Busy Month

We've been on the go this past month.  We've had so much fun, but it'll be nice to 'rest' at home for a while... at least until Thanksgiving!

Scott and I were able to get away for a few days and meet up with friends from St. Louis in Ft. Lauderdale at the end of September.  It was so nice just to relax, just the two of us.  We didn't have to rush anywhere, get anyone ready but ourselves... and sleep in!  The boys stayed with my mom and her husband, Big Mama and Jim Daddy, and had a blast.  I'm sure Mom and Jimmy were exhausted by the time they got back home in Houston, but we were so grateful for them coming up.

Hanging with the Heise's 

Sunrise from our balcony

Palm trees by the pool

Being Forest Gump.  We passed by Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. one
morning, and Scott couldn't resist.

Not long after our trip to Ft. Lauderdale, I was fortunate to go with Brannen to 5th grade camp.  I'm not sure who had the most fun, me or Brannen!  I'm already hoping I can go with Griffin when it's his turn.

Allaso Ranch ~ Hawkins, TX

The weekend after 5th grade camp, Scott and I went back to Southeast Missouri (the college we went to and actually where we met) for homecoming.  Scott's fraternity brother Keith, from Houston, and our friend Christine, who lives around the corner, both went with us.  It was a fun trip, but a short one.

McKinney Girls!  

Go Cards!

The Delta House

Scott and Keith at the Pike House

A Pike and a Delta

I had forgotten how beautiful the campus was during the Fall.
Lots of trees turning colors.... something we don't get
in McKinney!

This was definitely a fun filled month, but the MOST exciting of it all, we got 4 new pics from China yesterday!  We had asked if they could send us one, but we got 4!  We aren't 'allowed' to post her picture until certain paperwork is processed.  Once we get that, we will introduce her to you!


Happy Halloween Y'all!

Relief

We received an update yesterday on the little girl whose file we've been reviewing.  It answered a some more questions we had, little stuff really.  I think we already had our minds made up for a while, but this was just a little bonus.

We said YES to this little girl!!

I think way deep down we knew this was her, but we wanted to make sure we really went through her file and ask a ton of questions so we wouldn't be surprised with anything.  We had two weeks to review her file, and we took advantage of just about every single moment of the two weeks! She's 'special needs', she has a repaired cleft lip (and does not have a cleft palate) so we really wanted to make sure we understood everything in her file. Overall, she's in pretty good health!

When we made the call to our agency it was total excitement and a big relief.  Relief in the sense that we know without a doubt this is our little girl that God has chosen for us.

So now, I want to go get her.

Right now.

It looks like we will have to wait a little while.  Make that a long while.  Our agency thinks it will be about 6 months before we can travel.  6 months??   Time to start praying for patience again.

In the meantime, we need to fill out more paperwork.  Really??  Dang.  Just when I thought we were through with that phase.  It seems like we're a broken record with giving out all our info.  I think China will know more about us than we know about ourselves!

We'll post pictures when we can.  We have to wait for a little while longer until some of the paperwork is processed until we can actually post her picture.  Griffin is dying to take a picture to school to show all his friends and teacher a picture of his little sister.  He and Brannen are already beaming as big brothers!

Emails, Phone Calls and a lot of Praying

Since we got THE phone call little over a week ago, we've been emailing and calling doctors to have them look over the file we were sent, as well as getting in contact with the orphanage to answer some questions.  We still have a few things to go over, but throughout it all, we've been praying.  Praying for guidance and for a clear answer.


In the meantime, I went to St. Louis with my brother and his family.  It was actually nice to have a little distraction while waiting on phone calls and emails.  I was so thankful they let me tag along!  I'm also thankful I have a husband who doesn't mind me taking off and leaving him with the kids for a couple of days.  This was probably the first time I got hang out with my brother in St. Louis since we all moved away.  The first thing we did was go to a Cardinal game.  Busch Stadium is probably one of my favorite places on earth.

Gorgeous day and great seats!

The Cards pulled off a 5-4 win over the Astros

When the new Busch stadium was built, Chris and I bought a brick

 in memory of our dad.  He was also a huge Cardinal fan, even

 while growing up in Houston, so it seemed fitting.  We made sure

to take Kaytie by and see it.

We spent one morning at the St. Louis Art Museum, and

walking around Art Hill.  It was another gorgeous fall day!

We tried to get a picture of Kaytie in the

 grass, but she isn't a fan of grass :)

While I was there, we did a lot around St. Louis, including eating a lot of St. Louis pizza!  I'm totally going to have to detox.  We also got to see a football game at our high school.  It was homecoming, so we saw a few friends we hadn't seen in a long time.... bonus!  Before the game, we got into the school and roamed the halls a bit.  I hadn't been in that school since my last day of senior year.  Not much had changed!

Senior Hall.... now called Alumni Hall

My last day in St. Louis, we went apple picking.  We had probably gone apple picking every fall that we lived there, and Chris wanted to take Kaytie there.   Of course we had to get some pictures!  Still not a fan of sitting in the grass, she did seem to tolerate it a few seconds longer this time, so we hurried and clicked away.

