March 6

**This post has been updated. Please note the bold type below.

There is much to share today. And the following things are in no designated order.

1) Today is my birthday. Yay! My husband has a special evening planned and he's already told me he will take me to dinner anywhere I would like to go! It's off to a good start and it's just beautiful outside, it's been a peaceful morning and I've been feeling better today!

2) It's been exactly one year today since we started the adoption process. I remember we were waiting for news from our agency about which child would be ours. They had sent out photos of four children and asked if anyone could adopt them. We said that we would see who wasn't chosen from the other families, and we would take any and all who were left. (I deeply wanted all four children and brainstormed about ways to make our office a bedroom! Still, I was at the dentist's office and had just left, when we got a phone call: could we take Mateo and Daniel? YES!!!!! We had their birth certificates and medical forms emailed to us that day. They were ours. I had hoped the boys would have been home back in November, but God has had other plans. Maybe it won't be too much longer now. I hope they're home by summer. :)

Our first photo of the boys. Don't they look so much different now?

3) We found out some horrible news today. Ray's stepmother has been moved to hospice. They do not feel hopeful she will last much longer. Hospice is trying to keep her as pain-free as possible and we've been happy to hear that she has had her last rites with the priest. Please, though, keep her in your prayers that she have peace in these final hours and that she reach her hand for God's embrace.

**We found out that Loretta passed away this morning.
She passed quickly and will be missed.