Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Kyndall!

Hey! Happy Birthday Kyndall. Boy, if I wasn't working and had a little extra cash just sitting around I would be in Oregon right now. I sure wanted to fly out to help Kyndall celebrate her first birthday. It is hard to be Auntie Valorie and Kyndall not even know me. Maybe she'll want to talk on the phone when she is a little older.

We had a great Christmas. Dave rented a beach cabin for us and we went down to Florida for a few days. It was nice to be together as a family for four consecutive days. The girls were completely spoiled. McKenzie with a new electric Daisy Rock guitar and Miranda with an "intendo" DS. Dave found our way home with his new Garmin GPS. Why did we not do this YEARS ago? (oh yeah, they didn't have them and we couldn't afford one!) If you have known us long, you know that we don't travel well together. Neither one of us have a great sense of direction and reading the map is not my greatest skill set. This little purchase could have saved us lots of heated "discussions" in the car. If you don't follow it, it tells you.....I don't have to!

My Christmas Gift

Before

After

Well, I got my Christmas gift a little early. Dave has been searching for a new fireplace. The previous one the girls and dad made last year because you can't have Christmas without a fireplace, or so I've heard :) Isn't it nice? Dave has also hung the stocking that Miranda came home from the hospital in. He is hoping that it is filled with a little boy.

Miranda shares her birthday!

When I came home from work last night Miranda was asleep. She stayed sleeping until almost 9. I tried to wake her up several times, but she was just too tired. She missed the big news and all the phone calls from family wishing her a happy birthday last night. This morning, she was delighted to receive an e-mail from my brother with a picture of her 10 new "cousins."

Hope

This Sunday was the start of the Advent season. We were chosen to light the candle of Hope yesterday as a family. We were blessed to have Emily here too!

We made it to see the pandas. Mei Lan was sleeping the whole time. She has grown a lot, but not quite as big as I had expected.

Here are the girls with Mom and baby panda in the background.
When we came home, we had pizza and panda cake. (I finally finished it!)

Miranda received a new bike from Mom and Dad! We finished the night out with a sleep over. I am exhausted. We will have the annual Christmas tree lighting at the chapel tonight. The Christmas season has officially started!

Family!

The four of us went down to Emily's house in Florida to see Josh and Karla. It was so great to see them. Josh has grown so much. We are very proud of him and how well he is doing with life. We had a nice, but short visit and then rushed back home so Dave could make it back for a wedding rehearsal.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving....no great photos of pies and turkey to post. I forgot to take photos before we ate. We had a nice afternoon with Emily and two of her friends from ASBC at a fellow chaplain's home. Tomorrow our family will be going to Florida to see Josh and Karla at Emily's house. We have to be back tomorrow night for a wedding rehersal. I don't have too much shopping planned. I was hoping to pick up a few things, but instead I will opt for every moment of sleep I can get. I have to get up too early on the weekdays.

#48!

We were notified today that our homestudy has been received by our agency and we are #48 on the waiting list! It should be about 18 months before we go pick him up. Sounds like it is projected to be a little bit sooner than we have thought......it can and may change. We'll see :)

Homestudy Complete

Yeah! As soon as the homestudy is copied 9 times and each notarized, they will be sent out. You know what that means? We will be put on the waiting list! I don't even have an official wait time, but it will be nice to know that we are one step closer....now on to more paperwork!

Volunteer Work

Dr. Hawkins and I volunteered at the Convoy of Hope in Montgomery today. She did free dental screenings and I was her assistant (I held the flashlight :) She was the superhero; I was the sidekick!

Yeah! Early Update!

Our agency called us a day earlier than expected! They stated that the situation that we were up against would be resolved and that we will proceed as planned! We are all relieved. The supervisor was in China and our case worker asked her while she was still away. What a blessing to have an agency who works for you!

Decisions, Decisions!

Our agency called today to welcome us back to the Vietnam program and we had a nice discussion. However there happens to be a large glitch that came up with their requirements and our requirements. The lady who is able to resolve this is not in the office until Tuesday. If we cannot resolve it, we may have to switch countries and that may cause a problem with us possibly moving overseas in the midst of the adoption. Please pray for the right decision to be made. We have our heart set on Vietnam right now and if we need to change, we need to be prepared for that.

Huge Adoption Changes

This weekend has been an up and down one for me. I ended it with a migraine on Sunday :) I have been doing a lot of research on adoption and Vietnam. There are big changes right now and I have several family adoption blogs that I follow that are are stuck in Vietnam without approval to bring their babies back and stuck in turmoil. I began doing a lot more research and Dave and I have prayed and decided that we are changing agencies. Granted, this is one of the last weeks to decide this. It has a lot of repercussions.....a much longer wait for our baby, but a much more reputable and trust worthy agency. Not that I would say our previous agency was bad, but it had some horrible reviews online and a lot of baggage that we can't afford to carry. I'm not willing to chance this with all of the emotion and finances that we will have to put toward this adoption. We knew that the length of time would be extended with the old agency and we would not be able to travel until after this summer. It now means that we will be waiting a year longer. That is tough to swallow, but we feel so much more peace about this decision. We initially applied and were approved with our new agency before we chose the old agency, so there isn't too much to catch up on. Yeah! We didn't really waste the money on the initial application. And....the new agency is cheaper!!!! And....the new agency is where my cousin was adopted from!

We also decided to not change countries. We could change countries and change our wait time as well, but I have my heart set on Vietnam right now. We are going with our gut instincts. Dave and I both feel that it is the right decision to make. We need to know with all assurance that the adoption process is completely ethical and that the adopted children are truly orphans and the parents are not being paid off. This change is the one safeguard that I feel I can take to make sure we are doing our part.

I-600 Off!

I mailed out the preliminary application for citizenship for our little boy! We still have a lot to do and a whole lot more waiting, but it is one step closer :)

Halloween

Miranda was Princess Diana for school. The sceond grade class had a history project and Miranda chose to be Princess Diana.

Super Girl at night!

Hannah Montana and her gypsie friend.


The girls had a great time gathering candy. This was McKenzie's first year going out with her friends by herself. Only because we live in Mayberry did I allow it. In our 5-6 block trek around the housing area we saw over 10 police officers. It is such a pleasure to live on base! You sure couldn't get this experience anywhere else.

Emily is here for ASBC for 5-6 weeks and joined us with a friend to take Miranda out. It was a lot of fun to have more family here.