No longer private

You probably thought something was different when you did not have to provide a login & password. We decided to open the blog up to "anyone". I added a "follow along" button--so sign up! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

Charm Addiction Giveaway

Our friend Sheri is having a HUGE giveaway on her blog. Ashlyn & I wanted to enter (& hopefully win)so here our are favorites. I love the Hope charm. Everytime I wear my Hope charm I think of our "Hope"--what she might be doing, what she looks like. I told myself that I would buy the Made in China charm after we receive our referral. Just gives me something to look forward to! Ashlyn loves the Best Friends charm because of the butterfly wings & it is pink.

Go check out Charm Addiction & pick your favorite! You just might win it! Sheri's stuff rocks!

Thanksgiving

We hope that everyone had an awesome day. We enjoyed spending it with our family. Here are few pictures from our day (we didn't take as many as we thought--too busy eating!):

Philip's hunting adventure

We woke up at 5:26 am, ate a quick snack and headed out. After dropping off another hunter at his deer stand, we arrived at ours a little after 6. The first deer were seen before daylight. There was a huge buck with these and Philip was very excited and a bit nervous. By the time there was enough light to shoot, those deer were moving away too fast for Philip to get a steady shot at. Another couple of bucks arrived about 20 minutes after the first left and we tried to get Philip on sight for one of these. The first was walking away from us and Philip was unable to hold steady on him either. I laid by backpack down for Philip to use as a rest and that did the trick. The next buck Philip got his sights on was in trouble. I started giving him the take your time speech and where to place the shot and Philip asked if it was alright to shoot when he was ready. He didn't need to hear the rest of my speech. I got my rifle up to help if needed. It was not. Philip shot and the deer fell instantly. Philip kept repeating, "I did it ". I was probaly more excited than he was. We are having the deer processed and having Jen cook venison will be an entirely different adventure.

Sharp-Shooter's 1st Deer (Philip's 1st Deer)

Philip shot his first deer on Saturday morning. He was super excited! It was a 9 point. I was told it was a great 1st deer. The deer went down immediately because Philip is such a great shooter (Sharp-Shooter). I think Philip told me he shot him in the lung. Maybe PJ can post the specifics later!

I-800 A sent off!

Yeah! We mailed off our "stuff" to the USCIS today. It is taking about 82 days to process paperwork, so maybe around Valentines Day we can send our dossier to China. We actually decided last February to adopt. I never dreamed it would take us a year to get everything together--deciding on country & agency, buying/selling houses, moving, tons of paperchasing, home study interviews, social workers and much more. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off. Now we just have more waiting! We are getting real good at it.
Several AWAA families are coming home from China this week--please pray for their safe return & easy transition :).

Included in our I-800A UPS packet-
cover letter
marriage & birth certificates
court disposition (not mine!!!)
written statement about the "incident" (not mine either!!)
Hague approval letter from agency
home study
& $830 money order (Yes we have to pay our country to bring home our daughter from China)

Pray for Hope

A big concern of ours is how Hope will adjust to her new life & family once she comes home. I was reading another family's blog over the weekend. They mentioned about how they started praying over their child specifically against rejection & abandonment even before their referral. We want Hope's transition to be as easy as possible. Please join us in praying against the spirits of rejection & abandonment. Also, pray against the work of the enemy. Why would Satan want an orphan to join a forever family? Ask for God's protection over Hope's heart, soul, spirit, body & mind.

Ginger

We received an email today that Ava Hope (the child we were sponsoring) left PHF with her forever family a couple of weeks ago. I cried happy tears! Ava Hope was able to go home! Praise the Lord! Our new cutie is Ginger. She is the newest arrival at PHF. She is seriously one of the cutest things. Ginger was born on October 19, 2007. Her special need is very unusual. She was born without a diaphragm and her heart rests in a growth on the outside of her abdomen. Ginger is easily distressed, and every change in her heart rate can be seen in the growth. She likes to rock herself in the sitting rocker, and she’ll grab at any toy handed to her. Hello Ginger. We are your new sponsors!

Approved!

Our home study was officially approved by the Director of our agency yesterday. The SW dropped by the signed pages of the home study which we sent to Dallas for another signature. We are hoping to get the home study back by the 1st of the week. This is a huge step in the adoption process. I'm sure the last postings have been boring to most--sorry about that!

So Close!

The Director of AWAA has our homestudy. Who-hoo! Our FC is writing our Hague approval letter. I'm hoping that we can mail our I-800a application & homestudy by the end of November. OK--for those of you who really know me--I'm hoping by this time next week! Okay really this Friday (but that is not realistic!!). I'm just getting so excited that our "paperchasing" stage is almost over. We are getting closer to our Hope!

