1,185

1,185 Days---3 years, 2 months, 28 days---28,480 hours--
That is how long my sweet Andrew has been waiting for a family to come for him---I am praying that it is not much longer until we can get approval to bring him home----Claiming this verse Mark 11:24 "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

Trunk or Treat

We attended our 1st Halloween Trunk or Treat tonight. The kids had alot of fun dressing up. Ashton is always such a big help with Anna Grace. She fixed her hair and made her a beautiful Arial. Ashton looked beautiful wearing her China T-shirt and her Uganda beads(I told her she was dressed as an adoption advocate :) Hayne was thrilled to be King Peter from Narnia and Adam went as a "Gold" medal swimmer! We had alot of fun and even met up with Scooby Doo-AKA Kamden & Jodi. Anna Grace was thrilled with her bag of candy and I think I will have to be hiding it all soon-all she wants to do is eat candy :)

Day 56--Please let the end be in sight!

Another week has started and we are praying hard that we receive our LOA this week. I am at complete peace knowing that it will all happen in GOD'S PERFECT TIMING but yet my heart aches for my little boy. He needs his Mama and his Baba. He needs to be with his brothers and sisters playing in his new bedroom. I keep thinking of how sweet it will be to rock him like I have all of my other little ones. I can't wait to feel his little arms around my neck-to kiss his sweet little face and to hold the hands that I have a picture of---In my mind I keep thinking about how he needs us but in reality I know, it is me that needs him. This mommy needs to have all of her children together in our home. I am so blessed and I cannot wait until our family is complete. I am so grateful to the One who has called us on this journey. If you had ask me 10 years ago about my plans, I can assure you I never imagined this would be in our future. I can honestly say that the great thing about God's plans are that they are such much more perfect than ours. I can't imagine missing out on the blessing of adoption. It is one of the greatest miracles in life. In my plans, I was going to get married, have 2 kids and live happily ever after. In God's will, I was surprised with my 3rd pregnancy and sure that Hayne was our last child. How sad life would be if Hal had not continued to pray that God would touch my heart and open it to the blessing of adoption. There are no words to describe the joy that Anna Grace has brought to our family. She has opened our eyes to a new world and a new need. We have made wonderful, life long friends on this journey and for that alone we will be forever grateful. We long to encourage others to join this journey with us. We cannot pretend that we do not know the need of the orphans of this world. So many people look at us as if we have lost our mind because we are adopting our 5th child-to those I will say, I follow a God who is always faithful-He does not call the equipped, He equips the Called. I could not do this on my own. I have to trust that He will provide and strengthen us each step of the way. I am so far from the mother that I need to be, but I believe that God will honor our obedience. He will give us all that we need to make sure that we meet each of our child's needs. I feel like the luckiest mommy in the world and I cannot wait to hold my son in my arms. I am going to spend my life doing all that I can to ensure that all 5 of my children know how very much they are loved. I want them to love God and help others. That is the desire of my heart!

Pumpkin Painting Party

We had so much fun at our Pumpkin Party! The kids loved carving their pumpkins. I think the girls had the most fun at the candy table while the boys played football all night. We are blessed with such wonderful friends and family. The best part of the night was when the Tigers beat Miami in overtime-woo hoo!

Day 52- LOA Cheer!

Today is day 52 of our wait for LOA---So close to the "average" 60 day wait! I so want to be quicker than average :) Each day I wake up praying that today will be THE DAY! I am so ready to be in the final wait for our travel approval. My baby needs to come home! I am still praying and believing that it will not be much longer. They are laying carpet in his room today-Yippee! So very happy to be able to put their Castle bed together. I can't wait to see the finished product. Then I will be able to start shopping for all the things our new little man will need. I want his room to be perfect for him when he gets here. A couple of weeks ago, our friends came over for dinner and to share our referral videos. We are praying very hard that we will be able to travel to China together. We were in the same travel group when we went to meet Anna Grace. We were just able to spend the last couple of days of the trip together since the girls were in different provinces. Both Anna Grace's had fun playing together and Kathleen and I enjoyed talking about how wonderful it will be when our babies are home and are families are complete. Since it was "Football Saturday" we needed to support our teams. I bought an ice cream cake from Brusters and they decorated it for us-Instead of choosing a team to support, I decided to cheer for an LOA---You know----Give me an L- L- you got your L you got your L---Give me an O-O- you got your O you got your O--Give me an A- A- you got your A you got your A---What do you WANT----MY LOA!!!!! Let's hope that this blurry pic brings us some serious luck in the next few days!!!! Thanks for letting this crazy waiting mommy entertain you today :)

