Umm, 3 posts today. It's a little much

But this was so cool, I had to share! Olivia got these Flexees (or something like that) for Christmas. And while we were gone, Travis made this person- with annika's help. Pretty cool. I still haven't quite figured out how to hook them together. But they are super fun and great for this age!

My new favorite

Not my new favorite child...I try to love both of my girls equally. But my new favorite picture. I LOVE this picture of Olivia. We took about 200 pictures in my mom's backyard at Thanksgiving and this was one- just a "Hey Olivia- turn around." And this is what we got. I feel like this picture captures her and her sweetness. I printed it off and it looks even better! I am not bragging- but it looks like a professional picture. I can say that because I have 190 pictures that look terrible! My friend's husband suggested printing at Walmart instead of Shutterfly and he was right- they are so much better. Anyway, I just had to share because she makes me smile!

We always do Christmas a little early

Just a quick update in a very busy time of the year. We are currently off the list for foster care just until Jan. Because we are traveling out of state, it makes it difficult to get court approval this time of year. It is killing me to be off of it, but there is no need to waste the case workers time with "I so wish we could take her!" It makes me anxious for January! Otherwise, I am not anxious for this time of year to pass at all. I love spending this time with family and friends. We are so amazingly blessed to have so many that love us and so many to love. We had a nice visit with my dad and step-mom here. It was their first time to visit and it was great!

Here is Annika getting ready to open her gifts on "Christmas" morning!



My super creative husband made me this big hot chocolate mug! It had two big bags of dried marshmallows- my FAVORITE!!, a pretty scarf wrapped around the top to look like hot cocoa and down in the bottom was a gift certificate for "Coco" Chanel- so it was the cocoa part. I am actually not a big fan of their perfume, but I love their makeup. When I was in high school I did some modeling for a store that paid me in Chanel makeup. I got hooked, but it has been at least 12 years since I bought anything from them. It will be a special treat to go pick some things out!



Every year I want to limit the presents for the girls- especially since they also get gifts from Travis' parents and my two sets of parents. But I always see a lot of things I want to get them. And even after they open them all I still feel like it wasn't enough. I think I'd feel like that even if I had given them a million presents. But this year Travis made the girls a bakery display case. I was so glad he did- not only because it is AWESOME, but also because it is such a meaningful gift. He worked hard on it. And the girls did too- that is what makes it so neat. We all put something into it- they didn't know it was for them, but they were so excited on "Christmas" morning to find out it was for them. They have enjoyed it so much already. I am thankful that Travis can build this kind of stuff. I was just thinking he could build them some shelves or something and he planned this whole thing. It has two drawers on the back on the bottom with knobs we picked out at Anthropologie. {they have the cutest knobs EVER!}



For several years I sort of struggled with how to balance Christmas while still honoring Jesus. A couple of years ago in bible study we were talking about this. We came to the conclusion that we should celebrate Jesus everyday (spending time with him, giving, etc). Making ONE time a year to celebrate him is really just ridiculous. He has given us so much and saved us from so much just focusing on him once is simply not enough. This has given me freedom (in my mind) to enjoy this time of year and continue to enjoy him everyday and celebrate him everyday. And be thankful for him everyday. Otherwise, for me, I don't think there is a real way to balance our fun Christmas traditions while celebrating him {without having some sort of guilt}.

Hope you all have a wonderful time with family and can really enjoy this time of year- and celebrate the birth of our savior today and everyday!

My Little Cowgirl

Today Annika danced at the TCU basketball game. She was so cute and knew every step! She was a doll! She smiled the whole time and told me tonight she wants to do it again! Maybe we can show up to next week's game and see what happens! My mom flew into see her and got it all on tape on her new, fancy HD recorder. It is amazing- it totally beat my Nikon camera and she was a lot higher than me in the stands! I guess I know what to wish for now. :)

Annika dancing at the TCU basketball game

After the game we headed to the car and found this fun, new water fountain. The girls played for at least 30 minutes and had the best time! It was so fun to watch them- but hard to keep them out of it!

melts my heart

As you can see, I wasn't successful at keeping them out of it- so I decided to join the fun.

brrr!

Quick...

Olivia as a Party Girl

Olivia with her friend in the Nutcracker. She was amazing. Have I mentioned that? I promised she would not be doing this next year, but how can I keep someone so perfect for the Nutcracker away from it? {She was also an angel and bonbon}

Annika in AR

We traveled 20 hours for Thankgiving. It was a lot, but it was great! I am so thankful we have family to visit and that we can get there by car because we live close enough!

