On Thursday, November 20th, the school where I work, LBJ Elementary, held a “shower of gifts and love” for us.  When we walked into the school everyone was so warm and welcoming.  They just loved little Jacob.  And Jacob loved being the center of attention.

After making a few introductions to Mr. Combs, Mr. Wooton, Mrs. Bush, Mrs. Vicki, and Ms. Spencer, we traveled on down the hall to the library where the shower would be held.

There were piles of presents and a mountain of cards to open…but first, everyone had some food.  And talk about food!  There were tons of it! 

We all enjoyed the pizza, chips, dip, bread, finger sandwiches, cookies, sweets, meatballs, and fruit.  There was even a beautiful cake.  The cake had a teddy bear made of icing on it.  The teddy bear even had Jacob’s name on it.  It was so wonderful!

After eating, we started opening presents.  My coworkers and friends at LBJ were so generous.  We received clothes, clothes, and more clothes.  Jacob also got a ton of toys including puzzles, shape sorters, electronic books, a basketball game, stuffed animals, a wire and bead puzzle, and even a huge wagon…with a cover on it!  Jacob also received other gifts and a pile of gift cards.

Lisa and I want to thank everyone at LBJ Elementary who showed their love and support.  This adoption has been a long road, but the destination was worth the journey!

A family is like a puzzle.  When Lisa and I met 19 years ago, we knew that we were meant to be together.  We fit together perfectly. We had the same interests and we loved being with each other.  That love has held true and strong all of these years. 

However, as we began putting the pieces of our life puzzle together, we found that there was a piece missing.  Instead of worrying about that piece too much at first, we just built our puzzle around the missing piece.  However, we finally came to realize that our picture would never be complete….our family would not be truly complete…without a child.

Now, we have Jacob in our lives….and guess what?  He is the perfect fit in our life puzzle.  He was truly made for us…and we were made for him.  It was a perfect match!  We love Jacob more than anything in this world and are truly blessed to have him in our lives.

Our puzzle is finally complete.

If you looked up autumn in the dictionary, there would be a picture of today beside of it. I can honestly say that today was the perfect autumn day. It wasn't too warm....but not too chilly. It was sunny. The leaves were blowing around in the breeze. The air was vibrating with the slowing energy of the year. Nature is winding down for a long sleep. And we, as a people, can feel that as we continue on through the days.

Today, Lisa and I cleaned around the house. We cleaned up old leaves. We cut brush. We moved old limbs and cut back old plants. We also cleaned out our flowerbeds and got everything ready for the upcoming winter season. It felt good being outside in the sunshine. I was very thankful for the warm weather because I know that soon it will be bitterly cold outside.

The year is like a wheel. It turns. Just like the year, we turn. We grow.

October is now just memory to us. The golden days are getting fewer and fewer as we move toward winter. The frosty nights fill us with anticipation about the upcoming holiday season. The white ghosts and skeletons have danced away for another year. In their place, we have the bounty of the fields such as squash, corn, and pumpkins on display. Paper turkeys are up in the schools. Everyone is thinking about the upcoming feast of Thanksgiving.

As we get closer to this next holiday, continue putting away the things of the past. This can be literal. For example, put away those lighter clothes for the heavier clothes and coats needed for winter. Burn off the gardens (when appropriate of course...don't break any laws!). Clean and oil the tools of summer and store them for winter.

You can also do this figuratively. Get rid of old negative relationships that are poison in your life. Rid yourself of negative habits. Banish bad energy from your life. As I like to say sometimes, "I banish all negative thoughts and people into the swirling void." I know it sounds silly, but I am stating aloud my intentions of getting rid of negativity in my life. It isn't healthy to keep these things around.

Right now, think of 5 things for which you are thankful. It can be people in your life....your job....your health. It can be anything for which you are truly thankful. For the upcoming Thanksgiving holidays, collect something that reminds you of these things. If you are thankful for someone special in your life, find a nice picture of this person to display. If you are thankful for your health, get some fresh flowers to put around the house. Remind yourself each day that we all have so many things for which we can be thankful.

I want to leave you this week with something that I found.

An Iroquois Prayer of Thanksgiving

We return thanks to our mother, the earth, with sustains us. We return thanks to the rivers and streams,which supply us with water. We return thanks to all herbs, which furnish medicines for the cure of our diseases. We return thanks to the corn, and to her sisters, the beans and squash, which give us life. We return thanks to the bushes and trees, which provide us with fruit. We return thanks to the wind, which, moving the air, has banished diseases. We return thanks to the moon and the stars, which have given us their light when the sun was gone. We return thanks to our grandfather, He who has given to us his rain. We return thanks to the sun, that he has looked upon the earth with a beneficent eye. Lastly, we return thanks to the Great Spirit, in whom is embodied all goodness, and who directs all things for the

Today it actually was chilly the entire day. It was such a change from the warm day that we had just yesterday. It is amazing how things can change so quickly. It is like that in our lives also. We just have to be prepared for change...no matter where it comes from.

