Good Times!

My cousin did a post here about my Grandpa Fuller (the best grandpa in the whole world, I might add) who used to have this patriotic tape that he had us listen to, alot! He had us memorize different songs off of it, one of which is the 50 states song here...



Apparently there is a new animaniacs 50 states and capitols song that is set to the same tune, so enjoy.



It is a walk down memory lane for me to hear this song again! I just have to say, I miss Grandpa Bob and am sad that he never got to meet my husband or my little baby boy...

New nephew

No pictures of him yet, but I talked to my sister, and his name is Boaz Robert. Robert is after my wonderful grandpa who passed away 8 years ago.

About me - I've been tagged!

So I've been tagged by Audrey. It's been a number of days since she did, but I just haven't gotten around to doing it. So, here goes - one word answers...

Where is your cell phone? uncertain
Your hair? down
Your mother? friend
Your father? which one?
Your dream last night? forgotten
Your goal? Wisdom
What room are you in? bedroom
Your hobby? cooking
Your fear? uncertainty
Where do you want to be in 6 years? Anywhere
Where were you last night? home
Something that you aren't? confident
Wish list item? baby
Where did you grow up? everywhere
Last thing you did? brush teeth
What are you wearing? P.J.'s
Your t.v.? on
Your pets? trained
Friends? close
Your life? blessed
Your mood? thankful
Missing someone? baby
Vehicle? Santa-Fe
Your favorite song? worship
Something your not wearing? shoes
Favorite store? thrift
Favorite color? yellow
Last time you laughed? Sunday school
Last time you cried? Church
Best Friend? Dan
One place you go over and over? office
Person who e-mails regularly? AGCI
Favorite place to eat? Chipotle (unfortunately, the nearest one is about 4 hours from here...sadness)

Hope you enjoyed! I did my best to be as honest andopen about myself, yet keep it to one word! Not an easy task!

Catching up...

First of all - I am an aunt again! My brother and his wife had #8 this morning! Another little boy! I honestly don't remember his name (sorry) I will post it tomorrow (it's a unique name and it's late, so I am drawing a blank).

But on to what all has been going on this week: Here is a picture of my sister looking at our pictures of baby M the day we got our referral -

Here is Dan with the referral packet on Tuesday morning when it showed up! We were so excited - got everything done and notarized and it was back at AGCI on Friday!

There was no school on Thursday and Friday so my niece and nephews were at the office the entire day. (Usually they are only there parts of the day) Macy started the day out on Friday by drawing pictures for baby M. She asked me to send them to him, so they will go with our 'baggie of love' when we send it... The first one is the 'family'. My sister's family, Dan, me and baby M. (and the pets). Also, baby M's name is whited out in the picutre b/c we can't post any identifying information, but you get the idea. The second one is bringing baby M home from the airport and us driving by the office.

This weekend there was an annual craft/antique show down at the 3-I building. I spent Saturday morning at Goodwill with Bobbie Jo and Macy for the $1.10 sale and then we went and met her mother in law and her friend at the show. As we looked around, we saw this cool old tin top and Ginger (Bobbie Jo's mother in law) decided she would get baby M his first gift (since we got the referral) Isn't it cool! I love old toys!

Back in April, I drew plans out for shelves for the nursery, we bought the wood, and then got busy, so the wood sat. We started working on the project a couple of weeks ago. Last Sunday they were completed and we put them in the nursery. Over the past week and this weekend, we cleaned out the mess that was in the nursery and organized all the books we had (that were age appropriate - I have tons of young teen/pre-teen books too! I love to read!). We made three sets of two wide and three high. Here are two of them...

And the third one is on the other wall.

This is the opposite wall from the wall with the single shelf. We painted it almost two years ago (domestic adoption fell through). I still really like it, so we have left it the same and just added to and cleaned up. I need to finish the little curtain and put a couple more ties on the bumper for the crib. I will post complete pictures when it is all done and together. We are just not really 'cutsey' people, so I wasn't much for a 'cutsey' room. I like the colors and think they will be awesome for our little M.

We have been working on going through all the baby stuff we have been given (love those hand me downs) and pulling out what is age appropriate for our sweet baby and what is too young for him has been stored for our next little one. I washed the cushions for this awesome car seat we were given and came up from the basement to find Casper (our cat) enjoying his new place to lay down.

So, I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend! Ours was productive, which was nice! We are definitely nesting and excited to bring baby M home. Pray with us as we wait for our court date and travel.

No More New Numbers!

Yep, you heard us right! No more new numbers for us! Monday afternoon - October 19th (incidentally exactly 10 months to the day since we sent in our initial pre-application) - we got THE CALL. Dan had the day off and was home and Tara was at work. Tara answered the call from our case worker and had Dan conferenced in. I (Tara) was literally shaking and had 4 kids staring at me during the entire call. I took all the notes I could from the call on the only paper I could find at that moment - a paper airplane one of my sister's kids had made. As soon as the call was complete, Dan grabbed the cameras and headed to the office. Sitting in front of the computer with the anxious niece and nephews all gathered around, we got our first, very slow (dial up), look at these beautiful, precious eyes. Baby M is a beautiful 5 month old baby boy. He had only been at Hannah's Hope for 1 week at this point. He is totally healthy and we are so excited that he is our little boy! God has truly blessed us in this process! We have been praying for God to bring us the child that will be a perfect fit into our family, and let me tell you, little M is. He is the one God has designed to be our 'first born'.

