Isn't she lovely?

Do you love it? I LOVE it! Want me to make you love it even more? Ok! My blog was redone by a sweet, sweet, 16 year old girl named Alexis. She uses the money she makes by doing blog makeovers to go on mission trips. Uhhh, yeah. 16, earns money to help orphans on mission trips. Hello. Can you say arranged marriage? I have a 13 year old boy I have my eye on for her! :) Just kiddin.....kinda. So thank you Alexis, it's perfect! And now you all know that your blog needs a makeover of it's own right?! So head on over to her blog



and enjoy what the this oh so talented young lady can do for you!

Big Blog Changes on the Horizon......

Stay tuned later tonight for a BIG, Big Blog change comin your way!!! I can't wait!
Here's a hint:






Oh, bummer. My picture hint won't load. How sad. ;) Guess you'll have to stay tuned!

Boy Mom

Now if ya'll know me I am not too much of a girlie-girl. I have begun in recent years to catch on to that side of me a bit more than I used to but still I am far from dipping myself in pink and diamonds. In fact, more often than not I am in desperate need of a pedicure, a manicure(whatever that is) and can often.....errr...sometimes...err....periodically be found driving my kids to school in the morning with my pajama pants on. It also does not bother me that even the dog seems to continually be covered in clay from the baseball fields, that there are at a minimum of 3 candles burning in the house at all times to ward off the stinky boy feet smell, or that I buy milk at Costc* 5 gallons at a time. I have decided it is just survival. And surrounded by this many males, a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.

So imagine my delight when my bloggy friend Jennifer(check out Ms. W here), who has three boys of her own and just came back from Ch*na with her beautiful daughter posted about a site called Boy Mom Designs. Hello! Are you kidding me? T-shirts geared directly for those us surrounded and engulfed by testosterone? I'm in!

Though I typically buy all of my clothes off of the Targ*t clearance rack(unless it's a sundress...I am ever so incredibly slightly addicted to sundresses and flip flops), I couldn't help but splurge on a tee.


I need this. I need this tee than for no other reason than it silently conveys the message to other females that hello! This girl could use a chat about anything feminine right now! Come on over! Talk to me! Let's discuss something, anything that does not involve jock straps, how big your burp was at the lunchroom table that day, or how you haven't changed your socks in three days. Anyone? Can anyone hear me?

I cannot wait to throw on a pair of white capri's, some black flip flops and head out in this shirt! Got boys? Check em out here.

It's a GIRL!!

Did I get your heart beating a little faster? Did you think we jumped boy ship and swam on over to the girl side? Well, no. But kinda. I'd like you all to meet Sarah. She is beautiful, she is precious, and she is residing at an Orphans Wish where she will receive treatment for her club feet.

We are one of her two sponsors....Hi Jean!....that give monthly to enable her to receive the care she needs and reside at an Orphans Wish. Want to know more about how you can so easily help change the life of an orphan? Check them out here and prayerfully consider what you may be able to do for one of these sweet, sweet kiddos. If you have always wanted to do something but didn't know how, well let me tell ya. By a few clicks of the mouse you will dramatically change the life of a child on the other side of the world. How great is that?! So go! Go now! Stop reading and head over to anorphanswish.org!

2 Month Recap!

Today marks 2 months waiting for our boys to come home.(1st Month Recap here) Much less has happened this month as we began the hurry up and wait phase of this process. We did though manage:

* PA FOR OUR LITTLE MAN
* Decided to name him Joseph Samuel
* Our 3rd and 4th and final Home Study visit
* Our home study is now written and is being reviewed and edited as we speak...err type....err...read.
* Requested LOCAL police clearances....probably should have done this sooner but silly me thought that the STATE wide police clearances our social worker obtained were good enough. How crazy that I should think that when an entire state clears us of any criminal activity that our local government should need to do the same. Really? Ugh.
* Printed/copied/gathered/notarized and sent off for authenticating and certifying all of our needed documents for our dossier.
* Made only 10 trips to Fed Ex this month. That line item on our budget decreased significantly this month!
* Received an update on Joey which did this mama's heart good.
* Did absolutely nothing over 2 days as I was too busy staring at the photos that came with the update of Joey.
* Did a lot of laundry in an attempt to recover from my 2 days spent staring at the photos that came with the update of Joey.
* Sent our birth and marriage certificates right back to the states that had just sent us them to get them 'state certified'. (Bureaucracy at it's finest!) Received those back very quickly!
* Filled out our I-800A application and it's accompanying $830 money order so that it's ready when our dossier consultant says go!
* Prayed...and is still praying that because we live in a state that requires our home study to be reviewed by the state first before it goes to the federal government that it will go quickly. We have been warned that the lady who handles last name M-Z files that she is slooowwww. -ugh- If you want to pray for us, please pray specifically for the lady who handles M-Z at DHR. I don't know her name but God does!
* Became intimately familiar with nearly all government offices both in our city and on base that I needed signatures or forms from. If I am ever arrested, lose my drivers license, or need to meet with my parole officer I know where I need to go.

So that is that! Month 3 will prayerfully include having I-800A approval and be well on our way to getting our dossier to Ch*na! Finally. This will be a big, Big, BIG step for us as everything will be out of our hands and in the hands of the Ch*nese government. The ball will then be completely in their court. Gracious I've never been so excited about passing a ball to someone else's court my entire life!

Thanks to those that have gone before me.....

The adoption community on the web is quite a site indeed. And blogging specifically has a tendency to make a big, big world grow considerably smaller with a few clicks. I know that our adoption decision would have been made much more difficult were it not for us having the ability to learn and grow and read about other families as they walked this road before us. Watching a family journey to the other side of the world through their pictures and journaling as they meet their children is an experience that I never get tired of.

I say all of that because as we first began seriously considering adoption, Could we do this? What is involved? How much does it cost? What is the process like? I "stalked" other adoption blogs like a crazy woman trying to glean as much info as I could. Did I learn a lot. Yep! Did I learn all of the (sometimes) ridiculous hoops you have to jump through? Yep! Did I go through 12 tubes of mascara logging on each day and reading and seeing pictures of these mothers holding their babies for the first time? Yep!

But there is a little bit of fun thrown in there too! Like what on earth am I going to do with 5 maybe 6 kids in a hotel room for two weeks in a foreign land?! There will certainly be moments of down time when I have 10 eyes or 12 eyes lookin at me for a bit of entertainment...which is why I was so happy to learn of.....

The magic bag.

Sadly this is not my magic bag. But merely a photo of one. My magic bag will probably be a paper sack that Jack has tried to make a puppet out of. But isn't it perty?! It makes me smile just lookin at it. But I digress....

I have learned that it is a staple of this adoption process. A bag full of odds and ends that while you are sitting in one government office or another waiting for yet another appointment, or you have a couple of hours with nothing to do in a small hotel room that you can pull out "the bag".

Ooooo, I'm so excited about the bag!

And in the midst of all of the dulldrums of paperwork processing and filling out forms I have managed to throw in a little shopping here and there(Holla!) so these are the contents of our magic bag thus far....(magic cheap paper sack just doesn't have the same ring to it does it?)

For the airplane...did I mention it's 15 hours from here to there?!!.....never too early to start teaching them those ABC's!

A cheap camera I found on clearance for one of them. My goal is to have a camera for each of them. Seeing Ch*na through each of their eyes will be remarkable I'm sure. Jason and Jordan will be keeping a blog throughout their trip which I am going to turn into a book for them when we get back, complete with all of the pictures that they took.

Weird squishy things, because boys like weird squishy things.

Odds and ends. This mini bowling game I'm told will be a hit!

Rocket balloons, which, if you have children and you have never experienced rocket balloons drop what you are doing.....unless you are holding a baby...in which case you shouldn't drop it but rather take it with you........and go to your nearest store and get you some of these! You can thank me later.
(and punching balloons...because they are just plain fun.)

