Best Date EVER

Saturday, Spencer announced that he had a surprise date planned and told me that I would want to bring my camera. 
We got in the car and drove for a stretch to finally arrive at Babby Farms!  Spencer has visited their location on a couple of occasions to film segments for the news.  It has kind of been my dream to visit there myself because Babby farms is home to a variety of super cool animals.  Many are the type of animals you would expect to find on a farm, such as: 
Shetland Ponies (they are BABIES!!!*):
*You should know that I use the term “babies” very loosely to refer to any animal that is cute and/or fuzzy and/or small and/or alive… as in most animals are, in fact, babies

These little piggys (BABIES!):

The occasional, crazy-haired llama:

But Babby Farms is also home to a variety of more exotic animas such as:
Porcupine:

(He was actually much bigger than I though porcupines would be; he’s roughly the size of a barge.  Also, his name is Porky, which I thought was kind of cute and appropriate.  All of the animals at Babby have names, which I thought was quite cool.)
Coati:

(This little fellow was a rascal.  I didn’t get a picture of it, but he loves bopping any farm dog that gets too close to his cage on the nose.  It’s pretty funny to watch.  As soon as we came up to his cage, he came running out to investigate.  Doesn’t he just look like a little troublemaker?  He’s cute though.  He’s a baby.)
Sloth:

(We didn’t pet this guy.  Apparently he sometimes bites.  He moves in such slow motion that he usually doesn’t actually get a chance to sink his teeth in.  But we decided we’d rather not risk getting bitten by a sloth.  Though it would make a pretty cool story I guess.  Bragging rights, you know.)
The best part about Babby Farms though, was that we got to PLAY with all of the animals!  We got to pet everything, well, except the buffalo, wildcats, and sloth.  I especially enjoyed getting in the pens with all of the animals and taking their pictures.  I got some awesome shots. 
(The animal pictured on top is called a “Spencer” ((pronounced STINK pot)).  Very rare.  Very exotic.  His natural habitat is among the rolling hills of Idaho.  His diet consists largely of fajitas.  He is a nocturnal creature, rarely seen in daylight.)

Ok, here’s one of my favorites… BABY ZEBRA!  Her name is Zaza.  And she really IS a baby (according to any definition, not just mine).  And she was ADORABLE! 

Can you even stand her cuteness? 

GAH!  Me neither.  I was kind of having a heart attack she was so cute. 


Spencer even took a video of me with Zaza:

Whitney petting baby Zaza.

Here’s another of my favorites.  We got to play with George, the baby kangaroo.  He’s not full grown yet; red kangaroos can grow to be six feet tall or more. 

I kind of loved him.  He kept trying to eat my clothes, but I loved him anyways.  Friends let friends eat their clothes. 
This is one of my favorite videos of the day.  George was getting kind of feisty, but I had been told how to handle him.  He seriously reminds me of a little kid throwing a tantrum.

Whitney takes on George

And last but not least:
The Kinkajou:

Not to be confused with the lame anime critter:

The kinkajou’s name is Mojo.  He was super friendly and cuddly.  Here’s a video of him hanging out on my shoulders. 

Kinkajou kisses

It was SO much fun to play with all of the baby animals.  A round of applause for Spencer for taking me on such a cool date! 

Spencie Gets His Zumba On

For Hispanic Heritage Month, the Good Morning Live crew got their zumba on in the studio. I think you will get a kick out of watching Spencer shake his booty.

Videos - Multimedia - www.kivitv.com

Room for Baby

Look what I made for our baby’s nursery: 

I was so proud of my little decorations!  I will be posting more nursery pictures soon.  We’re slowly, slowly, decorating baby’s room.  If you read my craft blog, this might be old news to some of you,.  I don’t usually like to post the same thing twice.  But in case you don’t visit that one, I decided to share here as well.

In some ways we have been hesitant to get too excited too soon.  But we have decided to make room for baby in our home and in our hearts.  We may still have a long wait ahead of us, but we are going to be ready when they come. 

My Plan A

Yesterday I experienced a beautiful reminder that Heavenly Father is aware of me.  My mom and I went to a our good friend's house to get our hair done.  We got to chatting with the lady who had an appointment before ours.  As it turns out, her youngest son was adopted.  She was so kind as to share her experience with me and told me something that I have been thinking about ever since.

