Henri J. M. Nouwen: All the great spiritual leaders in history were people of hope. Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Mary, Jesus, Rumi, Gandhi, and Dorothy Day all lived with a promise in their hearts that guided them toward the future without the need to know exactly what it would look like. Let's live with hope.

Allan K. Chalmers: The Grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

Christopher Reeve: Once you choose hope, anything's possible.

Erik H. Erikson: Hope is both the earliest and the most indispensable virtue inherent in the state of being alive. If life is to be sustained hope must remain, even where confidence is wounded, trust impaired.

Molly Ivins: I still believe in Hope - mostly because there's no such place as Fingers Crossed, Arkansas.

A Second Year of "Firsts"

T-Man celebrated his 2nd birthday over a week ago - the big 2! This week has been a week of firsts:

1 -- We purchased T-Man his first "big boy bed" with cowboy sheets that match his room.

2 -- Friday he spent his first night in it alone and did great! He has slept in it for 4 nights (and daytime naps) without any problems -- we are sooo blessed!

3 -- He almost made it through the night without his paci (pacifier). Our little boy is not so little anymore!

4 -- Tomorrow he starts his first official "class" at the park district. It's only an hour and 15 minutes, but parents are not included! I hope mommy can survive his first day.

5 -- We took T-Man out to Walker Brothers for pancakes to celebrate being such a big boy and sleeping in his bed. We decided to try out a booster seat instead of a high chair and again -- he did well. He kept leaning over to Eric and giving him a hug and then a kiss which he then follows up with an "awwwww".

I don't know why the Lord chose us for adoption, but I am so glad he did!

Everything to Me - Thanks T-Man's Birth Mom!

Here Fishy, Fishy

You can lead a horse to water, but good luck trying to get him out of it!

Tree House Park

From Home of Hope ~ Eric and Christy

We spent the evening at the "Tree House Park" with my friends and their children in honor of T-Man's birthday tomorrow. He was soooo cute opening his gifts -- he gets it this year! His face lit up when he saw the Little Einsteins tub toys and the talking "garbage can truck" as he says.

Everyone brought their own dinner and we supplied the birthday sweets -- for dessert we served angel food cake with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. T-Man loved the cake -- surprise, surprise! On the playground, he loved the slides tonight. They don't have swings there (his first choice) so I guess slides rank second!

Pirates Cove

We celebrated T-Man's 2nd birthday with Eric's brother and his family at a small amusement park for kids ages 2-9. T-Man was able to ride the train, ride the hand-propelled train, and play in the playground area (behind us in the photo). His favorite part was the cake and ice "ceam" we had at Grandma's afterwards.

We spoke to T-Man's birth mother today and made arrangements to get together to celebrate his birthday with her.

Parent Profile Link

Our Parent Profile is complete and posted. Take a peek....

Eric and Christy's Profile

Hopefully "Waiting"

The toddler has finally closed his eyes and given in to sleep.
The adoption paperwork is complete for LDS Family Services and we are approved to be "parents".
We hopefully "wait", yet actively tell all we know, we want to start the emotional process of trying to adopt a second child.
May our wait not be three years again.

How You Can Help...

We are grateful that you are visiting our "hoping to adopt" blog. Our intent is to give you a glimpse into our lives as a family of three that has been touched by the wonderful blessing of adoption.

Are you aware of an expectant mother who is considering an adoption plan for her child? If such an opportunity presents itself, we hope you will remember our family! We invite you to share our blog with anyone you feel may have a connection to any type of adoption situation.

We are grateful for any help you can offer us in our search for another adoption miracle!

The ABC's of Our Family

{A Work in Progress}

A - We are ADOPTION ADVOCATES!

B - We love T-Man's BIRTH MOTHER and family!

C - We love our CHILD and are excited to grow our family tree through adoption again!

D - We're a DOG family - we are currently taking care of Eric's mom's dog Gidget.

E - T-Man has the bluest EYES.

F - April 21st, 2007 - We are sealed as a "FOREVER FAMILY".

G - GRANDPARENTS are GREAT! -- "GRANDPA Glenn" takes me to the beach, GRANDMA Betty reads to me. GRANDMA Suzanne does puzzles with me. GRANDMA Cyndi and GRANDPA Tom make great toys for me with their own hands.

H - "Mommy, you make a HAPPY face?" T-Man makes sure we're all happy.

I - We live in ILLINOIS within driving distance of Chicago; FUN, FUN, FUN!

J - T-Man is a huge fan of "JUNGLING BALLS" or also known as "Kix" cereal.

K - K-I-S-S. This is currently his favorite word to spell at the moment. (As well as H-U-G and N-E-N-E-Y (??)

L - LITTLE EINSTEINS: T-Man's favorite TV show.

M - MAC & CHEESE - A staple food around our house!

N - NAP time. What is nap time?

O - We believe in as much OPENNESS in adoption as all involved are comfortable with.

P - THE LETTER P & winnie the POOH.  The first letter T-Man learned to write was "P" from a Winnie the Pooh ABC video;  "First, go down (straight line) and then around (the loop).  T-Man also got the nickname of "Opposites Boy" from a Winnie the Pooh video on opposites.  He loves to say the opposite, for example:  Daddy - "Calm down" T-Man:  "no, calm up!"

Q - QUATREFOIL - is a representation of a flower with four petals, or a leaf with four leaflets (such as a four-leaf clover). T-Man learned this shape from one of his puzzles at the age of 2!


R - At the age of 2.75, Tyler learned to locate RHODE ISLAND on map. He is now able to locate at least 25+ states.

S - Our favorite vacation spot is SUNDANCE, Utah. We went there for our honeymoon and will be going back for our 10th anniversary this year.

T - T-Man's name: Tyler. It was chosen as we were driving down for his birth! We had a different name chosen, but as we were driving, talking, being giddy with his impending birth, this name came to me. As a teacher for 12 years, there were many names that conjured up some interesting faces of previous students in my mind. Many potential names were excluded from this list for this reason :)

U - Daddy: "T-Man, you need to calm down." T-Man: "I need to calm-UP"

V - "V" - our favorite letter of the alphabet!! "V" is T-Man's birth mother and our hero!

W - We love to take walks in the WAGON around our street, bringing the dog with us.

X  - EXTRAORDINARILY blessed!  All we have to do is look around to see just how blessed we are; family, love, and a place to call home.

Y - We sool love our T-Man!  Because of this love that we have discovered, we are YEARNING for a second child to share our love with.

Z - ZOO favorite animal: The monkey. We first met our son's birth mother and family at The Rain Forest Cafe. When she chose us to raise her son, we gave her a stuffed animal of a monkey. T-Man also has one in his room -- it's their little connection together.