On Waiting and Expecting

On the first Sunday of Advent our pastor, Monsignor Dan, compared Advent to pregnancy. He said it's a joyful anticipation for what's to come. I imagine that's true for most couples. But not so much for us. It took us a long time to get pregnant, and then it wasn't an easy pregnancy so it was full of anxiety and fear.

Now we are on the amazing road of adoption. We feel the Lord has called us on this journey. But like many stories of people in Scripture, we are compelled to wait. We long to be connected with our next child and birth family. So we wait.

Today we read Fr. Robert Barron's Advent reflection, and it gave us hope. He talked about how Abraham received a promise from God that, despite his old age, he would have a son. But then he had to wait. 

A long time.

Like us. 

Did he ever question that he heard God wrong? Did his faith ever waver? Probably. But he waited, and in time the promise came true.

"The season of Advent reminds us that God sometimes completes his will only after a long period of time. So, like Abraham, we wait."

Please pray for us while we wait.

Fundazeering

My uncle’s family coined the term, fundazeering. It’s the excitement of planning and anticipating an upcoming vacation. We feel it every. time.

In fact, we relish it. Almost as much as the vacation itself. And sometimes it’s even better than the actual vacation because you can dream the perfect vacation but we all know everything often doesn’t go as planned in real life.

Advent is pretty similar to Fundazeering. Advent brings out the sense of waiting, expecting, hoping and anticipating. And then I started to realize that our whole earthly existence is characterized by these attitudes.

We want such and such toy, a new electronic gadget, to meet the “one” man/woman, to have a perfect wedding, to have a child, to get a new, bigger car, to have a memorable vacation. The list goes on and on.

But we all know that nothing ever really satisfies us. We always want more. No matter how much we love, we want greater love. No matter how many beautiful places we’ve seen, we imagine there are even more beautiful places.

Often during Advent we get caught up in the fundazeering. Wish lists, visiting Santa, baking cookies, decorating, wrapping, shop here, visit there, did you bring the appetizer? They are all good things. Fun, memorable things. But they never truly satisfy us.

“O come, O come, Emmanuel”

May your Advent be marked by a true sense of hope in Jesus.

Our Disney Cruise Vacation 2014

Mickey Mouse Pop Bathroom!

We decided it was time to update the kid's bathroom upstairs. When we moved in we didn't paint, and just used the shower curtain and accessories from Amy's condo. Needless to say it was white and flowery... not at all looking like a kid's bathroom.

The old shower curtain and white walls

We talked to Sean about what he might like, and Amy suggested Mickey Mouse. He thought that was a great idea, and asked if we could start on it right away. We jumped on laptop and started browsing Pinterest and Google Images to get some ideas. The majority of Mickey Mouse bathrooms are red, black, grey and white -- which can be very cool, but we all agreed the bathroom needed a pop of color.

Sean painting the primer

And then we saw this Mickey Mouse Pop shower curtain on Walmart.com and the creative ideas started flowing. The big decision was the wall color. We were thinking a shade of green or maybe blue, and probably a light shade. But when we ended up at Lowe's with the shower curtain in hand we all decided on Sonic Lime by Valspar. And wow, it's bright! But everyone loves it.

The bath rug is from Target.com and fits perfectly in the room. The Mickey icon hand towel we picked up at Disneystore.com and were able to use rewards from our Disney Visa to purchase it. Bonus!

The hand soap is from Method and can be found at Target stores or online at Target.com. The Mickey Mouse toothbrush holder is from Disneystore.com -- another rewards purchase. Ka-ching! The dixie cup holder is the the regular one you can buy anywhere, and we added the sticker from the wall decals. You can see the mickey shadow on the mirror too.

We were excited to be able to display our small collection of Vinylmation we have gotten from both DisneyWorld and Disneyland. And they fit perfectly on the KLÄDE knob rack from IKEA. We also added the few POP! figures Sean has received on the top of the toilet!

And finally, the last thing to be added on the wall was this Mickey Mouse typography wall decal. We had to wait three weeks after we painted to add this guy, so we're excited to see him finally added to the room.

We still have a few more things we want to add to the room including plantation shutters on the window to replace the vinyl mini-blinds. And we are also searching for a white tissue box holder. We're planning on bringing it with us on our Disney cruise this Fall along with multi-colored Sharpies to have all of the characters on board sign it. Can't wait to see how that turns out!

*** The links included are for your convenience. We're not getting paid in any way for referring you to these websites! ***

Jeff and Amy Hope to Adopt :: Adoption profile video - Our life in six minutes

Hello, and welcome to our family! We're Jeff and Amy, and we are excited and thankful that you are taking the time to get to know us. We are a Chicago area couple hoping to grow our family through the miracle of open adoption.

We would like to get to know you! Grab a cup of coffee, get comfortable, and watch our video. Then browse through our facebook page to find our what's happening in our lives right now at facebook.com/jeffandamyadopt. Then pop on over to our web profile at JeffandAmyAdopt.com to learn more. We hope these photos + words give you a glimpse of who we are as a couple, individuals, and a family. We pray they speak to your heart. If and when they do, please reach out to us through our agency. We would love to get to know you!