Have you guys heard the new Mark Harris song--One True God? Check it out. I love it!

Homestudy in Review

Our FC has reviewed our HS & sent it back to the SW for more revisions--more USCIS specific wording. When the SW returns it back to the FC, the director of AWAA China will give the okay to finalize the HS. In the meantime, the FC will write up a letter to send with our revised & completed HS & I-800a application--I think it is called the Hague approved letter?? So basically, several people are still looking over our life story and adding really impressive words & phrases! We are getting closer!! Yeah!

I thought I should post these again!
FC-family coordinator
HS-home study
SW-social worker
USCIS-United States Citizenship & Immigration Services
AWAA-America World Adoption Agency (our agency!!)

Tagged!

Do you remember playing tag in elementary school? Well I've been tagged in the blogging world. My friend Sheri tagged me. So here are seven random or weird things about me--

#1 I can not get enough coffee. I need it in the morning & become really crabby without it. My favorite way to drink coffee is black & really strong. I love a cafe americano from Starbucks on Georgia--they are the best! But I also love mochas & right now pumpkin spice lattes.

#2 I married my high school sweetheart. We have been together for 16 years, married for 10 of those years. We met at a soccer game. Yes--we think it is cheesy too!

#3 I can not spit. And yes I have really tried to do it. I just can't. I used to think that girls could not spit but Ashlyn (my 5 year old) is a great spitter.

#4 I always wanted to be a cheerleader in high school. Seriously.

#5 I change my clothes 3 times a day. I put on clothes after I get out of the shower in the morning, change to what I'm wearing for the day & then put on clothes to wear while fixing dinner for the kids. Wonder why I have a lot of laundry?

#6 I am very afraid of needles & flying. One time in college, I almost passed out from a getting a wienie flu shot. PJ was so embarrassed.

#7 I love to watch medical shows with the gross blood shots. I can even watch them while eating. But I can barely stomach the UFC fights when they get bloody. Weird I know!

I don't know 7 people that blog. Sorry! I'm kinda a newbie at blogging. Who did I tag:
Aimee
Nikah

Have fun girls!

Sponsor an Orphan

I have been wanting to do something to help the orphans. Yes--I realize we are adopting & that will greatly help an orphan. But our wait could be 3 years or more. I wanted to do something now (and it is National Adoption Awareness Month)! Philip Hayden Foundation (PHF) is a wonderful organization that loves helping orphans. Here is a little information from their website--

The primary work of PHF is the establishment of our children's villages in Mainland China, where we take in at-risk and special-needs orphans, love them, provide them surgeries to correct their special needs conditions, and work to find loving families to adopt them. Approximately 95% of the orphans in our care are special needs children, most of whom were abandoned by their parents because they were born "broken". Our philosophy is to take in these so-called "broken" children and transform their hopelessness into beautiful stories of redemption and love.

We chose "Ava Hope" to sponsor. Ava Hope was born January 24, 2007. Her special need is cleft lip & palate. Many of you know my sweet & precious niece--Ava. Ava Hope was perfect for us to sponsor. Each child needs 6 sponsors. Go check out their website here & pick a child to sponsor. All it takes is $35 a month. Skip Starbucks, Roasters & Sonic & sponsor a child. Here is ours--she is a cutie!

Bring Me Hope

I know what you are thinking--not another video. Sorry! I saw the title of this video & I just had to post it. It is also National Adoption Awareness month. I would love to take all the orphans home with me in this video.
Instead of watching the election polls tonight, think about how you can help the orphans in this world.

Results Are In!

Not the voting results! Ashlyn's blood work. I found out yesterday that Ashlyn does have mono. But she is in the recovery stage which means she has had it for awhile. The on-call nurse said we were way past any medicine. Her blood results showed a little something "high" but they think that is from her body fighting the mono. Her white blood cell counts were perfect. I'm going to call Dr Young on Monday to get specifics.
Ashlyn needs a ton of rest, light activity & eating well. We are thankful that we know what has been wrong with her for over 3 weeks now (probably much longer than that). It is really minor compared to what was going through our heads. Thanks for all your prayers.

Adoption Update--
Really nothing new. We think the FC still has the HS. She is also working on referrals--those babies need to matched with their families. Maybe by the end of this week, we will hear something from her or the SW??

Lets Go Longhorns!

The Best Halloween Ever

We decided to have a very low-key night since the both of the kids have not been feeling well. PJ & I decided it was the best Halloween ever! Philip was Clone Trooper Cody from Star Wars. Ashlyn was Sharpay from High School Musical (of course!!). Ashlyn really enjoyed getting candy. Philip opened his magic kit from Ava & decided playing with that was more fun! I think he might be done with the whole trick or treating thing. That makes me kinda sad. Hopefully, Hope will be home this time next year.