Boom, boom, boom!

I'm going to start with a family story that is currently on going. My younger brother is getting married in two weeks! It's all very exciting! This couple is solidly awesome. So we've been asking how we can help, what we can do to help in this process and then last night we got the email. We have been recruited to be in a flash mob at the reception! Awesome!

Check out the choreography here: http://youtu.be/fH82_EDkJ8A

After the wedding I'll try to upload the video!

You have no Power over me!

I was talking with an adoptive mother asking her some questions about the whole adoption process. I was laughing at myself about the projects and strange goals I make to keep down the weird anxiety I feel during this wait period. And felt relieved to know, she did it too!

Then I realized one thing that triggers my anxiety is this blog. I stress over it! Am I saying the right things? Am I saying them the right way? I think I’ve made the importance of this blog out to be something WAY bigger than it is. As such, I’m totally going to get all informal and do a series of blogs on family stories.

In my family these stories are told around the dinner table after the meal is eaten but before clean up beings. We all sit around the table, swap stories and laugh. In Josh’s family they are told on the couches in the family room on Sunday nights during treat fest! Josh’s aunts all bring some sweet and everyone gathers around and the giggling beings.

However you’d like to picture it, this is your official welcome to the family!

Pass Alongs, Postcards & Peeps! Oh My!

Our pass along cards arrived and we are very happy with them! The art work was donated by the great artist behind http://www.themodernpolkadot.com/. Go check out her stuff. You can tell she has quite the flair for life just by her designs, we’ve never met but I’m quite enamored with her. She has a swagger I enjoy. Watch the mail loved ones, you should be receiving some soon. We ask that you carry these with you. If the moment is right, share one. If you see a community board, pin one up. Grass roots marketing campaign folks! We also ordered some postcards! See I tend to throw away small cards, but postcards I hold on to forever, something about it being bigger makes me keep it for months and months. I still have Christmas cards on my fridge, it's a problem I know. I’m hoping I’m not the only one with this disease. They look like this:

I love the design on the front. This was also custom made for us. I’ve been overwhelmed by people’s generosity and kindness. Months ago when this was all beginning Josh and I were talking with N.Eve at church about our desire to design t-shirts and do a fundraiser. We chatted about few designs over giddy nursery children and she offered to help us. People, she is amazing! We threw out a ton of random ideas and she designed us this heartwarming image of hope that appeals to everyone. It has become a mantra in our life. I'd really love to get a canvas print made to hang in our home. (Check her out here http://www.etsy.com/shop/nevedobson)

Lastly, I love this time of year. Spring is in full gear! Spring in AZ means 80 -90 degree days, baseball, and our annual Peeps competition. We challenge family and friends to create something using Peeps as their art medium! It is always so fun to see what our tribe comes up with. My mom said she had a dream about what her Peep entry was supposed to be! Challenges are being thrown out right and left. I think it is going to be a hot competition this year! Want to play? Email your entry to us at josh2ellen@gmail.com by April 13th.

Dating and other allergies

Josh and I met at LDS Business College. During his freshman orientation, I was there presenting for the newspaper and there he was, hugging and laughing my co-editor who had been one of Josh’s mission companions. It wasn’t a romantic star crossed lovers moments. In fact, Josh doesn’t even really remember the actual first time we met. He remembers catching up with Elder Gonzo. The only thing that stands out about our very first meeting is that Josh felt really familiar. It felt as though we had known each other for a really long time. Maybe that’s the Shakespearean lovely moment in it all, I feel like I recognized his spirit.

From there it is a series of me putting myself in his way. (I was such a pre-facebook stalker.) His first recollection is a service project our church group did. We were slicing & bagging homemade bread for distribution to less fortunate families. Josh was loading the bread into the slicer, my roommate was loading the bags, I was in charge of the twist tie machine. For the first half of the night he relentlessly flirted with my roomy, who wouldn’t she was gorgeous! And then the twist tie machine got jammed and Josh tried to come to my rescue, which is very sweet in retrospect. However in the moment I was frustrated and I didn’t need to be saved. So I slapped his hand and told him I could handle it. And suddenly I was getting equal flirt time.

I invited him for dinner that Sunday at our apartment and cooked up a big lasagna, salad and magic cookie bars. I’ll email anyone the recipe for these cookies because they are delicious!! Nothing but coconut, chocolate, graham crackers and sugar! Josh is eating along on this gooey heavenly dessert coconut spilling all over the plate when suddenly he says, “These don’t have coconut in them do they? I’m allergic to coconut!” You should have seen the high alert that occurred he had four girls up on their feet anxious and ready to save him. Then he leaned back in his chair and said, “So, which of you girls wants to give me mouth to mouth?”

