Adoptive Couples Retreat

A few weeks ago we went to the 2nd Annual Adoptive Couples Retreat. It was a BLAST! We went with our cute friends Courtney & Jenn that we serve with on the FSA board. The event started out with a mingle to meet other adoptive couples and then we went and played games with Cort & Jenn in their hotel room until the wee hours of the morning. Pictured above is me and Jenn and the cute little tyke with James in the pic below is Cooper - Cort and Jenn will finalize their adoption of this adorable little guy in a few weeks and we're so excited for them!

The second day of the retreat was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!! Jessalyn (the beauty queen between Jenn and me in the picture below) is such an awesome girl. She is a birthmom who knows firsthand the incredible blessings of adoption. She organized the entire event and we feel super blessed to have her as our new friend. We can't wait for the retreat next year!

Pass Along Cards

We just got our new pass along cards in the mail and we are totally in love with them! Thanks to some amazing local businesses and our awesome friends, we've passed out over 2500 cards in only 6 months! Woot, woot! We enlisted the help of a super talented graphic designer (shout out to Charlotte!) to create a new look for our cards and they turned out fabulous!

(FRONT)

(BACK)

For those of our blog readers that aren't familiar with adoption pass along cards, we'll explain what they're all about. Networking during our adoption process is MAJOR! We've met several adorable couples that have been waiting to be chosen by a birthmother for several years. Our caseworker has encouraged us to spread the word (or send out a herald in our case) so that others may know of our desire to adopt.

The idea behind these cards is to get as many out there circulating as possible in hopes that they'll one day land in hands of someone, who knows someone, who knows someone (etc), who is thinking of placing their child for adoption. Because birthparents get to choose the adoptive couple, the waiting period can be really daunting. One of the first questions that we asked our caseworker was what the average waiting time was. She explained that there is not an accurate way of calculating that number for us. Every birthparent is different, just as every adoptive couple is different. What one birthparent may be looking for, another may want something completely opposite. Some couples are chosen within a few months, some after a few years. Some have waited over 5 years and others are not ever chosen. As an adoptive couple, the idea of waiting another 6 months is kinda depressing... I can't even imagine what it will be like if we still haven't been chosen in a few years!

In the spirit of being proactive with our desire to adopt, we've been trying every outlet that we can think of to help spread the word. Pass along cards are one of these tools! We've heard stories from other adoptive couples that their child's birthmother found them through a family friend, or their home teacher's cousin, or a former neighbor, etc. The point is that you just never know when you pass out one of these cards... it may just land in a garbage can somewhere, or maybe (fingers crossed) it will one day land in the right hands!

Some of the ways that we spread these cards around: Whenever we eat out, we leave a card with our restaurant bill. When paying bills, we toss one in the envelope. When we see a fishbowl at a business that says "drop your card in to win a free lunch"... guess what? We drop one in! We've tacked them up on community boards and handed them out whenever somebody asks us about adoption. Our favorite method of all - some awesome local businesses have put stacks of our cards out on their counters for customers to take.

James and I both feel strongly that the more involved we are in our own adoption process, the better our experience will be. We've been actively involved in the adoption community here in Utah and have met a bunch of incredible birthparents. With each new personal story that we hear, we learn so much about ourselves and about the kind of relationship that we want to have with our child's birthparents. Adoption really is an amazing thing and we're so excited to be able to bring our sweet pea home one day!

So... we just got a fresh batch of pass along cards delivered and if anyone out there wants to help us get them out there, we'll gladly give ya a bundle!

Hoping To Adopt

We now have our adoption profile listed on an amazing website called hopingtoadopt.org! If you look to our sidebar, you'll see a button that you can click on to visit our new profile. If you'd like to help us spread the word that we are adopting, we'd love it if you would "grab" our button and add it to your blog. The HTML script is listed below the button. Thanks to all of our amazing friends and family for helping us spread the word that we're hoping to adopt and we can't wait for a little one to find their way home to us!

***Thanks to hopingtoadopt.org for helping us to advocate for our adoption - you guys rock!!!

Utah vs. Canada

This past weekend we went to a Utah Grizzlies hockey game with our friends Nate & Julie. We don't know the first thing about hockey, but luckily they are huge fans so they taught us about the game. The Grizzlies played a Canadian team and it just so happens that Nate & Julie are from Canada so it was fun to cheer for opposing teams. The rivalry ended with a big overtime victory for the Grizzlies. The game was a blast - complete with a few crowd pleasing fights!

Karaoke!?!

James' company just had their winter party up at Snowbird. It was a scary drive through the snow, but it was a fabulous party - complete with karaoke! James loves to sing so he wasn't afraid to belt out a few tunes. After an hour or so of convincing, I finally gave in to the silliness! (I'm still embarrassed when I think of how aweful I was!)

Saying Goodbye to 2010

We rang in the New Year with James' family this year. We had a ball playing all sorts of fun games and eating yummy food, followed by a silly countdown to the New Year. A few days into the New Year, a bunch of our neighbors got together for a date night out. We love our neighborhood and are super lucky to have made so many awesome friends!

