No news is good news

Things here at the Campbell house are moving along.  We have no news on the adoption front, which we consider to be good news.  We don't expect to hear anything from our agency unless there is a problem.  So, this is one of those times when we don't want to see their number on the caller ID.  As far as we know everything is in place for our court date and we are hoping and praying for a smooth approval.  We can't believe that we are only 22 days away from our assigned date!

We are trying to finish our 10 hours of Hague training which must be completed before we travel.  We're learning about such fascinating topics as attachment and bonding, grief in children and institutionalized children.  You can imagine how fascinating that is.  I am however trying to multi-task and get my gift wrapping done while we watch the videos.  I want to be ready to shift to travel prep and baby purchases on the 17th!

While waiting we're enjoying the holiday season and all that it brings.  Here are some pictures of some things that have been going on in our world.

We got our first BIG snow of the season. I let the kids go out in it at 7:15, because I knew it would be gone by 8:30 AM. Don't laugh you yankees! We haven't had a measurable snowfall in Raleigh in almost 5 years, so we get excited about any and all snowflakes. The weatherman seems to think we might get a "real" snow this year. I say, bring it on!




Saturday we had Thanksgiving dinner at our house. We go to KY to Ryan's parents for Thanksgiving every year on the actual day. It's always very fun, but, they have tons of people there and so it's potluck style. I decided early on that I wanted the candlelight, carve the turkey, tablecloth experience for my kids too. So, the Saturday before Thanksgiving I always do a dinner for just our little family. This year my parents joined us since they now live in the area. The kids and I spent Saturday AM making napkin rings, place cards, etc. to add to the festivities. It was fun. Here are some of our creations.





Yesterday we did several Thanksgiving activities for school. I realized it had been several years since we had really discussed the real Thanksgiving story and so we did. The kids enjoyed making these edible teepees. I know, I know the Indians that helped the pilgrims didn't live in teepees. I made sure the kids knew that too. We even took a few minutes to look at the different types of Indian homes so I could avoid some "serious" historical misconception. However, I had seen the teepee idea on Family Fun and I knew they would love it, so we did it anyway.




We are traveling to KY tomorrow and we're excited. We have only been once since last Thanksgiving and Ryan wasn't even with us then. So, we're ready to go. Wishing all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving!