One More Day...

We have one more day for the sale! So far we have sold two thousand dollars!!! Praise God!!! What's crazier is we still have A LOT of stuff left... it hardly looks like anything's gone!!! just crazy!
We did have someone steal something the first morning! Something fairly expensive... $20 or so... we couldn't believe it! However... we're ok... we prayed for them.

So we are still praying for the sale of some of the bigger items! So please pray with us!

Countdown to Sale!!

2 DAYS until we open for sales! We are busy busy getting ready over here and have some GREAT stuff to sell! Tons of Antiques!! Furniture, a Motorhome, race quad, books, clothes, a 24ft swimming pool, tools, snow blower, and on and on!!! TONS of stuff! We are going to have a Lemonade stand with cookies, and we might even have some produce to sell! We are excited to see what God does with this sale!!!

Amazingly Fast!!!!

Our Letter of Confirmation is already here in the USA!!! Our agency will be mailing it to us to sign and send back!! After that we will receive Travel Approval in about 6-8 weeks. Then we travel 2-4 weeks after that!!! WOOHOOOOOO!!! China here we come!!!!!

So we have a very intense/long story going on surrounding China, and I only posted it on My China Blog. It is a long story and it is my personal journal about our China Adoption. But it is one HUGE prayer request. And it is going to be an AMAZING story, no doubt! But there are many unknowns and possible heart break in the future so it was hard for me to decide to share it with everyone. I am sure some people are going to criticize us, but we don't care, we are doing what God is calling us to do. I can not wait to find out what He has in store for our family! We would appreciate prayers from you all for our daughters to get home to us as soon as possible!!

We Have PA!!!

On Friday, July 2 we received our Pre-Approval for Baby Jia Yi!!! In just 5 days!!! Yay!!! I guess that means that China has acknowledged that we have requested her and so far are ok with us getting her. I am sure that now they will have to go over all our documents and make sure that they really think that we are ok for Jia! The Letter of Confirmation (LOC) could be a few weeks to a couple months away. I have noticed that a lot of people call it an LOA so I guess it is also a Letter of Acceptance or Approval or Affirmation, maybe? We are waiting for our updated Homestudy to approve us for "Special Needs" children and then we can send that in to USCIS (basically Homeland Security) so that the US can approve us (once again) to bring orphans into the US.

Since we received our match with Jia Yi, we have been working on preparing for a fund raiser sale. We are planning it for August 5, 6 and 8th. The 8th will be our LID-versary of 4 years in China. Won't that be neat when we have all our funds raised as a celebration!!!? We of course will be advertising a bunch and fasting and praying a lot for someone to come and purchase our Motorhome, the Baja1000 ready race quad and whatever else it will take to bring Baby Jia Yi home! My friend Bonnie's youngest kids have offered to bring over their Lemonade stand and sell Lemonade and cookies (i think), We are selling tons of books from our library and boxes of scrapbook supplies... I have only kept my absolute favorite items. I am making homemade cards to sell to. We should have all your normal items like clothes, toys, and probably some tools, antique furniture (our first donation, from Jerry's parents), crystal dishes and hopefully some garden produce as well. If you have any other ideas of things we could make to sell or if anyone has anything they would like to donate to the "Cause" we would LOVE it and be forever grateful!!!

This adoption stuff is not cheap and since we started this journey to a daughter in China the estimated cost has gone up by at least eight thousand dollars! Goodness! But seriously the money is not a problem for God to take care of... its our hearts that seem to be the problems these days... so many people have said to me that they would love to adopt but it is just too much money... kind of a bad excuse, since everything is God's in the first place. And what is a little money in exchange for a child growing up in a family and learning to love Jesus like we do!? The Bible tells us to take care of the Orphans and the Widows... God has put it heavily on OUR hearts and we are obeying... and couldn't be happier about it. Alex and Anthony are the most amazing little boys I could ever ask for. I wouldn't want to imagine life without them. They are MY children through and through!!!

Today the boys went with grandma and grandpa and some of their cousins to a water park... Anthony's first time... it will be neat to see what he thought of it! I know Alex loves it, he is such a fish!!! Anthony was sure NOT worried about driving away from me today in G & G's motorhome for their day trip! So cute! Next week they will both be heading to TN for a week long "vacation" at their cousins' house in said motorhome! Goodness... i will be kid-less for a week!!! Jerry will be home then and we have Tissiana and Travis coming up for a visit this weekend so they weill get us all to themselves for a few days... that has not happened in a long time!!! Scrapbooking... here we come with no little boy interruptions! I think the guys are going to go on a little quad-ing excursion for a couple days even. We will miss the boys, but it will be refreshing not to have the responsibility of them. wow! It will be Anthony's first time away from us overnight. They'll be getting practice for when we go to China!