So, after looking at his pictures, Dan hangs out at the office until we close (about 45 more minutes) and then we head out. We come home and start calling all the family! After all the calls were done, we took off to go out to dinner. We had been planning to go to dinner at this steak house that we love on the night we got our referral since we started this adoption. We had even saved a gift certificate for there since last Christmas just for this occasion. Dinner was wonderful, and then...off to Target and Walmart to go shopping! No, we didn't buy tons of stuff, but wanted to buy him a blanket and an outfit from us our first night. It was fun to look through all the baby stuff and have a face in mind (and a size)!

What a wonderful day it was! Cool thing was, first thing Monday morning, Dan woke up and told me he had a feeling that 'today is the day we are going to get our referral'. It is the only day so far he had said that, and lo and behold, he was right! Kind of a fun memory to add to the process.

We waited to post all this because it posts to facebook also and we wanted to surprise Tara's Bible Study, the Bible Bowl team, and our choir. What fun to surprise them all in person and not have some know already (from facebook) and others not be in the loop!

At this point it will still be a couple of months before we travel to bring our little bundle home because we have to wait for a court date and embassy appointment. Please join with us in prayer that during the rest of this process we receive quick appointments and travel dates!

Showers are already in the works, we need to get registered, and there is so much to be done. Blessings to you all and here is a beautiful smile to part with...

P.S. - For those who don't know, we are not allowed to post full pictures of our little one until we bring him home - or his full name and identifying information.

This Past Week

Well, This past week Dan has been sick. The yucky stomach flu hit him hard. He is finally doing much better today (7 days later) - his head and neck still ache, but he is eating and not vomiting or anything else, so yay!! Saturday I babysat for my sisters 3 youngest in the morning and then spent the afternoon hanging with Dan. It was nice. Today I stayed busy with working on the house - got more done this afternoon than I had all week. I will have to post pictures of the shelves we finished building tonight. On the ADOPTION front - we are still 'unofficially' #1 on the boys list. Don't really know for sure on the other two, but there has been movement! We are excited to get our referral!!!

So for a few fun pictures - Trevor, Macy, Grant and I spent part of the morning playing the Wii at their place. Here are a few pictures. Grant had a good time 'trying' or actually 'pretending' to play. Enjoy!

Why Wouldn't You

I just finished watching this on another adoptive mom's blog. Watch and think!

Babies, Babies, and more Babies

Our family is growing by leaps and bounds. We just got a call tonight that Tara's cousin Shannon and his wife are pregnant with their first little one. It is due early/mid May. Also, another cousin (Shannon's sister) Jenette and her husband Chris are expecting their first little one also in early/mid May. Dan's sister Trista and her husband Chad are expecting #3 at the end of May. Tara's brother and his wife are also expecting, but due any day now with #8. Super exciting!!! We love babies and within 8 months we will have 5 or 6 new ones in our family (including ours)! How exciting is that!!!

Bathroom and Garage Sale

This weekend we were able to stay home and finish our master bathroom that we have been working on for the last couple of weeks. Not that we did a major remodel, but we fixed drywall and laid a new floor. Thanks to Betty and Al for letting us use part of their remnant. Here it is all put back together...

Mickey enjoying the new floor.

Saturday there was a garage sale at church to benefit the Bible Bowl team. Me and Tara went to see the good and ended up staying to help get everything cleaned up. I was able to save these two Tupperware glasses from the items that went to Goodwill. I have wanted some like this for a long time as they are what I used for vinegar water when growing up. Now I will have some to use with my kids for their sore throats while growing up.

On the adoption front we are still praying that we will get "The Call" soon and know more about our future child(ren) that God has in store for us. Please pray with us that God will give us wisdom for future plans. D

New Numbers

Ok, so I was bad and missed yesterday's update and today you're not really getting an update of what we did, but the ever exciting NEW NUMBERS!!!

So here goes:

Boys

Girls

Siblings

But....wait a minute. Today during lunch I got the best text ever!!!

The couples ahead (on the boys list) of us aparently got referrals! Adam and Christie got the referral today for a 3 week old little one.... So excited for them (and us!)

This means that it is our turn to anxiously watch our cells making sure we don't miss any calls!

Fundraising dinner - 9/27

So, it's been a while. Life has just been busy. I know, poor excuse, but it's all I've got! I am going to try to do a post a day for a while until I get us all caught up! So, here goes...

Two Sundays ago (9.27) our church held a fundraising dinner for us after service. It was a good time to sit and fellowship with others and share adoption with them. Thank you to the Bible Bowl team sponsors, kids, and parents for working to put this together...

Some of the lovely ladies that helped to serve the meal:

Some of the boys being put to work:

Those who came to help out..

This fundraiser was a huge success! We received approximately $2000 from this wonderful group! We are getting close to our fundraising goal, which is really exciting since that is the part of adoption that made us the most nervous at the beginning.

On another front, we should get new numbers hopefully soon! I am still praying for that quick referral and court dates, but know that God's plan is infinitely better than ours and trusting Him to work out all things for His glory! More posts to come soon...