Bonfire

We went to the little town I started out in to my uncles' farm. We ended the night with a weenie roast and making smores with cousins. The girls {and I} thought it was so fun! Looking forward to Christmas because it should also include a heating of delicious marshmallows to quickly be stuffed in the mouth. Right?

Significant

I was just reading Suzanne's blog at Joining the Journey and I had to share this. She says it so well...

We have ONE chance at this life. ONE.

ONE.

Are you going to stay in your comfortable little place and make sure that you and every one else around you is happy and comfortable? We have the rest of our lives to be comfortable...in heaven...FOR ETERNITY. I wanna go outta her all wrinkled, tired, and ragged...LOOKIN like I have lived life to the fullest. At this ONE chance...a very SHORT chance (called life on earth)....DO SOMETHING SIGNIFICANT to bring God and God alone glory.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! I just read this verse and feel so blessed that God sought after me. And I love this verse when thinking about adoption. Enjoy your day!

They will be called the Holy People,

the Redeemed of the Lord;

and you will be called Sought After,

the City No Longer Deserted.
Isaiah 62:12

Bad timing

Well, we got that call I was talking about- right in the middle of the busiest time of our year- parents visiting, Olivia in the Nutcracker, getting ready to travel. Anyway, got a call at 10:30pm for a 1 year old girl. One is my favorite age. To be specific I like about 15 months and on. Thankfully Travis was our voice of reason- but I didn't agree. :) But don't worry- I prayed God would change his heart- and I knew he would if that precious girl was supposed to be with us. Turns out it didn't matter what we thought- court date too far away so we couldn't be okayed for travel. So, we are back to waiting for that call. :)
Olivia was amazing in the Nutcracker. I coudn't have been any prouder if she were on Broadway. I wanted to stand up yell- that girl belongs to us! Seriously- she knew exactly what to do in 3 big parts and looked amazing doing it. Like she's done it all her life. It brought tears to my eyes. I am so thankful she got to do something that has been her "dream." She loved every minute of it- even the 5 hour practice on Friday night! So, so proud of her.

Botanical Gardens

We are loving this fall like weather! It took us a while to get it, but we have missed the cooler weather. The other morning we decided to go visit the botanical gardens and they were amazing. We actually had to layer to stay warm enough. Olivia doesn't have a light coat that fits (mom to the rescue- she ordered her a really soft one from the Gap and is bringing it with her this weekend!), so she is having to wear her vest all of the time. Thankfully here that is pretty much all she needs.


Japanese Gardens

 

Is is against the rules to climb a tree at the botanical gardens?



If we were sending out Christmas cards this would be the picture I would use!

The girls had so much fun running all around the Japanese Gardens and the Texas part. It was so great because we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. We will definitely be going back. We've lived here almost a year now and this is one of my favorite things we've done!

Olivia is in the Nutcracker soon. I can't wait to see her. She has practiced so much and their costumes and things are amazing!! Hopefully Annika will find it entertaining enough to last the whole time.

We are still waiting for "The Call," but I feel like God has helped us to fully enjoy the time while our little family is still the same. I know things are going to be knocked totally out of the little nitch we are in now. It's a nice little nitch, so I don't mind enjoying it. But there is a part of me that is anxious to be doing what God has for us. I have learned so much about his heart lately and I am so grateful. I have learned about a lot of neat organizations that are helping orphans all over the world. Sometimes it is too much to carry and learn about. For example, how children are taken from their families and then sold as slaves, prostitutes, beaten, etc. My mind and heart can hardly go there. But there are people trying to make a difference in the lives of these people all over the world. One really neat organization I've learned about is Sweet Sleep. They have a blog that will really open your eyes and also make your heart smile. They give beds, mosquito nets, bedding, and a bible to children and it is amazing to read about their journeys! 

This is the first time in several years that I have truly looked forward to Thanksgiving and the holidays. Last year we were in the process of moving here and the three years before we were in OH. Those were really hard and sad times. But it feels so good to be on the other side, so I am praising God that we are here. That he took us down the path to get here and that we are finally here- in a better place (for us- we're from the South!). But not just location- life in general. I am truly thankful! 

