Baylee's first day of 5th grade!

My baby is in 5th grade! She had a great day! She likes her teacher and the children in her class. She has some of her friends in her class and is getting more aquainted with others.

Introducing Lais!

Lais brought all kinds of food and candy from Brazil! She and Baylee had fun preparing cheese bread and brigaderios for us!

BEFORE and AFTER!

Getting ready for school is hard work, but lots of fun too! See the neat covered wagon Brian made me? He is so handy! It is Oklahoma's centennial this year, so I chose to do a western theme.

What goes up, must go down!

Well, things aren't so up in the air now, at least not with Lias! Yeah! Lias got an earlier flight! We pick her up from the airport at 8:15 Monday morning. That is going to be one early rising day, but we are so excited that we probably wouldn't sleep well anyway! After we pick her up, we plan on taking her to the Cracker Barrel for breakfast! Yum! Now, with the earlier flight, I will be able to get her enrolled on Monday too. Things have a way of working out. We just have to let go and let God! We will update you on her arrival later.

Up in the Air!

There are a lot of things up in the air right now in the Corderman household! I don't do too well with that. After a couple of fitful days, I finally released it to God! I don't know why I don't do that to begin with. I guess it's that old control issue I have trouble with. When am I going to learn that I am not in control? You would think with this baby wanting and a possible 3 year total wait for this adoption, I would have this control issue learned, but I don't. I am getting better though. Up in the air right now is: 1.) When is Lais coming? We have been given 3 different dates so far. The confirmed latest is August 14th. This date is so not good because I have open house that evening, so does Baylee, and so does Lais for that matter. The 14th would mean that Lais has one whole day to get adjusted before school starts. Kids are resilent and she would make it, but it certainly is not the ideal situation. Not only that, but we still would need to enroll her and buy school supplies, etc. Not to mention I have meetings on that "one day", the 15th. They are trying to change her flight schedule, but we have not heard anything yet. They may not be able to. 2.)Who will Baylee's teacher be, will she have any of her friends in her class, and will she have a good year? Let's face it, we worry over our children constantly. Their happiness is our happiness. When Baylee was a baby, my grandma Brown came to visit. I was in Baylee's room watching her breathe and telling my grandma how worrisome having a baby is. She said, "Oh honey, you have only just begun. This is the easy part." She was so right! I can only see it getting more and more worrisome as she grows. Wait till she drives!! Oh my goodness!! 3.)Will our school faculty unite, be nicer, and less judgemental of each other? Teaching is tough work. We need each other for support and encouragement. I hope things will improve in that direction. These "wills" and "whens" were starting to get to me and then I was reminded by Baylee to put it in God's hands. Who is the mother here? So back to my bible and my favorite verses written in the cover including: Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything; tell God your needs and don't forget to thank him for his answers. If you do this you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quiet and at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus. Phillipians4:6,7 and So don't be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time. Matthew 6:34 God's timing is perfect and he will take care of everything. We just have to quit worrying and trust him!!

Exciting News!

We are going to have a new member of our family! No.....it isn't Maggie yet! We hope to have her by next winter. Pray: Baby Maggie in 2008! We are welcoming a beautiful girl named Lais from Brazil into our home on August 13th. She is a foreign exchange student who is going to be a junior in high school this year. We have somewhat gotten to know her through emails but we are looking forward to meeting her in person. Baylee is so excited to have a big sister! She says that she will get to experiment having a big sister and then will get to be the big sister! We pray that we can teach Lais a lot about, not only our wonderful country, but our great state as well. With Oklahoma's centennial coming up....how perfect to learn about it now! We know she will teach us a lot about her country too! We also know she will be a precious addition to our family. She is a sweetheart! Her family seems pretty special as well.

Adoption Update

Well referrals have come in! They came in a little earlier than expected...hope this is a good sign!! Remember that referrals are babies matched with families. They also covered 5 days worth of LID's. In recent months they have only covered 2 days. Back in 2005 they were covering a whole month's worth of LID's every month. That was why it only took about 6 months to get your baby once your paper work was LID(logged in to China). I sure hope they start covering more and more days! Remember that we are LID September 4, 2006 and they just referred babies to families with LID's of November 17 - November 21, 2005. Hopefully they (CCAA- China Center for Adoption Affairs) will be done with 2005 before the end of the year. I thought I ought to explain the CCAA process. There are 3 rooms that our dossier(paperwork) has to go through while in China. The first room is the Translation Room. This is where they translate all our paperwork into Chinese. The next room is the Review Room. This is where they review all your paperwork and OK you to adopt. Our dossier is between the Translation Room and the Review Room. It is called pending review. They just got done reviewing June 2006 dossiers. They moved through June very fast. We hope this is also a good sign! The last room is called the Matching Room. This is the room that they choose a baby for your family! We obviously will rest easier when we get out of Review. Only 2 months of dossiers to go! I will keep you posted!