Hopefully i can get some pictures posted from the last month of the boys soon. I have some cute ones. Maybe we will have other exciting news to share about Kimi, like an update and new pictures.

Jia Yi Wei

Jia Yi Wei

will soon be

Maria Noelle!!!

We can not believe that after 5.5 years we have finally seen our first baby Girl!! Her file is securely "locked" for us and we have applied to China for her. We now wait for our Pre-Approval (PA), after that a Letter of Confirmation (LOC) and finally Travel Approval (TA). This should all last 2-4 months-ish, if you know what i mean! haha!

Her Chinese name: Jia (Beautiful) Yi (Happy) Wei (Brilliant/Valuable) Wei is the name that all children from her orphanage are given (think Last name), Jia is the name that all the girls there are given and Yi is her personalized name. So far we know the other two names describe her... we are just waiting to see if she will be happy! We hope so!!

She is in Tianjin City Children's Welfare Institute. Tianjin is in the NorthEast near Beijing.Tianjin is one of 4 Municipalities in China... Basically it is Classified as a City and it is the size of a small province... I mean 12 million people live there and there are Counties within this "City"! Some of the babies live in Foster Homes, but as far as we know Maria does not.

She was born December 15, 2008... so she is just one year younger than Anthony!!! He was born on the 16th! go figure... Maybe someday i will get a Spring baby! haha! Our whole family's birthdays are in the winter! So she is about 18 months old right now... but the info we have on her is from 11 months old! So we have requested an update, but we may hire someone to call and get an update. Because apparently CCAA doesn't always like to get updates done.

She was about 15 lbs and 28 inches tall. Kind of small. When I talked to our International Adoption Doctor, she classified her as "Failure to Thrive". Guess why she is listed on the Special Needs Waiting Child list... the diagnosis... Lagging Motor Development!!!!! What!!? And she was on the list for over a month and no one snatched her up!!!! I can't believe it! Alex and Anthony both had worse things on their medical reports! Hopefully the update will tell us more about what she is able to do at this age. She was not standing or walking or sitting at 11 months, but was crawling so that must be why they classified her as SN. Who knows!

Apparently she is a deep sleeper, sucks her finger, she crawls, uses her index finger and thumb to pick things up, laughs out loud, responds to facial expressions of adults, active and closest to a caregiver. There are some other things, she knows her name and responds... can hear and see. Her favorite toy is a rattle and is happy playing with toys. She had 2 teeth. Loves juice! Holds her milk bottle TIGHTLY! (that sounds like the boys) Her hands are "powerful" the report says! haha!

It also says that she will fall asleep in her caretaker's arms after drinking her bottle... so it sounds like someone has time for her! Oh! I hope so! She cries when she is hungry... Sounds like she is a lot about food, like the boys were. We can deal with that!

I almost forgot... I joined a yahoo group that advocates for the special needs children on this list... I was browsing through the pictures last week and saw Jia... The first thing i said to myself was "she is wearing the boys' pjs!" Alex had a pair of these pjs and then Anthony wore them! Alex says that we will have to get her some girl ones. She definitely should fit in around here... with all these tool pjs!

We are praying for another little girl that was on the list who was missing an entire arm... If they would let us, we would get both of them!! But we are told only one at a time!! We hope she will find a family VERY soon! Update on her... she has a family!

No Match...

So apparently this list was full of boys. I hope that a lot of them find homes soon!!! Our Agency said that this was a really hard matching process this time... problems with the website and not sure what else... when i was chatting with Lindsay i was in the grocery store and the cell phone was being sketchy so i couldn't understand everything she was telling me, but i think i got the idea anyways. So they were unable to find us a match this time. There's always the "off" chance that Kimi will come back on the list after being "looked" at by another family, but i am not counting on that! New lists usually come out every month and a half or so... I hope the agency was at least able to match some of the others waiting on the list. She told me about a little girl that did not meet our match requirements that has both arms and legs that are deformed... Lindsay thought that she was a little beyond what we thought we could take on at the moment, and she was right, but i am glad that she mentioned her to me... we are going to pray for this little one to get a family soon... it makes me so sad to think of this baby being ready for a family and not getting one right away to help her! If we had more money available right now we might consider her, but as it is, we are going to have a sale to raise money to go.

So... its not like we aren't used to waiting...

By the End of This YEAR!!!?

Finally some news to share about our China adoption. Today I posted this on my China blog, but for those of you who don't read that one, i thought i would cross post. :)

FREAKING OUT!!! (in a good way!!)