Redeemed

I have so much to say and have no idea where to start. So here goes.
Four days ago I picked up Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. Awesome book. I re-read it in 3 days. If you've read it, you know it is over 400 pages- I had school to teach, dishes to wash, laundry to do, and sleep to get. But I couldn't get enough- that is after I made it past the prologue. I don't want to ruin the story if you've never read it, but a little girl grows up in a horrible situation and ends up being forced into prostitution at the age of 8. The last time I read this book I didn't have 2 little girls, nor was I getting ready to foster a child that could very well have been in this position. The story is based off of Hosea in the bible, which talks about us basically being prostitutes (to the world, other gods, idols, etc) and God continually taking us back- in a very raw sense. It made me think heavily about my own life (situations I was put in at an early age and poor decisions later on), about the life of the foster daughters that may pass through our house, little girls around the world born into and forced into terrible situations (and then the women they become- hurt, hard, humiliated, angry, bitter women who become mothers to children that need more than what they have), and where God is in all of this.
~So first off for me- this made me think more about God redeeming my life. There are things in my life that I wonder why God let happen...where was he when...? But God has redeemed me from everyone of them. He has freed me from my bad decisions and other's bad decisions as well. And the thoughts that can so easily haunt and entangle you when you look back on things. And of course, on a much bigger level, he has redeemed my life that was headed straight to an eternity without him-through the death of his precious son Jesus- I have NOTHING to do with it. The thing as- as I look around- both here and around the world, I could have easily been born into a family that forced me into prostitution at a young age or into a poor African village where death due to starvation happens daily or any number of other terrible things. God specifically, by his grace, put me here where I am. I will never understand why, but I will be eternally grateful that he did.
Several definitions of redeemed that I found are to recover ownership of by paying a specified sum, to pay off, to set free; rescue or ransom, to save from a state of sinfulness and its consequences and to restore the honor, worth, or reputation of. I can think of specific examples for each one of those in my life. And God is responsible for everyone of them.

"I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death." Hosea 13:14

~The exciting part to me- that God totally awakened while reading Redeeming Love, is that we get to be part of God's plan to redeem one of his precious daughters. I want to run out and gather all of the hurting little girls and bring them to our home and teach them that they have not been deserted, they are worth redeeming and that God will redeem them-both spiritually and emotionally. Obviously not realistic to gather them all, but nonetheless, I am thankful God has put his desire in my heart. I have a feeling I may be re-reading this later on when things get tough!

"...for in you the fatherless find compassion." Hosea 14:3

And as I thought more about this- what does it look like everyday in the life of a little girl? Is it a romantic story of love, hurt, redemption, more hurt, and more redemption as in Redeeming Love? Probably not. It will be a story of loving regardless of the response we get back; getting up in the middle of the night to comfort bad dreams; daily showing mercy and grace to a little one who was never loved as God intended for her to be; possibly letting her go back to her family trusting God to protect her; lots of time spent in prayer for wisdom in how to parent, love, and demonstrate God's amazing love for a wonderful creation that has been crushed by the sin that surrounds us daily.  

"I will heal their waywardness and love them freely..." Hosea 14:4

Right now the hard part is living with knowledge and not expecting everyone else to feel the same way. It is almost like convictions. You may feel convicted not to see a rated R movie, but that doesn't mean that is something I need to not do {although I really have no interest in most of them- just an example!} I have found in reading blogs and hearing comments from those who have adopted- it is almost like they are angry that others don't understand where they are in their desire to adopt and get offended when you ask questions about their adopted children. I do not understand this at all- honestly. I don't ever want to be that way. It is like there is a super fine line to walk...how do you live something out passionately without making others feel badly for not doing the same thing? How do you even talk about adoption/fostering with others who aren't where you are? God has given us each passions for things that mean something to his heart. There is no way I could possibly be passionate about all the things God is- I simply couldn't take it. I couldn't stand knowing all the things that are wrong in the world and what God wants me to do about it. So I need to take the piece of his heart that he's given me and honor him with it- whether I've got someone to walk along side me in this or not. 

When thinking specifically about redemption- that is something we can and should all be excited about. "But now says the LORD, your creator, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: 'Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine!'" Isaiah 43:1 How can that not be exciting? The cool thing about redemption is that it is woven through the bible from the beginning to the end. And he's not done with us. He is daily redeeming us from things we drag around with us- the hard part is trying to live in that freedom and to keep from wandering from Him.

So maybe part of the fostering/adoption classes they should make everyone read Redeeming Love. :) If you are still here- thanks for reading something that God put on my heart so heavily I could barely breathe until I typed some of down. It was funny because this morning another blog I read- a sweet family that has many adopted children also talked about how adoption is redemption. I feel blessed beyond words to get to be apart of a God's redemption plan for one {or more} of his sweet daughters.  



