Update!

We got our "on deck" email today from our adoption agency! This email basically states that our referral will be soon! We are now in the top 10 waiting for referrals! There are 4 families, that we know of, ahead of us in line for a baby boy. It is so hard to believe that this is really happening! We have been in the China line so long that it seems unreal that Africa is so fast! Our paperwork was just submitted August 29th. So hopefully within the next 1 to 2 months, we will get our call that we have a baby boy! I'm busy right now contacting our social worker about a homestudy update, getting background checks again, getting travel vaccinations, filing to renew fingerprints, and renewing our I-171H(government approval for a foreign adoption)!! Waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, and then BAM, it hits you all at once!!! I am glad that I have school to teach because it keeps me too busy to fret over the phone waiting for "THE CALL"! I, normally don't keep my phone with me or even charged up, but lately I have been keeping it charged and close by! Say a prayer that we will get that CALL soon and that we will have a successful court date so that we can beat court closures!

7 months DTE!

Baylee ............all ready for the Spring Band Concert! She did so well! Some days I feel like this monkey while we are waiting for our referral! Ho hum! Is it ever going to happen! We are getting closer though!!!! AWAA (our adoption agency) has had an incredible month with over 20 referrals and lots of successful court days! Yeah! Keep it rolling! There is a big group of us praying a lot and we can definitely feel God's movement! There are currently 7 people ahead of our DTE group (place in line) that are waiting for boys or either. There might be mystery families that we don't know about, but that is sure getting close enough to get excited! We are currently #2 or 3 for a toddler boy though, so if any older babies come into the orphanage...........well wow!

Baylee and I, with some friends and our church group, went to the Wichita Zoo over Spring Break! It was cool and very windy, but we had a great time!

Baylee went to an opposites birthday party. The boys dressed like girls and the girls dressed like boys. It was quite hilarious! Baylee is the one in the blue jersey and OU hat.

We met my parents at a place on Route 66 called Pops. It was pretty cool! We had a great burger and of course a pop!

6 months DTE!

Well, we have officially been in the waiting line for Eli for 6 months now. Things are not quite as fast as they were in the beginning, but still going pretty quickly and smoothly. We have about 26 families ahead of us and they are referring about 10 children a month. This means if they continue to do what they are currently doing, then we will get our referral in May or June. Court is usually scheduled 2 to 3 months after your referral. Court is where the child is declared legally yours. After you have a successful court date, you travel within a couple weeks. If we get a referral in May, we might squeeze in to a court day before court closures which usually occur in August and September. This means we would travel to pick up Eli this summer, but there is a big possibility that we will not make it before the courts close and would have to wait to travel in the fall. Of course I am trying to be optimistic! The court system closes for energy saving reasons. It is hard to believe. Aren't you glad to live in America? Say a prayer that we make it before the courts close! Our China adoption is still moving, just very, very slowly! There is a Christian rock song out that is so my personal anthem on this long adoption journey. Here are some of the words:
Sometimes it's hard to just keep going
But faith is moving without knowing
Can I trust what I can't see to reach my destiny
I want to take control, but I know better

Forget that fear is just a crutch that tries to turn your dreams to dust All you got to do is just TRUST

God I want to dream again, take me where I've never been I want to go there, this time I'm not scared Now I am unbreakable, it's unmistakable

All else is great! The school year is flying by, much too fast! My baby has only a couple more months of her elementary school career. She is doing so well! I am so very proud of that special little girl. What a huge blessing God gave to Brian and I, and all who know her. She spent the night with a friend last night and Brian and I had a date night. We went to church, ran a few errands, and then came home and watched the movie, Fireproof. What a super movie! It was made by the same church that made Facing the Giants. It was quite inspirational!

I am definitely in nesting mode lately. I told Brian that we are a MESS! Our attic and closets are overflowing with stuff we really don't need! We are trying to start cleaning out. I am doing the same thing at school. My file cabinets are falling apart because they are too jammed packed. I can't even find anything. It is ridiculous! :0 Brian and I both try very hard to be organized, but the trouble is we are both pack rats. We are trying to change that!!!! Wish us luck!!

Hope your March is wonderful!

Family Happenings!

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Happy Chinese New Year! We had our annual Chinese New Year Celebration this past Sunday evening at Imperial China! We had a wonderful time. Despite China's drastic slowdown the past couple of years, our group has really grown. It is hard to believe that this was our 3rd year to go and yet we still have no baby. I have to admit it sucks! (sorry, no other word describes it as well) We hope that next CNY we will have our Ethiopian baby and maybe the following year, finally our China baby! The wait is sometimes very hard, but we still trust in God's perfect timing and boy do we have a lot to be thankful for! This group of special people for one thing...........that we would have never met, had we not embarked on this long and tedious journey called adoption. The weekend before last, we had a birthday celebration for Lynn's 25th birthday! Mom and Daddy came and brought enchiladas and cake. Grandma Margie came and brought snicker doodles and pecan pie. Grandma Brown came and brought macaroni salad. We made queso and chips. We had a great time!

Today is Baylee Bear's Birthday!

