Happy New Year!!!

Here are the greatest things about 2009 so far:

Thailand
We celebrated the New Year in Thailand this year. We had forgotten that the Thai people light paper lanterns that float up into the sky – that is, we forgot until we looked out our hotel window and saw hundreds of them lighting up the sky high above a nearby mountain. It was one of those moments when we remembered that our life is really cool.

We can't take any credit for that awesome picture - we ganked* it off the internet.

One of the temples near our hotel room. We did take this picture... no ganking here.

Actually, there are two main reasons we like Thailand (well, 1/3 of us don't like Thailand – it’s not Sharon’s favorite country… sorry to all the Thailand lovers). One is this beautiful drink:


That’s lime soda. We cannot find this particular kind in any other country. We’ve tried other lime sodas, but none come close. We’ve been here a little less than a week and we're on our 3rd six pack. Sad. Don’t stare at the picture too long. I’m pretty sure you can get a mouth sore just looking at it.

Number two is the Mexican food – our country has a severe lack of it, so anytime we’re in Thailand we eat Mexican (yes, we eat Thai food too… but sometimes you just need something cheesy and guacamoley). So far we’ve eaten Mexican food in 3 different cities in Thailand and all 3 have been amazing.


The Dolphins are in the Playoffs!
From 1-15 last year to 11-5 this year. Yeah, we were shocked too. Isaac was so stunned he passed out.


Isaac
He took not one, but two steps in a row today… he’s taken steps before, but they were more of the “I’m taking a step but I’m really falling and if mama or daddy wasn’t there to catch me I’d fall flat on my face” kind of steps. These, however, were real steps. We will post a video as soon as we can catch him doing it again.

Isaac has also learned how to turn on the lights in the hotel room.

He showed us that little trick at 6:30am.


Adoption
This is the most exciting – if all goes according to the way we feel that God is leading us, we will begin the process of adoption this March. From the beginning of our marriage we knew that we’d adopt, and it looks as if we’ll do it this year. It won’t be easy – we’ll have to be in the States and away from a job we love for longer than we thought, we’ll have to get jobs in the States for a while, etc. But we couldn’t be more excited.

It’s hard to describe our emotions about this: It’s like looking at the pregnancy test and being beyond happy that the “+” is there, but at the same time we know there’s a woman who will give up her child. The whole ordeal is heartbreakingly happy. We’ve heard that adoption in a MESSY business, and we’re beginning to understand why.

Ok, there’s a little 10 month old telling me it time to play with him. Happy New Year!

*ganked: verb, past tense, to grab ahold or take something, usually without providing compensation. A North Florida slang word.