Two

We have officially reached 2 weeks of waiting. It kind of snuck up on me with yesterday being the Memorial Day holiday. I was about to head to bed and realized it was Tuesday. So, here are some of our week two highlights:

The kids spent the entire past week in KY with Ryan' parents. They were here the night that we returned from Disney, and then they packed up and headed out with Nana the next day. So, they just returned home tonight. I missed them terribly, but I've enjoyed hearing some of the highlights of their trip which include- testing out the new rope swing their Pap hung for them, catching a crawdad and then dressing it in one of Lizzy's Polly Pocket dresses (yes it survived the fashion show), eating brownies for breakfast, and having a close encounter with a 4 foot black snake. I'm sure all of this fun would have been severely limited had I been on the scene. That's what grandparents are for- right? Someday I will get to feed my grandchildren brownies for breakfast.

I spent much of my week scrapbooking. I am such a scrapbooking wannabe. But, I have made up my mind that before the new baby comes, I will have some semblance of a scrapbook for each of my children. So, I have been power scrapbooking for the last week. I have decided that Creative Memories saying about how simple pages are completed pages will work for me. I am not going to win any awards, but I have managed to scrap the first 2 years of Lizzy and Isaac's lives this week. I just have Lily to complete and then I can move on to my next phase- a toddler to teen album for each of them. Those should be a little easier. The kids had so much fun looking at what I had already finished when they got home tonight. Going through all those pictures made me realize how big they are and how fast our time with them is flying by.

The other chunk of my week was spent at the NCHE conference. That stands for North Carolinians for Home Education. I know, it sounds like a real snoozer, but it's actually quite fun and always very encouraging. It's a great time for me to revisit why I do what I do. I am not a person who home schools in an effort to protect my children from the influences of the public schools, but rather to prepare them for a life of ministry in whatever way God calls them to serve. I found the public school schedule left us with very little time or energy to be intentional in discipling our children. This weekend I attended sessions on raising kids of character, mentoring your daughter, and reaching the heart of your child- just to name a few. It's also encouraging to be surrounded by over a thousand people who share your passion. It was a real blessing.

With the adoption being at a waiting point, it kind of seems a little distant or unreal. But, tonight, I was lying in bed with Isaac for a few minutes telling him how much I missed him while he was gone. I said, "You know, you're one of my favorite people in the whole world. You're actually in my top 5." I was referring to his daddy and his siblings However, he wasn't counting Daddy at the moment, he was thinking of the baby. So he responded, "Yeah, you just can't see one of us yet." It touches my heart how they are ever mindful of the baby. They often ask questions about what he may be doing or if I think he's born yet. They are faithful to pray for him. I love those moments!

Disney Pictures

Ryan bought a computer this weekend to replace our beloved, but dead Dell.  He decided to play with it and created this little Disney Montage.  Since I know you blog readers are simply clamoring for more images of our Disney trip, I thought I'd post it here.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Disney, recital, no sale, and waitlisted!

I know it's been a while since I've updated, but we've had a busy couple of weeks!

We just returned from a week at Disneyworld where we had SO much fun. We spent an entire week there with both grandmas and all four kids and it was a blast. I asked Elizabeth on Tuesday night if she was having fun and she said, "Yes, how could anyone not have fun at this place?"

We returned from Disney about 2 hours before the girls first piano recital. We were all very nervous as our girls aren't especially fond of being in the limelight. But, they both played very well and neither of them cried or panicked, so we were delighted!

The one bummer about our trip was that we did lose the contract on our house while we were gone. We weren't terribly surprised because of the way it had all come together, but we were a little sad. So, we're back where we started. We are just continuing to pray for peace and putting our trust in the fact that God has a much bigger plan than we do concerning that house.

When we returned, the motherboard on our computer decided it was retiring, so I was unable to check e-mail, blogs, or the infamous Gladney FBI list. I was going through major blog withdrawals after a week away from the computer. My sweet husband brought his laptop home tonight so that I could have a little bit of computer time. Now, we have to decide what to do about the computer- I didn't realize how dependent I am on it. Banking, school stuff, adoption stuff, even grocery planning. I feel lost!

Because of the computer issues, it took me until midday yesterday to find out that we are officially on the Gladney waitlist. We were waitlisted on May 13th. This means that we are now approximately 3-5 months from receiving our referral and seeing our baby's photo! We are delighted that the real wait has officially begun and we already have one week down.

That covers our last few days! I'm looking forward to posting those little pictures that show everyone what week of waiting our family is on. I think I'll forego a week one photo so that I can instead post a few photos of our recent adventures! The first two pictures were taken at Disney and the final photo is of Abby and Elizabeth with their beloved piano teacher, Ms. Morgan.

We have a contract!

This is wrapping up to be an eventful week! We were able to get a contract on our "extra" house and we're optimistic that means we have it sold. The house is supposed to close by May 23rd, so we are delighted that we may be down to one house soon.

It was kind of funny how it all went down. The first offer we got was ridiculously low, and so it took about 24 hours of negotiating to get it to an amount where we would be able to settle at. So, when our realtor called with the final amount- the one Ryan and I agreed would be our bottom dollar, I was walking up to the playground at the park with our 3 youngest children. I hung up the phone with our realtor and my assignment was to call Ryan and verify that this amount would work.

Well, before I could get the phone closed, I saw a little boy playing and I suspected right away he was an Ethiopian child- he was beautiful. I observed the mommy who was definitely not Ethiopian and then figured out who the daddy was and he was definitely not Ethiopian. He was wearing an Inspi(red) shirt and this was another clue to me that they might be adoptive parents. Then I spotted their older child and I recognized him from a blog picture. After gawking for a moment I decided just to ask them if they were who I thought they were and it turns out they were! I had the pleasure of visiting with them- the Atwood family for about 30 minutes. They are another Gladney family who brought their son home about 2 months ago. They were so kind and willing to share their knowledge. It was a pleasure meeting them.

In fact, it was such a pleasure that I forgot what I was supposed to be doing. Finally, I returned to reality and remembered my assignment. So, now it's all settled and we're just hoping for a relatively painless inspection and closing