My Visit with Patty!

 Friends, I haven't been on a vacation in I don't know HOW LONG.

Like, LONG.  

But a few weeks ago, I got on a big airplane all by my frumpy self...

 

(The view over Seattle...SWOON!)

 Even splurged and bought myself the deluxe cheese and fruit platter...

then landed safely somewhere in the middle of Washington state and got to

visit my very best west coast friend, PATTY!!!!

I even shared a room with JB.  3, 2, 1...let the rumors begin!

Hahaha!

I got to spend a lot of fun time with Patty's kiddos...

they are awesome.

And even got to know the cat, up close and personal!.

We had THE BEST time!  Though I do wish it had been under better circumstances,

as it was the one year anniversary of Patty's husband's death

from brain cancer.  Sigh.  

But it was such a delight to get away and share MUCH-NEEDED laughter

with my dear friend.

Watch for our comic tour, coming to a city near you!!


(I know it looks like I have a baby bump...and as much as I'd like to think
it's just the angle...it's probably more likely a, Lori-bakes-a-million-things-a-day bump.)

my endorsement [and much more]

All right.

I'm all about keeping the peace here on my little

slice of cyber-utopia.

But I'm going to step out on a limb here a bit.

Though most of you won't be surprised one iota,

I am going to announce my my presidential endorsement:

The editor-in-chief and the staff here at JOY Unspeakable

hereby endorse,

MITT ROMNEY 

for President of the United States of America.

It comes down to this:

ONE of these two men WILL win the election.

We NEED to vote for the one who most closely holds to the values

of the Bible, AND adheres to the Constitution.

Period.

He's a Mormon.  Well, fine.  That doesn't excite me in the least.

But he's running for President, not for pastor of my church.

Obama clearly does not have American values in mind

for the future of our country...so, Romney it is!

If you don't vote, do NOT complain.

EVER.

I don't want to hear it.

It burns my butter-buns when people don't vote.

It's not right.

Not biblical.

Not American.

And that's the truth.

Get out there and VOTE.

******

Completely unrelated, but almost as equally controversial

(might as well get this all over with at once!),

PLEASE go read my friend Patty's latest blog post.

ESPECIALLY if you are an adoptive parent.

ESPECIALLY if you are an adoptive parent of an older child.

That's all the turbulence I have for you for now.

Stay tuned for fluffy and glittery blog posts from here on out. 

(Actually, I totally cannot guarantee that.)

Love Jesus.

Love your family.

Love America.

Blessings, ya'll!

Lori

7 {a must read!}

 Ok so,

when Patty was here

(I won't stop talking about Patty's visit for another 2 1/2 months,

just so you know),

we went to hear Jen Hatmaker speak

at a women's dinner at my church.

She was amazing.

You'd be mighty blessed if you listened to it.

(Go HERE to HEAR)

(Haha)

(You may have to skim through the sermons to find hers).

Anyhow,

Patty and I were so blessed and convicted

and resolved to never speak of anything other than

serving the Lord.

Ever.

Even though we whine endlessly to each other

about various and particular things,

we are determined to be thankful and

walk humbly with our God.

Together.

Patty and me.

And the rest of my fabulous friends.

Here's Jen.

She was so dang funny.

And real.

And funny, funny, funny.

And the word she brought messed me up real good.

And I immediately wanted to

buy every single book she's written.

(I need to stop starting sentences with And)

But I have no money.

However, God has a way of providing

all the things we need (big and small)...

and my dearest friend Mary loaned me three,

count them, THREE, of her books.

I is soooo giddy.

And I'm reading this one first.

Oh.My.Gracious.

I have never laughed OUT LOUD,

and felt so convicted, all in one page.

After page, after page, after page.

Seriously,

go buy this book.

Or borrow it from your friend Mary.

You will love it.

And you will love me for recommending it.

I must go now.

There are little children begging me to

feed them dinner.

And because I'm a good mother,

I will feed them.

Enjoy your Tuesday evening.

(Today is Tuesday, right?)

zoo with patty

So.

In the planning stages of Patty's visit I said to her,

via email,

"Don't worry...I won't drag you around the zoo

in this weather!"

To which she said,

"Oh my gosh, we would LOVE to go to the zoo!!!"

To which I said,

"Oh GREAT, okay, we will go to the zoo then!"

To which I now say,

"You STUPID STUPID IDIOT! Why would you

drag anyone to the zoo in this weather?"

But,
I did.

Yes, that's what I did.

Ok so, here are our zoo pictures.

I am pretty sure it was 127+ degrees.

Hell will be more pleasant.

(Not really)

And we were pretty heavily grumpy about

7 minutes into it.

Just saying.

But we were pretty adorable anyway.

Take a look.

This is Patty and me when we escaped to

the funny farm in Maui.

Don't be jealous.

