"Hoss" Has Arrived!

I am sooooo excited that Christmas is getting closer. It is so wonderful that we get to celebrate the birth of Jesus...the greatest gift ever! I just love listening to the Christmas music on the radio and seeing all of the decorations everywhere....we also have to watch a Christmas movie atleast once a week. My favorite is "Christmas w/ the Kranks", Kelly's fav is "A Christmas Story", and the kids love "The Grinch"! Each year we go out and buy our tree the day after Thanksgiving and then spend the entire weekend decorating. I love it....the kids get so excited! Once our tree is up then it's time for our Elf on the Shelf "Hoss" to return from the North Pole. It is so fun to see how the kids react each morning when he is in a different spot...Asa does get a little carried away the first few days...he will wake up at 3am to go on a search for the elf! This year Hoss came bearing gifts...Christmas PJ's..so that was a nice surprise for Iris and Asa.

We hope everyone has a very blessed holiday and hopefully next year we will have a wonderful addition to our family!

Iris Anne's Skating Party!

Today we had Iris Anne's birthday party at Hamilton Skate Place. It was such a rainy and dreary day so it was a perfect day to go skating...just not a good day to have to get out and drive to the skating rink. Even with the rain we had almost 40 kids show up...Iris Anne is so blessed to have such special friends!
We had a blast skating...I was proud to see a lot of the parents out there too!
This party was one of our funnest so far...we just might have to do this again next year!

Gladney Approved!

Today we got some very exciting news. For the past 10 months we have been doing paperwork like crazy and trying to raise funds to send in with that paperwork. Well today we got an email from Gladney that we have been formally approved for Ethiopia adoption! If you haven't been through the adoption process you might not know what this means. When you first start out on this journey just making the decision to adopt is the first step..and probably the easiest part of it all. Then the real work begins. Before you can even begin you have to be approved to apply and then after months of filling out forms, having physicals, being fingerprinted repeatedly, having a home study done,and sending in thousands of dollars...then if everything isn't "formally" approved...all of that is lost! So you can imagine that this wonderful news gives us a huge sense of relief! I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! Now...dossier can be completed to send to Ethiopia and that will be reviewed and we go on a waiting list for our child.
Please pray that God will continue to guide us through this and give us the courage and patience to make it to our child! We still have a lot of money to raise so also pray that He will provide those funds we need!
God is so good!

Iris Anne turns 8!!!

My sweet baby girl turned 8 years old today. It is a wonderful day but it is also very sad to see her growing up so fast. It seems like just yesterday Kelly and I were in the hospital looking at each other and thinking "what do we do with this baby"!!! When Iris Anne was born it was the most amazing day...and the scariest day of our lives. Kelly and I had no idea what being a parent really meant until that moment...there is no way to ever prepare yourself for feeling that much love for another human being! I thank God each day that He has blessed us with this beautiful sweet daughter who means the world to us!

Today was all about Iris...we had such a fun day! The kids were out of school for a teacher work day...which worked out great! First, we served Iris her favorite breakfast...chocolate strudel...with a candle in it. Asa had her a card and gift which was really sweet! Then we headed to Atlanta to the American Girl store along with the grandmothers! I just love going to that store. This was Asa's first trip there and he even enjoyed it! Iris picked out a new doll...which she named "Chloe Anne". Asa even got a surprise for being such a sweet brother...a Perry the Platypus hat and toy.
When we got back home we enjoyed Iris's favorite dessert...key lime pie!
I hope Iris had a great birthday...I just wish they wouldn't come so fast!
Love you sweet Chickaboo!

Halloween 2010

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