Winter Break

Winter Break flew by way too fast!! First Emilia's birthday, then the visit with Grandma and Grandpa ... then Christmas ... then New Year's.

We intentionally had a very low-key Christmas. We stayed home and had a quaint little family celebration. We slept in on Christmas morning, had a big breakfast and went out to Bridger Bowl. Every bit of Christmas was overwhelming for E, but we did our best to keep it as simple as possible.

 

Christmas dinner with our neighbors!

We saw fireworks for a pre-New Year's celebration at Bridger Bowl on Monday.

On New Year's Eve we went back to Yellowstone to do some XC skiing, visit the Boiling River, get some hotel swimming time in and little bit of partying!

We bumped into some friends at the grocery store, and got invited to this awesome gingerbread house making party!

... and tonight we spent some time getting everything ready to get back on our schedule for school tomorrow! While the last few weeks have been a ton of fun, I'm looking forward to getting back to a normal routine!

Ecuadorian Snow Bunny

As I sit here on the Eve of Christmas Eve, I can't help but feel  extremely grateful.

Grateful for my family.

Grateful for the life I have been given.

Grateful for my beautiful Ecuadorian daughter.

I am blessed. Plain and simple, I am blessed.

This year, after so many hard years, I (we) finally feel like I'm (we're) headed in the right direction.

We've had a very full month in December. Early on, we celebrated Ryan's birthday. His birthday fell during the week, and he happened to be traveling for work, but we celebrated the weekend before and the weekend after while he was home, . During our celebrations, Emilia kept asking "Is it my Happy Birthday?". I have a tendency to not give her any details of any upcoming events because of her anxiety, and maybe mine too! She will ask over and over and over and over and over about said event. Ryan on the other hand either doesn't know this fact, or seems to have forgotten. He told her that her "Happy Birthday" would be coming next! She was SO EXCITED!  Beyond excited. So much so that we had to answer questions about it every day, hundreds (possibly thousands) of times a day, for the next 12 days. Thankfully our awesome realtor sent us a 2014 calendar which included December for 2013 ... so we were able to "count down" to E's birthday! Ryan's parents were also heading out the day before E's birthday, so we were able to count that down as well!

Birthday bash was awesome!! Ryan's parents arrived Sunday night and thankfully were very excited to help us put E's birthday gift together!

Monday was a whirlwind! After a big Birthday Breakfast with a big hot cocoa, we headed out with Grandma Scheel to shop for bedding for the new bunk bed, and treats to bring to school for all of our friends!

After we dropped E off at school we went home to decorate for her big party. When Ryan asked her what she wanted, she just said "globos" ... so that's what she got!! We got a helium tank and filled the living room and kitchen with balloons!

Piñata

 

 

 

 

Needless to say, it was a fantastic party!! Grandma and Grandpa stayed for the rest of the week. Tuesday we went to the Gallatin National Forest to cut down our Christmas tree (and in all our excitement forgot to take a picture ... but we did get these: 

 

Friday was Emilia's school program, and then afterwards we headed to Yellowstone for the night.

 

We stayed at the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel and Emilia got on ice skates for the first time. Just like every other snow sport, she rocked it!

Speaking of other snow sports ... and I suppose to get back to the title of this post, here she is snow shoeing, XC skiing, downhill skiing, and ice skating!! Our little Ecuadorian Snow Bunny!!

 

 

 

 

You may remember earlier this year, on our first day back to the states she and I had to go out and shovel! She loved it! I should've known ...

Adoption Assistance - One Family at a Time!

In early 2013 my husband and I completed an adoption from Ecuador and brought home our daughter, Emilia. This process was in the wake of a 4 year, failed adoption in Kyrgyzstan, and the loss of our sweet boy, Akyl. Emilia's process took a year of paperwork, saving, working like crazy and fundraising. There are significant expenses associated with adoption that make it incredibly difficult for many families to adopt. We were one of those families!

We were so blessed by the number of people who supported our journey through gifts and fundraisers to make Emilia's adoption possible. Because the support through fundraisers and donations were so vital to us, I am committed to helping other families who are working, saving, and fundraising to bring their child home. The adoption process alone can be very daunting, and I want to be able to give hope to those also navigating the financial battle.

One of the most successful fundraisers we had for Emilia's adoption was a Thirty-One Gifts party hosted by a fellow Adoptive Mom, and someone I am blessed to now call, friend! Prior to that fundraiser, I had never heard of Thirty-One! I was excited about how well our fundraiser had gone and how popular those Thirty-One totes were. So when I started looking for ideas to help other families fundraise, Thirty-One was at the top of my list. After finding out it was a faith based company that was experiencing remarkable growth, I decided to join.

