Our April Birthdays!

Anna has counted down the days to her birthday!

She has been very excited to turn 8 yrs old!

She has been home for almost 7 years (in August)- the time has flown by…

Oh my goodness, what a treasure she is… what a treasure they all are!

And it was so nice to see our older boys- they have been very busy so we have not had much time with them lately.

The little boys are all over the big boys- as if they were jungle gyms!

Mark and Anna are our April Birthdays!

Anns was so excited to get her very first American girl doll!

She chose Isabelle!

Now all the girls have an American Girl doll!

Anna was the last one to get hers!

Mark got lots of special drawings!

Some were stapled, some were taped and others were glued securely shut!

It makes it challenging to open!

Good job Sammy!

And as an added bonus Mark got a shoulder rub!

The children had to run outside to see Anna's last present!

It was a very exciting moment!

Plus it was 60 degrees out a little earlier so they ran outside without their shoes on!

We are so ready for SPRING!

She is thrilled with her new bike!

Happy Birthday Anna and Mark (and Isabelle)!

What a crew this is!

We are BIG, we are loud and we are energetic!

Well, at least they are ;-)

Happy Birthday to YOU! 

No, YOU!

Thankfully there is no audio on these posts!

We will never be a singing group!

And she blew out all but one!

I guess she has a boyfriend that we don't know about!

Our birthday parties are very busy- when we are done the hubby and I are exhausted!

BUT, we always have a ton of fun!

Goodnight Anna and Isabelle!

Sweet dreams!

Can You Help?

God news! Cullen from my sidebar has a family!

They are well on their way to bringing this dear boy home!

We are so very happy that he will know the love of a family, learn about Jesus and have his medical needs met!

Praising GOD!

Sadly, dear Hunter (on my sidebar) did not get a family in time and he will age out this month.

It weighs heavy on my heart… we met him and he was so polite and such a nice boy. 

Praying for him and for his life in China.

I got an email from  a fellow Lifeline family asking to spread the word about their fundraiser!

Kirstin and her family are bringing home this dear child!

Her name will be Lucy Joy!

Beautiful name!

She is 8 yrs old and she is waiting for her forever family in China!

This is from their family blog-

So, today we are inviting you to be another piece of this puzzle! In fact, today we are inviting all of you to place some of the actual pieces in the puzzle that is bringing Lucy Joy home!

With the help of our wonderful brother-in-law, Bill Armstrong (who took the photograph below on a recent trip to China), we have had a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle created that we titled:

“Coming Home.”

         The village pictured is Xizhou (pronounced she-joe) in Yunnan Province near the city of Dali. Believe it or not, that is a field of garlic in the foreground. Amazing!

For each $10 that is donated, we will write the donor’s name on the back of two puzzle pieces and add them to the puzzle.

As the puzzle comes together, we will post updates on our blog.  Completing the puzzle will raise $5,000 of the needed finances. When it is complete, we plan to frame it and display it in our home. We love that this will be a visual reminder that there were so many of our friends and family working with us to
bring Lucy Joy home.

We are already off to a great start! Sixteen pieces have
already been sponsored! 

If you would like to contribute, we have provided a Paypal button in the side bar to the right. You may also contribute funds in person or through the mail.  

Please feel free to share Lucy Joy’s “Coming Home” Puzzle Project with anyone that you think would like to contribute!

When we all work together for the children/ orphans good things happen!

Please consider donating and click on the link below!

http://www.rothfuss.us/

Praying for their journey and for other families that are traveling down the adoption road!

We Have A Baby!

Oh My Goodness, we are beyond excited!

Hubby and I are Grandparents!

 Beautiful Emily Kathleen Burgess arrived at 2:23am April 1st!

She is 7 lbs 2.5 oz

and she was in a bit of a hurry!

She was delivered in only 4 hours!

She has lots of dark brown hair, a dimple in her chin like her Dad and a bit of a cone head ;-) which is hiding under that hat!

Both Mom and baby are doing well!

Grandpa and I can hardly wait to hold our Sweet Emily!

Her middle name is after Hubby's dear sister Kathy who passed away last summer.

We are all so excited over here!

Having a hard time focusing on… anything!

Emily Kathleen you have many many Aunts and Uncles that can't wait to meet you!

So thankful they are moving back to the states in June! 

Praising God!

Missing Teeth and Ice Packs...

This is what happens when you have many 7-8 yr olds!

What an exciting day!

Both Abby and Sam lost their front teeth! 

I love their precious smiles just the way they were and would love to have time

STOP

But they keep growing and they keep losing teeth…

much to my dismay.

