I have met the sweetest family through our homeschool co-op that we do on Mondays. They had three bio children and adopted last fall from Guatemala. Her adopted son, Abel is an absolute doll. She has been such a wise friend to have through our decision making process. She has shared a bible verse and 2 quotes with me for my journey and I want to share!

Isaiah 30:21
Whether you turn to the right or to the left you ears will hear a voice behind you saying, "This is the way; walk in it."

(She used this verse as she was praying about adoption and trying to decide what country) I think it is amazing that Paul & I listened to the voice..without knowing it really! When people ask WHY ETHIOPIA?? I now know why!

Okay , now a quote....very powerful!!!
*Although it may not always be obvious to us there seems to be one distinct moment when God begins a new story in each of our lives. He writes words on our hearts that long to be spoken and strained to be lived out. Then with His own great hand He begins to write the script. Experience by experience through seemingly ordinary days, He supernaturally orders our lives. Only when we look back and reflect on what appeared to have been ordinary events of life does it become clear what a miracle the Lord has performed.
Jan Beazly~The Strength of Mercy All Gods Children Int'l

*He is calling us to redeem lives crushed by the circumstances of their birth. He is calling us to save them, to lift them out and then like the Father has carried us we must carry them in love, with the strength of His mercy.........and bring them home.


This first quote is amazing because Kristin and I had just talked about the "Unanswered Prayers" and while we are thinking God is not answering us he is working on something so much greater all the while!

So ladies...tell me the last "Unanswered Prayer" that you prayed and what did God give you instead??

Today was an emotional day, it was the day our baby was due to be born. We had named him or her, Quincy. Today we talked about what we should have been doing...I would have been recovering from a C-section and holding a tiny little baby. Was it a boy or a girl?
Carson wanted to have a party and I kinda wish we had. The day was just gloomy. Although we thought about him/her and talked about him/her. I think the hardest thing was no one knew...my mom...my aunt no one knew. I assume that is how people feel who lose someone and no one mentions that person any more...you want to talk about it.
With my first miscarriage I was pregnant again with Carson on my first due date. So today I felt more of a loss.
I know this sounds weird but we went out and bought a new couch..it sounds ridiculous to try to replace a baby with a piece of furniture, but we had been looking anyway. It just felt good to "get' something today.
On a happier note we talked about the "babies" that are waiting on us and they do not even know they have a family! We are picking out beds and thinking about their first Christmas and they have no clue they have a family waiting to hold them and love them! We bought a bigger couch for our new family and the kids are talking about where their new sibs will set in the car! As amazing as a pregnancy and birth are.....how equally amazing is traveling around the world to find the children God made for your family!!

I love the kids prayers and I always want to write them down, but usually forget. I guess I could write my own Dr.God book! So here is the latest that I actually remembered!

~~Carsons prayer, and he had been in trouble a teeny bit that day. ~~

Dear God, Please help me to be the best boy in the whole world....because I was not very good today....but I am the smartest boy in the whole world..(he pauses and thinks) ..yes, I believe that I am the smartest boy in the world. And please pray for my brothers (positive thinking, that he is getting 2 brothers and no more sisters!!) that they are okay until I get there for them...please don't them get sick....please let them be happy until I get them. Thank you God for my brothers. Amen

Madelyn has a steady prayer that goes like this : Dear God, Thank you everyone in the whole world. Amen
She has done this one verbatim for months. When I say that we need to pray for your brothers or bubby etc...she says I did! I prayed for everyone in the world!

Home Visit Scheduled!!

After several rounds of phone tag I spoke with the social worker today and we have our home visit (one and only) scheduled for next week! YEAH!!! It will be about 2 hours long and I have heard is rather painless!! A big thanks to Teaque for helping me out with some Disney Dining reservations so I could wait for the phone call! What a GREAT friend!!!

For a fun combo of adoption news and Grey's Anatomy trivia....guess who just adopted from Ethiopia! Hmm.. I believe I will like her character a bit more now!! I found that out on this blog, isn't he the cutest?!

First Me...Then you!

Awww my first tag!! ~tears~

10 Years Ago I was...I was running my own in home childcare , Noah's Ark. I was full within a week of opening and ran 7 days a week 24 hours a day and LOVED it! I was so close to all the children and ended up fostering 1 and raising for a few years! I was single much of this year for the first time in awhile and I met Paul this year (when he delivered me a pizza!!)...we became best friends!

