A New Season Begins

Sorry that the survey in the previous post is not working properly. I have tried and tried to redo it, but have been unsuccessful! So far Vin Diesel is in the lead!

This is my last day of summer before school starts on Wednesday. It is a bittersweet time, but exciting things lay ahead. We start our house church (The Joshua Tree Network) on Sept. 9 with the first one being at our house, I have a new stamp club beginning Sept. 7, I start teaching sign language again for work which is always fun, and Troy's cousin, Abby is coming to live with us while she does her internship at the YMCA. In addition, Troy and I are competing in the LazyMan 140.6 Triathlon in September that the Y is sponsoring. We have 6 weeks to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles and run 26.2. ! It should be a lot of fun! We did one while living in St. Louis and it is motivation to get you moving! Speaking of moving, Troy and I competed in the Lytle Park Sprint Triathlon (300m swim, 12 mile bike, 5K run) in Mattoon on Saturday. This was my first tri in 4 years, but I did the AquaBike. I don't do well in heat and low and behold, the temperature was in the low 80's. I could have done the whole thing, but it was fun to try something new! Troy did fabulous! This was his first tri that he didn't take home any "hardware". He has been racing in the Clydesdale division for bigger men, but decided to race in his age group instead. Had he raced in Clydesdale, he would have won by 5 minutes, but he got 6th in his age division. It was his best race ever! I got 2nd in the AquaBike, but there were only 2 of us! Had I done the entire thing, I would have won my age group! I laugh because I am not a competitive person and do not consider myself an athlete at all! I consider it a true joy to just cross the finish line!

Survey...Who Does Troy Look Most Like?

Many times when Troy and I go out, people tell Troy, "Hey, you look like ____?"

Who do you think Troy looks like?

Upper left: David Evangelista

Upper right: Howie Mandel

Lower left: Robert Verdi

Lower right: Vin Diesel

Troy and Amy

8 Months Down...

...and hopefully only 12-14 more to go. That is our prayer even though we are being highly optimistic if the CCAA continues at the rate they are currently going. Miracles do happen!

21st it is...

Of November. That is how far the CCAA went in referrals this month. Congratulations to all of those families who received referrals. Rumor Queen said there were many boys referred and several sets of twins! I have not come across any blogs out there to confirm this, but it is interesting. I am still waiting for our agency to post how many referrals they received this month. Rumors out there say November 2005 was a large month for log-in days and things should speed up.

This is the weekend for the Decatur Celebration... a weekend long street fair with bands, food, various acts, crafts, etc. This is a HUGE event for Decatur! For people who have moved away, THIS is the weekend they often come back for family/class reunions. Our neighborhood is full of guests! Troy and I are helping park cars at the church on Saturday since our church is offering free parking because God's love is free. Chris Rice is playing on the Christian stage Saturday night so we plan on seeing what he is like in concert.

On a personal note...please keep Troy and I in your prayers. We are launching the first simple church out of our house starting Sept. 9! We have been meeting with a group of people every Wednesday for the past 4 months on laying the foundations for this soon to be simple church network! Everyone is so excited and ready to start now!

A Little Bit of Hope

The CCAA just finished reviewing dossiers through June 30, 2006! They were only in the review room for 21 days! This is now 2 months in a row of speedier progress! Those who got referrals in June are also getting their travel dates! It looks like people are working faster in some departments at the CCAA! We still have a ways to go since we have a LID of 12-11-06, but this brings us one step closer. Referrals should be coming in the next week or so. It will be interesting to see how far past Nov. 14, 2005 they got! Rumors are flying all over the place from Nov. 22 being the cut-off to mid December! I am praying for mid December!

Conversations...

Troy and I got out of town on Sunday and drove to Champaign. We really didn't need to buy anything, but wanted to visit some stores that we do not have in Decatur. As we were debating where we should go, Troy said, "Do they have any baby places?" Of course he followed up immediately with, "I cannot believe I just said that!" I thought it was too cute! I too couldn't believe he said those words, but I know how anxious he is in getting our nursery ready. It is the only room in our house that is incomplete. We have always said we wouldn't decorate until we get a refferal, but he is ready to paint the white walls some color!

Cards...

I have been busy stamping card fronts for a swap using new stamps from the Stampin' Up! catalog. This is my swap. I will be getting 31 other card fronts and I cannot wait!

These are some cards that I have made for one organization. Part of my rubber stamping hobby/business/ministry is donating cards to various not-for-profit groups. This was my first time to make square cards and it was so easyand fun!

Cukes, Conversations and Cards

We have the first crop from our garden... a tastey cucumber that we ate in our salad last night. This is our first attempt to grow cukes and we have been successful! Our garden is very haphazard. I threw in some tomatoe, cucumber, cilantro and basil seed and PRESTO... we have a lush and fruitful garden! I have never been able to grow cilantro and it is flourishing! We didn't do anything fancy with the soil and it has worked!

Our first cuke and crop from our garden!

Our small, but fruitful garden.

We have tons of tomatoes on our vines. We are waiting for them to brighten up. The weather has been in the 80's (perfect!) and not hot enough to ripen up the little ones.

