Quote for the Week...

Monday.,,

Have a good one.

Please Pray for Kate...

Please join me in praying for Kate from 'A Special Family'. She has become very ill and is in the hospital right now. Please pray for healing. She is such an amazing person and I have been so blessed to know her.

Happy Birthday Debbie!

Happy Birthday to Debbie at 'Sugar Spice and a Little Rice'. I hope you have had a wonderful day!

Thank You to My Secret Buddy!

Thank you Secret Buddy. You have outdone yourself again. The three books for Sophia are wonderful. A Mother for Choco got me a little teary eyed. Eli loves the Backyardigans Halloween book you sent just for him. He loves books with secret flaps.

I hope that things are going well for you and for your family. I keep your card from last month on my desk where I blog and read it often. It reminds that 'happiness is right where I plant it'. It's keeping me positive while I wait. I really appreciate your kindness and can't wait until the day when I get to know who you are. Have a great month!

Thank You So Much Liz!

Liz, thank you so much for your thoughtfulness. The shirt you sent for Sophia is darling and I certainly didn't expect 3 phone charms! I gave one to my friend at work and one to my step-daughter Katelyn...so I have one left.

Sunday Verse...

About the song today: Kyrie eleison means Lord have mercy in Greek.

Some Saturday Fun!

I love this one.

Now, regardless of what you think about Hilary, this is funny.

Good Morning Everyone and Welcome to the Saturday Morning Chat Group!!

Good Morning Everyone and Welcome! We survived the night. The boys were really easy to look after. We fed them all pizza for dinner and they played football outside until around 10:30pm. We called them in once around 7:30pm for cake and ice cream and then they were back outside for football. After 10:30pm I made a bunch of popcorn and they came in to watch movies. This was the easiest children's party I have ever thrown. They are all still sleeping downstairs, so I'm going to blog from my room this morning : ). I can't get to the coffee though.
Please jump into the comments and join in. I'm looking forward to this morning's chat group because lasts weeks was cancelled. Eli had the croup and had to go to the pediatrician.
If you leave a comment and I don't answer right away, I may be called out to make some toast or looking at blogs. I'll be right back in a few minutes, so please hang tight.

I also believe that today is Noemi's birthday. Her blog is 'Living the Florida Life', drop by and send a birthday wish her way today.

Chat room is closed. Thank you for a wonderful morning.

Who Are You Anyway??...Time to Delurk...

The blog has reached over 40,000 hits which has me thrilled. There are about forty of you who I talk with regularly, but there are 3x that many who visit daily and do not comment. I accept anonymous comments and would love to know who you are. Whenever someone new visits the blog and leaves me a comment, I always go to their site and visit. I would love the opportunity to get to know you. When I see the visitors from all over the world, I am amazed. So many of you live in places that I have only dreamed of visiting. Please let me know who you are.

Thank you.

Ok Everyone...Send Great Thoughts my Way Tonight...It's Tyler's Birthday Slumber Party...7 Twelve Year Old Boys Are Sleeping Over...

Tyler's birthday isn't until the 18th, but we are having his annual slumber party tonight. Seven boys have rsvp'd. The limit we gave him was 5, but that obviously didn't work. Children and their parents kept calling to rsvp.

Last time when I went to pick them up after school to bring them home for the party, there were two boys who I hadn't anticipated and whose parents I have never met waiting. Their Mom's didn't call and I had no idea who they even were. Crazy.

Hopefully there aren't any 'unknown' children today, because I have no more room in the truck, we will be at full capacity. A boy and his mother called last night who Tyler didn't even invite. I told him that the boy was ivited now since I told his Mom I'd be picking him up after school.

I ordered the cake on Wednesday and Tim is picking up pizza on his way home. I'll probably pick up a cool movie or two for them. At this age, they mostly want to be left alone to play video games and watch movies. I have tons of popcorn, so we should be all set there too.
Say a little prayer for Tim. He likes a mellow quiet house, and tonight might strain his nerves a little bit.

Happy Birthday Mr. Brian!!

