Guess what she brought?

Yep, our LOA!!! Whoo hoo! I was soo happy to meet the sweet Fed-Ex lady at the door!!! (well actually the driveway)
I went ahead and already mailed the LOA back..even though it just came this morning. Yes, all 74 days of waiting and it was only in my possession for about 2 hours. So now we have a few more hoops to jump through with TA being our ultimate goal..(as far as paperwork). I am really hoping to travel middle of May. "They" say 8-12 week from LOA to TA. Our agency said if everything goes smoothly that I could expect that mid-May travel. Please pray for smooooth sailing!! Thanks!!!

Oh where, Oh where...

is my L O A, oh where, oh where could it beeeeeeee? Ok 2 months down waiting for our LOA. I was just sure it would come this week. I know better than to be "sure" about anything having to do w/ international adoption! When we started paperchasing for Jax back in July I just "knew"(ha!) we would travel no later than March. Now in all reality, hopefully, just maybe, not saying I am sure or anything but maybe before June. I pray I do not even start the month of June without Jax!!! UGH. So maybe my next post will be that I have my LOA. The thing is, after LOA all the counting starts right back over waiting for our TA (travel approval). My nerves are pretty much shot at this point. I want to eat sweets 24/7. I need benadryl to help me sleep most nights...even then I still get up between 2am and 4am to double check my email to see if just maybe there is an email from my coordinator saying our LOA is on the way!

Cruise

EG and I just got home from a awesome 4 day cruise to Cozumel. We had so much fun and some great mother/daughter time. EG learned about adolescence and all the coming changes and it was quite an experience for both of us! All in all we had a blast and ate waayyyyyy too much food!

We started off the trip with EG reading a letter I wrote to her. Then for the next 4 hours as we drove we listened to James Dobson's Preparing For Adolescence. This book and/or audio series is really a must for parents whose children are about to enter adolescence, I highly recommend it! Then we spent time the rest of the trip enjoying ourselves and talking about what "we" learned.

(Notice EG's cute swim skirt? My mom and I made them..we had matching ones!! :) )

I do realize now does not seem the ideal time financially for us to take this trip, but we kind of got pushed into it a little early b/c when Jax comes home I will not be leaving him for quite some time. This is how we have done each of our children's "growing up" trips. They get to pick the location and we spend a long weekend together.

One

So, I was reading my bible this morning....and this just kept coming to me. So, I figured what does it hurt to share. Even though my flesh was like "ok people are really gonna think you are weird."...(what's new).

I am reading a daily devotional bible and the past couple of days have been on the crucifixion. I just don't understand how people don't see that it was ALL of God on the cross. Here is me point. My name is Tina. I am a daughter, mother, wife, aunt, cousin, sister, friend, ..I play many roles BUT I am still just ONE person with ONE name. Tina

"HE is Alpha, Omega,...... for unto us a child is born and unto us a son is given and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace,... Lamb of God, Lord, Light, burning bush, bright and morning star, my comforter, etc."
and so many other names and roles I can't list them all. "Great is the mystery of godliness GOD was manifest in the flesh". BUT he still just has ONE name. Jesus! "Hear O Israel the Lord our God is ONE LORD." (please pardon all of my paraphrasing if you want to know verse locations just send me an email or leave a comment....due to being a busy mom, I am typing this very quickly as my children are cooking breakfast with their father and I must hurry, if I don't want to spend the rest of my day cleaning the kitchen!)

Isn't that sooo awesome that the God of ALL creation died for you and me? I just can't get over it this morning and I am sooooo thankful! My heart is full! And I just wanted to share...

New Pictures of JAX!!!

I am sooo happy our agency was able to get us new pictures of our son! He looks so much older to me now. I can't tell for sure but in one of the pics I think he is missing one of his bottom teeth. I know this is so selfish of me but I hope his top front teeth don't fall out until after he is home with us. We also got an update on his size. He is 44 pounds and 44.8 inches tall (3 ft 8inches). OHH come on LOA!!!!

Micah's party pix!

Micah's Birthday

Our sweet Micah turned 12 this past week. I cannot believe how fast this son of mine is turning into a "young man". Micah really wanted a cell phone for his bday so we added a line and now he has one!! He is sooo happy. He wanted to go bowling on his bday and then go eat at his favorite restaurant "Five Guys Burgers N Fries". His big party was Saturday and he had several friends over for pizza and Xbox!!

1 month....

Ok so we have one month down waiting for our LOA. Our agency coordinator told us it could be 2.5 mos fom LID to LOA. Our Lid was 12/25/09 so now we have one month down.(repeating myself). After we get our LOA, it will probably be another 2 mos before we travel. So..(just thinking out loud here) Say we get our LOA in one more month that would put us at Feb 25th...then two months to travel would be around April 25th. This is all BEST case scenario. I am praying God will make it much quicker b/c I know He is able and nothing is too hard for Him. He sees our precious son waiting for us. Will you pray with me that we will get all our "A"s quickly?

You light up my life!

Love this silly girl!

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting

I am so proud, proud, proud of my husband and children!!I just can't help myself! They tested for their black belts in Oct and FINALLY received them this past Saturday at the Black Belt ceremony. The road to BB had been l o n g. I am so proud of their endurance and for completing this goal. The kids have not always wanted to go to class and unlike other sports where you have seasons off there is no "off" for karate it is year round. Thank you to all our special friends who came and celebrated this once in a lifetime achievement with us. Way to go guys!! I love you and I am so proud of you!! On your way to second degree!!

