referrals!!

Our agency is giving (or has given) out referrals this week!!
Congrats Kelly!! She has a precious bundle and is a 1st time Mom! We're all so excited as we've all been waiting for this all Month! Let's pray they get to travel before Christmas. Our agency is saying 3-4 months after referral to travel. I would LOVE to get our referral before Christmas. I just want to be home with the baby before spring but it may not be until then when we actually get to travel. You never know. We really aren't ready. I have a LOT of things to catch up on. We are going to move the spare bedroom into the basement (my old office) and then the new babies room will be upstairs with her brother and sister. The 2-girls will have a jack and jill bathroom. With at least 4 years between them that should be ok. There will be 10 years between the baby and her brother so when he moves on to college (U of I!!) she could always have his room. When he's 18 she'll only be 8!!! Just thinking about it makes me sad! He's a mama's boy, maybe he'll want to live at home awhile. But not too long! I will teach him how to be independent just like my Mama did! (Or was that me CRAVING it?) I couldn't wait to get my own place. I just turned 18 and didn't even mind only having mac n cheese and eggs around to eat for awhile. I had my freedom! College kids these days seem to have it way easier. My first car was a rust bucket! White mustang. And it was the one I wanted! I didn't ask for much. I just needed a car to get back and forth to the 3-jobs I had while going to school full-time. Two cars later (after a dodge horizon) I bought (with a loan) a 2-seater, stick shift, with a sunroof! I loved it! It was a Ford EXP. Last Ford I ever bought! Then I worked in the car business and bought my very first new car, a Honda CRX. It was burgandy with black leather interior and sunroof. Loved it! Then I had a red mazda mx3 (i think), then a purple mazda mx3, then a icky green mazda 626, then I bought a burgandy blazer to be more practical for my husband, then a silver volkswagon passat, loved that car! Then I had a white extended Envoy that I kept for a winning length of time-4-years! My husband couldn't believe I got rid of that, well my father -in law has it, and the car I'm driving now I bought out of spite. (another story), hubby bought a car on ebay and I was NOT happy about it. Well not really mad just a little taken back so I went a bidding between 4 dealerships online and had it delivered to my house 5-days later. And guess what? Hubby's deal fell through!! That's what you get!
How did I get on this????? Can you tell I love cars? Some day when I'm old and the kids are older (I didn't say grown) I want a little convertable, black or white. Problem is the kind I always like only have 2-seats and that's not exactly practical with the kids. Hey Mom maybe the hubby is rubbing off on me! He is her favorite. He grounds me. She always says, "What's J. think?" Like what I think doesn't matter! We better get the MAN'S opinion. His Mom said the best thing to me the other day. "I'm so impressed with what you've done to my Son!" I HAD to tell my Mom that one. She said, "Why would she say something like that? He's such a great guy, you're so lucky to have him." I don't believe in luck. You make it what it is. Whew. I got way off subject tonight.
Let's all cheer for the referrals!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yea! And congrats!!

Fun with the family-no kids!

Mini Chocolate Martini's! Fabulous! I'm ordering these cute little glasses to put fudge in and sell as "fudgetini's!"

My Aunt and Uncle looking so chic at 80 + years old! My Auntie said, "Well doesn't he look good!" My Uncle says, "There's my sweetie! I knew I would marry her the minute I put my eyes on her!" They are our inspiration..

The beautiful couple! They looked so happy. We're very happy for them! They make a great family.

There's the hubby and I after many drinks. Who took that? I think they had a few too many as well! What is it with me and the camera when I drink. Hubby says I shouldn't be allowed to mix the two. I'm on my third digital camera! And then I start taking pictures of myself with everyone. Like I have a 5-foot long arm or something! I'm not posting those..

