"To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair." Isaiah 61:3

The Burckhard Family

The Burckhard Family

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Stayin' Inn....

Bella (& her family) had a respite from the extreme cold weather...We had a gift certificate to a hotel, so decided to take a little trip with Grandma & Grandpa to celebrate a late Christmas with my brother Joe and his wife Brenda. They couldn't make it home for Christmas because of the big blizzard.

Bella loved the swimming pool and getting to sleep in the little blow-up bed. However, she really just loved having all of us in one big room (maybe it reminded her of the orphanage) :)



Stayin' Inn....

Bella (& her family) had a respite from the extreme cold weather...We had a gift certificate to a hotel, so decided to take a little trip with Grandma & Grandpa to celebrate a late Christmas with my brother Joe and his wife Brenda. They couldn't make it home for Christmas because of the big blizzard.

Bella loved the swimming pool and getting to sleep in the little blow-up bed. However, she really just loved having all of us in one big room (maybe it reminded her of the orphanage) :)



Friday, January 1, 2010

My 2010 Challenge....

I admit this is a bit off-topic. But then again, maybe not? Either way, I am going to publicly state my 2010 goal: I am not going to buy any new clothes for myself in 2010. Yikes! There I put it in writing...now it's too real. I have been toying with the idea of doing this "no new clothes challenge" for a couple of months.

Why do it? Well, for several reasons: to save $$$'s; I have enough clothes already; just to see if I can do it! I will use this forum to publicly update my progress so as to hold myself accountable.

We'll see how it goes..... (and you know, if I can also lose some weight, I'll have lots of "new" to me clothes to wear, ha ha)

Thanks for putting up with me....Paula

My 2010 Challenge....

I admit this is a bit off-topic. But then again, maybe not? Either way, I am going to publicly state my 2010 goal: I am not going to buy any new clothes for myself in 2010. Yikes! There I put it in writing...now it's too real. I have been toying with the idea of doing this "no new clothes challenge" for a couple of months.

Why do it? Well, for several reasons: to save $$$'s; I have enough clothes already; just to see if I can do it! I will use this forum to publicly update my progress so as to hold myself accountable.

We'll see how it goes..... (and you know, if I can also lose some weight, I'll have lots of "new" to me clothes to wear, ha ha)

Thanks for putting up with me....Paula

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Woman's World Magazine to Feature our Family...

We are so excited to share with you all that our family will be a feature story in the February 1st issue of Woman's World magazine. It actually hits the stands on January 25th...if you'd like to take a peek while waiting in line to pay your groceries! :)

Way last September, an editor from the magazine called and said that they had seen the clip done by our local TV station on our adoption and were wondering if we would agree to be interviewed and photographed for their magazine. I told them that we would but that maybe they should go and look at the Reece's Rainbow site because there are many families on there besides us who are much more inspiring. But, she said that they wanted to stick with us.

One thing I was adamant about was that Reece's Rainbow would get some publicity out of this. I can't wait to see if they did put the website information and how people can pursue adoptions of children with Down syndrome.

Over the next few months, we didn't hear from them, so I figured it wasn't approved as a story and that was that. However, we got called two days before Thanksgiving with them wanting to interview me and have a photo shoot...all on the Thanksgiving weekend.

I was interviewed over the phone and they read our blog to put together the one-page story. Also, a local photographer (Otis & James) was hired to do our photo shoot. The photographer said they normally wouldn't be able to squeeze this type of thing in their schedule because Thanksgiving weekend is so busy because of family portraits and so on. But it just so happened that the only time that worked for us, they had a cancellation. The photo shoot was emotionally draining because when Grace was happy, Bella wasn't. You know how that goes...

So here are a few sneak previews of the photos the photographer took to send to the magazine. The writer contacted me later and said the photos were exactly what they were looking for, and that she thought the story turned out to be inspiring.





It was a very exciting thing for our little family to get to be in a magazine. Guess that is our 15 minutes of fame! More importantly though, we hope and pray that it may lead others to look into international adoption of orphans with Down syndrome from around the world. Let's pray that it will have that affect!!

Woman's World Magazine to Feature our Family...

We are so excited to share with you all that our family will be a feature story in the February 1st issue of Woman's World magazine. It actually hits the stands on January 25th...if you'd like to take a peek while waiting in line to pay your groceries! :)

Way last September, an editor from the magazine called and said that they had seen the clip done by our local TV station on our adoption and were wondering if we would agree to be interviewed and photographed for their magazine. I told them that we would but that maybe they should go and look at the Reece's Rainbow site because there are many families on there besides us who are much more inspiring. But, she said that they wanted to stick with us.

One thing I was adamant about was that Reece's Rainbow would get some publicity out of this. I can't wait to see if they did put the website information and how people can pursue adoptions of children with Down syndrome.

Over the next few months, we didn't hear from them, so I figured it wasn't approved as a story and that was that. However, we got called two days before Thanksgiving with them wanting to interview me and have a photo shoot...all on the Thanksgiving weekend.

I was interviewed over the phone and they read our blog to put together the one-page story. Also, a local photographer (Otis & James) was hired to do our photo shoot. The photographer said they normally wouldn't be able to squeeze this type of thing in their schedule because Thanksgiving weekend is so busy because of family portraits and so on. But it just so happened that the only time that worked for us, they had a cancellation. The photo shoot was emotionally draining because when Grace was happy, Bella wasn't. You know how that goes...

So here are a few sneak previews of the photos the photographer took to send to the magazine. The writer contacted me later and said the photos were exactly what they were looking for, and that she thought the story turned out to be inspiring.





It was a very exciting thing for our little family to get to be in a magazine. Guess that is our 15 minutes of fame! More importantly though, we hope and pray that it may lead others to look into international adoption of orphans with Down syndrome from around the world. Let's pray that it will have that affect!!

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Dump Truck Dollies....

What do you get when you spend 4 1/2 years in an orphanage with a bunch of boys...



Dump Truck Dollies!!!