Courtney's Day!

Just wanted to share a few pictures of Courtney on her big day!

21!

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY
CORBYN!
YOU ARE FINALLY LEGAL!

Just wanted to send out a very special birthday wish for your big 21st birthday! It's so hard to believe that you are that old. It seems like just yesterday that I got out of school early to sit and wait, and wait some more for you to finally get here. Now here you are all grown up! We hope you have a wonderful birthday and we love you!

What a weekend

It was a really busy weekend here and I have a lot of pictures and a lot I want to tell you about but for now I just put up 3 quick photos. The first is of Courtney and Trevor on Friday night before her Junior prom, the 2nd picture was of Stevie from her First Communion today, and the last is a picture of Chase from Saturday from his Senior prom. I had the pleasure of taking photos all weekend! I had so much fun and all the kids were good sports. They let me take pictures until my heart was content (anyone that knows Chase knows this is a big deal!) Anyway, it may take me all week to fill you all in on the weekend but I promise to get pictures up of everything: Ring ceremony, Ring dance, Picnic for Galya, Senior Prom, First Communion, Balloon Race, and last but not least a special birthday wish for Corbyn (the big 21!) Stay tuned...

Happy Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLEE
WE HOPE YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!
WE LOVE YOU!

(This picture is from Florida. Charlee is on the right and her friend Kathleen on the left)

A free moment

I know 2 post in one week! I guess you can tell when I have some time off work. Yes, I have a vacation week again. At the beginning of the year they make us feel out our vacations for the whole year. Now, who knows on Jan. 10th what they want to do for the whole year? It sure isn't me. The hardest part is that for the last 3 years I have been trying to adjust my vacations around going to get Emma. So at the beginning of every year I sit down and think when could I possibly be traveling to China? The best answer is who knows! For 3 years I have thought about it very carefully and even tried not to take so many days off in hopes of the extra time off when we come home. Well, this year I decided that I would just pick some weeks because who knows what the future holds. Now, I still believe that this will be our year (it better be) but I guess when the time comes nothing will keep me from adjusting my schedule to go get our sweet Em! I guess it's a plus to work for a company for a long as I accumulate lots of time off and the best part is that it transfers over to the next year.
Anyway, I am trying to finish a few projects at the house but I am not getting anywhere! I promise when we get things looking halfway like a house I will post pictures!
(I started this post 3 hours ago and got interupted)
The plumber came this morning to hook up the dishwasher and the sink. An hour into his work he discovers a missing piece on the sink so it was off to HD for me to get a new faucet. After 2 HD's and a Lowes I arrive back home with a different faucet only to find the plumber was done with the rest of his work and left. The original faucet that we bought showed you could use it with a 2 hole or a 4 hole hookup but the adapter for the 2 hole was missing. I checked 7 faucets at 2 HD's that had ALL been opened to discover the piece is not in any of them! I called the manufacture and the said that they could send me one, it doesn't come in the set even though it shows it does!! After I give her all the info to expedite one to me she discovers they are on backorder. So off to Lowes for a completely different one and the nice guy there even checked to make sure I had all the parts! So now I have a nice faucet but have to wait again to get it installed.

Got Cold Chills!

As I continue to wait for Emma's referral, this month brought new life to our wait. During this long wait I have met wonderful people and followed so many journeys to see their beautiful daughters. While I have loved seeing the babies every month I am beginning to see the babies of those with dates near ours. These are the people who I have followed more closely. Since this month included March 7th and 8th it brought several precious little ones that I was over the moon excited to see. Among these little ones was an extremely special one to me. For those of you who know me, know that when we started the adoption process we joined a secret pal swap. I was so excited to be part of this and found that I had the best secret pal ever in 2 ways! All along I followed this special person's blog and got so excited every time I got to send a gift and see the joy it brought her and her sweet daughter #1! During this same time I was also receiving the most amazing gifts for my sweet Emma. It turned out that my secret pal and I had each other! The whole time we were sending gifts to each other (CLUELESS). It made it all that much more special as I had been following her hopes and dreams for some time and she had been following mine! OK! Long story to bring you up to date! The reason I am telling you all about this is that my wonderful secret pal finally got to see her sweet little one this month!

Introducing TATE!

I hope she knows how excited Mike and I (and my entire family) are for her. She is so deserving and I could not be more excited for Lisa, Mesa, and Tate. Now what makes it even more exciting is that she expected an older child and Tate is 8 months old! She is going to be such a wonderful MOM! Congrats Lisa, Oh my heck, you are finally going to bring Tate home!

The Stork has landed!

The Stork is Landing!!!I was bummed when I got on the computer this morning and the RQ wasn't showing any news. Then my sister called and said that it looked like people were getting calls. Of course I got back on the computer (dial up at Mom's) to check all the sites and yes they are here. It looks like the 7th and the 8th are in for sure! Congrats to all the new Moms and Dad's out there. I can't wait to see all the pictures, most of all Tate
who we won't see until Monday! Hang in there Lisa!
I really just want to sit back and enjoy their day and check out the babies but of course in the back of my mind I have to think of all the options this gives us. So here goes!

• We now have 21 very long days until our referral.
• If we do 2 referral days a month it will take 11 months.
• If we do 3 referral days a month it will take 7 months.
• If we do 4 referral days a month it will take 6 months.
• If we do 5 referral days a month it will take 5 months.
• If we do 6 referral days a month it will take 4 months.
• If we do 7 referral days a month it will take 3 months.

Now we also know:

• The 7th was the biggest day in front of us.
• There are still several large days.
• 6 of the 21 days are weekends and should not have anyone logged in on those days.
• If you take the 6 weekend days away that really only leaves 16 days.

So in knowing this I would think that we would get a referral between July and November (I hope!) Lets just hope that next month we get to at least the 13th.

Opps!

Opps! The last post really was meant to tell my wonderful husband Happy Birthday and to note our 3 year LID Anniversary but it just didn't work out! On Sunday we went to my sisters for the UL game and while I was there I started to do a post and then just stopped. I thought I would post it that night but when we got back to my parents my computer wouldn't work and hasn't until today (hate when that happens!) So anyway, thanks for the birthday wishes for Mike!

Sunday we did also get together at P.F. Chang's for Mike's b-day and the 3 year LID to celebrate. My whole family was there except for Chase (good excuse, he's on his senior spring break at the beach). We had a really good time and of course talked about the fact that Miss Emma better be here for the next one of these!!!!

This week has been a crazy one as usual. (Time for bullets)

• Work was crazy busy which called for some OT
  
• The house is still moving along at snail pace, not sure if it will be done for Emma (just kidding!)
• They cut the power off so the electric could be updated and now no one can tell me when it will be inspected. That means another weekend without power and freezing temps (not happy)
• Haven't been feeling well so I had a full physical today. So far everything looks good, chest x-ray, EKG, and exam, just waiting on all the blood work.
  
• With the computer down I have been missing everyones posts. Thank heavens for sisters who stalk the sites like I do!
• Rumors, well it looks like the first rumors are saying March 8th is the cut off. It's only 2 days but since the 7th was HUGE this is a very good thing! I just want to know it's true because there are 5 special people waiting to see their precious little ones!
• Last but not least we got a new coach this week, not sure what I think about the new UK coach yet. I've never really cared for Calipari but I guess I will give him a chance. I know he's a good coach just always thought Memphis was a bunch of punks so we will see what we get.
• Oh, one more thing, get those babies posted quickly! I can't wait!!!!