thanksgiving

We had a very nice Thanksgiving. had the family over and we ate lots of good food. Black friday was not the same this year. it didn't seem like there were as many great deals. you know like the free or almost free door openers. P went out for a few hours and did a little shopping after noon.

Look at these bags

I'll mention a new site that i found, she has some really wonderful items on her website right now that you need to take a look at! Check it out at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5511685&order=&section_id=5410578&page=1

ALSO, she's doing a really fun contest right now. If you go take a look at a blog posting below, and leave her a comment, she'll put your name in a drawing for a beautiful bag that is just to die for. You can check THAT out too!

Check out this link and go the the bottom and leave a message to join the giveaway for this beautiful bag. Each month she is offering a new giveaway. http://uptown-blog.blogspot.com/.

The Mural is Done

This weekend I finished the mural! For the last 10 weeks I have spent every Saturday painting in the Children's Ministry of our new building. The mural consisted of 3 walls. Two walls that are about 15-20 feet long and one wall that is about 30 feet long and has 4 windows.

The theme is from Luke 19. One end wall has Zacchaeu$ in the tree. Jesus has just walked up to him and with a crowd around him he invited Z out of the tree and wants to go to Z's home.

In Luke 22 Jesus asks his Disciples to get a colt for Him to ride into Jerusalem. In the corner I have a donkey waiting for Jesus. On the other end wall is the city of Jerusalem. It is a market place with awnings and store fronts. The long wall has more buildings, the windows will have dark blinds and awnings as curtains to mimic the market place (this will be done in a week or so).

Here are a few pictures from when we first started. I have the final ones and will upload them soon.

Rain, Rain Go Away

It has rained for 5 days straight. Since Monday night, Aug 18 when Fay arrived we have had rain everyday all day long. Today the sun came out for 8 minutes and then it clouded over and rained again. We have experienced no flooding in our neighborhood. Where there were once large fields there are now lakes, huge lakes. Most of our lakes and ponds were as full as i have ever seen them. This describes our last 5 days.

We've been through every kinda rain there is. Little bitty stinging rain,and big ole fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. Sometimes rain even seem to come straight up, from underneath. Shoot, it even rained at night. --Forrest Gump

Tropical Storm Fay

TS Fay has hit our state this week. Fay has been one of the most unpredictable storms. The path it was predicted to follow is constantly changing. Now, it has stalled over Cape C. Because of this it has rained almost 2 feet in 24 hours, there is alot of flooding, there have been a few tornadoes and the beach erosion on the coast is almost 3 feet.

We have received a lot of rain, but there is no real flooding in our area. The winds were only around 30-40 mph and the storm passed at night.

This weekend we went out to stock up on some supplies and they had run out of water. We had to buy the 10 gallon water jugs and we don't have the equipment to put them in. Batteries and flashlights were sold out in many stores.

Staying busy

I am painting a room full of murals for our church's Children's Ministry. Yes, this is a new venture for me. I am a graphic designer by trade but do have formal training in illustration. I have been working for months on designing the entire room: the murals, the theme/look, storyline and even draperies.

I have a team of 4 volunteers that are helping. I work right now on Saturdays from 9-8pm. Because the building is still under construction, for the last 6 weeks we have been working in a building with no electricity or air conditioning. Yep, it gets pretty hot in there during the day.

I will post pictures in the upcoming days.

Huge!

I was outside late one night and glanced across the front lawn and saw this huge large black object floating between two trees. I got a little closer and this is what i saw! OMG, it's a huge spider that has it's web strung between two trees probably 4 feet away from each other. I think it is a mama spider because i zoomed in on the bottom picture and saw a sack with little bubble like dots. Did i mention that i hate spiders! Look at the top pic, you can see the shadow the beast is casting on the lawn from the flash. This is in my front lawn! And there could be babies!

A Little Extra

Ok, as you can see, I am adding several photos this week. Here is one more that i just love. It is our kitty, he is basking in the sun and he decided to give me the biggest stretch ever. Love it!

