a bit of happiness.

oh man, after i wrote that post this morning, i went to church and the sermon really hit home. the pastor spoke about suffering -- so appropriate and what i needed to hear. i know the word "suffering" sounds a bit dramatic, but sometimes, it's really what i feel like we're doing during this wait and through a lot of this journey from infertility to adoption.

the point that really spoke to me was when the pastor was talking about rejoicing in the midst of suffering. though it sounds crazy to think that one would rejoice while suffering, his point was that there is more to life than just the here and now and that in the grand scheme of eternity, this time of suffering is often but a moment and a mile marker on the road to heaven that builds our faith and brings us closer to God. and, as he said, if you can rejoice through suffering, you can rejoice through anything...amen.

so, i am going to choose to rejoice. and as contradictory (and perhaps a bit disingenuously so) as i may sound from this morning's post to this, i find that i usually have to make the choice to rejoice before i actually can.

i rejoice in the fact that our choi boy is being lovingly cared for by his foster mom. i rejoice because our son is in good health. i rejoice in the fact that we even have the means to adopt. i rejoice because we *do* have a son and we will be with him soon.

and, so, i'm going to focus on things that make me happy.

like finding great deals! :)

yesterday, my friends amy, christine, and i went to a local children's consignment sale and we found some incredible deals for our little ones. i was chatting on fbook about it with dana, and she requested a post seeing all my goodies. so, this one's for you, dana!

because we thought choi boy would be home late summer/early fall, the vast majority of clothes we had for him were t-shirts and warmer weather clothing. my shopping mission when approaching this consignment sale was to find some fall/winter clothing for choi boy, and my goodness, the sale delivered! look at my finds:


how cute is this outfit? i love the orange plaid with the brown pants. it reminds me of fall foliage.


i heart this striped sweater so much. and the navy pants have such great detail with yellow stitching.


don't you love henleys? and this one is thermal, too! and how sweet is that embroidered dinosaur (ahem, apatosaurus)?


this jacket is my *favorite*! i love, love that it looks like a miniature version of a man's jacket. and how can you go wrong with blue suede shoes?? choi boy will have to grow into them, but they are stinkin' adorable.

the best part about the jacket?

it's REVERSIBLE! i didn't know this until i got home, so it was like i got a surprise extra jacket! so rad. rad, indeed.

and finally, of course i couldn't leave without some books:

but not the hippopotamus (jeepers, that is a hard word to spell!) is my favorite sandra boynton book, and i love the carl books, too. have you seen my duckling? is another sweet one that i love because there are very few words and you have to really look at the pictures to get the story, very much like the carl books.

the best part was that most of these items were new (some still with tags) or very much like new.

and the grand total for all these finds? $23.75. score!

happy now. :)

i just threw all these clothes in the wash and did my first load of choi boy laundry. kind of exciting! and a random question for you mommas...i know you have to wash before wear with infant clothing, but do you have to do the same with new toddler clothing?