Sunday, January 17, 2010

What's Cookin' Good Lookin'?

I am not a great cook and more often than not, I mess something up, so I'm always a little weary in the kitchen. I have lit margarine on fire in the microwave (forgot to take the metal wrapping off) and I have had cookies literally light on fire and have to be taken out of the oven and sprayed with water outside. These were both when I was much younger, but it doesn't inspire much confidence.

So today, I made Vegan Chili. I found a recipe online and decided that all I had to do was open cans, chop a few veggies, add in some spices, and let soak for a few hours.

My efforts were a success! :) I found the recipe online at http://crockpotrecipes101.com/vegetariancrockpotchili.htm. I cooked it in my crock pot for about 5 hours while I was gone at church. The house smelled fabulous afterwards and we have a ton of left overs that I will be packing in our lunches over the next few days. It was filling, pretty healthy, and SO delicious. We made some corn bread to go with it using Jiffy mix with applesauce instead of eggs and Almond Milk for regular milk. The muffins were SO moist and the perfect amount of sweetness from the applesauce.

I have also made my own adaptation of California Pizza Kitchen's Mexican Pizza.

I take some pizza dough, then bake it with a can of black bean chili (vegan of course). After that is done, I cover it with Mexican rice, shredded lettuce (CPK uses iceburg but we use Romaine and it's much better), and then finish off with some Pico and broken tortilla chips. It is SO good. We have made it 3 times in the past couple of weeks and it turns out great every time.

I am glad that I am finally capable of making something edible! :) Both meals are super easy and take less than 30 minutes of preparation. Give them a try and let me know what you think.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Button Button, Who's got a Button?

If you would like to create a button that links to our adoption blog, I'm here to tell you how. ;)

Go to Customize, Layout, Page Elements. Then Add a Gadget. Choose Picture. Copy the link to our blog (http://makingourhappilyeverafter.blogspot.com/) and then add a picture. You can just save the picture I have for my button, or you can choose any picture that you like (preferably one of me and Robby). :) Then you click save and VOILA, a button! I would be SOOOOO grateful if you could do this. The best way for us to be matched is for all of our friends and family to spread the word. We are hoping to have our passalong cards done in the near future so if you haven't already sent me your address, please do so. My email is on the adoption blog if you would like to not have to leave it as a comment. We are SO excited for this journey ahead of us (and we are praying every day that our journey will not be too long). Thanks for all your love and support!



(feel free to use this picture if you would like) <3

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Adoption Blog

We have an Adoption Blog! It's not totally done yet, but if you know anyone who is thinking of placing their baby for adoption, please direct them to makingourhappilyeverafter.blogspot.com. Or they can email us at robbyandangeeadopt@gmail.com. We are hoping to bring a baby into our lives very soon and appreciate ANY help you can give us in building our family!

Monday, January 4, 2010

Open Adoption

I found this on one of the blogs I follow. You can find her story here. I get questions all the time about what I think about open adoption and I think this sums it up perfectly. The R House and Joniece (their birthmom) have been such inspirations and have helped form my testimony of adoption. This is straight from Joniece's blog.

"There are so many wonderful things about having an open adoption, I could go on forever. ( And I will in a later post) however this one was soley meant for the purpose of expressing my appreciation to Lindsey and Josh.

Not only are they doing a wonderful Job being parents to G baby, but they show their love for me day in and day out by letting my family and I be a part of his life. It means so much to my family. And it means so much to me.

People ask me if seeing him makes it harder for me, and honestly it doesn't. On the contrary it makes it easier, it only confirms my decision way back when was the right decision. And it brings me peace and joy to get to be as active as I have been in his life.

I wanted to say thank you to josh and Linds. Without you that picture above would have never been possible. Without you and your willingness to have an open adoption my parents wouldn't get to know their bio-grandson, and I wouldn't know the peace I do in my heart and the healing I do in my soul. I love you all. Merry Christmas."

I truly cannot wait to have that in my life. I want to find our birth mother who I can become friends with. We will have such a special bond between us and our baby. I want those extra people there to love our child. I want my children to know that they were/are loved by birth families. I don't want them to wonder or to count on me to tell them that. I want them to know. I want our birth mother to be able to heal and to be able to move on with her life and to grow. I don't want her to wonder if she did the right thing. I want my children to see where they get their eyes, their smile, their love of dancing or books. I love adoption with all my heart and am so excited to continue our journey to adopt. Please feel free to ask me any questions about adoption and I will be more than happy to share my testimony.