In August, we will have been logged in for 4 years!! Which means we started the process to adopt a baby girl a year and a half before... We were in process with Kazakhstan for a year to adopt Alex and Kimi when Kaz changed some rules about adopting unrelated children at the same time... so we applied to China and good grief has it been a long time coming...

I don't regret any of it, because we now have Anthony and will have the "Kimi" that God planned for us. As well as so many of the other great things that have come from this long wait. Many of you know that for us... when God calls us to adopt we jump on it! And in the last couple weeks we have been "hearing" God call us to finally switch to the Waiting Child program with China. Many people call it the Special Needs program, but i have not liked the response that i usually get when i say it. We filled out a form last week listing special needs that we will consider if given the opportunity. Some of course are very minor, but some are not so much... although none of them have life long health concerns. Missing limbs is an example... most likely she would be perfectly healthy otherwise. Then there are things as minor as a birthmark! For a few days i found myself quite consumed with the thought that her body might not be perfect and how that will affect her life and i worried about myself seeing her as special needs when she was my daughter... it is hard to explain, but then i think i settled with the fact that she will be "just" our Kimi!!!! FINALLY, after all this time.

Our Agency told me that they would call me before a new listing of Children were put on the CCAA's site. Our Agency, you see will log into that site and "MATCH" us with a child, then send over the info... two days later i saw on the RQ site that a new SN (special needs) list was to com out on the 22nd! Yay! Then when the Agency called to talk with me about it, Lyndsay said that they only have a few people right now waiting for matches and that most likely they will be able to match us, too... talk about my heart stopping... or leaping out of my chest... something!! Oh my word... i have been able to think of nothing else since (hardly)! The 22 in China is actually the night of the 21st here!!!!!!!!!!!!! So Monday night some one may be matching us with Kimi!!!! I can hardly breath!!!

THAT IS TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my!!!! All day long, my heart has been freaking out!! I can hardly function! I just had to share with all my bloggy friends! Please Pray for God's hand to lead our "Match-Maker" tonight!!!! I can hardly breath normal! Good thing i have a ton of stuff to do today and really shouldn't even be blogging, but how can i resist!

Our Camping Trip to Mansfield...

So we took a trip to Missouri to Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds' Spring planting festival. We try to go every year and this was our 3rd year. We took the tent instead of the motorhome (less work) and more flexibility in where you can drive. Naturally it was rainy when we got there... although not as bad as some of the stuff we drove through on the way... we put the tent up very quick, if i say so my self and got every thing inside, beds, food, clothes. Then it started to rain harder... we ate some sandwiches and got into bed... it poured until we fell asleep.

In the morning it was beautiful and we had some sunshine. We went to visit the horses that the campsite owners have and had some breakfast... then the kids played a little outside, climbing the tree behind the tent and stuff... We also noticed these gross slugs slithering across our tent... i think we found 3 of them.


Of course we took a few photos! Couldn't resist!





Those cute little feet hanging down... He always wants to climb trees (We called him monkey when he was little because he tried to climb up us) but we don't have any climbing tree around the house... all the limbs are 10 feet up or so. But this little tree was perfect! Even Anthony tried climbing a little and Jerry of course! haha! Oh! their pants were rolled up because the grass was still so wet and we didn't want their pant legs to be soaking!


Finally we got in the truck and decided to drive around and explore and make our way to Len's house for a visit. (Len is the guy we are the soil distributor for) But on the way into town we had see a caboose at a park-like spot, so we decided to go see that first. They discovered this nest of eggs a few minutes after they got there! What beautiful eggs!!! The mommy bird was squaking and tweeting away, sitting on top of the caboose!!!

The boys played a bit on it, they pretended to drive of course and made all kinds of noise!

Then we started for a drive through countryside toward Len's. We took every back road we could find that was sort of headed in that direction... The poor gps, it kept rerouting us and i am sure if it could think would have thought we were idiots! But we found some beaustiful things along the way! They have these streams all over... and most of them are made so that if they get too full they just run over the roads, or they run over the road anyways... ha! But so lush, green and clean smelling, it was so refreshing exploring!

I don't think the boys could run out of rocks here to throw!!! But they would try if they were there longer! The water was sooooo clear! and beautiful!!

While Jerry and Alex explred an area that Anthony couldn't cross and i didn't want to go through the poison ivy... Anthony and i did a mini photo shoot. (are you surprised!?)

Dirty jeans and all...


Oh! and he threw some more rocks! he would poick them up on one side and throw them over the edge on the other side!! So funny! We were here a good 20 minutes and we never saw another car!


