New year but nothing new on the adoption front

Hey all!

Although I said it before, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!  As you can tell from the post title, still nothing new on the adoption front.  But its encouraging that we hear Poland had few working days in December due to religious and other holidays (gotta love us Catholics!) so maybe we'll hear something soon.

Meanwhile, we had a great holiday season and have been concentrating on getting back into the swing of school these past few weeks.  Case had a super short vacation (only 12 days!) so we tried to make the most of it.  The weather was basically great for Christmas (in the 60s) and Case had a blast playing one of the three wise men for the children's Christmas eve mass.  Good thing he showed up too because he was the ONLY one of the three kings to remember or show up.  What in the world?  I guess we are some of the only parents that believe that if you sign up your child to participate in something, you need to follow through.  Regardless, it was cute and he rocked his costume and was a great magus (singular of magi and yes, I had to google it to check, lol!).  Christmas itself was great and the playroom still looks like a Lego store, lol.  New Year's was uneventful- just my boys and me- but we did celebrate Lucky's 3rd birthday on Jan. 1.  He's the stray we rescued and we love him to pieces. 

Case started back to school January 2 (I told you it was a short break!) but since it just didn't seem fair the kids had to go on a day everyone else had off (including Brian), we were naughty and picked him up at 1pm so he could come home.  He loves college football and wanted to watch the bowl games real bad and we thought why not!  We had toyed with the idea of going to the Sugar Bowl to watch Michigan (my alma mater) on January 3 or the Orange Bowl to watch Clemson (our local team and who Brian takes care of) on January 4, but both New Orleans and Miami just didn't seem the most child friendly cities and he had school.   Instead, we opted to watch them all on tv and enjoy our time here.  There will be plenty of other bowls  :)  Of course, if it had been the Rose Bowl, we would totally have been there!  I marched in 3 Rose Parades and performed at 3 Rose Bowls in the Michigan Marching Band and its a fabulous trip!  Best. Bowl. Ever!  And we were very happy that Michigan won an exciting Sugar Bowl and that Clemson....well...got to the Orange Bowl (the final score was u-g-l-y!).

In the last couple of weeks, Case has been extremely busy with Lego League and getting ready for their upcoming competition in mid January.  They are doing a Food Challenge this year and have to devise a new, innovative way to enhance or ensure food safety.  Their team is called the Mr. Nice Nisins and if you don't know what nisin is, google it.  Ok, I'll save you time- nisin is produced naturally from lactococcus bacteria and was discovered in the 1920's.  Its used as a food preservative and is completely safe to humans and our digestive track (unlike other pesticides or preservatives). Case's team decided to take that idea and develop a theoretical usage for it.  They want to help make cantaloupe safer using nisin-enriched fertilizer and/or a nisin wash during growing and harvest.  This is especially important after the most recent Listeria outbreak this fall (nisin kills Listeria which can be deadly for humans).  The team came up with the ideas on their own (with their coach's guidance) and it is a seriously cool idea using a natural substance.  And although theoretical in nature, it has real possibilities in food science research.  I can't believe this came from 4th and 5th graders, but that is what FIRST Lego League encourages, outside-the-box thinking for modern-day problems.

If you don't know anything about FIRST Lego League, you should check it out.  I was kinda skeptical about the whole thing, until I saw the CNN report abut what participating in this program can do for kids and why it is important for the future of our country.  And most importantly, FIRST is geared for boys AND girls, so anyone can compete.  Here are the links:  parts 1-6.  It'll take a little while to watch, but you'll be sooo happy you did.
  

 

 

After seeing this special and Case going to a Lego League camp this summer, I was totally sold and it has been a very, very good experience so far.   It may seem dorky at first, but when you see the calculations, academic requirements, and time this kids put in in this video, it will change your perception.  And if you are still skeptical, there was recently a report of a FIRST high school robotics student that came up with an idea for a medical innovation that has earned her $100,000 towards college!   Now there's incentive!

So we continue on and await news of a referral for our son on the adoption front.  Please pray for us and we continue to pray for all of you waiting or in the midst of completing your first or second trips.  Special shout out to Heidi, David, and Molly who have welcomed Alex and Amelia officially to there family!  They are still in Poland but in the home stretch now and we're so happy for them! 

Until next time peeps!  Take care and God Bless!