Merry Christmas! and New Year Blessings

I have not been a good blogger this last month, so I apologize.  It was a rather slow month.  But as you can see we did advance to # 5 on the baby boy list and the baby girl wait list finally moved after months of being frozen and we advanced on this list two spots so now we are # 11!!  Yeah, we are very excited to see children across the world on the continent of AFRICA in the country of Ethiopia being connected to their forever families here in the USA!  God is a truly amazing God and I love to see HIM work.

We started our Christmas morning with gifts for our Ethiopian child.  Parker and Paeton picked out the Wonder Pets duck MING MING that sings and flies around trying to help baby animals and save the day.  Jamie and I bought a percussion pack of rhythm instruments:  bongo drum, egg shaker, tambourine etc.  Hope to be able to recreate some beautiful African music someday.  Last, my mom sent a package for her new Grandchild, "OPIE"  (she has nick named he or she) and we just wanted to say, "Thank you, Grandmother, for sharing in our joy this Christmas and remembering the one to come!"

The Worlds Greatest Husband, AKA Jamie wrote me the most loving words in my Christmas card this year.  I share them with you and hope it is heart warming for you as well. . . "Merry Christmas.  I want to thank you for challenging me this year to do more, to grow our family.  I know that is it an easy thing to be comfortable and except as is.  I am sorry that we don't have our new family member here for this Christmas.  What a great gift that would have been for us.  But I was thinking that the real gift is for the baby.  I know what a great mother you will be for him or her."  Is that not the absolute sweetest, the kindest words a husband can say to his wife.  I fell so blessed this year.   To love and be loved is a priceless treasure.  We do not have the words, or song to express our fortune we hold as heirs to His Kingdom but I am rejoicing this Christmas for all that He has done and continues to do.  May God bless you and yours like only He can this New Year!

Oh Dear, A DEER!

What a surprise! When Paeton and I landed in St. Louis, MO on Sunday evening, Parker called to proudly share his news that he had successfully shot his first deer! Parker said,"He's about two year old buck with 5 1/2 points." What a welcome home present! Paeton and I were in NYC last week to see some broadway shows, we loved Little Mermaid and the Radio City Rockettes Christmas show was spectacular this year. We also saw Cirque Du Soleil's, WINTUCK at Madison Square Garden and really enjoyed this show as well. Paeton really enjoyed the sights from the Empire State Buildings observation deck. We would have liked to observe longer but it was about 20 degrees and so windy that night. We were tour guides for my dad's wife Connie and neice Michaela who really enjoyed their first trip to the Big Apple.

It was a slow week on the adoption front last week so it was nice to have the distraction of travel and so many fabulos places to shop! We even bought something for our ET baby, yes probably a little premature as we do not know for sure if we will adopt a boy or girl. I've felt strongly, early on that we would adopt a boy, and since we are now #5 on the wait list for a boy and still have not moved on the girl wait list(#13) it is looking like I was right. However I read all of the yahoo mail from last week and it looks like there will be movement on the baby girl list soon, so we really do not know. But we bought an adorable outfit at a darling boutique by one of our favorite restraunts, SERENDIPITY (YUM!) for our little boy it has a NYC fire engine scene on the front. So cute! If it so happens that we receive a referral for a little girl, it will make a fab gift!

Jamie and I dropped Bambi off at the frozen food locker and they will process the meat into summer sausage, jerky and ground meat for chili. Parker is very excited to share his harvest! It will take about a month to process so if you are in the neighborhood around Christmas come by for some cheese and sausage crackers and chili!

Lot's of love for LOCKS OF LOVE

Here is an update from last week I never got written. On Tuesday Nov. 11, our dossier arrived back at the adoption network from D.C. and was sent on to Ethiopia for translation! Wednesday Nov. 12, Jamie and I went to St Louis to the USCIS office for our fingerprinting appointment and were able to cross this step off the list! I feel it was a productive week on the adoption front.

