Update & Random ramblings

Well our social worker called today and the homestudy report is finished! YEA!! We had a hiccup (that's a nice word for what I really want to call it) with our mortgage in the past 2 weeks. It was a mistake our lender made when we refinanced a year and 1/2 ago. Without getting in to details (and risk raising my blood level), I will just say we are waiting on our mortgage lender to approve our new house payment amount. This should occur this week. Prayerfully!! We had already filled out all of our financial paperwork and are having to redo it. The silver lining - if there is one - is that the homestudy was not completed and official, otherwise, we would have had to pay to have it revised!!! Yikes!

So, back to my story, the GOOD NEWS is that our report is complete save our financial statement. Next step, we will then have 3 different sources approve the drafts - us, our homestudy agency, and our adoption agency. Then the final copy will be drawn up.
Y'ALL!!! That means that we will be REFERRAL READY VERY SOON!!! WhoopDeDoo!! Yahoo!!

So what does that mean, I can hear you all asking - because that is what people have been asking us in person :). As best I understand it, we will then be able to discuss the children at the orphanage in more detail with our adoption agency social worker. She could tell us that there are 15 people in front of us who want 2 kids under 5 and there are none that fit that description in the orphanage right now. OR she could tell us there is no one in front of us and there are 3 sets of siblings under the age of 5 there right now and which ones do we want?? I'm sure it's not that simple. I'm sure it's somewhere in between. I don't really know. We're taking one step at a time here, people.

Asa and Eli are continuing to process this in the sweetest ways. Eli says his prayers and thanks God for his sisters. Asa is beginning to notice other families that have mixed skin colors among them and saying "Hey, Look, that family is adopted too!" I love that he is saying the whole family is adopted. It's true, right?

I teach at a University a couple of hours away once a quarter. As I was driving there on Friday, I was listening to all my 'old school' worship music from about 10 years ago. I was immediately taken back to the years of our infertility...the many hours I spent pouring my heart out to God, crying at the altar for the Lord to hear me begging for children, laying my desires before him and asking them to take them away if he was to choose to not give me children. And yet, today, I am overwhelmed by His grace and goodness. The answers to my prayer. His perfect timing. His ability to know our dreams and desires. His plans. And now, we are on the brink of doubling the number of our children. I truly never dreamed of having 'tons' of children. But I've always dreamed of having a dark-skinned child. It has to be a God-given passion. As I cannot even begin to articulate where it came from. It gave me peace in this process. That no matter what twists and turns it may take, I feel certain that we are in the certain of His will. And in Him I will trust.

As I ramble my thoughts from this weekend, all is not lost that there may be those of you reading this who are experiencing that longing of desire yet fullfilled. May you be encouraged that God is a God who created you, knows you, and loves you. He is faithful. This I know to be true. Everything else is a mystery!! :)

Home Study Complete!

Woohoo! Our homestudy interviews were completed yesterday! So exciting. The boys were amazing - considering they had been stuck inside with yucky weather all morning and she didn't come until 3:30!! They watched a movie quietly for the first part in our room and then came out and answered all her questions as if we had spoon-fed them the answers. (We might have but we'll never tell!) We were super proud and rewarded them with the caffeine infused drink they had been begging for all morning!

Valentine's Day was fairly uneventful - we celebrated our 13th anniversary Tuesday night with a really swanky restaurant date. Valentine's was spent as a family affair at home.

Our social worker says that our report should be completed within a couple of weeks. I think we start working on our dossier next. Not sure exactly all that a 'dossier' contains but I'll be sure to let you know!

Keep collecting ink,laser cartridges and cell phones!! We will be mailing out our 2nd batch this week. We plan to collect through the summer time!

We'll let you know!

25 Random Things....

Hey all-

Look - FB is infecting Blog world! Can't be left behind! You know the drill - here is my already made list (sorry if you've already read it on FB) Skip on down, my friend. I'm not tagging - too lazy today - if you've read this - consider yourself tagged!!

25 Random Things About Me...
1. Laughing until I cry is my most favorite thing to do in the whole wide world.
2. I married one of the funniest men I know.
3. I have 2 of the funniest boys I know.
4. People who don't have a sense of humor make me mad.
5. I drove 7 different cars between the ages of 16 & 25. My 1st car (in 1987) was a '72 Oldsmobile White Station Wagon!
6. I hate stepping in puddles with socks on in the house...melted ice, dog bowl drool...must change socks immediately.
7. I just learned that men don't know that women flush toilets in public restrooms with their foot. Does your man know that?
8. I had kidney stones with both my preganancies. I don't recommend it.
9. We had approximately 600 people at our wedding. It was the wedding of my dreams at the time. If I did it all over again today, I would do everything differently!! HA!
10. I, too, have a secret dream of being a rockstar. We're good friends with a real rockstar and clearly I am not one.
11. I love to hang out with women who are wiser than me.
12. I love to be with a group of girlfriends who love Jesus.
13. I love to be with Jesus!
14. My best friend in high school and I live parrallel lives. We can go without talking for weeks, months, or years, depending on the season and then find out we bought the same furniture, clothes, and hairstyle!
15. I have worked for the same company for 8 years and plan to work there forever.
16. I put my nephew, Dean, to bed the night his mother died when he was 5 years old. He is now 15. It was the single, greatest, privilege of my life.
17. I was homecoming queen.
18. I LOVE making new friends. You can never have too many.
19. I always said I'd never live in Atlanta. Until I did. Then I loved it and never wanted to leave. Until 8 years later. And I did.
20. I now live at the beach. I can't think of any other place that I'd want to live. It's heavenly really. Perpetual vacation. What more could you ask for?21. I rarely go home to Augusta and regret losing touch with my dear childhood friends.
22. I saw Mamma Mia last year and am dying to be IN the movie. Especially the Dancing Queen scene where they run through the resort grounds and finish the big number on the dock and jump in the water. I could do that.
23. My best day is spent with my 3 boys.
24. My husband hates the beach so the first month we moved here, I bought one of those rolling cart things. I call it my husband b/c it carries everything to the beach for me. Now my friends call their carts their husband too!
25. I seriously believe we are just 'passing through'. While I love life and enjoy all it involves - I can't wait to get to heaven!! We just think we're having fun now!!

