Ten little fingers, ten little toes GIVEAWAY!

I just bought this book yesterday, for Leah, and I love it. Mem Fox is the author. It is a lovely story, all about babies from all over the world with the theme being, each has ten sweet fingers and ten sweet toes. I think it the perfect book for any baby, but especially our babies, brought over to our homes from another country. I can't wait to read it to my daughter.

I love it so much, I want to give it away! Let's play guess when Elisabeth is going to get her referral. The person who comes closest to the date will get this book. We are in the November - January referral range for our agency. We have been at the top of the list for a little girl for 6 weeks. I am hoping for November, but fully realize Christmas may come and go and January will be our month. I have heard SWS sometimes holds babies over December, then out go lots of January referrals. (making alot of the January referral babies 6 or 7 mos. old) I am not sure why this happens, anyone have any insight into this?? I do know several families that have gotten January referrals with the sweetest babies, so I would feel happy to be a part of this group. But November is my birthday month, so come on SWS, match me this month!!

Good luck, hope you win!! And if you already have this book, I can substitute it or do a barnes giftcard for you to pick out your own new book. :)

Good signs....

So I have to read into these few things, because I am desperate to get our referral!!! I was talking to a preschool parent who is adopting a child in the foster system and guess what day they go before the judge to grant adoption? November 16th, my birthday. :) I'll take it as a good sign. Then, I was reading another blog, and a family got their referral on October 16th, which was a year to the day they began their adoption journey. October 16th is Jack's birthday. :) Do you think this means anything?? I know, I may be reaching. lol. Now I just need something for August 14th and March 7th. Anyone got anything?

Oh and today marks 13 months into this adoption.

Christmas shopping?

Need to do some Christmas shopping? Why not hop over to shopping for a cause, order some gifts, and support others adopting! They have some great things, I will definately be shopping to support adoption this year!

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This is how I feel about......

THIS ADOPTION WAIT! (but I know it will all be worth it.....)

Get ready for a whine

It has to come out, a good old feel sorry for myself whine. Here goes!

It has been one month 5 days since I found out we are number 1 or 2 on the list for a girl born in Korea. I am tired tired tired of this wait. I am fried. Undone. Emotionally drained. I am wishing I had never told anyone we were adopting because I am so tired of answering the questions about if we have our referral, and when we are going to get it. Blabbler mouth here told everyone we would have our referral in the fall. And I was not crazy, I was told we would. The waits got longer. But it was possible, there is one family that started adopting after us with our agency, and already has their baby home. I was told " the process is averaging sign up to home in 15 months." So, yeah, at almost 13 months of this I figured I would have her sweet little picture.

I try to stay positive, I do. I try to be thankful for all my blessings. And some days, I manage to focus on the positive. But lately, as the 6 month mark waiting gets closer I am anxious. How long are we going to be at the top of the list like this????

Waiting is rough. I am so ready to see my daughter. So ready to have our family complete.

Thanks if you made it this far. I know I do have so many blessings in my life. And I do know it is all in God's timing, and this should be teaching me something. I love you , sweet Leah. And I pray really really hard that soon I will have you for my daughter.

May you live all the days of your life.
--- Jonathan Swift

PUMPKINS!

We went to the patch last weekend and here is the proof!
My baby pumpkin. (hopefully not the baby for long!)

I love how sweet this picture is

Apparently when you are 5, it is not cool to pose nicely for your Mamma

Jack redeemed himself!

This would be an awesome last photo on this post, huh?


A HUGE tractor. The boys loved it!

Private no more!!!

I am done being private. That lasted long. I decided I do not like being private at all. Woo hoo bring on the comments now. (lol)

Here is a sampling of Jack turing 5. The child had 3 different cakes. Here are two of them.


Batman cake! Party with preschool buddies!

My Mom and sister came up for a visit to help Jack celebrate, so fun!

My sweet sister, Rebecca


A few of his toys.


The three of us, Anderson was pooped from the excitement and went to bed before dinner. (poor guy!)

Happy Birthday Jack!

Today my Jack Ross turns 5 years old! Happy Birthday big boy! Wow, where did the time go? He was just born!! You worried us half to death, being a preemie and in the NICU for 2 loooong weeks, but look at you now! We LOVE YOU JACK!!! And are so proud of the wonderful big brother you are and and sweet energetic boy you have always been. And we LOVE how excited you are about baby Leah. She will be lucky to have you always look out for her. We hope you have a wonderful day, all about you!!!!

Pumpkin bread fundraiser!!

I am now selling my yummy, homemade pumpkin bread to raise funds for our adoption. It is delicious and I can ship it! $10 per loaf. Cloves, cinnamon, real pumpkin..........

You can email me, top left if you would like a loaf or two. :)

Some help with this private thing....

Does anyone know how you can get to my blog without having to go thru the invitation I emailed out? Several people have asked me and I have no idea!! I am already missing being public, maybe I will change my mind about all this.

Can you just log into blogger if you follow me?

And in other news, Jack will be 5 years old on Saturday. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? I am still trying to come to grips.

Still just waiting around for my phone to ring. Not much new here. BUT congrats to my bloggy friend Heather on being in Seoul right now picking up your boy! Samuel is adorable, and happy adoption news always makes it easier to wait. :)

Anniversary weekend

In front of the Wedmore Place Inn, where we stayed the night. Amazing, would highly recommend! http://www.wedmoreplace.com/

We ate dinner at Shields Tavern. Yummy!





We had so much fun in Williamsburg for our 7 year anniversary. And Anderson did great at his overnight party with Grammy and Papa. I think Jack being there helped him out. Great get-away night!

5 months........

Today is October 3 and our dossier flew to Korea on May 3rd. You know what that means??? 5 months waiting!!!!!

I am almost sure Leah is born, and that makes me incredibly happy. With the longest timeline from our agency, she is born. The worst case they have told me is that we will have to wait 3 more months for our referral, and that would make her about 2-3 months now. OR she could be closer to 5 months if we get our referral soon. :) A funny thing happened to me around month 4. I stopped carrying my cell phone around obsessively, checking the phone after I had gone upstairs for 5 seconds, or outside to check the mail. I just kinda gave up that it was going to ring. I stopped bringing up the fact we are adopting to every person I talked to. And I just tried to start functioning again. I think I am doing pretty well. I realized the other day (we do not have a home phone) that my cell had been in my car all afternoon, and I did not even panic, knowing it had not rung. I started believing that we will not get our referral until Christmas time. This is really seeming to help. All I have is the strong belief and feeling that baby Leah is being held and loved by a sweet foster parent on the other side of the world. And I pray for her all the time. Sooooo, 5 months down, who knows how many more to go.
Love you baby girl.