Christmas Review and New Year's Eve Plans

Little Nathan T is so excited about his truck and trailer. Love these kids!

Handsome Noah has his goodies stacked up on the couch.

Beautiful Andrea loves these little puppy in my pocket things. These are ocean in my pocket.

Look at this mess!

Needless to say, we had a very blessed and abundant Christmas. Santa knew exactly what everyone wanted and he came through in his usual fashion. Oh the joys and excitement of the holidays. God is so good. On Christmas Eve we went to church for the Christmas Eve service. Andy put it all together and it was wonderful...short and sweet. He showed a clip from the Nativity Story and we sang beautiful traditional Christmas carols and then lit candles at the end. So beautiful. After church he went to pick up my "surprise" present at his sister's house. The fedex man was suppose to deliver it there, but they left a note saying no one was there to sign for it. Andy was furious. We drove all the way to Indianapolis Fedex to pick it up. We didn't get home until 9 and we still had to bake cookies. UGH. It was memorable that is for sure. The kids woke up around 7:30 and the festivities began. So much fun. I can't wait for Olivia to get her to enjoy it with us. We have ornaments on the tree just for her. Hopefully she will be able to be with us next Christmas. That is my prayer for the new year.

Today is New Year's Eve and we are anticipating a fun filled evening at our church. We are having an Extravaganza! We are performing a skit that is super funny. I am sitting behind Andrea and putting my arms through her shirt...Noah is putting his arms through Andy's shirt and we are then performing daily tasks such us makeup, eating, catching a ball, shaving (with no razor). It is sooo funny. I will post pictures later. Have fun tonight and be safe.

Christmas time

I can't believe that Christmas is in 3 days. It is such a wonderful and joyous time. My kids are bouncing off of the walls. This is a picture of us at the Christmas tree farm. So much fun! We were talking today about little our baby girl in Ethiopia and where we will hang her stocking for Christmas. We don't know when she will be with us, but our hearts are with her. A sweet friend of ours who has adopted 4 little girls gave me an ornament for our tree. She said that she always kept an ornament on her tree for her girls that were still in China. I cried when she gave it to me. I have been really trying to keep my mind off of the wait...but we got some news that the wait time has increased to 9-12 months for a referral. This puts us in August at the earliest. So, we may not even have her home for next Christmas. I must admit that I am quite upset about this, but God is good about keeping me busy. I just pray that the long winter months are not too difficult. There is starting to be some movement over in Ethiopia though. Lots of families have court dates approaching, and one family will be traveling to get their little girl the 3rd of January. Hopefully this will make space for our little one who will be coming into the home. God has perfect timing in everything though. I don't see it from my perspective, but He sees where she is (even if she is still in the womb). I will devote my time to praying for her health and her mother's. I will also pray that she will know she is loved and wanted. What a precious little girl she is.

Short update.

I wanted to share with you are most recent family photo. Every year at Thanksgiving we take a family photo around my parents fireplace. We have found that as our kids grow and the more we get we don't fit as well around the fireplace. You should see the one with our family, my brother's family, and my parents. We look a bit squished. I can't imagine what it will look like next year when O arrives. She will be the completion of our family and it will be sooo wonderful to have her with us.

We are in full swing with the Christmas festivities. We will go get our tree on Saturday. I am a little bummed because we are going to a farm that does not have a tractor ride. We have always taken a tractor ride out to the field and picked a tree. The tree farms around here don't offer that and we don't feel like driving a billion miles to a place that offers that. Oh well...we will see how it goes.

We have been busy practicing our Christmas program for church. It is called "Cookin' Up Christmas" and is sooo cute. The kids are doing an amazing job preparing. I am very proud of all of them.

Not much activity for us on the adoption front. Our dossier is being translated and should be done by the end of December. We will then be eligible for a referral. But, those have been slow coming in our agency. The courts are so backlogged that there hasn't been much movement. We are praying that the new year brings more referrals so that we move up the list. Until then....we are waiting. I believe that is how it is going to be for a while. But, we are in it for the long haul.

Wow, It has been a while.

Ok....so it is time to get back to blogging. A LOT has happened since my last post. We are now "officially" on the waiting list. My friends like to call it "paper pregnant". I think I like that terminology. FTIA received our dossier on November 3, so we now get to wait 6-8 months for a referral. I must admit that I really don't like this part of the process. I was telling some people that I enjoyed the paper chase phase because I actually felt like I was doing something, now things are out of my control and all we can do is wait. Things seem to be at a stand still on the referral end though. Our group hasn't received a referral since September (it may have even been August). But one family did pass court last week and there are a few others that are awaiting their court hearings. Our social worker said that there were some new children that are in the orphanage that are almost ready for referrals, but we don't know how many of those children will go to Bethany families and how many will be referred to FTIA families. We just pray that God's timing is perfect. I did join some other support groups this week to hear what other agencies are doing and to get support from others in our same situation. There are some families who are really concerned about some recent developments in Ethiopia regarding adoption. We pray that things don't hurt those waiting families and children continue to find their forever families.

Things on the homefront continue to go well. We have begun working on our Christmas program at church and Andrea has a speaking part. It has been a lot of work, but it is fun working with the kids. They are all doing a great job. Noah started wrestling for the first time last week. He is doing an awesome job. He doesn't like how hot it is, but he enjoys the wrestling part. Nathan is doing well in preschool. He likes to give me hugs when he walks past my room. It is fun watching him.

..............Bye Bye Boat...You've Been Fun

So absolutely thrilled today. I was in a huge need of receiving good news, and it came in several forms today. First, Andy and I have prayed about selling our boat. We knew it would help offset adoption expenses, but it was a difficult decision because we have had so many good times on it, especially my husband. Well, we agreed to sell it. I listed it this morning and by early afternoon someone had already come out to see it and purchased it for an amount that would cover about 1/3 of our adoption expenses!!! Thank you Jesus. Second, we had a doctors appointment for Andrea and she has no fluid on her kidneys!! The doctor went on and on about how amazing it was that she was so much better. I just smiled and thanked the Lord. Third, another referral came in for an FTIA family. She is a beautiful little girl. Every time I see another child referred, I feel like it is one of my own and I am overjoyed. Soon it will be us who gets the call. On another note, we are still waiting on our final paper to complete our dossier. We hope to get it within the next week. I feel like I check the mailbox constantly! Soon.

..............................................Test

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