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Thursday, December 15, 2011

All of your sons...Isaiah 54:13 NIV84

All of your sons will be taught by the LORD, and great will be your children's peace. - Isaiah 54:13 (NIV84)


I love these pictures that were taken by Ashley Bell. You can find her contact information here. She was such a joy to hang out with for an afternoon of pictures. Aren't these pictures fun?


We are outside of the old Sparkle Ice plant in Conroe, Tx. It is now a reception hall/ice house. So, if someone tells you that they saw the youth minister and his family loitering around the ice house, it is true. But, it's only because the faded blue paint and all of the old brick is so dern gorgeous.


I think this one with the boys and their silly faces is my favorite. In fact, I would say that this is a pretty accurate snapshot of a typical day in the life of a Daigle.



I love this one, as well. I think my favorite part of this picture is Gideon's expression.

And check out this little guy.


Good grief, am I blessed or what?! We can't wait to have another Daigle in the picture with us!

Ashley, we'll be calling you again.

For everyone else that wants to call her...

Saturday, December 10, 2011

A Romantic Blowout

I love Elizabeth George. I have read several of her books: A Woman After God's Own Heart, A Mom After God's Own Heart, A Woman's High Calling, Beautiful In God's Eyes, Breaking the Worry Habit...Forever. That's just a few.

I don't remember in which of her studies she mentioned the need for a date night for parents. However, in it she suggests putting the kids down early and preparing a separate meal for Daddy and Mom. What a great idea, especially when the added cost of paying a babysitter cuts into the savings needed to bring home an adopted child. So, I added it to the list of changes needed to save even more money for the adoption.

Wednesday night there were no activities at the church, because of Bethlehem City. I found this to be the perfect opportunity to implement our Daddy/Mom Dinner plan. So, Larry made the boys waffles. (He bought us this waffle maker about a year ago and it's fabulous!) While he was feeding them and getting them settled in upstairs for the night, I made us a separate dinner. Baked salmon, sauteed spinach with onions and some rice (brown, red and wild rice blend). It was marvelous. I even used the china and crystal. As I heard Larry getting them settled in the gameroom for a movie, I thought, "I have time to get out some candles." And, I did.

We had our meal. We lowered the lights, lit the candles and had quiet conversation over our delicious, non-hotdog, non-mac-n-cheese meal. After a while, however, our solitude melted. The boys got bored with the movie and started meandering about the house. We knew it would happen. Jeremiah came down the stairs and asked, "Why are those candles on the table?" Larry's response was as follows: "We are having a romantic dinner." Then, the question of the ages...

"After your romantic dinner, are you going to have a romantic blowout?"

Imagine me and Larry as we both pursed our lips to try to keep from exploding with laughter. What little boy wouldn't associate candles with blowing them out? That's their purpose, right?!

Oh, we couldn't contain ourselves too long. We eventually erupted with giggles. Larry headed back up the stairs with Jeremiah and tucked all four guys into bed. I did the dishes and contemplated the romantic blowout.

The term "blowout" could mean any number of things.


It could mean that our romantic intentions were blown to bits by something unexpected...I'm thinking tire blowout here. You know, as in "we were trying but the boys interrupted". It could be anything really, the boys, the dogs, the bills, the laundry. Anything can interrupt and cause the romantic blowout.

It could mean that our dinner was going to turn into a romantic extravaganza. Or, as we once heard it pronounced by a pizza delivery guy in New Orleans, "Extrava-GAHN-ZAH." He was just talking about pizza though. There was no mention of romance. Thank God.

The next day, Jeremiah asked, "How did your romantic dinner go, last night?" What a neat kid. We told him it was nice and continued on with the morning activities. The long and short of it is that life has some blowouts...good and bad, romantic or not. I am grateful, though, for the sweet time that we had at our breakfast table, with the boys upstairs. So many of our little tasks and brief moments are becoming sweeter in this adoption journey. If we hadn't been "saving money" we would have had a regular dinner at a busy, loud restaurant...with no mention (or hope) of A Romantic Blowout.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Holiday Mayhem

The holidays are upon us and we are soaking it up like a sponge!

We had a super Thanksgiving. On that fabulous smelling Thursday, we went to visit Larry's mom and step-father at their home. MamMaw and Poppa have the best place on earth to play outside. It is absolutely unrivaled. The boys planned out their own version of Mantracker for the month before we were there. The plan was for them to head out and hide, then Larry and I would assume our roles as the Mantracker. (If you haven't seen Mantracker, you obviously don't live in a house with 5 men.) Our nephew is 16 and he accompanied the boys in their hiding. We didn't stand a chance. We searched for what seemed an eternity. Larry and I lost. Completely. We will never live it down.

After a day of playing outside, riding four-wheelers, shooting BB guns and looking at new calves, we headed home. On Friday, we went the opposite direction and visited my grandparents. More fun! We played BINGO for prizes and had so much fun and chicken that we could barely function. We stayed in the area that night and then headed home (along with every other Texan, based on the traffic). We stopped off at the BassProShop in Katy, walked the entire mall, ate a Fuddruckers, talked with the most precious couple and compared our children's Bible names. Let me just add, that woman had the best hair I have ever encountered on earth. Gorgeous.

We are now in the home stretch for the Christmas holiday and the boys are counting down to the break. There are currently four Christmas trees in the house. What am I thinking?! We love it.

Update on Adoption Progress:

We had our physicals the week of Thanksgiving and just got all of those forms done and notarized. Our doctor's office was so excited and helpful. If everyone we meet on this journey is half as helpful as the staff at our doctor's office, we will be supremely blessed! Thank you, Dr. Nguyen and staff!