Strawberry Lemonade

Found this Strawberry Lemonade Recipe in an insert in Sunday's paper and thought I would give it a try. Click here to see the recipe. It was easy to make, just took a little time and got a little sticky. I colored some sugar yellowy/orange using a few drops of food coloring, I dipped the glass in orange juice, and then in the sugar mix. Poured over ice and garnished with a strawberry. It is a great, refreshing summer drink. Yum!

CBC 10 year reunion

This past weekend Mark, Jack, and I got to attend my 10 year college reunion in Windsor, Co. We were the Covenant Bible College class of '99. It was held at our old campus. Unfortunately, the school shut down a few years ago but we were still able to rent out some of the rooms from the new owners.

The campus from a distance - it's not very big.

Covenant Bible College was an eight month school of discipleship. There were 44 students - 22 boys and 22 girls. It was an incredible experience for me. I was really able to explore my faith while I was at CBC. For the first time I was challenged to think about what and why I believed. I knew what I believed but hadn't ever thought about why - or how to back up my thoughts. The curriculum was multi faceted with theology classes, old testament, new testament, christ in culture, puppet ministry, drama ministry, youth ministry, childrens ministry, etc. The classes were important and a big part of the school but the people and my relationships with them were just as important. With only 44 students I got to know every one. We all went to the same classes, lived in the same dorms, ate all our meals together - you get the point. I learned a lot from the people I went to school with during this year and it was very special this last weekend to get the chance to reconnect and visit with old friends. Also, good to be able to share this part of my life with Mark.

We arrived on Friday afternoon. Jack and I drove down a few hours ahead of Mark. It was Jack's first trip out of Summit County. Due to the weather and severe storm weather it took a little longer than expected - but Jack did great. We checked in, I got to see some old friends and when Mark arrived we took off to grab some dinner. I love Sonic and took the opportunity to eat at the local Windsor sonic--Jack enjoyed it too.

Friday night everyone hung out catching up and eating some tasty desserts that Suzanne made for us. Through out the weekend, I think there were 12 alumni. It was great to meet spouses, look at pictures and old yearbooks, and just get to be around old friends. Saturday, was more hanging out. Mark, Jack, and I walked into town and got a Brownie Batter Blizzard from Dairy Queen. We were able to enjoy some time outside out on the lawn, just like old times. And then Saturday night we enjoyed a dinner out at a restaurant called Austin's. All good times.

Hopefully we will be able to do another reunion in another 5 or 10 years because it was great to be around everyone and reminisce.

(R.) Jack passed out on Mark's lap at DQ (L.) Suzanne holding jack


Hanging out on the lawn




The Hubbards

Chalker Sisters

Andrea, Cheryl, Jennifer, Jack, and Me

I was thrilled to have 3 of my favorite people stop by for a visit last Friday. Andrea, Cheryl, and Jennifer stopped by to say "hi." They had been out at Young Life camp in Buena Vista. I have known these girls since I was six and they are definitely like family to me. It was very special for me to introduce Jack to them and vice versa. We had a nice time walking around downtown Breck and then just chilled at our house for awhile. Jack took a turn snuggling in the arms of each of them. Jack does this thing when he is sleeping where he throws his arms straight up in the air. He did this a lot while sleeping on Cheryl's lap and the girls decided he was just praising Jesus. It was really cute. We had a nice time visiting with them. I told him he was a lucky boy to know such wonderful girls - I know he will love them as much as I do.

Cheryl


Jennifer


Andrea

Father's Day

Happy Fathers Day to our Dad's. We love you so much and know that we are who we are today because of you. Thanks so much for all you have done and the ways in which you love us. I found a couple of pictures from our wedding day of us with our dads.

Mark and Dad


Megan and Dad

AND...a Happy Father's Day to Mark. It is no surprise that he is a wonderful father, I knew he would be. He is patient and loving. I find it so attractive to see him in a dad role with Jack. Some of my favorite things so far: listening to Mark tell Jack about his day, watching Mark do all sorts of things to get him to smile, walking by our guest room only to see Mark playing guitar for Jack. I could go on and on. He is great with our son and I look forward to watching their relationship strengthen as Jack gets older.

Happy Father's Day!

Homestudy Report

Mark and I got our home study this week in mail. We checked it over, made a few corrections, and it is back in the mail to our Home Study Agency. They will make the necessary changes and send it back to us so that we can send in an official copy with our I-600 form, which is a petition to classify an orphan as an immediate relative. Yeah, things keep moving.

Prayers

Wednesday morning my Aunt Jackie (my Dad's sister) got a phone call to go to the hospital, they had a donor match for her. She got a new liver yesterday and is now in recovery. We are so thankful!! The doctors felt good about how the surgery went and were going to start to taking her off some of the drugs so that she could wake up. We will keep praying for her.

This is Jack's first Bible. He got it from his great Aunt Jackie and Great Nannie.

On another note, we are praying for Mi-Mi (my Mom's mom) who is in the hospital recovering from a broken femur, she has pneumonia, and meningitis. We are praying for healing and comfort.

Family of Four

The Hubbards are soon to be a family of four. Mark and I are in the process of adopting a baby girl from Ethiopia - a sister for Jack.

How we got here:
Before Mark and I got married we discussed children (how many we wanted to have, etc.). During this conversation we both acknowledged that we would like to have both biological and adopted children. This became more of a reality for us as we began to struggle with infertility issues. After our 2nd miscarriage, we seriously starting discussing adoption. We first looked into domestic adoption last May. We spent a lot of time researching and talking to different agencies. Eventually we decided that international adoption was something we had always felt passionate about and that we should shift our focus from domestic adoption. So, we started researching countries. You name the country and we probably looked into it. We prayed a lot about it and both one day acknowledged that we felt good about a certain country and it happened to be the same country for both of us: Ethiopia.

We decided to try one more time to get pregnant and stay pregnant. I reluctantly agreed to this after making Mark promise that we would send in paperwork the day we miscarried again. You see, I just wanted to be a Mom. I didn't care if our children were our biological children or if they had been born somewhere else. This is what I had always dreamed about, having little ones to love and nurture. Well, we tried again, and surprise! We stayed pregnant. And now there is Jack.

During the pregnancy we talked a lot about how adoption was a desire of ours that seemed only to intensify throughout this whole process to being parents. Mark and I discussed timing and prayed some more, we both felt good about proceeding with our adoption journey in March. We chose an agency, chose another agency in state to complete our home study for us, and started gathering documents. Just last week we had our 3rd and final home study visit with our social worker and we are waiting on this to come in the mail.

We are soooooo excited and think of her and pray for her, knowing she could already be born. I find myself telling Jack quite often about how he will be getting a little/big sister soon. They will most likely be very close in age and it is exciting to think of them having each other as they grow up. So, this is our big news. We'll keep you posted on future developments.