We're licensed!

Travis just called me- literally as I was picking up the phone to call him, he called me. We are licensed to be a foster/adoptive home. Yea! Almost two months to the day we started, we are finished. Such a blessing! I am glad to have all of those things done. Whew all the hard stuff out of the way. Oh wait...I guess the hard stuff begins. :) But I will be honest- I am expecting God to teach us some amazing things through this. And my heart is so happy to be a part of something that he is doing. I can't wait. I know lessons that mean the most, don't come easy. But it is my desire that God fill my life and this certainly seems like a huge step toward that! Yesterday I went to the women's bible study at our church. We were talking about Ezekial's vision of God in the temple. The teacher said that God's glory takes up all available space. So if he is in the temple, he totally fills it. If he is in me- he totall fills me. I want him to take up all available space in my life. My heart is pounding in my chest! I am excited!

Catch up...

Let's see... where to start. Honestly I can't remember what we've done. :) That ever happen to you? Girls had some trouble getting over their colds, which meant I didn't sleep through the night for a while. Which meant my brain wasn't functioning. Brings back memories of tiny babies my girls that had some trouble figuring out how to sleep through the night. We could soon be back there. I had two Saturdays of all day classes for fostering/adoption. I learned a lot in the classes, but learned the most from two five minute conversations I had with people who have actually been there. One lady I spoke with said that she didn't know of any families that waited more than 20 days when they were willing to take a baby. We are signed up for birth to 5 years, so that could very well be us. Thankfully God is in control. I couldn't rest if he wasn't. That is the rock I keep going back to when things seem a little worrisome. And honestly, we wouldn't be here if God hadn't taken our hands and drug gently led us here. We were told today that if things go well, we will be licensed next week! I am not sure how long from there we are actually an available home, but I am guessing it doesn't take too long. Considering we started all of this almost exactly two months ago, I'd say we're moving right along!

Annika's bed, bedding, curtains, etc. got all moved to the Little Girl's room. Here is Annika with her new bed. Please overlook the fact that her name is no longer centered over her bed. We might fix that... or just leave it as being slightly to the side for some kind of artistic effect. She's done ok with her bedding being somewhere else. The first time she saw all in LG's room, she was upstairs and I was down. I saw her walk over and look...and burst into tears. She's cried most nights at bedtime. Last night was the shortest and no crying tonight! She picked to have to big bed and this bedding, so it just takes a little getting used to.



Annika and her new bed

My mom came to visit as a surprise for Olivia's 7th b-day. I decided very last minute that since we were going to Dallas, we might as well go early and go to American Girl. I am so glad we did. It was very fun and we basically had the store to ourselves. I hadn't planned to eat, as it was a looking trip. But when we got upstairs, Annika headed over to the bistro part and said, "When are we going to eat? I am hungry." How can you pass that up? We got brownie pops and mini ice cream cones. I am so thankful to be able to do fun stuff with our girls like that. I know there are many people in the world who would love to treat their kids to something fun and they can't. We left Amer. Girl and headed to the airport. I only had to make a u-turn once... so we did well. Olivia was so surprised when we pulled up to the airport! It was fun. We spent Fri. doing all the stuff she wanted. We got cupcakes, went to Miss Molly's toy store, jumped at Pump It Up, went to a really big Hallmark store, came home for a fast bath, and headed to dinner. Sat. I had class all day, so my mom took Olivia to a nail spa birthday party and to her 3 hour Nutcracker practice. Annika got a special day with KK. I am pretty sure she's never gotten to spend time with her by herself. They went shopping (at Walmart), went to Barnes and Noble and got pedicures. Mom said the pedicure place did everything for Annika and she loved it- even rose petals in the water! They did an incredible job painting flowers on her nails and she even got some little diamonds on them! So cute!  


Olivia opening her presents

Olivia got a desk for her room from my mom. We were going to go with Pottery Barn Kids, but they are just so expensive. I found this one at Target for a third of the price. It is awesome! She is so excited and has finally forgiven me for moving out her tea party table.


American Girl

At American Girl Olivia got her doll's ears pierced. The earrings are so cute! Annika got some glasses for her doll and we went in together to get her a zebra print dress with a purple bow that is adorable!

How did this happen?

I would just like to know when those two turned into these two.