The Breathitt County Heritage Fair was held this past weekend. I hope that everyone had a chance to get out and enjoy it. My wife Lisa and I set up a little yard sale this past Saturday. It was cold when we were setting up early that morning! I was glad that I had gloves and a hat! It warmed up nicely when the sun came up though. Thanks to everyone who stopped by our little sale. It was a very good day. We even had some time to enjoy the Heritage Fair. I saw some cool clogging while we were there.

My wife and I still haven't heard anything about our adoption. Hopefully we will get the call sometime this month. I hope that we can have this done by the end of the year. It is just so hard to wait for something that you want so much! I will keep you all posted about any new updates. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

I love seeing all the pumpkins at the roadside stands. I want to purchase a couple for our front porch. It is almost time for my favorite holiday...Halloween! I love everything about it....candy, warm popcorn, costumes, and carving jack o' lanterns. I appreciate that there are new, safer ways to have the same effect with plastic pumpkins and flickering battery-powered lights, but I am an old-fashioned kind of boy when it comes to jack o' lanterns. I love cutting open the pumpkin, scooping out the guts, carving a scary face, and placing a lit candle inside it. This totem of the season always puts me in a great mood. It is a great way to scare away the doldrums and bring about a terrific holiday season that lasts all the way through the new year.

Speaking of chilly weather, Lisa and I had to turn on our heat today! It was very chilly in the house, and Lisa's feet get cold really fast. She finally broke down and turned up the heat. It is very toasty right now.

We went around and visited with Mom and Dad. They had us around for dinner. My mom makes the best meatloaf in the world, and she knows that we can't resist it! LOL! While we were there, we were trying to remember if we had seen any wooly worms this year. We were trying to see what kind of winter we are going to have this year. The darker the worm, the worse the winter. Mom said that she thought she had seen a white one! Does that mean that we are going to have a mild winter? I don't know.

So how do you predict the coming winter with wooly worms? Here is one way to do it:

1. Look for wooly worms under rocks and inside hollow logs.

2. Examine the wooly worm, paying attention to its bands of colors. The wooly worm will curl into a ball when touched or threatened. When they crawl, they can crawl very quickly!

3. Wooly worm forecasters say that the size of the brown band of color will tell you what kind of winter is coming. Legend says that the thinner the brownish red bands, the harsher the winter will be. If the wooly worm is mostly brownish red in the middle, winter will be mild.

4. Wooly worm enthusiasts claim an 85 percent success rate over the last few decades. Scientists tend to disagree and say wooly worm weather prediction is as unscientific as using groundhogs to predict winter weather. The groundhogs likely side with the wooly worms.

So, whether or not you believe in the power of wooly worms, they can be a fun project for children and a

Well, it is official. We are in the fall season. If I couldn't tell it by the falling leaves, roadside pumpkins, and country fairs, I could tell it this morning when I walked outside. The air was actually chilly! It felt like real sweatshirt season! In fact, Lisa suggested that we make a big ol' pot of homemade chili. We are doing that right now as I type this and are having Mom and Dad around for dinner. There is nothing like a pot of chili with cheddar cheese and crackers on a chilly fall day.

Everyone is starting to get the last of their garden stuff in right about now. Mom and Dad dug their sweet potatoes this week. They knew that their sweet potatoes had grown well, but they were shocked when they started digging them. These are some of the biggest ones that I have ever seen in my life! They had me bring my scale around so that we could weigh them. Some of them weighed over 7 pounds each!

Dad said that these are the biggest sweet potatoes that he has ever grown. I could tell that they were proud of them. They should be! They always can a lot of their sweet potatoes to eat on during the winter months. They should get a lot of cannings out of this crop. Mom said that she would probably can about 63 cans of sweet potatoes. Now....just bring on the butter and brown sugar! LOL!

Speaking of food, Lisa and I just got home from a birthday party weekend with our friends Rod and Corrinna Middleton. The Middletons live in Morehead. They were throwing a birthday bash for their daughter Hailey and her cousin Hunter. Hailey turned 6 and Hunter was 7. There was tons of food at the party....hotdogs, deviled eggs, pizza, baked beans, chips, fruit, homemade fruit dip, and (of course) cake and ice cream. There were 4 different types of birthday cake i

You can feel it in the air at night. That brisk kiss of frost that whispers in our ears that autumn has arrived. The air doesn’t have that sensuous feel of summer anymore, and we know that the days will continue to grow shorter and shorter as we progress even further into the dark side of the year. Like everything else, the year is growing old.

