HAPPY BIRTHDAY XI HUA!

I was not able to get onto the computer yesterday, so first thing this morning I wanted to post:

Happy Birthday to our little Katie Grace Xi Hua! Yesterday was her 3rd Birthday. She has celebrated 3 birthdays without a family. That breaks my heart! The good news is that she will never celebrate a birthday again without us!

I pray that somebody remembered that it was her birthday. I pray that she got a hug. We asked, through our agency, that a cake be ordered for her and her group to share. I hope that happened!

As each week passes, my desire for her to come home intensifies. Every week, we miss out on a milestone. Every week, we are not able to teach her love and affection. Every week, she goes without the bond of a family. Every week, she learns a behavior that we will have to work with.

Everything moves so slowly! It will still be about 4 months until we can travel to get her. I should be able to post photos of her very soon. God keep her safe and prepare her heart.

JUST SOMETHING FUN! JOSHIE OUR SUPER LEARNER

Joshua is in Pre -K. He has always been what I call a "super learner". From the time he could speak, he had all of his letters, shapes, colors, and basic numbers memorized. He would point at them in his books and ask me to repeat them again and again. Sometimes, I would actually have to gently force and redirect playtime so that we didn't just keep looking at those shapes.

My other kids are smart but Josh is unusually advanced. The big kids love it and laugh all the time when he amazes us with a reading or an amazing Lego replica of the Burj Kalifa or the Taipei 101.

I don't sit and push him at all. He WANTS me to read to him A LOT and he asks a lot of questions and then remembers it all.

Jacob and I have this joke line "We're planning to call the institute". We have people i.e. family members, teachers, friends, etc. say to us all the time, "you know, he is very smart." And I will say, "yes, he is." Then they will say it again "no, he is veeery smart", and they will keep staring at me like, what are you going to do about it? So finally Jacob and I started saying just as a joke, "we are planning to call the institute". I have no idea what the institute is, but we are hoping that will please the person asking, LOL!

Anyway, I was reading an article the other night and Joshua was sitting next to me on the couch and started reading it out loud. So we video taped it.

EVER HAVE ONE OF THOSE WEEKS? THEN A GREAT MORNING OF INSPIRATION!

I am usually a super positive and energetic person, but we have had a pretty hard week. Our beautiful dog, Ginger, dying was the biggest blow to us. To add to it, I had a couple other things slow me down:

I pulled my hamstring muscle in a show I dance in, at Disney. I pulled it to the point that I can't even lift up my leg to put it into my pants today. (and I have to perform in that show tomorrow, only God knows how).

Then I woke up this morning to get everyone ready for church, and I felt a virus down deep in my chest and cough beginning. (and I have to also sing in that show I do, so I need my throat to be healthy.) Ok, so anyway I thought, no problem, take cough med, go to church.

THEN I get in the car with my daughter to go and pick up her boyfriend to attend church with our family, and the "check engine" light comes on, ugh! Are you kidding me??

Now, I am not one of those "the devil is under every chair" kind of people. I do know there is a devil, and we need to be on our guard. But I don't think everything that goes wrong is the devil. Things just sometimes go wrong or they are meant to go wrong for a better good. But, I had this feeling that I was being overwhelmed so as not to attend church today. So I decided, we are going no matter what!

We arrive at church and guess what, a special guest, A MISSIONARY, is speaking at our church today! It was just the encouragement I needed after I finally shared my "I Have A Secret Dream" post a couple of weeks ago here, and suddenly a missionary comes to speak! Our church is growing, but has not had a Global Missions or Orphan Care ministry as yet. They have a community feeding center and outreach, but I have been praying for a global outlook! This was such an encouraging and heart wrenching presentation today, and I feel that it opened up the hearts of our people to begin considering the SUPER importance of a Mission/Orphan Care program. I was meant to be there today as another step for what God has in store!

WE HAVE I-800A APPROVAL!!

Ok, so things are moving along, a little more slowly than I had hoped, but honestly what else is new, LOL! This whole journey is long and slow. But will be soooo worth it!

We have had our home study and dossier authenticated and ready for about a month. We had our fingerprints done on January 4th and from there have been waiting for this approval. Now that we have it, we need to authenticate it, and then our dossier will be off to China.

Chinese New Year begins in a few days I believe, so that will slow things down for a few weeks. I imagine we will have "Log In" about 2 weeks after dossier arrives in China and then we begin our wait for LOA (Letter Of Approval) which takes up to 60 days. Then following will be a couple other important immigration docs.....

GOODBYE DEAR OLD FRIEND

We lost our beloved family dog, Ginger, last night. We've had her for nearly 15 years, since Christina our oldest was 1 year old. She was so sweet, loving to the kids, and a friend to me through thick and thin. Always right there by my side. She died as we sat around her and pet her. We cried and cried. I will miss her beautiful fluffy golden coat and her gentle brown eyes always looking up at me with kindness.