Bloodtest Test

Well I have this clever little lesson to talk about, but I played a song on YouTube from the new princess Veggie Tale video when I sat down to type. It will make you cry. It is called Beautiful For Me- you can hear it Here. My mom got the DVD for the girls while we were visiting her and the song immediately made me think of the precious little girl God will be bringing into our house. We have been learning how these kids believe they are worthless- exactly the opposite of the way God created them. I will probably drive the little girl God brings to us crazy by playing this song constantly. I also found a wonderful canvas print at Hobby Lobby that has different things we are in God's eyes. It was the last one or I would have been getting them for a few friends. I felt like God just stuck it there for me to find for her. :) I am really fighting typing out the lyrics. Just go listen. It won't take long and it is so worth it. The new video is great too (and it is only $10 at Target!)

Ok, so back to my lesson. Last Fri. (as in yesterday) I had to get some bloodwork done. Travis kept the girls so I could go to the dr. She sent me down the street to the lab. I went in feeling rather chipper and really wanting to be positive and show God's love to these people (even though I had about exhausted my kindness while waiting at the dr. I saw her 5 min., but was there for over an hour) So while I am waiting a young woman came in and said she was there to get some more blood drawn because they had called her because they hadn't drawn enough blood the first time. I was thinking, wow, what an inconvenience. And let's be honest- it isn't most people's favorite thing to do. So anyway, they called me back in just a few minutes. I really don't mind having blood taken if the person knows what they are doing. I felt pretty confident in this man because this is what he does all day. Surely he has got it down. I wasn't really paying attention- he got his stuff ready, cleaned my arm, and got to work. He was not gentle. In fact, my arm is still sore. But I was still smiling and kind and bid him a good day.

Fast forward a few hours- I had layed down because Annika has been up every night because she is sick. So tired. So I was resting. I get a call from the guy. Um, we didn't get enough blood. What? For ONE test. You didn't get enough blood? Well, now I've got to cart my two sick kids down and do it all over. So the whole way there I am thinking- I need to be kind, forgiving, etc. But I keep thinking about the girl who was in there earlier saying the same thing happened. I don't know about you, but I really like when people do a good job at their job. I have very little tolerance for half effort. I know everyone makes a mistake ocassionally, but this had already happened. So I walked in to all of the employees sitting around and no patients waiting. And I can't even make it to the window before I say, "I just don't understand how this happens." I wanted to say a few other things. (we go back- he breaks several OSHA rules that I will spare you of, but it did result in me swabbing my arm with alcohol gel when we got to the car.) He does another pretty lousy job while trying to be friendly. I didn't feel like being friendly.

 Do you think he learned a lesson from me being short with him? What about when I left and I headed straight to the comment box only to find there were no cards? I said on my way out, I guess I'll have to call them- with one of the workers sort of glaring at me. Did I smile? Yes, but while glaring. I showed her didn't I? How come I didn't feel good about when I left? Why did I have to apologize to the girls for my less than Christ like behavior?

Because I failed that test. Anyone can be nice when things are going well and people are doing what you expect. But God wants us to be nice even when it is difficult and doesn't seem like the right thing to do in the moment. I wish I would hurry up and learn this lesson!

Labor Day Weekend and Homestudy

Last week was so busy, I barely felt like I had time to breathe. But we had a great time! Last Wed. we had our homestudy. It took 5 hours. The girls were great. I was really worried about Annika saying something funny, but she actually only said two words, "Uh huh" and "Fine." Those were in response to "Are you excited about adopting?" and "How else do you feel about adopting?" The rest of the time she nervously flipped the pages of a very big book. I think she didn't know what to expect. Poor thing. After our homestudy, we packed for Little Rock.

We drove the next day and stopped in Texarkana to see my dad and step-mom. We planned to meet at the farm, but they finished up with the horses before we got there. Chuck E Cheese was the place to meet. We all had fun! We had the place to ourselves. Except for one older man who played the Bart Simpson pinball machine the whole time. Weird.



We met KK and Poppy at Izzy's for dinner. Girls (and I!) were so glad to get out of the car! We had a great time visiting. We made our usual trip to the mall- which included build a you know what, and some new shoes. I got the ones that everyone's had for two years. You know the ones. Ukks. :) And they were mismarked, so we saved $40!!! I love a deal!



My step-sister, her husband, and their 2 1/2 year old son visited too. It was fun to see them. Their son can already spell a lot of words. Crazy! We played outside a lot. The girls love to play outside. They also played in the hot tub and helped decorate for Halloween. It was a fun weekend. Travis surprised us by driving from Fayetteville. He met us in Perryville and took the girl's fishing at my aunt and uncle's barn. They each caught a big catfish! And we rode 4 wheelers. So fun! I love being outside and we don't have a lot to do here in TX outside because it is so hot!



