Funny Sammy

The babysitter shared a funny story with me today from their house last week. Nanny Jan went to the garden and brought in a pumpkin. She was cutting it up and cleaning out the inside with Sam sitting beside her on the counter. He said, "Whoa, that a lot of cheese!" Funny Sammy.

JOE is PINK

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WE ARE PINK!!! We received our PINK slip yesterday afternoon. We are leaving to pick up JOE later this week! We are on CLOUD 9...

Uh-oh

Dear Hubby +

HIS lawn mower +

Infamous hickory nuts =

Yep, a broken bedroom window.

Add that to the "to do before winter" list.

Benefit sales and new babies

Oh, Sam and I had whirlwind of fun yesterday. I probably should have stayed home and packed, but this sure made the day go by faster! My good blogger friend Sandy at Worth the Wait (go visit!) had posted last week that she was a part of a benefit yard sale for an orphanage in Guatemala. I love yard sales, and profits to Guatemala - I'm in. So, I emailed her for diretions and Sam and I headed to Carmel. The yard sale was big with lots of kids stuff, and I came home with something for everyone, except daddy. The best part was meeting many guat-mamas and the tots. I enjoyed meeting Michael J, Grace, and Mateo's mamas. And I loved finally meeting Sandy in person, I have been reading her blog since before I started mine last year! Treasure of the day was what I think was an old cassette cabinet that we have made into a garage for Sam's trains, he loves it!
We headed south to Greenwood to visit my roomie from college and her new bundle of joy, Aaron Matthew. He was born Aug 30th, and what a beauty he is! She now has 3 kids born Aug, Sept, Oct ages 5,3,0 Such a planner, always has been! It just so happens that Kiersten was home with her today so we got to see Kiersten and Aaron. We went to Chik-Fil-A and Toys R Us, my how the days have changed, used to be Broadripple and La Bambas...Thanks for all the Butler memories Katie, so glad we are still so close!

DNA has arrived

Well, I checked the fed-ex tracker last night and the package was delivered at 3:50 yesterday to the embassy in Guatemala!! That tracker is really cool. So we are waiting to for the call/email that tells us our appointment date to finalize Joe's adoption. We expect this call today or at the latest on Monday. If it comes today, we could be in Guatemala next week!

A huge thanks to everyone for being so interested and involved in our adoption of Joseph. We have really felt your thoughts and prayers throughout the process, and especially in the last few days.

Today's shout out goes to my aunts who were all decorated in PINK last night at my cousin Morgan's game. I missed the game since Sam and I had been in Indy all day, but I heard it was awesome from my brother Scott. I heard that Cindy had PINK bows in her hair and Mary had on a PINK shirt. I know my counsin Jessi wore her PINK cons to work yesterday. How cool! I hope someone got a picture for Joe's baby book...

DNA is on the way

to the embassy in Guatemala that is! How awesome is that? Just like that, we ask for prayers to be answered and Voila!
So, everyone saw my post yesterday asking for thoughts on getting ORANGE, well, I guess we got ORANGE on Friday and I didn't know it. {Isn't that the best kind of news? The kind that is past before you've gotton tired of waiting}

There are too many god-things from today that I have to share.
1. I opened my email this morning to a message from my way back to childhood friend Andi. She made ORANGE-kool aid out of the blue last night, brought it to work with her(she always drinks Pepsi) then checked by blog and saw the post about ORANGE from yesterday.
2. Then, at work today, our drugs came wrapped in ORANGE rubber bands (not normal). We had enough for all of us to wear around all day.
3. Went to lunch with Kia, picked up ML from preschool and her snack was cookies and juice, I asked what color...ORANGE!!!!

Got back from lunch to an email from our coordinator that stated that Joe had DNA taken on Friday (yes, last Friday, and that it was already at the US lab for processing!!!!!!!!!!!!!Yipee.......this means we are on to

PINK....PINK....PINK....PINK

So, we took off our orange bracelets and scribbled the word PINK on them, and changed the colors of our prayers.

4. The very next drug waiting for me to check it was none other than generic Darvocet, means nothing to some, but to others that know their drugs.....it is pink - rip roaring pink, every last tab in the bottle starring at me was PINK!!!! How cool is that?

Last awesome news from today...email stating the Fed Ex has our results on the way back to embassy in Guatemala. They should arrive tommorrow. PINK is in our future.

Anyway, huge thanks to my peeps at work that keep me going everyday. Thanks for all the fun today! Joe, we are really coming little man, we are coming!

Looking for orange...

We are waiting to hear on our orange slip for Joe...
this means that the embassy in Guatemala has our file and has authorized DNA.
We are waiting and praying.
Tonight I am tempted to have mandrain oranges, orange roughy, carrots, doritos, orange kool-aid and topping it off with orange sherbert...think we are pressing our luck????

Pickin' Apples

Yesterday at work, I discovered an apple tree. Now, mind you others knew it was there, but it was new to me. So today Sam and I took our basket and filled er up! He thought it was so funny. The best part was him slipping on all of the overripe apples on the ground! Kia came out for lunch, so she helped us pick apples, and then we ate at McDonalds. Tonight we have a fun friend, Breanna here to visit. I made apple crisp, but we are saving it for after Morgans volleyball game--we are headed out to that now.

