Weekend Update

I cannot believe that just this weekend we were outside in shorts enjoying the 73 degree weather...and now we are getting ready for Oklahoma Blizzard Extravaganza 2011! They are saying like 12" of snow tomorrow. Makes me think of Christmas 2009; snowed in for 3 days with my entire family at my house!!! Boy was that a Christmas to remember!

So this weekend we got outside and played and enjoyed the beautiful weather! Blake ran around with Penny a lot. She was SO tired after that!

I worked on my latest addition to my shop....these cute keychains. Here is the personalized one..

And here are a few others I made..

I also finished up an order for my fabulous sister in-law. She ordered a few initial onesies with matching felt flower headbands (also recently added to my shop) and a cute owl lovie blanket (of which I failed to photograph!). Thanks Kendra!!!

Church this weekend was about FEAR! What are we afraid of? Craig, our Pastor, said FEAR is placing faith in the "what if's?".

He also made a great point: That FEAR reveals what you value the most. AND Fear reveals where you trust God the least. So that would be fear of the future, of the unknown, of loss...etc

I figured that I am not trusting God with the future. I'm always fearful that something will happen with our adoption. It seems that 2010 was a roller coaster that had a lot of highs, but were quickly followed by many lows! I guess I'm always waiting for something to happen. Even though I know that this is what God has planned for our family. He makes that clear all the time!!!

"I sought the Lord, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears." Psalm 34:4

Cookie Fail....but still yummy and fun!

So I got this great idea that for a fundraiser I would make cookies shaped like Africa and ice them very Valentine like. So I had Clint gather the ingredients and since he knows how much I LOVE to bake (haha) , he decided to make them with Laynie's help.
I guess I'm better in my sewing room then in the kitchen baking!

So Laynie got to work.....

They turned out very pretty, but with my 1950's oven (that you can only fit a round baking sheet in) ....that meant only 6 cookies at a time! Oiy!

Clint got very creative and decided we would pipe the edges and use "flood" icing for the middle. Little did they know, it is HARD work and takes a really long time! They really did a great job though!

Needless to say, we aren't selling V-day Africa cookies after all. Laynie and Clint did a wonderful job though!!! I'll stick to fundraising with my sewing and such...for now anyway!

This is how Penny helped.

New Fabrics & Key Fobs!

I have added a few new fabrics to my collection. My FAV is this CAute umbrella print by Riley Blake. I'm planning some cute ruffle pants from it and the coordinating dots!

Remember that anything you see in my store can be made from any fabric in my collection! Go HERE and see all of the fabrics...use the word "fabric" as the password.

Also, soon to be added to my store..... wristlet key fobs!!!!

This is a sample pic only. You can pre-order yours now if you'd like. Any of the fabrics I have can be used! They will be $6.00. I can even customize them!

Gladney APPROVED!

I'm so excited! For those of you that understand this process, you understand how EXCITED we are to receive our Gladney Approval! I received our Fed Ex package that contained our official homestudy copies and our Gladney certificate of approval today.

It is just wonderful to be "moving" again with everything!

For those of you that don't know the process, let me explain:

Now that we have our official homestudy copies back, I can attach them to the I-600A (USCIS: US Citizenship and Immigration Services) and to our Dossier (foreign paperwork). I am overnighting our I600A today and once they get it, they will send us a letter with a time and date for our fingerprints to be done.

After we do our fingerprints and are approved, we send our approval letter from them..along with the rest of our Dossier to Washington DC to be translated. AND THEN.....we should be put on the wait list!

Still a lot left to go, but we are so excited. Once we are put on the wait list, it will really calm down. We will then have about 9 months to prepare for our baby!

What a WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY!

Recycle Love

Our sweet, sweet friends John and Jennifer Linck are being "featured" on the Andrews Blog today.

I met Jennifer through blog-land back in October, right after we started our mountain of paperwork. We met for lunch and became instant friends! It was so nice to talk to someone (a girl) who knew exactly what it feels like to be in my shoes. She was so sweet and I felt like I had known her for years. Over time we have become closer.

They are being featured today for the Recycle Love campaign going on over at "Africa Bound Andrews". For every Recycle Love tee you buy, $10 goes to the Linck family to support their adoption. YAY!

Also, Jennifer is selling these YUMMO cupcakes for Valentines Day! You can order them from her blog! Help support the Linck's! YIPPEE!

I-600A Here We Come!!

Look at me...3 blog posts in ONE day! I really meant what I said about blogging more! ;)

I just got a call from Gladney that they are overnighting our completed home study today! She is also sending my I-600A to us because the fee has increased...so I have to include a different check for that! I'm kind of glad that she's sending it to me to send off...that way I know it's going out ASAP! Once the I-600A is sent off, they will mail us a letter letting us know where to get our fingerprints done! It's the LAST part of our Dossier! That will be SUCH a relief to send that off and know we are done with the paper chase.

That really made my day! YIPPPPEEEEEEE!!!!! Thank you Lord!

Proverbs 24:12

Source

Funk and Fundraising

I thought I was a good blogger. wrong. I thought I was going to be an even better blogger when we started our adoption journey. wrong. I thought I would have all these wonderful, enlightening, encouraging, spiritual things to say. wrong.

What is WRONG with me? I read other blogs (like crazy) and think, "Wow, that was so wonderfully put. Why can't I write like that?"
I know that's not fair to put on myself. Not everyone is a terrific writer with profound things to say. BUT....I have a LOT to say...all the time. (ask my hubby!) haha.
It just seems like I don't ever want to put it down in writing. I know I should. I know that 10 years from now I will want to look back and read about what I was feeling, where we were in the process, etc.