3 Things I am Going to Do Today.....(well tomorrow!) 1. School my children 2. Eat with my Sis-in-law and hopefully nieces 3. Schedule my Home study (postive thinking!!) 4. Watch my childrens ball games 5. Clean 6. Check my email...oh geesh the list good go on& on...............

If I Were a Billionaire I Would....oh my goodness I would have 12 children!! I would have a hair dresser on duty 2 days a week and a chef every day... okay and a maid..but never a nanny okay!! I would probably team up with Bragelina and run some orphanages.....

5 Places I have lived.... an apartment, a trailor, a house hehe....Louisville and Coral Springs, FL thats it!!

On my resume you'd find these 5 jobs.... Nanny to a MILLIONAIRE, Sizzler, receptionist, Day Care Owner, and Bridal shop consultant .....impressive huh hehe!!!

That was fun...

NKOTB

Okay, so if you know what that stands for ....that is scary enough. Mom called this morning and said watch the Today show and New Kids on the Block will be on there! It was funny trying to explain to Carson who they were and how BIG they were. He asked his usual questions that make you shake your head "When are their birthdays?" and "If they are singing again, where are their kids?" only he would worry about where their children are!!!

So it was hysterical watching them sing and singing along because I knew all the words!! It was even funnier watching all the 30-40 year olds in the crowd acting like they were 16 again! Although the best part is getting to tell Paul that I KNEW I should save all of that stuff (I have a huge box of all NKOTB stuff, sheets, puzzles, buttons, cassette tapes). Soo if you were a blockhead tell me about it!!!!

PS Did I ever tell you about the time we found the tour bus at the fairgrounds and stole their bags of garbage and went through it....!!!!!!

Me and Carson with Hanley Ramirez

(written by Paul!)
I got a phone call late Tuesday that one of the Florida Marlins players was needing one of the items I sell for work. (Super Stoked). I was to call the team trainer in the morning and he would be able to get Carson and I in the locker room, dugout, and onto the field during batting practice. A once in a lifetime chance. I got to meet a bunch of their stars including Hanley Ramirez (about to sign a 6 year $70 MILLION extension), Luis Gonzalez, and Josh Willingham. We went into the lockerroom for a bit and it looks just like it does on tv. Some guys sitting around watching tv, some playing video games, and others in the training room. We then went to the dugout and out on the field to watch bp. We stood there with the trainer, Tony Perez, Dusty Baker, and all the Marlins. A few of the guys messed with Carson. He ened up with 8 or 9 balls. Pretty cool. We got seats right behind the 3rd base dugout and several of the players remembered Carson being on the field and threw him balls as they went into the dugout. What a blast. Here are some pics with Hanley Ramirez and Luis Gonzalez.

Oh, were there tears in church this morning! Our church adoption ministry put together this little video for all of the campuses. I was lucky enough to have my mom, mamaw and uncle visiting today to see it! Seeing ourselves on the big screens made it seem so real!!!

https://backup.filesanywhere.com/v.asp?v=%8Arj%8BXa%A0u%B2%A6

Happy Mother's Day to everyone!! I surprised myself with a lovely spa gift certificate (I pick out the best gifts..hehe)! We enjoyed a nice lunch with the extended family. I hope you all had great days!!

We had our homestudy interview yesterday. It is basically a autiobiography of your childhood and adult years until marriage. We now have about 5 more papers to find, create or track down. So once again we wait!! As soon as these papers arrive we will schedule our homestudy visit of our home!
So I also talked to our agency today! I found out that the lady who operates the home study agency has a triple bypass surgery yesterday so please keep Linda in your prayers. Susan explained a bit as far as how children are "released", evidently many come to the orphanage but do not have "paperwork". I am assuming "paperwork" is biological info or the release from parents etc!! She said she actually has a set of brothers that she thought of for me but they only have papers on the older one! Isn't that wild!! Our boys could be sitting in that orphange right NOW?! So we have begun to pray that the younger boys papers come in and or our children remain safe and fed and loved until they are brought to the orphanage.

Also based on the timeframe, I really think that we will have our babies home by October!!! I hate to put down a time because I do not want to get my hopes up...but it is so exciting to put a timeframe on it!! If our homestudy is complete by first week of June, then it will go to the immigration office to be approved (we hope for this to take about 5 weeks~about July). Once that is approved the dossier is sent to Washington DC where all the important people sign it! Then it is sent to Ethiopia (by about mid July). At this time we can be referred a child!!! This can happen immediately or months. I think this will happen rather quickly since they are already looking for what we want. Once we are referred (let's say August) we are given a court date..about 6 weeks later (about mid Sept) then we can travel as early as 3 weeks later to 6 weeks later.(Sometime in October!!) Of course that is my timeframe with not much room for hiccups!!!

