It's still there.

See that?


No,
not the teenagers shoes that don't belong there.
No,
not the socks that a certain twin who enjoys being barefoot leaves everywhere.
But those...


those flight suits.

They have been sitting by the front door for my lovely husband to take to work for a  long,
long,
long,
time.

My friend Tara, a fellow AF wife, makes these off-the-hook cute bags that are made out of old flight suits.


Cuz she's crazy talented like that.



She and I just met this year as our hubs are in the same program together and she graciously offered to make a bag and then sell it and give us the proceeds from that sale.
Yeah, did I mention how sweet she is?
(She also made two others to send to an auction benefiting the Susan G. Komen foundation....further proof of her awesomeness.)
Who knew that God would use a new friend and some old flight suits to be a part of our adoption journey?
Love that!
I have drooled over these bags as I have run into other AF wives that have them over the years but sadly my flight suit bag total stands at 0.
Boo.

Anyhoo, that brings us to this overflowing bag of flight suits.
That sit.
by.
the.
door.
For well over a  month now.

That were supposed to be dropped off to her husband to give to her as she continues to be a blessing to others down the road but sadly have not and have instead "decorated" the front entry way of our home. 

It's a good thing he's cute.


Otherwise that pile might just annoy me every time I walk by it bother me ever so slightly.
And Tara, I can't thank you enough! You are such a blessing!

Their visa photos

A lot of this adoption process can be a bit........well...
boring.

Answering questions on government forms like,
Are you "An alien who seeks to enter the United States to engage in espionage*, sabotage, export control violations, terr**orist activities, the overthrow of the United States government* or other unlawful activity, who is a member or affiliated with the Communis*t or other totalitarian party; who participated, engaged, or ordered genoc*de, tortu*re, extrajudicial killings, or who is a member or representative of a terros*ist organization as currently designated by the U.S. Secretary of State."

Please check yes or no.
Yeah. Good times.

And then their are the really fun moments like when you have to take one of their photos and get them printed on photo paper measuring 2X2 for their visa applications.


Let's just all stop and have a collective, "Awwww so cute!" moment shall we?


Awwww, so cute!
Cost for this specific step of the process?
57cents.
Thank you Costco.

It's the little things

that make me so, SO excited to get these boys home!
Well, it's a ton of little things and a few big things but today we had one of those little moments.

Jason, Jordan, Justin & Jack all had 8am dentist appointments this morning.
4 kids,
1 cavity.

As I was checking out she made their next appointment for 6 months from now....
which is April....
...and unless we have some serious issues come up between now and then, I will need a couple more appointments that day!

These two

will be joining the other four on that day in April.
That's six cleaning/check-up appointments please.
Jason, Jordan, Justin, Jack, Jacob & Joseph.
Thankyouverymuch.
I think I'll have the waiting room that morning all to myself. ;)

They will have been home with us at that point around 4 months, which I think will be good to let them get settled before we introduce things like the dental chair. Jacob will also have his first orthodontic consult that week. Though we won't be using the orthodontist here that works with Jason because we will be moving wherever the Air Force sends us this summer, it will be nice to get an idea of what to expect. We know his sweet little mouth is a bit of a mess, quite common among cleft affected kiddos, so we'll just see what he says and tackle that when we get to our next assignment.

I think I shoulda married a dentist. ;)

He has my heart....

.....but not my study skills.
Thankfully, this child takes after his daddy.
Reading, reading, studying, memorizing, reading some more, and flashcards.
Yes.
Flashcards.
So as I was at Bible study last night after their baseball game these two put their heads together to review one last time for the big 3rd grade social studies test.
And as part of that studying...
they made flashcards.
And this is what I found when I went in to peek on the twins when I came home.



Oh how I love that boy
and his daddy with his flashcards.

I'm throwing in the towel.

I can't get Joey's video to embed in here sooooo I'm giving up and I'm gonna have to make you work for it.

Here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC35Kx0MCnY

you will need to sign in with your YouTube or Google acct in order to view it.
But lemme just tell ya now....
..it's so worth it.

Feel free to then come back and tell me how cute he is.
I can take it. ;)

He continues to amaze me!

I love God.
I love everything about Him.
How He loves, how He works, how He forgives, how He provides.

.....and how He showed up and showed out at our yard sale.

Last week following our LSC's we had to submit with our I-800 form $670 for the "additional child non-related sibling fee".
Then very quickly we will need to submit $1,128 ($564 x 2) for their visa's.
$1,798 in a very short amount of time.

Our yard sale total yesterday?
.....any guesses?...
.....are ya ready?..

$1,754.

Yeah.
I
love
to
watch
HIM
work.

In no way when we made the decision to step out in faith and follow His commands to care for the orphan did we have this enormous pile of  money sitting in the corner getting dusty. And as nice as that would have been if that were true, it's been even more amazing to watch HIM provide through every step.
We didn't have it.
But HE does.
And how He has used so many friends and strangers alike to accomplish His purpose has been
in
cre
di
ble
to watch.

We have some amazing friends that sacrificed so much time and effort that made our yard sale a huge success! They showed up by the truckloads with donations, they stood in my driveway for hours sorting and sorting and sorting and
well,
sorting.
And then some of them even had the nerve to rouse themselves out of a perfectly warm and comfy bed at 6am and join me in working the yard sale.
We are incredibly grateful to all of you that donated, helped, emailed or even Facebooked your words of support. We have the best friends and we can't thank you all enough. Thank you for being His hands and feet!

