One Life. One Love. 2 Months.

So yesterday we hit the two month mark.  2 months ago yesterday, our dossier arrived in Ethiopia. The first month felt awful.  The waiting sucked.  This last month hasn't been too bad, but I think this was due in part to the insanely busy schedule we have had shooting weddings this summer.  It has been crazy, but it has kept my mind fairly occupied. You may have noticed that our blog got a little bit of a makeover.  I had that picture of that beautiful Ethiopian boy up there for quite a while, but I keep thinking about how nice it will be to have pictures of our own angel(s) up there some day.  So anyways, I thought it would be appropriate to kind of put one of the themes of our lives up there:  Chasing After Love.  That phrase is kind of all encompassing.  We desire to spend our entire lives chasing after our one True Love, Jesus Christ, who has given us everything and more.  For the last 5 years we have been chasing after one piece of that love:  a child.  Off to the right of our header, you'll see, "One Life. One Love."  That pretty much says that we have One Love, Jesus, from whom every good thing comes, and we have One Life on earth to go hard after that Love in every way.  This includes adoption.  We may have hit some bumps along the way (and no doubt, more will come!), but we continue to run the race.  We will not quit.

So, in the midst of the craziness that is life, this weekend was a much needed time of rest.  NO work.  And we celebrated being that much closer to a referral by going to Cincinnati, seeing an opera, staying in a nice hotel, and going to Ikea (my favorite!).  For those of you that know Wes and I well, you know that we kind of enjoy a hodgepodge of things in this life.  On the one hand, we could sit at home and watch a great movie any day of the week.  We might spend a Saturday hiking through some national forest.  And then sometimes we go to something a little more snooty, like the opera.  A couple of years ago we decided we wanted to go to the world renowned Metropolitan Opera of New York City.  So we flew to NYC (this is when Wes worked for the airlines and we flew for free...oh how I miss those days of free travel!), and saw Fidelio at the Met.  It was awesome!  Well, when I saw that La Boheme was coming to Cincinnati, I knew that we had to go check it out.  So that's just what we did.  We got all dolled up, and first made our way over to Over the Rhine, a hugely historical area of Cincinnati, and has more recently gained a reputation of being the most dangerous part of Cincinnati.  BUT, there are great developments on the horizon here, and changes are being made to invest in the futures of those who otherwise may have had no other opportunity.  One such development is the restaurant, Venice on Vine.  According to their website, "Venice on Vine is an employment education program of Power Inspires Progress, a non-profit organization which offers paid, on-the-job training to inner-city residents."  At first, I had thought we would treat ourselves to a ritzy Italian meal at one of the upscale restaurants in the city.  But as I was looking up popular restaurants, I came upon this one.  When I realized this was a restaurant whose purpose was to invest in the lives of the poor, to give people a hope and a future, I knew this was where we should go.  

Wes making an order at Venice on Vine.

Sporting my hodgepodge outfit (calvin klein dress, with tank and pants), in front of Venice on Vine.

So, with all that said, Wes and I still got all dolled up in our Sunday best.  Needless to say, we looked a little out of place as we walked down the street toward the restaurant.  I felt a little conspicuous to say the least, but I'm so glad we didn't let that stop us.  Since this is a training restaurant, there are always employees learning the workings of the restaurant.  But everyone was friendly, helpful, and honestly, it is a quaint little place with lots of character.   The pizza was delicious, and I would definitely go back.  It's nice knowing that your money is going into rebuilding people's lives.  Loved it.

From there we headed over to the opera house.  

   

Okay, so this little video above is completely unedited.  We are complete dorks, but I think that is what is most charming about us.  *wink, wink*  And FYI, the Gay Musical quote is from the IT Crowd, a hilarious British comedy that we fell in love with this year.   
I have always heard incredible things about La Boheme, so I was really looking forward to this.  It did not disappoint.  I loved it much more than Fidelio.  Although I must admit, I still have a hard time when story lines include two people falling in love after 2 seconds, but hey...it's the opera.  I had a couple Pretty Woman moments when the singing became so powerful that tears came to my eyes.  So good.  Here's a little snippet from the opera we saw.  These are the actual singers from the version we saw, playing Mimi and Rodolfo.  I know not everyone is a fan of opera, but you can't deny that there is beauty and power in those voices...

Awww.....we're just like the couple on the cover. ;)

The view from our hotel room.

And finally, on Saturday, we headed over to Ikea.  Admittedly, my entire family is full of Ikea-freaks.  We LOVE it.  Of course, my mother is from Norway, and Ikea is a Scandinavian store (well, it's actually Swedish, but we try not to think about that terrible flaw).  When they first started popping up all over the States, we kept hoping we'd find an Ikea (pronounced "ee-kay-uh" in Scandinavia...pronounced "eye-kee-uh" in the States) close to us.  Well, about 2 years ago, Ikea popped up in West Chester, OH.  Okay, so maybe it's about 2 hours away, but that's nothing to us because it's....IKEA.  :)  Oh, and if you have one close by, but haven't gone yet, it's a must.  Be warned, though.  You might fall in love.  AND....it may take hours to get through it.  It is huge and awesome.  :)  Okay, maybe I'm a little bit obsessed.  Don't judge me.

So there's a little taste of our weekend away...celebrating 2 months of waiting to see a picture of our future son or daughter....celebrating a time of rest....celebrating the One Love we have while we live this One Life.