SNOW!

When I was a little girl, my dad wanted a wood-burning stove.  My mom did NOT want one!  My dad pleaded and did his best to convince her we needed one, and then he finally just went and bought one.  He worked his tail off all weekend installing it, and finally was able to burn wood!  He was so happy!  Literally just a few days later, one of the worst ice storm in Illinois history hit our region, and we were without power.  For MANY days!  Many of my relatives came to stay with us, as we were one of the few families who had heat!  For years, my extended family called my dad "Noah", since he completed his stove just before the storm hit!

I am calling Dale "Noah" these days!  We are buried under lots and lots of snow, and below zero temps.  Our snowfall for the season, has already tripled what we had last year....and this is only January 6!  I simply cannot imagine being on the farm, choring in this mess, trying to dig out in this mess, and I guarantee you we would be without power.....with no wood burning stove!  Dale found us this house, fell in love with this house, and led us to live here!  And I am thankful!  He is my Noah!
He got us moved before the storm hit!

Other news.....we have started our home study for Wen and Wu.  Our caseworker is awesome, and we are hoping to be done by the end of the month.  Hang on boys, we are coming!

This past weekend, we had the amazing opportunity to spend some time with Rory's birth family....including his twin brother!  For those of you who don't know the story, we had both boys for the first month of their lives, while their momma made that difficult decision of whether she could parent them.  In the end, she chose to parent Bryson (who we called Ronan), and allowed us to adopt Rory.  She didn't feel she could provide for Rory's needs, and we promised her we would/could.  Losing Ronan was one of the hardest things we have ever been through.  But, his momma has done an excellent job with him, and he is as healthy, happy, and full of life as his our Rory Tait!  And they sure love each other.  Enjoy these photos of their visit!