Take a guess

Okay folks, I have got tired of waiting for our referral and trying to guess when it will come. When do you think it will come?

This coming Wednesday marks 4 months and 2 weeks of waiting. They say 3-5 mo. of waiting but it can be longer... I sure hope not...

Anyway please leave a comment with your guess!

4 Months 1 week

Habakkuk 2:3
"For the vision awaits its appointed time;it hastens to the end-it will not lie.If it seems slow, wait for it:it will surely come; it will not delay"

I was checking blogs and stole this verse off of this blog. I love it. Pray that they get their referral soon. It has been 5 months for them. We are given a referral estimate of 3-5 months and when you’re in the window its hard enough to wait but exit that window it is even harder! Wouldn’t it be great if they got it today on their 5 month mark?!

Today marks 4 months and 1 week of being in the window for us!!! I have never been more excited to see each day pass because I know that it means we are that much closer to our son or daughter!!!

A walk to beautiful

WOW! I watched A Walk to Beautiful and all I have to say if you haven't seen it, you NEED to. I was a little sceptical at first but it is SO good, sad, happy, etc. It made me want to give all of my money to the Fistula Foundation (what is a fistula~ check out the site: fistulafoundation.org ). I really wish I could send them (the women in Ethiopia that are "shunned" for lack of better word) the Bible and let them know that they aren't alone and that God loves them. I want to send some Bibles in Amharic to the "hospitals" so that they can know of God's love. That was the hardest thing for me- to watch as all these women that thought they were alone and had no one who cared and didn't know of God. Even if you have no tie to Ethiopia this video is a MUST SEE.

A family that was a week ahead of us recieved their referral today. I am SO excited for them. I have watched their blog closley as we are so close in time to be put on the wait list and probably will travel together. It has been a really fun blog to watch. However, as they received their referral I looked at the FBI list and felt really sad as, according to it, we are 12th in line. It still can be November, etc. before we receive our referral. The wait has really started to weigh heavily on our hearts as it feels like it has been forever of a wait. I know in Gods time it will happen and that HE is GOOD and will bless us beyond what we can possibly ask or imagine.

Ephesians 3:20
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us

So we continue to put our hope and trust in the Lords time and pray that the wait won't be too much longer!

All of you out there who continue to read our blog and for those of you who post- THANKS so much! I appologize for not having posted on a lot of your blogs lately. I get to read them a lot but don't have the time to post as it can take SEVERAL minutes for the computer to load so I CAN post.

A little update

This past Wednesday put us at 4 months on the waitlist.
We are 13th in line to receive a referral according to the FBI list.

Lights, power, action...

What could be greater...? Last night David brought home a generator that he borrowed from work. We hooked it up and had a little bit of power. It was very exciting! Then around 10:45 I couldn't sleep and as I was laying there, the lights turned on in the house! OOOOOOOh! David was so tired he didn't even notice. I HAD to wake him up, I was stoked! Apparently the power company cleared a tree late last night and "we've got power"! They thought it would be 3 weeks... It's funny b/c I am still adpting to HAVING power. I have found myself in several rooms trying to find something and mad at myself for not having brought a flashlight and then I realized I could just flip a switch. It was also really cold last night as the AC came on. David was excited about that b/c he has been working in areas that have had air conditioning. He says the house felt like an oven. I had got used to the regular temps. (its been very nice temperatures here) and it was good for me. It's also great not to hear the hum of generators all day and night. It is SO quiet! I have done dishes, laundry, etc. I have REALLY enjoyed being able to do it! Its funny what we take for granted.

As for the MRE's that David blogged about earlier -> they were great! We were out of food and they weren't too bad to eat. We got a box of 10 of them. We had fun opening our first one b/c they were packed with all sorts of stuff. Crackers, Tabasco sauce, tea, milkshake powder, mocha coffee, m&m's, bread, cakes, muffins, you name it! The next day, I got a little carried away, I enjoyed seeing what was going to be in my MRE so much that I ended up opening every one of them... It was kind of like Christmas! I couldn't stop! You didn't know what was going to be in the package (maybe it was too hot in the house and the heat got to me) good times during the aftermath of IKE! FEMA is great to provide these and they were very well welcomed!

As for those people who aren't proud to be an American- not naming any names but someones name that rhymes w/yo' momma comes to mind. It was great to see how many people pulled together to get us power, food, water, ice, etc. We weren't as badly hit as some areas- but still we were in need and hit bad enough. People came from all over and they came quickly. I appreciate all the support to our area and others as well. There is still a lot of cleaning of branches, refrigerators to refill, gas to stay supplied, etc. but we were well taken care of!

Last but not least. As for our baby, BRING ON THE REFERRAL! We are ready and are tired of waiting! I expected to log on and see a ton of names moved over to the "received referral" column. One family moved... its better than none but I have to say I am DISSAPPOINTED! The thing I did have was a phone and every time it rang I would run across the house to where I had it hooked to the wall and as much as I enjoyed talking to everyone who called concerned, I was hoping that it would be someone from Gladney saying "We have a referral for you". How great would that have been to end the whole hurricane catastrophy? Unfortinately this never happenend. This is the first time I have got antsy about the phone ringing. So BRING IT ON! We're past ready!

