Spring Has Sprung (again!)

The weather has been beautiful the past few days and we have taken advantage of it by spending a lot of time outside! We got together with some other adoptive families on Saturday and had a terrific time! It was the first time meeting a few of them and it was so great to finally meet them after "meeting" on the yahoo group we started for adoptive families in our area. There were a total of 12 kids and 9 of them were from China! Just to see all the happy faces and how each little girl fits perfectly into her forever family, makes your heart burst with happiness! Reagan, of course, was a little maniac running around the park, climbing to the top of the biggest slide! Ryleigh had fun with her friend Kassidy! Tim and I enjoyed visiting with the other parents! What a blessing to share our stories with eachother!

I haven't had much time lately to post and actually, there hasn't been much going on to write about! My dad was back in the hospital because his leg was infected where they took the vein out for his heart surgery. He finally got to come home yesterday. My mom (who is NEVER sick) came down with strep throat and was not able to get out of bed for several days. I felt so bad for both of them! Hopefully this will be a better week!

Ryleigh is getting excited for summer. She has had such a great kindergarten year (thanks, Julie!) and I cannot believe it is almost over. I am looking forward to having her home with the rest of us! We talked about all the fun things we are going to do! Tim is planning his summer school class, he is changing it to Myth Busters and I think he and the kids will love it! I am glad he is trying something new. The Science and Technology class was getting boring for him, since all the kids want to do is chat on the internet with the person sitting next to them or play stupid computer games.

We have been receiving tons of pictures from Brad and Stacy of Haven! She is so adorable! I think anyone that is hesitant to adopt should talk to Brad! The pictures of him with Haven are priceless! We cannot wait for them to get home so we can kiss her cute little face! They have several weeks left in Kaz! Things are going great for them and we are thanking God for that!

Thank you for keeping up with our blog, I promise it will get more interesting!

College Will Come Too Soon

It's been a hectic week getting my new kids used to our daily routine, but I have to say that they fit in perfectly and I couldn't ask for a better family! Hopefully Ben will love playing with Justin when he comes back on Monday! Justin already brought Spiderman pencils to share with "the boy" as he calls him! So cute!

I have tried not to listen to any news today, as I get sucked in watching and hearing all the grisly and disturbing details of the Virginia Tech tragedy. I had such an eerie feeling when I first heard about it because I had been thinking about how it will feel when my kids head off to college. I had been thinking about a family at church who sat in front of us on Sunday who has a daughter in college and how it must feel to come to church without her and pretty much cut the strings and let her be her own person. How incredibly hard that must be, even if you are confident in the way you raised your children, it must leave such an emptiness knowing that part of your relationship is done! I was also thinking how much harder it is for me to take Ryleigh to school and watch her walk in the building all by herself than it is to send her with Tim. I don't know why, except when I take her, I sit and watch her be so big and confident and she turns and waves with a huge smile. At home when they leave it's always a big rush and fifty questions- did you get your lunch, your backpack, your Bear Binder, etc.? How will I ever let them go away to college???? EEK! Then this tragedy happens and you just think how horrible and unfair it is that those students were getting ready to embark on so many new journeys and start their life independent from their parents. My heart just breaks for them.

I guess since there is no way to really keep your children safe from violence like that, all you can do is teach them about God and show them the right path and hope that they make good decisions so that if something does happen, you can find peace that they are going to Heaven, which has to be the only peace about such an awful, terrible tragedy. You just have to have faith that God is with you no matter how tough the situation is and only He can heal your heart.

On a happier subject... Stacy came by this morning and she is headed to Kaz tomorrow!!!! It's so emotional saying good-bye to a friend who is getting ready to make the trip of a lifetime! I am so excited to hear about little Haven, I can hardly stand it! I will be praying for their safety and health as they travel and for Haven to bond with them quickly! I know she will!

Ryleigh went to the Nature Center with her class for their field trip today. Being the overprotective parents we are, we thought that Tim should take his personal day and go along! I am anxious to hear how it went! I told Julie that Tim would have a whole new appreciation for kindergarten teachers! It's a beautiful day and I know they are having a blast!

It's A Sunshine Day!

For you Brady Bunch fans, sing it with me, "It's a Sunshine Day, everybody's smilin', sunshine day!" What a difference a few days makes! Saturday morning it was snowing, now it's as beautiful as it can be with temperatures in the 70's! Praise the Lord!

Everything seems to be much better around here! My new babysitting kids are just as precious as they can be and will be starting tomorrow! What a blessing! We got new shelves put in the closet in the office/arts and crafts room, so I can start organizing and putting away all the stuff I have taken out of Ryleigh's new room and the napping room. Now all I have to do is find the time to accomplish this feat of finding all the odds and ends a new home (that I can remember when the time comes to find something!!).