Earlier this evening, I sat on my front porch and marveled at the sights and sounds of nature all around me. The sun was slanting through the trees like a stream of liquid gold. As it brushed against the leaves, it painted them with its brilliance and reminded me that soon the leaves will have a brilliant color all their own. This is when Mother Nature puts on some of her finery for a fashion show that has the rest of the world in awe. Everyone else tries to mimic it, but you can’t beat the original.

I also noticed that the world has taken on the slow gentle pulse of a watch that is winding down. Everything seems to be going at a much slower pace. By now, most of the crops have been gathered. The last remaining bounty of fields could possibly be the bright orange pumpkins and other fall squash that are appearing in the stores and at roadside stands.

This winding down is one thing that I love about autumn. Nature is a smart woman. She is telling each of us…in her own subtle way...to slow down and take a look at the world around us. In this age of everything on demand, people are often impatient and want everything yesterday. We have fast food, fast cars, and even drive-in churches (I saw one at Daytona Beach!). Why not slow down for a while and actually live your life instead of letting your life get out of control? The world isn’t going to end if you stop for just a second to breath in some of that crisp autumn air and enjoy a cup of warm cocoa or apple cider.

The Earth knows that now is the time to stop and rest. Through this rest, there is renewal. We as human beings can’t just stop living. However, we can slow down and reflect on our lives and the direction that we are taking. Perhaps we have strayed from the path upon which we intended. Maybe this is a good thing…maybe not. At least we need to consider our life choices and the consequences that we are facing. If we don’t like them, we can change them. However, if we don’t reflect…we can’t change.

Take some time to enjoy the season. Heat some cider. Bake some cookies. Pick a pumpkin. Plant some mums. Whatever you do…enjoy life. It is the only one you have.

Here is a recipe for Autumn Cider. I love it and have enjoyed it for years. This is an old family recipe that I now pass on to you! Enjoy it with my blessings!

Spiced Autumn Cider

Ingredients

· one gallon apple cider

· one cup orange juice

· one lemon, thinly sliced

· 4 cinnamon sticks

· 2 whole cloves

· 1 teaspoon allspice

1. Place all of the ingredients in a sauce pan. Cover pan and bring to a low boil. Reduce heat and simmer for at least 15 minutes.

2. Strain into a large bowl and enjoy! You can also strain this and then put it in a crock pot to keep it warm throughout the day.

3. Sit outside in the cool, crisp air. Inhale deeply over your cup of hot cider. Drink!

Family and friends are the most important parts of anyone’s life.  It doesn’t matter how rich you are or how poor you are.  It doesn’t matter if you have had a terrible day…or week.  It doesn’t matter what type of clothes you wear or if you drive the latest car.  What really matters are your family and friends.

This past weekend, Lisa and I had the chance to spend some time with our friends, Rod and Corrinna Middleton and their daughter Hailey.  Rod is the director of the Fish Hatchery at Cave Run Lake and does an excellent job.  Corrinna works for the Dept. of Water and Sewage.  Hailey is just entering the first grade….and it seems like only yesterday when she was born!

We spent the weekend together doing what we do best….namely shopping and eating…LOL!  Lisa and I went to visit them at the Fish Hatchery on Friday night.  We played on the trampoline with Hailey and also played ball and with the Frisbee.  It was a great afternoon to be outdoors.  Later on, the grownups had some time to play cards.  We love to play Canasta…a popular card game from the 1940s!  We are just keeping traditions alive and well!  HA!

The next morning, we all woke up early and got ready for our day of fun in Lexington.  Of course, the drive there was easy thanks to the wonderful built-in DVD player in the Toyota Sienna.  I’ll be the first one to admit that I love these vehicles.  It will come in very handy when we get Jacob!  There is tons of room and with the built-in entertainment center….they are very child-friendly!

Once we were in Lexington, we took some time to shop a little.  What is trip to Lexington without a little shopping?  I’ll admit that I didn’t really need anything.  I ended up purchasing two cool t-shirts.  One of them was a Goonies shirt from that 1980s movie.  I loved that movie when I was young…and I still watch it today, thanks to the magic of DVD.  The other one was a Sesame Street shirt.  I’m a huge Muppets nut…as some of you know already!  LOL!

Finally though, we headed to Rupp Arena for the main attraction of the day…the Ringling Bros. and Barnum Bailey Circus.  We had all been looking forward to taking Hailey to the circus.  She was very excited to see all the animals and clowns.  Plus, I have to admit, I was very excited to see the circus because I had never been to a BIG circus like this before.  It took up the whole floor at Rupp!

The show was amazing.  There were all sorts of trained animal acts.  We saw dancing elephants, trained tigers, and prancing zebras!  There were cool dog tricks and neat ponies and horses.  One elephant even painted a picture!  Hailey loved all the animal acts.

