Beautiful Letter

A few weeks ago, I sent letters to our former foster son and his Grandma, who is now raising him. His Grandma has given Miles & I unlimited access to J, but after spending time with him a couple of times after he went to go live with her, we made the decision that it was causing him too much pain and confusion to be with us again and he would cry and cling to us when we returned him to Grandma. So we let her know our decision and why we made it. Then a few weeks ago I sent those letters. The one to his Grandma was just to explain again the reason for our decision, and to let her know that we are praying for them. Then I wrote a letter to J that told him how much Miles & I loved him, what a joy he was to us, and our hopes for how God will use his life one day. It was a cathartic experience for me as well, to be able to say those words to him and to have them written down where he can read them one day when he gets older. I also included a picture of J, Miles & I because Grandma had asked for one to put in his "grandparents" book that she is making for him (a baby book of sorts).

Today in the mail we received a Christmas card from Grandma, with a few scanned pictures of J, and a beautiful letter for me. It was very touching, and since I will never be able to read it aloud on the phone without sobbing, I am putting it here so that my family can read it. The pictures were adorable as well, and he is looking so much like a little boy rather than a baby. He will be 2 on January 22, and he is still a very handsome boy. Anyway, here is the letter:

"Dear Brenda,
I apologize for not getting back to you about the voicemail you left me, but I did not get the voicemail until about 3 weeks later. My phone took up swimming in the toilet (courtesy of J) and I could not check my voicemail due to the lack of knowing my password for it. I rec'd your letter(s) and photo and yes, I saw J's confusion too. Your letter made me cry, even though your reasons are to put J first. I thank God everyday that my grandson was placed with you and Miles. We were very blessed.

I showed J the photo of the 3 of you and his little face just lit up into a huge smile. "Hod it grammy," he said, so I let him hold the photo and pointed and told him your names and that these were two very important people in his life and grammy would fill him in when he gets older. I'm planning to place your letter to J next to the photo you gave me in the grandparents book I'm making for him. I would still like to send you photos now and again, if thats alright?

He's grown so much. Since having tubes in his ears, his vocabulary and speech has greatly improved (no ear infections either). I wonder at times if I have done the right thing for J, but that all disappears when he crawls up in my lap and says, "Hod you grammy. I love you" and blows a big kiss on my cheek.

You and Miles are always in our prayers at night. Thank you Brenda. God bless you both and Merry Christmas."

That letter makes all of the frustrations with foster parenting worth it!

Merry Christmas

This was a quiet Christmas for us. We were supposed to drive to McMinnville, OR to spend the holidays with my (Brenda's) side of the family. Unfortunately, weather prevented us from going anywhere as we continue to get snowed on and approach totals of almost 4 feet! So it was just Miles & I this year. On Christmas Eve, we went to the service at our church and then went out to a very nice dinner at the Coeur d'Alene Resort. It was a non-traditional Christmas Eve dinner for us, but we figured we would do something fun and unusual since all of our other plans were thwarted. After dinner we came back to our house and opened gifts and drank homemade hot chocolate.

On Christmas day we slept in, called family, and then together made my family's traditional breakfast of Swedish pancakes. Oh, and we opened our stockings of course. We were supposed to go up to Miles' family's home in Sandpoint, but the weather really wasn't cooperating as it continued to snow all night and most of today. So we had a relaxing afternoon, and then decided to burn off some energy and build a snowman. I don't have any recollection of ever building a snowman, so this was my inagural attempt at it. It was a difficult task just because the snow is so fluffy that it was a struggle to get it to compact enough to stay in the correct formation. But we eventually succeeded. We had to improvise for the accessories, and used Raisenettes for eyes, a biscotti for the nose, and spray paint for the mouth! I think our neighbors were pretty amused by us.

