Liebster blog award

My friend Ellen awarded me the Liebster blog award!  The purpose of this award is to help you discover great new blogs.  I will answer some questions that Ellen asked me and then I will choose 2 blogs that I think you would like and give them a set of questions to answer about themselves.  Here we go:

1. Describe your family in five words.....unique, crazy, fun, challenging, and loving
2. What is one dream you have for the future?  Do I only get to pick one?!  Too bad, I'm picking more than one :).  1) That my children would grow to love Jesus and that our family would reflect Him in all we do.  2) That Larry and I will be an elderly couple still passionately in love with each other  3)  That I don't end up in a padded room before those two things happen.  Laugh all you want, but some days it's the best I can hope for!
3. What is your favorite book and why.  Come on, Ellen, you're killing me here.  How do I pick?!  I love Christian fiction.  One of my favorite series of books ever is The Bug Man by Tim Downs.  He is a Christian but these books don't have characters who struggle with life only to find hope in Jesus (though I do like quite a few of those too).  Instead, his books are about a forensic entomologist.  He studies the bugs that infest dead bodies.  Sounds like something you want to read right before dinner, right?!  Actually they are incredibly funny.  Tim Downs is a speaker for FamilyLife's Weekend to Remember.  Back when Larry was an event planner for them, Tim was one of the speakers at a conference that I attended as well.  I figured I'd better look into his books if we were going to be working with him, and I ended up reading pretty much everything he has written in just a few weeks.  Don't get me wrong, I like non-fiction too but that's not as fun to talk about as maggots and blow flies ;).
4. Who has had the biggest influence in your life  My mom, definitely.  Also a couple of teachers who really took an interest in me and encouraged me. 
5. What is your favorite TV show  Right now I'd say Parenthood.  Larry and I also loved Lost and many others.  We aren't sit down and watch TV shows when they are on TV kind of people.  We tend to be more find it on Netflix and run through 5 seasons in 2 months kind of people!  We watched The Adventures of Merlin with the boys and really enjoyed that too.  I love something we can watch with the boys but that is not always an easy task. 
6. What is your biggest success  My marriage.  I adore that man.  He is the best decision I ever made in my life. 
7. You have three wishes, what are they?  Oh boy, that might be a level of honesty you aren't ready for!  Ok here goes 1) I wish Anya would stop spending her ENTIRE day saying "Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom........" 2) I don't want Oksana to be someone she isn't, but I'd take away mental illness in a split second without even thinking twice about it.  3) Number 3 is a toss up between a maid and a chef.  It's hard to say which I despise more, cleaning or cooking.
8. You have a day all to yourself, what do you do?  Well I do have all day to myself 2 days a week now...at least until 3:00.  I love to have lunch with friends.  Sometimes Larry works from home those days and we like to have lunch.  Do you see a theme here?!  Some days I sit and do nothing and wonder where my day went.....and I'm OK with that.  I almost always say I'm going to clean but based on the sentence I just wrote before this you can probably see how that goes!
9. Something you are proud of - How about someone I am proud of?  The answer to that would be Clayton and Evan.  These boys have taken on the roll of big brothers to two former orphans with special needs like they were created for it.  Don't get me wrong...those girls make them crazy sometimes, but that's why their rooms are in the basement :).  Those girls adore their brothers and there is a good reason for that...the boys are very good to them.  On top of that they have started this new homeschool program this year and it is intense with a capital I!  Wowza!  While they have had some struggles and some failures, overall they are blowing my mind at what they are learning and how well they are doing.  They are devoted to their passions of horseback riding (Evan) and video editing (Clayton) and Clayton is getting baptized at the end of this month.  They are pretty cool kids!
10. Why do you blog?  I started blogging way back when Larry and I were missionaries to keep connected to our supporters.  Then we started adopting and I blogged to document the process for myself and for those who came after me since I know following other blogs was an obsession of mine when I was in the process!  Now I don't know why I do it.  Honestly, I think about quitting frequently.  I guess the reason I don't is because of the emails and comments I get that say they read my blog because they know I'm willing to be real.  There weren't many people willing to be real with me in the beginning and I ended up feeling very alone.  I don't want that for anyone else.  It's a fine line that I constantly struggle to walk as I blog because I'm also not in the least bit interested in opening myself up to the criticism of complete strangers.  Do not interpret criticize as disagree.  I don't expect everyone to agree, but I do expect them to be civil.  I've seen enough of my friends get ripped to shreds by people who use the anonymity of the web to attack them.  For now I keep pressing forward for the faithful few who actually still care what I have to say here ;).

Now to pass this on to two more bloggers. This was not easy.  I read a lot of fantastic blogs about some incredibly families who have encouraged me in my journey.  I finally chose 2 that I think you will like. 

The first one is Pearls of Price.  I haven't been reading this blog for as long as some others, but often when she blogs I find myself saying "I can relate!"  Just today I was reading an entirely different blog and one of the comments really struck me.  I could have written it myself.  I clicked on the name of the person who posted it to see if she had a blog and imagine my surprise when it took me to Pearls of Price!  This lovely lady has 5 children and 2 are twins adopted from the foster care system.  She is real about her struggles with the twins and has encouraged me through our poop issues with Oksana!  She has a beautiful family and a beautiful faith and trust in God.  I think you will really enjoy Pearls of Price as much as I have.

The second blog is Dear Little Girl of Mine.  Sharon is an online friend of mine.  We met when we discovered that our girls were in the same orphanage in Bulgaria.  We were both there at slightly different times and got pictures of each other's girls.  Sophia is her beauty from Anya's orphanage but they adopted Bella at the same time from a different orphanage.  Sharon has a whole bunch of amazingly beautiful children.  She has biological children as well as children adopted internationally and through foster care.  Many of them have special needs of some sort.  This blog is one of the most beautiful blogs I've ever seen.  Wait until you see her photography.  It is amazing.  I love every single update she gives and I know you will too!

Here are my 10 questions for them should they decide to accept the challenge ;):
1.  What is your favorite post on your blog?
2.  Why do you blog?
3.  What is your favorite book and why?
4.  What is your favorite thing about each of your children?
5.  You have 3 wishes.  What are they?
6.  What do you think is the best and the most challenging thing about adoption?
7.  What do you like to do to relax?
8.  Something you are proud of...
9.  What is your family's favorite meal?
10.  What is your favorite room in your house?