I've Been Tagged...

... by Christine. This is one of those fun blogging type of games where you can learn a little more about other. I am to list 8 interesting facts about myself and then tag others. If you are reading this, consider yourself tagged! I took forward to reading about you on your blog!

1. Since my birthday is June 18, I have been on vacation when it is time to celebrate! I remember turning 13 in Yosemite, 15 in Washington State, 16 in Arkansas ( I got to be a part of the driving rotation that year )18 on the plane to Germany and 32 in Sheffield, England.

2. I became a Stampin' Up! demonstrator without ever going to a party or stamping a card! I saw the catalog and thought it was awesome! I signed up a month later and have been doing it for 6 years now! I have met some incredible people, it supports my hobby and ministry and I am hoping to make more $ to go towards our adoption.

3. I decided to sky dive on the spur of the moment on July 4, 1997! It was so much fun and worth every penny! I have a video to prove it! Unfortunately, the pilot of the airplane was not certified to fly that type of plane and he rolled it for fun! You can see our heads hitting the ceiling in the video! The guy I was dating soon after I did this was a pilot and was in a twin-engine ratings class with the guy who took us 10,000 feet to jump!

4. I have spent more money on college transcripts and state teaching certification tests the last 5 years! I am now certified to teach in Texas, Missouri and Illinois. I have an elementary ed, early childhood and family and consumer science teaching certs. Don't ask me which ones I have in each state because I have no clue at the moment.

5. When my husband wants to go out to eat, I often ask, "Which Mexican food place should we go this time?" My dad used to say the same thing growing up! I LOVE and crave Mexican food! I love Thai food too, but it is not in our town!

6. My dog Jolee (AKA Joey), got to go to school with me everyday for two years when I taught in Texas! She was quite the hit! Joey loved kids of all ages, cheered you up when you were stressed and loved to play soccer! We lost Joey when she was 5 due to a major back injury. She was the smartest dog!

7. I always wanted to have a pet monkey growing up and twins!

8. I changed my major 3 times in college from interior design, to social work and then family and consumer science (FACS). FACS was the fast way for me to graduate with all the other classes that I took. I graduated in 5 1/2 years (6 years from HS since I took a semester off and went to the YMCA of the Rockies in CO) and have enough credits for a Masters degree. Funny thing now, my job for BabyTALK now is a combination of social work and FACS so it was not wasted time, money and education. I have thought about going back to school to become an RN or even a doula. I would love to work on the labor and delivery floor of a hospital.

7 Months Down and ? to Go!

Today marks our 7 months of being logged into the CCAA for our child(ren). This time has gone amazingly fast! Hopefully, we have one year or less (my optimistic attitude for once) to wait for our little one(s). Right now we are in a transition time for our family with Troy now being an "urban missionary" and working for the YMCA as an associates sports director. We are launching a house/simple/organic church network in Decatur this September with the first one out of our home. Currently, we are working on laying the foundations and doing weekly training to a group of people who are interested in this way of being the church. We know God's timing is PERFECT and adding little ones during this time would be an adjustment. It will be nice to get the network off the ground and moving throughout the city!

A bit of interesting news, the CCAA has finished reviewing the month of May 2006 dossiers and they were only in the review room for 14 days. April 2006 was in for 106 days! They say the review room has nothing to do with how fast matches will be made, but I have a hard time believing this. I pray this is a good indication that things will be speeding up! The excerpt below is from Rumor Queen's website on how the review room works. RQ's site depresses me, but I like to look at it during referral time!

Each agency has their own review person. They know how to put a dossier together based on how their review person wants to see it, and based on the things their review person will approve or deny.
Each review person has their own assigned agencies, or maybe their own assigned country.
Sometimes one review person has twice as many files to review as someone else does that month, but the next month they may have half as many.
This means that one reviewer could be several months ahead of another reviewer, and may stay that way until their agencies have a big month and they get slowed down again. It is normal for one reviewer to still be working on February while another reviewer has made it to April.
The review room notice on the CCAA site won’t show that a month is complete until all reviewers are through with that month.

6 Years Ago Today...

Troy and I got married at 2:00! It is amazing how fast the past 6 years have gone and where we are today! What a journey it has been both personally and as a couple. More reflections later. We have to leave so Troy can get his body marked up for his triathlon on Sunday.

By the way, check out all the hair Troy has!

19 Inches, YIKES!

While enjoying my morning newspaper and coffee, I saw an that Marble Falls, TX made the national news. My brother and his family live in Marble Falls which is not a huge city, but a beautiful Texas Hill Country type of place that has a beautiful lake. Marble Falls received 19 inches of rain the other night and it is to continue until the 4th of July! Praise God my brother and his family are safe and dry!

Bye, Bye Camry, Hello Matrix!

