Monday, January 31, 2011
last chance for t-shirts
Saturday, January 29, 2011
our daughter finally has a name!
CHARLOTTE
i instantly knew that should be her name! not only is it the female version of the name "charles" but it also means "free man", which was exactly what my papaw was about to be. two days later, he went to be free and home as last with his precious Savior. i kept the name to myself and consulted ryan later that night when he arrived in tennessee. he agreed instantly {which we know was the Lord's doing, ha!}
so, while we still don't have a middle name, we at least now have a first name!! whoop whoop! while it's hard to know that my papaw will never get a chance to meet little greer or little charlotte, i definitely look forward to telling them both about his character and his love one day when they're a little bigger.
Friday, January 28, 2011
at last...progress!
Thursday, January 27, 2011
psalm 20:6-7
this verse has been speaking to my heart A LOT lately...
Monday, January 24, 2011
the goings on
i'm back folks. sorry for my hiatus from the blog! i decided to take a blogging break last week as i spent most of the week in tennessee with my family celebrating the life of my papaw. it was a nice break and good to unplug for awhile.
- we have finally decided on a first name for our daughter!! yep, you read that right :) ryan and i did come to a consensus finally for this little princess! more details to come later because we are still
arguingdeciding on a middle name... - i have been feeling quite discouraged about our wait for an embassy appointment the last week or so. i know that our agency is doing a great job and is on top of things, but i hate all the red tape that is keeping us from our son. {ahem...the US government.} i was especially discouraged because i really want to go to pick our little man up, but the more weeks that tick by, the less likely i'll be able to travel because of my pregnancy. if you think of it, will you please pray that we'd get filed for an embassy appointment soon so that we can still travel in february?? we've heard that we are currently still waiting to get our little guy's new passport back and get his physical done so that we can be filed. our agency has 2 dates at the embassy in february for visa interviews {which is what we are waiting to appear at} - the 9th and the 23rd. i'm thinking that the 9th is pretty unlikely, so we're hoping and praying for the 23rd. {plus, that would put us coming home right around or on ryan's birthday and i can't think of a better gift!}
- i'm currently in my 23rd week of pregnancy and all is going well. i can't tell you the difference that 6 weeks has made! no more nausea, constant feelings of hunger, and other not so fun side effects, and i'm soooo grateful. today i had a doctor's appointment and got to hear our little girl's heart beat again. it never gets old! according to our doctor, she is healthy and progressing along nicely. plus, i got a chance to discuss the possibility of traveling to ethiopia in march in case we can't get a february embassy date. our doctor is hopeful that i would be able to travel if we didn't get the february embassy dates, as long as our embassy date was in early march sometime. we'll see!!
- my sweet husband completed his first seriously manly project last night...a platform bed from scratch! {ok, i think my brother-in-law mostly built it but ryan definitely helped.}the boys built the bed for an extra mattress set we have that i'm putting in our soon-to-be playroom. all our other guest rooms are filling up with cribs or offices, so we were in need of somewhere to put adult guests when we have them. i thought it would be fun to have a platform bed in the playroom so it could also double as a reading nook for our kiddos as they get bigger. when the bed is moved from my parent's barn to it's new home in our playroom, i'll post some pictures.
- we finished up registering for baby gifts this weekend and that was really fun! who knew picking out stuff for little munchins could be so fun :) i especially loved being able to register for all the cute pink and frilly stuff as well as the blue and manly stuff...the best of both worlds! i have my first shower this weekend thrown by my wonderful church friends for both of our incoming children and i'm really excited. i would love nothing more than to be able to celebrate the news of being filed for an embassy date with them too! i can't wait to bring greer home to introduce him to all the wonderful ladies of fellowship who have been praying for his homecoming for months now.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
i'm sad to report that my grandfather passed away yesterday morning after a long battle with leukemia and a recent struggle with dementia. i'm so thankful that we had a few days notice of his decline and that i made the decision to travel to chattanooga, tn this past weekend to spend time with him. i definitely will treasure these last few days with him, but even more, all the other great memories that the last 25 years of knowing him have brought.
papaw was probably one of the most godly examples God has yet to put in my life, and i definitely know that the Lord has used him to teach me so much. his death is bittersweet at this point because he was in so much pain recently and really not himself. it gives me so much peace and joy to know that he's in heaven dancing and singing along with the angels right now. he always loved to sing and whistle, and we've heard less and less of that over recent months. however, sunday morning we were playing some hymns by his bed in the hospice unit and the song "trust and obey" came on. although he was not verbalizing much of anything by that point, a few times throughout the song, he would make some noises that sounded like he was trying to sing along with the chorus. i know he could hear it, and that makes me smile that even so close to death, the joy of the Lord still stirred him to song.
today I'm praising the Lord for the hope He's given me! hope that assures that I will be with my papaw again!!
