day Sunday as well. Here are some pictures from our fun-filled weekend, and even thought it looks like we were torturing Chase with lemons, he actually LOVES them and kept sucking on the slice until it was just peel!

Waiting for them...

The left side of the "kid's room"

The right side of the "kid's room"

Robert and I have made the decision to be foster parents with the intention to eventually adopt. What this means is rather than applying to adopt children who have already been in foster homes and who are now "legally free" for adoption, we are going to be a foster home for children who may (or may not) end up available to be adopted. There are several reasons we have chosen to go this route. The first reason is that we thought we could do both (foster parent and be on the list to adopt as a general applicant), but were informed that we could only do one or the other. The second reason is since the children we will be adopting are usually not infants and have special emotional needs, they prefer to adopt children out to parents with experience with these types of children - most of which can be gained from caring for other children with special needs by foster parenting. The third reason for foster parenting is that should we have a child in our home for 6 months, and should that child come up for adoption, we would be given the first chance to adopt that child (given no other biological family members show up to adopt them). And our final reason for choosing foster parenting is we want to help as many children as we can whether we have them for one week, one month, one year, or forever! I spoke with our caseworker last week, and she is hoping to do our home study by the end of this week - although they are currently short a person and way overloaded so please pray they will find time to fit us in! Once our homestudy has been completed, they could place a child (or children) with us at any time! Since we don't know if we will be receiving a baby or a school-aged child, we have tried to prepare a room that will be ready for any age! We already had some baby stuff that had been given to us from friends, and this weekend we bought bunkbeds! Now we just have to be patient while we wait for God to bring us some little ones...

The "Damsons"

Uncle Robert and the boys

Garrett doesn't look too sure about this.

One of three attempts to ride sans training wheels:)

Bowling is way better!

Uncle Robert showing Donovan his moves

Donovan and Garrett (my step-brother Mike's boys) were able to come visit grandma and grandpa for a whole month this summer and we enjoyed getting to spend some time with them too! We tried to teach Garrett how to ride his bike without training wheels, but he said it was "boring" and that he just wanted to go to our house and play with our cats:) So after playing with all the animals, we went bowling and spent a few hours in a used bookstore - smart kids:) They are very sweet boys and we enjoyed our time with them.