We have everything turned in for adoption stuff. The next step is to get assigned a case worker from the agency. Then when they have everything ready, we are put in the sysytem. I have two Sat. classes from 9-5 left and then that is all for our classes! (for now) Yea! Hopefully I can stay awake. The girls have been sick, so I haven't gotten a full nights sleep in a few nights. I am not used to that. How quickly you forget!

Quick Update

Today we had our fire inspection. I was a little worried for a while. He was very thorough and had some rules that were pretty strict and strange. The things I thought he'd care most about seemed small on his list. But we have a signed piece of paper! Tomorrow we have our homestudy. I feel like we are getting ready for a showing. :) I don't think the girls have missed that too much! Tomorrow we'll be showing not only our house, but our whole lives. Hopefully it will go well. I am sure the girls will say something funny or crazy. They have 4-6 hours to do it, so I am sure it will happen.


Tonight while doing some things in Little Girl's room, I looked up and saw a gecko on the wall. That would have been a fun find tomorrow! Her room is coming along. We got some really cute new 3D wall stickers from Target. We couldn't find a big picture that we thought worked well. I ordered a queen bed for Annika today. We'll be moving her full sized one into Little Girl's room. Along with her bedding that she has had since she was 1 1/2. I'll admit, it makes me sad. Hopefully she's ok with it. We put up her new pink curtains today. She really liked those. Now if I can just find a lamp shade. She has a really pretty PBK one that is purple with butterflies kind of sticking out of it. It will also go to LG's room. Hopefully God is preparing us all for this! We just pray and hope!

Olivia's birthday party was on Sunday. It went SO well! I couldn't have asked for anything better! It was sunny and hot- perfect for a waterslide party! She had 8 friends come. They were all so sweet and had a great time. I am so thankful things went well! It was funny because after they played they all came in, we sang, ate cupcakes, watched some Phineas and Ferb, opened presents, and then played with things she got for her birthday and with makeup. But they all got to do things they liked, so I guess that's what matters. Olivia was really sad when it was over. But she still has her real birthday to look forward to.



Annika learned how to do a kartwheel and handstand this week. You can't imagine her excitement about this! I would post pics I took, but she was only in her p*ntie$. (I don't want weirdos searching for that!)
Olivia also auditioned for the Nutcracker this weekend. We found out today she will be a party girl and a bonbon. Not sure what that is, but they said they costume is really cute. She is really excited about it. This is her first activity to do that requires every weekend practices. I hope she likes it. :) I think I am more afraid she'll love it and find things like that to do all of the time!

Provision

Tomorrow will be two years since my sweet grandmother, Conk, went to Heaven. I miss her so much. She was such a blessing to me growing up. Since my mom was a single mom and drove an hour to get to work, Conk was like my mom. She taught me so much about life- eventhough at the time I just thought she was teaching me spelling words and multiplication facts. It is crazy how as our girls get older, I see more and more of her in me. She taught me how to be a mom, but since she was a grandmother, she really taught me to be a grandmother. :) (a young grandmother!) God always provides abudantly- and he sure did with her.
Here is a link to a blog I wrote a while back...
http://katescupcakes.blogspot.com/2009/04/missed.html

Homestudy!!!!

Wow, it came fast! On Friday I got a fun e-mail that said our agency would be assigning us a staff memeber to do our homestudy soon. Well, I thought soon meant like in the next couple of weeks. This morning I got an e-mail saying Leslie will do our homestudy and she will call us soon to schedule. Again, I thought soon meant later this week. She called this afternoon to schedule, so I went to my calendar, flipped to the next month and said, "So are we looking at the end of Sept or Oct?" She said, "What about next Wed?" Wow! I thought it would be a month or two away. So we will add this to our craziness! The next 8 days are going to the busiest they have been in a while. I have a dr appt, Olivia's birthday party is this weekend, we have our fire inspection next Tues, our homestudy next Wed., and we are headed to LR after that.

Travis was awesome this weekend. He did a HUGE list of things I needed done, but couldn't do on my own. He spent over 3 hours installing these "Tot Locks" we have to have and he hung pictures, changed the really tall air filter upstairs, and did some other stuff. So thankful for his hard work- esp. since we need it now! We need to put a locking door knob on our office door to lock away things we aren't allowed to have out- so he isn't totally in the clear yet!