Here on the homefront we have completed our desert animals lapbook, and more of the usual schoolwork...I think we are getting summer fever!! Madelyn has been running about 104 degree fever since Wed. I have heard Hand, Foot and Mouth are going around...and the doctor had seen a case of Rosieolla that day...so I pray that resolves itself. I wish I had pictures to post but my poor little camera is still in the shop:(

Annie has started saying....
"I not want to take a sleep" (translation: I do not want to go to sleep)

Madelyn said tonight....
" Mom don't you wish all your kids were the best kids in the whole world?" I say well yes, that would make me very proud....she says "Well once we get our other kids from that one place we will be the best kids ever!"

Madelyn said ...........
"Mom I wish we had 100 girls (meaning sisters) and 100 boys (brothers)" I said whoaa I am not sure if I could handle that many children and so she says "Oh, we will have 100 moms and dads too!" I responded with we call that a polygimist compound!! hehe

Overheard in the House today....

"Get your umbrella out of the pencil sharpener"

A few weeks ago I was caught saying (to a friends child I may add hehe!) "Hey, please leave the trees in the ground"

Oh and the re-occuring..."Please sit down to pee-pee...you are a girl and girls must sit to pee-pee..no standing"

HEHE well Now that Teaque has made me aware of these crazy things that are said I will have to keep better record...as I am sure these are not EVEN the craziest!!!

So on to the ramblings of the day............
Daddy took Carson to the CUBS game. He called all excited (DH not DS!!) that they had front row tickets and that they had thrown Carson the ball!! Cool!! Oh darn, no camera!! Bummer! See Heather they should have gone with you!!

I took the girls to a garden shop to get flowers and tomato plants. FYI This is a very cheap date to take your children !! The girls LOVED it, we took the wagon out and I let them ride until we began filling it up. They played in the pond, watched the fountains. We decided to try 2 types of tomato plants and cucumbers and strawberries. I have a totally brown thumb so if any of this produces food it will be a miracle!! Then I let the girls each pick a flower, Madelyn chose a beautiful Pink Daisy and Annastyn (after choosing 14 bush/shrubs thingies) chose a pink geranium. When we came home they enjoyed planting them, pictures will post one day when I get my camera back!!

Okay cute story" Annie gets out of the tub and I put a hooded baby towel on her head. She is so observant..she was asking " What is on my head, that's not towel....what is it???" She could not figure out what was on her head...or where her towel was!! Then while I was dressing her she said her hair was cold...

Oh, here ya go! Last night at dinner we..... Teaque, Heather and Tracy were talking and I was saying how my children never had a terrible 2's phase that 3 years was the "trying" times with my older two and then my son had a rough year at 5 years of age. Then today I was disciplining Madelyn for the umpteenth time and a wise friend of mine ahemmTeaque.... said wow is that Madleyn again.....so it took 5 hours for the lightbulb to flicker on!! She is almost 5 years old...omgosh...and Annastyn is almost 3 years old!! Two in the "rough" years together ighghghg!!! No fair!!! hehe

I received an email from our adoption coach from church and she is asking for prayers for about 20 children...they are in "our" orphanage and are between the ages of 5 & 10 and have no families waiting for them. (Because we are looking for siblings, we will not be able to get the 5 or 6 year old) Thank you for throwing a prayer their way.

So we had our USCIS appointment this morning. This is through the immigration office, for those needing green cards and such I believe. The appointment was for 9:10 and lets just say that this process is not a well-oiled machine!! Upon checking in I hear, "Oh, another adoption huh?" and he then informs me that some paperwork has changed and he will have to see if what we have is correct. (stomach drops!) so we wait............he then asks us for our paperwork (birth certificates, mariiage cert.-all copies) he then asks if I have the originals (stomach drops) the paper I had said bring copies (I did have Paul's with us just becuase it looked "fake" to me!!)........so set down and wait...............he calls us up again and says that the adoption worker is out of the office today and that is all that can be done (meaning no receipt today and no fingerprints today!) I was a bit upset considering I had an appointment (for nothing basically). I explained that is we could at least get the fingerprints done while Paul was off and we were downtown, that would such a blessing etc, etc. He says to sit down and wait again!!!
He then calls me up and has the fingerprint paperwork ready YEAH!!! He says good luck there could be hours of wait time!!! We walk in and there were only 3 people waiting!! A few more came in with appointments so we waited about 30 minutes (no complaining here!) Oh and my bteh time we left teh room was baout half full!So we have that done YEAHHH ...well other than waiting for the receipt...and of course the approval! The approval is the biggie to get a referral!