Friday, January 14, 2011
whiny town
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
brain dump
today feels like a random rambling day. it's snowing, it's cold, and i don't really feel like my grammar skills might be on my side so i'll just give you some updates on us in bullet form. here goes nothing...
- we were hoping to get to see R & P this past weekend, and once again, it didn't happen. boo. we told R that we wanted to pick him up for church, go to lunch and then go to the new n@rnia movie, but his mom never answered her phone or called us back when we were trying to make the official plans. this is beyond frustrating and i may have had a few break downs about it. ugh.
- my pregnancy is going well and i'm loving the 2nd trimester! i'm now into my 21st week and am finally experiencing no more all day sickness and have been able to retire my zofr@n pills for nausea. i know i'll probably never be one of those
crazywonderful women who love being pregnant, but i'm kinda enjoying it right now. although, sweatpants may or may not be the wisest fashion decision, i am beginning to live in them seriously 70+ % of the time. yay for elastic waists :) - our little princess is still nameless. ryan and i cannot agree on ANYTHING! it is like WW3 {ok not really} at our house right now. ryan likes things that i would never dream of naming my sweet little girl and vice versa. to add to our madness, we have to give this child both a first and a middle name...YIKES! at least with greer, we only had to pick out a first name :)
- i never really blogged about our new years or any resolutions. mostly just because i didn't really make any, but there is one thing i'd like to share. ryan and i have sadly never read through the entire bible and we're hoping that we can change that this year. i've always just studied certain books at once or just kinda randomly chose different passages to read during my quiet times, but i've really been wanting to go deeper and read the bible from start to finish. so, in order to do so, we've found this awesome website that has been helping us out. it's one year bible.com and it's been a great resource for us! you can sign up to have them send you daily or weekly bible readings in your email, which helps me stay accountable. ryan and i are doing the daily one year readings but they also have a daily chronological readings. i love it and would recommend it if you have a hard time staying on track with your bible readings.
- it is impossible to find a large (8x10'), decent looking rug that is not $200+! this is a shame. all i want is an affordable floor covering for my littlest man's room that is reasonably priced and that won't feel like he's crawling across gravel. i think i'm seriously in the wrong business. i need to starting making rugs and selling them for 400% mark up.
- speaking of our littlest man's room, it is coming along nicely. we painted his closet {as it was hot pink from my high school days} and the rest of the room. we also installed a second bar in the closet to hold more clothes and i have already began filling it up with all the clothes we had for P. i have also sorted through unisex sleepers, onesies, etc. that he won't fit in and put them in the baby girl's room. ryan thinks i've lost my mind, but i love organizing, sorting and prepping for our kids! we've also assembled greer's crib and i've completed the first of many craft projects for his room. now i just need to get the window treatments installed, make his blanket, mobile and teething rail, finish decorating the walls and buy a rug. hopefully these things will keep my busy in my free time as we wait for him to come home!
- it has been 3 weeks since we passed court in ethiopia. we haven't gotten any updates on where we stand right now but we're praying we'll hear that we've been confirmed for a february embassy date soon. i've been reading many other blogs with people in the same stage as us and it seems that a lot of other families are having a hard time getting their embassy dates confirmed. this means a lot of last minute flight booking and higher ticket prices. i'm not sure what we'll do about this but i'm trying to put it in the Lord's hands. we've got just enough left in our adoption account to squeak by financially and finish out this adoption so i'm praying that expensive ticket prices won't send us in the hole! we've still got some adoption t-shirts left and i'm thinking of doing a clearance/t-shirt blitz to get rid of these and help offset any last minute expenses we might have. look for that soon!
- i honestly cannot believe that it has almost been a year since the earthquake in haiti. i really feel like God used that tragedy to get ryan and i on the fast track with our ethiopian adoption, and while i'm still heartbroken for the people and children of haiti, i'm so thankful that He called us into adoption when He did. our son was waiting patiently for us in ethiopia and now we're on our way! i don't know how or when, but i wouldn't be surprised a bit if we have another child waiting for us in haiti because of the way God has stirred our hearts for the country and the haitian people.
Friday, January 7, 2011
melkam genna!
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
our littlest wildcat
my husband, ryan, is a die hard UK {university of kentucky for y'all who aren't from around here} fan. he particularly loves UK basketball and follows the team as much as possible before, during and after basketball season. well, since b-ball season is in full swing, so is ryan. he loves watching the games in person and at home on our couch.