When Alex got back from exploring (and finding a dead armadillo) i made him pose for me too!!! Can't you believe it!!!?

He was thrilled...

This one is for April, my sister...



We saved a turtle form the road along the way and then we found these lazy cows... They looked so funny sitting down in the grass... their little ears sticking up...




The next day was the show... and it was perfect!!!! no rain... and sunshine and some clouds! Last year it rained all day... and had been raining all week... it was a MESS!!! But this year was great!!!


We need one of these old gadgets... you put the dried corn in and it takes all the kernals off when you crank the handle! We dried corn last year to make corn meal with... it is so sore on the fingers to get off the cob when it is dry!!! This thing was cool! We will have to keep our eyes open for one!

Then the guy demonstrating would dump the kernels in hear after blowing away the junk... and this would grind it into cornmeal. We use quite a bit of cornmeal at our house for some reason... we make corn bread a lot... everybody loves it and we can buy 25 pound bags of organic cornmeal locally... so this would be great to use.



Alex picked up the corn kernels from the ground at the previous display and put then in a bags... then he fed them to the chicken that they have. We met a family as we were waiting in line to enter and we saw them again over at the chicken section... so Alex shared his corn with the boy...

Anthony fed the grass to the chickens with the little girl of the family. These kids were so cute! I think they were Amish... the little girl kept trying to squeeze Anthony's cheeks!


On our way home we saw this creepy cloud... it was moving so fast and it went right over and kept on blowing and keeping its shape...

Anthony was sleeping one of the times we stopped at a rest area on the way home.... Alex convinced Jerry to "play" with him for a few minutes at the rest area playground! so funny!
We bought a few seeds and met the Majerus Family that makes the Clyde's Garden planners. That was fun and they are such a beautiful (inside and out) family! We went to a few classes, one on composting, it was my favorite this year. Although we did learn in another class that there are about 450 named types of garlics in the world! goodness! we only have 5! We bought some purple basil and talked to the guy who we bought a bluebird house from our first year. We looked at ALLLL the chickens and were scared half to death by a crazy donkey!!! They are soooo loud! Alex liked to watch the blacksmith at work in his shop. We bought a couple rhubarb plants, some sweet potato starts and my favorite parsley called Forrest Green. I think we walked around every thing at least twice. It was a great day and over way too soon!!

Someday when we have ready the Little House on the Prarie books with the kids we will take them to Laura Ingalls Wilder's house... it is there in Mansfield and i am sure will be neat for the kids to see... when they care!

The trip went way too fast, though. We had to spread the tent back out when we got home so it could dry... we woke up at 3:30 in the morning... we just couldn't sleep... the boys were both sleeping with us and there was a train the kept coming by a few miles away, but we could hear it... so we whispered that we were ready to go... to we packed everything up in an hour in the dark!!! and Headed home!! We were some tired puppies when we got home... i mean what kind of freak wakes up at 3:30 in the morning to take down their tent... Us, i guess...

More Alex...

This kid!!!! Tonight as we sat eating salad out of the garden we were talking about the imax movie we just got in the mail about Texas.

me: mommy used to live in texas, you know...
Alex: and then you moved here?
daddy: mommy moved here to be with daddy, if mommy lived there and daddy here, it wouldn't work very well...
Alex: because you llooove mommy.
daddy: lots! You know some mommies and daddies live apart...
Alex: WHY!?
Daddy: well, sometimes satan makes some mommies and daddies not like each other but when that happens the Bible says to fast and pray.
Alex: what's fasting?
Me: uh, Alex you know what fasting it... you don't eat.
Alex: why can't i fast?
me: because you are too young!
Daddy: fasting helps your body heal and makes your mind clear so you can make good decisions.
Alex: Our government needs to fast because they are not making good choices!! We need to send them a letter and tell them that we have been praying for them to make right choices and they are not so they need to fast.

Alex went on to name names... I can't believe he remembers all these people's names!

Jerry and I were laughing so hard we could hardly breathe!!

You might be adopting from China if......

...you've been expecting a baby for over 3 years.
...you know that I-600 & I-171 aren't highways.
...you've "paid for" 3 citizenships, but never brought anyone into the U.S.
...you know that "waiting for China" has nothing to do with Dillard's or dishes.
...your homestudy is followed by a number (i.e. #2 or #3 or #4).
...you've been fingerprinted four times, but never committed a crime.
...you automatically assume everyone who is expecting is having a girl.
...you own new clothing in 3 little sizes for all 4 seasons (because you don't know when or how big).
...you look twice when you see a lady bug.
...you never know how many days will be in the next month.
...you know that babies come in batches.
...you know people who understand when you talk about 2-day months & 3-day months.
...your due date hasn't changed by days, but by years.
...you know who the Rumor Queen is ... AND ... you don't know who she is.
...you've waited so long, that they checked your fingerprints to see if they changed.
...if...while trying to understand why they're printing you again, you study your own fingerprints and wonder if fingerprints grow wrinkles.
...when you speak of "that time of month" you're talking about CCAA updates & referrals...
* You might be adopting from China if you love someone you've never met with all your heart*

Alex's Prayers...

