Garage Sale for China Babies

We had a garage sale last weekend to raise money for our adoption and earned $70! Two families on our street were also having garage sales which they advertised for and put out signs. We went ahead and took advantage of their efforts (which they were glad we did) and had a great time. It was very little work considering we didn't advertise or price our items. $70 is not a lot of money, but we didn't have too much stuff. Troy and I go through our house twice a year and get rid of stuff. The garage sale was an overall success! We got to talk with our neighbors and school people on international adoption!

Thank You Boys...

...for honoring me this Mother's Day. I woke up this morning to my coffee already poured for me in my new favorite cup and a bag of gifts from Troy and Jack. To top it off, a lady at church this morning said, "This time next year will be different for you." I hope she is right! In the meantime, I continue to love and appreciate Jackson,"my kid in a fur coat" and pray for our little ones in China, whether they are born, still in their mother's womb, or not even conceived yet. I also pray for those mommies and daddies who had to abandon their little ones in China. I cannot even fathom what they must feel!

Today Is Our...

...fifth month of waiting in line for our child(ren). The CCAA has only made matches through Nov. 1, 2005, so we have a while. Please pray for us during this wait. Everyone asks, "How is the adoption going?" All we can say is we have a long wait ahead. This has been an interesting experience in educating the population in international adoption. Most people seem to think you fill out a bunch of papers and fly over to pick up your child. I wish it were that easy. We continue to tell people we have another year, but other sources will say 24-30 months from now. Anything is possible with God. I keep praying for a miracle! God's timing is perfect, so in the meantime we continue to do His work.

Yada Yada

Last year around Memorial Day, a friend turned me on to the Yada Yada Prayer Group series! I went to the library and found book #2 and fell in love with the series. Click here to find more information on the books! After finishing book #4 yesterday, I was left hanging and couldn't take it anymore! I went to Berean and they had book #5 on sale and I also ordered the Journal! In the back of book #4, it had a section on starting a Yada Yada group yourself. After reading the info with Troy, we looked at each other and said, "That is church!" We are in the process of starting a simple/house church network in our city and truly feel God led me to these books to learn from them in addition to all Troy has done! They are simple, real life books to read that you can pick up and put down at anytime!

Our Bird Sanctuary

On a previous post, I mentioned my new obsession...bird watching. We bought a finch and hummingbird feeder a couple of weeks ago and now have added two more feeders in addition to a bird bath that I critter broke. A critter also broke our shephards hook after several evenings of trying to eat out of one of the bird feeders, but that is O.K. We found a big, better and CHEAPER 4 hook shephards hook! We now have 3 feeders and 1 hook place for the birds to rest! In addition to this new hook, we planted shrubs/flowers to attract the birds and butterflies! What a difference it has made! We have seen a rainbow of finches, woodpeckers, the most beautiful cardinals and DUCKS!

Thank You April Secret Pal

This past months theme with the Winter Blossoms, our CCAI LID group, was books. Thank you so much Secret Pal! I know who you are, but I am not allowed to reveal your name just yet! We cannot wait to read these books with our child(ren)! They are some of our favorite!

Projects and Obsessions!

We are finally done with the front of our house makeover. We added some new and brighter shutters, changed our white outdoor lights to black, added some new bark to our flowerbeds, painted our front door black and added two potted pine trees to frame our front door. Our house looks so much better! Now we just need to landscape the flowerbed in our back yard and we will be done with most of our spring projects.

My new obsession has been birds! We bought a bird feeder a couple of weeks ago and the birds have gone wild eating the seed. It has been so much fun and very relaxing to watch them play, eat and sing! Since then, I have bought another bird feeder, hummingbird feeder, the deck hook to hang a feeder on, a birdbath that later broke, and various types of seed!

4 Months Down...

and hopefully only 12 more or less to go...that is our prayer. The wait is getting harder at this point, especially since the CCAA only matched 2 days worth of LID this last month. Lately, it has been taking them ~2 months to get through one months worth of LID. They are only at 10/27/05, I believe. YIKES! We continue to remind ourselves that God's time is perfect and we will have our child(ren) when He is ready! This has been a very hard concept for me to understand lately, especially when I work with teen moms who continue to have children! Working with them has not bothered me until lately. It is not fair! I had one mom considering making an adoption plan and wanted Troy and I to adopt her baby. She changed her mind after pressure from her family who said they would help out, but do you think they are helping....NO! They are "trying to teach her a lesson"! AAAGGGHHHH! They wouldn't even pick her up from the hospital! Enough ranting and raving. I do have SO MUCH to be grateful for...my husband, Jackson (ruff, ruff), great friends and a warm house and so much more!

Rachel, Giada, Rural King and Travel Packet 1

OK, so I am homesick for some real city action. On Friday, Troy and I went to Bennigans and then explored the new Rural King that opened up in the old KMart in our area. We had no idea what to expect and it is foreign territory for me in many ways. If you live or were raised on a farm, PERFECT, but it was interesting to see. We did pick up a bird feeder and hummingbird feeder to go in our backyard which is a plus. They did have nice plants and I wouldn't mind supporting them instead of WALMART. Anywase, we do not have these type of stores in Austin. It was kind of making us miss the big city life and options. Never in a millions years would we think we would end up in Decatur, but God knows.... Seatle, Denver, Boulder, Ft. Collins, Madison, Chicago etc. were more the type of the areas we thought we would settle. There still is time, but God has us here which is OK for now, but we need a vacation. Back to being homesick, after Rural King, we turned on the Food Network and Rachel Ray did $40 a Day in Austin! It was so depressing to watch all the cool places to eat, Whole Foods, Waterloo Records, Amy's Ice Cream, the Salt Lick.... I was ready to go home! On top of that, Giada was next and explored Chicago!!! I LOVE taking the train and spending a day in Downtown Chicago! It feels like civalization again! Troy and I decided we need to get away more often! We imagined it would be fun to fly to Austin and stay in a hotel and not tell our family/friends that we are in town so we can do what we want to do.

