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!!