....And Now Pictures Too!!!

A video and now pictures too!!!! How excited to get these little glimpses of Rachel Lian. I had kind of gotten into a numbness with the adoption stuff in the last 4-6 weeks and was handling the wait so well (Christmas and a 4 year old have kept me busy) and then you see these pictures and man does it make your heart ache......but it's a good ache.....it aches with love for a little girl I've never even met or held but just like my new necklace says (Thanks Santa!:)) Not under my heart but in it.....she has grown. I just love the first picture.....aren't they precious....and Rachel is on the right.

VIDEO OF RACHEL LIAN!!!!!!!

I got a AWESOME surprise today. A family that recently got their little girl from China emailed me with some footage of Rachel. They had received a CD from the orphanage and this was on there. Rachel is on the right. Click on this link to see Rachel playing with little Liana. She is funny, she is kind of in control of the toy and then when they put that little hat on Liana she gets their attention by banging the two toys together and I wish I knew what the nannies were saying after that because they kind of mock her afterwords and then laughed....then when she thinks Liana is going to reach for a toy she has, she puts it in between her legs....like don't take my toy. I know, I know I have obviously already watched it tooo much and I am analyzing every little move.......I can't help it:))

http://i433.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid433.photobucket.com/albums/qq57/Indigoraven74/LianaandRachel.flv

(I changed the link so you don't have to worry with pausing the play list)

Isn't she precious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Praying for March, Praying for March, Praying for March!!!!!

Christmas Fun!

This is how Taylor appeared coming out of his room Christmas morning and then took off running down the hall.He loves his Leapster he got from Santa and has taken it with him everywhere the last two days!



He also likes his skates and bowling game he got!!



We always go to James' family for lunch and the weather was beautiful so the kids got to go outside and play.


They get in this wagon and one of them pushes and they ride down the hill...and yes it looked scary the first time I saw them do it.


Look how far they go.

And then they pull it back up the hill.....

......so they can do it again!!

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve

You just couldn't get this smile off of Taylor's face on Christmas Eve....too excited!!

a picture of a picture

Our Christmas pictures this year. The top was done at our fundraiser dinner, which I loved and we used for our Christmas cards this year and below is the most adorable Santa picture. I just loved it!! Taylor actually took a toy catalog with him and wouldn't do otherwise cause he said "I show him, I show him". Martene Hatfield did both pictures and we just love using her. The next time we do pictures baby sister should be home :))

These pictures we did when Taylor turned 4. We wanted indoor studio pictures and we love them. I don't have a scanner but I never thought about taking a picture of a picture until Shelli mentioned it the other day....so now I can share some of our other photos :)) Thanks Shelli!

Yeah!!!!

God is at work....we got a email last night that little Yu's surgery has been fully funded, they are now just arranging the surgery and travel.

Away in a Manger

Taylor is really tore up about Christmas this year. He is sooooo excited. Everyday he asks several times about when is Santa coming and when I get frustrated and say "Taylor you are just going to have to wait" he says, "I can't wait!!!!". We haven't put any of his gifts from mom and dad under the tree yet because I really don't think he could take it. It's really fun to see all his excitement.
The year we brought Taylor home my sister and her family got him this nativity set. You have to order it from FP but it is so cute and he just plays with it and if you push the angel down on top it plays 'Away in a Manger'.

Little Yu

So little Yu is the boy who has received the funds we raised at the fundraiser. Yu is a precious, 18 month old little boy suffering from several heart defects. He has a PDA, a VSD and PA. His total amount needed to fund his heart surgery is $7,500 but with the money we raised plus some other generous donors he only needs $3,000 more. Please keep Yu in your prayers, that his surgery will be fully funded soon, that his surgery will be successful and that when his little heart is healed that he will find his forever family. If you would like to help you can go to http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/ and go to sponsor a child and then sponsor a child for surgery and then scroll down and look for him in the urgent section. No amount is too small. BTW, he is from the same province that Taylor was and Taylor's first name was also Yu. What can I say...it's a God thing!

2 Years Ago Today!!

Our Little Turkey!

We first met and held our little Taylor 2 years ago today!! It's hard to believe in a way and in others you cannot imagine your life before him! We are so blessed to know and love and have this awesome person as our son. He has just the most precious innocent soul. He is so kind and there is not a mean bone in his body. He has the best sense of humor and is just so funny. He wakes up happy and goes to bed happy and is mostly happy every where in between. He is such a special gift. Thank You Lord!!

Not flesh of my flesh,
Nor bone of my bone,
But still miraculously my own.
Never forget for a single minute,
You didn't grow under my heart-
but in it.
--- Fleur Conkling Heylinger

I love that little poem. I found this necklace on etsy a while back and I have asked Santa for it this year..............