Happy Birthday Mr. Brian! I feel so very lucky to have gotten to know you and to be able to call you my friend. You really are a wonderful person. I hope that you have had a wonderful Birthday. Mr. Brian's blog is 'All In A Days Work', please send some birthday wishes his way!!

What Do You Mean That's Not My Baby...I've Already Fallen In Love.

Well, this little angel was why I was asking questions about hep b. I read about her needing a home on a friends blog and thought I would contact the agency where she was at to see her status. I was told that she had not been inquired about and that if no one from their agency claimed her that we could have the opportunity to put in a request. I knew that most likely we would not get the referral, so I kept telling myself to stay distant, which I was certain that I was doing. We sent her medical information to our pediatrician. A few days later we were informed that she had been placed with a family at that agency (not our agency). Even though I knew deep down that this would happen, I was devastated. There were some tears. If anyone knows how to get through this without heart damage, please share.
I feel like the little duck in that book 'Are you my mother?'. Except I'm running around saying, are you my baby? I am trying to have faith and wait for the child that God has for me, but how do I know who she is? Is she on an SN list? Is she coming in a referral years from now?
I did learn quite a bit from this experience.

1. Agencies can no longer work together to bring a baby home. If you persue a baby from another agency, you have to leave yours and pretty much start your dossier all over again. Something that we cannot do, because by starting all over again, we have to comply with China's new rules and we haven't been married 5 years yet, only 4.
2. With Bethany's new rule in place that you have to be in the review room before you can even see the SN child list, we are 6 months away from even trying to persue an SN baby. If that is even the path that we want to take.

So, I guess it's just sit and wait for six months and then decide if I can handle going through this again...

Monster Mash...

You can't say that you have had the true Halloween experience without hearing Monster Mash at least once...

Thank You Gwen!

Thank you so much Gwen, I love these gifts. Now, how did you find a way to mount the paper cut-outs? They are gorgeous, but so fragile that I'm afraid to handle them. Absolutely beautiful.

Happy Birthday Baby Sister!

Happy Birthday Edie. I love you. Thank you for always being there for me when I have needed you. You always came when times were too hard. And you always came when times were so good and helped me care for your nephews after they were born. You support me in everything that I do and I am so blessed to have you in my life. You have always understood what it means to be a sister, even when you were so very young.

I forgive you for inheriting the skinny body when I got Grandma Genevieve's bigger build. I also forgive you for getting the big chest too...maybe.
My little sister's name is Andrea, but I call her Edie (eedee). Don't ask why, just do.
Love you and your gift is in the mail!!

Quote for the Week...

Dinner Among the Sisterhood...

Left to right, Katie's Antics, Asennd and you know Steffie B. and me. I never asked the first two if they wanted their actual names posted...

Last night I went to dinner with some of the greatest women I know. I laughed so much that I thought water was going to come out of my nose. I was literally in tears at least twice. We talked about anything and everything. Where our children went to school (Big Willy), special nicknames (Buddy), some very special 'first talks' that we've had with our kids.
I could go on and on and you know that you want me to, but some things just can't be put on a blog. Hmmm...is there a crack in this picture????


Here is our hot waiter and that's what we called him. Whenever we wanted something we would loudly say, 'where is our hot waiter??' and he'd come right over asking if his ladies needed something. That's why we always go there to meet! He was especially helpful when Stefanie received a fortune cookie which read and I quote 'behind every great man is another...' that's it, it cut off. Steffie requested another fortune, but not after we played madlibs for a while with her first fortune.
I want to thank all 3 of you for a great night, for being real, for talking about the pain and the rewards, for sharing your secrets, for wanting to comfort and being willing to share your joys, for letting it all come out, you are the best...let's do it again soon...and I mean that.

Sunday...

Eli Update...

We were able to get into our pediatrician's office this morning. Eli has the croop. Don't know if I'm spelling that right. They said that their office has been flooded with cases of it this week. He had to have a shot to help open up his airway and we need to run vaporizers in his room and try to keep the air in there as cool as possible. We also got some saline so that we can give him breathing treatments if necessary. He seems pretty comfortable and behaving quite normally. We just put him down for a nap. Thank you all for your concern.

