More of the Palin Rally!

Read this awesome experience of a local family with Sarah Palin!

My Date at the Palin Rally!!!

Mr. John "Incredible" McCain!!! Yes. my dear hubby was a hit at the rally!! He had his picture taken by hundreds of supporters, news and tv crew!! Little children were coming up to him for hugs and old women were sneaking kisses!!!LOL

Here a few of the "fans"!!

Not a bad shot of Sarah....from a camera in the air!!

Ya gotta love Hank Williams Jr.....shooting it straight at ya!

Yes, this may be a historical moment....Lincoln and McCain together for a photo op!!!

Early contractions.....???

Not sure what stage of adoption labor this is.......but

We have a court date!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please pray that on December 12th my boys become legally ours!!!

I am so excited....can't think of anything else to say.......?!!?!

The Adoption Map

Our church has a huge adoption ministry. We have a giant world map that has a picture of every family that has adopted or is adopting. The pictures are placed in the country you are adopting from. It is really cool to look at that map and see all families who are stepping out in faith. Below shows all the families adopting from Ethiopia.

The big picture!

Just thought I would share! It is so hard not being able to post picture of their sweet faces or talk about names. So this will have to do!

We enjoyed making Christmas gifts at a local pottery painting shop. They offer us a discount and no firing/painting fee on homeschool days. This year we are counting on cutting back on Christmas gifts so these are hopefully a hit!

My Halloween babes!

Yes, this is killing me....no matchy matchy family costumes this year! My neighbors were all asking what the Maynards are this year :( Oh well I made them promise that next year we would be the Wizard of Oz...since we will have enough children for all the parts!

Carson the Jedi! Annie the beautiful bumble bee!

Madelyn is a roaring 20's flapper girl!

10 shots later and I finally got a happy"all eyes looking at me" picture!

Prayer Please

We just received word from our agency that there are some changes happening in Ethiopia. They originally tried to pass a law requiring children to be double orphaned (both parents deceased) to be adopted. While they did not approve this law..they are requiring another step in the process prior to court.

The social services will need to write a letter for every child stating that they are in an orphanage and that they can be adopted....basically give their approval. This is going to hold up court on many families, including ours. We are unsure of how this will affect our timeframe on the court date we are waiting for.

Please keep all the families in yours prayers. Especially the children that are sitting and waiting to get home!

Slow Poke Farm

We skipped the fancy, over crowded , "commercial " pumpkin patch this year. We chose to visit a local beautiful family-run pumpkin patch. The were tons of animals in the petting area. We had a great hay ride across the property.
Carson holding a peanut plant. It was so neat to see the peanut plant pulled from the grouns!
No, this was not posed!! I LOVE it! We have Cade, Carson, Trenton and Annie!

My PUNKINS!!!
Notice the goat getting a little snack!!! She ended up taking off once she realized it! Oh and yes that is green egg fresh from the hen house!
My little city girl could SO be a country girl!!!

Pics from The Louisville Science Center. As members we attended a preview of the Grand Canyon Imax and then played around in some of the exhibits!


Annie is on TV putting on a puppet show...she thought that was TOO funny!

The cutest kids ever! This is Madelyn with her baby cousin Isabella! Annie, Bella & Maddie....can you imagine these three as teens!?!?
The baby boys of the family! Carson was the youngest grandson until the great-grandson came...this was little Caleb at 1 week old. His mommy is so strong. Daddy is in Iraq and she is here with Bella and Caleb. This was taken the week the big storm hit Louisville and she had no electric for about a week...poor thing with a brand new baby?!? She just packed up and went to grandmas!
Oh and yes Carsons little freckles ARE adorable!!!

Tuesdays Field Trip!

