A sparrow when I'm broken, and eagle when I fly.....

Welcome to my world. I am an ordinary wife and mom who has been extraordinarily blessed by an amazing husband and house full of beautiful children. My prayer is that you will be somehow blessed by our family's story. It is a tale of God's grace and forgiveness...His loving kindness and patience with us His children as we strive & struggle everyday to bless His name with our lives

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

hey friends...I am in China, Yah!

Hey friends...I am in China, Yah! I can't get access here (at least so far ) to blogger or facebook..so I set up this babyjellybeans site. Please check it to follow my travel journal and photos of the trip here to china to get the two new girls. The site is http://www.babyjellybeans.com/web/do/site?ID=32176 and there is no password needed. i am able to use my gmail account though so feel free to email me! Blessings to you all!>>

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Testing sending blog posts to stillwater via my cell phone

Monday, November 14, 2011

packing....

Looking at the photo of stacked toddler girl outfits below...I see a trend of animal prints. No, I am not bringing all this.



Anna, Miriam and I leave in six days for China! It is finally time to pull out all the little girl clothes I have been stashing in the closet for the last eleven months since we started this adoption. Since then we have twice received weights, heights, and feet length on the girls. My guess is that both Elsie and Charis wear about size 18 mos clothes. A guess is all that is. I am packing clothes in sizes 12 mos, 18 mos and 24 mos. The truth is that it's possible very little of what I am packing will fit. In that case we will hit the Walmart in Nanning. Walmart has revolutionized travel to China. I think we could go there with just the clothes on our back and buy all we need in China...if we wanted too. I don't want too. I want to be prepared to hunker down in hotel room snuggling my new babies...not dragging brand new kids to big department store to find clothes, diapers and snacks. It is going to be rough on Charis and Elsie to do all the stuff we HAVE to do.....like official adoption appointments. These two toddlers will not be used to car travel or shopping at all. Hopefully the outfits I'm bringing will fit. I think they will look adorable in anything though.

Our first adoption was from China ten years ago. Mike, Michael and I traveled to adopt Anna. We went COO (carry on only). I loved it. No checking luggage or waiting long hours for luggage to be unloaded off plane. COO is not as practical nowadays with airline security. I do pack all basic necessities in my carry on bag though. Meds, camera, IPOD, basic makeup, change of underwear and tshirt, and all important paperwork. I like to feel that even if all my luggage is lost we could still get by with what is in "carry on' bag and what we could buy in China. This has worked well. 98% of the time your luggage winds up with you after your flight. The other 2% of the time it is sure good to be prepared

Monday, November 7, 2011

Judah's 6th Birthday!




This is catch-up post of Judah's birthday. The day that began our CARS 2 marathon. The day my boys fell back in love with Lighting McQueen. I now hear Owen Wilson talking to me in my sleep.

Happy Birthday Judah! Judah was adopted right before his 4th birthday so he has been with us for two years now. We love you so much little man! YOU were a surprise gift of great worth to our family! I will never forget when we visited Gladney's orphanage in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia...we walked into the toddler room and there you were! Sitting on the floor and looking up at us. You were perfect. You were beautiful. What a miracle that you later became our son!





Yes...this pretty birthday cake cupcake is a Costco chocolate muffin in disguise. I love you Costco. You Costco are my friend for oh so many reasons.





This might have been a bit more spitting at candle not blowing at candle...





Yah!! I am really six years old now!





Cake might be good and tasty but the real fun is watching the new CARS 2 Movie for the next year every day. At least once every day. Many multiple times a day. Depending on mental health of parent and how badly they need "q u i e t" time. Times when only noise in our home is voices of Lighting McQueen and his friends.


My 2 favorite "A"s!!

Oh glorious "A"s...that bring us closer to our sweet baby girls waiting in China...




Elsie Ping Ping



Younger Elsie mug shot



Charis Yilin



Charis mug shot



My two favorite "A"s?

Well TA and CA of course! Yahooo!!! Friday our agency emailed to tell us we had TA (travel approval) and they were trying to get us CA (consulate appointment). Today I heard our CA(consulate appointment) is confirmed for Dec 6th! Yahooo again!!! TA comes from China and is permission for us (me) to travel to China for the adoption of "Elsie Ping Ping" and "Charis Yilin". TA is the BIG thing you wait for in world of China adoption. Yahooooooo!The CA is the confirmation from U.S. embassy in Guangzhou China that they have us scheduled for our consulate date. This is where we go to obtain the U.S. visa for Charis and Elsie to travel home to U.S. Ya Ya Yahoooo! Today all day, so far has been booking flights while walking on air. Praises be to our GREAT GOD. He brought our tax refund last week as well as the news of our super cool "A"s!
Anna and Miriam will be traveling with me to China to pick up Elsie and Charis. Anna was adopted from China at age 20 mos and Miriam was adopted from China at 3 1/2 years old. This will be their first trip back to their "motherland". This is going to be amazing! We leave two weeks from today on November 21st and get home I think December 9th! Oh my goodness ...it is the countdown to meeting our new little girls!!