March Madness

Hello!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful month of March. I, for one, am thrilled to be done with February for two main reasons: First, February is my birthday month and I no longer enjoy getting older (I must point out that although I don't like growing older, I DID have a wonderful birthday so I really shouldn't complain). Second, now that we're in March, the long stretches of frigid temps should be behind us. Yipppeeee!!!

I got a chance to go home and visit my family back in Illinois a couple of weekends ago, which was so nice. We spent a lot of quality time together and had a lot of fun. Oh, and while I'm on the topic of family, I'm happy to report that my dad just had an appendectomy, hernia surgery and removal of a portion of his colon (this was all done in one surgery) and he came through it with flying colors. He only had to stay in the hospital for the minimum amount of days (3) and is now at home and continuing to heal. Praise God!!

Last weekend, I got together with my best friends from college and we went to Vegas. I always look so forward to our weekends together because they only happen once a year. We all live in different parts of the country, so getting together once a year is about all we can do, but we always have such a good time.

This time around, we may have had a little TOO much fun. Let's just say that Vegas reminded us in a not so subtle manner that we are no longer 21 years old. We decided that we were going to "re-live" our spring break 1997 trip. Ummm, let's just say we did that...and then some. For spring break 1997, we decided we were going to be more awesome than all other spring breakers from Millikin and go to Vegas instead of the usual Florida or S. Padre Island, TX. And not only did we go to Vegas...we totally road-tripped it mini-van style. No planes for us...we were too cool back then (aka.. broke). I think it took us like 24 hours to get there. We drove straight through.

Most of our friends were VERY jealous back then and thought we were pretty awesome too. I can guarantee that NO ONE thought we were awesome this weekend. Not even us. But, we had a good time, so that's what's important.

Here are a couple of pics from the weekend:

Below from left: Dusty, Emilie, Me, Erin. Eating at Buchon in the Venetian. GREAT restaurant. The food was outstanding and our waiter was hilarious. I would definitely recommend eating there.

Below: Our first (and most physically damaging) night there. I think we had been awake for almost 24 hours straight at this point. We were at Harrah's watching the dueling pianists. That place is so much fun!! Some really drunk guy decided to get up on one of the pianos and moon the audience while attempting to dance. Gotta love a multi-tasker.

Girls, I had such a great time with you, as always. Can't wait to do it again next year :-)

Love to all,

Brooke

Come on Down

Ok, so I have a couple of topics to discuss in this post so just try to stick with me. First of all, I'd like to point out that I'm home alone on a Friday night with a nice cold beer in hand and LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF IT. Does this make me a loser? Maybe. But I don't care.

The first item of business is regarding the adoption process. In my last post, I voiced some frustration with how things were going. I've done a lot of praying about it and finally got to the point where I just had to ask God for a clear sign. I normally don't ask for "signs", but I was just SOOOO confused on how things were (or were NOT) progressing. I was starting to feel very uneasy about Nepal but we just couldn't see any other options that felt "right".

Well, about 2 days after praying for said "sign", we got a phone call from our social worker who, interestingly, voiced the adoption agency's growing concerns with the stability of the Nepal program. She said it was up to us if we wanted to continue with it, but thought we should consider some other options. Then she proceeded to lay out what options they felt might be in our best interest. One of these options was the Thailand program. Now, as far as we knew, our agency was not taking applications for the Thailand program because of a severe backlog of families still waiting for a referral. However, our social worker said the backlog is starting to thin out, so they would allow us in the program if we were interested. Clear sign? In my opinion....yes! I had always been interested in Thailand, but didn't know it was an option until now.

Now, does this mean we expect the Thailand program to be smooth sailing? Nope. But we DO feel much more comfortable and at peace with our decision to move to the Thailand program. Unfortunately, the timeline there is very lengthy. Once we get our dossier in (hopefully in the next 2 months), we're looking at about another 2 years until we get to bring our child home. It's a stable program though and I feel good about it. More to come on that.

Next item on the agenda: Another notch on my brother's "brush with fame" belt. I'm sure most of you already know what I'm talking about. Yes my friends, COME ON DOWN, YOU'RE THE NEXT CONTESTANT ON THE PRICE IT RIGHT!!!

Let me elaborate for those of you not "in the know". My brother, Jimmy, was in L.A. last week visiting some friends. The first day there, they decided to try to get on the Price is Right. They waited in line all day, but ended up victorious.....they got in! But wait, it gets better. Who do they choose as one of the contestants?? That's right...my brother! And who makes it all the way to the SHOWCASE SHOWDOWN??? Yep....my brother!! Unfortunately, he didn't win the showdown, but still.....the showcase showdown, people!!!! How cool is that??

He called to tell me about it just as they were leaving the building. What was the first question I asked him? Not, "Was Drew Carey nice?", or "What game did you play?". No. After repeating the phrase "shut up", "shut up" about a thousand times, I asked him if it was "hard to spin the wheel?" Come on, you know you've always wondered that too! When I watched TPIR as a kid I always thought it looked hard to spin the wheel and envisioned myself somehow getting dragged under it if I ever made it on the show. Yes, I've always been neurotic.