Passport

We have Joe's passport...we are supposed to be submitted to embassy for final DNA test today. Keep this in your prayers, one of the last steps we need to rely on our lawyer for. Also, pray for Joe's birthmom, she will need to come for this final DNA, this lets her know that her son is leaving Guatemala. We are so thankful for her and her decision to choose life for our little miracle. Joe's foster family is making preparations to give up the little man they have come to love for the past 13 months, I think of them. Finally, pray for us, I am ready to burst...I want my guy home and these last few weeks are seeming endless. My mind races with the possibilty of having our family together...forever.

Estate Sale & CornHole

Today Dan's family was together for a final estate sale. The family had divided the majority of the big stuff, but some things remained. Most of the children made it to the sale today. I am sure it was hard for them to see the items go, but the memories will remain forever.
A picture of the family farm...

My heart hurt seeing Grandpa's chair empty.


We gathered at Aunt Darla and Uncle Terry's tonight for a fish fry and we had a great time. Poor Aunt Sue had a rough night. Her first drink spilt, the second one fizzed over, then her lawn chair folded up on her. All the sisters hooted and hollared - but Sue was reedemed with her homemade ice cream. Then we played cornhole. Ever heard of it? It is really popular around here right now. It centers around bean bags and a hole on a slanted board - fun for all ages. And the winners were...our very own Dan and cousin Andrew...

St. Louis Cardinals style cornhole - Dan's cousins made these

The crowd gathered to watch...

right by the soybean field (in case you haven't seen one close up).

The silly boys - Dryce and Andre - in Darla's hammock

The crowd again, really into the action...


This post is for you Sherri, knew you'd like to be here. It was a nice day, joyous in nature - God's presence was felt. How happy Grandma and Grandpa would be at their family enjoying each other.

We are rejoycing...

WE HAVE JOE'S BIRTH CERTIFICATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

more details to follow as we have them. There are few steps remaining, but a trip to Guatemala is around the corner for us, God willing...

Scott is 40...

My brother, Scott, is 40 and he is waaaaaaay older than me. I did always think growing up that he was older than me, always getting to do more, and always knew more. Now he does still know more, but that gap in age seems to be closing up, somehow 40 doesn't really seem so old anymore.
Anyway we had a great time. Jill and Will brought the funniest cake (Jill's mom made it) and we bought Scott some reading glasses for his cards. He was such a sport and really lived it up. He might regret this picture someday, but a great time was had by all!

Holiday World, finally...!!!

We finally made to the all time best theme park this past Sunday. Holiday World is only an hour from our house, but we almost didn't make it this summer! It has a great water park and nice size theme park - the best part this summer was free admission, thanks to Uncle Darrin! We had a great time with Dan's family.

Ok, so I did have one huge brain fart. See us coming down the water slide? That is Aunt Shannon, Me, Grandpa, and Sam. See, he met the height requirement, I just sometimes forget that my 2&1/2 year old wears size 5 clothes. He did fine all the way up. When we got to the top, he said I don't like it...oops, only one way day, now! So we loaded up, and began to slide, and Sam screamed and sobbed in terror all the way down. I felt so bad, I was practically shaking when we got done, just because of him, poor guy. I will think a little more next time!

Sam had a great time with his cousin Dryce, see you next Summer Santa!

8 years together

8 years together and two precious boys later. I love you more today than yesterday.
Happy Anniversary, Dan - 9/9/00.

Ashley

I know not what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds my hand.

Lunch

Today, I had lunch with my favoite person, Sam. We laughed out loud at the table, probably made others wonder why! The best part was when the magnet from his trains caught the table knife. We both thought that was funny. I am cherishing these times with just Sam and I. I am anxious for Joe to come home, still loving my time with Sam the Little Man.

It's OK, Baby Joe

I was excited to get another set of update photos of our precious little man. Yes, he is crying in these and it really breaks my heart. I know, Joe, you are supposed to be home by now. We are really sad, too. We pray everyday that this will be the day that we hear we have your birth certificate. Until then, know that we love you. I opened your photos and Sam said, Ma, it's Baby Joe. He may call you that when you are 18!!! We love you. We love seeing your precious face. I love your outfit that we sent for your 1st birthday. Come on home, there is more where that came from! Kisses and hugs...

Not alone...

We are walking with you Daddy and Hubby as you start your new job tomorrow.

Love,

Sam, Joe and Mama

It's Grandpa's birthday

So, we met him for breakfast this morning. Silly grandpa, he went for coffee with grandpa-great early (6am) then we called, so he went back (to the same restaurant) and had more coffee and buffet with all of us! He sure makes us laugh. We appreciate all he does for us, and all he means to our family.

2 day swim-o-rama

What's the best part about having a pool - the parties, of course! And how can you have a party without great people to come swim! We had some super folks here this fun holiday weekend to make it all a blast. My brother and his family came over Sunday and Monday and we cooked out both days. Their whole family are water bugs and Scott had a great time on Sunday relaxing in the pool. Today our friends, Brent and Melissa, and my other brother and his family joined us too! Yesterday we had "Olympic" games. We dove off the board, and had swim races. Today we tried to do sycronized swimming tricks - don't you just love the funny pics?
The best part for Sam, no naps for 3 days. Sorry to the baby sitter tomorrow, they may suffer a bit...