The past month has been amazing. I'll just list a few of the highlights. There have been a good deal of "regular" things that are encouraging in their normalcy, and I don't want to overlook them, but these are the things that have stood out since the holidays.

- I was fortunate enough to attend the inauguration of President Obama in Washington DC. It was cold, crowded, and simply an amazing day.
- In Super Bowl XLIII, the Pittsburgh Steelers triumphed in one of the best games in SB history.
- A week ago, on February 3, Christina and I got the call that we had been chosen by a birth mom.

While the first two are exciting, the last item is changing our lives. That call has been eagerly anticipated, and sometimes we've despaired that it would ever come. In an instant, so many things changed. So much of the self-doubt, and questioning, the despair, and the feeling that good things happened to other people, but not to us, just vanished. Not to say that there aren't still struggles, but this has certainly allowed renewed consideration of "All things work together for good..."

The widespread and enthusiastic rejoicing, that we have felt from our friends and family, has been a soul-soothing experience. Our families are ecstatic, our friends are so happy, and it all adds up to the most enriching experience of our lives. We still have much to do, and adoption always carries a certain amount of risk, but we are stepping out of our comfort zone and heading into the unknown.

Thanks so much to all you dear friends and loved ones. Your excitement and encouragement mean so much. We'll keep you posted with details as they come, although I would recommend monitoring my dear wife's Xanga Page. She's a lot more faithful at updating.

My SweetOne and I headed out on Thursday for a trip to visit family in PA and OH. First to Monroeville, a suburb to the east of Pittsburgh. We spent some time that evening with my Grandparents, then were back the next morning for breakfast with them at Kings restaurant. After breakfast there were a few things that we were able to help with around the house - cleaning, tightening the table, cleaning, organizing and some more cleaning. Probably not our favorite activity for vacation, but we were glad to help out with it. Early afternoon saw us hitting the road for the next leg of the journey, this time to Plain City OH. We were able to eat at the Der with her Grandparents, and spend a little time visiting with them. That night we stayed at the house of a cousin of my dad. This cousin and his wife were in Europe, but were gracious enough to let us stay there anyway. After a good night's sleep, we headed for Cedarville to meet up with BIL Lemmer. We ate breakfast at a terrific little place called the Sunrise Cafe in a local town called Yellow Springs. Absolutely excellent food and just a stellar atmosphere and attitude. Totally the best. Spent the next several hours wandering the streets of Yellow Springs, browsing, shopping, just enjoying being together. Purchases included a Dr Seuss book in Latin, an earthy pendant and bumper sticker, Incense, and a bag ofLoose Leaf Yerba Mate. Totally chillin' place to be. Headed back to the college and toured the campus for a while. Very impressive. Took a few hours and visited a local natural phenomenon, the Clifton Gorge. Spent some time just talking and hanging out before heading to church in Springfield. The service was simple, the people were real, and it was an encouragement to me. After church a group of students met at a former professor's house for a presentation by the professor and some spirited discussion. He spoke on Nationalism and the discussion lasted longer than we wanted to be there, so around 10:30 at night, SweetOne and I hit the road and decided to head for home. We made it to DE around 6:45 on Sunday morning and collapsed into bed. 1200 miles in 3 days. Caught up with some important people, and enjoyed the experiences that either made us feel young and spirited (visiting with 80+ grandparents) or old and foolish (visiting with college kids) or maybe still just a little young and foolish (driving all night to get home) It was a fabulous and enjoyable time. I won't trade those memories for anything. Thanks SweetOne and Lemmer.

Jesse