So now we head to the Police station to get a local police clearance letter. We walk in (nobody is waiting..hurray!) and he writes them and notarized them in about 10 minutes!! WOOHOO!! By the time we left there were about 8 people in line. I just pointed out to Paul that as frustrated as we were that we had gotten into those places right before the crowd twice! This letter is for the dossier.

All futire "papers" will be for the dossier as we ahve completed all the paperwork for the homestudy!

Carson and Madelyn had their choir performance last night. Madelyn is such a cutie, she grinned fom ear to ear throughout. She had a little ensemble part where she put on sunglasses and sang some chorus!! Carson who was not as excited about being in stage did awesome too! He stated to mom after the show that now he can do karate, that I had told him he had to finish the choir before he could make a new commitment. He told her that this is a QUOTE hehe " I just set my mind to it and dug down deep ito myself and achieved my goal"...OMGosh how funny!!! So now I gotta find a stinkin' karate place!!

Oh and Carson lost his 6th tooth yesterday on the way to church!! Guess that is about it!

You Know You're An Adoptive Parent When...

You Know You're An Adoptive Parent When . . . 1. The fact that there are 143 million children without a parent to kiss them goodnight has made you lose sleep.
2. You realize DNA has nothing to do with love and family.
3. You can't watch Adoption Stories on TLC without sobbing.
4. The fact that, if 7% of Christians adopted 1 child there would be no orphans in the world, is convicting to you.
5. You spend free time surfing blogs about families who have experienced the blessing of adoption.
6. It drives you crazy when people ask you about adopted child's 'real' parents.
7. You have ever been 'pregnant' with your adoptive child longer than it takes an elephant to give birth. (2 years!)
8. You had no idea how you would afford to adopt but stepped out in faith anyway, knowing where God calls you He will provide.
9. You have ever taken an airplane ride half-way around the world with a child you just met.
10. You believe God's heart is for adoption.
11. You realize that welcoming a child into your heart and family is one of the most important legacies you could ever leave on this earth.
12. You know what the word 'Dossier' means, and you can actually pronounce it!
13. You have welcomed a social worker into the most private parts of your life.
14. You shudder when people say your child is so lucky that you adopted them, knowing full well you are the blessed one to have him or her in your life.
-Author unknown

One down....

Well, things are going smoothly!! Paul's birth certificate came today!! The USCIS approval is the BIGGIE for the adoption and you cannot apply for that without birth certificates etc. So I logged on and made us an appt. for Monday for the USCIS paperwork and fingerprinting!! That is such a relief!!
This week we have had 2 ball practices, 1 ball game, choir practice for the older two, AWANA for all three, 1 field trip to Creasy Mahon Nature Center, trip out to the Derby parade (snatched front row viewing!!) 2 trips to McAlisters, dress rehearsal for the choir preformance, 1 homeschool meeting, 1 family photo session, 1 birthday party, 2 physicals and 1 day of scrapbooking! And I wonder why my house will not stay clean?!?!!!!

I just realized too that we do not have enough chairs at our kitchen table!?!?! I am serious!! Do we see if we can purchase 2 more chairs or do we need an entirely new table???? AHGHGH!

Whew!!

We had our physicals today! Talk about nerve racking!! We arrived at 9am and left at 11am...so our three children had to try and not bounce off the walls of a hot 10x10 room for 2 hours!! Then the papers had to be notarized, they do not have a notary, the lady from the bank would not walk over and so they found a lady at the office next door to notarize the documents. I was walking to the car when I realized that she had not notarized all 4!! And the papers that were missed were the two going in the DOSSIER!!! AHGHGH I ran back in and asked in my sweetest voice if they could walk it back over the other office etc!!
Forgot to add this cute story! When the doc was done with us and Paul sat up from the table. Carson says "well guess you are healthy enough to be a parent"...it was just too funny! The doc laughed!

So then we dropped off the rest of the paperwork to the agency. The only pieces of paper I am waiting on now are 3 reference letters (that is like pulling teeth!) and Paul's birth certificate!