In Preparation for Thanksgiving

Noah's first encounter with a snake (dead of course)
Leanna and My table at the Ladies Thanksgiving Celebration at our church (above)-theme-Forest glade.
My mom and Rachael's table (below)- theme is Veteran's Day
Our church had their annual Ladies Thanksgiving Celebration today. It is an outreach even where we try to fill our table with women with whom we want to minister to. Praise God all seats at all the tables were full!! Only one seat was vacant and I like to think we saved that one for Jesus to sit at. We had 64 ladies at the luncheon who heard the Gospel of Christ loud and clear. This really got me in the holiday spirit. It also got me thinking of something God has brought to my attention lately which is just how many people that I know within my little circle that are physically hungry. I mean that they don't have enough food for the week. It is something that I have not had to deal with in my life but suddenly all around me there seems physical and spiritual hunger. I help run a small food pantry out of our church and perhaps this has brought to my attention the need. Last week at a meeting I attend once a month, our speaker was a lady that helped run the Food Pantry in the small town where I live. I was shocked to know that they feed 550-600 people every 30 days! I was also shocked at the small amount of food that they were able to give these families. Also last week, a family was brought to my attention with 5 children who had no food in their house. For breakfast they had chili beans and water. It made me so thankful for all of the things I have been blessed with. So my challenge to you is this...... branch out of your comfort zone, see people through Jesus' eyes. Also, try to be very perceptive of peoples REAL life situations. My experience with many families I've seen use the food pantry is that they live in nice houses and don't look like what we believe to be the "typical" person who would need help. After all, we never know when we may need a helping hand.

Adoption Update: I met with the social worker tonight. She was helping me to put together our dossier (papers to send to the Ukraine). A lot of issues in them need to be corrected but strangely I feel a peace about it that I haven't had in a while (praise God!). I know some of you out there are praying and for that I am grateful. So here is the latest time line we are shooting for. November and December I will be fixing my paperwork, getting it notarized, authenticated and state sealed. We will submit the Dossier to the Ukraine Embassy in January. After they translate it, they will send it to the the Embassy in Kiev. This process will take a few months. Then, we will get a letter to fly from the Ukraine (if we are approved) which could be anywhere from a few months out to 6-8 months out. Either way, hopefully 2009 will be the year we'll get our little girl.

PRAYER REQUEST: Pray that my Homestudy will come in the next few weeks (it is finished and we passed!) so we can begin applying for grants and financial aide.
Pray that God has picked out the perfect little girl for our family. It's a little surreal to know that she has probably been born now. Thank ya'll so much for your prayers!

Get out and VOTE

Those of you who know me know that I would NEVER try to make anyone's mind up for them. I would especially NEVER tell anyone who to vote for. It's just not me. YEAH RIGHT!! Today is election day people. If you haven't voted please exercise this great freedom that we have to cast a secret ballot without fear of intimidation or oppression. If you still haven't made up your mind, I'll be by my phone all day taking calls with wonderful advice on who I believe is the best candidate for the job :) But regardless of who you are leaning towards (hopefully the right), please use this freedom we have been given wisely. I do say all of this partly joking but I would like to leave you with a few thoughts that our pastor shared with us on Sunday.
Who wins on Tuesday will not change some of the most important things. It will not change that the Bible is true. It will not change that God is Sovereign. It will not change that we are covered by Jesus' blood. It will not change the fact that if we believe in Jesus' name and repent from our sins that we will have eternal life. PRAISE THE LORD!!! But, as Christians, we do have a huge responsibility and that is to pray for whomever God allows to be our leader and that we must do faithfully.

TRICK OR TREAT

Noah doing "scary face"
Well, Noah successfully completed his first Trick or Treat experience. We went downtown to visit the stores that were open and giving out candy in the historic district and got to see lots of little trick or treaters. He loved that!! Then we went to see his great, great Uncle CB and and Lottie or "La and B" as he calls them and on to Nana and Poppy's to make candy apples. He had 5 lollipops in 2 hours. I'm pretty sure that's a record. Hopefully all of his teeth won't fall out. Ahh the memories.

