The Davis Family News: February 2011

Happy late Valentine's Day! I am a girl who likes any excuse for celebration, so Valentine's day is one of my favorite days. After having at least one of us sick for nearly two weeks, the fact that we were all well for this weekend made it even better. We had a great weekend (yes we like to extend our celebrations) that included a date for me and Matt, a date for me and Ben, and lots of good family time. Matt actually started this year off two weeks early by hiding valentine's notes or treats for me somewhere around the house each day. I felt pretty spoiled and very blessed. I'm not sure when the last time was that we were out at a restaurant on Valentine's weekend, and it was definitely crowded, but it was fun. Yesterday I took Ben out for a lunch date and then we went to the pet store. I have pretty severe allergies to anything with fur, so we will never own a cat or dog, but it was fun to look around. We could have come home with a baby hedgehog for a mere $190. Not sure what you do with a pet hedgehog, but I will say that it was kind of cute.

Getting cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory has been pretty traditional for us the past few years, but now that we live in a little city, that was not an option. Unless of course I wanted to pay $45 in shipping, plus $28 for the 7" cheesecake. So, we opted for our other favorite dessert. Or at least, it used to be. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge ice cream girl. I think I would say it is, or at least was, my very favorite dessert. But for some reason, my body has decided it doesn't appreciate milk or cream, or yogurt, and only tolerates small amounts of other dairy. This has been the case for several months now and I think it's almost been a bit of an adventure for me as I have been figuring out what I can and can't have. But for some reason this weekend the adventure aspect of it was no more and I kind of had a silent kicking screaming fit inside myself as I stood in the dairy free ice cream aisle. Matt had requested chocolate ice cream and that sounded SO good to me. But my choices were very limited in the dairy free aisle and chocolate was not there. I went home with Matt's chocolate ice cream and my vanilla rice non dairy dessert and about half way home I was convicted of how bratty I was being. As if the world was coming to an end because I could never have real ice cream again. It's amazing how much I can blow things out of proportion when I get into the mode of having to have exactly what I want. As it turned out, we all enjoyed our valentine's day (r)ice cream and I discovered that homemade chocolate chip cookies make even non dairy options taste amazing.

In other news, (not that what we had for our Valentine's dessert was really news) one month from tomorrow we will be attending an adoption information session for an agency in our state. We did attend one training session for foster care, but after lots of prayer, we think that the timing may be a bit off for now. It's hard because there truly is such a need for good foster homes, but we feel like we need to be a bit more connected here before taking on something that could potentially be very emotionally difficult. This is still something we think God is calling us to and we are praying about the possibility of going through the training again in three or four years. In the mean time, we plan to pursue an infant adoption through an agency we've heard good things about. I'm nervous about starting over again, especially since the doors have so clearly been shut these last couple years, but we are laying it before the Lord and asking for His will. I'm hopeful that His will is another child in our family, but my hearts desire is that I not be in a place of desiring a child more than desiring God's perfect plan for our family.

I find it quite humorous that we lived in Texas for almost seven years and then the first winter we are back home, we have the worst winter in years. Although from what I've heard, Texas is getting a pretty bad one this year too.

The freezing rain started Monday night and later turned to ice, continuing through Tuesday night. We never did get much more than a dusting of snow though and our building only lost power for a little more than an hour. Compared to much of the city, we were blessed. It's officially been four days since I've ventured beyond our parking lot. I'm such a wimp when it comes to driving in winter snow, so driving on potentially icy roads terrifies me.

Matt had two days off, which was also a huge blessing since my body decided it was time to get sick and I was worthless for two days. But yesterday was a fun day of hanging out inside doing crafts, baking, reading, playing, dancing to music, and enjoying the pretty sunshine from the indoors. We did make it outside for a little while, but everything was so slick that Ben kept falling and I came close several times.

I did finally remember to take a few pictures!