Abby has already lost the other front tooth and is working hard on two others. Sam's other front tooth should be coming out soon, too. AND

as for everyone, else they are wiggling their teeth, too!

Ben lost his two front teeth in China.

However, he had an extra small front tooth so we needed to get it pulled (along with the one next to it).

The other big tooth is on it's way now!

Ben is finally done with his dental work! So thankful!

It took 4 visits to the dentist to get it all done.

Sarah is excited to learn all about babysitting!

I haven't seen this DVD yet but I'm hoping it's a good one!

She is 14 yrs old and getting ready to help out when Mom has a short errand!

Our Lukey is not happy in this pic…

So here is the story-

Madeline accidentally scratched Joey.

She apologized and Joey got an ice pack to put in his scratch.

5 minutes later Luke comes to me and says-

Joey scratched me.

Me- I'm so sorry honey. Where did he scratch you?

pause

longer pause

Luke- "I don't know…"

Me - "Well honey, if Joey scratched you, you should know where he scratched you."

pause

uncomfortable pause

Luke thinking "how am I going to get myself outta this one"…

Me - Luke, did Joey really scratch you?

Luke- timidly shakes his head no… crocodiles tears appear…

at first I didn't get it…

but once I saw Joey with his ice pack and Luke looking longingly at it, I realized…

"Luke, did you want an ice pack too?"

Don't worry-

 he got an ice pack but I didn't get a pic!

I will be posting soon on how all 4 boys are doing as brothers.

FYI- we do not have high speed internet here in the country…

posting takes so much longer.

Good news is- it will be coming soon(sometime this summer)!

Praise GOD!

The Bigs!

Are doing well!

Biggest brother Matt is definitely enjoying his time in Colorado!

Matt and Caitlin went skiing on a special mountain with a guide over their spring break- it looks like they had a great time!

Yes, I think the tiny dot down there is Caitlin (his fiancé)!
Thankfully they are home now, safe and sound!

Matt is getting a Masters in Biostatistics at UC Denver and working part time as a consultant to Faculty and Physicians in the health sciences. Caitlin is Special Education teacher for Preschoolers. She is also continuing her education. So when they aren't working or studying they are busy making wedding plans! 
We can't wait for the big day!


Matt and Caitlin are very excited to have Katie, Andrew and Baby only one hour away. Katie and family will move to Colorado in early June!

We love having our big kids close together!

And here we have 37.5 weeks!

WoooHoooo!

Oh my… this is so exciting!!
Every time the phone rings I think… it's the call!

And here we have 38 weeks!
You know- the call that says we're in labor!
WoooooHooooooo!

Baby is moving a little less now. 

We think she is kinda running out of room!

We can hardly wait to fly to Germany to see these two and our new granddaughter!
Oh my… wouldn't that be something if she was a boy!
There would be lots of pink to put away!
It's happened before!
Not to me but to a friend of mine ;-)

Big middle brother Billy is working full time. Actually more than full time because he is at one of the top accounting firms and this is busy season.
His schedule should lighten up after April 15th!
(Just in time for the golf season!)
He received a masters in taxation from the Carlson School of Business in December.

BIG changes are in store for our Mark (and for us) in the near future!

Mark has been a HUGE help to us!
He has gone on two adoption trips to China, taught himself (some)Mandarin, takes Abby to many of her transfusion appts, babysat whenever we are in a pinch, taken other children to their appts and the list goes on!
Along with helping us he has been taking classes and working as a lab tech at the U of MN.

This was a wonderful time for him to partake in the adoption adventures and gave hime time to seek direction in his life. The road has taken a few twists and turns but isn't too far off of where he began. Medical school is no longer part of the dream but instead God had guided him elsewhere! He has been accepted in two wonderful PHD programs that are very much in line with his passions. 
One in "Pharmaceuticals and Drug Delivery" and the other one in "Natural Products Discovery". He will be deciding which one in the next couple weeks. 
We are praying about it now! 
He has been such a blessing to us and God's timing is so perfect!
Mark is ready to move on and we are so proud of him!

And this brings us to the youngest of the BIGS ;-)
Our Johnny!

Johnny is enjoying college! He is happy NOT to be a freshman any longer and looking forward to being a Junior next year!
Johnny and his buddy went to see their friends at Marquette and decided maybe they should go to Florida…

So guess where Johnny and Jack are right now!
Yep, you guessed it!
No clothes, no nothing just decided to go to Florida- 
oohhhh, to be a college kid again!

And then my dear boy text me from the outlet store in southern Florida to see what color shirt to buy-
 Blue honey- blue always works!
I love that he needs me!

All of my children keep me on my knees but a last minute trip to Florida definitely had me praying overtime!