Today he asked what the economy was... he had heard that the economy was in the trash... he wanted to know. He learned that line from a song Jerry found on youtube! I tried to explain to him that the economy was the combination of business and jobs and stores and money... etc. he said oh and then a few minute later this was his prayer, " Dear Jesus, thank you for this day, thank you for my food, please help the senators and congressmen to make the right choices. Please help the people to put their economy papers outside on their doors so everyone can see them. Please help mommy's friend to find a new job, please help me not to be naughty. in Jesus name, Amen!"

This kid is too much!!! He is so hilarious and smart and sweet! He is very faithful in continuing to pray for something you requested... like the friend who needs a job... Alex has been praying everyday for them for about 2 weeks now...

Here's the link in case you want to educate your 4 year old on the economy!!!! hahahaha!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nERTFo-Sk

Smelling Trees

As we were leaving the tulip park that one day... there were some crab-apple trees by our truck and i could smell the blooms... so i said to the boys "did you guys smell this tree?" Alex was already getting into his seat so he didn't come back to smell, but Anthony ran over to the tree excited to smell it and started sniffing the trunk!!!!! He kills me!!! he is so funny!! He's 2!

Anthony is a mess...

The Orchard

We received two long boxes, both about 55 pounds each with almost our whole orchard in them!! We were so excited! When the UPS guy showed up Alex ran out asking him if he had our orchard! He said he wasn't sure and then he looked at the box and told Alex they were from a tree place, so probably so!! WOOHOOO!!!

We opened the boxes and looked at every thing! It was so exciting! There were raspberries, loganberries, boysenberries, blackberries, grapes, blueberries, apples, peaches, cherries, plums, apricots, pluots and a hardy kiwi! We ordered these last year so we could get everything we wanted in the orchard. I think a few of our trees from last year died from the deer eating on them ALL summer!!! But those deer are not going to get them this year!!! We have that fabulous 6 foot fence all around it!

Someday those trees will be much taller than the boys... although the boys will be taller too... These trees are the nicest trees... the trunks are so thick and sturdy... not like the flimsy ones we find around here in the garden centers. We are excited to watch them grow and hope they produce fruit as fast as possible! heehee!

Sunday morning we gathered all our equipment we would need to put in a whole orchard in one day!!! Anthony was glad to grab the "long tape measure!" He was so proud of himself... you see usually Alex gets this stuff,because Anthony doesn't know where to find anything... so he was rather tickled with himself!!

We laid every thing out... putting stakes where each bush or tree was supposed to go... then Jerry would drill the hole with the Takeuchi then we would mix in some WeedFreeGardenBed soil and some of the Essential Elements... all mixed with the sandy soil that is there... so it would give them a good start with some organic matter in the soil that will retain a little moisture! Pretty soon we figured out the best system. We put the WFGB soil on top of the ground around where the hole was to be dug... made a hole in the top so Jerry could see where to dig and then he would drill... this put the sandy dirt on top of the soil mix so we used the pitchfork to just sift it into the hole and it would be perfectly mixed up!! The boys liked to help with their shovels!!!!

A hole ready to be mixed. We would lay out a whole row or grouping of trees and then go through and "drill" them all at once, that way we were doing it assembly line style!

It was a little windy so we let all out bags from the mix and the mulch blow into the corner of the orchard to be caught on the fence! Then we could pick them all up at once, which we did in the morning. We planted about 60 things that day!! Finishing at about 10:30 at night! We were some tired puppies!!!
This was about the last bloom from the pink magnolia tree... it smelled sooooo lovely!!

Photo Shoot in Holland

Seriously... you didn't think i would spend the whole day taking pictures of just FLOWERS!!!










He was getting annoyed with us... there was a dream playground just a little ways away...


He has been sticking his teeth out like this a lot lately!! Silly kid!



I tell him him to look at my camera, right? well... he turns his head to me and then... his eyes go the other way... hahaha!!
He was watching a dog go by...



I saw this tree and the kids groaned... they had to indulge me, before they could go the playground!

Anthony would work with me longer than Alex could handle... so he got quite a few pictures taken...