What can I say…Josh is a smooth operator.

Proposed!

9 years ago on Valentine's Day Josh proposed to me. It was pretty awesome. We were both going to school in Salt Lake City and the 2002 Winter Olympics were occurring. My entire family was in town and all of us were sleeping in my one bedroom apartment in downtown Salt Lake. It was cozy!

My parents had managed to get a tickets package for the Olympics and so that day I got to go see the Super G. After some sweet down hill skiing I came home to a rose and a cd waiting for me at the house. Josh had dropped it off on his way to work. It was an awesome cd full of mooshy gooshy perfect love songs.

About 8 pm that night I got a phone call from a friend, she told me a big long story about how her husband hadn't done anything for Valentine's Day and she was upset. Could she drive downtown and would I meet her at a park and walk around the Olympic village with her? Heck yes I would! I couldn't get enough of the awesome spirit that surrounded the Olympics! I invited my older sister to come along. As we bundled up I remember saying to her, "I think Josh might be considering proposing soon. Don't let me look like a mess like this when he does okay? Make sure I'm hot." She nodded and smiled and away we went.

After about a five minute walk we arrived at the designated park and there standing very romantically on a bridge we often visited was Josh with another rose. My sister gave my hand a good squeeze and winked and took off to a nearby bench. As I approached Josh he gave me the flower and we chatted for a bit. He was supposed to be at work, but he'd gotten it off early. Yes he'd used our mutual friend as a ploy. And then in a moment of total smoothness, he pointed at my right glove and said, "Hey can I use that?" That's when I totally knew!

(sidebar from Josh "In all my scheming. I did not take into account... gloves." " Ill admit it threw me off my groove..")

But he didn't jump right into asking. He kept on small talking. How was my day, did I like my cd, etc. I'll be honest, I finally whispered, "I won't say no." That's when he knelt down and proposed! It was awesome!

We hugged and kissed and were quickly joined by my sister who knew all along what was happening. Probably should have told me to brush my hair. Oh well! As we walked to Josh's truck, my sister kept telling everyone, "They just got engaged. Love is in the air people!" We had several congratulations in different languages before ever reaching the car! We opened the door to my apartment and the whole family was just waiting. Little did I know that while I enjoyed the Super G, Josh had taken the family to lunch and asked for my hand. So everyone knew! Many kisses and hugs were shared.

A little help from Wilson

Do you remember that scene in the movie Castaway where Tom Hanks has been working all day long to make fire? He works and works trying different techniques. He badly cuts his hand, creating Wilson. But he's persistent and eventually there is a little spark. We then see him that night shirt off, pounding his chest around a huge flame, jumping up and down, screaming to the sky, "I HAVE MADE FIRE!! I have made fire."

Not gonna lie, I feel a bit that way about finally getting to post our website. Yes, yes there are some errors (photos not where I want them, typos) but we will fix those in the next week, for now I want to revel in the success! WE HAVE MADE WEBSITE. Bonfire victory dance!

https://www.itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/25246336/ourMessage.jsf

Approved

Righteous! Gnarly! Phenomenal!

We were approved last week! Want to hear the story? Here's how it goes.... On your very typical night in suburbia Josh decides to go check the mail.

"Wife, I feel I should go check the mail."

Here's where you should know that this is unusual because we are notoriously bad mail checkers. Only when we know a new netflix is waiting for us do we check our mail. Sorry Mailman! I think now that he may have been prompted to go check the mail and good thing too!

He comes back in and sits across the counter from me, I was cooking dinner, and starts to thumb through the gigantic stack. (We are really bad mail checkers.) Then suddenly he snatches something up and kind of squeals. His eyes get all big and he rips open the envelope. I'll be honest, I'm completely clueless at this point. I thought we'd hear by phone call that we'd been approved. He pulls several pages out of the envelope and as he unfolds a bunch of "Congratulation" glitter falls on my counter. That's when it hit me!! I'll admit I got all kinds of grabby at that point and Josh leaned out of the reach of my hand and read, "It is ordered that the above named applicants is/are certified as acceptable to adopt children pursuant to the laws of the State of Arizona."

I wish we could have recorded the cheers! We jumped around and hollered for a bit. Hugs, kisses, phone calls. It has been a pretty glorious celebration.

And now we get to move forward! Watch out people, good things are coming from us!