Enjoy.

kare

Working on "the room"

It has been some time since we have done anything with our baby room. We did buy closet organizers for two rooms in the house. Here is the baby's room closet. Love the baskets and the drawers will give us some extra space too.

The Patio is Done

The patio is complete and our decorating is just about done too. That was so much fun! Along with the hot tub we have a large umbrella, a grill, and now some furniture. We also just bought a fire pit that fit right infront of the sofa.

This last week it has done nothing but rain. It has been difficult to stay out on the patio for very long. We did cook dinner in the rain, that umbrella is awesome!

Anniversary Continues

This weekend we went to see the play Jesus Christ Sup3r Star at the theater down town. It was awesome! A little history, P and I met at a college dinner and theater night. The first time we saw this it was a college play (kind of lame) and we were a little preoccupied sitting next to each other. We wanted to celebrate our anniversary by going to see this again.

Ted Neel3y played Jesus, and he was amazing. I recognized his voice immediately. He is the original Jesus from the movie, JCSS that came out in the 70's. Here is a picture of him from the movie. He started acting in the play in the early 90's. Obvious both the play and the movie were controversial in their day. Heavy metal guitar, slang lyrics, an undertone of impropriety between Jesus and Mary M. and of course the famous Ted scream. I just realized that Ted has been acting as Jesus longer than Jesus was on the Earth.

Here is a you tube link to a small sample of JCSS. Jesus is in the Garden and he is talking to the Father, questioning why he must die, does it really need to happen? You can feel the anquish in his voice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-zFnrKmYfI

We did it

We actually went all out and bought a hot tub this weekend. It's not your typical hot tub, it's doesn't have the formed bucket seats you'd expect. It has a bench-like seat that raps around the tub. Oh, and did i mention it's round! It holds 4 people and has 14 jets. We are really excited about this. It was always a dream to get one and we planned on looking, but we found this and it was in our price range and P loves it. I have to admit that after looking around I was very surprise to find how expensive hot tubs really are, wow.

We will probably have it delivered next week. Our enclosure will not be completed by then so we will hold it in the garage for a while.

Our get-away

We took a mini-vacation over Memorial Day weekend. We went to St Augustine. We have visited the town for short day trips but have never stayed overnight. We stayed in a great bed and breakfast for 2 nights. We had a wonderful time shopping and touring the town. We visited historic churches and the first luxury hotel built in 1888. There are lots of little shops, restaurants and historic sites all intertwined along the main street. We went to our favorite restaurants called Columbia's and Athena's. A Cuban restaurant and Greek restaurant that have fantastic food. Here are a few pictures. The first is the view we had from our private balcony and the second is the room we stayed in.

Our Anniversary

Jeepers, i didn't realize that it's been that long since i last posted.

We celebrated our 15 year anniversary this month. That's a big one. One of those dates you kind of measure where you will be when you first get married. We dreamed we would have a home, have traveled the world and have kids by now. Since we are still working on the kids and we will travel to China some day, we decided to treat ourselves to a huge home improvement. Something that we can spend lots of time relaxing and entertaining in.

We are building a large screened in patio in our back yard. We have a very small back yard that we never utilize, so we wanted something to use as an extension of our home, maybe a second living room. It will be 26'x14' with a screened enclosure. We also have plans on buying a hot tub.
I will upload pictures when it is completed.

Chapman Family

Steven Curtis Chapman is best know as a Christian singer but he is also well known in the adoption community. He has adopted 3 children from China and has an organization that helps families finance their adoptions if needed. My heart breaks for their family as they deal with such great loss this week.