On a more positive note, we got to download Travel Packet 1 for our adoption to China. This is given to you 3-4 months after your Log-In Date. We haven't read through all of it, but skimmed through the part about how much $$$ to bring with you. Time to start saving more $$$, do some fundraising and filling out applications for grant $$$. Jack is also enjoying the warmer weather and his ability to chase bunnies and birds! Spring is here and trees are blooming. I am ready to plant some flowers, but a freeze is expected this weekend!

Happy Birthday Michael!

Today is my brother, Michael, 31st birthday! This picture was taken at Thanksgiving with his son Bryan "saggin" his shorts! Michael is a natural dad to his sons Patrick and Bryan, a great outdoors man, a fix-it man (not sure where he learned how since or dad tries, but.... sorry Daddy) and fabulous Kindergarden teacher! We had a lot of fun together growing up and were even college roommates one year! Hugs and puppy dog kisses Mikey!

3 Month LID Anniversary

Today is the 3 month anniversary of our log-in day! It is amazing how fast the 3 months have gone! Hopefully the next 12 or less will go just as fast! We still remain optimistic that the CCAA will speed up! There is always hope and miracles DO happen!

My Boys...

Troy won 1st place in his age group (30-34) today at the LSA 5K with a time of 21:20! He placed 8th overall. I on the other hand, got 3rd in my age group with a time of 35:37! I walk/ran the 3 miles which wasn't too shabby since I haven't run in maybe 3 years! I am a water baby! Way to go Troy Boy! By the way, this is his first race since his back surgery in November! I think he is doing awesome!

Jack enjoyed the 60 degree weather today with his hedgehog! His dad says he needs a "poo (shampoo) and cut"! I find him pretty cute as this stage, but I understand!

This is what we saw at the top of the stairs when we came home yesterday! Jack had all of his favorite "babies" collected in one spot!

Troy's Visual DNA!

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Amy's Visual DNA

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This Time Last Year...

We were in Alaska for Travis and Rebecca's wedding(My BIL and SIL)! Happy First Anniversary Travis and Becca! Today is also the ceremonial start of the Iditarod! We saw this last year and it is amazing! We didn't realize how tiny (thin) the sled dogs really are! The movies portray them as thick coated Huskies, but the dogs are really far from that.

Troy and I have been busy with work, church, stamping workshops, etc. It is nice to have off this Saturday to just be US! It is snowing AGAIN, but just a beautiful dusting! It is a great day to stay home!

Troy moved our furniture in our guest bedroom into our empty 4th bedroom to have the "nursery" a blank slate and ready to go. We still have a long wait until we get our kid(s), but it is cute to see his enthusiasm to get it ready. We always talked about decorating it once we get our referral, but there are still nail holes to patch and clean up.

Seven Years Ago Today...

...Troy and I had our first date. At the time, he was living in Austin and I was in San Marcos. He showed up at my apartment door with a dozen yellow roses. We went to HEB to buy our groceries for dinner (chicken with pesto, pasta with alfredo sauce, salad, garlic bread and wine) and had a wonderful evening of delicious food and conversation. Little did we know we would end up engaged by the end of the year. Another cool fact is that Feb. 18 is the first day of Chinese New Year. God knew all along His plan for us. We have a kid(s) waiting for us in China!

Pics From the Blizzard!

Troy is using our tree trimmer to get some of the heavy snow off our awning!

You can see how deep the snow is compared to Jack! He finally has a decent area to potty in!

I was out shoveling snow again to make our entrance hazard free!

Our Senior Pastor showed up with the churches snow blower to blow our driveway and sidewalk! Thanks Pastor Wray! By the way, didn't they say to stay off the roads?

The tree was Jack's potty area before we got MORE snow and our driveway was plowed!

Jack had to check on his bunny friends underneath the deck first thing in the morning. I had to shovel snow away from the door so he could get out. This was earlier in the morning before we had a big dump. Jack would have been buried in all the snow had he gone out in the afternoon!

It's A Blizzard!

We are snowed in today and the conditions are so bad the snow plows are not even running! We are expecting between 10-15 inches of snow before this is over with! It is hard to say how much we have gotten so far since we are experiencing 40 MPH winds and we have 3 feet snow drifts in places. All I know is that it is too deep for Jack to play outside. We are taking him out front where he found an area that does not bury him in snow to do his business! I will attach some pictures once this storm passes by.

2 Months Down....It's A Heat Wave!

Today is the 2 month anniversary of our Log-In Date! Plus, it is 31 degrees outside! It seems like a heat wave compared to the highs of 10 we have been having around here! We did buy some heaters to warm up our basement so we do not have to bundle up to play darts!

Thank You Feb. Secret Pal

Troy and I (really me since I read all the posts) belong to a Yahoo CCAI Nov./Dec. Log In Date group, The Winter Blossoms. These are the people we will be traveling with so we are starting to build friendships, provide support, answer questions, etc. This group started a secret pal exchange that will take place every other month with a theme. February's theme was Chinese New Year. This is the Year of the Pig. The picture will describe what we got in the mail from our secret pal! Thank you Carol and Lance from NY!