Vacation Bible School

“M” attended her first Vacation Bible School this summer at our church. It was a Hawaiian theme. I can remember going to bible school as a child and I loved it so I thought she would love to go learn and be with her friends a few hours each day. She has always loved church but now she even loves it more. Teaching is a special gift that some parents have and to see our children grow up learning about God, value truths, and forming friendships of all ages just is such a blessing. Our church and congregation is all about the children and the youth our future.

A wonderful gift for the girls

We were so blessed.... A fellow adoptive mother had posted on our local group that she had a doll collection she wanted to give away to a family who was interested in Asian dolls. Prior to getting Maddie my mom and I looked all over when we traveled trying to find any kind of Asian doll and we were not really successful. Well I responded to the email and did not think anymore of it until she responded back and asked me when I wanted to come pick up up the dolls. Needless to say I was thrilled beyond words. The first thing I did was call my mother and told her the great news. Due to busy schedules it took us a month to meet but when we went over there this morning to get the dolls the collection was far beyond my belief. I have never seen so many Asian dolls in one place they are just gorgeous. There are porcelain, Barbies, and play dolls and I now can't wait to get the girls room redone and the play room finished. When I get the 3 rooms finished I will post pictures with all the dolls. Another great thing is we have made new friends. This has been a double blessing for our family.

Learning to Live with Less

Over the past month and a half I have been learning and praying on how to be a better financial planner. Over a 18 months ago Steve and I took Financial Peace University hosted by Dave Ramsey (video class) and we were determined to pay off all of our debt. It all sounded good as long as we were in the class and we did great reducing our debt but once class was over we slowly stop progressing as fast. Over the past 9 months we have prayed and have looked at all kinds of ways (class ideas as well as insight from friends) to get back on track and I can thankfully say we are.

One of the hardest things was deciding what our prioritise were and ours was not fancy cars, always getting new clothes and trying to keep up with the latest trends. Instead we want all of our debt paid off, take the money we have paid on bills monthly and invest once we were debt free. Living on less has been not as tough as we thought it would be I have become much smarter in my shopping. I have learned from some great friends how to score very very inexpensive groceries and basically free cosmetics, cleaning supplies, baby stuff, soda... and the list goes on. I have shared this knowledge with my other friends and we have reduced our shopping budgets as much by half. This in turns help pay off the bills faster. Also, we have never had so many groceries and supplies in our house at one time. Someday I hope to start a blog on shopping tips but for now I am still learning the ropes.

We are truly bless God has provided and we both have made sacrifices to complete this. I pray that God will continue to give us the strength and the courage to live on less.

This is where we will be YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nursery Time

I am now excited to move on to the creation of the babies room. I have a plan in my mind but it is my dearest girlfriend Beth who is the creator and who is going to help me put it all together. We are doing pink this time yes I caved in and the colors are pink, green, butterflies and lady bugs. She is getting a crib and a twin bed in her room because we do not know her age but I think she will need a crib least for a short time. The only dilemma is the crib color but I think we can make it work it is only a short period. Our first task is molding, trim work and paint. Next, is carpet in both the girls’ rooms it is not that old but we want new or hardwood put in still deciding? The final touches will be the bedding, and wall hangings. Can’t wait to start shopping for all the fixtures and bedding. Already have the paint now it’s just a matter of getting started. Oh cleaning out her closet won’t be fun :(

Thankful Thursdays

We are thankful for the safe return of a dearest friends from vacation they had a terrible ATV accident and other unfortunate situations on their summer vacation. We thank God for their safe return and their minimal injuries.

YIPEEE I-171H

We are officially official again. What that means is our immigration status was about to expire and we are now renewed for another 18 months. This will do the trick. We have sent that information off to our agency because you have to have a valid 6 months on your immigration papers to receive a referral and travel. Since all the waiting child process for travel has picked up so much it is not taking months like it was in the old program. Every step closer in the process just sends goose bumps up my spine and just assure us we are getting closer. The WC ladies are so wonderful at our agency you know you are in good hands.

Little “M’s” 4th Birthday

We can hardly believe our little girl is four years old. When I look at her I can remember the first time they placed her in my arms and I hugged and kissed her. Now we fast forward 3 ½ years later to going to the movies (Kung Fu Panda), having cake and ice cream, opening presents and spending the day together as a family. She was so excited about having a family day (we have them every weekend 4 days) when it came time to make the wish from her cake she said star light star bright my wish tonight is for my sister to be with me and my family amen. Then she asked do you think it will come true because I told you. We told her it sure will just give it some more time. Her dinner request was a fruit salad with every kind of fruit she could think of and top it off with cool whip so that is what we let her have.

We had a great family day! God bless the gift of little girls.

Swim Lessons

Summer is in full swing and we have started out learning to swim this year. Little “M” has a passion for the water so we decided to get lessons. Better safe than sorry J She is on her second lesson and so far so good she is loving being a fish it helps that her best little girlfriend swims with her. We have also met other we know there and the kids have a great time. I also felt that if she knew how to swim this would be that last selling point to daddy to have a pool put in because he is so worried about her around water.

