Reading....

I love to read and I really love to read books focusing on adoption and orphan care. This is what I'm reading now. I told DP he should be nervous because when I finish I am sure I'll feel the need to adopt from Uganda next.

Namesake...

This is our sweet friend Emily Hope. This is who our Linnea Hope gets her middle name from. Linnea comes from Emily's big sister Linnea Grace who went to be with Jesus in 2004.

Happy Birthday sweet girl!!

Just a few moments ago the date in the U.S. became October 5th.  It has been October 5th for 12 hours now in China and today is Linnea's birthday - she is turning two!!  Several weeks ago we mailed out some goodies for her to have for her special day and a few for Christmas as well.  I made her an outfit to wear for her birthday celebration with her foster family and the other families that live in her village.  I also made her a little purse  and then for Christmas I made her the "annual Christmas eve pj's" and a warm blanket to cuddle up with.  We threw in some other things as well.  Here are a few pics of what was in the package and then the packages all wrapped up...

Birthday shirt and skirt and hairbow made my mommy

Birthday goodies

Christmas goodies

all ready to go!!

a little help from google translator

Tonight I made a little strawberry cake with some pink icing and we had a little birthday celebration for her.  We let the boys blow out the candles.  Luke has been sick this week so he is not looking so up to par.  Right before I was finishing up the cake and icing I had asked Ethan who's birthday it was and who the cake was for and he said Linnea and then he asked me "is sister coming?"  after all in his mind who has a birthday party and doesn't even show up for their own celebration?  My heart was melting and aching at the same time - longing for her to be home on her birthday.  We are thankful that the Lord has in His kindness given her a loving foster family to be with her on her birthday.  We should get some pictures soon of her little celebration.  I will be sure to post them when they come.  For now Happy Birthday to our sweet girl!!

Strawberry cake with pink icing and sprinkles

Happy Birthday Linnea!! We love you!!

Eating a cupcake for Linnea :-)

Cabin fever.....

Mommy and Ethan enjoying a morning fire on this chilly morning at the cabin!!  We are loving our time here at Mr. Doug's cabin.  Thank you so much Doug and Sally for letting us get away!!  We picked apples, had good tomato soup, relaxed, checked out some pumpkins, relaxed.  Can you see a theme here!!We have also been doing puzzles and laying by the fire ALOT!!! I have loved the weather!! I am so ready for cold weather, hot chocolate, and Christmas!!!  And for those that know me best - yep I am listening to it right now as I blog!!  If I remember I will try to post more pictures from our cabin time when we get home!!

Baby toys...

E got this toy for his birthday. As he is opening it up he says "oh look mom it's a baby toy!".  He also got a few new t-shirts and after he opened those up he said "oh I have these kind" he doesn't but what he does know is how to keep us laughing!!

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!!!