We have moved into a new phase in our family. Our application has just been accepted by Dillon International to adopt through their new pilot program in Ghana, West Africa. I for one feel like I am going home. I understand international adoption. There are so many aspects of it that resonate with me. The quality of private organizations is one of them. I respect the contribution we can make to a child of another culture, and I appreciate how celebrating another culture enhances our family. As to be expected in international adoption it will be a long, expensive, and paper heavy process, and we are bracing ourselves for all of it. But we have been there before and we made it through, with great success. We will actually be working with the same social worker we worked with to adopt Arin. She remembers us, and is excited to work with us, too. Wow, such a night and day difference from what we dealt with over the last two years.

I will keep you posted on our slow steady progress and I look forward to introducing you to our new children or child two or three years from now.

In the meantime. I am passing on the opportunity for you to contribute to our adoption if you choose. We would welcome positive thoughts or more concrete things like money. If you drink coffee I have started a store at www.justlovecoffee.com/spieringfamily. Anything you buy from this store will contribute to our adoption. All of the coffee is fair trade and some of it is organic. They also offer decaf and espresso, so please take a look, or pass the web address along to anyone you know who may enjoy some fresh coffee.

The North Wind and the Sun

Our foster care journey is over, and I am still processing everything we experienced during the process. One of the lessons that I would like to embed in the minds of many people we worked with during this process is expressed very well in the parable of the North Wind and the sun. I saw so many people blustering their desires, when a calm, sunny approach would have gotten the job done. It is such a simple lesson that it just boggled my mind that many of the people we were working with did not know it, and seemed completely unable to comprehend it. My hope is that others will listen, learn , and make the world a more peaceful, friendly place because of it.

This is the story

Cinnamon rolls

Yeast and I don't often get along. That, or I somehow always get the yeast that underachieves. Early in our marriage I discovered I didn't have the touch. When I saw how much time I had to invest at something that didn't give me much satisfaction or anything edible in return I decided to turn to other pursuits, like trying to get to all the toilets before they were grodey.

So you may understand that it was no small endeavor when I decided to take on a cinnamon roll recipe that included my nemesis, yeast. The way Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond described her Cinnamon Rolls I felt all warm and and comfortable, like a person in a blanket sleeper with a blanket and a good book in front of a fire with a light snow outside and, well you get the idea: basically the ultimate in warm fuzzy contentment. I wanted that, and I was willing to risk an encounter with yeast to get it. So on Arin's birthday, Nina helped me as we mixed up the dough. I checked every few minutes to see if it was rising. It was. I was afraid it wouldn't stop and would engulf the kitchen like a dough monster. What was supposed to make 16 servings(I doubled the original recipe), ended up making ten pans of 6-8 cinnamon rolls each. Needless to say we are well supplied with them for the rest of the year. They do taste really good! They are so sweet, in fact, that I start getting a sugar overdose about halfway through one. We did it! Thanks, Ree! And for those who want to bring all the warm fuzziness home, as well as a good coating of flour all over the floor (Wow, that was a mess) here is the link. Tell Ree I sent you. (She is a pretend friend of mine in my own mind since I read her book)