Look forward to the rest of the summer days at the pool!!!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day

We had a very quite day. Attended church in the morning and came home to have a brunch and make a cake for dad. Little "M" is into cooking, baking and yes helping wash the dishes (Yipee!!!). She has made dad 10+ cards and hides them everywhere for him she loves to write DAD on everything. She asked us today now that we have had mother's and father's day when is daughter's day. We laughed and said everyday is your day. She has an unbelievable giving and caring heart. She told Steve he is the bestest daddy in the whole world because he is strong, he cooks for her and plays with her. It was so sweet to see her hold her heart and tell her daddy how she felt.

What Makes a Dad

God took the strength of a mountain

The majesty of a tree,

The warmth of a summer sun,

The calm of a quiet sea,

The generous soul of nature,

The comforting arm of night,

The wisdom of the ages,

The power of the eagle's flight,

The joy of a morning in spring,

The faith of a mustard seed,

The patience of eternity,

The depth of a family need,

Then God combined these qualities,

When there was nothing more to add,

He knew His masterpiece was complete,

And so,

He called it ... Dad

~~Author Unknown.~~

Referral Update June

June is an exciting month there is alot to report. CCAA has sent the next set of NSN matches the cut of that was 1/20/2008 boy we are slowly chipping away at this month next month it will be 5 month in January. Thank goodness the first of February there was a week long holiday in China and February is a short month. Our agency received 15 matches and they also received expedited referrals which have been on hold for sometime. This is great news things are picking up again for expedited families. Based on referral announcements this months it looks as if there were more referrals than in the past few months :) The good news does not stop here.

Our agency received a designated list with 25 new children yes that's right just for them. The list was 70% male. There are now children posted on the site again available. Also, this is the third month in the SN arena that the time lines have show significant improvement. CCAA also release a new shared list this week with at least 60 new files. I will tell you based on all of this CCAI WC ladies I know have to be very busy. Let the phones ring.

CCAA also has said that January 2007 is out of review that means we only have 2 more months to go before we are out. This will be helpful when we are matched and make the process go faster.

We are so happy for all the family's that are being joined and made this week. We continue to pray for the families that are traveling, waiting and all the children waiting for their forever families. We continue to pray for all that were affected by the earthquake.

Little”M”’s 4th Birthday Party

I can hardly believe she will be “4”. This year she wanted to have a Build-A Bear Party and we had nine little friends (she made out her list to invite there were 35+ people on it but I had to cut it way down) and they had a blast building their little animals and dressing and naming them. Of course cake and ice cream was a must. It was great for all we came and partied and then left with nothing to clean and we got to go home and play the rest of the day.
God has truly blessed us with the most wonderful daughter.

A Day at the Spa

Little “M” and I went to have a morning of pampering. Yes, I know we are on a budget but our debt free plan is still on target. We went to the Day Spa and had our hair done and a spa pedicure. Tammy who does my hair is great she loves kids. She just found out she is going to have a baby and she is over the top excited and we could not be happier for her. We wanted to get “M” all ready for her birthday party that was on the 7th. We had the best time together that day as we sat there getting our make-over she told me she was a big girl now so she could paint her toes. When they rubbed sea salt on her little legs she laughed and wanted to know why they were putting mashed potatoes on her legs all the ladies just started to laugh.

As we sat there I though of all the years to come as mom and daughter and the memories we will have spending girl times together. We left after about 4 hours and went and had lunch with our new dews and shiny toes.

Re-Fingerprint Time

Saturday morning Steve brought in the mail and there was the pink paperwork peeking though the envelope I couldn't believe how fast we got the appointment paper we just has got the letter that stated 60-90 days we should hear something but the best part was there was no schedule appointment just show up M-F. So you guessed we were going Monday morning. The new rule is you must have a valid I171H within 6 months to get a SN referral so we need to get on the ball because ours expires in July and we are hoping for a fall or winter referral :) Of course this is purely based on the past performance since the shared list and our openness to MCC list and gender and age. Needless to say I was ready to go. You would think this is the first time we did this process. I have been so ready for this referral since the day we filled out the application and submitted to our agency. I know in my heart God has another perfect child for our family and we are so ready for her to come to us. We were so hoping to add to our family with a domestic adoption this past year of an older child but it was not in God's plan for us to build our family in that way so we will consider another option maybe after we bring baby "K" home.

Even if for some reason we were not matched with a SN child we would not let our papers laps due to the increased work, training and fees associated with the process the agency has stated it is time consuming if you were under the old rules. I opt for the easiest way.

Ironic enough we ran into a two friends and their daughter who are also adopting again renewing that same morning they are in the process of moving so we had time to catch up on things and where they were in the process and how life has been going for all. They to have been pursuing SN. We are going to follow their journey to their new daughter we are so excited for them.