National Womens Day

So yesterday was International Women's Day.. It is celebrated all over the world, especially in Kazakhstan. Why don't we celebrate it here in the good ole USA??? I believe women are amazing creatures and should be celebrated daily. I am so blessed to be one...

I spent my day yesterday with some amazing women, whom I celebrate. I went shopping with Aunt Eddna-Wynne, Cousin Michelle, her beautiful little girl Leah, Cousin Kim with her precious baby girl and my goddaughter Kayla. What a blessing it was watching ultra feminine Leah try on Easter dresses, oh how sweet. Even more so seeing her fawn over Baby Kayla. They got matching dresses and are going to be ADORABLE... Thanks Auntie Edd for inviting me along, I really enjoyed my time. Oh, by the way Tim, I bought a new purse... tee hee hee...

So, I am sure you are all wondering where we are in our decision making. I first have to again thank you all who have reached out with your emails and comments. I am blessed to have a group of friends and family who share themselves so freely. We are still praying and seeking God for His wisdom. We have come to realize there are two completely different ways you can look at having a child and we have really only been concentrating on the negatives. As we have changed our mindset towards the amazing blessings our children will bring us we certainly are more inclined towards moving forward with our adoption.

On another note can I ask for your prayers for my dad's (step father-in-law) family. His brother Richard passed away last week after a very quick bought of Leukemia. I just ask that you pray for his children, his wife Rose, and loved ones for peace and healing... I love you Dad ...

What are we doing...

Okay so this is going to seem random but its not... Tim and I are really struggling with some decisions . Here is the story. I will try to make it brief. When we got married, we decided to leave it up to God when we would have children. Turns out we struggled with infertility and so we tried many things for a few years to conceive but to no avail. Then decided okay we are done no babies... (more Tim then I) so to my surprise years later in December 06 Tim said he wanted to adopt. As you all know we started and have been in the process for over a year and as of today as soon as our program director calls me back we will be withdrawing from Kazakhstan.

We really live a great life. We are financially secure, madly in love, have so much freedom to do whatever we want or as little as we want. I can sleep all day, shower when I want, shop when I want, anything I want. We honestly aren't missing a thing. We now are starting to think what are we doing. We should stop the whole adoption thing and live our life just as it is. I talked to a wonderful friend and she said this was normal. We realize we cant go back once they are here... Are we crazy, should we stop, should we go forward... I really don't know... Lord, I just pray for Your clarity... Please keep this/us in your prayers and any advice you want to send I gladly welcome it...

P.S. on a totally different note I wanted to pat myself on the back and say as of last month it has been 5 years since quitting smoking... I have NO desire to ever start again.. Woo Hoo

Climbing a Mountain

We are making great progress... We took lots of pictures this weekend and I went through all our pictures and found some good ones of the two of us. We got those together and all the questionnaires sent out today. Our Family Profile will be complete about three weeks after they get the check and our Home Study in about two weeks. At that point we will be active. Our contact (not sure of title) at the agency said that she thought there was a good chance of us getting picked rather quickly... I say No Problem...

Picture This

So, as I told you we are starting the domestic adoption process. We have filled out all the applications, questionnaires, likes, wants, and such and our paperwork is at our home study agency being reviewed. ... .... So all that is left is any work having to do with the home study which will probably be minimal... ... ...Then there are the dreaded pictures... I sent off all my favorite pictures with our dossier, do I have copies, of course not... I spent all day yesterday taking pictures of myself. I am telling you I took at least 100 pictures changing clothes and hair at least 3 times. I deleted all but 2, and even those will be deleted by the end of the day. Although, I did find out I have a good side so it wasn't a total waste of time... ... Now this weekend we will be taking pictures of the two of us, we will probably be exhausted from all the wardrobe changes, not to mention hair and makeup... ... We only need 3 of the two of us together... If they were to ask for pictures of the dogs, no problem, I could come up with about 200 of each of them and 200 with all of them, and 200 with two of them in about 10 seconds... Why cant they just pick us based on how happy and healthy our dogs are... That would be great...

God Bless you all and thanks for the love and support you send our way...

Happy Valentines XOXOXO

We have started the adoption process here in the states. We are not ending the Kazakh adoption at this point. We are just going to wait it out and see how this is all meant to play out... Its funny when the application came and I saw all that paperwork I just wanted to throw it in the trash and go adopt a new puppy... Oddly enough, Tim wasn't totally opposed...

Its interesting, All these months (13) I have writing a journal for and to our little girl from Kaz and I almost feel like I am abandoning her. I know its silly but when Tim originally told me he wanted to stop the International process my heart broke. I know it isn't true, we are not abandoning her, there are so many waiting families that there shouldn't be one child without parents...

Here in the states we cant choose which gender we want. So, I will have some changes to make in the nursery if we get a boy... We were so specific in wanting a girl, I am a girly girl so I would love someone to dress up and play with and I think Tim was looking forward to having a Daddys Girl...Now, I realize which ever gender we end up with it will just be a blessing from God either way... Although, I am still not giving up on twins, one of each... All things possible !!!

We wish you all a Loving, Romantic, Sweet, Kind, Happy Valentines day XOXOXO

New Door Opening

First off thanks for all the emails and comments I felt like I was being virtually hugged. What a blessing...

I spoke with our adoption coordinator on Wednesday and he really cleared up allot of things for me. I felt allot better after speaking with him. I also realize there is still an uphill battle but it is a battle I am willing to fight as long as we are led to.

We have made some decisions to make some decisions and part of this is we are not closing the door on Kazakhstan. We are just going to open some doors elsewhere. At this point we will be opening allot of doors like domestic adoption and are thinking about possibly moving to another country as well.

Its all in God's hands, we will be intently praying for his knowledge in this crazy thing called adoption... Thank You Lord for giving me a strong spirit...

Please Pray

Oh how we need prayer... We are in a really bad place right now with this adoption. Things are coming up lately and we cant help but think that God is trying to tell us something. Maybe we should close the door...Please pray that we have some clarity...