"Adoption is not plan B."

Adoption is part of Heavenly Father's plan.  He knew that there would be individuals who would make mistakes and that there would be children born to unwed mothers.  He knew that there would be couples who would want desperately to have children, but not be able to bring them into the world themselves.  He knew. 

I am always saddened to hear individuals say things like, "I hope I would never have to adopt," or "Oh, so do you have to adopt because you can't have kids?"

We do NOT feel that we HAVE to adopt.  We GET to adopt.

It is our choice.  It is our blessing.  We are so grateful beyond grateful for the miracle of adoption.  

I would love to be able to be the one to bring our babies into the world.  I would love to know what that feels like.  I would love to be able to have that experience with my sweetheart.  I know that there is no experience quite like it.  

But you know what? 

My plan A is to be a mother.

Childbirth and adoption are both ways to get there.  So is being a loving mother figure to the youth I serve in my calling.  So is nurturing and loving my nieces and nephews.  

I don't feel cheated by life.  I feel so grateful that Heavenly Father will help me with my own plan A.  The path I take will be different from many others, but that's okay because my path is special too.  I have never seen so many miracles in my entire life than when my husband and I began our journey to adopt.  I have never felt closer to my Savior.  It has been a sacred experience.  

Yesterday was yet another reminder that Heavenly Father is aware of our little family.  I know He is.  

It's Never Too Early

It was probably a year ago, if not longer, that Whitney and I were wandering through a Salvation Army store, looking for furniture (well, we've done that a billion times, but we've only ever come away with any one time, I believe). While we weren't hunting for one, we came across an awesome, wooden rocking chair. My family (and many of my co-workers and college friends) will tell you that I love rocking chairs. I don't know what it is, but even if my chair doesn't move, I always do. In fact, I'm rocking back and forth in a stationary chair as I type this. I don't even think about it anymore; it's very much a subconscious thing. That's actually one of the things that difficult about a new job - people noticing it for the first time and calling me on it. But once everyone notices it, I can joke along with them and it's no longer weird. I still think I'm in the weird stage at my current job in that regard.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there. We managed to lower the price on the chair a bit, and for $20, we came away with this:

It may be hard to tell from the picture, but there were quite a few places, especially on the legs, where the paint was old and chipping. We actually had it in our living room just as you see it for months, and even moved it here to Idaho before we started tackling refinishing it, which was our goal all along.

Once we started the adoption paperwork, it was especially exciting to start working on a chair that we can rock our baby in one day. Plus it was fun to have a project to work on together. Here it is after we sanded down all the rough places and stripped all the peeling paint.

And the sanded paint powder got all over our clothes.

Naturally, Whitney couldn't resist making her mark. I felt like an orc from Lord of the Rings.

She had to go and make the event a PG-13 affair.

Several coats of white spray paint later, we were very pleased with our final product. Now it's sitting in the house waiting for the arrival of a little one.

After all, it's never too early.

Heads Up

Just to let everybody know, we put up a new page on the blog. You can now "See Our Video" by using the appropriate tab at the top.

FSA.2: Spencer’s Take

I wanted to give my two cents on the Families Supporting Adoption Conference, too.  Whitney just got to blogging about it before I did.  We chatted about all the “light bulb” moments she mentioned, and I liked those as well.  Here’s just a glimpse at some of the notes I took:

1.  One presenter mentioned that she loved coming to the conference every year, because it was her chance to be around “her people,” referring, of course, not only to those in support of adoption, but also to those who can’t have biological children of their own.  I agree.  It was nice to be with a whole community, if you will, of people who understand exactly what we’re going through.

2. We should hang on to every bit of information we can about our child’s birth parents.  They (the child) will want to hear about it some day.  I think that’s good advice.  And we plan to take it.

3. I’ve got a whole list of tips from another session that talked about how the adoption process can go more smoothly for us.  It’s probably not exciting enough to put up here, but it’s helpful.

4. Two of the things that brought me the most comfort also came from the first keynote speaker, Julie B Beck.

• Abraham, as the Lord promised, was the father of many nations.  But remember, even he had just one son.
• Of all the names and adjectives that describe God, with all His power and might, the name he chooses to be known as is our Father in Heaven.

The conference was more than worth the 6-hour drive. 

And the filet mignon we had at the banquet was to die for.