Friday Nov. 14, Paeton came home from school and announced that she wanted to donate her hair to LOCKS of LOVE. This organization makes and provides children who have lost their hair due to illness with beautiful real hair wigs. So we Googled LOL and found out that the minimum length must be 10' inches and bound in a pony tail, clean, dry and put in a plastic bag and shipped in a padded envelope. We measured her ponytail and 10' inches was going to make her hair short, very short! Short enough that she would not be able to put it in a pony tail or bun that she needs for ballet and twirling. But also short enough that for her cameo as a lead boy in the Moscow Ballet's Nutcracker that she could pull off her part. I hesitated, and asked her are you sure you want to do this and she bravely told me, " it's okay, it will grow back. It's not the children's fault that they got sick and lost their hair mom." So my brave, compassionate daughter cut her hair off and donated it to LOL for some child that needed a wig to help them through the illness they are facing. Paeton said, " it's weird when your brother has longer hair than you." Parker also received a hair cut friday but his is still 4' longer than Paetons. Yes I am a proud mother. I truly feel blessed to parent the two incredible kids God has trusted me with and I am honored and humbled by them almost daily. I am so excited for our Ethiopian child to have P&P as older brother and sister. This is going to be one blessed child!

The World's Greatest son and daughter were very excited when they arrived home from school yesterday to see that we moved up on the baby boy list another spot! However, at bed time Paeton broke down(which is not unusual) but we found out that she was very sad that we had not moved up on the baby girl list. We talked it out and reminded her that we did not choose a boy or girl but that we are trusting God to unite us with the child he created for our family. It's hard to trust Him sometimes but I am happy she is learning to F.R.O.G.!

More excitement today. Our adoption facilatator called to tell us that our dossier was sent to Washington D.C. today for authentication. That takes a few days and then when the agency receives it back they will forward it to Ethiopia for translation!! So sometime next week our dossier will arrive in Ethiopia, Africa. I've never had anything arrive in Africa, well except my cousin, David, who worked in Gabon for 12 years. Just thinking about our paperwork being in Ethiopia next week is so exciting to me.

Outmans Waiting List

I had someone comment on these cute waiting list Parker and Paeton and I made. This is a larger view. We thought this would be a great way for the kids to be involved in this wait. Instead of asking me everyday as they get in the car from school, they are able to look at the board when they get home. We are all anxious for our name to move up to the top.

Another really cute story I have to tell about The Worlds Greatest Son and Daughter is this. About a month ago I brought home a beautiful brown baby doll that I bought at a yard sale. I planned to take the doll with me when I travel to Ethiopia and give it to a little girl. So, we have this family tradition that Jamie and the kids make a big breakfast for us one weekend morning and allow me to sleep in. I love this tradition and have perfected it to rise from bed and wander into the kitchen at the exact time that breakfast is being served.(My sense of smell tells me when this is) So a few weeks ago I wander to the kitchen only to find out that we will be dining outside under the covered porch as it was a beautiful morning. So I head outside and still waking up, I am a little confused as to where to sit, there are 5 place settings and chairs around the table for our family of 4. Paeton and Parker found the beautiful brown baby doll, dressed it in premie clothes, (Paeton has for playing with her dolls) and "our baby" joined us for breakfast. My heart was so warmed! I thanked God all day for their sweet hearts. "Our baby" has also gone to the Secretary of States office and to a fall family get together at my moms in Kansas City. My mom, soon to be Grandmother again has affectionately named "our baby", OPIE. My cousins son even took OPIE for a wagon ride and shared his juice.

USCIS Appointment

I have beeen sitting around all day waiting for something exciting to happen. I've been checking my email, checking the news on my yahoo adoption group, looking at my blog wishing now that I got the cute thing up and going that I actually had something to write about. So all day, like every 15 min or so I'm back on the computer checking, checking checking.....and nothing! Does anyone else ever have days like these where you think that perhaps you too need a little help? Send help for the crazy lady people!! So I leave to go pick up the darlings from school and return home to check the mail and what do I find? The very letter the kids and I prayed for this morning, our USCIS appointment notice. We are scheduled to be in St Louis 11-12-08 for our fingerprinting. Now silly me, I call Jamie aka Worlds Greatest Husband, to tell him the good news so he can call and cancell his office that day etc. (liked we talked about earlier. We do not get to schedule this time, it is appointed for us, we just have to be there, yes it will be difficult for him to cancel at the last minute, but this is important, yada yada yada, and in 5 years of practice he has never been sick or cancelled a day at the last minute except for his Grandmothers funeral) Excited, he is not. Reschedule the USCIS appt, he thinks so! I however do not think so. I am trusting that God is going to make this appointment work. He is working through this whole journey, He started it in fact, and I believe He is going to see it through. I feel a sense of urgency, is it my impatience? Could be. Is it a prompting from the Holy Spirit to get prepared for the homecomming of our child/ren from Ethiopia? Could be. But I do know for sure that He is working in me and through me for His kingdom and I am a willing servant. So something exciting has happened today!