I also have to point out that this sort of thing happens to my brother ALL THE TIME. If I had a dime for every time I got a phone call from Jimmy that started with the phrase "You'll never guess who I just met", I'd be a...well...I'd have about 70 cents or so. He has met so many famous people and has gotten to do so many cool things it is borderline bizarre. Talking with Ben Affleck at a bar in Georgia, dancing with Gary Senise and his wife in Belize (I think it was Belize anyway), having some beers with the members of Velvet Revolver backstage....the list goes on and on.

And, yes, I am jealous. Oh, and my brother's episode airs on March 26th. Set your DVRs!!

Much Love,

Brooke

Updates and Daydreams

I'm just gonna come out and say it. This is how the adoption process is starting to make me feel....

Yep.....beat!!! I felt like I had been doing a pretty good job of just rolling with the punches. I'm an impatient perfectionist by nature (I know...not the best characteristics of someone who has to weather years..yep, years..of the roller coaster that is international adoption) so I knew this would be very challenging for me. I had actually been really calm about the whole thing up until the last few weeks when Nepal announced that it would only be placing 10 children per agency for the year 2009......yes, 10.
Well, thank God our agency only took 28 applications and stopped because as it stands now we will NOT be included in the 2009 group and maybe not even in the 2010 group (it all depends on when we get our dossier done). The worst case scenario is that we will be in the 2011 group, which would mean we would probably have our child home sometime in 2012. I know, it's enough to make a person scream and believe me, I have.
This is basically the universal state of international adoption right now. Lots of unknowns and extremely lengthly wait times. There is only one thing that keeps me sane in this process and that is knowing that this is in God's hands. He is orchestrating this whole thing so we are joined with the child that He has chosen for us. That child may or may not be in Nepal. We just don't know. We just have to trust Him and let Him work it all out. In the words of a Steven Curtis Chapman song..."to Him the future is history". He already knows how this will play out and that is truly a comfort because like it says in Romans 8:28 "All things work together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose". It doesn't get any better than that :-)
At this point, we are very close to having our dossier done which is a HUGE relief!! Even though we'll likely have to re-do most of it (because it all has to be renewed after a year), it will be one enormous hurdle behind us! Yipppeeee!!!

So there ya go...the first big adoption update in awhile!

As you've probably already figured out, I LOVE to include photos in my posts. Since we don't have any interesting ones that are recent, and since it has been sooo ridiculously cold over the last few days, I thought it would be fun to share some sunny photos from one of the best vacations we have ever been on.

These were taken 2 summers ago when Greg's Aunt Debbie and Uncle Claude graciously invited us to join them on their GORGEOUS yacht for a week long trip to the Bahamas. We're not talkin' the "touristy" part of the Bahamas, we're talkin' the parts that pretty much only people with yachts get to see. So kick back, relax, and soak up some sunshiny goodness..........

Above: Uncle Claude, me, Aunt Debbie, Greg enjoying a beautiful sunset at one of the marinas.

Doesn't this pic just make you sigh? Good gracious it's gorgeous there.

That beautiful blue water.

My very favorite island....Harbor Island. There are no cars on the island (only golf carts) and to get there you have to fly into the tiny airport and then take a taxi to get to the place where you have to take a water taxi to get there. You can't tell in this pic, but the sand there is light pink because of a certain kind of coral that lives off the shore. And notice how empty the beach is? It's a hidden treasure. Paradise people, pure paradise!!!!!

Dinner on the balcony of the Rock House on Harbor Island. Rock House is a boutique hotel with only like 10 rooms. They also have an amazing restaurant with a beautiful view of the ocean. Food was to die for!!! I would love to go back someday and stay in the hotel.

Sunset on the balcony of Rock House.

Hope these pics left you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.

Love to all,

Brooke

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas 2008 was fairly uneventful at the Reynolds' house. We had to stay here in Lincoln because I had surgery the day after Christmas. Not the best way to spend the holiday, but it was nice to get the surgery over with before the end of the year. We had a nice, relaxing Christmas here at home...just the three of us (I'm counting Jackson). Here are some pics of our holiday.
Above is a picture of our main family room all decorated for the Christmas season.

Above: Proof that Santa exists...one of his reindeer was left behind.

This delicious container of cookies was Jackson's main gift for Christmas. Don't they look yummy? Hard to believe they are dog cookies!!

Dig the tee shirt we bought for Jackson. I couldn't help myself. Just too funny!!!

Above: Me showing off some of my gifts. A Banana Republic gift card (thank you Jerry and Peggy!!!) and DVDs Superbad and Under the Tuscan Sun (thanks Mike!!)

Above: Greg opening his new wallet (thanks mom and dad!!)

Me sporting my new Ugg earmuffs. Talk about super soft and comfy! Thanks again, Mike!!

Greg posing with his new Cubby ornament. Thanks again mom and dad!

We couldn't figure out how the timer worked on our camera so above is our poor attempt at trying to get ourselves in the same photo.

Me holding my furry little son.

That's all folks! Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

Brooke