We had a conference call for GWCA Regional Officers on Saturday. It was looooooong, but it's always good to have a refresher course in how to help families. We had one couple come to our workshop, which was a total, but very nice, surprise! They were very friendly and I am praying that this option works for them. My heart just goes out to those couples who have been married for 10+ years and haven't had any luck conceiving. I hope we did a good job of showing them what a beautiful option Chinese adoption is!

I am feeling better about the wait for Reese. I cannot fall into the trap of reading negative feelings and people who are really angry and upset about it. The wait is what it is and I know that after that wait I will be a mother of 3 wonderful daughters and our life will never be the same! It will be that much better! The four of us have been hanging around the dinner table lately and just being goofy after we eat. Reagan has been cracking us all up with her funny expressions and then Ryleigh will say the funniest comments. We are such nerds, but I wouldn't trade these family moments for anything! It makes me feel so awesome when we take time out of the "rat race" to just be together. I hope my girls will remember those times forever! I am anxious for Reese to join us in all of our craziness!

One of my yahoo groups is challenging ourselves to walk to China before our referral (as a group). So, we have thousands of miles to go from Austin (where GWCA headquarters is) to Beijing. It will be a fun excuse to get back into shape! I am looking forward to a lot of other cyber activities with other waiting families!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

This rainy and cold weather does not do much to lift your spirits! I just heard it might be snowing in the morning. Are you kidding me, snow in April???? YUCK! I didn't even get to enjoy my tulips this year and they are my favorite flowers. Oh, well! Next year they will spring up and give me hope after it has been an entire year waiting for Reese's referrral!

We will be celebrating my nephew's 4th birthday this weekend with my family. We also have a workshop scheduled at our local library, but as usual, nobody has shown any interest. I have to admit it's a little bit hard to face potential families and tell them what the wait is like. However, I do believe we are doing a great thing by promoting Chinese adoption, after all, the wait is about the only negative side and that will change soon (positive thinking)!

Monday I will meet my two new babysitting kids and I am very excited about that! They are 5 and 3 and I think they will fit in great with Reagan, Lindsey, and Ben (who is coming back on the 23rd- hooray!). I am trying to get everything ready and all the coolest toys out! It always makes me nervous that new kids won't like me, so I try to bribe them with toys! I have a good feeling about this family working out, though!

One week until Stacy and Brad leave for Kaz! We are so anxious to hear from them when they meet Haven for the first time! I know that Addison will be a great big sister and I am sure there will be lots of funny comments made by her! We feel so blessed to be a part of their adoption journey!

Don't Wish Your Life Away

The last few days have been filled with the normal routine, except for the fact that the phrase "wait times increasing to 24-36 months" has been popping up in my head much to frequently. Even though GWCA is very supportive and assures us there is no way to predict referral timeframes (and any agecny or individual that claims to know, is kidding themselves) it is still hard to stomach the thought of not having a clue when our little Reese (or Reesie piecy, as her big sissy calls her)will come home. Things can and most likely, will speed up at some point, but when? Who knows...

So, to pass the free time I have (which isn't much!!) I keep reading other families blogs and all my yahoo groups' posts. One in particular struck my like a ton of bricks today. This waiting mommy said she keeps thinking about what her momma always told her, "don't wish your life away". Is that appropriate or what?!?!? I did it for years trying to get pregnant and then regretted not focusing on how happy Ryleigh made us. We concentrated so long on having another baby that we sometimes forgot to just enjoy our perfect little Ryleigh! Not that she has been mistreated or unloved, but Tim and I both spent a lot of energy on baby #2 that could have been spent on something else (like teaching Ryleigh not to whine, complain, talk back, etc.!!!!).

I am trying to live in the moment and let God take it in His hands. Reese will come to us at the perfect time in the way it is supposed to be. And meanwhile I will try to prepare for her and enjoy her sisters (and her daddy)in the way they deserve.

On a funny note... Reagan mooned me today! Not that I am proud of that, but it was so hilarious! She pulled down her "monkey George" panties and said "Mom, look, funny". How does she know that that kind of behavior is supposed to be funny??? Must have been something she learned in China, because none of us would show our big fat butts to anyone unless we were trying to scare them away!

Thank you to all the friends and family members who are so supportive through the adoption process! We love to hear from our loved ones, so keep the emails coming!

Stork Has Landed

UGH! The "stork" has landed at GWCA and the only people who got referrals were the ones logged in on Oct. 26, 2005. That means those people have been waiting since before we met Reagan. That is FOREVER!!!!!! UGH, UGH, and double UGH. This is not looking good for a speed up any time soon.

Random thoughts swirling in my head...

Good things come to those who wait.

Patience is a virtue.

Time flies when you are having fun.

This, too, shall pass.

With God all things are possible.

Be still and know that I am God.

Pray without ceasing.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Good night and God Bless.