Today we had to go through a list of behaviors, etc of kids and say what we are comfortable with taking. I guess this is real. And soon (I don't have any idea what soon means- just sooner than later!) we will have another sweet little girl in our home and family. I can't wait! I can't wait to see her sweet face. Although I don't want to be anxious, so I am working really hard to enjoy the time I have with our girls and get as much school in as we can. Although we did take a day off to go play with some friends at the mall today. And while at the playground I was getting some hand cleaner out of my purse...and there was a gecko in my purse! It was a cute little one. Now there is one living at the mall playground. Sorry mall. But he was really cute. He got quite a ride too. We went to have our TB tests read at the dr and waited almost 30 minutes. What if he had climbed up my arm in there? There would have been a crazy loud scream!

Tomorrow my mom has to go get fingerprinted. She's headed to the police station to get "rolled" as they call it. I wish they'd take a mug shot just for fun. :) We had to get one when we got fingerprinted and we weren't supposed to smile. Hopefully that is my parent's last step to being free to come and stay with us! Crazy what it takes to be on the court approved list.

"And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me." Matt. 18:5

Happy Hour

Today was the big TB test day. I woke up with a groggy mind to Annika asking me where we were going today. She hardly ever asks that. So later in the morning I told her. She was not happy. To say the least. This little one worries like you can't imagine. I did distract for a little with the funny dream I had this morning- I was in line waiting to see the dr. where they made us bite the inside of our arm really hard. I guess I had the test on my mind, too.

The lady told me it was pretty much painless. Annika went first- involved some crying and yelling I don't want to do this. Then Olivia came in from the hallway. Every muscle in her body tensed up and as the nurse did it she was crying and screaming- looking surprised- it IS hurting! it is STILL hurting! And it hurt her for a while. Oh, I feel sorry for her when it is time for her to have a baby. She has a fraction of a pain tolerance.

We left to go to Babies R Us to get some Tot Locks for our cabinets. On the way Annika said, "Is it happy hour?" This makes me smile. I think it is funny my girls talk about happy hour. This of course, refers to Sonic's happy hour. It wasn't, but today we made a special exception. It seemed like the only right thing to do.

Tonight at bedtime Annika read a book to me. At the end the character asks her what she did today. She said (in the sweetest little voice ever)- "Well...we got lollipops and Sonic. It was a good day."

Love it! Don't you wish we could end our day like that- with thoughts of only the good things that happened?

Another success story for today- Olivia and I successfully moved the baby bed (which we had set up like a toddler bed in our playroom to use as a couch) into "the little girl's room" without having to take it all the way apart! Yea! I was very pleased! It now has the little side back on it and the padding off (to follow state rules). Olivia said, "Don't you think the little girl will want the padding? It feels so much better." I totally agree, but we have to see how old she is first. Now we just need to get a big bed for Annika's room and move her full sized bed into "the little girl's room" and we'll be set. It is kind of hard to plan for everything since we have no idea how old she'll be. Well, four or under, but that is quite an age range when you think of things they might need/use.

We also got fire extinguishers so we can pass our fire inspection. It is week after next. Next weekend is Olivia's birthday party. We are having it early to make sure it is still hot enough because she wants to have a water slide birthday. I really should be doing some things to get ready for that. I guess if we get bored we could have a fire extinguisher fight.

Off to watch Date Night with Travis. Hopefully it is good! (It has to be better than preseason NFL!)

We're expecting...

this to take a while. We have some exciting news to share- we are adopting! I haven't said anything because this is a crazy road, and you just don't know what will happen. But not saying anything is killing me and it feels very lonely here. So, I'll say this...we are planning to adopt. That is our hope and our every intention at this point. Trust me, we wouldn't spend this much time going to class and filling out paperwork! And preparing our house to meet some really crazy rules set by the state.

This is our notebook. It is totally crammed now. You can't fit anything else in it. It is full of notes from our classes and paperwork we've filled out.

Here I am with what we had gotten filled out so far. You should understand something about me. I am weird- I love paperwork. I love filling out information and can do it quickly. I had our first packet done in one night and most of the second in a day. It nags at me begging to be done...now! There were a few things lingering that are now pretty much done. Anyone who has adopted internationally is laughing at what I have to fill out. It is a drop in the bucket to what they face. I think we each only had to have 2 things notarized! :) And our fingerprints get done right here in Fort Worth. We do all have to get TB tests. I am not at all excited about this. But the lady at our pediatric clinic promised me they have the best nurse that will do all four of us. Still... how do you explain to a 4 and 6 year old that they are getting a needle put under their skin so we can bring another sister into our house? There will be ice cream after that appointment for sure!

