Itty Bitty Inspirations

My awesome teacher's aide came to school today with a gift for Abby. It was so cute!! She had a pink pocket holder and inside were two sets of cards. One set was pink and had 12 different chores that Abby might do at home. Things such as brush teeth, put on pj's, make the bed, etc. Each one had an accompanying picture. On the other side was a big purple star. If Abby does her chore, I can turn it over and give her the star, that way she'll know it's complete and feel accomplishment.
The other set has 12 cards with cute character traits. Things such as obey, friendship, kindness, etc. On the back of these cards are short scripture verses. These are so cool! What a great way to learn scripture together.
If you're interested in buying some, I think they come in both boy sets and girl sets. The website is ittybittyinspirations.com. We absolutely LOVE ours! Thank you Barb!!
On the adoption front, there has been NO activity. It's now the end of March and I don't have a referral. I had prayed so hard that I might have a referral before the end of the month. I guess that's not in God's plans. As my beloved mom said tonight, "I guess your baby isn't ready for you yet." Could that be it? Is it the fact that the one God has chosen for our family isn't ready yet? Is she born yet? I trust that God will choose a perfect fit for our family. I CHOOSE to trust and obey my Jesus! And now I'll pray for a referral before the end of April.

What a Whirlwind weekend

Yesterday was a whirlwind day. We left EARLY and went down to visit my sister and her family. We were going to celebrate Julia's birthday. We had a great time!! It's always good to feel connected to your loved ones. We laughed, ate ice cream, opened presents, practiced standing on our heads, etc. We even went to Dairy Queen for lunch.
Abby loves all three of her cousins and was jumping up and down in excitement when I told her where we were going. She spent the whole time playing and dancing and playing again. Momma was forgotten in the joy of having playmates. It was great!
We didn't want to leave, but with a three hour trip back home, we finally meandered to the car. Within five minutes Abby was sound asleep. :) Here are only a few of our pictures. Enjoy! Julia and her strawberry cake. I'm assuming it tastes good, we never ate any! We were so busy with other things. We did sing happy birthday and open presents. We also ate our ice cream early since we were at Dairy Queen for lunch.

Sophie was attached to Papa the whole day. She is one happy cuddle bunny.

Here's the whole gang at Dairy Queen. Every time we go for a visit, we ALWAYS stop here for ice cream. I'm not sure why we're so enamored with it, we have a Dairy Queen less than a mile from us, but for some reason we hardly ever go there.

Here's the birthday girl with her ice cream treat!! Happy Birthday Julia!!

Sophie loved her ice cream. I took this picture before she was done eating. I thought she looked so cute with all that ice cream on her face. I should have waited until she was finished, because her face was covered!

Julia got a magic horse from Papa and Nana. It can spin its tail, bob its head and walk across the floor...all with a touch of the magic wand! All four girls LOVED it!

Nana and Great Grandma worked hard on this Dutch outfit for Julia's American Girl. It turned out adorable.

Abby and I got Julia a snow cone maker. Here are all the girls trying to grind the ice. They sure tasted good! In the background are my dad and Jeff trying to google what's wrong with the cars. Both Beth and Jeff's minivan and my minivan had a malfunction light on. Neither one found an answer to the problem. I'm hoping that in my daily driving the light will just automatically turn off...here's to hopeful wishing!

Even Papa got into the act of standing on his head. He did it all by himself. Way to go Papa!!

Here is one of Sophie's five outfits she wore while we were there. I'm not kidding. She changed her clothes every 10-20 minutes. Each one was a different fairy or ballerina or princess. It was adorable. But Beth did make her where "regular" clothes for trip to Dairy Queen.

Abby got into the act too. She loved playing with the hat, especially when she was dancing.

Isn't this picture just the cutest!! What great cousins!!

This is a short video of Papa and his girls. They all adore him and this love went on most of the afternoon. Thanks for being so fun Papa!