Still.....nothing.

I don't know if it's the pressure to write something wonderful, deep and meaningful every time I blog, or maybe it's being nervous about how my audience of 12 will receive my feelings.

I have had a lot going on recently. More doctors appointments, family drama, WAITING on our home study copies, trying to raise money for our adoption, etc.... so it's not like I don't have anything to blog about! I guess I just need to take the pressure of being a super writer off of myself and just blog...whenever and about whatever......maybe that will help me to blog more frequently.

So...here'goes

Fundraising: OH that word is daunting. Trying to think of creative ways to raise money to bring home this baby that God has picked special for our family. It's been a little crazy. My sweet friend Jennifer had a great post about fundraising over on her blog. I feel the exact same way she does. (there, can I just do that?...just link to wonderful posts on the things I'm feeling at the time? NO, that's the easy way out!).
I have had a few people get that look on their face when I tell them that we are fundraising for our adoption. I mean COME ON people.....if Girl Scouts can sell cookies, High School kids can sell coupon cards, and about 5 times a year my child brings home some fundraiser from the school...then I think I can fund raise to bring my sweet child home from Africa. Having to come up with new and creative ideas to raise this money is not an easy task.

I'm going to bake some "prototype" cookies tonight that I am hoping to sell for Valentines Day. We'll see how they turn out before I go promoting them!


We are faithful people. We have faith in the Lord and we have seen him to AMAzing things in our lives over the past year. We know he will provide and will bless our efforts! I need to let go of the worry and the panic and trust that God will see us through.

I plan to start blogging more. More about my feelings with this process, more about our family happenings, etc. Just more.
After all, I need to keep my 12 readers somehow...right?
:)

Etsy Store Update

Whew! Now that Christmas is over I can start sewing again on new items! I LOVE Valentines Day...mainly because of the colors of it (love me some pink and red) and the decorating. I know, that's silly, but I feel the same about Halloween too. So I have started on some V-Day shirts and onesies.

This little girl one...

This handsome boy one....

And this little baby robot one!

Of course if you are interested in any of them, let me know. I have other shirt colors too: white, red, navy, black, grey. The onesies come in all sizes. If you would rather I put the robot on a little t-shirt, I can do that too! :)

I also finished a nursing cover and some cute clutch/cosmetic bags.

Just trying to stay busy while I WAIT on our home study to come HOME so I can include it with the Dossier! UGH! :0)

Patience Kathleen! I have that tattooed on my foot...maybe I should add, "running out of" before it!?

Golf team

I love this picture of Clint and Blake playing golf. Just wanted to share!

The Queen...and Penny!

A couple nights ago we had our monthly dinner at The Queen of Sheba, an Ethiopian restaurant in Oklahoma City. It was great to see familiar faces and to meet new friends. I love that we are building a new community of friends that know what we are all going through. It's just really fantastic! I love seeing all the sweet Ethiopian faces too. I wanted to just eat Eli up!!
Laynie and Blake did really well. We ordered the "platter" (can't remember the exact name)..that comes with a sample of almost everything. They were terrific and tried EVERYthing on the plate! Even the green beans! We were proud of them!

So, as I mentioned before...we are proud new parents to a sweet little Yorkie! Her name is Penny and she is really a great dog! She's about 2lbs now and will grow to about 5 or 6 lbs. I wanted a non-shedding "lap" dog and Penny is perfect for that!!

Poor Penny got her first bath on Tuesday night. She was very good and still...but she was SO ready to get dried off and warm again!

This is sweet Penny at the house I bought her from. She is so little!!

On the adoption front: I got an email yesterday saying that our final copies of our homestudy have been mailed off! That's exciting news and we can't wait to get our copies so we can hurry up with this Dossier!!

We are praying that we will be able to bring our sweet baby girl home in 2011. We'll see.

We Survived!

We survived the whirlwind that was 2010...the doctors appointments, the let-downs, the roller coaster! We survived.... and only because we had God on our side and LOTS of friends and family praying for us! Looking back, 2010 was not my best year!haha. I think it will go down as my worst to date. BUT....I learned a lot about myself...about my strength and my relationship with God. It brought Clint and I closer and really opened my eyes to many things.

We all go through difficult times....it's how we choose to make it through that counts. I am excited for 2011. Hopefully we will bring our sweet baby home from Africa, but either way, it will be a year full of waiting and growing...and we can handle both of those! ;)

Now that we have the Gladney thing straightened out, we are moving forward. I almost have our Dossier (our foreign paperwork) completed. Just a few small things to wrap up. I'm very excited about that because it's the last big thing before we can be put on the wait list!

Feels great to be progressing!

We celebrated New Years with our wonderful friends, the Due's. The kids and us Mom's stayed up to ring in the new year, but the Dad's couldn't make it! haha.

Here are our unlikely BFF's....my 10 year old, Blake and our sweet friend Grace, who is 5. They play together all the time...and really enjoy each other. It's a mystery to us, but we love that they get along so wonderfully!

The kids toasting to the new year! Grace, Blake, Laynie and Lydia.

Just Dance, Wii style....the girls (and Clint) LOVED it!

Another fun thing that we have done in 2011.....we bought a sweet Yorkie puppy. Her name is Penny and she is 14 weeks old. She is super sweet and has been a very good puppy! I will post pics soon. :)

Answer

Looks like we're moving forward with Gladney! :)

I'll leave it to Kathleen to elaborate.

Tic-Toc, Tic-Toc

Today or tomorrow we should know something....either we are moving forward with Gladney or changing direction altogether. I'm ready for an answer.
Once we get an answer I will share why we have been in limbo.
Just praying. Hoping. Waiting.