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY MY BABY BOY!!

SOME OF US GOING ON A HAYRIDE

PLAYING "FISHING FOR TADPOLES"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU........

BOUNCING IN THE MOONBOUNCE

No way that my baby boy is 2 years old!! We had a wonderful party with some friends and family and would loved to have had many more but Alas, our house is too small!! Noah had is own private moonbounce, fish for tadpoles, ate lots of cake, had a hayride and enjoyed playing with his friend Jacob. I am so blessed to be Noah's mama. We love you so much baby boy!!

WHAT A WONDERFUL WEEKEND!!

Congrats Tommy and Leanna!! You are a match made in heaven!!

We were doing the "twist"

THE FAIR

Fishing for a prize

When I asked Noah what his favorite thing at the fair was he said "baby chicks"

Have you ever just had a wonderful yet exhausting weekend? We were so blessed to watch Tommy and Leanna finally tie the knot and have a fun reception on Saturday. You guys are definately made for each other and you did it right!! We're so proud of you. Then, Sunday we heard a great sermon from our pastor who is doing a series on the names of God and how they should affect our lives. It is extremely thought provoking and we are enjoying it so much. Then Mike decided to play hooky from studying and took us to the Fair!! We weren't sure how Noah would do but he loved it so much. He was too short to really ride anything but the slide, but the animals were his favorite. He also had a mini meltdown when we had to leave the fishing booth. I just love my little family and it is so neat seeing things through Noah's eyes.

Adoption note: Our I 600 A to the government was approved and we have an appointment to go for fingerprinting next Tuesday. We are getting the paperwork together for our dossier and hope to have it done in the next few weeks. Still waiting on the homestudy but once it is received we will send it in and wait for our 171 clearance which usually takes a month or two. You can pray for: 1. Our dossier paperwork to come together 2. Clarity about paperwork from our adoption agency 3. Financing the adoption to come together 4. Our little girl who is out there waiting for us!! Thank you so much!!

SEARCHING FOR ROCKS

Loading all the heavy rocks

I might be coming over to the dark side and liking Max just a little

No, he didn't drive the tractor...... yet

Before we all set off to collect rocks for Rachael and John's garden

THE (BEFORE PIC) OF THE LAUNDRY ROOM

Justin's working hard

The (After pics)- all the donations from the ladies at church

Mike was out of town this weekend so Noah and I were travelers between houses. We stayed with Nana and Granny each a night and had a wonderful time, even though I was sick! I have to brag on the College and Career Group a little bit and thank them for the wonderful job they did on a laundry room for some local women who are in recovery for substance abuse. The room was dingy and yucky before and everyone pulled together and did all this in just 2 hours. (not to hard for about 14 of us!) Thank you guys/girls so much. The ladies loved it and the Lord was definately honored.

Sunday afternoon, we all piled on the trailor behind the tractor and went hunting rocks for Rachael and John's English rock garden. It's going to be so pretty and we had a wonderful time!

On Adoption news: We are preparing paperwork for our Dossier which is our paperwork to take overseas. There are 3 steps to this process and we've already hit a bit of a snag with our doctors not having a notary in the office so PLEASE PRAY for everything to come together. Thanks everyone.

Long Time Coming

Noah made me laugh so hard by putting this bucket on his head and runnning into things

My little Airborne Soldier

Playing trains with Dada- a new favorite pastime

(Me and some girls from High School on our 11 year reunion beach trip)

I know, I know.... it's been a while since I've posted. SORRY!! It's been pretty busy. I just got back from a beach trip this past weekend with 4 great friends from highschool. We have all reconnected and get together once a month for breakfast and decided to all go off together. We had a wonderful weekend full of eating, shopping, talking and watching movies! Anyway, Noah is growing like a weed. He says new things everyday and his sense of humor is really coming out. I'm afraid he is mischevious like his Daddy. He loves to sing and is trying to learn one of Mike's Airborne songs and I've got the Joy, Joy, Joy. We are having lots of fun these days!

On another note, I can't wait until the fair!! This cool weather makes me want to eat my way through it! Happy Fall.