Now, back to reality and back to concentrating more on the adoption!

THE call!

It's been a couple days, but on Thursday as I was in the middle of grocery shopping, we got a call from our agency saying they had a file of a little girl they wanted us to look at!

Ummm..... WHAT!?!?!?   They JUST told us our log in date on Monday.  I was totally not prepared for that call.  Not at all.

My thoughts were all over the place.  I couldn't even concentrate on the rest of my shopping.  I really have no idea what ended up in my cart, but checked out and rushed home to pull up the file they had emailed us.  Not only did they send the file, but they also sent 7 pictures of her and VIDEO!!!  That is highly unusual.

Scott was at work, so I emailed him the file,  then I combed through her file for myself.  Her file, although it didn't contain a ton of information (I guess they all really don't), gave us a good peek at her. There are still a couple questions that we have and are waiting for the orphanage to answer (of course it was Saturday there already - Friday here - when I sent the email).

After looking over her pictures and video, and then looking at them at least a hundred times more, I called my two friends that have also adopted from China.  I needed to bounce all this information - that literally came out of the blue - off on someone who had been in our position.  They each helped tremendously!

She is such a cutie, even has long hair as opposed to the usual shaved orphanage cut.  I can totally see a big bow in it!  However, we are moving very cautiously and are having a couple doctors view her file before we make any definite decisions.

Good news, bad news.  The good thing, we have 2 weeks to decide as opposed to the usual 72 hours.  She's in an orphanage linked directly to our agency, so her file doesn't have a ton of other agencies trying to grab it.  The bad news.... we have 2 weeks to decide.  I almost wish we only had 72 hours because then that way we wouldn't have time to stew over it and possibly read more into it than we should.

So, this weekend is full of getting info ready to call doctors offices on Monday..... and a lot of praying!

A little family time, and some news!

We took the boys to Austin over this past weekend to go to a UT football game, and to visit my brother and sister.n.law who live close to Austin.  The football game is always fun, but I just really enjoy getting to spend time with my bro and his family.  They don't live really far (only about 3 hours) but it's far enough we just can't pop over.   

Chris, Kim and Kaytie

The boys by the tower on campus

 Outside the stadium ready for the game.

  Kim stayed home with Kaytie :(

Griff celebrating the Longhorn win

After the game, we took the boys to their favorite place that Uncle Chris introduced them to... Toy Joy. It's a toy store with some weird unique toys that the boys just love to look at.  Griff was dying to get a mummy that was there.  We talked him out of it since it was about $150!  After Toy Joy, we stopped off at another favorite spot, Amy's ice cream, before heading back to Chris' house.  I just love weekends like this.... just wish they lasted longer!

News on the adoption front.... we now have a Log In Date (or LID)!   This means our agency will now be actively looking for our little girl!  

We'll see how this thing goes...

I'm not really sure how well this whole blog thing is going to go, but I'm giving it a shot.

The main reason for me to start a blog is because we are adopting a little girl from China!  Some of y'all already knew this, but for those who didn't.... surprise!  Hopefully this blog will serve as a way for family and friends to know what's going on during this whole crazy process, and also a way to stay connected when we are actually in China.  Not to mention, I hope it will be a good journal for our little girl to read when she's older.

To say we are excited won't even come close to what we are actually feeling.  Griffin has said he's waited his whole life (all 8 years of it) to be a big brother.  It seems a day doesn't go by without at least one of us talking about her and wondering what she will look like, what her laugh will sound like, and most importantly.... what baseball team will be her favorite.  Ok, maybe that's not the most important, but it's pretty close in this house!  Brannen says the Cardinals, and Griffin says the Rangers... if you know our family, I know you're not really shocked by that.  I'm just praying she likes baseball no matter what team is her favorite!

Our decision to adopt was not overnight.  In fact, it was years in the making.  Years.  I felt the tug of adoption on my heart a while back and have really been praying for God to show me/lead me in the direction we should go.  The answer seemed pretty clear to me, and so I started diving head first into looking at adoption agencies.

There was just one problem.  Scott was not feeling the same tug of adoption on his heart as I was.  Or should we say,  he wasn't feeling it at all.

Not even a little bit.

For a time,  I would talk to him - ok, probably on the verge of  nagging - about how I felt adoption was what we should do.  I had it all laid out.  Apparently I wasn't too convincing because he wasn't buying it.  There were times I would bring it up and he would just walk out of the room.  The nerve!  So, I changed my prayer a bit for God to either change my heart or Scott's.  Either way, I just wanted an answer because being on a different page from each other was driving me nuts.

I would like to say Scott finally changed his mind because he finally realized I was right, but it wasn't.  It was God.  Only God could've changed his heart.  So, with us finally on the same page, we signed papers in December 2011 to get the process going.  And what a process it has been!

The amount of paperwork we've gotten together is mind blowing, but we got it all together and our dossier was sent off to China last week.  Whew!

And now..... time to wait.  I think my prayers are now for patience!