It is so hard to believe that my baby is 12 years old today! Where has the time gone? We are iced in today! I really wanted to go to school because we will lose our Good Friday holiday now, but I have to admit, it was sure good to sleep in. Brian got me an electric blanket for Christmas! It was absolute heaven to stay under the covers this morning and not hear an alarm clock! Baylee was NOT happy about missing school, on her birthday especially! She didn't want to be stuck at home with just Mom and nothing to do! Her social life is about the most important aspect in her life right now! I woke her up with a candle in a warm cinnamon roll this morning and sang Happy Birthday to her. I fixed her her favorite potato soup for lunch and we will have cherry cheesecake in a little bit. We have been snuggled up under some blankets watching 7th Heaven, Little House on the Prarie, and Touched by an Angel too. She has enjoyed her day afterall! She is on the phone now though with her friends!! We are taking her to the city this Saturday for a shopping spree. She wanted clothes for her birthday and to eat at Ted's. Her party with her friends was this past Saturday at Sugar Rush! She had a ball! There were 11 kids running around crazy for 2 solid hours, but I didn't care, it wasn't in my house! Sugar Rush did a great job. She had a murder mystery party. They had to search for 29 envelopes with clues in them that led them to the killer. Oh what fun! Sugar Rush also had a dress up room and they had a lot of fun dressing up too! The boys looked quite cute dolled up in dresses!

Christmas 2008!

Mama, Daddy, and Baylee Bear Aunt Lynn and Baylee

Baylee always lines up her presents in order of how she will open them!

Uncle Keith and Baylee

Aunt Karla and cousin Cody

Cousin Jason with fiancee' Kelly

Grandma C and Baylee

Brian and I

Baylee with a very special quilt Grandma Margie made

Baylee with cousin Jordi

Baylee with cousins Jaci and Josie

New cousing Caroline

Christmas came and then left way too fast! They say the older you get, the faster time flies. Well, I believe it! I am just wondering if I will even feel the days when I am in my 80's as fast as the days are going in my 30's! I love Christmas! I love the whole month of December that leads up to Christmas. I enjoy the shopping, the making out Christmas cards, going to the mailbox and getting cards, hot cocoa, a warm blanket and Christmas movies. I love the Christmas trees and decorations in my house and going to see Christmas lights while enjoying a steamer from Starbucks. I love making Christmas goodies and wrapping packages while listening to Christmas music. I love looking at my ceramic nativity set my Great Aunt Twila made for me and remembering why we celebrate Christmas. Most of all, I love laying on the living room floor in the dark, looking up at the Christmas tree lights and remembering.........remembering being a child and doing the same thing, and just simply enjoying the wonder of it all and then seeing that same wonder in my child's eyes. Christmas is a magical time and I always mourn the loss of it! I always tell Baylee that I think that's why God gave her to me in January instead of March when she was originally due! I needed something very special that month, and then my baby's birthday to celebrate every January there after to get over Christmas being gone! I do have this saying with Baylee, because she is so like me.....which is "There is always something to look forward to!" .......And there is too!

I posted slideshows of our 4 Christmas(s). One is Brian's family. That is alway fun, because of the Mendenhalls.......they keep us laughing with their bantering! One is our personal Christmas. Brian always beats Baylee and I up......he's such a morning person. Baylee usually wakes me up and then we tear into our presents. I usually fix a big lunch and Marge comes over for the afternoon. Another Christmas is with my parents and sister. That is always a lot of fun, because my dad is "A man of Action"! He keeps us laughing. This year Baylee got a remote control helicopter and Daddy's wienie dog, Gus, was after it with my dad's coaching of course. Gus did manage to taste a little propeller, so Baylee decided to put it up! Mama, Lynn, Baylee, and I played games too. Our other Christmas is our Laverne one with my mom's family. Since Thanksgiving is a big celebration with my daddy's family, we spend Christmas with my mama's family. It is always great fun. This year, two of my mom's 3 sisters, and my cousin and her family didn't get to come. That was disappointing, but we still had a lot of fun at my Aunt Carolyn's house. We have a beautiful new addition to the family........little Caroline, my cousin Brody's baby girl. Wow, she looks exaclty like him! We all played games and Brandon and Brody played guitars and sang. We hope and pray we will have our new little guy next Christmas. What a blessing that will be!

Thanksgiving Fun at the Farm!

We went to Gate for Thanksgiving. As always, we had a lot of fun! This year, we had a lot smaller number of people because my dad's cousins and their families didn't make it out. We still so enjoyed spending time together. I am very thankful to be so close to my cousins still, so that Baylee can have the same memories I had growing up. We will be spending Christmas with my mom's side of the family. Can't wait for that too! I am very fascinated with these things!

Mom and IMom, Lynn, and Grandma Brown

Cousin Julie and Rustin

Brian as Ozzy and Dad

Baylee with cousins

Aunt Jo and cousin Jennifer

I got a kick out of the cows watching us play on the haybales!

Ali and Baylee

Haybale jumping

On the truck ready to go to the haybales!

Say turkey!