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

Good Morning Everyone~
It is bitterly cold here in Michigan! We really pretty much skipped over fall and jumped right into winter...we've even has some snow off and on. Nothing has stuck, but man is it cold.

I know that some families have received their TA and CA this week which is very exciting. Jill should be bringing home little Eli soon.


Time is running out for Project Christmas Angel. Boxes need to be received in Florida by the end of this month. If you would like to participate, click the icon above on my sidebar and it will tell you exactly what to do.

* On a side note, my neocounter subscription has evidently run out and it is causing huge problems on my blog, so if you have any issues..let me know. I'm going to have Tim pay for my next years subscription when he wakes up and all should be well again.

THE CHATROOM IS NOW CLOSED HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND!

The Sweetest Proposal...For All of You Mothers Of Boys

Last night Tim, Eli and I went out for dinner. While we were eating, Eli turned to me and said "Momma, I want to marry with you." I will remember it for the rest of my life :)

Waiting...

I am being asked more and more where we are in our adoption process. I really don't know what to say. There have been a lot of roller coasters lately. Two weeks ago I thought we were close to being matched and now today I just don't know. My social worker told me she thinks we will be matched by Christmas, but I don't know how she can tell. It's a matter of when a baby comes onto the shared list that matches our checklist. I don't know when that will be, and I don't know how anyone else can really know that either.
I do know that my agency is not being aggressive at reviewing the shared list, they are only looking during US business hours, so the agencies who check at night when the CCAA is actually working have an advantage.
This up and down cycle is really starting to take a toll on us. I will be buying my 3rd 'Waiting for Sophia' Christmas ornament this year for the tree. I just used my last LID celebration graphic..21 months, I thought for sure I wouldn't need more since we have been working for almost a year now to go SN. I know that so many of you are struggling too. I know that God has a plan and I'm trying to keep my faith up. I am so happy to see all of the new babies coming home, I'm just struggling with the fact that there never seems to be a baby for us.

Sorry everyone, I've got the blues this morning. I'll shake it off by noon!

Too Much Testosterone!...Hunting Season 2008

Oh yes, it's hunting season here in Michigan. My FIL has been here for four days hitting the woods with DH. We love it when he comes to visit and this trip has given him and Tim a lot of one on one father/son time together.


Tyler went out with them yesterday. So far, they have brought home 4 deer.

Tyler got his first deer yesterday which was very exciting for him.

A Wonderful Party For A Special Little Girl

Eli and I were very excited to receive an invitation to Ella's 2nd Birthday party. Ella is the daughter of Kelly/Truly Blessed and her wonderful husband Eric. Our families are very similar in that we have older sons who are Junior High and High School age, and then younger ones too.
Eli absolutely adores Katie and Ella and when we walked toward the house, Katie was standing in the window with the hugest smile on her face for Eli.

Some of my photos are a little blurry as I am still getting used to my new camera but here are some fun photos from our evening. Katie loves Fancy Nancy and can recite her book by heart :)

Here the little ones are playing play doh and trying to share as best as they can. I think they play amazingly well together considering they are all still preschool age.


Here we all are in Kelly's kitchen, the photo isn't really clear, but I think you can see that it definitely is a warm and comfortable place. We had a wonderful fish dinner.

Here is the little birthday girl...Miss Ella. She loved her cake and ice cream.

Ok, now this is where it got interesting. Eli wanted to open all of Ella's presents for her. Ella was so gracious about it, but I had the hardest time holding him back. He just got so excited when he saw the gifts. He and Katie had to check out everything that she received.

I cannot remember the name of this elephant toy, but I'll find it and blog it on here. ALL OF THE CHILDREN LOVED THIS TOY! I am definitely getting this for Eli for his birthday. You put butterflies in the base and they blow out of the elephant's nose and the children catch them in butterfly nets. The three little ones were se excited every time the butterflies flew out.

I want to thank our dear friends Kelly and Eric for including us in this special day...Ella's first birthday at home with her forever family. We had such a wonderful time. I can't believe how similar our families are, I felt right at home.

Sunday...

Welcome to the Saturday Morning Chat Group...

Today is National Adoption Day.

I have been up since 4am today. My FIL came in last night and he and my husband left this morning in hopes of bringing home the big buck...oh yes, it's the opening day of deer season here in Michigan.