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=sr_gallery_20&listing_id=16162044

If you click on the necklace laying across the two books that is the one I like except I will have two little stones with the birthstones of Taylor and Rachel. Don't let me down Santa :))

Miss Rachel is in the back right of this picture.....can you see her. The mom of Liana (front center) sent a cake after we did and got this picture today. They are getting to leave for China on Friday and are planning on visiting the orphanage and so we are hoping for more pics and maybe even a height and weight. All the kids look so precious and look like they are having fun with icing on their faces....how cute!

We are sending the checks to LWB tomorrow and the grand total ended up being $3432!!

Pooped....for a good cause!

What a weekend. I need a break to get over it. Friday was crazy, crazy getting ready for our fundraiser on Saturday. I had so much to do but with Taylor in tow it increased my stress level and his. To top it off, I woke up with a fever and by Friday night I had lost my voice from all the coughing and congestion. So Saturday I woke up feeling better and had help. James and my sister, Traci. We worked literally from 8am until we all got home probably at 8p that night. The dinner went great. We ended up cooking 15 turkeys. We had 183 people come to the dinner, we sold more than 220 tickets. It was very stressful not knowing if you will have enough food and running out of green beans and rushing to get more. I used to think catering would be fun......HA!! We worked our tails off!!! My body hurt so bad and we were all so exhausted that none of us even slept good. The silent auction was fun and raised a little over $400. So drum roll please.............. our grand total unofficially, because we are still getting in some donations is $3200. How awesome is that!!! We may be able to help more than one child with surgery. We hope to close out all our auction sales and have it all sent in on Wednesday. Check out the LWB website for the kids that are awaiting surgery right now
http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/medical_sponsor_child.cfm

The one thing we did not do was take our camera.....so no pictures but it was great. We even set up a adoption info table. I used Taylor's 100 Good Wishes Quilt as the table cloth and had up the before and after pictures of the kids that parents had sent them and some powerful other stuff, but you can't see it cause we forgot to take pictures, you'll just have to take my word for it. Awesome stuff and very humbling to see all the people and friends that came out to support this event. My body might be tired but my heart is full :))

fundraiser update

So I mentioned that we were hosting a fundraiser to support a orphans surgery through Love Without Boundaries.....well guess what, we made the front page news!! Can you believe that. Of course it is a small newspaper and a small town, but still.

Here is a link http://www.gilesnews.us/Stories/081114ForTheLoveAspecialNeedsChild.html

Things are going well. I ended up getting 10 turkeys donated and today I asked a local restaurant about helping to cook some and they said they would cook ALL!! That is awesome and such a load off of me. James and I are doing all the dressing, but I plan to get that done on Friday. We have so much to do but I am so excited and it has been alot of fun and I think we are on track to make atleast $2,000 and of course I am praying for more. Send your prayers our way for a successful fundraiser for LWB!!

LID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah!! Today we found out that we have our Log In Date (LID) which is 10-22-08, ONLY 7 days after our DTC date. We actually tracked the DHL package and it did not get to CCAA (China) until the 20th so to have a LID two days later is awesome. Doing the LID dance :)))

New PICTURES...yeah!

Yeah!! I woke up this morning to find new pictures of Miss Rachel Lian!!!!!!!!!! I am just going to post them all so other families waiting on children from her same orphanage can see. Above is the care package that was sent, a bear, album, camera, letter and of course you'll see in the other pictures a cake!! They actually ended up getting her a birthday cake even though it's not her birthday, but that's OK. The cake says Happy Birthday Lian You Yi.

Remember you can click on any picture to see it BIGGER!!

...just a little taste

Have I mentioned that I have been hoping and praying for updated pictures of Miss Rachel Lian since the 15th of October which is when we ordered her care package. I mean alot of people who have gotten updated pictures through sending a care package have gotten them in like a week, maybe 10-14 days. So we are at day 26 and I would really hate for someone to total up how many times I have checked my email in those 26 days. So anyway, the director of her SWI is back and so Angela called and they have take pictures and are supposed to email them to Angela who will then forward them to me today, which for China their day will be while we are sleeping so I am hoping and praying I will wake up to pictures of my baby girl.

While on the phone I told Angela that if they seemed receptive then she could ask is she walking, talking and what name do they call her.

Here is their reply........

She is not walking yet. She can crawl very fast. She can stand up and sit down by holding onto handrail. She can move steps if someone hold her hands and pull her. They call her You Yi. She is not talking yet. She burbles "Ma Ma".

Oh my heart aches to have her in my arms..........................

I love you this much

So the other day Taylor and I were home by ourselves and he tells me, "mom, I wuv daddy this much.....BIG much". So I say "I know you love daddy, daddy is alot of fun!!" I mean look at his little arms above and below they are bent back for love for daddy.
So I couldn't resist and I said "Well how much do you love mama?"

I shouldn't have asked :((

Just kidding, of course, I love that Taylor wuvs his daddy so much. It truly is precious!!!

Literally

We were reading a 'ABC' book at bedtime and when Taylor got to 'X' he said 'K', and James said, "Taylor look closely" so Taylor but his face against the book and then said 'K' again. We just cracked up.