NASHVILLE, TN...5/21/08. .. At approximately 5pm on the afternoon of Thursday May 21st, Maria Sue Chapman, 5 years old and the youngest daughter to Steven and Mary Beth Chapman was struck in the driveway of the Chapman home in Franklin, TN. Maria was rushed to Vanderbilt Childrens Hospital in Nashville, transported by LifeFlight, but died of her injuries there. Maria is one of the close knit family's six children and one of their three adopted daughters.
More than five years ago, Chapman and his wife MaryBeth founded The Shaohannah's Hope Ministry after bringing their first adopted daughter, Shaohannah, home from China. The ministry's goal is to help families reduce the financial barrier of adoption, and has provided grants to over 1700 families wishing to adopt orphans from around the world.

http://www.stevencurtischapman.com

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,357046,00.html

24 months

Next week will be our 2 year anniversary for our LID in China. Yes, we have been waiting 2 long years with no end in sight. This month the CCAA did 4 days of referrals. They are currently at Jan 12. They have done 29 days of referrals in the last 5 months. I guess i write all this to say: at the rate they are moving we will be lucky to see our referral in about 2 more years. We will continue to wait patiently because we know our daughter is going to be waiting for us in China.

Awesome Find

One night while DH and I were walking around our neighborhood and we saw this table out on the curb ready for the trash. I don't know if you can see it but it is a table in beautiful condition, with dancing asian women on a black surface. It must have been interesting watching us try to carry this table home... :)

There is a movement now of people who only decorate their homes or eat food that is found. They are called free-gans. Ok, we are totally not that desparate but we do love that occasional good find!

Secret Buddy

I joined a baby gift swap group last year, and for 8 months my secret buddy sent me themed gifts. This is one of them. It says,

"Be a butterfly, spread your wings and whatever life brings, be true to you--be you-nique. Let the Lord guide you to the beauty inside you, and you'll find the joy that you seek."

I also received a baby ladybug braclet, halloween items, beach items and a cool floating themometer for the bath. Thanks secret buddy!

We Filed Again

In order to make the April 1st deadline we had to file our i-600 form again.This time unfortunately we only had about 1 day notice. We scrambled to get our copies of our birth certificates, marriage certificate and homestudy together. DH was out of town until Tuesday night, so we got our cashier's check and FedEx'd the package Wed morning.

So we should be set for another 18 months! Again!

TTFN

Hague Accreditation

Our agency is waiting to be accredited for the Hague. China is a Hague country so all adoption agencies must pay to be part of this group. Our agency had some problems in the past and now this may delay or agencies accreditation or even have them denied. Where do we stand? If our agency does not get accredited then we can not continue our adoption through this agency. Our dossier will be transfer to another agency. If we let our I171h expire and our agency is not accredited then we will loose our adoption. We will be on our third renewal of these forms at the end of this year. This next time we renew, it will have to be a new form--the I800 and it is a much longer tedious form to fill out. April will be our 23 month of waiting! We should travel in the fall of 2009. Only 18 more months. :0(

Info about China

Think about this: There are almost as many honor students in China as there are students in the U.S.
In 2005, there were 74.9 million children under age 18 in the United States
In 2005 there were 352.7 million children under age 18 in China (source)
If you figure the top 20% of the population are the honor students, then China has 70.6 million honor students. I’ll say it again: There are almost as many honor students in China as there are students in the U.S.
To further think about this, then realize that China has around 14 million college students and in the U.S. there were 15.9 million people in college in 2004 (source). They have almost five times as many kids as we do, and yet almost the same number attend college. I’ve been told that it’s harder for a Chinese student to make it into a relatively unknown college in China than it is for an American student to make it into Harvard in the U.S.

Preparing for the Olympics

China is continuing to work on cleaning up the Beijing area for the Olympics. This has included the roads, the pollution, lots of new buildings... and now this.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=528694&in_page_id=1811

It is sometimes difficult for us to wrap our brains around some of the things that the Chinese Government does. This has me shaking my head again in sadness.

Ending One Child Policy?

Chinese officials are taking a look at the one child policy again. Currently the ratio of boys to girls is 118 male births to 100 female births. Globally the ratio is about 105 males to 100 females.
China is aware they have a problem and their future depends on how they can handle the situation now.

