Our *big* news!

To our sweet family & friends:

We are so excited to share with you our big news that we are adopting a baby! Many of you know that we have struggled to grow our family for several years now. Our journey of infertility has been extremely difficult, but even through our darkest times, we clung to the promise from God's Word in Romans 8:28 that "all things work together for good for those who love God!" We are so excited to say that the best thing that has come from our journey is our joy & excitement at welcoming a precious little baby into our family through adoption!

We are working with a law center that specializes in placing domestic infants for adoption. Our past few months have been filled with more paperwork than we could ever imagine, completing our adoption homestudy, and preparing the nursery for little Rinn. In addition to all of this, Dave has kept busy building a gorgeous crib!

A prospective birthmother is able to view information on waiting families and choose which family she wants to raise her child. As excited as we are for the phone to ring with a call that we have been chosen, we have already discovered that this part of the journey is not easy, either. On Wednesday night, we received a call that a birthmother had selected us. After a tough 24 hours of reviewing all the information on the birth family, praying, and talking, we made the very difficult choice that we were not the right family for this baby. This experience has opened our eyes even more as to how much we need this entire process bathed in prayer.

Specifically, we ask you to pray for the following things:
**for the health & safety of our birthmother & baby
**for the families of the birthmother & birthfather to be supportive of their plans to place the baby for adoption
**for us to have wisdom in making a decision when another call comes
**for the details of the adoption--legal paperwork & potential travel out of state--to work out smoothly
**for our hearts to be patient & hopeful during this time of waiting

So many of you have supported and prayed for us through some very rough times, and we can't tell you enough how grateful we are for those prayers. We continue to ask for your prayers as we wait for little Rinn!

Spring Break in DC!

This year, my spring break started early as my friend Stephanie & I traveled to DC for the National Kodaly conference! When we finished our final level of Kodaly training last summer, we decided that we should "reward" ourselves for our hours & hours of hard work by attending the national conference. It ended up being an awesome experience! We went to many wonderful sessions full of great ideas on implementing the Kodaly philosophy into our classrooms...and though it's never fun to go back to school after spring break, I am glad for all the new ideas I have to bring back! Stephanie & I stayed at an absolutely adorable bed & breakfast in the DC area. Our favorite part of this cute place was the delicious breakfast! We were also able to play a few late-night games of Scrabble!
Deb, my sweet friend from Taylor, lives in the Baltimore area, and she picked me up for lunch one day during the conference. We hadn't seen each other for 4 years! Our few hours together were packed with lots of laughs and catching up!
For those of you who know me well, you are familiar with my two greatest fears: heights & escalators. During this trip, I was "privileged" to face those fears together in the escalator that took us down to the Metro. When I first saw how tall & steep the escalator was, I really didn't think I would be able to make it, especially since I had to lug my huge suitcase behind me. But...I'm proud to say that I became comfortable enough with it that I was able to run down the escalator (suitcase in tow!) to catch the Metro on the last day of my trip--yikes!!! Once our conference was done, Stephanie & I spent Sunday at the Museum of American History & the Holocaust Memorial Museum. There was a great display on the First Ladies at the Museum of American History. We also saw Lincoln's stovepipe hat, Dorothy's red shoes from "The Wizard of Oz," and Julia Child's recreated kitchen! While extremely emotional, the Holocaust Museum was also incredible. I was amazed at the depth of the displays, and I definitely left with my heart hurting.

The second part of my trip to DC was spent with my dear friend Nicole! She & Beckett came to Texas last year on my spring break, and I am so glad that I was able to visit them now that they live in the DC area. We spent lots of time talking, eating great food, shopping, & playing with Beckett. We also toured the Capitol on Wednesday morning before I flew home. I am so thankful for sweet friendships that stay strong, even when living so far apart.

Reflections on March 8

It's hard for me to believe that today is the 2 year anniversary of miscarrying our first baby. In some ways, it's hard to believe how fast the last 2 years have passed; on the other hand, these last 2 years have seemed like a never-ending cycle of disappointment, tears, & deep heartache.

When I first found out that I was scheduled to sing at church this weekend, the anniversary of our loss, I was very worried that I would be a bawling mess on stage--especially since last year I stayed buried in our house on March 8. But, God gave me peace that I could sing this weekend with strength only found in Him. Yes, there were tears as I sang today, but they were sweet tears as I reflected on who I was 2 years ago and who God has shaped (and still is shaping) me into through our miscarriage & subsequent infertility.

Two years ago, I couldn't see all the good God could bring from this pain. This list isn't exhaustible; but, these are the main "good" things that I am thankful for right now:
--a depth & strength in our marriage that before I only imagined
--deep, real-life friendships with other girls forged from our shared experiences of infertility
--knowing personally in my heart-not just my head-that Jesus is faithful; that He truly does give us the grace we need to get through each day; and that God can cause all things to work together for good for those who love Him, as we are promised in Romans 8:28

Of course, I know there will still be hard days...after all, our arms are still empty. But, I can say that I am truly thankful for the pain & brokenness God has brought me through; because, the joy I felt today as I sang the following lyrics is a joy that can only come from being delivered from a place of hopelessness & despair.