Progress for fundraiser

So I mentioned the fundraiser below and today I had a productive day. I am pooped but feeling like I am going in the right direction. I took the day off while Taylor was at daycare to try to hit alot of places.

I got these donations:
-a case of cokes (8-2L)
-a big boy bike and 5 turkeys
-a notice running on local radio each day until
-sold 5 ticket block
-a donated cook book (for auction)
-all the sweet potatoes donated (cooked and ready for day of)
-all green beans donated (cooked and ready for day of)
-sold 8 ticket block (to my dentist)
-100.00 donation
-sold 2 tickets
-and I have 3 places I talked to today that will give me something hopefully tomorrow

Yesterday we got
-a commitment of 3 turkeys and
-sold a 10 ticket block

Tomorrow.....we try again.............we just might make this happen!!

A huge gift

We definitely have received a huge gift and are so thankful. You know I am the type of person that has a really hard time asking for any help and accepting help...cause you know I can do it myself :))!! Anyway, I have always been that way but we are trying to do this adoption by adding no debt. We are saving and scrimping and we'll do what we have to but it would be awesome to do it without adding debt. So we decided to apply for a grant through Shaohannah's Hope. If you don't recognize the name it is Steven Curtis Chapman's foundation. They are awesome in that they help families with adoption grants and they have a huge adoption ministry. So we applied several months ago and we just heard back on Saturday and we did receive a grant......$4,000. How awesome is that. You can look at it this way, it will cover between 80-100% of our international airline tickets. That is a huge gift and we are very humbled and thankful!!!! Now we just have to keep doing our part, work, work, work, save, save, save!!

This is a link to their website http://members.shaohannahshope.org/site/PageServer

Stressin'.....just a little

So James and I are hosting a fundraiser on November 22nd in hopes to raise enough money to fully fund a surgery for a child through Love Without Boundaries. We are having a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, silent auction and a professional photographer is taking a family photograph for a donation of $5. So it's like in October you couldn't do much because it was too far off and now...... it's November 4th and it's 2.5 weeks off and I am feeling the pressure!!!!!!!! It also very hard to take a 4 year old around to try to sell tickets and get donations. In the car seat, out of the car seat. I decided to take tomorrow off and Taylor will be at school and so I can move a little faster. Please pray for success for this fundraiser. I was really getting stressed and then this morning I realized that God is the one that put this on my heart and it has been on my heart to do since bringing Taylor home and if I am finally acting on something He put on my heart so strongly then how can it go wrong!!! It gave me peace and a much better attitude before we set out to talk to people today!! We decided on November in honor of it being Adoption Awareness Month. What a gift adoption is. I wish I could just bottle it up and show people and let them know that the miracle that they feel that their biological child is...it's the same with adoption. It is a miracle and the love you feel is indescribable.

Gacie and Wivy

Dancin' with cousin Gracie, Taylor had already taken off his costume.

Miss Emma above and Miss Gracie (or little Riley) below

Olivia the grim reaper.....oooh!

Our nieces Gracie and Livy (or as Taylor says Gacie and Wivy) and also little Emma came over to go trick-or-treat with us and they always have such a good time.....as you can see.

Big Boy in his Big Bed

Still a work in progress but Taylor slept in his new Big Boy room for the first time last night. He was too cute in his big bed!! Today I get to start painting the other room ~pink~!!

One track mind

So as you know 2 weeks ago we were DTC and 2 weeks ago I ordered a care package for Rachel Lian and then 1.5 weeks ago I was contacted by email by the person in China who fills your order that the package was put together and being sent. As you my also remember I requested for them to ask for pictures. So over the weekend I couldn't stand it anymore and emailed her and just asked for an update and I was told that the orphanage said they would take some pictures for us :))) with Rachel and her cake/care package. So now I continue to check my email obsessively and when I am not home I wish I were at home so I could check it and when I wake up in the morning it's the first thing I go do....OK maybe the second. Then before I go to bed I check one more time. Can anyone relate??

Sunday with friends

Taylor and one of his buddies and his class and teachers below.


Iwas mad that I messed up this shot, it would've been a great picture.

Another buddy, seems like his best buddies are girls!!

Wow-we have had one of those weekends with lots of activity. Yesterday was just non-stop house stuff and then in the afternoon we went to a Halloween party and Taylor got to dress up. It was alot of fun...but I did forget my camera. Friends of ours do this party every year and it is very kid friendly which I love and we had a great time. They had a pinata, pin the mouth on the Jack-O-Lantern and a mummy race. Then we ended the night with a hay ride. They also had a big fire and we roasted hot dogs.

Today was a trip back to the pumpkin farm, but today we met all of Taylor's daycare buddies and their parents. Since I never get to meet children or parents since I don't drop off or pick Taylor up this was good for me. After the pumpkin farm we went back to the daycare for another weenie roast and we made smores over the fire. We have never made those and they were yummy!!

I love my weekends off with my guys!!