We're licensed!

Travis just called me- literally as I was picking up the phone to call him, he called me. We are licensed to be a foster/adoptive home. Yea! Almost two months to the day we started, we are finished. Such a blessing! I am glad to have all of those things done. Whew all the hard stuff out of the way. Oh wait...I guess the hard stuff begins. :) But I will be honest- I am expecting God to teach us some amazing things through this. And my heart is so happy to be a part of something that he is doing. I can't wait. I know lessons that mean the most, don't come easy. But it is my desire that God fill my life and this certainly seems like a huge step toward that! Yesterday I went to the women's bible study at our church. We were talking about Ezekial's vision of God in the temple. The teacher said that God's glory takes up all available space. So if he is in the temple, he totally fills it. If he is in me- he totall fills me. I want him to take up all available space in my life. My heart is pounding in my chest! I am excited!

Catch up...

Let's see... where to start. Honestly I can't remember what we've done. :) That ever happen to you? Girls had some trouble getting over their colds, which meant I didn't sleep through the night for a while. Which meant my brain wasn't functioning. Brings back memories of tiny babies my girls that had some trouble figuring out how to sleep through the night. We could soon be back there. I had two Saturdays of all day classes for fostering/adoption. I learned a lot in the classes, but learned the most from two five minute conversations I had with people who have actually been there. One lady I spoke with said that she didn't know of any families that waited more than 20 days when they were willing to take a baby. We are signed up for birth to 5 years, so that could very well be us. Thankfully God is in control. I couldn't rest if he wasn't. That is the rock I keep going back to when things seem a little worrisome. And honestly, we wouldn't be here if God hadn't taken our hands and drug gently led us here. We were told today that if things go well, we will be licensed next week! I am not sure how long from there we are actually an available home, but I am guessing it doesn't take too long. Considering we started all of this almost exactly two months ago, I'd say we're moving right along!

Annika's bed, bedding, curtains, etc. got all moved to the Little Girl's room. Here is Annika with her new bed. Please overlook the fact that her name is no longer centered over her bed. We might fix that... or just leave it as being slightly to the side for some kind of artistic effect. She's done ok with her bedding being somewhere else. The first time she saw all in LG's room, she was upstairs and I was down. I saw her walk over and look...and burst into tears. She's cried most nights at bedtime. Last night was the shortest and no crying tonight! She picked to have to big bed and this bedding, so it just takes a little getting used to.



Annika and her new bed

My mom came to visit as a surprise for Olivia's 7th b-day. I decided very last minute that since we were going to Dallas, we might as well go early and go to American Girl. I am so glad we did. It was very fun and we basically had the store to ourselves. I hadn't planned to eat, as it was a looking trip. But when we got upstairs, Annika headed over to the bistro part and said, "When are we going to eat? I am hungry." How can you pass that up? We got brownie pops and mini ice cream cones. I am so thankful to be able to do fun stuff with our girls like that. I know there are many people in the world who would love to treat their kids to something fun and they can't. We left Amer. Girl and headed to the airport. I only had to make a u-turn once... so we did well. Olivia was so surprised when we pulled up to the airport! It was fun. We spent Fri. doing all the stuff she wanted. We got cupcakes, went to Miss Molly's toy store, jumped at Pump It Up, went to a really big Hallmark store, came home for a fast bath, and headed to dinner. Sat. I had class all day, so my mom took Olivia to a nail spa birthday party and to her 3 hour Nutcracker practice. Annika got a special day with KK. I am pretty sure she's never gotten to spend time with her by herself. They went shopping (at Walmart), went to Barnes and Noble and got pedicures. Mom said the pedicure place did everything for Annika and she loved it- even rose petals in the water! They did an incredible job painting flowers on her nails and she even got some little diamonds on them! So cute!  


Olivia opening her presents

Olivia got a desk for her room from my mom. We were going to go with Pottery Barn Kids, but they are just so expensive. I found this one at Target for a third of the price. It is awesome! She is so excited and has finally forgiven me for moving out her tea party table.


American Girl

At American Girl Olivia got her doll's ears pierced. The earrings are so cute! Annika got some glasses for her doll and we went in together to get her a zebra print dress with a purple bow that is adorable!

How did this happen?

I would just like to know when those two turned into these two.

Bloodtest Test

Well I have this clever little lesson to talk about, but I played a song on YouTube from the new princess Veggie Tale video when I sat down to type. It will make you cry. It is called Beautiful For Me- you can hear it Here. My mom got the DVD for the girls while we were visiting her and the song immediately made me think of the precious little girl God will be bringing into our house. We have been learning how these kids believe they are worthless- exactly the opposite of the way God created them. I will probably drive the little girl God brings to us crazy by playing this song constantly. I also found a wonderful canvas print at Hobby Lobby that has different things we are in God's eyes. It was the last one or I would have been getting them for a few friends. I felt like God just stuck it there for me to find for her. :) I am really fighting typing out the lyrics. Just go listen. It won't take long and it is so worth it. The new video is great too (and it is only $10 at Target!)

