A New Vatcher Enters the World!

Congratulations to Gord and Kathy on the birth of beautiful baby Jake, born today! Here he is just minutes old.
These pictures are for Grandmaman who is in Ecuador!

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Compassion Benefit Concert...Tickets go on sale Today!

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I came across this Beautiful Picture of Adoption today at http://abbafund.wordpress.com/

Adoption as a Picture of the Church

Adoption is a beautiful picture of the Gospel.

It is also a beautiful picture of the Church.

Those who were once separated and having no claim to relationship are now made family.

Those who apart from adoption would have little in common now share the same heritage and together are creating a new one.

Those who the world would make enemies are now fathers and sons.

Those who would be separated not only by geography but historic prejudice are now brothers and sisters.

Those who would be indifferent to one another at best are bound by indescribable love.

Read Ephesians 2:14-21

We’re Expecting but...

...I am not pregnant!

We are embarking on a beautiful journey to adopt a child. We have always wanted a large family, and at this point feel that God is calling us to love a child who needs a family! We are not exactly how things will work out, but that is okay, because God takes care of the details. I am not worried. Many of you may be wondering why...and part of me simply wants to say why not? ...we are blessed beyond belief and have love to share, so why not share it. Our child will come from Ethiopia, as we feel led to East Africa..."Nowhere on this planet do more helpless orphans exist then on the continent of Africa." (http://www.choicesadoption.ca/) A place where 1/10 children die before they are one, where 1/6 children will die before their 5th birthday...simply put we've been led.

We have begun the very lengthy process...I will post a list in the future about all they require, but man is it LONG. We've had medicals, fingerprinting, intervention checks, and are collecting a bible sized book of documents (Dossier)...we've been asked questions that we haven't even asked ourselves before, and a social worker is writing a report about us that will take her between 10-14 hours to write. I couldn't even write that much about me!! We have applied to the agency in AB- Adoption by Choice, and our coordinating agency is Imagine Adoption.

While I am not completely sure how long all of this will take- I've been told it can be anywhere from 9-24 months and basically involves a lot of waiting! So our home study is almost complete, and we hope to have it translated and sent to Ethiopia by mid-March with our Dossier. We then wait for a match proposal of a child, which is a picture, and maybe 1 page of 'sketchy' information that is looked at by a special doctor in Calgary to help us evaluate what they may or may not be telling us. We can choose to accept or decline the child depending on what info we have- what a difficult decision when that day comes. J ...Then if we accept, it then must go to court in Ethiopia- which may take up to three court days-basically waiting. Then there is more waiting for citizenship stuff, and travel dates. I think it will be a lesson in patience.

Now I know many of you are wondering what type of child this will be...well, we are putting in a request to have a child, any gender between 0-15 months...and I guess we will see!

Well that is it in a very short nutshell. If you are a praying person, please join us in prayer for this journey. I find myself torn at times at how to pray for our future child, and his or her family...because someone is going to be giving up a beautiful child for us...we don't know circumstance but there is an obvious loss. My heart breaks just thinking about it...but God is in control, and I am sooo thankful for that!

It is only fitting that we post this 'around' Annbelle's first birthday- because we announced our pregnancy with her at Adam's first birthday. Our precious little girl is one!!!! She is crawling up a storm, and I just love watching her little tush wiggle as she crawls away. She has started pulling herself up to standing, and took a nasty fall 10 minutes before our first meeting with the social worker two weeks ago. I have never seen such a large goose egg before. Thankfully the SW looked pass the goose egg.

Thanks everyone! Feel free to email us if you have questions! Love Rick and Sonya...Adam and Annabelle

More Scrapbooking

It seems our life is set to scrapbooking pages... This month Adam turned 2!! We had a great birthday party for him, with trains and everything.
















This was his birthday last year! A lot has changed since then.












At 20 months...he can drive anyone bananas!




These are our simple days!

Scrapbooking...

When I have a moment, I love to scrapbook. I am currently taking another Jessica Sprague class and LOVE it. I am learning some new techniques for photoshop, and it makes me super excited. Here are a few of the layouts I have been working on... hopefully more to come soon too.

If you leave a toddler alone...

If you leave a toddler alone- even for just a second, he will find SOMETHING to get into. I ran upstairs to get Annabelle and sure enough, Adam finds ALL the bananas and proceeds to line them up on the stairs. After playing with them, he of course wants to eat one... NOW!

Annabelle is already one month old...crazy how time flies. She is already 9 lbs...and is sleeping pretty good most nights. Definately an easier baby than Adam. Thank the Lord! We are all doing really well and Adam likes to kiss his 'baby' sometimes. Most of the time he is too busy to notice her until she makes a noise- which isn't very often.

Moja Moja 2008

The time is coming near for our annual Compassion Concert. I am SOOOO excited about this year because all proceeds go to Compassion's Child Survival Project- a relatively new program that Compassion is implementing in all the countries it is invovled with. Essentially it is a prenatal program for moms and their unborn children- a way to target the most vulnerable before they enter the child sponsorship program.