I love you Lord, I worship You
Hope which was lost now stands renewed
I give my life to honor this
The love of Christ, the Savior King

Thank you, Jesus, for hope renewed.

Minnesota, that wimpy state!

My third grade students are preparing for their program, “A Musical Tribute to Texas,” which they will present on March 10. One of their pieces is the Texas state anthem, “Texas, Our Texas.”

The students were rehearsing the state anthem yesterday when I stopped them to discuss the lyrics. I referred to the line “Boldest and grandest, withstanding ev’ry test, O Empire wide and glorious, you stand supremely blest”

I asked, “What does boldest and grandest mean?” The students discussed how Texas was strong, great, mighty, etc. Then I said, “Well, right now neither your singing or your posture show that you are singing about a strong & mighty state. You look and sound like you’re singing about a wimpy state.”

At this point, one of the boys yells out, “Yeah, a wimpy state like Minnesota!”

I wasn’t sure if he knew that I was from Minnesota or not, so I pretended to get very offended. I started going on and on about how I was born and raised in Minnesota, and how dare he say that Minnesota was a wimpy state!

I think I actually scared him a little…and then he stopped me and said, “Mrs. Rinn, I’m so sorry! I didn’t know you were from Minnesota. I just said that because of the Vikings!”

Valentine's Day '09

On Friday night, we had a little Valentine party at our house with a few other couples. We had a lot of fun playing both "Apples to Apples" and "Battle of the Sexes." Of course, the guys won "Battle of the Sexes," because they had questions such as "Where would you use the product 'Cascade'?" while we girls had much more difficult questions, like "Which sport uses the term '301'?" (Does anybody know?) No matter though--we had a great time!
I was scheduled to sing at church this weekend, but instead my sweet husband had been scheming behind my back! I had planned on taking a nap on Saturday afternoon before heading to church for rehearsal on Saturday afternoon; little did I know Dave had reset the alarm on my phone and I woke up "late"--or at least I thought I had overslept! Dave then revealed the first part of the plan to me....that he had already talked to Brian, our worship leader, to let him know that I wouldn't be singing this weekend since I was being abducted! If you know me at all, you know I really love surprises, so at this point I got very excited! We headed out for dinner at our new favorite Italian place (Niki's Italian on Davis).

After dinner, Dave started driving downtown, so I thought we were possibly going to see a show at Bass Hall. Instead, he drove us to the new Omni Hotel! They just opened on January 17, & Dave was able to get an opening special. The hotel was absolutely gorgeous, and we had a beautiful view of all the downtown lights! Wow--this was Dave's year to plan Valentine's Day, so we'll have to see if I can top his surprise next year! ;) Truly, though, I am so thankful for my precious husband..... Happy Valentine's Day from the Rinns!

Dave's Birthday Video!

After many, many tries, I have finally been able to load Dave's birthday video onto Blogger! This video was a surprise to him at his birthday party, and though a few pictures may have embarrassed him a little, it was a lot of fun! And, many thanks to our friend Holly who made this video--so sweet of her! And, I just have to say, isn't this first picture of Dave so adorable? Look at that grin! ;)

Dave's 30th Birthday!

I’ve been teasing Dave for months (years?) about turning 30 (after all, I’m so much younger…)…and since it was so monumental, we had a huge weekend planned to celebrate his birthday! On Friday night, we went to Texas de Brazil for dinner. We had never been there, but had heard incredible reviews….and it definitely lived up to its name! For those of you who aren’t familiar with TdB, it is a Brazilian steakhouse where “guachos” walk around the restaurant with huge skewers of meat. There is a card at your table with a red side & a green side, and when the green side is facing up, the the guachos stop at your table and offer you meat. And…on Friday night they had 14 different meats! It was incredible! Our favorite was bacon-wrapped filet mignon. Because there is so much food, we were there for nearly 3 hours…after another week apart, it was so fun to be together while enjoying SUCH great food and dessert-- citrus crème brulee & 5 layer chocolate cake. I think this is now Dave’s new favorite restaurant for birthdays. (And, if you sign up online for their e-newsletter, you receive a free dinner & dessert on your birthday & anniversary!)
I had planned a surprise birthday party for Dave at my parent’s house for Saturday night…and, I am so proud to say that it stayed a surprise! I had been so excited about it in the past few weeks that there were several times I came very close to slipping the secret to Dave! He thought we were going to my parent’s for a small birthday dinner with my grandparents, Uncle Kym & Aunt Bernie, and Uncle Jon.

Little did he know that many of our Keystone friends were back in my parent's kitchen….so when Dave walked past the family room and into the kitchen, he had a huge SURPRISE! He just stood there smiling for a few moments taking it all in. (He later said he thought he was being attacked because it was so loud with all the yelling, laughing, and kazoos!)


We had a great evening with our family and friends....after dinner we watched a video slideshow of pictures of Dave set to “My Next 30 Years” by Tim McGraw that our friend Holly made….and then we had cake from Sweet Memories! (What would a party be without Sweet Memories cake?) All in all, it was an awesome party—thanks to all our friends & family who helped make it a fun surprise for Dave!

Even the twins made it to Dave's party! (Way to go, Kimi!)Some of our sweet friends--Sawyers, us, Sprauls, and Collins"Mr. Dave" and the D'Amico boys!