Yep, we have a new car! Troy and I looked at cars Sunday evening and wrote down vehicles that we were interested in. We were looking into used Toyota Camrys and Corollas since we could not afford used Odysseys or Siennas. Low and behold, there was a used Toyota Matrix that was kind of cute. We didn't see a price on it, but looked it up online. Come to find out, it was in our price range and included everything we wanted. I could not sleep Sunday night thinking of this car and how I was going to wheel and deal the sales associate. We did A LOT of research Sunday night on Matrix's and got comparable prices and reviews. I went to the dealership Monday afternoon and test drove the car! It was SO much fun to drive. Troy drove it later that afternoon once I picked him up from work. He liked it a lot and we made an offer. Come to find out, the price was painted on the winshield of the vehicle and we didn't even see it Sunday night. It was a God thing because we wouldn't have considered the car based on the price on the winshield. The internet had it at a cheaper price and the dealership had to honor it. The rest is history! We prayed that God would lead us to the right vehicle and sales associate. Indeed he did! Just shows you to stay open to what God wants for you and not what you want yourself! We hadn't even considered a Matrix until we saw it that evening! We KNOW God wanted us to have that car! As the towing company was taking away our Camry, the dealership called to tell us the title on our Matrix was in and we need to sign!

Bye, Bye Camry...

We got word from our insurance agency that our 1994 Camery was considered a total loss. It is sad to see this car go. The "junk yard" is going to pick it up on Tuesday morning to take it to its new home. We don't realize how attached we become to our cars. Troy and I are grateful for the 4 years we have had it. It was a gift from my parents when Troy was doing his internship. We became a one car family after we got married and he entered seminary. We really needed two cars once he did his internship and asked to borrow it for one year since my parents had 3 cars between the two of them. They gave it to us and we have LOVED it! Despite its age, it was an incredible vehicle!

When it Rains, it FLOODS!

Oh, what a weekend we had! Troy and I decided to go to Chicago to celebrate my birthday, Fathers Day and our anniversary, but NO, the Devil wanted to play some games with us. Here are some of the things that happened to us in our 24 hours of trial:

* We were in a fender bender that did some damage to our car. We are waiting to hear back from our insurance to see if we have a total loss or they will fix it.

* A bird died as it flew into the grill of our wrecked car as we were driving it back home to pick up our other one so we could go on to Chicago.

* We woke up to water dripping from the ceiling in our hotel room. It was insane! We felt like we were walking in a thunderstorm! Of course management was rude to us when we told them about our problem.

* The bed that we REALLY wanted from IKEA did not fit in our car.

* It POURED on us as we loaded our car with a bookcase and desk from IKEA and the sun was out!

Oh well, we laughed and prayed the rest of the time that all would go well. We didn't do everything we planned in Chicago because we were ready for the drama to STOP! Now the positives:

* The guy we had the accident with was incredibly nice! He served two tours in Iraq and got out before they sent him on his 3rd!

* IKEA had a great .99 breakfast, coffee and cinnamon roll. It only cost us $4.54!

* TGIF Fridays had mojitos and rum/coke on special when we arrived Friday night for dinner!

* The customer service help was fabulous at IKEA!

* We came home with an awesome bookcase and desk that will premire in the new catty! They were cheap (and a good quality) too!

So in the meantime, we are debating what type of vehicle we need in case our car is considered a loss. We thought of a minivan once we got our kid(s), but maybe now this is a good reason to jump ahead. Any suggestions? Maybe China is going to speed up and God is saying "get ready". Who knows! Were sure have been tested though!

Whoo Hoo Troy!

Once again, Troy completed another sprint triathlon and got 2nd place in the Clysdale Division (for men 200+ lbs.). He missed being 1st by 2/100 of a second! Troy was 24th overall and 5th in his age group. This is Troy's 3rd tri and he is 3/3 in walking away with an award so far! This was a sprint tri, but there were MANY very good, competitive athletes on the course. Troy did an incredible job considering he was riding one of the cheapest bikes (an antique Bridgestone RB2) of the day. Just shows you it's the rider and not always the bike that counts. I am so proud on him! Here are some pictures of the day. They are totally out of order, so my apologies.

You can barely see Troy crossing the FINISH line!

Run Troy Run!

My speed demon on his fabulous and antique bike!

Getting ready for the 300 M swim!

The lovely sight of balloons lifting off at 7:00 a.m. on the lake! What a treat to witness!

He is a winner!

WWWAAAAHHH!

This is how we feel right now since the CCAA only matched 6 days worth of Log-In Days! This note is from CCAI, our fabulous adoption agency:

We are happy to announce that we received matches for our May, 2006 expedited Chinese Descent families! Congratulations to the families who were recently matched! The CCAA matched up through November 7, 2005 for our Traditional Program families. We are disappointed to have not received any matches for our Traditional Program families in this group. We do not have any news on the next group of matches at this time. We will update this site when more information becomes available.

We Are Back!

Actually, we have been back for almost a week now. Troy and I went to Hunt, TX for the first annual Lehman Family gathering. We stayed at Casa Bonita Lodges and our cabin was right on the river. It was perfect! Troy and I woke up every morning and enjoyed our cup of coffee and a book on the terrace by the river. It couldn't have been better! We did lots of kayaking, swimming, fishing, eating and laying out in the sun! Now back to reality. We cherish those moments we got to spend together with our family and as a couple!

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.