We have attended many field trips this year. This was a must do! We started off the day at The Forest which is a wood manufacturing plant in Indiana. The tour begins in a "forest" then you watch a movie about trees, followed by interactive play in the hands on play center. We walked the catwalks over the entire plant, watching htem make baseboards to particle boards. We ate lunch and then drove down the road to Hubers Farm. At Hubers we were taken on an apple tour...from tree to cooler to cleaning assembly line. The children were then taken to the pumpkin patch. We were also got to explore the petting zoo and play areas.


There was this HUGE bubble for the kids to jump on. This is one of favorite pictures of Annie!
Yes, Carson has his Michael Jackson glove on...don't ask! And yes he is striking a pose........
??!?!??? Annie building with the WOODEN blocks at the Forest! Oh and no comments about her mini skirt! It was actaully a skort but kept riding up under her shirt! How embarrassing!

Me and my babes in front of the largest WOODEN mural in the US!
Madelyn working on a WOODEN (are you seeing the theme at a tree plant!) puzzle!
Awww my girls!!

I've Been Tagged

The rules are:

Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog
Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post. and include links to their blogs
Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1.) I graduated high school 1 year early...went to college immediately

2.) Delivered a baby in my bathroom floor (not my baby!)

3.) Eyeballs GROSS ME OUT!!!

4.) Have lost both of my big toenails.....one is almost grown back (it takes approximately 2 years evidently!)

5.) I have never had a wreck or speeding ticket (although I did just get my first parking ticket on Friday)

6.) I have never sent a text message

7.) I have a hunk of grey hair...and have since I was about 9 years old!

I am tagging:

Teaque

Kristin

Heather

Shelley

Jana

and anyone else who stalks my blog!!

Okay so have I told you how much I love my Carson Scout??
Carson was talking about his daddy and how he took care of us and works etc etc....he then says (completely serious you guys) "man mom if you worked you would make a fortune....." I am laughing and asking what would I be doing to make a fortune!
He says "You can do all kinds of stuff, like teaching us and taking care of us....so you could make a fortune"!

Wouldn't all us stay at home moms like to find someone to pay us a fortune for all the "stuff" we do!!hehe

One thing that I forgot was said last night, that I think is awesome for those adopting from ET to know or those considering adopting internationally.
The couple that brought home baby M who is 1 year old told us that the children are recieving better care in that orphanage than they would in American day care! I think it says a lot about the country and their love for children. It is also wise to look for Christian orphanages with all Christian workers.

After talking to those couples last night who know our big boy. We are even more in love and so excited to meet them! Paul just called me and said "I want to get them right now!" Okay I guess you are tired of hearing about it all...................

Tonight we attended a meeting with many of the families from our adoption agency. We met 4 children home from Ethiopia, which is SO neat! Two of the families have only been home 2 weeks!! We discussed travel plans, changing their names etc! It is great to have a support group like this in place for when our children are home! We are planning on organizing a monthly playgroup with all of the children!

Little E who is five (and drop dead gorgeous!!!)saw my boys pictures and she smiled and said their names!! Later in the evening she walked up to me and pulled the pictures out of my hands again to look through! She just smiled and said their names! It is so amazing to me that half way around the world, my boys already have friends waiting for them!

Courts opened and all of our papers are filed and we are waiting for a court date!!

Here is the coolest part of the whole night! I laid my pictures out for one of the couples who just traveled to look out. I asked them if they knew our boys. The reaction I got was unforgettable!!! They both began laughing....HARD! They said he is intense, playful, energetic.....(I think I am going to have my hands full)!! They told me he likes to play with the older children and thinks he is as big as them! They could not quit telling us how happy they were to know where he was going, and that he was such a special boy! I was also told he is very lovable and likes to be held tight!!

When we showed the second family the pics. We pretty much got the same response! Laughter...lots of laughter!!! They told us shenanigan after shananigan Issac pulled...from setting off the car alarm over and over to getting an older child into trouble! She said he never meets a stranger and has lots of personality!! He truly is Paul's son!! Oh and he LOVES balls...he is very good at dribbling and kicking a soccer ball too.

