Africa Reunion, Here We Come!

This summer, you may have noticed the zebra-striped button to the right of your screen. A bunch of families with whom we have shared adoption journeys are getting together on Labor Day weekend to celebrate what God has done in our lives!

It is really funny that we have shared the intimate moments of paperchasing, waiting, getting our children, and adjusting with our friends that we have never met in person! We are really looking forward to "meeting" our friends!

We're taking the opportunity to visit with William's sister, her husband, and our two nieces on our way and are hoping to see the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

This is our BIG VACATION of the year, so we're hoping to have lots fun! Please pray for our good health and safety. We're hoping to begin the fun car ride at 6 am on Wednesday morning. Google maps estimates that we will be in the car for 1 day and 11 hours! Again... PRAY FOR US!

Jeremy's Trip to New York

My Trip to New York

By Jeremy Paul Schmidt

August 14, 2009

Last year on my birthday, Grandma & Grandpa told me that the next year they would take me on a trip to anywhere I wanted to go in the continental United States. I choose New York City because there are a lot of things there I would like to see.

On the day we arrived, we went on a double-decker hop on/hop off bus tour. The bus drives around stopping at famous sights. We rode on that for a while,and then we got off at the Empire State Building.

The line at the Empire State Building was very long, but we soon got through it. We took the elevator all the way to the 102^nd floor. The view was amazing! We could see The Statue of Liberty, Central Park, the Chrysler Building, and the Brooklyn Bridge.

The next day we went to F.A.O. Schwarz. It has more toys than I've ever seen in my life!(That's a lot of toys!) It was overwhelming!

Later that day, we went to the Statue of Liberty. We had to wait in the sweltering heat for hours and go through security twice. Finally after an exhausting wait, we made it into the air conditioned Statue of Liberty. We took the elevator to the observation deck. The view was spectacular!

After the Statue of Liberty, we went to Katz's Deli. I had the most delicious, mouthwatering, 1-pound, pastrami sandwich. I ate the whole thing! It was really, really, really, really, really, really yummilicious!

The following day, we went to the New York Hall of Science. It had some really cool exhibits. My favorite one drops dry ice into a bowl of liquid and lets off gas which propels it so it spins and zips and bounces around the bowl. We had a lot of fun and spent most of the day there.

Later that day, we went to an Ethiopian restaurant. We had the best Ethiopian food I've ever had in a restaurant. Mmmmmmmm.

That evening, we went to see The Lion King. We had really good seats in row E!! The show was very well-performed, the costumes were elaborate, and I enjoyed it a lot.

On our final day in New York City, we went to Madame Tussaud's wax museum, and I got my picture taken with Superman, Elvis, Neil Armstrong, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Mark Spitz, and Albert Einstein. It was very cool.

Over all I had a wonderful trip and enjoyed the time with my grandparents.

Happy World Breastfeeding Week!

I was counting up how much of my life I have spent making milk for my little ones. In just a few days, I will have been pumping milk for Benaiah for a whole year! I nursed each of our biological children for 3 + years. That is a total of over 10 years of lactating!!!! I have been making milk for ONE QUARTER OF MY LIFE!!!

Kudos to all of you mamas who are nursing or have nursed!!

Catching Up

A lot has happened since our last post. During most of that time, our family computer has been down. It is limping along right now on an old hard drive, and I don't know what is going to happen, but I know better than to upload our newest photos!

Summer swim team has finished. Jeremy and Marissa both swam in the Cary City Meet. It is the largest swim meet of any kind in the state! Our pool hosts it, and it is a big, hairy deal! They were both excited to earn ribbons for their relays, Marissa won her heat in breast stroke, and Jeremy placed in breast stoke earning points for the team! It was a fun day! We were there from 7 am until 8:30 pm!

The season was finished off with the swim team "banquet." It was a carry-in. Annika was awarded "Most-Improved Six and Under Girl" right before the thunder and lightening began. We moved the festivities to the church across the street and finished up. It is so sad to say good-bye our coaches and friends.

We began our new year of home schooling on Monday, July 27. Things are going well. We began with what we have as we waited for the rest of it to arrive. The children are really enjoying painting with watercolors! It helps to motivate them to get through the other necessities. Annika is especially excited to be doing school!

We're all taking Friday off to go to the pool!

Mozombites in the House!

We were recently blessed to have some special visitors! The Mozombite family was nearby for missionary training and spent a fun afternoon with us! They brought their son Asher home from Ethiopia this spring are going into the field in Bolivia this fall with SAMS (South American Missionary Society).


Since it was the weekend of the 4th of July, we thought it would be fun to make a Jello-O flag cake. YUM! Marissa and Annika decorated it!


Annika and Lily had fun playing dress up together! (I think Annika wanted to keep Lily!)


Jeremy and Isaiah hung out together and enjoyed exploring Jeremy's room and the tree in the front yard.


We really enjoyed our visit with the David, Amy, and their crew!

To other AWAA families: Please, let us know when you'll be nearby! We'd love to meet you too!

The Grocery Inquisition

Last night on a normal grocery run, our family was stopped by an older lady who was also shopping who was quite interested in figuring us out.

Her first question was, "Is HE adopted?" Well, duh.

She was also blown away that we would go all the way to Africa to get him.

I'm sure she is a nice lady (but terribly nosey). She just kept firing away with the questions, and her brain was trying to process our answers.

We feel kind of conflicted because on one hand, it is our business... on the other hand, we feel obligated to help educate people about adoption and caring for others... even if they may look different.

Sparklers!

For the first time ever, I got the kids some sparklers to help celebrate our independence. They were so excited! Annika freaked out a little when hers began to sputter and some of the paper landed on her arm and now, she has a blister. William also found himself on fire, and now, his thumb is twice its normal size with a blister. YUCK. Jeremy and Marissa enjoyed them and are intact.