We made it !

YES. We are in Tenn. In the Smoky Mountains :) LOVE it. The ride here not so fun with 3 kiddos and 2 pups, althought the second day of 7 hrs was much better then the first. We werent prepared for a cold front. It is 50 degrees today, in the sun :)....we each only have a light jacket and jeans. Boo is bundled up ! We love cold weather though so we are still happy, but a bit chilly ;p !
Ok, my mom story.

The other night my mom called and told me "There is a naked man in my driveway"
me~ Seriously? Well why dont you invite him in? (Totally kidding, I thought she was joking)
Mom~No! The police just knocked on my door and told me there was a naked man laying on my car"
Me~EWWW! Who is he?
Mom~The police want me to come outside and look at him to see if I know him!
Me~Hysterical laughing....GOOD LUCK!
Mom~I AM NOT going out unless he is covered up!

Turns out it was a neighbor down the street and he gets intoxicated and wanders around naked. My mom usually works nights so he hangs out by her house, she learned this from the other neighbors. Thats great. I hope they get him some help. He is elderly too. Only my mom would have naked people on her driveway :)
Picture soon. Of Tenn. not the man ;P !

We FINALLY got the word !

YES!!!!! Our agency AGCI called today to tell me that our sw has gotten in all her papers (sigh) and we are OFFICIALLY APPROVED ! Well that only took a month ;P They are sending out the contracts next week and we have to have a conference call then send them back before we move any further (this spot is getting old). They have been great thru this delay though. Problem is we are on vacation next week so we wont be here to receive the contracts until we get back. SO, I am thinking May is going to be a BUSY month with lots of "to do" lists :) :)

"Mama I want a peach!"

The girls in their "clubhouse" which is my kitchen cabinet. They have a light in there and luv it!

The picture I attached is a gift I bought for my husband. It is an oil painting of a photograph I sent in to Everly Originals , I bought the package from HSN. I sent in the picture from Christmas Eve on my blog and they rearranged us and used a second picture of Boo since she had her binky in :) I think it turned out beautiful. We are so happy with it. They did make my husbands face a bit full, other then that it is beautiful. NOW we will have to do it again when our new daughter comes home :) How fun is that!?!??!?

I just got off the phone with my mom. OH BOY. Only my mom....What a story I have to share with you guys tomorrow..... :)

We are celebrating !

Guess why we are "high five n' " ?? Our little Boo made a poopie in the potty ! Have no fear I will not be sharing a picture like Kate on Jon and Kate plus 8 ! I asked her if she wanted to and she said "Yeah" and ran over. Next thing we know (after the ritual of setting up the fisher price animals, maybe that helps?) She went ! Yes , my life is exciting folks :)

Another day

And still no social worker papers into my agency. All Gods Children has been awesome about returning my calls and understanding my frustrations, but they cant really help. I spoke with my sw 2 days ago and she promised to fax them since the hard copies is lost....well all of April is gone now. We leave for Tennessee for a week on Sunday, so I guess I might as well forget about my dossier until May. Crap.

I did send out my I600A form to Homeland Security. That is the paperwork that grants you permission to adopt an international orphan. It is a long process so I figured I might as well get it going. Hopefully we will have an appt for our fingerprints once we get back from vacation.

We are excited to go to the Smokie Mountains again. We LOVE it there. So peaceful. The kids love exploring in the streams and rivers and hiking. It seems like GOD's original work , you know what I mean? Nothing is touched. It seems all pure just like GOD made it so long ago..it is a spirtual place for me. Love it !!

Our Peach tree is FULL of yummy peaches. The kids love going outside first thing in the morning and picking peaches. They taste NOTHING like a peach you buy. yum :)

Is it just me ?

As a stay at home mom to little kids I have been forced to watch MANY mind numbing cartoons and kids shows. Some are ok others not....but then...

"Lazy Town" came along on Noggin.

Suddenly 30 mins of Noggin isnt so bad.

Is it just me or is Spartacus kinda hot??

Gotta say I kinda enjoy watching that show with my little Bug and Boo.

Dont judge me.

:):)

You want a white kid, right?

Seriously a man said that to me. I thought we were having an intelligent conversation up to THAT point LOL.
At the yard sale a gentlemen asked me why I was having a yard sale, joking because I was holding my baby who was getting cranky and giving prices and answering questions all at once. I told him the ONLY reason was to raise funds to help with our adoption expenses. We got to talking and it turns out his daughter is a lawyer in NY and his son works with the state to remove kids that are neglected and not wanted (sad). He asked how much we were spending? Mind you he was from NY and a straight shooter, just said what he was thinking. I said "the same amount as a new car" He goes "that is Bull****" Ok....yes ...it is ;P Anyway he tells me his kids have connections and he will give them my # so I can adopt a kid who needs a home without lining someones pocket. I explain the costs involved with caring for orphans etc, but I dont think he got it. Anyway as he is walking away he turns and says quietly "You want a white kid right?" Clearly NOT noticing my beautiful brown Guatemalan princesa ! I said no I already have 2 and they are over rated. LOL ! No, I didnt but I thought it. Stupid right? He apologized and said he just wanted to be sure. Oy. I had another older guy ask me why we werent adopting from THIS country? I said "why dont you?" His reply was "Well I am 60 ! " Well we all have our reasons." Really though everyone was very kind and supportive of our plans. We had many folks say "God Bless You" which is always awesome :)
Luckily I am not easily offended, and I dont think he meant to be offensive, but was tactless. You gotta just roll with it :)

What a day

"You want a white kid right?" ~Got your attention huh? Heehee... more on that STUPID comment in a minute.