Johnny is double majoring in Math and Philosophy.
He is excited to play soccer this fall with his college team!

We just need to photo shop Matt "in" on the right!

And I am very blessed to have such wonderful additions like Andrew, Caitlin and hopefully Kelly!
(hint, hint)

I love my bigs!
Just like I do my littles!
God is good- no, God is GREAT

What time savings?

Own less + Waste less = Live more

Exposing our lifestyle to mainstream was bound to attract criticism but we've kept an open mind, realizing that, had we heard about a Zero Waste family a decade ago, we too would have been judgmental and thought, 1)"These people are total hippies", 2)"They must spend a lot of money", 3)"They must spend a lot of time doing this."

Shattering these preconceptions about our lifestyle has become my vocation.

Proving that 1) and 2) are false is easy. Photographs of our minimalist modern interior quickly establish that we're not granola. And when I speak of curbing consumption, buying secondhand, buying in bulk, and adopting reusable alternatives, all of which are known to be economical, my audience immediately grasps the truth behind our money savings.

But I find the third misbelief trickier to break.

Unlike aesthetics and monetary savings, which can simply be demonstrated with pictures and bank statements, time savings are much harder to tangibly prove. While it seems obvious to me that a life of voluntary simplicity would afford more time,  I sense my interlocutor's doubtful silence (I even hear an unspoken "Yeah, right"), whenever I speak of time savings within the context of the Zero Waste lifestyle. Maybe he/she thinks: "Too good to be true"? Understandably, I propose a fragile argument against the force of ingrained beliefs.  In our fast paced society where marketers lead us to associate fast food and disposables with time savings, I can see how it would be difficult for the skeptic to imagine that a lifestyle which rejects these products would save time. We are all so convinced that we use our time wisely that only change can prove us wrong. Maybe you have to live it to believe it... so I feel it's my duty to support my claims with hard evidence.

Below is our household's evaluation: On the left is a list of chores that were required to run our previous household; To the right, the time savings that Refusing, Reducing and Reusing have offered in our new household. While I understand that not everyone either 1) Has a pond or and fruit trees to care for; or, 2) Would see these things as chores, I included them for transparency.

The 5R's take time to implement into one's life, but it's time well-invested considering how much you'll save in the long run. Much of my household's time savings are based on downsizing (house, yard, car, amount of stuff). But they're also the sheer result of going waste free (no trash or recycling to take out, no liners to purchase). We eliminate the need for disposable products (no need to keep buying and disposing of them) and opt for multi-functional ones -for example, our solid soap, which we purchase loose from the grocery store, serves as 1)shampoo, 2)shaving cream, 3)facial cleanser and 4)body soap, so we no longer need to manage the supply and the recycling of these 4 products.

As you can see from the chart above, the Zero Waste lifestyle is actually more about not doing (i.e, not participating in unsustainable activities) than it is about doing (working on Zero Waste) as one would expect. For me, Not participating in unsustainable activities has made room for living more, along side working a fulfilling full-time job.

Increased time is the greatest life improvement that Zero Waste can afford. It shouldn't be considered as a perk, but rather a reason for going waste-free.

What would you do with more time on your hands?

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad DAY!

I cannot believe that I have had the stomach flu twice this winter…

It should be outlawed, it is no fair at all…

plus the older I get the longer that 24 hour bug lasts...

I am finally on the mend!

We went to "Alexander's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day"

When I read the book I thought it was cute but Alexander complained a lot- something I am trying not to have my kids do…

I wasn't necessarily looking forward to the play but I already bought the ticket so decided we should go anyways.

We were pleasantly surprised!

The play was wonderful and they involved the audience!

Plus, we just happened to be sitting in the front row!

Since I kind of neglected St Patricks Day we made green mac n cheese!

They loved it despite how it looked!

When I was running errands the Lord blessed me by showing me a bald eagle!

I tried to get a better pic but this is all I could get.

They are so beautiful and it's a day maker for me!

Last week was a big week for Ellie!

She got her braces off!

She was so excited!!

The children's Aunt, Uncle and Cousin Annie came over Saturday morning with doughnuts!

We had to cancel our usual Christmas gathering this past year since two of the boys had just come home and it is quite hectic when ever we have newbies… that is pretty much all the time ;-)

But, now that they have been home 3.5 months we are getting into a bit of a routine and ready to meet more people!

Of course Joey immediately took to Cousin Annie (everyone does!)- he held her hand and hugged her- I guess we still have a bit of work to do with this little guy!

Hoping tomorrow I am back to normal!
It just doesn't work when Mom isn't feeling well…
(praying no one else will get it- Anna, Ben, Mark and Hubby already had it…)