Angel Adoption 24/7 confidential hotline: 1-888-378-1112
email: sue@angeladoptioninc.com



Jeff and Amy Adoption Profile Video from Jeff and Amy on Vimeo.

Jeff and Amy Hope to Adopt - A Week in Our Life

We documented a week of our life through photos. A quick glimpse into our everyday and REAL lives. A big thank you and shout out to Sean's Kindergarten teacher who snapped photos in the classroom for us. 

Check out our adoption profile video as well.

We're a Chicago area couple hoping to grow our family through the miracle of open adoption. If you or anyone you know is considering an adoption plan, please reach out to us through our agency. We would love to get to know you!


 
Jeff & Amy - A Week in Our Life from Jeff and Amy on Vimeo.

Winnie the Pooh party

Amy loves planning parties for two reasons: 1) the creative outlet and 2) there's nothing better than getting together with friends and family. This is an overview of the party she planned for Sean's 4th birthday.

The big Winnie the Pooh party! Ever since Halloween Sean talked about several different party themes. The front runners were Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Star Wars and Winnie the Pooh. I thought for sure he would settle on Star Wars, but nope... the classic won! Needless to say I was thrilled. What momma doesn't want her 4 year old boy not to grow up?

 

We went cheap on the invites, and sent them via email. I found some cool graphics on Google Images that were posters for the Winnie the Pooh movie (2011), and dropped in the wording in the middle. Love it.

 

And what was so cool about this party is we have SO MUCH Winnie the Pooh stuff in our house. Sean has honestly loved Pooh & his friends his whole short life. He now owns all of the Pooh characters in plush (thank you Grandma Shelly for Kanga! She was the last one we were missing). And he's collected all of the Pooh pez. And I didn't even capture all of the little plastic Pooh characters we had thrown about the house.

Our bathroom was transformed into Pooh's "Thotful Spot". The framed photos are in our bathroom, and normally feature black & white photos from Ireland. Instead, I downloaded scenes from the Winnie the Pooh movie from Google Images, printed them out and placed them in the frames. I love them so much I think they are going to stay for a while.

The front door featured a faux wooden sign pointing in the direction of the "100 Aker Wood", and I transformed our family room into the Hundred Acre Wood. The trees were quickly created from a big roll of painter's craft paper, and a couple sheets of green poster board. We did have to put one staple into each tree to keep it from falling. Painters tape just wouldn't do the trick. The banner was homemade, and I love how it fit perfectly between the trees just like the banners do on Winnie the Pooh (honestly did not measure! God was kind to me). The pictures on the wall above the banner are normally snapshots I've taken, but again I downloaded movie posters and added some of my favorite Winnie the Pooh quotes. I also printed photos of Sean with Winnie the Pooh & friends down at Walt Disney World. He has met them in person on several occasions, so it was only fitting.

 

The week before his party I worked a little bit every day getting everything prepared and cleaned. It really went so smoothly, and everything literally fell into place. That is until the night before the party and I settled in to make these cake pops. I was originally going to make these Pooh ones, and glad I didn't because I would have certainly hurt someone in the process. I decided on these bee cake pops I found through Pinterest. Yes, they are super cute. And yes, they were super yummy (I ate at least half of them myself). But honestly, just like his dinosaur cake last year -- they were a pain in the neck! At least half of them were ruined because they fell off the stick as I was coating them in the candy. I made Jeff promise to stop me from trying to make these again. Never. Again.

 

The treat bags were a cinch. Brown craft gift bags, and I printed out another movie poster and added each kid's name. My Godson Luke is modeling the Pooh ears I picked up from Party City. And the kids loved playing pin the tail on Eyeore. This was a download from the Family Fun website.

The plush birthday Winnie the Pooh is actually Luke & Mackenzie's. Grammy/Grampy & Jeff and I bought this for them for their first birthday down in Walt Disney World. The perfect centerpiece to the food table.

I got a number of appetizer ideas off Pinterest, including Piglets in a blanket, Veggies from Rabbit's Garden, and Tigger's Tail Mix. They were a huge hit! Sean's cake is hard to see in this photo, but it is uber adorable. No, I didn't make it (remember, I promised I never would again!). It's from the Jewel, and I can't get over how perfect it was!

The best part of the day? All our family & friends. This is me and my mom & sibs... from left to right: John, me, Mom, Mike & Kari.



Hannah didn't disappoint on the cute factor!



Sean wasn't too thrilled about taking photos with everyone. He is a horrible model right now.
Starting at the top, going left to right: Uncle Mikey...Aunt Sue & Uncle Frank...Aunt Kari & Hannah (Kevin is missing!), Second Row: Grammy & Grammy...Grandma Shelly...Uncle Todd & Aunt Kim
Third Row: Christopher... Drake (Sean's friend), Reed & Christine... Uncle Johnny, Marisa & Corey.



Big Greninger Family... Kevin is in this picture! And yes, I am wearing a Tigger shirt. Sean wore a Piglet shirt, and Jeff was Pooh!





Big Hipelius Family



The day was magical. Truly. Honestly. Everything came together without an ounce of stress, and Sean loved it all. My little boy is four years old. Hard to believe.

“If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you.” -- Winnie the Pooh