Sunday November 2, 2008

Happy Halloweenie! Yes you read it right. As most of you know, having an Urologist in the family gives us a strange sense of humor. Thank you for loving us anyhoo!

The first picture is of Paeton, her friend Caitlyn and Parker waiting outside the ShowMe Center the morning VP candidate Sarah Palin came to Cape Girardeau, MO. The rally was packed with McCain Palin supporters and we were thrilled to be a part of it. Here is my soapbox speech: please vote on Tuesday. Such an important right we have to select who will run our country for the next 4 years. And if you are asking for my advice on who to vote for my recommendation is for John McCain and Sarah Palin. Why? Because they are Christians, Pro-Life, and will protect our second ammendment rights. They also believe in less government and allowing the people keep more of their own money, allowing them to give more to local churches, where they trust the leadership and how their money will be used to help others in the community, nation and the world. The christian church has a long standing proven history of helping to meet the needs of the people who truly need the help. And I don't know about you, but I have a greater trust in my church and its leadership than I do big government programs. We serve a BIG GOD, let's pray, really petition Him for Godly Leadership for America in the election on tuesday.

November 1,2008

Welcome to our FROG blog. It took many hands and a lot of sweat and tears (LOL) to finally navigate cyber space and figure out how to get us in the blog world. But look out here we are!! So let me give you a little background information on how God finally broke through our thick heads and brought us to this place of surrender to HIS will.

God started planting adoption seeds in me long ago. Through a series of experiences He allowed me to go through I prayed and earnestly sought out HIS will for me and my family concerning adoption. Trying to get my husband on board was tough. He is so good at his job in being the head of our family: provider, protector, all those good things. He just could not see that we needed to take on such a resopnsibility especially now that we had made it through so many tough times and now were quite comfortable and at a point where we could start to afford some of the finer things we had dreamedof having and doing for so long.

Well when God has a plan and your are open to HIS leading and truly desire His will for your life above your own human wants for your life get ready for crazy rock your world things to happen. This is a story about what happens when you say yes to God. Long story short, as I was contuining my prayer about adding to our family through adoption and The Worlds Greatest Husband and was asking his great GOD for signs that this is truly what HE wanted us to do God showed up and beat us over the head not once or twice but many times with HUGE signs and undoubtable answers to prayer about adoption.

On friday September 5, 2008, we signed with International Adoption Net to adopt a child or children from Ethiopia. Friday September 26, we met The Worlds Greatest Social Worker and had our first home study meeting with Karla. She came back to our home on October 2, 2008 and completed our homestudy with interviews that she quotes Parker and Paeton (The Worlds Greatest Son and Daughter) saying " they both verbalized they are looking forward to a new sibling/siblings joining their family. Actually, they appear ecstatic about their parents' plan!"
We wanted to say thank you to the friends and family that participated in giving a reference for us in the homestudy. For confidentiality and other reasons we never saw the references that you wrote for us and sealed in a signed envelope but Karla did quote some of you in the homestudy saying, "Any child in this family will be exposed to educational, cultural, athletic, social and religious opportunity plus a sense of self worth and confidence in themselves." Another said, "James and Michelle are the two best parents I know! They will give a child a nurturing and safe environment to grow up in!" So, we humblely thank you for your kind words on our behalf and will continue to strive to use God honoring parenting skills for all of our children.

On October 9, and on Oct 17 I went to St Louis to the Secertary of States office to have 20 or so documents certified and both times was turnned away because of minor infractions of notary issues. That was hard because not only did I complete an entire dossier once which is a huge accomplishment in it's self, but twice and then a third time. All of our dossier documents were finally certified on Tuesday , October 21! They were fedexed to Denver and arrived in the International Adoption Net home office the next day. October 22, 2008 we were officially added to the waiting list! We were # 8 on the baby boy list and # 13 on the baby girl list!! You can specify girl/boy and age you prefer. We chose not to specify gender but asked for a child as young as possible. Today we are currently #7 on Boy and still #13 on girl list!

I will close for today, promise not to be so long winded in future post. Just wanted to catch everyone up to date and get this whole process documented. We would love for you to keep us all in your prayers as we continue this journey and also respectfully ask you to pray for our childs birth mother during the process. In my Bible study we are currently learning about the life of Moses and I can not help but think of him as the first biblical orphan and of course his mother, Jochebed, as she entrusted her son to God.
Exodus 2: 9-10 So the woman took the child and nursed him. And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharoah's daughter, and he became her son.