Andrew & Hayne's Room

We have been working on adding a bedroom to our house since the beginning of September. We have enclosed part of our garage and created a bedroom and mudroom. Hayne and Andrew will share the new bedroom. Hayne can't wait! He has begged for a knight and castle bedroom. We were excited when we remember that our paperwork states that Andrew loves playing in the castle outside at the orphanage. It is his favorite thing to do. We thought it would be really special to create a bedroom like his favorite toy. I searched on the internet for ideas for their room. I found a beautiful castle loft bed but it was WAY out of our price range. Imagine my surprise, when I found the same bed listed on Craigslist for a quarter of the price. We were so excited! Hal drove to Ashville and picked it up for the boys! Hayne was so excited when Hal pulled up with it on the back of his truck. He ask me to take his picture with it. It was so sweet. I can't wait to see my boys in this room, playing knights, swordfighting and just enjoying being together. We are almost finished-carpet needs to be put down and we can start moving in furniture. Each day we are closer to Andrew!

Things to do While you wait!

Things to do(or things to drive you crazy) while you wait for LOA!

*Check emails once every 15 minutes-This accounts for a total of at least 60 times per day-
*Stalk the Rumor Queen site each time you check email to see if ANYONE has any idea that a package is on its way!
*Look at every chart available that gives you an average of how long each family has waited and try to predict where your name will fall
*Call your husband every couple of hours and demand "Are you sure you still feel positive we will only wait 45 days?" (It's like I almost believe he has some type of power to predict:)
*Call your friends who have been through this process and drive them crazy :)
*Call others in your potential travel group and try to guess where your paperwork is at today
*Resist calling your agency and begging them for a "guess" on when you will hear something
*Run to your cell phone each time it rings, cause you just KNOW that this is THE CALL!

Please realize that these things truly happen each day although we were told the average wait is 60 days. I am a dreamer and I just can't quit dreaming that we are going to come in at "less" thank average during this wait :) Some days I am so grateful that we are already approved for this adoption, cause I am sure if a social worker knew how crazed this was making me, we would not be in good shape :)

Note to the ones in charge of signing our LOA'S----Please, please, please send ours this week-Toss this stressed out, internet stalking, dream chasing mommy a bone-we want to bring our boy home!

Day 44-Waiting

Today is day 44 of our official wait for LOA! Hal is guessing that tomorrow will be the day-I am not so sure. I sure hope he is right-he has said all along that we would only wait 45 days and I will owe him big time if he is right :) The average wait time is 60 days so we are getting closer to that everyday. We so want to get our LOA so that we can start the wait for our TA(travel approval) We are still praying to travel by the end of the year. It will be hard but at this point still possible if we receive our LOA soon. We are so ready to bring Andrew home. We know that he needs to be started in speech therapy and we want to make sure that he is getting all that he needs. We have been told that he is in a wonderful orphanage and we are very grateful. Due to the swine flu scare, things have changed alot. Someone has said that the outside therapists are not allowed into the orphanage and so we are worried about how long he has went without it. I know that this is ALL in God's perfect timing but it is so hard to wait when you know your child needs something. I am so thankful for the wonderful people who are caring for him right now. It is obvious from the pictures and videos that the children are well taken care of and loved. We are blessed and we can't wait to head to China!

i heart faces- Week 40

This is my very first i<3faces entry.
The weeks theme is excited and I knew the perfect picture.........

I took this at the beach this summer the day after we found out we had our PA! Oh how excited we were!


Go here to look at other excited pictures!