Now I'm smelling the wonderful aroma of a ham baking in the oven, and we're gonna have a nice Christmas dinner complete with ham, scalloped potatoes, and green bean casserole. So in spite of the sudden change in plans, it turned out to be a very good Christmas. I am so blessed by a wonderful husband who makes every day, and every experience, fun and memorable and who fills my life with more love than I often know what to do with. I hope all of you who are reading this also had a wonderful Christmas holiday with your family and friends, and have paused to thank Christ for coming to this earth as a little baby to offer us grace beyond measure from a God who loves us more than we will ever be able to comprehend. As my Grandma said to me today (and decided she would like to officially change it to this greeting) -- HAPPY CHRISTMAS & MERRY NEW YEAR!

The snow just won't stop!!

I think it has snowed non-stop for a week. Or maybe it just feels like that. We got about 34 inches of snow in about a 36-hour period last week, then it snowed again on the weekend, and it's supposed to snow another 8-12 inches tomorrow. And in between all of those big storms we've had consistent flurries. We had to cancel our drive out to McMinnville, OR, to spend Christmas with the Eckdahl side of the family. So Miles & I are just going to have a quiet Christmas with the 2 of us, and then go to his family's house in the afternoon on Christmas Day (if we can get there!) By the time the next storm comes through tomorrow, we will have accumulated as much snow as we normally do all winter! Only we're just officially a few days into winter and still have months left to go to shatter records. It's insane. There are berms that are probably 15-20 feet high in some places because the temps have been cold so none of the snow has melted yet. This is a picture of my van in front of the berm that lives in our cul-de-sac every winter courtesy of the snow plow. Pretty soon I'm not going to be able to back out of my driveway because I almost hit the berm now!

Miles went snowboarding today for the first time this season, so there are benefits to it. And I've decided that I'm going to take up snow-shoeing. If you can't beat it, might as well enjoy it. And I'm certainly not going to be house-bound for the next 4 months!

There is a house for sale 2 doors down and it's unoccupied, so except for a path someone shoveled to make it to the front door the snow continues to pile up in their driveway. I was joking that they're not going to be able to sell it until spring because it's going to just eventually disappear under all the snow!

Large weather we're having . . .

It started snowing sometime in the middle of Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning, and hasn't stopped since. It's Thursday at 8:00a.m. and it still hasn't slowed down. And we're going to continue getting heavy snow until 4:00p.m. this afternoon. We're getting estimates of 1 1/2-3 inches of snow throughout the area so far, with maybe 12-15 inches more to come. I think, based on this picture of Miles, that we've gotten 2+ feet in our neck of the woods. It's crazy!! The other picture is his car in the driveway. At least I think that's his car under there. Who knows at this point!


Planes are being cancelled, schools are closed, federal offices and community centers are closed . . . everything in the area is closing down today. I just heard on the news that even police officers are having to be shuttled from their house so they can show up to work. I think I'll just stay home today and get some work done. Of course, Miles is chomping at the bit to get out there and snowboard, but I think he'll have to wait until tomorrow because I don't think he'll make it up the mountain today.

Thanksgiving

We had a very low-key and relaxing Thanksgiving. On Wednesday we drove an hour north, to Sandpoint, to Miles' sister and family's home. We spent the night with them there. On Thanksgiving day we did a lot of cooking, eating and relaxing. My sister-in-law asked me to make the crust for her green bean casserole dish, but I was nervous because I'm not the best cook or baker in the world. So everyone made a big deal about me actually "cooking" and took lots of pictures. It turned out pretty good. But I'll still leave our cooking up to Miles. He's much better at it!

Speaking of baking/cooking . . . . last night I was going to try my hand at making Divinity. I remember my Grandma George made that candy every year around Christmas and I loved it. So I found an easy recipe online and had these grand visions of sending homemade Divinity candy to Debbie when I sent her package of Christmas gifts. Well, I'd like to say that something was wrong with the recipe, but it's more likely that it was an error on my part. Needless to say, the stuff never hardened like it's supposed to and I stirred that concoction for about 20 minutes. It was mostly marshmallow, with some sugar, water and vanilla, so I had the bright idea to turn it into Rice Krispie squares. I went ahead and did it. I think I made the sweetest Rice Kristie squares ever! I still sent it to Debbie. I figured she can either throw it away or her kids will eat it and never know the difference! I'm still determined to learn how to make Divinity like my Grandma.