where do I begin?

wow! it has been a crazy few weeks, as I am sure you can imagine.

to start off, no news on the adoption front. still waiting to enter the next phase.

I spent the early part of June in Wisconsin preparing for my dad's funeral and spending some time with my step mom and sister. Amy and I had the privaledge of writing my father's obituary, which I posted earlier, and creating a slide show of pictures of my dad from birth to the present. These two projects were so memorable for my sister and I and very healing for our greiving process.

Amy and I headed back to Cincinnati where we spent another week together just enjoying life. It was so good to have her around, to be able to share my life with her, and to watch her spoil my boys. We had such a good time and after 3 weeks of being together 24/7 we still had new conversations and topics we never got to talk about. We thoroughly enjoyed our time together as we now won't see each other until December.

Our last day together we took the boys on the train to Chicago, went to Millenium Park, rode the el train, and then had to say our good byes. It was such a wonderful time to be with my sister and I am so grateful for our time together.

Peter left for Germany on the 19th to be a chaplin/assistant soccer coach for a US team playing in a tournament with Athlete's in Action. He is sooooo excited and having a great time. (he can text us for free) He went to the World Cup today and is on top of the world.

The boys and I are spending some time with his parents this week in Batavia, Illinois. Today we went to a restaurant "2 Toots" where a little train carrying food baskets brings you your meals. It was neat! We rode the train back to Batavia. I'm all trained out!!

Caleb, Elijah, and I are doing fairly well with the death of my dad. Caleb understands it all and shares the story. His one unanswered question is, "why did papa have to die now?" I just tell him, I don't know. The truth of answer is that we never know when anyone is going to die or why they do when they do. Elijah says, "papa in heaven, papa fall down". But my favorite things Elijah has said are, "papa in heaven with Jesus", "papa playing the drums in heaven with Jesus", "papa sleeping in heaven with Jesus", "papa playing golf in heaven with Jesus".

I can't help but wonder if he somehow has a connection up there, those sure sound like heavenly activities to my dad (well, I don't know about the drums? who knows maybe some time during his 50 years on earth he had a desire to play and now his dream is a daily reality).

As for me, I miss my dad very much and of course still want my daddy, but I am doing okay. I know he believed in Jesus and I know he is heaven and this makes me smile. I know I will see him again one day.

sorry no pics till I get back to Cincinnati.