I don't have any puppy pics of her scanned, but here are some from the past several years.

A-MAZ-ING. THIS VIDEO "SHOUTS" WHAT MY HEART FEELS AND IT REALLY MOVED ME TO THE POINT THAT I MUST SHARE!

Through our conversations, I would venture to say that most of my "blogging friends" that I chat with here are Christian. But I also know that I do have some very dear friends here who are not Christian, and I am so joyful for all of my friends as we live in love and acceptance of each other.

This video has a strong Christian message. If you are Christian, as I am, you will see the biblical responsibility this video charges us with. If you are not, I still feel that the message of this video is raw human kindness and responsibility, and should tug at the heart of anyone, of any faith, to act and bring relief to the hurting people in this world!

I love the passion with which this man, Eric Ludy, speaks.

Just imagine YOUR child.

(you will have to first scroll down to the bottom of this page and pause my blog music! Please watch this!)

I HAVE A SECRET DREAM.

I have a secret dream.

I am an actress. I perform on stage doing theatre, singing, dancing, comedy. I do commercials and hosting. That probably sounds a lot more glamorous than it actually is! LOL! My husband does the same. We have been blessed to work for many years, but we are still basically the old title of "staving artists" when I gets right down to it!

So you might think that my secret dream is to "make it big" in a movie or on Broadway. Be a Star! Earn the big bucks! At times in my life, that has been the dream, but deep inside my heart, my true dream keeps creeping up as something completely different.

I dream of being..... A Missionary. There I said it. I never really say that.

I continually read missionary books, watch missionary videos, and dream of travel to far off lands, starting an orphanage, or a feeding center, getting medical help to the needy and just being there with the people.

When the thought of traveling to Africa or China and working in a orphanage or with a feeding mission is more exciting than an exotic trip to Europe, that's unusual! Does anyone else feel that way?? Please share!!

I know you will say, "How could you be a missionary, Annie?" Impossible! You are married. You have (soon) 4 kids. You have family, a job, a house payment, cars, people, futures to think of. I Know! I TOTALLY agree! I know it is a ridiculous idea for us to be missionaries. It's not even close to what we do!! So WHY do I keep dreaming I could do that??

I have made steps to fulfill (quell?) this desire. Things I can do HERE. I am a Guardian Ad Litem, working with children in the foster care system. My daughter and I spent many Saturdays volunteering at the homeless shelter. We are adopting our precious daughter. I blog. We "give". I love all of these and these are all steps that God has given us to take.

But instead of quelling my desire to travel to far off lands, those things just INCREASE my desire! UGH! So, there must be something more in the future. Something. I really don't know what it is. It may be something I'm not even thinking of. It may be totally different. But I just know there is something.

Jeremiah 20 :9

But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATTHEW!!! 12 YEARS OLD!!!

Matthew. What a boy. He is such a sensitive, considerate and helpful young man! Matthew is always willing to lend a hand, when my other kids sigh. :-) Matthew is always the one to give hugs and to ask me if he can do anything when I'm not feeling well. Don't get me wrong, ALL of my kids are SO special to me and have their own special traits. They are helpful, and of course all do caring things. I'm just saying that today, I would like to honor Matthew's especially thoughtful, considerate nature. That trait is his gift from God. Happy Birthday Matthew!

WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS, WITH A BITTERSWEET TUG.

We have had such a blessed Christmas! Christmas Eve Service at Church with carols and the Bible reading of our Lord's Birth. Home last night and enjoying presents, cookies, cheese, crackers, eggnog, hot cocoa, music. We awoke this morning to gifts from Santa, yummy breakfast, more gifts, friends stopping by, delicious meal, playing with toys and watching movies.

What a festive time! What a wonderful family time!

But there is a bittersweet tug. You see, we have a daughter. But she is not here. Everyday, I have been able to keep going along and perform our daily responsibilities and enjoy our family, but last night, it really hit home. She is there. We are here. She is SO little and SO far away. What is she doing? Do they have any sort of a Christmas celebration at the orphanage? Is she safe? Warm? Did she get a hug yesterday? Today?

Many families mention how, when they bring their adopted child home and begin to bond, they begin to grieve the loss of that child's young childhood they've missed. I can see how that will be.

Praying for our little girl tonight. Our little Xi Hua. Katie Grace. God, keep her in Your arms. Keep her safe from harm. Keep her healthy. Calm her fears. Dry her tears. Attend to her needs. Put joy in her heart. Let someone be hugging her and giving her positive words. Prepare her heart, in a way that only You can, for us.

Amen

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! Some moments of our Holidays thus far. Hope you are blessed with Family, Love and Joy!