Zoo Lights

My BFF Ashley and her daughter Cameron were in town for Christmas! They live in Baltimore so it was super fun to play together while they were here! The zoo was freezing cold so there weren't many animals out, but it was still a fun adventure!

Utah Jazz vs Denver Nuggets

My little brother Chris is getting married in a couple of weeks and for a last hurrah, we hit the road for Denver to catch the first Jazz game of the season. Our entourage consisted of Me, Chris, his buddies Isaiah, Jubal, and Jason, and our Dad!

Chris and his best friend Isaiah

Me and my Daddy

David Locke from 1320 KFAN saw us, the few Jazz fans amid all of the Nuggets fans, and came up to our seats to talk to us!

The Tip-Off

The Jazz were killed by the Nuggets, but it was still super fun to be there for the first game of the season... hopefully the Jazz can pull together and have a decent season!

Halloween - Part One

We went to an adoption mini-class last week and we were in charge of bringing the treats. I had fun making these pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes and they turned out super yummy!
The first Halloween party of the season was held at our neighbor's house, the Walter's. In case you can't tell from the picture, we went as salt and pepper shakers. You should have seen the looks we got as we were trying out the different colanders on our heads at Wal-mart!
We divided into boys vs. girls for a heated game of Pictionary! The party was a blast and we feel lucky to have such awesome neighbors!
The second party of the season was held at our church and boy did I get a ton of comments. All of the kids kept asking me if that was my real hair!

Halloween week isn't over yet, so we'll add more pics of the festivities soon!

Love Is Sweet

Any excuse to throw a party and I get so excited! I love party planning and I think that I must have been a party planner in another life! My little brother Chris is getting married on November 11th and I wanted to throw a bridal shower for my cute soon-to-be sis, Karen. For party favors, the guests filled their own treat bags.

The sign next to the treat jars said:

LOVE is SWEET please take a TREAT!

My mom helped me to throw this shower and we had a blast color coordinating all of the yummy food! We made yummy sparkling lemonade and even decorated the water bottles! I decorated our dining room chandelier to match our theme and designed the food table around it. We loved our cupcake centerpiece!
As guests were either coming or going, we asked them to take a minute and write Karen a little note - just another fun way to personalize the shower!
This is cute Karen! I'm so excited for her to join our family and I hope she had fun at her shower!

It's pumpkin time

It's not Halloween until the pumpkins are cleaned out, carved, and set a-flame! Every year we have a pumpkin night with our fun friends Isaiah and Rosie. They recently adopted cute Addison so she got to join in on the fun this year. She loved playing with the yucky pumpkin seeds! We can't wait until we have a little one to join in on the fun too!

Cleaning out the ooey-gooey insides of our pumpkins

James' Pumpkin: The Bat

Heather's Pumpkin: Dracula

The Carving Crew

A little night vision

♪ Five Little Pumpkins ♪

Jackson or Bust!

A few weekends ago, I (Heather) hit the road on the back of my dad's motorcycle! There's nothing quite like travelling down the highway at high speeds with the wind flying everywhere and the stereo blazing. It's so much fun! My dad always asks me to burn a CD for each trip so we always have new tunes for the ride. Our entourage consisted of 3 motorcycles: Dad's, with me riding as passenger; my brother Chris, with his fiance Karen as his passenger; and Jubal, Chris' friend. The five of us had a blast hanging around Jackson Hole and touring through Yellowstone National Park. It was a super fun trip and I can't wait until next time!

Dad's Harley - the Ultra Classic (above)

From the passenger's point of view, this is the most comfortable bike ever! I've actually fallen asleep a few times while out on the open road!

Chris' Harley - the Heritage Softail (above)

This is the best looking motorcycle that Harley makes, if you ask me!!!

Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park


The Town Square - Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Wrapping Up Summer

I can't believe summer is actually over! It went by so fast... wasn't it just barely Christmas? The saying is totally true that time flies when you're having fun! We had a blast this summer and thought we'd share just a few of the fun things that we did that didn't earn a blog post!

A competitive game of croquet with James' family - James won, but I still want a re-match!
We went to an awesome arcade with my BFF Ashley and her daughter Cameron. This was the loot we won with all of our hard earned tickets!

Here we are at Red Butte Garden... I tried to shove James into the pond right after this pic was taken, but he was too strong! Next time, he he he!

Summer isn't complete without at least one outdoor concert! We had a blast at the Peter Cetera concert at the Sandy Amphitheatre. Glory of Love from Karate Kid was the hit of the night, especially when my brother cheered: "Ralph Macchio is my hero!"

One of our favorite summer activities is the annual Jenkins' camp out at Capitol Reef National Park. This year we went on the raddest hike - just over 6 miles long! We had to climb down 3 waterfalls and the fourth waterfall we actually had to slide down. It was super fun!!!

You know how they say, "it's not over until the fat lady sings?" Well, in my book, summer isn't over until we go to the super fun annual block party hosted by our friends and neighbors, the Oliverson's. This year's theme was a Luau (in case you couldn't tell by our costumes) and it was awesome! Hula-hooping contests, water balloon launching, a limbo contest, and even a snow cone machine - what a way to say goodbye to summer!!!