I Missed Gwen's Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to my dear friend Gwen. She turned (29) again yesterday! I hope your day was pure magic and I'm sorry that I missed it. Gwen's blog is 'The Oatsvall Team', please send some Birthday greetings her way if you are lame like me and missed it.

8 Month LIDiversary!

Today marks us being 8 months closer to Sophia Jane. We had a great meeting with our pediatrician about SN children as we were able to get Eli in to see our pediatrician today. We feel confident that God will bring our daughter to us and that we have everything in place to provide her with good care and a good home. Wherever you are precious girl, Mommy, Daddy, Zachy, Sissy, Ty Ty and Eli love you!

Also, all of my LID graphics are done by Verna the Blogfairy and are available to everyone. If anyone has their 8 month LID anniversary this fall and would like to use this graphic, please feel free to do so.

Sorry Everyone...Eli is not Well, We're taking him to the med center. Chatroom is closed today.

Sorry everyone, Eli is ill this morning and we are taking him into the Med Center. No chatroom today.

Bought a New Car Today...

Today we bought a 2008 Toyota Camry Hybrid. Our financial planner decided that we are spending way too much money on gasoline and needed a new car. Our Bonneville was a gashog, but we loved it. It was almost 5 years old though, with over 150,000 miles on it and on the verge of needing some major repairs, so we decided it is time to make a change. Our car is black with a tan leather interior. Tim looks smashing in it. Meanwhile, I'm still in love with my 5 year old Yukon XL. We're going to keep ahold of it for a long time...I think. It's a gashog BIG TIME, but it can run on ethanol, so I keep telling Tim that it's worth holding onto.

Eli has a High Fever Today...

We picked up Eli early yesterday because he had a fever and it is still with him. It's one of those fevers where you rotate between children's tylenol and advil every two hours to keep it under control. Please keep him in your thoughts. I'm sure that it's just some type of flu bug. I'm hoping it lasts 24 hours and no more. It's Tim's Grandfather's 80th Birthday party of Sunday and I would love for Eli to be able to go.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month...

I have a girlfriend. She is beautiful and talented and she is married to a man who beats her and threatens her children. They have been married for 5 years now. Prior to the marriage, she knew what he was. We all expressed our concern very strongly. I confronted this man repeatedly. She still would never leave. There were bruises on her arms in the shapes of his hands from where he would grab her. The abuse was so extreme that she almost required reconstructive surgery. I have cried, I have pleaded. The police have been called in time and time again. The neighbors have called and they call the police on each other. Still, they are together. The things he says to her make my skin crawl. Truly, and I know that this is a horrible thing to say, but if he were hit by a bus...I would smile. I will never give up. I will never overlook. I will confront every bruise. I will offer a safe home to come to. I will offer to pack her things. I will offer money, to stand in court. Anything....

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month...

This disease took someone I love this year.

We're Getting a New Roof and some Siding...

My camera says that it has no more memory, so you all will have to find some fun in my halloween collection. We are having a new roof put on starting tomorrow. They are going to put the big dumpster in the driveway and tear off the old shingles (all 3 layers of them). Hopefully it all goes well. They are supposed to be done by Thursday.

We also have some siding that needs to be replaced on the side of the house. Has your husband ever melted the siding repeatedly by not monitoring your gas grill? Why yes, twice this past summer Tim melted the house.

The Bates Motel

I have no idea how many sequals there are to this movie, but I'm pretty postitive that I have seen them all. Today's music is from the original Psycho soundtrack.

Perhaps Cael

Congratulations to Salome's Mom and everyone at 'Perhaps Paloma' which has definitely been renamed to welcome new son Cael. Please drop by 'Cael' to leave your good wishes!

Breaking out the Movies...

We store away all of our Halloween movies and only watch them during October. The kids really get excited when the movies come out. They have seen the same ones over and over, but we all gather around the television with our popcorn to watch the debuts. This was the first movie we saw this year.

Quote for the Week...

I thought that this would be a good quote for a rainy day!