Happy 2010!

I am really looking forward to 2010. 2009 was a year of a lot of change and adjustments for us.

By the time 2009 rolled around Naomi had been with us only about 6 short weeks. We spent new years in downtown Honolulu with the Gonzales family playing Wii and watching the fireworks.

From Jannuary-June we soaked up as much of the island as we could and played in the beautiful ocean for hours.

My girlfriends, who I miss dearly, gave me the most wonderful going away dinner in June. Everyone looked so beautiful, the sunset was gorgeous and the food delicious. They said so many nice things about me and lots of tears were shed. It is a time I will never forget!

We left Hawaii in June, just the kids and I, right after the boys got out of school to spend the summer in California with my family. Darrick stayed back in Hawaii, finishing his sea time on the USS Lake Erie.

Darrick joined us in August and then we took an awesome road trip with my side of the family to Canada for my brother Sam's wedding.

In September, Darrick packed up our minivan, and we drove to Washington. We stopped and saw the Sytsma and Flint families and had a great time in the Redwoods.

We arrived in Marysville, WA our new home and moved into the house we are renting. Once the movers came all the unpacking began.

I started Homeschooling and we are seeing as much of Washington as we can. Our bodies are adjusting to the new climate.

In November we celebrated Naomi's 1 year adoption anniversary and added Oliver to our family. We adopted Oliver from the Everett Animal Shelter. We celebrated Thanksgiving with our new friends from Africa and began the countdown to Christmas.

In December we took our PRIDE classes to start the ball rolling for our next adoption journey and we chose our adoption agency, UJIMA.

Which leads us today. January 1, 2010! I approach this year with great excitement. In anticipation of our family growing from 5 members to 7 I have been reading a lot about BIG families and how they function well. The best book I read was "Table for Eight-Raising a large family in small-family world" by Meagan Francis. The first key is organization. So Darrick and I spent the last few days giving the house a complete overhaul. The next step is scheduling and adding some organization tools.

One of the best tools we took away from Hawaii was something our church, Hope Chapel West Oahu, taught us. That is to fast at the start of each new year. We will be starting tomorrow. Darrick and I are doing the Daniel Fast and our whole family is "fasting" from electronics for a week. No TV, Internet, email, computer or DS. So if you need to get a hold of us call us on our cell phones because we will not check our email until next Friday.

We hope everyone has a great 2010!