Winter Like Day

The weather has slowly been turning colder over the last few weeks.  Today, we woke to a very cold start (29 degrees) and high wind.  Unfortunate for Mike as he is running Brian's Run as I write.  Brian's Run is a charity 5 mile run that benefits Brian who was paralyzed playing football many years ago.  Mike originally ran the event as a high school student.  Now (a few years later) he has begun to run it again.  I'm really proud of him.  It's hard enough to run the hilly course while the weather is perfect.  Today, with the wind, it will be insanely hard.  This goes to one of Mike's greatest strength: his will and determination.

While Mike is busy torturing himself, I went for a walk in the park. I bundled up the pups and headed into the gale force winds.  Amazing how a little cold wind can calm the mind.  Just me and the pups.  About half way around, we were blessed with a visit from a red-tailed hawk.  I watched as it gracefully sliced its way through the wind.  

It has been quiet on the adoption front.  Our home study went to Korea last week.  Still waiting on the I600-A.  To keep our minds off of it, we've been busy preparing ourselves for the great Christmas rush.    And, we couldn't resist picking up our first official gift for our child.  Kohl's was selling stuffed animals for charity based on the characters from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.  I couldn't resist Max, the pup who pulled the sleigh.  

All I need is a reindeer! The Grinch looked around, but since reindeer are scarce, there was none to be found. Did that stop the Grinch? Ha! He simply said: If I can't *find* a reindeer, I'll *make* one instead. So he took his dog Max, and he took some black thread, and he tied a big horn on the top of his head.