And the look on Macy's face pretty much sums

up how ridiculous we felt

for going to the zoo on such a day.

We will never ever EVER go to the Topeka zoo

in July for as long as we live.

You can count on that.

And we will not talk about this experience

again from this moment forward.

Had an absolute blast with Patty!

I have a few pics posted on our

Lolly and Polly

blog.

larry the lizard {and patty}

Yesterday we went to the zoo,

I mean, pet store.

It was quite the adventure.

A quirky little old woman working there

practically threw this rat at Lucy

to hold.

I was breaking into a full sweat

that Lucy would immediately hurl the

poor little (and disgusting and vile) rodent

right off of her.

Whew.

Instead, she handled it with much grace.

As did Isaiah.

Then after a stern lecture from the quirky little old woman

working at the pet store about how to handle a hamster,

they got to play with them.

With a little less fear and trepidation than

the rats.

Hermit crabs.

Then,

what happened next was

the mother of all pet store experiences.

A little bitty lizard, we'll call Larry,

fell madly in love with Patty.

They chatted for quite some time,

Patty reassured him that his life would

be full and lovely without her.

He couldn't grasp how that could possibly be true.

Tough love is, well, tough.

And we moved on,

leaving Larry alone with his thoughts.

The End.

Oh, but today...

we are going to the REAL zoo.

Stay tuned.

I can only imagine whose heart Patty will

break there.

coconuts

The other day I received a package in the mail.
When I opened the mailbox and saw something more than
bills and junk mail,
well, my heart jumped.
As did the kids'.

A big mail day around here is almost as cool as... a helicopter
landing in our back yard.
So sad, I know.

But when I saw who the package was from (my friend Patty),
a sudden nervousness came over me...
because I was quickly reminded of the ear-wax pickers I had
just sent to her (a lovely gift from China to her son).

She owed me one.

In a bad way.

So of course the kids wanted me to open it.
I did.
Sweat dripping, practically.



And here's what I got...

With a lovely note that said this was to officially kick off my packing
for our cruise in 2018.

Thankfully I didn't have to explain the coconuts to anyone but Macy.
She laughed.



But the next morning as I was trying to become coherent with
my jumbo mug of coffee...
I look over and my little man had adorned himself
(I swear to ya, I had nothing to do with this)
and was delightfully playing with Easter eggs.
Thank goodness the coconuts were out of reach.

In Batman pajamas.



Patty, we're even.
For now.

patty {so funny}

I really have nothing to blog about today.

EXCEPT to tell you that you simply must go over to
Patty's blog
and read her latest adventure with her newest non-English speaking teenager.

The hilarity just never ends.

don't people understand?

All I kept thinking was "doesn't this bother anyone? Don't people understand? So many kids just wishing for one thing---a family." It seriously breaks my heart.

My friend, Patty who just visited the orphanage
of her older daughter, new son, our Macy, and our new son (waiting for us).


Read more here...


Sorry, for some reason the link isn't working.
Go to:
www.onceuponamooncake.blogspot.com
You will probably have to copy/paste it to your browser.

scoot, scoot

I have a fantastic idea.
With the click of a button,
YOU can head right over to my friend
Patty's blog
to see the super duper fun little giveaway she's doing.


Here's Patty and me.
I know what you're thinking.
How in the world do we have time for our
modeling careers with all that we've
got going on?
We're super women, that's how.
Don't be jealous.


Now, go on over there right away, OK?

Scoot, scoot.

staggering stats

Hey, swing over to Patty's blog, would ya?

Her latest post is SO GOOD.

$13 birthday party!

If you've been reading my blog for very
long, you know about my great friend Patty that I adore!

She and I have a ton in common,
including the fact that our little Chinese girlies are
both from the same orphanage.
AND,
our big girlies are from the same orphanage.

NOW,
we are both adopting big boys from the same orphanage.

Cool, isn't it??

Anyway,
she's doing a super fun fundraiser today because
it's her boy's 13th birthday!!
And as a way to celebrate AND raise money
for bringing him home,
she's asking everyone to prayerfully consider a
$13 "gift" to help with his adoption expense.

Isn't that fun?!

Go check it out!!

cursive "L"

Well, it's 4:30 AM and I'm having an extra
big 'o cup of coffee to jump start my
crazy day of travel!

Like I said in my last post,
I won't be taking my laptop
(which is like leaving behind one of my limbs, if you must know)
so I will send short and oh-so-sweet posts from my
cell phone.

I am just giddy with excitement to see my friends
Mary and Patty.
AND for Macy to see her friends Ellie and Lina.
It will be a super sweet reunion.
Three darling girls, once orphans...now in wonderful families
of their very own.
Forever.
I'll probably cry like a big Chinese baby seeing them together.
That is if I don't shed all my tears trying
to get through FOUR dog-gone airports!!
Do be praying about that, would you?!