If you can spare a second..

Please go to my friend Cynthia's blog. www.mychinesedumplings.blogspot.com For some reason I can never get links to work..someone help me please!! Cynthia and her family were with us together in China when we adopted Sophie and she is now adopting a darling boy. Please go check out her awesome give-aways to help pay for their adoption.
Thanks!!

The Girls/ Meagan is old.

I scare myself in this pic.

The Mom-Mobile(notice Linzi's "wild" look

Wow, my nails look 30(look at the lady eating the chip)

Ashley has fingernails,,yes we were wild!






I see Linzi's elbow..pretty wild

It started with Meagan turning 30 and a spend the night party! I cannot believe my dear friend is now 30!!! I used to feel sooo much older than her but now I don't even mind saying I am 33!!! Cuz now we are both having to check the box 30-35. :)

So we planned one of our infamous "girls gone wild" parties. Which is really a joke because we are actually pretty boring, strict pentecostals so just the name "girls gone wild" makes us laugh even harder. I hope your following this..(Linzi this is for you). So Linzi, Josh, Ashley, Stephen and Taylor all spent the night on Friday,,,,uhhh notice who is missing? Yes, that would be the 30 year OLD birthday girl who is now much too sophisticated for our spend the night parties. We stayed up till around 2am playing Wii carnival. My arm is still sore(it's a miracle I was able to save the dog). Then we got up and got ready. (let me know when you notice something "wild"). Laura was the saviour of the day b/c she kept all the kids!! THANK YOU LALA! Well, our first "wild" idea was to take the 12 passenger van! Whoo HOO!! Yes, all 4 of us crammed in...it was tight. We are really starting to get crazy! Since it was Meagan's birthday we let her pick the restaurant and she picked Konomi. Well, guess what? We pulled up...it took me 15 minutes to get parked in the mom-mobile we get out in the cold and it is closed. SOOOO we decided we would be angry and throw rocks and burn the building down....NOW THAT would be wild. But obviously since we are not sitting in jail right now we did not do that. Instead we went to the next best restaurant. Superior Grill! There we got really crazy and ordered 2 DINNER size (even though it was lunch..remember we are "wild") chicken fajitas. (I even got sour cream). So then we basically stared at people and tried to figure out if this person at the next table was a man or woman. Never did figure it out. Well, since we were really getting crazy now we decided to go Home Goods and Bed Bath and Beyond and of course Brewsters for ice cream!
It was seriously the most fun I have had in a long time and I got to be with my favorite people and I cannot wait to do it again!!!!

Not your average hero

Well, it's not every day you get to be your kids hero. Our pond is frozen over and the kids wanted to know if they could take a quick break from school and go throw rocks at the pond. I said sure they had 15 minutes to get out there and then come back in. (benefit of HSing..take breaks as needed). So I had just hung up the phone and I was looking out the window at the kids. I saw our lab walking on the pond, I was like cool I am gonna go out there and check it out I didn't realize the ice was so thick and wanted a closer look. Well as soon as I got to the back door and opened it I could hear the kids hollering for me. I started running and saw that Duchess had fallen through the ice in the middle of the pond and couldn't get out.

Let me just pause here to tell you, I rarely in the middle of the scorching summer heat ever get in our SWIMMING pool. I only enjoy being wet in the shower or tub...and would much prefer to lay out then swim. Ok back to story.

To help set the stage further, I had to run Sophie to 4k this morning so I am in my son's sweatshirt a long blue jean skirt and my yellow box shoes. OK, I run off the deck, I roll under our barbed wire fence and get to the edge of the pond. At this point it is obvious that Duchess is not going to be able to get out. So I decide we are going to let her drown.. GASP.... JUST KIDDING. I hand over my cell phone to the kids and start going in. Now, the ice is so thick I am having to put all my body weight on it to break it, it is not thick enough to hold me so I HAVE to break it. I am not even feeling the cold. By the time I reach the dog I am up to my neck in the icy cold water. I have broken a path free and she is able to swim to shore. I am swimming back and I start to feel a little cold but mostly exhaustion. I get out of the water and I am literally gasping for breath. Did I mention my kids were cheering me on the whole time? I told them to keep encouraging the dog cause I was gonna be really ticked if I made it all the way to her and then she decides to drown! So my kids kept calling Duchess and calling my name. I could hear the terror and the pride in their voices. I made it out of the water(that's why I am here typing)...had to ROLL back under the barbed wire. I am really starting to feel bad..the kids are worried. They keep hollering "We need to build a fire!!" I told EG just to go turn the shower on. (Bert is still at work, w/ a torn ligament or a broken ankle not sure either way it is too swollen to X-ray, and Tyler is at a homeschool class). We finally get back in the house and EG has to take my shoes off and help peel me out of my wet clothes. I get in the shower ( a big rock fell out of my panties..lol) (for real) but the shower about killed me...the water made me feel like I was being stabbed to death so I got back out and put a big robe on. Well, I come in the living room and Micah and EG start hugging me and sobbing me and telling me I am the best mom in the whole world!!! Then they notice my legs which I had not noticed b/c basically I could not feel them. They are cut and swollen and bruised from thigh to ankle. I didn't even notice!! The feeling is starting to come back slowly and I have a feeling I am going to be sore tomorrow. But guess what? My kids think I am a hero!! oh yeah the dog is fine.