Thanksgiving 2010

It came and went and here it is 5 days later already. My gosh, time flies.
We had a really nice day at Mike's house with tons of good food


lots of laughs, and loud kids all over the place. Pretty typical holiday for us.


That night I went with Mindy, Pat, Lindsey, Kristin, Amy, and Dan to the outlet mall that opened at 10pm. Other than being freezing outside, it was a lot of fun. There were a ton of great deals and I was surprised at how much I was able to find. I'm thinking this is going to be a new tradition. It sure beats getting up at 3am on Friday to wait outside all the other stores.
On Friday, after Jay got off of work, we went out to the Mall of America with the kids. We mostly strolled around from store to store and floor to floor.
For dinner, we decided to go to Ruby Tuesday's. As we were sitting there, I noticed a family with 2 little girls that looked like they might be from China. The younger of the 2 seemed to be about the age that Olivia is and I couldn't stop watching her. I was sure the mom was gonna see me staring and think I was nuts. Jay knew I was dying to talk to them, but I didn't want to impose so he just took it upon himself to instead. Hey, no one can ever accuse that guy of being shy.
Long story short....we got talking to them and sure enough, they had adopted both little girls from China and the youngest had just come home about 6 mos. ago. She was 2 1/2. We asked the parents some advice about what to expect when we go there to get her. Her best advice was to not have any expectations or ideas or how it will go because you just don't know and you just have to be able to go with the flow. That's our plan. Just love her and hold her and try to get her to trust us....just a bit, before returning home.
The boys were so cute with the girls and it gave me a glimpse a few months into the future. We can't wait. We ended up getting their email address and are hoping to stay in touch throughout. It's always good to have other people around you who have gone through it. I just love how God puts people in your way like that.

This year, above all, I am thankful for my growing family. For our continued health and the boys' safety. Everything else in life is gravy.....