tears...more tears...and family pictures!

We had an amazing weekend at our adoption conference, but I think I'm all cried out. Friday night was a banquet and the guest speaker who happened to be Ruth who came with us to meet our birth mother for the first time last year. It was so nice to see her again and for her to see Ryker for the first time. She is such a sweet lady and shared the most beautiful story about a dream she had before her son was born. The things she spoke about totally made me remember so many things about our own adoption experience...thoughts...emotions...memories.... So of course I was bawling through out that. And then her daughter sang the song "From God's Arms, To My Arms, To Yours" which has always been a favorite song of mine since I was young and that has been more of a favorite in the past couple of years. And to make it more emotional Ruth's daughter that sang was adopted...so of course she was in tears singing...we were all in tears as she sang...and kleenex was being passed around the small group of people who were there. By the end of the song she could hardly even sing and was more just whispering the words...it was so touching. Saturday Morning there were more talks given by the staff of LDS Family Services and Families Supporting Adoption (who we will be working with)...they were really good. But then after a short break they had a Birth Mother come and share her story...amazing! I couldn't believe the courage it took for her to come and share something so personal to her...and it had only happened 3 months ago.... She did an amazing job. We also got to hear from an adoptive couple who had adopted 3 children and could totally relate to parts of their experience. They had sure been through a lot. And then in the afternoon we split up into our chapters (by region) and talked more about our roles and what we are to be doing. It was a busy weekend, but so nice.





After the conference we went back to Chelsey's and then went and took some family pictures. It is so hard sometimes getting Cody to cooperate. Poor Chelsey had to listen to me nag at my hubby...sorry! (and sorry Cody too!) Ryker refused to look at the camera most of the time...but we got some cute shots! Thanks so much Chels...I LOVE them! And thanks for letting us stay with you and for watching Ryker on Saturday! Pacey and Sydney were so cute with Ryker and wanted to help him with everything. We had Sydney convinced she was Cody and she would even respond whenever we'd holler "Cody!" It was so funny. The next time we visit they'll be in their new house! We're so excited for them!








Yesterday we went to my parents for a bar-b-que since my mom left the freezer door open and their steaks thawed. hehe! Worked out great for us though! So we got to see my cousins and Candice and Talin. It was fun.

A busy weekend, but now it's time to get my house back to normal. The night before we left My dad was working in the basement with Cody and they decided to take down the rest of the wall....well on the other side of the wall was some of our food storage.... Yup the shelf fell down and the salsa I had canned last year and the peaches my sister-in-laws canned for me this year broke all over the carpet. Even some of Ryker's baby food jars broke.... It was a mess! It's a good thing we plan to replace the carpet. I had to throw a bunch of stuff out and clean off the rest, but now it's just sitting on the kitchen counters. So time to get it cleaned up. I really should get started.

Kim :)