Chimpanzees and Pringles

The girls didn't seem to notice that the Easter bunny was on a tight budget this year! Neither one of them had asked for anything, which makes me feel sooooo good that they (for now, anyway) focus on the true meaning of Christmas and Easter instead of the presents and junk. So, when we were taking pictures of them in their Easter dresses, I asked them to hold up their favorite thing out of their basket. Ryleigh picked up this little chimpanzee (the Easter bunny knows that she LOVES to play with her dollhouse and thought it would be a cute pet for the dollhouse people!) and Reagan grabs her can of Pringles (which she carried around while she hunted for eggs, I suppose in fear that someone might swipe them!). It's the simple things in life, I tell you! I love my girls, they are both so hilarious and have such fun personalities!

Referrals are due to come out anytime now and we are anxiously awaiting news of what LID's will be included. Even though we are at the bottom of the list, we know that if they include a lot of dates, the speed up might be starting. If there are only a few dates included in this batch, we will be depressed that our wait will be that much longer. I hadn't taken the time to figure out 18 months from our LID of March 8 until this weekend. September 2008 will be 18 months. I am being optimistic that it will be a good time of year to travel. But, I know in my heart of hearts that the chances of it being 18 months is not that great unless things really speed up. And I don't know how the Olympics in Beijing will affect things. There is still so much time until we know anything, so until then I have to focus on other things...

My organizing is going well. I am very proud to say I have almost finished cleaning out Ryleigh's new room and we think we might have found some wallpaper border that we all like. I have managed to get all of my sewing stuff put in it's new home and my scrapbook corner is somewhat organized (now if I just had time to scrapbook!). I have all the arts and crafts stuff for the kids in one spot, but it is a disaster. I will try to work on it this week. Slowly, but surely we will be ready for our third child! Of course, if I could go to China tomorrow I would and I would say to heck with all the organizing!!!

Our friends, Brad and Stacy, will be traveling to Kazakastan (I don't think I spelled that correctly) to meet their new daughter, Haven. They are leaving on the 20th and will be back on June 20th, so hopefully keeping up with their journey will be a good distraction! We are very anxious to meet baby Haven and learn more about the adoption process over there. Please pray for their health and safety as they travel.

A Room at the Bottom

Okay, so Ryleigh is getting super excited about her new room in the basement. So, we decided we would start working on getting things rearranged and organized so we can start the redecorating/moving process. My thought was we would do a little at a time, since, after all, we have at least 18 months before Reese is home with us. But, it seems, when you start, it is hard to stop!!! One mess leads to another and then before you know it, everything is piled here and there and it's total chaos!!! Yikes. So, my thought has changed to this... get everything out of Ry's new room and get the stuff put in it's new place (which requires rearranging a ton of stuff). We will have a new Arts and Crafts space in Tim's office, a new sewing space in the storage room where the water heater is, and a new napping room for the babysitting kids. I just know once we get this stuff done, I will feel so great and organized!!! Everything has a place, it just needs to be cleaned and moved! We are total pack-rats, but I am going to have to get rid of some of this junk!

I am anxious to see how we end up decorating Ryleigh's room. She came to the conclusion that a "monkey-basketball" room would be really cool. Yeah, good luck finding that decor. Luckily Aunt Lori is going through wallpaper books and paint swatches to give us some more reasonable ideas! We shall see...

Easter is upon us and this Easter bunny has fallen a little behind on the job. It's impossible to buy stuff ahead of time when your kids are always with you! I hope I can sneak away long enough to get a little something! I didn't even remember to get out the Easter decorations. Oh well, there's always next year!

Another Day Closer

That's what I am telling myself today, when Reese seems so far away. It's a funny thing about the international adoption community... you think that people who have been through the same type circumstances are so much like you, then you realize that "it takes all kinds of people". There are so many people who like to stir up controversy and spread rumors and focus on the negative. It's really depressing! I don't want to believe everything I read on my billions of yahoo groups, but gosh, it is hard not to let the negative affect me!

I know it is going to be a long wait for Reese and I know there are lots of postitives to that long wait. The main one being, it gives us time to save the money to fund the rest of her adoption. And it gives Reagan a chance to get a little older, so she might remember the trip to China to get her sister. And it gives Ryleigh time get settled in her new room in the basement. And it gives me time to get more organized. And it gives us time to come up with a middle name. And so on...

But then I get all impatient and I want her home with us NOW! I want it to be a short wait like it was with Reagan! (Yes, I am doing the exact kind of whining that my children do that drives me crazy!!!) I keep thinking that if it is more than an 18 month wait, someone could give birth to 2 children before I get to travel to China. That's so insane!

Okay, so as usual, I am a little slow at giving my problems over to God, who is the One in control anyway. So here we go, Lord, please give me patience, please remind me that everything happens in Your perfect time. Please watch over Reese (who probably isn't even born yet) and her birth family and help her be healthy and safe until we can go get her. Help me stay focused on the important things in life and not get wrapped up reading garbage on the internet. Amen.

Okay, I feel better!