I finished the book Wild Swans while I was flying home from Pittsburgh this week. This book was very impacting for me. Being an American, I truly have no real concept of the suffering that goes on and has gone on in the world. This book is a true account of 3 generations of women from the same family. It is absolutely amazing and I would recommend it to anyone.

There are two fundraisers going on that I am aware of, they are on my sidebar. One is for Mia Hope and you can win a $500 gift card, the other is for Kris' baby E. and you can win a wii. Please do what you can to support these families.


I have 2 ladies who have joined me in Project Christmas Angel to send a shoe box with a 2 lb bag of rice and a small gift to be delivered to The Angel House Orphanage in Haiti. If you would like to join us, please send me an e-mail and I will get the details to you. timnkim@gmail.com

Visit http://threeangelshaiti.org

You can see photos of the waiting children and find information about the orphanage, the school and opportunities to volunteer.

The gift that has inspired me to tell the story of Sophia's Sisters...

I recently received an e-mail from Sharon at 'Bai Li Makes 3' asking me if I would like for her to send a pair of Bailey's red maryjanes that she had outgrown for Sophia. The e-mail just really touched my heart. The first thing that came to my mind was what a 'big sister' type of thing this was, for Bailey to hand her shoes down to Sophia and how in a way our girls are sisters. Thank you so much Sharon, your gift means so much.
When I held the little shoes, I started to think about all of us and I just sat and cried. I thought about all of the stories and the pain and the sacrifice and how we women have joined together on so many occassions to raise funds, pray and support each other. I thought of the babies who have come home and tried to remember them all and the feelings in my heart when I held little Ella for the first time...the first little girl whose story I followed from the beginning who I have actually been able to meet soon after her arrival home.
I have been sitting here waiting for my great story to begin, for Sophia to come home so I can start that phase of my life...the phase where I am Sophia's mother.
But my story has already begun...it is the story of all of us and I am going to start a scrapbook of us. I want Sophia to know about all of you. I have saved every card and every letter that has been sent to me. I have photos from Christmas cards and notes. I am going to print out pages of your blogs and put them all together in a book with your stories and your notes and photos. I want my daughter to know about all of you and things that we did together to bring our children home. It will be the story of Sophia's sisters.

This Week Is Crazy!

This week is going to be nuts for me. I am slammed at work, I leave tomorrow for Pittsburgh for training on a new network for 2 days. My FIL is coming on Thursday night for the beginning of hunting season here in MI.

My husband bought me a new camera for my birthday last month and I can't figure out how to get it to download any of my pictures, so that's why you haven't seen anything from Halloween on...I'm working on it.

I'm trying to start Christmas shopping. I did get the kids' pictures done for Christmas cards, so that's a good thing. I got all of the Hallween decorations put away over the weekend.

I am constantly on the run with the kids, hockey games, tryouts, doctors office, ortho office...it's getting wild. We had snow yesterday and the roads were icy this morning, so I left at the crack of dawn to follow Zach in to school today because he doesn't have a lot of experience with icy roads.

I started reading this book and I can't put it down. Be warned, it's a tearjerker, but it's wonderful. Thank you to Kelly who has been my personal librarian and has loaned me so many wonderful books.

Sunday...

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

Good Morning Everyone and Welcome to the Sat Chat! I would like to say CONGRATULATIONS! to Donna and Joe for the referral for beautiful Lauren Elizabeth. I'm sure that most of you know and have seen her photos, but if not, you can visit her blog 'Waiting for Lauren Elizabeth'.Want a Wii for Christmas?? Kris from 'Tell Her This' is raising funds to bring home her daughter. Head on over to her site and register to win! She also has a sidebar graphic, so let me know if you want the code so you can help her out and display it on your blog.


Lastly, I have only had one person sign up for Project Christmas Angel to send a bag of rice and a toy to a child in the Three Angels Orphanage in Haiti. I was so excited about this project and was hoping we could send 30 boxes. If anyone else is interested in helping, please leave a comment or e-mail me at timnkim@gmail.com

THE CHAT ROOM IS NOW CLOSED, HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!

21 Months

9 months of paperwork, 2 months DTC, 21 months LID.

Quote for the Week...