Each year, 132 million babies are born and begin the journey of early childhood. Tragically, too many of these children are lost along the way -- precious little ones who do not receive the nutrition, care, protection and learning opportunities necessary to survive and thrive.
Compassion's Child Survival Program, run by our existing Christian church partners around the world, reaches out to young, vulnerable children to save their lives and set them on the path toward healthy development.

SO PLEASE come to our Concert and help our cause- it will be another great program!

It's A GIRL!

After a long labour- our little bundle of joy entered the world at 12:21 pm - Jan. 30th, 2008. A mere 6 lbs 15 oz, and 20.5 inches long. Being two weeks early, she entered strong and healthy...so we present to you Annabelle Rose Marie Friesen.

Born on Great Grandma Olivier's Birthday, and named after her- Rose!

We are happy she is here, and are waiting for our other friends to enter the world too- We have 5 friends due the beginning of February!

Adam loves Santa, Ultrasound and more!

Ultrasound pictures are from September...so baby is much bigger now! Any ideas on if it is a boy or a girl?

We Love December!

Here is a calendar page I created for our new 2008 Calendar...It features Adam in his wonderful snow suit, which he is not too fond of.

We bought him a sled and took him around the block.

I must say...his cheeks sure are cute!

Scrappin Away...Adam of Course!

Two Layouts from my Jessica Sprague Photoshop class...

1. "Dog Tackle" - Adam chasing and tackling the puppies so he can play with them.

2. "Remote Thief"- I scrapped this one because Adam is constantly stealing the remote. When he spots an unattended remote he will drop what he is doing and make a beeline for it. Many times he is sucessful and he dashes away.

This is our Family!

I was looking through Rick's baby album and stumbled on this photo of him as a toddler with his dad, and totally understood why Rick is so great with Adam. . . it runs in the family! Some of my favourite moments of the day are watching those two play together...laughing...wrestling...chasing each other. It is amazing to watch!

I just had to document the similarities of the two photos, it is really quite neat! And aren't they just adorable!

I told you I was addicted..

30 Minute Challenge

So- my class asked me to do a 30 minute scrap challenge...from picture to page. It took a bit longer...a woman has to stop for supper, diaper changes, bed time, and of course downloading the 100s of pictures I took to get the perfect 1.! LOL!

So here it is:

Papers from the "Carnival Kit" at Sweet Shoppe Designs

Overlay by K. Pertiet- "flourished overlays" at Designer Digitals

and inspiration of the LO was from Jessica Sprague...just the most amazing scrapper around!

I'm in LOVE...

I'm in LOVE with Photoshop...(and my husband & son (of course))...but photoshop is AMAZING! The applications are limitless.

So- here is the last page to my 28 page Hawaii Scrapbook. It is being uploaded to Shutterfly as I type. I am so excited to see it printed and have it in my hands.

This page is Adam on Vacation...I used 24 photos of him to document just how darn cute he was..and is. This darn cute kid is GROWING so fast...i pulled out a shirt out of his drawer today that he wore in the summer and in Hawaii...and it doesn't fit him anymore. He is wearing 18-24 month clothing....yikes!

My Wandering Son!

I dedicate this page to my son who loves to wander away from me...as soon as his feet hit the ground...he's gone! Today at the park, he ran away. He always seems like he is on a mission. What a silly boy!

Digital Scrapbooking GALORE!

Okay, so I have been working on tutorials from magazines, and am on course #2 with Jessica Sprague- "Now we're Running with Photoshop" and am absolutely loving it! Here are two layouts I made. The red one was before the class...and the greenish blue one is the layout from the class. Neat eh? I have soooo many ideas running through my head, and just want to scrap away...unfortunately, I must go change a stinky diaper now!

It's been a while...

WOW, time has flown this fall. I am completely oblivious to the clock as it ticks, and the only thing letting me know that time is actually passing is my belly growing each day. Apparently I have 111 days until February 10th...the due date of this next beautiful babe. To answer any of the ongoing questions pregnant ladies get...no we are not finding out the sex of this child, I am not sure if i am having a c-section again, Adam and the baby will be 19 months apart...and yes, thank you I am feeling GREAT!
I think that sums it up!
As the time flies by, Adam and I enjoy numerous activities throughout the week, whether it is play dates at the park, before the weather turns nasty, or going to the pool. We have a wonderful pool on the West Side of town, that Adam can run around in. He is getting mighty fast, and my belly is starting to get in the way of chasing him. Thankfully, he doesn't get upset if he accidentally goes under. Don't worry folks, i am an ex-lifeguard!
Adam's new bedroom is coming along...his bed is set up, and he has a neat storage unit from Ikea. Grandmaman made him a beautiful quilt and it is on his bed. I am still debating when to put him in the room...there are soooo many opinions out there.
Here are a few pictures of our fall season... Adam is growing and active, and everyday amazes us with his intelligence.