I had no idea yard sales were sooooooooo hard!!!! I told you they are NOT my thing. We needed a whole day to recover :) We were up at 5am and pulled in the stuff that was left at 4pm. We did well though :) Around $500 for one day. That is good right? I have no idea. I have to say I was happily surprised at how kind and fair people were. Only 2 older folks stand out as being slippery..one lady intentionally gave me $10 when I told her her total was $11.50 I could tell by the way she looked at me then away she was waiting to see if I noticed she was ripping me off :( Yea, I noticed...creep. If she sleeps well at night knowing she is shorting me on a sale when the money is going to bring home an orphaned child, she is a lost cause no? The other older folks ( you gotta watch them LOL ) bought a BAG of Bugs beanie babies from her for $.25 each.They were for sale for $2 each. She told them they were on sale so they said "oh 4 for a dollar?" well she is only 6 !! They bought about 20 of them :( She was excited making a sale so I didnt tell her what they did to her. No one realized what happened until it was over. Oh well. She was quite a saleperson though. I was so proud of her and Peanut. Bug would catch new customers when they walked up and say "Can I interest you in anything on my table? I have Beanies and my brother has jewlery and dinosaurs you might like." Too cute. They did well for themselves also. It was a long day and they were troopers. I couldnt have done it without my mom and my inlaws. They came by bright and early to help out. My sister also joined in and put up signs for me. We plan to do it again Friday. Yes. That was me cheering you heard.....not.

Lots of tags, bags, and stuff

Well today was spent doing schoolwork and purging everything we could to add it to the yard sale for tomorrow. My mom brought up lots of stuff too, so I spent ALOT of time sorting, hanging, and tagging things. Fun stuff. My sweet Boo spent alot of timing rearranging things I sorted and pulling OFF the tags and putting them where she thought they should go.....that included my truck and the basketball hoop :)

Prayers are needed for a sweet little boy, who is a dear friend of our family. R has been in and out of the hospital a few times in the last week and the drs have not made a diagnosis yet. His temp keeps dropping and his is very sick. If you could say a prayer for him and his family that would be wonderful. They are so very worried, as are we.

Well no news on the adoption front. My social worker is mia. No return phone calls or emails. Oh well, this weekend I will just focus on our garage sale and pray next week we get moving again.

Have a great weekend !!

Plugging along...but not moving forward.

No. You can not share my dinner.

Color me frustrated. I called my adoption agency today. My social workers papers STILL have not made it. Seriously? How hard is it to mail a packet of papers in?? I am eager to start my dossier. THEN I will feel like we are making some progress forward to find our child. This sitting in limbo is annoying. I love my social worker, I do. She is a very nice person. But, her sense of urgency and mine, are not the same :(

We have decided to have several large yard sales to try to raise some funds to go towards our adoption expenses. Adoption is awesome, wonderful and life changing. It is not inexpensive sadly. If the costs were a bit lower I think more families would see it as an option to build their families thru. The NEED is there. So many children....all alone.

If you know me, you know I DO NOT garage sale shop. I DO NOT have garage sales. I would sooner poke my eye out. Seriously. Too much haggling. I love a good on-line deal. That to me is fun. But I will do everything I can to bring home our next child, so tonite I spent several hours putting little price tags on hundreds of items, knowing full well that someone will offer me .25 for an item marked .50 ..... sounds fun no!?!?!? Oy. Let the haggling begin.

My mom and inlaws have donated many items which is wonderful. Even my mother in laws best friends have donated items. Believe me it touches you, to know people believe in your journey. And are willing to do a little something to help out. I hope to have several more yard sales so if you have stuff, you need gone....think of me :)

My sweet Boo is reaching the twos. I hate saying terrible twos, because that sounds so negative. And honestly it can also span the threes LOL! She has been very whiney and yells at me in baby babble LOUDLY. I try to understand but when I fail to (which is often) she melts into a whiney, kicking puddle on the floor. Fun stuff :)

I came across pictures from our first christmas with Boo in Guatemala 2006 and then this year. Amazing. And wonderful.

.

here are some pictures from the last few days~

Papi and his baby. Boo LOVES her Papi

Cookie and her Peanut. Bug and the "coolest dried worm ever" Fun stuff.

Try and try again..

