Updates and Blessings!

Lots of exciting things have been happening here at our house! It's been a crazy time because Chris went back to work unexpectedly in January. This has been quite a blessing because he works from home most days and we will be able to pay for a ton of adoption debt much sooner.

Summer made the Dean's list her first semester of college and has been nominated as a Golden Apple scholorship. We will learn either this month or next whether she was chosen for the program.
Summer has also graciously volunteered to take care of the little ones and allow Chris and I both to travel when we adopt Sophie.

Wyatt is doing a LOT of guitar playing and has been our go to guy for help with the little ones now big sister has a lot of college studying to do.He has been learning to drive and hopefully will get his license at the end of the summer.

Ellie is continuing to thrive in Pre-K and has managed to accomplish a lot despite her disability. She learned how to zip her own winter coat this winter, something I didn't think was possible. She is looking forward to Sophie coming home.

Isaac is CLIMBING everywhere and because of this, we decided to forgo any more physical therapy. We have many therapists coming and going during the week and I had grown quite weary of the schedule. Dropping one therapy he had mastered seemed like the right choice. We doubled speech therapy to twice a week and he continues to make progress and is at about a nine month old for speech development.

Chris and I celebrated our TWENTY-FIFTH wedding anniversary on Tuesday 2/24. Chris' parents treated us to a delicious dinner and we may take an overnight trip to Chicago this weekend, weather permitting.

It gets crazy here quite a lot! Ellie and Isaac have developed their own personalities and squabble quite a bit. I know I will have my hands full when Sophie comes home. I am looking forward and also cringing thinking about the chaos! Chris has been so great indulging my nesting behavior. We converted Ellie's room into a shared bedroom for two little girls. I had been pouring over Pottery Barn Kids catalogs but in the end, our budget really couldn't dream that big. My friend Martha told me about some cute beds she was ordering for her girls (she's adopting too!) and they were right up our alley, bargained priced at Walmart.com. Ellie was quite helpful, handing Daddy tools and holding the parts to the bed. JCpenney had an incredible sale on cute bedding and we painted the room a light grey.

I have been worried a lot with three kiddos and all needing mama at the same time, I wouldn't be able to do everything I need to do to run a household. Chris put new shelves in the pantry so we could be better organized in the kitchen. Summer was recently diagnosed with Celiac disease and so all of my cooking must be from scratch and gluten free. The days of just calling for a pizza when mom is tired are somewhat behind us. I find myself worrying a lot about cooking and how I will accomplish all this once I have a child home who will have been ripped away from everything she knows and unlike Ellie and Isaac won't be a baby when she comes home.

But then God calms my fears and lets me know this IS His plan. This week we received notice our paperwork was in review and our Letter of Approval should be very close! How close is anyone's guess but we home in the next couple of weeks. If this happens we should be on target for late May or early June travel!
We got new pictures of Sophie last month and she is thriving and looks big for her age!

This morning I woke up to a message on Facebook from my friend Courtney who lives in Nashville Illinois. I have never met Courtney in person however, we were introduced on Facebook as she was in the early days of adopting and a bit frustrated. My dear friend Jill and I in many messages were able to convey to her how amazing our agency was. Long story short, her and her husband adopted the sweetest little girl from China and she is thriving! No longer an orphan!
This morning's message from Courtney was asking my permission to give my name and info to a friend of hers who really wanted to bless an adoptive family. An adoptive mom herself, she wanted to give back by hosting an online 31 Products party and donating her profits towards adoption fees. Courtney had shared our story with her.. Even though I was not looking to fund raise with any thing other than our car decals, I just felt this was such a blessing coming to me especially by way of "organizing". I have never even met Melanie personally, yet this morning felt such a connection to her.
Our 31 fundraiser will run for one week. Today March 3-Monday March 9. It's short and sweet so you can get your products faster! So if you are a 31 fan and need a product, please follow the link and directions on the right side bar. If you are viewing this blog on a mobile device you will have to click "view full site" at the bottom of the page before being able to click the link.

I hope to be able to report very SOON our Letter of Approval has arrived!