I cannot describe the emotions upon hearing about your childs personality!! A picture seems priceless but I never imagined knowing so much about him! Imagine finding out your childs personality while pregnant! Anyhow we left that meeting with excitment and happiness. We met some great families and some great kids. I think we will all be in each others lives for a long time!

You Know You Are An Adoptive Family 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 the population adopted 1 child there would be no orphans in the world, is convincing 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 your adopted child's "real" parents.
7. You had no idea how you would afford to adopt but stepped out in faith anyway, knowing where God calls you He will provide.
8. You have never taken an airplane ride half-way around the world with a child you just met.
9. You believe God's heart is for adoption.
10. 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.
11. You know what the word "Dossier" means, and you can actually pronounce it!
12. You have welcomed a social worker into the most private parts of your life.
13. 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

My baby boy is 8 years old!!!!

Carson had his Star Wars party at Puzzles Fun Dome. The kids could jump in inflatables, play putt-putt, play ball in the glow-in-the-dark room, paint in the art studio and play arcade games.
I wish I could bottle the excitement of Carson as he opened gifts! He was so happy with EVERY gift!
His best friend Trenton!
He said "This was my best birthday EVER!" "Because I got all Star Wars stuff and 1 Indian Jones!!"
**Note to self: Take pictures BEFORE everyone jumps in inflatables!!

I also want to make this public knowledge for the future when Carson says there are less pics of him than the girls. This is true because I can NEVER find you!! I spent the entire party looking for him! Good news is I think I can complile all of his pics on a 2 page layout!!hehe

Shopping fun!

Through this entire adoption process I have not been able to purchase any fun stuff because of not knowing age, gender etc. Now that we have our boys...it is so fun to buy for them! I guess it is kinda like in a pregnancy..you cannot hold that sweet baby but you can buy cute stuff!

Okay, this is a little plastic album I found at Target. It has a picture of the globe and you can even see Louisville on it. I bought this to make an album for the boys mom. Many times in Ethiopia you are able to meet with the birth family. I want to give her pictures of the boys new room, house, us, our church etc.
Also at Target (are you seeing the theme here!) I found a photo album with Africa on it...and of course you can see Ethiopia too!! I plan on scrapping many of the pics, but I thought I could slide all the extras into this! Cool huh?
How cute is this little monkey backpack for baby boy!! Oh and ever so soft blankie that matches the baby bedding.
If you know me you know I dress my girls in matching outfits. It started out for the cute factor! Now it is because, geez maneez....girls always want what the other one has!!!! If I buy them 2 different colors or ones with star and one with hearts....Madelyn flips!! She always thinks that Annie's is better! So I now cannot wait to match my boys!!
**FYI Carson has already said he does not want to match...that it is a girl thing!!!LOL
I got these cutie pie shirts at Wal-mart for $3 each!!

Carson picked out these cute vintage Star Wars tees (his aunt Lea found him a matching vintage one too!)

So as of now we have decided that all three boys will share a room. It makes sense for many reasons. If I move Carson, we have to paint Annie's room for him and then get new pieces for the girls and him....etc etc!! So I wanted something "generic" that would be cute but not babyish. I of course love all things Pottery Barn, but my little trick is to wait and watch Target!! They duplicate so many PB things at a much better price of course!!
So this is the Pottery Barn set................ So the quilts from Target are similar (and less than half the cost)! The colors are brown, light blue, dark blue, orange and lime green. The sheets are coordinating but not matchy, matchy! (only $14.99 at Target!). Then today I was at Pottery Barn and they had the dog pillows on sale and then an additional 15% off that price...I am SO happy. They look like they were made to match it! I also have found a few crib sets that will match for the "baby"...yes he 18 months old but in our house the youngest is always the baby!

We still have to find twin beds for the boys and then we will buy Annie a bed and the baby will have the crib. I will post pictures as soon any of this happens!!