We are planning to adopt domestically through the state. We would like to just do matched adoption, but most young girls end up staying with their foster parents...so we may foster to adopt. This does carry with it the risk of the child going back to their biological parent or family member. So it is actually pretty stressful to swallow all of this! These kids are coming from all kinds of really horrible situations and TX is actually pretty slow to remove children from their parents, so when they do get removed it isn't good.

We have been amazingly blessed by God. Crazy blessed. He has been continually putting adoption on our hearts-starting about two years ago when we were in OH. We would stick our toe in the water and then take off running. (well, that was mostly me) Each time we'd get a little bit farther in, but each time it always ended the same. As we learned more about domestic adoption and all of the rules we ran even faster. But God is funny- he won't let you get too far from where he wants you. He made it ABUNDANTLY clear that we are to be involved in adoption in some way. We decided it was time to do more than just find out more information. So in our kitchen we decided it was time. It was surreal. A huge decision made in a matter of minutes- but really over a couple of years.

Take a look at this picture, do you see what I see? I see two things. 1. An extremely blessed, happy family. Looking a little too relaxed huh? 2. See that space next to Travis. It's the perfect spot for another sweet little girl! :)

I would like to say that hopefully soon we'll have a picture up of our child, but we aren't allowed to put pics up until they are legally ours and the age group we desire is the most desired, so we will probably be waiting a while. We are praying for wisdom and guidance during all of this. We know God will bring us the child he has for our family. We aren't in a hurry.

I still have two all day Sat. classes to do and we have our homestudy. After that we are put on the list until we get matched with either a child that is up for adoption or needing a foster home. I will be totally honest- this has been an emotional roller coaster. With so many questions, doubts and FEARS. And the classes and books we are required to read do not help with fears! We have had to, over the past couple of days, step back from all of that and pray for God to fill our hearts with hope and joy and remember why we are wanting to do this. - Which can and will totally fill up another post!

Thanks for joining us on the newest journey in our lives!

VACATION!

We went on vacation in June. We had planned to go to Destin, but with the oil spill we decided to go to Galveston, TX. It worked out well because it only took us 5 hours to get there! Much better than 12-13 to FL. There was a lot I missed about FL, but our condos were awesome! Here is the super fun slide. We found if you went down on a tube that you could fly! I loved that the most! It is so great because Olivia recently learned to swim and could swim all over the place.



The beach was really yucky because of all of the seaweed, but our condo had an area with white sand. It was great because the shower was right by it. We made sand castles and other funny sand things.



We also went to Moody Gardens Aquarium. It was really great. Annika loves sharks, so she had a great time. Here we are in a shark cage. This is as close as you will ever catch me to one of these!



Our condo had 4 pools that had waterfalls that led into the next one. They were so pretty. The girls had so much fun swimming all over. There was also an indoor heated pool we used to get out of the sun one day. Annika likes to pretend she can swim, so it is a little stressful to swim with her. It was a lot better when we could keep her floatie on her.



We ate at an awesome restaurant called Rudy and Paco's while we were there. I wish it was here! We also played putt putt and played down on the beach one afternoon. The girls didn't care about the seaweed like I did. I am not a fan! They loved finding shells.

Swim Lessons!

We've done nothing since New Years. Just been waitin' around for these swim lessons! :) Olivia had her first swim lesson last weekend. She LOVED it! Here she is with Ms. Katie.



Since we liked Ms. Katie so much, I decided to sign Annika up too! Here she is waiting for Olivia's lesson to be over and for her's to start.




She loved it too! She smiled the entire time!

I can't think of a title

Many exciting things have happened since my last post, but I have no time to write about them. I will just post some pics from Christmas time.Here we are after the Christmas Eve candlelight service. I am super happy to report we did not catch Annika's hair on fire this year.





Travis and I on New Year's Eve. This is the kind of joy that can only be brought by almost ten years of marriage (and a couple of glasses of champagne.) This year's party at my mom's was the best. The whole holiday season flew by too quickly for my liking! With the move, everything just snuck right up on us!




Olivia lost her first tooth. She was so excited! She had made a box for it at my mom's. She wanted to be sure the tooth fairy looked there! : ) Seriously, you can't imagine her joy and how proud she was. To be honest, it made me sad. The girls are growing up way too fast.