But officials are nervous of announcing potential changes in the rules
lest people pre-empt them. Discussions about relaxations of the law in 1983 are believed to have led to the birth of an extra 30 million babies that year.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/28/china.population

21 months

February 19th marks 21 months of waiting. What have we been doing during this wait? We recently started trying to get our home ready for a baby. The room we plan to use for her room has been our home office for the last 5 years. So to move the office upstairs we have to move the couch and table in the nook to the bedroom, to fit the couch in the bedroom we have to move out the dressers and rearrange the bedroom. To move out the bedroom furniture we have to make space in the garage. To make room in the garage we have to move the homeless ministry food and clothes to storage. And next there are the closets... [:-D

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day! We had a wonderful time together tonight. We had a great dinner at our favorite restaurant Houlihan's, YUMO!

February Referrals

On February 4, 2008, our agency received 11 China referrals. These referrals were for our 12/20/05 log in date families. We did not receive any Chinese expedited referrals in this group. This group of referrals included 9 beautiful little girls and 2 handsome little boys! Both of the families that received boys requested boy or girl in their petition letter. They are from the Gansu, Guangdong, and Jilin provinces and Tianjin City. Their ages are 7 to 15 months, one 24 months and one 28 months. These families waited 25 long months from log in date to referral. We expect these families to travel in about 8 weeks.
One family that received the 24 month old boy requested a boy or girl 6-12 months old. The family that received the 28 month old girl requested a 0-12 months old girl but the referral fell within the CCAAage guidelines. This group of referrals began with the 12/20/05 through 12/27/05 log in dates. Congratulations to these families and all our China families who have moved up in line! Our agency's next log in date is 1/6/06.

Not just a holiday, A country wide migration

About 180 million people were expected to travel home for Lunar New Year in what is thought to be the largest annual human migration in the world.

"(The government) has less than five days left to safely send hundreds of millions home. At the same time, they will have to ensure timely delivery of coal to coal-starved power plants," a China Daily editorial said, summing up a key quandary facing authorities.
The government said it has pressed more than 1,000 additional trains into service to cope with the huge passenger demand and maintain shipments of coal -- the country's main energy source -- amid widespread power blackouts.

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSSP3801020080203?pageNumber=3&virtualBrandChannel=0

Huge Snow Storm in China

Last week China was hit by a huge snow storm. Reports on the news show more than 500,000 people trying to get on the trains to go home for the Chinese New Year. Some people stood out in the cold for 3 days waiting to get on the train.

This is some of the worst weather that China has seen in almost 50 years. In some areas it has snowed for 10 days straight. Many rural villiages are suffering due to lack of food and electricity and running water and having warm enough clothing. Some areas could continue to see this cold and snow for another week.

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSSP3801020080203

The biggest tragedy that doesn't seem to make the news is the children in the orphanages. Many of the nannies are having difficult time getting to work because the roads are closed. The orphanages are not prepaired; many have no running water, no heaters, no electricity, they need warm clothes for the children and diapers for the babies. They have mentioned frostbite on the children's feet and fingers. This is a horrible story that is not being told to the world.
Here is a site that is trying to help the orphanages and explains what each is going through.
http://www.halfthesky.org/work/littlemouse.php

Please keep the children in China in your prayers tonight.

Map Quiz

I found this site that is so much fun. How well do you know your world? You are timed on how long it takes you to find a city or land mark in the world, you click on the map and it will show you how close your guess was.
I reached level 6 out of 12. I am not a geography wiz at all. The faster you find the place the more points. The closest i came to a location was 17km.

Have fun and let me know how far you get.


http://www.minijuegosgratis.com/juegos/hwdykyworld/hwdykyworld.html?a456=c6ba

Year of the Golden Pig

It is the Year of the Golden Pig. According to Chinese Folklore, this is an event that occurs once in every 600 years and will ensure that a baby born on this year will experience a prosperous and wealthy life. Although it is Chinese Folklore, many of the Asian cultures follow this belief as they celebrate their New Year. The Chinese New Year begins Feb 7, 2008.

How much do you spend on food?

I found this site that has images of families from around the world and shows all the food that each family comsumes in one week. It lists how much money the family spends each week.
This is very humbling to see the last family and how much they have for one week.

Here is the link
http://ambersbug.zaadz.com/blog/2007/11/what_is_eaten_in_one_week

If you are visiting my blog, be sure to say hello in the comments. With the changes that have happened with my blog i am not sure anyone is finding this site. k