Oh and I'll let you in on a little secret
(since I know Patty won't be reading this this morning)...
I put a cursive "L" on my t-shirt to wear today.
You gotta go read her latest post to understand.
Although,
I found it to be terribly difficult to make such a letter
out of fabric.
So it has an alarming resemblance to a figure 8 with wings.

Ok,
I gotta run jump in the shower.
Then we're off!!

WOOT WOOT....God is SO COOL!

Ok,

I'm floating here....

Patty just emailed me.

She went to the orphanage today.
They wouldn't let her inside...
but guess who just "happened" to be OUTSIDE?!!

YES!!

OUR GIRL....SHU LI!!!!!

Patty talked to her and took a picture of her!
She didn't have a clue that she was being adopted,
but Patty told her!
And told her that she knows her new Mama and Baba!

Thank you JESUS!!!

OH! There is a friend of Shu Li and Ellie's
who is STILL waiting for a family!!!
She is on WACAP's WC list.

What are you waiting for?
Let's get this group of girlfriends to the
US!!!

a little good news

I just have to share with you all that I got an
email from Patty early this morning...

she told me that as she was giving
our care package to someone
who is delivering it
to Shu Li, her daughter Ellie (that she just met
yesterday) was asking about who the package was
for.

Well,
turns out that Ellie and Shu Li are friends!!
And Ellie was so thrilled to find out that Shu Li is
being adopted also!!

They all sat and looked at the pictures of our family that I had
included in the care package.

It seemed to really put Ellie's mind at ease
(at least for a bit)
about being adopted, knowing that some
of her friends will be in the US also.

It was such a joy to get that good news.
I just wish Patty and I didn't live half the country
away from each other.

But, we WILL get the girls together
at some point!

Laverne & Shirley....on a fast

My friend Patty (and when I say friend I mean one rockin' cool adoptive
Mom that I met online), and I email constantly since
we have so much in common, mostly, our current adoptions of
our older girls.

We have a good time and we even call ourselves,

Laverne & Shirley

because we are such fun, quirky gals who are totally up for an adventure.

I'm Laverne....Patty's Shirley


As I mentioned recently Patty is watching
the clock tick-tock away as the time is drawing near that she must
travel in order to adopt her adorable daughter
before she turns 14.

Trouble is........

She's still waiting on that dog-gone LOA (Letter of Approval).

***Sigh***

And.....the sw*ne flu continues to keep things at a stand-still.

**Sigh**

I honestly can say that I've prayed just as much, if not more, for her adoption as I have my own.

Last Monday we both (plus some sweet real-life friends) fasted and prayed.

Truly, it made a difference....I have no doubt.
But we haven't seen the fruit of that yet.

Last night we were emailing back and forth and I told her that perhaps the biggest
lesson God would have us learn in all this is to COMPLETELY
rely on Him.
And that perhaps......we were relying a bit too much on rumors....and tid bits
of information we scrounge around for on the internet.

Ouch.

This is a huge habit for both of us. Huge.
We can get our hopes way up or plummet into discouragement.....

all based on something we've read online (aka, RUMOR).

We both knew this was wrong.
And Patty suggested we go on a fast.....from all rumors.

You may think.....that's silly, that's no sacrifice.....that's just an excuse to not give up food.
Well, let me tell ya.....hard as it is, going without food for a day
would be much easier for both of us.
But actually, I'm planning on fasting from food on Monday also.

To give you an idea of how much I "rely" on these rumors.....
I refresh the rumor site no less than about every
half hour (when I'm home), and read ALL the comments....
in hopes of finding something that
will give me some hope and a sense of control.

See! That's all wrong.

So......no more Rumor Qu*en, no more yahoo groups
where it's more of the same.

Now until next Friday.

I ask you to join us.......if giving up RQ isn't a sacrifice for you, then please consider
giving up something else that will lead to you pray
frequently about this sw*ne flu situation, that Patty would get
her LOA SOON (OK, and me too!!), and all the other adoptions being held
up because of this illness (like my friend Rachel who has her TA travel approval and
is ready to go!!).

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6

If you are unfamiliar with RQ, it is a site for information and yes, rumors, in regards to Ch*na adoptions. Much of the information truly is reliable and based on facts but a lot of it is speculation.

Calling all prayer warriors!!!

My sweet friend Patty and her family
are also adopting a 13 year old girl.
Both our girls
are from the same orphanage.

As you know, once a child turns 14 in Ch*na, they are no longer
eligible for adoption.

Period.

I've never seen this rule bent for anyone.

Patty's daughter turns 14 in July.

They have 7 weeks left to travel.

The sw*ne flu is causing a temporary halt in adoptions in some parts of
Ch*na.

Please join me today in praying that they receive their LOA THIS WEEK!!

Actually, I'm praying it arrives TODAY.
And that they will get their travel approval with

NO PROBLEMS.