Ok, so back to my lesson. Last Fri. (as in yesterday) I had to get some bloodwork done. Travis kept the girls so I could go to the dr. She sent me down the street to the lab. I went in feeling rather chipper and really wanting to be positive and show God's love to these people (even though I had about exhausted my kindness while waiting at the dr. I saw her 5 min., but was there for over an hour) So while I am waiting a young woman came in and said she was there to get some more blood drawn because they had called her because they hadn't drawn enough blood the first time. I was thinking, wow, what an inconvenience. And let's be honest- it isn't most people's favorite thing to do. So anyway, they called me back in just a few minutes. I really don't mind having blood taken if the person knows what they are doing. I felt pretty confident in this man because this is what he does all day. Surely he has got it down. I wasn't really paying attention- he got his stuff ready, cleaned my arm, and got to work. He was not gentle. In fact, my arm is still sore. But I was still smiling and kind and bid him a good day.

Fast forward a few hours- I had layed down because Annika has been up every night because she is sick. So tired. So I was resting. I get a call from the guy. Um, we didn't get enough blood. What? For ONE test. You didn't get enough blood? Well, now I've got to cart my two sick kids down and do it all over. So the whole way there I am thinking- I need to be kind, forgiving, etc. But I keep thinking about the girl who was in there earlier saying the same thing happened. I don't know about you, but I really like when people do a good job at their job. I have very little tolerance for half effort. I know everyone makes a mistake ocassionally, but this had already happened. So I walked in to all of the employees sitting around and no patients waiting. And I can't even make it to the window before I say, "I just don't understand how this happens." I wanted to say a few other things. (we go back- he breaks several OSHA rules that I will spare you of, but it did result in me swabbing my arm with alcohol gel when we got to the car.) He does another pretty lousy job while trying to be friendly. I didn't feel like being friendly.

 Do you think he learned a lesson from me being short with him? What about when I left and I headed straight to the comment box only to find there were no cards? I said on my way out, I guess I'll have to call them- with one of the workers sort of glaring at me. Did I smile? Yes, but while glaring. I showed her didn't I? How come I didn't feel good about when I left? Why did I have to apologize to the girls for my less than Christ like behavior?

Because I failed that test. Anyone can be nice when things are going well and people are doing what you expect. But God wants us to be nice even when it is difficult and doesn't seem like the right thing to do in the moment. I wish I would hurry up and learn this lesson!

Labor Day Weekend and Homestudy

Last week was so busy, I barely felt like I had time to breathe. But we had a great time! Last Wed. we had our homestudy. It took 5 hours. The girls were great. I was really worried about Annika saying something funny, but she actually only said two words, "Uh huh" and "Fine." Those were in response to "Are you excited about adopting?" and "How else do you feel about adopting?" The rest of the time she nervously flipped the pages of a very big book. I think she didn't know what to expect. Poor thing. After our homestudy, we packed for Little Rock.

We drove the next day and stopped in Texarkana to see my dad and step-mom. We planned to meet at the farm, but they finished up with the horses before we got there. Chuck E Cheese was the place to meet. We all had fun! We had the place to ourselves. Except for one older man who played the Bart Simpson pinball machine the whole time. Weird.



We met KK and Poppy at Izzy's for dinner. Girls (and I!) were so glad to get out of the car! We had a great time visiting. We made our usual trip to the mall- which included build a you know what, and some new shoes. I got the ones that everyone's had for two years. You know the ones. Ukks. :) And they were mismarked, so we saved $40!!! I love a deal!



My step-sister, her husband, and their 2 1/2 year old son visited too. It was fun to see them. Their son can already spell a lot of words. Crazy! We played outside a lot. The girls love to play outside. They also played in the hot tub and helped decorate for Halloween. It was a fun weekend. Travis surprised us by driving from Fayetteville. He met us in Perryville and took the girl's fishing at my aunt and uncle's barn. They each caught a big catfish! And we rode 4 wheelers. So fun! I love being outside and we don't have a lot to do here in TX outside because it is so hot!



We have everything turned in for adoption stuff. The next step is to get assigned a case worker from the agency. Then when they have everything ready, we are put in the sysytem. I have two Sat. classes from 9-5 left and then that is all for our classes! (for now) Yea! Hopefully I can stay awake. The girls have been sick, so I haven't gotten a full nights sleep in a few nights. I am not used to that. How quickly you forget!