The rest of the circus was indeed magical.  There were several acts of illusion throughout the show.  For instance, they were cutting people in half, turning clowns into tigers, and even making elephants disappear!  I thought that the way that they incorporated a magic show into the circus was a great idea.  Zing Zang Zoom were the magic words that transported the entire audience into a fantasy world for two solid hours.  I can see why they call it the Greatest Show on Earth.

One of the scariest parts of the circus for me was the trained tiger act.  I’m sure that this man was a trained professional, but those tigers were snarling and clawing at him like crazy!  I just knew that we were going to experience one of those “moments when it all went bad.”  I could picture myself on the news saying “I saw the whole thing.  It was awful!”  But…the man looked danger right in the face and went on with the show. 

It was great being at the circus with Hailey.  Lisa and I are looking forward to being able to take Jacob to the circus next year.  We are still planning on hopefully getting to tra

Lisa and I have been in the process of adopting for….well, it seems like forever, but in truth it has been for around 3 years.  As most of you know, we were originally in the Vietnam program, but it shut down and still hasn’t reopened.  We stayed in the program for a while but got frustrated at the slow progress and switched to the Russian program

The Russian program has moved a lot faster.  In the past several months, we have completed our home visit from social workers, completed all paperwork, and have been fingerprinted by the Homeland Security office to get our approval for international adoption.  All of our paperwork is in Russia now and we have even been assigned a region.  We will be adopting from Yaroslavl.  It is about 150 miles north of Moscow.

All we are waiting on now is our phone call from the agency, Children’s Hope International, informing us of our referral.  That will give us about a week’s time to get everything ready and travel to Russia.  Believe me…we are more than ready!

On our first trip to Russia, we will finally get to meet our child at the orphanage.  We will get to visit for 3 or 4 days while we are there.  During this time, we can feed and play with him.  We can also help with changing diapers and other things.  Of course, we will have our own medical examination of him and will be in contact with the good people at UK.  They have an international adoption medical unit and will be able to give us advice on the adoption.

At the end of the week, we will decide whether or not to complete the adoption.  Our agency has informed us that they have excellent records of couples accepting their first referral.  I have all the faith in the world that everything will work out for us as well.  If we agree to complete the adoption, we will sign the paperwork and then travel back to the USA while everything goes through the courts.

When it is time for us to go before the judge in Russia, they will call us.  At that time, we will have about 2 or 3 days to get back to Russia and have our appearance in court.  According to our agency and other people who have adopted, the process in court takes about 2 hours.  When the judge approves the adoption, we will have to wait 10 days until we can legally pick up our child from the orphanage.  We will stay in Russia during this time.  We can visit the orphanage during our wait, thankfully.

After we pick him up from the orphanage, we will have to spend more time in Russia getting his paperwork together so that he can leave the country.  We will also have to get him a passport and visit the American Embassy in Russia.  Finally, we will get to come home.  Of course, we will need a little time at home to start bonding before we rush back into work and such.

Most people have kids and take it for granted that this is something that is just naturally going to happen.  For those of us who can’t…for whatever reason…the process is a little bit more than just letting nature take its course.  There are piles of paperwork, late nights of worrying that everything is going okay, and then having to travel halfway around the world to pick up our child.  However, it is a process that will be more than worth it in the end.

I know that there is a long way to go still on this journey to complete our family.  However, can I dare say that I see the light at the end of tunnel?  We are expecting a phone call at any time.  In fact, we are hoping to complete this adoption by the end of the year. 

I will keep you all informed as we continue along this path.  Please keep us in your thoughts!

Until next week…class dismissed!

Me in front of the John Deere tractor used for the hay ride.

Lisa and me

Me with my long lost "sister" Carey Moore! LOL!

Summer wouldn't be summer without family reunions. This summer, I once again had the honor of attending the Hatfield reunion with my wife Lisa. It was even better this year because we were able to take my mother-in-law Janet with us. Janet was originally a Hatfield, if you were wondering how a Fugate got invited into the clan! LOL!

On a hot and sunny Friday morning, we all loaded into the van. The good people at Nim Henson Geriatric Center even packed up all of Janet's medicines that she would need for the weekend. They are just really good people!

Off we headed to Yatesville Lake in Louisa. The Hatfields always rent out all of the cabins at Creekside Cabins and RV Park. It is a great location to relax and unwind. There are 8 cabins that get rented out. Plus there is lots of room for the rest of the family who like to bring their RVs.

When we arrived, we saw the familiar "big tent" that they rent for the weekend. This year, the family also rented several of the inflatable rides that are very popular right now. As we got closer, I saw that they had rented an obstacle course, water slide, and one where two people try to knock each other off a pedestal with large padded javelins. These were mainly meant for the kids...but the adults enjoyed them also. This was especially true late at night when jousting contests took place! LOL!

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