It's official

We are LID!!!! As of September 26, 2011 our paperwork has been logged in with China!!! Exciting news for us.

Ethan turns 3!!

Happy birthday to my baby!!

I made a meal for a friend yesterday and Nathan wanted to send a card and some flowers along as well. This note brought tears to my eyes. So thankful for the gift of motherhood.

Pieces to the puzzle

just an example;-)

Adoption is somewhat like a puzzle.  There are so many different pieces that have to be put together.  David being the creative one that he is - came up with the idea to do a puzzle for the girls.  We will send in a photo of the girls to a photo company and they will make a puzzle out of it kind of like the one pictured here.  We plan to do the puzzle and have it framed and mounted between two sheets of glass so the back side of the puzzle can be seen.  You are probably wondering why would we want the back side of the puzzle to be visible.  Let me explain....  David and I are in the process of sending out an adoption journey letter (which can be read here.)  Our hope is that you would come along side us and partner with us in our adoption making you a piece of the puzzle.  We have already been so overwhelmed at God's goodness.   We have been blessed with your gifts and words of encouragement and we are so thankful.  Every prayer, note of encouragement or gift we receive becomes a puzzle piece.  Here is an illustration - there is a little girl at our church named Lydia she is six I think.  She has been in cubbies with me and now she is in children's choir with me.  A few Sundays ago she handed me a card.  This is not unusual for Lydia as she is so thoughtful - making me cards, and bracelets.  So when I sat down I opened up the card and it said congrats.  In it was five dollars and this note from Lydia "hera is some mony for adopteding...Love Lydia" We later found out from her parents that this money had been given to her for her birthday a few days prior.  Lydia's name is going to go on the back of a puzzle piece.  God used this sweet child to be a part of our journey to complete the puzzle and help bring Linnea and Kaylah home.  Another example of this is when David received a random phone call from our home owners insurance agent to tell him that he and his family were praying for us and our adoption. The Baileys are now a part of our puzzle.  It is a joy to see how many people are following our blog (even when aren't aware) and praying for us.  It is our intent to one day be able to show the girls the back of the puzzle picture so they can see the many names of those who helped bring them home.  Thank you for being a part of our journey.

"what do you do??"

This afternoon as we were outside I was approached by an ATT salesman going door to door trying to sell ATT products i.e phone service, internet, cable you get the idea.  He walked up and called me by name .. a little scary actually ... but I never told him if that was me.  I just informed him that we were not interested in ATT - they used to be our phone and internet service provider but we had really bad service and every month for the last year we had them our bill was wrong and I would have to call about it and they would change it - yes I did this for a year.  I finally got smart and changed companies - but I digress.  The salesman proceeds to tell me about these new lines in the area and don't I want to at least hear about the packages they offer and I replied "No, we don't have cable, nor are we going to be getting it so I don't really need to hear about any of the packages.  I wish you could have seen his face when I told him we didn't have cable.  (I was on the phone with my friend Suzanne so she could hear the whole thing - I know she was cracking up) This gentleman says to me "You don't have cable?? What do you do?  Read some books??"  To which I reply yes we read books and we play outside.  He must of thought I lived in the dark ages not having TV and all.  It was humorous.  Suzanne and I got a good laugh out of it!

Three Letters....

DTC!!!!!!

What in the world does that mean??!!  It means Dossier to China.  All of our paperwork is heading to China!! Hooray!! Now we await for a log in date with the Adoption Affairs in the Chinese government and then we can work on getting matched with Kaylah Joy!! This is a very exciting day in this adoption process!!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!!

I think it's safe to say I am well protected today.

Ten years ago today......

I have been waiting to write this blog post for a week as I have been thinking about this day for some time - but I wanted to do it on the actual day of our first date ten years ago today I finally gave in and met DP for coffee.

Maybe I should start from the beginning.  This sweet husband of mine was so persistent that he asked me out 3 times before I finally accepted.  See I only got a job at the Dwarf House so I could make some money before I went out on the mission field.  I knew my time there would be short because I was going to be moving overseas.  So you can see why I turned him down.  The last thing I needed was to be getting into a relationship with anyone - but I won't go into all the long details because you can see how things turned out :-)  However I want to walk down memory lane of our first date (even though at that time I would not have called it a date - funny how time changes things) because today marks 10 years ago that I finally gave in and met him for coffee -funny thing is at the time I didn't even like coffee!!

It was September 7, 2001 and I had to go sing at a church and give a missions report.  I told DP I could meet him at Starbucks in PTC at the Avenue after I was done singing.  DP wanted to come and hear me sing and do my report but I told him no - he says I was a little mean and he even tried to convince me to let him come but I didn't give in.  He says I was a real challenge - hard to get ;-) Since I wouldn't let DP come hear me he decided to go and hang out at J93.3 with some of his friends they were having some kind fundraising event on the air for World Vision.  He was with our dear friend and dj Sheila Richards Harper -who just this week she lost her battle with cancer.  What sweet memories we have of her but I am digressing.   I made it to Starbucks and since at the time I didn't like coffee I ordered a water.  It's so funny to hear David tell this story because after I finally agreed to go meet him we meet at a coffee place and I order a water.  We sat outside and talked forever.  I knew that night there was something different about him ..... the rest is history!!  

In honor of tonight we revisited our good old stomping "grounds" (get it ha ha).  We took a drive out to Starbucks in PTC and I got coffee this time - I actually had two.  It was so fun to reminisce and see all the changes that have taken place over the last 10 years.   After some coffee we decided to head to the Dwarf house the place where it all began.  We enjoyed sitting in the booth where we used to have chats during break time.  It was so fun to see Leslie tonight as she is one of the few employees who was there when it all began.  It was fun to see her and remember back to our early dating days.  

I am so thankful that DP was indeed persistent.  Even more so thankful that God is sovereign and even in my turning him down more than once - he kept asking.  A lot has changed in these past ten years.  As I have been thinking about our first date and all that we have been through I was reminded of the song David wrote me when we got married.  These words convey exactly how I feel......

Miracle

The Lord has been quite good to me 

I've always knows that true

There's no doubt He blessed me most

The day He gave me you

You've made world much better

With your tender loving ways

And brought a sweet contentment

A real beauty to my days

Every time I look at you 

I thank my Lord above

For giving me a miracle

The gift of you to love

Your a miracle to me 

A special gift from God above

Your life is a reflection 

Of the beauty of God's love

You're a blessing in my world

A gentle soul unique and rare

Who always lifts my spirits 

With your tender loving care

You're everything I hoped for

The one I love and ever need

And thats why you'll always be a miracle to me

And every time I look at you 

I thank my Lord above

For giving me the miracle 

The gift of you to love

And every time I look at you 

I thank my Lord above

For giving me the miracle

The gift of you to love

The gift of you to love

Its hunting season at least in the Pruiksma playroom

Cabelas new poster child

Luke's first day of Preschool.

FIRST DAY OF PRESCHOOL

 So hard to believe this day is here!! Love my sweet little guy and looking forward to a fantastic year!