Soli De Gloria!
to God be the glory

14 Days!

14 days left to get in on the raffle! There are some pretty cool prizes going on around here

Mary Kay
Scentsy
Wild Olive
Wheat & Wildflowers
147 Million Orphans tee
and the list goes on!

Check it out here! And thank you to everyone that has donated! We are incredibly blessed! We are still short of needed funds but we are holding a big yard sale tomorrow! Please pray that it will be successful!

And standby for Joey in motion! I'm trying to get his video uploaded as well...it is cuteness overload I'm tellin ya!

I'm off to the garage....my second home the last few days...sort, price, sort, price, sort, go potty, price, sort....

Jacob Live!

Ready for some cuteness in motion?

I'm still here! I'm still here!

Sheesh! What a week!

John had to leave town for work..beaches of Normandy anyone?...then he came back...I love it when he comes back!
Garage sale stuff is a little overwhelming to me at the moment.....
I have chosen denial.


When your two car garage is absolutely filled with mounds of stuff that you have four days to sort through before strangers ring your bell at 4am, I have found it tis best to just close the door and live in denial.
True story.
Thankfully a dear friend of mine is coming into town on Friday to drag me out of la-la land and get it done help me out..praise the Lord for that!

LSC's are signed and headed to their next stop! 

Care packages for the boys were mailed......and please no one tell my husband how much it cost to mail them...




...my jaw is still on the floor at the post office.

We had our first cold snap...and now there are a few ants trying to make a new home in our house.
I am nesting like a crazy woman which makes the aforementioned ant invasion even less appealing.
Our computers have decided to not cooperate with anything....which makes an online driven homeschool curriculum all the more challenging.....
..not to mention...gasp!....my blog reading and writing!
Priorities after all! Eat-Pray-Blog-Love.....though not in that order.
And I start a new Bible study tonight that I CANNOT WAIT to tell you about.

Our "average of 12 week wait" from now until we land in China time clock has started! Tick tock! Tick tock!
Off to procure more caffeine from my BFF...the coffee pot. 
Toddles!

Air Force Wife 101

Ok so my fellow AF wives and I apparently have a lot of junk stuff.
Scratch that.
We don't have a lot of junk stuff...we just move
a lot.
And the curtains that fit in your house in California...
probably won't fit in your house in Delaware.
And that marble bakers rack that your husband brought home from Turkey fit just fine in North Dakota...
...but not so much in Washington DC.
And those full size beds that your kids had in Colorado,
are going to have to be traded in for twin bunk beds in Illinois.
And all of those kids that fit just fine in your base house in Arizona...
now have no room in Florida.

Ok, just kidding...we make room for our kiddos...but the junk...and stuff that no longer works in whenever the world we all are now, well
it's
got
to
go.
Because soon enough big giant men employed by the local moving company will ring your doorbell at 7am and begin packing all of your worldly possessions including the contents of your underwear drawer and load them up on a giant truck headed to your new destination. Where you will put on a pretty dress and an even prettier smile and meet and greet and start your world all over again because that man you married? Well, he's a brave man. A hero who serves and manages within a week to fly into a war zone and two days later coach a Little League game. Yeah. I love him.

So when I recently put out the neighborhood call for donations for our garage sale fundraiser to my fellow AF wife posse
well....

here...let me just show you.

Yeah.
Aren't they awesome?

Anyone need a vacuum?
 
Or another vacuum?
Or a bag or 50 of...well, of something.
I haven't even begun to go through it all yet.

Please do take note of the pile's close proximity to THE CEILING OF THE GARAGE.
 
Gracious that's alotta stuff!

I'm thinking that tagging each individual item....is totally out.
only because I'd like to finish sometime before the age of 65.
So my current plan is pricing categories!
Whatcha think?

My Prince, the Fed Ex Man

Ya know when you are a little girl you dream of your prince on a white chariot who swoops in, lifts you off of your dainty feet and away you go into Never Never Land
And then you grow up.
And then you grow up and adopt.

And your white chariot dream turns into this

which, upon it's arrival makes your heart pitter-patter,
and it makes your knees buckle.

But then,
your prince emerges from his chariot...
and you swoon.
And instead of a diamond ring,
or a glass slipper
he hands you these.

At which point I got all choked up...
thanked him 400 times more than was necessary,
composed myself
and went into the house.

And then I read the part on the LSC's that say,
"Child's birth parents could not be ascertained."
....and I burst into an ugly cry.
Ugly,
uuuuggggllyyy
cry.
Sheesh! No one warned me that it would say that.
I know that fact of course about their birth parents...
but seeing it there...
hit
me
hard. 

I will be ever grateful to those women for choosing life for these boys.
We don't know much
but we know they
chose
life.
And for that we are thankful.

I'm off now to extract the mascara off of my forehead and cheeks.....
I told ya,
ugly cry.

They're here!! Our LSC's are here!!!

The boys are pretty excited about this news

and so are we!
More soon! Must go triple check the next batch of forms headed to USCIS!

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens.. Ecclesiastes 3:1