Mia's Tree

For Christmas 2005, Dan gave Elise a tree to be planted in Mia's honor. The tree is an oriental weeping cherry tree - a grafted tree.

The plaque has the following inscription: "Planted with purpose, grafted in grace, nurtured with love. Romans 11:17"

We fell in love with the following analagy found in the book, Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew, by Sherrie Eldridge: "A grafted tree. Magnificent to behold. One of a kind. Contrary to nature. Luxuriant leaves and intricate roots. Loaded with horticultural challenges for a gardner, but ultimately yielding a tree with unparalleled beauty. The adopted child. Magnificient to behold. One of a kind. Biologocial features often contrary to yours. Intricate roots that need to be healed. Loaded with behavioral challenges for parents, but ultimately yielding a life of unparallelled beauty."

Keiffer Becomes a Dog Phase 1

In November of 2005, we thought that maybe Keiffer needed to learn that she was not the center of our universe and therefore needed a little brother. So totally spur of the moment we went to Land of Paws, the petstore where we got Keiffer to see if they had any Yorkipoos. To our suprise they were getting a couple of Yorkipoos the very next day. We went the next day and fell in love with this little guy. After 2-4 weeks of waiting for him and visiting him everyday we were finally allowed to take him home (all 2 lbs of him) on December 2, 2005.

Boy did Keiffer not know what was in store for her!