the older generations

We went out of town this weekend for a family wedding. It was great seeing all the family and getting reaquainted with those you only see once in awhile. We also met some fabulous people. I even broke the news of our adoption to the "Aunties"! They are in their 80's and are from that generation that isn't quite as open with adoption or race. But they took it well. But I didn't give them much of an option. One even said, "Why! Can't you have kids of your own?" I didn't even take it hard and came back with, "this is what we've always wanted to do and now is the right time for us." The end. Some took it better than others and shared our happiness. The cousins were great and very happy for us. Lot's of questions and all positive. Love that! I haven't mentioned this but my Mom hasn't exactly been supportive of this. She thinks we DO too much. She had my sister and I 23 yrs apart so basically had 1-child at a time. Very low key, not the high energy fast moving family like what we have. I felt it was boring. That's why I always wanted a large family. Hubby came from a large family. He initally stated he only wanted 1 maybe 2 kids. Funny the difference in how you feel based on your family or childhood. His Mom is impressed with what I've accomplished with him! (lol) At first my Mom would almost act mad and not even talk to me when I brought up the adoption. But I'm a talker and she's my MOM! So if I feel like telling her about it I DO IT! My sister has been kind enough to talk her through this and explain we're going through this no matter how she feels about it so she should be supportive. Thank goodness for her! She's there to listen to me through all this and be the supportive one. Good thing for email and cell phones! So I just kept on sharing bits of info on our adoption with Mom and now at least she doesn't get mad about it or try to lecture me. I include her in the baby name poll, and talk to her about our trip, decorating the babies room, what I'll need to buy. And I believe she's warming up. She'll fall in love with her when she sees her just like we will. She loved the kids of an old friend that adopted from Korea. She couldn't wait to get her hands on them, so I'm sure she'll warm up to ours as well.
But at first it was awful trying to explain things to her. I would even print out things from the internet on adoption, famous people, successful people, things to NOT say to the adoptive parents and more to include her in all of this. Being 43 years older than me, we've always had a few differences! Just think there will be 39-40 years between myself and my youngest daughter! NEVER thought that would happen. But I'm hipper! I'll be young forever! (all you older folk reading this do not laugh too loud!) I WAS just playing football in our hallway a few hours ago...

"Our Child"

Our Child

I haven't met you yet or seen your face,
but in my heart you hold a place.
My hopes grow with each passing day,
even though you're miles away.
I know you're there waiting for me,
as I am here waiting to see,
the child God has sent from above,
to make me your Mom and share all my love.
-unknown

The kids

I finally figured it out!

After many unsuccessful attempts I found the program on my new laptop to make my pictures smaller so they could be viewed on this blog and email. It was so frustrating to have things changed on me. Might seem so simple to all you computer geeks, but it was opening my pictures in a completely different program and we could not figure out how to make the pixels smaller so we could put them on here. So this was a late night but oh am I happy now. Thanks to our wonderful photographer Jill we have new family photos (I hate to admit this!) and haven't had any since little girl was less than 1-yrs old! You'd never believe I was in the photography business for 6 + years! I guess I'm always the one taken the pictures and it was so much easier having her do it. Just think next year we'll have to have new ones taken for our family of 5!!! Yea!!

Come on September referrals!! (It's not us yet) But we all pray those that are ahead of us waiting in their final stages will hear news soon. I can't imagine the heart-ache of waiting and waiting. Then there's those that have their referral and are waiting for TA -travel announcement news! They know who their little ones are, have their pictures and updates and are waiting to go get them. Let's pray for them as well. May their babies be well taken care of and healthy. For those of you that have given birth and know all the pregnancy symptoms....the same thing happens when you're adopting. Some call it "paper pregnant". You're irritable, anxious, emotional, afraid of the unknown, nervous about the baby/child, tired, tired of waiting, stressed over little news you read about on the internet! I feel for those that are closer in the stages then we are. As someone on another blog stated, you hurry, hurry, hurry to get your paperwork done, then you wait, wait, wait, and wait some more. But I believe that the baby that is meant to be ours will be ours when she is suppose to! Great things come to those that wait. We had to be patient with our 1st two, now patient with our 3rd.

Fun Baby shopping

I love looking at baby things online. The only thing I've bought so far are some books. Since we requested an infant 0-12 mos. we don't have any idea how old she will be. So I can't buy anything yet! She could be 4-months she could be around a year. I guess it's a good thing I can't shop yet! You can sure find some great things online!!

Our agency is expecting a couple referrals anyday! We're all hoping it will happen this week!
Very exciting! Another group is leaving very soon to travel. Pray for everyones safe travel and speedy referrals.

Do we take our Son?

Sorry I haven't written much lately. My Mom has been in and out of the hospital twice this summer. She is home and feeling better now. Plus we are short staffed at our store since all the college kids went back to school. This always happens this time of year.

I wasn't thinking about taking our Son before because I thought our little 4-yr old would be real lonely without all 3-of us. But when I talked to her about it she actually sounded happy to have her Aunt and Grandma all to herself. Although she doesn't have a concept on how long we will be gone. Our Son will be almost 10 so it would be a great age. He was worried about the long flight but said it would probably be ok if he had a Nintendo DS! Right! He knows how to work us! I think it would be a great life experience for him to go. But I so worry about our little girl missing us all that I think he'll probably stay with her. I wish we didn't have to stay so long. Right now families have been averaging 18-days. That's a long time! Our 4-yr old is NOT a good traveler or I might consider taking her. But then we would also have to take someone else to help with the kids and another hotel room! That would be a huge extra chunk of $$$$. I think they would stress me out. It might be enough if the baby is sick or has attachment issues.

Our agency may have a few referrals to announce very soon! We all hope so! I think we're number 9 because someone had to stop their adoption process. Right now we're thinking our referral may come in January. Then travel is approximately 3-months later. Let's all pray for LOTS of referrals this month!!!!!!!!!!!!!