Joshua's Moment With Santa

Joshua and his best friend with Santa. Joshua is obviously thinking hard to answer Santa!

Santa also came to Joshua's Pre-K class!

The kids listening to Santa's story.

hmmm... what do I want??

Matthew's middle school Violin Christmas Concert. Here he is with 2 of his best buddies.

Christina dancing in her Christmas Recital - beautiful girl.

Joshua and Matthew with their good friend waiting for the Christmas Parade in our town!

Christina Marched with her HS Marching Band in the Christmas Parade!

Of course Santa at the end of the Parade is who everyone is waiting for!

We love to celebrate Christmas and especially to remember the reason Christmas is celebrated!

Isaiah 9

⁶ For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.

A COUPLE OF EXCITING THINGS TO SHARE!

First of all, I want to say that precious "Dalton", of whom I posted earlier, now has a family!! Yes, it is true, the little guy who said "I need a mama too", will now really have a mama! I am going to remove that post with his photos for their privacy, but just wanted to let you all know he will have a family!

Secondly, I have been blessed with new photos of our little girl we are adopting! Last week, another mom/friend from our orphanage's y*hoo group, was in China adopting her daughter. I had given her our little girl's name and asked if they might be able to see her while there. Not only did they see our little girl, but they took 6 beautiful photos of her!!! AND to top that her husband said he also got a video of her that he will send to us once they get home and he has a chance to upload it and email it to us! She is a tiny, precious girl, with a cute little pixie face, and I can't wait to share photos with you all. Once our dossier is in China and is logged in, I will share! Hopefully next month!

MOVING ALONG.....

Our home study is approved, has been sent to the agency and for our I-800A approval. Our agency has had several of our documents authenticated and have sent the rest for authentication. We feel a great deal of relief as we complete the first major hurdle. Home Study and Dossier! One authenticated it will all be sent to China and then the wait for LOA (Letter of Acceptance) begins. It sounds as though that wait time for LOA can range from about 30 - 60 days. In the meantime, we have some other documents to work on.

So... we are happily moving along!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND HAPPY AU FOOTBALL!

These photos don't look like much is going on, but they do say a lot about what I am thankful for:

I am thankful that God gave me my family.

I am thankful for family coming to visit.

I am thankful for family time together... eating, laughing, sharing, giving, receiving, planning, talking, hoping.

So if I haven't mentioned before, we love football. If it isn't Matthew playing pee-wee football, or Christina in the marching band at the HS football games, then it is Auburn football season. I did not attend Auburn, but my husband and his family sure did and boy did I get hooked into the craziness. (ok, seriously.... maybe not as crazy as them.)

Thanksgiving weekend is the beginning of the bowl games and the biggest game this week was the age old rivalry of Auburn U and the U of Alabama. What a game!

First quarter, look at these faces.... not so good. Alabama came out like gangbusters and Auburn looked like they weren't sure what game they were playing.

End of the 1st half - Auburn decides to play some football! Did you happen to notice the new TV Jacob's parents gave us for our early Christmas present??!! What an amazing surprise! Thank you!!!

Happy faces as Auburn pulls ahead and holds the game, winning by 1 point! Undefeated this entire season. One more win and we go to the national championship!

I am thankful for many things. These happy faces give me a happy face. For that I am very thankful.

DOSSIER READY AND SENT TO OUR AGENCY TODAY!

Just take a look at all of the paperwork we have completed! All lot of time, driving, filling out, notarizing and requesting went into these papers. We have completed our first big chunk and this is such a relief, but there will be more.....

By the way, it is exactly 2 years since I had the dream of a little Asian girl waiting for me. I know that by this time next year, we will be celebrating with her as a part of our family. What a joy that will be!

A DAY AT UNIVERSAL STUDIOS!

As I have mentioned on occasion, Jacob and I both work at Disney World. We have the wonderful perk of being able to visit the Disney Parks all the time. We rarely, however, get a chance to enjoy our neighboring park, Universal Studios. So we finally got some tickets and enjoyed a beautiful, finally pleasant weather, fun filled, exciting day there!

Our family at Harry Potter World. The ride was really amazing. Probably one of the best rides I have ever been on. Super cool effects.

Whoah! Hold on Matthew!!

Jacob and Joshua ready to go on the Spiderman ride. A really fantastic ride!!

AHHHH! T REX!!!! Jurassic Park! One of my all time favorite movies and well, Joshua LOVES dinosaurs!

Christina, her friend Paul, Joshua and Matthew.

Please Captain America, can you give me some of your super energy?? This mom needs it!

Joshua fascinated by the dinosaurs.

We loved the Beetle Juice Graveyard Review show! These were some fellow performers that we know and they did an awesome job singing and dancing in the show!

This made us laugh! Joshua was making zombie arms throughout much of the Beetle Juice show!