YUM! --> MRE's Hit the Spot!

Well, turns out IKE took quite a bite out of our electrical grid. We had our hurricane rations, and our cars fueled up, but after 5 days we were running low! Fortunately for us, FEMA arrived with MRE's! Chelsea got her first hot meal in 5 days, and we used our bicycles to get around town...as well as into our Point of Distribution (P.O.D. - not to be confused with the band!) where we received our next lot of rations. We continue to appreciate your thoughts and prayers, as we will be without power for a little while. On the flip side, we have enjoyed a slower pace of life. We enjoyed multiple bicylce rides, playing some board games, and the best weather ever! We're continuing to make the best out our current situation. I can't imagine how our views might be different if we had our little one already...could it be a mixed blessing that we're still on the wait list? Thanks again for your support of our areas, as we will be seeing the affects of this hurricane for awhile.

God is GOOD!

Well, Chelsea and I are in separate places. She's "manning" the house, and I'm trying to help bring some of the energy back online alongside the Gulfcoast. So far our area along the Houston Ship Channel and throughout the Metro Houston Area is without power. Keep everyone in your prayers as we're looking for a good recovery effort, and limited damage to our home...so far just some fence damage (at ours), and some more significant damage to other family members. We're fortunate that we and our family are safe and sound...Thanks for checking in on us, and continue to remember those even closer to the coast who suffered far worse damage than us.

Ike

This is my first hurricane. Last time one hit this area we moved down a week later and "missed out". My husband has been called into work in an area that is close to the storm so I am praying that he stays safe. We are North of the storm but have already started to get bad wind and the power has flickered a few times. I am sure we'll loose power soon, as wind knocks the power out here often. We are under a tornado watch until the morning so it ought to be interesting how thigns go as Ike makes landfall.

Its a girl

Okay, well, I am a proud aunt and have to post one more picture of my new neice, Quinn.

It's a girl!

No we didn't get a referral yet... We are patiently waiting for that... or as patiently as you can wait. However, my sister had her baby this week and she is oh so cute!



We had another visitor last night and the dogs went crazy. I wasn't sure what was outside, but with them barking so much I had to go see. They were barking at the trees behind our house so I wasn't AS worried b/c they are ALWAYS treeing something. It cracked me up when I shined my flashlight in the tree and saw this little guy... I was expecting a squirrel. I haven't seen too many opossums in my life and when I first saw him he was standing on a branch with his big gut hanging over his feet. I had to take a picture. He moved by the time I got back but I still like the picture!

It feels like it has been forever since I have had a chance to get on the computer. The good thing about Ike is school was cancelled Thurs. and Friday. I thought I would get caught up on everything but I ended up getting a bug that has been being passed around the schools and have been sick the past two days. Luckily tonight I feel MUCH better and decided it was time to post!

It has been crazy here the past few weeks. Snake slaying, alternators going out, a new baby, hurricanes, turn signals and air bags going out, two doors on our house breaking, school staring, just to name a few. David’s been working like crazy and so have I. Gearing up for the start of school I found myself working extra long hours. It has started to slow down but this has been the busiest year for kids enrolling and withdrawing.

About the snake slaying: while I was at school David e-mailed me with a lovely picture of a huge snake, then tells me it is in our covered patio and asks what I would like done with it... Ah, just let it in the house and let it make itself comfortable (sarcasm) You can imagine my reply. So after much dilemma over what to kill it with he took care of the snake!

We also have had our share of things going out or breaking. On his way to work David's alternator went out. Luckily he was right by Wal-Mart and was able to go in and get a battery at 4 AM. He got to work and then was able to get somewhere to get the alternator taken care of. Last week we must have had a big change in weather b/c two of our wood doors ended up breaking. The house we bought was a previous rental house and was a MESS when we moved in so they weren't in that great of shape to begin with. However one door was in such sorry shape when my husband went to remove the lock, it fell right into his hand! We now have steel doors! It’s amazing how much better they look! Our PT also had some work done a few weeks ago and the airbag and the turn signal ended up malfunctioning. It was great to be driving in bumper to bumper traffic and have the airbag signal go off every few seconds! ;). I think the alerts on that vehicle are the loudest I have ever heard! We got it fixed RIGHT away!

It's great to be on the waitlist. I find myself getting discouraged at times but also feel butterflies of excitement and hope that we get ours right away. I have my hopes up for sometime in October. The sooner the better and I hope not any later! Someone at church was joking with me and asking how it felt to be overdue (we've been waiting more than 10 months total). I thought their remark was clever. We have had SEVERAL really sweet people say that they would pray the wait goes fast and several more who found out we are adopting and have excitedly talked to us about adoption. It has made things a lot better. I am ready to meet our baby!!!!

I did buy some fabric a few weekends ago and made a valance for if we are referred a boy. The boy room is puppies and I found fabric that matched the stuff we already had so I was pretty psyched! I stayed up late one night watching the Olympics and making a valance. It was a pretty rough night (sarcasm)! I also found some fabric and I am going to make a blanket that looks like the Ethiopian flag and the other side has a map of Africa.