Merry Christmas Little Mister

Yesterday, Christmas Eve, I had a chance to walk the dog between the kids going to bed and Santa's arrival. It was a cold crisp night, but also very clear and I could see lots of stars. As I was walking and looking at the stars, my mind drifted to my trip to Haiti and all the stars I could see each night there. The sky seemed very similar.

Now, Leslie and I know we will be adopting a boy, but we don't know our son's name yet. Leslie has taken to calling him Little Mister. We call Eli Little Man, so the term Little Mister for our second son just fits.

As I thought about the stars, I began to wonder if Little Mister happened to be looking at the stars on Christmas Eve as well. Oh, how we wish he could be with us to celebrate Christmas this year. We really wish he was home with us to enjoy the holiday.

All of these thoughts start rolling through my head on the walk and the next thing I know I'm overcome with emotion and start crying. The emotion is equal parts sadness (that he's not with us yet) and equal parts joy (knowing that it won't be long).

I hope he clings to the thought that it won't be that long. Merry Christmas Little Mister.

Creativity in woodworking

So, somehow, I became motivated to build a carrier of some kind to hold and keep upright, 1/2 gallon growlers. The local breweries have tasting rooms where you can get a half gallon of your favorite delicious local craft beer.

It's tough to get just one filled, so when you have two, it makes carrying them a challenge. So I went online and searched for some options. I found a couple of places that sell wooden carriers. In looking at them, it looked like something I could do. Plus it might give me an option to buy more cool power tools.

Here is the first one I created. This is made out of pine and finished with tung oil. There are dowel plugs to help give it a nice finished look.

Pine growler carrier with tung oil finish

One of the cool new tools that I bought was a stacked dado blade. You can see that in this overhead photo. There is something really cool about ripping a 3/4 swath through the piece of wood you are working on.

Notice the dado cuts

I've also created 6 (yes that is right six) more. But these are made out of rough cut cedar. I used the cedar because the walls of the tasting room of my favorite Indy brewery, Flat12, are cedar. The rafters in their building are also put together with pin construction. So the dowel plugs tie in that element as well.Working with the cedar also was nice because of the aroma.

Cedar growler carrier

Dossier received by GLA

We hit another milestone with the adoption process. On November the 28th, we were informed our dossier was received by GLA, our orphanage. This is great news. First it took very little time to have the dossier received once it was sent. Second, it means the next big step is the referral.

We've been informed that referrals take 1-3 months, so maybe by the end of January we will have face, name and description of our son. This will be the understatement of the blog, but that will be incredible. To know our son's name and have photos wow. At that same time I think it will make the process even harder, along with the patience aspect of this all.

Thanks for your continues prayers.