It's a boy!

Mother, father and baby are all doing fine. Well, maybe a little jet lagged, but nothing a few days of rest won't cure.

A lovely day

I chaperoned a field trip for Ashlie's German class today. We saw The Diary of Anne Frank at the Park Square Theatre in St Paul. After that, we had lunch at the Glockenspiel. I got to spend some time with Ashlie, everybody was well behaved, we saw a really good performance of a moving play and had a great lunch with a fabulous dessert! All in all, a wonderful day.

Emergency home repair

Started off this weekend on the right foot -- the 8' wire shelf in Ashlie's closet that you hang clothes underneath came off the wall. The previous owners of this home cut some corners when it came to installing this shelf. Including not anchoring it to any studs. I thought that was a nice touch. So had to make a run to Menards to pick up a bunch of anchors and supports, some of which only come in "contractor quantities". Needless to say, I've got leftovers, which ought to come in handy.

Actually, they probably will -- I checked around, and found some other wire shelves that aren't mounted properly. One of which has all my old compact discs on it. I've got about five hundred of them. So that's a ticking time bomb, waiting to come crashing down...

Annual Christmas letter

One of my regrets is that I don't take the time to send all my friends and relatives Christmas cards. Seems like I should be able to find a couple of hours to accomplish this. But the holiday season seems to come and go so quickly, that I never get around to it.

I've also had a desire to run Christmas lights across the roofline of my house, but that never happens either. Just too cold once I get around to it.

Even though we don't send out Christmas cards, my wonderful wife takes the time to write up an annual Christmas letter. So those that are interested can take a look, and see what we've been up to for the last year. I've copied it below for your reading pleasure.

Mortimer/Maberry/Tisland
Annual Christmas Letter

I am now too lazy to send out an annual Christmas card although I have 3 boxes of them sitting on my desk! So, the Christmas email has arrived from us!

We didn’t win the lottery; our kids didn’t win the spelling bee, try out for the Olympics or break a school record in academics!

Life has been good and bad and I will try to send some of the highlights!

Jeff celebrated 20 years at Thomson West this summer. He received a gift of luggage-is this a clue? He also was downgraded from a cube to a shared space along with most everyone else! He does continue to enjoy his job and has a lot of good friends he works with. The company, fortunately, has not been doing any downgrades.

I finally got my dream job this summer. I am now the Farmington High School Nurse. It is a great job and allows me time off when the kids are off and to visit my family. I am learning a lot about teenagers in the process. Next year the high school is moving into a new building and I am looking forward to being the first nurse there!

Michael continues to participate in football and taekwondo. He has achieved his brown belt in taekwondo and is working hard towards the next level. His football team finally won a game and he was so excited! He is busy with 7th grade work and turns 13 this month.

Ashlie is taking piano lessons and participates in speech team at school. She also tried out and made Varsity cheerleading. She loves biology and is starting to check into colleges. She will be 16 in July and has her learners permit! She was confirmed in the Spring and we had an awesome weekend with friends and family.

We have made several trips back to South Dakota this summer and one trip to Omaha. We always love spending time with family and friends. In June Ashlie and I went on a church mission trip to Ohio. We had so much fun and learned a lot while helping other people. We will be going again this year and this time Michael gets to go. The trip is to Lead, SD. Jeff got away a couple times this year to his friend Greg’s cabin for a work weekend. Work and fun was involved both times!

We remain active in our church and enjoy the fellowship of so many awesome people there. We are involved in community service, youth group, Sunday school and Jeff is the financial secretary. We hosted the youth Halloween party.

We were approved for adoption in July after a mountain of paperwork and are now in the waiting process. We have had some ups and downs and worries/fears but feel we are meant to do this and the rest will take care of itself. We are waiting for a boy or girl (or 2) under the age of 4! The call could come any day but should arrive by July. We will then travel to Ethiopia in 3-4 months for a 7 day trip. Thanks to all of you for your support and prayers.

We have had some sad events this year as well. My baby great-niece, Zoe, passed away in May from a congenital heart condition. In November my nephew, Adam, passed away unexpectedly. He was 23 and an awesome kid! The same month Jeff’s dad was diagnosed with prostrate cancer. Arlo is doing well and we are grateful for that. We are also grateful for good friends and family who hold us up in difficult times.

We will be heading to South Dakota for Christmas break and spending time with all of our families and friends. We wish you all an excellent New Year and hope Christmas is magical and full of wonder!

Jeff, Sayra, Ashlie & Michael
Chewy, Jack & Bean

Christmas gift suggestions:
To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.
To yourself, respect.

Dealing with a death in the family

Just got back from an unexpected week in Pierre. One of Sayra's nephews, Adam Maberry, died unexpectedly. He was only 23 years old and had a bright future ahead of him. Although I didn't have a chance to get to know Adam that well, I could tell he was a great guy. I wish I would have had more time to spend with him. And it broke my heart to see how this affected his parents, his sister, his grandmothers, Sayra, Ashlie and Michael, and the whole family. I've been blessed with great in-laws, and to see them in this much pain was difficult. They're an extremely close family, and certainly didn't deserve to lose Adam so soon.

Rachel's Challenge

Just got back from the Farmington High School where I attended a presentation by Larry Scott of Rachel's Challenge. Great program, great message, great cause. Very moving story. What is Rachel's Challenge? As described by their web site:

Rachel Scott was the first person killed at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Her acts of kindness and compassion coupled with the contents of her six diaries have become the foundation for one of the most life-changing school programs in America.

Taking technology for granted

One of the things I'm starting to take for granted is my cell phone. My wife had gallbladder surgery today, and I'm happy to report that everything went well. As I mentioned in a previous post, I didn't make it to Pierre to be with her. But throughout the day today, I was getting text messages from Ashlie with updates, complete with pictures. I got a picture of the gallstones they removed (yuck!), the flowers Sayra got, and even a lovely picture of my better half as she's recovering in her hospital room. All courtesy of a cell phone with a camera on it. (And a teenager that knows how to run it.)

And I spent most of the day in a meeting, away from my desk and my computer. So the fact that I've got this thing hooked to my belt, with me almost 24 X 7, is great too.

Wasn't it just like 10 years ago these things were the size of a brick, and about as heavy?

Approved for adoption!

Got word from our adoption agency today that everything is in order for our dossier, and we're officially on the list waiting for a child (or children). Also got the letter from the CIS giving us the green light. So it's time to sit back and wait! According to the specialist from the agency, average wait time for an infant from Ethiopia is 7 - 9 months, and since we're open to toddlers, it should be less than that. Woohoo!

Offsetting the good news is the fact that Sayra has her gallbladder removed in Pierre tomorrow morning, and I won't be there with her. I'm not entirely comfortable with that, but it's just too far to travel for what should be a straightforward procedure.

There's gotta be an easier way to get from point A to point B. Someone get on that.