So that's what my magic paper sack has thus far! The hunt continues!

Any more ideas for the bag? Bring it!

I thought I was teachable....

When we had Jason and Jordan 12 months apart we surrendered to the chaos and bought two of everything. I figured it was either that or use the words, "please share" every 2.9 seconds for the first 3 years of their lives. I chose surrender. What can I say. I be weak like that.

Two ride on cars. Check. Two highchairs. Check. Two cribs. Check. Two, two, two. Two sets of matching outfits because they were the same size and I thought it was just so stinkin cute. Check, check.

And then we decided two's good! We're done! Ummm, yeah......

Get rid of the two ride on cars. Check. Get ride of the two highchairs. Check. Get rid of the two cribs. Check. Get rid of the cute matching outfits. Check, check.

And then...well.....look who showed up..

yeah. Twins. Twin boys nonetheless. Though it should be noted that this was not the size they were when they came out.-praise the Lord-and Hallelujah. This is just me sitting in the living room on the laptop too lazy to walk into the office to get a picture of the newborn twins off of the desktop....but I digress...

Need two ride on cars. Need two highchairs. Need two cribs. Need two sets of matching outfits. So off we went again, for round 2 of purchasing things in duplicate. Awesome.


And now...well......

this guys on the way and as you may have noticed...he's little....like little little. Like, needs two or three or four sizes smaller than the twins are now....and so probably will our other new little guy. And did we think of this as the twins were outgrowing their clothes. Uhhh, nope. Have we gotten rid of everything smaller than a size 7. Uhhhh, yep. Sheesh! When will we ever learn?

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts Isaiah 55 8-9
Hmmm...perhaps I shall tape this scripture to my refrigerator, and my front door, and my bathroom mirror and my forehead.

So as we prepare to hit the rewind button...again....I have been trying to get back into the kindergarten/first grade mind not only for wardrobe but also for learning and beginning reading purposes and I stumbled upon this yesterday.



LOVED this! Can't wait to have these pieces strewn all over the living room floor once again! All of my kids used to love this puzzle during that stage!!!

And from now on, I think I'm going to stop getting rid of stuff...I've learned my lesson. I get it now. His ways = awesome. My ways = lame. Phew. Glad that's cleared up.

P.S. I decided at the last minute to overcome my laziness so here:

are those two sweet boys when they were actually born. (Note the MUCH smaller head size.. .praise the Lord and a Hallelujah.)

Look where your eyes are....

This world can be chaos. This world can be hectic. This world can be scary and frustrating and seemingly out of control. But look where your eyes are. Fixed on all of this? Or fixed on Him?

Happy Easter?! You betcha! Happy Resurrection Sunday?! ABSOLUTELY. We serve a risen Savior who died for you and for me. Don't waste His precious gift to you. Seek Him. Know Him. Love Him.

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' "Then they remembered his words. Luke 24:1-8

He has risen! He has risen indeed! Happy Easter everyone, from our home to yours.

And his name shall be......

With great pleasure it is my honor to introduce our son as



Joseph Samuel
We will call him Joey.

Because really, doesn't this sweet face just scream Joey to you?!


Joseph meaning "God added"

and

Samuel meaning "requested of God"

Ironically enough it was also the top winner in the name game! So thank you to everyone that voted, it was fun knowing that Joseph Samuel was what we had chosen and seeing the majority of you vote for that same name. Now what to do with all of those other J names we picked out....hmmmm....

Happy 6th birthday kiddo!

Somewhere in southern China 6 years ago today(or a few days before or after today, only God knows and that's enough for us) a woman gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. And now here we are, sitting on the other side of the world preparing for your arrival to be born into our family.

You don't have any idea about us yet but I can tell you this my son. You. Are. Loved. First by a Savior and second by us. We cannot wait to wrap our arms around you and call you our own. So we will celebrate in honor of you today and pray that we will be there soon.