Doing a Thirty-One fundraiser is FREE for the fundraising family. It is something that will interest others who aren't already in the adoption community. And it's something that gives those who want to support a fundraising family an avenue to do so (while shopping for some amazing products)!

Since starting my fundraisers in early 2013, I have been blessed to meet a handful of families who are working diligently to bring their children home. I love the opportunity to get to know these amazing families and be part of their journey to their child. I've met some pretty amazing people!

All of the commission (100%) from each fundraiser will go directly to the fundraising family. If you are not in process to adopt, but know someone who is and would like to help, you can host a Thirty-One fundraiser for them!! The adopting family receives commission from the party, and YOU receive all the hostess credit and incentives!!

Not everyone is called to adopt. But it is my hope that this is just one way people can support a family who is called. I know first-hand how hard it is to work, save, and fundraise your way through an entire adoption (or two!). It can be very discouraging, and a small donation or fundraiser can make all the difference to keep you motivated and have faith in the journey to bring your beautiful child home.

If you are in the midst of your adoption process and would be interested in a Thirty-One Fundraiser, please contact me! I would be so honored to help your family be united!

Jes
s.jesandryan@yahoo.com
www.mythirtyone.com/scheel

Life Under the Big Sky

It's true what they say ... the sky really IS bigger here. It's very beautiful. Gorgeous view of the Bridger Mountains right from my front porch!

We're loving our new house, our new neighborhood and our new neighbors. Emilia is especially loving the 4 year old boy next door and the opportunity to play all the time! That is one thing she absolutely LOVES - being around other kids. It's still a struggle because she's still pretty social awkward, but she just LOVES them so!

We started school this Fall -- Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 12:30-3:00. She is in a Special Ed Preschool classroom, and receives Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy. The education system here is different from the Midwest, so that took some getting use to from this mamí! On our first day of school Emilia was so excited to go by the "kids", and when she realized there were only 3 other kids in her classroom she was very disappointed. She kept asking me over and over where the other kids were!

Ryan has been really busy with work and we've just been taking our time to really get settled. We're finally pretty much set in our house, except the garage, which needs to happen soon since it's already started snowing here!

I've met some amazing Adoptive mamas since I've been here, and Emilia and I go to a mom's support/play group on Thursday mornings. We've had a hard time really getting to know people, so these ladies have been a huge blessing for us. What better group of people to get acquainted with??

We're just taking it one day at a time and working through our "stuff" as it comes. We have some really good days, and some not so good days. Recently, E is so proud to tell everyone we come into contact with that she is from Ecuador. I've been starting to talk a bit more about Ecuador because I want her story to be a part of our daily discussion. She doesn't really get what happened, and just looks and me kind of funny when I say: Remember when mamí and daddy came to Ecuador?
She doesn't remember. Or doesn't want to remember. Or has somehow blocked her memory. For now, we will just continue to tell her the story.

Road Trip to MT, 1,704 miles

After 3 1/2 really good years in Fond du Lac, it's time for a change. A couple months ago, Ryan accepted a job with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America as Director, Organizational Development. His territory would cover all of Montana and Wyoming. We were essentially given the opportunity to live anywhere in these two states. Can you imagine? Live anywhere you want in Wyoming or Montana ... And go!

After spending time with other DODs for BGCA, getting their opinions, and studying maps of MT and WY, we decided on Bozeman. It's the center of his work territory and it's pretty much one of the most beautiful places we've seen!

We were pretty lucky with the biggest chunk of our move. Last week movers came, packed up our house and loaded it on the semi the following day. We still had to be pretty organized because while most of our stuff is going into storage, we had to separate a small portion to be moved to our apartment since we don't close on our new house until mid-August. It was like packing for Ecuador all over again. It's hard to know what you'll need for two months! Or what you can do without!!

Since our house was loaded Thursday, Emilia and I went down to Kenosha to stay with family until Ryan finished his work-week. He flew into Milwaukee and we started our journey from there.

We spent out first night in Fairmont, MN. We got in late and left early so we didn't spend much time site seeing or doing anything fun.

Then we were on the road for three more days.

First mirror we saw in days ...

 

In Cody, WY we stopped at Sierra Trading Post outlet (never knew there was such a thing!). Unfortunately E and I spent 25 minutes sitting outside trying to recoup. Nearing the end of our trip, good behavior is a distant memory.

But we made it.

 

And this is where we'll be living for the next couple of months.

 

Bozeman!!

We're moving to Montana! We have spent the last couple of months planning, organizing, and pretty much going crazy! We are very excited about our upcoming move! But, moving to another state is a lot of work!! We've got just a couple weeks to go!

Meanwhile, Emilia continues to do well. We definitely have our ups and downs, but she continues to have good progression with her transition. This move, and the stress has been hard on her. She doesn't quite understand what's going, but is really excited to move to the montañas!

More adventures to come ...