Last Home Study meeting tomorrow at our house! Say a prayer! Went to get the boys passports today at the post office. Spent all the time before digging up picture type IDs and such for the boys - and then the post office guy is a 'friend the Gathering Place' so he already knew us. Didn't need any of the documentation except their brith cert. Nice!

I am hoping we will be 'referral ready' soon! As soon as the home study report is completed....I think!

25 things about you ...let's hear 'em.

Tag! You're it!

I've been tagged! Photo Tag...
Here we go! The game is this:

Here are the rules:
1. Go to the 4th folder where you keep your pictures on your computer.
2. Post the 4th picture in the folder.
3. Explain the photo.
4. Tag 4 fellow bloggers to join the fun.

Ok - Now I have to admit that this is in my 3rd folder bc I only have 3 folders on my laptop! Ha! I'm not cheating on purpose! Just felt compelled to confess.

This is from this past Thanksgiving 2008. We had a Fritchman first - we rented a house on a lake just outside of Atlanta for 7 days - just the 4 of us and our 2 dogs. It was the most heavenly thing we have ever done. Our 'pre-Christmas' present to each other was a brand new SLR camera and this was part of my practice session with the boys in the woods. It was taken with my zoom lens - Eli is trying to 'catch' a roly-poly. He's beautiful.

I tag:

Leah from Canada

Robin Dodd

Caroline B.

Deborah

Let's see those pics!

Amy

I think we passed

Today went well. Only 1 more to go! For those of you who know my housekeeping skills - this might be the hardest meeting yet!!

Our social worker interviewed us separately today. And while we have absolutely nothing to hide, it felt a little unnerving. It wasn't like we were tricking somebody into a green card or hiding any CIA secrets but to be interviewed separately felt weird. We felt compelled to try and come up with questions we might be asked on the hour long drive to meet her. We couldn't think of anything that would trip us up so we finally relaxed. Seriously, we'd tell a stranger our whole life story if they just asked. What are we hiding? Nothing. Exactly.

So, Valentine's Day. That's our final homestudy. In the home. They will also talk to the boys. That should be interesting. I'll let you know.

The 1st official recycle box went out today. The final first # was $62!! That's great for 1 week of talking to your friends! I have been overwhelmed and humbled by the number of people that have asked for boxes for their offices and churches. We had a friend of The GP call today and say he heard about the adoption and wanted to give us a microwave and stove to sell and keep the $$. Thanks Lord!! We'll take any creative way He wants to provide! It's starting to remind me of when Jen Pinto and I did the whole Katrina relocation thing at RiverStone. We were literally awed moment to moment in the way He provided. We were in the rush of the river and it was the MOST exciting place to be!! Can't wait to see what else happens on this journey.

Keep praying for all the next right steps!!

Eli and Mark are sitting 1 foot in front of the TV watching The Police in concert. Eli is playing his for real red electric guitar and Mark is playing the 'drums' with 3 foot long red sticks that were part of Eli's obstacle course for his birthday. It's awesome cute.

We'll let you know!

Moving Right Along

My boys and neighbor are in the front yard 'selling' cokes poured in styrofoam cups and McDonald's figurine toys in the driveway on a Sunday afternoon. It might be the cutest thing I've ever seen. People are stopping. How could you resist?

Adoption Updates for this week:

We have our 2nd homestudy meeting on Tuesday. Hope we will have the 3rd next week.

We received 'approval' (pending the homestudy) from AAI today with our contract and a few more signature pages. This was exciting as it made me feel like we are making progress!

We have just started brainstorming and sending out the information about recycling this week. We got $50 in ink cartridges this week just from 4 different people!! Woohoo! This thing might actually work!! We have asked Stonebridge & Riverstone in Marietta who both said they will help us collect. If you have any great ideas for placing boxes in businesses that would be great! Once friend who works at a dentist's office brought us about 20 different cartridges this morning! Thanks Janie!!!

On other news - I had a Director's meeting in Atlanta this week. Lots of changes going on with our company. All good - change is never easy. We have nearly tripled in 5 years and we need to accomodate ourselves to manage the growth as efficiently as possible! The economy is just now hitting our industry.

Mark's is 3 weeks away from our big Community Event. We would appreciate your prayers for a large turn out and for the budget to be met!

Keep saving those ink cartridges and cell phones!!
Love to all!
a