What a day. It seemed like each thing I tried to do or should have been done did not work out ...I got up a bit early and planned to go to the lab to have some routine bloodwork done that requires fasting. I have been putting it off. My dr says I am his "suckiest patient when it comes to bloodwork". Should I be offended? :P Anyone who knows me knows, after I get up and brush my teeth the FIRST thing I do is go for my coffee! So heading to the lab on an empty tummy AND no coffee is NOT something I look forward to. SO since my dh M was off he kept Peanut and Bug and I took Boo with me. I planned to hit the lab then my Starbucks :) and my hair appt. Well the lab was packed. Cars parked on the street packed. So plan B was to come back by after my hair appt which now would be closer to 11am. After hitting Starbucks and torturing myself with the yummy smells while sharing some poundcake with Boo, I go back to the lab. STILL packed. I cant wait with a hungry, getting close to lunch toddler and a hungry NEED my coffee, getting cranky Mama. Soooo...I sip my coffee and just smile :) Tomorrow is another day to try...maybe :)

I stopped by the shoe store to get my kiddos new shoes for spring. It is easier without my little Diva with me. She LOVES her shoes and we could spend an hour with her trying on every pair ! I found Bug and Boo cute shoes then I picked out sandals and another pr for my son. Well he hates both pair. I tried :( so back they go tomorrow.

I called our adoption agency today to see if my sw's paperwork has made it in yet. It hasnt. Still. I flew thru my my Homestudy in 9 days but now have been idle for almost 2 weeks. I cant start my dossier for my agency without those papers. Since the Hague (boohiss) went in place Homestudy agencies have to sign a certain contract with each adoption agency they work with. My sw said she mailed them in last tuesday.....fingers crossed they show up soon. We have 10 hrs of adoption education we have to do this time too. I really want to get going on the dossier too. I am HOPING that all the mistakes I made on our Guatemala dossier will pay off, and help me to fly thru our Ethiopia dossier. Just the word "dossier" makes an adoptive parent quake. They are stressful. SO many papers to get and they all have to be perfect.The website for "assistant stork" is very helpful. I went back to it again and again last time. Oh, first mistake of this journey, I ordered my birth cert from the City of NY. Well after spending $90 they didnt stamp them. They do not have the raised seal that is required :( So now I have to do it again. Of course. Oh well, everything happens for a reason. My sister reminded me tonite that every delay we had with Boo's adoption lend us to her. She is OUR baby. I have never doubted God picked us for each other. No other baby would have been right. I have to remember that on this journey. I have to. Or I WIll lose my mind LOL !

Bug and Peanut had a ball hanging out with Nana and Pop pa and Great Grandma. The picture at the top is from yesterday. Bug and Great Grandma have a special bond. It is so sweet to see. I love when they can hang together.

The cat is out of the bag

Well on Saturday we had our family visit with my inlaws and my mom. I had just made my blog page, so to share our news of our upcoming adoption with my inlaws, I just asked them if they wanted to see the new blog I had made. Of course they did :) Well my mother in law sat down and starting reading the title. When she read the next line "follow our journey to find our next child thru international adoption" she goes "NO! Yes? No! YES! YES!!" She was so happy! Then of course she started to cry :) I love her, she always shows her emotions. It was so nice to share our news with our parents from the beginning. I had shared our plans with my mom and my sister a couple days earlier and they were thrilled for us too. With Boo's adoption we kept things close to our chest so to speak, not really sure how things would play out since adopting was so new to us. We really didnt share until we had Boo's referral. Adopting from Guatemala can be very stressful. Rules seem to change daily :( PGN is awful. We had 2 Kos with Boo's file and it was really tough. I am SO looking forward to this adoption. I think Ethiopia is much more straight forward. So This time we plan to take everyone on the ride with us ! Hang on :)

Today was a new experience for me. My mother and father inlaw asked if they could take my son and daughter for the day to bake cookies and visit Great-Grandma who lives in an assisted living home close by them. Well actually my Bug BEGGED them to let her come over and teach Nana to bake and they finally relented LOL! I always have all my kids with me. Always. So having the whole day with just Boo and I was kinda quiet. Kinda nice quiet and kinda of "something is missing quiet" Boo and I went shopping and she took time to pick out a pretty necklace from my jewlery box and she signs "please" SO cute. She wanted to wear it. So of course I let her. She took really good care of it all day. It is almost 6...My babies will be home soon. I know they have had a blast hanging out with Nana and Pop-pa all day. Now Nana & Pop-pa are going to need a serious N-A-P !! I am baking homemade biscotti for them as a thank you. They love the biscotti. It smells sooooooo good :)

3...2...1...TAKE OFF !!

Well, after being a mommy for 9 1/2 yrs having 3 kiddos , 2 bios and one baby girl adopted from Guatemala I am FINALLY going to start blogging :) I know, I know, you are thinking "just what we need another mommy blog" Well yes. You do. I hope to share my life , although a bit crazy and hectic it is also filled with lots of smiles and joy. We love our GOD and try to live our life according to his word. Nope we are not perfect, far from it. But as we stumble we try to learn something from our mistakes and move on.
Oh, I also am a sahm and I home school my 9 1/2 yr old son Peanut and my almost 7 yr old daughter Bug. We have several pets that are part of our family(don't ask how many..) We are following GOD's path for our family and are in the beginning stages of adopting our next beautiful child from Ethiopia !!!!! Yes, we feel very blessed :)