Storytime with Abby

Tonight Abby was in rare form. She wanted to read books to me. Usually I'm the one reading book after book, after book so it was nice change. She's holding a small book of adoption quotes and telling stories about Jesus, Daniel, Joseph and a few fairy tales too. What a ham!

Jessie's home!!!

Our Jessie came home! She's in college and last week was her spring break. She was in Florida with the track team and she came home SO tan!! Since she comes every week to visit it's been TWO weeks since we've seen her. We've missed her beautiful face. Abby was screaming with joy and kept telling Jessie how much she missed her. Life is just plain better with Jessie in it. Thanks for coming home Jessie!!

Ups and downs

Today was a day of mixed emotions.
It started with the downward swing. Abby had spent much of the day playing with her cousins, and while she ADORES them, she often comes home extremely TIRED. Hence the video in the picture. Sometimes videos can be lifesavers. She also chose not to nap today and that only added to the complete meltdown that occurred at dinner. Then while in her pj's and eating some jellybeans, she chose not to chew them , but rather to just swallow and well...you can guess what that led to. So I gave her a piece to bread to help the jellybean move through her throat smoothly and she was hungry so she wanted to eat the whole piece. But then the problem became the bread crumbs on her pj's. So putting on a new shirt worked and she was in bed asleep at 6:15 tonight. Some days are just like that....
Then we had an up swing. I checked my email and got a response from our human resources department regarding the pay increase with my master's degree. I've been quite frustrated with my university regarding my degree date and things had snowballed into the fact that my degree wouldn't be issued until May 31st (even though I had completed all requirements on February 28th!!) But to make a long story short, my HR department acknowledged my completion and will provide retro pay back to March 1st. I was ecstatic!!
Then we went on another downward swing.
I also found out some more information on my "spot" on the referral list for my daughter.

Here's the email, "In regards to where you are on the list, there are two families ahead of you open to girls age 0 - 12 mo., one family open to a girl born 02/2006 or later, and one family open to a girl 0 - 24 mo. This does not include those families open to either gender."
Yeah, so does that make me #2 on the list or #4 or #1016 if there are families open to either gender ahead of me?!?!?! I'm so confused.

I've been waiting for 10 months, 1 week and 4 days.
That. Is. A. Long. Time.
I want my daughter home.
I want a referral.
I'm starting to get anxious with the timeline. I'm starting to worry that my homestudy will need an update. I'm starting to wonder about the expiration date on my fingerprints. I watching my Abby get older by the day and I wanted my two daughters to be closer in age so they could play together.

Why?

Why don't I have a referral?

Why isn't she home?

Why?

Don't you eat with Sunglasses?

Abby had just found her sunglasses and proceeded to wear them all through dinner. She was so excited. We've been looking for the sunglasses for quite a while and we found them in the bottom of her plastic food filled basket. Why were they there? Who knows...
As you can see her doll Susie is eating dinner right next to Abby. Lately Susie's been going EVERYWHERE with us. We couldn't even pray for our dinner until Susie was in place and had the exact same dinner as Abby. Only then was Abby able to settle down and eat. After dinner Abby decided to attack the toy box. She proceeded to take every single toy out and throw in onto the carpet. She was so focused that she didn't want to stop and get her picture taken. But she's playing nicely so I'll just step over the toys. I'm so tired that I probably won't pick them up until tomorrow afternoon. For that matter, why pick them up at all because she's just going to empty it again tomorrow. :)

A Windy Day

Today was a gorgeous weather day! It was near 70 degrees, but very, very windy. When we got home from work, we decided to go for a walk. I put Abby in the burley and off we went. Doesn't she look silly in this picture? It's almost as if she's in a cage, but trust me...she LOVES the burley. She jumped inside and was ready for the wind. It's been a while since I've gotten out to take a walk and it felt good to be outside.

On adoption news, we're still hanging out at #4 on the waiting list. There have been some referrals lately, but not for infant girls. Most of them have been for toddlers. I'm past my 10 month mark, which is the 40 week mark. I'm beginning to get a little depressed. In my heart I do believe that God's timing is perfect, but getting my mind to agree is much harder.