After spending the afternoon updating all of the non-profit [I sit on the board of Ukraine Orphan Outreach] communication/website/social media sites, I decided I should jump over here and update our blog.
So what happened in 2013 that we'd like to highlight? In 365 days, there was a lot of things that happened, decisions made, friendships formed, chapters closed and new beginnings. So here's our top 12:
January: We spent a couple weeks visiting our family in Missiouri and Kansas. We got to spend a few days with Eric's brother who was in town from South Africa. Audrey celebrated her 4th birthday!
February: I hit my year-one anniversary with Ukraine Orphan Outreach. It had been a fun year of planning and it was gearing up for a very busy year of events.
March: I got an iPhone. [I still do not like it...I'm an android fan for life after giving it a try.] We took the kids to Disney on Ice where Jace was rocking in his stadium chair and flipped forward smacking heads with the girl in front of him. Poor kids were both banged up and I felt terrible for both of them. Fun times. UOO started it's massive push for ticket sales for our 1st Annual Benefit Gala. We, as a family, started our search for a missions agency. My dad turned 60...on vacation in Mexico....without me...still a little jilted he didn't pack me in his suitcase. [First world problems.]
April: Eric applied for a new position and passed two interviews at a new company, which he wasn't selected for, a downer for sure, but it's a position that you have to apply a couple times before they actually select you. He hit is 5 year vested date with the Sheriff's office which was pretty significant. I did my first "speaking" thing for Ukraine Orphan Outreach at the Town of Lyons, introduced ourselves and was the official representative - it was scary, I won't lie. Public speaking is daunting to me. Thankfully they were all very nice and asked good questions. My mom turned ...no comment...you never reveal a woman's true age.
May: For the first time ever, Audrey was "that child" at the store - totally screaming melt down, that resulted in us loosing our place in the checkout line to go deal with her behavior in the family bathroom. Thankful for the older lady who told me I was doing a good job by sticking with my guns to pull out of the line. We started doing Jillian Micheal's 30 Day Shred program....it works, but I hated her every minute of the workouts. We really started dreaming big dreams of being back in Ukraine - interviewed with a few agencies and had some meetings, all taking steps to get us back to the land where our hearts reside. Ukraine Orphan Outreach hosted our very first annual benefit gala. It was a massive success and we raised over $10k towards a transition home. What an exciting day that was! Also my long-lost cousin and his girlfriend and daughter came for a visit. He proposed at my parent's house and we all got to be a part of the beautiful moment!
June: This was a crazy travel month for us. We went to two weddings in June - our nephew's and Eric's highschool friend's [which ironically got rained out - pouring on all the guests, it was very crazy but the bride just went with it]. We spent loads of times with the family, a day on the Black River soaking in the sun [and turning myself into a lobster], and celebrated my 29+1 birthday with my hubby at a Cardinal's game in St. Louis. It was a great month of fun and traveling! Also started wedding planning for my cousin and his fiance.
July: Annalise turned 1 year old this month!! I can't believe it! My baby is no longer a baby any more. She officially loves her Hungarian Papa Sandor's chocolate cake - devoured it in record time at her birthday celebration with family! Ukraine Orphan Outreach sent a missions team to the Donets'k region of eastern Ukraine to work on repairing our boy's transition home; they also spent one week at a summer camp for orphans/troubled youth. My great uncle passed away this month, uncle Marvin was a unique and humorous man. We spent much of this month helping my parents clean, pack and re-arrange their home to put on the market in August or September - they are wanting to move to a lower elevation.Crazy time of wedding planning, getting everything pulled together for my cousin and his fiance who live out of state but were having a Colorado wedding.
August: The wedding day arrived! It was such a beautiful family weekend full of restoration [my cousin and his sister hadn't spoken in 7 years, and he wasn't very close to his mom at the moment either]. It really was amazing how God restored relationships that had been dormant for so long. The wedding was wonderful, beautiful and full of joy at the union of two people. What a day! Colorado also had one of the hottest months on record and the first few days of school were actually canceled [we Colorado people don't need no stinkn air conditioners!]. Audrey started Pre-K at Resurrection Fellowship School. We also lost one of our beloved church elders to cancer - he has been around since my childhood, and it's been a strange adjustment not to have him with us. My sister turned 39+1 this month...yep, she's ancient like nearly 10 years older than me ancient. I'm a spring chicken. Ha!
September: Happy birthday Eric! Hubby celebrated his 32nd birthday on the 21st. One of my bestie's came for a visit from Oregon for a week, which is always a highlight because we play a massive amount of board games while she's in town - lots of smack talking and making memories! I discovered the "Lizzie Bennett Diaries" on YouTube...late night marathons. Colorado was hit with a 1000 Year Flood. It was a really crazy week of being surrounded by water, all the canyons up to my parents house had the roads destroyed and the National Guard had our town on lockdown. WILD! We had our friends stay with us for a night that had been evacuated from their neighborhood. It was an intense time, lots of loss for our beautiful state. I'm still processing the memories as I now drive the reconstructed roads to my parent's home and see all the damage that the flooding did. Colorado Strong!
October: We were in full planning mode at Ukraine Orphan Outreach for the Old Russian Shoemaker tour group coming from Ukraine for a month. Last minute venue bookings and schedule planning - lots and lots of hours put in this month! Eric's parents came for a visit, and we enjoyed the family time with them. I also became addicted to the "Call of the Midwife" series...makes me want to take up a new profession.
November: Happy birthday to Jace who turned 3 years old on the 8th of this month! My sweet boy is growing up so fast. It's like all of a sudden he speaks in full sentences and we can actually understand them! November brought the Old Russian Shoemaker group to Colorado on Nov. 26th! My sister-in-law's family hosted all 13 of them along with our family and a few other guests for Thanksgiving. It was a loud and fun time watching the seven orphans from Ukraine celebrate their first American Thanksgiving!
December: The first three weeks of December were spent on tour with the Old Russian Shoemaker group. Ukraine Orphan Outreach in partnership with CBN's Orphan's Promise - Kiev office brought seven orphans and 8 cast/crew/staff members from Ukraine (and one from Virginia Beach, VA) for a month's tour performing the Christmas musical. We completely fell in love with the staff/crew who will be life-long friends, and the kids were just wonderful. Their hugs made my day! We also confirmed that UOO will be making a trip to Ukraine in May 2014 [I'm GOING!!!] to visit the orphans, visit CBN in Kiev, and visit our boy's transition home in Kramators'k. What a wild adventure we had with the group! We celebrated Christmas with our family, along with Eric's brother who came and spent a week with us.
We are looking forward with great anticipation of where 2014 will take our family. At this time, our best guess is to Ukraine, hopefully by the end of 2014! Thanks for sharing the year with us!
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