To mark such a day we will finally be deciding on your name today and telling your brothers what it will be. Don't worry kiddo, the Sponge Bob thing was just a joke....of course, you are 6 now, you would probably like that name....hmmmm, maybe we'll still consider it. I hope you like it whatever it will be. Regardless though the most important thing we can call you, and the thing we are most proud and elated to call you is our son. Happy birthday, we love you!

PS Diggin the glasses bud! You are going to fit right in around here!

Fooled ya

So it's April 1st. "April Fools Day." No idea where that originated from and to be honest, I haven't really participated in the festivities and nuances associated with such a day since....well...since like 3rd grade. But here's the thing. I live with boys. 4 boys. 2 of which are 7. And let me just tell ya sister, April Fools day when you are 7 is like the funniest thing ever.

Jack at 7:35am, "Mom, I can't find my shoes!" .....2.4 seconds later...because he can't stand it...."April Fools!!"

Justin at 7:37am, "Mom, I don't want any breakfast today, I'm not hungry.".....1.3 seconds later because he has even less will power than his brother...."April Fools!!!"

Jordan at 7:45am, "Mom, April Fools is kinda dumb." Because he's 12, and that's about all they have to say about such things.

So even though I've never really been into all of that; in the spirit of mommyness I decided to participate. So here goes:(through absolutely NO creativity of my own mind you, I found this in a magazine)

Run to your local merchant and pick up some of these:...and I do mean RUN because you only decided to do this at the very last minute.

whilst you are there, pick up two more

because you know that at this time next year you will need 6 and not just 4. Then cry for a minute because you wish all your boys were here with you now. Fix your mascara, and get back to it.
Whilst you are at your local merchant pick up these fashionable accessories.

*I should tell you here that when photographing your concoction, ensure that the dirty dishes that are sitting directly to the left of your ingredients are not visible in your photograph. You wouldn't want your cyber friends to know you sometimes actually have dirty dishes in your sink. Ahem*

Reserve only about a row of these and then eat the rest before your husband and kids get home. It's not your fault they only come in this giant package.

Never even seen this before. Edible grass.

You will think this is delicious until you actually open the package and try some and then you will discover that it is the opposite of delicious and tastes much like thin bits of cardboard. Bummer.
At this point make sure you are running around the kitchen like a crazy woman because it's:

And the kids get home at 3.
Whip up the pudding. (Use instant because remember, you waited until the last minute. And you should really learn to plan better. But we can work on that later.)

Lick the spoon.(Duh. If I had to tell you that I'm not sure we should be friends.)

Pour it into the pots, (Don't pour pot into the pots. That's highly illegal and very bad for you. Just say no.)

Crush up your remaining cookies and at this point you should be feeling slightly queasy as a direct result of eating near the entire bag of cookies. But again, let us remember it is not your fault.

Photograph the crushed cookies on your fooseball table in your dining room because your counters are now full.

At this point you can go ahead and panic because look what time it is:

Moving slightly faster now, crumble them over the pudding, add the nasty edible-but not really-grass and then stand there for five minutes contemplating removing the grass because you think it ruins it and doesn't look as good as you thought it would.

Forget about removing the grass because look what just pulled up.

And here they come. Awww, I missed them.


And on this first day of April sit in the sun, on the grass, and feed your kids some dirt.





And I ain't foolin.

Things that make you go hmmm....

Ok so after staring at his pictures and taking in every single square inch of him over the last 12 hours I am beginning to think these pictures might be newer than I thought. So many questions! He's obviously at the orphanage in these photos. Were these taken recently there? Does he go there for school everyday? Did his foster mother bring him there to get pictures taken? Does he look older to you? I think his buzz cut is throwing me off so I'm having a hard time dating these pics. So give me your opinions, older? Or younger?

Our son, pictures dated July of 09


Our son, pictures not dated.

Whatcha think?